We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pamela Breece a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Pamela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
To be successful I believe you have to truly LOVE what you are doing. When you are passionate about your business, you wake up excited. You would do the work for free if you could. You would still want to do the work even if you won the lottery. When you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like work and that passion and energy translates to customers.
Pamela, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Growing up, I was always painting and drawing and had an interest in going to art school. I was repeatedly told, however, that art was a hobby, not a career. After receiving my MBA and working in corporate America for a few years, however, I was encouraged by a few great friends to take some of my art to a New York trade show for the Stationery industry. I was a fish out of water with zero experience or training in the design field, but left that show with sales from all over the globe and an amazing licensing contract with a large company. That was 23 years ago and I have been designing full time ever since. I started my stationery company, Starfish Art, in 2000 and my equestrian brand, Pony Macaroni, in 2013. In addition to creating for my two lines, I design for numerous other companies, mostly in the equestrian and stationery industries.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The most challenging and scary time in my career was after the market crash in 2008. At the time I owned a 1200 square foot studio space in downtown Phoenix where, with several employees, we designed, printed, packaged and shipped all of our products. When the economy crashed, so did my sales. It was terrifying as I had huge overhead and no one knew what was happening or how long the recovery would take. I decided to short sell my studio space, let go most of my employees and outsource all of my production. This allowed me to work from home and only pay for orders that were placed. I believe this decision kept my small business from going under as many did unfortunately. I still operate in this model now and it allows me to focus almost solely on design and not worry about production, packing, shipping.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
One way my equestrian brand Pony Macaroni fosters brand loyalty is through social media. Like my customers, I am an avid equestrian and live on a horse farm. I love sharing funny and heart warming videos and pictures of the daily happenings with my horses, pigs, chickens and dogs. My Mustang, Charlie, and my two mini horses like to visit me inside my home as well and these funny moments are usually caught on my phone and shared to Instagram as well. My customers and I connect deeply over our love for horses and sharing my farm is a natural and positive way to both gain new customers and keep my current customers engaged.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ponymacaroni.com
- Instagram: @ponymacaronilove
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ponymacaronilove
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-breece-99478266/
- Other: www.starfishart.com
Image Credits
all photos taken by me!