ASLU 086: Creative Canadian Kristen Raney of Shifting Roots

Editor’s Note: Some links in this article may be affiliate links. Full disclosure is located at the end of the article.

This episode is brought to you by Fine Lime Designs Illustrations

Kristen Raney of Shifting Roots went from being a professional singer and vocal coach to an urban gardener, floral artist and content entrepreneur, creating a multi-revenue stream business along the way.

As a former farm kid turned urban gardener, Kristen is obsessed with growing cut flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden. She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw. She runs her business from Saskatoon, where she lives with her husband and young children.

In this episode, Kristen shares how she created a successful multi-revenue stream business that combines online ad revenue, digital product sales, in person workshops, the creation and sale of physical floral bouquets and arrangements and now, the launch of a Backyard Business Course. Operating from an abundance mindset with a belief in the power of collaboration and education, Kristen has not only brought her audience along for the ride, she's turned the power of growing that community into a revenue generating business strategy.

This Episode Is For…

This is a great episode for anyone who:

  • is struggling with a scarcity mindset

  • would love to create multiple streams of revenue

  • has wondered about building a hybrid digital and physical product business

  • would like to create and sell a course

  • wants to build a community around their business - both with customers and with fellow small business owners

If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a link to this week’s episode. You can also listen via the player below or on your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Stitcher, and more). Just search for And She Looked Up!

think global, nuture local

think global, nurture local

in this episode we discuss:

  • Kristen’s creative journey from professional singer and vocal coach to blogger and urban gardener, to gardening educator and now, small scale flower farmer and floral designer

  • processing and grieving the death of a close loved one while trying to start and run a business

  • how if we ignore work/life balance, life has a way of giving you a wake-up call

  • researching a new career and how she landed on blogging

  • the power of a viral post and how that helped her define her niche of cold zone gardening

  • if you’re looking for the answer to a question, so are others. What if you could answer it for all of them?

  • the shaky reality of blogging and building a business on one revenue stream

  • Kristen’s foray into ebooks and gardening planners and creating a new stream of revenue

  • how valuable some kind of performance training can be when you are a working creative in a social media driven marketing world

  • the secret to getting the good stuff out is to let the bad stuff out first

  • how writing an ebook on cut flowers let to a backyard flower farm and front porch floral design business

  • how Kristen chose to document her entire first year of her floral business on YouTube, bringing her audience along with her

  • the ups and downs of running a business that needs Mother Nature’s co-operation (and how that forced a few mid-season pivots including collaborating with other local flower farmers - instead of viewing them as competition - and turning to running live workshops)

  • how documenting that first year led to developing an online course that had a warm audience waiting to buy it before her first year even finished!

  • why building a community around you that you can warm up will help you sell. You need to lead people where you want to go and to do that you need to build a community

  • the importance of getting coaching in her business

  • how working with local influencers really helped her business and not necessarily in the way you might think! (and how she found the right influencers)

  • the importance of remembering to go local, even when you’re global

  • how having multiple streams of revenue gives you more freedom to experiment and try new things

  • how having a scarcity mindset actually holds you back from growing your business and your community

  • getting started with course creation

Mentioned in this episode

Support the Podcast

Wondering how you can support the podcast? Here are some great ways you can support the podcast!

We’re On YouTube!

You can now listen to the podcast on YouTube! We’re in the process of uploading our entire archive onto YouTube, one episode a day, so you can listen there. Once we’re caught up, new episodes will be uploaded every Friday!

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Podcast Episode, Inspiring WomenMelissa HartfielS3, creative mindset, creative enterpreneurshp, Kristen Raney, inspire4Comment