We were lucky to catch up with T.J. McGrath recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi T.J. , thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

Without social media, I likely wouldn’t have a business. I’d say 90 percent of my sales/revenue comes from social media, Instagram in particular.

I manage my own social media. I certainly didn’t have start up resources to even consider hiring a company to manage it, though I don’t think I would have even if I had had the resources.

I’m not selling a static product or service, I’m selling creativity along with my talent and experience. To do that successfully, my audience needs to know I am and trust me. I don’t think an outsourced social media management company can get deep enough inside my head to be able to convey that to the audience I am trying to reach.

If you’re considering whether or not a social media management service is right for your business I think you have to start first with understanding your own expectations of what you want said service to accomplish. Then you need to understand what they can provide and at what cost. One of the questions you must answer for yourself is; are your needs actually social media management or are they something else, like marketing or branding services. Some social media management companies offer all of that and some simply manage consistent social media posting. None of this is inexpensive, so I think you really need to have a comprehensive understanding of your own goals to help make the decision.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a floral designer, micro-flower farmer. My studio focuses on sustainability in the industry by featuring primarily locally/American grown flowers in my designs, created using reusable design mechanics. Ever get a flower arrangement in that green block? That’s floral foam, it’s a single use plastic and it’s bad for the environment. My studio is floral-foam free which may not mean much to the average consumer; but in the realm of events and large scale floral designs, it’s a commitment to reducing my business’ impact on our planet.

I work from my home, so I sell flowers via a weekly, seasonal, home delivery subscription. I book a limited number of events annually; share my passion for designing sustainably through creative and educational workshops and speaking engagements across the country.

Prior to flowers, I spent many years in marketing and retail. When I opened my studio I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself in any way. I wanted to utilize all of my skills and so I offer mentoring; not just to up and coming or seasoned florists, but creatives in general who might need help with social media, marketing, content etc. I interview any potential client to get an understanding of their goals; happy clients across the board are key to the success of any business. I pride myself on only working with clients who I believe my skills and experience can help.

Leaving a full-time, well paying job was a leap of faith, but that’s what I did in 2015. I took a part-time job in a flower shop, thinking I’d learn the basics and eventually open my own shop. I learned quickly the start up cost was enormous and so I utilized all of my skills to help that new shop become a highly sought after event design studio. Flash back to covid of 2020-I had to decide to believe in myself and finally go out on my own. To do that I had to get my husband on board with me running some kind of flower shop out of our 840 square foot home.

I didn’t set out to be a flower farmer, but the opportunity to grow arose and it made sense. For three months my subscription clients received designs completely created with flowers I grew…that, believe it or not is probably the thing I am most proud of to date.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Authenticy. I opened my business with no start-up capital. All I had was my reputation & 5 years experience as the lead designer in someone else’s shop and a small social media following. I had created my Instagram account to share my work in that shop as a secondary outlet to support that shop; I had a small following of my own to start but that was it; sort of. I also had 5 years experience learning that the floral/event industry is an industry that is actually pretty bad for our environment. I wanted my business to be better for the planet. I spoke honestly about what I knew but more importantly what I was learning. I presented my business and myself honestly and simply started sharing the things I was learning once I started looking into the issues in the industry. I am not a natural public speaker by any means, so putting my voice and face out there in the social media stratosphere wasn’t exactly easy for me, but I did it anyway and it resonated. Within 6 months of consistently and authentically putting myself and the things I was learning out there, I booked my first speaking engagement with a local garden club and from there the ball was rolling. I’m 3 years in, and when it comes to speaking engagements, I’m still no great public speaker, but I am still passionate, honest and authentic and that continues to resonate–thankfully!

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

When I say social media I want to be clear, I’m primarily referring to Instagram. That is the platform I focus most of my energy on, though I am present on others.

As I said, I didn’t have anything but social media to get my business up and running. So, I actually spent a lot of time concentrating on it in several ways.

I work with flowers and flowers are pretty so you think it would be easy, but it’s not. I knew to grow my audience I first needed to be able to put out the best possible visual that I could. That meant digging out the camera I had given to my husband several Christmas’ ago. I googled my camera and found some YouTube videos that gave me some basic understanding of how it worked. I talked to photographers every chance I got, but mostly I just worked at it constantly.

Simultaneously I committed to consistency. I knew that to grow I needed to be consistent with both my posting schedule and messaging. For me part of the consistency in messaging was to mention and tag the products like the vase I was designing in and the farmers who grew the flowers in the vase. I committed to doing that in every single post. Tagging and mentioning the local farmers quickly helped me build a community focused on locally grown flowers.

I always advise anyone starting out to set achievable goals. All of the platforms want us to spend all of our time on social media; that’s just not possible, especially for small business owners wearing all the hats. Devising a schedule/strategy that IS attainable for you is paramount to both the success of your social media presence and your sanity. Good content is important too. Making sure you are presenting the best possible visual you can create helps a lot. Getting your audience to read your captions is hard work, so if you’re able to offer value in your messaging, do it; whether that’s sourcing tips, industry best practices, motivational or other. Consistently infusing value will only serve you well. I’d also advise you have a clear understanding of your goals-using social media as a marketing tool is different than using it as a community building opportunity for your business, though they can sometimes look and feel the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tjmcgrathdesign.com
• Instagram: @t.j._mcgrath_design
• Facebook: TJ McGrath
• Linkedin: TJ McGrath
• Other: TikTok @tj_mcgrathdesign

Image Credits
TJ McGrath Lucy Hunter Marites Allen