We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful KIM JANNA. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with KIM below.

KIM , appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Something that resonates for me in any business I’m involved in is the aspect of community

Community building is and should be at the core of everything that we do, without community we have nothing

When it comes to my life coaching, I encourage people to be more mindful, to reframe their thoughts, to be kind, to be aware of the folks around them and I charge a sliding scale to make sure my services are accessible to as many people as possible

When it comes to my work with Pabst Blue Ribbon, I feel very fortunate to work for a company that mirrors my views on working with those who build community around them, who understand that everyone is out there doing great things in their own lanes and it’s important to celebrate others as much, if not more, then we celebrate ourselves. When we start to open our eyes to what others are putting out into the world it will open the eyes of others onto us

And when it comes to our small thrift shop, we run a consignment program, we have a binder program where we make free chest binders accessible to those who need them and we get to know each and every person who supports our business so that we can intern support them and feature what they are doing on our platform

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?

ZeroFucksLifecoaching:

for years I was a bank manager, I used to stay after hours to support people and coach them on how to advance their financial position instead of just refusing them for a loan and sending them on their way. Thus began my coaching journey and when my father passed away quite a few years ago and my biggest fan was no longer with me, I learned to be softer, kinder, to let go of my anger and to understand that everyone is out there trying their best and the only way to understand why someone would do or say something hurtful would’ve been to live their entire life in their place. It’s changed my life and I’ve made it my mission to help others feel happier, let things go more easily and move through this world in a way that protects their heart and their nervous system

PABST: after leaving the bank when my father passed away realizing that I was destined for something a lot more creative, I played roller derby and I was in charge of sponsorship, I brought PBR on as a sponsor and long story short after creating activations for them and absolutely falling in love with what the brand represents, I was hired to take care of the field/gorilla marketing for Western Canada and I’ve been with them for 10 years and loving it.

CEREALTHRIFTER:
when I left roller derby it was to create a space where people could feel comfortable trying on whatever piece of clothing that felt right for them and to create a small business where I could take my love for Thrifting and turn it into something great. I came into it for the thrift, each and every day I realize I stay for the community. Each and every person on our page shows up, whenever I post something in stories about a community member needing something, people actually take time out of their schedule to think about solutions and we always come together and figure it out, it’s really a beautiful thing, I could go on and on but we’d be here for days .’

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

In terms of our thrift store on Instagram A few years ago I posted a basketball jersey that had the word Chanel on it, it wasn’t trying to be Chanel, it looked nothing like Chanel and it never occurred to me that Chanel owns the word Chanel haha

Long story short somebody bought the jersey and tagged Chanel and within a day my account was deleted from Instagram and I was left with zero small business platform, and I cried for one day, then I decided I’m not crying, I’m going to rebuild and that’s what we did. The beautiful thing is our community came together finding out that we were no longer online and asking everybody to help us by following the new account and building it back up again .

Eventually the goal is not to rely on Instagram and have a website but in this financial climate certain things take time

How did you build your audience on social media?

to me, and this is just in my opinion, building an audience means genuinely connecting with people.

This whole idea of trying to follow the least amount of people as possible On social media just doesn’t sit right with me

I actually made a cute video about it at some point but, if you’re out there trying to get people to follow you and love your business but you’re not willing To give the same thing back, what you’re saying is “look at me, look at me, be interested in me, follow me, but I’m not interested in what you’re doing”

The only way I can support the people that support my business is by following them and understanding what’s going on in their lives

I’ve been able to share events that people are throwing, dance performances, singing, ukulele workshops, someone winning an award, someone starting a business and wanting to get visibility… The list goes on

I’m very passionate about this topic, to me it’s not about looking cool it’s about community

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cerealthrifter_ @zerofuckslifecoach @kimmysomemore

Image Credits
they are all my photos