I had the pleasure of meeting J in person at a wedding show in Lansdale PA @ Younger & Son Wholesale Florist on Wednesday March 18th. I have been a huge fan of JTV for years now and have always been inspired by his fabulous floral creations!
Even though he is always telling his audience to just "have fun with flowers" on JTV episodes, for some reason, it would always go in my one ear and out the other.
When I first took a serious interest in the family flower shop over 20 years ago at the age of 17, I always enjoyed making beautiful flower arrangements at the flower shop, yet could care less about the business side of it. Eventually I had to start taking it more serious , since I realized that this is what I would be doing the rest of my life, most likely, since my hard rock band Dead Susan A.K.A. Far From Even was not going to make me any money to survive, being a drummer.
Eventually I was exposed to the ugly side of the flower business. What could be ugly about the flower business, you may ask?
My answer would be, just about everything but the flowers themselves, such as, writing checks to wholesalers and landlords, insurance, taxes, bank entries & accounting on Quick Books, hiring & dealing with employees, and trying to build our business in an industry that was starting to die slowly but surely. This was at a time that the internet started to become a huge factor, and of course, started the onslaught of DOG's ( Deceptive Order Gatherers) on the world wide web!
As if this wasn't hard enough to deal with, there also was the problem of everybody & their mothers starting to sell flowers, such as supermarkets, gas stations, produce junctions, street corner stands, which watered down the market and gave people other avenues other than florists to purchase their fresh flowers & plants. You get the idea,this made our jobs that much harder to adjust and try and find new ways to compete in this competitive marketplace. None of these things I would call "fun"!
Unfortunately over the years, I have focused way too much on the business side of being a florist, and not enough on the fun, creative design side of the business. "Yuck" as J would say!
Just recently, as you can read in an earlier blog I posted, my 2009 New Year's resolution was to pick up my knife again and focus more on my creative designs. After all, that is why I took an interest in this business in the first place, because I had some artistic talent.
While this was a resolution I sort of committed to for once in my life, I still found that I was still focusing too much on the ugly side of the flower business. The grey hairs were starting to kick in. I found myself being angry & miserable at the same time, most days at the shop, especially now in these tough economical times. The passion was still there and I was always trying new things, and changing with the times, however, I was not having "fun"!
OK, enough of this depressing talk, let's get to the happy ending already!
So I was chatting with J onFacebook & Flowerchat, about 2 days before the show, which I had no idea was happening, and I said, " Hey J, when are you coming to Philadelphia?" I got a reply later that day with him saying, " As a matter of fact, Adam, I will be in Lansdale PA this Wednesday, hope you can make it!" I said, "awesome, I'm there dude!"
I knew I would see some great designs & fabulous flower ideas, but I never imagined I would be getting a lecture & some great personal stories on just "having fun with flowers". We also got the complete history of J Schwanke including how he was born at a flower convention his parents were attending & that he started working at the family flower shop as a kid. he would go to work early in the morning and make all the flower orders that needed to go out that day, then go to school, and then come back and finish after school. We also got some great comic relief about his stubborn old school mom, which I thought was hilarious! he wasnt able to convince his parents to change their old school ways, so he decided to go out on his own and work for lots of other shops along the way. and eventually do his own thing.
Well, most of you know the rest of the story, he now is one of the most recognizable floral experts in the industry, and works for over 15 different companies, and has his own show called JTV now shown on Ubloom, and also tours the country teaching people "how to have fun with flowers the J way!"
To me , the best part of the show, was J telling us in attendance to put the check books down, hire a high school kid to do the Quick Books entries for minimum wage, and stop making ourselves miserable with the business side and just focus on making ourselves and others happy with beautiful flower creations!
This time, after meeting him in person, he really finally got through to my thick head! Why did it take me so long to realize this?!
I couldn't have gotten this much help from a professional psychiatrist & yet the 2 hour show only cost $25, and that included dinner & peanut butter chocolate brownies & cookies!!!
The last time I was this inspired by someone, was when I was like 11 yrs old and I heard Neil Peart of Rush play the drums for the first time! I still play the drums everyday after work to this day, it helps me release some tension after a long hard days work at the flower shop! I even YouTubed myself playing in my basement about a month ago, you can watch it HERE.
Anyway, getting back to the J show, after it was all over, I was driving home that night, & I realized that I was a changed man instantly, and no longer wanted to be miserable & angry about my job. I realized that I am the luckiest guy in the world to be able to have a job that brings smiles to peoples faces everyday, and there is no reason why I, myself, could smile a little bit more and appreciate what I do. I will never take that for granted again!
I also have an amazing family and a 5 year old son who is also fascinated with flowers and just may be The Future of Belvedere Flowers!
Thank you J, for the inspiration, and for the kind words you said about myself and Belvedere Flowers, during your presentation that night at the wedding show! You truly are a rock star florist and an inspiration to us all in the floral industry!
Feel free to watch some of the video from his awesome presentation HERE!
If you have not seen J in person, I highly recommend you go see him when he comes to a town near you! Here is a picture of J & myself at the wedding show in Lansdale PA.
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