Episode 21: Interview with Sharon McGukin AIFD, PFCI: What's Next - Selling Flowers in 2020/2021
"Change happens for you, not to you." That line alone earned Sharon McGukin a place in Lori's five pages of notes. In this one-on-one conversation with Vonda, the internationally known designer, educator, author, design director for Smithers-Oasis, and past president of AIFD looks past the shutdowns to the question every florist was asking in 2020: what's next — and how do we sell flowers in a world that just hit pause?
After the pause comes the reset
Sharon frames the pandemic as the "recognizable shift" her high school government teacher once predicted would come in her lifetime. We all said we wished for more time, more rest, more family — "and our universe paused." Growth hurts, she says, like watching a flower burst into bloom in slow motion, but after a pause comes a reset. She's careful to note she's not preaching from a comfortable seat: all of her jobs disappeared in the space of a week too. The difference is what she did next — she sat down and wrote goals for how to change with it, because inside every change are hidden opportunities waiting to be treated as stair steps.
Set one, five, and ten year goals
Sharon's lifelong practice — one she taught her children — is to write one, five, and ten year goals, not on January 1 but whenever change arrives. The ten-year destination dictates the five-year milestone, which dictates year one, which dictates what you start today. That's how she wrote her self-published book: it took two years instead of the planned one, but without the timeline it would never have happened at all. Her advice echoes Eleanor Roosevelt — the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams — so write the dream down, then list the steps, the new people to connect with, and the new skills to learn.
Play to your strengths, delegate your weaknesses
You can't be all things to all people — florists have heard it for years, but Sharon says now is the moment to finally act on it. Make a list of what you love to do versus what you make yourself do, because someone else might love the tasks you dread — and if they love it, they'll do it better. Delegate your weaknesses and give that person permission to do it their way. She quotes a favorite line about creativity: what distinguishes highly creative people is "the ability to see possibilities that others don't — or in other words, vision." The dream becomes a vision, the vision becomes a challenge, the challenge becomes an opportunity, and the opportunity is an absolute possibility.
Pop-ups, tea on Tuesday, and the experience economy
For shops that can't yet reopen full-steam, Sharon's practical menu is long. Run pop-up shops around the events that were canceled — celebrate graduating seniors with flowers and balloons on what should have been graduation day, or a "thank goodness it's Friday flowers" pop-up. Consider downsizing and renting out extra space as offices, which brings new foot traffic in the door. Offer pay-to-play design tables where customers buy the flowers and container and make their own arrangements. Host garden club meetings, local artist exhibits, book signings, Facebook Lives. One shop owner's "tea on Tuesday" turned a small-town social hour into a weekly shopping trip, as regulars kept lists of what to pick up while they were in anyway.
Vonda adds the virtual layer: virtual bouquets (a reimagined gift certificate — send a framed picture of flowers now, deliver when the recipient chooses), virtual open houses, Zoom demos, and Zoom classes with curbside-pickup flower boxes. The non-negotiable in all of it: your in-store and online brands must match. A fabulous website leading to a disappointing shop — or a gorgeous shop with a generic online presence — commits what Sharon calls the cardinal sin: disappointing a customer.
Don't write off the human connection
While everyone predicts an all-online future, Sharon sees the opposite hunger too — people desperately need to connect. Her proof is the FedEx driver who, after years of phone calls about misdelivered packages, knocked on the door just to introduce himself. The 80/20 rule applies: most customers may go digital, but there's a 20 percent who want the human experience and will pay more for it. That's why she wants florists to lead an industry-wide "celebrate day" — a set date to send love and appreciation with flowers to the heroes, family members, and neighbors who carried us through, and to post it publicly so the idea snowballs. It fits her tagline perfectly: celebrate life with flowers — because without celebrations, "all we would do is work and sleep."
She leaves listeners with two book recommendations: I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was by Barbara Sher, the book that guided her own career change, and Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy on beating procrastination. And one last piece of soul-searching advice from the first book: find that deep dream you put aside — and go for it.
Key takeaways
- Change happens for you, not to you — stop playing the victim and look for the hidden opportunities inside the challenge.
- Write one, five, and ten year goals whenever change hits, and work backward to what you must start today.
- Play to your strengths and delegate your weaknesses — letting others do it their way.
- Use pop-up shops, in-store experiences, and virtual events to sell in small bites until you can go full-steam — and keep your online and in-store brands consistent.
- Bet on connection: a meaningful share of customers will pay more for a human experience, so teach your community to celebrate life with flowers.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist