We recently connected with Kat Feist and have shared our conversation below.
Kat , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
The one thing that has made my business more successful than my competitors is focusing on event accessibility. The 2 largest factors in this is 1. free entry, and 2. family friendly.
A lot of companies make the majority of their cash influx from charging admission which I truly detest. It stops people from even considering coming. When people hear that our events are free, they get excited and bring friends and their whole family. That also means my vendors will make a greater profit and happy vendors are my bread and butter. In this economy, charging a single person $20 just to enter and then expect them to go shopping really limits a large population of people, that would cost a family of 4 $80 just to attend! Granted, I take large hit with this method but I also vend at my events as this company has truly been born out of my personal love from growing and selling plants and that helps with my income. As a mom of soon to be 3 children, finding activities that aren’t going to cost a ton is really important to me. So along with being free to enter, I make sure we have family friendly vendors that offer something for people of all ages along with great food and drinks. Little kids really get excited over plants too! Plants come in all shapes and colors and young children are over their moon to get their first “indoor plant pet” which is a great way to teach them responsibility in a “soft” manor that isn’t as intense as perhaps caring for an animal that end up being the parents responsibility.
Because of these methods, our events always have high foot traffic, great profits for the vendors, have created a following, and tight bonds between our established vendors. Its amazing to see how we all support each other. We are each other’s cheerleaders! I wouldn’t change my method ever, even for vacation in the Caribbean on a yacht!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
New England Plant Expo is a botanical and nature inspired market touring New England’s Breweries and Vineyards. Specializing in rare to uncommon plants and a plethora of botanically themed crafters and artisans that are family friendly and free to enter.
How I got into this is a bit of a complicated story that goes back to my upbringing. I grew up in a extremely religious, sexist, and abusive household. Most of anything I aspired to do from a young age I was told I couldn’t do, wasn’t strong enough, or wasn’t appropriate. One parent was an abusive alcoholic, the other never did anything to stop it and used manipulation as a means of control. Being honest, it sucked. Did that mean it was all bad? No. Some of the happier times of my childhood were being outside, gardening with my family. Everyone seemed focused, happy and we’d be out there all weekend. As I got older and started working my parents hadn’t the time nor energy anymore to keep up with the yard so I started to do it all. I’d spend all my money on mulch, flowers, and I’d convince my friends to come over and we’d spend day after day out there. I didn’t think of my troubles and as long as I was being seen as working hard I avoided trouble with my parents; it was my escape.
Later in life I met my current partner of 13 years. He had every window of his apartment filled with tropical plants! This was new to me, but it gave me a feeling of it being a “safe place” and while he traveled for work I took care of the plants. To this day plants are our greatest shared hobby. Jump to 2022 and I began to struggle with postpartum depression after my 2nd child. I hyper fixated on rare plants and it got me out of the house – searching for those gems in different nurseries. I told myself I’d get my money back from the extreme purchases by selling propagations and… I did!
That led me to making connections with local plant enthusiasts and traders who attempted to partner with another organization for a plant show that unfortunately didn’t go so well. Months later in 2024 I reached out and asked if this group of people would support me if I ran it myself as I had event planning experience. They were hesitant but agreed and then… BAM! We had our first event at Diamond Hill Vineyards in Cumberland. It was supposed to just be a small market but it went a bit viral and we “broke” the town. People were parked 2 miles in every direction, walking to get to us. Traffic in the small down was blocking intersections and eventually we got shut down, not because we were doing anything wrong, just because the town couldn’t handle the traffic. It was insane. I knew I had something after that day. Something I created, that was mine, that people wanted more of. I went home, hugged my daughter and told her she could do anything she set her mind to. And so here we are, only a year later, having learned so much and still going strong.
My business is a dream come true built from obsession, love, and a bit of ADHD. Its a testament, after a life long journey of not feeling good enough, desperation to create and having something of my own, that a girl can, indeed, do whatever the F she wants and succeed at it too! It my biggest pride and it’s exciting to be able show my children what a single person can accomplish and that just because you might be in your 30s, a college drop out, and not have the right “backing”, it is never too late to chase a dream. I hope all my guests and vendors see how transparent it is that our events are built from such love, passion, and that I can share to joy of plant therapy with everyone who needs or wants it.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I didn’t start my business the smart way. I had ZERO capital and vendors that had been burned by a previous organizer. For my first event, I worked with a vineyard owner that I had worked for harvesting grapes and asked if they’d be willing to host the market for me with out charging me with the idea it would benefit them from wine sales. Then, because I had no history, I charged my vendors pennies as I had no idea if the event would be successful and I needed to build their trust. Between getting licensing, branding, advertising, initial product and signage I was in the negative by about 7k. Embarrassingly enough, I hid the expenses from my partner and put it all on credit cards. I was desperate to get it to work and I’m so very thankful it all worked out in my favor because the aftermath wouldn’t have been a great situation. It took me months to recover the capital and even when I made my money back, I had to keep investing any profit back into the business to make it better. I would say it took me a whole year to eventually be fully in the green and start making a profit.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Right now, I am actually in the biggest decision making part of my journey. For the last 10 years I have worked full time at a major Boston hospital in an administrative role. Its secure, stable, pays the bills and I have been able to rely on it and get “double income” while starting my business. If I was perhaps single, or didn’t have children I could keep up with the crazy work hours but this July we’ll be welcoming our third (and last!!!!) gremlin (child) into our family and I’m already burnt out. In the state of Mass, women get 2-3 months of maternity to recovery from birth and an additional 3 months of bonding leave, all paid! But do I go back? I’ve hit the point where I can’t keep doing it all and stretching myself so thin is making all the aspects of my life suffer. It’s one of the biggest risks of my life and while I was nervous about it, I’ve become more and more confident that I need crash out of my comfort zone and fully commit to my business. Owning my own business that mainly operates on the weekends means I’m spared from the cost of daycare which is more expensive than our mortgage, being a better partner, mother and better owner. So long as our economy doesn’t crash and burn, this is THE most pivotal point where I’m truly going to test if I’ll sink or swim.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ne.plantexpo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/New-England-Plant-Expo-61557677970842/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-f-16b587130/
