Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Iann Doolittle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Iann , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

This is a bit of a loaded question, however one time I read a quote from Jay-z saying it’s not always the most creative or talented person that gets all the success, its the person that grinds the hardest. There’s a lot of truth to that stupid quote haha. Productivity can be many things! For PLUM to be successful I need to design flowers that people want and continue evolving my brand, that can be hard when you’re thinking about profits and paying bills. But I’ve learned I need to take time to myself so I can recharge, then I can focus on being creative and inspiring. But most of all learn to except the things you aren’t good at and move on!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

So about me (Iann) and how PLUM came to be….. Well I was born in the desert and grow up in a small suburb. Truthfully as a young weird gay little person nothing about where I grow up was pleasant for me. But that all changed when my family moved in San Diego Ca.! When we left Arizona I was really able to be myself and explore my interest in fashion. From a really young age I loved fashion design, luckily my mom was very supportive and enrolled me in classes at a local community college. Thats where my adventure and love for design kind of started. While I was living in Brooklyn I started freelancing for flower shops, kinda where I learned about the wedding industry and how to process florals, the basics. Throughout my career I’ve worked for some very successful people in the industry, while I don’t know how much I actually learned from these people (LOL) I do know it pushed me to want to work for myself.
After a few names changes, PLUM was born in 2016 at my loft in Downtown Los Angeles. Yay!
I think one of the things that sets me apart in the industry is my willingness to try anything but always ensuring it has my mark on it. I really want all my clients to love what they bought and have a pleasant experience. Planning a wedding can be really stressful so I’ve created a proposal process that takes a lot of the work out. Picking out flowers should be the fun part! At this point PLUM now offers a variety of wedding and flower delivery services, we can handle large scale weddings and deliver flowers Monday – Saturday.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Opening a floral design business requires A LOT of money, more capital than I ever expected (haha). When you start adding up things like website fees, hard goods (boxes, vases etc) and how expensive flowers are, it can be scary. It took me a few years to really get the business moving because I self funded the whole business! I worked a day job 6am-2:30pm, then would go buy flowers when I was off of work. I would design and delivery any orders I had received, then go to my serving job at night. I worked like 60-70 hours a week! It took years grinding to get the money together for my business, but here I am!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think in any industry we all have to be resilient, there is no shortage of floral designers out there and most are so incredible! I figured if I got through Covid and the issues it brought then I can do anything. I think it really just depends on your life style and needs at the end of the day. Be happy and live simply, enjoy the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.plumstudios.co
• Instagram: Plumstudios.co
• Other: Reviews on Google

Image Credits
All images are owned by PLUM