We recently connected with Maria Jose Natera and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Maria Jose, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Building confidence is something that I have to work at every day, it isn’t something that’s ever finished because even when I find success in something, there’s always the next goal beyond that one that might look difficult or scary. Since I was a little girl, my dad has always told me that you build confidence the more you try things and face your fears. He’d always say that if you try something that scares you or makes you afraid to fail, only two things can happen – either you succeed, and you get a reminder that you can do more than you thought you could, or you fail and learn from your mistakes and then try again a different way.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
At Lovelia we add floral touches to your special day!
The best thing about my job is that I get to constantly create, and design a whole new look and experience for every client’s wedding day. I get so much satisfaction every time we finish setting up a wedding and get to see all our ideas come to life for one of the most important days in our clients’ lives!
Right now we are designing two whole new experiences for our clients, to help them plan the florals for their dream wedding while making it fun, stress free, and budget friendly.
As part of helping our couples to enjoy planning their wedding, we’re also growing our team by adding wedding coordinators, to provide a more complete service and help our clients manage their vendors.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
When I started I was just a designer, and I thought that my designer skills were enough to start a business. But as I’ve grown in my business, I’ve had to educate myself in so many different areas.
The most important skills for me, which I’m constantly trying to improve in, are finance, marketing and time management!
Finance: The first thing was to learn about the numbers behind a business, to understand basic finance. I think that without understanding the financial part of your business, your skills are just a hobby. It gets tricky and definitely more challenging to try to balance design with costs. I am lucky because my husband is amazing with finance and administration, so he has taught me a lot! And now I have to say the numbers don’t scare me that much haha.
Marketing: I learned that no matter how much love you put into your business, how much effort and how talented you are, you need to show your work and let people know you! We are very lucky that we have social media to show our skills to the world!
Time management: I think this is the hardest part to learn, but it is the most important to balance each area of your business. As an entrepreneur you do absolutely everything! Sometimes you get a feeling that 7 days per week are not enough to finish your to do list. You have to find ways to optimize your time and prioritize your activities. Now that we are expanding our team, I need to create processes that are easy to follow and not time consuming. Also by working with a perishable product ( flowers) you have to plan each day accordingly.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
My family! Surround yourself with people that believe in you and support you! Sometimes this journey of building a business is very lonely, full of doubts and stress. I am very lucky to have my family supporting me every day, and especially on the days when I don’t believe too much in myself.
My husband is my biggest pillar! Like I said before he is the one teaching me about finance and how to manage budgets and a lot of the times he is the engineer behind big floral installations!
I think that you have to be very selective on who you allow in your life. I always try to be around people that know more than I do, and that believe in my dreams and ideas!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.loveliafloral.com
- Instagram: @lovelia.floral
- Other: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/lovelia-floral-los-angeles-ca-2056413
Image Credits
@abbicooley @simplyadriphoto @vitoriamasaiphoto
