From SAF to Sympathy Sales: Lessons, Laughter, and Lasting Tributes

Episode 295: In this episode Vonda and Lori share their takeaways from the SAF Convention—highlighting programs, conversations, and connections that sparked inspiration. From co-presenting alongside industry leader Tim Farrell AIFD, PFCI, AAF, CFD on growing sympathy profits with intention, to navigating questions about grief, empathy, and how to confidently guide families in honoring loved ones, this episode blends heartfelt reflection with practical business strategies. Plus, hear stories from behind the scenes, reminders about the proven emotional power of flowers, and why sharing that message boldly matters more than ever.

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

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

She's constantly trying to find what are perks that are gonna work for our business that aren't going to cost millions and millions of dollars, blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

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

SPEAKER_01 0:19

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

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Were you able to catch up on a little bit of sleep this weekend, Lori? I did.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

I got in Thursday evening from SAF. Had flight issues, but whatever. And then got up Friday, normal work day. Saturday, Vonda Sue Lefever. I will have you know I looked at the clock and opened my eyes. 844. Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Never happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Wow. 8:44 a.m. It might as well have been noon. I felt like I could not believe it. Bo and I were still asleep. I got up and I went into the other room, and Mark was sitting there and he goes, Are you sick? No, I was exhausted. It's the whole time change, and just you know, and and the on Friday, like I made myself get up normal time, and we worked all day and just had a normal day because I was like, I gotta get through today. I have to get my notes, I gotta do email, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

So how about you? Yeah, this weekend was just a crazy weekend because I was trying to get all the things on my checklist done. You know, I'm a checklist person, had a lot to get done because I've been gone for so long. Well, it wasn't so long, I guess. You know, it was five days.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Right. But you had had company, you had had a whole lot of things leading up to SAF.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

And I'm still doing wedding prep things, so just have that checklist of this is the weekend I have to do these things. And yeah, plus catching up at home. So yeah, it was a good weekend. There was one morning I didn't work out, so I was a little bit like, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah. So speaking of wedding stuff, one moment when we were waiting for our Uber Thursday morning, Ellie and I, it was about 6:30 in the morning, and Erin from McNamara, of course, came out, and you know, she is due to have a baby in a couple of months, and she is just the most beautiful baby mama you ever see. She just glows. Anyway, she came out and was saying goodbye, and she and Ellie were talking, and I was looking at them, and I was like, I need a picture of the two of you. And I took a picture, and then I just got so teary-eyed because I said to them, the next time you see each other, you're gonna be completely different people. You're gonna be a mama and you're gonna be a wife. Like you're like, and and like we all had this moment of oh my gosh, like, wow, wow, it's crazy. And so I was like, I need more pictures now, turn to the side, dude. Take more because I was like, it's crazy how fast life goes.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

It does, it's just a blink, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

You know, and and seeing our flower friends as infrequently as we do, it feels frequent. And I don't know if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Well, this summer it has been frequent for us. We've been on a run. We've been on a marriage. We've been on the run. Uh-huh. So we have been very fortunate to see our flower friends a lot this summer, but then we'll go through a dry spell that we won't see him again until really 2026. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Well, you saw him at AI of D. I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Oh, that's right. You didn't see it. So that was the FOMO time you were at.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Right. That was the FOMO time, even though I was in Scotland. But that is the one thing about going to things like this. I get tickled because I think about when I got in Sunday night, I was exhausted, and you met me down in the lobby because you were waiting for our DoorDash food. Because you texted and you were like, Do you want to go out? I was like, no. But it took at least 30 minutes to get to the room. Everybody, Lori, Lori, Lori. I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. It's like a family reunion. It is. It is. Well, they are. They're absolutely family. And it is just like every amount of stress or flight stress, angst just kind of melts away, or it did for me when I saw everybody. I was like, oh, these are my people. Here's my people, you know, and and I'm like hugging all of the little, I say little next genners because they're young and they're all walking through. And then I turn and I see Marlin just standing there. He goes, I'm waiting my turn. Oh. It just made my heart so happy. And it's like, this is why we're here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Absolutely. That's why we're here. So that's why we thought we would do a little recap of what you learned at SAF and what I learned because it's always so different. We're at the same conference, but it's so different what you and I take away. So you know that the people who are attending have the same type of thing. It's like everyone has an individual experience when they're there, which I think is pretty cool. I mean, it's whether you're going to AIFD or you're coming to SIF, it's the same type of thing. But I think this one we can truly see. Okay, Lori got this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Very fun. Yeah. Yeah. I think you, Ellie, and I had completely different experiences. 100% being part of the new retail council and also on next gen, like she was in a lot of meetings. Yeah. Which, you know, we know how much she loves meetings, which is funny because now she's in meetings all the time. So she was doing meetings a lot. And then you were a presenter, and not just like teaching a business class. You and Tim were designing. So you were in the workroom a lot. And so me, my job was members or potential members, like connection, right? And learning. And learning to see what you could take away. Try to make help our members share with our members. So we all uh had these different jobs. It's not like we discussed it, but it was kind of just a divide and conquer. I was talking with Cammy earlier this morning, just doing a check-in, and I was telling her kind of about the week, and she goes, Did you and Vonda and Ellie ever do anything together? And I'm like, Well, one night Vonda and I went to Shake Shack ice cream and French fries because we weren't really hungry. And she was like, I remember when I went, we were together more. And I'm like, Yeah, we we really weren't, we didn't have time.

SPEAKER_02 7:34

No, I can't think of one event because not even the final night.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Well, no, no, you because you and I ended up leaving but we anyway, anyway, yeah, it just is what it is. So for me, I went to classes every day. I went to sessions. You know, I love, love, love the sessions, and I think SAF did a great job of balancing like panels with presenters this year, their experience zones. I I actually ran into you and Tim at one of the experience zones was that Brent Leach was Brent.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

It was Brent was wonderful. I think they just did a great job with the experience zones. What I liked, there were pros and cons to the location of the experience zone from the feedback I got from people. I loved it because it wasn't as noisy, so you could actually hear. But then the con was people kept asking me, where is it?

SPEAKER_02 8:37

True, because it was kind of around the corner there. Yeah. And there really wasn't any signage.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Uh-uh. Right. So I think if they have it back at that hotel again or they have something like that, I would just probably either have somebody with a big fluorescent yellow vest going, it's over this way. Yeah. Or something. Because if you didn't know where it was, it's kind of out of sight, out of mind.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

But the location was great because you could hear and there was no background noise. It was so good. The last time they had it there because we did the experiment on it was so loud. Nobody could hear what you had to say.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

So absolutely location good, but you're right. Hard to find. Yeah, that was the only thing, maybe put a big sign up, but I think they were great. The every session that I went to, I went to Angelique Witcher from Accent Decors. Hers on branding was so good. I was honored to be able to introduce her as the presenter. I think she did a great job. Hers was called Is Your Brand Helping You Grow? I took a ton of notes. I took a lot of screenshots. I know SAF is going to be uploading all of the slides to all of the presenters' things. Some of the things that she said as business owners, and you and I have talked about this before too. It's the importance of being adaptable and not being reactive. You know, we talk about being proactive, not reactive. And she says, be adaptable. Staying true to your brand doesn't always mean that you have to just stand still. Like, nope, this is my brand. I'm not deviating from this. This is who we are. You have to be monitoring your customers at all times. Like, are they evolving? Are they changing? What are their likes, their dislikes? If your customer changes, you can change too and still align that with your brand.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

So she kind of gave three R's revisit, realign, and refine. And I really liked those. And she was like, you know, every quarter, revisit, realign, and refine. I took a lot of takeaways from there, but those were really good things that that I thought that she did. And there was a lot of good feedback. She ended up her session, she got had some really great talking points. And we did quite a bit of QA. Well, that's good. Yeah, yeah. It it kind of showed you that there's a lot of flower shops out there that have questions about branding. Because it's not always talked about. You typically just hire a company to help you with your brand, but you're not really taught.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Well, and it's hard to pay for someone for the branding. So you're trying to stay consistent, and what most shops probably do is just nothing. It's easier just to go, I you know what? If I'm supposed to be staying consistent, or they just like, I gotta get out there, I gotta do something. So it's a tough thing. Yeah. Right. What about you? Well, what about me? I didn't go to any sessions, as you know. I would go in, get some breakfast, then I would go back into the design room. But let me take something else away from that. Because when I was walking through the building at any point, because from the elevator, it was a little bit of a trek, not bad. I would notice how much networking was going on. I mean, not just you and I seeing our friends and all that, but my gosh, Laura, you would look down into that little setting area and there were little pockets of two or three people together. There were there were interviews going on, there were recaps of who knows what, but there were things happening, and you would see people shift from one table to another. Yeah. Mini meetings all over. All the time. We know networking is the key to growth, but you have to go into those situations with an open mind. Like, you never know who am I going to meet up with, you know. And then listen to understand what they're saying. Whether you're in one of the sessions like you were in, listen to understand, not combat what you're like, oh, that's never gonna work. Right. Or you know, something just understand because networking and listening opens new opportunities. Yeah. You could tell there were a lot of things happening there, opportunities going on. And actually, I saw somebody post just this morning that says, Oh, I'm so excited. Now I can share the news that I'm now with such and such a company. And I'm like, that happened at S. That happened. Yeah. That happened.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And well, that's how you meet people to learn about the other companies, to get your foot in the door, all of those things.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Well, and I think companies that were represented there, whether they be farms or companies, they probably have been following people that they knew were going to be there on social. Maybe they'd put job applications out. We don't know. When those things happen, you're just like, hmm, this this is why SAF intentionally has two-hour blocks of free time because they know this is all happening. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Well, I mean, think about the little mini meetings that you and I would have down in those lobbies over by the scary snakes. Yes, by the sm, by the snakes. But I mean, that's where those things happen. And just meeting new people. I do want to say one thing. I want to give a shout out to one of our members, Emily, from McCandless. Yes. So she and her boyfriend came, and it's her very first time, and she this is her first year as a business owner. She's worked at McCandless for three, four years, but this was her first time. And so I kind of kept checking tabs with her, how you doing? But she was you know very independent, very on her own. But I asked her at the end, and I know a couple of our members asked her, like, how do you feel? How was it? And she was just like incredible. This was incredible. Like she's never been to anything like this. And it just made me so happy because she was literally like a sponge, and her boyfriend also he was just they were just absorbing every session they could.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

She said to me, I only know one way to do anything, and that was the way I was taught. Yeah. But she said, Here my eyes have been opened to different ways to do something. And she said it's really interesting. Her boyfriend, he's like, I know I'm gonna be brought into this business. Yeah. So I want to learn things, and he's in landscape, so he's the same type of thing. Anyway, so it was, it was just great to see them. And I love that they have kind of first-time attendee or whatever it is on their badge, much like they did at AI. So you can check in with all these people, you're like, Oh my gosh, how is this experience?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, she cracked me up because we didn't even really talk about it, and we kept finding ourselves in the same session. We kind of have things alike, yeah, yeah. So, what about you? I don't give me another well, another session. I think you sat in for like a few minutes, and then I think Tim called you back. But what Talmadge's you're right.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

I did stay for a whole yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

We don't like to miss that one.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

I'm a Talmadge fan. He has so much knowledge and personality and humor, and he brings it all. He brings it all. That was so good.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

And that is all about the flower trends forecast. And so we always look forward to, I think everybody looks forward to this one every year. Just I just love the color palettes that he does, and of course, you know, the stories behind it all. I got super excited when he was throwing up Ralph Lauren stuff because you know I'm obsessed with Ralph Lauren and then Beyonce. And I was like, oh my god, Ellie looked, you just went to Beyonce. But it was it's just fun. And even though neither of those things have anything to do with flowers, what I love is that's how I'm remembering the palettes.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Of the things he posted, and and it's fun, it's a it's an entertaining main stage presentation. And the session after his, which I didn't get to go to because I went to the the panel that Monty from Watanabe, our member, and Sam Bowles was on, but a a session that took his main stage and kind of took it down for okay, how do we take these trends for the everyday floors? I would have loved to have been able to be a fly on the wall for that one too, but I can't be in two places at once. No.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

And you would have liked to have been in three places at once, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

You know, that is my biggest problem. Yeah, is you can't see it all. There was a time when SAF would have like two at a time and then do repeats, and they didn't do it that this year. They only had one class that they did a repeat on. And I it was about transferring value of your class, maybe being able to pass your class on, and that's not a class I went to. Nothing wrong with that class, but that one I saw that was on repeat. I wish you and Tim could have repeated your session because there's a so many people that came up to me and were frustrated because yours was up against the AI one and they were inflicted and they didn't have another team member there where they could divide and conquer.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think they did not do the repeat because this was one day shorter. This was of course, no, you're right.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Not a slam to them. I'm just saying if I had my perfect scenario, right? It just is what it is. There's honestly just not enough time during the day, yeah, during the week to do it all. But it was it was great. The other one that I went to, well, two other ones. One, Kevin McCarthy from Family Flowers and Idea Exchange turned economic insights into action, and I only got to sit in there for about half hour and then I had to go because I had to go deal with something. That's okay. But I'm waiting for the slides and the presentation from them because it was really good. I want to give a shout out to Kevin. I don't even know if he ever listens to our podcast, but he's a really good speaker. He started the whole thing with a slide, and it just said kangaroos cannot jump backwards. And so if you didn't remember anything else you know that a kangaroo he said if you leave this room not remembering anything, you will remember that. And I was like, he's a really good speaker. So anyway, that kind of thing my attention. Yeah, but I was very bummed because he also in the back of the room, he had, you know, my favorite book, Unreasonable Hospitality. Yep. He was giving those away, and I didn't get one, so I was kind of bummed. But it looks like it would have been a really good one. The other one I went to that was really good is another Family Flowers, their HR person. I believe her name was Denise. And it was kind of a round table, also. It was called Perks That Work. And this is one I think I told you so much about. Yeah. And she also, bless her heart, was up against another AI class, which you just can't beat AI people. AI wins every time. Yeah, which exactly. Anyway, it was really good because they have 40 some odd locations, and she's kind of in charge of the happiness of all of them. And so she's constantly trying to find what are perks that are gonna work for our business that aren't going to cost millions and millions of dollars, blah, blah, blah. And so it was interesting. And she talked about the things that matter the most and how to identify new perks and how do you send out surveys to your employees, how to have those conversations with them, and that type of thing. So yeah, and you had some good takeaways, right? I did, I did. A lot of the perks, it doesn't have to be financial. Of course, everybody loves money. She said when she sends out the surveys, she's always like, besides more money. Yes. Like we know that, right? What else? Like, besides more money, and she said the next one, she's gonna go, besides more money and more PTO. Like, those are given. Those are always gonna be the top. If we have like, what are the other ones? But she was like, Why do perks matter? They increase employee satisfaction, right? Right, they promote positive company culture. When you give a perk, even if it's free gummy bears to everybody, like any kind of perk makes your employee feel cared for. Yeah. Yeah. That's the bottom line. It doesn't have to be a big one. And it also reinforces your company values. We care about you. We want you to care about our customer.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

Mm-hmm. Well, like you've talked about many times, it's trickle down, right? You care about them, they care about your customer. Right, right. And then they care about you and you have loyalty because they want to be there. Right. The whole thing. Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Exactly. The types of perks you talked about, health and wellness, financial, of course, lifestyle, meaning flexible schedules. Let's say, you know, I want to be able to leave early every day to pick up my child for work. Okay, well, let's try to work that out. Can you come in earlier? Like flexibility, not time off, but flexibility. There's a difference there.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Oh, yeah, for sure. But again, that's that's a perk. Recognition. As simple and as silly sounding as employee of the month. Things like that. What is the employee of the month? Is it a $20 gift card to Starbucks? Something to be recognized. Something as little as that. And of course, the entire room agreed. Snacks. Snacks. Of course. Always snacks. They're always, always, always. What makes a great perk? Something that is low cost and high impact. Such as snacks. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Something that is easy to start and that can be tracked or repeated for something to snacks.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

I'm going to digress a minute. Have you ever been into somebody's workroom and they have a coffee pot there and they have old coffee, whatever it is? Yeah. And then they have a jar next to it that the employees are supposed to put in their money for their coffee. Ridiculous. And I'm like, seriously. Yeah. Ridiculous. So when you're saying snacks and all that, get rid of the cost that it costs for your coffee. You should be able to absorb the coffee.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

The cost for your coffee.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Okay, I've got to check that out. Sorry, Lori. That is a low cost, high impact. Yes, right. Right. And buy Starbucks coffee or some really good buy a good coffee. Yeah. And then buy good flavored creams. How let everybody have a little say, what's your favorite flavor? That would be high impact.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Yes. Oh, totally. Yes. Totally. Because also me as an employee walking in knowing she got my favorite creamer. Yeah. Yeah. It's honestly when we do photo shoots and I show up and Ellie has ordered my favorite snacks or my Trader Joe's, whatever. Even though it was $3.79, I am good for the week. Exactly. Because I know she remembered. Yep. It's those little things. So it was really interesting. And it was so good again to be in a room with like-minded flower shop owners that have those same vulnerable questions. What can I want to do more for my team? I can't do a 401k. I can't do higher salaries. I can't, but other people, but here's what you can do.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I felt really good. And I'm excited to talk more in depth about it tomorrow in Shop Talk for our members. I've got a lot of notes to go into that we don't have time to go into today on the pod.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Well, the other thing that I observed as I was in the design room with Mr. Tim Farrell, yes, which was a joy in itself. And your intro was just the best. That was just the best. That was so fun.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Intros.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Watching his design techniques, the way he was doing things, obviously, we always watch others in the design room, but from his foam setup to the way he was really anchoring those tropical flowers, because I'm not a big tropical flower designer. Yeah. And he is, and he is a master at it. So to be able to observe the way he was putting all of his ginger and anthurium and hanging heliconia in, and then the delicate insertions of his symbidium orchids and how he did those so that they were trailing, all of those things I was just kind of observing. And so you always learn, right, when you're in the flower room with somebody else that's a great designer, but really proper mechanics is what it was about.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

I was gonna ask you, and ask you and Tim, I was thinking if I ever have the two of you on, I was gonna ask you this. Do you at your level still learn new things from another?

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Absolutely. You continue to learn new things. The other thing I observed was the design team that was in that back room. And I know you saw that when you're coming in and out. Corey Harbor was in charge this year. And for him to have his list of everything that was going on, and then recount, and I would sweep up between, I'm like, hey guys, just let me pick up some stuff here. But the volunteers to do that, and man, long hours, Lori, long hours. I know.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

I feel like every time I sat down at a session, I'd get a text from you, hey, can you come back to the workroom real quick? I know that's I didn't want to, I didn't want to learn today. No, I'm just no well, and and let's be honest, that's what happens when you're actually designing for a show. Yes, right. That's like an AID type thing. If it was just a business presentation, that wouldn't have happened. But you and Tim were designing, it's a different that's why SAF doesn't do a lot of designs. I mean, that's a whole thing. But running back and forth to the workroom, you know, I'm running into Marlon and Corey and Doug and Carrie more. And I stopped a couple of times to talk to Carrie in the middle of the week, and she was kind of like, oh, hi. I'm kind of, and I was like, Oh, okay. Well, she wanna talk. She's busy. Yeah, like she's working her rear end off. And so the next to the last day, like when your session was over, and I'm like pushing my cart full of tropicals back and unloading everything. I went over and I was talking to her, and you know, she owns a flower shop in South Dakota, North Dakota. Yeah. And she's a next genner. And I said, Carrie, I've watched you back here this whole week. And all of the next gen kiddos are running around, and I think they're all out of the pool right now because you know, that's what they do. And here you are. That's incredible. Like, do you have FOMO? Yeah, do you and she goes, yes and no, not really. And I go, Do you like you're back here by choice, right? And she said, Yeah. She said, I learn so much when I do this. Absolutely. I said, I cannot tell you. And she said, I have so much I want to learn. She goes, I never regret being back here.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

So true. That's where you learn. Like she's saying, you just learn it all right there. Get thrown into it. But you think about that, they were there for one full week, they paid their way. They're on their feet. Yeah, for sure. And it's hard work and dedication. I've never been on that team, but in many other teams, and there's nothing more satisfying. Yeah, it really is. It's pretty dang cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Yeah. There is a camaraderie. You know, that they have a closeness that you see. Like I went back there and they were all sitting there eating breakfast together. And I'm like, they are the cool bunch. Like they are a cool group.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

They are a really, really cool group. Cool group, man.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

When you say that, it reminds me when you network and you meet those people, and whether it's in the design room or the front room, it reminds me of a message from Herb Mitchell. And I think I've mentioned this before. And it's just like when you go to those events, find the people that you connect with. Don't try to make your way into the cool guys, right? Don't try to like, oh, I want to know this person, I want to know that person. Find the people who you care about and care about you, and that will get you where you need to go. You don't ever try to, oh, I know so and so. Because you know, he's like, you know me, but I don't, I don't really know you. And he said, for you to try to get to know me better, okay, but I'm not gonna be your people, right? I've never forgotten that because you see people who, oh, I want to connect with this person because they're gonna get me somewhere, they're gonna get me somewhere else. Oh, this person's a cool person. I'm gonna go here because I'm gonna meet this person. To me, it's like, no, just be yourself, find one or two others. You don't have to be a tribe, just anyway.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

There's just too many interesting people there. It that's the fun of it. And I think, and I think everybody there was cool. Yeah, oh there's just so many cool people. I think about the morning that you and I were out right outside of Starbucks, and we were talking to uh Jen Barnard and Amy from Natural Farms, and then they got up and we stole their seats and we got to sit there. I'm like, that was the prime location, yeah. So we got there for four hours because everybody walked by, and I'm like, this is the meet and greet of the whole thing. It was perfect, and then Jody McShan was there, and the minute we got up, she's like, Okay, it's mine. I'm taking this place. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah, it was great. Oh, great. So there were a lot of great takeaways. Another uh SAF in the books, and the SAF staff did great.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

I mean, no one works harder than them at these things.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Smiling the whole time and directing traffic and moving things from one place to another, and a video of Laura pushing your casket out of your room, and I gotta send it to her.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

It's the funniest thing. I was like, I want to add music, some sort of like I don't know what kind of music I'm gonna add to it, but I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna send it to her. Yeah, because I think it's the funniest thing. Like, this is below above your pay grade.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Like, I never thought I'd be doing this. Well, the team in the flower room, when the casket came in, they're like, Okay, here comes the casket. Here comes the casket. Oh no, where are we gonna put it? So yeah, it was funny. It was great. It was just a great week overall.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

It was an amazing presentation that you and Tim and I will say I cried three times. The Tracy parked next to me. She was crying. I know Ellie had tears, like everybody was it was moving for sure. It was so, so good. It was just so good. And I I definitely think you all need to take it on the road because I think more people need to see it. Yeah, because I think the one of the cool things about it, because it is number one, I know it's a good presentation when I keep thinking about it. When it keeps coming up, there's parts of it that keep coming up. And number two, it created dialogue afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

It did.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I feel like if time would have permitted, boy, we could have gotten into some deep discussions because of the high emotions. I think there was a bit of vulnerability in the room. You know me, I would have loved to have gone into some questions.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

Yeah, and except that one thing, you had to get here and go to the next one, you know. Right. And that's the unfortunate part, but it just it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

But I was like, ah God, we're missing a piece of this whole puzzle of this presentation that a lot of people struggle with. So, but the God, it was just so, so good.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Well, our next on the road is Douglas, Georgia. Douglas, Georgia. Yes. So if anybody's in the area or flying to Tallahassee, I think.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Tallahassee is the word we're flying into.

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And that's at RW wholesale. It is, and that's on September 13th. It's on a Saturday. So and it'll be in our newsletter that's going out probably today when this goes out. Yeah, sounds good. Well, all right, we'll be ready for that one. But again, great, great recap of this.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Thanks, Lori. 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_02 35:43

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.