We were lucky to catch up with Amalia Ehrmann recently and have shared our conversation below.
Amalia, appreciate you joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
When coming up with a name for my business, I had so many ideas and ended up with a list of at least 8 different names. I knew I wanted it to be meaningful, easy to remember, and also able to be shortened or abbreviated. I thought about my relationship with flowers and what they mean to me and represent. During the pandemic, I found myself either buying flowers or simply going outside just to look at them since they have a way of cheering me up. So in a way, this became like a ritual – or something that I was doing regularly. Hence, the name Ritual Stems was born and I could not be more happy with it!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Amalia and I am a FT Styling Manager, helping retailers merchandise their e-commerce sites, and also a floral designer, running my small business, Ritual Stems. During the pandemic, I found joy picking out stems and creating my own arrangements to pretty up my apt and make my space feel more elevated. I took a few workshops to learn the fundamental elements of designing flower bouquets. Friends and family soon noticed the lovely and unique designs I was creating and would ask me to make custom bouquets for them. With my fashion experience and creativity, I learned I had a knack for creating aesthetically pleasing work. I’ve always wanted to become an entrepreneur so I decided to turn this newfound passion into a business. Since launching, I am grateful to have been selected to sell my work on Madewell.com, have created exclusive bouquets for a handful of retail shops, have designed installs and arrangements for salons, vended at various pop ups and markets, designed for weddings, and continue to build my web shop. Ritual Stems is unique in that I only use dried and preserved stems, which means these are not fresh so they are pretty low maintenance and do not require water. I specialize in dried stems also because they are sustainable; they can last for a few yrs, rather than having to discard them in a week. They also come in a plethora of colors, which allows me to get super creative. Additionally, I wanted my brand to offer other home decor items and my aim is to highlight other woman makers, so I’ve partnered with several other woman-owned brands to offer a curated batch of home decor products. I am very proud that I can provide an outlet to showcase their amazing work, I love being supportive in that way! One of my favorite things to do as a small business owner, is getting out into the community and connecting with people. At any market I’ve ever vended at. I’ve always engaged in great dialogue with people – it’s evident that flowers make people smile and can lighten up anyone’s mood. For this very reason, I always feel like my work has a purpose and I don’t view floral designing as a job, but rather a fun, creative outlet that I can see myself doing for many years to come.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
So I wouldn’t necessarily call this a lesson but more so a mindset, this whole idea of imposter syndrome, I definitely experienced this especially when I initially launched Ritual Stems in 2021. Since I am not a trained florist or haven’t had any practice working in a flower shop, I felt like I didn’t have the credibility to have my own floral business and that people might not take me seriously. However, I had to really remove those internal negative thoughts because there is no rule book for how to break into floral design and anyone has the ability to pivot from one industry to the other. It’s all about the willingness to learn and the effort you put into whatever you’re doing. I think also since there is such a small number of people of color working in the floral industry, that was intimidating to me at first. But, I’ve come across so many other women like me who are running successful floral brands and they truly inspired me to grow my business. The more work I shared on social media, the more I started gaining so much interest. People would send me such positive comments, really admiring my designs. That also helped me build my confidence and to believe in myself, that there is space for me in this industry to thrive as well.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think my commitment to creating unique designs has truly helped build my reputation. I love working with various textures, shapes, and non-traditional color palettes to help offer an arrangement that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else. Also, my clients like having the opportunity to collab with me so that I can better help bring their vision to life. Many times, a client will come to me with a specific idea for a bouquet, and I am always able to execute. So from there, I’ve been able to gain more clients through word of mouth. I try my best to have an easy ordering process, especially for custom orders, from start to finish. This includes sending photos of stems picked out and having clients approve before beginning the design process. I believe being in communication with clients throughout the process helps ensure all requests are being met and also helps build trust. Customer service is always top of mind for me when it comes to my business and I think clients really appreciate that I try to involve them in some way while designing and make sure they’re happy with the completed project.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ritualstems.com/
- Instagram: @ritualstems