POST January/February 2015

interview
I’m really hard on myself about procrastinating.
I don’t allow myself to procrastinate.
Because it’s too heavy.
I just don’t want that burden. But, really, I
like all of what I do. But the flowers are really
the heart and the soul. I mean, like really the
heart of the store, for sure.
Many of your employees have been with you
for a long time.
We have a couple of people that have been
with us for almost 30 years.
Like Ben.
Ben took the 10-year break. And Paul. I
tell Paul all the time that if he leaves, I’m leaving.
So that’s job security for you.
Jeffrey.
Jeffrey’s great. I mean, Edward’s been
there forever. Sometimes people leave and
actually come back and freelance for us. We
require a lot of different talents, and if I find
they do something really well, I’m brutal. I
want more of it, you know. It’s like I elevate.
I appreciate all of these things that either
I’m bad at and they’re good at or I recognize
something like penmanship. If you’ve got good
penmanship, you’re writing the cards. So not
everybody is good at everything. But as a
collaborative, there’s so much talent there.
How did you do in school?
In elementary school, if I did poorly at
something, because of my, hello, dyslexia,
ADHD, whatever it might be, my mother’s
answer—and I don’t remember it being my
father’s, so I’m putting a lot of blame on my
mother—was “Give him more work.” It was
very old school. In high school, I coasted. I
was totally invisible because I was working
full time.
Where did you work?
Josh Gardens in the greenhouses until one
day the floral designer didn’t show up, and
they said, “You’re going to do the flowers today.”
And I thought, “These orders have got to
get out. I’ve got to come earlier tomorrow.” So
every day I’d come earlier. He never replaced
the floral designer, and then I had to do it.
Was that your very first job at Josh?
No. I had a pretend store in my parent’s
16 POST | Issue 9 January / February 2015