“Are you familiar with the word ‘pivot’?” the judge asked. The judge was on a panel of mostly male business owners in the community as well as some folks in the entrepreneur ecosphere. Melanie and I are both graduates of the University of New Mexico’s creative writing program. We both hold Master’s of Fine Arts degrees: Melanie in fiction, I in creative nonfiction. We we are both well aware of the word “pivot.” Creative writing is all about the pivot. How many times have we written a story (fact or fiction) presented it to a workshop so sure we would leave the room with our fellow students applauding our work… only to leave instead with stacks of copies of our work marked up with red pen, words and phrases circled, paragraphs underlined, and questions written in the margins? Or how many times have we submitted a piece to 12, 23, 37 literary journals only to receive 12, 23, then 37 rejections which send us back to our computers to do a hard revision and start all over again? So yeah. We know about pivoting.
Melanie came up with the idea for Plume back in 2016. We began working on it then, but got involved in other things (jobs, raising kids, travel) and didn’t really get going until a year later.
Pivot 1
Melanie was taking business classes at the community college where she taught English (because the future of a career in education is precarious and Melanie knew she may need other tools in her kit–she knew she may need to pivot). Melanie’s marketing teacher urged her to enter the business plan competition.
I’d quit the toxic company I’d worked for a few months earlier and Team Plume was born. We cranked up our website, set up social media channels, and started…we figured we’d go slow and steady and fund what we needed with our credit cards and worry about the financing later.
Pivot 2
When thinking about our subscription box for creative writers we had tons of ideas (ideas that keep coming) of what we would include in a box: tea, chocolate, notebooks, pens, books, writing prompts, stickers, refrigerator magnets, coffee mugs, bookmarks–all those writerly things we all like to peruse in shops everywhere… At the core always, was a letter from a successful woman writer and some of her work, a Plume exclusive. And so we surveyed women writers. They told us the most important part, the thing they wanted most, was a letter from a successful woman writer. And so we scaled down our initial vision to focus on the writer-to-writer aspect.
Pivot 3
Some authors in Texas came up with a box full of notebooks and pens and stuff. We weren’t discouraged, clearly there is a market for a subscription box for writers, but rather we doubled down on our writer-to-writer model, on our focus on women writers, and we added the secret sauce: New Mexico magic and Self-Care for the Creative Soul™. There is something special about this place…it’s been a draw for artists and writers for a reason.
Pivot 4
We attended bootcamps on finances, marketing, pitching, and leadership. We were usually the only women in the room. We researched our market (did you know that 80% of Americans say they want to write a book? that’s 200 million people!) With our coach we worked on our business plan, our ten slide pitch a la Guy Kawasaki, and we practiced. We made notecards, we revised our cards, and we practiced some more. And on the day of the competition we put on our business suits, our high heels, and even our pantyhose (you know we meant business when we put on heels and hose) and we pitched our business plan.
We pitched to two panels of 13 judges–three 3 women who were excited about our plan, and 10 men who didn’t get it.
Questions from the judges included: “Have you thought about delivering a digital product?” and “Are you familiar with the word ‘pivot'”? (a question that came with a lesson on how important it is to pivot as an entrepreneur).
Pivot 5
We didn’t win the competition. Nor did we place, or show. In other words, no startup funds. So we we pivoted once again. We started a GoFundMe. (now we’re on Patreon)
We’re betting on the fact that this business idea is viable and valuable.
It’s not just about mailing products, it’s about building a support network for women writers, it’s about connecting with each other, about nourishing our creative selves and celebrating our lifestyle. It’s about lifting each other up, because our voices matter, our words matter. We matter.
It’s also about supporting our New Mexico economy with our source local philosophy. We hope you believe in our mission and we hope you will support us– every little bit counts, every $5 contribution, every Facebook share, or tweet, every newsletter signup, and every heads-up to a fellow woman writer.