A Driving Desire to Start a Joyful Business in Utah

A Driving Desire to Start A Joyful Business in Utah

Guest: Kaitlen Polatis

Shelley Hunter: You're listening to the Faithful Career Moves Podcast. I'm your host Shelley Hunter. This is the place where we talk to people who have found the career they were born to do and recognize God's hand in the process. 

Welcome to Episode 35 of the Faithful Career Moves Podcast. Today I'm talking to Kaitlen Polatis. She's the founder of the Desert Daisy Flower Truck, which is a sweet 1953 Chevy truck with a bed full of flowers. The business is more than just a mobile florist. Kaitlen and her truck Billie can be seen at popups. They offer subscription service, workshops, and more.

I saw Billie on Instagram at the @DesertDaisyFlowerTruck. That's the name of the account, and it is cute as can be; seriously so darling. I wanted to know more about the business side of it, because, let's be honest, there are a lot of businesses that look really cool on Instagram with great photography and stunning images and beautiful people that are really just great content. If I stay true to the theme of this podcast, there's really nothing wrong with a pure labor of love. Something you feel inspired to do regardless of the amount of money you make doing it.

That was the question I took into this interview with Kaitlen, and I hope you stick around for the full story because it turns out Desert Daisy Flower Truck provides a measure of both, both beauty in the world, inspiration to surprise and delight people with flowers, the joy of brightening somebody's day and some income as well. I started off by asking Kaitlen what it is she does for a career.

Kaitlen: I run the Desert Daisy Flower Truck. It is a mobile flower truck here in Southern Utah. It's actually the first mobile flower truck in Utah, which is fun. [laughs]. It is a 1953 Chevy truck that we've outfitted to basically sell flowers by the stem from the back of it. We are totally mobile. A lot of people will ask like, "Oh, where's your flower shop?" The truck is our flower shop.

Shelley: I've seen it on Instagram. It's a darling. How did you come up with this?

Kaitlen: It's not original, flower trucks are actually pretty big in the Midwest, in the south. We saw one back in Nashville and I was like, "Oh my goodness, that is cute." Southern Utah, St. George needs something like that. That's so unique and so fun and we just ran with it.

Shelley: Were you into flowers before that though?

Kaitlen: No, not at all. I've always loved flowers. I've always been one to have fresh flowers in our house. I actually had it as part of my grocery budget every like couple weeks or every time I'd go grocery shopping, flowers were included in there and I'd always grab some to have, but I was actually a master esthetician. That's what I went to school for.

Shelley: Take me back a little bit then. Before you had the idea for the flower truck, were you working at that point?

Kaitlen: Yes. It's interesting because I've done a lot when we first got married, I went to school to be an aesthetician because I had a sister that was an aesthetician and she was like, it's a great field to go into when you decide to have a family. Then we ended up having our first and I worked as an esthetician just from home doing clients that way for a while. When we had our second, I was actually helping to manage a retail store and then phased out of esthetics for a while. Then went back into esthetics because I decided I didn't want to do all of it. I just specialized in spray tans for a while. Then once we had our third, I phased out completely.

Shelley: Tell me about the business. We see this flower truck, and clearly, to start the business you need to get a truck. How did you develop the business?

Kaitlen: I remember like coming upstairs from our basement and I had been thinking about this flower truck forever, and my husband was sitting on the couch, and I sat down with him, and I was like, "Ryan, we have to do this." I felt this crazy sense of urgency to do it before anybody else in our area did it. We were just coming through 2020. What a year. I remember just being like, "This would bring so much joy. This is so fun." He's a numbers guy. He was like, "Well, what are the numbers? What do you think?" I remember saying to him like, "it's even not about the money. It's not about the money. We just have to do it. It would be so cute, and it would be so fun."

He was on board, bless his heart because I come up with a lot of ideas and [laughs] he was like, "All right, if you want to do it, let's do it." We just started scouring the internet for a truck and something that would work and something that we didn't have to put a ton of time and money into getting up and actually running. We found one in Hurricane, Utah, which is like 25 minutes from our house, which was a miracle. I remember driving home with that truck, I just remember being like, "No way, did we actually just buy the truck?" This was just an idea like a few weeks ago [laughs].

Shelley: Right. Now you have a truck?

Kaitlen: Yes.

Shelley: You're driving home, you have this truck and I assume you have to do something to the truck.

Kaitlen: We had to outfit it, and that was quite the process because we had to come up with a frame for the canopies. Thankfully, my dad is pretty handy, and I just drew up what I wanted, and he was able to weld it with a friend of his and then finding the canopy, and someone to make the canopy. I had to call a million canvas canopy companies all over Utah to find one that would actually take the project on. That was a process that probably took-- that was the longest part of actually keeping it up and going,

Shelley: Getting this fun project, I'm using air quotes off the ground, turned into work. Your vision was to have something that was just so much fun and bringing joy. I'm a little siding with your husband for the moment, and good for him in pressing forward regardless. Is this a legitimate business now or has it truly become just a way to bring joy to people?

Kaitlen: It's definitely a legitimate business. It is. It brings income. We have steady stream of income every month that comes in through subscriptions that we do, and it is definitely a full-fledged business, there's no doubt about that. It always brings joy. That's the best part. It is so much work. Obviously when I first started, I was like, "This would be so fun." It is a lot of fun but it's also so much work. It's way more work than I anticipated, especially when you're juggling family life.

Then when we take the truck out and people come, like the community comes out, we have such an awesome local following of the truck, I would say. Her name's Billie, the truck's name is Billie. When they come out and we have regulars that come out and find us every time and they get to choose exactly what they want to put together for themselves or for somebody else and they're always so excited about it. That is the best part. I will grumble and grumble and be like, "This is so much work. Oh my gosh." Then until we're out with the truck and then it's like, "Oh, that was so fun."

Shelley: That was so fun. It was worth it. One of the things I think that is so cool is that Billie has this old or vintage vibe, but you're using current technology to market and grow the business. You have social media, you mentioned a subscription model, you have workshops and collaborations with other small businesses. Given all that, would you say this is still more though of a farmers' market weekend type of business?

Kaitlen: Definitely for us, weekends, we usually will take it out on a Friday and Saturday or even just a Saturday. It really depends on what we have going on in our life. Farmers' markets or curated markets, like there's the St. George Market here, or the mod market here that we love to be a part of. Markets, popups, and there's a local gas station here in Santa Clara that's pretty popular Dutchman's market, and they have become like one of our best business friends. They let us park with them anytime.

It's this awesome partnership. They let us have a really great location to just pop up that's visible to people passing by and stuff. Then the truck brings clients for them, and their little gas station boutique treat place as well.

Shelley: I can totally just picture this on the corner. It sounds like much of the payout for you and your family really is in the relationships you're building. Would you say that?

Kaitlen: It's funny because you talk to any florist and there's no single florist out there that I personally know that's rolling in the dough. Working in the floral industry is very much like a labor of love. It really is not about the money.

Shelley: You have three young kids, and you want to be able to make this work. How do you make it work with your family?

Kaitlen: It's a lot of give and take. Thankfully, my husband, he's in insurance and finance and his schedule is pretty flexible and I really don't think I would be able to do as much as I do with the flower business without him. We also have a lot of help from our families. My parents both live here in town and his parents and it sounds so cliche, but it really does take a village.

Shelley: I saw on one of your posts that your daughter sometimes comes with you.

Kaitlen: Yes. That's been pretty recent, which has been so fun. She's eight years old. I think all moms in general and moms that work, you have this sense of guilt. I've been struggling with that a little bit lately where it's like, "I don't have to do this flower truck. What am I doing?" I'm spending so much time, but it brings me joy and it brings other people joy and it's something I want to do. I've recently been having her come to more things with me.

Shelley: I bet she loves it.

Kaitlen: She does. She loves it and she puts the sticker on the wrap when it's done and the flower food inside and then she hands it off to the customer and yes, she loves it.

Shelley: What haven't I asked you about this business or about starting a business that I should have?

Kaitlen: I just think, I've had a lot of people ask me like, "Why are you doing this right now? What are you doing? How do you do it?" Because of the way I was raised, I just have this confidence and it's interesting because I have five siblings and most of my siblings are entrepreneurs and own their own businesses. We were all raised with this sort of confidence, if you want to do it, just do it and to know that our worth doesn't come from like other people's opinions of us or if we fail at something like just try something else or try again. We'll just do it like, let's just empty our savings and buy this truck and see what happens.

[laughter]

Shelley: Why not?

Kaitlen: Let's just see where this goes, but I feel like that's a big part of starting something. A lot of people, I feel like I just want to shake people and be like, just do it. Just try it. Just see what happens.

Shelley: Yes. Well maybe you already answered this in buying that truck, but what is a leap of faith you had to take to get where you are now?

Kaitlen: I guess that would definitely be one if it was truly like, okay, we're going to do this, literally every penny of our savings to buy this truck. I remember feeling like, "Oh my goodness. What have we done?" Thank goodness for Ryan, he was very calm and was like, "We got this. If it doesn't work out, it's okay. We'll figure it out. We'll sell this truck." That was definitely a big leap of faith, especially when you have three children, like we had a four-month-old at the time, and all that.

Shelley: All right. What has been an unexpected blessing, something you just could not see for yourself in having the courage to do this?

Kaitlen: I love just being able to interact with the community and so much just being able to really bring joy to people. It's so fun and we do this, we call it Make Your Day Bouquet. Every now and then we'll open up our Instagram, especially if I have leftover flowers, which does happen, and we'll say, okay like we have-- we can make three bouquets and we want to do these, make your day bouquets.

Nominate someone you know that's going through a tough time or just had a hard week or something's going on and then we just open it up and people will send in names of loved ones or friends or whoever and it is like gut-wrenching to read the things that are going on with people and also heartwarming to see how much people care about those around them. That's been something we really loved.

Shelley: I love that. How have you seen the hand of God in your career?

Kaitlen: I just think that I couldn't do any of it without having a relationship with God and knowing that my worth doesn't come from people on Instagram or anyone else. I find the sense of confidence, like I said from the way I was raised and also from knowing that I am a daughter of God and that He does care about every detail of my life. When I am struggling with owning a business and having three kids and doing all the family things, something happens to where somehow my load has been made lighter.

I don't believe that it's a coincidence. I genuinely look at it as, "Oh my goodness, my Heavenly Father knew that I was struggling in that way or He brought this person to me or let me go to this person." When you look at it through those lenses, instead of just like, oh, that was a happy coincidence, you know? My eyes are just opened. How miraculous it already is.

Shelley: I love the recognition of that.

Kaitlen: I was just thinking back to your earlier question about another unexpected blessing. It's been so cool because my dad, I had mentioned earlier that he was the one that helped me outfit my vision and stuff of the truck. He is in his 70s and he's just this darling old man. He is there just watching. He just loves to watch the process.

That has been really something that's been on my mind a lot lately of a blessing that's come from doing this, is the time that I've been able to spend with him because of this truck. He had a little bit of a health scare and I'm really, really close with my dad. That was really scary, and I just kept going through my mind like, "Oh my goodness, I get to spend all this extra time with him because of this."

He helps me with the trucks and the maintenance and that is just something I'm so grateful for. That is truly a testament to me of my Heavenly Father's love for me because He knows how much I love my dad and how much I adore him and how much I look up to him to be able to spend so much time with him right now when he is getting up there in years, and we would be spending time together regardless, we're very close but it's just different. He'll drive to Vegas with me at five o'clock in the morning to go get flowers. He loves it. It's just something fun that's come up with doing this business that was unexpected.

Shelley: That takes us full circle because your husband's question was, where's the numbers? That was my question too. In the end, maybe that’s not at all what the goal of this business was.

Kaitlen: Yes, exactly.

Shelley: I love that. Thank you for being on the show.

Kaitlen: Yes, thank you for having me.

Shelley: Of course. Well, that was a fun little story. I want to thank Kaitlen for sharing it with us today, and I want to highlight three things that stood out to me. 

First, those promptings to start something aren't always about the money. They might be, but it may also be God's way of telling you that He needs you to put some good out into the world. Like Shauna Edwards said in Episode 34, if you have a talent to share, take a step toward it and let God magnify your efforts. If you're on the right track, that prompting is actually from Him. Things will work out better than you can imagine.

Number two, I think it's sweet that Kaitlen's husband was willing to support her dream and her family rallied to help her as well. That the kids got to watch their mom do something really great and be a part of it too.

It might have been a crazy time in their life with three little kids including a newborn, to start something like that. But if they'd waited, the opportunity may have passed. The truck probably would've been gone and maybe Kaitlen's dad wouldn't have been able to help as much as he has. 

Finally, we'll never know the ripple effects of our efforts.

Kaitlen will never really know how many people were touched by her flowers, the people that received them or the people that gave them or how people in town need to see Billie and her blooms. I bet every time they park that truck, hundreds of people are driving by and thinking, "I wonder who would need flowers today?" Whether or not they stop, they're having a moment of thinking of others, "I wonder what other acts of service this visual has inspired." To be honest, it's like this podcast I really don't know who listens.

When I think I'm creating it in a vacuum that nobody is actually listening to it except my mom, someone will stop me and say, "I really loved that episode you just did." I think, "Really you're listening? That's so great." If you are listening right now, thank you for letting me share a moment on your drive, your walk or the background as you clean the house or fold the laundry like the Desert Daisy Flower Truck.

I hope it inspires you to think about your talents and interests, how God might be prompting you to do something whether that's to create something of your own or just take flowers to a friend, either would bring more joy into this world. Think about it. Thank you again for listening. 

Thank you for listening to the Faithful Career Moves Podcast. If you want to know more about how to connect your natural talents and abilities to job opportunities and business ideas, then visit our website at faithfulcareermoves.com.