Make a Statement or Stay in the House: Marlin Hargrove’s Journey to Freelance Floral Designer, one of Laughter, Redemption, and Floral Passion
Recorded on Lori's birthday, this episode brings on the person Vonda says makes her laugh more than anybody in life: Marlin Hargrove — freelance designer, industry educator, and master storyteller. It opens with warm memories of the Flower Clique trip to the Netherlands (18 travelers, one unforgettable tour guide named Kiki, and the realization that the magic wasn't the tulip fields — it was the fellowship on the bus). But what unfolds from there is one of the most moving conversations the podcast has ever aired: 44 years in the floral industry, a fall into addiction, a hard-won recovery, and a freelance career built on confidence instead of comparison.
A 44-year education in every corner of the industry
Marlin's story starts the old-fashioned way: a college kid in Statesboro, Georgia, walking into a flower shop to ask if they were hiring — no resume, a little greenhouse experience, and a first arrangement so rough the owners quietly knew it would never sell. But the man who hired him, Bill Holloway, saw something and taught him bit by bit: the do's and don'ts, the principles and elements, the deliveries he hated and later learned to love. Holloway sent him to schools, conventions, and contests, and within a few years Marlin was winning. From there the resume kept growing: twelve years in that first shop, six in Atlanta retail, a nine-month stint in wholesale he calls his "bad pregnancy" (brutal hours, but it taught him product), his own shop — Park East Flowers — for ten years, and more than three decades designing for hard-goods manufacturers and ribbon companies. Retail, wholesale, manufacturing: he's done all three, and he credits that breadth as the best education he ever got.
The fall, the firing, and the comeback
Marlin tells the hard part of his story plainly — as he puts it, he says it loudly so that others suffering quietly can realize there's a way out. A self-described "diver in, not a dabbler," he spent roughly twenty years struggling with drugs and alcohol, hiding behind the laughter while comparing himself to everyone in the industry magazines and always coming up short. On August 12, 2011, the P. Garcia Company fired him — and every year on that date he calls his old boss David Garcia to thank him, because that firing was the stamp that showed him he had disappeared from his own life. A church bulletin he'd noticed a decade earlier led him to recovery, and recovery is still the center of his life. Years later, Lisa Waddell called and asked him onto the PFCI committee — telling him the industry had thought he was dead, and she wanted them to see he wasn't. He also survived a house fire that left him burned over 60% of his body and in a coma for about three months, relearning how to connect his brain to his hands. His takeaway from all of it: "carry the message, not the mess" — and the first way forward is to get out of your own way. Lori, moved to tears, names the transformation exactly: what once was arrogance born of survival is now genuine confidence, and there's a world of difference.
What freelancing really takes
This conversation was also the hosts' first real deep-dive with a freelance designer — timely, since a Flower Clique member had just asked in shop talk whether to hire full-time or bring in freelancers for wedding season. Marlin is quick to bust the fantasy: it took him 39 years of relationships, education, successes, and failures before he had the strength to go out on his own. His practical rules are gold for anyone hiring or becoming a freelancer:
Watch out for scope creep — set the intentions and boundaries of the job up front and stay inside them, because "I'll just drop off the FedEx on my way back" is how a contract quietly expands for free. Ask the real questions before you talk money: What is the job? Who's involved? Am I a leader or a follower? Set your hours and get paid for the overage. Don't sell yourself short — every added task comes with more money, and you're arriving with education nobody has to teach you. And when the calendar looked empty on day two of Marlon Hargrove Designs, the lesson was to chill out, make plans, and self-promote without arrogance — the work came, from corporate events and hospital fundraisers to skyscraper Christmas installations and a multi-year showroom contract with Green Mountain Floral Supply in Vermont. His favorite advice, borrowed from dear friends: get on the right bus, headed the right direction, in the right seat — and if you want to do something, raise your hand.
Staying inspired after four decades
Asked how one of the industry's top educators keeps growing, Marlin says he doesn't have a choice — he has to stay inspired, and he finds it in people, in connection (like his lifelong friendship with Sharon McGuckin, who has seen every high and low), in color, and in the simple beauty of a Dutch flower field that follows no principles or elements at all. He's learned it's okay not to know everything — he'll happily flag down a twelve-year-old to fix his phone — and his mantra covers the rest: stay in your lane, but widen your street. Or, in the Marlinism that titles this episode: make a statement or stay in the house.
Key takeaways
- Freelancing isn't an entry point — it's built on years of relationships, education, and reputation. Do the time first.
- Name your scope and guard it: define the job, the hours, and the rate up front, and charge for anything added.
- Comparison is a trap; confidence — knowing what you do well and staying in your lane — is what actually sells.
- Show up, do the job, be pleasant, and don't burn bridges — you'll have to walk over them again.
- If you want an opportunity, raise your hand. Visibility and volunteering open the doors talent alone won't.