Meet Maria Failla | Plant Lady Podcaster, Author, Speaker and Actress

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

Hi Maria, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started my podcast, Bloom & Grow Radio as a total passion project after I had gotten really into houseplants. I was a plant killer who became completely infatuated with houseplants, but needed some helping figuring out how to keep them alive.

I was an avid podcast listener and couldn’t find a podcast about houseplant care (there were some gardening podcasts on the market but nothing about houseplants specifically). I decided to just figure out how to create one on my own, and taught myself via free youtube videos and blogs. I borrowed a friend’s microphone for my first 20 episodes. The thought was I’d interview houseplant care experts to get answers to the questions I needed- and hopefully help others along my journey.

I was a professional musical theater performer at the time, so I didn’t really have any interest in taking Bloom & Grow full time, but I saw it as an act of service to other plant killers like me out there who were looking to care for plants successfully. There was a surprising demand for the podcast after it launched, so I kept making episodes, and the rest is history.

I decided to take Bloom & Grow full time after I lost my job as a performer in the pandemic when NYC shut down and the show I was in was cancelled. Although that was a very painful moment for me, I can now look back and see the amazing opportunity it offered me to evaluate what being a full time plant lady podcaster could look like- and I got my book offer for Growing Joy, my first book coming out June 7th, shortly after

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My story is unique in a couple of ways:

1) I would have never imagined that my full time job would be as a planty podcaster. I had dreamt of being on Broadway my entire life, and was happy in my performing career up until the pandemic. When I lost my job in the pandemic I had to re-evaluate what my side-hustle of Bloom & Grow would look like. So that loss, opened up opportunity. I like to think as 2020 as a massive pruning for many of us. For me: my job, home (I moved 3 times in 2020), wedding date (covid bride!) all was pruned back, but inspired lots of exciting growth in the following years. I like to think that my performing career and my plant lady career do intersect: I have a reel on Instagram of me singing about being a happy plant lady (linked here https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ca-JcxNjk01/) that has almost 500 videos of other women showing how they garden. I use my voice via my podcast, and have gotten on TV as a recognized plant lady. I got to record my audiobook for my book, Growing Joy. So I like to say I just use my voice in a different way.

2) I’m a “plant killer turned plant lady”- I’m not a certified expert saying “my way or the high way”. I meet my listeners at eye level and advocate for the least informed plant parent in the (digital) room. I think this makes me rather relatable in the space- I feel like my biggest responsibility is figuring out what my community needs and finding answers or building the solutions. I don’t take myself too seriously, and am just focused on figuring out how to help everyone care for plants successfully, in order to bring in the joy, calm, and awe that caring for plants invites into our worlds.

3) I launched the worlds 1st virtual Garden Society (Rob Moffit is a Member!) – it’s a online platform and app that brings an international community of plant friends together to get horticulturist taught plant care education, and community at their fingertips. On any call we can have people calling in from Malaysia, Europe, Canada, Australia and across the US- and this group of Society Members is bonded by their love of plants. It’s super unique and so much fun to lead!

4) I’m so excited to be publishing my first book June 7th! It’s called Growing Joy: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) and it’s a self care book about plant care. In addition to my personal stories of transformation through plants, you’ll find 60+ practices that helps the reader turn away from their screens, toward nature and into themselves, journal prompts, and a “plant killer to plant person crash course” at the end of the book.

Here are some garden/business parallels I’ve learned:
1) Pruning back triggers more growth. Don’t be afraid to delegate (prune your responsibilities), eliminate elements of your business that aren’t working, or make a complete 180!
2) Seeds germinate in their own time. I like to think of myself as a newly planted wildflower meadow: there will be seeds that germinate immediately, and last for a season and then die. Some will take years to sprout. Some will be annuals and last for a year, other’s will get better every season. There is no use forcing something to come to fruition before it’s meant to.
3) Plant yourself in good “soil”. Surrounding yourself with people that believe in you, amazing employees, systems that support your mental health, and work/life balance is the figurative high quality organic soil and fertilizer, every plant (CEO) needs to thrive.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think my ultimate shoutout would be to my listener community, who has raised Bloom & Grow to be something greater than I could have ever dreamt of. It was the community of listeners, who listened, shared, posted, and shouted Bloom & Grow Radio from their digital rooftops that made the show successful. I think it’s cool to see that there is this international community of plant friends, from all walks of life, having very similar experiences in finding joy through plant care.

My other shoutout would be to Leslie Halleck, who serves as the Horticulturist in Residence in my Virtual Garden Society. Partnering with another female entrepreneur in a male dominated horticulture industry has been an unbelievably rewarding experience. And the combination of her plant geek and my plant enthusiast has made the Bloom & Grow Garden Society an unbelievably valuable and unique space for plant parents around the world.

Website: www.bloomandgrowradio.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bloomandgrowmaria/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-failla-03896446/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloomandGrowRadio

Other: It would be amazing if you could include the pre-order link to my book: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/growing-joy/ Thanks!

Image Credits
Sunday Studio and Lorraine Ciccarelli