We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karli Norton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karli below.

Hi Karli , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved plants. I spent a childhood plucking raspberries from my grandparents’ garden, summer trips to nurseries to help pick out annuals to pot for the family patio, and a bi-weekly chore of watering the houseplants in the sunroom. Though I’ve always known I’ve wanted to keep plants in my life, I often found myself daydreaming about what I’d be able to create one day with a home and yard and not often thinking about how I could bring greenery into my life as it was. Because, truth be told, it was hard to feel inspired to have a green thumb when space was limited to a two-bedroom rental in the suburbs.

Nevertheless, my husband and business partner, Jake, and I decided to start adding a few plants into our shared apartment a few years back. It was nothing major in terms of quantity, but we quickly realized how much we loved the way they made our space feel. During this time, we had taken a trip to visit some close friends in Chicago, and our eyes were immediately drawn to their apartment’s colorful display of greenery. Their intentional design to integrate plants into their limited space, including those both fully grown and potted as well as clippings and early sprouts, sparked something in us both. For Jake, he was inspired by the patience and excitement of seeing something grow from seed, and for me, the incorporation of plant life into everyday life and space, felt completely right. We began a collaborative plant hobby that quickly grew from a select few to well over a hundred plants thriving within our 1,200 square feet. I know society loves to push the narrative of making side hustles out of hobbies, but as Jake and I would sit down nightly and stare at our surrounding jungle, it became more and more evident that this was something we really could do something with.

I have been interested in owning my own business for some time. I feel so lucky to have a partner who encourages me to follow my dreams and ambitions, so as I grew more serious about potentially starting something, he was ready to be a team. We just needed to figure out what it was we were going to be. There were a few things I knew for certain: first, we really enjoy plants. Whatever opportunity came out of all of this, I knew that sharing this passion and grown knowledge with others would be a part of it.

Secondly, both Jake and I have families that appreciate music. It’s a large part of both of our upbringing and personalities. And although it might seem like a weird crossover, plants and vinyl records both force the user to slow down. We have to intentionally find an album, put it on the record player, drop the needle, flip to the next side. It creates a very intentional moment in time. Plants do the same. They require a lot of care and our time; they force us to slow down (even just for a moment) to look at the new leaf that’s coming up, or to repot when it’s outgrown its space. There’s a lot of cross over between the two, and for us, we want to encourage our community to do the same. It seems that we’re always in the fast lane, and sometimes it’s important to sit back and enjoy these simple things.

And lastly, we wanted to be a part of our community and to share and celebrate artisan makers products in whatever way we could. I went to school for journalism, and what I loved about it was telling stories about others and their accomplishments and passions. Somehow, owning a small business that could share people’s handmade goods felt like a different way of story telling.

One night Jake and I were chatting and thinking of what this someday business could be when considering these three givens. After tossing around names and concepts, Vinyl Vines Plant Co. was officially born.

Karli , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Vinyl Vines Plant Co. is first and foremost a plant store. When we were getting into our journey as plant owners, we found that a lot of these cool products or tools that are helpful to plant owners weren’t being sold in one central location. We bought pottery from an artist who hand made their pot, we would purchase books from creators in the industry we trusted and admired. Things like, repotting mats or propagation stations we found on Etsy. We thought, ‘what if we could house all of this in one space?’ And that’s what we do. We work with local makers, artists from around the nation, and we intentionally pick out the rest of the products in our store.

A few years before we decided to open Vinyl Vines Plant Co., we lost Jake’s father unexpectedly and ever since then, we’ve been trying to find a way we could honor his character throughout our lives. Something anyone who met him would tell you is that he was so positive; he wanted to make sure everyone was happy. When we were thinking of what we wanted our store to emulate and bring to our community, that was a large part of it – to represent that feeling of happiness. Plants have a way of making us happy. Scientifically speaking, plants make us less anxious, decrease depression, increase creativity, improve sleep quality, clean our air…. I really could go on! Our goal became to create a space that felt like an exhale.

I think the thing we are most proud of are the connections we’ve made while we’re on this journey. Even if it’s a one time meeting. I’ve had customers say “I come to your store because it brings me peace” or watching some of our customers hire us for their weddings or baby showers. It means so much to be a part of life with our customers, in big and small ways. “I just got a new house” “my mom would love this”… it just brings a smile to our customer’s faces and that’s really all we want.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Less than six months after we opened our small business, we bought our very first home perfectly located only a few minutes from the store. We were both so excited to start our journey living in our new community in Appleton, having both grown up thirty minutes away in Green Bay. About three weeks after our home’s closing, we were opening up our store when I received a phone call from our good friend who happens to live on our block – our house was on fire. At first I thought he was kidding, but he reassured me it was no joke and he was in disbelief no one had contacted us. We ran out of the store and rushed to our house, trying to take deep breaths along the way. When we arrived, the fire had been put out, foam rolling down the street and three 3 fire trucks on scene. All our neighbors were there and recognized us right when we pulled up. We had some of our plants downstairs in a greenhouse already, and some of our favorite personal plants already set up. It was heartbreaking to see them amongst the ashes. However, the ones that were in our greenhouse downstairs survived due to the humidity trapped inside. They felt like a sign, like we would survive this.

For seven 7 months we lived with my parents, running our store back from our hometown. from thirty30 minutes away. My parents graciously helped with plant orders, watering, and care. It actually was pretty cool to see them start to engage with the new plants or albums. We’d almost have little “unboxing parties” – they were excited to see what we were getting in.

The whole time we were busy running our business on the weekends and working full time jobs, we were also constantly busy with the house and rebuilding. We felt drained and sometimes felt like it would just be easier to step away. Maybe it would’ve been, but we’re on the other side of it and are so thankful to have had our store to pull us away and meet new people and talk about the things we love. We’re so excited to be living in our community and making our space our own. Just like the plants we saw the day of the fire, we might be a little beat up from the event, but we’re strong. We leaned on our support systems and pushed through the good and bad.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When we first started Vinyl Vines Plant Co. we were just open on the weekends. Jake and I continued to work full time jobs and traded who would work Saturday or Sunday during the weekend. Spring of 2025, my father started working Fridays for us for ‘summer hours’. We thought for sure that it would be incredible, but the truth is that it was slow. There was a lot of doubt in that first year. While we were still working full time jobs, it felt like we were always giving our dream only 30 -40% of our attention.

This spring we made the decision for me to run the business full time. We had been growing business and becoming a little more known in our community, but it still felt like we couldn’t give it our best effort. We decided to take a leap of faith and I left my job in May, 2026. Although it has been a little scary, I am so happy to be giving my heart and dedication to my dreams. I don’t think we would’ve known unless we tried.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vinylvinesplantco.com
• Instagram: vinylvinesplantco
• Facebook: Vinyl Vines Plant Co

Image Credits

E & L Studios

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=e+and+l+studios&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8