People don't just buy flowers, they buy…

Flashback

At first, it was weekly updates—new restrictions, more guidelines, another press conference.

Masks must be worn. Everyone MUST take a RAT test. No more than 30 people.

Then, daily briefings..

Then, hourly refreshes, just to keep up with what was allowed, what was forbidden, how many cases.

Weddings were disappearing overnight, slipping away one postponement at a time.

I was spending my days on the phone with couples, offering reassurance I wasn’t sure I even believed myself. “It’s okay, we’ll make it work, your wedding will still be incredible.”

I absorbed their stress, their heartbreak, their frustration.

Every time I hung up, I buried my own fears deeper.

What if this was it? What if I lost everything I had spent years building?

My career, my passion, my purpose gone in a month

I pushed it down. I kept positive.

Then, one morning, I was finishing up a bouquet for what was supposed to be my last wedding—the last wedding, before every event was gone. I was trimming the stems, binding with silk, making sure it was perfect

Then my phone rang.

“It’s canceled.”

I put the bouquet down.

Walked out to my car.

Had a little cry.

It finally hit me.

Over the next few days, the news kept repeating the same phrase: “Essential services can still operate.”

Over and over again.

And every time, it dug a little deeper into me.

What I do isn’t essential.

I wasn’t a doctor, or a grocery worker, or a first responder. Nobody needed flowers.

That thought spiraled.

“I’m not really helping people.”

“What I do doesn’t matter.”

“My career isn’t essential.”

But then—something strange happened.

Flowers started selling like CRAZY.

People were locked down, separated from their loved ones, missing birthdays, anniversaries, and tiny, everyday moments. And yet, they were sending flowers. Bouquets for no reason at all. Flowers to say I love you, I miss you, I’m thinking of you.

I watched as retail bunches flew out the door, as people clung to the simple joy of a vase of fresh blooms on the kitchen table.

And I kept asking myself—why?

Flowers weren’t essential.

So I started digging. Researching. Trying to understand why, when the world felt so uncertain, people turned to something as simple as flowers.

And that’s when I learned, people don't just buy flowers. It's more than that.

If you don’t understand what you’re really selling—the meaning, the solution, the emotion—you’ll always feel like you’re just another florist with some pretty flowers.

But when you get clear on why people buy, when you stop selling the product and start selling the impact.

Game changer.

Stop talking about the product, sell the impact…then prove you can do it

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A post shared by Ash Wheelhouse (@academywildflower)

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