We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Trish Boyle . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Trish below.
Hi Trish , thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter syndrome is defined as doubting one’s skills, talents, or accomplishments.
I overcame imposter syndrome by building the inner trust and belief that I deserve the goodness that life has to offer and that my skills were divinely given to me to create my own sphere of influence in the world. Going through the self discovery process of understanding what my methods were for self talk, what I allowed myself to believe about where I was in life versus where I should be, and what was being forced on my community through cultural conditioning really impacted my ability to remove barriers that were creating imposter syndrome. Furthermore, once I was able to better pinpoint the lies, deception, and false realities that were present within me, I overcame imposter syndrome.
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?
Simply put, my name is Trish Boye and I am the owner of Sophia’s Crowns Flower Shop. Being in the position to provide fresh, creative, affordable floral arrangements is one that I truly am passionate about because when my daughter Sophia was only six months old, doctors told me that due to her severe diagnosis of; eczema, psoriasis, and asthma that it would not only impact her skin but her encounters with nature. Nevertheless, when she was three years old and having a hard time with the itchiness of her skin I decided to take her on a walk through Tower Grove park. When I witnessed how the flowers she was smelling were bringing her solace and improving her inflammation, I instantly thought of getting her a floral arrangement. After attempting to place an order from a local flower shop and learning that the prices were excessive at the time seeing that I was a single mother and working on a Master’s degree, Sophia (who was three at the time) heard the response of the person on the phone and said “mom we should open our own flower shop, so others can be happy like me but not have to pay as much”.
I trusted her vision and started the professional development from my two bedroom apartment in 2018. I embarked on the journey of becoming a florist, with the support of close friends and family my floral arrangements started getting booked for virtual weddings during COVID. I saved that money and later reinvested to acquire a store front at 4500 S Kingshighway in South Saint Louis on Juneteenth in 2021. Sophia’s Crowns Flower Shop floral design is like no other in the area because we truly make each arrangement with the customer in mind, we’ve now had the distinctive pleasure of being the official florist for Disney’s Lion King at the Fox Theatre, our local World Trade Centre, countless brides, and reputable funerals. We also offer a lot of creative options for our customers such as; build your own bouquet Wednesday’s, monthly floral subscriptions, flower crown & sip nights for adults, as well as grow & learn classes for kids.
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?
A quality that has most impacted me on his journey is humility, always keeping in my forefront the motivation for opening and embarking on the flower shop journey in the first place.
A skill that has most impacted me on this journey is creativity, allowing my imagination to flow into my floral pieces and having customers who trust me to turn their investment into something beautiful. This skill is truly the ultimate freedom.
An area of knowledge that has the most impact for me is financial management, when I opened my store front I made a community pledge to not take a salary for three years. Instead I reinvest the money that I would make back into my business. This has allowed me to acquire land where we grow our own flowers and hire trusted employees that I can pay a living wage.
The advice that I would give to those who are considering starting a journey of being an entrepreneur is to simply start, once you start you will then start to learn what direction will be best for you and all of the pieces will fall into place at the right seasons to build your confidence.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Both my mom and dad have been extremely grateful throughout this process of being a first generation business owner. In 2022 I even offered my mom (Diana) a general manager role at the flower shop to allow for her to be a true stakeholder in the process of building generation wealth for our family. Furthermore, my dad (Kirk) has been over to the garden countless times to assist with various needed tasks. It’s truly a blessing to have my parents be a part of the vision and it makes it so much more fulfilling and impactful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sophiascrowns.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiascrownsflowers/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SophiasCrowns/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiascrowns?lang=en
Image Credits
Image credit for photos goes to Martell Stepney, Brittany Clapper, and Ian Kern
