December is here! What does it mean for the shop?
Vonda and Lori are back from a Thanksgiving unlike any other — and both came out the other side more grateful, not less. Lori's family solved the safe-gathering puzzle with a sunny 66-degree Oklahoma day: her dad and sister at a little table outside, the rest of the family at the open kitchen windows at eye level, everybody together and everybody safe. Her mother-in-law resisted at first ("just let them in the house!"), but afterward the verdict was unanimous: it worked. That's the theme of this whole episode — the pivot is working, for families and for flower shops. Now December is here. What does that mean for your shop?
The December checklist: installs, poinsettias, and pre-greening
Honestly? By the first week of December, most of the prep should already be done. Holiday installs are in full swing — shops are out decorating trees and homes, though the hosts add a caution: depending on your state's COVID guidelines, in-home decorating may be restricted, so choose your installs carefully and protect both your employees and your reputation. Pre-ordered poinsettias are rolling in the door and heading right back out for delivery. And this week, shops should be pre-greening containers and getting them into the cooler, ready for flowers to drop in and head out the door during the rush.
Pre-greening has a fun Flower Clique footnote: it's a whole segment in Flower Prep School, and members with new employees are putting it to work — Donna at Elaine's posted pictures of her young daughter proudly pre-greening for Christmas after going through the training. Lori's 2021 goal: get into a member shop and finally practice her own pre-greening in real life.
Virtual open houses, VIP groups, and Facebook contests
The creativity level among shop owners right now is at an all-time high, and the hosts run through a highlight reel of members doing it well:
Josh at Nature's Best Florist runs Facebook Lives a couple of times a day and created a private VIP group called "Nature's Besties" — an elite-feeling club where he drops extra lives and members-only offers ("until noon today, my Besties get 10 percent off"). Everybody wants in, and that's the point.
Janet at McCandless runs a weekly voting contest: she posts three designs on Sunday or Monday, followers vote A, B, or C, and Friday she draws a winner live. Everyone shows up to see if they won, the winner gets tagged and photographed (masked and distanced) picking up their prize, and the post lands on the winner's personal page — extending the shop's reach to a whole new circle of friends.
Julie at Fountain of Flowers is posting story-driven product features that draw customers in — because when a customer can see themselves in the story (a cute journal, cocoa with Christmas-tree marshmallows), that's when the purchase happens. Lloyd's Flower Shop moved its traditional ladies' night out to a ladies' night online, and Renee is running a virtual wreath class where customers buy a kit for pickup or local delivery. Pivot is the word of 2020, and customers are saying yes to all of it.
Full Bloom check-in
The hosts are still obsessed with HBO Max's Full Bloom — Vonda binged four episodes over Thanksgiving with Ellie and Tyler providing running commentary. Following last week's interview with cast member Beth O'Reilly, Ace Berry is set to join the podcast next, and the big news: the show has reportedly signed on for season two, with auditions coming. Would Vonda ever compete? The short answer is yes — the long answer is she'd want more than ten minutes to dream up a concept, though she'd have crushed the chandelier challenge. Lori, meanwhile, admits she'd need a paper bag and a cold compress the moment the timer started. Vonda notes the closest professional parallel: the AIFD evaluation, where designers complete five designs in four hours. For post-episode laughs, they recommend the Floral Observations commentary on YouTube.
Gratitude, hard lessons, and community
A stranger at the UPS store summed up the season for Vonda: nobody's in a hurry anymore, people are kinder, and "everybody has started to appreciate what they have more than we ever have in our lifetime." Lori shares a line she circled in a filter-free book by her friend Dr. Nicole Price, who teaches leadership and diversity training: hard-earned lessons are still lessons you can learn from. It reminded Vonda of her dad and the "school of hard knocks" — the hard way he learned lessons became the advice that shaped her: if you're going to work this hard, work for yourself.
That's also why community matters so much right now. In a recent Flower Clique Shoptalk Zoom, a frustrated new member vented about wire service statements — and five members immediately jumped in with "we've been there, we can help," with four following up afterward to make sure she got it. Lori ties it to a long-running Harvard study on longevity: the people who lived longest and happiest shared one main variable — close-knit community, not quantity of connections. Her closing challenge: make gratitude a discipline. Write down one thing every morning, and on the days you can't think of anything, look back at yesterday's.
Key takeaways
- December week one: installs underway (mind your local guidelines), poinsettias out the door, and containers pre-greened and in the cooler now.
- Build belonging into your marketing — VIP groups, weekly voting contests, and story-driven posts multiply engagement and reach.
- Move your traditional events online: virtual open houses, ladies' nights, and wreath-class kits are all working for real shops right now.
- Hard-earned lessons are still lessons — the pandemic pivots you're making now are teaching you how to run a stronger shop.
- Community is a longevity strategy, in life and business. Find your people, and write down one gratitude every morning.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist