From the Publisher

“Measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”

– Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic

When I took on the leadership of Florists’ Review, I took it on as a fun way to round out my career in journalism. After all, this was a well-established 122-year-old magazine, and I love flowers and florists – and work should be fun, right?

I started my career in journalism back in 1981 at the Emerald Gazette, my junior high school newspaper. What followed was time spent at my high school paper and The Utah Daily Chronicle, as well as Salt Lake City’s business newspaper, The Enterprise, and a group of Oregon newspapers. I finally jumped to corporate communications and then my own graphic design business. But my love of journalism and the media has always run deep.

My love of the floral industry also has grown, and while I’m new to it, my love isn’t. I remember growing up in the Intermountain West looking for early buds of peony plants poking through the melting snow. I loved working with my mother and grandmother planting and tending their beautiful flower gardens. Even seeing my dad’s pride at watching his potato, grain and hay fields grow every year gave me a deep connection to the plant life around me.

Today, my partner and I bring home fresh flowers at least once a week, and we enjoy them more than ever. It may have been flowers that seduced us into this industry, but it’s the people that have kept us here.

Although the last three years have been fun, owning a business is something that no one can take lightly. No matter what the business is, the market is always changing. Owning a business is a dedicated and sometime difficult exercise in working hard to make it a success. The joys of this hard work include meeting each and every one of you and sharing in your success, creativity and joy. I love working with our advertising partners, and I love learning about this forever-unfolding industry.

As it is with most other business owners, this business requires my commitment and creativity every day. But as Elizabeth Gilbert so eloquently states above, you should judge yourself only by your resolve to see your path to its completion. Success and failure will come, but it’s how you manage through those highs and lows that define your dedication to the path.

In the coming months, you may notice changes in the magazine’s business model – both print and online – as we explore what it takes to be a successful media organization in the 21st century. While I don’t know in what ways the future will unfold for Florists’ Review, I can promise that I’ll do everything humanly possible to keep it evolving and growing – and, above all, creating a community for you, our readers.