Today we’d like to introduce you to Flor Celeste Rafferty.
Hi Flor Celeste, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a photographer specializing in food, fashion, and interiors, a marketing professional, and the owner of Edible Photography OBX. I also direct and co-produce Outer Banks Raw with Chef Wes Stepp and work as a Senior Account Executive at Outer Banks This Week.
But before any of those titles, I am a mother and a grandmother to three very cool little people. My life is full, my schedule is usually crazy, and I wouldn’t really know what to do with myself if I wasn’t busy.
The funny thing is, none of this was part of some carefully designed career plan.
I grew up in a very modest family. My father wasn’t around, and my mother worked jobs that required her to be away for long periods of time, so my grandparents were the ones who raised me for much of my childhood.
I stayed in school until the 11th grade, when my grandfather passed away. His death was devastating, and with my grandmother also very sick, everything changed quickly. I moved to Cancun, Mexico to live with my mother, and suddenly I found myself trying to figure out life much sooner than I expected.
At 17, I became pregnant. I got married, and less than two years later, I had my second child.
Those years were hard. We lived paycheck to paycheck. My husband had a good job, but rent was expensive and there simply wasn’t much left over. There were nights when he wouldn’t eat dinner so there would be enough for me to have some fruit or something inexpensive. We weren’t thinking about careers, investments or entrepreneurship. We were thinking about getting through the week.
Things eventually improved, but another major chapter of my life began in 2000 when, after two failed marriages, I came to the United States.
Somehow, I landed a sales position with an advertising company. I didn’t have a college degree. I had never worked in sales. In fact, I hated the idea of sales and was absolutely terrified of it.
My mother gave me advice that I still remember: “Maybe you hate sales because you’re not good at it yet. Give it time.”
So I gave it time.
And something unexpected happened. I became good at it.
More importantly, I realized that successful sales didn’t have to be about convincing people to buy something. For me, it became about relationships. I learned about my customers, their businesses and what they were trying to accomplish. When I genuinely cared about helping them succeed, the sales followed naturally.
Within a few years, my business grew, but so did my relationships within the Outer Banks community. After about ten years, I moved to another company, and my sales continued to grow.
Then the pandemic arrived.
Like so many people, I watched the way we did business change almost overnight. Traditional advertising slowed down, but something else was happening at the same time. Small businesses suddenly needed websites, social media, photography, digital marketing, and help figuring out how to reach customers online.
I saw a need and an opportunity.
That was the beginning of Edible Photography OBX, a company that offered photography for social media, branding, marketing, and anything my clients needed.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My path wasn’t traditional. I didn’t finish high school. I didn’t go to college. I became a mother at 17. I started over more than once. I stumbled into a career I thought I would hate and eventually built a business around skills I mostly learned because someone, somewhere, needed them. All that definitely made it hard for me at times.
Not knowing whether it would work out was the biggest struggle, especially when my two daughters were in college and I had to cover all our expenses on my own, sometimes with my mother’s help.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a marketing machine. I help business owners decide where to invest their marketing/advertising money and execute the plans. I am also a food photographer, and I manage a handful of social media accounts. I also help with branding, logos, and graphic design.
When I started Edible Photography OBX, I took on small projects for local businesses and entrepreneurs. One project became another. Clients recommended me to friends. Those friends recommended me to other business owners. Before I knew it, the little side business wasn’t so little anymore.
Along the way, I learned one of the most important lessons of my career: when you help other people grow, you grow with them.
For me, entrepreneurship isn’t just about owning a company. It’s about being willing to learn something you don’t know, recognizing an opportunity when it appears, building relationships, and not being afraid to change direction when life changes the plan. Understanding that and conducting business in line with those lessons is what I am most proud of.
I am also proud of my relationships. The Outer Banks has given me an incredible community. Tourism is the heartbeat of so many businesses here, and our success is connected. When my clients succeed, they employ people, support families, attract visitors, and strengthen our community. Many of the people who started as clients over the years have become friends, and some feel more like family.
What makes you happy?
Life makes me happy. Life is very beautiful, and being able to live it is a happiness.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: ediblephotographyobx
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdiblePhotographyandMarketingOBX
