Call Paul

Season 2 – Call Paul – Spotlight

Paul: Hey there, I’m Paul Jarvis. In this season of Call Paul we’re doing something a little different -- in between thoughtful conversations with business owners, we’re sharing spotlights like this one, of small businesses we really believe in. If you’re picking up what they’re putting down, maybe you’ll consider supporting them too.

* Bunni: Fairy tales and dragons whimsical and imaginary

Paul: In this small business spotlight we hear from Brave and Kind Bookstore, a thoughtfully curated bookstore just outside of Atlanta.

Bunie: Hey guys my name is Bunnie Hilliard b-u-n-n-i-e like a bunny but with an I E and I am a woman and a mom and a friend and a wife and a small business owner and I am the owner of Brave and kind book shop, where we sell kids books.

I asked myself what I would do if I knew I could not fail, and this was it. I’d be lying if I said that that movie ‘You’ve Got Mail’ didn’t have anything to do with it at all, but I was quite infatuated with Kathleen Kelly and her shop around the corner. The movie came out I believe in 1996 or so - so that was long before I would have ever dared to try anything of this magnitude. One point in the movie she said that closing the shop was the brave thing to do, and for me it felt like opening the store was the brave thing to do.

[music]

I was a stay at home mom. I have a couple of business degrees. looking for the next literal chapter. And what I wanted to do now that I had both of my kids at the time were in school full time. So in the summer I came in to chat with the current inhabitant, owner of the space we are now standing in to ask her advice and by the end of our conversation she was offering me the space.

You know, sometimes folks will ask me how did I choose this location and I really believe that this location chose me. Then really began my journey of trying to put all the pieces in place that would allow me to bring books and community into this little perfect space.

So I kicked off a Indiegogo campaign to raise funds it was kind of also a litmus test to see if the community, if the neighborhood would be interested in bringing a little neighborhood book shop into this space and so they did they pitched in and I asked friends and family and friends of family and friends of friends if they would donate donate their money, their wares, their time to help bring Brave and Kind bookshop to life. And so when you walk in there is, what is a family tree that a friend of mine drew for me and every person that contributed even $5 to the campaign has a place on this tree their names are on the branches or family names are on the trunk and on the leaves and it just really signifies at this place you know they planted the seeds to grow Brave and Kind bookshop. And I am eternally grateful that they believed in what we are doing here, to bring stories of all backgrounds and races and artful beautiful diverse representation to the forefront of kids literature.

When you come in you see that lots of the books are facing outward so that you are not just looking at the spines of fun but you're looking at the faces so that hopefully you will see a face in the story that resonates with you and your family.

Kimberly Jones: My name is Kimberly Jones. I absolutely love Brave and Kind Books. It's like my favorite bookshop. I'm the co-author of the NYT best seller “I’m Not Dying With You Tonight” along with my partner in write, Gilly Segal. It’s a YA novel about two 17 year old girls, one black and one white who survive the night together in race riots and learn what they have in common.

I’m so excited to be doing this small business Saturday, because Brave and Kind is a store that supported us from day one. We didn’t hit the NYT best seller list until a year after our release, but Bunnie has always been super supportive and kind and there for us and showed up for any events we had and was our book seller and just has been a champion for us since the very beginning so I’m thrilled to be here on behalf of source books for small business Saturday.

Bunnie: It’s lunch time now. I had to drive pretty far away to pick up some extra packaging materials from the store, and then to drop off some things at the post office, and then I'm here and it looks like my husband Tony has dropped off my daughter, who is 12, to pitch in today.

It’s truly family and friends run operation, my darling daughter Andy in the shop and Mrs. Alyssa

Alyssa: Hello

These young ladies are 12 - someone is almost 13 in just a few short days. I’m giving them a lesson on how to wrap a perfect gift . A book is pretty easy because it has nice flat edges.

(packaging sounds)

Bunnie: I would love to introduce you guys to Sosenna, she's been volunteering at the store for quite some time.

Sosenna: I've known Bunnie and her family for several years now and so I knew when she started the Bookshop and although I don't have children myself we would buy books for gifts for children in our lives as well as buying some of the adult titles that she has. I was actually laid off from my job earlier this year due to covid. I was just taking some time to readjust to our new normal.

I follow Brave and Kind on Instagram, and I don’t remember what exactly it said, but it made me think she could use some help. So I sent her a text - saying I’ve got some time on my hands, could you use some help. she said yes please come so I think I probably came maybe the next day and slowly I've just kind of done more and more. And it's been great for me a great way to spend my time I spend been very beneficial bunnie is very open with you know sharing all of her knowledge and you know and challenges yet everything we're learning things together there's some things that I could you know I'm stronger with that I can help out with but she's definitely teaching me a lot.

And part of the reason why I wanted to come in was cuz I had started to think about opening my own business and I wanted to know what it was like to run a small business and so I said what better way than to get into the trenches of a small business so I'm it's been really good it's it's definitely challenging not for the faint of heart but it's very rewarding and Bunnie has created such a lovely space and just the customers, are you know the people that I talk to you when they come for porch pick up to get their books or when they call in asking questions you can just tell that people are very grateful that this this space exists.

Bunnie: Brave and Kind is ran largely by volunteers. I think that is maybe one of those one of the reasons were still in business during this this pandemic during these hard times because we did close our doors in March and we have not opened them we have moved ourselves from being a little neighborhood bookshop where you could come in and hang out with your your family and pursue books and plop down on our beautiful colorful carpet on the floor and read to your kiddos or read to yourself to window-shopping, browsing online and we try to make the website feel as close to the experience in the store as we could and we can.

And also by the way that we package the things that we ship across the country now as well we are extremely grateful to have had the the ability to reach families I say at this point - I believe we've shipped to all 50 states. And we put all of our heart and soul into each package that we wrap with love and hand wrap carefully and handwritten notes and lovely twine and cute little pom-poms and just things that - we feel like we are missing by not having the ability to physically be in the spaces that we miss and that we love.

So you know I just if I am able to shout out all of the people who have come through the doors to help keep Brave not only surviving but thriving during this time I just I want to say thank you so very much to the volunteers and also to the customers who have been supporting us this year

Paul: Many thanks to Bunnie for sharing her story. For more check out braveandkind.com. I’m Paul Jarvis and you’re listening to Call Paul, a Mailchimp original podcast. You can check out more episodes of the show on your favourite podcast player. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------