House of JerMar

A Local Magazine Thrives

• Jeanne Collins • Season 1 • Episode 23

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Have you ever stumbled into a new job that felt like destiny? This week's guest, Casey Kaplan, did just that through her journey from tech to publishing. Join us as we sit down with Casey, the remarkable president of Bedford New Canaan Magazine, a local luxury lifestyle publication.

During the COVID pandemic, Casey and her family acquired Bedford Magazine. What started as a pause during the pandemic turned into a revitalization of local media, fostering a sense of community in Westchester, NY, and Fairfield County, CT. This episode explores the creative process behind growing a business with heart, featuring stories of collaborating with family, connecting with local businesses, and the joy of seeing their magazine, which expanded into Bedford New Canaan Magazine, become a staple in the community. As Casey shares her experiences, you'll gain insights into the importance of passion and dedication in entrepreneurship, along with the benefits of embracing unexpected opportunities.

In a world where work and leisure blend seamlessly, we explore the vibrant lifestyle of those who truly love what they do. Casey's narrative is peppered with tales of her accidental rise as a food influencer (@nolagourmand) in New Orleans and the excitement of balancing a fulfilling career with personal adventures. We also reflect on the value of community, friendship, and gratitude in both personal and professional life.

Casey's book recommendation:
My Life by Bill Clinton

More on Casey:
Casey Kaplan is an entrepreneur focused on making local thrive!
Bedford New Canaan Magazine: https://bedfordnewcanaanmag.com/
Bedford New Canaan Magazine on IG: @BedfordNewCanaanMag
Casey's Food Blog on IG: @@NOLAgourmand



House of JerMar:
Learn more on our website: houseofjermar.com.

Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/houseofjermar/

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@Houseofjermar

Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From and All-In Life

WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

Speaker 1:

You know, I think a lot of people scare themselves out of starting businesses and I think if I had understood the complete gravity of what it is that I was doing and not just the creating this and getting it to print you know how do we get these pages made If I had understood the gravity of what this is in our community and what we've turned it into, and really had that contemplation from the outset, I don't know if I would have been able to do it to the way that we have. It's been something that's evolved and grown and been this really special passion project for us and I have thrown my entire self and heart and soul into this magazine and this business and I think that that is the crucial, crucial component of having a successful business.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Jermar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Jermar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. I am your host, jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. I'm your host, jean Collins, and today's guest get ready, guys. It's Casey Kaplan, who's the president of Bedford, new Canaan I don't even want to mess this up Bedford New Canaan Magazine. However, you guys cover so many more areas than just Bedford New Canaan now, so we're going to have to talk about that. So, everybody, welcome, casey Kaplan, president of Bedford-New Canaan Magazine. I am so excited to talk to you and have you on here as a guest. So welcome to the House of Germar podcast.

Speaker 1:

Excited to be on your fabulous podcast.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for being here and I have to tell everyone so I met Casey about four years ago when I started my interior design business and I live in New Canaan, so Bedford New Canaan Magazine had just recently relaunched approximately and I reached out to her to kind of find out about advertising in the magazine and we just started gabbing and she was telling her story and I was so taken aback by her story and I will tell you guys, it is the only magazine that I still advertise in here locally for my interior design business because I believe so strongly in your mission and what you're doing and the value of your content. So it is the only magazine that I still advertise in. So I am so excited to share your career journey, which is very inspiring, everything that you're doing. She's also an influencer folks, so make sure you stick around for that part and share the magazine, what you're doing, your journey and just talk about some fun wellness things. So welcome to the show.

Speaker 1:

That sounds fantastic. I'm excited Going to be a good time Good.

Speaker 2:

All right, so share with everybody. You did not start out in the magazine business. You didn't start out to be a president of a magazine. Nor did you start out, by the way, to work for your family. So let's talk about that journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so here's for anybody that is seeing this. I guess I don't know how many people will see this People do, they do.

Speaker 1:

This is the magazine. This is what it looks like. To give some context, this was a recent cover with Jean-Georges on the cover. I did not start out in the magazine industry and never intended or thought that this would be my career, and it wasn't even like a dream that has been realized and sort of in some ways. Similar to you have had this kind of interesting journey that is in some ways a wellness journey, in some ways a journey where you're kind of finding yourself and in some ways kind of by. In some ways a journey where you're kind of finding yourself and in some ways kind of by accident, where happy accidents take place and lead you to the path that you're really supposed to be on. And so I worked in tech.

Speaker 1:

I went to Tulane undergrad, tulane business school, and was recruited out of business school to work for a tech company based in New Orleans, had no idea what they did when I first got started. There was ping pong paddles and it seemed like a fun tech startup and I sort of thought why not? And I started working there, worked my way up and was sort of ready at some point to leave New Orleans and move up to New York. And so they moved me up to Manhattan. I was helping to open up their Manhattan office and was maybe a little bit too successful at it, and they were like, great, now you know what you're doing, let's go open up some other offices around the world. So I was doing international expansion with them for I don't know about two years and was going all over the place and was barely ever home never in New York traveling all over the place frequent flyer, you know, elite status on all of the airlines, and it was really fun. I was in my 20s and having the best time and meeting new people and getting to see the whole world and staying places and there were a lot of perks. But I was really starting to get burnt out. Living that life as a road warrior is just absolutely exhausting and COVID hit.

Speaker 1:

So I was supposed to spend March of 2020 in England and I was supposed to go to China in April and I was really looking forward to the London trip and about two days before I was supposed to leave, we got a call from the head of our people department saying you know it was only February at this point, but we're grounding all flights, let's see what happens. Let this play out and I had just had a new employee start for me. I was in, I think, prague and we were doing a team meeting because we had people from everywhere meeting in one place and we had this new employee starting in Singapore. And she calls me and she says I'm so sorry, I'm really nervous. This is a new job for me, but I'm at the airport and there's people in hazmat suits. Should I get on the plane? Nobody's here. Wow, wow.

Speaker 1:

And I mean that was sort of the first inclination that I had that this was going to be as serious as it was, and I was like gosh, no, I don't want you to get stuck in Prague with all of us and me have to deal with that, please, where you are. So I go home. I think nothing of it, Quarantine sort of kicks off, but in this light way, that first weekend and I come up to my parents' house in Pound Ridge, which I had been coming to on the weekends for the past, however long I'd been in New York whenever it was here and loved having it, but it was kind of an afterthought. And so I come up, my parents were away. I bring a bunch of friends, my brother brings a bunch of friends and we have this quarantine party and I genuinely thought I was leaving at the end of a weekend and I have never left.

Speaker 2:

I was just going to say, and, by the way, you're still there- I would stay forever. I would stay forever, too, if those were my parents also.

Speaker 1:

It's a beautiful home that, especially during COVID, is remote and beautiful and has a pool, and there's lots of space for everybody when you're all of a sudden adults back at home there's things that are comfortable and being here, this part of the world is so incredibly special and that was what I sort of started to realize again during COVID, growing up here. There is an element of being in a bubble here and I think during COVID that it allowed me to see this whole place through a different lens as an adult and come back for the first time with a newfound appreciation for being out of the city and out of the hustle and bustle and really wanting a tranquil, quiet environment. And so growing up here I never thought I would move back. I thought it was beautiful here here. I never thought I would move back. I thought it was beautiful here but I just never thought this would be where I'd end up.

Speaker 1:

And about three, four weeks into COVID I'm sitting at home, I'm with my parents and we get a phone call my dad does. He had been writing for Bedford Magazine in his sort of semi-retirement he had been a serial entrepreneur prior to that and he gets a phone call basically to say that Bedford Magazine is for sale and we had been family friends with the longtime publisher, or I guess she was the editor and she knew my dad was kind of a deal junkie and was sort of trying to get him to revive this thing, you know it was.

Speaker 1:

It was kind of I don't know if it was going to be done or what the situation was, but it was not. You know, it was sort of puttering along and Bedford magazine was, um, it was cute and sweet and had some good content, but it was small. It was maybe this thick.

Speaker 2:

But it was tiny, tiny. You're up to our table of contents, right, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And we really looked at each other and originally I said print is dead. There's no way. That's the craziest thing on the planet, why would we ever do that? And we kind of started to assess it and think about it really over the course of a dinner during COVID, and it was May of 2020. We were still washing our groceries, I mean, it was Right.

Speaker 1:

Well, we thought to ourselves you know, this area is so phenomenal and we all have this newfound appreciation at this point for getting to be here and breathe this fresh air and having space from our neighbors and yet still really liking the people that were around here. And you know, we were kind of having that feedback from a lot of our friends and sort of seeing that at that point in time we thought this area deserves so much more than what there is. And why isn't there anything bridging the gap between what is Westchester and what is Fairfield County? And for any listeners that aren't kind of familiar with our geographic setup, I live in Pound Ridge, which is in New York State, and Jean lives in New Canaan, which is in Fairfield County, connecticut, but Jean's house is probably about an eight-minute drive from my house.

Speaker 2:

I was going to say we live maybe 10 minutes away from each other.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and New Canaan is my town. I mean, pound Ridge is really cute and it's an adorable little hamlet, but there's nothing there, or there certainly wasn't four years ago and so, over the course of a dinner, we decided let's do this.

Speaker 2:

I love it and I know your family. I know your family and I can totally see you guys being like, yeah, why not? What is there to lose, why not?

Speaker 1:

Totally, and for context, my mom is the biggest real estate agent in New Canaan and so she was actually really not on board. Really, we were watching her, do? I mean, she was already doing an insane amount of deals prior to COVID, but we were watching her do more business and more volume and answer more phone calls than I've ever seen in my life in the first months of COVID and we were truly bowled over. I mean, we really did not expect that.

Speaker 2:

Nobody expected that no one did.

Speaker 1:

And we realized that there was going to be this resurgence almost of where we live, and so that was part of what played into our decision. But my mom was really anti. She was like I do not want you guys mixing and mingling in this business. I don't want you guys involved in my business.

Speaker 2:

In my town. Don't get into my town and my stuff.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. We were like well, perfect, we're going to rename the magazine and add your town and come right on in Right.

Speaker 2:

I love it.

Speaker 1:

Here we are now. I love it.

Speaker 2:

So here you are now. So you quit your job right away, or did you do both?

Speaker 1:

I quit my job immediately. I called the company, I think the next morning. Yeah, it took us a couple of days to close the deal. It was really quick. I think we closed the deal, maybe within four days of starting the process, and the next day I called my company and I said you've got me until the end of the week. I'm not going to leave you behind dry. It was Monday, I think, that I said this to them and I said you've got me till Friday. But they had just done a big round of layoffs that I had survived, actually thrived in, I was being promoted, but I didn't feel as much of an obligation to the company to give them a full two weeks when they had just let people go in the midst of a pandemic really not doing the right thing, and had sold for over a billion dollars short less than a year later. So I kind of felt my time is mine and my time is valuable and the best way that I can spend it is starting up my own business.

Speaker 2:

So, all of a sudden, you are now an entrepreneur, yep, running a magazine with your father. Yep, yeah, it was there you are. And, by the way, you don't come from the magazine industry, you don't come from the print industry. So where do you even start? How did you wrap your arms around? Because the thing I think that's interesting about this is so many people are so afraid of leaving the structure of corporate America and starting their own business, because the fear of everything we don't know when we do that is so monstrous that the hill seems so big that they can't even fathom. How do you even start? But you just started with absolutely no roadmap whatsoever.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think there's a couple things around that, and I think number one I am incredibly lucky to be doing this with my dad, who is a serial entrepreneur and a deal junkie and who has started probably 15 different businesses and been in corporate America prior to that doing corporate takeovers, so he understands this so completely and wholly that he has been my sort of shaman to guide me through all of the questions that you have, I think, the hardest parts. I actually watched my boyfriend start a business this past year, kind of at the part of being in this world of entrepreneurs. I think he was spurred on.

Speaker 2:

It's rubbing off on him.

Speaker 1:

That's for sure. But the hardest part when you haven't started a business before, when you don't have the skillset, I think, is the structure of it. How do you set up your LLC? What are the legalities of this? How am I going to pay my taxes? How am I going to deal with my health insurance? And those were things that, though I've been involved with them since and have had to learn all of that and understand all of that, it wasn't something that I had to immediately take a crash course in and familiarize myself with.

Speaker 1:

It was something that was kind of being taken care of by my business partner, dad lawyer, all of the above, and so those things were not the fear that I had, and I also had the luxury of being 26 years old with no mortgage and no kids and very few liabilities. So I had this kind of fearless moment. I had my apartment, but I was living at my parents and I kind of figured, if not now, then when? And I've always had this entrepreneurial itch and we'll get to this. But I have started other businesses in the past and I kind of just dove in. And I think the third component of that is a little bit of not understanding the full challenge, and a little bit of naivete is a good thing.

Speaker 2:

Of course, what you don't know won't hurt you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you have to be smart. You have to understand what it is that you're getting yourself into and you've got to understand whether your business is a good business. Yep, past that you know. I think a lot of people scare themselves out of starting businesses and I think if I had understood the complete gravity of what it is that I was doing, and not just the creating this and getting it to print you know how to get these pages made.

Speaker 1:

Right. If I had understood the gravity of what this is in our community and what we've turned it into and really had that contemplation from the outset, I don't know if I would have been able to do it to the way that we have. It's been something that's evolved and grown and been this really special passion project for us, and I have thrown my entire self and heart and soul into this magazine and this business and I think that that is the crucial, crucial component of having a successful business. I mean, I see it with you, I see it with your clients, I see it with your projects. You throw your whole self into creating a design, creating an atmosphere, creating a world in which people can live, and I think that's the thing that makes a business successful is having an entrepreneur behind it who really cares about the outcome.

Speaker 2:

And loves the outcome, and you do. Anyone who mentions a magazine, like your name in the magazine are completely synonymous. Your father, for anyone who doesn't know, is a little in the background and you are the face of the magazine, for sure, in town. So one of the things that I would love to talk about, because you have lots of famous people that are on the cover of that magazine, that's for sure. Yeah, uh-huh, yep, and you know a lot of famous people, yeah, which is amazing. I am always shocked, shot of gun, shocked by the right, shocked. I'm like Martha Stewart, snoop. Can we talk about that? Can we get Martha to do something with Snoop? I'm obsessed.

Speaker 1:

He's my favorite. I love them. She's my favorite. Martha that's who's on this poster. Yeah, love her. Martha was our second cover. Okay, and our first cover was Grace Farms.

Speaker 1:

So for anybody that doesn't know, grace Farms is this really incredible place in New Canaan where Jean lives. That is an award-winning building created by Japanese architects and completely funded or at least majority funded by a really generous family in New Canaan, and it's a special, special place to spend an afternoon. If you live in this area and you haven't been there, you should be ashamed of yourself and get yourself over there, and if you don't live in this area, it's worth a visit just for this place. They've hosted foreign dignitaries and famous people and the like, but aside from being this really fantastic respite with a library and a cafeteria and all of this, we found out early into COVID that they were doing a serious amount of community work to save lives. They provided over 2 million pieces of PPE to area hospitals that were facing a major shortage, and they provided I'm sure I'm going to get this number wrong, but at the time of our article I think they had provided over 200,000 meals to families in need in the surrounding area, and that was as of September of 2020.

Speaker 1:

So, they were doing really incredible work and we felt that as a community you know, we were jumping into this new thing. We wanted it to be so community focused and oriented from the outset. And it was COVID. You couldn't do a photo shoot. I mean, we went to print on August 15th of 2020 of our first issue. There were no photo shoots, right. So we did our first cover, as Grace Farms highlighted their incredible impact and work and what they were doing really not as an organization on its own, but what they were doing in the age of COVID and that kind of set us off on this foot of being community-minded and being philanthropically-minded and being focused on charities and on just some really amazing cultural institutions and organizations and nonprofits in this area. And from there, we felt that we needed this dose of almost legitimacy as we contemplated our second cover and I just reached out I figured who's more Bedford than Martha?

Speaker 2:

Stewart, martha Stewart, she is Right.

Speaker 1:

And we hadn't heard from her in a while. In terms of when I say we, the community, you know, bedford Magazine used to do some stuff with her and I think she had been on the cover back in like 2010 or something, I don't know a long time ago and she was on their sort of society pages every now and then, but nobody had really talked to her in a while, and so I just paid for some service and reached out and gave it a whack and I think I reached out to maybe two other celebrities and we really thought we were. This was like a shot in the dark. I mean, we did not contemplate having such famous people on our covers. It's something that we have sort of evolved into and become, but Bedford Magazine never really had such famous covers, right, and we didn't even think we needed it.

Speaker 1:

But when Martha said yes, I mean genuinely, two days later, like, I sent an email, I think, to somebody now I know who her PR person is and we are close and she lives in New Canaan and she's phenomenal, but it wasn't even someone on her team and they said you know, yeah, we'd be interested, let's start the conversation, and that's kind of how it developed and from there we have since become friends with Martha, which has been the treat of a lifetime. She is, and continues to be, my idol. She's amazing. She is an amazing person, an amazing businesswoman, an amazing philanthropist I mean the list goes on and on. She is the queen mom. I mean she's everything.

Speaker 2:

She's everything what she's done just to build an empire from a business perspective as a woman and I look at when she started, when there really weren't a lot of women doing what she's doing in terms of building empires I think is so inspirational.

Speaker 1:

Totally Across verticals, across different segments, across decades and overcoming so much. She's an idol, I mean. That's really all there is to say about it. So it's been a real treat to get to know Martha and to get to know her team. Uh, her PR agent is Susan Magrino, who is kind of synonymous with the Martha Stewart brand and lives in New Canaan. And we've had the treat of getting to know Susan and her sister, Alan, who also lives in New Canaan and they co-run Magrino and they are some really dynamic powerhouse women. They are, and you've had them in your magazine too.

Speaker 1:

Both in the magazine. They are phenomenal. We also featured Susan's husband, jim Dunning, who is a noted philanthropic leader, especially as it pertains to young people in sports, but across lots of different things, and a titan in his own right in multiple different industries and has become a bit of a mentor to both my dad and I and a very good friend. So we've been really really lucky to have these people involved in our orbit and our life through this magazine and from there. Things have kind of just built and some of it is meeting people at events. Some of it is you meet somebody who knows somebody, kind of a thing. Some of it is just cold hard outreach. I've been known to drop letters in people's mailboxes when I know where they live. A little bit of everything and, of course, marketing and word of mouth. You know we also have a lot of people reach out to us when it's their moment to drop something or to release a book or to do something right. They often come to us and say would would really like to partner with you.

Speaker 2:

Well, and that's a huge testament to you guys, and the quality and the caliber of the magazine that you've built makes these famous people be willing to have their faces on the cover and be a part of your publication because of that. And one thing I don't want to misstep on from a business perspective is this magazine is free to everyone who lives here. So talk about that. How did you decide Was that always the business model that it was free to the residents?

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's always been the model for Bedford Magazine and it was something that we really had to think long and hard about when we did this acquisition and expanded and so sort of immediately we expanded it was Bedford, we immediately added New Canaan to the title and it's been something that we've struggled with quite a bit actually as we've continued to expand because Bedford Magazine always went to Pound Ridge, parts of North and South Salem, parts of Waccaba, some of Mount Kisco, some of Bedford Hills and for anybody that doesn't live in this area, there are little hamlets of really cute towns that are all right near each other and New Canaan is adjacent and so we kept that sort of send but tripled the distribution and sort of turned it up immediately and we have continued to expand on the New York side of the line, what I call the Bedford side of the line, and I would say all the towns we go to in Westchester either identify with or as or adjacent to Bedford as this kind of all-encompassing title for an area.

Speaker 1:

So that's Katona, still North and South Salem, waccabuck, bedford, bedford Hills, Mount Kisco, armonk, poundridge, in New Canaan we immediately went to 100% of all homes and I'll get to your full question as I wrap this up.

Speaker 1:

But we immediately went to every single home in New Canaan when we added New Canaan to the title, since we have expanded to Darien and Ridgefield, to Darianne and Ridgefield, and in doing that it has really forced us to assess our titling and to assess our model in terms of how we send. And so I circle back to your question in what is our model? And that it's free, and we go to 25,000 homes for free, so we mail this magazine to any home that basically qualifies for our distribution and that is homes that are on a postal route worth upwards of $2 million, where the average value of the homes on that postal route is upwards of $2 million and where the average household income is upwards of $700,000 a year. The average household income is upwards of $700,000 a year. So we're targeting this really extreme demographic of people which, around the country, obviously that is an extreme Around. Here it's a little less extreme.

Speaker 2:

Not as much, right yeah, sadly.

Speaker 1:

It's the average In New Canaan. What we found was that 90% of homes qualified for that sort of distribution and we figured. You know what? Let's just go to every single house in New Canaan. Why would we leave 10% of people out? That's weird and mean and strange.

Speaker 1:

We're just going to go to everybody. So in any town where 90% plus of the town qualifies, we go to 100% of the town. So that's Pound Ridge, new Canaan, bedford, armonk and Waccabuck. So in those five towns we go to every single house in the town and then the other towns. It's wherever the postal routes qualify for that sort of demographic send, and that's anywhere from 25% to 80% of the town in those other towns. And the challenge that we've faced with that is really just that not everybody understands that.

Speaker 2:

people are like oh, I get it in my mailbox, but it's not for Darianne, but it's not me.

Speaker 1:

Yes, it is. We just titled it before we knew it was for you too. Right, we'll know the brand now. So that's been an interesting kind of it's not been a challenge, but it's been an interesting thing for us to navigate and figure out how to educate, and so that's why we've started putting this map in every issue, kind of showing hey, we're all one community.

Speaker 1:

Look how close we are from an element of being proximate. But then also look at all these amazing cultural institutions that you should be going to and taking advantage of, because while you might not shop at the grocery store that's two towns away, you absolutely should go to the world-class art museum that's two towns away and only a 15-minute drive and you absolutely should be utilizing. If you live in Darien, why aren't you going to Caramore? It's 20 minutes away and Caramore is one of the greatest performing arts centers in the United States and it's in our backyard, and the list goes on and on for those kinds of things, and that's been a really fantastic part of this journey is discovering and rediscovering all of the amazing institutions here and getting to take advantage of them. Sort of as my job, going to all of those places. So we also distribute at a lot of those.

Speaker 1:

So in addition to the 25,000 mailed copies, we do some distribution at really high end retailers, bakeries, at some of our partner organizations, museums and cultural centers and stuff like that. But basically this is a really high-end luxury magazine that reaches a demographic that is otherwise effectively and essentially untargetable anywhere else. And I don't have to sell Jean, she's an advertiser.

Speaker 2:

I already advertise, so yes, Jean, she's an advertiser.

Speaker 1:

I already advertised, so yes, but for anybody out there listening to this, the reason that we, I think, have been so successful is sort of a twofold of that we are reaching this demographic, and that's really really hard to do, but also that they're paying attention.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, because your content is worth reading. Yeah, it's the only magazine that I read cover to cover, and actually stop to read all the articles. Most of the time I just flip through stuff. And we do have other local magazines and I just flip through them. I never read any of the content. And I will have people reach out to me all the time and say, oh, I saw you in Bedford, I saw you there, I saw you, I saw your daughter because you've featured my daughter before, which was so sweet. And so I will say people do read it and I think it has a long shelf life, which, to your point, originally to your dad, if you were to say I'm going to go buy a print publication, I'd be like what are you doing?

Speaker 2:

Get with it.

Speaker 1:

Print is dead right, so it is truly Print is nationally print is dead. I was right in that assessment. I know it's a catchy phrase that people say, but I was correct. Nationally print has unfortunately died and I would be hard pressed to think of a magazine that I subscribed to prior to being in the industry. And when I ask other people I'm like what other magazines do you subscribe to? The answer is usually none. And for a while, in my first year, maybe a few people in your industry would still say, oh well, architectural Digest, but it's not that great anymore. Nobody even subscribes to that anymore.

Speaker 2:

No, and they're so thin. So a huge testament to you is every time your magazine comes out, which it comes out six times a year your magazines are getting thicker and thicker and thicker. And you always and I have to laugh because you guys always stick three magazines in for an advertiser into, like the UPS flat rate envelope and I'm like it is about to not fit anymore. I think we're going to be down to getting two pretty soon.

Speaker 1:

It's fun to me on this issue. They were like okay, this is the maximum page count that you can have if you want three in those envelopes. Yeah, it's totally true, we'll just have to start setting them a box.

Speaker 2:

Right, but you know, I always am so proud of what you guys have built because I think it's so great and I think it's such a great asset to the community, which is wonderful, thank you.

Speaker 1:

You've been such a really phenomenal supporter of this magazine and I'm so grateful and thankful that you are part of it and excited to promote your business through it. Because that's really what we're doing here In addition to being this asset for the community and for people to be able to explore and find not only the nonprofits and cultural institutions, it's also an asset for people to find and explore businesses, both retail and service-based. Yes, you know, and we have so many people that say to us, both from your end of things and from the consumer end of things oh my gosh, I found my this, that or the other thing through the magazine. And it's not just you know this pie in the sky idea. It's genuinely people are feeling good about where they live. You know, people come home to this. You can't even tell on here how thick it is, but it's like it's a hearty, thick magazine and people come home to this. It's in their mailbox and husbands and wives fight over who gets to read it first. We get that feedback all the time.

Speaker 1:

I was at the grocery store last week delivering a stack and the bag boy goes oh my gosh, that's that magazine. And I was like, oh God, what's this about to be Right and he goes. My whole family fights over it. When it comes in the mail, I read it, my sister reads it, both my parents read it. By the time I usually get it it's tattered to shreds. The whole family's ripped out the pages that they want, whatever else he's like. Can I take a copy? I'm like, yeah, I'm dropping them off for free. That's the whole point. Take as many as you want. That's cute. But people tell me all the time I found my designer, I found my plumber, I went to the store that I didn't know about. Tony, tony and the gang. In Pound Ridge is this adorable sort of boutique clothing store. If you live in New Canaan and you don't happen to drive through Pound Ridge all the time, you probably don't know it's there.

Speaker 2:

No.

Speaker 1:

She's gotten so many New Canaan clients that come because they're reading through the magazine and they see what's this cute clothing store I've never been to. Oh my gosh, it's five minutes from my house.

Speaker 2:

Right there, which is so so great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you know, as a small business owner, helping other small businesses to thrive, especially in this community, has been such a treat and so much fun and this kind of task and challenge and honor to be a part of it.

Speaker 1:

And every day I wake up and I think to myself okay, to be a part of it. And every day I wake up and I think to myself okay, how can I help somebody to get more business today? And we get to be this sort of hub of people that are paying a lot of attention to what we are putting out there about this community and all these amazing businesses and people that are doing not only such hard work but incredible work Around here. Pretty much, if you are here, you have reached the pinnacle of success. It's expensive to live here and so, by virtue of that, most people that are here have already reached major success in their careers business people and crafts people and service businesses included, and so a lot of the people here really are the best of the best in their industry and have fantastic ideas and capabilities and are able to just create such special experiences and finished products that we are so excited to showcase and to share.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and so many of them do so much philanthropic work that you would never know about and I will say some of the articles of people that you've had not on the cover. On the cover it's normally somebody famous, but on the inside sometimes there will be people that you have never heard of that live in to open their doors and let you come in and photograph them and their homes and talk about their lives, their families and how they're giving back, and I think that's really special, that they're willing to let you come in and do that, especially for people that have to your point. Most people here have checked the money box, have checked the career box and they are also now very focused on giving back.

Speaker 2:

And that creates a culture of giving, which I think is so important.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah. I think we first and foremost are very, very grateful to people that allow us into their homes. You know I recognize, as somebody who kind of is shockingly fairly private in my own house, you know I recognize that it's kind of this big thing to let somebody in. But the attention that we're able to shine on the organizations that they care about, I think is the impetus for it in many, many cases and we are really really grateful that people are, you know, willing to let us share that and be part of that.

Speaker 1:

that people are willing to let us share that and be part of that, and people have been so gracious. This community has been just really incredible.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Well, it also. It's a testament when you do something with your heart. You two are running a business with your heart, with a passion to truly want to help local grow and to help this community grow and to help shine a light on everything that's here, especially from a cultural perspective, and so I think your heart is in such a good place and anyone who meets you, you know you don't come across as someone that could call Martha Stewart on her phone at any moment. You know you come across as really and your family too very down to earth, willing to talk to people, always willing to help people, and just very genuine, and that translates and that comes across in your magazine and also for you guys as a family, which is incredible. Thank you, I want to switch gears for one second, because you do have a whole other business, by the way, folks she is. I want to call you a food influencer, so tell me if I'm wrong about that.

Speaker 2:

That's what it is. Yeah, so, nola, gourmand, folks, I'm going to put it in the notes here for you. On Instagram, I went and looked it up before we started this Hello, 27.5 thousand followers. And this is about food in New Orleans. And, by the way, you happen to live in New York right now and not there, and, yes, you guys spend a lot of time there. But so how in the world did you build this social media empire and decide all of a sudden I am the foodie of New Orleans?

Speaker 1:

So this is another one that was happenstance, a little bit of right place, right time, a little bit of accidental, and I do feel so lucky that this has happened in both instances. It's a combination of grit and determination and hard work and having the idea, but also sometimes you just have to kind of be in the right place at the right time. And I was at college, at Tulane it was 2014, I think, 2014, I think and I was on a flight to Paris and going to study abroad for the summer and my back then your iPhone had, like, no storage in it, so I needed to clear space, to free up room for photos for my trip to Paris, you know, for my, my summer abroad. And I started going through and realizing that all of my pictures were food pictures and I was like having this hard time departing with these images. You know, I was like, well, I can't delete that. Like that's such a good shot of mac and cheese, yes, so I had sort of thought back on this moment where I had been posting some of those pictures on my personal Instagram account and my friends were like you know, who do you think you are?

Speaker 1:

You think you're a food influencer. You and my friends were like you know, who do you think you are? You think you're a food influencer, you know? Like why are you posting that on your personal page? It's so weird, Sort of making fun of me, and I, just on a whim on this plane, thought to myself I've got internet, I'm going to make a food Instagram page. Like who are they to tell me that I'm not a food? You know a food page? And they compared me to this other Instagram account that I knew was a bunch of girls at Tulane and who had built a big following and I thought who, what do they have that I don't have? They're just some two angels going around taking pictures. So I start this account, I post a couple of pictures. By the time I check the account again, it has over a thousand followers.

Speaker 2:

No way.

Speaker 1:

And I mean I was baffled. I had followed some friends, you know whatever, but I guess I had hit the algorithm right. And back then, you know that's what, when I say right place, right time, you can't really grow a following like that anymore. It does, it just doesn't happen.

Speaker 1:

I mean unless you go viral and, you know, hit the jackpot. Brands don't just grow like that on Instagram anymore. No, then, if you were in the right sort of segment and food really was one of those segments which I didn't understand but lucked out you could grow and there wasn't that much that was really serving the New Orleans market. Shockingly, it's a very slow kind of city where entrepreneurship tends to be rewarded, because I think a lot of people are just trying to live their lives and go on about their day and have a good time, and it's not what comes to mind first. So I, for the first couple of years, didn't think it would ever be a business. It was just fun, and I kept my identity a secret from even my best friends.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1:

Yep Posted. This was my junior and senior year of college. Posted continued to post pictures going around eating my dad jokes that he endowed my food career. And I was sitting with my friends graduation week or the week before and we were talking about where should we make a reservation with all of our parents for graduation week, because we were going to be a lot of people hard to do. And one of the girls were how about Galatoire's? How about Commander's Palace, this, that? And one of the girls well, why don't we go? Look on Nola Gourmand, they post the best stuff. They'll have good recommendations.

Speaker 1:

And I sort of had forgotten that. They didn't know that it was me. At that point, I mean, it's been years and I'm like you guys Nola Gourmand is sitting in the room, it's me. What do you mean? And they were like what you know? We don't believe you, there's no way.

Speaker 2:

And I think I had probably 7,000 or 9,000 followers at that point and I was like it's me, you know you idiots.

Speaker 1:

These are your hands in the pictures. You know you didn't recognize the meal. Right, it's really funny. It's your dinner and your hand in the picture Are you crazy? And so that was kind of this funny full circle moment of you know seeing something organically become a thing.

Speaker 1:

And then I stayed in New Orleans so I was recruited to go to a pilot program at Tulane's business school directly out of undergrad, started there and continued on my eating journey throughout that and sort of that was when I turned this into a business. It was kind of a and sort of that was when I turned this into a business. It was kind of a. I had some entrepreneurship classes at the business school where you were encouraged to start or create a business, and I just kind of used my Instagram account as my test throughout business school of you know well, for each of these projects let's plug and play and see what happens. And it really did allow me to spend a lot of time and focus and energy growing the account and growing presence in the city and investing and continuing to create content, which back then wasn't something that people thought of. I don't know that anybody talked about investing in content.

Speaker 2:

No, no, people didn't talk about oh, you're a content creator. Would have been like what is that?

Speaker 1:

Certainly a content creator wasn't a thing yet.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no.

Speaker 1:

But this whole concept of that you have to spend money to make money and that to have this good content, you have to be curating it. It's not just something that pops into thin air, right? And so that enabled me to spend time doing that and for the first time, I had a friend, who was one of my roommates at the time, who said you should be reaching out to restaurants. Why are you still paying for your food? And that was another concept that I had had restaurants, but I had never thought of me reach out to them to say why.

Speaker 1:

Yeah right, and so from there on out I pretty much turned it into its own kind of thing and then started to have restaurants reach out to me and say hey, can you please do our social media? You're good at this, you know how to get a following in New Orleans, you know how to make this work. Can you please grow our restaurant? We really need people in the afternoon when we're dead and on Thursday nights when nobody's coming in. So I started running basically a consultancy for social media clients, first in business school and then grew that once I was with, I started working with this tech company and did this on the side and at one point I think I had over 20 different clients whose accounts I was running. I've scaled it back pretty dramatically now and won't take on new clients unless they're, I mean, once in a blue moon I do, but it's really. It's a special case and I've kept this one favorite client who's just been so good to me and I've had a lot of fun with their content. So I've kept them and we've been working together for for, I think, six years or eight years now Nice, and that's been fun, but it was and still in some ways is Nola Gourmand its own entity. Yeah, and it got its name in a funny way.

Speaker 1:

So a gourmet is somebody who likes fine food and partakes in the experience of fine dining, and I think that's how most people think of themselves, whether or not they are gourmets. Yes, but when we first toured Tulane, I'd never been to the city of New Orleans, nor had my parents, and we went down and stayed at a hotel and my dad had a friend who had a, I guess, a pied-à-terre in downtown New Orleans who would go down just to eat. Wow, and used this place just to go try fabulous fine dining. Lived, I think, in New York, and so he called him and said where's the place that we have to go? You're the biggest gourmand that I know, yeah, and the he called him and said where's the place that we have to go?

Speaker 1:

You're the biggest gourmand that I know. And the guy gets pissed off and he's like what do you mean? You're calling me fat. And my dad's like what do you mean? You're gourmand, gourmet. I'm saying you're a foodie. And the guy's like you must not know what you're saying, and my dad's pretty good with words. And the guy goes you're calling me fat. A gourmet is someone who likes fine food.

Speaker 1:

A gourmand is somebody who's gluttonous, who can't stop themselves and overeats, and so my dad gets off the phone call, recounts the conversation and basically says to me so you are a gourmand, yeah, and I was in Stillaham.

Speaker 2:

The things that you post look so good but I'm like I could never. I just I could never eat that food. I could. It's so heavy and greasy. I mean it looks phenomenal. And every time you post stuff I'm like wow, you actually can eat all that. Like good for you.

Speaker 1:

Good for you. Not anymore the way that I could, but I do try everything that I post. So we have restaurants now down there and they will bring out every single dish on the menu and everyone jokes like I can't believe you're going to eat all that.

Speaker 2:

I don't anymore eat everything, but I try everything that comes out, which is a lot of fun, which is so fun, and I bet it also was part of what helped you become such a good photographer, because you are also a very good photographer and you take photography for the magazine as well, which I was surprised to find out that you were and showed up at your house one day and I was like, wow, she has like real equipment. You're a real hidden photographer. Who knew?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's one that kind of came out of necessity in both elements. Thankfully, I sort of knew a little bit about it from doing Nola Gourmand and doing a lot of my own photography for that. With that, a lot of it was on the phone, though I did venture into getting real equipment and a camera eventually, and before prior to being in the magazine. But with the magazine it's become even more of a necessity to have professional images and we work with some really phenomenal photographers around here. But sometimes you've got one-off items or last minute stuff or somebody gets sick or you just never know and you have to be able to fill in.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, which is amazing. I have two more questions. I've taken so much of your time. I have two more questions. One is you live a life that most people would, on the onset, die for, because you travel all over the world. You go to the nicest restaurants, the nicest resorts, everywhere in town, you get invited to go to every event you could imagine. So you are all over the place. So for a lot of people, they're okay. What do I do for fun? Oh, I'm going to splurge and I go here, but that is actually your life. So, aside from that, what do you do for yourself, for downtime for you? Because I know you guys and you are a very private family, yet you live a very public life, it's true. And what do you do for downtime for you so you don't go crazy? And the magazine could consume 24-7 of your life, without a doubt, because everything you do is potential content, yeah, so what do you do for you? How do you relax? What's downtime and wellness like for you?

Speaker 1:

You know I don't really believe in downtime. You know I'll sleep when I'm dead. Part of getting to do this, and I feel so lucky. You know exactly what you just said. I am flattered by it. But it's in many ways true and I feel really lucky every day I wake up and I think my lucky star is that this is my life. Yeah, I get to go on amazing, amazing trips and I get to be with my parents, who I have this really newfound, um, you know, respect for, and I'm so excited to get to know them as people, not just as my parents, you know and I, my life is great and kind of as a as a by-product of that, I don't need to escape. I don't want to escape. Yeah, you know. Yes, everything is work and everything is content, and so when I'm doing all of those things, I am always my brain's on and I'm always figuring out how can we get the best picture of this.

Speaker 1:

But it's so much fun and I think, that that slogan if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. I really feel that way and so I am on 100% of the time. I come home and I get in my bed and I go on the computer and I can think of work and my family or my boyfriend they're like can we just watch Netflix? The answer is usually no. I don't think I've been on Netflix in four months. But when you love what you do, it doesn't feel like work, so it's nonstop. But I'm kind of a non-stop person and so it's a lot of work. And I would say the only you know outlet that I have that is separate from work is really my friends and I have such incredible friends in this community, but I also have other friends, sort of from my prior life yeah in new y and I keep a Pieta Terra Manhattan that I probably will get rid of soon because I don't use it enough.

Speaker 1:

But I go into the city and I hang out with my friends sometimes or I have them up here and they're so excited to be at the pool and that's really my only non-work outlet.

Speaker 2:

Which is good, though you said something that's so important. It's just you love what you do and you can see in your face for those that can watch us on YouTube you can see in your face that you love what you do. You're so passionate about it, and that is why entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs because we love what we do, and if you can find something that you're passionate about and figure out how to turn it into a career, there is no better life.

Speaker 1:

Totally. And I will say, you know, to that point, yes, and you must love what you do. If you are thinking about starting a business and you don't love it, if you're not passionate about it, don't do it.

Speaker 2:

Don't do it, I agree.

Speaker 1:

You know, on the other side of that coin there's two kinds of people, and not everybody necessarily wants to be, or gets the joy from being an entrepreneur. And if you don't think that's, you don't push yourself, don't do it Right.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, don't do it. It's a lot of work. If you don't love it, it won't be fun. But if you love it, if you are passionate about something and you can figure out a way to monetize it and turn it into a business and to get to live that life all in as you say this, all in life, all the time, there's no better reward for the right kind of person.

Speaker 2:

You are right. Yes, well said, all right. One last question before we go I ask all my guests to recommend a book, and I did not remind you of this so I apologize. So if you don't have a book, don't worry. So I ask all my guests to recommend a book because I'm a huge believer that a book can change your life, and so I ask people to recommend a book that they've read, that stands out to them either, helps them with personal wellness, helps them with their life, helps them with their career. And the other day I interviewed someone who actually recommended a beach read and she was like I got to tell you, I don't get to escape enough in life and I'm even going for a beach read as my recommendation. I was like I'll take it, I'll take it, I'll take it Whatever. So if you can think of a book that you would recommend, I will tag it in the notes for people.

Speaker 1:

I think this is going to be a weird one, but I think the most impactful book that I have read for me is Bill Clinton's autobiography.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's an interesting one.

Speaker 1:

It's a really long, thick book. It's genuinely this big and it's somewhere in one of my bookshelves torn up. Basically it falls apart as you read it, if you get the paper back and the hard cover is just genuinely too big to bring anywhere Right paperback and the hard cover is just genuinely too big to bring anywhere. But it's a really inspiring tale of I mean, everybody knows Bill Clinton's story, I think, but somebody who came from nothing and just decided to be something, and both from a perspective of uh, you know, passion and courage and interest and so many different facets. He's just such a fascinating person, has such good advice and his story has so many grains of truth that I think resonate with a lot of people and certainly with myself. Um, so I loved that book. I think I read it 10 years ago, maybe longer, and it has really stuck with me and I've gone back to reference parts of it since that is a good one, I'm going to add it in the show notes and I'm also going to mention it.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to mention it to Maddie, my daughter, because she loves to read. She's an avid reader and is fascinated by politics and history, doesn't she?

Speaker 1:

read like a book a week or something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she does, yeah, yeah, yeah. She read my book in an hour and 10 minutes on her phone as a PDF.

Speaker 1:

That is wild. It's wild, it's crazy, it's wonderful If she ever wants to speed read our magazine and proof it.

Speaker 2:

I will mention that to her because she is such a good speed reader you can always read the proofers, I was like I don't even understand how you do that.

Speaker 2:

So, oh, KZ, this has been so much fun. Thank you so so much for being on the show. You are so inspiring your magazine. I truly love your magazine. Thank you, and your family is wonderful. Please wish your mom and your dad that I said hello and thank you for being on the show and hopefully I will see you again really soon. Thank you so much, Thanks, Bye.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. Review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jermar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website, houseofjermarcom, If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show. Please reach out to us at podcast at houseofgermarcom. This has been a House of Germar production with your host, Jean Collins. Thank you for joining our house.