Hello flower friends. This is Jen, and on this week's episode, I wanna talk about what to do to move your business forward when things feel complicated.  And I'm in Minnesota,  things are very complicated here. Right now.  I have a, a complicated kiddo.  I have two businesses. I have a farm.  I have animals that have been sick.

I've had, over the years, I've had parents pass, I've had siblings pass away. I've had babies early. I, I mean a million things. I had a baby when I was 40, so I am the queen of complicated.  I totally get complicated, but I have never used  complicated as my excuse for not moving my business forward.  And I say that not as like breaking or anything, but it's been my mindset  and it's been my habits and the things that are really important to me that I'm not going to let off the gas.

When things feel complicated. Yep. I'm, I might like just take a little pause at the stop sign to, clear everything and to feel better  and to breathe, because I think that we all need that sometimes, but I am,  I do it anyways. I have the mindset that if I'm going to move my business forward. The term I do it anyways has become ingrained in  kind of my core being, because  when that becomes  what your life is I do that anyways.

When something gets trickier, when it gets harder, you do it anyways because you have systems, habits.  Or you know, whatever works for you in your life that helps support that you do it anyways,  so much of that is your mindset, and I am a certified mindset coach, and I get your mind can  play complete fuckery on you when things are hard. 

But  our response, especially, I feel.  Like in, I think as, as I've gotten older, the younger generations are definitely a little bit more you know, like what feels good and more intuitive to how they're feeling and, acting and operating their life out of that, which I love when people.

Operate out of feeling, but I don't love that when  that feeling becomes like  their life.  And I have seen, I've had freelancers, I've known people who have operated out of things feel hard, and so I do the bare minimum. Things feel hard, so I don't try and.  That becomes your lifestyle  and it, it's, to me, it's like a domino,  you know?

One time, yeah. Two times. Yeah. But three times, like we're building a habit that isn't supporting that version of you. That I'm guessing on New Year's Eve, when you're thinking about all of these dreams that you have in your business, I'm guessing that doesn't support that version of you.  So  when I think about,  I do it anyways,  you know, I, I think about, okay, if I'm planning my week out  and I know I wanna work out three days,  okay, something happened today, let's just say. 

Actually something did happen today. My trainer  was sick 'cause he ate Indian food or something and wasn't feeling good, so he canceled.  Okay, it's Tuesday, so luckily it's early. I wasn't planning on working on tomorrow because my vehicle's getting picked up for service 'cause I need new breaks  and.

So I'm gonna just ask my husband, Hey, can I run your, take your vehicle  to town  for noon CrossFit, or if he has to use his car.  I have a rowing machine. I have been doing kind of functional fitness things in CrossFit for long enough.  I know how to do pushups, I know how to do dips. I know how to do crunches.

I know how to do interval training like. I, there are a lot of things that I could do, but I can't keep canceling on my plans and my goals.  So one time, that doesn't mean today gets me out of working out three times a week or four times, whatever it is. And this example can be, and I think often  what happens, like especially when you start wanting to eat good. 

Like, all of a sudden it turns into a complete, like you, you fell off the wagon of eating good and you just kept off the wagon instead of going, yep, I fell off and I had Chipotle and it was delicious. You guys, whatever you're, you know, you're telling yourself or I had a piece of cheesecake and it was so delicious, but. 

I fell off my meal plan, I fell off my whatever.  That doesn't mean that you can't make the next best choice.  So one thing I would love for you to think about is when you think thought about feeling derailed,  um, you fallen behind, what is the next best thing that you could do?  If. You haven't posted on fucking Instagram in a month.

What's the next, next best thing that you could do? If Instagram was a goal in your plan,  and actually if it's something that you had committed that you want to be doing, what's the next best thing you could do?  Plan a post.  I was so proud of one of my mastermind girls who actually came last year to the business bouquets and branding, and we did a 90 minute power planning sessions as like a little gift.

I gave the girls in the Mastermind  and we were talking about her plan for social media.  She was like, yep, and I wanna plan, I wanna post the video that I got out of the business bouquets and branding workshop. I was like, that's a great idea. She looks adorable in this. I just, I love, and the response, she went and did it.

I was so fucking proud of her. The response was like, oh my God, you're so cute. And I love this for you. And like just, I can't, I'm so excited about you doing my flowers. Social proof you guys  like, it was just like this outpouring of support for her and she doesn't have like 4,000 followers. These were just people that like, they're really, they're here and they're invested in her because she's amazing  and she deserves  so much.

And  like here she is putting it out there and here is all the sugar for her. Yeah, she fell off the Instagram wagon.  But what is the next best step? Your next best step is to get back on the wagon, get back on the treadmill, get back on the if, if you are, if this has happened to me. So I will completely fess up.

Like when things have felt like a little hard and then all of a sudden I get inundated with lead and I'm like, I don't wanna deal with these fucking people. Don't they see that I am, I am struggling here with a million things and I just, or their don't, they know that their inquiry like basically sucks. 

And I say that funny because I actually sometimes live like, God, this inquiry kind of sucks. You know, that it,  that has happened and I've not wanted to, you know, be like, yay,  but.  Maybe I wasn't great at responding to the last five inquiries. That doesn't mean on inquiry six, you can't turn it around. 

Today is your turnaround day.  Today is the day you can decide if you're moving towards your goals or away from your goals.  Because if we know, if you have built a plan that you know will help you be successful.  So that plan encompasses maybe Instagram, it implant encompasses, maybe you doing some things on your website, networking, you know, doing whatever with planners.

Or let's just say you're working on funeral, really wanna grow your funeral business. So you're, you're wanna reach out to like five different funeral homes.  You wanna put a brochure together of almost like an a la carte funerals and just showcase what you can do and all the things.  Just because you haven't worked on those things for the last two weeks doesn't mean tomorrow isn't the day to start. 

And if you haven't been working towards, if you have a plan and you know you're not executing on that plan, take one part of your plan.  And start executing on it.  And if that feels completely  like I don't even have a plan, then, I mean, you need a coach or you need a flower friend that has done what you want to do and then could help make a plan with you  because winging it is expensive, frustrating can kill your confidence pretty easily.

And potentially could burn out market share because you weren't going into it with a plan. And so maybe you bombed a wedding, or  you know, a wedding didn't go well with a planner, or maybe your communication wasn't on point. And one of your, your big goals was, I need to streamline my communication. 

Whatever it is, starting with the plan and making sure that you are doing, and I, you guys have heard me talk about this so much, the micro momentum moments that are working in support of that plan  and sometimes that is, it's hard to do anything  and as someone who has had, I have experienced  severe mental health issues.

In my family, and I mean obviously like I've gone through some seriously emotional, tumultuous, fucking crazy times in my life,  and I, so I, I know that sometimes it's hard to put one foot in front of the other,  but  what is going to make you not here? 'cause sometimes. Life is just like a bumpy ride.  My life has been a very bumpy ride,  but what I know has separated me  from some of the people that I went to school with, that I look at their life and I look at mine  and honestly like  they didn't have all this shit happen to them.

But I'm still, I'm more successful and I, that seems like hedy to say.  But like I'm at a better place. I have pushed myself farther. I have grown. I have talked in front of a huge room of people, like I have a successful business. I have a,  like so many things that are very positive, that feel good, like I've a accomplished thanks  and I've done that because  I do it anyways,  even when things are hard. 

I'm always working on the small little things, like that's why you guys like I in  almost th th I mean, 317 episodes, you guys, I mean, that's a lot.  I haven't missed a fucking week.  And, and  that is  a, a lot of podcasting.

 But I feel like with that, has that been hard? Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it has felt hard, but  I've also learned how to make a very big project into something so little that I can have a win even on the crappiest day by executing one of those small things.  So really are you setting yourself up for success by having a plan?

Because if you don't have a plan and then the shit hits the fan  without no plan, you have really no, like you have a lot of should haves and would've and could have,  but you don't really like have like, I know I'm supposed to be doing these,  so first thing you need to do. When things feel hard is make sure you have a plan that's that in foundation  supports where you wanna go. 

Then two,  you need to go into that moment,  knowing whenever it's hard  like that you are resilient,  that you do not wanna be here at the same spot in one year.  So developing a mantra that can help you go past it? Mine is, I do it anyways. I,  if it's hard, I do it anyways. If I'm tired, I do it anyways. If I am not feeling good,  right.

When I'm feeling good again, I also, I don't get sick a lot because I also take care of myself. Like all of those things. Supporting that person that you wanna be.  So making sure that you have something to your, you can stay, say to yourself that supports that person that you wanna be.  Those are like two big things,  but the third is making sure that can feel progress.

If  you have a big, huge project  and it is so big and so scary that you haven't touched it.  You need to figure out how to make that project smaller so that you can take a little chunk and put it in the finish pile and take a little chunk and put it in the finish pile and pick away at that successfully. 

If you try to just tackle something full on, it's going to, especially when things feel hard, it's gonna feel 10 times harder  and.  I also don't operate my life or business in the sense of what is everybody else doing.  So if something  is not in alignment with who you want to be as a florist, as a human, as a whatever, just because everybody else is doing it doesn't mean that's what your business works.

So sometimes if something feels like shit.  Every time you do it,  but you feel like you are supposed to be doing it,  you need to reevaluate that  because not every florist is molded the same way. Funerals in general don't feel good to me.  I don't like so much about funerals like there because I have lost so many people in my life.

I've lost three siblings. I've lost both my parents. Like it just is not my favorite.  If I was out chasing funeral home business, it's like I would just constantly be hit with that feeling of shit.  If that means weddings aren't for you 'cause you don't like how that feels or dailies aren't for you, or funeral work isn't for you, or doing Valentine's Day feels too much like building a plan that supports, because when things get hard and something already doesn't feel good.

We are banging our head against the wall and on the road to failure Street because if it's hard and the world is hard or your environment is hard,  like we have a double whammy coming at us.  I love what I do, but it's because I've designed my business to love what I do.  I have gone through so many iterations of that doesn't feel good. 

And when you operate your business  from a sense of like, this feels good. I am in love with this, I'm in alignment with this. That's a totally different world.  When you are having difficulty come your way. If you're like, I'm already dodging bullets, and then actual bullets are coming your way with the world that we live in right now or. 

A, somebody in your family gets sick or whatever. I mean, like you can only take, you can only be in, in the line of fire in so many ways and it's just not going to work.  So making sure that you're setting up your business in a way of alignment.  And I, I was in a creative business owner's mastermind  and she's amazing.

She's a therapist, but she kind of is a, a career alignment coach,  and she actually, she knows passion flower soup really well. And, passion Flower Soup is so creative and, and like, loves creating, loves you know, just like tearing something apart and thinking out of the box on ways that we could make and create.

And I just, I really admire that about her.  But like that is a person who, who, that's their lane.  And  she said 'cause she didn't wanna do weddings anymore.  She said something like, what kind of florist doesn't do weddings?  And  you know, she answered, I don't know. And she was just like what kind of florist doesn't do weddings? 

Because you can redefine what that is.  You can redefine what being a florist means to you.  Like we didn't have a passion flower soup, you guys, like she is reinvented what being a florist is.  And  I am like reinventing what a florist coach is because I feel like being a florist life and business coach creates so much synergy into having a business and a life together that you love. 

I don't, there aren't any other florist business coaches that do that.  Like I want to redefine that your life and business can both feel good and are both.  Needing to be in a good place for you to be successful in both. But a lot of times people are band-aiding their life or they're band-aiding their business, or they're burning both of them down. 

You like, to me, they're, if this is your, your passion, if this is what you wanna do and you truly wanna succeed, like to me those things they kind of are peanut butter and jelly.  It's really hard to have a successful business if your life's falling apart. If your business is falling apart, it bleeds into your life. 

There's just natural bleed between those lines,  and it's natural for emotions. It's natural for, feelings and anxiety. When the world is tough or your life is tough, it is natural for those things to happen.  But.  There are so many ways that you are stronger than this  and you just need to keep reminding yourself and building habits and systems to support  that person who has that multiple six figure business or that business where they're creating these beautiful,  you know, whatever that looks like to you. 

To me it looks, it looks way different even than it did five years ago. You guys, my business and life vision has morphed so much.  I mean, now, like I have a cute little mini cow that I literally will bring out next to my flower beds  and let her hang out with me and chew grass when it's nice out I had never envisioned that five years ago.

I had like of course vision boarded it and like think I want a highland cow and I wanna grow a lot of flowers, but like things can change. We don't need to be stuck in the old version of ourself, or we also don't need to be stuck in the version that you thought you should be.  We can change.  Our world is changing. 

Sometimes not for the best,  but  we know that, I mean, I know that I'm doing the best that I can  and that I'm showing up as best as I can for you guys, for my floral clients, for my children, for my spouse,  and  when I know that I'm showing up in the best I can that I'm, I'm trying.  To me, that's success.  When things feel really hard,  and I can say that like I showed up today. 

If you need support, if you need an add a girl, whatever, if something's feeling heavy, I'm here for you. Send me a DM on Instagram at the Floral ceo.  I know the world feels what did somebody say? Like a shit sandwich sometimes.  Minnesota feels kind of like a shit sandwich right now.  And I mean, I never, in my  wildest dreams  thought on a snow day  my little, uh, my son would be talking to his best friend, which I'm like, why isn't he at school?

Because I knew school wasn't canceled in,  um, Bloomington  and. He was told that he stayed home because ICE was at his school and his parents kept him home.  And I had to explain to my children what ICE was, and I had to explain in a way that if anybody talked about it, they wouldn't feel like they were getting a different story.

So I had to give him like a very neutral stance  on also 6-year-old and 11-year-old with autism appropriate. So we are in a really weird world. Weird world right now, and I get that. But I am rooting for you.  I know that we will make it through every season in life. That feels tricky  because we always do. 

We can survive so much and we can grow our business at the same time. And I believe in you. So I am cheering you on Flower Friend. Thank you so much for listening, and you have an amazing flower filled week. 

I.