Episode 063: We all tend to procrastinate. Some tasks (or frogs) are tougher to complete (or swallow). 😊 Join Vonda and Lori in their book talk as they relate these tasks to those in a flower shop and suggest a few of these ways you can stop procrastinating and get more done.
A lot of food for thought here.
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Episode 063: We all tend to procrastinate. Some tasks (or frogs) are tougher to complete (or swallow). 😊 Join Vonda and Lori in their book talk as they relate these tasks to those in a flower shop and suggest a few of these ways you can stop procrastinating and get more done.
A lot of food for thought here.
Support our Sponsors
Flower Clique
Flower Prep School
Join our Podcast Facebook Group
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
It's kind of,
Speaker 2:It helped me get more perspective to where I feel more confident in
Speaker 1:Saying no, welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, fondle, a fever and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and Fen are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Wanda.
Speaker 2:Good morning, Laurie. Good morning, Vonda. How are you? I am good. The sun is shining. It is a gorgeous day. And you know, I just feel so blessed to be alive today. Oh, you're a little too upbeat for me. I need some of that vibe over here. It's dreary and I've just got a list of stuff to do. And I've been putting it off thinking I could do it this afternoon. Um, before tomorrow my daughter she's coming home, you know, even though she's working on her master's degree, she still gets a spring break, which lucky her. Yes. She was going to come home on Saturday. And so I'm like, Oh, I can do that. Get a room ready. And you know, we're having construction. So my house, as much as I clean, there's always that layer of dust within. She's got a lot of allergies. So I thought I'll get all that done on Friday. I will go to trader Joe's get all her favorite trader Joe's snacks, all of the things. So she called me on Thursday night. She's like, Hey, guess what? I'm coming on Friday and said, no, my crap, because I procrastinated. I put everything off thinking I will do it now because none of it is stuff besides going to trader Joe's. None of it was stuff I'm actually excited about doing. Right. Exactly. So now I'm in a bit of a quandary. That's just perfect yet. You're in that quandary because we're going to talk about that today. That's why it's so funny when you do this to my attention, you're like, Hey, let's do a book talk because we've talked about how we want to do more book talks and we both have this same book and it's a tiny little book, but it's honestly a life-changing book. It is, it's packed with such great information. And I bet most of our listeners have read it before or know about it. It's called eat that frog. And it's by Brian, Tracy. And it's 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. So Lori, maybe
Speaker 1:When you were reviewing this, you'll learn some things
Speaker 2:Last night. I did. I did, but they, you know, when you learn new things, it can go two ways. You can either go, yay. I'm going to change my life. I'm going to implement all of these new things or it's just going to be too hard. I'm going to crawl under my bed. So I'm somewhere in the middle of those. I see. So what I thought was interesting, of course, the name of the book, eat that frog. And so I had to do a little bit of research myself cause you know, I love to do that. And it's really from a Mark Twain quote. He said, I don't know when long time ago, whenever Mark Twain was Mark Twain. And he says, if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it. First thing in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. Yeah, exactly. Okay. For this. Okay. So talk a little bit about the concept of the book
Speaker 3:And in this book it says to eat the ugliest one first, which I think was kind of cute.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Do it right away. Right. It doesn't sit to pay and look at the frog. Yeah. Yeah. Cause she just like, Ugh.
Speaker 2:Right. I was thinking when I was researching a rereading, this, it had been a few years actually read it, but I was bringing it back out and it always reminds me of, um, we used to go to the Lake every summer when my kids were smaller. And um, my sister and her husband had a boat and we would go to a place if you're listening to this and from Oklahoma, you know, it's grand Lake, it's called dripping Springs. You climb up on this cliff and there's certain levels and you jump and they're pretty high. And your advice to your kids when they're going up there is don't think about it. Just jump right. The more you stand up there and think the more you're not going to jump. And so it was always fun for me. Cause I've got the video camera from the boat in the safe area and I'm, and I'm making them all go up and they have their life jackets on. And it's interesting to see the personalities at that, even that young age who are just, I'm not gonna think about it, I'm going to do it. And it's so much fun. They want to do it again. They realize they can do it. And the other ones, the more analytical ones, the deeper thinkers, they ended up climbing back down, back down. Yeah. So that's, that's kind of was the fun little memory I was having and isn't that how we are on almost everything. Yeah. If we overthink it, you mean overthink it. It's amazing how I can talk myself out of things then I know I can achieve. Yeah. Anyway,
Speaker 3:I think of a frog though. I always think of the story, you know, about a frog, right? So if you put a frog in water and bring up the temperature, it just stays in there and it'll kill him. Right. Eventually if he jumps in hot water, he jumps right back out. If it's the water's already boiling, he jumps out. And so many times we have to, okay, are we the one who's in the boiling water? And we're like, I'm getting out of this. Right? Or are we going to slowly, not that we want to get cooked. Right. Are we going to make our way to get through it and, and to succeed,
Speaker 2:First of all, side note, you know, we did a podcast about turtles
Speaker 3:Now I know, right? So it's about sticking your neck out and jumping out of a pot.
Speaker 2:So that's weird. I got an email this morning from one of our wonderful flower click members and she is struggling with some employee issues and she is struggling with just the not doing more. And so she doesn't feel like she's in a place she can delegate and she's not even sure what she should delegate. And the email was so wordy and filled with such an angst. Like I could feel it as I read it. She's been sitting in that water for so long. She doesn't even know it's hot. She doesn't even know what to give away to make her life easier. She doesn't know that jumping out of the pot free her up. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. So I was like, this is perfect. So anyway, instead of me replying and giving her some tips, I thought, you know what? That's not going to help her. I S I sent her my calendar link and I'm like, let's set aside an hour. I want to coach you. I want to hear what you're saying. I'm going to help you. And she just responded before I logged on. And she's like, thank you. I just need to be,
Speaker 3:Be heard. That's right. That's so true. It's true. So what we decided was to pick out a couple of things. We started with three out of this, our three favorites, but we figured we would never get through it. No, I agree.
Speaker 2:I didn't get past my two because that's my world being distracted constantly. I was just taking so many notes and I feel like if, if I can focus on these two, it will be good.
Speaker 3:Well, what I thought was interesting in the beginning of the book, it talked about develop a positive addiction. Yes. Which I think is great. The more you put this into action, the more you succeed, the more you're addicted to like, Oh my gosh, this works, Oh, I feel so much better. Right? So positive addiction, which is kind of fun,
Speaker 2:God that even went into, you know, we get endorphins. You know, when we are, I think about when I'm with you and Ellie and we are creating a new program, just like we are right now in the middle of creating our sales stuff. And we're so excited and we're just firing from all ends and getting stuff done. And we've got Ellie, the checker offer, you know, and we can visually see, Oh, completed, go to the next. Those are endorphins. And it makes you go, wow, I want to do more of this. What drives me? So I loved that. I loved that part.
Speaker 3:So Lori, which one do you want to start with?
Speaker 2:So I'm going to start with the one that just really spoke to me for whatever reason. And it's actually number four on his whole list. And I consider the consequences. It's every great man or woman right. Has become great. Every successful man has succeeded in proportion as he has confined his powers to one particular channel. What this whole chapter talks about is the long-term thinkers always been a rule follower my whole life. It's just, you know, that I am drive to be a good civilian in every part of my world. Um, I always look at consequences. Like, what are the consequences? If I sneak out of my house tonight, I thought through those consequences. So look out, whereas my brother didn't quite think through those consequences. You were a good girl as a good girl. And now I'm like, Oh, I wish I would have done a little more exciting now in way I love this. And it's like the Mark of a superior thinker in his, or her ability to accurately predict consequences of doing or not doing something that it's the Mark of somebody who is a higher thinker. And I'm like, yay. Because I always look at things I've also learned because that's how my husband thinks. Hmm. Always thinking of the future five years, 10 years he has to, for his job, that's also has to, just for our livelihood. It's just how we think. So I've sort of taken on a lot of that and it, it helps me. Sure. It does my gosh. How can somebody get to
Speaker 3:Where you are on that? Are there any suggestions on that one?
Speaker 2:So one of the things he talks about in considering the consequences are your long-term perspective on things is your own personal time horizon. And I loved that word picture. I love her horizontal right timeline. This is my life. It has an enormous impact on my choices. So just even in this last month projects that I'm working on within flower clinic and our podcasts, and somebody says, Hey, can you do this? Can you end? Which let's say, it's going to take three hours out of my day. I look at that. And then, then I look at the consequences. What are the consequences of me removing myself from this other project is bringing value to my company or my people or my whatever. Right, right. What are the consequences of that? And so it's, it's kind of helped me get more perspective to where I feel more confident in saying, no, it happened this week. Right. I remember that you thankfully did it for me before I could even get to it because I was thinking that same thing through it, they were asking me, Hey, you're going to do this. Which normally it would be okay, it's an okay task. I don't mind it. It's kind of a, you know, click, click, click. And sometimes I like just doing those types of clicks, but the key is, is it going to bring value, right? Where am I going to get the most value? And you and I both knew immediately the answer to that is no, no, no, no, no, no. My brain has to see focused in this part. Anybody can do this other one that, right. Right. Not anybody, but you know what I mean? You trainable task. This other part was I can't siphon out my brain to have them do that. It was something that was only coming from me. That was
Speaker 3:Great. Yeah. And then you can go through, consider the consequences on so many things from health, right? You think about your health and besides your business. So that was great, but we could be on that all day. So let's move on.
Speaker 2:Okay. All right. Are you telling me one of yours?
Speaker 3:My favorites is apply the 80 20 rule. You guys have all heard of the 80 20 rule, right? So 20% of your activities account for 80% of your results. So if you're looking at it and you know, that 20% of your customers make up 80% of your revenue. So things like that, that you're looking at. So the 80 20 or the 2080 rule applies to a lot of things in this one. It really spoke to me because you have to look at what you want to accomplish today. So you have a list of things and in a flower shop, perhaps processing flowers, I have to make a design. I have to Mark the new merchandise that came in, price it. So somebody else can Mark it. I have to call the funeral director to talk about connecting and to be the one who does all of the work for their funeral home, really to make that connection, to increase my sales. I have to talk to someone else about training my staff. I have, you know, all of these things. And I look at this list and I'm like overwhelmed, but I have to look at that and say, what are the one or two things in here that it was going to make the biggest difference that it's going to make the 20% difference in my business. It's not me processing the flowers. Right? Right. Me presencing. The flowers is probably not a good use of my time. And somebody else can do that. Um, I look at making a design. Is it something I have to make? Or is that somebody else can do that for me, I am the one who has to make the connection with the funeral director. I am the one who has to set up some kind of training for my staff. And so the 20% that I look at that I need to be doing is where I need to devote my time. And I look at the one that's the ugliest, the ugliest frog, and probably the funeral director in doing that. I talk to shops time and time again, who keep putting things off that we know they're going to make a difference in, in their shop. Well, let me go back to somebody who just joined flower click this week, right?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Yeah. Tell that story.
Speaker 3:Well, you had talked to them quite some time ago and they were really thinking about it. Yeah. Because they knew
Speaker 2:Your ago over a year ago,
Speaker 3:You know, she would just kept thinking, this might work. This might work, but she put everything that we had been suggesting on our webinars into action and really found out everything was working. And so she's like, wow, if what you're telling us that I can do on my own, I can't even imagine how much better my business is going to be when I joined flower clicks. So we are so excited that she, but it's that procrastination, right? It's that frog. Yeah. No, that's that's but we're excited to have her on and we put things off because we're not sure, or we're not understanding how much impact it can make in our business.
Speaker 2:The other thing with your 80 20 rule, as you were talking through it, it was reminding me of so many flower shop owners that are just like, they are in the shop by 6:30 AM. They are gone. Don't leave till eight o'clock. I mean, they're just so maxed out and stressed. They don't even know how to start delegating some of those things, like you said, processing the flower so they can focus on the other part. And part of that though, Vonda, it is, we've talked about mindset so much on so many podcasts. They have to relinquish control some of those tasks,
Speaker 3:Which is so hard to do. I mean, you know, I own the flower shop and for may or bud, to be able to go, no, go ahead and give it to Amy, go ahead and give it to Renee, give it to them because they can do it just as well as I can, which is hard for business owners knit. Right.
Speaker 2:I guess it's more of a psychological thing. Because number one, we shouldn't be excited. Like the tasks that I can't do this week that needs to be done, the checker offer stuff. Um, we have somebody else doing it that can do it. We should be happy. Right. I mean that I ever do. Hey, here's an example. I was talking to one of our shops this week. Uh, she was on her cell phone and she was delivering
Speaker 3:Flowers and she is the
Speaker 2:Owner. She is the main designer. She is the wedding consultant. She is all things like, she's amazing. And I was like,
Speaker 3:Wow, you're delivering flowers.
Speaker 2:Like, and she goes, yes, it's my favorite day when I get an opportunity to do this. And she typically delegates that out. She shouldn't have to, it is her favorite thing because the sun is shining. She can play the radio loud. You just get out of the, but she knows that's not where her time is most valuable. So I love that. She has that perspective of, I need my good delivery drivers, but every once in a while, when things are tasks are done and it's not slow, but things are running. Okay. She treats herself. That's right.
Speaker 3:Very well said to treat yourself, to take food that day.
Speaker 2:And it's enough. It's just enough. You know,
Speaker 3:I love that
Speaker 2:Perspective. And that's kind of how I feel about the data entry task. I would like when I have an opportunity to do it because I'm quiet. I work at different part of my brain. Right. But I also know right now time-wise, that's not smart. Yeah.
Speaker 3:We have to have you on the launch. So, but anyway, I like the 80 20 resist the temptation to clear up small
Speaker 2:First. Yeah. Make the call.
Speaker 3:So the funeral director, get that out of the way and then go back and do that. So it's like, okay, what's your next one? Finished first.
Speaker 2:Then go to the fried chicken.
Speaker 3:There you go. Okay.
Speaker 2:My next one in the book, it is rule number eight and it says, apply the law of three, doing what you can with what you have, where you are. And so what I liked about this one is it tells the story of a woman who she worked in a corporate setting and she was working for a startup company and she was working 12 hour days that you'd go home and she would be answering emails. And you know, the whole thing, the whole thing that we all can identify with. So she went to this coaching session with the, uh, author of the book and she tells the story and I'm just going to read little tiny bits because it's the best way to do this. She says, when I came here 90 days ago, you claimed that you would show me how to double my income and have more time. And you know, that's kind of a, yeah, right. That's like an infomercial, but she did it. She gave it a try. On the first day, you asked me to write down a list of everything that I did over the course of a week or a month. So think about this. Think about this from a flower shop owners perspective. If someone that write down every task you have to do over the course of a week, let's not even do a month because that would be just, but in a week, every task that you are responsible for, she came up with 17 tasks. The problem was that she was completely overwhelmed with her work. She's working Tinder. And it goes on how much you work. Here's the thing she had been told, make a list. Once she made that list, they asked this question. If you could only do one thing on this list all day long, what would you choose? Here's the other part you had like a minute to answer this. You can't overthink it. I actually, I think they said 30 seconds. So that's your task then if you could only do one more thing off of that list, and then they did. So they did it three times. Okay. That was her law of three. If you have more than three things, three tasks that you wish you could do all day long and that those tasks actually make your business better. This isn't like my tasks I'm really good at is scrolling through Twitter. Well, that's not valuable, right? It has to be part of business-related. So once you identified all those, they were like, you got to get rid of the other 14, right? You're not helping your, so she basically went into her boss and explained this whole thing and said, listen, you helped me delegate those things. Cause he agreed with her. He goes, yeah, that's where you're valuable in our company. So she wrote up a proposal and was like, well, let's do this. You help me. I will increase our revenue to this, you know? And she went through anyway. It did. And then she got a raise. The point is, if we look at it from a business owner perspective, a flower shop owner, can you grow your business? If you are doing 17 different tasks every week. Right?
Speaker 3:Right. Sometimes if you're a smaller shop, you have to do all of those tasks. Right. Um, and less you can hire them done.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, back to the woman you were talking about today, you know, part of her waiting a year was fear because she's like, I'm in a pretty small area. The more she researched, the more she asked around, the more she listened to us, she likes art, but she's probably listening right now. So she probably listening right now, the more she thought I need to delegate this because I want this, like she wanted to grow her funeral, business jets. Pretty good. But she wants to elevate it right. When she's doing everything else. She can't. So, and I think that's
Speaker 3:A typical business owner is right. You're right. That's what they are going through.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So anyway, all right. So what is your next one?
Speaker 3:My next one is number 21, which is the very last one, single handle, every task, which means when you get that task, get it a hundred percent done and you have to re really careful not to be distracted, which is your number, whatever that was that be me go and get the job a hundred percent done. And if you kind of go to go wait, Oh, back to work, do not look at my emails. Do not look at my Slack in this happened just the last couple of days, because I've been trying to get the website mix ready for yet, but we're getting ready for mother's day. And I have to get all of the new bouquets on, have to get everything done. And of course then there's okay. Well, I can see I've got three Slack messages. I wonder if somebody needs me right now. No, I have to just kind of back away because I need three solid hours to get this done. Otherwise it's not going to happen. So I had to get it a hundred percent done because if I had to come back to it, as we all have to, sometimes then you're frustrated. You're like, Oh, if I would've just had a little more time or put that time aside to finish that project and get it a hundred percent done, I would have been happier. And everybody who was waiting on me would have been happier too. So don't waste time. You get it done faster when we're not multitasking, we think we can multitask. But studies have said, we really can't in most cases. So start with that high priority task, get it a hundred percent done. And you will be so satisfied when you get through that. Okay.
Speaker 2:There is a reason I didn't pick that one. That is the Barna and hardest as you know, the number one for me to achieve it's to remain focused on one project from beginning to end,
Speaker 3:Your brain is wired that way. So sometimes some people have a hard time with this in less. You have somebody walk with you
Speaker 2:On that. It's always you and you and I get on that. We get into. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's so much easier to have a partner that is a little bit different than you, you know, where you compliment each other. And so I love when I meet a flower shop owners that just adore their managers and that they know one is a great leader. One is a great manager, right? Either they are very opposite. I love that because you have to have people, whether they're business associates or family, you have to have people in your lives. They don't have to speak your language, but they kind of understand your language. You have to respect your language right. And help you walk through that. And I think when I see a successful business, I usually see that dynamic.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And we're very blessed in this business in flower clip that we have, that we have those different dynamics, not just you and I, but then we have Cammy and Audrey and Ellie and Leslie and Denise, and everybody has certain tests that they do well. And I don't think anybody has ever mastered every 21 of these
Speaker 2:Know. I can't even, you know, here's, here's my truth. If someone did, I would not be their friend. All I would do is feel bad about myself. I would not be able to handle being around them for very long. I would feel so incredibly flawed. You know, I don't like to be around perfect people cause they just remind me of my imperfections. You know, we always talk about what our takeaways be bolt. So here are three things that I highlighted and I actually wrote down in my little journal. So three questions that you should ask yourself on a regular basis for maximum productivity for yourself, we're all different. Our maxes are all different. Number one, what are my highest value activities? What are the biggest frogs that I eat that make the greatest contribution to my organization? So me as an employee of flower clinic, I look, where do I see myself as most valuable, what's my gift to help this company. So that's number one, number two, this one's hard, but what can I, and only I do that if done well, will make a big difference. Think of a business owner, a flower shop owner. These are questions you should be asking yourself. What is it that I'm the only one in my store that really can do this because I do it really well. And when I do it, it makes a bigger difference than if Jane does it maybe wedding consulting, you know, or fill in the blank. What is it that just your natural app good. And something that only you can do. Um, and then the third question is what is the most valuable use of my time right now in this moment? And that is a question once your first two are answered, that is a question. I believe this isn't the book. This is Laurie saying, you should ask yourself that every morning when you start your day, what is going to be the best value? Where should I put 80% of my focus today? So those are the things, um, do first things first. Yeah. They'll do second things. Just don't do them easier said than done.
Speaker 3:So then done. That is for sure. Yeah. Pick your 80 20, get things done. Like you said, and pick the ugly frog first.
Speaker 2:Right? Right. Are those your tips? Those are your takeaways. Fake. The ugly frog. Like your takeaways. I'm sticking with yours. Oh yeah. No, I think those are great questions. They are asking yourselves. You can answer those honestly. You should have no guilt for saying no to something or delegating something because it's for the best for your company. So, okay. What, what's inspiring you right now?
Speaker 3:Well, Laurie, this was a tough one. Whether I should say it or not, but I will have to say when we talked about doing the frog, my mother had frogs all over her house. Okay. People would give her these little frogs little plush frogs, whether they're a little Chatzky things sitting around frogs, not real, not real
Speaker 2:All over. And I'm like, Hey, no.
Speaker 3:Oh, she didn't, she couldn't stand a snake. So frogs were not her favorite either. Cause they were like kind of creepy, but frogs, because frog means fully rely on God. And so when she was not, well, then she would always, it's not about me. I'm not in charge
Speaker 2:Of this. So I
Speaker 3:Say frog. That's what comes to my mind.
Speaker 2:That fully rely on. Now I'm going to have to go get myself a little frog. I know don't show you just to remind us. That's good. It is. I love that. Well, mine is goofy. You know how I've had to move my office from my downstairs to my daughter's bedroom upstairs. She's not living here, but because of the construction. So I am on the second floor and I have a lot of windows, which I love, but it's on the front side of the house instead of the back of the house. So my neighbor across the street, they're retired and it's beautiful, you know, good weather here. And she is always walking and she's always out in her driveway. And I become obsessed with watching because all of the young moms that are pushing their babies and roller do what I'm saying, always, she always comes running out and makes them stop. And she brings toys and they play. And I found myself getting so envious because I missed so, but here's what this inspired me. I'm like, okay, I can't have resentment towards her for right, for playing trucks with the three-year-old. So what inspired me as soon as, um, you know, I got my first COVID shot, I'm getting my next one at the end of the month. And my husband is too. We're going to sign up to go start volunteering in the church nursery again, very a guy. It makes us so happy, just a couple of hours once a month with cute little toddlers. And I'm like, that's what I'm going to do. So I'm excited for you. All right, bond up. We got to get back to work back
Speaker 1:To it. Thank
Speaker 2:You so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add,
Speaker 1:Is there some pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa? We look forward to seeing next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.[inaudible].