Today we’d like to introduce you to Michele Weiss.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Michele. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I think I’ve always had a thing for flowers. When I was a little girl, my dad would bring my mom a fresh bouquet of flowers every Sunday morning. Not because he was in the dog house, but because he loved and appreciated her.
Never did I see peace and contentment come across my mom’s face than when she trimmed the stems and arranged those pretty blooms in a vase which she would lovingly place for us to admire. My mom wasn’t a florist, but she knew enough about how to make an ordinary bunch of flowers look like a work of art. At least, that’s how I remember it!
I graduated in 1994 with a business marketing degree. I had a brief stint in sales and then went into the clinical research side of pharmaceuticals in 2000. While it was a lucrative job and solid career choice, something was always missing for me. The pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated and doesn’t leave much room for creative expression, but for years I just worked through that and ignored that “itch” to do something different. I never thought I was good enough, creative enough, or had the drive to be an entrepreneur of any kind.
In 2017 I was fortunate to take a trip to Bali with some wonderful girlfriends. I was at a pretty serious burn out point in my career and didn’t know what I should do next. I dreamed of flowers during my entire visit to Indonesia. When I returned home, I resigned from my clinical research job and started a small flower arranging business. I had zero experience, little knowledge of the flowers themselves, and no real plan. It didn’t come as a surprise to me or to anyone else when the business failed to thrive. I accepted a new contract position again in clinical research (I thought it would be my dream job and surprise! it wasn’t) and two years later I found myself dreaming of flowers yet again.
In 2018, I moved from Encinitas to the Mission Hills area of San Diego. I kept filling my new home with fresh floral arrangements to make it feel warm and inviting, but I didn’t have time to change the water because I was either traveling for work or on-the-go in my personal life. At some point, I thought perhaps artificial flowers would be a solution for not only my own home but also a potential new business.
Then again, I would think, “really”? Like many of you reading this, I had misguided thoughts and ideas of what artificial floral really looked like. I decided to seriously explore and research the market, getting to know who makes the best blooms available. Early in the journey I met and began to work with an incredible mentor, with whom I still collaborate on many projects. It wasn’t long until I was completely sold on the idea of becoming an entrepreneur again and this time I would succeed!
My goal is to provide clients with a minimal, straight forward, “cut right from the garden” look. My arrangements are simple, minimalistic in nature, yet elegant and chic. I won’t put anything out there that doesn’t look completely authentic. My goal is to shift the way people think about faux flowers from the artificial frilly arrangement they remember in their grandmother’s spare bedroom to the elegant peony display on the coffee table at their friend’s house (“Wait, are you serious? That’s not real?”).
As for the name, I was struggling to come up with something catchy that had to do with flowers or floral so I began thinking about my story. After a while, every sentence started with “and so she.” And so she quit her job, and so she decided to create the life she truly wanted, and so she lived happily ever after… You see where I’m going with this. My husband eventually asked, “Why don’t you just call it ANDSOSHE?” I instantly loved the idea because it encapsulated everything I wanted for this company of mine: A place for simple, elegant and effortless-looking flowers, female empowerment and support, and most importantly happiness.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
and.so.SHE is still so super new so the struggles are exactly what I’d expect thus far. The objections I’ve had from potential clients include “We only do fresh,” which is frustrating because I’m not here to replace fresh flowers. I truly believe there is a time and place for everything. Sometimes fresh flowers just don’t make sense and other times there’s no substitute for the real thing. I’m just here to provide a potential solution.
Other struggles include not starting off with the right attorney, teaching myself how do create my own website, and determining who exactly my target audience really is. Every obstacle can be overcome. I’ve managed to overcome the first two challenges and currently working on the third. There are many, many more struggles ahead of me but I look forward to creatively dealing with each one. I’d also like to mention that it literally takes a village. I reach out to people for help on the daily. There is no way I could exist without tapping into the knowledge and experience of every person I know.
Please tell us more about your work.
and.so.SHE creates luxury faux floral decor for homeowners, businesses, designers, real estate agents, home staging companies and event planners who appreciate effortlessly chic design. I’ve carefully created a line of floral arrangements characterized by simplicity, minimalism, and functionality.
I’ve gone to great lengths to research the best replicas of the real thing and continue to curate the most realistic looking and feeling blooms. If I’m not comfortable displaying an arrangement in my own home, I won’t offer it for sale to my clients. When I design an arrangement, I want everyone to mistake it for the real thing. My overall mission is to show all the skeptics out there that faux floral can be stunningly beautiful AND realistic if it’s done right!
So far the reception surrounding the flowers has been even better than I expected. I’m not making any of this up… I’ve had an office call me to tell me that housekeeping mistakenly watered the orchid arrangement I designed for them. I went and checked it out… it survived just fine. One gentleman was helping me carry the floral arrangements into a business during a delivery. He told me he was being super careful not to spill the water.
A woman at an office where we placed a few arrangements went to smell the flowers. When she finally realized they weren’t real, she was laughing at the fact she was caught on the surveillance video. The husband of a client who had purchased a peonies arrangement went to do a water change and finally realized the flowers were faux. He cannot stop talking about it (I really need to have him do a video testimonial).
I think what sets me apart is that I genuinely care about the arrangements, how they look and how they will be perceived. I want these blooms to be the absolute best replicas of their fresh counterparts. Otherwise, what’s the point? You could just go buy something online or at a big box store. With me, you get a discerning eye and I’m always on the hunt for the best stuff out there.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I had a TON of allergies as a child. I was allergic to environmental stuff like grasses, trees and pollen and just about every food there was. At one point I could only eat five foods (Yes, five). I was written up in a medical textbook and literally should have been the girl in the bubble.
Thankfully I outgrew a few allergies each year so my parents would try new foods on me to see if I would have an allergic reaction. So my favorite memories are being able to eat a new food. My first bowl of Rice Chex stands out. When I ate them (with some kind of dairy substitute) I was in absolute HEAVEN. Luckily only a handful of allergies stuck with me as an adult (Tree nuts and mums). It might be another reason for me to be working with faux floral and not the real thing!
Contact Info:
- Website: andsoshedesigns.co
- Phone: 619-200-1913
- Email: michele@andsoshedesigns.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/and.so.she.designs/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/and.so.she.designs/
Image Credit:
Katie Iredale
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