Meet Taylor (pascuzzo) Fisher

We recently connected with Taylor (pascuzzo) Fisher and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

I was working as a Florist Manager in 2017 making a couple dollars above our minimum wage of $7.25, despite having a bachelor’s degree and a certification in floral design. ⁣I started to think something was wrong with me that I didn’t want to stay at these types of dead-end opportunities. I would hope to get lightly maimed by a car on my walk into our building so I didn’t have to do it all again and even considered seeking government disability because of my mental health disorders. I didn’t understand why couldn’t fit into Dolly’s 9-5 world?

Entrepreneurship found me, saved me. I finally understood that while other’s businesses thrive with me in them, I thrive in my own world. I knew absolutely nothing, not a single thing, about owning a business and I wasn’t always good at it, but I’ve found there are few things I can’t learn if I really want to. This isn’t the story of the person who made their first million after striking out on their own (please know, I do love reading about you and am cheering you on). This is the story of a regular gal who was desperate to find a way to exist in this world and found so much more. One month after I started I did however find at my first Mother’s Day event, I made what would have taken me 60 hours at that last job in 9 hours. The only thing I could think was “THIS WILL WORK” Entrepreneurship had me, I was hooked. As the year progressed, I started to find a footing and confidence I had never had before. I started at the end of April and by the end of that year I had vended more than 35 times.

But this was only the beginning…

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?

To tell you who I am today, I have to back track to the beginning because the one thing about Penna Flower Company is that it has changed drastically and grown with me over the last 7 years.

When I started Penna Flower Company, I was a fresh flower vendor, with a build your own bouquet model. I treasure the time I spent prepping for shows, taking on more than I knew, and everything coming up roses. Okay, not everything coming up roses, but there were roses. There were many times I didn’t sell enough flowers to even cover my vendor fee, one time I slept near the venue in a hammock covered with a tarp just to vend a few hours from home. But literally always, the community would rally around me. Vendors would become family, my Dad would give me extra hours of work, business owner friends would let me set up outside their coffeeshop to sell off my unsold flowers, and my friends would all show up to buy them. Customers and friends would drive to faraway event locations just to purchase a bouquet. Customers became friends. This was the closest thing I’ve experienced to making adult friends the way you did as a child, it was magic for me.
Then I did the thing that I said I NEVER wanted to do. Weddings. They started knocking on my door and after some hesitation, like any business, I decided to follow the trail of money waving in my face. Unlike vending shows all of this money was guaranteed and there was a lot more of it. While I loved the weddings I served and was happy with the work I created, leaving vending to pursue it may be my largest regret in the course of the business.

I had met my now husband in June of 2020 and was grateful for his support while I as picking up the pieces of my event-based business in the wake of the pandemic. I was trying to save a business I was no longer passionate about, during a time there were legal ramifications to serving events. Time moved us all forward whether we were ready or not. While trying to figure it all out, I had made some pieces out of soon-to-be trash in my studio. I offered them up to a photographer and college friend, Heather Tabacchi. One of her clients, who wore them would reach out to create more pieces for a photoshoot. This was a pivot into the Fashion Industry I couldn’t have expected but always dreamed about.
I’ve been obsessed with fashion for always, before I knew what fashion really was. When I was 8 I actually started designing clothes and shoes on paper, the company had a name and was co-owned with a bestie.

While I hesitated to “close” the retail business of Penna Flower Company, it went deeper than just the business. This was the first thing I had ever been good at in my life. I was fine at school, I knew I was a hard worker, but in this particular thing I was gifted. I had fully wrapped my identity in it. Even though I barely had any work coming in at the end, and I wasn’t trying for more, it was easier to just say I had a small business. Easier than admitting that my business had died, and it was time for me to move on.

All of the culmination of these experiences have led me to where you find my work today. Reaching into the world of Art and Fashion, not really knowing where this will lead or if this is what’s next for me. However, overwhelmed with possibility, grateful for every opportunity. Not all roads lead to Success, and not all success ends in fame, wealth, or social status. This journey has been a discovery of self and adventure and a venture in making work, work for me.

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?

In entrepreneurial ventures there are so many opportunities for self-growth and business growth. You have to do them both together or one will stunt the other. All of these are not things I consider myself good at. These are lessons/practices I learned and am forever learning and share in hopes that you will benefit from my mistakes.

Pride/Ego- Your pride and ego will consistently be challenged. The public won’t always understand your vision or your product right away, especially if it’s new. However, overcomplicating it so that it seems fancier or cool, doesn’t serve your business or your customer, it serves your ego/pride.
One of the first ideas I had I thought was going to be “huge”. I thought there is no way that people won’t want this when it comes to flower bouquets. It was a way to have it professionally designed by me so they didn’t have to arrange the flowers when they took them home. In my industry, it’s common, it’s a standard. For the public, it’s jargon, they didn’t get it, they didn’t want it, they didn’t buy it.
I could have knuckled down and thought ” YOU WILL WANT THIS” but instead, I just allowed the customers wants and needs to dictate this decision.

Disruptive Thinking- If you are thinking about owning your own business, you likely already are a disruptive thinker.
It is one of the qualities innate within my person. It’s a gift that can be your greatest asset if used in a good way. It’s what allowed me to create a business that I hadn’t really seen before in the same way, and to take the risk against many people’s opinions. I was just delightfully delusional enough to make magic.

Routine/Schedule- Entrepreneurship creates a large amount of freedom. Most of all the freedom to create your own schedule and be on your own time. At first this is one of the most striking features when you go from the hourly world to your own. It’s the deep breath that you’ve been looking for.
It also lends itself to many jokes about your business taking all 24 of your hours instead of 8.
At the very beginning, create a schedule for yourself. It’s okay if this schedule changes and you adjust it over time, but create one, and stick to it. If you don’t hold yourself accountable for your hours, you will start to find a little too much freedom and a little less work. Also, please schedule rest, selfcare, movement, etc. because these are the first things to go out the window when you feel “the crunch” of time. Getting your time back is one of the most rewarding parts of owning your own business but without rest, you will burn out more quickly than you imagine.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

The current challenge I’m facing is that I’m not particularly sure where I will go from here…
I have the art that I make, that isn’t making money, but takes money to make.
I have the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of 7 years in business.
I have as many interests as the day is long.
I have an unquenchable thirst to pursue.

However, I’m left with more questions in this time than answers. I don’t think this is probably enticing for readers, but it’s honest.

What’s next? Employment? Another venture? More School? Teaching? World Tour?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pennaflowercompany.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pennaflowercompany/

Image Credits

Lauren Pearlman Photography

Heather Tabacchi

Holly April Harris Fine Art & Imagery

Kerri Gerthoffer

Get Ryte Studios