We were lucky to catch up with Lauren Stovall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents allowed me to flourish into who I wanted to be and guided me along the way to achieve the vision I had for my life. They taught me to do this through encouragement, selfless guidance, and taking their hands off the wheel. Instead of forcing their own worldview onto me about the career they thought I should pursue, they helped me to tease out the vision I had for my life based off of my skills and talents. I couldn’t be more thankful for this approach. I distinctly remember when I was considering leaving my career in social work to pursue floral design, my Dad helped me to have perspective and courage. He did not allow any of his own doubts to bleed into the advice he gave me. He helped me to see that this was a good time to take a risk and if I truly had an interest in this career field there was no time like the present. Simultaneously, my Mom was there reminding me of the ways in my past she saw my interests and skills pointing me to this career path. Their support and belief in me along with my husband’s is one of the biggest reasons I felt confident to move into floral design full time.

Lauren, 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?

My business “Wither and Bloom Designs” is a wedding and event floral design company. Based in Knoxville, TN but able to travel anywhere, we are made up of myself and my wonderful full time designer, Rose Hamm. Wedding and Event floral design means that I am not a traditional flower shop. I take on around 20 events per year primarily for clients who are getting married. I had an interest in floral design starting in my college years but the road to this starting my business was not a straight path. I studied social work in college and worked in the field after I graduated but quickly realized I knew that I wanted to work with flowers and be my own boss. I landed a job as a full time designer at an esteemed local flower shop where I learned about caring for flowers, design principles, and was exposed to weddings & events. It was here that I realized I loved the structure and pace of working weddings & events. I discovered that I valued a project based schedule and the busyness of a wedding week. I decided to take the leap and start my own business through the encouragement of my husband, Chris and support from my family and friends.

Over the past four years, I have learned that I have as much of a passion for flowers as I do for entrepreneurship. I pride myself on producing high quality designs for my clients along with streamlined organizational systems. I am the most proud of my ability to connect with my clients in a calm & warm way and bring a floral vision to life for them that they could have never imagined was possible. People have described me as equally right and left brained which I think accurately represents the way I run my business. I feel so lucky to work with such wonderful wedding vendors and clients.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

This past year I was seeking advice from a successful entrepreneur regarding the best practices for organizing my bank account and was recommended Profit First by Mike Michalowicz . This book has radically helped me to spend money in an intentional way and feel more confident using my profits. It gave me confidence to hire my first full time employee!

I also love everything that Shanna Skidmore produces. I enjoy purchasing her Blueprint Planner each year and participating in the annual planning and vision casting.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I was only entering my second year as a full time business owner when Covid hit. I had weddings and events on the books and was faced with the reality that I was going to have to quickly create protocol for this unprecedented situation. The pivoting for me came with having to make decisions about my protocol mixed with finding a way to continue to connect with my community. I started a flower delivery service in the simplest way I knew how- I posted on social media that I was selling inexpensive flower arrangements and the price included delivery. To order, people simply had to respond to my post and I would send them an email intake form with the info for delivery and payment. It was a huge hit! I was delivering sometimes up to 50 arrangements a week and was able to keep it up during lockdown. This pivot helped me to stay focused on the positive during a scary time and also gave me a way to connect with my community. It also helped me to spread the word about my business throughout Knoxville! I would include a business card with each delivery.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.witherandbloomdesigns.com
• Instagram: @witherandbloomdesigns
• Facebook: @witherandbloomdesigns
• Linkedin: Wither and Bloom Designs

Image Credits
All photography by Erin McCall Photography