Meet Kodi Duvall

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kodi Duvall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kodi below.

Kodi , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience stems from a principle I hold at the center of my life—a principle that, though often regarded as a cliché, still carries as much wisdom and peace today as it did in the past. I believe that absolutely everything has meaning and a purpose.

While I am not naive to the ways in which this principle can prove paradoxical and frustrating in nature, especially when faced with challenges. I’ve found that shifting from a posture of “Why is this happening to me?” or “How can this be God’s good will?” to questions like “What can I learn from this?” or “Who do I know that has gone through, or is currently going through, something similar?” changes everything. It moves me from a place of victimhood and self-deprecation to one of curiosity and enlightenment, enabling me to find beauty in the trial and use it as fuel for growth and service to others.

When we look beyond the darkness and focus on God—His light, His beauty, His purpose—He reveals how to transform the misery into our ministry and pain into purpose.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been in awe of God and the beauty of His creation, especially flowers and plants. My grandmother, a florist majority of her adult life, took me under her wing from a young age and taught me everything she knew about God, flowers, and plants, and because of the way my soul sang at each and every bit of knowledge she shared and I acquired, I knew I was destined to create a life centered around these gifts of creation.

As I grew older, my passion only deepened, fueled by my creative spirit and a profound love for the way a single work of art can evoke a spectrum of emotions—tranquility, anguish, awe, despair, wonder, and beyond. I realized that with my talent, passion, and creative abilities in the floral arranging and plant styling space, I could not only find a way to express these emotions and the words in my soul that only my work could properly articulate, but that I could also do the same for other people.

My mission statement, “Here at Blooming Forward, we believe in the power of bringing the beauty of God’s creation manifested through flowers and plants to every celebration, every devastation, and everything in between. We believe that flowers and plants say what words may fail to, and that even a touch of God’s creation added to a space will elevate it to a higher level of divine beauty.” was born from this place in my heart. I believe my purpose, Blooming Forward’s purpose, is to show that no amount of darkness can drown out the beauty and goodness of God, and that though there might be death and decay, pain and heartache, trials and tribulations, there is ALWAYS an unfailing beauty and light to be found and appreciated.

I eagerly anticipate the growth of Blooming Forward as we continue to touch lives across the nation through custom floral designs, botanical styling, and creating spaces for learning, healing, and growing. Stay connected with us on our socials to follow along on our journey!

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?

The three most impactful skills and traits I focus on are learning, healing, and growing. These values form the foundation of Blooming Forward, guiding my approach and shaping my daily life.

Cultivating a desire to learn has completely rewired the way I look at life, and ensures I stay open-minded. When I am operating from a tunnel visioned perspective, I often make the most mistakes, as I remain rigid and defensive, rather than receptive and considerate, and it’s cost me greatly.

Recognizing that unlearning is just as important as learning has been a driving force in my healing journey. What we don’t repair, we repeat, and I am committed to building a brand that turns darkness into light, transforms pain into purpose, and supports others in their own healing journeys.

I’ve always been fiercely committed to growth, improvement, and becoming the woman God created me to be. Recognizing that stagnant energy is suffocating and discouraging, capable of hindering us from reaching our full potential, I have prioritized a mindset of constant growth in all areas of my life. This commitment has been essential to my daily journey toward becoming my most authentic and purpose-driven self.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

The book that has played a HUGE role in my development, and continues to today, is Changes that Heal by Dr. Henry Cloud.

I read this book during a particularly vulnerable time in my life—navigating a devastating heartbreak and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty, I was desperately seeking a breakthrough. This book presented truths that hit me like a shockwave, challenging my deep-rooted commitment to a mental state of victimhood that was keeping me trapped and preventing me from embracing my true purpose. Dr. Henry Cloud does outstanding work in exploring how our fundamental psychological development shapes our lives today, impacting our relationships with others, ourselves, and God. Through practical lessons in biblical teaching, accountability, awareness, grace, and truth, he shows how we can overcome the limitations of our past and step into our fullest potential.

My main takeaways are as follows:
“Not making a choice is making a choice… Our lives have fruit; we have no choice about that. We do have a choice, however, about the nature of the fruit we bear by choosing to own our ‘tree’, our heart, and allowing God to work on it.” This encourages me to pay very close attention to my habits in procrastination, self sabotage, and who or what I say yes or no to. When I feel these habits creep in, I immediately reflect on the following questions: Is my yes worth the cost of my no? Is my procrastination worth the cost of stagnancy in the area of life I need to take action in? Is this self-destructive behavior going to produce the fruits that support where I want to go in life?

“We are separate people with separate identities, and we must not conform to someone else’s wishes that may conflict with what God has designed for us. We must own what is our true self, and develop it with God’s grace and truth.” This reminds me to pursue the passions and desires of my heart, and what I believe is my God-given purpose, rather than settle for less in the name of pleasing others around me.

“If we cannot separate our own thoughts and opinions from another’s, we have ceased to be a person in our own right, and have denied something that God will one day hold us responsible for.” In a world where group-think is not only the norm, but is encouraged, this statement rocked my world. I began to take inventory of my thoughts and beliefs, determining which are my own and which I have gathered and labeled as truth from others, and it led me down a path of clarity and freedom that I will forever cherish.

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