Jo Dickstein is the co-founder of Flowers for Dreams, based in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 2012 by Jo and his co-founder Steven Dyme. They currently have 31 employees and were bootstrapping until 2014, and have had a few seed rounds since then. They are a Chicago phenomenon and social media superstar. Jo is on The Best Team Wins Podcast to discuss their innovative people practices.

            

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Adam:	Welcome to the Best Team Wins Podcast, where we feature entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has lead to incredible results. My name is Adam Robinson, and for the next 25 minutes I’ll be your host as we explore how to build your business through better hiring. Today on the program, Jo Dickstein is the co-founder of Flowers for Dreams, based in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 2012 by Jo and his co-founder Steven Dyme. They currently have 31 employees and were bootstrapping until 2014, and have had a few seed rounds since then.
	The best learning happens through real experiences shared by our fellow entrepreneurs, and Jo, we are excited today to learn from you. Welcome to the show.
Jo:	Thanks for having me. I got excited when you guys reached out to me, because for one, I do a lot of these, and they’re always … People are fascinated by our story, our history, and no one ever asked what makes the company the company, and that’s the people, so I’m excited to talk about that, and two, of course, congratulations. You guys, year after year, have the most amazing … One of the most amazing cultures in the country.
Adam:	Thank you.
Jo:	And so I wanted to hop in here and see what all the fuss is about.
Adam:	Cool.
Jo:	If you see me walking around the cubicles later, you’ll know why.
Adam:	Do it. You know, we live all the stuff we talk about here, so I’m glad you’re here. I heard that you guys just expanded to offering service in Milwaukee.
Jo:	Yeah, we did. Exciting step for us. We’ve always wanted to, and still plan to expand our business and our offering throughout the Midwest, and hopefully throughout the country. Milwaukee made the most sense for us, because we’re able to leverage everything we have here in Chicago without all the financial and human infrastructure, in which would we start a new city with space and people. We’re able to leverage the delivery drivers, the designers, and the space we have here in Chicago, operate it all here, and then deliver to Milwaukee on a daily basis. Once that top line- excuse me- is great enough, it will warrant an actual space and be able to provide local stems, local couriers, local jobs to the city of Milwaukee.
Adam:	Fantastic. Well, we have a tradition here on the Best Team Wins Podcast. We always start off on the right foot. That’s the best news, business or personal, that happened to each of us in the last seven days. What’s your good news and right foot for the last week?
Jo:	Personally, I’m looking for a new place of living. As of last night, I was looking around different spaces, so that’s exciting. Professionally, the one kind of divide we have in our company right now in terms of like personnel and responsibilities is weddings and events, and daily delivery. There’s a daily side of our business, and weddings and events. We’ve kind of like broke that bridge internally, and now all people, responsibilities, and focus is kind of like Flowers for Dreams as a whole. The designers are working for everything daily and weddings. Our couriers are working for everything daily and weddings. From a financial perspective, and operational kind of like structure perspective, and a company culture perspective, it’s really exciting for us. That happened Tuesday, the whole team has known about and we’re all working this week to make sure we’re ready, and we launch on Monday kind of operating them in the same foot. That’s really exciting for us. That is my right foot. What about you, Adam?
Adam:	Okay, yeah. Congratulations. Yesterday marked our seven year anniversary, so Hireology was founded in 2010, and we worked two years using customer revenue from custom service engagements to build the first version of the product, so we took a little while to get off the ground, but did it with customer revenue and launched the product in 2012, but we’re seven years old as of yesterday, which is pretty cool.
Jo:	That is amazing stuff.
Adam:	So we had a little bit of a party in here, cupcakes, and bought everybody Lucky Seven scratch-off cards.
Jo:	Any big winners?
Adam:	That’s right. We had a couple of $20 winners in here, you know? Some Happy Hour money. We had some fun.
	All right. We’re here today to focus on the people side of your business, Flowers for Dreams. Before we dive in, let’s set the stage. Give us 30 seconds on your business.
Jo:	I started a flower business when I was 19 years old, with my co-founder Steven, which I’m glad you brought up because I’m sure I’ll mention him. He’s been around the journey with me on this for the last seven … No, the last six years, almost. After that seasonal business, when I was 19, after college, we wanted to start, after becoming more and more knowledgeable in the flower industry, an accessible, inspiring, exciting alternative to the existing flower options. That’s a lot of buzzwords there, but right now like the Flowers.com of the world are just thrown in 400 different flower bouquets, and you know, a 1990 catalog with constant bombardments of add-ons and uninspiring, pretty gross-looking bouquets, and we thought that we could kind of associate ourselves more than, to like the millennial generation. Create local stems, local jobs, with like organic bouquets, without growing with, you know, pesticides or different sprays, and for an accessible price. It’s $35, free delivery, and it’s all online, and you could get it same day up until two, and we guarantee delivery before five.
	That’s where the business started, that bread and butter, the $35 flower bouquet, and it’s launched now into weddings and events. We don’t have minimums, very similarly to our delivery business, which is an accessible price point. We do weddings starting at $100, and then all the way up to …
Adam:	No kidding.
Jo:	… you know, the $10,000 or $15,000. The $100 is like one bridal bouquet, for the picture. We do it all. We do it all, and weddings and events has seen, of course, because it’s just brought on a little bit later than the daily delivery, has seen the most growth in the last 18 months. That’s a really exciting portion of our business, and we’re growing out our space because of that. We’re providing a service, and to provide that service, we need people, and to have the people, we need space. We’re just grown into another space behind us. We were able to take on that lease, and then we’re getting the space even behind that, which we’ll really control like a whole corner, to have close to like 15,000 square feet in total space for us to hold our fleet, do our deliveries out of, our design, and then our administrative work. All exciting stuff. That’s a little bit about Flowers for Dreams.
Adam:	All good stuff happening. Congratulations. If listeners want to learn more about the business, what’s the best way for them to reach you?
Jo:	You could always reach me personally. I always give out my email. It’s Joseph@FlowersforDreams.com. You could always go to our website: FlowersforDreams.com, or just look us up on Google or our various social media. We believe in like, radical transparency. We’re always doing Snapchat stories and Instagram stories, so follow us there and you could be along for the fun.
Adam:	Cool. Well, folks in our office love your company.
Jo:	Thanks. Do you see our bouquets around?
Adam:	Absolutely love it. I actually … I think I have seen a couple of them for … We had a couple of relationship anniversaries get delivered by you guys, I think, because I pulled them from the front desk to the back if I’m not mistaken. You guys have the burlap banquets, burlap bouquets rather?
Jo:	Yeah. We have the burlap wrap, yeah.
Adam:	Something else I want our listeners to know, a portion of every bouquet profits a local charity. Tell us about that program.
Jo:	Most certainly. We donate a quarter of our profits to a different charity each month. In terms of a company perspective, it’s really unique the way that we pick those charities each month. In October, we sent out an application, and this year we had over 300 applicants from various local non-profits. We have the company choose. We feel that the best way for us to choose is for our company to be the spokesperson of it, and if our company is going to be the spokesperson of that charity, then they should have the say in what charity that is. We have a lot of fun, different nights in which everyone gets to rank 12 through one, 12 being the highest, 12 being you get 12 points for that charity, and the one you want the twelfth most, you get one point. We tally up all those at the end of the day, and those are the 12 charities.
	Today we’ve donated $200,000 to various local charities in just five years of being in business. The other years I’ve mentioned earlier is my seasonal business I had before this in flowers, but $200,000 to local charities in something I’m probably most excited about that we’ve been able to do as a company. We feel it’s kind of … Or at least I feel, maybe it’s in my MO, that it’s really kind of an act of doing business. When we started, it was just like, “If we’re going to be able to bring in profit, we’ve got to be able to give some of it back.” We’re able to do that, and we thank all of our customers to be able to give us the business to be able to do that for sure.
Adam:	Very cool.
Jo:	Yeah.
Adam:	Very cool. All right. Let’s talk about the people side of your business. At Flowers for Dreams, do you have specific defined core values for your company?
Jo:	Yeah. In our handbook, we have five. It’s not written on the walls, but we have five, and I think it makes up who we are. The first one is, “Do good.” We just went over that, but we quote Martin Luther King. We say, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'” Second one is, “Take risks.” “Whoever dares, wins” is our quote there. The third one is, “Challenge yourself.” We say that every artist was first an amateur, so get outside …
Adam:	I like that.
Jo:	Yeah.
Adam:	That’s cool.
Jo:	Fourth one is, “Act fast.” We actually quote Herb over at Southwest Airlines. He says, “We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.” I like that one as well. The fifth one is, “Make it beautiful.” We say, “Design is a behavior. It’s not a department.” For our business specifically, of course, we have to be design-oriented in everything we do, whether it’s marketing, whether it’s our e-commerce platform, certainly whether it’s our bouquets, our design aesthetic in weddings. We have to make it beautiful, so that’s really important. Those are the five.
Adam:	All right. With defined values, it sounds like they’re in the handbook, and people have access to them. How do you make those real every day and communicate them into the business?
Jo:	You know, it’s not really pushed on them every day. We have a really flat culture, rather than like a top-down. We don’t believe in like, micromanaging. When it’s really just … You said 31 employees, and it is. It’s 21 full time employees, and about 10 part time. Those 10 part time are designers. Those 21 full time individuals make up all of Flowers for Dreams. That is Flowers for Dreams. For 21 people to consume everything that is Flowers for Dreams, of course they have a lot on their plate, so they’re constantly empowered every day to challenge themselves, to make their own decisions, because there was no one that did this before us. Certainly myself, I didn’t get into the business because I had an affinity for floral. I kind of saw the opportunity, so I’m learning from all of these experts as well. I think these five, when giving them the, as I said again, the empowerment to be able to make their own decisions, I think those five kind of roll after that.
Adam:	You mentioned flat organization. Let’s talk about the structure of your leadership team. Take us through when you’re sitting around the table making decisions. Who’s sitting there with you?
Jo:	That’s a good one. It’s most certainly a table. We have two long tables right now, in the current structure of the 3500 square foot space. We have two long tables. I’m currently sitting next to the development intern, web development intern, who’s only been here for about three weeks. Thinking about that now, it’s probably pretty scary for him, but …
Adam:	It’s a hell of an experience, though.
Jo:	Yeah, and I’m able to talk to him every day, and he’s able to bounce off me. Steven, myself, and everyone else on the leadership team, we work right next to whether it’s a part time or full time, and every other department in between. The structure is kind of broken down into various different departments. One is marketing, so that marketing manager works with everyone then, and social, and digital. We have a business development director. That business development director really works with everyone, but most specifically the wedding designers, which are kind of looked at more of like sales reps, because they’re the one working hand in hand …
Adam:	Big channel for you.
Jo:	Yeah, big channel. They’re working like hand in hand with those brides, the grooms, the wedding planners, so they’re very much sales reps 50%, and then design experts and designing those products the other 50%. We have a logistics manager. These are kind of everyone under Steven and I. Logistics manager works with everyone in the warehouse, the couriers, the designers, making sure that the products get from point A to point B. We have a development director who does everything tech for us. He works with two individuals under him to make sure everything looks snazzy on our website. We have a proprietary technology on our back end that runs our just in time inventory as we get stems, and as we put them in bouquets. A lot of different roles, a lot of different departments. That’s about it. Those are like the four major ones. Dev, marketing, design, logistics, business development. Five.
Adam:	Very cool. All right. Let’s dive a little deeper there. Our listeners love to hear about the people model, right? That’s your business model for talent, and so a good example of the people model might be, “We hire utility players right out of college or high school, and put them through the hard knocks program.” Or, you know, another one might be, “We hire seasoned specialists. We pay more. It’s all about retention and care and feeding.” Talk about how you’re looking at the people side.
Jo:	Interesting. Yeah, so when we started the business, we were bootstrapped, as you said, for two years. What we needed during those two years, in which I call them, because I’m a sports geek, is “all-purpose backs.” We needed … That’s what I’ll call them, is we need someone to be able to run, and pass, and catch, in terms of sports. Here, we needed someone to be able to design, to market, to go out and make a sale. We needed … If we were just going to get two or three or four people, we didn’t have necessarily specialists or departments yet. Everyone kind of did everything. The two models back then, the values were actually, and I was looking at this the other day, funny enough. It’s always good to see where you came from.
Adam:	Yeah, sure.
Jo:	Was “versatility is a virtue,” and “embrace the chaos.” Those were the two in our first year. The answer is, the first few years, yes. We needed those all-purpose backs to do everything. Now we hire very much specialists. Not as much out of college at all. Five-plus years experience. We’re at a point in our business where they could focus on specific responsibilities. Of course, with specific responsibilities and experience comes with maybe additional compensation and things like that, but we are very much focused now on hiring specialists within each department.
Adam:	We were talking before we went on the air about, in many ways, hiring is the easy part. I mean, it’s not but it is, because once you hire them, you have to make sure there’s clarity of purpose and defined outcomes and those types of things. Talk about your learning there, and when you’re hiring specialists, who they’re there to do a very specific job, that’s their expertise, how do you make sure people know what they’re supposed to be doing every day?
Jo:	Yeah, that’s a good question. I think it goes back to what I said originally, is that I don’t … I of course like to give them structure, but I want to give them not so much structure where they think that, again, they’re being micromanaged. I want them to run the department in the way that we think that they have the experience enough to be able to lead that department. That’s what specialists do. After that hiring process, I spend two hours with them where I go over the history of the company. I think it’s important to, again, know where we all came from, and to learn from me and ask me any questions. Then they meet with every single department manager to ask them specific questions about their department, to learn about customer experience, to learn about design, to learn about operations, so they could better do their job.
	That takes up the most of the rest of that day. Then the second day, I work one-on-one with some of the projects that we see at least over the next quarter, some of the problems and some of the things that we want to achieve. They go out to lunch– this is kind of standard — they go out to lunch then with their team. They come back. They meet with me the rest of the day. After day two, day three, they’re basically on their own. I have a weekly meeting with each department manager. Kind of the situation we’re in with 21 full time employees and 10 part time, I’m still able to do that, and I still want to do that. That’s a 30-minute meeting and they kind of catch me up on everything that they’ve done, and what the next then week looks like, what they’re about to accomplish, and that’s how that works.
Adam:	On the recruiting side, you’ve got some part time that you hire for, and you’ve got specialists. What would you say are the best source for you of finding the right people?
Jo:	Social media for us, we have a pretty … Should I say cult following on social media?
Adam:	Yeah, you do. You absolutely do.
Jo:	Social media for us has been huge.
Adam:	You say through social, “We’re hiring X, Y, and Z.”
Jo:	Every time.
Adam:	And you just probably get bombarded.
Jo:	Every time. “Tag your friends.” “Tag your friends who would be great for this role.” The friends reach out and apply through our website.
Adam:	It’s a luxury.
Jo:	It’s a luxury.
Adam:	That’s awesome.
Jo:	Social has really grown our business, our brand. I give a lot of it to Instagram and Facebook and everything between. Social is big for us. Friends of friends are big for us. Reaching out direct through LinkedIn. We do a lot of that as well, because we … Like floral designers specifically are harder. They’re maybe not actively searching for their next professional opportunity. They’re floral designers. They love floral design. Finding floral designers is a little bit different than the common maybe white collar. We are actively looking for designers through LinkedIn, then we do a lot of other various channels of companies to outsource it to as well.
Adam:	Not job boards?
Jo:	Not as much job boards. We fiddle around with like Indeed and stuff, but then that’s more for like temp courier positions, temp Mothers Day, Valentine’s Day positions. There’s some amazing applications that you could find that will staff … I mean, staffing agencies, but it will staff now with, like, the on-demand hype. We’ll staff within 90 minutes and we’ll have someone there to fill responsibilities. It’s really amazing stuff. We do it all, really.
Adam:	On the hiring process, you’ve got folks into the top of the funnel. That sounds like the easy part for you, which is great. Take us through your hiring process. What’s the experience like if you’re considering me for working at Flowers for Dreams?
Jo:	We’d love to have you. If so, if you already …
Adam:	Great. Put me on a bike.
Jo:	Great. Yeah, right. It depends on the department, again, but it’s pretty standard in this way. One, I’m very much, if I already haven’t made it clear, involved in all of the hiring process. I’ve told everyone and I’ve made it clear to myself that I want to be, no matter how big we get, I think as you’re in a similar boat, people are everything. I want to be able to do the last round interview, whether it’s a Skype across the country. I need to be able to at least see them and feel them.
Adam:	I do the same thing here. As a matter of fact, before you came, I interviewed a friend, an engineer we’re going to make an offer to. I don’t ever want to manage a company- we’re about 120 employees now- where I don’t know something about everybody when they start.
Jo:	I’m with you.
Adam:	I’m not going to let that go.
Jo:	I’m with you. The manager of that department sorts through the resumes. We find, you know, some are five, some are six, some are three that we really like. We have me and the manager of that department, have a phone conversation with them. Usually we bring it down to like three or four, in which we bring in for an in-person interview. That in-person interview is with myself and with the manager. Then there’s a second in-person interview in which they meet with everyone at the company. I should say everyone, someone in each department, very similar to when they start. When they start obviously it’s a little bit more structured, but this is just for them to ask questions, learn about what their experience is like, learn about the obstacles that they face. Then they come back to me and Steven for the last kind of round-up after that. After a phone conversation and two in-persons, usually we’re ready to make a decision.
Adam:	Through that process, what’s the most important thing you and the team are doing to make sure you’ve got the right person?
Jo:	I think that there’s two things in there. One is that Steven and I are completely embedded to making sure that we hire the right people. Now and into the future we’ll always be a part of the process. I think the second is team. I don’t want them to be jaded by what I said or what Steven said, or what their one or two phone conversations was like. I want them to talk to our couriers. I want them to be able to talk to people that are receiving our flowers in our back garage. I want them to learn about everything that has to do with Flowers for Dreams so there isn’t any over-promising, and there isn’t any, again, kind of like thought that’s a little bit jaded. I want them to know every single part of the business that they have questions on, so when they’re ready to accept, they know exactly what to expect.
Adam:	No surprises. No surprises. Have you ever had an experience where a new hire comes to you two or three days later and says, “This isn’t for me. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Jo:	No. It hasn’t been that dramatic after two or three days, but I could certainly look over across the table after maybe a week or two and be like, “Hmm.”
Adam:	Not liking it.
Jo:	Yeah. “This person is struggling for sure.”
Adam:	Sure. Do you have a favorite interview question?
Jo:	I have two. I think the most generic question which people say all the time, but I put enormous amount of value in it, is, “What’s your three to five year plan?” The reason why I put enormous value in it is because, this is going to sound cliché, but I think that success comes from a plan. Imagine if you were just here, Adam, fly-by-night with the company, and had no direction, no plan, no care for what the company was in a month, or 12 months, or two years, right?
Adam:	Have you been talking to somebody here about how I manage?
Jo:	No.
Adam:	Just kidding. That’s totally how we do it here.
Jo:	I think that’s just being a leader 101, so I think that’s the same thing with your life. Like, if you don’t … It could be as small as something of, “I want to get a dog, and I want to be able to run a marathon,” but like, give me something. If you have a plan, you will of course put maybe smaller steps to get to that plan, and that’s where success comes from, is some sort of plan. The thing that I hate, everyone, if you’re listening and about to go into a job interview with me, I don’t like when someone says, “Oh, I hate that question.” Or, “Oh, I really don’t have one.” Not for me.
	Number two is, it’s a unique one, and we say this. I think it’s fun to see how people respond, is, “Do you consider yourself lucky?” A lot of people say, “Yeah, I found a $20 bill on the ground today.” Or say, “No, I don’t have luck, because everything I do, I put in the work for it.” Or, “Yeah, I’m lucky because I’m able to interview for this job.” I think it’s interesting to see people’s perspective on that question.
Adam:	Is there a right answer you’re looking for?
Jo:	No. I always say, “There’s never a right answer, but I’m curious on how you’re going to respond.”
Adam:	You know what’s interesting? There actually is a right answer to that question.
Jo:	Yeah? Give it to me.
Adam:	We have in our … It’s funny you should say that. In the interview guides we make, question number one on the phone screen is, “20 years from now, what do you see yourself doing? Okay, now a year from now, what does that look like?” We’re trying to connect some dots, for all the reasons you mentioned. Second, there’s a question in one of our interview guides that says, “On a scale of one to 10, how lucky would you say you are?” What we’ve found in regression testing the answers is that people who answer less than eight tend to be lower performers than those that answer eight or better. It has less to do with luck than it does with workplace attitude, and this notion of, “I have a positive disposition toward the work I’m doing.” What our data and what the research can show is that this notion of, “I’m lucky,” translates directly to, “I’m in a good mood most days.” People with positive mental approach to their day tend to be better performers.
Jo:	That’s a great perspective on it. I agree with you. I want people to say yes. I want them to have a positive attitude. Those ones in which to say that there’s no right or wrong answer, and they say, “No, I’m not lucky. My life kind of stinks.” Then probably not going to have a good attitude, not going to have high performance then in the job, in the workplace.
Adam:	Yeah, and won’t be much fun to work with. That’s for sure.
Jo:	Certainly.
Adam:	What’s the biggest people-related lesson you’ve learned since launching the company?
Jo:	My mom and maybe your mom, and I’ll speak for my mom, when growing up- I think maybe this is common- would always say, “Treat your neighbor the way that you’d want to be treated.” I think in work it’s the complete opposite. I think you treat your employees the way that they want to be treated. What we do, we do a lot of different things there. What we do is, and we just finished one up, but every four months we have listening sessions. Steven and I sit down, we take two days, and we have back to back to back to back meetings for 20 minutes, and we do everything but talk. We just listen. They come and there’s no structure. If they don’t have much to say, then maybe we’ll pin a few personal questions at them, social questions and things we want to learn more about them. But we take probably like 10%, those common threads that everyone is talking about, whether it’s a person, whether it’s responsibility, whether it’s poor heating. I have no clue what they’re going to say, but we take those and we change it.
	I think that’s really important, because what we’ve learned, and just for a few examples here, of treating the employees the way that they want to be treated, one, if I were to treat them all the way I’d want to be treated, tomorrow we’d probably have massive burnout, or just a mass exodus. We learned that there was a lot of student debt, and so we brought on the Chicago-based company Peanut Butter, to help out with it.
Adam:	Yeah, we use them too.
Jo:	Oh, awesome.
Adam:	Yeah. Free plug, Peanut Butter. Check them out.
Jo:	We also learned that travel is really important to our employees, so now for our three-year anniversary, for three years with the company, we give them round trip airfare and pay for a three-week vacation.
Adam:	That’s awesome.
Jo:	Really awesome.
Adam:	Okay.
Jo:	Yeah. Where’s my three-year anniversary? I need one.
Adam:	That’s pretty cool. I like it.
Jo:	We learn things like that, and so I think that’s the most common lesson that I’ve learned myself, is to treat employees the way that they want to be treated, not the way that you want to be treated.
Adam:	All right. Final question, then, to boil it all down. Do you have a personal philosophy toward managing the people side of your company?
Jo:	That would probably be it, is, “Treat them the way that they want to be treated.” I like that philosophy.
Adam:	I like that. I like it. Okay, a couple of quick hit questions here. Lightning round to end us up.
Jo:	Oh god.
Adam:	As you look at the year in just broader, in the economy, you sell to consumers. Based on what you’re seeing right now, do you feel like things are getting better, or things are getting tougher for people?
Jo:	Through all the craziness, I actually do see some good, but I have a lack of excitement of leadership, a lack of … Then so I’m unfortunately just going to have to say “pass” on that one.
Adam:	Sure. Sure, okay. Do you think it’s going to get harder or easier for your company to find the people you’re looking for?
Jo:	The pool of people is getting smaller, and for that it’s making it more difficult. I think the ways of getting that small pool is becoming easier, and so I think overwhelmingly enough, it’s becoming easier. I was talking to you earlier about it, what we use, an app for some of our temp work for Valentine’s Day and Mothers Day where we scale it from 10 to 15 drivers to 100 plus drivers that are able to staff temp workers within 90 minutes and have that person into your space in 90 minutes.
Adam:	Through an app.
Jo:	Through an app, through a click of a button.
Adam:	That’s pretty awesome.
Jo:	Thinking about where we came from, or maybe not where me or you came from, but long ago, you’d post jobs in the newspaper and hope someone would come to the door the next day or something. Little bit different now. It’s much easier to be able to find the people, but the pool is small.
Adam:	Yeah. All right. Yeah, I remember starting in the staffing industry in 1998 as my first job. Someone called in an open job, or a rec as we called it. You could do same-day by miracle, but it was next-day, two days. I mean, you had to call people, bring them in, talk to them, do the paperwork, like all the stuff. All right. What book are you reading right now, and would you recommend it?
Jo:	I just bought it. It’s on my nightstand. The Laws of Success by Napoleon Hill, and so … Do you have it? Get the hell out.
Adam:	Okay, so here, you can’t see this if you’re listening. It’s Napoleon Hill, Success Through Positive Mental Attitude. I have to tell you this crazy story. There is a barbershop in the pedway in this building called Spa Di La Fronza, and it’s run by a man named Frank La Fronza. Frank’s been there for 40 years in the pedway here, under the Aon Center here in Chicago, and is just the most awesome human being to hang out with. He gives good haircuts, but he’s also a fascinating guy. He cut Harry Cary’s hair for 35 years. I’m holding a copy here of Success Through Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill, and W. Clement Stone, and so Frank gave me this book this morning. Literally, funny you bring it up. Now check this out, and what I’m doing, I’m opening it up. It is autographed. An autographed copy by W. Clement Stone. For anybody who knows W. Clement Stone, you know that W. Clement Stone and Pat Ryan Senior combined businesses and that’s where Aon Insurance came from. He cut W. Clement Stone’s hair for years. I mean, this guy is …
Jo:	All right, well now I know where I’m getting my next haircut.
Adam:	You gotta go down there and see the guy.
Jo:	I’m all about the barbershop feel. I need conversation during it.
Adam:	He’ll pour you a scotch if you go after four. He’ll pour you a Macallan, cut your hair, and tell you stories from the old country. This guy is awesome. You gotta go.
Jo:	I’ll let you know how my experience is.
Adam:	Spa Di La Fronza. Okay. If you were coming back on this show a year from now and were telling us whether or not you accomplished the most important thing on your plate right now, what is that thing?
Jo:	Scale. We want to scale this company through other cities just besides Milwaukee, and we want to put in scalable solutions to be … Well, not based around as much the people, but in infrastructure and technology that anyone could come in and operate on. We have an amazing blessing of an incredible amount of money on the top line. We’ve got to put in some even better systems to be able to help us scale, so I’ll see you in 12 months. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Adam:	All right. That’s the final word. You’ve been learning from Jo Dickstein, co-founder at Flowers for Dreams. Jo, thanks for being with us on the program.
Jo:	It was a pleasure. Thank you.
Adam:	All right. That’s a wrap for this episode of the Best Team Wins Podcast, where we feature entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to incredible results. I’m Adam Robinson, author of the book The Best Team Wins, which you can find online at www.TheBestTeamWins.com. We’ll see you next week.