How to turn your creative passion into a business
cool all right hi everybody welcome to our virtual career day series my name is Lynn Nguyen and i am the young adult librarian from chinatown branch library welcome everybody and then i'm also here with my co-host Jessica Levy from Palisades you'll see her in the camera right here yeah there you go the chat box is there so please feel free to use it we're so excited to have you here for our weekly virtual career day series where we introduce amazing careers to you to do we ha today we have two amazing guest speakers from the business industry and they're here to share some tips and tricks and provide you from some with some insight on how they got into their profession we would like to extend our deepest things to all of you our participants our guest speakers the library foundation and the friends of the chinatown branch library for their generous support before we begin i would like to go over some housekeeping rules your microphones are already muted and you do not need to have your cameras turned on recording is in progress and if you do wish to ask questions at any time during this session please do feel free to use the chat box um if you end of course at the very end there is going to be q a so you are welcome to unmute yourself and ask your questions directly to our guest speakers and you know so please don't be shy we're here to help we hope you enjoyed today's career day and please remember to complete our very short survey at the end of the program so with that being said i would like to ask all of you to open up your chat box we're going to start with our popcorn question and the popcorn question for all of you is what is your favorite flower or plant we would love to learn more about what what everybody loves all right i see two lip and rose oh boy so you know i have we have a professional florist here Jackie and then a professional photographer named Zha Zha from the bay area and they are experts at different roses and plants so what do you guys think of all these names that our guests are our guests are coming up with i think it's good that there's such a variety of flowers that people know about um i saw someone put anemones so there's anemones right here i did see a lot of roses lilies sunflowers which are all super beautiful and long-lasting so it's exciting that people know all these names gems use all flowers this is amazing yes so so the list goes on and on so um let's let's go ahead so while everybody is still typing in their um answers i would like to first introduce our first guest speaker Zha Zha Liang is a wedding and lifestyle photographer from San Francisco bay area she was able to successfully launch her photography business after pursuing a bachelor's degree in graphic design she takes an honest approach to wedding photography and earns her couple's trust to capture their love story so i would like to go ahead and share a few slides with you a slide deck with you right now or a slideshow with you right now and this does include both Zha Zha and Jackie's work okay so everybody um and just a reminder the sound might be a little loud so please feel free to turn down your volume if it's too loud all right i'm going to go ahead and share the screen real quick i a circle somewhere else is wow so beautiful i hope you guys enjoyed that so Zha Zha please tell us your uh please tell us the name of your business and what does your job entail oh boy hi everyone thanks for joining in um my wedding photography business is basically using my name Zha Zha photography i do wedding and lifestyle photography in the bay area but i do some traveling beyond too that's awesome when did you realize that you had a craft for taking beautiful pictures one moment um i think i was very lucky to grow up with my father as a wedding photographer so i was his assistant for a while but once i started high school i still photograph with him but i want to try something different so i study graphic design and then study graphic design college but after that i still found photography as my calling and so um pick that up as my full-time work now when you said that you went to school for graphic design what was your initial purpose for studying graphic design oh i just want to become a graphic designer you know working for design firm designing mostly visual designs too um but after college i did have full-time work with graphic design but i was still freelancing photography on the side and it got so overwhelming to the point where i was just happier doing photos and it was hard to admit but um it was definitely eye-opening once i decided on that that's beautiful and what was it that inspired you to choose this career path when you shifted to photography um i think it's just how rewarding um working with couples because they trust so much for you to document their special day and being part of that is such an honor and then having them see their beautiful photos that you've taken afterwards and then loving it is what makes it so rewarding um and then what keeps me going too just like being there for my couples and making sure they have um a wonderful wedding day and also beautiful photos after that's awesome uh would you be able to walk us through um like your day-to-day life as a wedding photographer like from the moment somebody reaches out to you and says hey i'd love to you know for you to take our pictures like what are the steps that you go to ensure that they have this whole entire life of their life moments documented in such a beautiful way um so there's a lot of admin work when it comes to working for so as a photographer there's a lot of there's a few meetings you know discussing all the little details to make sure you know they feel comfortable or at least they have better grasp how the wedding day is going to be versus someone like me who's you know been to many weddings it's easy for me to help them on that um and then there's the booking dates on their wedding day sometimes engagement session too which is a very nice way to bond with them but it's mostly um communication and you have to be very self-driven to work for yourself what are some of the challenges as a wedding photographer and running this type of business um i think it's hard because you can't help but to compare yourself to there's so many photographers out there now um especially with um digital cameras it makes a lot easier um and also figure out you know what style you are and what kind of service you want to do in photography because like early i was talking to a wedding photographer friend and we we both do weight photography but we attract different couples um so it's just like it's such a huge um variety of photography in within weddings too but i think it's just like you know really putting yourself out there and discover that do you have any career highlights or stories that you can share about your wedding or your i mean your wedding business um i think the one point was um seeking criticism or critiques on my work because um there's always room for improvements as a photographer and i would reach out to photographers to second shoot for them and have them look over my work with them um it's always nice to have like a second eye to check on your work and you learn new things along the way as long as you open yourself to it and it's hard to hear because it's all you know there's some good parts and there's negative parts but i think that's what makes you a stronger photographer do you have any tips for our teams that are interested in you know start becoming a photographer if like what are the first steps that you did or that you took when when you started out as a photographer um first it was um i surround myself with good friends as my practice subjects like jackie here who's a florist we've known each other since high school um so you know and like um reaching out to photographers to assist them versus second shooting for them i think you learn a lot just by like being by their side and seeing how they work and eventually um gradually get to second photography becoming a second photographer to make photographer you will learn a lot that way too but it is a small it's a bit of sacrifice in the beginning in order to gain experience what are some skills or attributes you feel that are necessary for anyone interested in turning their passion such as photography into a business um i think it has to do with a lot of um self-belief um because you have to be um like a self-starter and be confident in order to start a business and keep it running right um and also be okay that you will be making mistakes along the way that's what happens to any business when you're starting off but if you keep striving it does get better how do you hone in on your skills to keep your competitive edge since there are many photographers out there um it is competitive but lately what's been nice about social media we've been discovering um community over competition so it's really nice to connect with other photographers and actually be inspired by their work or inspire each other um that way you know it's it just helps you keep moving forward versus being yourself down that you're not getting any better or you don't have some sort of support but i think definitely you know connect with others are like you versus looking at competition that's great advice um has the pandemic affected your job in any in any way oh it's effective um since there's weddings i shoot weddings and a lot of weddings the past year were cancelled or postponed or rescheduled um it did teach me to be more reasonable with my clients and more understanding and sometimes you kind of have to push this business side aside and treat your clients like a friend but i think things will be getting better but to keep myself busy i was fortunate to take like lifestyle or family photos which i didn't have time to focus on before so it's always nice to like branch out and try something different um i know you touched on this a bit but are there uh any type of internship opportunities out there available for uh in students or teens who want to become a photographer um i think the first step is to invest on a camera with a good lens but it doesn't have to be like a super expensive camera or the latest greatest camera i think cameras from like even fun five six years ago are still wonderful cameras to start with um and it's definitely a lot of practice and offering free photo shoots in order for you to practice and then get better but yeah definitely find some photographers that you admire that are local that you can probably reach out and see they would like um looking for an assistant for any of the events they have that's great advice um would you be able to share with us what type of camera you use and some of the tools that has helped you elevate your business along the way um so my dad has always shot with canon so i grew up with canon camera so all my cameras are canon um but i do have two camera bodies always have one as a backup especially for weddings um because you never know what can happen um and then i would have multiple lenses for different scenarios but there are some lenses that you can get as a good start i would start with that and practice with that really understand how to use the camera and also you will need to learn all the rules before you can break them for sure d what type of um editing software or websites or resources do you use to edit your your photos um i use lightroom and photoshop so lightroom makes a lot easier to process multiple photos of a wedding day and then a photoshop is great for detailed touch-ups are there any type of conferences or websites where photographers can gather to discuss their craft oh my gosh there's so many um one of my favorite is called slr lounge website there's a lot of like free tutorials and information available um what's great about youtube there's so many videos too that can teach you like how to properly light things or what um settings you should be shooting with and different settings um there's so much resource out there for photography i mean photos are everywhere so it's um it's really easy access to get to that's awesome um what are some of the best tips or advice that you can give to teens that want to become a photographer let's say in the middle of this pandemic and um you know what are some other uh advice that you can give them uh if they want to let's say let's say they don't they don't start off as a wedding photographer but they start off as a lifestyle photographer or any type of photographer like what is like the ultimate advice that has helped you that you want to pass on to them um i definitely think it's important to find joy in sharing your work because when you're taking pictures of photos of your subjects um you're also bringing joy to them to have these beautiful photos too definitely like you know don't be afraid to try new things or different for example like some people are only comfortable saying during the daylight um don't be afraid to go to like sunset or um what we call twilight which is like right after sunset time for photos it's just like finding creative ways to really um branch out your skills and i think that would bring more confidence in your work too so since uh there is just so much work that you do especially when you know back before this pandemic began and you were going to many different weddings i'm sure every weekend uh what were some of the things that you did to uh for self-care oh my gosh um well i invested on a massage chair because it's so exhausting taking weddings because you're on your feet for about 10 hours a day uh and non-stop it's just like you know photographers spend so much time with the wedding couple and we're just right by the side but yeah um i think it's um also once you get to a point where you get really busy you kind of have to learn how to have work and life balance and also learn to say no to some clients because you can only do so much and um i feel like doing less i'm able to give more to my clients that's great advice and my last question for you is if you could turn back time what is one advice that you would tell yourself to your teenage self that just barely got out of high school um i think don't be afraid to jump in to something what feels right like for me i was afraid to pursue photography after seeing my dad went through because it was a lot of hard work and um and the way that technology changed also really affects our work too um and i feel like if i had a chance i would tell myself just go to photography full-on early on if i could have versus waiting two years after college to figure that out we have one question here from the audience that asked have you encountered any bridezillas um i try to interview my couples in advance to make sure we're a good match um if i sense of some bridezilla i try to turn them down but sometimes they don't come out until later i have grimzillas more than bridezillas actually so would you be able to share like a quick snippet or story of this groomzilla oh i had this groom who was usually i have brides who interview me but once now i have a groom who's into photography as well uh will be the one who has the um who has to contribute to the wedding plan as picking their wedding photographer and he would tell me that he interviewed 30 photographers and we would go through this long process of like how many photos they're gonna get how do i edit my photos down to like the littlest details and then his bride his back then his fiancee wasn't available so and then i had to go through that again with her um separately because they were doing long distance in the beginning and um after the wedding they counted every single photos i took and just backing from questions how do you advertise your company um so it's very important to invest on yourself right so spending money on marketing um for me i advertise with the knot which is a pretty well-known wedding magazine also online website it's expensive but if you book few weddings it will cover the cost so i think that's um one way to look at it um yeah that's how i advertise myself that's a great question oh all right i'll just oh this is a very good lions question based on word of mouth versus advertisements um that's a very good question so after a few years into the business i started getting clients like a bride's bridesmaids got engaged and then she would want to hire me or someone their guests would hire me and i think i'm at the point where about half of my clients are word of mouth but lately have been getting more wedding planners for amy clients these are all great questions all right well you know guys we can definitely have more q a at the very end i'm going to turn this over to jessica jazza thank you it was so great interviewing you and getting to know you guys hi everybody thank you jaja so our next guest is jackie ching and let me just introduce her she is a florist based in the bay area as well she began her career in floral over 12 years ago at a local market and followed her love of flowers to las vegas where she worked for six years as a floral designer at wynn resorts executing large-scale events weddings and galas after moving back home to the bay area she continued her career as lead floral designer for an established event company and is now independently operating as a small business welcome jackie thank you for being here thank you so tell us um do you have a company name or do you go by your name i actually also go by my name uh jacqueline design very nice um so tell us more about what your job entails if if at the moment you're able to do work or what kind of projects that you're typically involved with um okay so as a floral designer um you actually go through a lot of steps so i go through everything from you know initial concept creation to sourcing flowers and materials to um budgeting and then eventually creation and then processing prepping cleaning so it's actually a lot more than most people think of when they think of a floral designer but it's cool to be able to do all those different aspects of design and what kind of venues do you typically work with as far as being a floral designer um so i actually also do like i do home deliveries i do weddings i also do large-scale galas such as san francisco symphony which takes place in san francisco city hall um so it really takes you everywhere actually a little bit of travel to los angeles um pretty much anywhere anyone wants to host an event and how so we know that you started work in a floral shop so do you want to tell us more about that what was your start with flowers were you always interested in plants as a child um actually it's funny because i wasn't that interested in floral design to start out it was a summer job when i was in college so it's funny because jazza was actually a floral designer for a little bit so she taught me some basics when she found out that i was planning on applying to a floral design job and because i have a background in art um i just took the little tips that she taught me and i applied for this job and then i eventually just ended up falling in love with it which was super unexpected it wasn't something i planned at all that's great um so what had did you go to college did you study something else you just mentioned art so tell us more about that so i went to college for studio art so i studied um painting and sculpture which i actually think is a very helpful floral design because it gives you that background and you know color theory um just making things sculpturally just building and painting so that helped a lot and i'm actually very grateful to be you know there's not a lot of art majors who actually get to practice art after they graduate so i feel very lucky that i'm still in that kind of field that kind of creative feel yeah that's great to hear so after that first job that you that josh i encouraged you to go for how did you progress from that job and then tell us maybe more about that particular job and then how did you get from there to starting your own business uh so my job at the local market um it was really good to learn the basics of floral design i learned a lot about each different type of flower because i spent a lot of time processing flowers and by processing i mean like you receive them in bunches and you take off all the leaves and you clean them and make sure they're um they're ready for like bunch sales so learning that kind of uh basics and i don't want to call it dirty work but because like it's kind of you still have to do that as a florist all the time but learning those basics really set me up to um have a really good background in floral design plus my just interest in learning all the names and the different varieties of flowers you really just have to kind of learn that on your own as well so after that i had a regular desk job and i found myself you know bringing flowers to my desk job kind of like a like crazy flower girl and then i ended up missing flowers so much that um i had a friend who said that there was an opening at wynn resorts where she worked so i applied for that on a whim and they hired me right away and i just flew out to vegas and started working there and um ended up there for six years so it was a really really great writing experience because you don't get to learn those kind of large events um at like a lot of smaller areas so vegas there's those huge galas huge events so i learned a lot of design and speed and uh was lucky to encounter so many beautiful types of flowers and expensive flowers that uh like your local shop might not carry so sorry it's like really long no that's okay and so what whatever before we even get to my question my first question what are um what was like some of the other big differences between working for a smaller flower shop versus or a market versus um a hotel or resort chain so working at a hotel you definitely there's a larger team so you end up working with about you know 18 to 20 other florists so you really learn that kind of teamwork and i eventually became a supervisor so you learn how to like teach other people skills work with others because you can't really accomplish large galas by yourself i mean one person can't make a hundred arrangements so you have to learn to delegate those kind of responsibilities to other people and also just the budgeting was a big difference um i was looking to work about a place where at the time budget wasn't really a concern so we didn't have to count like every single stem but we were able to you know uh just make really beautiful beautiful large scale things that you just wouldn't be able to add a smaller right smaller company so you spent about six years with wynn you said and then you is after that did you branch out on your own so actually after that i always had a full-time floral job but i did freelance flowers on the side so i did a lot of weddings on the side um but after that i moved back to the bay area and i worked as a lead floral designer for an event company up here which also does those kind of large scale galas and then i was pretty much working as a florist like seven days a week so after my regular job i'd go home and work on more floral and like joshua said it does eventually get a little overwhelming because you have to choose how to balance your work in life um so actually once the pandemic hit um obviously there's no more large events so i was able to branch out on my own and it kind of gave me the push to really really do my own business full time oh wow wow um so what as far as going into business on your own what has been maybe has it been the pandemic what has been like the biggest challenge for you um the biggest challenge overall in my own business is kind of uh budgeting is a huge challenge um because instead of you know uh basing it on a large-scale company budget you have to think about your own expenses uh your own overhead and as a florist i think most lawyers will agree that you want to buy everything you see that you love but you have to really hold back and that's a huge challenge and just accounting and marketing it's like you're your own one-stop shop so that's different from working for a larger company yeah so i'm i'm keeping distracted by the beautiful um arrangements you have kind of peeking out on either side would you be able to share those with us and kind of explain to for some of us like myself who need some help in putting together a nice arrangement like what we should be looking for and how to determine what colors might go well together um sure so a lot of times for beginners i do like to go with like a monochromatic palette um so like you'll see here there's like a light pink these are pretty much various shades of pink which i think creates like a very elegant kind of arrangement um so as for beginners i recommend that versus just like going all in with a ton of different colors um also for me i like a lot of movement so you want to make sure that each flower has a space to breathe um but they're not just like side by side and clustered unless you like that style that's up to you but for me personally i like a little bit of movement and um a little bit of bounce and you want to make sure that you don't see a lot of open space at the bottom so for me i cover the edge of the vase and just i don't know a lot of it is kind of just how you feel and what you love see why do florists and designers always say those things as though it's you know everyone knows but we don't you know it's just like an intuition that's what a lot of designers will say we don't all have your intuition but it's lovely and your other um bouquet is that are those roses we see yes actually this is just like a small little guy um accent one a lot of times i like to pair a larger arrangement with a smaller one down a table to give it like different height and different depth um so you can kind of we would like to call these satellite arrangements or bud vases so it just adds a little something cute to the side so cute and i imagine being a floor a professional florist it's not something that maybe a lot of kids think about oh i'm going to go into this how would you encourage or what about this industry do you think would be worthwhile why would you encourage other young people to pursue this as a career um i think it's a really great creative outlet as a career um it's really amazing to be able to kind of conceptualize something in your head and see it come to life and what i like about floral compared to a lot of different mediums um is that it is sort of like a temporary uh temporary craft because of course flowers will die so the turnaround is really fast and you get to make a lot of really pretty things and it's sort of like a ultimate luxury in a way but um i don't know i personally think it's really rewarding because not a lot of people are angry to receive flowers so it's like a very positive kind of field like oh man i really didn't want that arrangement to get back so that has happened one time oh yeah well that actually brings me to my next question i did want to know obviously you work in a in a industry where reviews are really important so what how do you handle uh difficult customers have you can you describe a particular scenario i don't mean for this to sound like a job interview question but i think that will be interesting to know like how do you maintain um your business and you know deal with the people who make life a bit more difficult um so luckily i haven't had a lot of times where people have hated what i provided um i think the only time that someone wanted me to take something back was when they were angry at the person that delivered it but i think as long as you do your own kind of quality control and then you do whatever you can to like let's say a customer is really unhappy i would go back and try to fix it as soon as possible or offer you know additional products or just go back and figure out how you can fix the problem that's really important i would never just like walk away if a customer didn't like something i would you know change the design or just figure out what i could do thanks as far as personal achievements what do you think your uh what projects either when you worked with a company like win or on your own have been your greatest successes or are you most proud of um it's funny because it almost feels like every new project you're like super excited about you're like oh my gosh that was the best one yet um but working for a larger company we did do these new year's events that were really elaborate um and there was always a really you know big headliner so there's a lot of events that we did for like katy perry usher and it was just super cool to know that they were in the presence of my flowers when they were performing and that was really exciting um in the bay area i mentioned before i did the san francisco symphony gala so that's actually over 400 arrangements in like seven parties going on at the same time and that logistically was the most challenging but also super rewarding because um you look at all the pictures after and you just see how much you accomplish in that short amount of time and uh it's just like just really rewarding to see the final product and everyone having a good time do you have any tips for teens who might be interested in pursuing a career in floral arrangement or design yes well um i know we've talked about internships i think any florist would be happy to have an intern because there really is so much work but i think um teens say or anyone starting on a fall design they should really realize that it's about 20 design the rest of it is preparation and cleaning so you really have to uh be willing to put in the work first to be able to reach like a level of success in global design and also practice is super important um i really recommend just taking whatever materials you can find even in your backyard i love going in my backyard just seeing what is inspiring or foraging in the neighborhood i mean don't cut your neighbor's flowers but like just find things that inspire you and just start playing around i think that's the best way to learn and also just looking at other people's arrangements that you like and kind of not copying but just you know taking that as inspiration is always good as well i almost forgot but i understand that you both you and zsa are friends good friends from high school and have been business partners on occasion would either of you want to comment on that how is it working with a friend and um has that how has that worked out for you guys oh um i think it's been nice to be able to help each other out like say i book a wedding i'm doing the photos and sometimes i do offer flowers too it's an intimate wedding but most now ever since jackie moved back to the area i was able to just guide my clients to their her and then when they book her that's when i know i have to help her make these flowers too so it's a really good support system on each other for sure so i can make sure that we will have beautiful flowers at the wedding day and um just having the opportunity to work together wedding is just it's any best friend's dream come true yeah it's really awesome to be able to have that kind of support and someone that understands what you're going through on a day-to-day basis because not everyone understands the event industry and the struggles that you sometimes might go through so it's good to have someone that you can talk to about that and also someone you can trust um in business because of course you want to be able to trust everyone you work with and it's been really helpful having a photographer friend as well to capture all the flowers because you know flowers are temporary so a photo is really the lasting keepsake that you have of them and john's is a great photographer so lots of beautiful photos yeah you guys have really emphasized how important having a support system is and people to encourage you and support you in your small business efforts so even better that you as good friends were able to join or have been able to join forces i see some questions popping up but before we get to that i just want to ask you jackie if you could go back in time and give your teenage self some advice about career or life what would you what would that advice be um much like joshua said uh to just jump into it i think a lot of times people go into careers that they're not super passionate about because they think that it's uh it's the right thing to do or they think that that's the only way but i think following your heart is usually turns out with better results and it makes me happier in the long run because i'm super happy and fortunate to be able to do something that i really love to do every everyday and i really wish that uh like josh i'd have spent a couple years but just waiting trying to do like a normal job i guess so just jump into something you really love and go all in that's great advice thank you so much jackie um so you guys are more anybody in the audience you're more than welcome to put your questions in we'll share the survey link in a minute too so in case you have to leave early we do ask that you fill that out to give us your feedback but i see here a question aldrick is asking a very specific question about the process of starting a business uh i guess he wants to or they want to know about acquiring an llc hiring a business advisor how involved um were you with this process for each respectively for each of you um for me i did everything on my own i applied for an llc on my own as well i just did a lot of internet research um it's mostly it because i don't have a lot of full-time employees the process is a little different for me i think it's a little simpler because i am a sole proprietorship or you know like a single business owner um i didn't feel like it was necessary to pay another another website to do it for me it was actually fairly simple once you do a lot of internet research thanks and jaja was it similar for you uh also very similar i think what helped me was um talking to other photographer friends who i was fortunate to have some mentor friends who basically share what they went through some did sole proprietor some did llc but also based on how vast you want to do photography on and i don't think you need to hire a business advisor there's definitely plenty of workshops available online that you can find actually are very helpful thank you there's another question for you jackie from jenna is there any flower that you have an allergic reaction to oh yes there are um i'm fortunate to not be allergic to you a lot that most people are um i'm allergic to a flower called amarillis it comes out in the winter time normally around christmas the pollen actually makes me rash and also another flower called hanging amaranthus which is like a fuzzy kind of draping flower uh touching that also gives me rush but luckily i don't sneeze a lot i don't have that kind of reaction to pollen that a lot of people would which i imagine would be super hard if you were a florist so the flowers that you do have a reaction to do you avoid working with those or um you just wear gloves since you don't have a pollen reaction uh sometimes i wear gloves luckily sunflowers a lot of the pollen doesn't come out until later on in the flower's life so if you use it when it's still closed in a blood form before it blooms then you won't really have to touch the pollen okay oh and let's uh okay there's another question here from francia do flower symbolizations or meanings contribute to the arrangement of a bouquet uh yes it also depends on the client as well um the thing i've encountered most is you know a lot of asians don't like um like white flowers symbolize death so i usually have to avoid that when um when i know that it's the asian client um just things like that uh but as far as like just you know symbolization like a rose for love it's just basically up to the client's preference okay from sunny is finding the balance between the point flowers and filler flowers really as difficult as people say do they say that i think they do say that um uh i don't think it's as difficult as people say but you definitely want to have a good balance of like larger focal flowers and smaller accent flowers and you know wispy bits depending on the type of arrangement you're trying to do um yeah but as i keep on saying it is personal preference and if if you want to do an entire arrangement of filler flowers that's up to you as well everyone likes a different style and i have a question too do you have any personal favorite flowers or types of flowers to arrange together and or favorite color palettes um i do gravitate towards a lot of pinks i wouldn't say that's my favorite color you know in real life but i think in flowers there's a lot of different shades of pink so you have everything from like mauve to you know fuchsia to like a blush there's just so many options for pink so i really like using that in a lot of my arrangements for in terms of flowers i like anything that's very roughly and delicate because it just i don't know just gives it that little cute touch my favorite flower personally is butterfly ranunculus you can't really find them every time of the year but they're delicate and they last a long time and where do you source most of your flowers from and is that kind of a difficult process finding good um growers um i usually go to the san francisco flower market so i'm lucky to be only 30 minutes away from a large market uh there's not i mean some people don't have that that nearby um so the san francisco flower market has probably i don't know how many vendors but it seems like at least 30 or 40 vendors and with that you get a really large selection um but of course you know there's price variation so it gets time consuming because you're trying to find the best price and the best quality and that's easily be able to uh navigate that um lately though i've been going to more local smaller wholesalers which also have a lot of good product just a smaller selection and sometimes trader joe's trader joe's actually those really great flowers for anyone wanting to start out and for those of us who are just maybe looking up to have a nice maybe we're not designing our own arrangement but want something nice for our home what um what do you have any tips for what we should look for when we go to you know just a grocery store or floral shop as far as picking out bouquets what should we be keeping an eye out for um actually a lot of times um people want to buy the the open blooms because they look more beautiful at the time but you want to look for something that's closed um because it'll last a lot longer it might not look as beautiful at the time but it'll eventually bloom so it gets that big like for example um in this arrangement like this is what it would look like if it was not open yet a little the petals are tight and that's good because eventually it'll open into something like this so you definitely want to buy it when it's at this stage and it'll last a lot longer also changing the water pretty often and cutting the stems maybe every two days is super helpful um having clean water yeah that's pretty much it thank you okay i see um one another question from ed and again lynn put in the chat but if anybody has any more questions feel free to you can turn on your mic if you'd like to but edsa asks for both of you how long did it take you to realize you could turn your passion into your career was there a moment or experience that convinced you to go all in i know you kind of both addressed this in a way but if there's anything you else you want to share about that please uh i think the moment i felt truly successful is when a stranger started reaching out for arrangements uh versus you know just your friends it's like that acknowledgement that people like your work um it's hard nowadays with social media because you know there is a lot of competition but you really just have to believe in your own style and your own work um but i think there's not just like one moment where you're just like oh my gosh this is it it's just kind of just over time you realize that you can do it on your own um for me it was based on how many bookings i was getting um like first year maybe i'll get five bookings a wedding in the following year i'll start getting 15 bookings of wedding and if i start getting booked more the following year after that already set that was when i felt comfortable enough to quit my full-time work and also leaving the benefits now it's a hard part money is a lot to feeling comfortable with the amount of business you're receiving right it just shows like how far you've come and like you the ball is rolling right and um you have projects lined up which gives you the confidence knowing that people are hiring for you they love your work and um that's when i realized that it was okay and felt right to pursue it completely thank you so much would you be able to give us an idea a rough estimate of how much each event would cost or how much you would charge like let's say a wedding uh depending let's say a small scale wedding how much would you charge them for photography and for flowers i'll start with you Zha Zha for me it varies if it's like they're looking for one photographer would just be just me or if it's a larger event i say if it's more than 60 people i always have a second photographer um my i have a starting minimum of what my couple's investing which is 5 000 and then the packages can go up to 7 000. so i can able to focus maybe like 15 couples a year um that way i'm able to give really good service versus overwhelmed with so many couples and making less or something that's great how old are you Jackie thank you for me it's kind of hard to provide a single quote because it really depends on what they're looking for um if it's like a full wedding including centerpieces um i usually start at around three thousand dollars it depends on the number of course too so that's for a smaller wedding um arrangements usually start at around you know it could be anything to be honest from like a tiny bed race to a huge centerpiece and it really depends on what kind of flowers people want as well um because you know there's things like exotic orchids which can cost a lot more um so it's actually really hard to give estimate it's really depending on the type of flowers you used that's good thank you uh do you guys have any upcoming projects you can share with us or any any events that you'll be doing in the next like few weeks um so i'm lucky enough to have a lot of home deliveries right now it actually seems like during the pandemic people picked up on home deliveries because they can't be there in person so a lot of people have been using flowers to you know celebrate birthdays and just special occasions so i do have a lot of home deliveries um josh and i have been working on this styled shoot which we ran like run into a couple snags so hopefully that'll be coming up soon as well um a style shoe is pretty much where a bunch of creatives collaborate together to come up with a concept and execute that together wonderful how about for you Zha Zha is that the next project you're working on it or do you have anything else on the side that you're working on um i would be i have one special engagement session that requires traveling um so i'm going to be at salt lake city for the bonneville salt flat coming up so that'll be really cool scenario for photos versus me going to San Francisco all the time for photos with my couple so it's a nice change it makes it definitely more exciting and to change it up but other than that i think it's just preparing for all my spring weddings that are coming up too great great that's wonderful well hopefully with this whole you know pandemic now that it's you know getting a little better and we'll see the light of day that everybody everything will hopefully get back to normal and the weddings will be up and ready so um yeah i you know everybody thank you so much for being here today i know we're running towards the end of our program but if there are any other last minute questions that you'd like to ask now's your chance and you can ask anything um relating to business flowers or photography anything else no and also um jessica linked a survey in the chat box please please do take a moment to fill that out so that way we know you know what you really enjoyed during career day and how we can do better next time or what are some things that we can uh do to make your career day fun and exciting all right jessica anything else i think that's it but who do we have next week lynn do you wanna all right so next week i have a two friends one where is a designer at netflix and the other is a designer at tick tock so if you're interested in learning what it takes to become a tech designer please please do come to our career day event uh if you've already signed up at bitly slash lapl career day i will be sure to send you the zoom link for that event so yeah thank you so much everybody for being here with us today if you're a team and you're part of teen council please take a moment to fill out the form uh for thank you so much guys the form for uh the survey as well as your um volunteer form so that way you can get your community service hours yes thank you jaja and jackie and thank you jackie thank you everyone and thanks to everyone yeah thanks to everyone who came today and take care everybody we'll hope to see you next week yeah you guys are thanks roberta thank you so much roberta thank you guys i'm gonna go ahead and
2021-03-05 06:24
