Celebrating the Anniversary of Flower Clique & the Podcast: A Recap of Our Journey
The podcast turns two, Flower Clique turns two, and Vonda and Lori mark the occasion by pulling two of their "core four" onto the mic: Kami Martin, who leads the One Click program and customer service, and Ellie LaFever, who runs technology and branding. What follows is part anniversary party, part honest business retrospective — a look at what they said the company would be back in December 2019, what actually happened, and the lessons any shop owner can borrow from building something through a pandemic.
The vision vs. what actually happened
Flower Clique was announced on a Facebook Live from Lori's dining room in December 2019 and officially opened for business that January — weeks before the world changed. Lori asks each team member whether they stayed on the path they described that night. Kami says she has been "on repeat" with one idea from the start: have what you sell, sell what you have. Florists' number one complaint about their websites was showing products that weren't in the cooler, and fixing that never stopped being the mission. The founding core value — simplify — turned out to be exactly what florists needed most when the pandemic hit just weeks later.
Ellie's role took more turns. Her big-picture why — helping consumers buy luxury flowers online with confidence, at prices where the florist actually makes money — held steady, but the day-to-day became a constant cycle of building whatever members needed next: systems, courses, automations. Vonda's verdict on the whole two years is the phrase that becomes the episode's refrain: stay the course, and pivot as necessary. The only real change she names is that leadership training stopped being a course and became "a conversation instead of a course," built into everything the team does daily.
What they're proudest of
The answers converge fast. Kami points to delivering the white-glove service they promised — members who not only stayed through the fear and roller coaster of the pandemic, but grew, while the company grew with them. Vonda is proudest of the shops themselves: they didn't throw in the towel, and they rose to the occasion. Ellie is proud of the team's fluidity — when a weekly meeting surfaces a member pain point, they build the tool that same week, even when it means the company's own big goals wait. As she puts it, they've bootstrapped like "this little turtle walking down the road, but the turtle will get to the water eventually" — no venture millions, no hire-fast-lay-off-faster cycle.
What keeps them up at night
The honest section every business owner will recognize. Kami names the double-edged sword of closeness: members have her cell number, they're Facebook friends, and she was fielding "mark the Kincaid sold out" messages during Sunday school. She loves being reachable — and needs boundaries. Lori's practical fix: turn off notifications, and remember that a Sunday email usually just means "I'm sending this so I don't forget," not "answer me now." Ellie wishes she could delegate more, since daily fires crowd out the ten-hour deep-work projects that move the company forward. And Lori confesses her worry is always the people — whichever group is most maxed out is the one she needs to be in the trenches with.
Advice for their December 2019 selves
Lori closes with a time-machine question: what would you tell yourself the night this started? Kami: "Calm down — everything's gonna be okay," though she's glad she didn't know what was coming. Ellie: naivety is a founder's best friend, so just "buckle up." Vonda: stay the course — keep florists profitable and keep serving. And Lori tells her past self the truth of it: you will never have worked so hard in your life, and never felt so independent, empowered, and fulfilled.
Looking ahead to 2022, the team teases new products, new courses, and face-to-face stops — Profit Blast events, Bill Doran locations, AIFD, and SAF — with updates on Instagram at @flower.clique.
Key takeaways
- Simple core values ("have what you sell, sell what you have"; simplify) hold up under chaos better than elaborate plans — stay the course and pivot as necessary.
- Slow, bootstrapped growth protects your team; scaling fast on borrowed money often ends in layoffs.
- White-glove service needs boundaries to be sustainable — turn off notifications and give yourself real off-hours.
- When your customers surface a pain point, build the fix now, even if it delays your own big goals.
- Not knowing how hard it will be is sometimes exactly what lets you start.