We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eduardo Robles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Eduardo , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

Coming from a typical Spanish household. My family fostered my hobbies and interests relating to plants, animals & nature. I was introduced to growing plants fairly early on in my childhood & from then on it blossomed into what I call my lifetime hyper fixation. Growing up, my grandmother always kept various plants around her house. From pothos, to flamboyant trees growing in her yard, she really set the tone for what I was aspiring to achieve as I grew older. Plants have always provided me with a sense of purpose & really helped alleviate some of my struggles pertaining to anxiety. I never really expected my interests to unfold into a social media page. Let alone, creating videos to help other plant lovers increase their knowledge about plant care, propagation & using them to scale up their interior design. I never set out to grow my page, it just kind of happened! I couldn’t have anticipated a childhood memory would ultimately change the trajectory of my career. I went from running a pet store for nearly a decade, to packing dozens of plant orders to mail across the country. I found myself quickly learning about agriculture laws, licenses & compliances necessary to run my business as efficiently as it needed to be. The fear of not knowing how to bring an idea to fruition was never a large enough obstacle to keep me from pursuing this. I was determined, fueled by tenacity & reminding myself that I could in fact build financial freedom from something as simple as my love for plants.

Eduardo , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Introductions can be daunting experiences, but sharing how I found myself involved with plants on a larger than typical scale wasn’t an overwhelming experience me. I was in the process of saving up money to purchase my first home. & was scrolling pages like Pinterest, Instagram & Tik Tok. I fell in love with how other homeowners would elevate their homes aesthetic with a few intentionally placed plants. From then on, it was a slippery slope. By the next morning, I was visiting every Lowes & Home Depot within a 15-mile radius. My goal was to source plants that were dramatic in appearance but low in maintenance. Early on, I made the mistake of purchasing plants that should have been grown outdoors as their purpose was mostly for the landscaping field. But here I was, eager to grow them to the best of my ability. Needless to say, with the lack of appropriate light & space, they died very quickly.

This is what really launched me into expanding my plant knowledge, I started consuming as much content pertaining to the success of ornamental plants. I implemented everything I learned within that short amount of time. I very suddenly amassed a bold amount of plants & before I knew it. My efficiency was two steps shy of a full-blown forest. From that moment on, I began visiting wholesale nurseries, propagating rare & unusual plants. All the while, making contact with the US Department of Agriculture and ultimately selling these plants to people all around the United States.

One of the key things that sets me apart from other companies is that I am the sole owner & employee. Everything I do, always falls back on me. So, my attention to detail, organization & delivery has to be functioning at full capacity. Simply put, I need to be on my A-game If I expect returning customers. That is why I spent so much of my time focusing my attention to customer retention.

One of the proudest moments for me early on, was creating content to teach others about plant care & having industry lead businesses reach out to collaborate with me. I will forever be thankful for companies such as Miracle-Gro, who in many ways, allowed me to resonate with a larger audience. Being able to work with companies that I had been buying products from over the years was a very surreal moment. The power of social media is not to be underestimated!

I want my audience to know that I am continually working on expanding my knowledge, as to better provide content for them. Which in turn will make them a more successful plant keeper. Those are the qualities I look to grow in myself. At the core, it’s what I envisioned for ‘Trinity Tropicals’.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My growth on social media wasn’t a fast one until very recently. For years I had toyed around with posting aesthetically pleasing photos. curating the most visually appealing feed & ultimately, I was left frustrated. The people I wanted to see my work, were not seeing it. The posts were getting very limited momentum. And in a last-ditch effort, I wiped my feed clean. 2 years’ worth of posts archived! I decided the only way I could grow my online presence was If I started from scratch. A total rebrand was in the books for me.

So that is exactly what I did. For another 2 years, I began posting videos & short form content. I changed my username to something a little more suitable, I started to get comfortable in front of the camera & before I knew it. I made my first semi-viral post. It garnered over 250,000 views overnight and 169,00 likes within 24 hours. My little Instagram page with roughly 1100 followers, exploded to 10k followers in less than 3 weeks. I was so overwhelmed with the traction. but relieved that my consistency eventually paid off. Not only that, the video that I spent the least amount of time on editing, provided me with the most payoff.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

A few months into posting content, I stumbled across a company who had reinvented lighting pertaining to plant care. At this point in time, I took it upon myself to order one, shoot an unboxing video & ultimately create an “add” for that company. Within a week, the video took off within the plant community. I wanted to keep track of what sales I would generate & I began using an affiliate code. Within a week of posting, I generated that company over $10,000 in sales. With the numbers in hand, I reached out to the lighting company & pitched myself to them. It has by far been one of the best partnerships I’ve created with a company. Not only have they sponsored all of my lighting needed for plant care. They’ve contracted me to produce adds on a monthly basis, increased my commission substantially. I foresee this being a long term partnership, simply because I took a risk and made a video. You would be so surprised to see what opportunities are available when you take a risk!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/trinitytropicals
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Trinitytropicals

Image Credits

@ Eduardo Robles