We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth Pocalyko and Maureen Bruneau a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Beth and Maureen , thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Owning our own men’s clothing store was never the plan. My mom and I were shopping local on our Main Street for holiday gifts and we realized we checked off everyone on our list but the guys! You see our cute and cozy downtown vibe was filled with women’s stores that offered quality clothing, with great customer service.
But what was missing was that same thing for me. I looked at my mom and said WE should open a men’s store. She thought for a minute smiled and said ” We could name it John’s.
John was Maureen’s son, my brother John who passed away. John had the ability to look good in anything he wore. Effortless dress easy looks. From dressing up to work, date night, or casually on the weekends playing hard at the gym or hanging with friends. He made dressing for men look easy.
What happened next was one of those moments you never forget. Something that changes your future forever.
Shortly after that fated holiday shopping trip, we decided we wanted to create a space for men to find dress easy styles. We found a store front, partnered with brands we believed in, and made it our mission to keep John’s memory alive. His signature is our logo, and our inspiration behind the store.
Here we are now, just three short years later serving our community with quality clothing, great service, and giving men dress easy options. All under the name of John.
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?
Our story of family, service, quality clothing, and community is what we are most proud of.
We get to know our customers and that it makes it easier to know what to buy each year. Which brands to bring in, that the guys will like. Our service is just naturally wanting to help others look and feel their best. Whether you are shopping for a big event like rehearsal dinner, or job interview or just hanging on the weekends with family and friends. We care how dressing and being confident in your clothes matters to how you show up as your best.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest time we had to pivot, was just shy of our one-year anniversary we had to close our doors because of COVID 19 and the pandemic. We had a store filled with clothes for spring break, Easter, and graduations that were no longer happening. Plus, dealing with the unknown of this virus. We didn’t know what the right thing to do was.
We decided to do a Facebook LIVE, something brand new for us and talk to our community and ask how they were doing. We shared our newly launched website. We didn’t know why people who had nowhere to go would want to buy new clothes. But they did. Which gave us the motivation to keep showing up for them.
We were so grateful for our community during that time.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Showing up is the best advice about building your audience on social media. We worked with a really great local business coach Krista Demcher at the start of 2020. She really helped give us the confidence to share with our audience more than just new arrivals, and clothing.
Connection is so important when people are choosing who to buy from. It comes naturally for my mom and I when we were in the store. But doing that as well online just takes time and showing up who you are is the best advice I was given.
Contact Info:
- Website: johnsmensclothing.com
- Instagram: johnsmensclothing
- Facebook: johns mens clothing
Image Credits
Desiree Ortman Photography VL Productions