We recently connected with Brittany Sullivan and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Brittany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name of my business came from President Obama’s farewell speech. He had thanked Michelle for her “grace and grit” during his time in office and I thought that was exactly what one needs in this industry.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I had a really winding road to finding flowers! I tell everyone my mom was a florist (which she was) but that’s not how I landed here. I went to film school and then immediately got a job at Fuse TV doing music programming and talent relations. I was the person who received every music video submission and was a liaison to bands and artists when they came in for taping. It could often be an exciting job but I wanted to get back into production work which I then realized I couldn’t handle the pace of the industry anymore. So I took a job managing my friend’s hair salon and it was here that I found a passion for flowers. In order to find ways to spruce up the place I took $20 and picked up flowers at the bodega where I’d put small arrangements in mason jars together for the stylists work stations. It was a bit surprising how much this filled me and even created bonding time for me and my mom. I decided that THIS was it. Being a business owner was always an itch that needed to be scratched as well so I always knew I’d be starting Grace and Grit Flowers eventually!
I started my business about 6 months after my daughter was born. In hindsight this was the best and worst time to do so. But I guess like having a baby, there is no right time to start a business! I knew G+G wasn’t going to be like other flower businesses where everything in light, airy, and whimsical because these are the things I am not! So I enlisted the help of True Hand Society, a branding and tattoo studio located in Philadelphia. It was really important for me to have the branding feel like me as possible and it was the best money I spent because it was so reflective of the type of work I put out.
With my flowers I try to look at the darker and weirder side of the flower floral word. There is so much more to our materials than roses (thought I love!) and tulips (which I also love!) and I love finding new and unusual flowers to incorporate in my designs. I’ve also done a ton of work with dried flowers from bridal bouquets, to preserved glass domes and larger installations. And sometimes here I’ll use porcupine quills or feathers to fuse flowers and other natural elements. And each piece I work on is it’s own little work of art. I think it’s important for people to know that I’m not a factory churning out bouquet after bouquet. Each bloom is more like a paint stroke with the placement and composition being used to create the feeling we’re trying to invoke when you see one of our pieces.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Does everyone use Covid as an example? As wedding and events bring my main bread and butter, when Covid hit I immediately had no work and was navigating what that meant not only for the business but for my personal life as I was now forced to be a stay at home mom. My first instinct was to get my merch up on my site for people to buy so that I had a little bit of income coming in in order to keep my studio. This is where having invested a good chunk of money into my branding really came in handy! My t-shirts and totes were already readily available and at this time people were looking for ways to support small businesses so I took orders and mailed out lots of packages! Then once things settled down a tiny bit and getting flowers from the market was more reliable I switched to offering local deliveries and shipping dried flowers. This time was definitely the biggest hustle moment in my life. I took orders that went to all 5 boros and not only did I purchase the flowers and make all the arrangements I also personally delivered them all. It was a time that I hung on every order that came through but it worked! I’d also come up with ways to collaborate with other local businesses to sell my flowers in their store or bar which kept me going and helped get my name out there!
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
I work with a lot of really talented freelancers! The floral freelance community in NYC is robust and full of such amazing people. When we’re doing an install or working out of the studio it’s really important that my team knows it’s a really trusting and creative environment. I work with people that I know have a similar aesthetic and design process to mine but ultimately I give them materials, an inspo photo and tell them to have fun. You get much better work out of people if you let them create from a place that feels intuitive and is filling for them. Sure, I might move a stem here or there but overall they should feel some ownership over the design. And I constructive feedback is something I also like to offer. As creatives I think it’s not only important to let someone know a maybe easier way to do something but also when they have done something really well or moving. I also try to hire a large enough team so people don’t feel so stressed out on event days. We are often working under tough time constraints but it’s important to me that everyone feels like they are taken care of. This can be as simple as making time for a lunch break!
Contact Info:
- Website: graceandgritflowers.com
- Instagram: @graceandgritflowers
- Facebook: /graceandgritflowers
Image Credits
Patrick Sullivan