I bought my first business at the age of 28.
It was a wedding rentals company that sometimes did florals called A Southern Tradition. Although I was southern, I was definitely not traditional, so I traded long hours, white linens, and chiavari chairs for better boundaries, beautiful blooms, and a business named after yours truly: Zimmerman Events.
The business thrived, we started booking six-figure clients, and I found my work featured in publications like Southern Living, Martha Stewart Weddings, and People.
Designers and wedding professionals from around the world started to take notice. It wasn’t long before I had a calendar filled with coaching calls and my Australian clients were waking up before dawn (literally) to book an hour of my time.
That’s when I knew it was time to share my floral design and wedding planning secrets in a way anyone could access. In the Spring of 2017, I sat down and wrote my very first online course… The Business Behind the Blooms.
I found my purpose: experiencing tough sh*t, and then sharing about it.
The next few years saw more courses written, more students helped, a podcast launch and even a book release.
Intrigued? Keep a-scrollin’.
the truth
my backstory
After my sister passed away when I was three, I knew deep in my bones that life is short, and I wanted to spend every second I could with the people I love most.
By the time I was in college, I knew I wanted to own my own business. I figured that people who work for themselves get to call their own shots, make their own hours, and pay their own paychecks.
After graduating from The University of Arkansas, (well, my future husband Brian graduated. I was a few credits short of a degree, if you know what I mean,) Brian and I got married and moved back to my hometown of Conway, Arkansas. After a few years of me figuring out what I wanted to do with my life and finally finishing those last two credits of Spanish, I bought A Southern Tradition.
After years of incredibly happy marriage just my husband Brian and I, traveling the globe and watching our friends pop out cute babies, we eventually had one of our own.
That’s when I realized that my entrepreneurial dreams were looking more like a nightmare. I worked constantly, never saw my daughter, and had no money to show for it.
It took a wake-up call, a business rebrand, and a $100,000 business loan, but I finally created a business that could support the life I always wanted.
A life where I’m a present, engaged mom to my daughter Stella and her twin brothers Perry and Zeke. A life where I do work that gives me purpose, sharing my story and my strategies with others. A life where I spend my time, my most precious resource, doing exactly what I want to do.
Need a life (or business) makeover?
In the middle of my business overhaul (oh, and carrying/birthing twin boys),
Brian started getting sick.Really sick.
Months passed, and nothing seemed to help. Not doctors visits, prescriptions, infusions, ER trips, green smoothies, colonoscopies, prayers, or Pedialyte. Nothing. As Brian’s illness grew worse, so did his attendance at his new job as a financial advisor.
While taking care of my husband, who seemed weaker every day, and our three kids under the age of two, whose needs grew more demanding every day, I realized I needed to grow my business so that when, not if, he lost his job, we could, ya know, keep our house and our food and our clothes and maybe even some health insurance.
That’s when I got serious about turning my (let’s be honest) side-hustle/hobby-job into a real-deal capital-B Business.
In less than a year, I went from making $0.00 to bringing in six figures and solely supporting my family of five.
Today, I wear a lot of hats, which is just the way I like it.
✓ wife
✓ mom
✓ podcaster
✓ author
✓ educator
I can’t imagine anything I’d hate more than doing the same job day after day, year after year.
I’m like Ross Gellar with a couch in a narrow stairwell. I’ve got to pivot.
Today, I follow my curiosity and trust my gut, and that’s led me on this winding path of entrepreneurship… and I wouldn’t change it for anything.
Think that was a lot?
You ain’t read nothin’ yet.
It’s a story so wild, it could fill a whole book.
And it did.
Let’s get real personal. I’ll read the book to you!
A brief history of events
My Childhood
1982-2005
This is my older sister Courtney and me with our parents in our last photo all together. We spent three short years together growing up in Conway, Arkansas before she died after she, my dad, and I got in a car accident. I spend the rest of my childhood and adolescent years hanging out with my five best friends, the sisters I chose, making up dance routines at slumber parties, eating more than our fair share of cheese dip, and making our way to The University of Arkansas. When I got to school, I met a handsome stranger named Brian Zimmerman. After tricking him into going on a hot date to Taco Bell, we were inseparable. He got straight A’s and graduated with honors, a job, and most importantly, a degree. I left UofA the same time he did, with no job, two Spanish credits short of a degree, and no plan.
The "Real World"
2005
Brian and I got married (wohoo!) and moved back to Conway (wamp wammp). Brian went to work every day, and I sat on the couch for a year, watching Real Housewives and feeling pretty lost.
FINALLY Post-Grad
2007-2010
I finally finished those Spanish classes online and officially graduated from UofA, seven years after starting. I got a job at a local kitchen supply store and spent years slinging sterling silver spoons and copper pots. Brian and I ate PB&J sandwiches everyday to afford a month-long trip backpacking across Europe. We visited over fourteen countries and had the time of our lives. I eventually started managing the kitchen store, and even made plants to buy it, until the economic crash dashed those plans and everything I worked for fell through.
Finally a Business Owner!
2011
The mom of a friend of a friend (small town, y’all) approached me about buying her wedding event rentals business. After losing the kitchen store, I decided to jump in. After a year of learning the ropes, A Southern Tradition was mine.
We started building the village house
2012
I learned that working for a business and owning one were two totally different things. In 2012, Brian and I had decided to build our dream house in a new urban living development in downtown Conway. Soon after breaking ground, we found out we were pregnant with our Stella! I spent nine years (I mean months), delivering wedding rentals and washing linens with a big belly in front of me.
Working Mom
2013
Once Stella was born, I figured out how to crush the working mom life. JUST KIDDING! I tried to figure it out, only to realize I was spending less and less time with my little family and making less and less money at A Southern Tradition.
Zimmerman Events
2014
I saw a flyer in the flower market for a class on floral arranging. The designs on the page were beautiful, organic arrangements, not the roundy-moundy traditional bouquets I sometimes made. I put the class on my credit card and came home having realized that if I wanted to live the life I wanted, I needed to overhaul my whole business. The business was operating month-to-month, and I knew that in order to get the education I needed to turn things around, I had to put a pause on business operations. I took out a $100,000 loan as a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy and create the business I’d always wanted. I spent months taking classes, going to workshops, reading books, and learning how to run a successful business that wouldn’t run me into the ground. I rebranded A Southern Tradition to Zimmerman Events and planned a photoshoot where I showcased my new focus: garden-organic floral design. With my new strategies, I started working less and making more.
Pregnant with Twins
2015
After rebranding my business, I found out I was pregnant with twin boys. As my belly grew, so did my business. At the same time, stuff at home was not so glamorous. A few weeks after the boys were born, Brian got sick, and he wouldn’t get better for a long, long time.
Sh** Gets Real
2016
While I chased three babies under the age of two, Brian could barely leave our house. I focused on growing my business, knowing that it was only a matter of time before Brian’s illness caused him to lose his job, and it would be my job to take care of all of us. And the business did grow. I set boundaries that gave me time to be with my kids and take care of my sick husband while finally making a steady paycheck. I booked the biggest wedding of my career thus far, and it felt great to finally be working with amazing ideal clients.
The Business Behind the Blooms
2017
In the early Spring of 2017, I sat down and wrote my business story, from $100,000 loan to seven-figure year. I included everything. Messy, practical, uncomfortable, I wrote it all. My story of transforming my defunct business into a money-making, streamlined, life-giving powerhouse. I called it The Business Behind the Blooms. I had no more than 300 Instagram followers and no newsletter to speak of, but that April we sold 44 courses, and officially found my calling: live through tough sh*t and share about it.
Our Banner Year
2018
Zimmerman Events continued to grow, and I was named top wedding planner in the South by Southern Living, had design work featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, and created flowers for the wedding of country music icon Shay Mooney which would soon cover the pages of People magazine. As our wedding work gained notoriety, we simultaneously built a new business: Zimmerman Education.
Weddings to Education
2019
Each month, I received requests to speak at conferences and conventions across the states. We wrote and released three new courses as our audience grew from floral designers and wedding planners to entrepreneurs, moms, men and women outside of the wedding industry altogether. Zimmerman Podcast, our weekly education resource, also launched in the November that year. In the Fall of 2019, I got a call that changed everything. I learned it was time to write my book.
Sleeping with a Stranger
2020
Through the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020, I spent most of my time at my computer, typing the words that would become my memoir, Sleeping with a Stranger.
The Airstream Journey
2020-2021
When Brian and I were dating, we always dreamed about travel. We had a list a mile long of all the places we wanted to see together. Ever since then, I’ve always said that I work to travel. Growing up in small-town Arkansas, where people tend to stay put for generations, I knew there was a lot of world out there that I wanted to see. We knew when we had kids, we wanted to focus on traveling through the U.S.; we had so many places we wanted to see, some right on our own backyard!! Even then, when we were dating, we dreamed of renting an RV for the summer and packing up the family so we could go check some adventures off our list. Six months after that initial glance at an Airstream, we went back in January 2020, and we took another look. By then, I was convinced. This is what I wanted. And I didn’t want to just go for a summer, I wanted to travel in an Airstream with my husband and daughter and twin sons for one whole year. Be sure to check out the Airstream category on the blog to see everywhere we traveled!
Moving to Nashville
2021
After almost a year of constant movement on our Airstream journey, we finally picked a permanent spot to settle down. And it’s some place totally new! before we ever bought our Airstream, we talked about moving to Nashville, TN. During the airstream journey, we spent the next several months traveling to thirty-one national parks in almost every state west of the Mississippi. In each city, we tried to imagine ourselves making a home there. But none ever matched that Nashville feeling. After a year of grand adventures, I’m ready for everyday adventures like choosing a new dentist, figuring out the layout of our local grocery story, and finding a favorite date night restaurant.
That’s not enough?! Get free weekly education delivered straight to your device. Follow along at Zimmerman Podcast!
I may not have a following as big as Jay-Z and Queen B, but I’ve still got to share about my favorite things, the products I couldn’t live without… and one of them happens to be honey!
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