Business & Pleasure Mindless Chit-chat with the Girls

Episode 163: With a week until Valentine's Day, the last thing you need is to feel overwhelmed or learn something new that you're likely to forget. 

So for this episode, we kept it lighthearted. We talk about what we've been up to in business and in life, answer some listener questions, and then Ellie asks Vonda & Lori 10 fun rapid-fire questions so you can get to know them better.

Consider this 35 minutes of mindless spa time for your mind. Enjoy!

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

Okay. Question number two, thoughts on the No Greens trend in design.

Speaker 2 0:14

Welcome

Speaker 3 0:15

To the business and pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts fond of Fever

Speaker 4 0:18

And Lori Wilson . And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination, kind like us. Wanda <laugh> .

Speaker 1 0:30

Hello, Lori and vda .

Speaker 4 0:33

Hello Vonda and Ellie <laugh> .

Speaker 3 0:37

Hello, Ellie and Lori .

Speaker 4 0:41

S your my goodness girls .

Speaker 1 0:43

How's it going? What's up?

Speaker 4 0:46

Well, I have learned I'm not eating enough protein <laugh> , so

Speaker 1 0:50

Oh, I believe it . That's

Speaker 4 0:53

Been my , that has nothing to do with flowers, but it has ,

Speaker 1 0:58

It has to do with you and we care about you . Right ,

Speaker 4 1:01

Right . That's good . And I'm, I'm learning , uh, as I age, my body changes. The chemistry in your body changes

Speaker 1 1:11

And yeah , you have to keep up your bone density. Right?

Speaker 4 1:14

Yes. It's funny how as you age you focus on like different things, you know ? And in my fifties now it's like, ooh , I need stronger bones. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that was like what I did when I was a kid. Right. You're like, oh, drink your milk. You have big and strong bones. Now I'm back to that <laugh> . Yeah. Yeah .

Speaker 3 1:33

Oh my gosh, that's funny that you mentioned about your hip not breaking a hip because I was at the gym this morning and the lady, she's younger than me, she said, oh, I had a hip replacement a year ago. And I'm like, what? You know , so just never know. But she's a male carrier and so she said that's very common with a male

Speaker 4 1:51

Carrier. So anyway .

Speaker 3 1:52

Very interesting.

Speaker 1 1:54

Very interesting. Well

Speaker 4 1:57

Have that one . Have you had your hip, like, have they x-rayed it before? Cuz you've had hip pain for a long

Speaker 1 2:03

Time . I gotta go. I gotta go. Well you guys are always the ones prepping and interviewing, so I figured I would flip the script and have you guys kind of come in blind to this episode. It's the week before Valentine's Day, so our listeners don't need anything heavy. They don't need to fill their brains with vital information that they have to retain. So I thought this would be kind of a lighthearted fun episode. Um, first I just wanna talk about, you know, what we've been up to. Let's just chit chat Chi . I know last week we really, early last week, we wrapped up our photo shoot for Mother's Day.

Speaker 4 2:51

How did that go ladies?

Speaker 3 2:55

Oh, I think it went really well. Yeah, I think it went really well. We had had some good , great shots. I think we did Mother's Day and a few for summer, so mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Um , it was a good shot. There was so many flowers though. It was, it was great. I mean, we ordered way more flowers than we really needed because we wanted to have some options to add to our bundles and to be able to, you know, make something that was a little different. And so Amy at Natural Floor down in Columbia had them send up a lot of different samples, so we had a lot to work with.

Speaker 1 3:33

Yeah . It was super fun. And then, you know, I posted on Instagram and I got a lot of comments and feedback about it, but usually when we finish up a photo shoot we, you know, send, we take 'em to a nursing home or you call one of your friends and have them distribute to some people that would love to have them right. In some mm-hmm . <affirmative> shape or form. Um, but this time you did something a little bit different, so I wanted to share that with everybody who might have missed, missed it on Instagram. So what did you do? We had so many flowers left over .

Speaker 3 4:06

We did, we had so many flowers and I have uh , neighbor girls who actually they're homeschooled and the mom is always looking for projects. So we did an art project. So they came over and put their little aprons on and had their clippers and we filled Vs of flowers, some from the dollar Tree. Some were teleflora containers that we had for samples, but we had beautiful containers and they just kept making designs and they're like, can we keep going? And it was so adorable and trying to teach them how about the proper height of the flowers and the color combinations. And so we talked about color, we talked about, you know, proportion and things like that. I mean, they were only nine and seven, but still, you know, it's interesting how they gra gravitate to knowing more. Um , this was the second session that I've had with the girls. I had one after our photo shoot Ellie, that we did in December. And what was so adorable is that they're like, we knew you were gonna ask us what this flower was and I know what it is . This is called dream trick. She said, you know, and things like that. So it was just really, that was her homework. They did their homework. The mom said, she said, mom, do you know where that sheet is that she gave us last time, that handout? Cause I need to study <laugh> . <laugh> . That's adorable. You're dancing the

Speaker 1 5:33

Seeds ,

Speaker 3 5:33

Right? That's right. Exactly. That's what I kept going back to is see your future, you know, start 'em , start 'em young . Love it . So after Ellie came out, which was good because we had all these bases of flowers, I don't know, we probably had 25 anyway. And so they went home and got their wagon and put all the flowers in the wagon and we're going around the neighborhood and taking them to people and, and knocking on the door and giving them the flowers . So , um, it was just so much fun. So much fun. But then Ellie, after they did that and distributed 'em and we still had other flowers left and I was leaving town, so I left them outside the garage door of our house cuz it was like 40 at night. And the neighbor lady, I sent her a text and I said, Hey Lori , why don't you come over and get any of these flowers that you want and take 'em to people? And so she sent me a text back the next morning and said, oh my gosh. She said it was so much fun. I took the flowers and took 'em to people who never get flowers. You know, there were a lot of shut-ins that she knew and obviously a whole different group than the children knew.

Speaker 4 6:41

Yeah , sure.

Speaker 3 6:42

We just made people so happy with flowers. Yeah ,

Speaker 4 6:45

I love it. I love it. I love it. Plus the other part of that is you didn't waste.

Speaker 1 6:50

That's what I always am conscious of with. Yes . Like you just have so much and they're so pretty, you know, they last so long and our photo shoot gets done in, you know, a short amount of time. So

Speaker 4 7:03

It was great. Yeah . Vda , my hydrangeas that we got when we were in San Marcos are , two of them are still alive. No weird spots on them. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 7:18

That was January 14th.

Speaker 4 7:21

Yes. Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 3 7:23

That is crazy.

Speaker 4 7:25

Yeah .

Speaker 3 7:26

The flowers ,

Speaker 4 7:27

If I knew, I can't remember where I got 'em, who I got 'em from or I would give them a shoutout, but I, I can't believe they're still so pretty.

Speaker 3 7:36

That's awesome. That's amazing.

Speaker 1 7:39

Um, yeah. And then I was talking to Tyler about, you know, the post photo shoot , what we did and, and he was like, can can local flower shop , can they be a substitute teacher for an art class one day and bring in leftover flowers that way? Or like, you know, I'm curious what our listeners are also doing for, for collaborating or hosting little events with kids or if they're doing anything for that. I think there is something there in some capacity to kind of foster your community. Cuz then those people when they get to high school, they could start working for you. Right.

Speaker 4 8:15

But yes .

Speaker 3 8:15

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Speaker 4 8:16

Well in our high schools here have floristry as a class not right across the hall from the welding class <laugh>. So

Speaker 3 8:26

I knew Texas. Texas really promotes

Speaker 4 8:29

Yeah . For

Speaker 3 8:29

A culture because they do that in their high schools, which is great. Right. I think a lot of times florist will go, like you we've mentioned before to a nursing home. Um, I'm gonna do a shout out to Tim Ferrell at Ferrell Flores because they took a lot of things to the hospitals and to the first responders, you know, and gave to those who were helping in the community and got us all through the , the tough times with Covid . So I think there's things like that that are being done, but I love the idea of promoting it with the youth in some type of an art project.

Speaker 4 9:03

Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I don't even think it has to be like, you wouldn't wanna have to jump through all the hoops to become a legit substitute, but you can be a guest in the classroom.

Speaker 1 9:14

Okay . Yeah. Yeah. That's

Speaker 4 9:15

What I was thinking. Yeah. You just come and it's like, middle school I think would be really perfect to , to be the guest in the art class. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . Mm-hmm <affirmative> . So

Speaker 3 9:26

I've done that with the grandchildren before with Lay and Campbell and had and really done the color wheel with different color of flowers. And that's fascinating for them because then you can put it together, you know, the different , uh, color combinations and show them what it's, and then that really helps them associate color and color theory.

Speaker 4 9:46

Love

Speaker 1 9:46

It. Um, so yeah. Lori , how have you been? What have you been up to? Just working away pre Valentine's Day.

Speaker 4 9:53

It's clicking El Ellie , I've been clicking, I'm my little hand off here.

Speaker 1 9:57

So much so that your shoulder hurts

Speaker 4 10:01

Shoulder . So also that last night at my workout class, I could not do my side plank <laugh>.

Speaker 3 10:07

Wow.

Speaker 4 10:08

I felt like an old person. I didn't dream it would, it was like literally gonna give out. I could do the other side and it's my right side, which is usually your dom . At least me. It's my dominant side. And I went and I just started shaking and then I of course started laughing cause I'm like , holy crap <laugh> , I have a work injury <laugh> , but my heart goes out to you Ellie, because

Speaker 1 10:37

Oh no. What's so crazy is that you mentioned that in Slack you said you talked about your shoulder pain and your right shoulder. And of course I have all kinds of arm, elbow and wrist pain in my left. But the next morning, Lori , I woke up. I must have slept wrong . I woke up and my right shoulder, it still is painful. I had to take ibuprofen yesterday. My right shoulder has a, has a Cutty . It's cause I

Speaker 4 11:02

Told you Marin , we absorb the other person's pain. It's

Speaker 1 11:05

Just , I couldn't believe it's the way

Speaker 4 11:07

It's <laugh> .

Speaker 3 11:09

You both need to make sure you take coq 10 . I'm gonna tell you . It's for your joints. Coq . Is

Speaker 4 11:15

That the joint pain? Yeah. I will say getting up, walking around swinging your arms. Who was it that told us about swinging arms? Katie . Katie .

Speaker 3 11:24

Wasn't it Katie ?

Speaker 4 11:25

Like it helped and I don't normally, I'm , I'm not normally clicking as much as I am right now because we're working on emails Right. For our

Speaker 1 11:36

Tons of marketing, email marketing for

Speaker 4 11:38

Our members. Right. And a lot of them are customized, which is great, but it just takes a lot of time. Even more clicks. So I find I'm much more aware of sitting posture. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> , <affirmative> when I do it makes a difference. Standing. I dunno . Anyway, it's all, it's okay. It's okay. I'll get through it. <laugh>,

Speaker 1 12:03

You need to send me the ergonomic mouse. So you want me to get I know .

Speaker 4 12:07

Find one . I haven't had time but what's so funny is when I put that in Slack, everybody, all the web techs were like, yep . <laugh> . It's a thing.

Speaker 1 12:15

Yeah. Yeah. They're clicking constantly too.

Speaker 3 12:19

Yeah. Especially this time of year. Whew . Even more so just like you Laurie and Ellie .

Speaker 4 12:24

Yeah, exactly. It's it's, it's a weird, it's, you know, they didn't have this type of ailment, internet <laugh> , think about it, you know, it was nothing different. So anyway. What have you been up to? Ellie?

Speaker 1 12:39

Um, what have I been up to a lot? Well, we're post photo shoot now. So it's a lot of, I went through and named everything , um, working on edits. I'm gonna send them away today to be , uh, the final clipping and I'll get them back. And I got a lot of stuff, Laurie ,

Speaker 4 12:58

Couple

Speaker 1 12:59

Things I can't, can't mention here, but there's a lot up our sleeves. Yeah. Um , and then of course next month we have a, another photo shoot which all three of us will be at.

Speaker 4 13:11

I'm excited about that one though cause huge

Speaker 1 13:13

Sympathy. Sympathy photo shoot. And we'll see our friends Julie and we'll see Tim Farrell . So Audrey,

Speaker 4 13:20

Isn't Audrey coming up ? Audrey

Speaker 1 13:22

Will be there. Yep .

Speaker 3 13:24

And our friends at the bill born and Des Moines, Iowa,

Speaker 1 13:29

Trish that

Speaker 3 13:29

Will be there . They always, yeah . Great

Speaker 4 13:31

To be Are we shooting in the wholesale house in like in our normal spot? Yes . Okay .

Speaker 1 13:38

They'll bring the casket sprays into the building

Speaker 4 13:40

Casket

Speaker 3 13:41

Spray . Oh no, we're bringing the casket into the ,

Speaker 1 13:43

I'm sorry .

Speaker 4 13:43

The casket. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 13:45

The caskets always bring the caskets.

Speaker 4 13:48

Nothing will compare to when one of you, I think it was you Ellie , that sent me the video of the, her showing up at Wanda's house. Yeah.

Speaker 1 13:58

<laugh> . Yeah .

Speaker 4 13:59

I laughed so hard cuz all I could think about is if your neighbors are outside. Right , right now . <laugh> .

Speaker 3 14:07

I did get a lot of calls from the neighbor.

Speaker 4 14:10

Did you ?

Speaker 3 14:14

What is that person

Speaker 4 14:14

Bringing? The cats get on in <laugh> ?

Speaker 3 14:19

Yeah .

Speaker 4 14:20

Oh , the things we do for our members.

Speaker 1 14:22

Oh man. Yep . That's right. Okay, so moving along there are , uh, we got some listener questions. I posted something on Instagram, kind of just random thoughts, random musings . I , I picked out three for us to answer. Okay. So the first question, what do you guys think about Valentine's Day? Do you love it or do you hate it? Lori ?

Speaker 4 14:48

I used to to love it. <laugh>. <laugh> . Actually I gotta <laugh> . I gotta be honest again. You know, I taught school so Valentine's Day, if it landed on a school day, especially under fifth grade and under was a big party, it was always chaos. You were dealing with parents. So I didn't love it cuz the kids were always in a certain frame of mind that was hard to control mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but I never thought anything about it until I started working in this industry. Um, I like it. My husband and I always celebrate it. Uh, you know what I'm, I already know what I'm getting this year. Um, a new, oh, tires .

Speaker 3 15:40

I wish

Speaker 4 15:42

A new set of tires because you know , nothing says I love you like tires <laugh> . So anyway, I think

Speaker 3 15:53

Heart that are gonna go maybe ,

Speaker 4 15:56

Maybe I could dig a sharpie and draw a little heart on each tire. So anyway, I don't know . And it was my idea. I was like,

Speaker 1 16:04

I feel like you don't need, you just got your car, you don't

Speaker 4 16:07

Need. I know one would think Wow. So I told Mark , it's like maybe we shoot a little email to the, the Volvo people and go, this is weird.

Speaker 1 16:20

Yeah. Well

Speaker 3 16:21

You had this had new breaks too. Breaks and tires now.

Speaker 4 16:25

Yeah. Crazy . So anyway , uh, I like it. I stress out for our members.

Speaker 1 16:32

Yeah.

Speaker 4 16:33

I really do. Like right now, you know, are they making sure all the flowers get there, get to them

Speaker 1 16:42

Right .

Speaker 4 16:42

Heartbreak, this set panic. I can't imagine.

Speaker 1 16:46

And Audrey has a lot of panic as well. So she, her and Tammy have now both vocally said, I hate Valentine's

Speaker 4 16:54

Day. I know. Yeah. Cammy has told her whole fam her husband. We do not celebrate Valentine's Day <laugh>. So bonding . You've been in this industry since you were 14. What are you , what do you think?

Speaker 3 17:09

I think when a Valentine's Day is organized, it is a lot of fun. It really can be. And if you have that mindset as far as a shop owner or an employee, I mean, it's stressful for sure. You know, if you get all your ducks in a row so to speak, it can be real exciting because you're really, you think about all of those customers who are , you're making happy. That's what you have to look at. It's like , oh my gosh, be , be so excited.

Speaker 1 17:37

But Fonda you personally not as a shop owner. No .

Speaker 4 17:41

You personally,

Speaker 1 17:42

Are you indifferent? Are you over it?

Speaker 3 17:45

If I would say anything I said I would be stressed this week waiting for the weather reports to see if our flowers all make it to our members safe and safe . Yeah . That's my big, I I mean truly before I got on this podcast, I was looking at the weather map for the United States to see what was coming in and what was happening and where were the cold spots and how many flower boxes do we have going to those cold spots. And um , with Audrey, Audrey and I are right there just like right

Speaker 4 18:15

Ellie , I was telling VDA this morning that , um, yesterday around four o'clock I was at my favorite store, trader Joe's. And before I walked in, there was a sign that said, you know, just fyi, we've had some trucks. Didn't make it because of Oh wow . The weather. Um, and I mean it's beautiful in , in the seventies here. So it looked like when I walked in I took video and sent it to my family cuz I was like, it looks like what the, it looked like during Hurricane Harvey. Oh , oh , Harvey Covid. Yes. Both sh the freezer section. There was nothing. Wow . Nothing . They were completely empty. They had maybe like two gallons of some random ice cream that, you know. Anyway, I just thought that, you know, every, we're not really <crosstalk> that's gonna be,

Speaker 1 19:16

It's still a ripple.

Speaker 4 19:18

Yeah , it is a ripple effect. And I was, I tried to be so nice to the people working there because there were so many mad people and my heart just went out like this employee.

Speaker 1 19:32

Yeah , they have ,

Speaker 4 19:34

He has no control over that

Speaker 3 19:35

Truck. Yeah . Well and it's funny cuz it is the ripple down because that was the ice storm that happened and everything was stuck in Memphis. Anything coming through fast ? Yes . I mean we had several boxes, remember that never arrived last week. So , you know , it just slowed everything down and people just don't realize how much weather impacts, but food and, you know, supplies all, were all around.

Speaker 4 20:00

Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:01

Yep . Ellen ,

Speaker 4 20:02

What are your memories? Cuz you grew up in the shop on Valentine's Day. Do you remember the celebrating Valentine's Day?

Speaker 1 20:08

Um, you know, I was always pulled out of school if it fell on a weekday that I would've normally been in school. Um mm-hmm . <affirmative> . So I just remember, you know, a lot of like wrapping of flowers and like doing all the little prep stuff. Um mm-hmm. <affirmative> , I loved it, but I also loved, like, I've just always loved Valentine's Day. Like I loved like the little Valentine's at school. Like yeah , the Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday and we celebrated on Friday. Like I've always loved it. Um, and it's also Tyler and i's anniversary, so it's kind of fun . It's kinda now like two birds with one stone, so it's kind of , it's nice. Um, so yeah, I've always loved it. And also now, you know, after college and now working in this industry, it's pretty selfish, but personally we're not very busy on the 14th . Yeah , yeah. Right. Because everybody's in that mode, so it's kind of like a nice fun day. Yeah . Um , yeah , I feel like a few years ago, you know, Tyler and I would like go out and do things for the day and celebrate for anniversary. So yeah. I'm a , I'm an optimist. A Valentine's Day optimist. Personally,

Speaker 3 21:23

Isn't that kind of when you got Roma as well?

Speaker 1 21:26

We did, yeah. We had the flu and that's why Roma's middle name is Valentina <laugh> . Yeah. Valentine's Day's always been pretty positive, so.

Speaker 3 21:38

Love it.

Speaker 1 21:40

Okay, question number two. Thoughts on the no greens trend in design. And I think they mean just like how, you know, I think we saw, what was it at S a F that mm-hmm . <affirmative> Tom talked about having no green foliage in arrangements. Um, so maybe I, I'm curious too, Rhonda, like what do you think about that? How does that translate to like retail floristry and actually like selling of arrangements, having no greens in the vase ? What do you think?

Speaker 3 22:13

I think it would be interesting to see how that plays out. Um, personally I think it ends up costing so much more to make a full beautiful arrangement with just flowers and not having any foliage. So I think mm-hmm . <affirmative> perceived value sometimes is, is less because it really does take more stems. But I'm gonna go back, there was this trend back in the eighties in , so I was working at Everetts Flower Shop in Ames, Iowa, and I sent out a face of flowers to a customer with no foliage in it because that was the track . Peggy who was my boss, got a call that said, I don't understand it. I have a VAs of flowers . There's no greenery in this space whatsoever. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And I kept thinking, I said to Peggy, that's the trend. We just came back from, you know, market and this is the trend. And, and she's like , it's not gonna work here because customers mm-hmm . Do you need some foliage ? So, yeah . I

Speaker 1 23:10

Dunno ,

Speaker 3 23:10

I'm just kinda watching to see, you know.

Speaker 1 23:12

Right. And now with social driving trends too, I do see it a lot on Instagram , um, which helps educate the consumer faster, but True. I think that's kind of the anomaly. It's not gonna be in every town across America. Right. I think in bigger markets that could work, but Yeah. Interesting. Laurie , do you love it or do you hate it?

Speaker 4 23:36

You know, it's funny cuz when you said social media, it's all over social media, especially on our Instagram feed. If I'm scrolling through there, there cuz we follow so many p shops, I, I don't love it because I think, again, I am one, I don't know the specifics on every flower in there. So to me, sometimes I look at it and I'm like, it looks very sparse. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> like it needs a little something something um, some accessory, which I always think of the foliage. Yep . However, I do not like when there's too much foliage. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I've seen some things on some websites recently, actually not our members, but other places that I'm like, God, that's just so much.

Speaker 1 24:25

Yeah. It swallows

Speaker 4 24:26

The flowers. Yes. It swallows the flowers and it makes me think they're cheap.

Speaker 1 24:32

Yeah .

Speaker 3 24:34

Mm-hmm .

Speaker 4 24:34

<affirmative> , I dunno , I I like a little foliage in there. I think it's pretty.

Speaker 1 24:39

I agree. I've always been, and I think probably just growing up, like I was always taught to not show the lip of the vase. Right? Yes . Like, you can't, you shouldn't see like intuit too much or Yeah . You always wanna hide your mechanics. And so for me, when I see that trend and you can kind of see under the veil , um, yeah , I don't, I don't love it,

Speaker 4 25:02

But yeah. Hmm . I would agree.

Speaker 1 25:05

Anyway. Third and final listener question. Okay . What events will you guys be at this year? I wanna see you guys in real life.

Speaker 3 25:15

Aw . Aw . Hi Houston.

Speaker 4 25:17

Come to Houston <laugh> .

Speaker 1 25:21

Okay . I don't know . So let's see. I will be at NextGen live in June.

Speaker 4 25:26

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Speaker 1 25:28

Vana . You'll be at aif . F d And where is it this year?

Speaker 3 25:33

Chicago. Chicago. Chicago . Okay . In Chicago. That's the first week of July. So first week of July of in Chicago.

Speaker 1 25:41

And then we'll be at s a F in mm-hmm . <affirmative> in September. September. Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And then , um, you and I will be at Pro Flora in Columbia.

Speaker 3 25:51

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>

Speaker 1 25:52

In October.

Speaker 3 25:53

October. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Speaker 1 25:56

And that's all we have on the books right now.

Speaker 3 25:59

Well, there's a couple other profit blasts that we're looking to see whether we're gonna be able to make it two . One is in Boston, which is in July. Um, so we're looking at that and Thanks . I think those are the ones for sure that we,

Speaker 4 26:14

I think if you wanted , if especially our members wanna meet the whole gang, I think s a f is a safe one. Um, yep . I agree . Um, because we'll all be there and we love the convention. I mean, you get a lot out of it. I , I think mm-hmm . <affirmative>

Speaker 3 26:31

Agreed . But if anybody is in the under 40 age and wants to go to NextGen, you guys Right .

Speaker 4 26:37

Yeah . And if you're not under 40, send your under 40 employees. That's right . I mean , that's what was so cool last year is we met so many employees. I was so impressed of the shops that sent their team. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um , I think it's well worth the money. Yep . Uh , because think of all those people that emailed us when we got back going, Hey, I'm telling my boss about this. Can you send me the PowerPoint slide or can you send me this? And like, they totally went back with a new energy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Speaker 1 27:11

Okay. So we're gonna wrap it up. I have 10 quick questions for you guys. These are the questions Okay . That I normally ask my next gen people. I can be rapid fire . Okay . Okay . Um, let's just have Lori default goes first in these . Oh , so Lori Vanda . Lori Vanda .

Speaker 3 27:29

Oh good . Oh good .

Speaker 4 27:31

Okay .

Speaker 1 27:32

Jeans or athleisure ?

Speaker 4 27:35

Athleisure

Speaker 3 27:38

Jeans .

Speaker 1 27:40

Early bird or night owl .

Speaker 4 27:43

Early bird.

Speaker 3 27:45

Early bird.

Speaker 1 27:46

Yep . Yep . Yep . What's your coffee order?

Speaker 4 27:51

Well, mine because of you, I like the blonde . What is it? The cafe, the latte with almond milk.

Speaker 1 28:02

Okay. With blonde roast espresso.

Speaker 4 28:05

Yes. That's it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> . That's it. I have it on my phone and I, every time I have to pull up my note and it's so good

Speaker 3 28:11

If I , I'm pretty boring. If I'm going to a Starbucks, I just have the, the light roast.

Speaker 1 28:16

And what do you have afternoon though?

Speaker 4 28:19

Yes. You have a fancy thing

Speaker 3 28:21

At home? Oh , my , my , uh, matcha , matcha green tea latte with almond milk. That's my attitude .

Speaker 4 28:28

Ice . That's good too .

Speaker 3 28:29

No. Hi .

Speaker 1 28:30

I know you like it . Hot.

Speaker 4 28:32

Hot.

Speaker 1 28:33

Okay . All right . Uh , spicy food or not? No. Spice.

Speaker 4 28:39

Spice .

Speaker 3 28:39

No Spice

Speaker 4 28:41

<laugh>

Speaker 1 28:42

Texting or talking on the phone?

Speaker 4 28:47

Gosh, that really depends on the person. Probably texting. It's , it's vonda . I'll just call. But I mean, it depends. Mostly texting.

Speaker 3 28:56

Yeah, mostly texting too. Because you can get an answer quickly . We

Speaker 4 28:59

Don't have .

Speaker 1 29:01

Yeah . Okay . Favorite music or artist ?

Speaker 4 29:08

Mm . I am gonna say pretty much anything from the late seventies and eighties. That was kind of my,

Speaker 3 29:20

Yep . Yeah, that's a tough one for me.

Speaker 4 29:22

Cause

Speaker 1 29:23

You like sunny radio.

Speaker 3 29:24

I do, but that's just like a little bit of everything. Yeah . Sunny radio will be fine. I'm like a John Denver, Elton John kind of .

Speaker 4 29:30

Oh, I love John Denver. Love me some . John Denver.

Speaker 1 29:36

Favorite number?

Speaker 4 29:38

Hmm ? Five.

Speaker 3 29:39

You can't say five. I was gonna say five.

Speaker 4 29:42

Seriously? <laugh> . Yes . A

Speaker 3 29:46

14 word five was used to be my lucky number. If you , you know, when five ,

Speaker 4 29:50

What's what ? I was my number . I was

Speaker 1 29:51

Also used to be my lucky number.

Speaker 4 29:53

Oh my gosh .

Speaker 1 29:54

That was what else ? Funny .

Speaker 4 29:56

Funny .

Speaker 1 29:56

Okay , so both of you are fives. Um, what did you wanna be when you grew up? <laugh>?

Speaker 4 30:04

Well, <laugh>, actually I wanted to be a lawyer. Okay . I wanted to go to law school, was one of my dreams. And then I, my sophomore year took my first business law class and was like , Hmm , maybe not <laugh> .

Speaker 1 30:21

I can't see it as a lawyer.

Speaker 4 30:23

It was really hard. I wanted to be a child advocate lawyer. That was my

Speaker 3 30:27

Oh , okay . Oh, I could see that

Speaker 4 30:29

For kids. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> , um, in the foster care . So that was my whole, that was my passion at the time. But instead I became a teacher.

Speaker 3 30:39

I would have to say that there was one point in my life that I, and this was when I was like in junior high and I didn't even know what a nun was, but I wanted to be a Nu

Speaker 4 30:49

<laugh> .

Speaker 3 30:50

I don't even know why wasn't Catholic nothing. It was

Speaker 1 30:55

Oh my gosh .

Speaker 3 30:58

That I just still wanted to be a forest .

Speaker 4 31:00

Yeah . That's hilarious. You'd probably have been a good one if you put your mind to it.

Speaker 3 31:06

<laugh> .

Speaker 1 31:09

Okay . What is your biggest pet peeve?

Speaker 3 31:12

Ooh .

Speaker 4 31:15

Hmm . Okay. This is one of them that is been a pet peeve for a while . And it might make the two of you mad, but we're just gonna throw it out there. One of my pet peeves is when we have a meeting scheduled and like two minutes after it's so supposed to start, I get slack. Oh, we're not doing it today . <laugh> .

Speaker 1 31:44

Okay .

Speaker 4 31:46

Cause my brain ha , i , it , it just, it that whole hour where that meeting's supposed to happen, it kind of, I am

Speaker 1 31:56

Like , well , yeah , you're lost.

Speaker 4 31:57

That's what I'm supposed to do. And I think it's just a little a d d of me. I can't, I hyper fixate on here's gonna be the meeting and then when it gets canceled I'm like, ah , I've, I've mentally prepared to be at this meeting. Now what do I do? <laugh>. So

Speaker 1 32:14

That's good that you, you you brought that up .

Speaker 4 32:16

I know . And I've got , I need to share this with everyone because we are all guilty. We've all done them last minute, but I'm like, why does this stress me out so much? It's, it's, I don't think it bothers anybody else. It's just me mentally I can't switch back.

Speaker 1 32:34

Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . Yeah . I

Speaker 4 32:34

Don't , I don't , I don't know . I don't know

Speaker 3 32:36

What the problem is , but yeah , that's it . I don't know whether I have a pet peeve. Maybe you , nothing

Speaker 1 32:42

Bothers you.

Speaker 4 32:44

Oh

Speaker 3 32:44

Yeah. Just when, yeah , just when people don't put things away. Maybe that's it.

Speaker 1 32:49

People don't put things away.

Speaker 3 32:51

Like you drop something and you leave it there on the counter. It's like, just put it , just put it where it goes. Just put it where down .

Speaker 1 32:57

Oh , okay . Put put away. Don't put down.

Speaker 4 33:01

Don't put down, put away.

Speaker 3 33:03

Remember that's Oh I like that. There you go. That

Speaker 4 33:05

Helps . Means I learned it on TikTok . Don't put down, put away.

Speaker 3 33:10

Well and somebody in my house never puts things away. Not to name names . You're not gonna

Speaker 4 33:18

Name any names cause that would be rude. <laugh>.

Speaker 1 33:23

Okay , last question. What's your death row meal?

Speaker 4 33:28

Ooh . I'm not sure what my main meal would be, but my dessert will be the tris trace leche cake. Ooh hun . And maybe that I'm gonna have two, maybe I have one for dinner and one for dessert. Um, cause it makes me so dang happy when I eat it.

Speaker 3 33:49

There you go. And then

Speaker 4 33:50

A little bit . Cause I can't stop. <laugh>

Speaker 3 33:53

Mine's easy. Pizza salad and , uh, Creole for dessert. I know it doesn't go together, but those are good

Speaker 4 34:00

Ones too .

Speaker 1 34:01

That's great.

Speaker 4 34:02

Good one. Love

Speaker 3 34:03

It . How about your last meal? Ellie ? We're gonna throw that one back at you . Oh

Speaker 1 34:06

Boy. Ah , man. I mean, probably like a pasta now. Salad. Pasta and pizza and tiramisu . Sue or , um, chocolate chip cookies maybe.

Speaker 4 34:28

Oh , like good

Speaker 1 34:29

Chocolate chip. Yeah, like good one. Hot out of the oven. Yes . Yes.

Speaker 3 34:36

Yu

Speaker 1 34:36

Okay ladies, that is all I have. We'll wrap this up. Um, hopefully everybody has a very good pre Valentine's Day week ahead. We're wishing them all the success.

Speaker 4 34:49

And, and remember to breathe. Just breathe. Breathe through it as my neighbor Marybel Thomas used to tell me this too . Shall pass.

Speaker 1 34:59

That's right.

Speaker 4 35:00

<laugh> .

Speaker 1 35:01

Everyth breathing's. Temporary.

Speaker 4 35:03

Yep . Thank 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 the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google Morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week,

Speaker 5 35:25

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.