Meet Andreina Aviles | Plant Consultant and enthusiast

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

Hi Andreina, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
There are many things that make my happy. My family, my friends, walking outside, summertime. my plants!! When I was 22 I moved to the other side of the world and found myself away from it all, on a hard winter, in a country I did not speak the language. and have had to look out to find some light and found the motivation to meet new people, learn the language, find new hobbies. A few years later I can honestly say, I’ve found it all again and I have created a new happy space for myself.

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.
I moved from Venezuela to France 11 years ago. I dropped out of college back home and started from scratch. First learning French, then studied languages at the Sorbonne, and later a Masters Degree in International Management. While I was a student, I was a nanny, a waitress, an english teacher and a tour guide. Sometimes all at once.

After getting my masters I started working in travel insurance, in account management and customers service. and 6 years later went on to work with a tech startup that commericalized a telemedicine service with clients from all over the world, as Key Account Manager with them for a bit over a year.

Working in a corporate enviroment is a very demanding job, and handeling big clients for a small company is as stressfull as it sounds. I learnt so much and have come out with extensive experience in the tech and health market. but during my last year I threw myself into my job and neglected pretty much every other aspect of my life. My outlet was my home, my partner, my plants.

Thankfully and by pure chance, I got into plants before lookdown. So during the very strict time we where stuck at home in France, I had a few plants to take care off and distract myself. I felt hard inlove with plants, how to take care of them, how they work, how different they are from one another. I bought new ones, propagated in different mediums, swapped with other planti fans, bought some more. Not every try was successfull. But it helped me educate myself and gave me so much knowledge about the subject that people I know started to ask help with their plants. and I liked it so much that the Plant Consultant idea came alive. For now it is a project I do on the side but the idea is to later dedicate more time to it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Living in Paris means that friends want to come visit all the time!! So this may happen more than once a year. But who am I to complaint… 🙂

Mandatory stops, a crêpe in Saint Michel, walking day all arround Montmartre, either the impressionist collection on the top floor of Mussée d’Orsay, or the mussée de l’Orangerie in the gardens by the Louvre. If it is summertime, a walk along the seine finished by a picnic in the gardens by the Eiffel Tower. l’apéro at my favorite beer bar/cellar to meet my french friends and then sit down by the St Martin channel.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have never felt so encouraged about anything before than when I decided to talk to my friends and family about my plant plans. They had been already asking me for plant consultations for a long time (even those who live in the other side of the world).
My biggest supporter has been my partner. After I lost my job last year, he asked me if I wanted to get back on a corporate job or why not just work with plants. He sat me down and told me to stop doubt myself and just do it and enjoy the process. He knows first hand how it is a real passion of mine and how much I’ve studied and worked with plants for years now.
That same week he told one of his best friends about my project and his friend immediatly said: I want to be your first client. (OMG talk about blind trust! and what a boost of motivation). It was an amazing oportunity that gave me purpuse on a time I was feeling down and help me think seriously about the project. He was really happy with the plants I chose for his appartment and how I decorated it and has been promoting my consulting services to all his friends and family since.

Instagram: parisian_planting

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreina-aviles/

Image Credits
Andreina AVILES