We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tylor Rogers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tylor below.

Alright, Tylor thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

With passion project, they almost consume you. Every moment you are thinking about this idea and how you want it to become reality. It starts with an idea, whether it’s a grand plan, or an idea that serves as a building block for something larger. Ideas like these tend to fill your thoughts and it’s all you can think about. I am a firm believer of acting on these ideas while they’re hot on your mind. The more you vocalize these ideas, you soon start to formulate a plan for execution. I allowed my ideas and plans for Arium to be the very center of my goals, dreams, and ambitions. What I was posting about on social media was about my plans for a plant shop, my design ideas utilizing plants, what types of services I wanted to offer. From these ideas, side ideas come up and you really start to fully realize the plan of your ideas. Over time, step after step, you realize your singular idea has had a snowball effect and you’ve effectively thought out your game plan for your goals/ideas/plans. When you’re really passionate about something, you don’t realize that all of this “work” youre doing is really coming up with a concise road map for execution. If 22 year old me was told to open a retail plant store by 23, I wouldnt have believed I could have done it, but it was by allowing myself to think of every detail, and being EXCITED to think about every detail that I had a plan to open Arium. I think really getting the community involved and excited about the work you are doing too is crucial! It allows people to get on board with your goals and see your vision for a community space. People always want to help or participate in something you are excited about. Excitement is contagious!

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?

We are exited to be here! Our whole business working with plants and designing spaces with the use of plants is all fueled by excitement and the passion of growing things. Plants have such a positive impact on people and the spaces we inhibit. We have spent years working with plants and researching how they grow, their light/watering requirements, everything to make a plant fully thrive. We offer a retail space thats all centered around education and engagement. We strongly believe that plants are for everybody! We pride ourselves on walking people through plant care and how the plants they choose will grow in their homes. There are no bad questions when it comes to growing plants, and the more shared experienced we can relay to our customers, the better understanding they will have on how to grow them! We work with clients everyday to help accomplish their goals for their spaces, whether they are looking to successfully grow a few plants for their homes, or if they are wanting a lush interior for their business. We offer comprehensive solutions and education about the work we are providing! Growing plants is exciting and we love getting to share the excitement for plants and the work we do with the public. We view our store as a retail urban conservatory. Offering an experience where you can walk around and just take in the greenery, but if something catches your eye, we can tell you about the plant, how to grow it, and youre able to take it home with you same day! We are able to plant things up for you as well as educate you about the soils we are using to make sure your plant thrives!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We opened our larger retail space just a few months before COVID in 2o2o. We, as everybody else, did not know what that year would bring. Being a space that is largely centered around people coming in, we had to pivot. Within a weeks notice, we had a game plan and executed a fully online retail business model. We were able to keep all of our employees and provide them with the same working hours prior to COVID. We were shipping out our plants nationally as well as coordinating local pick up and deliveries. From never offering plant delivery, we executed hundreds of plant deliveries in Portland every week. We were able to operate under this new business model successfully until we gradually shifted to limited capacity public hours. It was a challenge, but being in business means having to pivot at times, and knowing when to pivot for the success of the business and the coworkers we spend everyday with.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is a wonderful tool for small businesses! In a world where a lot of people are connected to their phone, social media is an essential tool for small businesses. Arium is all about the excitement around plants and growing them. We use social media as a means to express our excitement and get our community involved in what we are doing! We often use social media to broadcast plants people may not have seen before. This gets people excited to either come visit us, or want to grow the plant we are showcasing! We try to not use social media as a means to sell, but more so as a way to share our story and mission, and what we are excited about. I cant say it enough, excitement is contagious! We post consistently and really make our efforts on social media a priority! Some advice that I would share with people trying to build a social media presence would be to show up consistently! A familiar face builds trust in your products or services and gets people excited to partake in the work you are trying to accomplish!

Contact Info:

• Website: ariumbotanicals.com
• Instagram: @ariumbotanicals
• Facebook: Arium Botanicals
• Other: Tik Tok: @arium_botanicals

Image Credits
Image Credits: Arium Botanicals