What's Your Frog? Book Talk on Eat that Frog! by Brian Tracy
Lori opens this episode mid-procrastination confession: she'd put off cleaning, dusting, and the Trader Joe's run for her daughter's spring break visit until Friday — and then her daughter called to say she was coming a day early. Perfect timing, because this week Vonda and Lori are doing a book talk on Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy — "21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time." The title traces back to a Mark Twain idea: if it's your job to eat a frog, do it first thing in the morning — and if you have two, eat the biggest (or as the book says, ugliest) one first. Don't sit and stare at the frog. The hosts picked their favorite rules and translated each one straight into flower shop life.
Consider the consequences
Lori's first pick is Tracy's rule about long-term thinking: the mark of a superior thinker is the ability to accurately predict the consequences of doing — or not doing — something. She loves the image of a personal "time horizon," and says it's changed how she handles requests. When someone asks for three hours of her day, she weighs the consequences of pulling herself off higher-value projects — and it's made her more confident saying no. It happened that very week: a task came up that was trainable, clickable work anyone could do, while the project only she could do needed her full brain. The answer was easy once she looked at consequences instead of just the ask.
Apply the 80/20 rule
Vonda's favorite: 20 percent of your activities account for 80 percent of your results — just as 20 percent of your customers often make up 80 percent of your revenue. Her flower shop example: look at today's list — processing flowers, designing, pricing new merchandise, calling the funeral director, setting up staff training — and ask which one or two items will actually move the business. Processing flowers isn't it; someone else can do that. Calling the funeral director to win that funeral home's work? That's the ugly frog only the owner can eat, and it's exactly the kind of call shops put off for months. She shares the story of a shop owner who spent over a year "thinking about" joining Flower Clique, put the free webinar advice into action, watched it work, and finally jumped in — a perfect picture of what procrastination costs. The hardest part, the hosts agree, is mindset: relinquishing control and trusting that Amy or Renee can process flowers just as well as you can.
They also share a healthy counterpoint: one owner they know — shop owner, main designer, wedding consultant — was out delivering flowers when Lori called, and called it her favorite treat of a day. She normally delegates delivery; she just occasionally rewards herself with it when the shop is running smoothly. Delegating your 80 percent doesn't mean never enjoying it again.
The law of three
Lori's second pick: do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Tracy tells of an overwhelmed startup employee working twelve-hour days who listed every task she did in a week — seventeen of them. Then, with only seconds to answer, she was asked: if you could do only one thing on this list all day, what would it be? Then one more. Then one more. Those three high-value tasks became her job; the other fourteen got delegated, and her value (and pay) went up. The flower shop translation: can you really grow your business while personally doing seventeen different tasks a week? Small shops may have to wear every hat for a while — but the goal is to identify the three things that genuinely build the business and start shedding the rest.
Single-handle every task
Vonda closes with rule 21: when you start a task, take it 100 percent to completion without distraction. She'd just lived it — loading Mother's Day bouquets onto the website mix, watching Slack messages stack up, and forcing herself to protect three solid hours instead of checking in. Studies say we can't really multitask, and half-finished projects frustrate you and everyone waiting on you. Lori admits this is exactly why she didn't pick that one — staying focused start-to-finish is her hardest frog, which is why the hosts talk about the power of partners and managers whose brains complement yours. Nobody masters all 21 rules, and as Lori jokes, she wouldn't want to be friends with anyone who did.
Key takeaways
- Eat the ugliest frog first — make the hard, high-impact call before you clear the small stuff.
- Ask three questions regularly: What are my highest-value activities? What can I and only I do that makes a big difference? What is the most valuable use of my time right now?
- Apply the 80/20 rule to your task list — delegate the flower processing, keep the funeral-director call.
- Use the law of three: identify the three tasks that grow your business and shed the rest.
- Single-handle tasks to 100 percent completion — block the time and ignore the notifications.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist