The Business & Pleasure of Flowers

Abby Chick from Blakemore's Flowers: Leading a Successful Team: Cliquer Spotlight!

• Episode 84

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Episode 085: In this Cliquer Spotlight Vonda and Lori chat with Abby Chick, owner of Blakemore's Flowers in Harrisonburg, VA. She shares her secrets on leading and building a  successful team, which has reaped the benefits of a very successful business. We're sure you can relate to some of what she does and gain a few tips on how to strengthen your team.
Enrollment closes soon for  Flower Prep School ...check it out today!

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SPEAKER_03

These things have made me a better leader for me to help my staff work better with each other to help cross-train each other. So everybody's on this like even brain field.

SPEAKER_00

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

SPEAKER_01

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Wonda. Abby from Blake Moores. Hello. How are you?

SPEAKER_03

Excellent. The business and pleasure.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. I don't know which one you are more of. You are very business-minded, but you are quite a pleasure to have a conversation with. I'm more pleasure. I think you are. Um, we brought you on because you were one of our very first clickers. I can remember exactly where I was walking in my house when you called and that first conversation. I'm pretty sure, in some weird way, I'm sure I cried and I think you cried. I don't know why. I think it was just one of those emotional things. But we've been wanting to have you on here for a long time, even before we talked about having our clicker spotlight, because Vonda saw very, very early on the business side of you. I saw the pleasure, I want to say, but she saw the business design, the way you run your shot, all of the stuff, right? And so you have a lot of experience and a lot of great advice, especially for people that might be listening that are fairly new to the industry. So I want to I want us to get started with that, Vonda.

SPEAKER_00

So let's start, Abby, with you telling us how you started in the flower business in the first place. I always think that's a fascinating story.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So party girl Abby at college was doing more pleasure than business. And that sounds so bad. But I I was really um kind of flailing and not really taking it as seriously as I needed to. And my parents said, okay, you're gonna have a timeout and you are gonna come home and you're going to get a job. And that was awful. But um what I wanted to do. And my grandfather actually, for his like retirement job, when I was little, he was um a delivery man for a florist for a local flower shop. So kind of knowing them, I always just sort of thought that would be a fun gig. You could just drive around all day and listen to music. And um, 19-year-old Abby was like, Yep, let's do that, you know, rather than working at the bookstore. I think I got a job at like a bookstore, and I wore a skirt that was very pink, and the other employees there who were very bookish were like, this kid doesn't fit in. Um I ate my lunch in my car. I was like, so I just called the flower shop and I was like, hey, this is Abby. Um I was wondering if you guys had a part-time delivery position. I'm home from college for a little bit, and they said, No, we don't, but we have another flower shop um that was in their our neighboring city, and they said, We're actually looking for a designer. One of our designers is going on maternity leave and and we're hiring. And I said, Well, I don't have any you know experience. And they said, We can train you. So I went in for the interview. I remember I wore that pink skirt because I loved it, and I think this could be a good fit for me, and it was. They hired me, they they trained me. I just learned this terminology. I was bench taught. I've never heard that before. I was bench trained, and so I learned from like a very old school florist, and I kept doing that part-time job. You know, I kind of went back to school for a little bit, dabbled in this major, and I really just kept, every time I would study something, I'm like, ugh, I cannot see doing this long term. So I take another break and all the while still working that part-time job. And um I was doing just working at a florist for about seven years before it occurred to me, oh my gosh, like this is what you love. You love your job, you love coming here every day, you know, you like talking to people, you like getting to paint things and you know, all of the different stuff that you do in retail floristry, all the hats that you wear. It just like a light bulb one day hit me that, like, okay, this could actually be my career, not these like random degrees I kept, you know, thinking, you know, um, but we didn't have any floristry schools where I was. You have those programs in Texas and you know, more accessible, like dreams or goals. I know that some people can see doing that, but it just wasn't something I thought, oh, you have a this part-time job at a florist, and that's all you can ever do. And so, yeah, I I wanted to buy the flower shop that I was at, but they were not really ready to sell. And I had a best friend from like preschool who worked in NASCAR, and he on a particularly low day where I was feeling like, okay, I don't know how I'm going to make this a career. I don't know how I continue to do this, but make minimum wage. Um, he called me up out of the blue, living in North Carolina, and he said, Hey, would you ever be interested in owning your own flower shop? My mom is a bookkeeper, and I've known this family my entire life, and I had no idea she had a little side hustle gig as a bookkeeper for a flower shop, a very old um, since like the 1940s, flower shop in our neighboring city. And the rest is history. It was like kismet that it happened. And I said, Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I would love to run my own flower shop. And I just made this decision of like, this is the thing that you've been working towards the longest. This is what you have the most experience in. And even though I was young, you know, 26 years old, I'd been doing it since I was 19 and just wanted to finally like take that leap and make the commitment that that floristry is not going to be my part-time gig. It's going to be, I mean, my life. It is my life now.

SPEAKER_01

So you didn't buy an existing business.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, you did? Yeah, so it was a flower shop that was in our our neighboring, you know, city that had been there since like 1942. So the name Lakemores was just sort of synonymous with flowers in that town. And it had kind of fallen into disrepair, improperly managed. I think the original owners were really something special. And then over the years, um, you know, it just really lost some of the good reputation that it had. But I knew that the name was still very much worth something. And um, the current owner was trying to kind of get rid of it for a for a low price, and so in and did a quick scan and audit of what was happening and saw three very simple things to change. And so it quite honestly, because of the good foundation that I got working at my first florist job, I was able to implement some changes on day one that turned it around very quickly. And we turned a profit that first year, and the previous year was in bankruptcy. Wow.

SPEAKER_00

So Abby, that's so awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Were you able to keep all of the employees that were working there, or did many of them leave, or how did that work out?

SPEAKER_03

Well, there were three ladies that were there, and two of them were planning on moving in a month, and so I kept them on for a month. I and then the other girl kind of saw immediately that it was not gonna be a good fit. Um, and so there was sort of an awkward transition there, but I gotta tell you, she now owns a florist in my town, and we have become very close friends over the years. So I think like that transition of ownership, it is very difficult for any employees to stay on. I think if they don't have a prior relationship with you, like if you were an uh an employee who was buying the business or taking it over and you had a relationship with the people that work there, I think that is a little bit more of an easy transition, but she didn't know me. I came in there and who knows what she thought of me? Who knows you know what she thought? Things were going to change because it was not being run well. There were issues that were very evident to me. And so I think honestly, what turned her off is that I needed to get in there and clean up the place just to even see like what had I purchased? Like, what do we have to work with here? You know, some of the things were that she had said I never got to design. The owner only made me sit up front and wouldn't let me do anything with flowers, and I said, Well, not here, because everyone's gonna do everything. I wash buckets, I design, I talk to the customers, and you'll do the same. We're all in this together, but that was a change for her, and so she left. She spent about two weeks there and said, I am not a good fit. So, you know, for a people pleaser like me, that was horrific to think out in the world who maybe doesn't think highly of me and they don't know me. Right, right, right. So I did make it my personal mission. I was like, I'm gonna win this girl over. I am going to, and I got her, and we are good friends now, and we help each other out all the time. In fact, we just got two matching arbors because you could get a better deal on them if you bought two. Yeah, she and I go in on things all the time together, and I'm happy to maybe have course-corrected our first impressions of one another. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_00

I know this is gonna give away how old you are, but how many years have you owned the business now?

SPEAKER_03

This June was nine years. Wow, look at that, Abby. So quickly, yeah. Wow, and I met you five or six years ago. I hadn't had the business very long.

SPEAKER_00

No, it has to be at least six. How did I don't know that I've ever heard this story? Abby was board member for Teleflora units, and they had me come out as an education specialist, and she had this really cool barn that we were doing a wedding venue set up. It was really, it was a great venue. So that's how we met, and we had to design an Abby store because there wasn't really a place otherwise, and it was great.

SPEAKER_03

Someone needed to drive Vonda to the airport, which was about an hour away.

SPEAKER_01

So I did this, you raised your hand, meet, meet, meet, me.

SPEAKER_03

Like, uh, get unfettered access to one of the world's greatest designers. I mean I fangirled so hard, but that's when she told me about the company that she was working with at the time, and I was like, I will follow this woman anywhere. Oh, you're so sweet.

SPEAKER_01

I can remember her talking about you before you came on board.

SPEAKER_00

I remember that. This girl has so much energy, she's so talented, she just knows what she's doing, she's moving in the right direction. I mean, all this oh my god, Fonda picks up very quickly on people that have just that natural design skill.

SPEAKER_01

Um, just like she picks up that I do not have it. She picks that up, but the other thing she said about you was you had the business sense. That's why she was so taken with you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, which I worked with a lot of designers who really are good designers, right? But Abby, they don't have that business side like you do, and you're putting that into everything you do instead of like, let's just cram in more flowers and make it look beautiful. When we were doing the program, we could cram in more flowers and make it more beautiful, but we're like, wait a minute, we have to have both parts of this, like the business and pleasure, right? Almost uh making sure that we're making money while we're doing it, and that's what you were doing even back at the time, which was so admirable, you know, when you had just started in business and everything. So yeah, I'm sure I shared that with Lori.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's so sweet. My first boss was one of those florists who would pick trash, you know, what we called trash, up off the ground, and he would hold the little piece of leather leaf, and he'd say, This is my profit, you know? Wow. And we were designing in foam all the time and in baskets. So those little pieces really did go a long way, but sort of really paying attention to that and having a mentor who understood, and he was a businessman, he the he bought his flower shop as a retirement business, he worked in shoes, but a lot of that mentality comes through, and I think is applicable to whatever you're doing, and so I really had a good foundation there of you know, you do not just cram flowers in, you have to count and recipe out everything that you're doing, or you're not profitable. So that was the first thing that I saw when I watched them design when I came in, is they were just throwing together flower arrangements that were pretty, but so quickly there was no possible way they were keeping track of what they were putting in it. And if a stem even looked like it had a bend in it that wasn't ideal for their arrangement, they would just crack it, like crack a snap and throw it in the trash. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I saw some things there. I was like, okay, first number one. And the other that I saw was the treatment of customers. Before you design anything, you are there to serve people. And I I have to always remind myself and remind my staff because it can get stressful. You know, you have to take that breath and say, we are nothing without our customers. The customer may not always be right, but they're always the customer, and without them, we don't have a business. So anything can be corrected if people feel like you cared about them and you cared about why they were there. And so those were really the two things that I was like, well, that's an easy fix. And I hate to trivialize how difficult it is to run a business, but if you have those two things, good customer service and keeping your flower math in check, you're gonna be okay. You know, everything else is just building your business. But without those two pillars, you cannot have a successful floral business, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00

It's been proven, Abby. You're proof, and time and time again, flower shops have definitely shown that, you know, if you don't take your care of your customers, they're not gonna be there and they're going somewhere else. There's somewhere else for them to do business. And if you're not taking care of them, they're going somewhere else. And if you're not counting your SEMs, you're going out of business because you're giving away too many flowers, or you're not putting enough in, and customers are not gonna come because they're not getting the value. So it's finding that balance, right? It's like too much, not enough. You know, what's gonna be right for my customer and for my business both, and you found that you found that balance. Kudos.

SPEAKER_03

Your help. I mean, truly, you know, I think partnering with you guys, and I use that word intentionally because with your help, I felt like I had a business partner. And and I mean, I have a business partner, but he's a silent partner who doesn't, you know, live here. And the way that I've been able to grow my business, because it's fine and dandy for me to understand these core business practices, it is quite another to be able to have the bandwidth to not only instill this in your staff, but just be able to make them understand in the way that I understand it. That's not easy. So the tools that I think Flower Click has given me and Vonda, your personal help. I mean, you do this for your members, Lori. I know all of you guys, you guys go beyond what the different sort of avenues are, you know, with one click. I know that there is not one person that would call you if they didn't have a profit question. Like you've given me so many free resources over the years. As much as I knew about business, I had never tracked my cogs before you introduced that idea to me. Wow. Um, I had never tracked my payroll before you introduced that to me.

SPEAKER_00

But I don't think that's a surprise to a lot of shops that might be listening because you know, you just get on a roll, Abby, like you did, and and you know that, you know, you can't put too many in and all that, but actually tracking them, I don't think most shops do that until the end of the year when the accountant gives them the spreadsheet that says, Wow, you spent a lot on flowers and you didn't make as much money. And instead of being ahead of it and keeping track of it, you know, on a monthly basis or weekly, however, people are doing it a year out and going, Oh crap, I spent way too much money on my flowers and I didn't make any money, and it's way too late. So, yes, you were not out of the norm. You were you were probably the norm, I think many people listening are the same way. So knowing that now keeps you profitable all the time.

SPEAKER_03

It does. It honestly, it sort of trains your muscle memory because I don't even have to be as diligent about tracking my cogs anymore. Because once I did it for a little bit, you get used to the buying patterns. And you know, you can tell, oh, I really overdid it this week. It just having those numbers to back up what you're seeing and you're cooler was really enlightening. Okay, Abby.

SPEAKER_01

Here's our our next question for you. When you wake up in the morning, and I know you are an early riser. What? And I think, I mean, gosh, just listening to you up till now, we can surmise why you do what you do. But I mean, you've got a relatively new little human on the planet that named Lena that lives with you, and you've got dogs, you've got a lot of stuff that you would love to stay home. What keeps you getting up in the morning going, oh, time to go make the donuts? What incentivizes you?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, besides coffee, because I gotta tell you, when I open my eyes, that's what I get so excited every morning to be ready for me downstairs. That is what gets my my feet on the ground.

SPEAKER_01

I'm with you. I'm with you.

SPEAKER_03

But I I love my morning commute into work because and sometimes this honestly, if I've got something really big ahead of me the next day, and big can mean anything, it can be an arrangement I've been looking forward to. It could be anything when I get the time in the morning to really think through how the machine is going to operate, and that's my team, you know. Like I'll have this person doing bridesmaids in the morning, and then I'll move, you know, person B to sit beside her and do the boutineers while I'm doing a casket spray. So it can be just the minutia of the day-to-day, or it can be if I have, because I'm obsessed with floristry, I watch every free video on design that is out there. Um, you know, one time I studied with Hitomi Gilliam and I came back with like every single color of Middle Lino, and I was like, okay, everybody's gonna do a design competition with the Middle Lino armature. And you know, I'm so excited. I love doing like just team building things. So even doing, so I have uh sales prep with my shop. And so I'll get excited about saying, okay, I think we'll do this, this, this in the morning, and right around lunch, we'll get, you know, I'll get a paid lunch for everybody, and we'll sit there and we'll do role-playing and we'll talk through the customer styles. Like it's that that makes me giddy about my job, is just seeing how I can use my people to do different things. That really feeds me. I love all of the different hats that we get to wear. And when I've cross-trained my people, like I got so excited the other day because I had each person doing something that they wouldn't normally be doing. Like I had switched everybody's roles. And I know not every flower shop is like that. Sometimes, and I think especially flower shops that have like super high volumes, they have to maintain that separation of like, these are the sales people, these are the designers, because there's a lot of efficiency in that. We all want to get to play around with things, and that is what really makes me fulfilled in my job.

SPEAKER_00

That also keeps your employees excited about, oh my gosh, what's next? When a designer is just designing all day, right, which is great. That's I'm not gonna say anything negative about that, but when you know you're gonna design and then, oh my gosh, Abby's gonna come teach me something else, you know. So I'm maybe gonna learn how to make that casket spray or that bridal bouquet or make those bouton ears, instead of just being like, Yeah, I'm the one who does all the wedding work, I'm the one who does all the funeral work, which a lot of shops, as you're saying, will do, but that makes it exciting, Abby. I want to come work for you. It's like, oh my gosh, it's something new every day.

SPEAKER_03

Because the other thing that I really saw through the pandemic was the need for cross-training, because at a moment's notice, someone who is integral to this part of your machine could be taken out, and then you, as the owner, are left picking up the slack. Okay, so what happens when there's two people out because kids are out of school, or so we saw this pool, you know, of the changing shifts and schedules, and I did sales prep and I did flower prep school to start cross-training some of my staff. And what I actually love most about the sales prep was sort of the mindset piece of it, Lori, that I know that is such like your school, you know, right, right, right, and how important mantras are. But I sat down with my staff the other day and we sort of had like a hokey kumbaya session, but it really wasn't, it just turned into that. But I made each of them tell the group and talk to us about what is your favorite thing to do here, what is your least favorite thing to do, what do you feel most confident in? And then what do you feel like you need the most help in? I didn't let them frame it as what are you not good at here? Because everything is just an opportunity for growth. And what we got out of it is that you know, Tiffany hates cleaning, but she doesn't mind putting in the account payments. She likes doing the computer work sometimes. And Keisha hates the computer work, but she loves cleaning. And so we sort of made these agreements with each other that if you're taking a job that someone else hates, they owe you at some point to do the job that they hate. And so, also if Tiffany feels really proficient at helping customers and Karen is less confident, Karen now knows that she doesn't have to ask me these questions. She can go to Tiffany because Tiffany is really good at helping people with sympathy orders. So I feel like the extra sort of almost like business coaching that I've gotten from you guys about how to be a strong leader and what I've gotten out of you know, the sales prep, which again is it's it's more holistic than just taking orders. These things have made me a better leader for me to help my staff work better with each other to help cross-train each other. So everybody's on this like even playing field, and it's really improved that company culture where I don't feel like I have so much like tattletaling to between, oh, this person's not doing this right, or um, so those are some unexpected things that I've gotten out of the sales and the flower prep.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

That I think were immediately obvious to me, of like just additional support that I would get out of it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Here's what I want to say about sales prep school. And I've I've struggled with how to um put it into words a little bit about as far as the the passion or the drive behind the creation of it, like big concept. This is just me. I'm not speaking for Bonda, I'm speaking just from my brain. Um, but hearing you, you helped me. My goal or desire for sales prep school as the course is yes, to help with time management for a boss to say, hey, you know, use this as onboarding. But the bigger most heartfelt desire is to create a bridge. I feel like there's been a huge gap between employee and business ownerslash manager to create a bridge there for more open conversations about the importance of doing all of these things. Like, what are you good at? What do you hate? What can we help with? Like learning to rephrase sentences or comments to your staff uh is huge. Sometimes, you know, we're stressed and we just give a directive and they're like, oh, I feel like they're mad at me, you know, or whatever. If you can reframe that to, hey, we have this great thing. I want to walk through this with you. And that's what you did. What doesn't work, honestly, is somebody saying, okay, yes, we're gonna have the course, and they just give their person the link, their employee employees say, Here, do this. You've got to know what you're having them study, right? You've got to know what you're having them go through. The other thing you said, and we just had this conversation at Texas State. You look around your staff, and you look at what roles you have, like who's good at what, what are the needs, and then you look at the souls, right? Here's my staff. Who fits? Who's good at what role? And you start plugging those people in. Many of yours are multifaceted, right? So they have multiple roles, which is great. What happens so much in this industry? We just start plugging, okay, Karen, you're gonna do this, Jane, you're gonna do this, Sue, you're gonna do this. Instead of really defining out, here's roles, but you took it a step further, you ask them first, what do you love? What do you struggle with? The one question I would tell you you might want to add to that is what would you love to do? Like, what would you love to learn? Is there something, because maybe you have someone on staff that deep down, I don't know, you know, wants to be a designer, but they don't feel like that's something they could ever even aspire to. Like, what should let's dream big a minute? What would what would that look like?

SPEAKER_03

No, that's a fantastic question. Because in some of my staff during this sort of, you know, went there with it. Yes. But for the people that are more bold, and not everybody is is going to be like that to say, you know, well, I'd really love to take over the social media because I feel like I'm good at posting on Instagram. And yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01

Those are the things you're wanting to listen for.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Like if you if time, money, patience, skill was not a thing, what would you love to do? And and to see.

SPEAKER_03

That I think is what what I'm most proud of is my uh employee loyalty that I've garnered over the years. Like I still have people that have moved on that I'm still very close with and talk to on the phone all the time, because I know from when I was an employee, money is nice, but this is not a job that is going to be a high-paying job. That's what every owner knows. Is you want to give your staff more, but you can't. So, where can you give them more? And when you ask them these questions, when you show that you care about their happiness, that's the raise. I mean, it is. People want to feel valued. And if you can't do that with money, then you have to find other ways of giving that to them. Mine is through my love language is birthday parties. I threw an amazing birthday party for one of my staff members yesterday. Nothing gives me greater joy than throwing, like catered to the specific person. It's like a very big deal. Um, so this was this little high school girl's her first birthday experience at the shop. And, you know, she was just overjoyed with what we did for her, you know, like instead of cake, we did strawberry short cake because I took the time to find out like that's her favorite dessert. I didn't just get an ice cream cake, you know. Right. So those are the things that really um they make me happiest in my job, which is crazy because it's really not about the flowers for me. I love flowers, but that's not what drives me in my business. It's the people that I serve in my community, and it's also the people that I work with.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. It's all about the people. And you know, it's interesting, you're wise beyond your years, is how that how they say that, because you know, I'm quite a bit older than you, and I can tell you it's all about relationships. I mean, life is about relationships, and you have garnered those relationships from the very beginning, and that's pretty special, Abby. That's pretty amazing. It is wow.

SPEAKER_03

Well, and I think Flower Click has helped the other part that I feel like I have a partner in, you know, I can spend more time doing the things that only I can do for my business. I'm not worried about creating designs to put up on my website, you know, because somebody's taking care of that, doing it the way that I would do it. Um, all of that that extra training and help that I get allows me the time to do the things that only I can do for my business. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, next question. And I again, I feel like you've already answered this, but is there a secret to your growth if you'd had like the first thing that comes to your mind if I say, tell me in one sentence, what's the secret to your growth?

SPEAKER_03

Continued education. Love it. Perfect answer. Never stop learning. Never stop, never stop. You know, investing in yourself is investing in your business. So investing in your in your employees is investing in your business, period.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, yeah. Probably about a month ago you called me, and I've shared this story with Vonda. I've probably shared it with other shops too to give them just some incentive. Uh, and you said that you and Tiffany, Tiffany is your manager, your right hand, you're everything, right? Everything, you're everything. And you all were sitting outside of your shop, like at the picnic table you're sitting at there, and you were looking in. Do you remember that story? And you said you could see your employees, one who was just learning casket sprays, correct? She was working on that, another one was working on something, the other one was doing, but you at that moment were like, wow, like they're self-sufficient, like they're doing it. And I'm out here taking a smoke break, even though you don't smoke, like taking a break, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was one of those sort of surreal moments where I was sitting outside because it was a lovely day, and I wanted to eat my lunch outside and just sit down for a minute and not be a part of it. And I I looked through the window and I saw them each doing, and this was a time when they were each doing a role that wasn't their typical, but I saw the machine and I was away from it, and everything was calm in the shop, everyone looked content, and I just had this feeling of like that. That's what I had created, you know, and they're fleeting moments, but when your shop is self-sufficient without you, isn't that like what everybody wants? I mean, anybody would say, I want passive income, you know, and with a flower shop, it's never gonna be like that, but sometimes it can be. You can take a vacation, or I got sick with a really bad cold two weeks ago, and I was unexpectedly off for four days without any like warning, you know, like a vacation you can plan for and do all these things, and there was no crisis, the shop didn't burn down. I was able to just be off, take care of myself, and this was coming on the heels of that moment of like seeing them, that they were all okay without me. And I didn't have concerns for what was going on at the shop because I knew that my staff was totally prepared and that they understood the things that were important to me. If you're invested in their well-being, they're going to be invested in your well-being, which that is the flower shop. Yeah. Of the business is important to each of my employees.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. No, I love it because, you know, typically when I'm talking with a flower shop, especially if it's somebody that reaches out to us and is not a flower clip member, they've almost reached panic mode. You know, they're they're like, oh, I heard about you. Can you help? And so I love that story because I can go, well, yeah, we can help. I mean, it's not a quick fix, right? It does take time and work. You still got to be the boss. Yep. You still gotta put invest a ton of time and patience and energy and thought and all of the things into these people, but you will be rewarded at some point. So I hope everybody that listens to this that feels like there's no way I could ever get there, I hope they listen and go, ooh, okay, I'm gonna just keep going. I'm gonna keep pointing my feet to the door because maybe someday I'll run my shop like Abby does.

SPEAKER_03

Well, nothing is going to substitute you doing the work to make it happen, but with you guys, I'm not alone. And I have sounding boards, and you know, I've called you Lori when I needed advice on how to handle something with an employee, you know. I don't know how, you know, what's the best way of doing that? And you have a community of other florists there with you who are going through the same things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that's the whole point for everyone who does reach out to me, member, non-member, I want them to know this is not the first time I've had this conversation. This is not the first time a shop owner has called me with this issue. You're not alone. Here's what they did to solve it. Maybe this will help, you know. So, anyway, uh, okay. Other question, and you've kind of answered this throughout, I don't know. But honestly, this is the hardest thing for Vonda and I to answer if people call and say, What's flower click? How do you answer that? Because I know people have asked you.

SPEAKER_03

I know that I've answered this so many times and in so many different ways, and it is hard. Yeah, it is such a holistic view on retail floristry, but I would say it is like having a business partner, business coach, that they merchandise my website, they help train my staff, and they offer support for business owners, for retail florist business owners. Yeah, that is the most concise way I could put it. Yeah, if someone asked me who you guys were, I would say they're my friends and my mentors. And you guys make everyone feel that way. So it is hard to pinpoint exactly what you do, but business development.

SPEAKER_01

Um beautiful flower arrangements, that too, you know. Ellie is revamping our Flower Click website that's gonna be relaunched. It's already beautiful, but she wants to make it better. And this is the hardest part. She's like, okay, dumb it down for me. Yeah, bullet point. Well, it's hard. It's like, I don't know, pick pick a word, and I'm sure there's a facet of Flower Click that can come alongside and help you. So, anyway, all right. My most favorite question: what's inspiring you right now?

SPEAKER_03

So I am really inspired by my pink hair right now. I did it on a whim, and I have been just like re-inspired in my wardrobe again. I've like loved getting dressed every day. I hadn't had my hair done in a really long time, like it had been almost two years. And so I went to the hairdresser and I said, I don't care what you do, I just don't want to look the same when I come out of here. And so she gave me a cool cut and like pink hair on the bottom, and I feel like the whole world is open to me again now.

SPEAKER_01

Love it. I love it. I love it. That's great, I love it. 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_00

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