E25 From Hobby to Business: How Poy Twitchsri-Granati Became a Paper Florist 🌷🌼

Pollen: For Creative Entrepreneurs with Diana Davis

How often do you plan your life? If you’re a high achiever, you may already be listing out things you want to do and milestones you want to achieve in life by a certain time. But, life never happens the way we want or plan. We’ll have to face failures, missed opportunities, and even a lot of disappointment.

If you start comparing yourself to others and wondering where you’re going, take the time to try something new.

In this episode, paper florist Poy Twitchsri-Granati joins us and shares how she went from advertising to UX designing to making paper flowers. She shares that paper crafting started out as a 100-day challenge that helped her relax during a 1½-year void in between her graduation and finding a job.

Success is never a straight line, it’s often a winding road with twists and turns. No matter what, show up. Overcome your fears and eventually, you’ll find yourself happy with where you are.

Listen to this episode and be inspired to keep working on your craft!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.

🔥 Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Discover Poy’s career journey starting in Thailand to becoming a UX designer to becoming a paper florist.
2. Why failures are necessary for you to grow and learn.
3. How overcoming her fears led to Poy's success and how to apply this to your business and life.

📘 Resources

• Connect with Poy: Website I Workshops I Instagram
• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Join the waitlist for Camp Clarity! The 7th Round will start in October.
• Join the waitlist for the ASCEND Mastermind, a four-month immersive mastermind for entrepreneurs ready to scale their next mountain. ⛰️
• Attract your dream clients with my free masterclass!
• Access other courses from Diana Davis Creative.
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

🎧 Episode Highlights [07:26] Poy’s Story

• Poy was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and grew up in a big family.
• Since her father worked for Thai Airways, Poy was able to travel a lot as a child.
• Her father was also able to bring home Disney and Broadway videos, which made Poy dream of becoming a Broadway dancer.
• Her parents were supportive of her and eventually, Poy got into an advertising program.
• Poy is currently a paper florist and UX designer.

[13:36] Poy’s Journey to the United States and New York

• After getting her Bachelors in advertising, Poy worked for an American ad agency in Thailand.
• She realized that she wanted to use her skills in both English and French. She then tried living in New York for six months and knew it was the right place for her.
• In the full episode, Poy recounts her journey to study in the United States and become a UX designer for Estée Lauder.

[22:13] How Poy Started with Paper Crafts

• Between her graduation at NYU and getting a job, Poy had a year and a half gap.
• During this gap, Poy got into paper crafts and became consistent with the craft for 100 days. This helped her relax from checking her email for job interviews.
• Around day 80 of her challenge, a friend paid her to make a bouquet of peonies.
• She then took the initiative to visit pop-up shops and offer her paper flowers.
• Her paper flower project actually helped her get hired with Estée Lauder.

Poy: I set my goal to…I'm just gonna make this flower with this color and then try it out. If it doesn't work or it doesn't look great, you have tomorrow to change it…if your day 50 looks like shit, you have a day 51 to turn it around…I was grateful that I have a lot of failures. You can learn from that, faillers doesn't mean that you are a failure. One direction didn't work so that you can go to another route.

[36:23] How to Always Learn from Experiences

• In the full episode, Poy shares her first pop-up experience with West Elm.
• Even if she didn’t sell anything on her first day, she was noting down the kind of people who walked in.
• Her experience taught her that what she loves to do may not be aligned with what people want to buy.
• During the pandemic, she was laid off from Estée Lauder. Even though it was a painful experience, Poy was happy she was able to support her husband.
• This time also helped her create Summer Space Studio.

Poy: When you're putting yourself out there, even though your goal is to like…I have to make money right away. But then the value of you showing up, it's probably not money. Maybe it's a lesson maybe you learn something more about your business or like marketing

[44:44] How Poy Moved Forward with Summer Space

• Start wherever you are and do what you can. Everything is difficult and it takes energy to make things happen.
• Poy put all her focus on building Summer Space and didn’t apply for another UX job.
• At some point, Poy learned to hire others to help her pack workshop kits.
• Currently, Poy is outsourcing a video editor and writer.

Poy: Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can.

[51:57] Why Poy Built Summer Space

• More than creating paper flowers, Poy was able to meet all kinds of people through her in-person workshops.
• She realized how her workshops were able to help people take a break.

[54:23] How to Become Successful

• Success is not overnight, it’s often a long winding journey.
• Even when nothing is happening, you can fill that void with something that can change your life.
• Fear gets in the way most of the time. It’s important to show up. You never know what can happen unless you put yourself out there.
• Poy shares how her successes can always be linked to people’s support.
• She owes her Instagram success to becoming serious and consistent with showing up. In the full episode, Poy shares how she managed to partner with Adobe to celebrate AAPI month.

[1:09:48] Lightning Round with Poy

• Poy is a Virgo and likes being perfect and organized.
• For her, creativity is when you allow yourself to play with ideas.
• Poy’s ultimate goal as a paper florist is to have a window display in New York City.

About Poy

Poy Twitchsri-Granati is the founder of Summer Space Studio. Through a project called '100 days of making', she taught herself to make paper flowers and fell in love with them. After the project, she decided to keep making flowers.

She was working as a UX designer for Estée Lauder with this project on the side. Eventually, she would host workshops, go to pop-ups, and decorate stores with her flowers. When she was laid off during the pandemic, Poy switched her entire focus to Summer Space, and she has been waking up joyfully ever since! Poy now lives in Long Island, New York with her spouse and the studio's boss cat, Willy.

Want to learn more about Poy’s work? Check out her Website and workshops.

You can also connect with her on Instagram.

Enjoyed this Podcast on the Power of Retreats?

Never underestimate the power of consistency, hard work, and trying something new! Commit to small acts of challenging yourself — who knows where you’ll end up?

Pollen is a podcast for Creative Entrepreneurs—just like you! If you enjoyed this episode of Pollen Podcast, subscribe and help us spread the word by sharing it!

Leave a review and share it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐If you enjoyed tuning in to this podcast, we'd appreciate it if you wrote us a review. You can also share it to help other creative entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Have any questions or want to leave a suggestion? Come say hi on the 'gram, @dianadaviscreative! You can also subscribe to my newsletter for travel updates, learn about special projects, and get tips and tricks for the creative entrepreneur life!

Connect with me on Linkedin: Diana Davis Creative.

Thanks for listening! Stay tuned to my website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources!