We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steph Krim a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Steph thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.
I had spent almost a decade building a career in hospitality that peaked with my dream job as Director of Operations for a big brewery but I was unhappy.
Life had slid into seriousness without me noticing and suddenly I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to course correct in the direction of something that filled my life with lighter things, like play and joy. I spent a couple months sitting on the feeling and calculating how much time I could spend unemployed and still feed myself and I quit. I didnt know what was coming but I new my only job was to try things. In that year I was a temp working the front desk at WBEZ, I photographed other artists work, I started an etsy shop, and most notably I bought a vending machine.
That whole time was filled with so much uncertainty. I was scared of the money running out, I was scared of not ending up somewhere better than where I had been, I was scared that I wouldn’t follow through on my ideas or that if I did they might not work. It might be the most scared I have been day to day. Every morning I would wake up and have to invent my life over again trying to point myself in the direction of an unidentified destination.
Well I found where I was going.
When I look back at the path it took to get here it feels so loud that I dont now nor have I ever “known what I am doing”. That was the great lesson of that risk – I got time to practice and sit with the discomfort of not knowing, of messing things up and of learning. I found that I could trust myself, not to show up with answers but to find them when I needed them.
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.
Good Things Vending machines are not your average vending machines. Our machines are stocked with locally made art and goodies, vintage and nostalgia items and a practical thing here or there. Each machine is painted by a local artist and both this mural and the goods inside are curated to fit the space hosting the machine. The goods inside the machines are all $20 and under making it an accessible way to support local artists and shop locally! Good Things Vending was started as an excuse to collaborate with the creative community in Chicago and gives a low stakes opportunity for these artists to have their work exposed to new audiences and these audiences exposed to new works and artists.
Currently there are 5 full size machines in Chicago located at:
Chicago Cultural Center
Kimball Arts Venter
The Way Out
Off Color Mouse Trap
Kaiser Tiger
With 3 machines currently in production.
The goods in the machines rotate regularly and each machine hosts a wide range of items from pins, stickers, patches, canvas bags to more non traditional items like daily tarot readings and mystery socks.
It feels so nice to put something in the world centered around collaboration, joy, access, community and that little extra something that comes from wrapping that all up in a vending machine.
How did you build your audience on social media?
One of the first moves after naming the business Good Things Vending was grab up al the socil handles. In the land of social media platforms I was a photo kid so instagram had always been my app of choice. I started posting there fairly regularly with no consistence and over the first 4 years grew to an audience of 5000. It felt incredible to hit such a big number.
My relationship with social media had always felt casual. I wasnt sure there was much benefit to the bottom line as the business very much existed in meatspace but this project wasnt built on bottom line thinking and sometimes it sounded fun to make a lil video about what we were up to.
Over Christmas this past year one of those silly video I made in my car went viral and I watched that number jump from 5000 up to 50,000. It was totally unexpected and not replaceable and came with a tidal wave of changes. For a moment I felt paralyzed by all the new eyes and couldn’t post anything. I didnt know what people wanted to see and I found myself second guessing all my impulses.
Im still on the journey of trying to understand how to be present online in a way that feels valuable, honest and on brand but I am no longer paralyzed. Going viral brought some cool opportunities but nothing moves forward if Im not ready to lean in. What I learned is it all stems from me, be real, show up whole, make things you like – not perfect things, just things you feel good about. I cant make creative choices thinking about the audience, thats not where ideas come from for me, now I try and think about what stories I want to tell and what work I wanna shout about and sometimes that means I just dont post. By deciding that was ok for me and for my business it became ok for me and my business. The trends will keep changing, the algorithm will keep changing, my job isnt to figure that stuff out – its to figure out what WE are putting into the world weather it takes the form of a social post or a vending machine.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
When the idea for Good Things Vending started to take up more and more brain space I knew what I wanted it to be but how no idea how to get there. The big question early on was do I find a location first or do I buy a machine first and both came with down sides. Between the time pressure if I found a location first and having never touched the inside of a vending machine I decided the slower path of getting a machine first was best for me. This meant money – so from that point in 2018 to purchasing my first machine in 2019 I started an etsy resale page, worked a series of fun but temporary jobs, and saved up money for machine #1.
It worked well for me. I had time to sit with that machine and really understand it before it was eventually placed at The Chicago Cultural Center. There were chances to go for machine two right away but I was newly self employed, which at the time felt a lot like unemployed, and it felt like too much of a gamble.
It was about a year again before I dropped machine #2 at Metropolitan Brewing and because of the time between that second machine was fully funded by the first.
There is so much urgency in early stages of building. Ideas flow through the air and everything is a possibility and that is so much of the magic of starts. The thing that showed up for me and slowed that hurried energy was my love for this project and this work. I wanted to do it right and I wanted to be thoughtful in my choice making. I was looking for sustainable growth and for me a cornerstone of that is pace.
Things move a little faster these days, there is more wiggle room in the business which has allowed for some things to speed up a bit ( 3 machines last summer, that or more this summer) but in general I try and always pace in a way that leaves space for learning.
Contact Info:
- Website: goodthingsvending.com
- Instagram: goodthingsvending
- Facebook: goodthingsvending
Image Credits
Secco Studio, Clayton Hauck