79: Lily Roden turns side hustle into a successful wedding florist business without any experience

Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Lily Roden

Lily came from El Salvador with her family when she was 7 years old. The country was suffering from civil war, gangs and drugs. They lived very poor and the area they lived in was considered "the projects." So her parents decided to move to United States.

When they initially made the move, her mom fell into depression and anxiety. Their family had a very rough start as immigrants in the States. Since her parents didn't know much of English and always had to make ends meet, her grades suffered in school as a child.

Lily tried her best to get her grades up and landed at UC Berkley where she excelled tremendously. After college she went into the corporate career doing HR. But her job made her miserable, depressed and full of anxiety. Lily didn't know what to do.

Through her dark journey, she found herself picking up flowers and arranging bouquets. She would post pictures on her social media and it went viral. She started doing flowers for weddings and didn't even know she was running a side hustle. Lily's talent was quickly found by transforming flowers into amazing and beautiful pieces that light up every single wedding.

She grew her business in the last 5 years all organically, without any debt or spending any money on advertising.

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