Highlights from SAF Convention in Miami

Episode 242:   In this episode, Vonda interviews Lori about her experience at the Society of America Florist (SAF) Convention in Miami last week. Lori shares her insights and highlights from the convention, from the networking opportunities and meeting up with our Cliquers to her participation as a moderator for a panel discussion, she gives great tips and takeaways. You won't want to miss her story about "that flower feeling"!  Whether you attended this year's SAF Convention or not, you won't want to miss Lori's perspective. 

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

When I'm talking to somebody and explaining to them what Flower Click is, and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I feel one of our Flower Click members just standing there, just dying to talk.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

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

SPEAKER_01 0:23

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. Good morning, Lori. Good morning, Vonda. Happy day after Olympics. It's over.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yes, I know. Oh man. Did you watch the closing?

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Yes, I did. It was good. I was a little confused for some of it, but I am not sure now. I was telling my husband, what are we gonna do now?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Like, I know, right? I don't know what there was not a question what we watched. It was like, okay, this is. So great.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

And I feel like I was on an emotional roller coaster for 18 days. But then he reminded me football season is right around the corner. So that's that feeling forward too. So I'm very excited. But it was good. We USA got 40 golds and China. So that's pretty cool. And then we won in all of the what 124 total medals.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

So that's pretty impressive. Oh well no. So many. And the closing ceremonies when she said I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

I know. I know. I have cried so much. I love all the backstories. Yes. Right in the Olympians. It makes you root for those people, don't you? It does. And all of the couples, the Olympians that are married to other Olympians, or it's just so good. So, so so good.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

So anyway, it really was. And then of course, you know, one of my favorite was when Tom Cruise was lying down. That was like my favorite, of course, because I'm a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

It's very cool. I know. It was it was very cool. And then within 15 seconds, he was in LA. I know how did that L's because he's Tom Cruise. He can do all things. That's true. He's amazing. So anyway, the other thing is, I know it's Tuesday, but I did just get back from the big convention, SAF convention. Ellie and I. You did.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

And you had a little bit of time to rest. We did.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I did. I probably had more time than Ellie because she stayed for the uh what it was called, birdies and blooms. Jet Fresh hosted a little golf tournament afterwards for the SAF pack, I think, for SAF. But I left on Friday, so I've had a little bit of recovery time. I still have a pile of laundry that keeps staring at me, but I'm gonna get to it one of these days. So anyway, but yeah, it was fun. It's always fun when I get to spend time with our flower click members, meet new florists, meet new people in the industry, all of that good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

So well, I can't tell you how long it's been since I didn't go. And this is the first year in many, many that I didn't attend. After spending so long at AIFD and having a house full of family, I kind of needed to catch up. Yeah. And so you and Ellie were so kind to said, hey, we'll go and we'll represent the clip. And there you were. So we appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

I probably spent 35% of my time answering the question, where's Vonda? Where's Vonda? Where's Vonda? And I had that excuse for you all written out, and it it was good half the time, but where it didn't work was when I talked to people like Jody McShann or Renee Tucci, people that were also at the AFT, and they looked at me like, so was I. That's not an excuse, or Tim Farrell.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

We should have said who family was there for 10 days, so that killed us.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I should have said family people anyway. They just kind of laughed and rolled their eyes.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

They're like, All right, I get it. But I did have FOMO, I really did. You were posting pictures and you were sending this stuff, and I was like, Yeah, it's weird, isn't it, when you're left behind? Yeah, yes, because it doesn't happen often to me.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

No, never exactly. So it was it was good, and again, it's always nice to see our members face to face. I tell you what, our members are the absolute best. No one talks better about Flower Click than our Flower Click members. It's it's just makes your heart. It's crazy. It's uh leap. It really, it really is, it really is humbling. So yeah, it was a great time. It was a so what questions do you have for me? Okay, so first one was how many clickers were there? I do not remember, but I was talking to Michelle Jones at Flowers by Michelle, who goes almost every year, and we were at the gala and we were getting a picture. Sh and her manager, Emily and I, and she reminded me, she said, Why is it every year about this time we remember? Dang it, why don't we get a flower click group picture? And half the people had already left. And I was like, I don't know. It's because we are all spread out, or just like running like chickens with our head cut off. I don't know. But I don't know, Vonda, at least a dozen, probably at least. And the thing is, I'm frustrated with myself too, because you know how we usually have flower click pins for our members? We were out of them, we were sold out of them, which since you were not there, we totally blamed you because you weren't there to defend yourself. So Ellie and I told everyone it was Vonda's fault, and they were like, What? Because that's so unlike Vonda, but we're like, she's not here, so we're totally blaming her. We totally threw you under the bus. Because they were like, Where's a pen? I want something on me that says I'm a flower click member. I'm a clicker. I know I feel horrible. So we literally during the expo part had our clickers like Derek Zaki, Cameron, Pappas from Norton's. We had members like standing at our booth selling our product. I love it. Well, I can't just go walk around. You guys just hang out here. It was so funny. You're like bringing people up to us. It's just it's the best.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

It's the absolute humbling. I do miss that. Yeah. So okay, so the other thing, you were a moderator at a session. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Tell me about that, you know. Okay, so I was a moderator for a session called Unlocking Hidden Potential, Training New Leaders. And you will be proud of me because at the beginning I prefaced it with saying I was going to probably use the word developing or mentoring new leaders instead of training, because my boss, Vonda Le Fever, does not like the word training when you're talking about humans. And everybody laughed because it's true, right? That's right. We train a dog. If you're training a dog, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And they were like, that's that's true.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

They all nodded and were like, that's hilarious. So I did start the whole thing off like that. That was my intro.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

How funny.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

But it was great. We had a panel, we had Lenny Walker from Kennicott, we had Mike Black from JetFresh, and we had Angelique Witcher, who is from Accent Decor, and they're just a fabulous panel. We had quite the personalities on the panel, and everybody had great stories. We talked about things like how deep is your bench. We spit a lot of time on that. Like, do you have a plan if someone leaves? Do you have somebody else ready to step right in there? And that's harder for those smaller flower shops, you know. We we had quite the crowd in our room. It was full of wholesalers. We even had growers in there, we had companies that just sell product, right? And then we had retail florists. So we didn't have a retail florist on the panel. So I kind of represented the retail floor. So I would sometimes speak in, or I would call on someone in the audience who I knew was a retail florist, right? Because I was like, I think it's important because the majority of people in the audience were retail florists. So some of the answers on the stage, in my mind, I was like, well, this is kind of hard to parlay into a brick and mortar five employee shop. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 9:38

No, that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah. So it was really good. We talked a lot about how you go about identifying your employees' strengths and challenges and build into those. Who is a good leader? Who is a good manager? And you don't, you know, I was reading a book about leadership, coaching/slash leadership on the plane on the way there, and it was interesting because we've talked about this before on the podcast, but it was just a new way of reframing it. He said, you know, you need to look at your employees or your people in two ways. Some are sowers and growers, and some are managers and maintainers, and neither is right or wrong. You need both, but figure out who sows those seeds and grows those people, and who's really good at managing and maintaining like spreadsheets and like day-to-day and those types of things. You have to have both, whether you're a company of four or four hundred.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

You know, and I love it, sewers and growers, because it goes with the our business, doesn't it? Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I know, and this book had nothing to do with flowers, and that's why it caught my brain. I was like, ooh, sewers and growers. I like that. I want to be, I'm a sewer and like I'm not a manager and maintainer. That's not me. I'm doing well if I can manage and maintain my own life, just me. But you are so much. I love to sewer and grow people all day long, right? But you have to have both on your team to have a balanced business. And so I just love that. And so, you know, me on a panel, try as I might, I have to throw in my little two cents every time.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So every now, you need to you give that personalization to it, and you're a very good moderator because you can pull out the best in each of the persons on the panel, which is a really quite a talent, Lori, as you know. We both sat in a room watching those discussions that you're going. Yeah. Yeah. It's because it's painful. I mean, because people are they're talking, but the point's not being made. Right. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Well, I was very welcome. Yes. I was lucky. We had some really wise, great people that have been in this industry a long time. So our panel, we really enjoyed it. Of course, we went over time because we had so many questions too. It was a lot of interactive QA, a lot of laughter. So I always think, you know, if you leave with people laughing, that's a sign of a good, a good session.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

So I think that you felt it is good. You I'm sure they walked away with many great points from that session for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

So the other one that you sent me a picture of was Ian Prosser in front of this course stand.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

So tell me about that.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

So right after hours, I my job was to send everybody. You know how SAF has the experience zones, which are those little 20-minute interims between the sessions. You we've always done them. We were talking about this is like the first year that Flower Cluck hasn't done one. So Ian Prosser was doing one and Accent Decor was sponsoring him. So he was using all of Accent Decor's products to show different design things and wedding or event, not even wedding, just wedding, but event stuff. And first of all, Ian, love him. He's just a character. He's so funny. And he and his daughter Zoe, I talked to them, they're gonna be on our podcast. They agreed to come and talk. Yes, so they're gonna talk about wedding trends and just event trends in general. Love it. So they're they're so funny. He asked me, he said, can we do a side podcast that is maybe rated PG 13? And I was like, yes, we can. Yeah. Anyway, so that one was great because it's it's just he flows so effortlessly when he's on a stage. Um, and I know he's been doing it for years, you know, and he has no script. He's just talking and he'll be showing something, and then he's like looking at it, and he might pause and he's like, and then I don't know, maybe we'll maybe we'll hey, let's change this. And he does a change, and I'm like, oh my goodness, it's just an entire different look. And I'm like, how did he think of that? That's phenomenal, you know, and it's just him, it's a good that's the way his mind operates, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Unbelievable, unbelievable.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

And it was, of course, a packed experience zone, which I'm saying they're going, why is this man just doing an experience zone? This man should be, you know, it's but it was so so good. Amy Balster, who I love, she's been on our podcast. She also did one sponsored by Ball, and she was doing great things too. The the experience zones are great. My only issue with them this year, but they was in a real long haul.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Oh, you know, it's hard to hear.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

And you know, the teacher in me cannot handle when people in the back are talking, when people in the front are speaking, I wanted to run back there and tell them stop talking, it is rude. The teacher is speaking, you know, but I couldn't because it's not my job. It should have been somebody because it is so distracting. But he had some really, really cool transitions, like something I thought that is total, total wedding. And then before I knew it in front of my eyes, he switched it out, and I'm like, oh, that doesn't have to be for a wedding, it could be for something like it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

And he was really showing the versatility of those accent decors because those are so cool just in themselves, but then you're like, Oh, you can do that. Oh, you can do that. Oh my gosh, you can do that.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Yeah, you know, one of those little arches that are like different sized, and how you could they come in three pieces and how you can take them apart and put them in a different part of like a reception room, then and they turn into these smaller pieces. It's just amazing. So kudos to him and accent decor for thinking of these really cool products. That I'm thinking a florist, it would be worth it if you do a lot of weddings and events to purchase these things and rent them out, they would pay for themselves very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah, usually in two times is taken care of. Well, that's cool. So you mentioned a little bit about the supplier showcase when you said that we had some of our clickers there trying to bring people in. Yes. How did you think overall it went?

SPEAKER_01 16:51

I think it went really well. It's long, just like every supplier showcase and everything we do, they're you know, we're it's just always long because we're standing the whole time. Um, but it's fun, it's fun to meet new people. That's my favorite part of it when people come over to us and go, What's Flower Click? You know, and so we get to talk to them. But honestly, the very best part of it is when I'm talking to somebody and explaining to them what Flower Click is, and all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I feel one of our Flower Click members just standing there, just dying to talk. Like it's crazy. It happens 80% of the time, and they just start chiming in, and I just step back, and and that's what happened every time, Honda. And and I'm like, we need to start getting cards for our clickers, and like because we need to know who's gonna be there, and so that we make them their own business cards because they're the ones.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Well, because when we think about it, who are they gonna trust more? Somebody like you or me who maybe they know our name, but they don't know us, right? And or someone who is in the business and know exactly what they need and what they're doing for them and can share their story.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, so yeah, that's it's it was it was really good, and just to see old friends stopping by too, you know. Um, this here's the thing about SAF, and I met a few brand new people, first timers, women and some men, people that had never come. And they mentioned this also. I actually met a lady at the airport. She she was on the same flight as me. And it's her very first time to go to SAF. She's always only gone to the AIFD symposium. Okay. And this year she went to this. And this is what she said. She loved it. This is like it is like nothing I've ever been to before. Uh, she said, what was fascinating is the learning about the like wholesale side, meeting wholesalers, meeting growers, meeting like and and I thought that's exactly what it is. That's exactly why you should be going to both. Like, that's why AIFD Symposium is important and SAF is important. You meet so many people in the industry on both at both places, and it's so great. And she really, really enjoyed it, and she was so very glad she went because she met new people and she goes, I have a whole new outlook on, and she was trying to think of the word, and I go, the ecosystem of how it all works, because that's so she goes, Yes, exactly. Yeah, and I said that's great. Love that's the whole point. I said, I I'm gonna share that with the SAF people too, because that's that is the point. Because I remember that the first few times I went, I was like, I'm meeting like actual growers and like wholesale, like this is fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of time a retail florist, especially a really great designer, they don't really have that understanding. Yeah, they know they come from a farm, they know they're own, but they don't know the depth of all that's involved. She has been in AI of D for years.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

I mean, she's older than me, and she had never been. And she was like, This is great. So I think that's really cool. Like you're never too old to learn, right?

SPEAKER_00 20:41

That's for sure. Never never, never. I know there are several high points or highlights of the convention. What is one that you would say, oh, this was a great high-law?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Well, there were two, one little one, our main stage presenter. You know how every year they have like one kind of big present mainstager that we vote on because I was on the committee this year, the task force to kind of help plan it a little bit. And we had a guy come in and he was great. He was a dueling piano guy, and he wrote a book. It's called Tip Jar Culture How to Re-engage, Reignite Your Workforce. His name's Gregory Offner. He was so entertaining, he was so good. He spoke and played the piano and sang a little karaoke. He was so, so good. And you know what he did? He pulled someone up on stage who happened to be a clicker, Caroline. Oh, our friend Caroline. Oh, and we all sang sweet Caroline to her. I videoed it, I cried. She was at home, she was sitting and she was smiling. It was the cutest. Everybody had their Phones with the light on, like it was a concert. It was so much fun. We all left feeling so good, like one of those feel-good moments. Uh right. But one of the things he reveals like three different uh things that you need to do in tip jar culture. And his is when you walk in to a piano bar, you sip, request a slip, and leave a tip. And so that's what his whole thing was about. So when you sip, you place your or you order your drink. Like, what is it? What's your vibe? What is it you like? What kind of drink do you like? Get to know one another. Okay. So he kind of took that and took it into our business, which was interesting. And then the middle one is request to slip. That was you write down your request for right, you know, and he told about the story of the actual history of how that how you write on a napkin what the request is for the, and then he took that right down the order, like talked about that whole thing. And then you leave a tip, but he spoke a lot about the tip, and that's where like I got a lump in my throat. A lot of us did, because he talked about how the tip isn't always monetary. And you and I've talked about this, especially for me. Like a tip means something different for everyone. What is the meaning? And it's our job as bosses to find out from our employees what is your tip? What does a tip mean to you? What gives you meaning? What what drives you? How do I build into you? And it was just really powerful. And so what was beautiful is our panel went right after him. So everybody that came in, I was like, How many of y'all went to the tip drive and everyone? I was like, okay, you can be excused, because basically everything he said is what we're gonna talk about, you know, anyway. And so it was funny, but it was oh it was really, really good. And then he went on and on and shared. It was it was very uplifting, very positive, fun, interactive. You felt like you were at a concert, but it was 8 30 in the morning.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

And the SAF design team knocked it out of the park of that arrangement. Did you see him that was like flowing off the piano? I was just stunning. Oh my gosh, Corey and the team. They didn't know.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

Corey and the team were unbelievable. Carrie, they were stunning everywhere. And he even was like, I have never had flowers like this at anywhere I've ever been. Like he kept commenting on how beautiful the flowers and how special he felt. So the other thing that really was important that we could probably do a whole podcast on, but I'll just touch it. We had an afternoon session, all people session in the big room round table. And Oscar Fernandez was kind of the facilitator, and it was called all endos trends and challenges. And so he would pose questions to your table, and you had to divide up, you had to be at a table with retail florists, wholesalers, growers, like you couldn't be all retail florists, it had to be a diverse group, which was very good. And so one of the questions was, you know, how do we get the younger generation to buy flowers? Like that was, and I'm I'm paraphrasing. And so we kind of talked through those kind of questions, and we talked about that flower feeling, that whole campaign, and I've talked about that a million times. But Vonda, this is where those two intersections hit for me at that moment, because when I was doing the panel, Mike Black from JetFresh said, he stood up and he goes, You know, at the end of every panel, the the host, the facilitator has many bouquets that they give out to the people on the panel. He goes, but I have never seen anyone give the host a bouquet. And he goes, So we have a surprise for Lori. And he had one of his employees stand up, and as you know, they had this massive bouquet of my favorite flowers, the Miss Piggy roses, and he went and got it and he brought it to me. And I immediately got tears in my eyes, and I was in complete shock. And here's I'm telling you this because that flower feeling of getting flowers, it never gets old. It truly, I mean, like I get emotional, it truly never gets old. And how can we we have to somehow get that out marketing-wise? It's not enough to just say that flower feeling, like it truly is that that awe of my it was like Christmas morning as a five-year-old girl when I got that high chair I wanted. Like it was that feeling of complete surprise of not only are they beautiful, but they thought of me and they know my favorite. And all these people know they know, like it's all of that, like that's the flower feeling.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Wow, wow, it it's just it's like trying to encapsulate that and pass it on.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

This is how you make people feel when you send them flowers. It never gets old, it truly doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah, yeah. Wow. I don't know. That's pretty cool, Lauren. That's pretty cool that both of those came together for you.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Truly, I you know, because I see it all over the place. I see people's vans, that flower feeling, and I see all of this stuff, and I'm like, yes, it's so sweet, but like, whoa, that's that flower feeling. It truly is wow, it truly was. I just wish people could understand that.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Yeah, you know, so that's that's that's the whole goal, right?

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Is to get the younger generation, yeah, and to remind the older generation, yeah, people to understand it's it is nothing feels better to know not only are you receiving a beautiful gift, but that someone thought of you. That's a huge part of this. Someone's thinking about you, you know? So but that was a cool session, the round table to hear everybody else's voice in our industry. So it was very helpful. And we only had an hour. I that easily could have gone two hours. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

I'll bet it could have, because everybody has something they want to share.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Yeah, so it was it well.

SPEAKER_00 29:41

It sounds like you had a great time, wonderful takeaways. So tell me about next year.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Next year, I'm not sure what the dates are, but I think it's back in Phoenix. I think it's back where it was last year, which was a nice hotel. The hotel this year was nice, but it was one of the ones where you had to go outside to get to the place. So, you know, you're drent, you're like, why'd I fix my hair when you're walking? I was like, oh. But the hotel in that we were at last year was great. And what we loved, it was right across the street, walkable to like restaurants and stuff, remember?

SPEAKER_00 30:18

That's right. Oh, yeah, that was a beautiful loved it.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, and so but you'll be there next year. Maybe you'll go instead of me. I'll stay home next year. We'll just see how next year comes home. We'll play it by ear. We'll play it by ear. 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.

SPEAKER_00 30:51

We look forward to seeing you 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.