Start the Year with a Word and Join Flower Clique's Fifth Anniversary Celebration
Happy New Year — and happy birthday to Flower Clique. For this first episode of 2025, Vonda and Lori are joined by teammates Ellie and Kami for a full-team look back at the year that was and a tradition worth stealing for your own shop: choosing a word of the year. Along the way there's a Y2K flashback (25 years ago — insanity), a confession about anxiety-inducing TikTok rabbit holes, and a gentle PSA that Flower Clique turns five in the very year the pandemic that launched it turns five too.
Reflections: what stood out from 2024
Vonda's assignment for the team: name two things from last year — wins, challenges overcome, surprises, or something that gave direction going forward.
Ellie noticed that at conferences throughout the year, people simply knew Flower Clique — no more introducing the company from scratch. And where last January felt chaotic, this new year opened with a plan, a master calendar, and systems in place: working with intention instead of reacting. Kami was proudest of cross-training — the team can now jump in wherever the floral business's cycles demand, without the behind-the-scenes scrambling members never see. She also celebrated hitting the year-end membership goal she privately thought was too lofty, which made it all the sweeter.
Kami's biggest insight, though, was about focus of a different kind. As a newer company, Flower Clique had moments of trying to be everything to all people, and last year several companies and larger shops asked for services outside the regular scope. Taking a few of those on delivered something valuable: clarity. The team walked away knowing exactly what they're great at and which lane to stay in — and even spotted a couple of legitimate new niches in the process.
Lori shared two personal pivots: speaking solo at the NextGen conference during one of the hardest seasons of her life — building the content herself for the first time, giving Ellie the rare gift of sitting in the audience, and delivering a talk on empathy that landed deeply. And the team finally gathering in person for the first time in five years, where she could see with her own eyes that every person is in their right seat. Vonda's highlight ties it together: members are now referring their friends to Flower Clique unprompted — the dream for any business built on helping people. As Ellie put it, five years in, the company is officially established and here to stay.
The 2025 word of the year: Amplify
Flower Clique's 2024 word was "grow" — and the team agrees the growth came with growing pains first, then the real thing. For 2025, Ellie proposed the winner: amplify. Think megaphone — not just making sure people know Flower Clique exists, but amplifying the message and all the knowledge the team has to share. It won unanimously.
Each teammate also picked a personal word. Lori chose focus, admitting the "squirrel!" life of constant notifications leaves her anxious and scattered — and that only she can decide to put the phone down. (Ellie's grace note: notification culture wires all our brains this way; four alerts for one Slack message will do that.) Vonda chose aware — the hyper-focused one on the team wants to look up from the production line more often and notice her reactions. Kami listed her goals, asked AI to suggest a word, and landed on renew: a gratitude journal she's starting alongside her daughters, staying on her health journey without a crash-diet resolution, a family Bible reading plan with mutual check-mark accountability, and less time on social media.
Try it in your shop
The word-of-the-year exercise is free, takes one team meeting, and gives everyone a shared filter for decisions all year — the hosts have used it to real effect (grow, then amplify). Pair a company word with personal words for each team member, and revisit them when the busy seasons hit. And take the team's hard-won lesson with you: saying yes to a few things outside your lane can be worth it, if only to teach you exactly where your lane is.
Key takeaways
- Choose a word of the year for your business — and let each team member pick a personal one too.
- Systems, a master calendar, and cross-training turn chaotic first weeks into intentional ones.
- Trying work outside your scope can be the fastest route to clarity about what you do best.
- Brand awareness compounds: keep showing up and eventually your customers do the referring for you.
- Guard your attention — set social media boundaries, tame notifications, and be as intentional with your focus as with your finances.