Meet Natalie Erikson | Creative Entrepreneur & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Natalie Erikson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Funny enough, I think I was always meant to be a business owner, but I didn’t realize it until I got frustrated working a 9-5. When I was a kid, I was always starting little businesses from lemonade stands, to selling hand sewn bags, and even selling “magic beans” door to door (people bought them by the way). Nobody in my family had ever started a business or even graduated college so I didn’t think entrepreneurship was an option for me. The people that I saw starting businesses came from generational wealth and were almost always men. In my mind, I was to provide stability for myself and my family by getting a college degree and securing a stable 9-5 job with health insurance and a 401K. I did just that. I made it three years in the corporate world and quickly climbed the ladder. I had the stability my younger self craved, but I was terribly unhappy and unfulfilled.
I continued creating florals on the side after working at a flower shop along with a few other jobs to pay for my college tuition. Slowly, I built a micro business through word of mouth and marketed myself via social media and a weekly pop up shop. I worked during my lunch hour and evenings after my 9-5, sometimes making early morning trips to the flower market before starting work. It got to a point of where I didn’t have enough time to create floral proposals in my spare time and there was no way to continue to grow my business and work 60+ hours a week at my corporate job. I got an offer for a promotion and I knew that I had to choose between taking a chance on myself or continue in the corporate world. I chose me.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Refined Floral is the culmination of years of daydreaming and endless hours of hard work and determination. One thing that sets us apart is our heart for sharing the love of flowers and floral design with others. I’ve started an internship program for new florists that want to get started in the industry. There are limited resources for new florists who want to get started in the industry, especially compared to when I began in 2012. It used to be much easier to get a job at a shop and learn the ropes or take a few classes at a community center or college. Today, floral workshops and classes have turned into luxury experiences that simply are not affordable for the average person. It has created this huge disparity in who can practice floristry and what it looks like to be a professional florist. My goal for this program is to teach aspiring florists by providing a hands on experience and introducing them to the trade secrets while giving them a life long mentor and friend in the industry.

As with any business, there are beautiful and wonderful aspects, but there are definitely challenges. As a creative mind running a business, you are forced to be well rounded in both the artsy side and the organized, managerial, mathematician side. As an event florist, primarily taking on weddings, there is also physical aspect where we are transporting heavy arch structures, climbing up and down ladders, driving giant box trucks, and so much more. My florists friends are some of the strongest, most creative, smartest, and most resilient people I know. There is always something that doesn’t go as planned on a wedding week or event day and we are constantly problem solving and working with other vendors so that the couple never even notices.

Speaking of my florist friends, something about this industry that outsiders may not know is that we all work together for each other’s businesses. When we don’t have our own events, we work for one another as freelancers to help make the events seamless. We rely on each other to help complete our jobs that often require a few to dozens of floral designers. It is such a beautiful community that we have created based on mutual respect for each other’s artistic eye and expertise.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
With countless places to see and things to eat, it is hard to choose where to bring a friend visiting! Obviously, we’d begin at the LA Flower Market, coffee in hand, wandering aisles of roses, sweet peas, and ranunculus. From there, I might head to LACMA or The Getty to for an art fix. For a nature escape, nothing beats hiking to the Hollywood Sign or catching sunset from Griffith Observatory. It would be an LA visit without seeing the ocean. We’ll cruise PCH through Malibu, windows down, letting the ocean air in. When we’re hungry, we will be eating our way through the city. We’d be crazy not to get tacos and agua frescos from Guisados. We’d also peruse Grand Central Market to grab an array of bites – might spend a whole day here alone. We head to Universal Studios for pure fun and the Walk of Fame for a dash of nostalgia.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are countless people who have believed in and supported my journey. My best friend and life partner, Cameron, has been there through all of the ups and downs, the imposter syndrome, the happy tears and sad, the late nights and early mornings. He was my first customer at my pop up shop and remains as my biggest supporter and confidant.
The encouragement from family and friends has been unwavering and not one of my loved ones has doubted me in my crazy journey.
I’d also like to thank YouTube. I’ve learned so much about starting and maintaining a business through YouTube, including accounting, taxes, and forming a corporation.

Website: https://refinedfloral.co

Instagram: refinedfloral

Other: tiktok:refinedfloral