Meet Pamela Carroll | Founder & Whimsy Enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pamela Carroll and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pamela, how do you think about risk?
I genuinely believe that creativity thrives in places that force us outside of our comfort zones. If you’re someone with an idea for a business, the first time you step out and say ‘yes’ forces you to capitalize on all those ideas. I found early on that I was great with sharing my dream with my friends and family, but it was a lot harder to go out and seek that first opportunity.

When the opportunity came to make it a reality, I was standing in the middle of a flower farm with one of my dearest friends and a trusted mentor after discussing how they could help me with the resources to show up to an event with flowers just in the nick of time, and not a minute too early. It was a decision point for me when she said, “So, if you don’t say yes to this opportunity, it will just be wasted potential.” Part of that statement included belief that I could do it, and the other part it was the encouragement to me just to put myself out there and take a little bit of risk. We are our own worst critics. We believe in our friends and even strangers but it’s different when it comes to believing in yourself. What it you can’t do it the way you envision? What if no one buys anything? What if people think it stinks? That’s the risk part. All of those thoughts were there with me when I said yes.

I can tell you in hindsight that it was absolutely worth it. More people than I could have possibly imagined showed up to our last minute peony building bouquet event for Mother’s Day, maybe in part because they saw on social media that I had thrown everything to the wind to pull something together short notice and I had put all my mental and physical energy into it, or maybe just because they loved peonies, but you’ll never know if you never say yes.

I believe that living outside of your comfort zone is a place we need to get ‘comfortable’ being. Being uncomfortable. The more we push the bounds of what we think we can do, the more we have an opportunity to surprise ourselves and that’s been true in my life and with my business.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
PosieWild lived in my mind and heart for a very long time before it lived in reality. It’s a whimsical dry travel bar with bouquet building experience. I hope people leave a PosieWild event feeling revitalized with an experience that was unique and maybe not readily accessible within their every day lives. For years I followed little flower and coffee shops in the United Kingdom and across Europe as inspiration for the brand of PosieWild. There’s something about those places that make fresh flowers, fresh produce, and nature in general very accessible to people.

I worked with large European corporations for twelve years before deciding I wanted to have a different lifestyle. After I had quit, I just dipped my toes into PosieWild. My twelve years in the corporate world left me with a lot of perspective and experiences that fueled this dream, both in what I wanted to access in making this a reality and also the things I wanted to create because an absence of it existed in my professional corporate life. I worked closely with individuals from all around the world and mainly Europe in a business setting, but my favorite interactions and travels were those that centered around their way of life. Those experiences taught me a lot about what I value. I want to bring those things to the people in my world locally. From two hours lunches with Italians over the value of a good wedding feast to traipsing through the countryside of Ireland to to find all the best views of nature and experiencing true hospitality, I wanted to bottle of those experiences and the way they made me feel. I poured those experiences into PosieWild.

I used to attend a lot of corporate networking events. As a person who decided early in life to abstain from alcohol for personal reasons, I was usually sipping a sprite while others were sipping a carefully crafted cocktail. One day a close friend and mentor ordered me a simple mocktail with some tonic water and I realized there was a whole world there that I enjoyed that did not include alcohol. I realized over time that there was a space for someone to cater to the people wanting a great mocktail. Combined with a love for making nature accessible, PosieWild was born.

If all my dreams became reality, it would feel like visiting a garden that transported you to those cliffs and sipping a mocktail with fresh herbs and seasonal fruits and remind you that it’s good to be alive and well.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live on the outskirts of Greenville, South Carolina and there are so many amazing experiences here to enjoy. For our morning jaunt, I would take them to Scandi Tiny Coffee in Greer. Scandi is a tiny coffee house built to provide a sample of a simple Scandinavian way of life. Surrounded by florals and natural areas, swings for the kids and a tiny home community, it’s truly an oasis for quiet, peaceful living. In short, it makes space in your brain while delivering some of my favorite crafted coffee drinks.

Then we’d hop in the car and drive through Traveler’s Rest, maybe to stop for crepes at Tandem Creperie, and then out to Cleveland, SC where we’d take the jaunt up to Pretty Place, a chapel overlooking the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains. We may picnic at Caesar’s Head. For an afternoon with the kids, we’d get tickets to Roper Mountain Science Center where they can pet farm animals, explore science in a creative accessible way and maybe even end with their amazing planetarium.

We’d eat lunch at Cartwright Food Fall which boasts of a number of different food vendors in downtown Greer and walk to the Greer City Park where the kids can play.

Now, for my most hidden gem, we would drive up to Asheville, NC to the Grove Park Inn, walk through their lobby with its massive fireplaces, historic memorabilia and eat at Sunset Terrace which overlooks the mountains as the sun sets. The food is amazing and you can tour the art galleries on property and shop. It makes for the perfect day.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have had a dear friend for nearly 15 years now. She recently self-published her second novel in a trilogy. As we sat in coffee shops dreaming about her plans and mine, she realized over time that I had talked a lot about my dreams, but they often stayed in my head. I was never really going for it. My brain kept saying “one day” when things are perfect, I’ll have all the money I want to start the business, I’ll have all the time I need and my creativity will be blossoming, that’s when I’ll start it.

Over a delicious mocha, she encouraged me to start small, but to start now. “There’s no reason you can’t gather little things along the way for for when you’re ready to actually start PosieWild,” she told me. Apparently, that was all I needed to start at all! Once I realized I could do one thing for it, there was an avalanche of things I wanted to do once I begun. Her words have been the catalyst for me on more than one occasion to start great things in my life, and I’m so grateful. Thank you, Amber Mabe. I hope we keep dreaming and doing together!

Website: https://posiewild.com

Instagram: PosieWild

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558871046530

Image Credits
Joe Everson took the third one. Amber Mabe took the one of me. The rest were taken by myself.