DONE---spell it out with me: D.   O.   N.   E.    DONE.

What in the world is Christi talking about now? I can hear you now, “Is she sounding off about something?” or “Has she finished something monumental?” or maybe you just don’t care? That’s okay too. ;)

This acronym is the Follow Through Formula that Marie Forleo talks about in B School. I took this course over the last two months (now, don’t go weird on me, B School stands for “Business” School). She introduced this formula before the course started and it’s been golden for me the past two months. So much that I’ve been talking about with just about everyone I’ve had an opportunity to chat with (not face-to-face, people--I’ve practiced my “social distancing” skills!). 

So, what is the Follow Through Formula, you ask? 

Well, I’m soooo glad you asked!

It’s all about finishing what...

This current climate shrouded in COVID 19 is keeping people “stuck”--stuck at home, stuck without income or work, stuck with people or family, stuck in time. But, I’d like to say that this is just a matter of your mind--feeling “stuck” that is. 

Often we seem to get lost in thought and head down the path of “woe is me”. Now, what I’m about to say may be a bit controversial. I’m not trying to start a riot here. I’m only giving you another framework for your mindset. What if we took those feelings of being “stuck” in our situation and turn it into something that gave us "action"? 

• We get to look at the sky, breathe different air, hear the sounds of stillness. 
• We get time to take a walk, eat differently, and be more active.
• We get valuable time with our family and loved ones.
• We get some opportunities to reach out and make an impact on others. Those opportunities that we don’t have...

I’m a huge fan of Amy Porterfield and inside her Momentum Membership last week, she introduced the 5 P’s to us to contemplate and act upon during and after this crisis. Although, after listening and acting upon these 5 P’s all week, I realized that this is really something I should look at every quarter in my business. 

I want to share them with you and apply them to some ideas within the floral business realm. Just food for thought. I’d love your feedback if you find it helpful! I also made a worksheet for you to use if you want to use it. You can download it here.

First “P”, is PIVOT. Now if you’ve listened to me on my Instagram chats for the past few weeks, this is one word I’ve already been using. It’s key when we something happens in our business that may throw us off track. Pivoting is something that I’ve enacted many times over the years. By pivoting, I mean to take an honest look at your business and see if...

Many of you have seen my Moving Sale and have been asking me, “WHAT’S NEXT?”

I’m super excited to announce that I’m retiring - sort of! I'm closing up my floral business, Bergerons, that I've owned for over 30 years. It's been a super successful journey and I've been so blessed by the business that I created through Bergerons. Over the years, I had so many amazing employees and fabulous clients that I won't forget! 

I'll be transitioning to a small workspace and video studio that I'm really excited about, and will be working with YOU on building your business to be a successful one! Even though it may seem like I'm just switching over to Floral Education, I've been actively involved in this realm for many years on a local level (through Past President of a Floral Association as well as teaching classes and at garden clubs) and more recently involved within the last few years on an international level (with EMC-European Master Certification programs...

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...