Overcoming Obstacles: Practicing What You Preach
Vonda and Lori love to tell flower shop owners to turn obstacles into opportunities. This week, the universe called their bluff. Fresh off an eight-day trip that crammed three jobs into one — a Christmas and Valentine's Day photo shoot, filming for the revamped Sales Prep School, and an education event at Bill Doran in Omaha — the hosts (joined by Ellie, still mid-journey home) unpack a stretch of travel where nearly everything that could go sideways did. At one point they swore they'd never speak of the trip again. Instead, they made it an episode, because every florist lives some version of this week.
The pile-up begins
Obstacle one arrived before they did: a strike in Bogotá, Colombia meant the bundle flowers for the photo shoot missed their connection to Miami and wouldn't arrive until Wednesday night — a full day after the team, and after photographer Julie Poulter, were scheduled to start. Vonda's pivot: use the dead time to set up, count out containers, prep everything possible, and knock out videos that weren't scheduled until later.
Obstacle two: the rental car wasn't ready either. Vonda waited it out — the agent told her flatly that nice customers get cars sooner than angry ones, and the angry people at the counter proved the point. Her patience earned an upgrade to a roomy SUV, which promptly became obstacle three: on a busy highway, the car's collision sensors glitched and slammed the auto-brakes with nothing around them — three times — sending Ellie and her dog Roma lurching forward before they could pull into a parking lot and frantically search for the setting that turned it off. The fix reset itself every time they restarted the car, so every departure began with a scramble of button-pressing "like we were in a video game."
When the plan dies, make a new one
The Airbnb rounded out the streak: a door code that didn't work, dirty sheets abandoned on the stairs, and no working Wi-Fi in a listing they'd chosen specifically as a workspace and filming location. After 24 hours the team voted with their feet, moved to a hotel, and gave away or tossed most of the groceries Lori had planned for a week of home-cooked meals. Losing that time squeezed the photo shoot schedule, which forced an extra half-day they'd planned to spend in Omaha. As Ellie put it, her brain kept hitting a brick wall looking for a workaround — but there wasn't one. If the Christmas shoot didn't get finished, the web team wouldn't have the images, and Flower Clique members wouldn't be able to order containers on time. Sometimes there's no going around, under, or over: you go through.
1,491 clicks, 80 photos
Buried in the chaos is a statistic every shop owner should sit with. The final count for the photo shoot: 1,491 camera clicks to get 80 usable product images for members' websites. One burgundy design — gorgeous in person, nearly black on camera — took 65 frames of individual tweaks between the first shot and the final one. Ellie's point in sharing the numbers: patience. Too many florists take five shots of an arrangement, call it good, and wonder why the website photo doesn't sell. Professional product photography is slow, gear-heavy (five lights on a single shot, plus rented cameras), and worth it — because the goal is that what the customer sees online matches what shows up at the door.
The DIY sound system
The final boss was the presentation itself. At Bill Doran Omaha — a beautifully merchandised wholesale house worth visiting just for the ideas, thanks to designer Damon Samuels — Ellie discovered she was the A/V department: mixer, lavalier and handheld mics, PA, projector, and screen, none of which she'd ever set up. Showered, dressed, and sweating, she and Damon worked through YouTube tutorials until it all ran, leaving her 45 minutes locked in an office to finish slides built around Christmas designs they'd shot the day before. Lori confessed this was when she felt most helpless all week — nothing to do but watch. The opportunity hiding inside it: now Ellie knows how.
What actually gets you through
The episode closes with each host's coping strategy. Lori narrates the disaster as a future funny story — her own episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm — and leans on trust: in all their years, the three of them have always figured it out. Vonda's tool is attitude: "we can do this," then power through. Ellie brings two: an anchor (a specific, vividly imagined reward on the other side — picking up Tyler at the airport, coffee together) and the LTOTD, the Little Treat of the Day, even if it's just ten extra minutes in the shower. They also point to Flower Clique member Maureen in small-town Canada, who once slept at her shop to get four funerals out solo — because florists don't get to opt out when the obstacles show up.
Key takeaways
- When plans collapse, ask "what can I control right now?" — then prep, pivot, and protect the deadline.
- Great product photos take volume and patience: 1,491 clicks for 80 keepers. Don't settle for five shots.
- Your website photo must match what arrives in person — bridge the gap before you publish.
- Build coping tools on purpose: an anchor to look forward to, a little treat of the day, and humor.
- You can do more than you think you can — every shop owner needs to know that about themselves.