How Colleen Raney is Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand
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Building a Sweet Pea Seed Brand
In this episode (Ep. 146), we sit down with Colleen Raney, founder of Songbird Seed Co and Diadem Flower Co. If you love a great story, this one’s for you. Colleen’s path into the flower world is anything but conventional. From studying aerospace engineering and training as a professional actor, to performing Irish music internationally, to building a flower farm in Maine, to moving the farm to Washington—and ultimately launching a specialty sweet pea seed company—Colleen’s story is full of pivots, curiosity, and entrepreneurial strategy. And don’t even get us started on her sense of humor!
Colleen shares how a season of burnout and big life shifts led her to the garden—and how a simple fascination with sweet peas slowly grew into a thoughtfully built seed company. Our conversation wanders through topics like creativity, business strategy, and the realities of building something in the floral world, all anchored by the sense of wonder that keeps pulling us back to flowers.
Join us as we chat with Colleen about:
- Starting a flower farm in Maine and building a thriving local floral business
- Moving back to the West Coast and adapting to a different flower market
- Why sweet peas became the foundation of her seed business
- The process of researching and launching a niche seed company
- Branding, packaging, and storytelling as marketing tools
- Growing seed stock and preserving rare varieties
- Identifying your ideal customer and staying focused on a narrow market
- Managing comparison, visibility, and self-doubt as a creative entrepreneur
- Shifting away from “content creation” toward documenting real work on social media
- Building authentic community around a niche product
Connect with Colleen Raney:
TODAY’S EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
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Co-Hosts: Amy McGee (BB + Bloom Trust Co.) & Natalie Gill (Native Poppy)
BB Podcast Sound Engineer: Joel McGee
Music Written & Performed by: Landon McGee
If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy our conversation with Emily Patrick. Click here to listen.
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