Anxiety in the Flower Shop: What you need to know
The episode opens with both hosts confessing the same thing: they've been waking up in the middle of the night. Vonda lies awake prioritizing yesterday's unfinished list — down to calculating that 25 recipes should take about two and a half hours. Lori wakes at four in the morning mentally packing a car for her son's move to Ohio, right down to which mini cooler holds the snacks. Sound familiar? This week Vonda and Lori dig into anxiety in the flower shop — what's causing it right now, and how to actually make it work for you.
One important note the hosts make up front: this episode is about situational anxiety — the circumstantial, business-driven kind — not clinical anxiety or depression. Those are very real, and if that's what you're experiencing, please seek medical attention.
Why everyone feels it right now
Situational anxiety normally comes with a crisis, and crises are usually short-lived. This one isn't. Since March, our bodies and minds have been asked to sustain crisis mode for months on end, and it's manifesting as anxiety many of us never realized we had. For flower shops specifically, the hosts name the big triggers: real product shortages — fresh flowers for fall, containers for Christmas and Valentine's Day, reps warning that orders placed after October 30th can't be guaranteed — plus the struggle to find help, and a busy season that never let up. Shops posted record numbers in July and August, and while being busy is a blessing, owners never got the traditional slow stretch to breathe, clean the shop, and reset.
How anxiety can work to your advantage
The hosts' reframe comes in three parts. First, anxiety is rooted in your need to protect yourself — it's fear producing adrenaline, the old fight-or-flight response, and that energy can refocus you. Second, anxiety directs you to whatever needs your attention: something triggered it, and finding the trigger tells you exactly what to work on. When members' worried emails about product shortages started pouring in, the racing hearts at Flower Clique were unpleasant — but they pointed the team straight at the industry's front-and-center problem. Third, anxiety supplies the energy to act. For some people it does the opposite and leaves them paralyzed — and in both cases, the hosts' advice is the same: write it down.
Vonda writes checklists — one, two, three, four. Lori writes something closer to an essay, then goes back later and finds one of two things: either "I've started working on that, it was valid, there's light at the end of the tunnel," or "why did I ever let that in? I have no control over it and it didn't even affect my life." Getting the thoughts out of your brain and onto paper is how you find out which one it is. And don't roll straight from a 4 a.m. wake-up into your office — Vonda finds that makes it worse. Take a breath, say a prayer, write the list in the morning, and trust what she calls your "unconscious computer" to solve problems overnight.
Know your triggers — and take the minute
You have to be your own best resource when anxiety hits, and that starts with knowing your triggers well enough to write them down. Vonda's shop-owner trigger: employees standing around doing nothing. Instead of snapping, she learned to take a deep breath and think, "what do I constructively want them doing right now?" Her favorite on-the-spot reset is uniquely available to florists: pick up that rose that's blown open, look into the center of it, inhale something fragrant, and let the beauty in front of you pull you back to what matters.
Lori's confession makes the point unforgettable. Four months into her marriage, at barely 24, she was proudly making her mom's homemade potato soup when her new husband looked in the pot and said, "that's not how my momma makes potato soup." What she heard was "yours is bad" — and the entire pot went down the sink, with a suggestion that his mom could make him dinner. He had no idea what he'd said. The lesson: give yourself a minute before you react, and ask whether your feelings are valid or whether an old trigger just got pressed. Fifty-two-year-old Lori would have kept the soup.
Hiring when you're panicked
One anxiety nearly every shop shares right now: finding help — designers, front-of-shop staff, delivery drivers. The hosts' advice echoes their earlier webinar: hire for desire over design. Look for someone who wants to work, wants to please people, and has some creativity — they're trainable. And before any interview, take a deep breath and write out your specific needs, then don't waiver. Desperate, panicked hiring of "warm bodies" is why so many hires fail — the hosts cite a figure from that webinar that 89 percent of failed hires come down to not knowing the expectations.
The best medicine: get outside yourself
Lori's final prescription for anxious seasons is doing something for someone else. Petal It Forward had just happened, and the shops that participated — masked, gloved, handing out flowers — were beaming in every photo. Vonda's version: a standing date to help her 90-year-old neighbor rebuild his dock. Service and physical labor pull you out of the worry loop in a way nothing else does.
Key takeaways
- Situational anxiety is information: find the trigger and it will point you to exactly what needs your attention.
- Write it down — checklist or essay — then review later to separate valid concerns from noise you can't control.
- Learn your personal triggers and build in a minute before reacting; a walk, a breath, or even one open rose can reset you.
- Don't hire warm bodies out of panic. Define your specific needs, hire for desire, and train the rest.
- When worry spirals, do something for someone else — service is the best medicine.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist