We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Marron Jimenez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

After building a lucrative 17-year career in entertainment public relations, I left to launch my very first, and completely unrelated, business from the ground up. Since working at Disney Branded Television, my last employer before “retiring” from PR, was more than a full-time position, there was little time for me to start my business on the side. I had to quit first, which reduced my husband and my joint household income by half. We’ve both had to make some serious cutbacks and sacrifices.

Using only my savings and a small loan from my parents, I launched my botanical art studio in January 2023, starting with the development of my logo and the design and creation of my website, no small task for a wordsmith with limited technical experience! I strive every day to be more patient with myself and my business than I was the day before, and my stress is lower than it was previously, which has made a huge difference in my lifestyle and overall health.

Starting a resin-based business is not for the faint of heart. It is a tricky, finicky and EXPENSIVE medium and can be challenging for even most experienced resin professionals! It not only requires consistency and stability in ambient temperature and humidity but mixing too much at a time, using too much heat to pop bubbles or even pouring too quickly can cause a “flash cure” or a litany of other issues. It took many months prior to leaving Disney, many months after and many thousands of dollars of trial and error to find the right equipment and hone my process so that I now feel confident preserving clients’ sentimental flowers.

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.

I am the Owner and Artist of Fruit Of The Bloom Boutique, an art studio that transforms flowers into functional home decor and bespoke artwork. I dry and preserve real – or faux! – meaningful flowers in epoxy resin, enabling my customers to have a tangible piece of a special day or an important person to display in their home for many years to come. Flowers can convey just about any emotion or sentiment, and to be able to turn that ephemeral beauty into a piece of botanical artwork feels magical…every single time!

The majority of my clients are engaged couples looking to preserve their bridal bouquets, but I also preserve arrangements from funerals, birthdays, baby showers, proms, engagements, fellow business owners looking for a unique side table or a display piece featuring their logo.

Art and storytelling runs in my blood, but it wasn’t until I was planning my own wedding to my husband Aaron that I learned about the art of floral preservation. I’m slightly biased, of course, but resin is the best medium to preserve the shape and color of sentimental blooms, as flowers in a shadow box will inevitably fade, and you lose the natural texture and volume of certain flowers when they are pressed in a frame.

I’m really proud of my customization capabilities. When a client comes to me with a vision or an idea that I haven’t done before, it’s enthralling. I love a good challenge! It’s important that clients are part of the design process and end up with a piece of artwork they are proud to showcase in their home. Customizing a background color to precisely match a wedding color scheme or figuring out a way to include a cookie from their reception in resin (without it dissolving!) may be tedious, but to me, love is in the details.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Relationship building is everything! Thankfully, my former career in publicity meant outreaching to strangers wasn’t new to me. I was constantly pitching reporters and talking to talent reps I had never worked with before. While doing so on my OWN behalf is way more intimidating, it was a skill I had already mastered.

Since the wedding industry was brand new to me, I dove headfirst into networking and started attending bridal expos. While most couples attending these events were in the very beginning stages of planning their weddings and weren’t likely to hire my studio for at least a year, it was great to get immediate feedback from brides. I learned that the majority of potential clients weren’t aware of floral preservation and those who had had only experienced the medium via brief and oversimplified clips of the process on social media.

The relationships I built with fellow vendors at these expos became incredibly important and encouraged me to contact wedding planners, venues and florists whose work I admired. I gushed via email about the reasons I revered their company, work philosophy or venue and how the beauty of their clients’ Big Day deserved to live beyond their wedding.

After learning that even some vendors weren’t aware of floral preservation in resin, I started offering to provide samples of my work. It’s one thing to share photos of what you can do, but resin can best be appreciated in person. (Bubbles and other imperfections can be hidden in photography!)

I offered potential vendor partners a business card holder that clients could see every time they grabbed a card or a larger block with their business logo embedded in a layer of resin. Using a florists’ own flowers or foliage from a venue’s own garden showcased their artistry as well as my own. While my turnaround time is about 3-4 months, the relationship developed from creating a custom piece of art for someone I admire and will hopefully recommend clients to me, is truly invaluable. Oftentimes, they even posted about their bespoke pieces on social media which helped build my audience as well.

Client feedback and referrals have also been vital to building my business and reputation. While I still have profiles on every wedding resource guide (ex: Wedding Wire, TheKnot, Style Me Pretty, etc.) to help with discoverability and SEO, I no longer ask for reviews on those sites or on social media platforms. I recently designed a new “thank you” card to include in all my custom and premade orders featuring a QR code that links to a review form for my Google Business Profile. The easier you can make providing feedback, the more likely a review will be left. I’ve already started to see an increase in reviews!

Thankfully, I haven’t had any negative feedback thus far (knock on wood!), as unfortunately, a poor review can have more of an impact than several positive ones. It’s human nature and something I know all too well from my career in public relations. One thing that I will never do and unfortunately have witnessed several times from fellow floral preservationists I follow, is post about a challenging client on social media. While it is important to be relatable and authentic, venting about a client interaction only serves to embarrass and alienate them AND other potential clients. While peers may find the interaction authentic and relatable, they aren’t going to bring you business. Business ownership can be isolating, and thank goodness for the supportive worldwide floral preservation community (love you guys!), but a DM or phone conversation with a trusted friend would be a better alternative.

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

Work isn’t life and life isn’t work! One of the reasons I started Fruit Of The Bloom Boutique was so that I could make more time for myself, my family and my mental and physical health. Starting a new business and being the sole employee means having to wear ALL the hats: copywriter, designer, woodworker, website development, photographer, videographer and social media manager, to name a few, but it doesn’t mean I should be wearing a hat all the time.

It has been all too easy to fall into old habits, especially since my studio is IN my home. But working even an hour or two every day means I’m never giving my brain a break from work. And being too accessible to clients and allowing them to come by really late or responding to their texts or calls on national holidays isn’t giving me the separation I need and deserve. The frustration I feel sometimes is my own doing and is further “proof” of my need for a break.

And while having a consistent presence on social media is important, it sometimes needs to take a backseat to my mental health. Can we normalize taking breaks from social?! It’s crazy to me that some (one-person) businesses schedule posts so there isn’t a lull when they’re on vacation. Let your clients know you’re OOTO – you deserve it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fruitofthebloomboutique.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fruitofthebloomboutique
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090617623937
• Other: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/fruit-of-the-bloom-boutique/9d768b3d13af76e7.html