We recently connected with Krista Elvey and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Krista thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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.

Plant Pals evolved from an idea I had for years: I’ve always wanted to redesign the small plastic plant tag that comes stuck in the soil when you buy a new plant. It’s a small thing, but it’s been a pet peeve of mine for years. Those tags are so impersonal and provide little to no helpful information on how to take care of the plant you just purchased. Sometimes they don’t even tell you the name of the actual species, and only include a few icons that you have to decipher to figure out what your plant actually needs. This got me thinking about how I used to see plants when I was a beginner compared to how I see them now. When I first started keeping houseplants, I killed a lot of them because I didn’t understand them at all. They felt like a stranger in my home that I had no clue how to communicate with, and no idea what they needed to feel comfortable.

Now after years of learning from mentors, education, and a ton of experience, I see my plants as, well, Pals. They are living and growing organisms that change and evolve with each passing day. I can walk into a plant store and instead of just seeing a wall of leaves, I see individual plants and species and I know them by name. I’m building Plant Pals because I want to show others how to bridge the gap from Plant Curious to Plant Person and really get to know nature and nurture a love of it. I am focused on houseplants because I believe that everyone deserves access to nature, and the easiest place to have that is in your own home.

My idea to redesign the plastic plant tag really came to life when I was drawing a series of houseplant characters for a fabric collection I was creating. I saw the potential for my cute drawings to teach people to understand and learn about the houseplants in their home in a unique and engaging way.

The houseplant market and community is a gigantic space and there are a ton of great resources out there. But I wanted to build a brand and a product that would be genuinely fun for me and also serve the houseplant community in a fun new approach. Literally every aspect of my business gets me excited; answering plant questions, creating content, making characters and art. I am so grateful to be building my dream.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Absolutely! I’m a designer, artist, plant enthusiast, creative entrepreneur, and educator. I’m also the founder of Plant Pals, a houseplant education business that teaches you to become a confident Plant Person and nurture your love of nature.

Plant Pals takes a joyful approach to houseplant care. We’re founded on the ethos that everyone deserves access to nature, and the easiest way to do that is within the comfort of your own home. My business represents the type of resource I wish I had during my own journey to become the Plant Person I am today: A way for people to learn and grow without expecting them to already be an expert on plants and horticulture.

We offer free regular content via our blog, a bi-weekly newsletter where I answer plant questions, and through our Instagram. We also have a free 16-page guide for newcomers called The Houseplant Pep Talk, meant to give them a boost of confidence and a structure to follow as they continue to learn more about houseplant care.

Our first paid product is an 80+ page activity-book style educational guide The Plant Pals Primer, which combines years of original research and expertise with a 7-day roadmap to help even the most novice Plant People understand what houseplants need to thrive and survive.

Our signature, ongoing product line will be seasons of species-specific Care Packs that will launch winter 2024.

Plant Pals is an accessible and supportive home base for Plant People of all skill and enthusiasm levels. Whether you’re a Plant Curious beginner, a growing Plant Curator, or a nature-loving Plant Collector, I want you to feel at home in this community for years to come.

So that’s the business I’m building now, but if you’re curious to know how I got here, my career journey started with earning a degree in Environmental Policy. I then went on to work at a few environmental nonprofits in Communications and Marketing roles. When I was working in the nonprofit world I realized my love for design and illustration and started learning those skills both on the side and serving as the in-house designer for the organization. During my time working at a non-profit I participated in a program through a startup called Remote Year. In that program, you spend an entire year traveling with a group of people to 12 different countries while working remotely. It was in that program that I met my now husband.

When I moved to Canada, I started working for myself and started a small design and illustration studio that I ran for 6+ years. I worked with so many awesome clients, but I eventually realized I wanted to focus on putting more of my own art into the world. I started dabbling in art licensing and selling stationery and other paper goods on Etsy and at markets.

When I had the idea for Plant Pals, I started building that on the side of my design and stationery business. I’m most proud of Plant Pals because it is the perfect blend of all of my skills and interests. I’m building a business that genuinely brings me joy and I can share that joy with others.

I am a lifelong learner and I’m currently training to become a Master Gardener and Horticulturist. Master Gardeners are trained horticulturists who volunteer their time to provide gardening education and advice to the community. It’s a lot of fun and I really enjoy it.

When I’m not elbow-deep in plants or crafting something fun, you’ll find me at home in southern Ontario, Canada in my charming century-old house, hanging out with my husband and adorable corgi.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Oh yes, so many! The single best investment I’ve made in myself is joining a mastermind group. I’m a part of Bonnie Christine’s mastermind, which is an incredible community of successful creative entrepreneurial women.

I’ve also read a ton of books that have strongly influenced me and taught me so much. This is a shortlist of my absolute favorites:

How to Grow Your Small Business- Donald Miller
Launch- Jeff Walker
Big Magic- Elizabeth Gilbert
High Performance Habits- Brendan Burchard
Buy Back Your Time- Dan Martel

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

How to be more gentle with myself and stop spiraling toward burnout. Ever since I was little I was a high achiever. As is the story for many people, my family valued working hard so I internalized that I always had to work hard in order to have value. So the habit I created for myself was to always work way too hard until I burned out. The point of exhaustion was the only time I would allow myself to rest. So I would rest just as long as I needed to feel just okay and then I would repeat the cycle once again. This is no way to live, and was in no way serving me.

Life is fast paced and we’re taught to think that we need to have everything done yesterday and with great excellence. I spent way too much time beating myself up for not being able to work harder. But through years of focused effort toward identifying my burnout cycles and integrating rest into my life, I am choosing a kinder and more realistic path.

People have designed a linear world, but growth doesn’t realistically track upwards to the right in a straight line forever. Nature works in cycles, and since we are part of nature, we more naturally work well in cycles also. I’ve started to think about and implement a more balanced cycle for my life. There are periods for work, rest, and play. All are necessary and they all are balanced out by one another. Prioritizing rest and play as equal to working is the greatest mental shift I have made. It makes everything easier, and allows space for the joy and kindness I’m striving for in my life and business.

Contact Info:

• Website: plantpals.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareplantpals

Image Credits
Alexandra Del Bello