In this episode of The Best Dam Podcast, Jill sits down with Bridget O’Neill and her daughter Maddy, the mother-daughter team behind Bloom Boutiques in Boulder City and Bloom at The District in Henderson. They share how a candy store that closed, a line of chalk paint, and a zero-interest credit card grew into 15 years of business without taking on debt.

Bridget and Maddy look back on the pandemic Facebook Lives that helped Bloom grow about 18% when most stores were struggling. They explain why they chose to downsize from multiple cities to two locations, and what it’s like to go from employee to business partner. Along the way, listeners get a personal look at their first jobs, their favorite reads, and the lessons their parents taught them.

DISCUSSION

1. From Candy Store to Boutique: How Bridget started Bloom after a friend’s nudge, took over the original Boulder City shop (formerly Periwinkle Cottage), and grew it organically.
2. The Chalk Paint Years: Becoming one of roughly 800 U.S. stockists of Annie Sloan chalk paint, running workshops, and evolving into clothing, jewelry, home decor, and gifts.
3. Going Smaller, Doing It Better: Closing the Las Vegas and Reno stores and the warehouses to focus on two locations they can manage well.
4. COVID Pivot: Ladders, clip stands, and handmade Excel sheets, plus a runaway rabbit during a live sale. Facebook Lives, trunk-pop pickups, and why paint made Bloom an essential business.
5. Working for Your Mom: Why Maddy calls her mother “Bridget,” how a business degree turned into a career, and her new role as part owner.
6. Life Beyond the Business: Becoming a grandma, choosing to enjoy life over expansion, and the aha moment that changed how Bridget thinks about growth.
7. Debt-Free for 15 Years: Bridget’s proudest achievement, building Bloom without owing a thing while employing up to 12 or 13 women.
8. Funny Stories: Customers are full of surprises, including a request to repaint a cast iron slug trophy.
9. First Jobs & College Paths: Bridget’s start as a restaurant busser, and Maddy’s route from UNLV to Nevada State and a semester studying in Scotland.
10. What They’re Reading: Bridget’s deep dive into the Bible and podcasts, Maddy’s Throne of Glass series, and Jill’s recommendation of The Week.
11. Lessons from Mom & Dad: “Nothing you couldn’t just do,” accepting the consequences of your choices, and why it’s easy to be nice.
12. Boutique, Not Antique: Brand-new gifts, mom-and-pop and made-in-the-USA vendors, custom painting, upholstery, home staging, and Bloom’s 15th anniversary celebration featuring new food lines and local collaborators.

LEARN MORE

To learn more about Bloom Boutiques, visit https://bloom-boutiques.com/

To learn more about the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, visit their website at https://www.bouldercitychamber.com

KEYWORDS

Bloom Boutiques, Bridget O’Neill, Maddy O’Neill, Boulder City, Bloom at the District, Small Business, Entrepreneurship, Mother Daughter Business, Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, The Best Dam Podcast

#BloomBoutiques #BoulderCity #SmallBusiness #ShopLocal #MotherDaughter #Entrepreneurship #BloomAtTheDistrict #TheBestDamPodcast #BoulderCityChamber

Podcast Episode Transcript

Jill: Welcome, welcome, all my favorite listeners. I'm so glad to have you here today because you are not going to want to miss today's show. We have the beautiful Maddy and Bridget O'Neill from Bloom Boutique, Bloom at the District, Bloom at Boulder City. It's just all things Bloom. Welcome. We're so glad to have you guys.

Maddy: Thank you, thank you.

Jill: What an economic development dream you two are, I have to say. We started off with this one great place in Boulder City, which was previously Periwinkle Cottage, so we have to thank Miss Jody Kincaid for starting that tradition here in Boulder City. And now it's this mega empire that you've got going. Thank you so much for being here.

Maddy: Thank you. It's been a ride. It's been a good 15 years.

Jill: That's true. We're going to talk more about your celebration in just a minute. But first, let's get started. What made you decide you wanted to go into this business?

Bridget: Oh, gosh. Well, we had the candy store previously, my sister and I, and that came to an end. A friend talked to me about maybe doing something, and we went on a venture where we joined together and started Bloom. Very shortly after that, her life shifted and changed, so I continued on. Over the next years we grew into multiple stores in multiple cities. And then Maddy came on board. How long ago did you come on board, Mad?

Maddy: Gosh, I feel like I've always worked for you. You used to employ me and my friends, and we had all our friends stopping by the store. But more official, official, was after college.

Bridget: Which was how long ago?

Maddy: Oh, gosh.

Bridget: She got a business degree and then came on board.

Maddy: Probably about, what, six years ago? Seven?

Bridget: I was thinking a little longer than that.

Maddy: Maybe eight? I'm that old.

Bridget: I remember at the time my oldest went off to college, and I was kind of sad. I thought, "What can I do with myself?" I had worked a lot out of the home doing painting for people. I did custom drapery work and a lot of sewing. It's like I needed something. So that's kind of where it started, and it just evolved from there.

Jill: If I remember, you had a special line of chalk paint, and that seemed to be the Boulder City trend for so long. It was all because of what you brought. Do you still have that line?

Bridget: Yes, we do. It's interesting, the cycle of things. We started the store, and a year or two into it I brought in a European chalk paint line called Annie Sloan. We were one of maybe 800 stockists, or distributors, in the US, and we still have it. The cycle has kind of changed for us. It grew quickly, and we had a lot of painters for many years and did a lot of workshops. But then we evolved and turned into a clothing and jewelry boutique. We're home decor, gifts, seasonal gifts. So we've evolved from there. We started out predominantly with paint. I used to do a lot of painting, and then after Annie Sloan came on board, there were workshops, and it just kind of evolved.

Maddy: There's a lot of older furniture painted, sanded, redone.

Bridget: Yes. Now, not so much. I don't do it as much, and I think it's the life cycle of a product. So we shimmy and shift and figure out what the market wants. I still love it, still have it. We are going to come back to adding a few workshops in. But we've evolved into clothing and jewelry and so much more.

Jill: Such beautiful pieces, too.

Bridget: Thank you.

Jill: Are you going to be doing those workshops in the little warehouse, where you did some classes?

Bridget: We're actually going to bring them back to Boulder City. We're clearing out one of our rooms. That's where I started doing the workshops 15 years ago, and we're going to go back to that space. We've streamlined over the years. At one time we had a store in Reno, we had a store for years in Las Vegas, and we've had warehouses. We've closed all that down, and we now have two locations. We're here in Boulder City and we're Bloom at the District. We're just busy, so we've decided we're going to go smaller.

Maddy: Kind of just focusing in on what we're good at. We can manage two stores, and we can manage them well. So why not just focus in? We know our clients, we know what people want. We're focusing on what we're good at.

Jill: So do 110% and do it all right, versus spreading yourself too thin and only being able to do it 75%.

Maddy: Yeah, exactly.

Jill: I love that idea and that focus. Sometimes you have to go big before you can scale back and say, "Okay, we were really good here. We don't need to be there." That bar can always change, and I think it's great that you have the foresight to realize what you're good at instead of trying to be good at everything. You're sticking to the nitty-gritty. I love it, and obviously I'm a huge supporter. I've referenced the programming you did during COVID, being one of those stores that could excel even under such tragic circumstances, come up with ideas on your feet, evolve, and figure out what worked. I remember feeling so left out if I couldn't be on one of the calls or on one of your Facebook posts.

Maddy: We did a lot. I remember everyone else freaking out about COVID, and I remember sitting there at the table thinking, "We don't have time to freak out. We have all our Easter decor out, and it needs to leave." Easter is a very specific time of year. 

We couldn't store it. We couldn't keep it. And I remember at that time we did not have what do you call it, a shared brain between our point of sale system, our computer inventory, and our records. None of that was cohesive, shared knowledge. So we would go in every day and inventory a specific product and say, "Okay, how many do we have? Let's hop on the website and change the number from six to four. I don't know where the two went, but we only have four." 

We had to do that every day. Even product photos, we didn't have those. Our companies didn't supply any. So we had to take product photos, write the descriptions, and do the weight on the website. We had to build it all ourselves, without any of the knowledge.

Bridget: Interestingly enough, we actually grew our business during COVID. I want to say it was by about 18%. We found a way. It was all hands on deck. We had Maddy's boyfriend, Hans, in there. We were doing Facebook Lives in my backyard.

Maddy: The Facebook Lives were huge.

Bridget: Huge. I remember one time a rabbit ran across the yard, and my dog took off after the rabbit. The camera went down, and people were commenting, and they were engaged. We gave them something to do, basically. And with that, they wanted to shop. Everybody knows a good auction or a good bidding war. They wanted to grab it before it was gone.

Maddy: That was the thing. We were so small quantity. We're a small store, we don't have a lot. Even the clothes we order, we get two smalls, two mediums, and two larges, and that's it until we can reorder. So even back then, with the home decor and the candles, we had small quantities. We'd say, "All right, we've got four." And I remember with those Facebook Lives, we had to bring in our own family. "Okay, Ariel, my sister, you're going to read off the names to Maddy in the background, but do it quietly because it can't be on the microphone." Then I'm on an Excel spreadsheet that I built myself, typing in, "Okay, item three is this product and it goes for this much. We're doing whatever sale. Then give me the client names." I'd have to punch them in, and a lot of times with Instagram or Facebook, people make up their names, so I didn't have the real name. It would be something like "Best Biggest Mama," and I'm thinking, "Who is that?" We were trying to figure it out.

Bridget: Everything happened live, too. I remember having a ladder set up with a little clip stand so we could put number one to show the item number.

Maddy: Yeah, that was someone's job, changing the number. And then the stand would fall over, on that ladder.

Bridget: I think now there are a couple of big companies that do this. I can't think of the name, sorry.

Jill: They actually have software now?

Bridget: Yes, software built for this.

Maddy: It keeps the record of everyone who's bidding, and it sends the information to them live, right then.

Jill: Well, they started because of COVID.

Bridget: Yeah. And to put it in a nutshell, what we were doing is we might pick 50 items in our store. We had multiples of those items, and we would talk about the item. People would say, "Mine," and it would be taken, and the next day we would go in, pack it up, and send an invoice. Some customers would pull up and pop their trunk, and we would put it in their car. That was me.

Maddy: Yes. You'd have gloves and a mask on, going, "Okay, here you go."

Bridget: "Don't touch it for 24 hours." I think people liked that because we were consistent when we did it. They looked forward to it. It kept us connected a little bit, and it was just an interesting time. Those were the olden days.

Jill: For me, though, I don't always have the time to come and wander through the store. I make up reasons to come. "Oh, I think Bridget needs this piece of paper. I've got to leave the office so I can take this to Bridget." But it was very few and far between. So when I could sit there and watch, I was buying way more, because I had not had the time to go in before, and now it was right there in front of me and I needed it. Because you told me the story behind it. And yes, I know it's Two's Company, and I could probably get it someplace else, but it's at your store. It's sitting next to a nest, and that made me realize, "Oh, at my house I could put that birdie next to a nest." So now I've pictured the entire thing. I found it fascinating and loved it, and thank you very much, because I recognize you every single time we talk about resilience and COVID.

Bridget: That's so funny. Well, I think too, people ask, "How could you stay open?" And I think why we could do it is because we had that paint line. We were considered essential because we had paint.

Jill: I loved it.

Bridget: And that was kind of our saving grace.

Maddy: That was a big thing. People were home. They wanted to paint their table. They were doing any home project they could.

Jill: Absolutely.

Bridget: It was an interesting time, and also fun when I look back on it. We really got creative. We created Easter baskets, and we created paint pot baskets, and different things. It was a fun time.

Jill: Well, I really appreciate that you did that. You were awesome and such a great example, and I know we reference it quite a bit.

Bridget: That's funny. We'll have to do a throwback.

Jill: Yes, you probably should.

Maddy: Bring back the Facebook Lives.

Jill: Yes. And don't use any fancy software. You need the ladders and somebody changing the numbers.

Maddy: It's just chaos. That's what it is. But I think people like it.

Bridget: It's entertaining. I think people appreciate that you do not have your act together at all times.

Jill: It's real and genuine. They enjoy it. I think it's great. And you've got to make sure you stage your dog and a bunny, because that's the throwback part of it.

Maddy: Right.

Jill: All right. Maddy, I'm going to ask you first. What is your favorite part of this job? This career, really.

Maddy: Oh, gosh. It kind of is a career for me, huh? I think it's the fact that working in a small business versus a big retailer, a big department store, not all days are the same. My schedule is very different from clocking in and doing a standard nine to five and having to be in one spot. Yes, I work the District a lot, and usually I'm there. But even today, I hopped to Boulder City, and I was at Bridget's house this morning doing the calendar and trying to get that done. I feel like my favorite part is just that it's not boring. I can hop around and do the things. Sometimes my boyfriend will ask me, "What did you do today?" and I sit there going, "Well, what did I do? Oh, I called this client. I built this product." A lot of it is stuff I can do from anywhere, and it gives me a little more freedom. Now, obviously there are things where I have to make sure I get it done by Tuesday. But every day is different.

Jill: That's awesome. Hey, Bridge, what's your favorite part?

Bridget: Okay, thank you for the time to think about this.

Maddy: Put me on the spot.

Bridget: I think if you asked my husband that question, he would have a different answer. He calls work my black hole. I will say I started it at one of the worst times of my life, after losing my mom, and I just needed a distraction, but I love what I do. I love to curate a space. I think that is my favorite thing. Thank God I have Maddy, because she does the behind the scenes, the POS, and the building, and the computer work, and the schedule. I mean, she's fabulous. She's good with other things, too. But I love to create, whether it's painting or putting the store together. And I also love our clients. I think why people like us is that we get to know those clients. We know about their families and their dogs. I love the interaction. So those are my two favorite things: the client interaction, and being lost in my happy place. I could spend hours there just playing. I never say money first. Isn't that funny? I always say I don't do this for a paycheck. I really do enjoy it.

Jill: That's probably good. That means you've succeeded in life when you can be happy with what you're doing. I love that. Okay, Maddy, this is absolutely your question. What is it like working for your mom?

Bridget: Oh, goodness. You hear she calls me Bridget. You hear that, right?

Jill: I did hear that.

Maddy: Yes, I do call her Bridget. I always tell people, because they laugh when we're in the store and they say, "She just called you Bridget?" I always say yes, because I can't leave a note for the night girls saying, "Hey, Mom said to mop the floor tonight." I have to say, "Bridget said to mop the floor tonight." It's just kind of what it is. But also, everyone gets called Mom, and there's not really another Bridget I know. So whenever I say Bridget, she answers.

Jill: There you go. You can't yell across the store "Mom" and have three other moms turn and answer you.

Maddy: And it's a little less professional. It's even funny. My nephew, my sister's little boy, who's two, since he was one and could really talk, has called her Digit. And he still does.

Jill: Oh, that's cute.

Bridget: That's what he hears the girls say.

Maddy: And then he just recently started calling my dad Im, because his name is Tim. He hasn't mastered the T.

Jill: I like it. Im and Digit.

Maddy: Yes.

Bridget: That's our tagline.

Jill: I'm pretty sure you won't see that on any of those needlepoint pillows. "Digit loves me."

Maddy: No, it's very unique. He'll still say Grandpa, and we'll talk about "Oh, go see Grandma," and he knows. But when he walks in the room, he goes, "Im," and then he goes and gives him a hug.

Jill: And so you know what he means. How sweet. Is it so much fun being a grandma?

Bridget: It's fabulous. That was part of the reason I let the Vegas store go. People ask me all the time. We have clients over in Summerlin, and I was there 12 years, I think. They say, "Why did you close that store?" It wasn't a financial thing. It was literally that I need to enjoy my life.

Jill: A life preservation thing.

Bridget: Yes. And honestly, it's the furthest store from where I live, so in that sense it was the easiest store to say, "You know what? We're going to let this one go." Bye-bye. And if I had, honestly, the team that I have now... I had a good team, don't get me wrong. But with Maddy coming on board, and my niece Evelyn, they think like you. Our parents were entrepreneurs, and they think like me. If I had that team then... but honestly, being a grandparent has been even better, because I have more time.

Jill: That is awesome. I'm very, very happy that you get to be a grandma. Maybe someday I will. Not sure what's happening.

Bridget: Be careful what you wish for.

Jill: That's true, too, right? So, have you ever had an aha moment in all of this? It sounds to me like you just described your aha moment, when you realized, "You know what? There's more to life than production and being an entrepreneur."

Bridget: Yeah. Tim and I have always tried to have our friends' kids involved. We always want to help and do things. I've had some employees, like Billy, who opened a store with me in Reno, and it was fun to see that process. But I think for the first 10 years in business, I either opened a new store or moved a location. 

In some capacity, there was growth. The decision to close Vegas was probably the first time I went, "Hold my horses. Reevaluate." Our growth was just huge. Annie Sloan took it to a new level. I was traveling the country with Annie, doing events and things. So it was the first time I went, "Yeah, there's more to life." That probably was an aha moment. And if I had to say what I'm most proud of, I started this business with a zero-interest credit card. I was a stay-at-home mom. I do not owe a thing. Anything at any store, anything we have, wherever it is, I'm most proud that I could grow it organically. And at times we've had 12 or 13 women employed by us. So I think that's one of my proudest things. I know my limitations. I know what we excel at. I utilize people the right way.

Jill: Looking back over 15 years, that's an impressive statement, to be able to say you've employed that many people. You made all of those lives better. You made your own family life better, and you stayed out of debt the entire time. That is incredible. Good job.

Bridget: Thank you. And I'm excited. Miss Maddy has been with the business, but now she's a part owner of the business.

Jill: Ah, very good.

Bridget: Just recently. I hope one day to be feet up, or toes in the sand. I fully anticipate Maddy will want to take over the business completely. But for now I'm still going. I'm not ready yet.

Maddy: For now she's here. She's not leaving.

Jill: We're not letting her go anywhere, right?

Maddy: Yeah, we're not letting her go.

Jill: I love that. That is awesome. Have you had any funny professional experiences? Have there been any incidents? I mean, you just shared an incident today that I don't think was funny.

Bridget: No.

Jill: But I would imagine there have been some moments where something has come up. Can you share?

Bridget: Oh, I remember back in Vegas. I've done work for some amazing clients. I've been in some amazing houses, and just some interesting situations. We always say we could write a book.

Maddy: Sometimes I start writing it down in the moment, and I go, "No one would believe me." I type it out just to remember it all.

Bridget: And then we think, "We really shouldn't say that out loud." We would never want someone to feel bad. But I've had O.J. Simpson in the store. I've done some local celebrity stuff. I've been in homes that were quite interesting. Maddy's probably had interactions, too.

Maddy: There are a couple, good and bad, that I'm thinking of, and I'm wondering how to obscure it enough to repeat the story. People are just funny. Everyone's got their things. I remember one time, I think in high school, years ago, I don't think I was on with you full time at all. But when the paint was big, a gentleman came into the Vegas store and told me he had a slug he wanted me to paint. I said, "What?" I just wasn't comprehending. He ended up leaving to go home and get it. It was this award he had received. It was a big cast iron slug.

Bridget: Like a snail on a rock.

Maddy: Yes. And I don't know what it was for. There's a little engraved plaque in gold on the front. I don't know if it was for slowest something. But he said, "I've had it for 35 years, and the paint's off. Can you repaint it?" So I had to paint this slug statue. I thought, "Okay, Annie Sloan, this might be one of the weirdest things we've ever used it for."

Jill: That is crazy. Did he love it afterwards?

Maddy: He did. He was so happy. He took pictures. He wrote a great review. He was over the moon about it. But I was just like, "You have a slug? What?"

Bridget: Gosh, you put me on the spot for thinking. We've probably had a zillion. But today we had more of a medical issue in our store, so I hope everything is okay there.

Jill: Well, it sounds like you did all the right things. You got her the help she needed. You can't be in business and have multiple locations and not have some kind of medical issue happen. And you've had so many different events where there's been a bunch of people coming and going. I'm glad that you at least knew what to do and were properly trained. I think that makes all the difference in the world. Well, congratulations on so many wonderful things that have happened over so many years. Okay, we're going to do a real quick getting to know you. I kind of already know you, Maddy. I've been around pretty much your whole life.

I feel like I know you pretty well, too, but these are always fun questions. So, Bridget, what was your first job?

Bridget: First job, yes. I think I was probably a busser at a restaurant, if I remember right, where my sister waitressed. That was my paid job. I probably worked from out of the womb for our parents. We did everything: selling Christmas trees, stacking firewood.

Maddy: Delivering ice.

Bridget: Delivering ice. We had an ice business. I remember doing that one a lot. And we had a landscape business. But paid, I think it was probably the restaurant. And then I went on to waitress for years and make good money doing it.

Jill: That kind of laid some of the foundation. Well, I think more your entrepreneurial bloodline is probably where you get a lot of that. But also, having waited on people and cleaned up after people, there's just something about developing that customer service side of things, right?

Bridget: Yep.

Jill: Okay, Maddy, this one's for you. What's something that people may not know about you? Do you have a hidden talent?

Maddy: My God, I don't know. I'm going to have to think on it for a second. I don't want to veto the question.

Jill: Maybe tell us a little more about college. When you went away to college, what was your original intention?

Maddy: I actually stayed here, so I started at UNLV. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do. Sometimes people say, "I want to be a nurse," or "I'm going to be a lawyer." I never had that moment. I guess I still sometimes feel like I haven't. I enjoy Bloom. I enjoy what I do.

Jill: Well, you haven't grown up yet. You get to have it.

Maddy: So I just haven't had that aha moment yet, and that's totally okay because I'm enjoying where I'm at. But yeah, I started at UNLV. I didn't declare my major until my second year, I think. And then, to be honest, I actually hated it. I was not a fan of UNLV. Granted, I chose to live at home, because in my head it didn't make sense to pay the eight or 10 grand, whatever it was at the time, to live on campus when I live 30 minutes away. I also feel like I had very lax parents growing up, in a good way, so my personal freedoms weren't limited. I could come and go as much as I wanted. I had my own car. After my second, maybe third year, I ended up transferring to Nevada State, and I enjoyed it so much more.

Bridget: And then you studied abroad.

Maddy: I did study abroad. That was kind of a big thing for me my senior year of college. I made a point of going to Scotland, and I loved it. Very different from Vegas, of course. The greenery, the weather, all of it. But UNLV, I know everyone raves about it, and I just did not enjoy it. So Nevada State kind of has my heart.

Jill: That's awesome. And that can be inspirational to all the high school graduates looking to figure out what they do next, to know that Nevada State is right there.

Maddy: Absolutely. And as far as I know, when I was a senior about to graduate, they were, don't quote me, the highest growth in the nation or something like that. They received a couple of different awards. But even the janitor, or the guy who would make the salads in the lunch room, that's all stuff you got to know. It was a smaller school, a little more homey, and it fit. To me, it was way more enjoyable.

Jill: It fit you, and you were comfortable there. I think there's a place for everybody, and that one was your place.

Maddy: Absolutely. I'm glad I chose it.

Jill: Okay, this one's for both of you. Bridge, what book are you reading right now?

Bridget: To be honest, I have snippets of leaflets all over my nightstand. The only book I can name, if I'm being honest, is the Bible. I've been deep diving it right now. I can't seem to focus on one thing, so I have many different books of the Bible that I'm diving into.

Jill: Well, I love that. When I had the chance to have the governor on the podcast, he brought up the idea that he is really more into magazines because of the short articles. You learn a lot, it's compact.

Bridget: The quick knowledge.

Jill: Yes. He doesn't have to feel as invested. And he subscribed, and I now have too, because I am a new believer. It's called The Week, and it's a great publication. It's thin, and you get about 10 to 20 news stories, very middle of the road. It doesn't lean any one direction. It just gives you the content and the information. I love it. So The Week is my new read.

Bridget: I'll have to check into that. I do a lot of podcasts. I think I'm more about that than picking up a book lately.

Maddy: She cannot sit still. I don't think she ever could, her or my dad. So the podcast thing, it's, you know, put in your headphones. You can vacuum. You can clean. You can go drive around, whatever you're doing. Getting her to sit on the couch is not something she does. If she does, she falls asleep.

Jill: Mine too. I'm with you on that one. Maddy, what's your favorite book, or what are you reading right now?

Maddy: I'm currently in the Throne of Glass series. I'm struggling right now, though, because I have such bad book anxiety. I know it's a big series. I know a lot of people have read it. The author just announced she's dropping books six and seven in October, so a lot of people are freaking out. This is my first read-through of the series, and I actually finished Heir of Fire, I believe, the fourth book. I have not been able to start the fifth one, because everything I hear about it makes me wonder, "Is the book going to hold up to how good everyone says it is?" I always have those nerves, almost like the Sunday scaries for starting a book.

Jill: Just read it. I think you'll love it.

Maddy: I know. I literally put it in my bag to go to Norway. If you know the series, you know the books are thick and heavy. I think the next book is Queen of Shadows, and it's probably a good three inches. I carried it all the way to Norway, I had it with me the whole three weeks I was there, carried it everywhere I went, and then brought it home, and I did not start it, because I just could not. I'm still so nervous, but I think that's going to be my weekend activity.

Jill: There you go. You've got a good plan. Okay, Bridget, what is something that you learned from your mom and dad that you still use in your life today?

Bridget: It's funny, I was just thinking about this the other day. Maybe what I learned was that there was nothing you couldn't just do. They never had a stopper for us kids. If we wanted to create something or do something, it was more like, "Okay, how are we going to get there?" So I always felt like anything was possible. I didn't have parameters for our thoughts and our ideas. They were both creative, but back in the time when you felt like "Well, you just can't do that," that was never how we were. All of us kids are pretty creative in that sense. We said, "Well, let's just make it happen." I think that's the biggest gift, to pursue it if the intention is there, because most anything is quite possible.

Jill: I love that. That's probably how you got to be successful today. How many brothers and sisters do you have?

Bridget: There are five of us, and I'm the youngest. And it's interesting, I think most of us have our own businesses.

Jill: Oh, wow. Congratulations to your mom and dad. All right, Maddy, you're in the hot seat.

Maddy: The one that sticks out in my head right away is something we were raised with, and we tell our girls this at work, too: bad behavior does not get rewarded. I think that can be applied to anything in life, whether it's kids or work. Sometimes people come in and they're very cranky. They're very upset, whether you did them wrong or you didn't, or they had a bad day. And I think, "Okay, I'm doing my best to help you how I can." Anywhere I go, anything I do, I think, "My problems are my problems. I'm not going to put them on someone else and make their day worse."

Jill: And your bad behavior is not going to be rewarded with good customer service on the other side.

Maddy: Exactly. Everyone's got their life, everyone's got their own problems.

Bridget: It's easy to be nice.

Maddy: Yes, it's so easy to be nice.

Jill: Much easier.

Bridget: And to be pleasant. It carries so much more weight, too. Who wants to help a crabby person?

Maddy: Greet them and say thank you and have a good day.

Jill: How do you think your dad handled that whole customer service thing? He's in a different line of work, right?

Maddy: He was, yeah. He was a police officer for 30 years. I think he had honestly the same mindset. He seemed pretty chill. It was just, "Listen, I'm not here to scream at you or yell at you, but I'm going to tell you what you did was wrong."

Jill: He absolutely had that authority and that command presence about him.

Maddy: But it was never like he screamed or yelled. I remember that growing up. You guys never yelled.

Bridget: I remember Maddy wanted to toilet paper a local teacher's house. And I thought, "Okay, how do I handle this?"

Maddy: He deserved it, to be clear.

Bridget: Your husband's a cop, so how do I handle this? I just remember saying, "You can do whatever you want, but you have to accept any consequences. You're on your own if that's what you want to do. I'm not giving you a free pass, but you have to accept any consequences that come your way." And she did toilet paper the house.

Jill: See, that's something somebody didn't know about you.

Maddy: There we go.

Bridget: I remember that teacher. He might have deserved it.

Jill: Did you have any consequences for that?

Maddy: No. I was one of the kids who did not get caught. Some of my other friends did.

Jill: So the lesson is just don't get caught.

Maddy: Basically. Or if you get caught, you deserve it.

Jill: I love it. Okay, I want to talk a little more about this fabulous celebration of 15 years of success. Whoo-hoo. So, September 8th.

Maddy: To the day. It'll be the exact day of the first sale we ever had at Bloom.

Jill: That is pretty special, right? And it's 5:30 to 8:00 PM. Are you celebrating at just Boulder City or both?

Bridget: Just Boulder City. Since it started there, we're going to bring it back there. We've got some fun stuff going on. We have three new food lines, so we're going to sample those. One is an olive oil and balsamic out of Greece. We've got Savannah honey. We've got another great food line out of the Midwest.

Maddy: Sauces, chutneys, and jams. Things like that. So we'll have all that out to try.

Bridget: And we've got Sweet Jordan coming in. She's married now, so Morehead.

Jill: Jordan Morehead. Oh, that's right.

Maddy: Another Boulder City business.

Bridget: That's right. In our work, we collaborate with other businesses. Rising tides float all boats, kind of thing.

Jill: And Jordan does the takeaway bouquets.

Bridget: Yes. She'll have flowers there. We'll offer some fun stuff, showcase some new lines, and honestly we just want your smiley faces. We want you to help us celebrate a long run, 15 years. We don't know where it's gone, but we're also kind of proud that we've made it that long.

Jill: That's awesome. That's Abby's birthday, so I will not forget.

Bridget: Oh, yay.

Jill: I will come and celebrate with you, and since she's in Savannah, I'll buy some Savannah honey.

Bridget: There you go.

Jill: I also want to help you emphasize that Bloom is a boutique, not an antique shop. You have lots of boutique gifts, clothes, all brand-new stuff. This isn't repurposed or recycled. You do have some pretty amazing, beautiful antique pieces, but they're more for display. They're not the primary part of your sales. We want to make sure people realize this is a beautiful gift shop. When you're looking for something for a baby shower, or something beautiful even for a wedding present, I know you've done a wedding basket for me.

Maddy: Yeah, we have people buy gifts for first-time home buyers. We have realtors in town who do that. And clothing. We've had people come in for outfits for weddings, mother of the bride, things like that. We do so much more.

Bridget: I still do my custom painting for people. We mentioned we're going to start some of our workshops back with painting.

Maddy: We offer custom upholstery.

Bridget: Upholstery work. And something about our vendors, too. When Maddy and I choose, we don't just say, "Give us that." We seek out mom-and-pop companies. We've got people on the East Coast who make our jewelry. We've got jewelry and T-shirts out of Texas. We source mom-and-pop companies so that we're showcasing, we like to say local, and to me that means made in the USA. We have things that aren't, but we try to find young designers, young jewelry creators.

Maddy: I said it earlier, but we don't carry a lot of the same thing, because it's usually handmade or hand done. We carry a lovely candle line that we've had for years, and I adore it, but it's a one-woman show out of Iowa, I believe. She's making the orders as quickly as she can, but it still takes five or six weeks, so we can't have a huge cabinet full. We might only get 20 candles in an order, because that's all she can make.

Jill: And you're not going to ship them in the summer.

Maddy: Exactly. We don't. We've had people ask for the chocolates and candies we've ordered in the past. We don't carry them this time of year, because we can't ensure they'll get here in that timeframe and be a great product with our weather.

Jill: Quality. I appreciate that you think through those things.

Bridget: Another service we do, a lot more out of our Henderson store at the District, but we offer it here as well, is that we will, in a way, stage a person's home and help them with design pieces, because all of our furniture is for sale. We also have lots of vendors we order from. We'll go into their homes and help design a space or a room and help them curate. That's another service we offer. We're like a modern-day mercantile. We've got a little bit of everything.

Maddy: We've got the products. We've got the service. We've got the opinions. Strangers will say, "Does this look good on me?" We will tell you no.

Jill: Exactly. Well, thank you. I think that's important, too. I sure appreciate you guys. I think this is awesome. I love the mother-daughter vibe. I love that you're the Boulder City girl who grew up and went to school here and danced at the studio here and has now made your way to being a business partner, because this is a partnership now.

Bridget: Yes, it is.

Jill: Congratulations on your ownership efforts. We sure appreciate you guys. You are a huge asset to Boulder City, and thank you for being here today.

Bridget: Thank you. We love it. Thanks for having us.

Maddy: Thank you.