Jeff Ornstein 0:01

Hi everyone, and welcome to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. I am Jeff, and on this show we celebrate people on the cusp of greatness. Those building on past successes in some of the curious and inventive and sometimes unexpected ways they have achieved those, and stepping into moments that could define their legacy. We'll talk about current projects, lessons learned, and the extraordinary opportunities ahead. So the best is yet to come. Hi, today we're sitting down with the unstoppable Angela Grout. Good morning. Good morning. For 35 plus years, the heart and soul behind Agawam Flower Shop, where she's designed over 1,000 weddings and 2,200 funerals while running every aspect of the business like a one-woman circus. Somewhere in the middle of juggling five weddings, seven funerals, and a partridge in a pear tree in a single day, she became an author, playwright, podcast host, theatrical producer, and the powerhouse who just took Ken Harris's one-man show, Foes of a Minimum Wage Guard, off Broadway at Theater Row. Angela believes every single thing she's ever done, from the flower cooler to the stage, has prepared for exactly what she's doing right now. And she's nowhere near done. Angela, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Wow, that was a quite the introduction I wasn't expecting. But yes, thank you. My hands have touched over a million roses, and we got the stories to prove it. Well, the producers were delighted when they first contacted you and you reached out, and they just thought you were a powerhouse of exactly the kinds of combination of skill sets, determination, vision, and accomplishments that we're looking for to highlight on this podcast. Well, I'm honored. Well, you know, you deserve it. It's it's not it's not easy to excel in general, and you've proven to excel in multi-layers at the same time. And I think that that holds a lot of interest for the public, especially because people think you should be slowing down as you get on in years, and you're showing quite the opposite. You're just going gangbusters. And similar to my life, a little bit, exploring new and exciting avenues to express your creativity. So I'm delighted to be able to ask you some questions about this insane life you have, which is.

Angela M Grout 2:22

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.

Jeff Ornstein 2:24

Okay. So uh your as I've mentioned, your career spans floristry, writing, producing. How do you find that these different skills complement one another when you're tackling a new project?

Angela M Grout 2:38

Oh gosh, they totally it they totally all connect. I mean, you know, being a florist, whether I'm doing an a large event or a wedding or just a simple bouquet for you to send to your wife on, you know, Thanksgiving Day, I mean, it's all a production. So the fact that, you know, when you're creating one arrangement for flowers, like there's still the thought process and the pre-planning process that goes into it because you may call me on the day you want the flowers, but I had to, I had to be psychic about it, you know, weeks earlier when I ordered the flowers and ordered the container that it would go in and, you know, be able to not only have the supplies ready to be used, but also have the talent and the hands and the time and the opportunity to create it. And I think that, you know, goes hand in hand with writing and with producing shows because as an author, I mean, I can have the story, just like you can have the idea to send your, you know, someone flowers. We can have that idea all day long. But in order to actually create the idea and put it on the page, that takes hands. And then, you know, there's all the pre-planning and post-planning of writing, whether it's a book or a production, of knowing what goes into it. Because, you know, especially if you're writing like a play, you know, you got to think, how many characters am I gonna have? And how many actors is that gonna take? Because even though there might be nine characters, maybe you only need five actors to play all nine, you know. So it's just a matter of being versatile. And, you know, I know it sounds strange to compare actors or novels and chapters to flowers, but same thing, if I'm gonna do a flower arrangement, you know, I'm not gonna make it just of all sunflowers. I mean, if you want that, I'll give it to you. I'm gonna do what you ask. But at the same time, the fact that I have in my, you know, at my disposal and I've already pre-thought, okay, I'm gonna have sunflowers and carnations and roses and you know, whatever the mix is to do, whether it's in that color or you have to be flexible to work with the tools you have. So, you know, for me, when I'm writing, I tend to write more from, oh, I want to say like sometimes a spiritual level, like to sit down and let it come through me, you know, and same thing with, you know, doing a flower arrangement or creating a wedding, you know, decorating a whole venue. It's coming through me, like, you know, the the ideas and the creation that we want to see. So it's definitely all interrelatable. And I've always been a time management person. It was one of my favorite classes in college. I went to college for accounting, but literally doing time management and like being able to sit at your calendar and and kind of just, you know, block out that time, you know, and say, okay, this is the time I'm gonna talk to Jeff Ornstee. Like, okay, I'm blocking out that time. But after that, what's my next block of time and how am I gonna use it? And, you know, when you're prioritizing, you know, at the at the flower shop, if I was prioritizing, yes, I have to get my deliveries out on time, but if there's a funeral that's at two o'clock, damn well no, I'm gonna make sure that gets top priority because I'm not gonna be late delivering that one, but I'm still gonna make the other deadlines. And I think, you know, everything I've done in my life has led me to where I am today, obviously.

Jeff Ornstein 5:51

Right. Well, you know, knowing personally a floral designer, I know that there's storytelling. It's not just let's throw these blossoms in a vase, you're storytelling. So that there's definitely a linearity between floral design and writing and uh plays and theater. So kudos to you. But how did you find the time to start writing while you're running this shop where you've got to be getting orders out, like you say, on a super timely basis? Yeah.

Angela M Grout 6:21

Um, well, one thing, you know, my mind can be multitasking at many times. So in this corner of my mind, I can be writing a story. In this corner of the mind, I can be planning next week's orders, but I work on what I'm working on in the present moment and, you know, doing that. For me, writing was like my release when I came home from work, you know. I mean, before I even go to work, I have to write. I have to write my to-do list for the day. I mean, and it could be something as simple as, you know, get gas for the car, you know, pick up the flowers, cut the flowers. I would make to-do lists for each of my employees. And once it was on paper, then it like can manifest. Right. You know, because I can have in my head everything that needs to be done, but especially if you when you need help with things and you have employees and assistance, if you don't communicate to them what you need, it's not going to get done. People don't read your mind. So, you know, number one, manifesting what I need done on a page helps me. And then at the end of the day, you know, there's times where I need to just unwind and write the story of the day. Like whether it was a creative story that came to me or something that really did happen to me. And working with flowers is a very spiritual experience. It really is. And, you know, when I'm having those spiritual moments, it's like, you know, we will continue to work throughout the day and we'll talk about it, but then I have to write it down because when I, like I said, when I write it down, I'm seeing the thought, which then can manifest into something else, which of course, for me, manifested into a couple books that I wrote. Because it's like, you know what? I have to get the story told. Like, you know, Wayne Dyer said, you can't die with your story inside you. And I know a lot of people who have died with the story inside them. And because I know some of their story, I like to say some of the books that I write are fictional memoirs because they weren't able to write their memoir. And therefore, if I know their story is important, I want to write it, but I don't A, have, you know, the rights to their story. And B, I can't necessarily always prove that that's their story. And of course, I can spice it up because, you know, that's what we do. Like a chef, you gotta spice it a little and, you know, make it interesting. Um, my third book, April Rain, which I now have written as a screenplay, and I'm in pre-production mode of doing things with that, like that was inspired by a girl who was murdered in my town. And I mean, I did her flowers for the funeral. So, of course, from the moment she was murdered to when it was solved 25 years later, and that entire time I was at my shop, we would talk about it every day. The everyday, the what if scenarios, the creative, crazy ideas. I mean, I did work with some of the police officers in town because when they would come in, I'd go, So, what do you think of this scenario? And sometimes they'd look at me and go, Wow, you have a vivid imagination. And other times they would have a poker face of, I was like, oh, I might be on to something, you know. Right. And for me to write that sort of fictional memoir, I mean, I can't tell the truth. I don't know the truth. I can explore all these what-if scenarios. For me, writing it gave me, I mean, of course, you write sometimes for yourself, you know, it gave me the peace of mind of knowing this may be better than what really happened to her. So maybe you can give me a little bit of peace. It's still not, it's it's a murder mystery. I mean, I don't want anyone to get murdered. Right.

Jeff Ornstein 9:43

You wrote it as a book initially and then you translated it into a screenplay?

Angela M Grout 9:47

So I wrote it as a book initially in kind of crazy out-of-order chapters when before the final draft. And then when I was doing my editing and putting it in order with someone who does copywriting and proofreading to make sure that it was told in an in the proper order. I don't introduce Jeff in chapter one and never tell you who he is until chapter 20, you know, like things like that. But I ended up realizing I needed more dialogue in it. So I took a playwriting class and I actually developed it into a stage play. And I wrote a few monologues, I wrote the stage play for it. In writing the stage play for it, I was able to give the characters voices so that they actually, you know, told the story and I wasn't a narrated story. And then I presented it to my local theater, and of course, you know, a couple things happened. One, they said that it was too close to home to do because it was an unsolved murder at the time. And number two, you know, they did give me some leeways where to go, but then the pandemic came and it shut everything down. So I went ahead and did the book. I said, I'm I'm gonna publish the book. I gotta get the book out. The book came out. I still worked on the play, but then as I was doing the play, a couple of the people who had done my reading of the play had said, there's a lot of characters in this. And as you probably know, when you're doing stage work, you smaller theaters are made, you know, regular theaters. I'm not talking Broadway, but they like, you know, to maybe eight, nine characters, you know, or actors on the stage. And I have, I think, I believe there's um 53. So they're like, it's more of a movie, which I 100% thought in the beginning because when the muse came to me, she's literally telling me it's a graphic novel, it's a movie, and I'm like, I'm not a graphic novelist. I'm, you know, I explored those things. I went to the library, I looked them up. It just wasn't something I was passionate about. You know, I mean, you have to be passionate to tell the story that way. So I was comfortable doing it in prose, you know, and turning it that way. But what I did is I started writing a screenplay for because I go, okay, if it's a movie, let's figure out how to do this. So I took some screenplay classes, studied screenplays. I have a cousin who has written some screenplays and he produces a show in Philadelphia. So like I was able to kind of talk with him and network with some people. And once I got it down, I say this to a lot of the guests who come on my show. When the students are ready, the teachers or guides appear. And I am a member of the International Women's Writers Guild, and I happen to meet a woman who, Linda Bernstein, she's she has done 22 after school specials for ABC. She has written a lot of movies. And I just started talking to her and she said, Why don't you give me your script? You know, I'm she calls herself the screenwriting script goddess. So she took it and she was able to like guide me on how to tweak certain things. And I was like, Okay, yeah, I'm I'm, you know, this this has got to be a movie. It's one of those things that's been on my bucket list for 30 years, and here I am now, not a florist anymore. I closed the shop. I'm I'm retired, which is weird. I mean, I am tired and I get tired every day. So that means I'm retired. But uh, you know, I said, you know, that these are my goals. I I made myself an aggressive three-year list after going to a woman's conference. She said, make yourself a bucket list just for the next year or two. Be kind and gentle with yourself. And I said, I'm getting aggressive. No, you know, you don't know how much time you got left on this earth and why procrastinate something you can do today for tomorrow. So I said, you know, I have two more books I that are done that need to be published, which I'm happy to announce. I just got a publisher for that book and it will be happening in the next couple months. Um, and then, you know, I have another book that I need to get published, and then I have the movie I want to make, and I have a musical script for the stage that's done, and we just did a reading for. And I said, that's it. In the next three years, I'm doing these things. And if I don't do them, then maybe they're not meant to be done. Because at some point, you gotta just like, and I don't want to say throw in the towel, but you know, time and effort.

Jeff Ornstein 13:41

It's gotta percolate. It's gotta percolate. Yeah, and you know, you could have a great idea and you have the germ of it, and if it could get cooking, and you know, and some might percolate faster than others, and some of you who knows, you could put it down and come back to it and see it in a different light, and then it percolates them. Oh, so are the inspirations for the books and the screenplays are they all coming from firsthand life experiences, or are you fantastical, or how how does that work? How do you get inspired? So I I'm I'm gonna use this statement.

Angela M Grout 14:11

I don't know if I want to use the statement, but I can talk to dead people.

Jeff Ornstein 14:14

You can use it.

Angela M Grout 14:15

You know, I um, you know, raised Catholic, have a big spirituality, definitely, you know, pray to my saints and God and the Holy Spirit. And I do have this connection with the other side, which I have explained on some story slams that I've done because I ate my twin in the womb.

Jeff Ornstein 14:32

Oh, that could explain a bunch.

Angela M Grout 14:34

That explains stuff, huh? Because there wasn't enough for two of us here. One had to be here and one had to be there. But anyways, everything I write, and I'm gonna quote Margaret Atwood, has happened in the world, just not necessarily in my world. However, a lot of stuff has happened in my world. And whether I have heard about it, witnessed it, or actually lived through it, and I've had, you know, I want to say I'm very blessed. I've had a lot of different spiritual experiences that I have actually witnessed and lived through. So some of them are definitely incorporated in my book. Like my first book, An Angel's Journey, is about a girl who came to me from the afterlife who wanted to tell her mother she was okay. I didn't know her. I've I've had experiences like this many times, and it's like, you know what? I only explain it that, you know, I know who Jesus is. I didn't walk the earth with Jesus, but I have a really tight relationship with him now. So that's how I explain, you know, these things. When something happens, like in the news in my in my neighborhood, like the girl who was murdered. I mean, there is the draw of like, you know, we were the same age, we looked the same, we had, you know, a lot of similarities. So, of course, at the time, we're thinking, is this a serial killer? Is that the type he's looking for? Was it a mob hit? Was it an intentional death? Was it an accidental death? We don't know. We didn't know. So there were so many what if situations that that prompted me to get creative. So even though it happened from something that happened in my life, it didn't happen to me. So, like when I'm writing about being dead, I mean, I'm not dead. But you can use that creative imagination to write from that point of view. The book that is gonna be published soon is called Being in My Breast, and it's about a woman who had breast cancer and died. And when I had beta readers reading it, I had a few of them like literally within probably the first three chapters texting me going, Angela, do you do you have breast cancer? Are you dying? Like, what are you telling me? You know, because it's I'm gonna boast, but like it's written very authentically. So you think it's from me and it's coming through me.

Jeff Ornstein 16:33

Do you think your ability to write authentically about something you haven't personally experienced is tied into, taps into somehow your telekinetic abilities to speak with sure other planes right now?

Angela M Grout 16:46

Why not?

Jeff Ornstein 16:47

Sure. I would think so.

Angela M Grout 16:48

I I definitely think so. When I first wrote my first book, of course, there's a lot of anxiety of, oh, what are people gonna think? Are they gonna think, you know, that I'm a medium or that everyone's gonna be like, oh, talk to this person for me. What are they saying? Like, you know, whatever comes, comes. You know, the play I've written is called In the Middle of the Night. And it literally is the story of a writer fighting with her muse. Because in the middle of the night is when I will wake. And my husband has seen this many times. And there are some nights where I'm like, can I just sleep and can you come back in the morning? But like when the idea strikes you, and whether whether you're waking up with the idea or it's coming from a dream that you just had, it has to be written down. So I set up this thing where I, you know, literally take my phone out and I'll set it for 15, 20 minutes, and I'm like, like a doctor, like, okay, here's my pen, let's let's go. And just let the pen flow.

Jeff Ornstein 17:39

Right.

Angela M Grout 17:40

Doing that, I mean, there has been times that I did that even writing April Rain, the murder mystery, waking up in the middle of the night writing something from a dream, and then it continues, you know, now my creative imagination's kicking in. But I didn't like what I wrote. Like, I don't want to be writing dark, ugly, rape, murder scenes, anything like that. So I'm like shredding the paper or trying to burn the paper, and then guess what? It comes back. Because if the muse has a story, the muse is gonna tell its story. And the play in the middle of the night really is about the the muse fighting with her going, you know. I mean, I wrote a song and it's called You Gotta Write It. And the Muse is like, I don't sing well, but I'll sing a little, you gotta write it, you gotta write it. Cause if you don't write it, it could be wrong, you know, and it's like and like the the muse trying to very gently say, like, even if you write it, it doesn't mean it's R-I-G-H-T right, but it might write R-I-G-H-T a wrong. You know, so like even though you don't know who killed this girl, telling this story in this way may give it peace. And one of my biggest dreams, inspiration, was me really arguing with my muse of, I don't think I should be publishing this murder mystery, you know. Like I feel scared. What are people gonna think? And I literally had this dream, and I wrote it down, and to me, it brought so much clarity is my car is parked in a parking lot, shopping parking lot, and I come out of the store and there's a shopping carriage wedged into the door, the driver's side door. It's damaging the car. There are no cameras around, there's no witnesses around, no one's around. Now I can think two things. One, someone deliberately did it, or two, the wind blew the carriage. I'm never gonna know the truth. Which truth is gonna make me feel better?

Jeff Ornstein 19:31

Right.

Angela M Grout 19:31

And I was like taking a deep breath, going, you know what? This story isn't what happened to that girl, but reading it lets me breathe a little bit better. You know, and I think any story that can be told that can bring someone a little bit of peace, and of course, entertainment and you know, hopefully money to the person who writes it is worth telling.

Jeff Ornstein 19:54

Now, your one woman show uh conceptually blends humor and real life struggles, and which comes as no surprise to me because you're equally inclined to tell a joke and say something entertaining as you are to touch on something serious and and and you know, har and heartfelt and uh disturbing, if you will. So how do you blend that? I mean, are you do you have your audience in mind when you're blending it, or are you just letting the creative juices flow and you're getting it down and then stepping away and coming back to it?

Angela M Grout 20:24

Yeah, I let I will let the creative juices flow first, but then during the editing process, I will start to think of the audience. A lot of times I think of myself as the audience because, you know, I'm trying to write something that's whether it's my truth or something that's gonna make me be interested to keep writing, you know. And then when I like I'll present it to friends or family, and then it's a matter of then, you know, almost like when you're sending your kid off to kindergarten, you know, it's like you get outside influence coming in. And, you know, and that's the scary thing about publishing, because even when I have I, you know, I have a podcast called Why Write, where I have writers come on talking about why they published their book and why they wrote it. And when you're publishing something, I mean, giving giving birth to a book is a huge labor of love. But once it's in the world, it takes, it takes on a life of its own because you can't control how someone else sees your story. I'll go back to my religious roots, but like, you know, you open the Bible, you and I can read the same passage and it can mean something different to both of us. And that's where a writer has to kind of like let it go. And I definitely have struggled with that for sure.

Jeff Ornstein 21:27

Yes, but you're you you mentioned how like, oh, I'm gonna write this story, and people are gonna think, oh, I'm a crazy person. Why did I write this story? But part of being an artist is to be fearless and to be courageous. Yes. And say, you know what, I'm gonna do this craft and to heck with everybody else and what they may or may not think. So, all right, I I get a little bit over time here, but I'm just enjoying this so much. What's one story that you think you've got in the back of your mind that you haven't put pen to paper yet for? Do you have one? Yeah, oh, I have a lot. I would imagine you have a little

Angela M Grout 22:00

I have a lot. So um, so I I have a story. Oh gosh, which one do I pick? They're all like running at me going me, me, me, me, me, me. But I I have a really cool story about a police officer who was killed in the line of duty on her first night of duty. And she came to me in a dream and it ended up manifesting in my own life in about seven days. And on like that seventh day, I never met this girl, but I gave her eulogy.

Jeff Ornstein 22:27

Oh, wow.

Angela M Grout 22:28

So it's a very I think it'd be a really good story to tell because if someone didn't believe in, you know, life after death, like I mean, I'm sorry. She was a police officer, she was in the military, she was killed on her first night of duty. You know, I wake up in the middle of the night and I literally not only pen part of the dream I'm having, but end up seeing the connections and I start connecting a few dots. And within the first 12 hours, the stuff that manifested in my life was I kept saying it's not to prove to me that there's an afterlife. I know there is. And I mean, when I was younger, I used to say to my parish priests, you know, we say this prayer like, oh, we look for life ever after and the resurrection of the dead. I go, and if I found it, I'm supposed to keep my mouth shut because otherwise you're crazy.

Jeff Ornstein 23:16

Well, I don't think you're crazy. I think you're like you're full of insights and intuition. And I think that that's what makes your creativity like so boundless. So I've really enjoyed meeting you. I'm gonna keep my eyes open and my ears peeled to see when um some of your uh more creative endeavors are on the market and start watching your podcast too. Because you've been in delay.

Angela M Grout 23:38

Yes, please share my podcast, get more people on because I tell you, the guests I have on my show are very talented. I mean, they some of them have written some amazing stories, whether it's been, you know, a memoir or a novel or fantasy. I mean, I've had keynote speakers on, I've had people who do comedy because my thing is I want to empower people to tell their story. And I host a writer's conference every year that literally I just say, you tell your story your way. Maybe your way is in a poem, maybe it's in a song, maybe it's in a play, you know. And a lot of people will say to me, you know, Angela, you gotta hone in on one. You know, like you're doing books, you're doing a play, you're producing this. And I'm like, you know what? When I had my shop, I do five weddings, four funerals, birthday arrangement, a baby arrangement. You know, you just not need to know where you need to go, you know, and you know, and and there are times now that I'm getting older that I do say no and say, no, I'm not interested in that. I mean, I've had people come to me and I do some book coaching and and I feel bad saying, you know, like that's just not a genre I'm interested in coaching, you know, like I'm not the one for you. But if, you know, like with Ken Harris's show, Foes of a Minimum Wage Guard, like he's got a great story. I mean, about educating you about retail theft and it's funny and it's one hour and it's talking about people who are aging. I mean, you know, nowadays people work well past retirement age. I mean, I'll be working well past retirement age. I mean, hopefully I'll be, you know, having a movie done by then.

Jeff Ornstein 25:03

But I I don't doubt that you will be. He was a I just interviewed him, and what a great story. And the fact that he could do something creative and funny and serious and relevant, yeah, and in particular something that helps defend and support uh the elder community.

Angela M Grout 25:18

And I mean, he's got he inspires me a lot because he's he portrays 12 characters on stage. One man. And the fact that he knows if you're standing over here and you know you're twirling your hair, now he's playing the girl character, you know, or if he's over here and he's got this like pointy, you know, it's like you know the characters and you get to know them. And I watch him, and you know, we've talked about a couple shows I've wanted to develop because my my second book, Dear Baby Get Out, I would love to see it as a one-woman show. I mean, it's literally a woman's final days of pregnancy. And I mean, it's neurosis and comedy and it's crazy. And it could be one woman on stage just going, oh my God, look at the crumbs on my shirt, you know. And it's funny. And then, you know, I have another story about the the unquiet mind of a bipolar woman, not me. I know I might seem that I'm on a couple levels, but but you know, it's like it brings in the seriousness of, you know, of what bipolar is and how it can be treated, how it can be managed, and how hilarious it really can be. Because if I don't laugh about it some days, I'll cry all day.

Jeff Ornstein 26:21

You know, that's that's the craft and that's the art that gets through to people when it's human and there's you can laugh and you can cry because that's that's real life.

Angela M Grout 26:28

Yeah.

Jeff Ornstein 26:28

That's real life.

Angela M Grout 26:29

Yeah.

Jeff Ornstein 26:30

I have to end this interview. It's been a delight having you. I'm so pleased to have met you. Oh, I everything the producer said about you is 100% on target. You are a charmer for sure. All right.

Angela M Grout 26:41

Well, I look forward to hopefully meeting you in person. We are going to be bringing foes of the minimum wage guard out to Boston. You're in Boston, right?

Jeff Ornstein 26:47

Yes, I am.

Angela M Grout 26:48

Yes, so I'll definitely let you know. But if you know venues who want us, let us know too.

Jeff Ornstein 26:52

I will do that. Thank you so much.

Angela M Grout 26:54

Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.

Jeff Ornstein 26:57

Thanks for tuning in to Next Act with Jeff Orenstein. Follow, subscribe, and stay connected to your favorite socials at www.nextdackpodcast.com. Keep chasing your next act. The best is yet to come.