We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Haley Harrison a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Haley with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
From a young age, I’ve always found so much value in being part of a team. In every job or team that I’ve been apart of, whether it be a dance team in high school or another wedding and event company, we were always working towards a common goal and there was always a strict deadline to be met. Everyone had an essential role to play and if we all weren’t giving our best, the end product would suffer. There’s no doubt that that’s where my work ethic stems from when it comes to being a florist because you have to be diligent, persistent and follow certain steps in order to execute an event like a wedding that has a strict timeline and all of the pieces must fall into place in order for it to be successful, much like a performance. The phrase “practice makes perfect” really speaks a lot of truth because the work that you do really does become second nature when you consistently put your best foot forward, practice and give it your all.
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?
Through Haley Nicole Floral, I create one-off floral designs for weddings, intimate events and elopements and operate on a project-to-project basis vs. a traditional florist who does day-to-day designs. I’m also a solopreneur, meaning I wear all the hats in my business and run it completely on my own, with the exception of hiring contractors to help execute larger events.
Throughout my floral career, I’ve predominately worked for other florists and event companies while balancing booking my own events on the side, so it’s exciting to be my own boss and focus on my weddings and events full-time for a change!
There’s so many ways to celebrate love and I’m really passionate about catering to different ways of doing that. Whether you want to have an adventurous elopement or have a big party with all of your loved ones-there’s no right or wrong way to do it! It’s a very special thing getting to play a small part in one of the most important days in my client’s lives, so designing wedding and elopement flowers will always be close to my heart.
Being in LA also presents so many amazing opportunities and varieties of venues for events and I’ve really enjoyed where flowers have taken me here so far.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I’ve always been a tactile learner and loved doing crafts and hands-on activities, so I’d imagine that’s why I love working with flowers because you’re always working with your hands and working on some type of project! Even today, I’m most at peace when I’m busy with my hands and my mind is distracted so being a florist definitely aids in that.
One thing that I’ve come to learn is that there is a market for everything and everyone and that your ideal clients will seek you out and find you. Imposter syndrome and comparing yourself to others is a big thing in the event industry, especially with Instagram, but it takes time to build the image and brand that you want your clients to see and being true to yourself and discovering what makes you “you” is so much more authentic than trying to blend in with everyone else and you’ll also stand out more because of it!
Another hard lesson is that you can’t (and don’t) have to cater to every client or budget that comes your way. Sometimes saying “no” or a missed opportunity can be a blessing in disguise.
A big piece of advice that I wished I had followed earlier is that you have nothing to lose by trying but everything to lose by not trying at all. There was a point in time earlier in my career when the only florists I had worked for were larger companies that had a huge warehouse and design space, staff, delivery vans and tons of other assets that I still don’t have today and I thought that that was the only way I could every start doing events on my own was if I had all of those things. Little did I know was that there are thousands, if not millions of solopreneurs and independent designers and creatives that run incredibly successful event businesses on their own with little to no overhead and they all started from the most humble of places! They create amazing designs and large-scale events without any of those things and just go for it and make it happen. It was a really eye-opening thing for me to discover that and when I finally decided to take the leap and start my own business, I wished I had done it sooner! I’ll never forget what my then boyfriend (now husband) said to me when I was apprehensive about starting my own company: “There are people out there with way less experience and knowledge about what you do that just decide to try and take the risk, so why can’t you do it too?”
Contact Info:
- Website: haleynicolefloral.com
- Instagram: @haleynicolefloral
Image Credits
Photos By Victoria Smith @photosbyvictoriasmith
