We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anne Dickson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Anne, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
“It won’t be long now until someone finds me out!” It’s called Imposter Syndrome, and it’s a notion that I am familiar with.
As new opportunities and challenges have come up in my work, there’s often a slight undercurrent of self-imposed inadequacy. I can list off the reasons why these feelings come up in no particular order: I was not formally trained in floral design, did not go to a fancy art school, and did not get my MBA. The litany of other wonderful things I chose to do instead, doesn’t get to play a role in this narrative. Self-taught creatives are a special bunch and I, for one, tend to question whether or not I need my floral work to be validated by others in order for it to be good. The adage “everyone’s a critic” has morphed into “everyone’s a critic with powerful platforms to air their opinions”. This dynamic can leave the Creative feeling especially vulnerable to Imposter Syndrome. Which leads me to a few questions: How can we practice feeling competent? Who determines “good from bad,” especially as it pertains to art? How do we define success?
I have grown into floral design and owning a business through a steep learning curve, from the very basics of how to put a well-balanced arrangement together, to the complex understanding of how to run a successful enterprise. Yet I always feel like someone is just about to lift the veil and point out how little I knew when I started, and how much I have yet to learn.
And while both those things are true (I entered blind and still have so much to learn), there’s a permission that I’ve given myself to move forward anyway, despite myself. Curiosity, drive, ambition and hard work can take you so much farther than knowing it all. As Glennon Doyle says, “we spend a million years collecting permission to do the thing, then we finally do the thing, and then after we spend the next million years justifying the thing that we did.” Why do we do this? Because we are afraid of making a mistake and looking like we don’t know.
We will make mistakes and we may look outrageous trying to figure it out. But! We must be brave and confident and trusting of ourselves.
To not know, but to have the courage to do it anyway, is a thrilling way to live. Here’s to all the humble realists, defining success on their own terms.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
After graduating from Denison University, I followed my love of design to New York City, where I was days away from starting a Masters program of Interior Design at Pratt Institute. I had interned in the Marketing Department of Tommy Hilfiger the summer prior, and a full-time position became available. I ended up deferring graduate school and working for Tommy Hilfiger as a Manager of Corporate Communications for two years. I traveled all over the country launching new lines, drafting press releases, pitching media and supporting the marketing team. I eventually left Tommy and took a job at Dolce & Gabbana as a Public Relations Manager. Here I serviced magazine editors, learning how to curate editorial content and hob-knob with some of the most interesting and well-known fashion industry leaders.
Five months after my wedding and five days after my 26th Birthday, my dad died of sudden heart failure. Devastated, my husband Andrew and I moved back to my hometown of Pittsburgh to be close to my mom and escape the grind of New York CIty. We bought a quiet house on the park with a big front porch and settled into a new life together. After a brief stint at a Marketing Agency, I became the Director of Marketing and Development for Propel Schools, a non-profit charter school . My dad had been on the Board of Directors and it was the perfect blend of mission driven work and deep sense of connection for me. I was there for six years, through the birth of my second son.
This is where the flowers come in.
Andrew and I moved to a seven acre farmhouse with our son George (not yet 2) and welcomed our son Foster months later. An idyllic pastoral setting complete with a barn and a tractor. Life looked magical on the outside, but I was deeply lonely and and terrified on the inside. As a mother of two under two, alone in all this new space, with no community and no longer in the professional world that I was so familiar with.
In this way, flowers really found me. At what was possibly the most challenging time for me, I discovered the healing power of nature. Something bigger than myself put me right there, right then. I spent my days with my babies, wandering the garden and the woods, cutting flowers, weeds, branches. I felt alive and awake. I made arrangements and dropped them at the doorsteps of my friends, wanting to share beauty with the people that I love. Friends and family started asking me to put things together for a dinner party, a book club, a loved one. And hence, Fox and the Fleur came into full bloom. Organically, passionately and from a place of purpose.
Today, Fox and the Fleur employees over thirteen women and has two locations in the Pittsburgh region. We offer cut floral design and deliveries, custom wedding and event florals, classes and workshops, holiday decorating, container gardening and home and garden merchandise.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Over the course of the seven years that I’ve operated my own business, I’ve doubled the revenue year over year. That has meant constant and rapid fire growth, continually adapting to needs and demands internally and externally.
The key to success in my experience is hiring great people. I have managed to assemble a team of highly talented women who are pushing the company’s mission and vision forward. I look for people with the right kind of energy. My expectation, though perhaps sounding high, is that people come to work ready to give 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. We are women on the rise! I want us to feel and be inspired by that energy amongst each other as a team, and for our clients to feel it outwardly in the work and soul that we put into our creativity. Being able to effectively problem solve is another core trait that I look for in my team. The floral industry is chaotic by nature. Floral prices change daily and our product is perishable. Bringing clarity, calm and a solution oriented mentality to work is imperative.
So, it’s the incredibly talented and hardworking people that make my company what it is, and allow us to grow.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Modeled risk taking and staying curious.
Contact Info:
- Website: foxandthefleurdesign.com
- Instagram: @fox.andthefleur
Image Credits
Joey Kennedy Photo
