Choices to Make Now ~ That Will Help You Create the Life You Want and Deserve
Last week's affirmations episode struck such a chord that Vonda and Lori kept the conversation going — because the choices you make every ordinary day are quietly deciding your future. Working from an article called "Life Lessons People Learn Too Late in Life," the hosts walk through the lessons one by one and translate each into flower shop reality: pricing fears, holiday burnout, toxic employees, and the inner voice that can make or break you.
Start with a deposit: personalized affirmations for your team
Before diving into the list, Lori shares an idea for any owner whose team feels a little less than cohesive: at a staff meeting, ask everyone to write down two of their core values — nothing flower-shop related, just what matters to them. Then, once a quarter or so, write each person a short affirmation that speaks directly to those values and tuck it in with a paycheck. It's what she and Vonda call making deposits into people.
Lori knows the power of this firsthand. Her dad, a school principal who wasn't a touchy-feely man, left post-it notes on her mirror twice a week all through middle and high school — short affirmations about living the right way. As a teenager she shrugged them off. As an adult, they're one of her most treasured memories.
Fear of what others think is a trap
The first lesson people learn too late: worrying about others' opinions runs your life. Lori sees it constantly in florists who are terrified to raise prices — convinced there will practically be a riot outside the shop. That fear usually traces back further than the price list. As someone once bluntly told Lori: you're really being selfish if you think you have that much power over everybody else's feelings. Harsh, but freeing. Vonda's version is gentler: if they're talking about you, at least they're leaving someone else alone.
Don't wait for retirement to live
This one hit Lori personally — her husband recently retired after a married lifetime of save, save, save. The younger generation has largely figured this out already, tacking adventures onto business trips instead of deferring every dream. For a small business owner, stepping away is scary, but the hosts point out the three built-in burnout points of retail floristry: after Christmas, after Valentine's Day, after Mother's Day. Schedule your escape around them — even a buying trip to market counts, and sometimes closing the shop for a week is genuinely good for your health. Lori's parents retired from education in their mid-50s, traveled constantly with teacher friends, and her 89-year-old dad still says it plainly: the bank account may not be the biggest, but boy, did they have fun.
Protect your mind and body — and never stop learning
Don't let an illness be the thing that makes you value health. Lori credits one hour of exercise with clearing the brain fog she's carried since COVID — "it's my medicine" — and Vonda has to move first thing in the morning or it never happens. Find your format: for Lori it's classes with accountability and fun, dancy music.
Closely related: never stop learning, even in your dream job. Lori says Flower Clique is her dream job precisely because she gets to keep growing — and her favorite endorphin rush is watching a light bulb go off in someone's head. Vonda's equivalent? Jumping in the delivery van. The joy on a recipient's doorstep is its own reward — though as one shop owner joked at a recent meeting, the boss is too expensive to stay on the delivery schedule for long.
Toxic people, negative self-talk, and money that works while you sleep
Three more lessons, rapid-fire. First, compounding: the best time to invest was yesterday, the next best time is today. Vonda, a longtime Warren Buffett fan, quotes him directly — if you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.
Second, stop expecting toxic people to change. Every owner knows the employee who's a thorn in everyone's side but keeps getting "one more chance." Giving chances to a truly toxic person just enables the habit and poisons your whole culture. You don't have to hate them — but they can shine better elsewhere, and your job is to protect the wellbeing of the rest of the team.
Third, negative self-talk can ruin your life. Lori tells on herself here: coming into the industry from teaching and coaching, she spent years afraid she'd be "found out" for knowing nothing about flowers — before realizing she was hired for exactly the skills she had. Studies link negative self-talk to anxiety and depression, and left unchecked, it can turn you into the toxic person nobody wants to be around. The antidote when you make a mistake: find the lesson, fix the system — like shop owner Abby Blake Moore did after a wedding-date mix-up, tightening her calendar process instead of beating herself up — and move on.
Key takeaways
- Collect your team's core values and write them personalized affirmations — small deposits with a long shelf life.
- Stop letting fear of customer reaction hold your pricing hostage; you don't control other people's feelings.
- Schedule real time away after Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day — don't save all your living for retirement.
- Move your body and keep learning; both are medicine for a business owner's brain.
- Release toxic employees instead of endlessly re-chancing them, and treat your own mistakes as lessons, not ammunition.