Episode #93 Talking Les Fleurs with Sandra Sigman
The pursuit of a passion can often takes you in a very different direction than you would expect! Sandra Sigman, the founder, and CEO of Les Fleurs (a beautifully French inspired floral home and garden shop in Andover, Massachusetts) learned to appreciate the beauty around her at the elbow of her mother and her work in floral design. Little did she know, she would one day own a shop of her own!
She first travelled to France in her early twenties, as a professional ice skater for Holiday on Ice. Loneliness brought her to the flower shops of Paris, and a dream was born she came back to the U.S. with plans to open a floral shop of her own.
Listen as Sandra and Sharri Harmel discuss their shared love of French culture, creating beauty from ashes, and how being brave in the adventure can lead to accomplishing great things!
Resources and links in this episode:
Visit Sandra Sigman at Les Fleurs, Lesfleurs.com
Stevens-Coolidge House and Gardens
Studio Carta, founded by Angela Liguori
Vivi et Margot, online French homewares founded by Charlotte Reiss
Sharon Santoni, My French Country Home magazine
Foire deChatou, antique & flea market
For real estate, Aaron Lippert / aaronlippert@kw.com, https://www.larochegroupe.com | US: +1 617 821 6406 | FR: +33 (0)7 85 66 72 08
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Episode #93 Talking Les Fleurs with Sandra Sigman
Sharri Harmel: Hi everyone. And welcome back to the Extraordinary Women podcast. And this is episode number 93. Well, today we have a fabulous interview coming up with myself and Sandra Sigman, who is the founder and CEO of Les Fleurs, a French inspired, floral home and garden shop, as well as ideas and even workshops to help you create the appreciation for beauty that I love, that Sandra loves that is so much a part of the French culture.
Sharri Harmel: So, without further ado, 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 say 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 reimagined while building a business.
Sharri Harmel: I love I am so happy you are here. So, let’s jump right in. Well, I have the luxury of inviting and having on our call today, Sandra Sigman and Sandra owns a business called Les Fleurs. And she’s going to tell us all about that. And there’s obviously a Paris connection or a French inspired connection because her business is all about as I’m reading it right off the website, French inspired, floral home, and garden.
Sharri Harmel: And, and even though you have a brick and mortar, which we’re going to talk about on the right up north of Boston in and. you also have an eCommerce site. So, this is something that I think can appeal and you have trips, um, can appeal to everyone no matter where you are, even if you’re not actually going to Sandra shop.
Sharri Harmel: So, welcome.
Sandra Sigman: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Sharri Harmel: And we have this French connection. Let’s just dive right in because how you created a shop now? I don’t. I lived on the north shore of Boston for oh gosh, probably four years and I just never really thought of it as a French hub. I know.
Sandra Sigman: No, not for sure.
Sharri Harmel: No, you have to tell me where that all came from. Share with.
Sandra Sigman: Well, it’s, it’s kind of a sweet story. Cause I think all of us can relate to, you know, growing up and perhaps having a parent that you know, was entrepreneurial and that was my mom. And, uh, she was a floral designer. Well, she didn’t call herself a floral designer, but, um, in the beginning she would just kind of, you know, make bouquets from her garden, et cetera.
Sandra Sigman: And, um, so when I was pretty young, my I’m one of four, my dad actually worked for Nabisco corporation. So, he would go to all the grocery stores, and he was on manager, and he would just make sure all the displays, but he got to know all the, the owners. And he said, oh, you know, my, my wife puts bouquets together.
Sandra Sigman: You know, maybe she could, you know, come in and do some bouquets around the holidays. So, my mom took it very seriously. put together some bouquets, we show up at the grocery store and they were like, we love them, we’ll take 200. And my mom was like, what. 200. Yeah. So, I think she was kind of like, oh, so of course I’ll never forget.
Sandra Sigman: It was like a Saturday. She was like, um, Sandra, come on, we’re going to go on a trip. We’re going to Boston. And I thought, okay. And I, I mean, I was pretty young. I was probably like 12 and we go to Boston, and we went to the Boston flower market to go get flowers, to do this, this, I guess, job, if you will. And I remember going, oh, wow.
Sandra Sigman: Like this exists. Like, you know, I guess you just never see that massive amount of cut stems in one’s place. And I think that was, you know, kind of the thing that stirred within me so fast forward, like I said, anyway, that’s in like a family business, you know, my mom would bring all of kids to help her, you know, and I was in charge of putting somewhat que together, you know, at age 14, it, they, weren’t very pretty , but as time went on, like I secretly, you know, did enjoy it.
Sandra Sigman: Of course, I want to go hang out with my friends and not be, you know, playing with flowers on a Saturday, a. And then she started doing like weddings and et cetera. So, my dad converted one, a detached garage. We had into a studio space for her. Oh
Sharri Harmel: my God. How unbelievably supportive though. He was, yeah. For that era.
Sharri Harmel: Um, it’s really? Yeah. It’s not only this entrepreneurial mom, but a dad that supported your mom’s. Yeah,
Sandra Sigman: he was great. He worked after hours for us, but I think what was really wonderful is she always wanted a store, but she knew with four children and everything that it probably would be hard. And like you said, the times were very different, and my dad was definitely ahead of, you know, the curve and that dads were helping and fathers.
Sandra Sigman: So, I think, you know, she always wanted in her heart to have a shop and how the French part came in. Yeah. Is that I had the opportunity to go live in Paris for 18 months. And I know people were like, what? And, um, so what it was I was a professional figure skater. Did you ever hear stars on ice? Oh gosh.
Sandra Sigman: Yes. Yeah. So, ice skated for holiday on ice, which is the European version, and the headliner of our show was kind in a bit the German ice champion. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Wow. So, she was the headliner, and we were based in Paris and had an apartment, and I was all of like 19 living in Paris and it was amazing.
Sandra Sigman: And I remember, um, going to Paris and not speaking. I mean, I knew like Bonjour, yeah. S’il vous plait and Merci. I remember the show was taught in French and I thought, oh my goodness, how am I going to do this?
Sandra Sigman: I didn’t know where I was going. I was so mixed up. I called my parents crying, saying, they’re going to fire me. And my mother said, well, this is what I think is. What people will say is the inner strength you have within. And, you know, maybe my mom could have been like, oh, you know, it’s okay. Come home, you know, or give up.
Sandra Sigman: But no, she was like, yep, go get yourself a French book and go apply yourself to school somewhere. And I did, I went to allow phone, says I got a book. I studied; my roommate was from Sweden. She spoke five languages. And she was like translating and helping me because not really a lot of people spoke French back then.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. Yeah. So that was kind of the French connection. And then the other part of this was my shows were at night. So, during the day I didn’t have a lot to do. Oh, but it’s kind of like, you know, I’d go to museums, I’d, I’d walk around, and you know, there’s only so many museums you could go see. And finally, I started ducking into flower shops.
Sandra Sigman: I think it was familiar to me. It kind of brought me. I was a little homesick, you know, being 19 away that far away. And I think it did help. So, my soul a little bit, and I would, you know, go to this one particular flower shop. And it was right now, my apartment, I lived near the opera.
Sandra Sigman: And there was a little cute flower shop. And you walked in and all the girls that worked there had black aprons on and they were just, you know, very small flower shops, but they would be holding these bouquets in their hands. And I would be like, wow. And I remember calling my mother every Sunday evening and saying, mom, they actually have the flowers out.
Sandra Sigman: They don’t keep them in the coolers.
Sharri Harmel: It’s incredible even today, you know, obviously your kind of raising the bar of what flower shops is all about in America, but, uh, you know, even today it’s, it’s astounding. I think for people when they come to Paris and see there’s a flower shop, you know, it’s, they’re everywhere and you can touch them and smell them yeah.
Sandra Sigman: Touch them. And there’s not like pre-made bouquets on the back and the cooler that look at, like, you know, uh, I don’t know. That’s really, no effort was put in just like, let’s make it quick. And so, I remember calling my mom saying, this is they’re spilling, the flowers are spilling out to the streets.
Sandra Sigman: They’re just, it’s amazing in the way they put things together. And, and mom, on Saturdays, they go to the Blan, they go to the Petri and then they come to the Flo east and, and there’s a conversation and there’s like some thought behind it. And I also said to my mom, you know, what’s amazing. Like you can’t get strawberries.
Sandra Sigman: In December in Paris and you can’t get peas in December in Paris. So, I loved that there was a seasonality to it as well that they actually said, oh, you know, this is in season. This is what should be offered. And I loved that, and I loved that there were conversations and that the, the head designer would say, you know, what kind of waste do you have?
Sandra Sigman: What kind of, you know, of, you know, intimate gathering is you having? And I just thought, wow, I, I like this. I like this. This is very different. This feels very different than what we do back in the states. Now, again, this was, you know, many moons ago, right. But it’s kind of, I don’t know, bred inside me. And, and I also not to have a sad note, but my mom, my mom had breast cancer and it broke my heart to, you know, see her sad sometimes and I was away.
Sandra Sigman: And so, I would try to cheer her up with all this French kind of flower talk. You know, kind of brought me closer to her. So that’s how the, everything brewed in my head, I guess. And were you
Sharri Harmel: thinking though at that time, I’m going to bring this back home because you were pretty young, you know, when already in that kind of entrepreneurial mindset, I, I’m not going to skate forever.
Sharri Harmel: Right. Am I going to do when I go back?
Sandra Sigman: Yes. I think, um, after 18 months, like it, it was hard, you know, being away that far away from home and also, you know, we were skating a lot of shows and that’s really hard on your body year after year. And I’ve been skating since I was a kid and competitive skater. So, I think my body and you know, I’m all of like 21 now right.
Sandra Sigman: You know, and, but I could, you know, getting up in the morning was like, ouch, you know? And um, I think, yes, I think I was slowly saying to myself, like me. I don’t picture myself doing this for another, you know, 10 years. So, I definitely started planting the seed and I’d say, mom, we have to open a French flower shop.
Sandra Sigman: And she’d be like, okay. In, in, back in Massachusetts where most flower shops were very traditional, very, you know, laid out a certain way. And I was bringing in a whole new concept in, I said to her, we have to call it because that’s the name of the flower shop that I intern at. And she kept saying, you know, okay, so let get this straight center.
Sandra Sigman: We’re going to open a French concept flower shop that no, one’s going to understand number two, we’re going to name it that no, one’s be able to pronounce it or spell it. Right. And I was like, yes, I love this. I was like, we, yes.
Sharri Harmel: yeah. She went with it.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. I move, I moved home. Okay. And just started, you know, with my mom brainstorming and we.
Sandra Sigman: You know, and it’s so cute because way back when you know, artwork, like, you’re like, oh, I need a logo. I need, you know, and I remember going to a graphic designer and we went to her like office, and she handed us a book wow. Of artwork. You know, it wasn’t even anything PDF. It was nothing like that. It was like basically a book.
Sandra Sigman: Right. And we picked out this flower design and said, oh, this is pretty. Really, I mean, talk about winging it. We had no idea what we were doing, but I think my mom was ready to do a flower shop and I was going to be like her sidekick. And, um, yeah, so we opened, I was going, I went back to school as well. I went back to Boston university because I had to take two years off.
Sandra Sigman: Of course, to skate. I went and moved back to Boston. It was hard because there was not a lot of retail locations in Boston. There was one main strip which is called Newbury Street. Um, which is the busiest part of Boston at the time. Of course, there’s a lot more locations now and we weren’t going to be able to afford that rent.
Sandra Sigman: So, we knew, um, I would be, this area would support it because it was outside of Boston and we thought, you know, close enough. And there was also a lot of wedding venues around here. So, we thought it would be a good concept. And we found this cute little shop, teeny, teeny, and we hung out our little LA flare sign.
Sandra Sigman: And um, which was. Many moons ago. Like I said, what the sad part is I was 23. We opened in January and my mother died suddenly in February. Oh my
Sharri Harmel: God.
Sandra Sigman: Wow. It was really hard. Oh, I’m so crushing. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I said, I always, you know, I, I, and this said, I don’t want to get teary eyed, but I think these 30 years that I’ve owned the shop, like my mom’s really watched over me.
Sandra Sigman: So, I feel like she has been with me along this journey and that at age 23, I was afraid I was, you know, devastated beyond I had a flower shop now that. I didn’t really know how to run. I had no business savvy. I had no idea what I was doing. I remember my father said, well, you know, he had just retired. So, he was like, well, I can help you.
Sandra Sigman: And I said, yeah, but dad, you don’t know how to design right, right. Yeah. He was like, well, I can drive the trucks for you. And I was like, I was like, okay. You know, and, and this is where, you know, at 23, I thought. My girlfriends were so sweet to me. They were like, what do you got to lose? You know, like, mm-hmm, you signed a lease for a year.
Sandra Sigman: Just be to try Sandra. You’re so talented. And I was like, and I didn’t believe in myself. I was like, no, no, no, I can’t do it. But I think that’s when you muster the strength that maybe you don’t think you have, I wanted to make my mom proud. I didn’t want her to think, like I just went, you know, and cried and stayed in my bed, like I wanted to.
Sandra Sigman: Right. And I just got up and showed up every day. Yeah. And just, you know, tried to make it work
Sharri Harmel: so well. And what a beautiful tribute to your mom? I mean, she got to experience a shop. You know, which was something she always wanted and yeah. You know, as, as sad as it was, thank heavens you came back when you did and you said, mom, let’s do it.
Sharri Harmel: Let’s do it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s very, but that, that brings up a, a really important point though, as to kind of a characteristic or a quality that you must have as an entrepreneur, you’ve run that shop and it started doing, I’m assuming floral design strictly. Oh, strictly yes.
Sandra Sigman: Yes. And then that’s not all I could
Sharri Harmel: yeah.
Sharri Harmel: Handle at that point. And I mean, you were a kid, you were 23 years old. Most of us are just, you know, I don’t know, doing not much, trust me, in 23 and whether it’s my own kids or myself, you know, go back to that characteristic, that quality of just, you know, working it and working it and working it. How did the shop then evolve?
Sharri Harmel: Like how did. Besides getting up and going to work every day. When did you start to think? I want to add something or I, now you do workshops. You do mm-hmm trips to France, which we have to talk about. You do, you know, you have a shop, an e-commerce shop, you do, you know, wedding venues are very different from doing an arrangement for somebody like me, who’s just doing a dinner party or, or just wants beautiful flowers in my apartment.
Sandra Sigman: Right. A couple of things at age 20, think you’re right. I, but I also knew early on which, you know, maybe it was my mom’s spirit through me is that I knew how to market the business. And there was no Instagram there’s no Facebook. There was, there was nothing there’s no websites. Nothing. Yeah. Yeah. So, I, my business cards were being printed up.
Sandra Sigman: I heard through a friend who was a photographer, said I’m going to be doing a bridal show. And I said, what’s a bridal show. I had no idea what a Bridal show was. He says, well, you’re kind of, you know, show up and there’s a booth and you set up your, you know, your wears and you pass out business cards and you talk to people.
Sandra Sigman: And I thought, well, I can do that. That can’t be that hard. So, I remember it was in Boston at one of the large, one of the larger hotels. And I called and I said, you know, is there any spots they said? And, and just, and it’s so funny, like, I, I don’t want to say how the universe works, but there was someone that cancelled, and they said, if you want it, you can have it.
Sandra Sigman: And I said, great. Like when, when do I have to be there? They’re like, in two weeks I was like, great. So, I said to my father, you know, we, so I made the bouquets just like my mom had taught me. And just like I learned in France, and I had my business cards and had a little sign meet, and I showed up and I wore my cute little French outfit.
Sandra Sigman: And I thought, you know, I’m just going to see what I can do and meet people. It was a two-day event and I booked 38 weddings. Oh, my Lord. And I went back going, oh, oh, whoa. But I think I was so enthusiastic. I was so excited to have, um, you know, a, a way to show. And I was so excited about the story, and I think every bride felt bad for me, or just was like, and I think I just had this enthusiasm.
Sandra Sigman: I was just like, I got to do this. I have to make this work. You know, my mom would be so sad, and you know, my, my dad and all my girlfriends who were like, we’ll come and help you. And they did, they showed up, they cleaned buckets. They did anything. I asked them, they were so amazing. And that’s what I want to say that I didn’t do this alone.
Sandra Sigman: I just had such amazing people behind me. And I, and I just kept saying, well, if this doesn’t work, okay, then I can go get, you know, another job or I can go do something else. But I was like, let’s at least try. That’s how it kind of started. And, and in the first couple years, I, I mean, I was just treading water.
Sandra Sigman: I was just like, all right. And then as I got like a little bit more, you know, experience under my belt, people would call me and say, you know, you did my wedding. Well, now I’m having a baby. Can you do my christening, my shower, et cetera. And then I got started getting requests for other things. And, and I was starting my own family at this point too.
Sandra Sigman: I, I got married and I started having my own children. So, I think it was good for that time being as to how French and France came back into the picture, remember going to like trade shows and seeing like the containers they were using and, you know, and bubble bowls and fishbowls and, you know, cylinders.
Sandra Sigman: And not that anything’s wrong with them, but I remember being in the flower shops in Paris going, where are those, you know, cool baskets I saw. And I want to display things in my store a little bit, you know, nicer than just again, what we all were using. And I started getting an itch to go back to France.
Sandra Sigman: And I kept saying, I can’t, I know I can’t live there, but. I really, my dream’s always been to go back cook to go back. Right. And then I just started going on trips. And at first, you know, with stuff my suitcase with much as I could possibly fit and then, you know, venture into small containers and shared containers.
Sandra Sigman: And then again, I guess I just did everything in very baby steps, but I was brave enough to try.
Sharri Harmel: Yes, that courage bravery, I think is commendable. And we actually all need it. Whether we’re 23, starting a business 25, you know, 30, as you were growing up in the business, so to speak. But also, you know, as we get to 50 and beyond, you have to embrace the positivity.
Sharri Harmel: What if, if it doesn’t work, I’ll do something else. I just love that. And I can do this. Uh, you know, why not? Why not? Sometimes though I do this myself. We get kind of stuck in what could go wrong and what is the plan B and, oh my God. And when then we find out, we spend more time on plan B than we do on what it is we really want to do.
Sharri Harmel: So, so, so. Obviously, your husband was very supportive of this whole French connection, if you,
Sandra Sigman: oh, I think he was so sick of me talking about it. French, French, French, French. Yes. And, um, for sure, but you know, you said something in one of your podcasts that I listened to, and I thought it was really poignant, as you said, sometimes you have to jump, hold your nose and
Sharri Harmel: jump.
Sharri Harmel: My grandmother used to say that, because we know I grew up in Minnesota where there are lakes, and you’d always stand at the end of the dock, and you’d have to jump in, and you didn’t know really what was going to be down there. she used to say, well, you’re in Massachusetts. So, you know what I mean? Yes. She’d just say, honey, just plug your nose and jump my goodness.
Sharri Harmel: You know your nose.
Sandra Sigman: It’s true. No, it’s true. And I, and, and please, I don’t want everyone to think, like everything just fell into place for me. Oh my gosh. There were so many catastrophes and things that I was like, oh, that didn’t go well. And you know, and that’s hard, you know, when you get knocked down is really hard to get back up and you know, and.
Sandra Sigman: Things are going to happen in your life, in, in business and, and family, life, everything. And it was really hard at times. And there were times that I wanted to give up and just say, this is just way too hard. But I think what kept me going my is my passion for all this. I generally love to play with flowers, and I love flowers around me.
Sandra Sigman: And I love to look at them. I love to go pick them. And I, I still do most of all the buying for the store and the girls, I keep saying. And I said, no, no, that’s, that’s my joy. Like, I love that. And I love growing things in my garden, and I bring them in, and I say, I just grew these peonies. I just grew these tulips and I’m, and they’re like, that’s amazing that you still want to.
Sandra Sigman: Be that involved with flowers and jump out of bed. And I say this to all my children that make sure whatever you pick, you love it. Yeah. Because it’s going to get hard and you’re going to like, be like, this is hard to get up in the morning and go to work. But if you love it and you have a lot of passion behind it, and you generally really feel like you’re bringing something like, you know, you bring a bouquet to a bride, and she has tears in her eyes that you’ve now been a part of her big day.
Sandra Sigman: Like there’s no other failing for me anyways. There’s no other failing. Like I just, I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
Sharri Harmel: Well, so it’s, it’s not only this I’m hearing, but also not only this love of flowers and even design, which flowers are. One thing, people, some people just love the dirt and flowers, and others can go from the dirt into the actual designs themselves, but also the relationship that you have with your clients.
Sharri Harmel: I mean, the fact that you start with weddings and end up doing christenings and all kinds of other things, I’m sure big occasion in a person’s life says the relationship matters to you too. Yeah. So, talk a little bit though about the challenges because you started with something small. and, and now it’s gotten rather big and there’s online now.
Sharri Harmel: I mean, the, the, the industry changed, I’m assuming with the rise of the internet, you’re now doing online workshops. I saw on your website. Mm-hmm, but not so talk about kind of how you navigated those challenges and what those challenges were. Maybe I should go backwards what those challenges were and how you dealt with it, because so much is going on up here, you know, in our heads.
Sandra Sigman: I think when I was doing the weddings for years and I enjoyed it and immensely, but it’s all weekend. There it’s also, you can’t say to the bride, oh, I’m so sorry that this, you know, didn’t come in or whatever, and I’ll make it up to you next week. There are no next weeks and you, and I would just remember, like, it was starting to wear on me, you know, my nerves, I would just be up at night worrying that, you know, white.
Sandra Sigman: You know, Playa Blanca roses, weren’t going to be as white as they should be. You know, just, I started just, and I was, I think the wedding industry was changing and there was just, you know, ceiling installations and craziness and, and it was fun, but it’s a lot of backbreaking work, anybody that does weddings nonstop, it’s, it’s a lot of lifting, lot of travel and it just, it was starting to wear me and it’s all weekends.
Sandra Sigman: And, and as much as like, you know, all my family and friends would be like fourth of July weekend, we’re going to go have a cookout and do this. And I’d be like, I have three weddings, like because everyone thinks it’s great to get married on holiday weekends, like Labor Day, Memorial Day Father’s Day Mother’s Day.
Sandra Sigman: Everybody thinks it’s a great time to get family together and have a wedding. So of course, that means I was missing my children’s events. And I just said, I have to make some changes. I knew in my heart. That I could still do weddings, but I had to now figure out other income revenue that I have to other streams of income.
Sandra Sigman: So, I started noticing a lot of my clientele would come in and just be like, where’d you get that basket in? Where’d you get this? So, I started kind of bringing in more product and then a lot of people would say, wow, I’m watching you. Because again, we were like the French flower chefs. We did everything out in the open.
Sandra Sigman: Our, our back room was really all very open. You could watch. Yeah, which I love. It’s like being in a restaurant, you can see the chef cooking. Like I love that concept. So, we were designing. So, people were like, can, can you teach me that? And I thought, oh, sure. So, we started doing workshops, word of mouth. And the first couple workshops were mostly my girlfriends because you know, it started off slowly, but then it, it got more, and I love teaching because I feel like my mom taught me.
Sandra Sigman: Okay. And I thought I could give back and teach some of the things that I learned. And I loved that as much too. And then the trend started. I noticed everybody, including my children were on devices, their computers, their phones. And I thought, Ooh, we should. And people started asking three men can I just order Valentine’s flowers online?
Sandra Sigman: And I’d say, oh, so I, I really listened. To my customers and I thought, oh, I think I’d better start an online. So yet again, figured that out as well. Just like I did the bridal show and creating websites way back when, and eCommerce was much harder than it is now. There are some really amazing tools out there now.
Sandra Sigman: It wasn’t available but is now, so we adapted we’re on square space right now. It’s wonderful. We do a lot of it in house. Um, I have some amazing people that work here that are just, you know, much more tech savvy than me. I say, oh, that looks pretty. And that needs to go here, and I’ll do the design concept, but that I think more than anything is huge.
Sandra Sigman: Now people are on their computers or on a. yeah, I Marvel at when I’m at airports and everybody’s got there, you know, yeah.
Sharri Harmel: It it’s heads down. oh, it is, it was I’ll break in totally off the subject. But I was, uh, on a train, not that long ago. And, and it was in Europe obviously. And you looked in the whole car of the train.
Sharri Harmel: Not one head was up. Every single head was down, and it didn’t matter if there were 75 or 15, it’s like, I don’t know where we’re going with all this, but that was a whole different conversation. But when you say you started with the eCommerce, so it was ordering, you know, my, the Valentine’s bouquet say as an example for my wife.
Sharri Harmel: And then when did you start selling things? Because now I see China and special souvenirs and, and baskets and fabric and VAs and all of this that looks like it came from someplace else. Not America
Sandra Sigman: yes. Yes. So, the first thing is we started off pretty simple with just flowers, why we did that is because that was really the heart of our business.
Sandra Sigman: So, we knew. We know, um, that people would want to order online. So, we, we started with that first and, you know, maybe we started with six arrangements and then added to it and us always like kind of color coordinated it because some people, you know, want lighter pastels and somewhat brighter and cherry. So, we started with that and saw in, in baby steps and figured out how that worked.
Sandra Sigman: And then we noticed, again, we were bringing a lot of items over from France and we thought, okay, well that’s again, start a smaller collection. So, we really tried to start, you know, keeping it tight and simple. I guess you can see the, the story line is that I don’t like to overextend myself and put myself, you know, I like baby steps.
Sandra Sigman: So, we started doing that. And then what we did is during the pandemic, when everything just kind of shut down, we knew we really had to ramp. And, um, do that as
Sharri Harmel: well. But did, when you say ramp up, is that when you started the online classes, as well as the items to sell or what, what did you, what did you do during COVID?
Sandra Sigman: Oh, it’s such a great story. Um, during COVID, you know, all of us went lockdown, all the kids came home from college. There were people everywhere. My husband is a surgeon. He even got came home too. I mean, it was just crazy. So of course, mom was like, okay, everyone’s on computers. I, you know, I wasn’t allowed to like make a noise.
Sandra Sigman: So, I just said, I’m going to the flower shop. So, you know, it was interesting. A lot of my friends, you know, in multiple industries were all like, oh my goodness, like what’s going to happen. And I, you know, again, that just like that part of my soul, I was like, COVID is not taking me down. This is not how lay floors end.
Sandra Sigman: This is just not my end story. You know, this is back the movie up. This is not how it’s going down. So, I got a call from, um, a beautiful estate near here called the Stevens. Cool. And they wind that I was making flower bouquets and kind of donating them to community care centers. And because my husband’s a doctor, I thought we would send flowers to the healthcare workers as well.
Sandra Sigman: They got wind of it, and they called me, and they said, you know, we just planted, I think 60,000 tool and nobody was going to see it. It was supposed to be this visual tour where people bought tickets and walked the grounds of this gorgeous gardens. But of course, with COVID they, it, so she called me, and she says, you know, you have a good social media following and you also, or flower shop, would you be willing to come and shoot here and maybe promote it?
Sandra Sigman: And we could do like a visual, um, a virtual tour. And I said, yes, of course. So, we did that. And then they had 30,000 tulips. So, we started making bouquet. With them and sending them off to, so that can be quite busy. and I just thought, this is not about me right now. This is not about me worrying about if my website is going to be, you know, front and center.
Sandra Sigman: What’s important right now is that, you know, we’re all in this together and that you feel appreciated. So, we started doing a lot of that. And then we started doing a lot of like Instagram lives and videos with folks that kind of had such unique stories. And I loved that. You know, I was just basically randomly messaging some people on Instagram saying, I love your products.
Sandra Sigman: And one of them Studio Carta, uh, Angela, I’ve always followed her. I love, she brings in all handmade ribbon from Italy and I thought let’s do it. Why don’t you do a studio tour? And so, we started doing. Another brand, um, reached out to me, VV, Margo, Charlotte mm-hmm yeah. V reached out to me and she’s like, you’re donating flowers.
Sandra Sigman: Can we do so we did live with that. And then my other friend, Sharon, San Tony, who we will get two tours and why I do them with her, she, her, and I did flower ranging. She was in Normandy, France. I was here in Andover and us kind of went in our gardens and picked whatever was kind of blooming. And we did arrangements and people could like chime in and it was just such a feel-good make.
Sandra Sigman: Because I think all of us needed that.
Sharri Harmel: Yes. you’re right during COVID. Yeah. It’s a beautiful story though, because we did, you brought in positivity in that time period when it was so easy to be negative, so easy to think. Oh, what is, you know, uh, kind of the end of the world mindset. Sure. Um, but you said something about how you don’t like to extend yourself or go too fast or something.
Sharri Harmel: What was it. Remind me again, and you kind of phrased it. Like it was almost a weakness. And actually, I want you to talk about it as a strength.
Sandra Sigman: Oh no. I think early on when I was doing a lot of weddings, you know, you get a little ahead of yourself, like sure. I can do four weddings in a weekend and then you’re in the middle of it.
Sandra Sigman: And you’re there till one o’clock in the morning. And you’re like, whoa, I completely overextended myself. And you know, the, you hear the term, everything takes twice as much time and cost twice as much. Yeah. So, I started saying, okay, I didn’t buy correctly. And I didn’t, this wedding is now overextending. Me and my staff and my children are wondering when I’m coming home for dinner, so I decided like not a good concept.
Sandra Sigman: So, I think I just would put more thought and really understand what, how long do things take and how much they will end up costing. So, I think I used it as a strength because I think, you know, especially as women, right, we’re all raising our hands. Sure. We’ll help. Yes, you’ll do it. And we do that. And then afterwards we’re like, why, what, why did we do that?
Sandra Sigman: Like, why did we say yes to 5,000 things? So, I think. We all can kind of relate to that. I mean, I know I can and saying yes is so easy, but someone once said to me, actually no is a full sentence. Oh wow. That’s wow.
Sharri Harmel: Yeah. That’s a takeaway here. yeah, no is a full sentence. Yeah. Wow. A complete sentence.
Sharri Harmel: A complete
Sandra Sigman: sentence. Yeah. So, I thought, Hmm. So, I think that’s what I probably mean. Just that, you know, I knew, I knew that I could, my enthusiasm could get run away with me. so
Sharri Harmel: I think that’s great advice because part of this podcast is about lessons that you’ve learned, um, over time that you could share with other women who are starting their businesses and are maybe where you were 10, 15 years ago.
Sharri Harmel: So that’s really that’s wonderful advice.
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Sharri Harmel: I know of, I’ve met Charlotte with Vivian Margo at I’ve never met Sharon, but I am a, uh, my French country home subscriber. Um, so I get her beautiful magazines on a regular basis. So how did you meet these ladies? Like, because this is a big French Frenchy connection.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah, so I met Sharon Ooh, years and years ago.
Sandra Sigman: So pre COVID maybe. Six or seven years ago. So, I was over in Paris going to a famous flea market called deChatou. Yes. Huge. Yes. And there, and of course Instagramming a story and saying no. And one of my friends who I hadn’t talked to in 20 years who lives in Florida is sending me messages on Instagram, going Sandra, you in, you were in Paris.
Sandra Sigman: And I’m like, yes. And she’s like, I’m here too. And I thought, great. Oh wonderful. I like love to have coffee with you. And she goes, well, are you at some antique fair? And I said, yes, goes well. And I was like, we were 30 feet away from each other. Oh my God. Oh. So, my next question was, why are you, you’re a lawyer?
Sandra Sigman: Like, what are you doing on an antique fair? She goes, I’m here with Sharon San. And I said, you know, Sharon San, like, yeah, it was like, Like, and I, of course I knew her. I, of course I followed her because being a Francophile, I was like, oh my God, I like adored her. And she goes, do you want to meet her? And I was like, yes, please.
Sandra Sigman: so, we met, and we exchanged business cards and we, you know, yeah. Just, you know, totally said, you know, would love to keep in touch. And, and this is something that I think women. We don’t do. And this is what I’ve learned to do is to do the whole plug your nose and jump. So, a whole month goes by and I’m like, oh, I really want to email her.
Sandra Sigman: I really want to email her. And I was too nervous, and I thought, she’s not going to remember me. She’s going to be like, what is this American, you know? Right. And I said, Nope, Nope, Nope, I got it. So, I wrote the email like five different ways. And then finally it’s like, press push, right? Like press return, like, you know, publish.
Sandra Sigman: And I just said again, what do I have to lose? She what’s, she can say no. So, I just reached out to her and just said, you know how lovely it was demeanor. And that, you know, would love to do like a professional buying trip with her because in France and, and I don’t want to put down the French because I, I don’t want to do that.
Sandra Sigman: But I think. When I was going to the antique fairs, a lot of the vendors I would need say, you know, this is just a small portion of what I have. I actually have a, a barn filled with more antiques, and I’d say, really, I’ll come over. And they were like, whoa, who are you? like, you know, which is probably, yeah.
Sandra Sigman: But I was like, you know, Americans will let strangers into our homes and France, it’s a little bit more reserved. And yes. So, I thought if Sharon had some connections and she could maybe, you know, because I’m now filling containers and I need to find product, I find antiques to fill it. So, she got right back to me, like literally within the hour and was like, course I remember you.
Sandra Sigman: And absolutely. And she said, come over. And I said, okay. And I just booked a trip, and I flew over and we spent like 10 days together and we never, we laughed. We had so much fun together and we thought this is just so great. And. And I used to see to her, you know, all my customers who are following me now want to sneak away in my suitcase and come with me.
Sandra Sigman: And she’s like, well, I do these kinds of tours, but why don’t we try doing one together? And I thought, okay. She goes, do you think 12 women, you, you, 12 women would go with you. And I said, maybe I don’t know. And I said, okay. I said, well, what am I going to tell them we’re doing? She goes, well, we’re going to go to gardens.
Sandra Sigman: We’re going to go to, you know, um, Chateau, we’re going to go antiquing. We’re going to do flower ranging. And I was like, well, that sounds amazing. And we’re going to do it all in France. And I was like, right, right. And I, I sold the trip out in two weeks. everybody was like, yes, yes, yes. yes, yes, please. And I was like, OK.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. And we just started doing them. And we again had so much fun. And what I took away from these trips was quite remarkable is. Most women came by themselves. Mm-hmm and traveled, which I, and just said, this is a me trip. This is a trip doing all the things that my, my sons don’t want to do, or my children or my husband, but I want to do it.
Sandra Sigman: And I’m doing this trip for me and showed up and I thought, I love this. And I love that these women show up for themselves. And, and it was just more than just a trip. These women just inspired me, you know, to hearing their stories and how they always love France and always loved to do everything we just talked about and, you know, were so honored that they, you know, chose to come with us.
Sandra Sigman: So now we just, we just did a tour and I got back two weeks ago from Provo. Goodness.
Sharri Harmel: Yeah. Oh, look, I looked on, on your site that took me to Sharon’s site, and I saw Provo just ended. So, you must have just got home. Yeah. Just got home. Yeah. Yeah. So, what, what is it about France? What, what is it? And it, it seems to, I’m going to go out in a limb here, but it seems to do something for women, or it has an attraction to women that I hear from some men, but not all men there.
Sharri Harmel: There’s a consistency with women. It’s what is
Sandra Sigman: it? Yeah, it’s a good question. Um, actually Sharon just came to, um, our shop in November and we did a fundraiser where we called it women supporting women. And we sold tickets. I think we sold over a hundred tickets, and we decided that if we were going to do this event, we had no idea what we were doing, but if we were going to do it, she was coming, um, to speak at a garden club.
Sandra Sigman: And we said, if we’re going to do it, we’re going to make some money for this charity. So, we sold it and we raised, uh, almost two $20,000. Oh, my God. That’s fair. And give us a little, it’s called uncommon threads. And it’s basically, they, um, started a little shop where clothes that are donated and they, and funds that are donated, help women get back in the workforce.
Sandra Sigman: They’ve either been abused or battered and don’t have a lot of self-esteem and need help with just getting back into, you know, jobs, you know, whatever. And some of them leave in the middle of the night with the shorts on their backs. So, it’s, it’s a really great organization. And I just, yeah, I just called the, the director and just said, my friends coming, we’re thinking of doing this event.
Sandra Sigman: It’s going to be all about French. We’re going to have raffles. And we really would love all the monies to go to you because it’s a woman supporting women. And I think it’s important. We did this fundraiser and we sat up; I call it Oprah style. We sat up on stage and we both answered questions. And one of the first questions was the question you just asked and what was the big draw to France?
Sandra Sigman: And I think would maybe because you, you have a home in Paris, I think when you first arrive, your kind of like, wow, it is just quite the architecture, the, how you feel the energy. It’s just really, truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And I know when I first came there and just the culture, the art, and the history, and then you layer that with fashion, you layer that with food, you layer that with flowers, you layer that with art and it’s just, wow.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. It’s just the combination of everything they do. And then it’s. Truly a beautiful country. I, I just fell in love. I just thought this is amazing. And I think that’s the resonating, you know, factor that I hear again and again, that you walk away going. It’s just every turn, every corner you turn, you’re like, wow.
Sandra Sigman: Wow. wow. Yes, exactly. I’m sure you still Marvel at that when you’re there too. Do I?
Sharri Harmel: I absolutely do. But one of the questions I have for you is, you know, as you come back, because now you’ve been back, you know, a week or two weeks, whatever it is, do you, do you carry it with you? And do you lose it that so that you need to go back to re regain?
Sharri Harmel: I do. I do.
Sandra Sigman: I do. Okay. So, my, my family and my staff will tell you when I come back, I’m on a cloud. I’m so excited. I’m so inspired. I see all this beauty around me, and I come back and I’m just so much more, you know, um, grounded or peaceful. And it just, it just brings, if, you know, someone asks me, is beauty important or is the arts important?
Sandra Sigman: And because like, you know, sometimes you say, well, I just, I just make this, you know, little embroidered, heart SA, it’s not that important. And I always stop them and say, no, it is important because how many sunsets have, we seen or how many songs have been written or artwork that has stopped us in our tracks and filled our hearts.
Sandra Sigman: And, you know, maybe it’s flowers for someone, our garden. So, I, I think France kind of does that very well. Mm-hmm where in the states. There’s definitely beauty, of course, but there’s sometimes a little bit more quickness to it here. Mm-hmm, everybody’s like, oh, grab a cup of coffee where you go in France, and you sit at coffee decor, and you see wow.
Sandra Sigman: And how they present it and the hot chocolate and they’re pouring it. And it’s just, it’s an experience. And it’s, for me, it’s part of beauty and how we present things. And I think there’s a story behind it. And I think, you know, it’s important
Sharri Harmel: and that’s part of. The floor. Right. Do you want women or, and men to have that experience when they walk in your shop or …?
Sandra Sigman: That’s probably brings me the most joy is that, especially during the pandemic afterwards, that people have walked in and said, I was having such a hard day, or I was having a moment, and this just has brought me so much joy. That means more to me than someone buying a trinket. If I can make someone happy and they come back and they smile and they said, you know, I was just having the worst day. I just had a fight with so and so, and they’re just like, this feeds my soul or, you know, or I’ve been stressed out. Like, I just love that.
Sandra Sigman: I just like, I’m so thankful that I have my store for that reason. Yeah. Um, but there are times trust me, last week we just had Mother’s Day. And I was like, it was crazy. It was, and you know, it’s hard. And I want, I want, I don’t want people to think like everything’s hearts and flowers in roses here is that, you know, last week was hard.
Sandra Sigman: We. We are small a team and we’re mighty, but there’s only so much we can do in capacity. And I can’t tell many folks are walking in going, well, look all the flowers back there. And I said, yeah, those are the people that ordered them two weeks ago. And I can’t sell you those flowers. I mean, I be able to get more pretty blooms right now and, you know, and you see a lot of upset people and, you know, and as a team, we really try to think like hard, like, okay, how can.
Sandra Sigman: Not disappoint them. So, we came up instead of a flower bar, a flower section. We came up with like a gift bar oh. Where people could get maybe really pretty plants or a, or a box with a French candle and a little, you know, so there are struggles, trust me. It’s not always people walking in going, oh, it’s so beautiful.
Sandra Sigman: And, and it does happen a lot, but yeah, there’s definitely times when, like last week we were like, okay, we’re at capacity, we’re done.
Sharri Harmel: But also, I love your creativity is, you know, I can’t do anything about the flower side, but how can I fill that need that the client has that walks in that didn’t order.
Sharri Harmel: It’s the day of Mother’s Day or it’s the day or day before Mother’s Day. What can, what can we do, um, to make them leave and still feel good? And that’s very client focused, which is actually very French. Um, very
Sandra Sigman: French. Yes. I love in, I love in France when they give you the package and they walk you to the door.
Sandra Sigman: I always tell my team that.
Sharri Harmel: They also spend so much time putting the package together. Yes. It’s like, you know, I don’t know what movie it was, but there was a man that was doing the package. It was, I can’t remember it. It was like taking forever. And that’s what it’s like in almost every shop, just pickers the tissue paper, whatever, even flower shops.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. Yeah. I, sometimes people try to like to move us along faster and I was like, wait a minute. We’re cleaning beauty video. they’re like, hurry up, hurry up. This
Sharri Harmel: is America. Hurry up. Exactly. Talk a little bit about your staff though, because obviously in the beginning it was you. And so you had to start to add people to help you with the things that, you know, a, you needed more help, but also were areas that you like, you just, you were talking about the internet and the website, you know, you can make the design decisions, but you don’t want to do the back end.
Sharri Harmel: You do you just back of the house. So, to speak, I call it.
Sandra Sigman: Yeah. So, of the, I think one of the best lessons I’ve learned is in the beginning, you wear all hats, and you have to do everything you can’t afford to hire staff. And, and for anybody starting out, I, I feel your pain. It’s hard. And there’s times when you’re not your expertise and you, you just got to figure out because you can’t afford.
Sandra Sigman: Um, but as time went on and I could start affording, you know, to have an employee here and there, it it’s just so helpful. It just gives you like a breather, you know, that, you know, someone’s kind of got your back. And, um, it’s interesting. I, I, a lot of people say, well, how do you hire? And, and I don’t necessarily hire someone that has like this killer resume.
Sandra Sigman: I, I hire, I can’t, I can always teach things I can teach, but I can’t teach attitude and I can’t teach passion and I can’t teach enthusiasm. So, I ask a lot of questions about. Do you bring flowers home? Do you like flowers? Because if someone comes in and there’s a dirty bucket and they’re like, oh, you know, they don’t want to touch it.
Sandra Sigman: Then that’s probably not a good fit mm-hmm and they could have the amazing resume. So, I really try to hire people that love flowers, that it’s just it’s in their blood. Do you know what I’m saying? That they just wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but surrounded by flowers, because there’s a lot of flowers here of flowers and to come back after a huge weekend, like we just had from Mother’s Day and Tuesday, they’re all bouncing in their shoes and they’re ready to go again.
Sandra Sigman: I’m like, that’s just astounding to me. I know I have to because I’m the owner and I have to it’s my passion, but. They’re not required and they’re just amazing, amazing spirits. And also hire your weaknesses. If you know, you’re just not good at something, then hire someone. It really, you know, figure out a way that you can afford that.
Sandra Sigman: Like if you know, you’re just not good at like the stuff or et cetera, then, then you hire someone for sure that I learned that lesson early, early on, for sure. Yeah.
Sharri Harmel: That’s so wise. Absolutely so wise and often we think we are saving money by trying to learn how to do things ourselves that we’re never going to be really great at.
Sharri Harmel: They’re just not what we might be competent, but not really good at. And it ends up costing us more time because we’re, we lose the time that we could spend on the things that we are good at, which are the client facing or the, whatever it is that you’re selling and to whomever you’re selling, having that particular space going back to France though.
Sharri Harmel: I, and because there’s this connection and, and hopefully people aren’t tired, tired of me talking about France, but there’s this connection, not only with the name of your company, but also how your customer service, the way you view the things in your shop, the way people are treated when they come into your shop, all of that.
Sharri Harmel: Did you just over time reconnect now, you said before mm-hmm and you now have an apartment that you just bought in Paris. So how do you see this all? How are you going to do all this? I mean, the connection with France and, um, yeah. How, how is this going to progress?
Sandra Sigman: Well, I am in my fifties now and you know, I’ve been doing this for quite a bit and I still love it, but I also know I’m starting to also say, you know, I want to, I think the pandemic more than anything made me stop and realize, like, it can’t just be all work and, you know, play like, it just, there’s got to be some Ying-Yang to all of this.
Sandra Sigman: And I noticed I was very, um, lopsided, you know, just working all the time and just, and then I noticed how great I felt when I was in France and, and I, my husband and I would go for long weekends and. Of course, any moment chance I could get or excuse to go to France. I was always looking for it. I’d be like, oh, there’s chat too.
Sandra Sigman: I have to go over. Oh, there’s Maison Boje, which is a big production, good show. I have to go, oh, you know, it’s Bastille Day. I have to go. You know, so I was always looking for excuses to go and, you know, and I swore when I left Paris at age 21, that I would be back. I didn’t know when, I didn’t know if I could ever afford it or anything, but I talked about it for 25, 30 years.
Sandra Sigman: And my husband, I used to talk to him all the time about it. And I said, you could put me out in the fields anywhere in France and I’d be happy. I’d be in a tent. And he’d be like, okay. But I, I won’t, and he is like, I don’t speak French. Um, I, I don’t want to be taking care of more property, you know, mm-hmm we already have a house.
Sandra Sigman: And he was just like, you know, I also want a quick flight, direct flight. We get off and we’re there. We’re not, you know, as much as I love prance, it’s a little bit of trains, planes, and automobile. It’s a little harder to get to. So, he was like, you know, Paris works, and he is like, and that’s, that’s your story?
Sandra Sigman: That’s where you lived. And I was like, no, no, no. I just didn’t know if we could ever afford it. I just didn’t know. And in January my husband was probably in a good mood, and he said, you know what? We’re let’s go to France. Let’s go look. He’s like, what, what, what’s the harm? We’ve just been through a pandemic, taught all of us.
Sandra Sigman: Like life is way too short. And I was like, like a little kid, like really? Okay. And we had talked to a real estate agent in Paris, and I can give the name to everybody who wants him. He’s wonderful. He’s American, but he lives in Paris, and we probably got in touch with him like a year before. The pandemic.
Sandra Sigman: And of course, then the world’s shut down and I just, just put it off to the side thinking, well, that’s just not going to happen. So, he actually reached out to us, and he said, in January, if you guys are looking still, this is a really good time to come over because like, people are just not coming back to the cities just yet.
Sandra Sigman: You might, you know, you never know. So, this is the funny story. So, I said, that’s why my husband’s like, let’s go, let’s go. And so, I said to him, um, you know, this is sort of where I like to be da, da, da. He’s like, so let me get this straight. This is a real estate agent. He’s like, you only want to be in one ERAD small.
Sandra Sigman: I was like, yes, the six. And he is like, it goes, Cassandra, I know, you know, Paris pretty well. And I said, yes, I just like to be in the sixth and the left bank near Saint JMA. And he said, so let me get this straight. You only want to be in one air de malt. And I said, yes. And he said, and actually I said, there’s this one street I really love, well, kind of two streets, but kind of one street.
Sandra Sigman: I really, really like. And he said, okay, again, one street and one locale, one little air desalt. I said, one neighborhood. I said, yes. He said, would you entertain another neighborhood? I said, yes, the seventh, which is next to the sixth. And he says, great. So, we fly on, on a Friday, we look at six or seven apartments, most of them in the seventh.
Sandra Sigman: Okay. And we had a few prerequisites, one is location. The second is we didn’t want it to be a, like a gut job. Like we didn’t want to have, you know, renovations. We’re just too far away. And, you know, the third was, you know, horse price range and size mm-hmm. So, we fit that criterion. We went and looked at all seven apartments, and my cart was kind of sad because there was just, there was, you know, this or that.
Sandra Sigman: And I was just like, I was a little sad mm-hmm, so it was fine. And we were at dinner and, and I’m hearing from so many folks that it took them years to find their apartments. And I was like, okay, it’s all right. So, you know, we go out for dinner the next morning, my husband nudges me in the hotel room and says, what about this one?
Sandra Sigman: This is in the, the sixth area. You like the sixth 30 decal. And I said, where did you find that? And he said, I don’t know online. And I said, you’re kidding me. So, we sent it immediately to our real estate agent and he said that just went on. And we were like, oh God. So, we said, can we go see it? And our real estate agent said, no, no, there’s nobody in Paris.
Sandra Sigman: That’s going to show you an apartment on a Saturday, on a weekend. And of course, I say, well, could you try
Sandra Sigman: could you try? So, we send it to the listing agent, and she gets right back to him, and she said, oh, I love Americans. I went to school in the states. I went to college there. I would love to show him the apartment. She said, can they do it right now? Because I have to babysit my French grandchildren. So already I loved her already.
Sandra Sigman: Because I was like so cute. So, I’m throwing on clothes, my husband and I were just like rushing. We jump in a taxi, we rush over. I’m not paying attention to where we’re going. And literally we drive up it’s the street.
Sharri Harmel: Oh my gosh, this is I. And I
Sandra Sigman: literally have goosebumps. And I looked at my husband and he go, it’s the street.
Sandra Sigman: So, then my husband’s like, oh, we’re, we’re done. Like, yeah. And of course, checkbook out here we go. The other thing too is I said to the real estate agent, way back before we even flew over, I said, also, I like a lot of natural light. It doesn’t have to be huge, but it has to have some windows, like it’s going to be, I don’t want to be like I’m in a closet.
Sandra Sigman: So of course, we walk up, we get up to the apartment. It’s eight huge windows. We’re on a corner unit and I’m looking at my husband, I’m bouncing up and down. And my husband’s like poker face. I was like, I can’t, I couldn’t even. And she said to us that there was five people coming to see it on Monday. And of course, I gave my husband the puppy dollar guys, like what?
Sandra Sigman: And she was okay. And he, so he was really sweet. He says to me, okay, I’m one condition, honey, when you’re not here working or here you better, you better tell all your friends and all your flower shop gals that you need to rent it. I said, I promise I will. I will. So. So we’re going to rent it when I’m not there.
Sandra Sigman: So yes, yes, yes. So, we’re so excited. We’re going over next Friday to close and get our key and buy a bed. And we’re so excited. Yes,
Sharri Harmel: yes. So, you for everyone that, first of all, the story’s incredible, the fact that you had the street in your head, which is a fabulous street, by the way. Uh, I love that neighborhood.
Sharri Harmel: And, um, and you know, we both love the cafe that’s down below, which is fantastic, but the, the whole process of buying in France, because there’s a lot of people who ask that question is different. It’s very different than America and truly yours, your poker face doesn’t even have to, it doesn’t even, um, eat great.
Sharri Harmel: Yeah. No, it’s not relevant. in France. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re jumping around with joy or, you know, you look like you hate the place. Um, but they have their process. So, when did you sign the premise?
Sandra Sigman: We started everything that probably end of January. And we are, finally, we don’t even have the closed date where we’re have a tentative date.
Sandra Sigman: We’ve never signed so many papers in our labs. No,
Sharri Harmel: no. And, and also that whole process of in America, you go to an open house, and you do an offer and, you know, if they accept the offer, you could close in a week. If you wanted to, if the house was empty and they could get out, none of that happens, but, and it gets back to the flowers and it gets back to the shop.
Sharri Harmel: It’s very interesting. That’s the one cultural, and I think you would probably agree with me on this. I was having this conversation with a woman who was a clothing designer, who’s French, who has done a lot of work in the United States, as well as China. And she said, Americans, Our big picture. They’re at the top of the chart, you know, where are we going with this or visionary, very positive, very optimistic.
Sharri Harmel: And she said the French and she’s a French woman. So, I think she could say this are into the details, which not only make the beautiful architecture and the beautiful flowers that you love and the beautiful China that you see. But they’re also into the details of even if you want to rent an apartment or you want to buy an apartment or you want to open a bank account, or you want to, you know, get electricity or whatever.
Sharri Harmel: Sure. And in those details are, you know, it’s, there’s a process. There’s a right. There’s a process to do it and a wrong way to do it. And you were talking about how. When you come to France and you go into a flower shop, they will spend forever, you know, putting the, the twine around the bouquet. You know, first they’ll ask you if it’s for you or for someone else, it’s a gift.
Sharri Harmel: And then the brown paper, and then another ribbon on the outside of the brown paper and all that, it’s a process. It’s a process, a process. So as Americans, it’s something to think about though, as an American, especially if you love France and you travel to France is to realize that process is, is as important to them as speed is in America, you know?
Sharri Harmel: Right. No French grandmother would say to her granddaughter, just plug your nose and jump, honey. No, no, that would never, ever happen.
Sandra Sigman: Well, that’s why I tell a lot of the ladies who come on our tour, you know, just, you have to really remember that. It’s a slower pace. Dinner’s going to take a lot longer than it does in the states.
Sandra Sigman: Um, so, you know, I think some people really enjoy that, that, that the fast pace of our lives here in the states, you know, maybe when you go to France, I like it a lot, actually, that things actually, you get to linger that you don’t have to rush between meeting, meeting. I mean, I’m sure you could do that in your day if you wanted to, but yeah, it’s just not as generally, um, accept, not accepted, but not the
Sharri Harmel: norm.
Sharri Harmel: No. And, and you, the fact that you come back and your staff. Says you’re different, you know, every time you come back from France, it’s sort of like maybe, maybe that’s our cultural share is that they slow us down a little bit. Bring us into the details a little bit. And we’re a little bit more of the plug, your nose and jump kind of thing.
Sharri Harmel: Um because they need that on the other side. Um, so it’s yeah, I love, I love that, that it’s really learning to appreciate culture and, um, you don’t get that when you stay in, when you just stay in a hotel, you have to be around, you have to let yourself be open to the
Sandra Sigman: differences. I’m actually writing a book right now with Ulla publishing.
Sandra Sigman: Oh my. And yeah, so I’m so excited that, um, during COVID, it’s kind of a cute story. So, I had a really sweet dear friend, um, a photographer named Kendra Klein and she’s photographed for like 12 books and. I was going to France one time, and she was said, do you mind if I tag along? And I said, oh my gosh, of course come with me.
Sandra Sigman: We went to Sharon’s house, we shot there. We shot all over pairs. And finally, she looked up at me and she’s like, you should do a book about this. I think people would really think this is cool. And I was like, well, little old me, what, what, what am I going to talk about? And she’s like, everything, you just, everything, actually we just spoke about.
Sandra Sigman: And I thought, really, you think people are going to like that? And she’s like, no, I think they’ll. And she’s like, we’ll take pretty pictures of flower shops. We’ll do this. We’ll do that. So, I thought so she’s like, you should write a book proposal. And I thought, okay, what’s that? So, during COVID I Googled how to write a book proposal.
Sharri Harmel: Oh my gosh, this is
Sandra Sigman: so, so I wrote a book proposal, 60 pages, and I, it was just so cute because I sent it to a friend who’s a writer and I just said, I don’t know what I’m doing here, you know, is this kind of, again, always girlfriends, right? They’re always have your back. And she said, okay, this is a hot mess.
Sandra Sigman: We’re going to organize it. And I thought, right. So, we did, we organized it. And we actually, um, were told by so many folks and especially Kendra, since she did 12 bucks, she’s like, we need an agent because like the agent really knows what the best publishing house was. And I said, well, how do you, how do you get an agent?
Sandra Sigman: Like, and she’s like, I kind of know this one. And I said, all right, I’ll email her. And I just emailed her again. What is there to lose? So, I emailed her, she got right back to me. She’s like, what’s, COVID, nothing’s going on? And I said, well, I wrote this proposal. She looked it over. She loved the concept.
Sandra Sigman: She’s like, let’s do a zoom call. We did a zoom call. And next thing you know, she put it to a bunch of publishing houses, and she came back and she’s like, this is the strongest offer. I really think this is a good publishing house for you. And I thought, is this really happening? Like, this is just a little story about me wandering into flower shops when I was 19.
Sandra Sigman: Bringing it back to the states and the whole concept of French versus American way of conducting business, et cetera. And then there’s recipes sprinkled in and, and, and a lot of gorgeous pitches of Paris. And, um, literally, you know, we got the deal, and I was like, whoa. So, it just, it was a process. I’m not going to say it happened overnight.
Sandra Sigman: And it’s been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, because it’s just a lot of things that are unknown to me. I’m not, I’ve never written a book before. I never understand the, the back end of it. So, I’m learning. Um, unfortunately my dear friend, Kendra passed away in February unexpectedly and that’s great.
Sandra Sigman: I’ve broken. My it’s broken my heart and I wanted, I cried for probably a week straight and thought, well, this is it. This is, I’m never going to be able to finish this book without her. And, and again, so many people showed up for me and I can’t even tell you what the last couple of months have been like with heartbreak and heartache on my heart, but also the fact that this is going to be a dedication to her and our, both our love of France.
Sandra Sigman: So, this book even has more meaning I’m not going to cry. Um, but it just has more meaning to me. And I’m just so honored and blessed, and I think people would really enjoy. This story and it’s going to be, it’s what it comes out next year. So, I’m really excited. Yeah. Oh, I
Sharri Harmel: love that. You obviously don’t have a title yet, but we have to stay in contact so that we can do a, a check in when I love that.
Sharri Harmel: What a truly beautiful story, but over and over, you take challenges, Sandra really, truly, and, and figure out how to turn them into something positive. You’re a very, very impressive woman. You really are. Thank you. Anything else you want to share before we close today? You know, one of the things that comes to mind for me is what do you love besides flowers?
Sandra Sigman: You know what? I’ll tell you a cute story. My husband says to me, so I’m sure you’re the only person I know that would, can go into dunking donuts or Starbucks and come out with five new friends. You love people. I do. I just do. I love creating for people. I love planning events with people. I love when people go to my store.
Sandra Sigman: Yes. And it’s so funny because I, you know, he’s right. I do. I, most of the time come out with five new parts. Yeah. But that’s that right? And I always see the best in people. You can always see the worst, but I always really try to see the best in people. And it’s important. It’s really important to look at things, you know, a certain way.
Sandra Sigman: And I, I just. I don’t know, I just woke up one day and I was, you know, you can be around the negative Nellies, I call them. And I just chose not to take that route. I just, anybody can, it’s probably your default, like, you know, when you are faced with, you know, things that are maybe a little diversity and I don’t know, I just always said, you know, there’s two ways of looking at things and I really always take the positive route and I always see the best in people.
Sharri Harmel: Wow. And that has played out throughout your entire life. It’s wonderful. So, are, are one of, one of your children, is one of your children going to take over life Lu? Or
Sandra Sigman: are your kids? Uh, no, my, I have boys and there, you know, hockey players and sports and yeah. So, so
Sharri Harmel: yeah. Yeah. So, you’ll have to work that all out because now you’re an author, you’re a Parisian and you’re an author.
Sharri Harmel: So, there’s some, there’s all these layers to you. Just like a really good French pastry. It’s like what’s going to do with all this. Yes. Yes. Fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I thank you so much. People are going to love this conversation, because you’ve shared so much of yourself and also advice for other, so
Sandra Sigman: thank you, Buk.
Sharri Harmel: Well, that was an amazing conversation with Sandra, and I wanted to share one additional topic that Sandra and I talked about after we ended the recording. Sandra, as you know, was a professional figure skater. And she shared how becoming a top-level athlete actually taught her some of the skills that she needed as she was building her successful business.
Sharri Harmel: And that little tip was that you learn a lot from your failures. She described how learning to jump as a figure. Skater involves a whole lot of falling down and failing if we want to call it that. And that identifying what could be corrected was an integral part of successfully landing that double or triple jump.
Sharri Harmel: But Sandra also shared that starting and running a business is, is pretty much the same. You’ll have failures, you’ll have things that don’t work. You will have to pivot. You will have to find new things, new ways of doing something, or maybe a new idea as to how you can make something happen and through the, an analyzing of what could be changed.
Sharri Harmel: And then give it a try once. Sandra also agreed to rejoin us when her book goes to print and it’s then that we will hear more about that process of how her love of France continues to influence the makeup of her company love floor, as well as her life with her new Paris apartment, which Sandra, as you may have heard is thinking of doing the same thing that I’m doing, which is going back and forth between United States and France.
Sharri Harmel: So, check out Sandra’s company at lesfleurs.com, which will also be down in our show notes. So, you’ll be able to know exactly how to spell that. Now, if you enjoyed this episode, I would love it. If you would take a minute to rate our podcast and subscribe, because that does matter in the podcast world. We’ve got lots of super interesting conversations coming up.
Sharri Harmel: And if you subscribe, you’ll automatically get notice of each new podcast, which comes out every Monday. I look forward to our conversation next week. And as we say in Paris, à bientot.
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