How Small Changes Can Create A Better You and Better Business Practices for 2020

#002: Vonda and Lori share some small but effective changes you can make in your everyday routine that can be life-changing- not just for you, but for the business of flowers.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:04

[inaudible] .

Vonda 0:04

Welcome to The Business and Pleasure of Flowers. I'm Vonda LaFever.

Lori 0:08

and I'm Lori Wilson .

Vonda 0:10

We often get wrapped up into the day to day operations of our business and forget the pleasure flowers bring to everyone.

Lori 0:17

including us!

Vonda 0:18

Join us each week as we touch on important subjects that will help lead you to a more successful business.

Lori 0:25

and at the same time remind you that pleasure or just downright fun, needs to be part of your everyday life. So thanks for stopping in today. We're so glad you're here.

Vonda 0:38

Welcome back. Hey Lori.

Lori 0:39

Hey Vonda, how are you?

Vonda 0:41

I am great. Lori.

Lori 0:43

Great, and I guess when you said welcome back, I'm also thinking to those that did not come to our launch, our first podcast. Welcome. If you skipped over that one. Happy late, happy new year. I guess it's January.

Vonda 0:57

Yeah, I guess that would be it. You know, new year's rolled around and all the buzz about new year's resolutions, weight loss, maybe self-improvement. I don't know what you've selected for yourself, Lori .

Lori 1:08

Well, I can tell you I have not selected anything. I am not a fan of new year's resolutions, but I do believe you know that goals are great. In January of every year. I like to sit down and kind of write out some goals, but I was thinking as we were doing this when the last new year's resolution that I had was a few years ago and you were a part of it, you and Ellie LaFever and I decided we were going to do a diet. Do you remember that?

Vonda 1:41

Vaguely.

Lori 1:43

I remember we were in your living room and again, I think since Ellie's not here, we can blame her. It was her idea. She's the one that ordered the book and so did that whole 30.

Vonda 1:52

Oh yes.

Lori 1:52

For 30 days. And I thought, well this can't be hard so I can do anything for 30 days. And I was miserable.

Vonda 2:02

You went home and I know that one thing I couldn't give up on whole 30 was my glass of wine. And so I was like not doing that part, but I did all right for I think 20 days is all I made.

Lori 2:15

Yeah, no, I know you cheated. And Ellie cheated because you guys both liked your wine. I don't, I could give up wine very easily. What I couldn't give up was my fruit.

Vonda 2:24

Yeah, that's right.

Lori 2:26

The other thing that I was frustrated about it, so I made my husband do it. Remember, cause I was like cleaning out the pantry. He lost quite a bit of weight. He lost, I want to say 15 pounds in that 30 days, which is probably not a healthy thing to do. I lost one pound and the next day it came back. So it was not for me, but it teaches you discipline, right? The whole thing. It was, it was about retraining how you eat, removing foods and then slowly bringing them back to see how they affect you. And what I did walk away with, I learned that I did have less headaches during that time. And one of the things I think triggered it, which that's a whole nother podcast, but what I learned about myself is I think it was imitation, sugar, those types of things, or maybe triggering a headache. So that's the last resolution I have had. And you were my accomplice.

Vonda 3:27

I think the important thing is you mentioned is that new year's resolutions are all about discipline.

Lori 3:32

Yeah.

Vonda 3:32

And maybe that's why people usually fall off of anything they're doing is because we can only do it for so long.

Lori 3:41

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think like what we're going to be talking about today, things you can put in place to be better at your job as a business owner. You know, just like you were saying, you cheated a little bit and Ellie cheated a little bit. I cheated cause I love my bananas. And it was saying you can't have 'em but I, I realize it's a , you've got to give yourself little rewards. You got to give yourself little pats on the back. If we live in this constant state of always having to be by this book, it's, it was frustrating and you tend to rebel against it. Right?

Vonda 4:18

Right, right. So let's move on to what we can do to make a few changes in our life that will make a difference in not just ourselves, but in our business. I know you've done a little research on this as you usually do to come up with some really great ideas that we're going to discuss today.

Lori 4:36

Okay, so the first one I was looking at is organization. I think that's a big theme for every January. I mean, if you look at even the target ads right now, everything that's on sale are containers or files or you know, things to keep you organized. But I think more than anything, it's important to get organized now because for a flower shop, because why? What's coming?

Vonda 5:02

Yeah, with Valentine's day, and I , I know I've talked to several shop owners who were really getting ready in December, but if you're not already have your flowers ordered and containers in line, this is the time to be as organized as possible because we know that if you get organized for the Valentine's day holiday, it makes it so much easier. So it's a pay off for yourself in that.

Lori 5:26

Right. I do have a question and I don't know this hope I don't throw you off as far as getting yourself organized. I know so many flower shops need seasonal help. When do you start looking for that seasoned employees? Would you start now or?

Vonda 5:44

Seasonal employees? You do not want to hire them in January because you don't have enough cashflow to take care of somebody who you're hiring in January. So usually you know, you just need to get through the processing flowers in the organization. Usually not. You don't really need them until the first part of February.

Lori 6:01

Okay. Okay. Very good, very good. I've always wondered that from my perspective from a business owner, yours is very specific for Valentine's day, how to get yourself organized. But other things I was looking at are kind of time management organizations. These are things that I've had to implement for myself. Picking and choosing when you're going to check your email, when you're going to check your phone, when you're going to even get on your computer, you know, organizing those times. And what helps me is my Google online calendar. You can get a free online calendar and block it off. Do blocking like I'm going to work on this schedule from eight to 10 tomorrow and highlight the color. You know how we love colors, they're all different colors on there. For me, that's a great tool to get my brain around because I'm very visual, so if I can look at my calendar as a week at a time or you could do a month two , you can start blocking off when you're going to do what and it's just a little, again, it's free. Everyone can get, if you have a Gmail account, you can have your own calendar. That's my little tip to help you get organized.

Vonda 7:11

I think that's a great tip. The biggest challenges as a shop owner or a business owner, it's like, Oh gosh, I have from eight to 10 set up cause I'm going to do this. Well then a customer comes in. Then here comes somebody who wants to talk to you about a funeral or, and then that goes out the window. Make sure which, is beautiful about your Google calendar is you can take that and drag it down to another time frame and say, okay, didn't do it from eight to 10 but now I can do it from two to four. Just make sure that you readjust and get everything done so it's all about organization. Great tip Lori.

Lori 7:45

Right and you and I both, because I see your calendar, you see mine and Kammi does it too. There are so many things. We make ourselves notes on our calendar and you just move it over the next day, move it over the next day move it over the next day, but you still see it if you can't get it to that day.

Vonda 8:01

You know what that leads right into your next one is a far as accountability. What you just mentioned was I can see what you're doing. You can see what I'm doing. We can see Kammi, we can see everyone's schedule and we are making each other accountable as well.

Lori 8:18

Yeah, no, I think it's important. I'm sure it's easier for us since we are sitting at desks. I know a flower shop owner, they're not all sitting at the desk, but if you do have access to or everyone's schedule on that calendar, that is just such a good visual and it avoids repetition. It avoids confusion. It avoids all of those kinds of things knowing someone, so and so span at this time. Well double check if everybody has access to the calendar. So that is the next one. Being mindful of accountability leading by example. You need as a business owner, make sure you have someone on staff or maybe, maybe it's not someone on staff, maybe it's a business mentor, maybe it's Vonda LaFever. I don't know. I don't know. But somebody can have to be sort of an accountability that even if it's a text, Hey, did you get that done today? You said you wanted to work on this. I'm just challenging you. Example, not a business, but my oldest child is having to do, I don't even quite understand it. Something about moving some like a 401k stuff around. And he has until December 31st well this 25 year old boy is, it's now, you know. So I was texting him on those last two days of December. I'm like, I just remember dad said you needed to do this. I don't know what you do, but please do it, you know, let , and he's like, okay mom, have somebody in your corner that can remind you when you're super forgetful during your busy season and the next one. And so I , I'm going to say this, but then I might change up the word form a bond with your employees or if you're an employee form a bond with your boss. With that said, I am not saying you need to go out with them every night. They need to be over at your house. You need to have summer parties, make them feel like you're approachable. Years ago, year, I mean, probably 15 years ago, I was reading a book written by , Colin Powell and it was about leadership, believe it or not. And he was saying every good leader, every good boss should have an open door approach like him , his office, he always has the door open but like a little bit, unless you know he's in a private meeting, but if not, it's open. He wants his employees to always feel like they can come in if they have a concern or want to share a new idea. At the end of the day he might not do that idea, but he appreciates it and he knows that the people around him feel that they can come in and share with him. Yet they have a lot of respect. They don't think he's a pushover.

Vonda 11:08

No. I think that's great because it does make both parties feel respected. I respect anybody's ideas that are coming to me and they're respecting me and my time. I think it goes both ways. I think it's great.

Lori 11:23

Right? Well it goes back up to, you know, prevent from being miscommunication, being able to be very clear with your expectations. You have always talked about, usually when employees quit it's because they or get in trouble or you know, you have problem. It's , they didn't know exactly what was expected of them.

Vonda 11:45

Everyone needs to know their expectations. You never succeed if you don't know your expectations.

Lori 11:53

Right, exactly. So that is a very good one. The next one Vonda this one I know it's hard for so many business owners because their minds don't shut down and that is: get enough sleep. We have been taught this since we were small children, you know, you have to have your rest, you have to go to bed, and now it still holds true because you, cannot function staying awake 20 hours a day and people are like, Oh, I only need four hours sleep. I don't know. I watched a 60 minutes on that once and they're like, there's very few people that only need two hours of sleep, four hours of sleep, and those people are like enigmas like there's a , there's a problem, there's something medical.

Vonda 12:45

Right, right. I know that I require at least eight hours of sleep. I mean, I can operate on six, but I go a hundred mile an hour for most of the day but when I sit down and shut down. Then I usually can go right to sleep. My mind, I don't know. I guess I'm very blessed with that, that my mind most of the times will shut down until about three in the morning. Sometimes it'll start operating. I'm like, no, no stop.

Lori 13:16

Right, right. No, I'm the same way. You and I, when we've done things together, when we've traveled together, we do have a very much very similar schedules. I like to go to bed early or even wind down and read a book. I'm very old school that way. I love to sit in my bed and read like a handheld book and then I like to get up early. A couple of things that have helped me. If you have an iPhone, there is a, you know when you go under to set an alarm on your iPhone, you can do it under this bedtime app. Within there. It will analyze your sleep like when you're beginning and I mean you have to do it for a couple months before it gets you and then it will tell you, Lori, you need seven and a half hours of sleep. You need to go to bed here if you're going to get up here. So if I set my alarm for 6:00 AM, it's going to tell me exactly when I need to be in my bed and then it will give you a little bit of downtime and then we'll say, okay, lights out. So I'm like , it's a nice little app. Again, if you're trying to help regulate yourself, it's important because when you don't get enough sleep, you're foggy and you make more mistakes and , we don't, we don't need to do that.

Vonda 14:28

Right. And a lot of people use noisemakers because sometimes when you're listening to a noise, then it makes you, so you're not concentrating on something else. Try to find what works for you.

Lori 14:39

Yeah. Yeah. There's nice noise machines out there. There's also free noise apps that I know you and I both have on our phone for when for when we travel, the next one that goes right along with getting enough sleep is getting enough physical activity. Notice physical activity does not necessarily mean full on cardio exercise. We're just seeing you've got to move around, you've got to move around. Your body has to have a reason to be tired, right? So if you're not doing anything all day, it is going to be hard to go to sleep. Your brain's tired, but your body's like, Hey, let's maybe you walk around the block. Yeah, absolutely. And floral designers don't usually have this problem because they're standing and they're moving, they're going back and forth to the cooler. So there's a lot of activity happening there. And we even talk at holiday times about, you know, what, drop your knife five times in a row because then you're going to be doing your, little things like that. Find something that is making you move more than you would normally cause it's good for your mind as well as for your body. Right? Right. So for me, I wear an Apple watch. I like that it will buzz me and remind me if I've been stationary too long and so I'll walk around. It just helps me be self-aware. Every morning it has me do breathing exercises and then you can schedule it again to do them in the afternoon or when it feels like you need to. So even walking around your shop breathing, just getting your lungs working, you know all of these little things or a Fitbit. My mother-in-law uses a Fitbit and they're not that expensive, and they do basically, well, I mean not as much as an Apple watch, but they're , they're helpful too . It's increasing that awareness. The other thing I was thinking, keep a yoga mat at work and keep it behind the counter to tell anybody anytime you want to go stretch, go. It does wonders for your body. I think it would be awesome. You don't think that would work?

Vonda 16:45

I think that would be pretty hilarious. If I'm down on the floor on my yoga mat and the customer comes in.

Lori 16:51

No behind, and then use it as a marketing tool and post a picture of it on your Facebook page.

Vonda 16:57

There you go. Okay. All right Lori.

Lori 17:00

Killing two birds with one stone, but have all of these because you also have to be taking care of your employees, right? Making sure they're doing it. If someone's back hurts, go, go take the yoga mat and do some stretches. All right. The last one that we're going to have time to do today is practicing your problem solving skills. What do you think about that? Vonda.

Vonda 17:27

Yeah, that one is always interesting, and as a shop owner we constantly have to use our problem solving skills, whether it be scheduling, you look in the cooler and you don't have the flowers that are in that recipe. I mean little things sometimes that their problems. I always used to say they're not a problem, It's a situation and situations you can just quickly look at it in a different way and have a solution. So when we're looking at little problems and practicing those skills from substitutions to scheduling, I'm trying to think of some others that might play into that.

Lori 18:11

Right. You know, I'm kind of going through this leadership training program and I've learned so much and one of the courses was talking about identifying leaders among your employees, the natural leader who you would want and they talk about their problem solving skills. The instructor was saying, when you have a person come in, an employee, if you're in your office and come in and like knock, knock, we're having a problem. The, I don't want to say the cooler's broken, that would be a really big one. But if you have a customer that is in there and they said they ordered something and it wasn't what they thought it was, they said instead of you, the business owner saying, okay, well ask them this, do this, this, this, take a second. This is again, if you're intuitive enough, go, this might be a really good leader. Something this employee say, do you have any suggestions or you know, how do you think we should solve this? What do you think we should do? And watch them. They'll do one of two things. They'll either go, Oh well I was thinking we should do this. And listen and they already have it thought out how they would solve it. Those are your, those are going to be your next managers.

Vonda 19:31

And there are those that will just say, I don't know. That's why I came to you.

Lori 19:36

Exactly. And then he said, you'll quickly notice the ones that are like, I don't know. Those are the ones that come in 10 times a day with a problem, whether it big little and then they just start doing it because they like to find problems. Those are the people you want need to filter through. But if you take a minute and ask them, gosh, okay, that sounds good. Do you have any ideas? What do you think we should do? Just like that. Just and see what happens. You're going to be able to figure out in five minutes if this person has a potential to be in the next role you're meeting or not. I'm not saying you need to fire them, I'm just saying you can kind of start crossing people off your list. So isn't that interesting?

Vonda 20:20

So this one is more for the problem solving skills of employees. Because I do think that most of the business owners that we have listening to us probably have really good problem solving skills because it's something that we have to do on an everyday basis. But it's like coaching, like you were saying, coaching or helping an employee learn what it is they can do to make those decisions and not come into your office 10 times a day.

Lori 20:49

Right. So I was on a call earlier today with a shop owner and she is, her manager left. Not in a bad way, just moved. And so she's concerned because she doesn't have a very high turnover rate and she's got great employees, but she said, you know, I don't think any of them can fill that role. I just don't feel. And so this is one of the things we talked about. I said, have you, have you thought about, have you done it ? She's like, no, cause she's kind of, this solves all the problems as they go and she's not giving them the opportunity. I'm like, just try it. Just try it. You know, we actually applied this to a real shop, so I'll keep you posted.

Vonda 21:30

I think what's really difficult here, Lori , is that a lot of managers don't want to relinquish that control.

Lori 21:38

Yeah I agree. Yeah. Right. And it's a pretty deep issue, I think internally in the person because it's not based on, I want glory where a lot of people want it . It's fear of this is my company. If I don't, if it doesn't get done right, then I can lose what? Fill in the blank. What's really out of fear. So maybe start with the little problems. Like I said, if your cooler has completely crashed, then clearly you're not going to go, 'interesting what do you think we should do?' And it's the day before Valentine's day, right? But if it's, you know, I have someone on the phone, they said they ordered a dozen roses and they got eight, you know. Okay, well what do you think? Those types of situations.

Vonda 22:31

Sure, sure. Anyway, all right. So I think we've given them a lot to think about.

Lori 22:37

Yes, yes. We've gotta keep to our half hour podcast. Because, that's one of our goals actually, you know, in our new 2020 is to adhere to that. Vonda I do have to end by asking you the question, what is giving you life right now, besides, air and lung. What is, what are you loving right now?

Vonda 23:00

Well, that's really interesting, Lori . I got a book for Christmas that is really giving me life because it's called The Paradox of Choice and coming off the holiday and really coming into the new year, it really makes a lot of sense. This has been something I've read about, but I've never read the book. It's by Barry Schwartz and it's all about, we have too many choices. We have so many choices that many times we are actually paralyzed in making a decision. And if we make a decision, we're not confident in that decision. We're like, Oh, maybe I should've picked something else because I like this. But maybe the other one I would have liked better. Yeah. So that's my, I'm loving that. I'm , that's what's giving me life right now.

Lori 23:49

Wow. Well, you know, I'm obsessed with books.

Vonda 23:52

You are. So what is giving you life ?

Lori 23:55

Well, it's funny because I have a book too. I, I have a bit of a reading problem. I probably have four books that I am actively reading right now. I can't just read one and go to the next. I keep thinking, but the one I'm reading is called Everything is Figureoutable. I know I've talked about it before and I do really love it. And I remember when I first told you, do you remember you and Ellie? And we couldn't remember the name of it and we kept saying everything is figurative, everything is faction factual or every time we change the name. But this is called Everything is Figureoutable and it's by Marie Burleo I think is her name. And it's just a really good, if you were wanting, she basically started her own business too. And she talks about, the reason it's called that is her mom could do anything. Her mom could redo a radio, she could read, she could cut off limbs on the top of the tree. She just did everything. And when she was a little girl, she was amazed by that. And that's what inspired her to be this amazing business woman now because her mom would say, Marie , everything is figureoutable. And so it's just about how to solve problems.

Vonda 25:12

Well there we go. Look at that, I love it.

Lori 25:16

I know. I'm excited. So these are both , I'll read yours and you can read mine and one of our goals to have on our website sometime, right with our Business and Pleasure of Flowers is to have a little link to our favorite books or, books that inspired us , in a little blurb because I think even in today's age of being able to do audio books, you know, just turn on your phone and you can listen to it while you're designing or whether you're doing stuff. I think that's always, always something fun to do.

Vonda 25:47

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Lori, this is a wrap today. We hope you choose one of these things to work on this week. Just one, because if you try too many at one time, it's not going to work. So which one of these do you, our listeners feel is going to make the most difference in your life or business this year?

Lori 26:07

Right? So we have more of these strategies, but since we've run out of time, we are going to have a continuation of this podcast. So part two will be next week and we're going to continue with just some simple little pivots that you can make in your life to have a better, more productive year. And we have enjoyed having time with you guys today. We are always so appreciative. If you enjoyed the podcast, come on back and click the subscribe button for us. When you get off of here, write a review. We would be so, so grateful. And along those lines, if you have any topics of discussion that you would like us to research or talk about, shoot me an email, Lori@flowerclique.com. You can send it to Vonda@flowerclique.com. We would just love to hear from you.

Vonda 27:00

So we hope you 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 life and business.

Speaker 1 27:17

[inaudible] .