We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gemma Prior a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Gemma thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Starting a business had never been on my agenda. My dream was to be a pilot. I’d spent several years working and saving to go to flight school (including 6 months as a cook and deckhand on a prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria), and then my beautiful parents and step-parents also helped get me there. At 25 I’d completed my airline transport pilot licence and had just been offered my first job when I suddenly became very unwell. I had to stop flying immediately. I searched for answers to my illness hoping to recover, but nothing worked.

It was after I had been sick for quite a few years and saw no hope of recovering any time soon that the idea for With Bogart began to hatch. I was too unwell to go shopping and later on unable to drive so getting to stores was not an option. But I was having trouble finding fashion stores online that I liked and that suited my style and budget. It was also difficult to find stores within Australia as I wanted to limit shopping internationally due to the much larger carbon footprint this created.

So when I did find stores that worked for me I began to bookmark them. The list was growing and eventually, I decided to move to an Excel spreadsheet! Then I thought, if I’m having trouble finding what I’m looking for in terms of fashion online, then I’m sure others are having a similar experience. So then I was collecting stores from around the world and organising them based on their location, the average price of their products, and the style of clothing they sold.

Fast forward a few years and I now have over 1000 women’s clothing stores listed on my website, With Bogart, organised to help women shop locally and find the stores that suit them. And just recently I added 200 thrift stores to make it easier for women to shop pre-loved fashion rather than buy new, again offering a way to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

I also publish regular blogs sharing more ideas and options for reducing the impact fashion has on people and the planet. As well as fun posts introducing new brands and stores as well as ideas for outfits and what to shop.

Currently, as far as I know, there are no other online shopping tools offering the option to shop locally or by personal style, or that share the vast collection of secondhand clothing stores listed on With Bogart.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Although I do thoroughly enjoy fashion I’ve also been concerned about the impact it has on people and the planet, from the beginning of the journey in material production to fashion ending up in landfill, to people working in the fashion industry under terrible conditions. Through With Bogart I saw an avenue for sharing valuable information and alternative ideas with others in the form of blogs and social media. I also hoped I could encourage people to see the impact shopping from overseas has regarding carbon emissions and provide them with an easier way to find stores that worked for them and were closer to home. And then when I added pre-loved fashion to With Bogart this provided another option for people looking to reduce the impact of fashion on our planet.

Sometimes it can be difficult to say you’re proud of yourself, but it can also be important to recognise your achievements What I’m most proud of is my resilience and my determination to continue building my brand despite the myriad of challenges I’ve faced, due to both my health and entering the business world with no previous experience. I also hope that I can share ideas with visitors to With Bogart and on social media that help them take a more sustainable approach to fashion.

For me, With Bogart has been more than a business idea. It has been a savior. Being unwell for 14 years and losing my dream career as a pilot has been incredibly hard, especially when there is still no cure for the auto-immune illness I have. Getting up each day and knowing I have With Bogart to work on has helped keep me going. It’s also been a wonderful avenue to meet people, learn new skills, challenge my mind, and help restore some of my confidence. With Bogart has really been a bright star through some dark times.

And the name With Bogart also comes from a special place. Before I began flying I worked an office job, saving for my flight training. I would use my lunch breaks to surround myself with all things airplanes and much of the time this meant searching for antique aircraft online (not just vintage fashion I love!).

The Stearman was one of my favourites. I fantasised about spending my weekends soaring in my very own, exposed to the quick, crisp winds, suspended in flawless skies. It appeared to me as would a debonair gentleman, decorous and poised, evoking thoughts of screen legend Humphrey Bogart. So I decided I would call my plane Bogart. And I would spend my fantastical weekends, with Bogart.

With Bogart is now a reality in a very different sense, but still one with great meaning for me.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in hospitals over the years. Sometimes only for a day, other occasions for a week. But no matter how long the stay, since I started work on With Bogart my laptop has always come with me. At the hospital where I’ve had fortnightly treatments for the past 8 years, the nurses have a joke about me ‘setting up office’ when I arrive! It’s not the best workplace scenario, but it’s better than watching the hours drift by! And even on days when I’m at home but struggle to sit up and work, I can have my laptop with me on the recliner couch or simply have ideas evolving in my head.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I started With Bogart I almost never used Facebook and didn’t even have an account on Instagram, so it was a BIG learning curve! I did a lot of research trying to find the ‘magic answers’ to making myself visible on social media. Obviously, there doesn’t appear to be one simple solution to finding success through these platforms, but there are definitely some key ideas that help.

First of all, sharing yourself – who you are as an individual, rather than just a brand – with your potential audience is important. When I started on Instagram I never appeared in the images I shared, I spoke as a business rather than an individual, and I didn’t interact much with others through social media. So things started very slowly for me.

More recently I’ve learned how important it is for people to see you, to get to know you and your brand. These days I share images of myself wearing outfits that suit my target audience. I also spend two hours every day now interacting with people on Instagram, both followers and others who might be interested in what With Bogart has to offer. I like posts and leave comments and show honest interest in the lives of others.

It’s made a big difference. Not just to my follower numbers and the interaction people have with my posts, but also on a personal level, sharing ‘virtual’ conversations with people from all around the world.

It’s also very important to state clearly in your bio and share through your posts what your brand has to offer, so people can quickly and easily learn what they will gain from using it. I feel it’s also important to be consistent with your posts. Find a time that works best for your posts and stick to it and post regularly.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.withbogart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/withbogart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WithBogart/