We were lucky to catch up with Katie Madison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

While visiting family in France, I was extremely inspired by the flower and art culture. Flower shops in every town, gardens full of beautiful roses in the parks and pedestrians walking home with their weekly bouquet of flowers. From my summer in France, I had the idea of bringing a bit of French floral culture to the islands of Hawai’i and that is where the idea of Belle de Jour Floral flourished.

Having a background in art really helped me see flowers as a form of creating and wanted to explore the world of using flowers as my medium. As a painter previously, I learned what I used through color theory and design and took a leap of faith.

I stumbled upon an old flower cart by the dumpster of a shop and asked the owner if I could buy it from him. My husband helped me fix up this flower cart, and I signed up for a few markets around O’ahu. My first year in business, I was doing pop-ups every weekend as a ‘build-my-own-bouqet’ style, sourcing more romantic + whimsical flowers, rather than the tropicals usually at the markets.

From here, I started to get my name out there and noticed people were really interested in seeing something new brought to the table. The idea of bringing these non-tropicals that aren’t seen so often in Hawai’i brought to markets was exciting and something different, and this is when I really ran with it.

Clients started placing custom orders and hiring me for their events and weddings. After doing a few weddings, I realized this was really the direction I wanted to be going towards. It made more sense and helped me showcase my talents in a larger scale.

I always strive to set myself apart from the designers on the island and bring something new and fresh to the table. It is so fun to create these impressionable designs for clients and transform spaces through the use of floral design.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Katie Madison and I am the founded of Belle de Jour Floral. Art has always been a huge part of my life – I spent majority of my childhood and teen years dreaming and drawing. I pursued art a major in college, specifically painting, and found my inspiration through nature and ironically, flowers.

Some of my most fond memories as a child are of my parents and grandparents gardening and tending to their gardens. Flowers hold a very special place in my heart and throughout my life I seem to always fall back to flowers.

Throughout my early 20s I always dreamt of pursuing my degree in art, but wasn’t quite sure which direction this would take. I tried painting pots, jewelry and eventually got into making lei po’o for friends and family.

I would spend my afternoons foraging flowers for my lei po’o and eventually the word got out, and I started taking on my first orders. This is where it all began and it is extremely humbling to think of where I started to where I am now.

To be able to create for a living is one of the most beautiful things that has happened in my life, and am extremely grateful to have found my passion.

Of course, owning a business is much more than the designs and I would say that is what I am most proud of. As a mother of a three-year-old, wife and business owner, juggling everything has been the hardest challenge, and I pride myself on turning this dream into a reality.

I strive to always bring something new to the table when it comes to designing. Constantly, learning and growing, I will always be a student and have so much growth in this industry. I seek for inspiration in nature and organic design and hope that is reflects in Belle de Jour.

Flowers have the ability to transform a space, and I want people to look at the designs in weddings or events and cherish those pieces for years to come.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

As a business owner, we wear many hats, and as a successful business owner, we pride ourselves on each one of these hats. As Belle de Jour began taking off, I knew I was no longer able to wear all of those hats, while maintaining a life as a mom and wife outside of work.

In order for growth to occur, I knew I had to hire on some staff. Delegating can be difficult when you want to ensure that everything runs exactly as you want it to, and I think it is important to take this with a grain of salt. Your business can still run successfully and beautifully with other people assisting.

Sometimes the way you do something is not the exact way someone else would do something, and it’s important to be able to adjust and change, especially if it will help you grow, or be patient with your new staff.

When training my staff, the key thing I am constantly reminding myself, is “I cannot expect everyone to read my mind or do something exactly the way I expect if I do not show them.” Training take patience but is a key investment to growing your staff.

It is important to keep work a safe place for your staff, where you can all have fun and enjoy your workspace but boundaries are also set. I absolutely love my team and could not do it without that, and it is necessary for me to stay humble as well.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media is an amazing means of marketing for your business, and with persistent posting and presence you can easily grow your following at get your business on the market.

I make sure to stay consistent with my posts – posting media 2 times a week and reels 2-3 times a week. Your audience likes to see consistency and is following you for a reason, so give them a good reason to follow along your journey! Find a niche that works for you and stick to it.

With social media, I look it as a part of my job and free source of marketing. I follow people in the industry so the algorithm strictly targets florists, growers, weddings, etc and I stay on top of trends and tips.

A lot of my clientele find me off of instagram or use my instagram to further their decision, so make sure your feed reflects your style and who you are as a business. Everyone has to start from somewhere and being persistent is key with social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.belledejourfloral.com
• Instagram: @belledejour_floral
• Other: TikTok: @belledejour_floral

Image Credits
Emily Choy @_emilychoy Theel Wedding Productions @theelweddingproductions Carol Olivia @carololivia_photography Aria Studios @ariastudios Megan Moura @megan_moura Rianon Stephens @rianonstephens