Who's Open To Trying Something New? What's Holding You Back?

Episode 225: In this episode, Vonda and Lori dive into the topic of trying new things in your flower business, specifically exploring trendier flower designs for websites and in-store displays. They discuss three main factors that often hold people back from embracing new trends, starting with the influence of mindset. By adopting an open mindset, you can overcome these barriers and allow new fresh offerings to customers. They  also provide a follow-up on their recent in-person sympathy program at the Bill Doran Company in Des Moines, IA. 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

The only one who fears failure are those who have never tasted it.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Are you settled back in, Lori?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

I am. I am. It was so nice to sleep without a train going through my hotel room.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

That was so funny because Julie and I were on the other side of the hotel and we barely heard the train. We didn't fire any sirens.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

And you and Ellie were like right on the Ellie said every morning she would look over and I had like a pillow over my head. I was like, I know. It was so loud. And then I would, it would usually just fit in with whatever I was dreaming. You know, like the train was passing through my dream. And so anyway, I don't know. It was crazy, but the hotel was beautiful. It just trains.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

We were at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, which is a historic hotel in downtown Des Moines, because we were there for almost a week doing a photo shoot. And then we had a sympathy program at the old Doran in Des Moines. So it was really a fun time. It really was. It's a lot of work. Yes, it was a lot of work and it was very cold.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

It was freezing. Did you not get cold in the warehouse? No, I didn't get cold. Well, it's because you were moving around probably more. I don't know. I was freezing back there. Ellie and I were cold the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

We just sorry. It's a it always is cold when we go in March or April, though.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah. Yeah, going and running back and forth to the coolers. The good news is I'm identifying flowers better, don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

I think you are. Because I would say, go get, and I would say the name of the flower, and you would come back and you would have a good one.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

With the right thing this time, Julie would get me like organizing them in the buckets. The foliage, the foliage is the hardest part because some of them all look alike.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

And they all have very we're getting better. I'm getting better.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

And let's be honest, it's probably as good as it's gonna get with okay. I'll take it. I'll take that. It's as good as it's gonna get with any kind of flower or foliage identification because I'm not gonna practice. I'm not practicing because I'm moving on to my sales and marketing job.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

I will keep you at that. I would rather you stay there. Well, we have the other handled for you, so I think that's right. Great balance. Right. Everybody stays in their lane.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Stay so my lane, which the little tiny segment of my lane was the most fun part. As we ended the week with a sympathy design show at Bill Doran wholesale for their customers or anybody that wanted to come, and we had a great turnout. We did it, it was so nice.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

A Tuesday night, and we had 50 people, yeah, you know, and that was great. And we had seven of our clicker show, it was so fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

And they brought their employees, and Dusty said what they haven't had a show there in like eight years. Uh Lori.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

I did the last show. Oh, I didn't know that. And it was a wedding show. Oh, and it was at their old location, so it was so many years ago, and we identified when it was because my granddaughters, Layton and Campbell, were in the show and they were little tiny flower girls, so they were so young at the time, and now Layton's that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

I did not know that part. So you that one was wedding, and this was all sympathy. Yes. Wow. Well, I have to say, I was a little worried because usually when I do presentations, the longest they ever are are an hour and 15 minutes. And this one was going to be two hours, and I'm like, holy smokes. And you and Julie were like, Lori, this is gonna go by so fast, we're gonna have too much, but I hadn't been part of one where you were actually going through all of the designs and mechanics. So I'm always doing like business segment, right? So yeah, Ellie and I were really worried because we're not designers.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

So, clickers, it was pretty funny. The night before we had to have a meeting with Lori and Ellie, yes, and Julie and I, because the two of them were very worried. We were information and we really need to scope it out. What are we gonna do? And it's that organizational thing, which Julie and I had in our mind, we knew what was going on, but we just sat there and just mm-hmm, okay. We listened to what they said and we're like, we think we should do this, and we're like, mm-hmm, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

God, because we knew, well, we didn't want to look like complete idiots, you know, and you were like, you'll come up here here, and then you'll come up here, and we're like, and do what? Like, what are we supposed to do? I will say the minute you guys started talking and flowing, then I was like, okay, I see where I fit in here. You know, we're like the intermission little click tips, honestly. When you had your stopping point. Um, and we kind of did just a few of our little sales and marketing, and we talked about empathy versus sympathy. And everyone there was fairly seasoned in yes, this. So it's not like we needed to go through here's how you talk with your people, here the family. So we didn't need to do that, but it was it was so great because you and I, and I know Julie and Ellie feel the same way. I love an interactive crowd. Yes, right. Oh, it was great. They were laughing and they were sharing stories and all of the stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

It was really great. It was it was interesting to watch light bulbs go off in their heads, or so many notes being taken about different types of mechanics, because when you have two designers who are seasoned designers, Julie and I, we still do things differently in our mechanics, and to show both of those ways and let people make kind of make a decision on what they think might work best for them, or just challenge them. Challenge to try something different, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Challenge to try something different. So, what I thought was interesting, speaking of challenging them to try something different. Two of our six or seven members that were there, we have some new things on the website. We started in February, we put a couple of new trendier designs, and then Mother's Day, we have some new trendier designs, just two. Our wonderful member Paul shared with us. He's he's been in the industry probably as long as you have, don't you think? Um and he's just fabulous. But he shared with us that he actually put them on his website, right? The totes. And he was very hesitant at first, because he's like, I don't, they're not gonna sell, I don't want those. I'd keep mine traditional, this is what I do, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they sold. He had sold one that day. In fact, he came and he said, Vonda, I have to tell you something. And his wife said, I am so proud of you for trying to differ for trying something on you. And we thought that was so great. And then on the opposite end, we got Derek, who Derek, I hope you're listening. I hope you're listening. And his wonderful wife, Liz, who we adore, who is begging him to put it on their website, and he's half Paul's age, but he acts like he's 150 years old. And again, I tell him this to his face, and he won't put him on there. Won't try it. Don't even try it. He's and it's interesting to me. Is it fear? What is it that makes some shop owners like, yeah, let's try it. Let's see if it works. And others, oh, absolutely not. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. What is that? Is it fear or is it just control?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

What is it? Sometimes I think it's an emotional decision, right? It's like that first knee jerk reaction. It's like, I look at it and I go, nah, I don't like it. It's about me, right? I'm making the decision for my customer based on what I feel. So it's that emotional reaction. And I don't want to invest anything in something that might not sell. So then that becomes part of a financial decision. So financially, it's like, I don't want to invest in it because I don't like it, and I don't think my customers are gonna like it. Yeah. And then it is fear, it's fear that bottom line, right? Here, I don't like it. I don't want to invest in it because I'm fearful that it's not gonna sell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

It's interesting because uh the last two months we've had quite an influx of new flower click members, right? Of all shop sizes. And some are more rural than others, you know, some are in the city, and I always love showing them our websites, like here's what it might look like. And usually they ooh and awe and they love it and everything. But there was this one particular instance where I was on and I was showing them like the Mother's Day mix, and they saw the totes and they saw the little vases that are the bud vase, the sheep bud vase, the sheep bud vase, and the tote bag. And I said, Not not everyone wants these, you can always have them removed. She goes, Oh, I I would have that removed. I know my customers, there's no way I would sell. I I couldn't, it'd be anyway, and I said, That's so interesting. I said, Tell me why. Why do you think that, you know? And she couldn't really give me an answer. I said, Do you just not like it? And she goes, No, I like it. And so we kind of talked through it, and I said, you know, here's the thing in your area, you know, and I shared with her a lot of stories about our members that how this is such a great grab and go from a labor standpoint, it's low labor from a cost standpoint, it's very inexpensive to make, and it has a pretty high profit margin. And so by the end, she was like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would I would totally keep that on. And then I'm always like, and the totes, if they don't use them as gift bags. We have a shop in Virginia, she buys tons of these because she loves the bags, she uses them as totes for flowers, and she uses them as more high-end gift bags. So you're not wasting at all, regardless. If people have more of an open mindset and they can maybe look at a multi-purpose way.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Do you think that's what it comes down to when you have new products that it's that open mindset or closed mindset? I do.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

You think it's always gets back to my book that I read 10 years ago, mindset. I think it's number one, mindset, how we're wired. You know, we're just kind of wired one way or the other. But I think it's also for some people, it's it can be fear-based because maybe they've been burned before, you know, going back to our other member that was like, no, no, we're not doing that. And his wife's like, I want to, you know, his he's got fear because like he's third generation and he was sharing with us. We went to clean out my grandpa's barn, and there's just pallets and pallets and pallets of all of these products that he probably found on sale and then never sold. I can't even sell them on eBay, you know. So that I understand, I get it. So he's like, I don't want to be stuck with the bud bases. So I hear that. Not that you're gonna have to buy a palette, but you know what I'm saying? So some of it I get.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

But no, I have to put that to a set to a point, but you don't have to buy more than six of them.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Right, right, right, right. A little bit of a sand by I think back this was probably seven years ago, eight years ago, I don't know. The very first time I ever met Jenny Thomason, it was in downtown Houston. She was putting on an event for Houston Florists Association. And I went and she was doing, you know, fabulous design work. And some of the things that she was doing were, you know, clearly not something that an everyday florist would sell, which she does a lot of. It's just beautiful inspirational artwork. And somebody raised their hand and kind of made that comment. And she said, you know what, you're right. She goes, but here's the thing every shop, every website should have at least one wow, that's interesting thing. One conversation thing. Maybe they're not gonna buy it, but it gives your customer something to look at and go, that's different. Yeah, look what they can do. And I've never forgotten that. And I think it's really important. You might not sell it, but it is that one thing on your website that sets you apart from everybody else and makes somebody think.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Right. Wow. You might not buy it that time, but they're gonna come back to maybe see what else you have that's a little bit more unusual next time. When they have somebody else they need to get something for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's really a really good point. And and I think we talked about that in the program we did for AIFD how many years ago? 2018, The Flower Shop of the Future. And that was what we talked about, is not necessarily on your website, but have something in your store, some beautiful piece of art that you're putting it on social media, whether they're coming in store or online, so that you can really, you know, draw in a new audience. I I think that's it. We're a little bit leery of doing it different because we don't want to push away, so to speak, or discourage our regular everyday customers who do order on our website or call us. If we change things too much, we have that fear, as you mentioned, of them going, ooh, that flower shop has changed a lot. I don't know. We know that's not the way it is. It's we have proven that making a change on the website increases that traffic because it is that intrigue. It's that, oh my gosh, look how that looks so much more fresh and new. And yeah, anyway, that's kind of where I'm with it.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah. Simon Sinek, I was trying to remember one of his quotes about failure, because I think part of this is like the fear of failing with one of these and losing money. Uh, and I I found it. And I I think this is so true. The only one who fears failure are those who have never tasted it. And I love that because that's really true. People that have tried something and failed realize, oh, I failed, but I survived and I got back up again. That's okay. I learned from it. But I think people that are so afraid to fail haven't failed yet. It's okay. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Well, and that's what we just talked about last week. Either you're winning or you're learning.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yes, you're either winning or learning.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

There's losing, you know, it's okay. Yeah, the the hard part is if you don't ever fail, you will never get past that. Oh, I'm so great, right? That's what I think. Yeah. Sometimes they're like, oh, I always win. But you know, nothing nothing's beyond.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

You're not learning anything if you think you're always winning. So so maybe the challenge is to people that are listening is try to put something different on your Mother's Day mix this year, right? Something that you wouldn't normally put. Maybe, maybe it's an obscure plant. I don't know. I mean, just something different. And if you can't do it on your website, put it on your social media or put it in your shop, like something. You know, challenge yourself.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

As I was looking at some of our members' websites, and they were doing some unique designs, which we helped them add to their website. And there was one that was called the Total Eclipse of the Sun. Yes, so stinking cute. I'm like, very cute.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Yeah, yeah. I saw a few of those. Renee Tucci made a really cute one too. She and so did Jenny. They both made some cute ones. There was a lot of fun Instagram worthy total eclipses. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

And that was just fun to see. And that they like you're saying, step out of the box, do something different. Yeah, but they're do something different.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

And I want to check in with our member and see how many they sold. And maybe they just sold a few. That's okay. It made people smile. Absolutely. You know, and customers smile and get a kick out of it. And what a cool concept.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

But what a trigger for someone who's thinking they want something unique sent from that flower shop. I'm looking at this flower shop, you know, looking the city. I'm going through a website and I'm like, oh my gosh, how creative is that? I want something that says this. Yeah, this is a flower shop. I'm going to call when I'm going to be able to do it. Because they're creative. Because they were creative.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Yeah. Well, and that's kind of what we you guys were talking about in the sympathy show, you know, when you were doing the more personalized sympathy, it shows your creativity. Show the people how creative you can be.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Yeah. Yeah. Show them that you can personalize it to make it really about that last tribute that you can do for that person's life. And that's when we're most creative. That's when we're really blessed to be able to be creative and to show that. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

I want one more thing about the show, and then we can wrap it up. I I did think it was interesting that every single person there, you and Julie were in the back getting ready when we were doing our intermission, Ellie and Hoar, our entertainment, our whatever. Every single person in the audience raised their hand when I was asking, you know, how many of you this love sympathy work, you know, take it, take it very, very seriously. And every single one of them, you know, had their hands up like it, and it almost got me choked up.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

It was interesting because when they did that, and you even ask why they like sympathy so well. And they said because we're able to do that last request of that person. Yeah. Where this is the very last thing that they send off. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That was powerful. Yeah. And that's how we all feel, right? World designers. That's how we feel. But it was just great to hear her say that, you know, and how people like to sit with families and listen to their stories. We're never in a hurry. Most of the time when somebody comes in for a funeral, they're a they are a storyteller. And we just have to know that. And we have to sit back and take the time.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and speaking of storyteller, when it was over, we had so many of them coming up and wanting to share a story with us, whether it was about a certain funeral or a certain family. And I wish we had three extra hours, you know, that we could have spent with each one of those beautiful people. So it was wonderful. I loved it. It was it was a great time, even though I wasn't quite sure what my responsibilities were until I got there, but it was fine. You always draw men. People love you. You and Julie working together are slightly a Lucy and Ethel combination. Only way more intelligent, way more structured. But she is so funny. She is just so funny. And you complement each other really well in your teaching. She's really good about keeping it the flow because you're a stickler for time. It's like she knows that. So she was on the move, and you could look and immediately know, okay, she brought that out. So now I go to this, that out, and go to that. Like you guys were on it.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

She was reading my mind, actually, and she does that all the time. It's like I'm starting to do this, and then I look and I'm like, oh my gosh, there it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Oh my god, there it is. Like she's a mind down. That was just in your brains. That was that was very cool. Well, you and Ellie play off each other. Yeah, we did. She had all her notes, and I had zero. I'm like, I'm just gonna feed off of you. She's like, you always do.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

There we go. Well, we look forward to going to another Bill Doran location sometime this year. I think there's a couple others we'd like to do. So yeah, hopefully we'll see some of our clickers somewhere else. Yeah. So until next week.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

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_01 23:19

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.