We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mariana Riehm a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mariana, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic is inspired by my family. My mother’s parents were farmers in Italy, working a small plot of land by hand and enduring the hardships of war and poverty before saving enough to send their family one by one to New York. Once here, they continued to work hard and live frugally to give the next generation a better life. My mother certainly inherited their work ethic and is a seemingly bottomless well of energy. As a young girl, I worked with my father in his native plant nursery along side immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico. Watching the way they worked to save money and send it back to their families who were struggling was inspiring.
When I graduated from the University of Florida, I began farming vegetables and flowers. Meeting other farmers in our community and learning about how they navigated the many challenges of running a small business in agriculture always motivated and inspired me to work hard.
Now, my children are my main motivation. I feel fortunate to have been given many opportunities and want to do everything in my power to afford them the same.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Alongside my partner Lillian Dompe, I own and operate Iron & Clay Flowers, a floral design studio based in Gainesville, Florida. We are obsessed with the ethereal, ephemeral nature of flowers and want to share our passion with everyone we meet! Our designs are inspired by the changing bounty of the seasons, unexpected elements, interesting textures, and striking color palettes. We love working with our network of small local farms to source stunning blooms and pairing them with one of a kind foraged elements to paint a portrait of a unique moment in time. Our greatest joy is interpreting our client’s vision and love story into the language of flowers.
While our main focus is wedding design, we also host several workshops throughout the year, offer subscription florals for homes and businesses, and offer styling and floral design for corporate events. We are available for travel, and feel so fortunate for the beautiful places flowers have taken us, and the wonderful people they’ve brought into our lives.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, the three qualities and skills that were most impactful in our journey were a thirst for mentorship and continuing education, building a network of support, and practicing giving ourselves grace. While we are both largely self taught, at the start of our journey with flowers, we both invested in workshops to learn the fundamentals from experts in the industry who we respected and admired. I visited Floret Flower Farm in the Skagit Valley of Washington State for a farmer florist workshop, and Lillian attended a Team Flower design and business workshop with Kelly Perry in North Carolina. These experiences gave us both practical knowledge we could apply to our business as well as a new source of creative inspiration. Since then we have continued to invest in education, attending the Origine workshop in Belgium with Emily Avenson and Hart Floral and also subscribing to monthly online floral education with Flowering Minds.
Participating in these workshops, along with freelancing for other florists, and connecting with both local florists and peers across the country and globe via social media has played a large role in our flower journey. Having a network of flower people to bounce ideas off of, cheer you on, share highs and lows, and talk shop with helps us to feel connected and pushes us to do our best work.
Finally, practicing giving ourselves grace has been key in navigating the world of small business. It’s not always easy, and we often need to be reminded to practice it by our family and friends, but it’s a huge part of maintaining a healthy mindset in the rollercoaster entrepreneurship. We have experienced peaks and valleys, and its easy to be our own worst critic or feel like we aren’t reaching our goals. But if we remind ourselves that we are giving it our all, and practice compassion for ourselves, it makes the journey much smoother.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
I remember my father telling me to always follow my heart, which can feel cliché, but has never steered me wrong. I would have never thought 20 years ago that my path would lead me to where I am now. But I feel so fortunate to have had the privilege and opportunities to make my life in flowers, doing what I love.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ironandclayflowers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ironandclayflowers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironandclayflowers
Image Credits
Marston Photography Molliner Photography Manda Weaver Photography
