The Business & Pleasure of Flowers

From Castles to Conferences: Lessons from Abroad and AIFD

• Episode 292

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Episode 292: Lori returns from her unforgettable trip to Scotland and Ireland—packed with castles, cobblestone streets, walking tours, pub chats, and even an ancient gospel manuscript. She and Vonda reflect on the joy of cultural exploration, the value of unplugging, and the unexpected tug of floral FOMO, even when you’re surrounded by highland cows and Guinness.

Back stateside, Vonda shares behind-the-scenes lessons from AIFD Symposium and what it means to lead with intentionality, observation, and personal invitation. Together, they dive into how volunteering, mentoring, and simply asking someone to step up can change everything—at work, in community, and beyond.

Whether you’re a flower pro, a traveler at heart, or someone who believes in learning from every experience—this episode reminds you how powerful it is to stay curious, stay connected, and say yes to new opportunities.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

SPEAKER_01:

She just said, you know, I'm going to share some with you because I love you and I'm going to speak some truth to you. Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

of the morning to you, Miss Lori. I couldn't resist. I'm back from Ireland. Back from Ireland and Scotland. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know. It was fun. I had so much fun. So, so much fun. I knew you would. It was just two days before I was getting a little worried because I'm like,

SPEAKER_00:

have you packed yet? Have you packed yet? And you're like, no, no, I did not. I wish

SPEAKER_01:

not, but I knew deep down in my heart, because our flight didn't leave until like 4.30 p.m., you know, on that Friday, so I know I can pack most of Friday, so... I started back on Thursday evening. Okay. Wrapped it up. Actually, I think you blocked my calendar for Friday afternoon. I did. No, I wouldn't get any appointment. And I made it all work. So we had a great time. So we met my son and his wife over in Scotland, in Edinburgh. Edinburgh. In Scotland or in? Scotland. Oh. We met in Scotland and then flew to Northern Ireland. Okay. Anyway. So we met. in Edinburgh, because you're not supposed to call it Edinburgh, as us Texans probably say. Mm-hmm. Like, what's up, bro? That's how I had to remember it. So we were nonstop. Like, from the minute we woke up till sundown, which... Fun fact, sun does not go down until like 10 p.m. Ooh. Yeah, and it comes up around 4.30 a.m. And so let me ask, Lori, was this self-inflicted all-day sun up to sun down? Yes, you know me. I love to make use of every bit of education I can as history. So I had all of the tours scheduled and all of the hikes and all of the train rides and all of the everything. It's much to the chagrin of my family. They weren't kind of over it, but it was amazing. There was a couple of days that I had back-to-back walking tours and they were like, why? What did you do? It's like, come on, let's go. Let's go. There's more history to be learned. So it was great. It was so, so great. Anyway, I will say that Edinburgh is probably very, very much one of the most beautiful European cities I have ever visited. Wow. I mean, I haven't been to a ton. My son has been to a lot, and he said the same thing. What made it so different? What would you say? Well, I don't know. I mean, first of all, it's just incredibly walkable. The cobblestone streets, the people, every single person we met was so kind. Just all of the places we ate and drank and the pub, just everyone was so friendly. Here's my thing. Every time I go to a new city, even here in the U.S., I always love to sign up for a walking tour. That's like my number one. Sign up for a walking tour to get my lay of the land. And so that's the very first thing we did. Signed up for a free walking tour, usually most places ever. And then you always, of course, want to tip them. This was through a place called Bobby's Walking Tours. And Bobby is the name of a dog. who many, many, many years ago lived in the local cemetery. And the stories about Bobby was amazing. Him and the security guard were living there because people would steal the new bodies and take them to the local hospital to sell on the black market because they needed them for medical research. And so Bobby was this little dog that just lived in the cemetery. Anyway, there's statues all over of this cute little Bobby. So Sarah was our tour guide and her dog, Al Pacino. It's all over. And they were delightful. They not only tell you the history, but they give you like local history. funny stories. Which you were all about. Which I was all about. And so, and they also tell you the great restaurants and the great coffee shops and the great local pubs. And anyway, it was just, it was wonderful. So we did that. We toured castles, which I think I've already told you and Ellie, I've toured like three different castles. And I am really, really feel like at some point my ancestors lived in a castle because every time I was in one, I'm like, I feel like I've been here before. I really felt comfortable walking around in the castles, looking down amongst the little tiny peasant below the wood. And Mark said, okay, sure, we'll buy you a castle. I was like, this is crazy. Even when we ended up in Dublin and went to the Dublin castle, I was like, I just feel very castle-y. Okay. I don't know. I love a good castle. So it was great. And then we went up into the highlands where the long-haired cows are. And you know my love of cows.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. A

SPEAKER_01:

little bit smelly, but very, very nice. But anyway, it was great. One of the things that was helpful is I did not have internet on my phone.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's not like I could check my Slack messages. Which is good. We try not to have messages, Slack channels. Yes, I noticed that. Not include Lori. We've tagged a lot in things. But I will say in the evening when we'd get back to our Airbnb and I did have Wi-Fi. You were at AIFD as well as all of my flower friends. And I would get on Instagram or Facebook and I would see everybody posting. And it's so crazy how... FOMO would just kind of come over me. I was like, oh my gosh, there's Renee or oh my gosh, there's Marlon. He's posting, oh, and he's with Vonda and Ellie. And oh, I wish I was there. And I'm like, why do I wish I was there? I'm in Europe. Like I'm in Scotland and I wish I was there. It's just such a weird, contradictory feeling that I want to be on vacation with my family yet. I also want to be with my flower family. I get that. I do. I understand that. But what's interesting with you, Lori, wherever you go, whether it's a flower family, family, whether it's a flower event or whether it's your family,

SPEAKER_00:

it's

SPEAKER_01:

all about education. You just like to absorb

SPEAKER_00:

whether it's

SPEAKER_01:

the people, the stories. I mean, you were telling me earlier some of the really cool stories of things that happened, but it was mostly about the people you met and the stories they shared with you. Yes. So it's all about education with you. Yes. Yes. And so I love anywhere I go. like whatever city or town. And my husband's the same way. Like we love going into the local pubs, grabbing a Guinness or whatever. I don't love Guinness, but I loved, they have like sour beer there, which I love sour type drinks. I had never had that before. And so we found these drinks that we'd like, I'm not a big drinker. So if I found some I like that I can actually sip on, but you start talking to the locals and I was learning about Some of their sports there that I don't know about, but I love sports. So teach me about those. And then just every bit. And they love to share about their town with other people. And I was like, gosh, this is so great. These people are just so kind and funny. They were just so funny. So everywhere we went, we had a great, great experience. And so we left Edinburgh, went back to Northern Ireland. where, again, my son, that's where they live. And then my husband and son got to go to the Open, the golf tournament, which was crazy. Yeah, so they went there. And then my daughter-in-law and I went to Belfast for the day while they were there. And we just... Went shopping, went to lunch, went and kind of hung out. And then after that, my husband and I went on to Dublin. We took the train to Dublin, met two lovely ladies on the train with us who are locals in Dublin, telling us all about what we need to do in Dublin. So we did all of the Dublin stuff and loved, loved Dublin. And then flew home. It was all over. Wow. I mean, do you think of how much... Ground you covered in that amount of time. It's like, wow, it was one week, wasn't it? Just eight days? And then when we did sit down, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to fall asleep. Oh, in Dublin, we went and visited Trinity College, which is the oldest college. I don't even know how old it is. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, but that's where the Book of Kells is held, which I had never heard about before. prior to getting ready to go visit there but the book of kelz is this the first four gospels that was ever translated into is it gaelic but it's like back in 800 wow

SPEAKER_00:

it's

SPEAKER_01:

crazy and it's was stolen Like these Irish monks wrote it and then it was stolen and then it was brought back and then it was hidden at Trinity College through all of these wars. Anyway, it is still there. The pictures in it, it's almost like hieroglyphic looking. And it's just crazy to be in the presence of this book. And you go through this whole museum before you even get to be in the presence of the book. Right. And then you go into the library, which is this long hall. It's like where the Harry Potter library was taken from in the movie. And it's just unbelievable. So I spent, you know, my husband's like, can we go? No, it's a library. Are you kidding me? You know, it was crazy. And they had taken out half of the books because they're restoring them. They're that big. Wow. And they had these videos of how they're having to restore these. And everybody that goes to the college, those people in archaeology are like having to restore them page by page so they can put them back up because they are so old. It's just incredible to me. Yeah. It's incredible. You can't imagine that a book that was written in the 800s. Say what? It says, it is a handwritten book richly decorated with ornate lettering detailing the illustrations and it has gold leaf it contains the four gospels of the new testament it was created by the celtic monks around 800 a.d which is over 1200 years old wow and the when they found it the outside of it which was covered in solid gold the decor had been stolen So that was never recovered inside of it. Wow. That's fascinating. Yeah, it is. It's incredible. There's a whole, of course, YouTube videos on it, and you can see it. But I had never heard of it. No, I haven't heard of that either. I

SPEAKER_00:

was

SPEAKER_01:

like, I just feel smarter now. Hey, there you go. Anyway, so I came back a little bit smarter. What about you, AIFD? Oh, well, you always come back smarter when you come back away from symposium because there's so many little things that you're like, oh, did I know that? I knew this. This reminded me of it. But this is like a new technique because there were European designers. There were U.S. designers who just did a fabulous job teaching classes or the main stage program. And you could get up close and personal to their designs. And that's where you can take pictures of like, oh, I see how he did this or that. Man, they made their own chicken wire structure and then wove this through it and then it shrunk down. And some of it was really fascinating just to look up close and personal and get into how they did that specific technique. So yeah, there was a lot. There's a lot to learn. There's so much to take in from the expo when we were started and set up our booth and everybody else who was in that room. and the cool displays that you see. We were on the podcast for Jet Fresh, which was super fun. Yeah, that was cool. You and Ellie were some special guests. Brian, yeah. Brian, yeah. That was a lot of fun. And then there was just one thing after another, and Lori and Frank, who we had on the podcast, I mean, they were just so busy the whole time and making sure everything was happening, you know. It was good. Did it make you think watching them to make you excited to be the co-chair of next year? Or did it make you think, oh, crap, what have I got myself into? No, it was good to be there and observe that because Randy Wooten and I, who are co-chairs, took a lot of time observing what is happening. Many times we sat down in the lobby at this one place where you could see everybody go by. And it was perfect because... It allowed us to see the action that was going on, but also talk about, oh, for next year, we need to remember this, or we need to think about this. So the observations were really important that we were able to take in. We're also able to grab some people, say, hey, next year, are you coming to symposium? Yeah. And it made me... remember, Lori, how people like to be asked. Yes. Because so many times you're like, ask for volunteers. Does anybody want to do this? Anybody want to do that? Nobody raises their hand. Nobody does anything. So you pull somebody in and you go, hey, we'd really like you to do this for us. Would you consider doing it? And they would say, yeah, of course. Thanks for asking me. And I'm like, wow, you forget about that. I mean, you forget that people don't always want to volunteer. They do want to be asked. I'm going to share something with you that's very humbling for me. I might have shared it before on here. Who knows? Many decades ago, a couple, two, three decades ago, when my kids were little and I started volunteering in our church.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

They were very, very young. At the get-go, I was doing nursery, started volunteering, and I just kind of evolved from there. And I remember I was at a leadership training seminar for volunteers. Mm-hmm. And at this point, I was kind of in a more elevated role, kind of moved up quick in the ladder, of course, you can imagine. And... One of my mentors pulled me aside one time and she just said, you know, I'm going to share something with you because I love you and I'm going to speak some truth to you. Stop raising your hand. And I was like, what? What do you mean? And she was like, I want you to look around more. because when people are around you and people ask for volunteers they tend not to raise their hand because you intimidate them because they know the minute your hand goes up that's who gets picked like i was i was like oh i'll do it i i was the draw or yeah you don't know how else to say that and at first Like my defenses. I'm like, okay, fine. I will just leave this church and put my kids and I'll become Presbyterian or, you know, whatever. I'll take my gifts. But again, I'm in my late twenties at

SPEAKER_00:

that time.

SPEAKER_01:

So you can't tell me nothing. But I had to sit for a minute and let go. God do a little work in me. And I realized she was telling me this because she loved me very much and she saw potential in me and I needed to grow and mature a little bit. And I so get that now.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I know that I can be a lot in a room sometimes. And so I know, listening to you right there, sometimes our job is to look up and look around and There's people who I feel like I need to ask you. You need to be asked to volunteer because you will do a good job. You don't know that you will. You don't have the confidence to say yes right now. You don't have the confidence to stand in the light. Roughly speak. Right. And so I'm going to ask you to move forward. Right. There were two specific times that Randy and I both went, wow. It was just really cool, though. It just made me feel really good. You're like, wow, that person just really didn't feel like they were ready, maybe. But we saw that they were. I don't know, Lori. It just was a good thing. And there's a couple other positions that we have to fill. And it'll be that type of thing. We have a few volunteers that we can still pull in on, on some other things, but we observed a lot of people, we saw a lot of things happening, and so you kind of get your own list, like, ooh, I'm watching that person, I'm watching. And Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. It really is. And some great new inductees who are ready to step into the limelight or maybe don't think they are, but we know we want to get them involved in things that are going on. I love that so much. And what's so cool is, I'm guessing, again, I wasn't there, but you and Randy attended this year with a different set of eyes. Oh, totally, Lori. Right. Totally, totally different set of eyes because we were observing designs and a few things, but we were watching how the programs went and how people were coming in and out and what people were doing. It was more actions rather than the influence. Right. Right. And you weren't going to like sit and actually learn a skill, like a design skill. You were learning the process. Yeah. The format and trying to put some ears on like, what are people saying? What's the buzz? Did they like that one? Did they not like that one? Is the timing good? Is this not? You know. You had that from all the way from Ireland. I knew. Exactly. I knew. I could tell by the Instagram reels. Yes. Yeah, that's right. We weren't posting any reels, that's for sure. We were sitting back and having little private conversations and bringing people in and asking those questions. It wasn't just observing, it was asking questions too. So it was really good. I know it's early, but it's never too early. But if somebody is listening right now and they're like, you know what, I would love to volunteer with Vonda and Randy, but I don't, like, how would they... It's Vonda at flowerclick.com. Send me an email. Just say, I don't know at what capacity, but I'm interested, right? Yeah, it would be great. One thing that I was told that I need a long list, Frank and Lori told us this, you need a list of people that you can call on and say, hey, I just need this done right now. Can you run over here and do this? And a list of people who kind of have an idea of what happens at symposiums, that you can just like send them a text and Ralph's on that list. Todd Bussey's on that list. I might be sitting in a program, but if I get a text, I can go out and do something for you. You know, those kinds of people, which was really great advice because you can see those things would need to be done because you can't put out all the fires yourself. You need somebody who can take that fire hose and control it for a little while till you get where you need to go. Okay. So can you use people as volunteers that have never been to AIFD or no? Well, if you want to come to AIFD symposium next year and you want to volunteer, I would suggest you apply for the ambassador program. The ambassador program allows you to see a lot of behind the scenes and really volunteer a lot of your time and effort, but still able to see the programs and you have some type of a discount to be able to come. Okay. That's a really great way to do it if it's a first time. But you might just want to come and observe and hang out and see what it's all about if it's the first time. It is such a great value for education that you see so much for one fee. I mean, you can... add on some classes or something that we can get on into all that. That's later. I was just thinking about the volunteer side though, because I think there's always room for volunteers at any level, even if you can only be there for three days. Yeah. Yeah. You want to volunteer, just let them know, Hey, I can only be there for this time, but it's, I'm at your service, you know, if you can do it. Yeah. Because that's where you also get to meet a lot of people. You do. Yeah. And like, you know, the mentors, first time attendees. And that was, I think, such a great thing as they have little badges says first time attendee or inductee. And you could see that. everybody going up to that person. Oh my gosh, how's it going? I mean, we're so glad you're here. And all the interaction that was happening, you know, not just first time with attendees together, but all the mentors who were just making sure that that person felt like they were included. And I really hope that there's somebody listening that didn't feel like they were welcome at AIFD, definitely send me an email and go, you know, I felt like it was a little out.

UNKNOWN:

I'm

SPEAKER_01:

That would be something that we really need to work on. But I saw so much outreach, so I'm hoping that wouldn't happen. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, I know we're both glad to be back. We are. I miss you. It was so hard not to text. I would start and I'm like, no, Vonna, you cannot text. Lori, Mark is going to be saying, what are you doing looking at your phone? I will say, I know I think I've already told you and Ellie this. There were a couple of different times that my sweet daughter-in-law was like, you really love your job, don't you? And I was like, am I talking about it again? And Mark was like, yes. Sorry, Mark. Sorry. Yeah, I just love my people. But Davis was like, they're her good friends, too. They're like her best friends. She loves them very much. That's right. And same. That's why it was so hard not to. Yeah, I was like, it's hard. It's all meshed in. I'm not really wanting to text them because of work. I want to text them because, you know, I saw amazing flowers in Scotland. We were at this park. We were walking by these beautiful roses, just this whole bundle of yellow and pink. And Amanda, my daughter-in-law, goes, those look like those Miss Piggy roses that you always put on. Oh. Jet brush. I was like, oh, my gosh, they totally do. That's great. They were growing. They were beautiful. Oh. That's so funny. They kind of did look. I mean, they were that same color, that lighted. pinkish and then brighter as they got bigger on the outside. Oh, I bet that was gorgeous. Oh, they were lovely. They were so, so pretty, but I was like, so we're just coming off of education of AIFD and Ireland. And then just in a week, we're going to be in a week. Well, it's just like a week, two weeks. So in two weeks, we'll be at SAF. We will be there into the mix of it. I actually had already been started and I, So education again, meeting with your friends there. We won't have FOMO because we'll be together. Me there. See all my friends. And then I just wanted to just drop this on because that's on the West Coast. We're going to be back on the East Coast in September for a smaller event, but it could be as big as we could get it. If you guys all want to show up in Douglas, Georgia, Randy Wooten's wholesale house called Wooten. R.W. Wholesale is in Douglas, Georgia. I'm not sure where the event's going to be held yet, but it will be on Saturday, September 13th in the afternoon. So on a Saturday afternoon, there'll be refreshments and a whole lot of education. And it's free to anybody who signs up and you can start calling Randy or his staff and letting them know right away. But Lori and I and Julie and Randy are all going to be there. Julie Pultner is going to be joining us. And will we fly into Atlanta? Is that where? I think you and Julie will fly into Tallahassee and then I'll pick you up in Tallahassee and bring you on up. Randy and I were talking about that and he said, oh, that'd be the best way to do it. So that's what we plan. All right. Well, I'm excited. Okay. Time to get back to work. Get back to it. Back to more education, right? More education. All right. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add The Business and Pleasure of Flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge in one change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.