We recently connected with Timothy Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Timothy , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

The people that come to mind immediately are my two grandmas. I got to spend quite a bit of time with them growing up and these two women were impactful on me as a person, artist, and heavily influenced my love and appreciation of flowers.

From them I learned to be resourceful and fearless in the creative process. They were both self-taught artists, painting in various mediums, and just had an innate sense of artistic skill and sensibility. My maternal grandma was also skilled in wood carving and cake decorating. They just jumped in and tried things without any rules to stifle them. Like them, I have no certification or formal training in floral design and consider myself a self-taught artist, learning mostly through trial and error and pushing my own creative limits up to this point.

They also grew flowers and took great pride in their blooms. One of the formative events that shaped my appreciation for floral design was when my paternal grandma took me to the famous Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia at the age of 12. I recall us both being so mesmerized by the floral displays there. I also learned from them that artistic inspiration and beauty are all around us, as they introduced me to a wider world on many adventures together, whether exploring caves in New Mexico, sailing Alaska’s inside passage, or hitch-hiking in Catalonia, Spain.

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?

I am a self-taught floral artist and create distinctive floral arrangements with artistic flair using fresh blooms or artificial flowers through my company Florality. I don’t have a catalogue of options to choose from; every arrangement is customized to the occasion, space, and customer and that is one thing that sets me apart. I believe flowers have a mystical power to convey what words cannot and can immediately transform your mood or the energy in a room. My custom designs are created in the moment and inspired by the energy of the customer, the personality of each unique recipient, and the spirit of the event or space. Customers have described by designs as “uniquely stunning,” “originally beautiful,” and “profound” and sometimes comment that they see stories in them that resonate. A Florality design is a piece of living art and has a little something extra.

I offer sentiment designs for every occasion as well as showcase arrangements that invite admiration in both professional and personal spaces. I also have some fun subscription options. I created the Never Forget Subscription for busy working people where I keep track of and deliver flowers on three important dates to whomever they choose so they have one less thing to remember. Another fun subscription I offer is the Pet Parent Love Subscription. I know so many childless people whose pets are their kids so I created this option for pet parents to receive flowers and a card from their pet on their birthday and either Mother’s or Father’s Day. I also design for various office environments, conferences, restaurants, airbnbs, hotels, micro-weddings and elopements.

As far as my story, I have a background in the hospitality/travel industry and worked as an architectural historian for nearly 20 years before jumping into floral design with my own business. I’ve always enjoyed helping and collaborating with people and that’s partly what attracted me to floral design. I grew up planting and tending to flowers at home with the help of my parents. Flowers were routinely exchanged as gifts in my family. Visits to the Butchart Gardens and Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, Netherlands were formative experiences for me as a floral artist. I remember being so taken with the vibrant colors, drama, and creativity of the displays.

About 10 years ago I was at a crossroads in my personal life and began experimenting with floral design, using both fresh blooms and silk florals, simply as a creative outlet and for my own mental health. They were not all winning designs, but I always learned something new about my own design approach. This continued for several years but I kept most of my creations to myself.

During the pandemic, I continued purchasing fresh flowers to experiment with from area flower farmers and florists to do my small part in helping them stay afloat financially during shelter-in-place. Around this time, I also began sharing my creations on social media and decided to call one of my accounts “Virtual Florality,” a play on the words “virtual reality”; at the time the only way to interact and share my floral art with the outside world was virtually. I started getting really positive reactions and feedback; people said their moods were lifted by my designs and started commissioning floral arrangements. It was pretty exciting!

So after nearly 20+ years working in a corporate space and 10 years of floral design experimentation/freelance work, I left my job and started my own floral design business called Florality. I came up with all sorts of business name ideas but ultimately chose to drop “virtual” and go with Florality, a beautiful new reality for me that was is longer just virtual.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Baked into our work culture is this idea that productivity, time efficiency, and profit are the most important things to focus on and that we must almost operate as machinery instead of humans. I’m actively challenging the idea that every minute must be as productive as possible at any cost.

While as a business owner I want to make profit and need to use my time wisely to meet customer needs, I’m trying to achieve both without compromising myself, my passion, or my product. Most people cannot be creative and do their best artistic work on command, I certainly cannot. I need time and calm. When I sit down to make an arrangement, I block out everything else, maybe listen to some music, and focus on channeling the energy of the recipient or occasion into the design. That is just how I like to work. I’m creating something in the next few weeks for a digital artist so I’ve been sitting with some of his art to get a sense of his vibe, what appeals to him aesthetically, and what the design might look like. I have no idea what the final design will look like but it will be interesting and one-of-a-kind for sure.

It has been an adjustment giving myself permission to take the time that I need and being ok with a certain level of time inefficiency for the sake of quality and artistic fulfillment after decades in a corporate space. There are plenty of places that can produce a nice-looking floral arrangement within the next half hour at optimal speed, that’s not what I’m doing and those aren’t my target customers. And I’m ok with that.

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

My social media presence really started out as just a hobby and creative outlet to share my floral art during shelter-in-place. I almost used it as a portfolio to start off. The number of followers, many of them friends and family, gradually grew and it was a great way to get immediate feedback too. My social media presence is still a work in progress but here are some questions that I consistently ask myself:

1. What is my intention on social media? I started out using it more as a portfolio for my work but my intention is slowly evolving toward connecting with customers and being seen as someone they want to work with. Knowing what you want out of social media helps guide how you use it.

2. What is the idea for my next post? Posting regularly to stay top of mind for people is important and that comes about with regular posts. I have a running list of ideas that I add to when inspiration sparks. There are certain people I follow that I look forward to hearing from on a regular basis so my goal is to be that for my followers. I don’t always have mind-bending content but try to post or share something that is on-brand and message to stay connected to people.

3. Have I responded to customers and what other local businesses have I supported this week? I strive to respond to and acknowledge customer comments; people have limited time and I sincerely appreciate that they took even a few seconds to like or comment on my content. It’s important for me to give what I’m hoping to get back from the universe. I tag local businesses where I purchased materials, share ads for others’ workshops, and simply give a like or comment on their content. Owning a business is hard work and it’s important that we support each other; we can all coexist. And who knows, someone may see the name of my business in the comments and decide to check out my account too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.floralitydesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floralitydesign/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560372388835
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothysmith77/
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits

Timothy Smith