Episode 055: Do you start out the year with a word to inspire you? Vonda and Lori talk about the importance of a "word for the year" to guide you, and discuss setting goals and creating a vision board and how they can help in the decisions you make this year (both personal and business.) It's all about you!
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
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Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
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Episode 055: Do you start out the year with a word to inspire you? Vonda and Lori talk about the importance of a "word for the year" to guide you, and discuss setting goals and creating a vision board and how they can help in the decisions you make this year (both personal and business.) It's all about you!
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Our Sponsors:
Flower Clique
Flower Prep School
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
So that's what we're talking about today. The importance of creating a vision board that is only about you and your personal vision.[inaudible]
Speaker 2:Very happy. 20, 21. Yes. Happy 20, 21. Our, are we happy? I don't know. Depends on my it's going to be whatever we make it. Come on. I saw something the other day. It made me laugh so hard and it said something like dear 20, 21, I want 20, 20 back. I'm done with my seven day free trial and I don't want it. Yeah, there you go. That's made me laugh. Okay. I want you to tell everyone what we were talking about right before we got on here, because number one, it's scary to me. It would traumatize me. All I think of is my poor little dog. So go ahead. Well, I have the ring neighborhood. Yes. And so I get notifications of what's going on in the neighborhood. And what was the day before yesterday? Somebody had notification again, half a mile from my house of black bear sightings. And it was three black bears. It was a big one and two small one and obviously had grabbed something out of the trash. Cause it was dragging something, you know, but they're quite close, um, off and on. So it goes from like half a mile, which actually I think they were in my driveway getting in my garbage right after Thanksgiving. And then now they go all around. So you just have to be careful. Wow. Well, all I could think of when you're telling me is little sweet Bella who is brand new to this world, going out to go potty and all of a sudden getting swiped up by a big monster, Bayer. Well, Bella, doesn't go outside by yourself. So Laurie, she will be just fine. Well, here's the thing. So I have a solution for you when she does get a little bigger because we have Hawks. Ooh. So we have things that swoop down and take a little dogs. Now the benefit of little Bo is that he is slightly overweight. So I see his heaviness is actually a positive in that. However, Bella is not, my daughter was showing me online. They have these like jackets for dogs, but they have, these looks like porcupine all over the back. And we said like in Oregon and Washington state of Washington, little dogs wear them because it detracts from bears and Hawks. It's for real, I can send you
Speaker 3:All my huh, no, no, no. It's real.
Speaker 2:It showed all these dogs running around in these jackets with like porcupine quills on the back. But it truly helps if you think about it, like a little silky terrier running around in the back, that's not hard for a Hawk to swoop down or there. So,
Speaker 3:Well, there we go.
Speaker 2:There's always a solution. Okay. Speaking of 2021. Yes. We have a director's meeting later today where everyone has been asked to bring in their word of the year
Speaker 3:Word of the year and interesting Lori, because before I knew you, I never did a word of the year to me. I looked up I'm like, why didn't you do a word of the year? And it's to help you guide your decisions and continue moving towards what you want the first step to creating anything that you want is self-awareness and specific intentions. So the word of the year is to set you in the right direction by bringing more awareness to your intention.
Speaker 2:Yes. So it's your word? It's no one else's so keep that in mind. I mean, I think we had like our word for flower click last year was pivot. We started that word before COVID we had no idea how much we weren't going to have to pivot, but so it was definitely word. So I want to tell you how I came about doing words of the year. It's not like I've done it my whole life. I wasn't raised with a word of the year. Many years ago, we did a trip over the holidays. The kids were older. You know, two of them were in college. One was, and we were like, let's go away for Christmas. So we did, we planned it. We actually used a travel agent way back when you use travel agents. And we, so we went to Puntacana and we had two rooms and ours was supposed to be overlooking the ocean. And then we, of course, we put the kids in the room. That's not a good view because they're our kids and we don't care. We're not going to pay for them. Anyway, I had been in a Bible study and had been asked to think of a word for the year. And this was December when we were there. And I was like word of the year. I'm thinking in my mind, I'm thinking, is it his scripture word? Or is it, you know, I was trying to be very, almost analytical. I wasn't thinking of the word with my heart. I was thinking of a word, like, what is the word that would be appropriate? You know what I mean? I wasn't even in the right mindset because they didn't quite understand it. So anyway, we're at the resort and my husband and I go to our room as a beautiful room, nothing wrong with it. And I go to the balcony cause I'm like, I can't wait. Cause I'm so about a view. I could sleep on a cot. You don't have a view. Right. I open the curtains and I see an Holly there's like dust. And I'm like, what is happening? The alley there's trees. But on the other side of the alley is this fence, but I'm, I'm so high up. I can see straight over. And I just see these close lines in these people. And I'm like in raged, because this is not the view I paid for. You know? So of course I didn't have a temper tantrum cause I don't have those typically, but I was pouty. My husband went down, couldn't get a change. It was booked. It's the week of Christmas, there is no other room. So my choice is, do I be in a bad mood all week or do so anyway, there was nothing we could do about it out of our control. Right? So throughout the week, my whole point of this is I still would go out every morning and drink my coffee. In the first morning I went out to drink my coffee. I was just annoyed. I'm like, what are they doing over there? Long story. You know, me and my long story, very short, I started becoming so invested in the family dynamic of household. They lived the majority of them outside. The women worked tirelessly hanging laundry. I often wonder if part of it was a business because they had more laundry than I've ever seen in my entire life. And they were constantly hanging it out onlines. There was one man and a motorcycle in every morning. He would go back and forth taking people, which I assume to work one by one. Anyway, by the end of that week, I was not only praying for that family. I was so in love in a weird way with them. And God just gave me the word perspective, Laurie, it's all about perspective. And so that was my first word. That really just was so impressed upon my heart where I'm like, who am I to be pouty? My view that week became a blessing, right? I'm such a blessing because it helped me with perspective. Not always, but it really did. So that's how I came about doing it. And that's why I feel it is really important for me. Not for everybody, but it's important for me every year to really take time, to think through what my word is. So my word for this year, and I started thinking of another word again. I was thinking in my head, what I do, what do I need to be doing? And then my heart spoke to me right before Christmas and my word is breathe. And it is physically because my long COVID struggles, but it's also mentally, emotionally, spiritually in every facet of my life. I have to learn to breathe. I have never, in my 52 years been more aware of physical breath than I have been in the last nine months, appreciative of breath and cognitive of breasts. So, um, that is my word. That's only for me. It won't make sense to anybody else and it shouldn't right. But that is my word for 2021. So yeah, yeah, yeah. It is when it of course woke me up in the middle of the night, I was like, okay Lord, I hear you. Okay. Okay. That's exactly. That's my word. So, okay. Vonda, what is your word?
Speaker 3:Mine too. I kept going back and forth. You know, it's like, well maybe it should be this. Maybe it should be. And I came back to again, discover,
Speaker 2:Oh yeah,
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, many times we are on a road to just like, I got to do this, I gotta do this. I gotta do this. Instead of really looking into things and seeing what you can discover, whether it's something new, whether it's even looking out in the yard and in the garden. And I discover something really small and, and beautiful down in deep, maybe a flower that's I don't know. I just discover. And then I think back Laurie, that was the name of the symposium in 2018 that we did flower shop.
Speaker 2:Oh. What the thing is. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, I was so into preparing for symposium that I really didn't have time to discover what was going on at that time made me feel like, you know, discover is what I really need to focus on this year.
Speaker 2:That's so true. I would imagine I am not you, but I know you very well. I would imagine part of you has more fun going to AIF D symposium when you're not any presenter. Of course it's wonderful, but gosh, responsibility and stress and all of that. It's actually more fun to go to enjoy and to discover and to watch everyone else.
Speaker 3:I would much rather discover what's going on in a workroom actually. And so I like to sit on the presentations, but just being in the audience is really, for me, I think where I discover more. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know what, my loved the work or intimidated by that worker. And I had really no ability to actually help people in that growing. They were a lot of help, but yeah, it was, it was a very, it's very cool. I think we've actually talked about that on the podcast, but behind the scenes is always more fun. I think it's been, that's where I ended up
Speaker 3:Discovering so much more. There's so much to discover this year, whether I'm reading or actually one of my goals, which really comes into discovering is learning how to sew, not sewing, sewing, because I've sold all my, my mother had a beautiful sewing machine that could in border. So it would do an artery. It would do all these little cute angels or whatever. I am going to discover how to use that sewing machine.
Speaker 2:Oh, you can make baby Bella, some embroidery supine vest. Do you see how I brought it all around? You did love that. That, that's definitely a great thing to discover. So talking about one of your goals, first of all, before we move on, I want to challenge everyone. If you are listening to this and if you haven't come up with a word or ever come up with the word, think about coming up with your word for the year. You don't have to do it in one day. You know, think about it, let it marinate over. You, write down a bunch of stuff, look for inspiration. And so that's kind of what we're going to talk about today. Inspiration. And I think creating what we're going to talk about would help you even come up with a word, all right, let's move on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's move on because I was talking about goals and obviously what we're discovering with my word, but also personal goals, like eating less sugar and keeping organized and you know, that kind of thing. And then you went into, you know, what, something new you're doing this. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I got an invitation from a new friend of mine just of this year through virtual friends, we've made to attend a vision board, zoom party, a vision board, virtual party. And I was like, you know, move on to, I'm not real into reading all the details. So of course, when I came, I was not prepared. Anyway. I was like, Oh, that might be kind of fun. I've heard about vision boards. Um, and you know, I've heard Ellie talk about vision boards from a business perspective too. So I was kind of honestly my mind because I didn't read the details. I thought I was going into it. And I was sort of in flower, click mind thinking, Oh, I'm going to learn how to create my business vision board, you know, for the company. And then I'm gonna bring it back to Vonda, then we're going to redo it and it's going to be great. Well, that's not what it was. So I, I showed up, it was just on a Saturday morning and the vision board was literally a piece of poster board, which everyone, but me had. Cause again, didn't redirect, um, all of the magazines glue, like everything. And I'm like, hi, you know, I didn't have any, I'm just listening. I'm busy. I'm just busy. You know? So anyway, so these people have been doing vision boards for years, Dr. Nicole Price, who was leading it. She had, I don't know how many years worth of poster boards. And it reminded me of when I was in high school, my friend, Julie and I, you know, we would make collages on poster boards of who we were in love with maybe Andy Gib at the time, or Sean, you know, whoever Greg Brady, but it was kind of that same concept, but it was only about you. So that's what we're talking about today. The importance of creating a vision board that is only about you and do your personal visions, you can do a work-related one. Um, the majority of women that were in this group are entrepreneurs. Like they are pretty big business women. It was all women. Not say men can't do it, but this was all women. And so they did have things on their vision board about how they want to grow their brand like themselves, you know, that's normal. So yeah, this is what we're going to talk about a couple yeah. Rules about the vision board. Okay. So I've never done a vision board. So this is important that you give me the steps of what I need to do to make this okay. So I will tell you how I did it, because again, I didn't have all the stuff. I have a free Canva, C a N V a.com account that I remembered I had, cause Ellie told me about it. And so I pulled up a canvas slide. Then I pulled up a Pinterest, my Pinterest page. So I did those two things. And then this week after I created mine, which is online, it's actually my screensaver now that I kind of like, but I am still going to physically make it this weekend. So we'll talk about that later. So the two rules are number one, you have to be selfish when you make this most of the time, especially for us working women who also have children. It's hard. We don't know what that word means anymore. That went out the window when we gave birth, you know, for sure. So you have to reframe your mindset when you're doing this. Okay. I'll tell you what that part. Once I got to that mindset, two hours of only thinking to myself, what's fun and like,
Speaker 3:Wow, I want to do that
Speaker 2:Again. You know? And number two, there can be no negative words on this. This is a vision board that is to invoke inspiration and motivation. Okay. Negative, like lose weight, no reframe a different way of saying it. Maybe like healthy choices, you know, anything like that, like you were saying less sugar, so maybe healthy choices and of sugar on there. So whatever. Um, so those are really the two main rules. Um, be selfish, be selfish. You're only thinking of you, what do you keep it positive and keep it positive. Right? The reason she said it is really important to make it in a physical way poster board, which a lot of people were using like half a piece. You don't have to fill up because that can be chaotic. That's how my brain looks. I don't need, I bring lives in the world of collage. You know, I don't need that as much stuff because I get too distracted, but she hangs hers up in her closet. So every day when she's getting ready, she looks up at it and she sees it. And she said, there's something to seeing your physical work. You spent two hours making it. Like I said, you're thinking about yourself that time it's bringing it all back around every time you look at it, like I made that. I made that. And I remember I was feeling this. Does that make sense?
Speaker 3:That's interesting. Yeah, it does. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. On mine. I know you guys can't see it. I'll screenshot mine and I will post it in our podcast group, our Facebook podcast group, if you guys are listening and you're not part of that, just click ask to join and it's free. It's not a big deal, but I'll post it in there
Speaker 3:Just for a visual.
Speaker 2:Cause I think we all like the visual.
Speaker 3:So Lori, what are the advantages of a vision board rather than just having goals?
Speaker 2:Well, so for me it helps keep me from getting distracted goals, which I guess you could interchange them as long as you're putting it up there. But for me a vision of what I want instead of a goal, I think for me, goals are okay. I can set some goals on how am I going to achieve that vision. So like one thing on my thing is travel, travel. You know, my husband has a ton of vacation. We had COVID, we had no vacation. I had one planned and last July we didn't get to, you know, things that I truly want to go on a trip. I think that Toby, so my vision bond up is travel. One of my goals I set was book it, schedule it. Gotcha. And so I did not a huge trip. We're going to Colorado in July. I booked it done. And I'm like, that's kind of cool in my mind. My vision board helps me go. Okay. So how many little goals? Cause I so short term, I can't do super long-term. That's not how I work. What short-term goals can I set to achieve this now on my vision board, my travel is a picture of the Amalfi coast and yeah. Italy. Well, that's not good this year. I feel good about myself because I literally made a decision booked a week at a B Airbnb. And I'm like, Hey, I can look at my vision board now. I'm like, I did that one. Gotcha. Does that, does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. You said keeps you from getting distracted. Helps you get to where you need to go. So in this case it was like, you're looking at travel. It's like, okay, I'm going to make something happen, Ben, to make something happen. And it helped me redirect and get focused on that. It also mean now that I know I achieved I've achieved that it makes me feel good about myself. Even though it's a small thing, it's still a thing, right? It makes me believe in myself. Hey, I can do these. And you think they can get bigger and bigger. So one of the things, when I was doing research after I did this is, they said, if you read about highly successful people in the world, that Warren buffet, bill Gates, you know, all that level on down to other really successful entrepreneurs, you will see those people. They say no a lot more than they say yes. And it's because they don't get distracted from their vision board, from their vision for that year. Here's your, all my goals, whatever you want to say, if it doesn't align with one of these, the answer's no. And I think, I think that's really interesting. She, she went on to say successful people do vision boards so that they're not distracted by shiny toys or a squirrel. Oh. You know, and I can get really distracted. So that's one thing. The other, it helps you prioritize just putting something on paper,
Speaker 3:Which is why you can say no, because it's not one of your priorities.
Speaker 2:So if someone's asking you, Hey, can you come speak at this Vonda and go do all of this. You can look over and go. There is no category on my vision board where I had that. So the answer is right there. You can even say, I'm sorry, it's not my fault. It's my vision board. Blame it on something else. Right. And the third thing it can really help you do is plan your future. This particular author that I was reading said, every one of us should be able to envision ourselves in five years.
Speaker 3:And I'm like, wow, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's hard. And I know for a lot of our shop owners who I love dearly that we've had so many heart to heart conversations. A lot of them don't
Speaker 3:Know where they're going to be in five years. I mean,
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't, it's hard. So this board can help you plan that.
Speaker 3:Totally. I understand that. So this is a quote that a friend of mine sends in all of his emails and it's really one of those thought provoking quotes that this vision board really brings to life. And it's supposed to be a Chinese proverb vision without action is a daydream action. Without vision is a nightmare. Yeah. Vision without action is that daydream. But action without vision can be a nightmare. So it makes sense.
Speaker 2:That's so true. You got to have a balance, right? It's the whole, we grew up think before you act, that's all it is is things. So here's some things to remember. Okay. Quick thing. As far as when you're again, focusing on the vision board, nothing is set in stone. Again. I have the Amalfi coast on my vision board. Probably not going to get there. That's okay. That's okay. It can still be on there. Don't lead yourself up. If December 20, 21 rolls around and you didn't achieve something on your vision board, move it to the next year. If it's still on your heart, if it's still something you desire, if something has to change in six months and that vision because of whatever happened, that's okay. You can change it. I liked this. You're not a tree. You can move are not trees grow. I like that. Yeah. We're not a rock we can change. That's the beauty of being human. We can change. We can. We do one thing I loved. And I put it in my own words cause it was a little too detailed. And it said, think of yourself as flowing water, you can navigate obstacles without losing the essence of who you are. Love that vision of a stream. How it, how the water is crisp and clear and flowing around rocks. And it just navigates. But it still looks like water
Speaker 3:And it's discovering all kinds of things.
Speaker 2:It is discovering well, well water doesn't breathe, but I'm breathing as I'm watching it.
Speaker 3:Well, that's great. Everybody should just create a vision board because I know that will be something I will do hopefully before the next podcast, but in the near future, we'll say,
Speaker 2:Yup. Yup. You know, and what would be fun if anyone does, please take a picture of it and post it on our podcast group. I would love to see your vision board tell you, it was really inspiring for me to go into this virtual meeting and see everybody else's. There was even a woman that had a little five-year-old girl on there and she made hers and she presented, she wants to be a YouTube star and wear makeup. And I was like, I will follow you on you. It was so cute. But I loved that the mom and the daughter were doing it together anyway. So if you do decide to make one, please feel free to post it and tag us. We would love to see it. So two things we're having that are new in 2021. And our number one, we're going to bring the inside story every week. And basically what that is, is our flower click members in our private group. We're going to kind of bring to you whatever the biggest question of the week was, uh, people are posting in there all the time. We're getting calls all the time. We're having community meetings and we thought, wouldn't it be fun if we kinda took a poll and every week, what was the most asked question of the week? Or what's question? Got the most response and share it with everybody.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's a great idea. So the inside story this week, are we going to just do a quick one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's see. So the quickest one again, it has to do with Valentine's day. So let's, let's do it quickly. And Fonda, multiple people were asking, how early can you start pre greening for Valentine's day?
Speaker 3:Usually we start pre greening for Valentine's day, the week before. So you don't want to do it too soon, but you can definitely do a week to 10 days before because that water depends on if you're doing it in foam or if you're doing it in water. And if you're doing it in just Clearwater, you're going to have to change the water out before it's sent out and before you're going to design them, but you can start a solid week at least beforehand. Okay.
Speaker 2:So is that the same answer for watering vases?
Speaker 3:You're not going to have it that much advantage of just filling the vases with water.
Speaker 2:Okay, great. Perfect. That was the main one. We had like 124 people were speaking into it. Now again, they go off on rabbit trails. Like we all do so. Sure. But then that's a good one because it's really related
Speaker 3:To our next holiday.
Speaker 2:The other new is we've changed our question from what's giving you life too.
Speaker 3:Who or what inspired you this week? Yes. We decided we wanted to change and every year
Speaker 2:I like it. I like it. It's a new, it's similar yet different. So we're going to start this week. What or who is inspiring you this week? Vonda. It's someone,
Speaker 3:Most of you don't know, but actual, she works with us at flower click and that's Katie Miller.
Speaker 2:Katie has
Speaker 3:Inspired me this week because she's had a lot going on with some things going on in Bloomsburg and some things that are really heavy on her heart. Her heart is so good and she wants to help so many people, whether it's at a food pantry, whether it's a local family, whether it's flower shops, who she knows they need help, it just is so kind and just really wants to spread that to so many people. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I would agree with you the very first conversation I ever had with her, I felt like, man, I want to meet her for coffee and not talk about flowers. Just talk because she's just such a genuine person, genuine, authentic. She's just, she's funny. And she's like, yeah, well Katie is inspiring me this week. And what about you? So mine isn't as sweet and heartfelt, but I'll tell you when it's random, who is inspiring me this week is Jessica Simpson's husband. Ooh, I don't even know his name, but the reason he's inspiring me, he is on Instagram, on under, I think it's called like legendary disciples. It's a group that is teaching ways to give releasing anxiety, meditation practices. But what he inspired me to do this week is he was outside. And all of a sudden he came on, live for a few minutes and just danced by himself. It wasn't like a great dance, but I'm like, hi, I want it do that more. I want I'd like his whole point was it makes me feel good. I'm just going to, and it wasn't too like weird music. It was just, and he filmed it. And so he inspired me. I love to do things like that yet. I don't because I don't know I'll be judged, but I'm like, who cares? So now that we're going to be doing Instagram lives weekly, I think maybe our business and pleasure of flowers, podcast, clickers, couldn't be looking for you to just come on and just dance. But it was just cute. And it just made my heart happy in that moment and think we need more of this. And like his, one of his daughters was behind him and she was dancing. This made me happy. So, um, it's those little things that can inspire us. All right. We're good. Good. Everybody have a great week. And if you have not subscribed to our podcast, if you will just scroll down and click subscribe, we would be so very grateful and we hope you join us next week. Yes. So please come back and join us and discover
Speaker 1:A bit of knowledge. And one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.[inaudible].