Making Magic (and Marketing) Happen for the Holidays

Episode 306: When it rains, it pours — but even in the busiest, most chaotic weeks, florists know how to make something beautiful bloom. In this lively and laughter-filled episode, Lori and Vonda swap “one-thing-after-another” stories before diving into fresh, practical ways flower shops can thrive this holiday season.

From DIY centerpiece kits and bring-your-own-vase designs to holiday workshops, ribbon bow services, and social media marketing tips, they unpack creative, low-cost ideas that help floral businesses stand out and connect with their communities.

You’ll also hear heartfelt stories, clever marketing strategies, and a few moments of pure hilarity (yes, including making bows with your feet). Whether you’re a seasoned florist or just love hearing how creativity meets chaos, this episode will inspire you to tap into your team, think outside the vase, and bloom through any storm.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Now listen, hang with me, because you are combining the desire of the customer to want to be able to go, look what I made.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

And Lori Wilson. And we believe the business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Lori, after our podcast last week about when it rains, it pours, I will say that was my week for the rain it pours week. Really? What happened? Well, I had a whole lot of little personal things happen, but then I went to open the garage door and the garage door went and work. And then my sidewalk was heaving out front, which means that the water line was probably just about ready to burst. So I had to dig all that up to find the water line. And then we had to have a tree removed, and then they had to grind the stump. And it was one thing after another. We shouldn't have talked about it. We shouldn't have, because you knew it was your turn. So then it was my turn. And it's okay. It's it's all fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

But yes, it's all figure outable. It was figure out what happens. That's what happens. I did get a lot of people texting and emailing. It always cracks me up to when people listen to the podcast, you know, the time of day or whatever, and then they'll technically go, Oh, I just listen. And you know, they'll either say, Congratulations, I got a lot of that. Because they heard about the baby coming. Not mine, not mine. You're just listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Just to be clear, it's not Lori who's having a baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Not an mother again. Don't want to start any rumors.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

But I remember when I was pregnant with LE Joe. So I'm going to church, and everybody kind of knows. But then a girlfriend of mine, her name was Bonnie, and she had a uh daughter named Sara, and I had a son named Sayer, and they were in school together. And so then the priest said to Bonnie, Oh, congratulations. I hear you're expecting again. And Pat, her husband, goes, Well, I sure the heck hope not. Oh no! Hilarious! And I'll never forget that when you're talking about expecting, and she's like, Oh no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

I have learned never to every and even ask unless you know they're nine months pregnant. Oh, we've all been down that road before. You're saying I'm pregnant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Never. You never say when are you expecting when you think somebody looks like they have a little bit of a tummy, but not a good idea.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

No, no. So anyway. All right. I've been doing a lot of custom emails for our flower click members this week. Which is always fun. You know me. I love to do it. And my little sidekick, Sherry, has been helping me too. And she likes to do them too. So we've been working on that. And mostly because of open houses. Oh, okay. So there's a lot of going on. Open houses? Yeah. I can only speak to the people in email marketing.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Right. So not one in Flower Click is in our email marketing program, but those that are, many of them are having open houses. And it makes me happy because I feel like we went through a time where a lot of people kind of stopped having those. I feel like it ebbs and flows.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

I agree. I think that's true. You get to where, like, well, nobody came in. And then people I think are like, well, it's been a few years, so maybe we should try it again.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Yeah. Yeah. You and I were kind of talking this morning about, you know, what should we be, what's been going on in the industry? What should we be talking about? And I was like, I feel like maybe some marketing stuff. It's kind of that time of year.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

It really is. And that's what we were kind of going down that path. Like, what could our shops, our clickers who are listening, do to really promote the holidays coming up? Because I know everybody's nervous. It's nervous about what's going to happen. And the worst thing you can do is sit back and do nothing and worry. Right. And just freeze up. Can't do that. And so it's like get with your staff and start thinking about things you can do in your market because everybody's market's a little bit different, honestly. You've got to know your customers or your community. And then from there, you go, hmm, okay, maybe this will work. And so we were brainstorming and came up with a few ideas. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Well, and I want to go back to what you said because I think that is so important. Tap into your team. Tap into your team. Have a little round table because many shops have team members that have been there forever. They have seen it all. They have seen COVID. They have seen pre-pandemic. They have seen post-pandemic. They've seen it all. And they have some ideas. Tap into those people.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

And some people who are brand new, they might have even some better ideas, Lori. Right. Because they are out in the community and maybe they've seen things that you haven't before. Or maybe they've come from a different town or a different city. Generation. A different generation. Right. Right. Yeah, I like that. Tap into your team. Woo! Of course. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, it had to be in an alliteration. Yeah. Yeah. But it's good. And just brainstorm. Like, what do we want to do for marketing this year? And it doesn't have to cost a lot of money. A lot of times people get very gun shy about marketing because you're like, I don't have a marketing budget. Right. I'm like, that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

With social, you don't have to. You just have to get yourself out there. You just have to get yourself out there, which some people don't want to, but this is the year you're going to have to. You just have to make it a priority. And I I know you've said that over and over and again. Just take the leap, right? Make yourself known. Yeah.

unknown 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

So we started talking about what it is that you can do to promote the holiday. And you mentioned something about centerpiece next level.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Okay. So I was thinking about this over the weekend, and I wanted to bring it up. And I might have a lot of naysayers, and that's okay. Because again, this is just an idea from my perspective. And it stemmed from a conversation I was having with my sister-in-law about centerpieces for a birthday party. So something totally irrelevant to holidays. But it was also one of those kind of funny conversations where I have to always remind people, I'm not a designer. I can't help you here. I could help you order flowers. Like, you know, I can do a lot of things, but I can't make it a centerpiece. Anyway. But I started thinking about centerpieces and Thanksgiving and Christmas and, you know, my disdain for the colors of Thanksgiving and fall. You know, I don't like the all the colors and how I can't wait to move past it. But here's what I was thinking. If I was a flower shopper, could it work? Just let me throw this out. Try to see my vision, Vonda. And you as the business owner tell me if this would work or not. You know how you have like a whole tab of centerpieces. You have traditional, you have tapered candle, you have pillar tank candle, you have all the different centerpieces. But in my world, my world of TikTok and Instagram reels, all of the things, you know, I see all of the DIYers making their own centerpieces and making everything, you know. And I was like, oh, I want to do that. And again, I have no skills, but in my mind, I think I could. But I can't. If I just went to Trader Joe's and bought flowers and brought them home, I have no thing to put them in to make a centerpiece. I only have vases. I don't have foam. I don't have the low-metra. Like I got nothing.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So let's be honest, Lori. If you went to Trader Joe's and you had foam and you had a container, you would be facetiming Vonda to say, okay, and I have this for the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

I end up FaceTiming you and going, I don't know what to do. I've I'm panicking. I don't know what to do. Okay, sorry. Sorry. I just exactly so the reality is it's one thing if you just go to Trader Joe's, it's quite another when you bring those suckers home and go, well, now what do I do?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

So what if a flower shop had a centerpiece kit? Okay. Now listen, hang with me, because you are combining the desire of the customer to want to be able to go, look what I made for their people. And yet you have to make it foolproof, though. You would have the bundle of flowers they would need, you would have whatever is needs to be in that kit, simple, based on color. So it wouldn't be super, super high-end flowers. I honestly don't really care what the flowers are in it. It's gonna be color, whether Thanksgiving or Christmas. But I also would need on your Instagram or YouTube a type of video showing that you how you made this. And it can't be too super long and it can't be too detailed. I need to be able to kind of like poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, and it's kind of cool proof. You know what I mean? Poke, poke, poke, poke, yes. Kind of like the the jobs you had me do at Ellie's wedding. Like, oh yeah, I can poke in the bear grass. Absolutely, I can make those loops. Easy peasy. Things like that. And I know this can be done. And I feel like people would buy this because you could buy the kit, come home, I would watch the video, I'd make it, and I would tell every person that came in for Thanksgiving, I yes, I made that, I made that centerpiece. Right. But here's my question to you Is it profitable for a florist, a flower shop, to sell something like that? Because I have got tons of ideas of how you would market it.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

And the target audience, but none of that even matters to go down that road if it's not gonna have any ROI.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Well, you definitely would be an ROI. I mean, you would just price it the correct way, right? You're not thinking I'm gonna price these like Trade at Joe's. You're gonna take your price of your flowers, you're gonna take a markup. You don't have to take as big of a markup because you're not gonna have as much waste. You know, each one of those flowers that's in the kit, when you sell that kit, it's one out the door. And you don't have to worry about that. So take a look at what you have, take your markup, foam. You know, when they buy a block of foam somewhere, which is less quality than what they're gonna get from you, it's probably four to five dollars a block, you know. So you're making money on that, and then whatever the container is, could be a simple design bowl that they could drop into their other pretty bowl that they have at home. So it can be profitable, Lori. I don't think that's it. I think it's the marketing of it to get people in and try to sell more than one or two, right? It's like can't make it to the class, come pick up the project and make it yourself, kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah. Well, and that's the other thing I kind of like about it because it's for a different audience than that class audience. Because to be honest, I don't know if I'm that class audience. Sometimes I think I used to be. I think if you were with other girlfriends, you would, right? So I well, I used to be, I was very into the class audience. Okay, but maybe at this particular season of my life, I may just be more of the grab and go. Yeah. Does that make sense? And I don't know, you're right, it would depend on whoever. But this is a different kind of audience. There are busy working moms with kids at home that don't have time or maybe can't get a sitter that can't go participate.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

I know a lot of shops did this during COVID. One to call out Todd Bussey at Bussies Flowers. He did that, that they picked him up at the sound did it too. Yeah. And they put picked him up, and then there was a video, and then they would do that. So there's some shops that really already have this experience. They just need to market it, right? Just get out there and do it this time of year because people do want to do things. It's it's about experiences. I mean, all the shopping is telling you that. Make it an experience.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Yeah. Well, I think it kind of complements the shops that also have a flower bar. And I love the concept of a flower bar, but again, I could get overwhelmed because I'm like, okay, I don't quite know what to do in the flower bar. Like what all to do. So I need a tutorial. I need a little help. I need some guidance.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

You need a little direction.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

I just need a little direction. So that's where the marketing part comes in. So anyway, that was one of my ideas. And I think that doing it for Christmas too, or you could even parlay that into a wreath. Oh, sure. Absolutely. You don't even do a centerpiece, do it in it with a wreath as long as you had a video.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

So I think a wreath, a buffet table, could be make your own Christmas tree, you know, the little waxwood trees that I mean, there's so many things that you could do in the little kits, but my my caution would be don't do too many at one time. Otherwise, you're putting yourself and you're not gonna make a profit on any of them because it's like, oh, there's plenty of things.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

I would offer like one centerpiece, two color schemes, or size, you know, depending on the size, yeah. And like the table size, right? Like, are you gonna have 12 people or you're gonna have eight people for eight or twelve or whatever?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

And yeah, yeah, that would make the big difference for sure. So other things that we would think of for bringing people in or making extra money during the holiday. And one thing I think that we did years ago that people didn't advertise for, people just normally did it was bring in your own container. What kind of container do you have at your house? Now, you you can't take that into you know a big box store and have them make something for you. So, custom arrangement, bring in your container and let us design something special for your table. I don't know if we can do something like that with marketing, because a lot of times people don't think of that.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

You brought that up this morning, and I had never, I'd never known that. And I love that idea, especially for the holidays, because I have a couple of vases that were my mother's, and that kind of hit a sentimental part of me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I would love to take in a vase of hers and have a beautiful design made in it, and then be able to have it for the holidays, and then all of my family that comes home show them like this was grandma's face, and I had like that's super special, yeah. And and again, the experience and it pulling at those heart strings in such a good way, in a beautiful way, I think is a fabulous marketing idea. And I I hate to say it that way because it almost sounds shallow to use it as a marketing thing, but it's a what a beautiful tribute. Yeah, well, I'm able to do that for your customer.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

One thing I will say that some shops will shy away from that because of the liability of that.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Well, that's what I was getting ready to ask.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

And what we would always do would we'd say, bring it in, let us see it. And most of the time we'd try to find something that would fit in there. So it would be a liner for that container. Or we would do take the size of it and measure it, and then if it's like an actual vase, we'd do a hand tie that would go down in that. So we would be very careful of the container because of the liability. But I'm I'm just gonna encourage you to try this because you can just send the container back out with the customer and say, that is just absolutely gorgeous. I'm so thrilled to be able to make this for you. Why don't you take it? We have now something that we can just be able to drop it in and come back and pick it up, and you'll just drop it in there. I like that you said it just tugs at your heartstrings.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

Right. I thought about that too. I thought of if people would be worried about breaking it. Mark and I, for our wedding gift, we got the most beautiful, it's a Waterford crystal vape. Yeah, very, very nice. And I thought I would be scared to bring that in to a just any old flower shop. And I would, if I worked at that flower shop, I'd be terrified of it. So that makes more sense.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Well, there's horror stories, Lori, about people bringing things in, and then it goes in the cooler and it gets cold, and then it goes out in the delivery van and it was 90 degrees and the and the crystal broke or something. So there's all kinds of horror stories, I call them. Yeah, I don't think so. That's why yeah, I would encourage I wouldn't leave it.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

There's no way I would leave that vase out of any flower. I I just don't think I'd leave it out of flower.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

But you would take it for to throw it.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

I'd take it for me to size it up. Yeah, that wouldn't bother you, would it, to do it that way? No, no, no, no, no. But I probably wouldn't let it go out of my hands. I would worry for them that if it did break on their watch, how they would just feel horrible.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Yeah. Oh no, they yes, we would.

unknown 18:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes, we would, Lori. No, I do. I like that idea. And being able to post on your social media to offer that.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

And show it would be really cool too. Because I was fix picturing that. It's like get like six different containers that you know you know or your mom's or whatever, or somebody in the shop, and then just have people going like this against the table and just show all these different ones that were like really cool. You're like, bring yours, let us see what we can do for you. You know, that you gotta give them an example because they wouldn't really think about it otherwise. Anyway, no head.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

I had never thought about that.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Love it. Yeah. So, and classes, you said that a lot of people on social media are promoting their classes. A lot of people are promoting classes.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

I think it's interesting how they get so busy during the holidays. I mean, the holidays is notoriously the busy season, yet that's when they do classes too. Yeah. Like, you know, I'm like, which makes you even busier, right? But yeah, they're doing a lot of wreath classes, boxwood tree classes. People are still doing the what is that called the cornucopia? Cornucopia. Yeah, yeah, we have to keep doing that. Again, this is just my little slice of email marketing that I know. I'm sure there's more doing others. But we did have an interesting conversation in Shop Talk a couple weeks ago. We had one of our shops, which is kind of up in the northeast, and she is just now dipping her toe into doing classes, and she's having a bit of a hard time getting people to the classes. And so she was asking, like, how do I get a following? How do I get people? I think she did some social media, she doesn't didn't do any emails, okay, but she did social media and she did like post through her chamber of commerce something, and she only got like three people sign up. It was the very first time, and but it was interesting to hear the feedback through our other shops that have, you know, been doing it for years. And some of them said that the way they started out, one of them said they literally went to their dentist office and offered to do a class for their staff for free. Wow. As a gift. And that's how they started, and it just kind of took off. And they did it for their dentist office and they did it for some other office for free. They did two, and then they just started getting a following, and they took a ton of pictures and started posting them. And then somebody at the dentist office had a bunko group that wanted to do a wreath making, so they reached out to them, and then it just kind of they told somebody, and they told somebody, and they told somebody.

SPEAKER_00 21:51

And I don't think it's a great idea to offer even for an office party. I mean, not free, right? You could do it for X amount, maybe that you have a minimum of 10. People and it's $75 per person minimal, probably something like that. And so for $750, they could have a great party for the staff, and then the staff could take it home with them, and they'd have a great Christmas gift, you know. But again, time is the whole thing, you know. But if you did it at the beginning of the week when it's not as busy, you could definitely do that. Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

There's a another sh shop was saying that they've done some with some nonprofits. Like, oh, it wasn't the VA, but it was a segment of the VA. I can't remember the name of them. But anyway, like they have a certain budget for things like this. And they're like, reach out to some of the nonprofits, especially when you're first starting out, because they're always looking for little things like this to supplement for smaller groups and come in and do this. And they can't always pay like a high premium, but they can pay something. And so they had really good luck with these types of groups too.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

So if you have a garden club, they're usually willing to pay a good price for a good quality teaching session. You know, they really are. They're all about the art, they're all all about making something, and they're a little bit more elevated than a lot of people, right? And so it's kind of it's so much fun to work with the garden club. Right. That's a really great one.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, we do have a lot of members that work with their garden club and they have great. So anyway, yeah, the classes, the classes always seem to be really, really a big hit during that. And a lot of our members do the kids' classes.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Yeah. Yeah. Those are fun. They really are. You just need a little bit more staff there.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Then you do a little bit more staff.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

You make them for simple, yeah, make them fun, and they they tend to work out really, really well. So the other one that you we were talking about that just cracks me up, Lori, is one of your favorite reels that you like to watch. Oh yeah, ribbon, my ribbon reels.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

I'm obsessed with them on TikTok. So if you have a skill, I mean, uh everybody, all florists have amazing skills, but there are so many different ways to make bows. And there are so many different sizes and textures of ribbon out there in the world. And right now, because we're in holiday season, I'm just obsessed with all the different ribbons. And I keep watching all of the ribbon tutorials, and I'm amazed at all of the bow making and the beautiful, elegant bows that come alive with these people's hands, and I still can't figure it out. It's like magic to me because it never turns out that way.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

And you've tried and tried and tried.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

And I've tried, you know, I've tried. I've tried, I've tried. I remember last year practicing because I was watching this tutorial and I was like, if you use your feet and you do all this, I'm like, Mark, what are you doing? I was like, don't use so I have like one foot and I'm using it, and I did get a couple of good ones, but he's like, he goes, Well, what if you don't have any feet? How are you supposed to make the bow? I'm like, I don't know, I don't know. Anyway, it was just crazy. Oh my god. It was crazy, but I was using my feet.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

I've never heard of making a bow using your feet.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yes, I did. I've had three on my tree made from and you know what?

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Some funny person who made that video thought, I wonder if anybody's gonna try.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

It was me. I used my foot. I used my feet. Or one foot.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

So my question to you is so you keep trying to make these and you get so frustrated, and then I see you just let go of the bow and all this ribbon goes everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

And if you buy nice ribbon, yes, I've got so much ribbon over there like really nice, and some of it was given to me by Derek Woodruff from syndicate.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Nice ribbon.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

And I'm like, I'm so excited, but I don't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

So my question is if you took that ribbon and a flower shop would make bows for you, or someone, you know, would make bows for you and they charged you five bucks each, would you do it? 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

100%. But here's the problem. Not with me, the customer. The problem lies within the flower shop owner who has a big heart.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Well, or sometimes they won't charge, or they'll charge a little tiny bit, or they'll say, we only make bows with our own ribbon. Because I've been there before too, and they're like, oh no, no, we can you can buy our ribbon, but you know, because they want to sell the ribbon.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Right. But one of our flower shop owners just the other day in our Facebook group made the comment, like, I am so over myself. Like the somebody came in with ribbon, started talking to her, telling her her life story. By the end, 30 minutes later, and five bows later, she handed her these beautifully made bows and basically said, I'm so sorry for your life. Here's your gift. And like, you know, took all this time. And she's like, I didn't try.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

And I'm like, Yeah, that's that's the part of a flower shop owner. But that lady would have happily paid 25 bucks for those right. But so make sure people know. Yeah. You even have a sign. We're happy to make bows with your own ribbon at five dollars each. Five dollars each. Or whatever it needs to be. I mean, of course, if they have a huge ribbon and it needs to be more so if you have an employee that's really, really good at it, and they have the time and that can do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

I say market that. Yeah. It's this much with our ribbon, it's this much if you bring in your own.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

Yeah, a lot of times when you're using your ribbon in the store, you're not gonna charge extra to make bow because you're making the money on the on the ribbon. So it's like our ribbon was per yard, we'll make the bow for you, or bring in your ribbon, it's gonna be five dollars for an average size bow.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

So right, right. But like I would want bows for my Christmas tree. Yeah. You know, I would pay someone to make those really nice bows. Agree. I agree, Lori. Well, because I can watch the videos all day long. Um, these hands were not made for bow making.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

I can just honestly, feet are not made bow making.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

I don't know. It works. I'm with Mark on that one. Um then I was like, this is weird. It's just so weird.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Well, good ideas. Hopefully spark a little bit of interest in people to get a market in for the holidays.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

We look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us to discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.