We recently connected with Jenn & Sam and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jenn & Sam, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?
We love our Instagram family! Over the past 3 years, we have personally grown our account to over 12.5K followers. We are both very visually attuned and we put a lot of love and energy into the shop to make it look and feel bright, colorful and Insta-friendly. It is important for us to keep a very personal, one-on-one relationship with our customers and share the enthusiasm they show for the shop through the photos and videos we share. Our personalized approach is one of the many secrets to our success and we love to see people engage with our posts. It’s a joy to interact and spread our passion and love for vintage and pop culture with our customers, fans and makers.
Jenn & Sam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We have been involved in music, film and visual art, as well as avid collectors of unique vintage valuables since we met in 2008. At the beginning of our coming together, we were in a band and touring the USA and Canada until we moved to Idyllwild in 2009 and discovered we were going to be parents! That shifted our lives drastically and we had to figure out another way to support our growing family in a very isolated and unfamiliar place. We got our footing and started our umbrella company Working Brilliantly.
WB started out as a music publicity, licensing and music video production company, where we assisted independent musicians with crafting compelling campaigns for their album releases. This enabled us to work from anywhere as well as start to build a portfolio of audiovisual works that we wrote, produced, directed and edited under the moniker Markus Thorington.
During this developing time of our lives, we always talked about opening a shop in Idyllwild to share our mutual passion for vintage, antiques, film memorabilia and to create a curated space for others to enjoy. In September of 2019, right before Covid hit, we found the perfect space and our journey into Ephemera began. Regardless of the time we found ourselves in, it surprisingly was seamless and easy from the start, which all projects done from the heart should be. We approached it very much like an art installation and have been building and refining the space ever since.
Our rainbow wonderland is always infused by our love, our enthusiasm for visual, immersive art and our immense respect for the art of film and music (we spin vinyl all day, every day!).
Currently, we add new merchandise to our shop every week! Our focus is on vintage from the early 1900s to the ’90s – our favorite periods being the ’60s-’90s! We also carry some pretty amazing current artists and makers in our shop whose artwork and aesthetic match our colorful, psychedelic vibes. It all makes for a very unique and nostalgic experience.
Follow Ephemera on Instagram @ephemera_bazaar and if you want to stay in the loop with our upcoming film projects, you can find us there as @markusthorington
Any advice for managing a team?
It took us awhile to find the right fit in a small town, but we finally have a team of vintage loving humans that we adore! In order to maintain a high morale, we like to make sure they feel supported and comfortable coming to us with any ideas, concerns or needs they may have. They are encouraged to spin their own vinyl during their shifts to create an atmosphere unique to them.
We also offer them a stake in how well the business does by giving them a commission on sales which incentivizes them to give of themselves more. This creates a team spirit and an invested interest in keeping the shop thriving.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
As things have progressed, we have started our own clothing and product lines that are influenced by the vintage novelties and style we love. We started out with upcycling vintage clothing and sewing or painting on them to make them one-of-a-kind. Currently we are creating Idyllwild specific shirts that have original artwork on them and are in development for a full line of vintage inspired apparel.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ephemera.shop
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ephemera_bazaar
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ephemerabazaar
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTw6Je97CHqI34iolNzhgSQ
Image Credits
Image of Sam and Jenn is by Jonnie Millhouse Wide shot – IMG_1656 – is by Instagram handle: @_coasttocoastvintage_ All other photos by Ephemera