Weekend Update: How Not to Build a Business.

Week 3 - Day 14 of letting AI steer my career escape from corporate life

Weekends—great for resting, right? Well, not exactly how I spent mine. Instead, I found myself caught up in a new idea—maybe a business, maybe just a passion project. I'm thinking about sending handwritten letters by snail mail to kind strangers.

But let’s start from the beginning.

The Idea

I had told you before about an idea for a Love Letters Club—a way to send handwritten letters to people, filled with warmth. My career coach didn’t seem particularly excited, so I put it aside. Until… Friday evening.

My friend S. texted me: “Remember that story about the Elephant you told me? Can you tell me again? I want to write it down and have it somewhere I can read whenever I need to be reminded of it.”

I replied, “Of course! Better yet, let me send you a handwritten letter” A story she could hold in her hands, frame, tuck into a book—whatever felt right.

And then, like in a cartoon, the light bulb moment hit:

💡 In a world that’s all digital and rushed, these letters, arriving by snail mail, could be a quiet invitation to pause.

💡 Each letter could be a short story, a poem—something to savor.

💡 And, just maybe, it could be a subscription business, like Netflix or a newspaper—but for letters.

I pictured families waiting for the mail to arrive, holding onto the envelope until they could sit together, screens off, to read it. I imagined people coming home from a tough day, seeing a letter waiting for them, making a cup of tea, and letting it bring a slow, cozy moment.

I imagined myself crafting each letter—handwriting the words, selecting the perfect paper and envelope, sealing it with wax, adding a ribbon, going to the Post Office and send it out. Really like old school, in the best way possible.

And I felt pure joy. If you do too let me know:

The Validation

With this excitement, I started playing around with names and narrowed it down to two:
1️⃣ Paper & Ink Club
2️⃣ Slow Ink Society

Since I couldn’t decide, I got help from experts: I asked my friends to vote. And, naturally, they wanted to know what they were voting for.

So, I told them—the idea, the concept, the vision. And the reaction? Overwhelmingly positive.

My friend C. even sent me an audio message saying how emotional this idea made her. It reminded her of our summers before unlimited texts, when we’d send letters and postcards to each other. That feeling of waiting, receiving, and keeping something personal.

And I thought: That’s it. This idea is totally validated. Everyone will feel the same. There’s no doubt this will work.

So, I did what any rational person would do next: I challenged myself to bring this idea to life in two hours.

The Execution (or, The Failure)

I went full-speed ahead:

✅ Bought the domain for the winning name.
✅ Checked domestic & international snail mail prices (turns out, it’s really affordable!).
✅ Ordered all the supplies on Amazon—paper, envelopes, new pens, wax, a wax seal, a ruler, red paper (because why not?), ribbon, a stamp pad (I will totally need it). Only “Prime” items, of course—this needed to arrive tomorrow.
✅ Did a rough cost calculation, added a little margin for the "coziness factor," and voilà—pricing was done.
✅ Researched the best way for my flood of future customers to sign up, give their addresses, pay, and update details: Opened a Shopify account.
✅ Built the entire Shopify shop—products, pricing, branding, concept, colors, the whole nine yards.

🚀 All done. In under two hours. There was just one tiny thing missing: customers.

But I had no doubt—TikTok was the way to go.

Even though I had never used it, had no clue how it worked, and wasn’t sure if my audience even existed there, I knew the algorithm would carry me straight to those yearning to receive a letter from a stranger.

So, I downloaded the app, patted myself on the back, and thought: Great job. Tomorrow, I’ll post a few cute videos with my art supplies, and people will immediately sign up, saying—"Thank you for creating this. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life.”

…You see where this is going, right?

The Reality Check

The next morning, I woke up still excited about writing the letters. But for everything else? The doubt crept in.
❓ Were my friends just being nice?
❓ Was I the only one who actually thought this was cool?

Then, I hit my first roadblock: connecting a bank account to Shopify was way more complicated than I expected. I stared at the wall for a while.

And then, the real realization hit me:
💡 My friends liking the idea wasn’t real market validation.
💡 Why was I worried about collecting payments if I didn’t even know if I had a product worth paying for?

So I backtracked and did what I should have done from the start:
📌 Built a simple interest form to test demand—Step 1 of actual validation.

And since I take weekends off from Substack (self-imposed constraints), I dived into TikTok.

👀 I had to learn:

• How to write snappy, short text instead of long-form writing.

• How to record a video.

• How to pick a song (why is this so hard?).

• And worst of all—how to actually use the app interface without accidentally deleting everything.

Of course, my first beautifully crafted video got erased when I hit the wrong button. Doubt crept in again. Every step felt awkward and frustrating. It took me longer than two hours.

And then? Crickets.

No views. No engagement. I wanted to delete TikTok and abandon the whole idea. What was I thinking?

Then, I checked again: 70 views. 2 likes. 2 visits on the form.

And suddenly, I was back in: Of course I’m onto something! I knew it! …Or did I?

The Weekend Wrap-Up

The weekend passed. I posted more terrible TikToks (feeling like a total Boomer). The validation form got two more visits. Nobody filled it out.

So I’m taking a step back—to the core of this idea: taking it slow.

I would love to write letters and send them across the world. So I’ll start with prototypes, testing if I truly find joy in writing them—and, more importantly, if anyone finds joy in receiving them.

Maybe, just maybe, someone out there will find the idea of receiving a letter that isn’t a bill as magical as I do.

This project is called Slow Ink Society —courtesy of my team of branding experts, who hold a PhD in friendship.

And if you’d like to receive a handwritten letter from this stranger, let me know—just your first name and email for now. We’ll worry about addresses if we get there. I hope we do.

Either way, I’ll keep you posted. Right here, in this little digital space of ours.