Today we’d like to introduce you to Elizabeth Jaime.
Elizabeth, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
From a young age, I always knew I wanted to work in a creative field. Almost all of my family works in real estate and they really wanted me to go to business school for college. But as a teenager, I had seen on TV the glitzy, glamorous life of working in magazines and I wanted that. When it was finally time to go to college, I decided to move to New York for school so that I could do internships throughout the semesters and summer. Initially thinking I wanted to work on the fashion & styling side of things, I did internships at magazines like Teen Vogue + Vogue Italia. I quickly learned that unpacking and packing suitcases of clothing was not for me and decided to try and see what the production side of things was like. I eventually landed an internship in the photo department of Teen Vogue and quickly fell in love with the photo world. I loved the idea of producing, conceptualizing and art directing photoshoots. When I graduated college, I spent a year or so doing random odd production assistant jobs but eventually landed a full-time role in the photo department of bon appetit magazine.
I had always loved food although I wasn’t sure what that meant in terms of producing food photoshoots. I ended up staying at BA for six years and absolutely loved my time there. After several years at BA, I decided to leave – not because I didn’t love my job but because I needed a new challenge. For a while, I had been thinking of moving back to my hometown of Miami and I kind of pushed myself to just do it once I left BA. After nine years in New York, my boyfriend and I packed all our belongings into a truck and moved down to Miami. Our first few months, we both felt like we had make a huge mistake – we had no work down here and hardly had any friends. Because of that, I made a point of really pushing us to try new things and meet new people. One of those things was working with flowers. I had always loved flowers but never considered being a florist. I started doing arrangements for fun at home and posting them to Instagram and eventually it caught on. I scored my first big gig out of pure luck and from there, the business grew and grew.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has and it hasn’t. Generally, things have been pretty smooth in that I was able to build a thriving business out of nothing. I’m fully aware that some people spend years trying to build a brand and fail and I’m lucky that the branding, messaging and creative part of the business comes pretty naturally to me. Internally, I’ve struggled most with the business side of things and defining the value of my work. I have never had my own business and dealing with the markups, customers, and budgeting side of things has been my weakest point. I’ve also grappled with defining the value of my work, which is something I think a lot of people in creative fields struggle with. Throughout the process, I’m constantly having to remind myself that I should be charging X amount and that I’m offering a premium product. It sounds easy to hype yourself up, but I’m a people pleaser and always want to say yes to people!
Calma – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Calma is a floral design brand that focuses on modern, tropical(ish), high-end floral designs. We approach all of our work with an editorial-eye and strive to make designs that feel new, fresh and unique. Our favorite projects to work on are large-scale installations and when we collaborate with brands to create unique floral experiences.
I think what people know us best for is our colorful, modern approach to floral design. Our goal has always been to push people’s ideas of what florals can be and I like to think we’re doing that within the Miami floral landscape.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Personally, I believe success is simply taking an idea and bringing it to fruition. It doesn’t matter if the idea took off if people hated it – that’s all irrelevant to me. The sole fact that someone got up and took the effort to realize an idea is enough for me to deem it successful. It takes a lot of work to get from the point of having an idea to catapulting it into real life, so I believe that in itself is a success. In the same respect, I view failure as a completely normal and necessary feeling to experience. It’s important to go through that to grow and evolve as a person and as a creative.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.calma-miami.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/calma_floral
Image Credit:
Portrait by Jeanne Canto
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