Locals to Love: Geelong Flower Preservation, BELLARINE BOTANICAL
We’re SO flipping fortunate to have a seemingly limitless supply of artists, service providers, and entrepreneurs, completely obsessed with serving the Geelong and Bellarine community.
As a way of sharing the love (and because I’m all about being a raving fan!), I’d love to introduce you to some folk I adore, because what they’re doing might just resonate with you, too.
Over the past several months I sent out a whole bunch of interview questions to some of amazing local businesses, and am excited to share them with you!
This is the first instalment of my Locals to Love initiative - Bellarine Botanical.
These clever women are committed to creating keepsakes as forever as photographs, and you KNOW I’m going to be ALL about that!
Imagine it - wall art made from the actual flowers daddy bought mama on the day baby was born.
Can you think of a better coming home gift (aside from a newborn in-home photography session, of course!) Geelong mamas, read on - I’ve an inkling you’ll love what these guys have to offer!
What’s the name of your business, who do you serve, and what’s your goal or mission statement?
Our business is called Bellarine Botanical and we transform your beautiful flowers into keepsake artwork. A lot of our business is from weddings, but we cater to anyone. We have created artworks related to funerals, growing family’s, baby’s, birthdays and pets that have passed over.
What would you say is unique about your business?
To our knowledge we are the only local business who offer this type of service. Each piece is unique and created with lots of love.
What inspired you to start your business, and what keeps you loving it?
When Zoe got married, she decided to press some flowers from her wedding bouquet and create an artwork to remind her of her day. Around the same time, I (Jordi) had created an artwork using some pressed flowers from a friend’s bouquet as a gift post wedding.
It wasn’t until Daisy from asdaisydoes saw an Instagram post by Zoe of the artwork she had created for herself and mentioned that people are always looking for something like this. Neither of us realised we had both separately created some floral artworks and thought let’s give it a crack and see how we go.
We pinch ourselves all of the time, what’s not to love about having beautifully bouquets dropped off to you all the time and being trusted to create something magical as a flow on from some major events in people lives?!
How do you define success?
Success for me is loving what you do and being able to maintain a healthy and fulfilling work life balance. Zoe and I both have young family’s so to be able to work around that feels like a massive success.
Can you think of a time that a past apparent failure set you up for later success? Do you have a ‘favourite failure’?
For us when we were first finding our feet, we weren’t confident in ourselves and said yes to everything. It meant we were trying to create artworks based on other people’s style ideas and it just didn’t work for us, it didn’t flow, and it created a lot of extra work for us. We were very grateful this happened early on as it made us sit down and establish some great foundations for our business.
What do you love most about running a business?
There is a couple of elements to this. First and foremost, as mentioned early it allows us to work around our families and personal lives the best way possible. I also really feel like the local community in Geelong and surrounds really celebrates each other’s success and wants everyone to do well. It’s such a great feeling to be part of a community that wants you to succeed.
What have you learned or realised as a business person that’s surprised you?
I think it would just be the confidence to step into something unknown. At the start we really were quite nervous and unsure what it was going to look like. It has been really exciting, and we still have so much to learn and hopefully still a lot more growth ahead of us. Zoe and I have been able to balance our lives with the support of each other which has just been amazing.
In the past several years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?
Just the belief in what we do. I think it’s easy to start doubting yourself especially in this social media world but taking a step back and appreciating your work and your skills and trusting your process has been the best thing we ever did. Of course, some days that little seed of doubt begins to grow but just being aware and checking in with each other works really well for us.
Can you share something that happened in your business this past week that made you smile?
Honestly, meeting Michelle and having her photograph our business was a super proud moment. It’s always so special meeting other small business owners, especially other self-employed Mums doing their thing and doing it so well!
What’s an absurd or unusual thing that you absolutely love?
Jordi- When I crack open a can of corn, I like to drink the juice. I have legit never said that out loud and wonder if I will regret that hahaha.
Zoe- I like to eat lemonade with a spoon!
How do you unwind after a crazy day?
I honestly love unwinding by creating artworks. It’s almost a mindfulness task because you can get so focussed on the flowers and how they are going to best work together that you tend to forget about what else is going on for you. I am also a sucker for a giant cup of tea and chocolate.
What is your favourite thing to gift?
Jordi - I love putting together a good lolly mix for people based on what I think they will like and a mix of my favourites.
Zoe - I can put together an amazing hamper!
If you could arrange a gigantic billboard where everyone would see it every day, what would it say and why?
‘What makes you different or weird, that’s your strength.’ - Just to always embrace your inner weirdness, it’s what makes you different and unique both in business and in your personal life.
And a few RAPID FIRES:
Tea or Coffee?
Bucket of coffee!
Chocolate or Ice Cream?
Chocolate
Dress or Jeans?
Jeans
Wine or Beer?
A good red is the go
Book or Podcast?
Book
TV Series or Movie?
Jordi-TV Series, the only important one (RuPaul’s’ drag race)
Zoe – I’m a sucker for both!
Insta or FB?
Instagram!
You can reach out to Jordi and Zoe by stalking their Instagram here.
Jordi and Zoe at a wedding expo, 2022. Image credit: Unknown.
If you’ve an idea of a local business from whom you reckon this community would like to hear, let me know! You can reach out to me here.