Jacqueline Kitzan

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[00:33] SPEAKER_00: It's Edmonton's podcast on the Canada's podcast network.
[00:52] SPEAKER_02: Hello, this is Mario Tonigüzi coming to you today with Edmonton's podcast,
[00:57] SPEAKER_02: a member of Canada's podcast network, where we talk to the entrepreneurs
[01:01] SPEAKER_02: or making it happen here in the city of Edmonton, Alberta.
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: Jacqueline Kitsan is owner of somewhere mobile boutique consignment,
[01:10] SPEAKER_02: retrofitting a 1977 air stream globetrotter into Edmonton's first mobile consignment boutique,
[01:19] SPEAKER_02: a high-end and luxury consignment retailer.
[01:22] SPEAKER_02: She is also a communication specialist with Melcoer Developments.
[01:26] SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show Jacqueline and thanks for taking the time today to be here for our listeners.
[01:31] SPEAKER_02: Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, and what your business is all about.
[01:37] SPEAKER_01: Sure, I am a born and raised Edmontonian.
[01:41] SPEAKER_01: I've lived here my whole life.
[01:42] SPEAKER_01: I work full-time in communications for Melcoer, as you mentioned.
[01:47] SPEAKER_01: And I started somewhere by consignment business in 2017.
[01:51] SPEAKER_01: I had visited the Taste of Edmonton.
[01:53] SPEAKER_01: I saw a whole bunch of food trucks and I thought to myself, what about a food truck, what for close?
[01:58] SPEAKER_01: And I kind of laughed it off, but the idea stuck with me.
[02:01] SPEAKER_01: So I kept thinking about it and I decided just to put Google Search does this exist.
[02:05] SPEAKER_01: And I found that it did exist all over the states and a couple in Canada, but not in Edmonton.
[02:11] SPEAKER_01: So I really wanted it and no one was doing it.
[02:14] SPEAKER_01: So I decided to do it myself.
[02:16] SPEAKER_01: And the overall idea from somewhere covers a lot of bases for me.
[02:19] SPEAKER_01: Personally, I try and be very conscious about my own environmental impact.
[02:24] SPEAKER_01: And fast fashion is one of the world's largest polluters.
[02:28] SPEAKER_01: So I really started there shopping consignment.
[02:30] SPEAKER_01: So I love consignment shopping for that reason.
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: And on a business side, I'm a risk averse person.
[02:36] SPEAKER_01: I've never really known any of the people who own the businesses that I shop at.
[02:41] SPEAKER_01: So I was never really connected to the idea of entrepreneurship.
[02:45] SPEAKER_01: So when I decided to start this and by default become a business owner myself,
[02:49] SPEAKER_01: I had to become used to taking some risks.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: But by my nature, I really wanted to minimize those.
[02:56] SPEAKER_01: So with the air stream business model and consignment business model, I was able to
[03:01] SPEAKER_01: lower my overhead.
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: I don't have to pay rent in a bricks and mortar store.
[03:06] SPEAKER_01: And I have no cost to my unsold goods.
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: So that was all really appealing to me.
[03:11] SPEAKER_01: And also the ability to move my store to where people would be as opposed to making them find me.
[03:16] SPEAKER_02: Did you need financing to start and how has business been for you?
[03:21] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I looked into financing when I first had the idea.
[03:25] SPEAKER_01: I met some banks and they told me that they would look at how much of my own money I had invested in it.
[03:31] SPEAKER_01: So I decided to start there.
[03:33] SPEAKER_01: I started with my own money and since then I've just put my profit and revenue into the business.
[03:39] SPEAKER_01: It's been, was buying the air stream, which I did last year.
[03:42] SPEAKER_01: And I used my own money to do that.
[03:44] SPEAKER_01: I have a very handy group of parents and uncles who are doing the initial demolition for me in
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: the air stream. And I only pay them in pizza and beer. So it's very economical.
[03:56] SPEAKER_01: And then when it comes to outfitting it later on as a store, I'll go look and
[04:01] SPEAKER_01: define asking again.
[04:03] SPEAKER_02: What is your long-term vision for that company and what do you look forward to in the future
[04:08] SPEAKER_02: of where you're going to be at?
[04:10] SPEAKER_01: So I chose the air stream because it is such an iconic piece of history.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: I want to make people happy with it.
[04:19] SPEAKER_01: The air stream brand in itself is a community and I want to emulate that with the store.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: So I picture a neighborhood like Highlands and Edmonton and having the air stream there and
[04:29] SPEAKER_01: it being a real community gathering spot.
[04:32] SPEAKER_01: However, I am cognizant of the fact that it will be very easy to outgrow the air stream with
[04:36] SPEAKER_01: its limited square footage. So I have many ideas of grandeur of where that could go,
[04:41] SPEAKER_01: but I don't want to push it in any one direction. I just want to let it happen organically.
[04:47] SPEAKER_01: I think everything will happen as it should and opportunities will open up.
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to go in the direction it's meant to go in and not the one that I have pre-set for it.
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: In the short term, I would like to see the air stream available for photos and weddings because
[05:00] SPEAKER_01: it's one of those things. If you know about air streams, you just love them.
[05:03] SPEAKER_02: When you're looking at being an entrepreneur in Edmonton, tell me some of the good
[05:08] SPEAKER_02: points of being an entrepreneur there and maybe also some of the challenges.
[05:13] SPEAKER_01: Sure. In Edmonton, everyone is very accepting of new ideas.
[05:17] SPEAKER_01: We see it every day. I worked on the mural on the side of a industry place in downtown Edmonton
[05:23] SPEAKER_01: that says take a risk. It's the most eminent thing you could do and that really made me evaluate
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: the risks in my own life. There are so many people in Edmonton taking risks. It's a great place to do
[05:33] SPEAKER_01: that. I would say that one of the challenges in Edmonton is that you will see other people doing
[05:41] SPEAKER_01: what they're doing every day. So you need to have a very strong plan of what your business is and
[05:47] SPEAKER_01: what you want it to be and the values and intentions that you want for that business because it will be
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: easy to question those things as you see what other people are doing. We do some of
[05:58] SPEAKER_02: our best work outside the office. Is there a place in Edmonton that you'd like to hang out to think
[06:05] SPEAKER_02: about your business maybe just to get inspired with ideas? I hang out in my airstream when I want to
[06:13] SPEAKER_01: do some brainstorming. I just love being inside it and it's very inspiring to me. I would look
[06:19] SPEAKER_01: for more places to do that. So I'm open to people's suggestions but I tend to try and escape to the
[06:23] SPEAKER_02: mountains if I need to recharge. Here's a hypothetical question for you. If you were to start all over
[06:30] SPEAKER_02: again and you just move to Edmonton but this time you don't know anyone knowing what you know now,
[06:36] SPEAKER_02: what would you do and how would you do it to start all over again as an entrepreneur? I have been
[06:42] SPEAKER_01: going this alone since I first had the idea. So I'm not sure how different it would be but I would
[06:48] SPEAKER_01: say that if I had just moved here I probably wouldn't have ended up doing this at all because it's
[06:52] SPEAKER_01: my experience as an Edmonton that led me here because I'm not a born and raised entrepreneur. I
[06:57] SPEAKER_01: haven't always had dreams of doing this. So I'm not sure that I would have even gone to this point
[07:01] SPEAKER_02: without being here. What does the first hour of your day look like when you get up in the morning?
[07:07] SPEAKER_02: Like do you have a specific ritual or routine to get you going? I roll out of bed. I sleep as long
[07:14] SPEAKER_01: as I can. I love my sleep and I've usually planned out my Instagram posts for my business the night
[07:20] SPEAKER_01: before so I can hit the hit send on them when I have a moment and I still go to my day job and
[07:25] SPEAKER_01: love it there and so my most of my motivation usually comes in the evenings. Now do you think
[07:31] SPEAKER_02: entrepreneurs have to be weird or unique but in a positive way or just simply why are differently?
[07:40] SPEAKER_01: That's a really good question. I think some certainly are but I think there's other ways to
[07:46] SPEAKER_01: arrive at entrepreneurship and for myself because I never really related to that word and I still
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: don't really. I think that people who end up owning their own businesses are dreamers and I'm
[07:57] SPEAKER_01: certainly a dreamer. I always have been if people tell me no or I can't or won't be able to do
[08:02] SPEAKER_01: something and makes me want to do it more. And especially in retail right now with the
[08:07] SPEAKER_01: outlook constantly changing and the retail landscape diversifying. I hear a lot. Don't go into
[08:13] SPEAKER_01: retail, don't go into retail but for some reason I don't feel that that applies to me. I think that
[08:20] SPEAKER_01: this will work because I want it to and I believe that people will support it and I think that
[08:24] SPEAKER_02: you have to have a little bit of that to be an entrepreneur. What book are you reading right now?
[08:30] SPEAKER_01: Right now I'm using books as a way to wind down and sell my mind so I usually read fiction books.
[08:35] SPEAKER_01: The home for unwanted girls. It's a really great story. It's fiction but it lies in some Canadian
[08:43] SPEAKER_01: history back in Montreal and I'm reading I have a daily meditation book called Journey to the Heart
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: by Melody Beatty and there's some really really good ones in there. Is there any books that you've
[08:56] SPEAKER_02: read in the past that would be helpful do you think for entrepreneurs? I've read the seven habits
[09:02] SPEAKER_01: of highly effective people which I've really taken a few things out of that one and one that's
[09:08] SPEAKER_01: a little bit motivating and inspiring is the autobiography by Ashley Vance of Elon Musk and that one's
[09:15] SPEAKER_02: very interesting. Interesting. What about online and offline tools? Are there any that you use on a
[09:22] SPEAKER_01: daily basis for your company? Primarily online. I use Shopify to power my e-commerce store. Even
[09:29] SPEAKER_01: though I have a bit of a web background that Shopify makes it so simple and does a lot of the things
[09:34] SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have time to do like keeping track of my inventory and reporting and stuff like that.
[09:39] SPEAKER_01: Instagram on a daily basis has been great to connect with my customers, find my customers and
[09:44] SPEAKER_02: drive traffic to my store. Now obviously in this day and age we're always talking about work life
[09:51] SPEAKER_02: balance. What do you do to relax and to get that work life balance and is there anything that you
[09:57] SPEAKER_01: like to do your favorite activities in Edmonton? There's a few at Melcora. We're fortunate. We have a
[10:03] SPEAKER_01: Tuesday lunchtime yoga program and our yoga instructor comes to the office and she's amazing
[10:10] SPEAKER_01: and it's really a great time. It's already carved out for me so I get to do yoga whereas I might not
[10:15] SPEAKER_01: have time outside of my day job in my business. It's kind of tough as with a full-time job and a
[10:22] SPEAKER_01: business to find that time to do stuff and relax. For me I've spent a lot of time forming habits
[10:28] SPEAKER_01: and those habits just if I can take my vitamin in the morning, floss my teeth at night,
[10:33] SPEAKER_01: read a book before bed, I can really feel like I've got it together.
[10:38] SPEAKER_02: What about looking hypothetically? If you weren't doing what you're doing now,
[10:44] SPEAKER_01: is there any profession you'd like to do? Oh it would probably be really out there like
[10:49] SPEAKER_01: an astronaut or a magician or a dog walker. Is there anything you wouldn't want to do?
[10:56] SPEAKER_01: I don't think I would excel in a accounting sort of situation, not a big numbers guy and I'm not
[11:02] SPEAKER_02: very organized despite my best efforts. In business, is there a favorite word, sentence, phrase
[11:10] SPEAKER_01: that you'd like to use? I really connect with trust the timing of your life. It's worked out for me
[11:16] SPEAKER_01: really well and I believe that your inner voice will speak to you when you can quiet all of the
[11:22] SPEAKER_01: other chatter going on around and it will reveal to you the next step or the answer to what you're
[11:27] SPEAKER_01: thinking about, the chatter being comparing yourself to others over thinking, forcing things to
[11:32] SPEAKER_01: happen, thinking you have to do things a certain way and if you can quiet that, you can really hear
[11:37] SPEAKER_02: what your next move is. Is there a least favorite word that you don't like to hear?
[11:42] SPEAKER_01: I think lots of things have their place but have become diluted even the word entrepreneur or
[11:48] SPEAKER_01: girl boss. We hear a lot. I just want to be a successful business owner, not necessarily a girl
[11:55] SPEAKER_02: boss. I just want to be like an owner. If you had to pick one or two words to describe yourself,
[12:01] SPEAKER_01: what would they be and why? Dreamer, I mentioned before and probably I've been called
[12:08] SPEAKER_01: spacey a lot. I kind of just live in my own world a lot. Is there anything that keeps you up at night?
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: I think that I've learned some very useful meditations that kind of helped me to stop doing that
[12:21] SPEAKER_01: but the things that I start thinking about where I need to use my meditations would be
[12:26] SPEAKER_01: just letting people down. Maybe I didn't reply to a contact forum film. Maybe someone's clothes
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: aren't selling as quickly as others. So I worry that I'm letting people down or that I'm not doing
[12:38] SPEAKER_02: enough. Now everybody these days seems to have a bucket list of what they want to do in their
[12:44] SPEAKER_01: lives. What are the top things on your bucket list? I have a wide range of things. I keep writing them
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: down every few days. I'll find something new and they range. They're small. I want to be grapes
[12:57] SPEAKER_01: for Halloween or they're bigger. I want to relearn how to play piano and play for a group of people.
[13:02] SPEAKER_01: Before I started that list, my one aspiration was to attend every major sporting event in the world.
[13:07] SPEAKER_01: So I've been checking those off slowly but surely. Which ones have you attended recently?
[13:13] SPEAKER_01: Recently I was at the Stanley Cup finals. That was a few years ago and I've been to the 2010 winter
[13:19] SPEAKER_01: Olympics. And this weekend I'm actually going to the Canada Winter Games and Red Deer,
[13:25] SPEAKER_01: which wasn't on the list but I'll put it now and do a little checkmark beside it.
[13:30] SPEAKER_02: Do you have any advice that you've received over the years from people that you'd like to pass on
[13:35] SPEAKER_02: to entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs? Sure.
[13:40] SPEAKER_01: Specific to my industry, one of my mentors once told me that consignment shopping is recession
[13:47] SPEAKER_01: proof. Just because if the economy is really good, people will continue to shop with you and if
[13:52] SPEAKER_01: it's not doing so well, people are always looking to save money, spend it differently but stay
[13:57] SPEAKER_01: entertained and continue to shop. So that was a moment for me where I was like, you're so
[14:01] SPEAKER_01: right about that. The second one, a little more broad. Neil Peshrika, I believe you wrote a book on
[14:09] SPEAKER_01: Happiness. He did a talk and he was really good at explaining how motivation does not equal action,
[14:15] SPEAKER_01: action equals motivation. So my advice is if you have an idea, just start, do tiny tasks,
[14:22] SPEAKER_01: five tiny tasks and you'll find the motivation to keep going. I have a slightly different question
[14:29] SPEAKER_02: for you here. There's a tropical island just off of Fiji that only has one phone booth there with no
[14:35] SPEAKER_02: internet. We're going to drop you off there and you won't have a computer, smartphone tablet,
[14:41] SPEAKER_02: any kind of device. You can use the phone booth located there any time to call the boat and
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: we'll come pick you up. How long would you last before you made that phone call and what would
[14:52] SPEAKER_01: you do while you were there? I think that sounds amazing. Can I go there now?
[14:58] SPEAKER_01: I probably last a while. There was no mention of food so that's a little worrisome if I'd have to
[15:03] SPEAKER_01: find my own but I could use a little break. I'd probably last about a week, do a little swimming,
[15:08] SPEAKER_02: a little lane around. It sounds pretty good to me. Okay. Is there anything you'd like to add before
[15:13] SPEAKER_02: you leave us today? No, that's about it. Thanks for having me. And is there a way that people can
[15:20] SPEAKER_01: reach you or reach your business? Yeah, for sure. We're online at somewhere.ca. That's somewhere,
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: like the clothes that you wear. Our Instagram is at shop somewhere. And if anyone wants to connect
[15:32] SPEAKER_01: with me personally, they can do that through LinkedIn or they can do that through the
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: Pontide Form on my website. I will say that when I started out, I reached out to a bunch of people
[15:42] SPEAKER_01: to talk to and I did get a few nose and it was discouraging. And when I found people that
[15:47] SPEAKER_01: would talk to me, it was the greatest thing ever and I will be someone who will say yes if they
[15:52] SPEAKER_01: want to talk. So for sure, reach out if there's any questions. Okay. Thanks, Jacqueline, for being our
[15:56] SPEAKER_02: guests on Edmonton's podcast. I've learned a lot about you, your business and I'm sure our listeners
[16:02] SPEAKER_02: have as well. Thank you. Hey there. Thanks for taking the time today to listen to Edmonton's
[16:09] SPEAKER_02: podcast on Canada's podcast network. We hope you enjoyed the show today. Make sure you sign up for
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[16:30] SPEAKER_02: doing across the country. See you next time.