We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Liz Lark-Riley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Liz below.

Liz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How has Covid changed your business model?

The Covid-19 pandemic rocked the garden industry, but not in the way we initially expected. As people found themselves wanting to spend more time at home or outdoors and less time in restaurants, movie theaters, and on airplanes we found ourselves at the intersection of everything everyone wanted.

As a community-driven garden center with five acres of beautiful outdoor space and lots of beautiful plants to take home and make your own space more beautiful we experienced a huge boom. As you might imagine, this was incredibly stressful and surprising for our staff. While many of their friends were finding themselves laid off or retreating into their homes to work remotely, our team were face to face with the public everyday.

Fortunately, I had just discovered Brene Brown, Kim Scott, and other thought leaders who champion the importance of compassion, empathy, and candor in the workplace. We got a lot better at listening, and creating time and space to make sure the team knew they could communicate openly with management. And I began to normalize discomfort and personal vulnerability in my management style.

We are a much stronger organization for having gone through the pandemic together. And we are stronger because we listened and learned from our mistakes.

Liz, 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?

Rockledge Gardens is a place for connection, peace, health, fun, and a chance to make the world a more beautiful place. Founded in 1960, we are a 5-acre garden center, farmer’s market and wedding and events venue in Rockledge, Florida.

I began working at Rockledge Gardens in 2013 just after finishing graduate school at NYU. Running a garden center wasn’t in my plans, my Master’s is in Performing Arts Administration and I thought that I would be running a theater company. But while my husband and I were working on making avant garde theater on the side, I fell in love with my “day job” at the Gardens (which, at the time was owned and operated by my husband’s parents). I started in Marketing and  Events and then became Managing Director, overseeing all operations, in 2019.

I recognized that management and the green industry offered exactly the kind of creative challenges that mean most to me: working with people and promoting beauty in the world. However, my husband is still very much committed to a career in the arts, which, for us, means moving to a more urban area with more theaters and committed artistic collaborators. So when my in-laws decided they wanted to retire, we began looking for a buyer rather than taking over the family business ourselves.

We are extremely grateful to have found the perfect people to take Rockledge Gardens into the future. Brendan Hayes-Morrison and Devon Klingman visited Rockledge Gardens for our first annual Spooky Sip-n-Stroll in October 2021 and knew immediately it was special. They closed on the business and became the new owners on June 1, 2022. I’m here to make sure they are set up for success and then I’m looking to continue to make an impact in the green industry, this time, in a big city!

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

We all want to make an impact. When it comes right down to it, everyone wants to know that their life matters. My best advice to anyone managing a team is to listen and to ensure that you have the systems in place to create space for your team to be heard.

I meet with each of my direct reports once a week. But here’s the thing, they set the agenda for our one-on-ones. I only provide the bookends by asking them at the beginning to “tell me something good” that happened in their work or personal lives (to ensure I’ve got lots of arsenal for praise or celebration) at the beginning of the meeting and then at the end of the meeting I ask. “How can I do better?” When you are at the top of your organization it is crucial that you solicit constructive feedback from your team. When you don’t have a boss it’s essential that you get your team to review your performance.

And when you get these communications, when you hear constructive criticism, thank them. Even if your first instinct is to defend yourself, take a deep breath, say thank you, and then repeat what you understood from what they said to make sure you got it right. This creates psychological safety for your team and it means that they will come to you when something’s not working and then you have the opportunity to fix it.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I love Radical Candor by Kim Scott and The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor. I also love the podcast How to Be Awesome at Your Job with Pete Mockaitis. Another great resource is LinkedIn…don’t be afraid of it, that’s where you will find people in your industry talking about things that you care about! And there are tons of resources out there to help you make the most of LinkedIn.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rockledgegardens.com
• Instagram: @rockledgegardends
• Facebook: @rockledgegardens
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizlarkriley
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/rockledgegardens
• Other: @rockledgegardens on TikTok @rockledgegardensweddings on Facebook and Instagram

Image Credits
all photos by Danielle Taufer