What’s up everybody, this is Joe Vega, and welcome to another Flower Shop Secret podcast and Today, I’ll be speaking with Angela profit, productivity consultant and CEO of GSD Creative. Our conversation will help local business owners like you. And so the call to get stuff done and transform your business to achieve freedom. Let’s do it…

Angela Proffitt  0:00  

But I can make more of a long term impact by going into a business and working with a small business owner on leadership hiring the right people getting their business setup, making sure they’re profitable and completely changing their life, which is a lifelong trajectory of making a difference in someone’s life. I want to leave the legacy of time, I want to show people that you can have it all. 

Joe

What’s up everybody, this is Joe Vega, and welcome to another Flower Shop Secret podcast and Today, I’ll be speaking with Angela profit, productivity consultant and CEO of GSD Creative. Our conversation will help local business owners like you. And so the call to get stuff done and transform your business to achieve freedom. Let’s do it.

Joe Vega  0:48  

So the big question is this. How can small business owners like us in the flow industry overcome the greed of order gatherers and bypass the deceitful games played by wire services?nHow do we market, sell and deliver flowers online? So we may break free from these antiquated practices and earn our freedom?

Angela Proffitt  1:10  

Those are some of the questions we will answer on this podcast. I’m Joel Vega. Welcome to flower shop secrets. Watch now on YouTube, like, subscribe and ring the bell for new episodes. Hey, Angela, how are you doing? Great. How are you? Joe? I’m doing fantastic. Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I would never thought in a million years that I have a podcast. And part of the reason I have a podcast is because of you. Yay. I’m so excited that I can inspire you because you have so many amazing stories to share with people. And that’s the whole point of podcasting is sharing and highlighting the friends and family of your community. Yeah, I’m starting to get used to it one day, I’ll be as good as you.

Angela Proffitt  1:58  

One day. Yeah, we’re getting there. Absolutely. So um, gosh, we have so many things to talk about. I mean, you’ve been definitely an inspiration in my life. And, and a role model as well. So I mean, you’ve you’ve, you’re a productivity consultant, you’ve published several books. You’ve been a podcast host, like I said, You’re the co founder of the collective

Angela Proffitt  2:19  

615. Right. And, but before we get to all that, can you tell us exactly how you got started in the weddings and events business? Yeah, it was a complete accident. But you know, it’s like when you’re kind of born to do something, you’re born to do something, but you just don’t know it yet. But I really, you know, I grew up around the wedding and events industry. My family was very entrepreneurial, not my mom and my dad. But my uncle owned a wedding venue for 35 years. And so in the summers, the kids would get dropped off on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and we would pour sweet tea and lemonade and cut pie. And then that business started as a florist, my uncle started as a florist. And so it’s just always around the coolers and the flowers. And then, every year, it seemed that he continued to expand and so that he would add a catering kitchen. And then he started to make dresses. And then he started doing invitations, and it really became like this one stop shop. But I never thought I would be in that industry at all. So I loved helping people and growing up. You know, the older you get the moms like what he can do when you grow up. I mean, you’re so good with people, you know, maybe you could just be a nurse. And there was a lady who was in her 30s at the time when I was in my teens hadn’t even started college yet, who worked at a morgue, and she knew I was going to nursing school and she’s like, we need a secretary. Why don’t you come down to the morgue and work over the summer. And out of just pure respect for the morgue. I didn’t know what a morgue was, I just really loved that woman. And I looked up to her and I’m like God, I hope and I’m 30 because it’s so old. I can still tumble like this. And so I did an internship at the morgue, I realized that was with dead people. I was a bad acid anatomy when I did go to nursing school. But what I learned very quickly and during my clinical rotations was that I don’t like inflicting pain on people. And so I very quickly changed my degree to psychology. And so that’s how I ended up working in mental health. I worked in the AIDS clinic, and I really stayed in health care for a good 10 years. But the whole time that I had this real job as my mama and daddy would say, I helped a lot of my parents, friends, kids who were starting to get married and my parents were very involved in the Catholic Diocese. They knew me and my sister knew how to decorate because of our uncle and because of us growing up around the wedding industry and so we just started working in the Catholic Diocese really for fun for about two years. We just

Angela Proffitt  5:00  

Did it at our church for free. It was just like a fun weekend thing. My sister was also in health care. And then that turned in y’all social media didn’t exist back then. Okay. And so then that turned into what I’m not Catholic, and I’m not getting married at your church, but I’m getting married at this place. And then a few years later, that dirt turned into I’m not getting married in Nashville. I want to get married in this state, which turned into this country, which turned into this island. And so about three years into doing it for fun, my uncle’s like, you need to get a business license, and you need to start a real business and you need to get insurance. And I didn’t know jack shit about business. But that’s how it all started.

Angela Proffitt  5:44  

Oh, that’s great. So right now you are obviously a big into your GST creative. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah. And GST creative was born again, out of kind of an accident in 2010. At the height of my career, and traveling the world and doing weddings and events, and very large productions, and million plus dollar luxury market, our town flooded in 2010. And so while I was always paperless, and I was always very efficient, the reason I learned that is going back to health care, EMR electronical medical records, they called me the email or cheerleader, because I got to go around and teach all these offices, these physician offices, how to go from paper charts, to getting it all in the cloud. And so I knew at a very young age that if I ever started a business, we would always put everything in the cloud, because it was like a safety net. I could access everything from my phone. And none of my vendors and none of my creative partners would listen to me, they would show up with these notebooks. And I’m like, What is something like caught on fire or in the flood was never even in my head. But sure, shit. One day, our town flooded, and we had eight displaced weddings. It was a nightmare. And a lot of our partners lost everything. And many of them did not have flood insurance. And so it was a really dark time for Nashville. But our city pulled together. And we replan. I mean, it took months and months and months, where we replan weddings and things like that. But what it did for me for GST creative was, they were ready to listen, they had suffered a tragedy. And they were actually ready to learn, okay, what’s this cloud thing? We’re still afraid of it. But what is the cloud? So I started hosting free classes on the weekends at some of my friends rental properties. And I’m like, if you have a Mac, and you have an iPhone, and you want to learn how the cloud thing just coming, I’ll teach you and every Sunday, for about a year, all the creative people will just come and sit there word of mouth. People started to say like, what is this cloud thing? What is this? How do you sync all this stuff, and it really comes down to being productive. And so that was born another company, which is GST creative, which I’ve always said for a long time, we GST, but we like to have fun doing it and GST is getting done. So I’m all about making sure that people have the right people in the seats. The processes, meaning paperless processes, all in the cloud, backed up multiple times, the productivity piece comes with in with automation and software. And back in the day in 2010, there was not a lot of software, it wasn’t the cool thing. Now it’s so overwhelming, because there’s too many choices, and then making sure that you’re profitable. And that was the key component. And for me, when I started a productivity company, I’m like, I’ve got to hire an accountant, I’ve got to hire a business manager. And there’s there’s money in the bank. And then they started to assess all of my finances and my business practices. And what the hell was Angela doing? And why is angel is still working in healthcare. Yes, I was still working in health care and teaching gymnastics. So I had two companies, you know, you can say I’m a serial entrepreneur. But those two men really put me in my place. Because they said you don’t know anything about numbers, honey, and you’re, you’re doing all these things, and you’re working with over 250 clients a year, that’s events, and you’re actually not profitable. So actually joined an entrepreneur organization, and got the right mentors. And I had to make some really big changes to make sure that I was actually running a profitable business, which meant, you know, pulling apart all of my packages and everything that I’d put together, but what I learned about myself was I hated running a business. I just wanted to do the fun stuff and the creative stuff. And so I learned right then and there that I would always hire someone and pay someone and invest in someone else to do the things that a I didn’t want to do and the things that I will not good at doing. So that’s where GST was really born. And then

Angela Proffitt  10:00  

You know, I’ve learned so much over the years, and where my heart is really at for GST in Korea and other creative business owners is making sure like they have the four P’s. And being the people, the processes, the productivity, and most importantly, the profit. It’s not always about the money, but why don’t we read in our own business, if we’re not doing it, to support ourselves and support our family, you have your hands as so many different things, which areas do you enjoy the most? You know, it, it sounds like I have my hands on a lot. But the older I get, the less I get involved in. And and I only put my time and energy into certain things now that actually want to put my time and energy to write. So the most joy that I get is like working with people like you, Joe, like people that I know that they can take some of the things that we’ve already done, and take the the the roadmap, and then follow the roadmap, and then create their own. And then you start to see the fruits of your labor pay off and other people. And so that’s why I’ve retired out of doing events and design and focusing more in consulting, because you can only do so many weddings at so many islands across the world. And you can only do it so many times. And you know, I will say that TV, and I’ve done all the shows that I’ve done all the things and it takes the fun out of it because it becomes this Pinterest production, which is not why I started to do weddings in the first place. I like to work with real people who were in love, who were who were best friends who I know are in life for the long haul partnership. And that’s not what weddings have really turned out to be not not in the 3% of the luxury market I work in Don’t get me wrong, I love my clients. But I can make more of a long term impact by going into a business. And working with a small business owner on leadership hiring the right people getting their business setup, making sure they’re profitable, and completely changing their life, which is a lifelong trajectory of making a difference in someone’s life. I want to leave the legacy of Tom, I want to show people that you can have it all. You can be a bad business owner, you can have all that you can be very successful, you can be present with your family, you can go on vacation, and not worry about your work and not worry about your clients. And you don’t have to be a slave to your clients. You don’t have to say yes to everybody or everything. And you don’t have to be everything to everybody. Because that was me for 10 years. And I was a very unhappy person. It wasn’t about the money at all. I was I was getting a divorce, I gained 60 pounds, I broke my foot, I went through surgery, but from the outside, it looked like I had it all to everybody. But I was miserable. Because I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. No one had ever challenged me until I got a mentor who said Why are you doing all this? And I’m like, You know what? I don’t know, why am I doing all this? So I really started to think differently. I really pulled back and exactly what you what you just asked me, what brings me the most joy. What brings me the most joy is freedom, being able to be free, that when my family needs me when my friends want to go do something when I want to go get on a plane and go wherever product COVID.

Angela Proffitt  13:37  

You know, I’m pretty just like spontaneous. You know, I do live by my calendar. And we work hard, we work hard, we play hard, but I don’t say yes to any projects anymore, or any clients that I’m not going to have a blast with. Because if you’re not open to change, as a business owner and a business leader, I can’t change you. I can give you the roadmap. But you’ve got to want it, you’ve got to want to stop the distractions, you’ve got to want to say yes to the right things, and no to the things that aren’t on your vision map. You’ve got to be committed to that or her Bulldog. And I’m funny when I say that, or how did the people to surround yourself with and protect your time so that you can do the right things. And so my I get my joy and my inspiration from the people that I work with. And from all of the awesome business owners and the clients. We don’t even take a lot of private clients anymore, because we’ve got online courses that take about six to eight months to build. And it takes a lot of focus for someone with ADHD. It’s like, oh god, it’s just it takes a lot out of you know, a mover and a shaker to get these online programs done. So now that I’ve gotten a few ecommerce businesses, and it’s not so much about Hustle, Hustle, Hustle to make more money, we’ve learned how to build residual income

Angela Proffitt  15:00  

income, you know, the American dream, make money while you sleep, it don’t happen overnight, people don’t go to Click Funnels conference and think that like I did seven years ago, it takes a few years, okay? And you got to consistently be at it. But what I love doing is I love helping other people achieve their dreams and their goals. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s like, it’s almost like a proud mom, you know, and it’s like, I have a group, I have a group of my people that are doing the things, they have the message, they, but they need the guidance, they need to shove in the butt sometimes. And I have to make sure that all you know, being consistent, but like, that’s what brings me the most joy in work. And then in personal time, you know, if I got COVID, and I gotta be in bed for two weeks and get better, I’m not sitting there like threatened. To me, that’s freedom of making sure that I know I’ve built a solid team, they got it, no one’s gonna die, no one’s gonna go down. Now, it doesn’t happen overnight people, but that is what I like to help people do is have that freedom. So they can have an amazing business. And they can also have their amazing life, family personal time as well. You know, you mentioned a few times, you really your life took a turn for the better. Once you actually started listening to a mentor.

Angela Proffitt  16:26  

How important is it for people to find the right mentor? Oh my gosh, it I mean it. To me, it’s, and I’m being serious when I say this, it is the between life and death. If I didn’t have the mentor that I had, one of my very first mentors and all my mentors is funny, they’ve all been men. And I think the reason is because my I’m the oldest and my dad was super aggressive. And I’m, I’ve been told that I’m very intimidating, aggressive. I’m like, what I’m like the nicest person ever. But I will tell you how it is the smile on my face, like no bullshit is coming over over here. And so I think that for me, my first mentor was through score, which was free. He was an 83 year old man who owned a bunch of nursing homes, Charlie redmon. He’s in his grave now. But he would like slam his hand down and be like, an angel and listen to me, I told you to build a brochure. Now that this is back in the day, I didn’t even have internet at home y’all like that’s how long ago this was. And I’m just like, what is this man know about the wedding industry, he owns a bunch of old nursing homes. He’s so old. But it took me about 15 years after mentor three, and I get a new mentor every single year because they all teach you something different. And I learned that and I’m, I’m lucky because I get I get to be part of the entrepreneur organization. And it’s something in fact, this year, I’m on the board of mentorship chair. And so it’s so important every year you put your name in the hat if you want to either be a mentor or a mentee, or you can do both, I usually do both because I like to give back as well. But I always get somebody new, because I’m always going to be challenged. And I never want to stop learning. So it’s not so much like find the right mentor, as it is to change it up at least once a year to find like a good coach or a good mentor who can use their experiences. It has nothing to do with the industry. I’ve never once had a mentor in the creative community in the wedding industry, they know nothing about it. As a business owner and entrepreneur, we all have the same issues, the challenges the problems, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, find somebody that you respect that you look up to that has a lot of life experience. And so most of them mentors were 20 plus years older than me. And many of them, you know, they still see me as like a daughter to them. But those are the ones that care the most. And sometimes like I’m really hard headed, I’ve got to be custom screamed at otherwise not gonna listen to I’ve come around a little bit.

Angela Proffitt  19:07  

But, but it’s just asking, making sure that they’re asking you the right questions and the meaningful questions. And it’s something and it’s somebody because when you’re your own boss, if you don’t have an advisory board or a mentor or a coach, to hold yourself accountable to I don’t know how you would make it. I really don’t like you need somebody or something like helping hold you accountable to what your goals and your values are going to be for your company each year. It’s so important. Yes, it is out. We have so much in common. As a matter of fact, I can’t. I just got to tell everyone how the very first time we met, I just got to tell that story because Vegas, it was Vegas,

Angela Proffitt  19:55  

Vegas, and we were a wedding MBA right that was so we

Angela Proffitt  20:00  

got this email and you know how people like, you know, try to introduce each other through LinkedIn, hey, why this conference together? And we were talking to a lot of different people via LinkedIn. Ken and I were in the hotel rooms. And he’s like, Oh, yeah, this is woman named Angela. She wants to it looks like we’re some have some interesting things together a lot of things in common. So we’re like, we were like, you know, through email, we’re like, yeah, we’re gonna be in this area. And there was so many people there, and you were helping out a friend there with some video and you guys had a booth. And we’re like, oh, we’re wearing a lovely t shirts. I’m sure we’re gonna come across. And we went around and around, we couldn’t find you.

Angela Proffitt  20:40  

And all of a sudden, we’re like, we’re giving up we’re just gonna go have lunch. And you actually happen to be at the last sort of booth before the lunch room. And you saw me first. And all of a sudden, I had Joe and you like, with your hands up, and you gave me a hug. And I just didn’t know how to act. They’re like, wait, what’s happening? What’s going on a hugger? Yeah, yeah. And I was like, Kenny was like, what’s what’s happening? Like, because you notice my love and your shirt. And we just hit it off right away. We went out to dinner that same night. And the funniest thing happened, because we’re out to dinner, Ken sitting next to me, my business partner you’re sitting across, we went to this restaurant. And we actually closed out the restaurant. We were just talking and talking and talking. And at some point, you went to use the restroom. And Ken looks at me, he’s like,

Angela Proffitt  21:27  

She’s the girl version of you. I don’t know if I can stay here much longer, because we weren’t knowing. Yeah, we weren’t knowing him so much. Because we were like, boom. And Kenny’s a little bit more reserved. He’s like, I don’t know, you guys are way too hyper for me. Too much energy. So it will we just hit it off right off the bat. We’ve caught up to colors a few times. You know, we’re both oranges. Ken is a green, I believe. Could you tell us a little bit about that? Because most Yeah.

Angela Proffitt  21:55  

Yeah, so true colors is a psychology methodology that I learned about when I started to work in mental health. Now, you know, I was 20 years old, but the only assessment that our patients and I worked in the trauma unit in mental health. And so thinking just suffering some crazy tragedy and coming in and being hit with all these assessments. And so, you know, Myers Briggs, and Strength Finders and enneagram and culture index, and there’s so many of them these days, but back then, it was not the cool thing, or the end thing to use psychology methodologies to hire people for your company. And so I learned very early on how all these different assessments could open other people’s minds up, and it helps me understand my patience. And so true colors was the only thing. And the reason, I still think today, I’m convinced is because it’s so easy. It’s so Elementary, it’s with pictures and colors. You don’t have to read a bunch of stuff and check a bunch of boxes. And and and think that you’re getting tricked with trick questions. And it’s like, didn’t I just answer that like, and there’s no right or wrong answer. Right. So you’ve got a bright color, and you’ve got a pale color. And it’s just essentially how your brain is wired when you think about your happiest state. And so, I always loved true colors, because my patients loved it. And even when I started my business, it’s almost like I was using it, but I didn’t, I wasn’t actively using it. And so in 2013, when I really started to travel a lot to all these different islands, and a lot of this staff, they’re like, How are your people so damn happy. And in my head, I’m like, because I placed people in their jobs and their positions by their color. And they’re like, what, like they thought the color of their skin and I’m like, being called True Colors. I’m like, there’s a gold Gold’s are super Taipei. These are the people that are like running the show. These are like my directors on the wedding days, that makes sure all the vendors get there. They’re doing the timelines, like they’re super accountable. They’re always proactive, they always have everything fixed in their head. Then you’ve got the blue people, they’re driven by emotion and customer service. And so on a wedding day, I stick my really, when I say bright blues or hot blues, because there’s a numbers game that goes with it as well. I stick my hot blues with all my VIP clients. So I’ve got a blue person with my bride, with my groom with the parents all day have blue people taking care of the people. Then you’ve got the green people, which the green people for us from our operations people because they asked me a gazillion questions 15 months before that big ass event, and that they were the reason that like the tents didn’t fall. And I’m like, Oh, I’m just thinking of like, the chandeliers and and they’re like, well, how much do they need to weigh? I’m like, I don’t know, how much weight can the tent hold? And then they’re like, well, how much power do we need and how many generators Do we need and how many units

Angela Proffitt  25:00  

And I’m like, Listen, guys, I don’t care to tell me how much it’s gonna cost. So I can make sure my clients cool with it. And then we’re gonna roll right. But the operations people are green, they asked so many questions to make sure that they’re inventing something that’s actually going to work. And so those are the people that are analytical, their research, they’re introverts, and they didn’t ask me a bunch of questions after we knew. And we had a game plan together, and it was solid, we were good to go. And they’re the ones out there setting everything up on the wedding day, getting all the power and the generators and the water and making sure everything is happening, and working behind the scenes. And then I’m orange. So oranges are typically the life of the party. We’re always wanting to sell the next best thing or market the next next thing or coming up with out of the box crazy ass ideas. It’s like, yes, we need people hanging upside down coming out of the ceiling, like a circus, Olay thing and hit that light, and I’ve got the radios, you know how I’d be like operating four radios behind the scenes at a time and my adrenaline’s going and I love it. And then it’s like the end of the 26 hour day, and it’s like, wow, we just pulled off some crazy shit. But it’s like, I live for that. I love that. And, but when you’re not orange, and you’re around, like other types of colors, and it’s really it all boils down to like personality, and your situation based on your environment can change when I worked in healthcare, and I had to be really focused at a chart on my patients every day, otherwise, the insurance wouldn’t pay the bill. And that was a problem. So I had to be very gold in health care. And it’s not that I was an unhappy person. I was good at it, I was okay, and you know, relatively happy. But I really didn’t know happiness until I got out of health care. And I got into design. And I really and I outsource all the planning stuff for our events, which freed up my space and my brain space and my energy to just close my eyes and walk into a room and listen to my clients say the three adjectives that they want people to feel when they walk into their party. And then me coming up with all this crazy shit in my head. And this is before Pinterest existed. Pinterest helped clarified some things. But we we didn’t really use it that much. Because I want to pull the inspiration based on psychology and build something for the client around the psychology. And that’s where branding, and marketing, you know, really started to come into play. So true colors is used for the foundation of everything we do. The very first thing when I go into consult with a group, as Joe knows, is that color as their entire organization. So I know my audience, I can’t go in and effectively identify blind spots or help with changes until I know what we’re dealing with. And I will say it I’m not just saying this because it’s you, Joe, but lovingly, shockingly, because a lot of companies, especially tech companies, they don’t have a good mix, typically CEOs, they hire a bunch of people like them, because they don’t want to be challenged, they don’t want to be questioned, which is like the worst thing you can do for the growth of your company. But because Joe has a business partner who’s green, and you’re orange, but primary, and those two need each other, in fact, one of my online companies that I’m a part of now, I’m really orange, she’s really green, we’re business partners, and people are like, I mean, we’re best friends to people, like how are you guys best friends, like, you’re so different. I’m like, Well, I need her brain and she needs my brain. And I need her brain because I don’t want to do or learn the things that she knows how to do, which they did what the greens do with the numbers naturally, is incredible. We wouldn’t have a profitable company without that. But with the design component, and the marketing component and the people in the energy that’s like a time suck for the greens, that’s all left for the oranges. And so we really are able, much like you and Ken to see out. Ah, now not every time is perfect. Sometimes she looks at me and she’s like we were here. And then you took the conversation to here. And I don’t know what’s going on in your head. But I need you to come back down to earth. Because that’s that’s not going to happen this year. And I’m like, Okay, well then we’re just gonna we call it parking lot. We’re gonna parking lot that over here. So we’ve learned how to compartmentalize pull out all the cool ideas, nothing’s off limits, and put them in compartments. And then we can always circle back to it. But the the the synergy is you’ve got to have all four colors to really run a company. And you’ve really got to understand how to reframe, and appreciate every type of personality. So I wrote a book in 2013. And the company sued me, which it’s funny because I didn’t know that they were like primarily a book company. And I wasn’t trying to make money and they’re like, Oh, you have to become a certified facilitator pay the five grade or however much it was at the time. So I got my

Angela Proffitt  30:00  

certification. So I could go and teach the workshop now and I got to keep my book and then you know, they get some of it, whatever. Now they’re my client. So many, many, many years later, they haven’t they had a new owner. And when the pandemic started, they needed help taking all their workshops and their trainings online. And the owner knew that I was like a tech geek. And I love that I’m like, Yes, I’m a tech geek. And so he reached out to me, and he’s like, Can you help us, you know, really digit a tad, digitize all of our stuff. And, you know, if it hadn’t been for the technology and the platform, and all the people pulling together, you know, they would have been on a business, we’re in a hot second. So it’s, it’s been like a labor of love of a relationship over the years. But it is the foundation of everything we do, to make sure that we are customizing the message the way that the client needs to hear it, or the way the team member needs to hear it. And then it just, it changes the whole perspective of stress and anger and thinking that someone is arrogant. It’s like, no, they’re just green. And that’s okay.

Angela Proffitt  31:07  

There’s nothing wrong with that. Like, what are the four piece to getting done? Yeah, yeah. So it’s y’all, it’s super simple. It’s people gotta very people, processes, paperless processes, the productivity, which again, automation software, and then profitable, you’ve got to be profitable. So those are the four P’s the four foundation pieces that you need to make sure that you’re going to GST, and you’re going to get done. So every company that we work with everything we teach online, every video, every everything that we do, we are always going back to the four P’s. And once you learn that foundation of each of those four P’s, you’re golden. And it doesn’t happen overnight to fix it all. But at least you have the knowledge of what you need to go out there and better your business and keep pushing forward every single day. Wow. It sounds so simple. Right. Right. Do you have any florists that are clients? I do actually one of my very first one of my favorite clients. He’s got a beautiful shop in Albany, New York. And he’s actually was one of my first consulting clients. We did um, Hillary Scott’s wedding. She was she’s the lead singer of Lady a. And her the groom is from Albany. And so this was many years ago, but we went up there and I went into his beautiful shop. And I really wasn’t doing consulting yet at the time, like I didn’t know, like, kind of what I was sitting on, like the information, I was just kind of doing my thing. And he was probably about 30 years older than me. And he had been around for a really long time, super established, did lots and lots of luxury weddings, big into politics. We actually did a wedding.

Angela Proffitt  33:00  

Oh, this is a funny story. And I pulled up in a refrigerated truck. And I’m like, who hasn’t? Why are these hot guys? What are these dogs? And he was like, what’s, what’s going on? We had bought out the place our client, and they’re like, Well, Mr. Biden is about to be here. I’m like, who they’re like Joe Biden. I’m like, Who’s that? They’re like, the Vice President of the United States. And I’m like, Why is he here? And they’re like, it’s your uncle. I’m like, why didn’t somebody tell me but get out of the way. Like, if you need to search my truck, search my truck, you’re running me behind. Like, I need to set all this stuff up. It was like this big production, they put a scanner out. We couldn’t use our phones and our radius. Then I got back into the city. And I’m like, can you please tell me the next time that like if somebody like the vice president knighted states gonna be there. He’s like, but you live in Nashville. You work with people in the public eye all the time. I’m like, Oh, I don’t care about Joe Biden not scared that my phone wouldn’t work. And my radios wouldn’t work. I couldn’t like, talk to all of our staff. Like it was crazy. So anyway, we’ve done some crazy things together. But the very first one we did He’s like, how is this gonna work? You live in Nashville, and I live in New York. I’m like, Oh, um, we’re just going to share Dropbox. And then I’m going to share a Google Drive template with you. And it’s going to have everything in it. And then he started asking me questions. And I we actually spent a lot of time together because we put it together pretty quickly. They were about to go on tour. And so we only have like a very short window of time is right dead in the middle of smack dab winter, it snowed. It was gorgeous, freezing, I wouldn’t used to be that cold in New York, going from Nashville. But he kept asking me these questions as we were planning. And I also noticed his entire staff. He paid for them to have iPhones and iPads, but like they didn’t use them for like the way we use them. And so he started asking me these questions. And he’s like, What do you mean, you have a template? Like, I’m like, What do you mean? And so I’m like, let’s get through this wedding. And I want to come up and spend a week and I just want to observe, like, what’s going on? Because it was just like little things. Like for example, he has this huge warehouse with the most amazing furniture and I’m like, Oh my God.

Angela Proffitt  35:00  

We can use these and these and these and we can take these and turn them upside down. You can put flowers dripping down. He’s like, Oh, no, those are lamps. I’m like, Yeah, but we can also rig them upside down and you can like, hang flowers from him. He’s just super traditional. And so he’s like, God, your brain is crazy up in the air. And so we got through the wedding, I went back up, I spent a whole week with him and his partner, they have this huge house. He’s like, you can just come live downstairs for a week. I’m like, Alright, cool. So I really dove into like, they had all Apple systems, they had no software, they had all this amazing furniture, they weren’t renting it out, they would sell it in their shop. And I’m like, Oh, no, no, but you can rip that shit. And get it out of the shop. And then that brings people into your shop, because people are like, Where did you get that? Oh, that’s a rental at Renaissance floral design. And so I started to teach them and implement like a scanning software like, well, how many do you have those? And he’s like, I don’t know. I’m like, well, when you book these huge weddings, and they want all these faces and lamps and chairs, he’s like, Oh, I just know how I just have it all in my head. I’m like, that is horrible. What if something happened to you? Like, what if you you were hit by bus. And I mean, these were not I mean, they were running millions and millions of dollars, but not just like flowers and floral design. And then he bought linens and lights. And he was really a one stop shop from design. And so we really work together to develop paperless processes, templates, systems, implementing software, it actually sadly, we ended up getting rid of pretty much all of his staff, because they had all been there for almost 20 years, same delivery driver everything. And he had different facets and revenue streams of his business. And so we really broke it apart. And I’m like, you got to get some new blood up in here. These people are, they’re just getting a paycheck. And that’s not what flowers are about. Like there’s so much beauty behind it. So we eloquently let people go, I didn’t know that New York was a different type of hire for work. The Nashville is going through loss, a few lawsuits. But it’s okay, like all of this needs to happen needed to happen. And then I started to get into the profitability part. And this was the saddest part. But the best part is accounting of almost 30 years was stealing from him. And I had to be the one asking the questions. I’m like, why is the Oriental trading on here? Why and he had to go to her. And then come to find out after looking and dig in. And you know, when you’re doing well, as a business owner, or you think you’re doing well, why would you go around and looking for a bunch of questions. Let me tell you, his staff hated me. They called me Mama Smurf, because when they first met me our blue outfit, and so, but at the end of it, I mean, I’m still friends with them today, we still do some things together. But I ended up consulting and working with him for about two years on really putting all these things in place. And he’s like, you know, and you were like this little bebop and blonde coming up here with your big hair. The closer the hair, the bigger the hair, the higher you are to God. And he’s like up from Nashville. And he’s like, but you changed my life like and, you know, we had some tears and good tears, but taking his company and growing it hundreds and hundreds of percentages to making sure that he was working smarter, not harder. And I’m like, you don’t need to take every single itty bitty little birthday when you’re doing all these other big things. And he had really morphed into this full service design firm. And so he was one of my first clients ever, that was a major florist. And then we actually have a new shop out of New York, that a planner had just recently turned to us and said, This woman is amazing. And the flowers are amazing. And again, a lot of the people we work with are on the event side, these very large events, and they need to learn how to appropriately build their teams. And they need to appropriately learn how to do quotes appropriately to quote a project. Because some of these projects are really large. And you get into it, you don’t know that you’re going to need 50 people to implement these huge things that these people are asking for because they see it on Pinterest, and then you tell them how much it’s going to be and some people are like you’re crazy. And then people are like, Alright, cool, we’re done. So you’ve got to be prepared for that and you got to know how to charge for it. Then so we recently are just getting into working with another event florist who is doing some very large installs for people that are doing digital events but they need these amazing backdrops and this is something brand new for her. They don’t know how to how to staff it. They don’t necessarily You know, they’re learning they know the the side of flowers, how you got to order them on two weeks ahead of time. You got to feed them, you got to dethrone them. They’re like kids, you got to feed them for three days and

Angela Proffitt  40:00  

open them up and keep them in a certain temperature and, and feed them and wipe them and make sure they’re paying on time. I mean, it’s crazy how much work goes in to prepping these flowers before you actually get to event go, Tom. And so I mean, for us are some of my favorite people to work with just because I think my heart is in it just because I grew up around with my family. And, and I see the happiness that it brings to people in so many different facets from weddings to celebration of life, and it’s just flowers just make people feel good when you get them, you know? Absolutely. Wow, that’s amazing. Well, Angela, we can talk for hours, I know, hours and hours. Thanks for joining me. Thank you so much for having me. And for any of your listeners, if they want to know how to get done, you can go to gs secrets.com. And there’s some free videos there that you can download. And I share little stories with you and give you little free nuggets along the way. And just keep following Joe and lovingly because they’ve got it together if you lead, let them lead you into all the changes that technology is bringing and it’s not all easy, guys. I get it. But when you have a great leader and somebody who has your best interest at heart and your business at heart, you’re never going to be steered wrong when you’re being led by someone who’s out there taking the risk for you. So stick with lovingly because I’ve been watching it over the years unfold and it’s incredible what you guys are doing. couldn’t have said it better myself. Thank you so much, Angela.

Angela Proffitt  41:43  

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