Meet Douglas Selph

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Douglas Selph. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Douglas, 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?

I grew up on a farm in south Georgia so there was always work that had to be done – before school, after school and during school vacation times. Taking time off to celebrate a holiday or other special occasion was extremely rare. I always envied my “town” friends who did not have such demands on their time, but once I went away to college and then law school I quickly discovered that my work ethic was ingrained in my being from an early age and working hard at learning in a new environment was just a continuation of my upbringing. I carried this trait throughout my professional career and it was a great source of strength when I started spending after-work time pursuing my creative pursuits and starting Southern Botanics with my spouse.

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?

I started Southern Botanics just over ten years ago with my spouse Austin Davis. I had always been an avid gardener and loved plants and flowers, but had never pressed botanicals until I tried my hand at a series of wildflowers I pressed, mounted and framed for my own home. Family, friends and other visitors were so taken with my first effort that Austin and I decided to turn it into a small business/side hustle. Austin had just transitioned from a long career in the apartment industry and was looking for a new challenge. I knew I would continue my law practice full time, but really needed to find an outlet for my artistic and creative impulses. There was certainly a lot of trial and error as we sought to learn more about pressing and drying techniques for the botanical specimens that we started collecting and a very steep learning curve in producing, maketing and selling our pressed botanical art at festivals, gift shows, online and through various retail outlets in Atlanta and throughout the southeastern United States. We soon expanded into pressing wedding bouquets for brides which has continued to be a very popular business line for us. Just this summer, we moved from Atlanta to the beautiful mountain town of Highlands in western North Carolina, after having a vacation home in the area for five years. The move brought its own challenges in continuing our business as we had to deal with a lot less workspace. However, we soon found that being in the mountains and away from the hustle and bustle of the big city inspires us daily to devote more time and energy to creating our pressed botanical artworks (and we certainly have a lush botanical wonderland on our doorsteps to work with).

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

As a busy full-time practicing attorney, the hardest thing for me in trying my hand at creative endeavours was taking that leap of faith and committing to doing something for myself that wasn’t related to my career. Carving out time and in many cases foregoing other pursuits was a challenge. I think that dedication and daily commitment to your goals are key to whatever you are trying to achieve.

Equally important is allowing yourself to fail when you try new things. Learning new skills isn’t easy and sometimes it seems easier to give up. Press on and realize you will make mistakes, but those mistakes will make your next efforts better and better.

Finally, when you are working with a partner (or a spouse in our case), you have to really be careful about separating work and relationships. I know we sometimes get defensive and touchy when discussing work-related matters and it’s so important to step back when that happens and see things from your partner’s perspective and keep a cool-head.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

As we continue to grow our business in new and different ways, we are looking to identify and partner with others in several areas:

1. We would really like to move into digital reproductions of our original artwork and need to identify the right printers and other creative connections in this area.

2. We enjoy selling our artwork wholesale to retail and gift stores and want to continue to expand this in the Highlands-Cashiers area and other parts of the United States.

3. We would like to network more with wedding planners and consultants as well as florists in building our pressed wedding bouquet business.

We can be reached at [email protected] and also through our website: southernbotanics.com. We can also be found on FaceBook and Instagram.

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