Sometimes your passion can be staring you right in the face, and you don’t even know it. That was the case for Spencer Falls, aka The Unlikely Florist, an artist hailing from New Zealand who started a flower-arranging business out of his van in Venice Beach, California. Before Falls was making elaborate arrangements for weddings and events, and shipping his creations all across the country, he was trying to make it as an actor in Hollywood and feeling creatively unfulfilled.
Floristry wasn’t a way out of the business, it was just a means to make some cash after Falls lost the restaurant job he was using to support himself between auditions. What Falls didn’t realize was this was the creative outlet he had always been looking for.
“I wasn’t starting a business, I was playing a character,” says Falls, “Flowers and floristry was just yet another way to support the dream of acting and I think we can be blind to opportunity if we’re too fixated on our own direction that we want to go.”
In the latest episode of Cash Class, accredited financial counselor and personal finance expert, Lissa Prudencio sits down with Falls to talk about the importance of work-life balance and how his parents instilled in him a work ethic that allowed him to follow his passions while staying grounded in realism. They also discuss how he went from an apple picking snowboarding enthusiast in his home country of New Zealand to an unfulfilled actor in LA, to flipping his passion for creativity and challenge into the Unlikely Florist, the greatest role he has ever played.
It’s quite an inspiring journey and a reminder that making money moves doesn’t have to be creatively unfulfilling if you are able to monetize your passions.
“You have to listen to your heart. Looking at the moments in your childhood that brought you the most joy, really hone in on what those things are, you can find yourself something that you’re highly passionate about and it comes pretty easily to you and something that you can… fight for and devote your entire life to.”
Well said! Watch episode three of Cash Class above to learn more about Spencer Falls’ inspiring story.