Tips to Open Your Mindset in Managing your Business
This episode starts with a confession: Lori had a full-on weekend meltdown — the kind where her 22-year-old son came downstairs to find her being rocked on her husband's lap and could only ask, "What is happening?" ("Mama's just sad.") A trip to the Barbie movie and a large popcorn helped. But it's the perfect setup for the real topic, because as Vonda and Lori dig into fixed versus growth mindset, Lori is honest that she can swing both ways — and that's kind of the point.
Fixed vs. growth: which one are you?
Your mindset is the set of beliefs that shapes how you make sense of the world and yourself — it influences how you think, feel, and behave, and what you believe about yourself impacts your success or failure. The hosts draw on Carol Dweck's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, which defines the two camps. A fixed mindset assumes personality and ability are static — "either I'm good at this or not," and "if I don't try, then I won't fail." A growth mindset believes success depends on actions — "I can learn to do anything I want," and "I only fail when I stop trying."
Fair warning from both hosts: the book itself is a dense, small-print read (Lori got through it in a facilitated book study, with her thickest reading glasses). The good news is that plenty of articles summarize it well. And the most important nuance: everyone is a bit of both, and which mindset shows up can depend on your mood and the situation. Being fixed-minded isn't a character flaw — Lori is married to a natural fixed-mindset thinker — it's an awareness to work on, like any other tendency.
The power of "yet"
Lori shares a story about a vice president who was asked a technical question he couldn't answer in front of hundreds of people. His reply: "I don't know how to do that yet." Afterward, the CEO pulled him aside — not to criticize, but to say he was glad about that one word, because "yet" means you're willing to learn. Vonda remembers Bill LaFever saying the same thing on a past episode: he deliberately adds "yet" to the end of sentences, because there's always more to learn. It's a one-word growth mindset you can adopt today.
The young florist and the boss who wouldn't listen
The whole topic traces back to a moment at the NextGen Live conference. During an interactive session on communication, a young man who works in a flower shop stood up and asked: how do I respectfully communicate with a boss a couple of generations older, when I have a more efficient way to do something and he dismisses me because "we've done it this way forever"? He was close to giving up.
Vonda's take is empathetic to both sides. Maybe the boss has tried changes before that failed. And maybe the approach matters more than the idea. Role-playing the owner, she describes how she'd want to be approached: schedule time instead of ambushing her mid-chaos, and come with more than enthusiasm — explain the idea, how it fits this shop, what the outcome would be, and that you're willing to put in the work to make it happen.
Lori's PPP filter: product, plan, payoff
Here's the tool worth stealing, courtesy of Lori's husband Mark: before you pitch any idea, run it through PPP.
Product — what exactly are you proposing? Plan — how would it be executed, how much labor, how many people? Payoff — what's the result, and how much money does it make?
Lori and Cammy recently ran a Flower Clique idea through the filter and got stuck on the middle P: the labor would have consumed over half the team for a tiny payoff. Idea killed in minutes, with laughter instead of wasted months. The same filter explains why some shops barely break even on weddings — they never priced the middle P, when the answer should have been "I need 30% more" or "let this one go down the street." Vonda's challenge to owners: introduce PPP at your next staff meeting. It tells your team you're open to ideas and gives them a shared filter, which is exactly the bridge between a growth-minded employee and a logic-loving, fixed-minded boss.
Start the day with a mindset minute
Lori closes with her favorite morning ritual: the TikTok creator Mindset Minute Queen, who delivers a 15-second breath-and-affirmation every day. The one played in this episode lands perfectly: one day you'll tell the story of how you overcame what you're going through right now, and it will become someone else's survival guide. Play something like it in your shop each morning — and give yourself permission to have the occasional five-minute meltdown, as long as you're with people who are safe. Five minutes, as Vonda's mother said. Then back up and forward.
Key takeaways
- Fixed says "I'm either good at this or not"; growth says "I can learn anything" — and everyone carries some of both, depending on the day.
- Add "yet" to your vocabulary: "I don't know how to do that yet" signals a willingness to learn.
- Pitch ideas with an appointment and a plan, not an ambush — approach determines whether a fixed-minded boss can hear you.
- Run every idea through PPP — product, plan, payoff — before you bring it (or price that wedding).
- Start each day with a short mindset ritual, and let yourself feel big feelings in safe company.