Meet Iris Hosea and Patty Flores | Online Event Marketplace

We had the good fortune of connecting with Iris Hosea and Patty Flores and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Iris and Patty, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Festively is founded by two women of color who felt and knew they wanted more out of life. We are co-founders who met at work, but spent our lunches and a lot of time chatting about our dreams of being an entrepreneur. Yes, we had successful careers in Corporate America making six figures, but we knew there was something missing. For many years we planned corporate events and family parties. We struggled with finding the right vendors to match our theme and vision. We’d look on social media and find them out of state or out of our area and they were charging hefty delivery fees. We wanted someone local, someone with quality products and services. We created Festively to solve a problem we knew others were experiencing.

We are motivated to build a legacy for our families and at the same time have a business that excites us to wake up early and work late nights. We also wanted to build a community that helped other women business owners. We call this a second career and it is a fulfilling one.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Owning your own business means you work 24/7, sometimes you are actually working and other times you are thinking and strategizing. Having a family and owning a business is challenging because you are always looking for balance. We’ve learned to incorporate family into our business priorities. We worked in Corporate America for many years and often see working moms compromise their family time to be at work or in the office. Festively is a company where family is embraced and celebrated.

As female entrepreneurs, we are proud to be creating a legacy for our families. We are setting an example for our children and communities by demonstrating that women of color can accomplish anything and do it successfully. We are also fulfilling a purpose in which we are giving knowledge, and opportunities to a community of other new minority owners. When we walk the talk and lead by doing, we make other little girls, and little boys with a dream see a path forward for them as well.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If we have a friend visiting LA, we’d of course take them to some of the tourist hot spots then to a few of our own authentic locations. Here is our itinerary for a friend visiting starting on a Thursday.

Thursday – A trip to Temecula for wine tasting and dinner.
Friday – Dinner and drinks DTLA on the rooftop of Perch
Saturday – A trip to the beach either Santa Monica Pier or Point Dume in Malibu
Sunday – Sunday brunch entertainment at Spaghettini, Seal Beach
Monday – A hike to the Hollywood sign

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Behind every successful woman owned business is her squad. We have several squads who support, uplift and empower us to be amazing. Our family squad includes our husbands and children who hold us down on a daily basis. We have a host of other family members who support and even have invested in our dream and we are so grateful for them. We also have our squad of female entrepreneurs who are an amazing group of women on this journey with us sharing ideas, supporting our growth and providing valuable advice. We are also grateful for the businesses who are part of the Festively community including event planners, makers, bakers and more. A book we often turn to for inspiration is “We Should All Be Millionaires” by Rachel Rodgers. This book reminds us to have a millionaire mindset for success, a supportive squad and the ability to go after what we want…unapologetically.

Website: https://hello.festively.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sofestively/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/festively

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoFestively

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sofestively/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjG_sor6jJJakb2BFhAn_UA/about

Image Credits
Liz Lagman Rachel Carrillo