The Meaning Behind Wildflower Ventures
About a year and a half ago, I was laid off from an extremely toxic workplace. I was burning the candle at both ends, trying to be a corporate girlie and a present mom. I was drowning. After the layoff, I sat with myself for months trying to figure what am I supposed to do in this life. Where do I find value, and where to people find value in me?
I decided to start my own company. I wanted my boys to see me being fulfilled instead of always drained. I wanted them to understand what mommy was trying to create and the importance in believing in yourself. I wanted to create something with them instead of always passing them off to other people. At the core of it, I wanted to integrate my life with my paying job.
I decided to start my own company. I wanted my boys to see me being fulfilled instead of always drained. I wanted them to understand what mommy was trying to create and the importance in believing in yourself. I wanted to create something with them instead of always passing them off to other people. At the core of it, I wanted to integrate my life with my paying job.
Selfishly, my youngest starts kindergarten in August, and I wanted him to be at home. In Roanoke before we relocated, we could afford a nanny. But when we moved to the Raleigh-Durham area, that reality became unaffordable. We got a taste of a more relaxed way of life during the pandemic (ironic, I know), and we just didnโt want to go back to it. Believe me, we tried. And all of us hated it.
Gradually, I started talking with my boys about starting a business. They came to me to the bank to open my business bank account. We talked names, what I would be doing, what our day-to-day could look like. During one of these conversations, my oldest suggested we call the company Flowers so that people new I grew things.
๐๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ผ๐? I sat on this name for a few weeks and realized I'm not a flower, but instead I'm a ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐๐. I'm not a neatly placed tulip in a manicured flowerbed. I'm not nurtured and watered so that I'm ensured to grow. I'm weathered, tread on, gobbled up and spit out.
Wildflower Ventures isnโt just a name. It's a feeling. It's a rebellion. It's a call-to-action.
The corporate world wasnโt built for me. It wasnโt built for flexibility, creativity, or for people who challenge the status quo. It was built for predictability like neatly curated lawns and perfectly edged flowerbeds.
Wildflowers donโt ask for permission. They donโt wait to be planted. ๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ ๐ง๐ค๐ค๐ฉ. They grow in the cracks, in the forgotten spaces, in the places no one thought to cultivate. They fill the gaps, fixing whatโs missing, and adding value to the ecosystem ๐๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐ญ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐.
And just like wildflowers, I refuse to be tamed. ๐โ๐ข ๐๐ค๐ก๐, ๐ซ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฃ๐ฉ, ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ช๐ฃ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ก๐ค๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ก๐ก๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฎ๐จ๐๐ก๐. Iโm not a black-suit, corporate-ladder-climbing girlie (not that there is anything wrong with that). I say what I think. I disrupt. I bring color to spaces that have been drained. And I chose ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ฌ because what I'm doing is a ๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฌ๐บ, ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ฏ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ถ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด. It's something you build, navigate, and adapt to. Itโs unpredictable. Itโs wild. And thatโs exactly how it should be.
When companies hire me it's because they are challenging the way things have been done in agriculture for decades (if not centuries). They are bringing biology-based products to the market. They need bold. They need vibrant. And they need tough. They also need someone to sees a blank space and sees a field of wildflowers instead of a manicured lawn.
So on this first day of spring I ask you to emerge from your slumber and enter this world anew. ๐๐ฉ๐ค๐ฅ ๐๐ค๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฉโ๐จ ๐๐ญ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐. Stop trying to fit into the manicured flowerbed. Get out there. Be bold. Be yourself. Create something that refuses to be ignoredโsomething breathtaking, something awe-inspiring.
