What can EMC do for me?

If you've been following me on social media for awhile, I'm sure you are probably thinking by now, "what's all this woo-woo Christi's talking about?". Well, joining the European Master Certification (EMC), gave me confidence in knowing why I design the way I do and how to do it efficiently and beautifully as well as learning the principles and elements of design.

A few years back, I had welcomed Hitomi Gilliam AIFD to teach a three-day intensive here in the DC area. She and I had some time to spend together before she flew out and she talked about this amazing course that she and Tomas De Bruyne were working on~bringing the ultimate in floral design to North America: The study of European Floral Design! Have you ever had one of those moments where someone is talking and you just start daydreaming of what it would be like to do what they were talking about? Well, my friends, that was one of those moments. It's like an angelic glow came over her and I was mesmerized for the next 30...

I was talking with my Growth Coach the other day. (Yes, I did say my coach--I believe in coaching. I don't just provide coaching, I take it too! This is a topic for another day.)  Anyway, we were talking about roadblocks. She asked, "How do you handle them?"

Silence...you could hear a pin drop. Then I answered her. This was a tough question and my answer wasn't one that I excited to tell her. To answer honestly, for most of my career, I've tried to dodge them! 

I thought about this a lot since then and here's a visual that I came up with:

Imagine you're playing a video game; the road is in front of you and in the distance, you see a roadblock. You know, those concrete road barriers lined up across the road.

You have two choices:

1. Wait until it comes right in front of you and you have to take your massive Thor-looking hammer and crush it before the time runs out. Or,
2. You can use the Thor hammer and point it from afar and blast that thing to smithereens! 

For...

As I sit here at my mom's house waiting for her caregiver to bring her to the breakfast table, I'm reminiscing of the times we spent working together in my business. She was my right-hand lady for the first 26 years of my business. You see, now, she's either walker or wheelchair-bound and requires 24/7 caregiver help. I'll admit, it's extremely difficult to see her like this; not as the strong, energetic, resilient person that I got to see every day.

Time has gone by since she "retired" from physically helping me at the shop, but she's never stopped giving a listening ear or helpful support especially in stressed times when I need a person to just go over what I'm thinking. 

Often people would ask her how I was doing since taking over the shop? She would chuckle and let them know that "she worked for me" not the other way around. Little did they know that I was my idea to open a florist business in the first place. She has always been the sturdy pillar for me to build on,...

So, do you have a SIDE HUSTLE OR FULL-TIME GIG in your floral business? Where are you at in your floral career? For almost the first 10 years of my business, floral design was my side hustle. I had a business license, but I got through college, worked two full-time jobs before I took more of a plunge to grow my business.

After 8 years of working floral design on the side, I took action and went for the leap to quit the safety of my full-time salary to work out of the downstairs of the house. I also strategically wanted to learn more about running a brick and mortar retail florist so I worked part-time at a flower shop in a neighboring town. Even though I worked at that job for less than a year, it helped me gain so much knowledge! 

You may look at my business today and see the success that it is, but just remember I started out for years making it work on the side. If you are even remotely feeling that this is taking forever, just remember ACTION is what will set...

Okay, now answer this truthfully! How many of you cringe when you hear that dreaded voicemail from a recipient that has called after hours because she has a question about the retail order you delivered that day?

OR

You get an email from that pesky wedding planner that just won’t realize that you can’t keep changing and updating the wedding every day and to boot, it’s six months from now!

You really want to just ignore them and deal with it another day, right?

WRONG! It’s so much better to “eat the frog”!

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.

Do that thing that you don’t want to do first, so you can clear your mind and move along!

I just heard Casey Graham from Gravy Solutions speak at a conference I was at where he called it “The Press...

Today I wanted to talk about the “less is more” concept. We all know that this concept is applicable in so many ways; even in our personal AND business lives.

I want to apply this to our business today—YOUR business! Those of you that have an e-commerce website, have you ever thought about if you have fewer options that it might just be better for your business? I know, you probably think I’m crazy, right? But consider this, what if you narrowed down your offerings on your site to just a handful?

Hear me out, how many times have you gone to a restaurant that you’ve been to before and ordered the same thing? Probably almost always, right? Or, what about if you go for the first time and you see that they have 50 different items on the menu for entrees. Do you get overwhelmed? You probably narrow it down to certain sections of the menu like fish or salads, right?

The same thing might be happening to your customers. If you are clogging up your site...

Hey Everyone! 

We are looking for volunteers who want to be involved in wowing the guests at the historic First Ladies luncheon by working side-by-side with some of America's talented floral designers.

I'd love for you to apply to work with Mary Kate Kinnane (owner of The Local Bouquet) and myself (Bergerons Flowers) sponsored by Certified American Grown flowers! It's a great way to work with our American growers to show off their product. And, I can attest first-hand last year, I had the opportunity to work alongside other florists and growers. Enjoy getting to network and meet other like-minded florists, while supporting our American grown flowers and farms. 

Interested? Then check out the blog post from Certified American Growers to apply. Deadline to apply is MARCH 1st!

I'm just gonna ask it...HOW DID YOU DO?

Really, how did you do yesterday? Did you kill it for Valentine's Day? Was it your best ever in sales or did you struggle with your deliveries? Order too little roses? Or, for that matter, did you order too many? 

It's time to decompress, my friend! Not only do you want to take a load off your feet, but you want to do a brain dump of all that went on while it's fresh on your mind. I know, you don't want to think about it, right? 

No matter if it's your first experience with this holiday or your 50th, it's always good to take some time and write down how it went. When I had my first Valentine's in my brick and mortar store, it was crazy! No one told me really what to expect. For the first ten years of my business, I worked out of a basement. I kept a few notes, but I didn't need to think about how each year went since I only had a few deliveries on my plate that day/week. But, my first one in my shop? Well, let's just say, it was...

 It happened, my ultimate fear happened...

We had two very large weddings to deliver on the same day. One was about 40 minutes from our shop and the other was at our downtown location inside the Mayflower Autograph Hotel. The team had just left with two vans full of flowers for the wedding off-site and I was getting in the third van with my other designer to meet them. Then, I got the call...

A strained, panicked voice on the other end was my manager of the hotel studio. I couldn't understand what she was saying. "What, the cooler froze? All the flowers in the cooler are frozen?" I felt it in the pit of my stomach, and I'm sure all the blood drained from my face. What was I going to do? All of the flowers were designed and ready to install at the hotel for the wedding. It was 1:30 p.m. and the wedding starts at 6...what do I do now?

Well, I put my big girl panties on, that's what! I immediately told her we were going to figure it out and went into action. I called the crew...