We were lucky to catch up with Emily Bruns recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emily, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

In 2018 Sofia and I met and started training together for the Boston Marathon and the following Flying Pig. At first I wasn’t sure we would have much in common. She was from Mexico City, went to private schools, with Mexico’s wealthiest, brought here on an athletic scholarship. She was 6 years younger than I. I grew up very modestly on the far westside of Cincinnati with a big back yard and lots of open space. Sofia ran close to my pace, was funny, and did most of the talking while running so, I didn’t have too. As we logged mile after mile, I learned we had things in common. We both cared about the environment. She had been to Alaska and camped in the national park and I had always wanted to go. We had both seen the same documentaries and cared about bees. We joked about wanting to be beekeepers. After our races, we continued to run together and our friendship grew. Later that year Sofia was sucker punched, hard. On August 8th of 2018, her husband, Shane, found out that he had cancer, lung Cancer, stage 4 and that it had metastasized to his bones. His lungs were covered. She hadn’t even been married for a year. He was young. Shane had been recruited to run XC in college where he and Sofia met. Shane was a very dedicated runner that put in the work, ran all the miles and all the trails. That day… the wind had been knocked out of them. Everything was uncertain. Over the next few months we became much more than running buddies.
We all had signed up to do The California International Marathon CIM in Sacramento on December of 2018. We had organized a fun little trip that ended in wine country, so we all were looking forward to it! While Shane didn’t train like he used to, he used the marathon to have the motivation to go outside and try to stay in shape. Sofia just ran to stay sane.
It was while training for this marathon that I got to really know Sofia. Running was her escape. I understood the need to escape. I got it. My upbringing was chaotic. My father was an alcoholic. I understood uncertainty. I tried to give her the space she needed to do what she needed on those runs. She didn’t want to talk about Shane and what was happening, she needed a break from it. So sometimes we talked about other things, sometimes we didn’t talk at all, just ran. As time went by, we talked more and more about what we wanted, reflecting on life. Somedays our talkies got really deep.
When life knocks the wind out of you, when so much is uncertain, other things become crystal clear. You start to ask yourself the big questions. You realize the importance of today, now, this moment. There is only one guarantee, so, how do you want to live your life? What kind of person do you want to be? Who matters the most to you and how do you want to make the most with those people? All of a sudden, I looked at life with a sense of urgency. I didn’t want to spend all my time at a job, I was burnt out and jaded. Working for someone who didn’t value what I did. I wanted to spend my time doing something that challenged me in a new way. I wanted to feel like I was making a difference. I wanted to spend more time with my family and friends. I wanted to be happier, not just for me but for them. Everything became very clear and simple. The things that were most important to me were spending time with the people I love, having adventures, sharing experiences, and making memories with these people. Where were my happiest, most memorable moments? Outside, being a part of nature. Spending time in nature is super powerful. I wanted to help share the joy I had in the outdoors. I wanted to help people get outside and make memories with those they loved, connecting with the positive powers of nature. Sofia and I came to the same concussion. If Sofia or I were having a bad day we go for a trail run and always felt better after. As we ran we day dreamed about starting a business. We talked about how happy people make a happy planet. We wanted to share the goodness we felt when we were on the trail connecting to nature. We wanted to provide a unique experience that would give people the chance to make memories with the people they love. We both felt, now was the time. We didn’t want to wait. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. We wanted to start living our lives with intention, actively, not passively. The risk of making this change, all of a sudden felt minimal. We didn’t know anything about building a campervan, or starting a business but the challenge was exciting. We knew we had each other to lean on and we knew we had to go for it. That is how Aclipse Campervans was born.

Emily, 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?

I had an opportunity to go to Iceland in 2017, with my husband, Jon. We wanted to move around while we were there. We wanted to maximize our time and see as much as possible in the 4 days we would be there. We would need to rent a car and rent houses around the island when my husband found out you could rent a campervan. We were campers and thought this was perfect! The van was very bare bones, a plywood platform and a mattress with bins filled with camping essentials underneath. We loved the freedom of being on our own schedule, no check in/out times. It rained a lot while we were there and we were grateful not to have to pack up a wet tent, or wait for things to dry. The van came with all the essentials so we didn’t have to pack that stuff up or unpack it when we got home. Jon thought something like this would be great in the midwest and started to brainstorm on how we might improve on their model. Two years later Sofia and I took on that idea and went for it. We wanted to make it appealing to a broad range, from outdoor curious to outdoor enthusiasts. We learned about building, solar power, plumbing, and recruited our friends who very generously and enthusiastically helped us bring our design to life. We built, tested, and sometimes redesigned, and rebuilt. We want to be as thoughtful as possible with every detail and we continue to lean. Neither of us had experience building campervans or in a rental business but, you won’t, until you try. We couldn’t have done it without the love and support of our friends but, we did it, on our terms, our vision, putting our money on the line. We created a business that helps people make great memories and connect with family. That is what I am most proud of.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Sofia and I started Aclipse Campervans in the summer of 2019 as a side hustle. We dreamed it would one day be a full time gig but had no idea if it could. We wondered if our area would love to travel in a caper van as much as we did. By the end of 2019 people showed enough interest that we thought we should buy and build another van. Things were going well enough, we thought, now might be the time for one of us to go in full time. At the end of March 2020 we financed another van. A few weeks later the pandemic hit the US and the Governor shut down travel. Everyone called and cancelled trips, even trips 6 months out, were canceled. We questioned, had we made the wrong choice? May be now is not the time to go all in. We really believed in what we were doing. We really believed people would love having an adventure in a campervan as much as we did. So we took a risk. We kept building even though getting supplies was much harder, and took longer. I quit my job, found health insurance, and pressed forward on our gut feeling that people would eventually want to road trip again. Over the next year people found traveling in a self contained camper van to be the safest way to travel. We had a Grandpa wanting to visit his grand kids in Chicago, but didn’t want to stay in a hotel, so they loaded up the van with birthday presents and golf clubs and stayed in their kid’s driveway in Chicago. We had a couple who took an annual road trip to Maine and would stay in hotel’s along the way. The wife was immune compromised so staying in hotels was not an option for them. They were going to cancel their trip until they found us and they were able to keep that tradition going. Couples took honeymoons, we had engagements happen, we had first time campers. When campers come back, they are super happy, and we get to be the first people to hear about their trip. It feels like we are really helping people, we are making people happy and that makes it all worth it.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I was an art teacher for 11 years. Sofia managed a leak detection business. We decided to dip our toes in creating a business, so we worked nights and weekends building a website, learning how to use social media, building a campervan, and renting it out. With our first campervan, Martha Washington, we saw traction. we had no money to spend on ads which meant people were searching for campervans, they were seeking this out. That gave us confidence. When the pandemic hit, our two campervans were booked out. so we kept buying and building. By the end of 2020 we had five vans and I had jumped in full time. In January 2021 we took the next big step and rented warehouse space. We needed somewhere to clean all these vans over the winter. We added 2 more campervans to our fleet and in 2022, Sofia came on full time.

Contact Info:

• Website: Aclipsecampervans.com
• Instagram: aclipsecampervans
• Facebook: Aclipse Campervans
• Youtube: Aclipse Contact

Image Credits
Emily Bruns