Behind the Stems

Okay, so this episode started as a casual drive to a friend’s house…
and somehow turned into a full-blown rant about what I actually think is damaging the floristry industry.

(You’ve been warned.)

In this episode, I’m talking about the moment I nearly got kicked out of a floral Facebook group — all because I didn’t join the pile-on when another florist launched a $16 DIY wedding flower ebook.

The thing is, the reaction to that ebook said way more about scarcity, fear, and misdirected blame than it did about DIY brides.

So in this chat, we unpack:

– Why a florist selling DIY resources is not your competition
– The real reason other florists’ prices trigger you (and what that’s actually telling you)
– How confusing their client with your client creates panic, comparison, and burnout
– Why every industry (yes, every single one) has DIY, mid-range, and premium options — and why floristry isn’t special
– How obsessing over what others are charging quietly drains your energy, focus, and momentum
– The difference between telling people you’re valuable… and actually showing them
– Why publicly tearing down other florists teaches the industry that “price is all that matters”
– And the mindset shift that instantly reveals whether this is about them… or about your books being quiet

This is not a polite episode.
It’s not a “let’s all agree” episode.
It is a “stay in your lane, build your business, and stop outsourcing responsibility” episode.

If this episode hit a nerve or made you realise you’ve been leaking energy worrying about things you can’t control, this is exactly the kind of mindset + strategy work we do inside Wildflower Academy.

It’s where wedding florists learn how to:

clarify their niche

communicate value without defending their prices

build demand without burning out

and grow businesses that don’t rely on comparison or chaos

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll love it in there.

Alright.
I’ll let you get back to your walk / drive / flower prep / doom scroll reset.

Talk soon!
Ash x

This episode started as a conversation about mindset — and turned into one of the most grounding, clarifying, and honestly relieving conversations I’ve had in a long time.

I’m joined by Giorgio, a mindset coach who works with high-performers, creatives, business owners, and people who feel like they should be doing better… but keep feeling stuck anyway

This isn’t an inspirational pep talk.
It’s a practical, honest conversation about how humans actually work — and how much lighter business becomes when you stop believing every story your brain hands you.

If you’re a wedding florist, creative, or business owner who feels capable but stuck — this episode is for you.

You can find Giorgio on Instagram here:
👉 https://www.instagram.com/giorgiogenius

(Highly recommend a scroll — his perspective is as grounded as it is clarifying.)

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

I recorded this episode in my robe (again), slightly over-caffeinated and fresh off scrolling a comments section that honestly made my eye twitch.

I saw thousands of people yelling at the head of Instagram because their posts weren’t getting views and it sparked something I think a lot of business owners need to hear:

You are not entitled to success on social media.

In this episode, I unpack the quiet entitlement, resentment, and victim mentality that sneaks into our marketing, especially when things feel slow.

I share the three simple mindset frameworks that have helped me build multiple businesses on Instagram over more than a decade, even through burnout, dips, and seasons where posting felt like the last thing I wanted to do.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Yen from Sonder Studio.

We talk about what actually happens when you move from freelancing into business ownership, why “just vibing it” works… until it really doesn’t, and how Sonder Studio grew quickly without having a plan, then had to slow down, reassess, and rebuild in a way that didn’t destroy their nervous systems.

Yen shares her journey from corporate finance to floristry, the mental health reckoning that pushed her to change paths, and how freelancing during the post-lockdown wedding boom shaped her skills, confidence, and boundaries. We get into what it’s really like running a partnership, the growing pains, the constant communication, and why clearly defined roles matter more than talent.

We talk studios, systems, SOPs, bump-in chaos, allocation, and the unsexy backend work that actually makes creative businesses sustainable. There’s a very honest conversation about freelancing resentment, ownership of creative work, and the moment you realise that being “on the tools” isn’t the same as leading a team.

We also dive into Yen’s overseas wedding in Vietnam, from six-hour market runs up a mountain to flying her team in so she didn’t have to flower on her own wedding day and what planning a wedding taught her about logistics, delegation, and letting go.

Check out Sonder Studio on Instagram

00:00 – New Year check-in + last-minute wedding chaos
Talking holiday boundaries, surprise bookings, and saying yes when the vibe is right.

03:00 – Weather, wind, and why florists fear it more than rain
Real talk on outdoor ceremonies, risk, and on-the-fly engineering.

05:00 – Yen’s origin story: from corporate finance to floristry
Mental health, fulfilment, and realising creativity can be a viable career.

09:00 – Learning through freelancing (and surviving post-lockdown weddings)
Building skills fast, putting your hand up for everything, and discerning who you work for.

12:00 – Meeting Jules & why Sonder Studio became a partnership
Strengths-based roles, shared values, and deciding to build something together.

15:00 – Defining roles (after learning the hard way)
Why “just vibing it” leads to 10pm studio nights — and how they fixed it.

18:00 – Partnership communication & mindset growing pains
Weekly check-ins, capacity conversations, and unpacking internal limits.

21:00 – Client consults, confidence, and breaking tasks into learnable steps
How to grow into roles you don’t feel ready for yet.

24:00 – Using AI + systems to reduce mental load
Meeting recordings, memory support, and tools that actually help neurospicy brains.

27:00 – Moving fast as a business (and what it cost)
Overbooking, exhaustion, and the moment they knew something had to change.

30:00 – Getting featured in Vogue (and what actually changed)
Validation, client shifts, and being “new” but not inexperienced.

34:00 – Freelancing vs business ownership: the mindset shift
Why running the job is the work — even if you’re not making every arrangement.

38:00 – Creative ownership, resentment & where the line actually is
A very honest conversation about credit, labour, and leadership.

42:00 – Systems that changed everything (allocation, bump-outs, SOPs)
Why clear plans = calmer teams + less stress for everyone.

46:00 – Studios, space planning & Sydney logistics realities
Pre-making, bump-in restrictions, and why space fills faster than you expect.

50:00 – Yen’s overseas wedding in Vietnam
Markets, mountains, flying in her team, and planning without infrastructure.

56:00 – Doing flowers for your own wedding (or not)
Pressure, delegation, and letting others create for you.

58:00 – Final reflections: sustainability, slowing down, and building properly
What they’re prioritising now — and what they’d do differently next time.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

I recorded this episode in a hotel-grade robe, drinking what accidentally turned into garlic tea, which honestly feels on brand for how this year is starting.

This episode is for the wedding florists who know they should be showing up on camera…
and are still hiding behind bouquet shots, pretty installs, and silent Reels.

You’re not lazy.
You’re not bad at marketing.
You’re just avoiding something that feels mildly terrifying.

I get it, I hated talking on camera too. I had braces, a lisp, zero confidence, and a deep fear of public speaking. But learning to show my face became one of the highest-return decisions I’ve ever made in my business.

In this episode, I break down why face-led content actually works, especially in floristry and why posting “pretty flowers” alone just doesn’t cut through anymore.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

I’ve been a wedding florist for over 15 years, booking $20–40K+ weddings… and I don’t have a van, a cool room, or a fancy logo.

I'm talking through the things I don’t think you need to invest in when you’re growing your floristry business (even though everyone tells you that you do), and the things I genuinely believe are worth your money early on. This is very much based on my own experience, what worked, what didn’t, and what I wish I’d known sooner.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, behind, or spiralling about where to spend your money right now, this episode is your permission to simplify, focus, and stop pouring cash into things that don’t actually move the needle.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

I’m joined by Josh Jay a former wedding photographer turned business coach who somehow went from hating structure to becoming obsessed with helping creatives understand money, energy, and how business actually works.

Josh started shooting weddings ridiculously young, built a seriously successful photography career, and then did the plot twist none of us expect, he fell in love with the business side of things. Not in a spreadsheets-for-fun way, but in a “how do we make this work for creative brains?” way.

We talk about his journey from shooting weddings across Australia (and beyond), to realising that most creatives aren’t bad at business, they’re just trying to run it using systems that were never designed for them.

We get into:

Why we both resisted calling ourselves “business owners”

Perfectionism vs messy action (and how we sit on opposite ends of that spectrum)

Managing energy instead of time

Burnout in the wedding industry

Building businesses that actually fit your brain, not someone else’s routine

It’s honest, a little chaotic, and full of those “oh… that explains a lot” moments.

If you’re a creative who’s ever felt lazy, behind, or broken this conversation might change how you see yourself.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

For years, I told myself I didn’t want high-budget weddings.

I said they were boring.
Too basic. Too polished. Too “not me.”

But the reality was they scared me and I was avoiding doing the hard work
So I criticised them instead of chasing them.

In this episode, I unpack the stories that kept me stuck under $10K weddings and the mindset shifts that helped me move into higher-spend work, work less, and enjoy my business again.

If this hits close to home, I’ve left a free resource for you with 3 simple caption tweaks to help your marketing start attracting higher-budget clients
Click here to grab it!

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

I’ve been starting my mornings with coffee, headphones, and a blank page, just writing instead of scrolling. One morning, a single journal prompt cracked something open in my brain and sent me straight down memory lane.

This episode is about the years I wore my chaotic creative energy like a badge of honour, especially at the flower markets. No recipes. No plan. Just vibes. And while it looked romantic from the outside, behind the scenes it was costing me money, sleep, confidence, and my nervous system.

I’m sharing the moment I realised that “winging it” wasn’t intuitive or artistic, it was just expensive. How cutting out imported flowers forced me to face my avoidance of systems. And why learning to plan my flower orders didn’t kill my creativity… it actually made me a better designer.

This is a story about spreadsheets I swore I’d never use, the mindset shift that changed everything, and the principle I live by now: creativity thrives within structure, and profit needs planning.

If you’ve ever felt like systems weren’t “you,” if flower ordering gives you anxiety, or if you secretly worry you’re losing money even when you’re booked out, this one’s for you.

(And yes, this is also the story of how The Bunch Cruncher was born.)

You can get it here:
https://stan.store/wildfloweracademy/p/the-bunch-cruncher-floral-calculator

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!

In this episode, I’m talking about how I survive insanely hot wedding days as a florist who is, admittedly, a delicate little flower who wilts the second the temperature hits 30.

I share why I blocked out December and January from my calendar, what it took to design my business so I could afford to do that, and how I still end up at sweltering weddings anyway.

I walk you through everything I did for a recent 40-degree setup at Redleaf – from hiring a last-minute cool room, bringing on extra freelancers, reworking the ceremony design to get every flower into deep water, and creating shade with umbrellas, to packing snacks, electrolytes, trolleys, and misters so none of us died in the process.

I also chat about client expectations, timing strategies, choosing hardy ingredients, and little hacks like sneaking bouquets into drink cool rooms.

Mostly, it’s a very sweaty reminder that you’re allowed to protect your health, build systems that support you, and design a business that doesn’t require you to suffer through heatwaves to prove anything to anyone.

Tune in, stay cool, and know you’re not alone if you’d rather be at the beach than in a paddock with crispy flowers.

Want help applying this to your own floristry business?

Wildflower Academy is where we do this work properly, blending mindset, strategy, and real-world systems so wedding florists can grow without burnout or constant comparison.

Inside the Academy, you’ll learn how to:

If you’re ready to stop spiralling and start building with intention, you’ll feel right at home in Wildflower Academy.

Click here to join!