I Got Laid Off, Then Started a Flower Business.

In March 2020 I lost my corporate job, applied for everything from Olive Garden to DoorDash with no luck, and then my husband said go do the flower thing. Here’s how that went.

Megan | Phoenix, AZ Florist | Fleur de Vie Studio

It was March 2020. I showed up to work and they said everyone go home, covid. Fine, okay, working from home, we’re doing this.

Less than three days later I open my work laptop and I can’t log into anything. Everything blocked. My first thought was oh no something’s wrong with my computer, I’m not going to be able to get into my accounts for work. Then I checked my personal email.

Hey, so sorry, you’re out. Please return all your hardware immediately. Your keycard no longer works so someone will be waiting outside to collect your things. Let’s schedule an exit call once that’s done.

Five years. Five years at that company, working my way up, making good money, building something stable for my family. And I’m being handled like a crazy ex girlfriend who needs a cop escort off the property.

Cool cool cool. Everything’s cool.

They said it was a lottery system. Random cuts, nothing personal.

I called bs then and I’ll call it now.

I was the only person on my team who didn’t go to the weekly after work drinks. Didn’t do the brunch thing, the hiking thing, the yoga thing with the office crew. Not because I was antisocial or difficult, I was kind, I showed up, I did my job really well. But I had a family to get home to. I had a house I was working toward buying, which I did accomplish right before all of this, so that part worked out. I just wasn’t interested in spending my free time building office friendships I didn’t need.

So when the cuts came, I got cut. Because I wasn’t in the clique. And honestly that’s okay. I got a two month severance and a very clear sign that it was time to figure something else out.

I tried literally everything else first

The next day I started applying for jobs. Anything. Everything. Olive Garden. Walmart. I even applied to Safeway, which is Arizona’s version of Vons, which is the grocery store where I first fell in love with flowers at sixteen working the floral department.

How full circle would that have been. Safeway florist at whatever the pay was going to be. I was ready to do it.

Not a single response. From anyone. Because it was 2020 and nobody was hiring, everyone was firing, and the gig economy apps weren’t taking new drivers either. DoorDash, TaskRabbit, Walmart Spark. All closed. I was sitting there like okay dude what exactly am I supposed to do here.

So I talked to my husband. And he said look, you have a severance. Use it to finally start the flower thing.

I had always said I’d open a little flower shop when I retired someday. When the kids were grown and life had settled and I’d done all the responsible career things first. My husband basically looked at me and said getting laid off is close enough. Go do it.

The beginning was humbling, just so you know

I started making personal floral arrangements for people and I was charging so little for them it’s genuinely painful to think about now. But I needed momentum. I needed my name out there. I needed to figure out what I was doing and who I was doing it for.

I found my way into Facebook wedding groups. Started showing up on every new bride post I could find. Vendors started noticing me in those spaces and we started doing styled shoots together. Styled shoots turned into more shoots, which turned into real bookings, which turned into actual friendships that I still have now. A small pocket of the industry started to feel like mine.

And somewhere in there I started finding my style. Started learning when something wasn’t aligned with where I wanted to go. Started saying no to things that weren’t me, even when saying no was scary, even when I needed the money.

The dreaded pampas grass era was part of this period, just so you know. If you don’t know about this “era”, here’s a post about it.

I was taking everything that came my way because that’s what you do when you’re starting from zero. You say yes and you figure it out. And I don’t regret it because it taught me exactly what I didn’t want to keep doing.

Telling the universe what you want

The Universe doesn’t hear “I want this” or “I don’t want this”, it only speaks in energy, and it only gives you what you put your energy into. If you’re focusing on something you DON’T want, it gives you more of it. You want it right? You’re entertaining it in your existence, you’re choosing it… how do you possibly NOT want it?

At some point I realized that every time I said yes to something that wasn’t aligned with me, I was basically sending a signal. Keep sending me these. This is what I’m available for. And that’s not what I wanted to be available for.

So I got picky. Not in a snobby way, but in a self aware way. If something comes in that I know isn’t my vibe, I don’t just turn it down. I first ask questions to see if this is a deal breaker or not, if your heart is truly set on this specific design style or theme, or is it just something they think they want. If it’s truly their absolute 100% non-negotiable vision, I try to point them toward someone who would actually be the perfect fit for them. Because they deserve a florist who lives and breathes their aesthetic, not one who can technically execute it but isn’t fueled by it.

I couldn’t always do that. There was a time when I took anything and everything because I had to. But now I have the kind of business where I get to choose my weekends, show up fully for the clients I say yes to, and actually love what I’m making. That’s not luck. That’s five years of very intentional choices about what I was and wasn’t willing to keep doing.

Getting fired during a pandemic is not the origin story I would have written for myself. But it’s the one I got and honestly I wouldn’t trade it. The timing was terrible and the circumstances were kind of insulting and I almost ended up back at Safeway making bouquets for $10 an hour.

Instead I ended up here. Making something I’m actually proud of. On my terms. For the right people.

That’s the version of the story I like a lot better.

If you want to work with someone who chose this on purpose and shows up for every single wedding like it matters, because it does, let’s talk.

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