Overcoming Obstacles: Practicing What You Preach

Episode 248: In this episode, Ellie, Lori, and Vonda share their experiences from an 8-day business trip focused on product development for Flower Clique. From photo shoots to creating videos for Sales Prep School, and even hosting an educational show at Bill Doran in Omaha, the trip was filled with challenges and obstacles that seemed almost comical at times.

Vonda and Lori have always emphasized the importance of turning obstacles into opportunities, but when faced with obstacles themselves, can they practice what they preach? Join us as we delve into their journey of overcoming hurdles and turning setbacks into success.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

I don't know if you have this on hand, but you gave amazing statistics. How many clicks of the camera did we do for the photo shoot?

SPEAKER_01 0:16

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

SPEAKER_02 0:20

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

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Sure feels good to get home, huh? Yes. It does.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

We were on an eight-day, was it eight days or 50? I don't know. I feel like it was a really, really long time. But you and Ellie and I went on an adventure. We tried to combine three trips into one. Yes, we did. We did. Hi, I'm here.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

And Ellie is not home yet. That's what I said. Lori and I are here and we're home. And Ellie's still traveling. You're not home.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I'm not home yet. I still have one more journey for home.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

She has another journey. And what she's doing right now, she's off camera because when she came on, she was completely blurry because where she is, the Wi-Fi isn't as strong as she's used to. But that just segues right into our topic today, which is overcoming obstacles, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Can you practice what you preach? You guys are in for a treat on this one. This is a little personal saga of our adventures the past week and a half. Yeah, so buckle up.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

There was one point though on our trip, Ellie, that we talked about we shall never speak of this trip again. But then Vonda decided, hey, let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Because I think it's really interesting. We all face obstacles every day. And Lori, you and I've talked about make challenges and obstacles into opportunities. And this one was really kind of hard to take those and make them into an opportunity. I will have to be quite honest. Because we like to preach about it when it doesn't apply to us.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

It's easier to do to tell people how to handle something. Yes. When you're in the thick of it, a little bit different.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Yes, it's the do as I say, not as I do type of mentality that my mother used to say every once in a while.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

So what we were supposed to do, and we did, the whole idea, the three of us were going to have a photo shoot, and Julie Poultler was coming over. We're doing a photo shoot for Christmas and Valentine's Day while sales prep school is being revamped. It's going to be super cool and exciting. And you and Ellie were working on that and then bringing me in for just a couple little things. And then we were getting on the road and going to Omaha, Nebraska to do a show at the Bildor and Company there. All sounded really good and really. It was not me. It was Lori.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Now that I'm remembering, because I was like, let's just tackle on. You know, when we were at the show, I was wondering, how did we get here? How did we get so? Okay, well, aren't you glad to know it wasn't me?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah. No, I think I'm the idiot that brought it up. Like who where could we go from there? Like, you know, while we're out. While we're out and about.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Because we don't have enough to do. So to clarify, the third thing was an educational event at Bill Doran in Omaha, Nebraska on the Tuesday after. So we flew in the Tuesday before, had photo shoot, video shoot, and then the following, in Des Moines, and then went to Omaha to prep and and do the show. So that's kind of the bird's eye view of our plans. Right. And on paper, it sounded very doable. Doable. Like of course, we had a day-by-day, hour by hour itinerary for them. We did to make things just seem a little bit stress-free so that we can make it as seamless as possible.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

There were some rip seams during it.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Okay, so let's start with number one.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Honda.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

This was the first one. Is that because of the strike that was going on in Bogota, Columbia, the flowers that we were using for the photo shoot, because we do the bundles, we're not making it to Miami in time to make it on the Armelini truck to make it to Des Moines.

unknown 5:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So conversation was had. All right, no problem. We can put them on FedEx and you will have them on Tuesday morning. Well, we were coming in Tuesday afternoon, so perfect. I talked to Desty, and he said, yes, we'll make sure to get them in water. They'll be ready for you when you walk in the door. Okay, great. Well, and we didn't know anything at this point that they weren't going to be there. But later we found out after we got there that they were not coming from FedEx, and they were coming on the Armelini truck that wasn't coming until Wednesday night at 8 30 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

And we had got all of us at least 24 hours before that because we thought you were going to be dealing with flowers.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

And Julie was driving over from Iowa City, Lone Tree area, and she said, Well, I'll just wait and come tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

So, how did you turn that into an opportunity? That challenge into an opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Well, I took the opportunity to just get there and get things all set up, containers ready, counted out containers-wise, and prepped whatever I could have.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

You also did some videos that we weren't gonna have you do until later. We you did a few of those. Um, and then you and Julie, at one point, am I dreaming this, or did you think they weren't coming in till like 11:30 at night?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

They were not coming in till 11:30. And so we were very happy that came in to our they came in at 9:30.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Yeah, yeah, so that happened.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Let's go back to the airport, ladies. Let's go back to the PTSD that we all had with the rental car.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Okay, well, first the rental car wasn't ready when I got in. The whole idea was I was getting the rental car, then it was you guys.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I would build my mortgage in, and then we would go, and then Ellie was gonna like Uber because she was gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

You and I went to Uber together. So when I landed, I got the text that the flowers weren't there and the rental car wasn't there. And I thought, okay, bad things happen in threes, so let's just eat that third one when it comes and we'll be over. Yes. So that's was my interesting going into it.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Interesting thing on the rental car though, as I'm waiting there, because I had an hour and a half before you showed up, right there, Hori. And then two before. So I the lady said to me, We don't know when it will be. And she said, and if you're nice, it'll be sooner than if you're not. And I thought, so that was that was my opportunity just to be nice and be patient.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Because what else can you do at that point? But you did say there were some angry people up there. There were uh those people, little did they know, they weren't gonna be getting cars soon. Uh right. Also, just to paint this picture even more, Vonda was traveling with Ellie's dog. So we that's right, I had a dog with a dog this entire time, which we love Roma. I wouldn't want to do life without her, but she was another factor, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah, we like having a little kid with us all the time, exactly. Make sure she had breakfast and dinner and right and table blankets and attention, all of the things that a child would have.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

So we get the rental car, and you and I and Roma sit in the car and get on our computers and just do work with the air conditioner waiting for Ellie, and we're like, oh, this is a great rental car. It was big, like a big SUV. It had all of the space because we didn't.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

They upgraded you, right? For for waiting.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, they did, gave me a nice upgrade, beautiful car, extra space, which I was like, oh, this is great for our trip to home.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yeah, and we barely made it had enough room, and though I always hate that we don't get pictures of what our packed car looks like because I don't think people would believe us.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Um anyway, I landed, I got my bag, we went out to the car, we got in the car, we got on our merry way to Doran's. We made it maybe what half a mile. I would say that's right to get on a very busy highway.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

I was on floor drive.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Okay, I was on the five. And all of a sudden, she's going probably 30 miles an hour. 20, 30. Yeah, and the car just auto-brakes and makes beeping noises, starts beeping, and then all of a sudden just does that auto-break that the new car feature is. But there was nothing around us. Vonda was driving safely, there was no cars she was about to hit, there was no median she was about to hit. There was no reason for this car to auto-break. No, it did it once, and then we're like, oh, that's weird. And then it proceeded to do it two more times before we were able to like get off into a grocery store parking lot and uh panicked search on Reddit and the manual and figure outside cuss words were happy.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Traumatizing because we thought we were yeah, and for full transparency, uh, we were just getting going. I didn't have my seatbelt on. I was trying to give Roma a treat and like get her situated, and then I and and so Roma and I like flew forward. It was ridiculous. It was like I thought Vonda had gotten in an accident, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

So did I, and I have never seen Vonda's eyes so big because we're like, what just like frozen? Yeah, she was frozen. I kept thinking cars are gonna hit us in the back. Yeah, that's what I was worried about. So thankfully, Ellie and her Google skills figured out how to manually turn that off. However, what was the problem? Every time you turn off the car and turn it back on again, we had to go into the system and turn this off. There it was a glitch, it was a glitch in the car, right?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

For anyone who is considering the Genesis G V80, I would consider maybe for Jane that the sensors have been fixed because lots of people are dealing with faulty sensor issues on this Genesis. So all that to say, every time we started driving and forgot to turn it off, it was an immediate panic. It was like we were in a video game trying to click the buttons as fast as we could.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Just jolted backwards and it was panic. So that was a challenge. I still there there is no opportunity I turned that into, except maybe to learn about a glitch in a car.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, and to educate people because my brother was like, my my brother Sayer said, Oh yeah, I've been looking at that car, I've been looking at the Genesis. I want one of those. And I said, Hold up. No, you don't, yeah. So that's the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah. Hopefully they're getting that fixed. When you turned in the rental car, did you tell them?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Or did they want to talk to me? They said, drop it in the little Q box. I said, Uh, are you sure that's it? And they said, Yeah. And I honestly forgot all about it at that point. By it felt like a year later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

It truly.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

So those two things. We've got the flower mishap, we've got the rental car mishap. Yes. Then we go check into the Airbnb. Yeah, small tiny thing. Door code didn't work. So we're just waiting out there for a bit until they give us a new door code. That's what we're doing. We get in, um, we're getting all situated. And then the Wi-Fi doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Wi-Fi doesn't wait, wait, back up. Before we even do the Wi-Fi, when you and I were scouting out which room we wanted, we opened the door to go upstairs, and there are dirty sheets on the stairs. Remember, like had been thrown down that had never been picked up. Oh, that was weird. That was kind of weird.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

That was not ideal. No, it's like, go on with the Wi-Fi. So then you try to connect to the Wi-Fi, doesn't work. I thought, oh, maybe it's just you or your computer. My skills just you, Gilori.

SPEAKER_02 14:07

And that is totally valid thought.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

So then I connect, and there is no Wi-Fi, even though the modem's like on anyway, that's a whole thing. I'm like, we have to work, we are here for work, we've your advertising said, you know, fast Wi-Fi. So within a couple hours, that seemed to resolve. Did a few things with resetting and whatnot with the host.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Also, you had pre-ordered a bunch of groceries because we were gonna eat in breakfast, lunch, dinner, because we had so much work to do, and we were gonna use part of that Airbnb for ship filming our course because it had really good light, it had everything that we needed according to the pictures, right? Correct. And after the first 24 hours, we started realizing that it wasn't real conducive to what we needed. Filming was okay, but there was a bunch of other little glitches that we won't go into. So we had to make the decision do we stay or do we go to a hotel? And you and I, Ellie, were team hotel. We were like, I just this is we can't be here anymore. Can't be here, this just isn't working. Um, so you had to call around and find a hotel. Correct. And then we were like, what do we do with all of this food? I mean, well, hold on.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Julie had moved in with us too for a night, so it wasn't just the three of us. Then when Julie came, she spent the night too. And when she's bringing her stuff up, I mean, those stairs, you basically the outdoor stairs were yeah, horrid, and she like tripped up the first one because it was like what three feet high? It was kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

So, yeah, so not only were the three of us trying to make those decisions, Ellie's trying to find not just one room, but now two rooms with parking, yeah, and that allowed dogs, I mean, right things, but again, we pretty much threw away so much good food, like because we didn't have a freezer, we didn't have any of these. Well, some of the stuff we donated to Bill Doran, thankfully, at their wholesale house that we had but I had meals planned, I had blueberry muffins.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

I think we're still in the oven when we decided we had to go. Yeah, just a lot of things that like we had this whole plan for food and cooking and being cozy.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

And just fellowship around the table for dinners at night, just the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah, so that got just completely thrown out the window, which was fine. It's first world problems with that. Like that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

But um it took a big chunk of our time that we had every single hour accounted for for these eight days. Yeah, yes, and so because of that, it kind of pushed us back on our photo shoot part because we had to finish the courses, the shooting. Then we went to help Vonda finish the photo shoot because Ellie has to do the photography, and then I'll do the social media. But we were behind because we had to do all of these things.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

It was a bit crazy, those last two days for shooting, and then we went Monday morning again.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

Yeah, because we were behind on shooting. We basically had to bake in an extra half day that we had originally planned for Omaha. It was fine.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

We made it work, it wasn't enjoyable, but we made it work, it was stressful, and we all had our moments. I want to go back to the photo shoot because I think we've, Vonda, we've talked about this before, but I really want people to understand. Ellie, when we were in Bill Doran, Omaha, and we did our presentation, you were talking about camera and Canva and like photo shoots and stuff. I don't know if you have this on hand, but you gave amazing statistics. How many clicks of the camera did we do for the photo shoot?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

1,491 photos.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

And out of those, how many photos did we get for real images for our flower click members to put on their website? 80.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

That's crazy. You were sharing that at the presentation, and Lori and I were sitting next to each other just looking at each other going, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I knew we knew it was a lot. I think my point in saying that in the presentation was like patience.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Because I think a lot of times when you're shooting your own, like we see a lot of florists do, you know, they'll take maybe five shots and then call it good, or think it's good enough, or feel like they can't spend that much time on it. Yeah. Uh whatever the reason is, it's just kind of showing perspective. Like we've been doing this for how many years? And we're still only at that statistic.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

You know, and that's okay. Like, it's not AI, it's not a robot that's gonna do it quick for us.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Right. But yeah. And that's what I love that you shared that with them. It's like, be patient with yourself, you know, give yourself some grace. It's not gonna happen, you know, one click and done, you know, one and done. It's not gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Also talked about your equipment. You know, there are times that you use five different types of lights for one shot, and you also have a good camera, and then a lot of times we have to rent an extra really high-end camera. So photo shoots are not easy.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

They're not easy, they're not cheap, they're not quite fun, and sometimes, sometimes they're not fun.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yeah, yeah. When you're when you're when we are in a time crunch, they're not fun. They're usually really fun and super creative, and you know, we're usually in a good space.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Yeah, and our headspace wasn't there. No, we didn't have a good mental headspace.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

No, we didn't.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

We didn't, and which makes it a lot harder to be patient when you're taking this many photos, yeah. And when you have 65 photos between your first shot and the final shot.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Especially when you're doing the color red, wouldn't it be? 65 individual tweaks of a design, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Yeah, so yeah, the red or the burgundy, which almost looked black. It was one of the most beautiful designs in person. It's still one of my favorites. Matter of fact, we took it to Bill Doran, Omaha to show that green with the burgundy in it, kind of that more contemporary one. But the picture, I don't know how many takes that one took because it looked like black in well, it wasn't just the color, that's the easy part.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

It was the overall design of it. Yeah, yeah, it was very on the contrast. In person it was so much different than what the camera saw. Yeah, and we were just trying to bridge the gap between the two of those so that when somebody's buying that online. And then they get it in person, it's not a complete 180.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Yeah, no, I it and it was beautiful in person. I loved that one. I would order that one, but boy, if we did it the first couple of photos, I wouldn't order it if we put those on exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

That's the thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Uh so yeah, so then we road trip to Bill door in Omaha, which was fine. The thing I regret is not taking a picture of Ellie in the back seat every time Vonda turned, all of the stuff would lean onto her. We had to flatten the seat. She had one little spot for her and Roma. No, no, no, no. At that point, we didn't have Roma. That's right. Thank goodness.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Yeah, Roma went to her other grandma's for a few days. Thank goodness. Yes. But yeah, I had my laptop in the back. I had an iced coffee. I didn't have a cup holder, so the ice coffee wasn't in my shoe on the ground in my UG boot. Oh, hoping that it doesn't spill. And then every time Vonda would turn. And honestly, on that highway, there was a lot of turns. There really was. There was more than you would slide on me, but we would hear a shift back there.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

Nellie'd be leaning. It's like, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. Just trying to work on my presentation for tomorrow. I don't think it's a presentation that we have to do tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

So then once we get there, we unload stuff in Bill Dorn, Omaha. Oh my goodness, it was my first time visiting that wholesale house. Stunning. I felt like a kid in a candy store. I know. I regret not shopping. We should have shopped. I wanted to, and then Vonda liked called me back to help, and I'm over here taking pictures. Oh, I want, I wonder if we can get this. I want to get this. I want it all of the Christmas stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Beautiful stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

It makes a huge difference at a wholesale house when you have a really great designer, and Damon Samuels is there, and he can do the merchandising. And I know because of the things they order in and his merchandising, they must sell so much more supplies than anyone else. I mean, it just makes you want to, like you said, you know, you're in there, you're taking pictures, makes you want to go through everything, makes you want to stay, makes you want to shop.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

The thing that I loved about it is they literally have shelves for their vases. I've been in four or five different wholesale houses, not just Bill Doran, but other wholesale houses too. And you're usually bending over looking through a box to figure out what's what. And that's the norm in I think a wholesale house. But this one had beautiful shelves with display.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah, yeah, it was great. It was really great.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

So shout out to that warehouse. If you haven't been, it's worth going just to get the ideas because they have Christmas trees already up, beautifully decorated ones. But when we got there, or the next morning, when we were supposed to be presenting that day at Ellie, what did you get to do for the first three hours?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Well, it was kind of a last-minute secure for a projector, which was fine. Yeah. Got that made the call, got that handled. But the next day, and this is no slight to anybody, but I've personally never set up a microphone system, the A V department. Right. Microphone system, PA system, and then the projector and the screen and all that. That was a DIY that I really I'm a DIY girl. I'm a learn something girl. I'm a tech. Tech is kind of easy. This was so not okay. Like the stress of it all.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

So you and Damon and I were watching YouTube videos. I was trying to like work this like mixer that went into the lavalier mics and the handheld mics and the speakers and how it all works and making sure there's not reverb and gonna blow everybody's eardrums out.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

It was so stressful. And then we're already showered and dressed and ready. Then all of a sudden we're doing this and we're sweating and we're doing all that. And then you have to get your mind in a place of like a good place where then you can present and educate people on content.

SPEAKER_02 26:35

Well, and we didn't even have all of our slides completely done.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

No, because we were working off of Christmas that we had just shot. We wanted to showcase so much of the stuff that we had just done even the day the day before.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

So, you know, it was it was crazy. And so the plan when we got there that morning was you were going to upload all of that, you were gonna go over my presentation, but just make sure do a clean sweep. You didn't get to do that until maybe 45 minutes before the whole thing started.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yep. Yeah, I had about 45 minutes where I locked myself in an office. Yeah, and you had ready. It was a challenge, but it was a challenge that there was no getting out of it. No, like we had to have a sound system, and my entire presentation was dependent on a projection. Yeah, yeah, well, you could have winged it. You could have probably, but at the risk of sounding like we're just complaining here, that's not like I guess our intention or the moral of the story, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Right. It's it is hey, everything like this happen all the time, right? Sometimes not as many in one sequence, but we have to just step back and go, you know what, this is out of my control. What can I do to make this a better situation? And I think that's what we did in each one of these cases. It's like, okay, we can't control this, let's get through it.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Get through it. Yeah, I agree. I think you know, looking at all of these as obstacles, as you called them, Vonda, they were obstacles, but they were, as we talk about, they were figure out. Like we did figure them out. I think for me, looking back, honestly, the most helpless I felt was this when Ellie was setting up the technology. Out of all of these, I mean, there are times I'll feel helpless at a photo shoot, but then I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go do something to make myself busy. I'm gonna go clean a bucket. But that part, and I know Vonda, you and I kept staring at each other like there's nothing we can do because Damon was fabulous too. Damon was right there with Ellie trying to fix it, but it was at some sometimes blind leading the blind, right? Because it was gibberish, none of us knew how to help, and you can't have too many hands back there because there's only you could only fit so many people.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

No, and you were working on your presentation, and I was working on revamping the designs that we had brought over there, so and then poor Ellie was thrown into that was that was like stressful.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

I felt more stressed about that than any of these other things because I couldn't help. You know, it's one of those, but if you look at it as opportunity, we can look at Ellie. Now you kind of know how to do that.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Totally, that's a good point. I hope to never do it again, but if I have to, I right. Probably could.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

You probably could, and I know which guy on YouTube to follow to do it.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

So there you go. Dynamic duo, you and I. Dynamic. I think the other thing, I mean, as you guys were just talking, like I just mentioned how there was no other choice but to do it.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

And I think a lot of times I'm the kind of person that is like, okay, well, let's rework it. Like, let's change things up. I'm always like, my brain is naturally wanting to make a new plan or figure out like, but with all of this, my brain was like at a brick wall. Like, yeah, no, because if you don't get all the Christmas done, then Cami's not gonna have it, and then the whole web team is not gonna have it, and then our members are not gonna have it, and all and then they're not gonna be able to order the right containers on time, and like just the way that your brain can snowball, yeah, right. And then it's like, no, there is absolutely no choice but to do it right now, right? As much as we don't have the capacity or time, we have to.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

We have to. I keep thinking of that book going on a bear hunt. Can't go around it, you can't go under it. Yeah, guess we gotta go over it. Like you, we don't have a choice, there's no way to go any other way. We had to get it done. Also, it reminds me of um one of our Flower Click members. She is wonderful, Maureen. She is in a small town in Canada and she doesn't have that many employees. But at one of our shop talks, she was telling us about like the weekend prior. This our shop talks are on a Tuesday, and she had spent the entire weekend because her other designer was sick, and they had like four funerals, and she like slept at the shop. She did everything because it had to get done to be out on that Monday. She's like, I had no choice. You have these obstacles, right? We have employees that don't show up, or we have employees that get sick, or for whatever reason. I know there's been times that she's been snowed in, right? And no other employee can get there. Work still has to be done. Funerals are still happening. Uh and and I thought of her a few times this week, and I know she's not alone, she's just an example of florists who just have to get stuff done.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

That's right. Have to get through it, have to get through it.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Through it, and we did, and there were times we giggled and we laughed, especially once we were heading towards Omaha, because we were like, I cannot believe the crazy. But the other part is we had each other, you know, there's no way I would want to go through that by myself or with people that I don't like or get along with. You also see how each person steps up to do whatever they each have a different gift, and I think that's another really cool thing to see if we want to look at what we learn from these things is how do people respond? Not one of us like freaked out and had a meltdown. Mini ones, yeah, many ones. We all I think we all had many ones. Every time, I mean, that's just who we are.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

We all had many ones. Let me ask you, what do you guys do? Is there any because I have two things that I do when you just have to get through it. What gets you through it?

SPEAKER_02 33:19

What gets me through some of those is reminding myself this is my job. The people, you and Vonda, when we've been in these things before, you all have never let me down. We've never not been able to pivot or fix something or like have to cancel something because one of these obstacles came into play. We always figure out a way to do it. And I know I always know when I'm with the two of you it that's gonna happen. And the other thing I do when in these, you know, me, I laugh a lot, I giggle. Like, this is gonna make the funniest story, and that's how I rationalize the comedy in my brain.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Like, yeah, like it's an episode of Crib Drew Enthusiasm, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

The whole series in our case, exactly, and that's how I'm paying it in my head, going, Oh, I can't wait to retell this story. Oh, I can't wait, because that's how that's how I cope. Yeah, looking at it from a bird's eye, looking at it from this hilarity of how can I make this a really funny story for people. So I don't know, Ellie or Vonda, what about you?

SPEAKER_01 34:34

Mine's just I think attitude and say we can do this, you know, let's just keep the positive attitude and power through. That's what I've always done, I guess. How about you, Ellie? What are your two?

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Okay, so my first one is I have an anchor that I think of to get me through. So, like last time I was basically gone the whole month of August, right? That was one thing after another, and it wasn't nearly this bleak. So I was getting home on a Monday and I knew I wanted to watch the Love Island reunion with Tyler and our spicy vodka pasta. And like the thought of that evening I was thinking about like two weeks prior. And that thought helped me be like, I just gotta get to Monday, I just gotta get there, and it'll be fine. So for this time, I'm still in it, and I'm going to the airport after this podcast to pick Tyler up. He gets to see his dog for the first time in six weeks. We might go grab a coffee somewhere, and that's been my anger the past week.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Well, it's like a little visual active visualization of that moment of like this is temporary, it's all temporary. And I can get through this, I get reward. Um, but then speaking of rewards, the other thing is the L T O T D, which Lori, you are a big fan of the L T-O-T-D. What do you think that stands for?

SPEAKER_02 36:11

Outfit of the day is O T D.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Okay. L T little treat of the day. Oh, little treat of the day.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

And I think there is nothing wrong with giving yourself little treat of the day to get through the day that little things that spark joy for us. It was probably Coke Zero.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

Oh, you don't drink that very often.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

Um, and we decided that last day, okay, this is our last one. We're not drinking.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

And do you know how much I'm craving a Coke Zero right now? And that's that is on creating a habit that we don't want to stick, but has stuck.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Um, I will tell you this morning I had to run to the ATM machine to get money for my cleaning lady, and I passed a an Exxon convenience store, and you don't know how hard it was for me not to pull in and get a Coke Zero to bring back home because damn it, I deserve it.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

That's right. You deserve your little three today.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

But even if it's like extra 10 minutes in the shower in the morning to just let your mind have a minute. So don't be afraid to give yourself the LTO T D.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Well, I I 100% agree. And as you two know, in yesterday's meeting, I starting on the plane ride home. All I was thinking about is spending an hour in my pool. You know, I loved my pool therapy, and I didn't get to do it yesterday. I had all of the hopes in the world. Well, I just had a lot of work things that kept coming at me that needed to be done. Not anyone's fault. It's my job, but you guys know me. I could have put it on hold for an hour, but that never sits well with me. I can't be in a pool and relax knowing there's some tasks I could do quickly. I'm waiting on one more approval, but I finished everything by yesterday evening. I got uh the 90% of it sent out this morning. I'm waiting to get a response from one of our members about something I'm working on with her that I know she's gonna go. Yes, looks great. And then I'm going to my pool. Yay! Good. I need to sit in my pool, just you know, that's your anchor. That's my that's my reward getting in and running around in my pool by myself like a little idiot. But I love it.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

It makes me it makes me happy.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Well, everybody take their anchor and enjoy the week, you know. And we're happy. We're not we're not mad about it all because it does make a great story. Yeah, it makes a great story, it makes us laugh. It makes us laugh.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

It makes us realize we can do, especially with photo shoots where everything is really planned and it's crammed in.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Um you know what? That's a good point, Ellie. The bottom line is we can do more than we think we can, than we give ourselves credit for. I think every flower shop owner needs to know that about themselves. 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 39:52

So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.