Ep. 87: Hannah Bonham Blackwell (Southside Blooms)

Today we’re visiting with Hannah Bonham Blackwell of Southside Blooms in the Englewood community of Chicago, Illinois. Southside Blooms, which is a project of Chicago Eco House (a 501c3 nonprofit with a mission of using sustainability to alleviate poverty), is a farm-to-vase florist providing unique and fashion-forward arrangements, while maintaining an uncompromising dedication to both the environment and the surrounding communities. One hundred percent of their money goes directly towards fulfilling this mission. That means every flower purchased from Southside Blooms creates jobs for at-risk youth, converts vacant lots into safe and productive community assets, and actively contributes to the health and resilience of the environment through regenerative farming practices. We hope you'll join us for this conversation as we talk with Hannah about: using sustainable practices in flower farming unlocking creativity in the youth who work at Southside Blooms the importance of being based in the area where Southside Blooms employees live how Southside Blooms acquired land for 4 urban farms in Chicago (plus another in Gary, Indiana) thoughts on expansion staffing wins and challenges finding farming techniques that work for the Southside Blooms business model the key to offering opportunities that are compatible with the community you serve LEARN MORE ABOUT SOUTHSIDE BLOOMS HERE: Website | Instagram | Facebook TODAY’S EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: EVERYSTEM A SPECIAL EVERYSTEM OFFER FOR BB LISTENERS: Enter referral code:  flowerwithpurpose when you create your EveryStem account to receive a free month of service. Monthly members receive their 2nd month free. Annual members receive 13 months for the price of 10. Host: Amy McGee (Botanical Brouhaha + Bloom Trust Co.) BB Podcast Sound Engineer: Grayson McGee Music Written & Performed by: Landon McGee

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Do you own a flower business or dream of starting one? Are you looking for practical floral design tips? Ever wonder how other florists run their businesses? Or maybe you’re a farmer florist building a flower farm and floral design business at the same time? You’ve landed in the right place! At the BB Podcast, we serve floral designers, farmer florists, flower shop owners, and aspiring florists by diving into practical tips and insider information from real working florists, floral educators, flower growers, and floral industry vendors to help you find the tools you need to start, run, and grow your flower business. We like to mix it up! Do you prefer hearing real-life stories or diving into specific flower business topics? Either way, we’ve got you covered. Listen to our storytelling episodes featuring floral professionals sharing the details of starting and running their flower businesses. So many stories just waiting for you to dig in and learn from those who are doing what you want to do! Browse our topic-specific interviews where you can expect everything from conversations on marketing, staffing, and floral software to pain points like finding your mojo or listening to your intuition in business. Amy McGee, Botanical Brouhaha founder, brings years of relationship building with floral designers, farmer florists, and floral professionals to the table and invites you to pull up a chair for the conversations where you’ll learn and be inspired by the nitty gritty transparency of the questions she asks. The BB Podcast is co-hosted by Natalie Gill, owner of Native Poppy.