We recently had the chance to connect with Kaitlyn McDonald and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Kaitlyn, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity. Not everyone is gifted with intelligence, and even if you work to have it, it will ultimately slip from your grasp. Energy, depending on your definition, is either also going to deplete (because we all age), or is something that will probably take care of itself if you’re already pursuing integrity.
Integrity is a conscious decision, one that isn’t just made once and for all, but one you have to make everyday. It takes discipline and time to have it, and because of that, unlike making the decision to read more books, or exercise, or have a better personality, integrity is something that will last longer than you do. People are ultimately remembered for their trustworthiness, their reliability, their steadfastness. They’re remembered for what they said they believed in, and whether or not they actually did.
It speaks volumes to those who hear about you, and builds trust before you even meet someone. If I had a choice to work with someone who was curmudgeonly but had integrity, or someone who smiled all the time but had no backbone and let work slip through the cracks, I’d pick the curmudgeon every time. And who knows? Maybe I could teach them how to smile.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a floral designer, and owner of Bluebird & Co., where I specialize in weddings and events.
I didn’t used to like flowers. They were fussy to me, and made a mess, and died. I only ever saw them in garish, stuffy bunches at the grocery store. It wasn’t until my late teens that I finally noticed them, when I came to floristry by way of event planning. I did a lot of that when I was younger, and one year, out of a sense of duty, I decided to provide flowers for a dinner event. Begrudgingly, I got online, started to watch tutorials, and quite suddenly walked the threshold from monochrome to color. I began to see flowers as a special and lovely medium. I saw it as a way to tell a story, a chance to bless other people with beauty in a way other media can’t. I started looking at flowers the way I looked at fabrics or furniture or clothes: building blocks that, while beautiful and interesting in their own right, could be used to build something much bigger than themselves.
Word started spreading that ‘Kaitlyn can do flowers’, and I began designing for weddings and baby showers and birthday parties. Six years later, I purchased Bluebird & Co. from a friend of mine.
What gives me the most joy in what I do is translating intangible concepts into something tangible. Understanding someone’s personality, their tastes, and their vision for the project, and reflecting that in my work through my choices in materials and my treatments of them. If a bride is bold and exuberant, I choose flowers and designs that communicate that boldness. If the business throwing a dinner has a trendy but understated culture, I pull design inspiration from the latest trends in the floral world but choose materials that don’t vie for attention.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
That I had been gifted with useless talents. I have studied historical fashion for most of my life and occasionally make my own period accurate costumes. When I was younger, I thought I was talented in ‘costuming’. I didn’t see a way I could make a profession out of that without entering the entertainment industry, which I wasn’t keen on doing, or working at a living history museum, which wasn’t possible, so I resigned myself to belligerent moping and asking God why He had given me such useless gifts. I can’t exactly remember which conversation, or who it was exactly that snapped me out of that, but slowly I began to realize that I was the one putting myself in a box, not God.
When He gives us talents, He’s giving us tools. We each have a tool box full of tools that are unique to us. Tools can be used together to build a table, or a city hall, or a rocking horse. They don’t have one single use. The reason why I was good at costumes was because God had actually given me talents in research, spatial reasoning, project planning, attention to detail, along with the educational background that gave me a love for history. Those talents, when used together, could help me make a costume, but I could also use them to do plenty of other things.
Don’t ever get so attached to what your idea of success looks like that you fail because you did nothing.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
What other people think, and not being smart enough, which are just two faces of the same die called Pride. I haven’t asked as many questions, read as many books, said the things I should have said, or spent my time as well as I could have because of pride. I didn’t want to be the one asking a dumb question, or admit that I had zoned out during a conversation and ask someone to repeat themselves. I didn’t want someone to think I was weird or judgemental, so I didn’t say something that could have spared them a lot of grief. I didn’t start reading that book because what if I wasn’t smart enough?
Smart enough for what? Smart enough for who? Who decides what “smart enough” is, and why am I so concerned about meeting this elusive height marker before I’ve even started the process of growing up to it? I didn’t want to start reading, because I didn’t want to admit that I hadn’t already read.
Again: Don’t ever get so attached to what your idea of success looks like that you fail because you did nothing. Don’t care so much about a fictitious finger wagging in your face that you don’t do what you know you need to.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
That truth is absolute and defined by God. There is no logical way you can call something “truth” if it changes, for instance being subjective to someone’s perspective. And because of that, there is no logical way you can say that humans are the source of truth, because we ourselves change. We are boats that get carried away on our own thoughts and desires unless we are moored to something other than ourselves, and the only mooring that holds is the truth that God lays out in the Bible.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope that by the time I die people will say I never rested. That I gave freely, and gave all I could. That I was always striving, always working toward building up my family, my community, and my nation through whatever means, and whatever work God called me to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bluebirdandcompany.com
- Instagram: @bluebirdandcoflorals
- Facebook: @bluebirdandcoflorals
