Lights, Camera, Action! What are the gal's up to with Ellie LaFever?
Valentine's Day is officially "on the other side," and Vonda and Lori are celebrating the only way that makes sense after a marathon week of filming and flowers: sitting down with a glass of wine and special guest Ellie LaFever, Flower Clique's creative director. What started as a casual debrief of the past few days turned into a podcast — a look behind the scenes at a Mother's Day photo shoot, a brand-new sales training program, and an unexpected appearance on a sports podcast.
Sales Prep School is coming
The big project on the table is Sales Prep School, a new on-demand training program aimed at taking flower shop selling to the next level. It follows Flower Prep School, the team's online design school, and the goal is to have it ready in time for Mother's Day. It's built for training employees — but as Ellie reminded Vonda and Lori mid-development, it's just as much for owners themselves, including new owners who don't have employees yet. That insight sent them back to the drawing board to rework the language of the whole course.
What makes the program different is its approach. As Ellie puts it, it's less "here's a script to copy" and more human — a bit of psychology, the why behind the sale, a holistic process a learner can actually put into practice. The team built the videos around associative learning: instead of handing a new hire a set of guidelines and saying "read this and come back tomorrow," every lesson is anchored to a story or example, including Vonda's decades in the flower shop and Ellie's experience being raised in one.
Why outsource your sales training?
Vonda and Lori are candid about the reasons an outside course beats do-it-yourself training. New faces and a fresh perspective genuinely help people learn — Lori compares it to tutoring your own kids: she taught school, but her own children flourished with other tutors. And then there's time. How many shops right before Valentine's Day were scrambling to hire designers, drivers, and phone help? Training done in-house gets interrupted, loses its place, and eats hours an owner doesn't have.
The benefits the team mapped out: a stronger customer service game, consistency — everyone answering the phone and greeting customers the same way — more sales, and more loyal, repeat customers. One bad moment from one employee can lead to a negative review and a customer who never comes back; that's how much power is in your team's hands. The hosts also heard the need firsthand on Clubhouse, the live-audio app where shops pivoting from weddings and events were talking about needing exactly this kind of sales experience for 2021 — a year everything they're reading says should be even bigger than 2020 for the industry.
Behind the scenes of the Mother's Day photo shoot
The other half of the week was a Mother's Day photo shoot. The palette? Purple, purple, purple — plus pink, because you can't do a Mother's Day shoot without pink. Feminine, airy designs are expected to be big this year. The team played with "bundle fusion," combining existing bundle inventory in new color pairings, and shot blown hydrangea in blue, white, and green. The photos feed the social media content Flower Clique members use more than the team ever realized — members keep telling Ellie how much they love the ready-made posts, captions, and hashtags for their Instagram and Facebook.
Flowers meet Barstool Sports
The most unexpected moment of the week: Vonda and Ellie were guests on The Dog Walk, a Chicago-based Barstool Sports podcast with an audience of men who know nothing about flower shops. The questions were priceless — "should I buy a girl flowers or chocolate?" (Vonda's answer: there is no "or") — and the conversation sparked an idea: bring flower novices onto the show as guests to figure out what would turn men who never order flowers into repeat customers.
Ellie was proudest that Vonda drove home the buy-local message in layman's terms: when you Google flowers in a city, make sure you're reaching a real local flower shop, not an order-gatherer — that's how customers who think they're doing the right thing end up disappointed.
Key takeaways
- Sales training sticks when it's built on stories and the "why" — associative learning beats handing someone a rulebook.
- Outsourcing training brings fresh perspective and frees up owner time — and consistency across your team drives repeat customers.
- Sales skills aren't just for employees; owners and solo operators need them too.
- Use professional photos and ready-made captions to keep your social media active — your customers really do see them.
- Talking to people outside the industry reveals how little customers know — and how much opportunity there is in educating them to buy local.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist