We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Carter Quick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Carter, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think folks should manage their own social media or hire a professional? What do you do?

I do mange my own social media. I worked for many years as a photographer before I started in the flower business so I end up spending a lot of time taking photos of all my arrangements. I’m trying to get better about posting my face on my Instagram. Still a little shy, I guess. Funny how you spend so much time behind the scenes and then when you start a business people are asking who’s behind the work. Ha.

Carter, 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?

I started in the flower industry shortly before Covid. I was working for a really great flower company called Flower Boy Project. Around the time everything was closing for lockdown, I decided to throw everything into starting my own company. It never felt like much of a risk. It just felt like the most rational next step. Looking back on it, it probably was a little wild to just free fall. In 2020 I opened an out door pop up shop where people could come and buy plants, flowers, crystals, and curiosities. It was a nice way for people to still be around each other and have a bit of normalcy in some really horrible and uncertain times.

There are a few different facets to what I do as a florist. It’s hard to say I do just one type of thing. I go from weddings, funerals, special events, photoshoots, and most recently set design for film and stage.

I think if I were to project myself into the future, the end goal would be owning a flower shop/book shop. Who knows? I spend so much of my time reading when I’m not working that the two start to become rather synonymous.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

It sounds rather simple when I say it but I had a friend of many years who was very successful in her field as an artist and the best advice she ever gave me was if you want to succeed, there are only two things you need to do.

Say yes and show up on time.

I can’t begin to describe the amount of times I hear about people losing out on jobs because they are constantly prioritizing other things over the client. Part of being a small self run business is making the client your number one priority. When you have established that relationship and nurtured it, that is when you start to really see the pay off.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think it was somewhere around my second year in the business that I crossed paths with a very successful florist. When I told him my back story of being mostly self taught he laughed and said I could never call myself a real florist until I went to such and such schools to study and spent this many years apprenticing. He went on to say what a joke it is seeing all of these people coming out calling themselves florists when they have no idea what they are doing.

I carried those words around for a long time, thinking myself quite the imposter. It wasn’t until I woke up one morning and went to market and realized that what that florist told me was not only a lie but it was also something rather harmful. I think that the majority of the florists working today come from all walks of life. Some went to school, some just had the passion to jump right in, some were painters, some were photographers. It is not an industry for gatekeepers. It is an industry of expression and beauty.

I think that is why I advocate for people to try going into this business if they are interested. There will always be another seat at the table.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: house_of_yarrow