A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE UNLIKELY FLORIST, SPENCER FALLS

On a relatively gloomy afternoon in Venice, California, Spencer Falls, the charming creator of The Unlikely Florist, welcomed us in his studio, an open space warehouse that also serves as an occasional event space, surrounded with plants and flowers all over. There’s an earthy, grounded vibe to the space that you can easily get from The Unlikely Florist’s (@theunlikelyflorist) beautifully curated instagram feed.

In this exclusive interview, we get a brief glimpse on a day in the life of The Unlikely Florist, Spencer Falls, as he shares his thoughts on running a successful business, to following your passions from snowboarding, to acting, to working in a restaurant, to selling flowers and his unlikely journey to being a successful florist in Los Angeles.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND INTERVIEW: IRVIN RIVERA, PRODUCER: BRI MARANGA

Spencer, how’s I going?

Good mate, how are you?

I am great! How’s your day so far?

It’s been a full day already. And we’ve only counted at what, only 1 o’ clock. Started out pretty early. First project was getting my truck to start running but it worked out pretty quickly and easily. I loaded it with flowers and delivered to a bunch of our subscribers and a couple of our local deliveries and businesses and here we are.

It’s this truck. This truck is what you fill with flowers.

Yeah, this truck. I have the van right there. The van, we use to sell on the street, and the truck I use to deliver subscription arrangements through town.

Tell me about your story. How did you come up with The Unlikely Florist?

Well I didn’t exactly come up with it. It was a combination of myself and my friends and just like what was going on. I didn’t intend to start a flower business or become a florist. I had been snowboarding when I moved to America when I was younger and then started acting in LA a little bit older and then out of necessity and the need for cash, need for some creative expression, so I started selling flowers out of my van and the rest is history.

How long has it been?

I think I started April of 2016. It’s like 3 and a bit years.

Has it always been here, in this location?

No, no. First and foremost it was just me and the van and I managed to get my hands on the studio late 2017. So I’ve been in here a while. It definitely feels like home.

Do you go here in the studio,  everyday or as much as you can?

Yeah. I’m here a lot for sure. It takes a bit to keep the business running, get the work done. Gotta be here to do it.

Walk us through the usual day in here, in the studio? What usually happens here every morning?

I probably already made a trip to the flower market. So, sorting flowers. Obviously, I need to go get them. Or often I buy from a local flower farm. And then come back to the studio with those flowers. Clean them up, get them out into buckets and make them ready for arrangements and tackle the days works- of flowers to be delivered, subscriptions to be delivered, events to be executed, flowers to be made, fleur de lis to be made, botanical sculptures, whatever’s in the can.

What makes your flower business different from all the flower business around here?

Probably a few things but I kind of just do my thing in a way. I know there’s really great florists that work on a lot of events and weddings and stuff like that. I think that my business is more catered to the community. It is more focused towards those subscription arrangements going towards the people that want to enjoy flowers week in and week out. I wanna take inspiration from them and want to kind of invest in the natural world. Those are the kind of people that I handle from day to day. Not to say that I don’t do weddings and events and all that stuff. I certainly do.

You mentioned subscriptions, so what’s your subscription model like?

It’s like you can get one or three different types of arrangements. And they range for 1 of 3 size arrangements. $45, $85, $125 and they can be delivered weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. We send a reminder to our subscribers that we will be coming by. They put their vase out. They can choose one of 3 vases. I make a vase here with wood or copper and glass, that’s kind of a bit of a flower stand vase. It’s a strange option but a cool option. I also have a friend who is a ceramicist. Her company is called Mad Rey Clay / Mad Rey Ceramics. And she makes some really beautiful vases for us. Some of it are like a white glaze on a white clay. Some of it are kind of a pink glaze on a brown clay. She gets experimental with it which I like. They deliver as well as often need.

Are you primarily around Venice or are you all over LA?

Flowers is a service business. It is a physical service that you provide to the community. And as you grow, you can service large communities. So at the moment, I think we definitely service the west side of LA very strongly. I’d love to give and sell flowers on the East Side more and in due time. Do we do the East Side? Absolutely. Do we do a lot of it right now? Not exactly. But in time.

But if you get a call, are you gonna deliver?

Of course, absolutely.

What do you think is the biggest investment in your business that you did this year so far?

I think it’s probably in staff. Just training and learning what it is to run a business. Because it was never my intention to run a business, I never saw myself as a businessman or someone to run a business. I always saw myself as an artist or something. But there’s a lot to learn when it comes to managing people and managing all these different projects at one time. And all these different personalities and everything. That’s something that I invested sometime this year- investing in people. You just don’t know when you’ll get it right. And that’s just the tough thing in managing people. Ultimately it all comes down to your decision and reading of character and you see something that you like in someone, and you go with that and sometimes it doesn’t always pan out , and that’s the reality. You can have workers that you wanna invest in, and hope that they return and become well trained workers who can help you grow your business. Ultimately, sometimes, they don’t become that so you find yourself having invested a lot of time, money and energy into training someone who ultimately doesn’t learn and then leaves and then you have to do it all over again.

It’s a gamble.

Yeah it is a gamble. Everything is a risk. Risks have to be taken and you learn from every experience.

What advice can you give to people who want to be entrepreneurs and artists who wanted to dive into business?

I wouldn’t say dive in. I would say to let it naturally happen. Let the demand kind of be met by your efforts. Instead of trying to push it and force it and want the business to grow and be impatient and be frustrated that you’re not getting business, just plod along and handle what’s coming your way and show that you’re happy in your life. And as more work comes in, it will take over. I was trying to act at the time I started. I was auditioning for a lot of projects and stuff. I was working in a restaurant and doing all sorts of things to stay above the water and then one thing led to another. And the flower business, and being a florist kind of overcompensated and I just sort of went with it. It’s about just kind of going with it and not forcing it. And working on little things, they always lead to bigger things. And there’s a lot of value early on. And just working with people and doing it with good grace and having the opportunity to create something that you haven’t created before. Then you can take photos of it , and you can show people that I can do this. And then slowly but surely, everyone can be like, can you do this for me?

Especially that you’re happy doing it. People will see it and it will flow naturally.

That’s a big part and certainly not something that I sort of knew in a way. When you’re in a situation it’s really hard to see it from the outside perspective and the more you do that, the more you can be more aware of your actions and manifest your reality.

If you were a book, what book would you be and why?

This is the hardest question you’ll ever ask me.

I tell you what, I’ll be a play. Can I be a play?

There’s a play called Golden Boy by Clifford Odets. It’s a play about a young man who wants to be a pianist but his dad and everyone around him wanted him to be a boxer. He’s a really good fighter. And it’s like a tale of a tragic love, unrequited love and just the contradiction of it with him wanting to use his hands to create such beautiful melodies but his life is taking him down the path using him to smash people. So that’s kind of ironic and contradictory. It’s a good read.