Blooming Opportunities with Darlene Rupke and Petal Academy

Unlock the secret to creating stunning floral arrangements from the comfort of your home with Darlene Rupke, owner and founder of Petal Academy! As the mastermind behind this unique subscription box company, Darling introduces us to the fascinating world of floral design and how Pedal Academy is revolutionizing the way we learn and experience florals.

Revel in the magic of corporate and personalized gift boxes as Darlene unveils how Petal Academy makes virtual events and memorable experiences accessible for all ages and demographics. Explore the vast variety of kits they offer, including the new orchid and air plant kits, as Darling shares expert tips on taking care of these one-of-a-kind plants and the different types of reeds and dried flowers available. Plus, discover the sustainable and fashionable dried flower line that's making a grand comeback in home decor.

Ready to bring the beauty of flowers into your life? Let Darlene Rupke and Petal Academy be your guiding light as we journey through the importance of flower arrangement coaching, the amazing success people can achieve in their classes, and the endless design possibilities that await. Don't miss out on this blooming opportunity to elevate your floral game and transform your space with Pedal Academy!

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Transcript

Floral Subscription With Live Coaching

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Elementary Mondays at 6. Today, my guest. I actually met my guest in person today Not today, sorry. I met my guest in person at the TREB event and I was delighted to meet them and to get to know a little bit more about them. so can we to share what they actually do? I know you're gonna find this as always, you're gonna find it jam-packed. Ask me to join any minute now and then we'll get started. Hope you're having a fabulous Monday wherever you are. Hello.

Speaker 1 0:47

Hi Jacqueline, how are you Good and you I'm doing well, i'm doing well, so thank you so much for coming on the Instagram live.

Speaker 2 0:58

My pleasure.

Speaker 1 0:59

Thank you for having me. So we'll get started and people will join as we get started. So we can just start with, you know introductions. Introduce yourself in the Instagram handle.

Speaker 2 1:14

Okay, so I'm Darlene Rupke. I'm the owner and founder of Petal Academy, and we are a subscription box company that specializes in floral kits. So we box everything you need to make some fabulous floral arrangements in the comfort of your own home. You don't have to run from store to store. Everything comes complete in the box. And we also teach live, so we do live coaching as well as we offer, we send along the vessels, we send along a playlist. Our company is located just north of Toronto. Our Instagram handle is Petal Academy. We also have Facebook. We have a YouTube channel which has free videos on how to care and handle flowers, as well as a little bit of the language of flowers. We'd like to add in that as well, just for some of our students and participants. And we also have Pinterest as well. And what am I missing? something TikTok, of course.

Speaker 1 2:14

Can't go anywhere without TikTok. Tell me, like, how do you stay on top of the trends with what you do?

Speaker 2 2:23

Yeah, we really. I owned a floral studio for about 15 years and before that I've been in the industry since I was quite young. So I've been in the industry since I was about 15. I find I get a lot of inspiration from magazines Pinterest, of course, nowadays, but just sort of really getting a vibe on what's going out there, especially in home decor and things like that. We've just started launched a dried flower line just late last year and about five years ago I said to some colleagues and staff that I was working with. I was like dried flowers are going to be coming back with a vengeance and I think you're gonna see them a lot in home decor and things like that. And of course, here they are.

Speaker 1 3:09

So yeah, not fake flowers. Dried flowers, i mean, some of the fake ones are cute, but dried flowers actually, yes, spectacular right They are and a lot of people are really using them as a decor item.

Speaker 2 3:22

You know, i remember I was in the industry when I remember them from sort of a really old style and it was lots of color and things like that, and now it's more nuanced to on tone, just playing with texture and really creating a nice vibe. And it's quite nice because it has a great staying power for a lot of homeowners. So if they are a little intimidated to have fresh, they can add some florals in a different way where it's dried and it will, you know, continue to give them some beautiful decor items in their home and it can become something that you know you've got dried in one little area of your home and then you've got a beautiful fresh bouquet on your kitchen island or something too. So it works well with a lot of other decor items.

Speaker 1 4:06

So you said you have floral boxes, subscriptions. You got the dried flowers, so let's break them down a bit right, so let's unpack one separately. So tell me more about let's just talk about the floral subscription. Say it fast a whole bunch of times, so yeah, tell us a little bit more about that.

Speaker 2 4:30

So we offer a monthly subscription box. Initially, when we launched we launched in November of 2020, and before that we had started talking about doing online education and then we really got the idea of wouldn't it be wonderful to ship all of the ingredients with the box. So eventually we're going to go to a weekly and a bi-weekly subscription, but for now, just in our launch our first startup sort of mode we're offering a monthly box. They're all themed, so every month you get a different arrangement delivered to your door, or arrangement kit It's a DIY kit and then we have a live class that we offer with that. So you get live coaching and, as far as I know in the area, i believe we're one of the only ones that's offering that connection, that live tutorial aspect, to our classes. We do have some pre-recorded videos that we offer with our dried kits and our holiday kits and our wreath kits. We do those as well, but our monthly kits is a great membership. Every month is a different style of design as well. So, because they're themed, we do things like hand-tied bouquets, fresh arrangements. We do them in chicken wire as well as in foam not very much in foam. We really try to get as sustainable as possible. So maybe one class a year is with foam and then just kind of really weave and do corsages and all kinds of things just to really round out an experience. So if someone is on the path of wanting to learn more about floral design or diving in a little deeper, we take it so that you're going to end up with some very great trained skills that you could even use to do a family event or even perhaps start at working at a flower shop. If it's something that you've always wanted to do, you'll have the skill set to be able to do that. So that's offered in our monthly class and it's really fun. We have a great group that's been. Some of them have been with us since our launch, so it's been really great to see them really get some great skill sets happening and they can fly through the project. Sometimes even before I get finished they're showing me what they've created. So it's really cool. With all of our boxes we offer a Facebook community. So as soon as you order a box, you get welcomed into the community. You'll get a link. You can join into our Facebook community and that's a place where a lot of our subscribers or anyone that's done a box, can post photos of what they've created, and then we get some good camaraderie happening between the students. There's comments oh that looks fabulous, i love to replace that, or what a great photo, those kinds of comments, just so that we can really have a great little group of our students.

Speaker 2 7:08

And then we have our wreath boxes, which is a seasonal class, so those come out spring, summer, fall and winter and that's a seasonal wreath. You can use it. A lot of our students will use it, of course, to put on the front door, but a lot of our wreaths are quite versatile, so you could place them on top of a like a mantle display. Sometimes I suggest putting it in a photo wall so you can have you know where you've got photo gallery. It's fun to take a photo down and then pop in a wreath, especially during the winter holidays. I think that's a really fun little trick, tip and trick. And then, of course, you can always hang them outside, around garage lights, fence posts. If you're in a condo, you can use them on your balcony.

Speaker 2 7:48

So wreaths are quite versatile as far as a decor item and some people don't always think of all the possibilities, but we like to really share a lot of the uses of our of our projects. So a lot of part of our class is, of course, the welcoming and then we go through the steps of putting the creation together. We usually move step by step. Our classes are an hour. Just in case anyone's wondering how long this takes, they're about an hour, and at the end of the class we always give maintenance tips and ways to display it so that we'll give you some more ideas on where you could take it from just your traditional idea of where to place something in the home and give you another idea.

Speaker 2 8:23

And we also do holiday kits. So we were featured in Style at Home magazine last December, which was really exciting for us. We have garland kits, centerpiece kits, grinch tree kits is probably a really popular one that we've been known for for years and, of course, holiday wreath kits as well. So if you're wanting to ever dive into doing your own holiday decorating at home, you can. Those usually get launched about the beginning of September on our website so you can go in and see what we're planning for the season and see what you want to maybe get shipped and try to make at home. And then we have our drag kits. So we've got some wall hanging kits, some arrangement kits and I think we've got a couple of bouquets that we have on the website okay, yeah, those, those.

Corporate and Personalized Gift Boxes

Speaker 1 9:16

I mean KP staging says a good wreath, always love a good wreath, and I mean my, my, you know I'm looking at it from a real test point of view, right, and I think these, these would make great gifts if you have like a very I mean, they're not for everyone for sure, but they are for someone and some clients love, you know, wreaths with, you know, the dry flowers seem very interesting. So definitely a good choice for people who like to have reads on the door or want to warm up their space a little bit with that look right, so it's perfect for them. And then you have. So the virtual life classes are connected with the boxes, right, the monthly boxes? Yes, correct.

Speaker 2 10:06

Yes, but, as you were mentioning, with the realtors, you and I met at the TREB quest show, which was exciting And we did. We found that this has been a really good fit for realtors because it kind of goes beyond. It's a gift that you can do more than once. So if a realtor wanted to give a client, you know, more than one box so that they've got something new to just sort of display in their new home. It also gives a lesson and experience to clients so that you know, instead of just giving an ordinary gift. And, like you said, it's not for everyone not everyone wants to get their hands into a new skill But for those that you think might want to explore that or just have some skills on how to display floors in their new home, it does make an excellent gift and a memorable one, because you kind of walk through a new skill set that you want to discover.

Speaker 1 10:54

Yeah, there's a subscription boxes, so that I'm clear. Like they're a monthly box, So when you subscribe you don't do you have to subscribe for the whole year or just for that month.

Speaker 2 11:04

No, we offer just one up one up, one on box. So if you want to just order one box and give it as a gift, that's really popular. We do that a lot for birthdays, anniversaries, things like that We'll have clients pop in and do like a one box gift Or you can jump on the subscription. Obviously, we offer a little bit of a more strategic pricing for the monthly subscriptions. You can pay per month or you can pay annually and you get a bit of a discount if you do it that way. But you can always go in and, just like a food box kit, you can unsubscribe and you know so. If you wanted to do two or three months, you could back out of the subscription. That way you're getting better pricing, but then you can. You can stop your subscription at any time. You can pause it as well. So if you're holidaying or you're going up to the Mascocas for the summer and you don't have the capabilities of getting something delivered up there, want to take it with you, then you can stop your subscription.

Speaker 1 11:58

I see Okay And yeah, those are good to know. But you know, i think you also, i kind of read that you do corporate stuff. So maybe let's jump. Let's jump up and kind of understand a little bit more of what you do with the corporate stuff. For sure.

Speaker 2 12:20

So we've, right from the get go. When we launched we ended up doing quite a bit of client appreciation events for some corporate partners that we work with And that's been amazing. That really took off quite well. And what that involves is any group. So if you're you know, if you're a company or if even if you're a you know book club or ladies group that wants to get together, we offer classes for minimum of eight students And then you have the capabilities of coming on as the host So you get an opportunity to sort of welcome everyone into the class.

Speaker 2 12:56

We ship those kits. We've shipped anywhere in Ontario. We can ship all. We've shipped all the way down to Windsor, all the way up to Sault Ste Marie. So it's pretty cool with the geography we can cover.

Speaker 2 13:07

So it works really great for corporate right now because a lot of companies have gone to a skeleton staff in in the headquarters and people are still working from home or they may have built up their staff again in their, in their main office, but they still have a few because the virtual world sort of just took off during the pandemic. Working has changed So you may have quite a caliber of your associates working from home and quite a distance from getting into the city, maybe to take part in an event. So instead of having to worry about them traveling, putting them up at a hotel for the evening, this is something that can get shipped right to their doorstep And we walk them through as a group together. Everyone has a lot of fun. A lot of times we say you know, let's who's brave to do the show and tell at the end, so the students can show their pieces. And we got great reaction from all, all demographics, all age groups, all, all dentures, everything. Everyone has a great time showing us what they've created And it's just a really fun way to do it.

Speaker 2 14:14

And then, of course, at the end, the the host will sort of close off the meeting And again, those classes are about an hour And everyone has their arrangement to enjoy. And one comment we do get a lot from corporations we work with them and groups is that you know you can have families participating, which is something sometimes families don't get off and thought of. When you're you're hosting an event for corporate event, you're, you know, trying to get there. You don't have to, you know, jump in your car and get somewhere. You can just get home or stop your day at work. If you're working from home and dive into the class, and if the kids are there they can help out. So it's kind of a fun little evening for everybody.

Speaker 1 14:56

Yeah, no, absolutely So. The corporate events, you know the. I was looking on your website and those are for how many people that one event.

Speaker 2 15:07

Yeah, usually we have a minimum of eight.

Speaker 2 15:09

That's what we would prefer. So if you've got, a lot of times we even do groups of classes too. So especially for realtors, if you've got, it could be a great way to bring a couple of agents together to host. So if a certain agent had about three or four closings and you have a partner agent that you work with a lot with some of your showings and they've got about four or five clients that they're thinking would be able to join, you can just have a group. So both of you can be the host and you can each invite four participants. So you don't have to have a large number.

Speaker 2 15:46

Lots of our corporate that we do work with on a regular basis. They may have anywhere from 10 to sometimes we've done up to 150 on a call, depending on what the time of year is, if it's a holiday or whatnot. Those are always quite popular classes. So that's why I was mentioning even for book groups or anything like that. As long as you've got eight, that's our minimum, and we've got a variety of different kits that we can offer as well. We can even brand your kit or we can specialize the size of it. So we have worked with some retirement homes as well and we've scaled down some of our boxes a little bit so that they're a little bit, you know, better scale for some of their residents' sizes and things like that And one thing too large in some of those living resident quarters or whatnot. So we've scaled down a few kits and customized them for particular clients if we needed to. Very nice.

Speaker 1 16:44

So how you know, what strategies do you use, like to ensure effective communication? because you know we're like on the zoom call and some people have, you know, better listening skills than others.

Speaker 2 16:57

So how do?

Speaker 1 16:58

you manage that, yeah, for sure.

Flower Arrangement Coaching and Kits

Speaker 2 17:01

So before we do a class and this is with any subscription box, even our corporate we send out a prep note email. So everyone's going to get an email that's going to give them some directions on what they need to have ready. So we ship everything in the box except for the tools, and usually we recommend you have a pair of floral snips or even a strong pair of kitchen scissors will work in a pinch. So we send the prep notes over ahead of time. That has the link to join the class as well, as we send a music playlist as well. So with that, when we open the class, we'll usually give our participants some view notes, so oftentimes they'll pin the speaker. We often ask our participants to mute themselves so that everyone else can have a little bit of less noise going on, you know, in case someone's dog barks or something like that. But we have my classes where everybody keeps their speakers on and you know you get the little reaction from time to time. So that's and that's fine too, especially with smaller groups. That seems to work fine. And then after the class, we send over the replay. So we send over the replay, so we upload everything to a YouTube link and we send that over and it's a private link, so only participants in that class have access to that link and we personalize it to the specific client that we're working with And we also send over a survey.

Speaker 2 18:23

And, of course, because we're doing live coaching a lot of the times, we always, of course, encourage, you know, students to unmute themselves, ask questions, and then, of course, we always encourage them to email us after as well, in case they have had any struggles in any particular piece of putting their arrangement together.

Speaker 2 18:41

And they can reach out to us and, just you know, see, we can troubleshoot and give them some suggestions on how to work through what they may have struggled with during the class. Sometimes it's just pace right, like some people will work quicker than others, and sometimes you could do the students, of course, getting a little ahead, and some of them have maybe done a class before, so they're a little bit more versed than some of the newer ones. But that's why that replay is really handy as well. So if the students do feel that they get too far behind, you know and we often say that, you know, don't feel that you have to keep up with us. If you're struggling, just watch it, watch it through, and then you can try this on your own later, maybe pour yourself another glass of wine, as you're going to relax and have some fun. So you don't feel stressed. Yeah, we want this to be fun for everyone, and our tagline is fearless with flowers, so really, encourage the fun part for sure.

Speaker 1 19:35

Yeah, no, absolutely. It's all about the fun, and some people get overly competitive So they have to be reminded about that.

Speaker 2 19:42

That's right.

Speaker 1 19:45

I wanted to just let people know that there's a question icon below. If they have a question, to drop it in there in the comment section, i'm happy to take questions as well. So we talked about the reeds, and do you have any to show us? Maybe not, i didn't ask you. I don't have a reed.

Speaker 2 20:08

But I do have behind me. We have a new orchid planter that we just launched. We have a new plant for wheelchairs too, because a lot of people struggle with knowing how to take care of orchids. Yeah, so this is our orchid kit that we launched. So it's a collection of three mini orchids in the Philanumcys and we've got a little air plant in there And this one is a pre-recorded. So this one is a tutorial. They get a video and then it'll walk through the care and handling of orchids, how to get them to re-flower, as well as how to water those air plants as well, because those can be tricky for people. A lot of people go, oh, air plants, they just need air, but there's a little bit more to it than that, so we give everyone a picture.

Speaker 1 20:52

I feel like a friend of mine is asking me. You know, i'm not a air plant. There's not times.

Speaker 2 20:56

You see them. This one's quite large, that's in here. See this one here. They're all different ones, yeah, so Tilanthia is their sort of. This one's a Xerografica. That one is particularly Xerografica. There's all different varieties, but that one's quite popular right now. You can often see it in home decor projects and whatnot, but they actually they grow in the southern parts of the world and they actually grow on trees and things like that And, of course, in the humidity. So you do need a little bit of water from time to time. So we tell you a little about that in the tutorial.

Speaker 1 21:30

Yeah, I should have joined that tutorial before I killed that Well, not before I killed that.

Speaker 2 21:36

I don't want to give you a box of orchids for you to try for sure.

Speaker 1 21:42

Yeah, no more orchids for me. No, i'm just kidding, but you know it's very exciting, it's very exciting. Flowers are so beautiful. You know, i love, i love just. You know just the beauty in each of. You know, in each flower that you can just go and pick out. I mean, it's just amazing, it just can cheer up any space. Right, yes, we talked about, yes, we talked about some of the reeds, and then you mentioned dry flowers. And how do you, how do you sell those or how do you send those out?

Flower Design and Education

Speaker 2 22:15

So we have those in our kits as well. So in the dried flower kits, like, for instance, we have a wall hanging one I think it's called the wall flower wall hanging, and it's got some really large palm leaves in it, a lot of neutral color, so sort of in that whites and creams and so, and it would be a beautiful piece to maybe display above a mantle or just on a bedroom wall, something like that. So beautiful. So those ones come, all all the little ingredients come wrapped up in a little bundle, just like a bouquet, and then, of course, all of the components that you need to put it together, so that one comes with a little oasis cage that we send along And then we send a music playlist with that one too, and then you just walk through the steps and put it all together. We've had some great results with that one with some of our students. I've seen some follow up photos of the kit before and after And, yeah, the translation of how they can put it together has been amazing.

Speaker 2 23:13

People often ask me how you know, how do the students react when they're walking through the classes? Are they able to achieve what you can do because you've got? you know, i've got about 30 years under my belt and experience in the industry And I do find the success is just amazing. That's my favorite part about teaching is just seeing how they can take just the bouquet of flowers and transform it And we all seem to. Even though they all get the same flowers. Everyone puts their own little spin on it. But the level of design that comes out of those classes just blows my mind Like it's just so well done And I'm proud that they can. They can really achieve that success with just a couple of like, even one class. You get people so excited So it's really fun to see.

Speaker 1 23:59

Yeah, unbelievable, really Unbelievable. Before we wrap up and you know we're coming to the end of it, i feel like I keep asking you questions. However, is there anything that you know I may have missed? I that you may want to share that I didn't ask?

Speaker 2 24:23

Yeah, like, let me have a look at my notes here. I know I made a few notes, i know that, and we talked about all the kits we offer. We do tend to do some fun giveaways as well as. I welcome everyone to our YouTube channel because that's a great way. If you're thinking about exploring floral design or you're thinking about hosting in a class or anything like that, it's a great way to sort of, you know, just see a little bit about what kits may be coming up or a little bit about flowers and you were saying, too, you know every flower brings joy, right, so that YouTube channel is really good place to land if you're looking for a little bit more information on how to care for flowers.

Speaker 2 25:08

Like my big mission and Petal Academy at large, as a company, we really want to see people experience joy when they bring flowers into the home, and flowers can be intimidating sometimes, because you may pick them up at the market or, you know, at a grocery store or whatnot, and sometimes they're just not lasting the way you thought they were gonna last. So sometimes, like, the joy disappears. When that happens, you know it's like oh, i bought this and I wanted it to last, but just with a few simple skills and the way you're cutting it, the way you're hydrating it, making sure you're placing it in the right conditions in your home all those factors can really play a really large part on how your flowers perform, and we share that openly. We put that on our YouTube channel so you can just go in there and you can watch that anytime if you're looking for a particular variety of flowers. I know a lot of people love Rindunculus. They're a favorite. There's a few videos on there on how to care for your Rindunculus to get them lasting really, really well. Just those simple tips can make all the difference, and that way I feel, if you can really get the flowers performing well and lasting in your home, you're gonna invest in flowers more often, and they do bring you joy. So why not right they? and that's also nice to be able, if you're giving them as a gift, just to be able to give a little know-how to the recipient as well, so that they can also, you know, have them last as long as possible. That's that's really our main goal.

Speaker 2 26:36

Yeah, and this has been wonderful. I love that you're having these podcasts. I think this is great for for your community. I think it's fantastic. So thank you so much for having, for having me today. It's been really wonderful chatting with you. Do you have any other further questions with for us, well?

Speaker 1 26:55

there's a little wrap up, so where can people reach you?

Speaker 2 27:01

oh, yes, okay. So our website, of course, is pedalacademycom and, like I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, we have Instagram, we have Facebook, we have Pinterest, youtube and TikTok, so you can usually find us on any of those channels and tune in to see what's happening. One thing I did forget to mention, just with with those seasonal kits, or if anyone's interested in hosting their own class or whatnot, don't be shy to reach out to us and ask for anything particular. If you've got a group of ladies that you want to get together, we're gonna be launching a new kit, hopefully this summer, called roses and rosé, so that will be a really fun one. So, yeah, that one.

Speaker 2 27:43

We're hoping to get some groups of girlfriends together so that they can have a really fun evening. And you know, you could even get five or five or six kits shipped to one address. That'll save you some costs and shipping, so that's a good way to do it. But, yeah, don't be shy, we could customize any particular kit that you may have that you want to dive into with a group of friends or for a client appreciation or corporate class. We offer planting boxes as well. So, like the orchid, we have a herb kit as well as in the spring we often do bulb planters, so a really good variety of horticulture lessons that you can dive into and improve your skill set yeah, very nice, very nice indeed, and all of your channels have the same name Petal Academy yes you got it?

Speaker 1 28:31

yeah, it's very simple to remember.

Speaker 1 28:33

Yeah, so for all of you watching, thank you again for spending your evening with us. We appreciate it. I definitely appreciate it. For all of you who don't know me, my name is Jacqueline Watson.

Interview Opportunities for Listeners

Speaker 1 28:45

I'm a real tool with Southern Group Tower in Toronto and I do these interviews with businesses big, small, it doesn't really matter. We interview you, we, you know, get to showcase you, and all they're looking for is to build a community and to really, you know, grow your business, but also to to actually have people look for good people out there, right, because I have a very clean practice and I want to be able to encourage everyone I work with to, you know, to offer that same level of expertise to my clients and people I work with, and then we grow each other. That's the only way we can grow by growing each other. So, so I want to thank you, darling darling right, for coming on and interviewing with me, and I so appreciate it. I'm so glad I ran into you at the Trevqrust.

Speaker 1 29:43

So until next time, and if you want to get interviewed, you have a topic you want me to unpack a bit further? you know, feel free to get in touch and you want to get interviewed on the show. I'm happy to do that as well, so get in touch, dm me and go from there. So thank you again and until next time.

Speaker 2 30:01

Have a great one awesome thanks, jacqueline, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me Have a great live, life in full bloom. Everybody, take care, take care.