We recently connected with Carra Otten and have shared our conversation below.

Carra, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I have! Back in highscool, when you took those “what do I want to be when I grow up tests”, I’d always pause at florist, gardener, and artist but I figured there wasn’t much money in that, so I put it out of my mind. I went on to college for psychology, criminal justice, and Spanish, all while paying my way by serving tables in restaurants around my home town of Saint Paul. Next I worked 8 years in jail and prison, learning every facet I could. Being an outspoken, opinionated woman, I didn’t make it far in that field, but I did make good connections.
During my final year of working at the jail, I helped a friend with her wedding flowers. It started with a lot of aunties helping, but soon became just me and one aunt. It quickly turned from night to morning and I realized that I’d been happily working, without stopping, without even looking at the clock (a common activity at the jail for me)- for hours! I loved it! I then told the aunt that we should start a business together; that we’d need a name, website, pictures of things we’ve done, business cards, etc… she said, “Whoa, there! You’re kinda moving fast?” I said, “That’s fine, I’ll just hire you freelance once I get going.”
Soon after I had a dream where the name “La Petite Fleur” came up. My husband, always being good at listening to my dream stories, took that name and registered it with the state telling me, “OK, you’re a business, get to work!” I started researching pricing and spent a day at the wholesaler seeing how everything came in. I advertised with a wedding website and soon booked up. I continued working both in the jail and doing wedding flowers. It started to be very time consuming and something had to give. I wanted to see if I could afford to only do weddings. I applied for and received an extended leave of absence. Soon before I was to take that absence I had a very frustrating day at work. I called my husband and I asked, “Can I just quit? I don’t want to work my butt off all Summer and Fall to be rewarded by going back to jail”. He said, “Go for it.” So I did. People at the jail gambled if I was going to come crawling back for my job…I didn’t.
I don’t force anything with this business; I let it tell me where to go and what to focus on. I started with my own, then other’s wedding flowers, but also designed for a couple wedding magazine market parties, then got published a handful of times in magazines and on wedding blogs, I started to get more business from word of mouth from past clients, I did corporate work for MPR and other big businesses, I worked being the main florist for a prestigious Funeral Home, I started designing outdoor containers for restaurants and select homes around the Twin Cities, I did holiday design, and all the while always being up for whipping up some “just because” arrangements. Projects filled my schedule with work.
On days that I wasn’t booked with my own work, I started to fill in with freelancing for other talented florists locally. This lead me to having lots of friends and connections in the event field, which has not only brought me tons of work, but also assistance when I need it! For example, in Feb. of 2019, a big tv network reached out to me to be the “featured florist” on a wedding series. It was a HUGE ordeal that took place with only a week notice, all during a blizzard. I, at that time, had no full time employees, it was only me. Using many of the florist friends I’d collected to l throughout the years as well as family, and neighbors, together we knocked that project out of the park! The hours were intense and the sleep was minimal, but I was excited to show the world what we did! Fast forward to the airing of the show…We were not featured at all. In fact, not one of us was shown once on screen and in the credits, a different florist’s business was given the credit! I was told that the tv host said that I was the most assertive person he’d ever met, so I guess that’s something?
While I’ll never do a TV gig again, I did decide that helping others on their very large projects is something that I was good at and that I wanted to do more of.
Shortly after that ordeal, a large event company from Dallas called one of my flower wholesalers to ask for “someone who could do a big job in Mpls fast”. I was recommended and hired for the job. I collected another team of amazing designer friends and together we completed that gig so well and far ahead of schedule, that this Texas guy asked if I was available for travel. Not thinking he was serious, I replied, “As long as you pay for it, I’m in!” That guy has since hired me (as well as teams of designers I curate)
all over the US for the past 5 years, helping them knock out huge wedding and events for high-end clients in places such as Aspen, Laguna Beach, Vegas, Houston, Fort Worth, Pebble Beach, Atlanta, and Palmetto Bluff! During that time, our work gained the attention of other designers and businesses and the freelance network continues to grow exponentially!
While my outspoken and opinionated ways were not popular in my Law Enforcement career, the have helped me with freelancing business considerably. Assisting other event leads by not only designing, but also by problem solving calmly and efficiently, is my super power. Being #1 is stressful, especially for me, but when I’m #2 for someone else, I have zero anxiety. I very much like to help with overall morale by keeping the mood light and trying to have fun all while doing the best job possible. Doing extremely large events for these other companies has given me the confidence to take on pretty much anything! Currently my work is made up of a third of doing my own weddings, funerals, and events, a third is outdoor container work, and a third is freelancing for other creatives in MN and around the United States (hopefully going global soon)!

Carra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

More than being a good designer, I’d say my business thrives on my connections with people from all walks of life that I’ve been a part of; college, restaurants, law enforcement, weddings, funerals, Corporate work, etc.
I’m humbled that other floral designers and professionals in the field hire me to help them on their events, but also commission me to design their own personal flowers for events!
I’ve had full time employees in the past, but I learned that I prefer to do things on my own or with a small amount of freelance assistance instead. It’s difficult for me to delegate design work to others when it’s all so artistic and unique to each event. With freelancing, I get to do all the things I love with none of the stress of being #1. I love to help others stay calm and keep morale high. I get to make pretty, give my input on solutions when problems arise, meet new people, have fun, and go home!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

One of the biggest parts of event work is the unknown: Schedules and numbers changing, rain plans happening, emergencies, having to drop what you thought was going to happen and then make it look cool and work when it doesn’t work as planned, all the while staying calm. “Controlled chaos” is a phase often used. I don’t like to run on schedules, I work on deadlines. When is it due? It’ll be done before that time, or right at that time, but so many variables happen everyday that are unplanned, that having deadlines work better for me. This would drive some people crazy, but I thrive on it! You need last minute work done? I got you!
Go with the flow! Jump! It’s hard work, but if it were easy, everyone would do it. If something comes along the scare you because it seems too big, take it! Fake it ’till you make it, learn from it, and do better the next time; always striving to improve, working smarter not harder.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Covid. I belive that part of Covid was to take out small businesses. The year of the lockdown was supposed to be my most profitable year (as well as for many on the freelance teams I’d assembled). All those events were canceled, our calendars emptied.
Being an artist that often worked out of state, the amount of financial assistance was minimal, even more so if I sold any work. I door dashed, did daily arrangements, and worked in Texas where they didn’t follow shutdown protocol as much. That so did not cover the bills. Credit cards floated most my expenses that year and it’s taken years to recover from it. Other traveling florists I worked with had to take on FT jobs not related to flowers to get by and have since had to stay at those jobs. What businesses covid didn’t kill, tariffs and the rising costs of flowers and hard goods are about to take out the majority of the rest…but not me. I’m a bona-fide hustler, just making my name, and I’m going to continue to do so for as long as my body allows it. I love my job. I’m gonna keep it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.lapetitefleurmn.com
• Instagram: Lalittleflowermn
• Facebook: La Petite Fleur-,Artistic Floral Design
• Other: My funeral business page, The Felled Tree on Facebook.

Image Credits

1st and 2nd photos Jeannine Marie Photography
None for the 3rd- just my pic
Katherine Bowes For the 4th and 5th
6- my personal pics
7- Marit Williams Photography
8- “Photo by Vick Photography”