Making A Living Out of What Life Throws At You with Andrea Galbreath
Episode 19 of the Self-Made Mamas Podcast
Melissa: Hey Andrea, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today. For those who don’t know her, Andrea is the founder and CEO of Just Succ It, which is a succulent inspired gift and design company that has blown up in the last year. Andrea is a mom of three and she is actually a Canadian living in California right now. She is here to talk to us today about pivoting, going with the flow, taking what life throws at you, and sometimes starting over. Andrea, I’m really excited to have you here. If you want to introduce yourself, tell us about your life and business right now and a little bit about how you got there.
Andrea: Well, that introduction was perfect. Like, going with the flow, because that’s exactly what happened to me over the last year. Again, I’m Andrea Galbreath and I’m the CEO of Just Succ It and it’s an online succulent gift and design store. It started with succulents. They are plants and a lot of people don’t know what succulents are. They are desert plants. I started with a gift box because someone asked me to make them a gift box, and it has grown to offer corporate gifts and I do weddings and baby showers. Even during the coronavirus, it’s been amazing to see how people have gotten creative with being safe and still celebrating life the way that we like to. It’s just been really fun and exciting.
M: How many boxes do you think you’ve sold right now? I’ve been following your Facebook and I’m seeing you with these mountains of orders.
A: Yes. I started it last year because I’m a social worker by education and profession and I was in corporate wellness, and all of my contracts were on hold because of the coronavirus. I decided that it was time to pivot. I just have to pivot and find something new to do, and I had just been introduced to succulents myself. I was completely obsessed, and I thought, “Let me see if I can make this work.” It started with the idea that it was supposed to be a membership plan. It’s going to be a subscription plan which combines succulents and personal development because personal development is my gem. That’s what I’ve been focusing on. Then someone asked me to make a gift box and the rest was history. I probably should know the exact number of boxes that I’ve sold. I don’t know exactly, but this month has been one of the busiest months. I think the picture that you saw of me standing in front of a bunch of boxes was actually one order.
M: Wow!
A: That was really, really exciting. I had more orders like that this year, so I don’t actually know how many boxes, but that one was 200 boxes. Then a few weeks before that, I had one order that was 100 boxes. In January, I had one order that was 35 custom plants for an event and it was like a takeaway for people who were there. We also do arrangements now too, so I do arrangements and planters. That’s a good question, though. I really don’t know how many boxes I’ve actually sold.
M: A lot, it sounds like.
A: I went from having zero income to having five-figure months in less than a year.
M: That’s amazing. Good for you. You said that you were a social worker to begin with by education and by profession. How did you end up there, and in California? Tell me a little bit about that.
A: I got to the United States because I met an American soldier and he brought me to the United States. When our relationship ended, I didn’t want to go back to the cold. I grew up in Ottawa and my family is still in Ottawa, my sister’s there, my mom is there. The rest of my family is actually in Jamaica and I used to tease that I was born in the wrong country. I was supposed to be born in Jamaica because I meant to be in the warm. I ended up marrying a man from Tennessee and we were together for a long time and it was his career that brought us to California. Then I ended up getting divorced, but I loved California and I had friends here and I was already into corporate. The corporate wellness started after we were divorced but I was already in the health and wellness field. California has the reputation of having people who are really big into fitness and health and wellness and now that I think about it, I’ve had some really fun experiences. I’ve met some fitness celebrities who got me in, you know. Doing succulents is a complete 180 from anything that I’ve ever done, but what is really fun is that the skills that I learned in all of those things actually got me ready for this business, and I feel like this is actually going to be my long term thing. It’s not changing, I’m not going back to corporate wellness, and the scalability is incredible. The people that I’m meeting and what I’m learning…it’s just been really, really exciting.
M: That’s amazing.
A: Did I answer your question?
M: Yeah, I’m here for all of it.
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Changing Your Mindset
Melissa: We’re here to talk about pivoting. We’re here to talk about dealing with the lemons that life throws at you and making your own kind of lemonade. When you are forced to start again, from nothing, what do you want people to know about that? What’s your message for everybody?
Andrea: I think it’s important that people understand that life doesn’t happen to you, life just happens. It’s really up to us how we react to it. Last year, when the current apocalypse happened, I lost every single one of my corporate contracts because those were all face-to-face. I would go to businesses or I would go to homes and even though we had the capability to move things online, they didn’t want to. They didn’t accept it. There I was faced with everything that I had been doing was gone, and I had a choice to make. I can either sit and be sad about it and say, “Why me?” Or look at all the options that are available to me, and then just go with one. That’s what I did. I decided you know what, I’m going to try this succulent thing and see if it turns into a thing. Marie Forleo is someone that I love and admire, and she has a phrase that everything is figureoutable. Yeah. That’s literally how I approach everything is that everything is figureoutable. I’ve had online programs before, I knew how to set up a website, I knew how to create downloads. I know enough about social media that it helped me build my business, but I didn’t know about products. I didn’t know about shipping. I was new, but because of my experience and just the way that I see things, I could learn how to do this. I just said yes to everything. When people asked me to do something I would just say yes. Even if I didn’t know how to do it, because I realized while I’m going to learn how to do it, I’m either going to like it and keep doing it or say, “I’m never doing that again,” but I knew I would learn.
M: Totally. I love what you said life doesn’t happen to you, it just happens. You’re probably familiar with this but that’s something that we talk about in the personal development and coaching space all the time is this idea that circumstances are neutral. Facts are neutral. We give them power with our feelings, and our thoughts are generated based on our feelings. If you can approach life that way, you really can get through almost anything and thrive, not just survive it. You can come out and do incredible things and achieve incredible things, but you have to approach it with that mindset. Otherwise, you’re just getting steamrolled all the time, because life does happen.
A: You’re right, it does. It’s really interesting, you can have two people side by side, and they are having the same experience. One will walk away like, “Oh, my God, I learned something.” Then another one might be like, “I feel so lost. I don’t know what to do.” Or I like that analogy of going to a movie and two people watch the exact same movie, and then one leaves and says, “That was the best movie I’ve ever seen.” And somebody else is like, “That was horrible. I’m never going to get those two hours back?”
M: Yes, that’s a great analogy.
A: It’s a matter of perspective. How do you want to view life, I’ve decided to believe, to know, that life is always working in my favour. If something does not go as planned, or when something does not work out, or even when I’m going through really sucky times, I know that on the other side of that will be greatness for me. That’s what happens, and that’s how I’ve decided to view life. Anybody can learn to adopt that perspective.
M: Yes, we’re not born with that. I know for myself, I was raised in quite a cynical, critical family. I always thought that optimism and a positive attitude and being happy go lucky and chill were inherent personality traits. It’s not, it’s actually a choice. It’s something that you can learn and you can kind of program into yourself. That discovery literally changed my life.
A: I love that you use the word choice because it absolutely is. We can choose how we react to things. There’s literally a fraction of a second between the trigger and then our reaction. There is space there where you can decide, you can choose how you’re going to react, and if people realized that they are in charge of their feelings, and how they react, their lives could be so much better. The world would be so much better.
M: Yes, absolutely!
Taking Back Control
Melissa: On that note, what are some of the issues that you see with this? Obviously, Coronavirus is the ultimate curveball for everybody. I think probably 97% of average people had no idea this was coming. What would your advice be to people that are having things thrown at them, and they’re having a hard time navigating it because there’s so much periphery stuff that comes out of this? Some people were obviously dealing with difficult times even without a pandemic, but there are so many peripheral consequences that have come out of the state of the world right now. I saw this great quote that said, “We’re all in the same water, but we’re in different boats.” I really think that’s true. What’s your advice to people, no matter what boat they’re in and no matter what situation they’re finding themselves in right now?
Andrea: Well, I actually believe that no matter what’s going on, a person has to literally take 100% responsibility for who they are and their role in any given situation. Of course, we obviously cannot control the Coronavirus, but how we respond to that is absolutely up to us. Having awareness of how we typically react and whether it’s helpful or not. What do we think about and is it helpful or not? How do we behave, is it helpful or not? Having a certain level of awareness about patterns of thought and behaviour, and then changing what doesn’t work or is not serving you. I think it’s too easy to blame circumstances and not how we interact with those circumstances. Then you can be like, “Oh, I’m in control. I’m not in control of this. It’s all these extenuating circumstances,” but it always goes back to how we decide to react to it. If things are not going well, you don’t have to blame yourself for things that are not going well, but you certainly can take some time. How can I manage this better? How can I manage this differently? What opportunities am I missing? We can get so stuck in the problem that we forget to focus on solutions. There’s a solution to every single problem. Even the Coronavirus. What’s really interesting is that sometimes, people don’t like the solutions that are available to them, because they started to get stuck. I’ve been that way. I was a social worker, so I thought my job was to always be making a difference, and I always thought I would be in the service industry. I had other business opportunities that probably would have been very lucrative. I’ve had people say, “Hey, I want you to build this business with me,” and I was like, “What? Me?” and it felt like it was just about making money. It was in the tech field and it probably would have been really lucrative, but in my brain, I was like, “I’m a social worker, I’m a service person, I provide service, this doesn’t fit.” It was actually still tough, at the beginning with Just Succ It, wondering how this is making a difference to people? Then I realized, it brings people joy. The name itself makes people laugh. I put a lot of love into each and every single box and when people get it, they’re happy. That’s making a difference. Not only that, but for whatever reason, this platform has allowed me to be in front of people I’ve never been in front of before. The broader message for me has always been about helping people learn to thrive in life and succulents actually teach an amazing lesson about adapting and thriving. Then I realized, maybe this was the avenue I was always supposed to follow in order to share the broader message about adapting and thriving in life. Now I have fun selling succulents and putting gift boxes together. I’m also going to be able to be of service by helping in some way to improve the lives of others. Always check in with yourself about the beliefs you have about yourself, and whether they actually true. We can really box ourselves in when we get stuck with this identity. For example, if you were in marketing all the time, and then the Coronavirus happened and you lost your job and you’re feeling like, “I’m a marketer, I can only do marketing.” Well, I was a social worker and now I’m selling succulents. Anything is possible.
M: I agree, 100%.
Just Say Yes
Melissa: I’ve kind of asked you this already, what your advice would be to people, but is there anything that you would do differently? It sounds like all of the different decisions that you’ve made, and the experiences that you had, have kind of led you to develop this mindset and skillset and ability to grow and pivot that has brought you to this super successful business. This company is very likely going to scale well into the multiple six figures in the next three years. That’s incredible, for something that you started in the middle of a global crisis. What do you think, if anything, you would do differently, and where would you suggest people start? For someone that feels like they’re just getting kicked when they’re down all the time, which I think is a lot of people right now, honestly.
Andrea: Yeah. I wish I had started to say yes a lot sooner. Say yes even when I wasn’t sure how to do something, or whether or not it was going to be right. The reason why I didn’t say yes, is because a lot of it was fear. Like, I don’t know how to do this. I can’t help but think that had I said yes to a lot of other opportunities, life might have been different. I don’t regret anything, though. Everything that has happened in my life has brought me to today and who I am and I love it. I love all of it. For other people, I would say just say yes. Do it before you think you’re ready. Just freakin’ do it. Then you’ll learn. Know that you’re going to make mistakes and don’t be afraid of making mistakes. I have this saying, “Move fast, break things, and then I’ll just figure it out.” It’s not going to be the end of the world. It really isn’t. Do it before you’re ready. Just say yes. Especially if saying yes will help you learn something that could bring you closer to the life that you want to live.
M: Yes, I agree, 100%. That’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all of this.
A: Thank you for inviting me, it was really fun.
Andrea Galbreath is the owner and founder of Just Succ It, a succulent gifts & design company based out of California.
Check them out at justsuccit.com and follow them on Instagram @justsuccit. They ship succulent gift boxes and arrangements all over the US.
Contact them directly for custom corporate and personal orders.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Self-Made Mamas Podcast. You can find more information about working with us at theselfmademama.com or connect with us on Instagram at @selfmademama_. I can’t wait to chat.
