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

Mia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

its important to realize we are just vehicles in life. we arent here forever, theres going to be so many more of us we will eventually be forgotten. what we do while we are here and how me move people and ideas is what matters most to me. i think having a product that uses our connection with nature to fosture human connections is something i want people to think about.
even as the grower, these flowers are a vehicle for me. these flowers not only heal me but the soil too while they grow and even after theyre gone. to then offer those flowers to everyone else to make their own day, or for their plans to make someone elses- its just so pure. theres so much intention and connection flowing throughout nature and into our community and my flowers get to be the vessel and thats just so wholesome for me.
i just want people to interpret me and my business in a way that might inspire them to stay positive when its nearly impossible and to always look for the vehicles in life when you feel like youre not moving yourself. anything or anyone can be a catalyst in life if you let it. i want myself, my business and my legacy to just remind people to find ways to be the light, even if youre the one needing it. create light. give light. remember people’s light and be inspired moving forward.

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?

My name is Mia and im the owner and operator of The flower wrangler LLC. I grow specialty cut flowers on my regenerative microfarm that ive started in my backyard. i currently grow on about 1800 square feet of active bed space in the thriving west valley of phoenix.

I had untradtional beginnings for my business, it started when i started falling ill about a year after having a child. i had a really hard 3 years of trying to figure out what was ailing me and causing my unique heart problems and chronic pain issues.

while my body was getting less reliable, and i wasnt finding clear medical answers i was no longer able to drive safely and comfortably and became homebound. being constrained to my house as a stay at home mom with no family around and very few friends to stimulate me. it really didnt fit my personality and i needed an outlet and a “place” to go.

i decided to make my small established veggie garden into a zen garden layout that i could visit anytime i needed to “leave” but couldnt, with flowers everywhere to soothe my pain physically and emotionally. as i learned about growing flowers for fun i noticed people doing it as a career and became highly interested. it was during this window of time that my health was finally thankfully diagnosed.

In finding my health answers that explained a lifetime of snowballing health problems, and finding out there’s potentially a way to help reverse some of it, I was highly liberated. my brain just kind of knew what it wanted to do, that little bit of “maybe things will be different for me” changed everything inside of me on a cellular level. i saw the brightest future I’ve ever seen for myself. I didn’t know what the future held but I felt like I could finally have one.

I knew id be homebound a while more and i also knew that there was a chance things wouldn’t change completely after surgery, so I dug deep on what can I do to work from home and still feel productive, motivated and fueled by my craft without burning out. I wanted to still be feel like a human and simple connection does that for me. I just kind of felt it inside that growing flowers was the way.

in that same time frame of finally being diagnosed my family of 3 moved across the country and had to reroute our lives with my health in mind, but I didn’t let it dim my future plans. I started seeds in our extended stay hotel while we were finding our new roots here in Arizona, months before we even found a home we would buy.

I laugh because I feel like I manifested the house by starting the seeds to transplant there one day. we finally got a home and i broke ground and transplanted those plants the first week we had the keys. some of those plants have since perennialized and still give me blooms. they remind me of what I’ve been through and they have been along for a part of the ride.

I have since had surgery after two years of waiting and rescheduling, for my Pectus Excavatum Defect. the surgery is to keep my chest wall in the correct shape to alleviate heart compression that it was causing.

I’m now about 6 months deep into recovery and I can say its not exactly comfortable but the hardware that was installed to act as “braces” in my chest will again be removed in a handful of years through a second surgery. was it worth it for the longevity and quality of my life? yes, so I will whistle while I hike these four years I spend as iron woman. the potency and richness of resilience has really inspired me to continue my story through the platform of my business, to educate and inspire, and grow beautiful things to sell untraditional bouquets to match my untraditional “why”.

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

a lot of my resilience these days comes from my time spent dealing with my health deficits, but a time it showed again was starting a business the same week you move to a new town from across the country. i had 0 business connections, friends or family here in the west valley. i had to kind of casually shout that my name was mia and i was here now growing flowers. Except i had to shout from social medias starting with 0 local followers and had to really push hard on the self promotion. It was uncomfortable at times but just enough to bring me out of my comfort zone. in doing so i gained interest, started connecting with other local business, i began personally making some friends within my community and soon began having an amazing and loyal customer base. word of mouth has been so critical to the foundation of my business but my community has come through for me even as a total stranger and have been so receptive. People are truly rooting for me here, some have been inspired, its been great encouragement through any point of my health journey and so motivating as a business owner. its kind of what keeps me going, its a symbiotic relationship really. resilience can look like a lot of things. growing flowers with my body against the tide is just the way it looks on me. its liberating for me and sometimes feels like an act of rebellion-of not taking no for an answer and not taking any sh*t.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

One time in the early months of my business, neck deep in self promotion i decided to try out a cheap instagram ad. i was hoping to advertise for my first upcoming pop up sale at our stellar local co-op, The Coldwater coffeehouse and bakery that i now gratefully partner with for a handful of things. I think i paid maybe $5 to promote a post about my upcoming sale there for 1 day just to see what its like and how it works. well the first message i recieved after posting the ad seemed very excited about findng my page and wanting to buy flowers. they immediately were asking about pricing and sizing and they claimed they wanted to show up at my sale the next day. i told them that was great and thanked them heavily but told myself “that was 100% a fake instagram bot”. i honestly believed it was a fake account or something. anyways, the girl came through with her fun sister too. her name is jenna, she is now a true advocate of my business. she bought 3 bouquets that first day for her family. it was wild to see me advertise for such intentionally grown flowers, and to have actually lured in a customer that actually gets it, and passes on the intention and connection i want my flowers to foster. 3 fold too.
she has made multiple purchases since, she and her sister have shared my posts and spread word to a lot of people. above all i think the coolest thing was when i had surgery and she collaborated efforts with another gardeners plant sale that i had to miss due to recovery, and she delivered me multiple plants that they wanted me to have as well wishes through my healing. it was so moving. im a really emotional person so even through the grateful tears i was kind of giggling because i actually thought this girl was a bot initially.
my flowers are bringing valuable and needed connections to people’s lives including my own when i dont expect it.
So my friend jenna i now refer to as “my lil bot” because i truly honestly didnt think a cheap advertised iphone photo of my flowers to a stranger would trigger such an eager and captivated response. ill never forget the first time we met and i felt terribly foolish for thinking this lively, fun, loving person was a hired falsey by instagram, as silly as that sounds. i immediately told her the truth upon meeting her and its been silly still ever since. it was a pretty unexpected ice breaker for her when she came to my sale but is a memory and a win ill never forget.
And then there is sweet Ann..there was another time i knocked on the wrong door during a delivery and in doing so i met a bystander who happened to metaphorically open lots of other doors for my sales and business and inevitably is still growing my following and brand awareness. i get a kick out of that one too. you just never know who your next avid supporter will be. just put yourself out there but be yourself while doing it, you might be surprised what comes out of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @theflowerwranglerllc
• Facebook: The flower wrangler