We recently connected with Nicole Leza and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nicole thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

I started Santa Barbara Picnic Co. without any prior business experience. I never developed a business plan because I was unsure if I was even going to turn it into a business. I think one of the hardest setbacks that gets people stuck from taking the leap to pursue an idea or dream, is the act of launching that idea. A lot of people can get stuck in analysis paralysis and spend too much time researching, and never make it to the step of actually launching it. I’ve had many other business ideas that I wanted to pursue previously, but those ideas never fully developed.

I started out very simple with Santa Barbara Picnic Co. I honestly didn’t put too much thought into it before creating the Instagram, but I knew I wanted to create stylish picnic set ups around Santa Barbara and I felt very passionate about creating this as an experience for others to enjoy. Of course, if I had created a plan of action I would have saved a lot of money and headache in the beginning with launching my business. However, the launch happened very organically and I learned how to quickly grow with the demand. I was able to adapt and grow my business into something that felt right to me, which I learned by experimenting with it and the different services we offered.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’ve always had the drive to create and pursue something for myself. I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, and fell in love the close-knit community and culture of Santa Barbara. I knew I wanted to stay in town after graduation, but I had no idea about which career paths I wanted to take. After taking many different dead-end jobs, I got the sense of urgency to create my own career path. Events and social experiences were really important to me, and with my innate desire for design and aesthetics, and love for the outdoors, I came up with the idea for creating an event service with a niche in picnics. Picnics are a quintessential activity to Santa Barbara, and it felt like the right thing to do and it was the right to me for me. After spending a lot of time developing my business as it grew, I learned more about myself, my passions, and the direction I wanted to take it.

I didn’t have any other competitors at the time or anyone else to look to for how to model or structure my business, but after gaining more experience I was able to make it into something that made sense for me and my goals. I learned that I loved the design aspect of it, and we put a lot of care and attention to styling each picnic perfectly. Quality and uniqueness are also really important to me, and is at the forefront of our picnic set ups.

We offer picnic packages for groups of two up to 40-50 people or can customize for larger guest counts. Our clients book our picnics to celebrate many life milestones. Our works is very fulfilling, because we get to be part of such special occasions, and we love witnessing the excitement and togetherness that is spent at our picnics.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I started my business on Instagram. With only a few inspiration posts and one picnic example that I created and shared as a soft launch with friends, I was able to book my first client within a week of launching my Instagram account. After that picnic, we quickly received more bookings, which simultaneously gave us more content to share, post, and get in the eyes/feed of others in or traveling to Santa Barbara. Utilizing the popular, local hashtags and tagging other local visitor Instagram pages really helped us grow on Instagram.

I think Instagram and social media is crucial for small businesses, especially when starting out because you might not have the funds, marketing, or years of building SEO to pop up on Google or search engines.

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

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker was inspirational for me at the time of launching Santa Barbara Picnic Co. and was also a helpful tool in learning how to gather and network with other business owners in the community.

In the early stages of my picnic business, I would put together and host gatherings that would bring together other local entrepreneurs and loved using my decor and rentals as a base to put together these experiences.

I place a lot of importance in gathering and human connection, and it was Parker’s human-centered approach to gathering that resonated with me in being a host and creating an experience where people can come together and create meaningful and memorable moments.

Contact Info:

• Website: santabarbarapicnicco.com
• Instagram: @santabarbarapicnicco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/santabarbarapicnicco/

Image Credits
Caitlin Alohilani Photography Jodee Debes Photography Elope Wild and Free Photography Renoda Campbell Photography