Meet Ashley O’connor

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley O’connor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I graduated high school in a very small Michigan town and went straight to college to be a teacher. It was all I ever wanted to do. I was an elementary school teacher for the past 15 years in my current home-state North Carolina. While other things in my life may have been chaotic, I found consistency, and confidence in my abilities to teach. I struggled to find stability at home and I found the assuredness of teaching to be steady and comforting. For a long time, I loved it. I had convinced myself that it was the ONLY thing I could confidently say I was “really good at”. At some point, I lost my spark. I was bored. I was running on fumes, exhausted, unfulfilled and annoyed at the politics surrounding education. I was burned out. I recognized that I was ready for new challenges to help me grow as a person. I was able to resign from teaching and find a position that allowed me to Work from Home. The shift was life-changing. It has allowed me to shift the weight from living to work over to working to live. I am calmer, happier, more present mother, partner, friend and, better to MYSELF! Having more energy in the evenings, I have found time to focus on my family, and myself, my passions, my interests. I spend more time with my kiddos, I read more. I exercise more. I started…. a business!!! And that is where Sugars in Bloom comes in!

One night, I had a dream that I was using buttercream icing to pipe flowers all over a cake. I have made cakes for friends and family before but had never even tackled buttercream florals. I woke up refreshed and inspired. I thought, “Hey, maybe I CAN do that”. So, I laid in bed that lazy weekend morning and scrolled video shorts about how to make buttercream flowers. Then I ordered some frosting piping tips on Amazon. When they came in, I just practiced. I perfected through through trial and error. I was frosting flowers onto cupcakes every night and trying to figure out how to arrange them into a bouquet. It was just for fun. There was frosting everywhere. In my hair, on the refrigerator door handles, on my shoes. My ever-supportive partner, Daniel would come home to find me covered in frosting and exhausted. After a couple of weeks, I was pleasantly surprised at how the cupcakes were coming out, and so, I started posting them on my personal Facebook page. People immediately started asking me if they could buy them from me. So, with this, I came up with the name “Sugars in Bloom by Ashley” and posted some photos on the local ladies Facebook page. The response has been unbelievable, and I am so grateful to all of my community members who support me in my small business. I have gained a humbling amount of social media followers and supporters, and have many new and repeat customers. The brand-new business, without even knowing we were a business, ran out from under us, going at speeds faster than we could sometimes keep up with! With the overnight success, Daniel hopped on board in the most encouraging way. He learned how to make the structures for the cupcake bouquets, ran to get last minute supplies for me, helped research the business aspect of things, has become my vendor-fair partner, helps to deliver cupcakes and bouquets, and massages my hands and wrists when they are sore! We have also been blessed with amazing friends that have been willing to help with events or large orders and vendor events. Through my marketing and events, I have met folks who also run small businesses and have had the opportunity to collaborate and work alongside of them.
To answer the question, I found my purpose on accident. It is literally my DREAM job. I just found something I loved that I was proud of. When it ran, I chased it. I practiced. I improved. I doubted, I persisted. The feedback I receive from customers is unbelievable, which fuels my pride in my work. It is an amazing thing to be able to deliver a bouquet of cupcakes and then have to convince the recipient that they are, indeed, cupcakes. Delicious ones at that!

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?

Sugars in Bloom by Ashley is excited to share in happiness, kindness and community. I am really just out here selling cupcakes. And cake makes people happy. My focus now is spreading the word, making connections, improving my craft, building a brand and enjoying it along the way.

It is pretty new. I think what is so amazing about this journey is that it can literally be ANYTHING I want it to be.

I am in catch up mode right now, but maybe one day I will have a store-front bakery. I hope to become well-known in the wedding world. I find that most of my orders are for baby showers, bridal showers, weddings, or birthdays!

In the closer future, I am expanding to include gourmet non-floral choices. I am also hoping to provide Cupcake Workshops at some point. Think Wine-and-Design, but with cupcakes! I think that would be the most amazing display of the Sugar-Coated Teacher in me!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Persistence
2. Motivated
3. Optimistic

I am still kind of in shock that I have landed where I am. I did not set out to do this, but when I started to notice the success, the pride it evoked in me, and the happiness it brings to others, I was sold.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

One particular challenge I am facing is that I am all of the sudden a business owner!! We are a blended family of 7, I have a full time 9-5 and have suddenly found myself as a business owner!

I have learned through this journey, that Instagram in the new hot social media platform. I had roughly 6 pictures on my Instagram prior to starting Sugars in Bloom, and they were all from the same day. I would like to improve my marketing and business skills. It is difficult to find the time to improve that aspect when my evenings are filled with life, or as I like to call it, chaos and cupcakes. Sometimes after all the frosting is crafted and piled high into beautiful masterpieces for my customer, I just want to sit.

Contact Info:

• Website:
• Instagram: @sugarsinbloom
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557159089486 (Sugars in Bloom by Ashley)
• Linkedin: [email protected]
• Twitter:
• Youtube:
• Yelp:
• Soundcloud:
• Other:

Image Credits

I took them all myself!