Episode 33: Decision Fatigue is Real, What You Need to Know.
Ever gone to the store for bananas and come home with two boxes of mini ice cream cones and a half gallon of cookie butter ice cream? Lori has — and she has a name for it: decision fatigue. It happens when we spend too much time mulling over options, and the experts say it prevents us from making smart choices. After a year when even online shopping went from fun to overwhelming, Vonda and Lori dig into four research-backed ways flower shop owners can make better decisions when everyone's a little bit worn out.
Let go of perfect and aim for good enough
Vonda admits this one is hard for her — she likes things perfect. But there's wisdom in failure, and "good enough" is not the same as settling. The floral example: substitutions. While filming Flower Prep School videos, Vonda ran out of products and had to use suitable substitutes — something working designers do all the time. The arrangement doesn't have to match the picture exactly; it has to be close enough that the customer says, "yeah, that looks pretty much like what I ordered." The key is being okay with it internally, too. Don't beat yourself up over every deviation, and don't burn an hour choosing between option A and option B when either one will work.
Combine intuition with expertise
Gut instinct is real — but it works best in the areas where you've put in the years. Vonda's intuition fires on the business of a flower shop; Lori's kicks in on sales, teaching, and education. At photo shoots, Lori will look at an arrangement and think it's fine, while Vonda instantly knows something is off — and after the adjustment, the photo proves her right. That's experience plus gut.
The hosts see this play out most clearly in hiring. Owners who've been at it for decades can tell within ten minutes of an interview whether an employee will last; owners two or three years in often can't. So the advice is twofold: trust your gut where you have real expertise, and where you don't, borrow someone else's. Ask an industry veteran, "here's what my gut is telling me — what do you think?" And be careful not to confuse intuition with emotion; they're not the same thing.
Create a pros and cons list — on paper
Don't just weigh options in your head. Write them down. Lori's husband is famous in their family for pulling out the whiteboard for everything from kids' allowances to vacation choices to college decisions — she even found an old whiteboard in the attic with her son's college pros and cons still on it, years after he graduated. (They made the right call.)
Vonda recently used the same exercise with a shop owner considering a move to a new location: rent here versus there, square footage, cooler space, delivery area — a real deep dive into how each factor would affect the business. Writing it out forces you to be more thoughtful, and it surfaces which option actually lines up with your values. Sometimes the hardest decisions are between two good choices, and that's exactly when the list earns its keep. (Even Charles Darwin was a fan — a pros-and-cons list about whether to marry his wife was found among his things.)
Try negative visualization
Ask yourself: what's the worst thing that could happen? Then work backward. Lori shares how her husband walked her through a fear that week — once she said the worst-case outcome out loud, it wasn't so scary. "We can live through that." Saying it gives you your power back, and it's the antidote to decision paralysis, where fear keeps you from choosing at all.
One shop owner Lori knows had always been terrified of giving up weddings. COVID forced her to face that fear in real time — and it turned out she loves having her weekends back. Her biggest fear came true, and she's fine. Another shop, watching $70,000 in event business evaporate, chose laughter over tears: every time a corporate cancellation email arrives, they play "Another One Bites the Dust" in the store.
The final reframe: stop telling yourself "I have to make the perfect decision." Instead ask, "which choice puts me in the best position for success?" Projects will go awry. A marketing idea that worked for another shop might flop for you. Learn from it, laugh a little, and keep choosing.
Key takeaways
- Aim for good enough, not perfect — suitable substitutes and quick decisions keep the shop moving.
- Trust your gut in your areas of expertise; seek counsel from industry veterans where you're still green.
- Put big decisions on a whiteboard — written pros and cons make you more thoughtful and reveal your values.
- Name the worst-case scenario out loud; most of the time you can live through it, and fear loses its grip.
- Reframe "perfect decision" as "best position for success" — then choose wisely and move on.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist