Sharri Harmel: Hello everyone. And welcome to the Extraordinary Women podcast. This is episode number 91. Well, we have a great interview today with myself and Monica Michelle, who is the founder and CEO of BloomTV Network, a streaming network that is devoted to everything about flowers. Flower arrangements, flower gardens, cooking with flowers, even the health benefits of flowers, painting with flowers, creating with flowers, all things flowers.

Sharri Harmel: I can’t wait for you to hear more. So, let’s get started. You are listening to the Extraordinary Women podcast, a podcast for the woman, entrepreneur, where we have candid conversations about the journey of starting a business, you’ll get valuable tips and advice. As you launch yourself on your own entrepreneurial journey.

Sharri Harmel: I’m your host, Sharri Harmel, the editor of the Extraordinary Women magazine circle. And I embrace my own entrepreneurial journey as a woman of a certain age and if I can do it ladies, so can you, I now divide my time between Paris and Boston, which fulfills my desire to create this life re-imagined while building a business.

Sharri Harmel: I love, I am so happy you are here. So, let’s jump right in. Monica welcome today to the Extraordinary Women podcast. 

Monica Michelle: Thanks for having me I’m so excited to be here and I’m excited to meet you. 

Sharri Harmel: Oh, I am thrilled. Monica started what is called BloomTV Network. And she’s going to share all about that with us today, but truly both from the standpoint, Monica, but from someone who loves flowers, how can they sign up for BloomTV? Um, like myself. Um, but also because Extraordinary Women is really about women entrepreneurs. And so, they’re going to be interested in how this idea came about. How the processes really that you went through to take something from an idea to an actual business.

Sharri Harmel: So, on the consumer side, if you don’t mind and give us a little bit of idea, more of a context of BloomTV. 

Monica Michelle: So BloomTV is a network dedicated to all things. For real, think of it as the food network of the flower world, uh, where we provide all sorts of content around cooking with flowers, gardening, uh, painting, flowers, anything there is to do with flowers.

Monica Michelle: We are bringing that information to form, uh, through video. 

Sharri Harmel: But all of the cooking with flowers, as well as gardening, as well as floral arranging, as well as I’m hearing painting, you need flowers. And then you also mentioned, I think I was looking at your website that there’s a kind of a mental health component.

Monica Michelle: Yes. So, we actually have videos on people that are taking you through mindful boot bouquet building, which is this new form of. Almost meditation through building these bouquets and really sinking into what you’re doing, the intention behind it. There’s a lot of people that are talking about the science around mental health and wellbeing through flowers and the actual studies that are done around how flowers having them in your home, just in a vase actually reduces stress and anxiety on level.

Monica Michelle: We don’t even realize it’s happening. Um, so it’s a lot of fun stuff on there. Yeah. 

Sharri Harmel: Oh, I love this. You know, it’s, it sounds like it’s far beyond, we’ve all heard of flower essences for a long time, but it’s, it’s far beyond that. And it’s also manageable for somebody who lives in an apartment like I do, as well as someone that’s on acres and acres of land, it sounds like.

Sharri Harmel: You have this restore Eden, which I thought was just fascinating. Tell us more about what that’s, you know, that mission statement, if you want to call it, that is about, 

Monica Michelle: Oh my gosh. I have been obsessed with this idea of, of beauty and that the frequency behind beauty for a while now, truly I’ve got a passion for nature and beauty within nature and restoration.

Monica Michelle: But really diving into the depths of that. I think that, you know, it starts with your inner eating first. And so, a part of our mission behind BloomTV is helping people to restore their inner Eden so that they can restore their outer Eaton. So, bringing beauty to people in the forms of flowers and mental health to consuming flowers, to being intentional around.

Monica Michelle: Uh, the foods that you put together and what you create and bringing all these beauty aspects into your creations to encouraging people, to bring beauty to their outer surroundings, through sustainable gardening and biophilic design, bringing nature aspects. Um, so really just anything to do with this concept around, around beauty and wellbeing, because I think there’s something really special about it.

Monica Michelle: And I think when you start introducing those pieces of beauty to your life, it becomes a necessity. Um, and it really can change the way you live life. I think when you start bringing. Beautiful pieces in and incorporating that if 

Sharri Harmel: this is very random, but this week I went to the Dior gallery here in Paris, and you need to do a collaboration with Christian Dior Company because Christian Dior’s work was all about flowers, which is so interesting to me that in one week, I’m guessing I’m speaking with you and I’m off at the gallery looking at Christian Dior and his work and his, um, how did we inspiration, which was really flowers in so many ways. Really cool. 

Monica Michelle: I know that’s on my list now. I have to do that. Yeah, 

Sharri Harmel: Absolutely. Well, I’m actually going to post, I took so many videos when I was in his house. Which is just absolutely gorgeous. So, you’ll have to look on my Instagram post and that will whet your appetite to make that plane ticket and, you know, come on over. So sweet. So, tell us though, where did this idea come from?

Sharri Harmel: Because I looked at your LinkedIn page and, and. You’ve had, you’ve had some different career paths and that don’t really fit with flowers if say that. 

Monica Michelle: So, I, uh, you know, I had a, I had a bad habit of when I was a kid and just starting out in the professional space, I took all of the cool jobs that. I just thought were good jobs, but they actually did not align with what I went to the year.

Monica Michelle: Um, and at that time, I don’t think I really knew who that was anyways. And it didn’t really know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to be. What I do know is that I’ve always enjoyed nature and I’ve always enjoyed travel and beauty. So, I’ve had a couple of different careers. One of them allowed me to work digitally, which was fantastic because I spent a lot of my time traveling and you’re, you’re sitting at Paris right now.

Monica Michelle: That’s actually where my career in flowers began miring these little side streets, flower shops. And I had a pastry in front of me and I just really, I had sunk into that moment so hard, and I just thought, oh my gosh, I want to bring this back to the states with me. I want to bring. This essence of flowers and pastries and like beauty and all of this back home.

Monica Michelle: And how do I package this? And my first thought was, oh, it’s going to be so much fun. I’m going to on the side for my friends, I’m going to start baking for my girlfriends. Uh, whenever I get a chance where I infuse all these desserts with flowers, like how do I combine these pastries and flowers? And, uh, I mean, I was sitting in Paris and it all just kind of happened.

Monica Michelle: And. That night I was coming home, and I remember on the plane, I was just daydreaming about and putting together kind of a, a very rough scale business plan. And, uh, I got back to the states and told my friends that I was going to do this for fun on the side. And my first big client ended up being the Oscars.

Monica Michelle: So, I was putting to a hundred and, um, kind of launched into that world. Baking and infusing these pastries with flowers and decorating with edible flowers. Um, and at that time it was one of those things where a piece of meat finally aligned with what I was, what I was doing, um, because I, I loved, I love to bake.

Monica Michelle: I loved flowers. So, it was the first time in my life where things that really were a part of me aligned in what I was doing. But it wasn’t quite there. There was still disconnect. I was like, I’m not a baker though. I, I want, I want to scale big businesses. I want to grow something, but I also want to make something that’s really impactful, um, that combines this beauty of the flowers and combines education and entertainment.

Monica Michelle: Um, and so it was, it was through that, that led me to BloomTV. And, um, I remember. Talking to my partner at the time. And, uh, he and I were sitting down, I think over coffee. Talking about, you know, I was like, I’m not a baker, but like I love flowers and I love, I love baking with flowers that I D I’m not, I’m not a baker.

Monica Michelle: This is something fun for me. How do we teach people how to bake with edible flowers? And then we went into the spiral of, well, what are the health benefits of edible flowers? How do we teach people about that? Well, what are the mental health benefits of having flowers in your home? And it just spiraled into this creative hurricane.

Sharri Harmel: I love this, but, but a couple of things come to mind as you’re talking. First of all, you figured out you’re still young. You figured out a very young age that. What is cool to be from a career standpoint, what might be the, uh, um, its surface, the most profitable didn’t fit and that’s a lesson cause there’s so many women that I work with that are now looking at the entrepreneurial path and they’ve done an entire career that really gave them no jazz, no energy, no real happy.

Sharri Harmel: And you figured that out. And also, you made the cakes. You didn’t just think about the cakes, you got the Oscar, which is incredible. The Oscar contract, if you want to call it that, but you got that because you made the cakes, you tried it. 

Monica Michelle: Yeah. I think as women entrepreneurs, too, like we’re women in general, we are creators.

Monica Michelle: We are just creators in general. We’re creators. We love to create. And I think, um, you know, one of the hardest things sometimes. I think because women are so often called to create and in sometimes do so many different things that it sometimes feels scary to step out of the box and actually do the thing, because it’s the, you know, you’ve got the thing in the back of your mind where you’re wondering if anything going to come of this, or is this a waste of my time or is this just going to be a distraction?

Monica Michelle: Um, but really, I think the creation process is so important because you sometimes really don’t know until you step into that space, you really don’t know what’s going to come of it. And so, I think you have to be okay with the exploration of creation, even if it amounts to it, even if it doesn’t come to anything or turn into an actual career, I think you have to be okay.

Monica Michelle: The exploration of creation and whatever’s calling. 

Sharri Harmel: That’s really interesting. First of all, it’s interesting that you’re talking about women as creators because actually physically. We do life when you look at it. And it’s only what two days after Mother’s Day. So, kind of makes sense. But also, that we don’t know when we birth even a child, you really don’t know what the child’s going to look like.

Sharri Harmel: You don’t know what the child’s strengths are going to be, what the child’s issues are going to be, but you have to go with it, and you have to have faith in the idea or the concept or the gift, or however you want to. I don’t know, label it, if that makes any sense, but yes, you, you, you did it. You need to, I think that you bring up a very, very important point, Monica, that you have to, you have to go for it.

Sharri Harmel: You’re not going to know exactly if it’s going to work. It’s going to look like 

Monica Michelle: just the pure act of stepping into that and trying it sometimes as further than a lot of people get. And I think that that’s something to be, you know, you got to celebrate that you got to celebrate the bravery that comes along with trying something new that you really don’t know what’s going to come of it or what’s going to happen.

Monica Michelle: And, um, it’s just, it’s important. I think. Um, there’s a lot of powerful women out there that are being called to do something bigger or to do something different. And I, I think that we should 100% explore that. Anytime something like that company calls us, I think it’s important to explore. 

Sharri Harmel: Yeah. And also, you made the case.

Sharri Harmel: But you didn’t end up making cakes. You didn’t B become Monica’s cakes or Monica’s bank. These are whatever, you know, it’s you put the, you put the product out there and then, and then started to regroup. So how did you get to the T the streaming aspect though? Because this could have gone a lot. You could have written a book, or I don’t know, different things.

Sharri Harmel: How did you get. 

Monica Michelle: Oh, my gosh. It’s such a, it’s hard to, it’s hard to even backtrack and see what happened because so much happened within that time period. Um, to back it up a little bit. I, I first realized I am not a baker. I don’t actually want to be baking, but I feel called to create something beautiful.

Monica Michelle: And during that time though, I was. Struggling a lot because I had, when I do something, I like, I like the big vision aspect. And so, in my mind with what I was already doing at the time, I felt like at one point I felt like, oh, I can’t stop this now, even though I’m getting called to something else, I can’t stop this now, because then I’ll be a failure.

Monica Michelle: And then I won’t have done the thing that I said I was going to do, which at one point. It was, I was going to start this very successful bakery and I wanted to put my desserts and, uh, you know, floral vegan confectioneries into all of these places all over the world. And I told people that. And so, when things started changing for me and I started getting called to this streaming platform or getting called to something else, it took me a while to really make that change.

Monica Michelle: And I think that’s another important thing that I’ve, I’ve talked about before, which is being able to pay. And let things take shape, but when you start getting called, like pivot towards that, and don’t be afraid to let something go, whenever it no longer is, is serving you. And I’m no longer a part of your journey, but it was a really hard point for me to let go of that because I felt like I was a failure.

Monica Michelle: If I stopped doing what I was doing over here, even though it was going well. And, uh, my, my partner and I sat down. And really started brainstorming around how do I, how do I make this digital, how do I, I make this fit with who I am even more. And so that’s when we started exploring, well, what about online courses?

Monica Michelle: Well then what about deeper dives into, flowers and what they do for your body, what they do for mental health. And we just, it was through a conversation and through. That we, you know, came up with this concept of creating an educational website, where we taught people how to work with flowers on all different levels that soon turned into this.

Monica Michelle: Well, let’s just create a flower network. Let’s create the food network of the flower world. And I remember that we said that we’ve made this statement. And then I went home and cried because I was like, I don’t know how to make a flower network. I don’t know, TV network. And I mean, that was just, that was just a part of it.

Monica Michelle: We, you know, the cool thing about it is, is that I didn’t have to know. I didn’t need to know. I just needed to hold the vision and let the right people come into play. And that’s exactly what happened. People started coming every time we spoke what we were going to do, what we wanted to do and started taking actionable steps on that.

Monica Michelle: People started falling into place. And before we knew it, we had a full team that was making it happen. 

Sharri Harmel: It’s just amazing to me though, to truly the process and go back to the process because I’m in you and your partner looked at each other. And one, one of you said, what about a. Lives or a streaming network and the other one, you know, it was like, whoa.

Sharri Harmel: Um, but how did you go from that conversation to loom TV? Cause there, there there’s, one is real big picture talking conversational and the other is okay, what are steps? 

Monica Michelle: So originally when we were mapping everything out, we saw. When we were still on the, this is an educational site for people where we’ll do video content on how to work with flowers.

Monica Michelle: We sat down at a coffee shop in pen and paper and started drawing out. Okay, what are the topics? What are the videos? What are the different tabs? What does the website look like? And then when we said let’s just make a streaming network, let’s make a network. I’ll skip right over my crime part because I went home and I felt very overwhelmed because I, I seriously, I saw the vision and I knew this is what I want to create this, this is it.

Monica Michelle: This is the thing that I’ve been working my way towards and my career. And, um, I went home, and I immediately fell into all the nitty gritty details. Well, how does this work? Well, how does the license, um, uh, videos and content for your site? Well, who were our producers? Well, you know, I just, I fell into this, this whirlwind of details, which, um, I can tell you, because my partner told me and he told me he was like, don’t get lost in the details, hold the vision, let the right people come to help you with the details that gotta to do this.

Monica Michelle: And, um, I fell into the details for. For a minute. And it was really hard to get out of that space for me because I do go into details on how things work and like all of the particular like mutant pieces. So, I will say first I fell into that. And then when I dug myself out of the details, Fell into the, okay.

Monica Michelle: I don’t really know how we’re going to make this work, but I know what I see the envision beam from there. We just started nailing down who we were. So, we got really clear on what we were before we were that, and that was the first step is we said, okay, we are in network dedicated to all things floral.

Monica Michelle: We will be the source for all things for them. And once we got clear on that, it allowed us to then begin sharing that with people. So, we said, um, one, we, I, I got my sister and her boyfriend. They have a filming company. I called them up and said, you know, these, this is our idea. I want to bring together. I believe it was five women in Denver and get each of them to talk about, um, something different.

Monica Michelle:: Like we had one girl that did a DIY. Uh, self-care, shower, bundles tutorial. We had one woman that taught just about floral tips and tricks for keeping your flowers fresher. For longer. We had a, a designer in Denver talks about the importance of biophilic design and bringing nature aspects into your home.

Monica Michelle: So, I started reaching out and saying, you know, we want to create these videos to show what our concept is, so that we can physically show the world what we’re building. And I had my sister fly. We spent three days filming these different women. And then, um, we went from there. So that was kind of step two is we made it to where people could see what we were doing.

Monica Michelle: And then we put that out on a very makeshift website and said, this is what we’re doing. This is what we’re building. Here are some examples. And from there I started reaching out to sponsors and, uh, going through Instagram, finding women that worked with. And just from that small website, with five videos on it, uh, we built up a team of over 150 experts.

Monica Michelle: I brought in huge sponsors and partners. Um, and it was all from an idea and giving them just something to look at. And just with that, that was enough to move people and to bring people in to where we could build it into something really. But it was a long, it was a long year 

Sharri Harmel: and it’s sorta like making the cake.

Sharri Harmel: It’s like, you have to make the cake if we want to use that analogy with the five videos so that other people could see what you saw. So clearly. Yeah. 

Monica Michelle: It’s true. Know, sometimes it’s hard. I think, I think especially whenever people have really big visions and these, these entrepreneurs that they have such a big vision to bring to the world.

Monica Michelle: Step one is always get clear on what that is. Get very clear on what that is so you can share it with other people. But I think an important step two is you’ve got to give people that aren’t visionary, that aren’t entrepreneurs something to look at so that they can grasp what it is that you’re building.

Monica Michelle: And I think sometimes people need that, that visual piece so that they can really sink into what it is. And. You know, easier to find that support. 

Sharri Harmel: I love that. Absolutely love that. Great, great advice for me as well as for everyone who’s listening, honestly. Um, so talk a bit though about, you know, if I’m an expert or I’ve heard you call people creators also, you know, how do you, and then you’re creating your own.

Sharri Harmel:: So, is this, is this right? How does this all work? 

Monica Michelle: Yeah. So, part of our, part of our model is we invite floral experts, artists, creators, designers, anybody that works with flowers, we invite them to BloomTV as content creators. And we, we view the content first and if it’s approved, then we put them on the site.

Monica Michelle: And then from there, we. You know, we have BloomTV, professional production shows and series that are in the works right now. So, what we really do is we allow people to come that want to be a part of BloomTV and submit their own show, pilot ideas or tips and tricks videos. And from there, we collaborate with our sponsors to find the right fits, to bring into our balloon TV productions for full shows, full series, um, and that’s kind of our model.

Monica Michelle: So, we do have the content creators, and then we have bigger production. So, it’s a little bit. 

Sharri Harmel: The content creators get paid. I’m assuming by BloomTV, or do they get paid based on how many people love their particular programs? I mean, how does that work? 

Monica Michelle: Uh, with Bloom TV? Creators have referral codes. And so, in anybody that subscribes to BloomTV through that creator’s code, um, that person is assigned to their account so that person can enjoy everything that BloomTV has to offer.

Monica Michelle: Um, but we give 10% of every cell to our, uh, to our creators. And we pay that because we’re a monthly subscription service. So, we pay that monthly recurring payment to the creator for as long as that person as a subscriber. And so, for those reasons, a lot of people who have big audiences on YouTube are now leaving YouTube to come to us because you pay per subscriber every month.

Sharri Harmel: Yeah. It’s like teachable or creative, creative live or whatever. Is that somewhat the model for your experts? Not. 

Monica Michelle: Similar. Yeah. And the cool thing about it is that whenever somebody subscribes, um, they’re supporting an expert. Yes. That expert now has the, the ability to create freely and know that that person also has hundreds of other pieces of content that they can watch.

Monica Michelle: So, if we have some moms that, um, they have time to make a video every other month and that’s it, they get to do that. Knowing that the people that supported them in the beginning are still taken care of by other pieces of content and other experts. 

Sharri Harmel: So that’s a very. Uh, important difference, actually, it’s not course by course you have the whole platform.

Sharri Harmel: How beautiful,

Sharri Harmel: okay. Women entrepreneurs, I want to let you know about a fabulous recent. The Extraordinary Women magazine is only 2,999 a year. And with that minimal investment, you’ll receive four issues of the digital magazine, which are just chucked full of inspiring interviews. Subscriber highlights, valuable tips and ideas for you, the entrepreneur, regardless of the stage of your business, but this is a big, but this is more than just a magazine.

Sharri Harmel: During the year, you will have opportunities to connect with other like-minded women who are supporting each other and sharing ideas as they go along their business journey, as well as invitations to valuable workshops on topics that you need to plant bloom or grow that business. As I call it. So go to the Extraordinary Women magazine.com and subscribe.

Sharri Harmel: Join this movement of women from all over the world who are creating and growing businesses.

Sharri Harmel: I have to say Monica. It’s really supporting women or all people because you have men and women, but at different stages of their life, a mom, maybe a stay at home. Mom doesn’t have the kind of time to put out content on a consistent basis. And yet she’s still got her foot in the game. So, to speak so that when she is ready, you know, out, out, she comes in in a, you know, a hundred percent or 110% way.

Sharri Harmel: I love that. 

Monica Michelle: Yeah. And we want this to be, I mean, that’s a big part of our model too, is we really, we built BloomTV as not only a space for the consumer, for people to come and watch and learn and do that. We also created this as a platform. For other women entrepreneurs in the flower world that want a place to showcase their work or want a stage to stand on where, you know, we’re living in a time now where we’re really looking for, you know, who are the next big people of the flower world who are the next, um, who are these creators that we can really put in the limelight and, you know, show the public what they can do.

Monica Michelle: And that’s why we open it to everyone. And I, I think. Media company. Often, we’ll only work with, uh, content creators or people in the industry that have huge followings on Instagram or are very well known and they won’t work with anybody. That’s got less than so many thousand people. We do not do that. We do not care what kind of following people have.

Monica Michelle: We don’t care if you even have social media, if you want to come and show people what you can do. And you’ve got something that you want to put out there for people to watch. And you want a space where all of the people who love flowers come to go and are contained within that space. Like where we’re the platform you 

Sharri Harmel: You absolutely are.

Sharri Harmel: It’s at it’s beautiful. Let’s go back to the tears a little bit, because I would imagine, tell me if this is true, that at each stage of this you’ve, you’ve had to work on. Mindset. You’ve had to work on what’s going on inside. So, share if you can Monica, just a little bit about how you’ve worked through some of that.

Monica Michelle: Oh my gosh. I’m, I’m very lucky to have a partner that’s very supportive and he’s back down to, to reality when I get a little strong out and all the details, you know, for me, I am very clear that I am visionary and Entrepreneur. And I’m very, very clear on that. And so, by being clear on that, I know when I start to go downhill and get into the tiers and all of that, it’s when I start getting too deep into the details.

Monica Michelle: And so, for me, I have to keep that very separate as much as I can. And I still fall into it. It’s a weekly thing where I’m like, oh God, I’m getting too far down into. I gotta, I gotta stay up here. I gotta stay up here and allow the right people to come in to help me. Can you tell pieces? So, I think like on a, on a weekly basis, I really have to take a step back focus on big vision.

Monica Michelle: Um, and then also something. I know it was very helpful that I’m working on, I’m not great at it yet, but really trying to recognize what’s been built and celebrating. What’s been built so far. Um, and I, I recently had a conversation where, you know, I had, I had mentioned, I was like, oh, I think. On a regular basis.

Monica Michelle: Like I’m not ready to share BloomTV yet. Sometimes, like when we’re talking to, to big sponsors and partners, sometimes I hit a space where I’m like, oh, I don’t feel like we’re ready yet. I got to do this, this, and this and this first, but really, it’s not true. And I think we have to, as entrepreneurs and as creators really take a step back, look at what we’ve done.

Monica Michelle: A. Uh, celebrate every little win, which I am still learning to do, but it is, I think, vital to the success of a company and to staying really level in what you’re doing. 

Sharri Harmel: Yeah. So, what are the conversations? That’s so good, but what are the conversations that go through your head? When a part of you says, don’t share, you’ve got all these pieces, you have to take care of the four you can share with this X sponsor or whatever it is.

Sharri Harmel: So, what is that process? Is there, are there particular, I don’t know, like even, even mantras that you go through or affirmations or are there particular. Books that you’ve read or resources that you’ve tapped into to help you to fight that I call it syndrome. Why am I? Impostor syndrome is really about perfection.

Sharri Harmel: You know, you’re not perfect yet. So don’t bring this out yet. Yeah. How did, how, what goes through your head? Cause that’s a process too, just as important as setting a business process is taking care of what’s going on with. 

Monica Michelle: Yeah, I, I think, uh, it’s for me, sometimes it just has to be a hard, hard stop of, okay, wait, no, this is actually really good.

Monica Michelle: And while we have 150 people contributing content, well, we have these sponsors already. And these people like we, I think for me, it really is just a hard stop cause it’s, it’s hard to, I feel like it’s best if you can catch yourself falling into that, but it’s very difficult to catch yourself falling into that space.

Monica Michelle: So, I think it’s just a matter of making yourself stop making yourself look at what’s been done. Um, Celebrating those wins again. But I think it is just sometimes for me, at least it has to be a hard stop. It’s a, it’s an inner dialogue of we’re not ready, but wait. Yes, actually we are, we are, yeah. 

Sharri Harmel: I love that hard stop.

Sharri Harmel: Cause it’s like tough love, you know, but you’re giving it to yourself. So, where’s flume TV now. And where do you kind of see it going? 

Monica Michelle: Oh, my gosh. Well, I’m, I’m just amazed every day. I’m, I’m very proud of blowing TV. It’s only where it’s at because of all of the collaboration that we’ve done. We’re not afraid to collaborate.

Monica Michelle: We have incredible partners. We have incredible creators that we’ve worked with to make this, this something special. And so, from that, I really. Right now, where we’re at is we have 150 experts and content creators that are contributing content to new TV on a regular basis. We have incredible partnerships in the works we have, uh, including what women create magazine, where we are releasing our first episode in collaboration with what women create in June.

Monica Michelle: Yeah. We also have some other really powerful partnership and sponsorship conversations going right now where, um, we’re in the works of developing incredible shows and series that will change the way that people think about flowers. Um, and bring even people that don’t care about flowers into that world.

Monica Michelle: Uh, like never before, but that’s, what’s currently going on at BloomTV. The future vision is still very much the same as, as it was in the beginning. Where we know we want to be and where we’re going, and that’s becoming the network for all things floral. And that’s what we already are, but, but really building it to a scale to where we introduce the next stars of the flower world to the world and being that that stays that location for anybody who loves flowers to come and create and grow with us and have an opportunity.

Monica Michelle: Unlike a huge media company have an opportunity to come and play no matter what level they’re at. And he recognized within that space within that world and another, you know, part of this vision too, is where we’re going. And what we want is eventually a BloomTV studios, where we have a space where creators can come and film and, um, a garden center where people can come.

Monica Michelle: Create great content for the channels. 

Sharri Harmel: Oh my, God. That sounds fantastic. Wow. I love this. You know, I think you’re going to make it, I think you’re going to create those, not make it as in you’re already making it, but I mean, even the longer-term plan where you are, who knows where this is all going to go.

Sharri Harmel: And I think in the conversation with Joe over at what women create you talk about, you talked about wanting to build out a program for children and I find that so interesting. 

Monica Michelle: Yes. That’s another thing I will add to this we’re we want to be a space for everybody. And so, we really are looking for, you know, creators and, uh, maybe even productions down the line that are geared towards kids and getting them excited about being in the garden and being outside and, and really incorporating this nature into their, their every day.

Monica Michelle: Um, and creating, you know, educational and entertaining content for kids. Yeah. There’s a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of, uh, futuristic visionaries attached to BloomTV. You know, we even are looking at. Um, eventually, how do we create, you know, almost VR experiences within BloomTV, where it’s, you know, can feel like you’re actually in a workshop with a professional and really there.

Monica Michelle: And so, it just all sorts of fun stuff that we’re, we’re playing around with it. 

Sharri Harmel: Okay. I love this. This is, this is so fun. This truly is. I’m going to take you in the weeds a little bit, which, because you probably don’t have to go there now, but when you started and you were adding people to your team, because.

Sharri Harmel: That’s the one thing when, when we as entrepreneurs and I’m the exact same way, Monica, I’m very visionary, very high level. And as soon as I get down in the weeds, uh, I get what I call stiff legs and I’m not really good at it, uh, quite honestly. And so, I have to hire people to do that. How did you know, as you were bringing people in or?

Sharri Harmel: Considering people, some of those things are, have to get done. How did, how did you decide if they were the right people or not? And was that a learning process?

Monica Michelle: Oh my gosh. It’s still a learning process. You just, sometimes you really don’t know until, until they’re there. And then you’re like, oh, but, uh, in the beginning for us, one thing as a startup and accompanying.

Monica Michelle: Uh, you know, in the beginning we were like, oh, let’s build a TV network and us not having, we didn’t have big investor dollars to put into this company. And so, for us in the beginning, Sharing the vision and where we were going and what we were building. We allowed that to track the right people. And in that we were really looking for volunteers.

Monica Michelle: And so, in the beginning as a startup, that’s all we can do as volunteers. We can’t pay anybody to be a part of it. We couldn’t even pay ourselves. And so, for us, it was. I won’t say easier because it’s not easier than just like being able to hire people, but you certainly get people that really believe in the vision.

Monica Michelle: Whenever you’re asking for people to volunteer their time. Um, or you’re saying, this is what I need, who can help with this, who wants to help with this? And so, we got lucky in that. We really got people reaching out to us saying, how can I help? What can I do? How do I be a part of this? And for us in the beginning, you know, you can’t be like, oh no, you’re not the right fit when you need help, and you need volunteers.

Monica Michelle: And, and so that was really our process and in a lot of ways, You know, I think about it and I go back and I think like, oh my gosh, like what if we would’ve gone the investor route and gotten like, you know, you know, big money put into this concept and this idea. And yeah, we would have gone out and hired people to do the thing, but I don’t know that we would have gotten the right people if we would have done that because we, we truly got people that believed in the company because we had, they had no other means, but, you know, believing in the vision.

Monica Michelle: And so, we got really lucky there. And then. It’s a similar thing. We, you know, we’re still, we still have volunteers that are working with Bloom TV. We still have people that are creating content, but they’re volunteering their time to be a part of the company and help us grow so that later we can hire them on.

Monica Michelle: Um, so for us, it’s a little bit of a different avenue, but I guess you just, sometimes you really don’t know until you get people in their and. See how it goes. And then a lot of times you have to pivot and sometimes you realize this person is actually way better at this kind of thing. So, it allows you to take them into another area of the business. 

Sharri Harmel: But I, this is really good information because again, it’s about trying and not going to know someone is perfect or the idea is perfect or it’s the right idea, unless you try it and, and you have to be willing to. As my grandmother used to say, plug your nose and jump

Sharri Harmel: in the water. I mean, so yeah, at the end of the dock, people really want to be a part of something bigger.

Monica Michelle: Like I think even, you know, women who aren’t entrepreneurs, but they want to be a part of something bigger or they like know what their strengths are. And they’re just a lot of times I feel like people are looking at.

Monica Michelle: For places to apply those, those skillsets. And they get really excited that I, you know, the building of big companies and I, I think you have to allow people to help them just have to allow people to help. And that’s something that I’m, um, I’m, I’m still working with. Uh, learning how to let people help.

Sharri Harmel: Yeah. That’s a very good point that sometimes though there are builders and there are visionaries and there are different people, different strengths to some extent. So how different do you feel today when your feet hit the ground? You know, after you get, you know, you get out of bed, feet, hit the ground.

Sharri Harmel: How do you feel differently today with BloomTV versus what you were doing before? 

Monica Michelle: It is a world of difference. I feel so much more aligned. I don’t feel like even when I’m overwhelmed and we have a lot of stuff to do, I don’t feel stretched the way that I used to because used to, when I was busy in the wrong thing, I felt extremely stretched.

Monica Michelle: I felt physically, emotionally stressed. I felt mentally stretched because I was so not aligned with what I was supposed to be doing. And so, everything felt stretched even on days that were good. I still felt tired and stretched now, even in some of our busiest times where we’ve got, you know, eight hours straight of meetings.

Monica Michelle: It’s a different kind of tired. It’s one. When I go to bed, I feel good. It’s like working out. You’re tired from working out in comparison of you’re tired because you’ve been laying around all day. Like it’s just, but it feels very aligned, and I feel, it feels steady too. It feels so steady because it feels, um, it just feels like a part of me.

Monica Michelle: It feels like a part of me, so it feels very. Very steady and not rushed and very, um, Natural. It feels like everything that we do with BloomTV is in flow. 

Sharri Harmel: Natural. Purposeful. I love that. How important do you think it is? Cause you’ve talked about your partner a couple of times, and I’m assuming he’s been involved from the very beginning.

Sharri Harmel: How important is it to have your partner on board? 

Monica Michelle: Oh my God. So important. The entrepreneur world is a very, I know you’ve heard a lot of people say this – it is a very lonely world for a lot of entrepreneurs, because it is important in your life. That is your, um, your everything. Um, for me, it’s been very important.

Monica Michelle: He is very grounding. And when I’m up here and, you know, lots of energy and trying to figure out a place to put it, um, he’s very grounding for me and very, just, you know, sunk in to. You know what very grounded, optimistic too, which is really good. So, it’s like, I’ve always got that person to lean on whenever I’m feeling like, you know, maybe something’s not going right.

Monica Michelle: You bring me back down to, well, actually everything’s going right. And you thought this, but yet this happened. And this only happened because this was going wrong, you know, earlier in the year. And so, yeah, it’s very important. And I think for entrepreneurs that don’t have that, I think it’s. Important to find someone, just someone, whether it’s a friend or another entrepreneur or a group that you can join online, full of other entrepreneurs.

Monica Michelle: I think it’s very important to have somebody to lean on. 

Sharri Harmel: Always. Yeah. Do you find that also helps with the brainstorming? The, where am I going? What direction are we taking this? Or am I doing. 

Monica Michelle: Yeah. The first thing out of my mouth in the morning, I’m like, oh my God, I have an idea and for me, that’s that is, um, that is super helpful.

Monica Michelle: Because I’ve always got somebody to bounce ideas off with and, um, he’s, he’s very visionary as well. Um, more so than me. And so, it’s, it’s fun to, to go back and forth on like what could be. What’s realistic and what can we actually obtain right now? Or how do we get there? So, yeah. Um, 

Sharri Harmel: but it’s great that you brought this up because not everyone has a partner, number one.

Sharri Harmel: Um, but also, it’s important that if you do have a partner to get the partner on board, even if they don’t want to be as involved in the business, they might be more of the builder mindset than the vision mindset. But you’ve got to work as a team. Um, you know, in life, if you want to call it that, but also to access good friends or other entrepreneurs or mastermind groups or something where it feels safe enough to talk about it, because that’s also at something I’ve learned is that it needs to be a safe place to have those conversations.

Sharri Harmel: Um, as you start to talk about what your intimacies, if you wanna call it that of your business. Would you agree? 

Monica Michelle: I agree. 100%. It’s very, and it’s also, it’s very different to, as an entrepreneur, it is very different to sometimes speak to someone that isn’t a nine to five and doesn’t actually truly understand like everything that you’re doing over here as an entrepreneur.

Monica Michelle: And so, having somebody that isn’t. Maybe they don’t have to understand it all, but just somebody to lean on that you can at least talk things through with. And so, you know, in a lot of cases, um, as an entrepreneur, you can be so close to what you’re doing, that you can’t always see all of the connecting point where somebody completely outside of that can, you know, often look at it and say, oh, well, why don’t you do this and this?

Monica Michelle: And so, it just, you know, having that person, you can talk with them. Um, yeah. It’s, it’s very important.

Sharri Harmel: I love that. Yeah, that’s really good. Yes. Any other, you know, words of wisdom here? Um, because I know there’s obviously been lots of challenges. You know, we, we now see kind of the end product and many of us are going to get off this call and, and subscribe, but the certain challenges along the way.

Sharri Harmel: That you feel is so you, you would want to share with other aspiring entrepreneurs. 

Monica Michelle: Oh my gosh. I feel like there’s a lot of stuff, but, um, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Just, you know, don’t be afraid to do it and do something new and it, especially if it’s something that you don’t know anything about and have no business doing it, don’t be afraid to do it because I think that’s the that’s the first step is just.

Monica Michelle: That exploration of something that you don’t necessarily know how to do, but it’s calling to you. So just listen to the calls, go where you’re called and be okay with not knowing how to get there. Just any type of movement towards it is, is movement towards it. And that’s what people have to remember. You don’t have to have these ginormous steps within your business or within your calling.

Monica Michelle: You just have to move. 

Sharri Harmel: Okay. That’s great. Super! Now share with everyone if they want to subscribe or if they want to, they view themselves as a potential creator, and they’d like to submit something to you. Could you clearly lay out the path on both sides, so to speak? 

Monica Michelle: So, to subscribe you just go to BloomTV, network.com and sign up for a monthly subscription.

Monica Michelle: It’s $9 99. Uh, if you are a creator or someone in the floral world that just wants to put your name out there and create videos for bloom, uh, you can email me directly at monica@bloomtvnetwork.com. I answer all of my emails and I love hearing from other creators as a creator too. We have a monthly  meeting with all of our experts in creating.

Monica Michelle: Where we bring in people to talk about helpful tips for filming, for marketing, for your business, for growth, we do collaborations. Um, and we, we are very much involved with the people that we’re working with and that are creating content for our channel. So, anybody. Need support or needs ideas. Like we’re always here to, to chat and help.

Sharri Harmel: So, oh God, I love this. I absolutely love this, truly. I do. I fell in love when I listened to you, uh, with Joe on Women Create and here we are now, and I’ve already got two to three people that I think should contact you about being creators. Actually, they’ve already been in the magazine. 

Sharri Harmel: Come on. So, thank you. Thank you, Monica so much from the bottom of my heart for, for sharing this today, but also for creating. Because the world needs more beauty. We, we need things that refuel us and bring us, I don’t know, happiness if we want to call it that. And thank you. You’re making a difference in the world.

Sharri Harmel: And I so appreciate that and I’m going to benefit from everything you’re doing. So, I’m going to subscribe. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. 

Sharri Harmel: Oh my…. how exciting right? Monica shared not only her start up journey- which is loaded with ideas and tips that you can use if you are building a business, but also how all of you can get involved in Bloom TV Network if you are a creator – even want your own channel…. as well as people like me who want regular access to ideas, products and even the emotional healing benefits of flowers. 

Sharri Harmel: What I so loved about my conversation with Monica, was how after taking jobs post college that looked good on paper, that were the right jobs for someone at her stage of life, they didn’t fit Monica….and as a young professional, questioned what it was that she really loved to do and how could she turn it into a business. We talk about this all the time, right??

Sharri Harmel: So, go to bloomtvnetwork.com to check it out and there will be information in the show notes if you’d like to connect with Monica as a potential creator. 

Sharri Harmel: Now, if you enjoyed this episode, I’d love if you could take a minute to rate our podcast and subscribe. We’ve got lots of super interesting conversations coming up and if you subscribe, you’ll automatically get a notice of each new podcast, which comes out each Monday. 

Sharri Harmel: I so look forward to our conversation next week. As we say in Paris à bientôt!

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