Judith Denoon

I'm a dreamer. I'm still dreaming. My drive has always been there - I was always so driven. I attribute a lot to my clients. I have clients that don't even know where the store is at, but they've kept me alive through all these different changes. I went through September 11th, where I had a staff of 8 and went down to a staff of 2 - just me and my driver. Then we had the housing market crash, and then COVID. I'm navigating through all these changes, and my business never failed me. My clients - they don't understand how much they play in my survival. They're always like, 'Oh, Judith, you do beautiful work, we love what you do, we love you,' but they don't understand how I'm loving them because they have kept me in business. After COVID, I sent out a lot of thank you letters saying 'you don't understand how much you played in me still being in business.' They took it as a joke, but to me, it's a lot. They mean a lot to me. And I definitely see God's hand and His footprint in everything. Looking back, I see how everything happened the way it really needed to happen.

The best career advice was not given to me, it was read. I read it in a magazine, and that's where I made my decision. It said: it's not about the money, it's doing what you love. If you're in a job that you love, you love doing, money just comes easy. And it is true. I will never say my business wasn't lucrative, it didn't take care of me. I put 4 beautiful girls through college, and they don't have no college debt. My home - I have a beautiful home. I can't complain. That advice changed everything for me.

I would tell them to respect your clients and respect that money. What I mean by that is when someone comes to you and trusts you, especially with a wedding or when they lose their loved one, you have to be in their world. You have to understand what they're going through. You can't just treat it like, oh, it's another funeral. I don't look at it that way. I respect every penny that comes in there, in every shape and form, because that client needs to have an experience when they come to my shop or call on the phone. That's what I tell my workers when we have meetings - everyone who calls on that phone needs to have an experience. The money, if you do it right, the money is really, really good. But you also have to remember who you're servicing. This person just lost a loved one - it's nice to send them a card and see how they're doing later on. I do that. For the weddings, you always thank them. I send out a thank you card for trusting me with such a big occasion. That means a lot, because most of the time, you don't get a follow-up. And definitely don't lie to your customers - I don't lie to them. I tell my workers, do not lie to my customers. My grandmother said to always be true to yourself, and also be true to others, because at the end of the day, being true to yourself is the most important.

The biggest challenge I have right now is that my industry is under attack from the corporate big box companies. Everywhere I go - Target, Home Depot - they have flowers there. Even the grocery stores are coming in really, really bad. Small bodegas are starting to carry flowers. The other day I was driving down Lafayette in downtown Brooklyn and saw a coffee shop with a flower stand in front of it. I had to do a double take! These big box companies know nothing about flowers - they just want a little bit of everything. They're not making much, and they don't even pay for the flowers. They get their flowers on consignment, so if they don't sell it, they don't pay for it. And they don't know how to take care of the flowers. The flowers are in polluted water with bacteria, and the person buying it doesn't know better. They just grab it, take it home, and in a day it dies. That's my biggest challenge. But the opportunities are a lot. You can get so many flower accounts if you know how to go about it. There's so much going on - schools, offices. If you're in a big office, there's a lot of birthdays. I would tell the next person that comes along to definitely not just send them a letter - pay a visit to a lot of office buildings and find out each department, who's head of the department, and bring them a bouquet of flowers. There's a lot of opportunities in flowers, it's just gonna take a lot of work if they're willing.

I would say family is most important to me. In my work, I would say respecting my clients. I have wonderful customer service. I believe - I tell my workers - do not lie to my customers, I don't lie to them. My grandmother said something to my aunt that I always remembered: be true to yourself, and also be true to others, because at the end of the day, being true to yourself is the most important. That's what guides me. I also value taking time to really reflect on myself. I spend a lot of time just thinking, spending time with myself, and that helped me a lot throughout my journey. I don't think if I didn't take time to really reflect on myself, I would have been able to survive the way I did. And now, in my new chapter of my life, I make sure I talk to God every day. That's something I wasn't doing before - we were living on our own time without asking God what He wants me to do. Now I tell God, this is what I think I want, this is what I want to do, please guide me. If it's supposed to be, it will be.