ASHLEY & CARMELO SANCHEZ / BLACK / FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR/ BASED IN VA
mondaysva.com | @frommondays
| @plantsorwhatever @92bricks
Mondays plant studio
Take us back to the start, where did the idea come from?
Carmelo: It wasn’t until we had our child, her name’s Charlie Gray, September 2019, And I guess I didn’t wanna ask her to go back to work. But at that time, I guess we kind of needed her to in a sense at that time. So when the pandemic hit though it kind of forced her to not work because we got school aged children too. So she was into plants. She got into plants, maybe a year or two before that. So we started thinking, okay, we would sell them and people got to pick it up. And it wasn’t like no real business strategy to it, it was just some nice pictures in our backyard against some trees and people were buying the plants. Like it was crazy. And it wasn’t like no crazy big million dollar business or nothing. It was like a couple of dollars just to put in her pocket kind of thing. So of course, the plan was to get some type of plant boutique going on. But it wasn’t really serious, it was more so like man, we got to do it because there’s other businesses that are doing it outside of our area. And I know that it can work in our area because we’ve never seen anything like that especially like with this type of vision.
What are you most proud of thus far?
Carmelo: The branding of it that makes people drive from my Tennessee or South Carolina to come here. It’s crazy because they got to pass 50 shops, 50 plant shops before they even get here, you know? So I think that on my end, that’s what’s most proud of.
Ashley: I think mine is having people come in and they’re just like, wowed, like, oh my god, this is amazing. Or one lady came in, she’s like, I just want to lay on this couch and read all day. It’s just that type of environment. So I like that part and also like, when our kids are here, seeing them you know, love it just as much as we do.
"I think people need to learn how to properly use social media to their advantage and understand the quality of everything that they post and they offer."
Mondays was opened in the middle of a pandemic, but thanks to social media you all were able to leverage your business? Any advice for others?
Carmelo: I think social media is super important in today’s time branding. I don’t think that without social media, we would have been here, you know what I mean. So I think people need to learn how to properly use social media to their advantage and understand the quality of everything that they post and they offer. Because there’s a million other people doing the same thing and that’s okay. But something about you has to speak out that’s different. You know what I mean, I think that’s the biggest thing. You know, just go ahead and do it, and in the meantime learn social media so you can use it to your advantage.
