We recently connected with Lynn Klopfer and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lynn, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
“To create is to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before.”
– Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being
From the start I wanted my business to participate in the world in a way that felt authentic to me. It has taken a ton of self confidence to start, and maintain an independent book selling business for going on nineteen years now. Much of that confidence comes from reading, and reading a lot. When people ask ‘When did you start this business?’ sometimes (if I’m feeling punchy) I’ll say, ‘when I was five,’ and it’s not really incorrect. The research for the book business which I created came from being a big reader as a little kid and that came directly from my parents who encouraged me from an early age. My mom took me to the library and let me buy second hand books from the strip mall bookstore in San Bernardino, where I grew up. My earliest memories involve books and the stories that were held between the covers. I was encouraged to read and love books, it gave me confidence, and now that’s what I enjoy, helping to provide reading (and learning) opportunities for the benefit of other folks.
Starting a business from scratch is no easy feat. I have a handwritten sign hanging in my office that just reads ‘Confidence!’ Black sharpie on lime green paper. I don’t remember where it came from, but I believe it, and I understand the word in its relation to the work of creating a business from what you love. You need a hefty amount of confidence to start up any business, and I believe ‘it’, confidence, underlies every move I make, business or otherwise. And its a tough characteristic to harness. It’s unquantifiable, and difficult to project without being called ‘showy’ or ‘bossy’, especially for women in business and under represented people in general. But we all love a confident person (or do we?)
I took my passion for reading and turned it into a business. I feel fortunate to have had confidence instilled in me from an early age, and I really think that has benefited me and the business endeavors I’ve created. I was told by my mother that I could do anything I wanted, if I worked hard to get it. ‘Nobody is gonna hand you anything,’ she would remind me, and now I know exactly what she meant. Learning is earning. And my mom wouldn’t talk nice just to make someone feel good. For instance, if I told her I wanted to be a chef, she would have laughed and said ‘I don’t think so, you’re not real great at following directions to cook something.’ Blunt, but honest. I think it’s helpful to hear the truth from people you trust, (usually). Now if I told mom I wanted to be a bookseller and create a ‘thing’ where we take books around to different locations with visions to grow the business into what it is today, I think she would have said, “Oh, now that sounds interesting, you’d be real good at that.” Authentic confidence building. And everybody wants to hear that they’d be good at something or that something they did was genuinely liked and admired (by most). It’s ok to be proud of yourself, I believe, and we’d all be better off if we could genuinely feel that at times, and spread that confidence around like fertilizer for other creatives. If you’re confident in what you’re doing, you are less likely to feel that crazy imposter syndrome, which can creep up in anyone. Confidence is what helps you say, ‘I’ve got this,’ when things get tough, which they always do. It helps you to take (calculated) risks when others aren’t willing to jump in, and to say ‘no, thank you’ when you need to. There’s nothing like a confident person when they’re declining something! And confidence breeds conviction, and conviction allows you to say to yourself, and others “I’ve got this” and to take necessary risks for growth.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I love being around people that love being around books. The idea of a ‘mobile bookselling’ business came to me when I saw a void that needed filling; a way to bring good, second hand books to the people. The idea was in direct contrast to ‘Big Box Book Stores’ (who we don’t need to name but they know who they are). It was a kind of punk, DIY experiment, a little bit of a strange idea at the time, being a mobile bookseller, before the word ‘pop up’ became ubiquitous (and necessary, pop ups are a result of high rents). And we took a chance, we risked it, we invested in the infrastructure, built book stands, (thank you to my partner at Lo Pioneer Design), acquired books! signage, tables, tents, brand logo, etc. and eventually a designated vehicle to move the books all around southern California. That took a huge amount of confidence that the idea I had would work, whatever ‘work’ means. Does ‘it worked’ mean you made a bunch of money? Or does it mean that your idea is a useful contribution to society and that the business sustains itself, and pays you and your collaborators? My whole career has been geared towards this moment, with a ton of hard work to get here; physical, mental, financial, emotional, all the feels to be able to continue doing the business that I was meant to do which is being an advocate for reading and story telling, a lover of the Humanities. Since the beginning in 2004, we have added new dimensions to the business, recently purchasing a warehouse in Running Springs, California. We call it ‘The Faktory’ because it’s where we make/create our rescued book journals, as well as where the book collection lives (books are like rabbits!), and our growing assemblage of vintage home decor dwells. It’s such a great space! Big and cavernous with plenty of nooks and crannies to discover things. It’s a place to dream and encourage others to do the same. It’s also where our website offerings are housed – all the online books are in The Faktory, in order, creating more efficiency.
A huge leap of faith, we’re still developing The Faktory into an ‘event space with books’ and have had great success so far. We’ve worked with other local creatives to put on film viewings, workshops, and have even started a Book Club that meets in the space. We have also developed a concept called ‘The Reading Lounge’ which along with the books, brings the experience of The Faktory to other locals. Part bookshop, but mostly a place to read. The building has thrown me a great learning curve because I want it ‘perfect, and completed quickly,’ which there is no such thing. The new building has helped me develop a patience with business, helping me to play it as it lays, as Joan Didion would say. Creating The Faktory has added a new element to the business, it is the art project currently, and that took a while to grasp. There are whole new ways of doing business now, it is not the regular ‘brick and mortar dream’ on a high street with astronomical rent. The creative communities have had to come up with other ways of doing business, and I feel like my pursuits, and the outlook I’ve chosen to take points in that direction; doing it differently, and doing it my way. Looking forward to creative work is also helpful in keeping things moving forward.
The Faktory is located in Running Springs, California, only an hour and half from Los Angeles, in good traffic. Hours are ‘Some Saturdays, or by appointment’ for now. It’s in the mountains so fog, snow, or weird weather may cancel any day we’re open, and that’s OK. Our website can be found at brownbagbooks.biz if folks can’t make it to The Faktory, but they should try. It’s a magical spot.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I feel fortunate because a very clear vision of what I wanted to create presented itself from an early stage and I somehow had the tools to pull it off, at least with what I’ve accomplished this far. So what are some of those tools? My knowledge of ‘books, and the people who seek them’ is a world I’ve lived in for a very long time. I always saw myself as someone who could bring this ‘experience’ of discovering new books to people, in the form of a bookseller, or librarian, or both. So understanding that what you love transfers to other people is essential in developing your own strategies for presenting your ‘art’ to others. You can tell instantly when someone is, or isn’t, invested in their journey, whatever that journey may be. You need to stick to your instincts when developing a path.
Early on I used to say “I’m not really a business person, I’m a book person,” and as soon as I switched that to believe for myself that I am both, things started to become easier for me. I brought in the confidence of both the book business, and the business of books, and merged them to become One Thing. As soon as I understood that, I’ve been on a roll, even it’s a slow roll. There are quiet times with yourself that need to be had, sitting still and listening to your instinct on what it is you actually want to accomplish. Also, journaling it along the way. Write write write your wishes into existence, journal how it went or what you felt. It’s amazing to look back on your journals and see that you actually did accomplish something, and that will help move you forward. Can’t say enough good things about keeping a journal, either for writing or sketching your ideas.
One of the ways I reward myself for this create/develop/employ cycle is to travel widely. Recharging is necessary to move forward in any endeavor. In fact, I feel traveling may be the underlying reason for starting the business; so that I could travel (for business) to find more books. The great thing about being a bibliophile is that you are happy anywhere there are books; shops, libraries, airbnbs, other people’s houses, wherever you can find them, and there’s some amazing book spaces out there! Ever been to a Book Town? Try Hay-on-Wye in Wales, swoon! I travel to find those places, particularly to Berlin, France, and the UK, places that may have more of a book culture then Southern California. In fact the initial inspiration for the mobile bookselling venture were the Bouquinistes of Paris, with their book stalls along the river in that gorgeous city. Being in southern California meant you had to be ‘On The Road,’ and that was fine, it just meant we had to be creative about doing it. If you have books around you can be anywhere in the world, learn anything, see anything, it’s all there. We will continue building our Book Empire for as long as possible.
A clear vision, confidence, journaling, and traveling are some of the ways of gotten to where we currently are, and the skills i continue to employ when/if the chips are down, or up.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Operating a business will always have its challenges. Highs and lows. We’ve weathered plenty; the financial crisis of 2008, the advent of the Kindle (not our favorite, but go ahead), a pandemic, and now another down turn in the economy. Looking back, we can view the lows as being beneficial – you can see how far you’ve come. When everything shut down during those first few weeks of the pandemic I received some great advice from a person I trust. He said, ‘Give (some of) the books away, for free.’ Find your great customers, my advisor said, and send them a book that would make them feel better in (those) tough times. People need books, they need a light, so be generous with what you have, is how he transmitted the idea to me. Really? That’s nuts! I said, in that super sensitive time for all of us, but I listened to the advice and sent out some book packages and found that it was one of the single best lessons I’ve learned in business – try to help make people happy. And if books make people happy, I’ve got your kool aid. It was as good for me as it was for them, I hope, and I continue to try and find ways to continue that trend. Be generous with the books, especially with kids because that is our foundation, and going back to my own upbringing around books, I think its fitting that I, and my business, would try to help develop more ‘big readers’ as we say in the biz.
The sending of the ‘pandemic books’ also helped develop our website strategy, who along with my niece Kelly, we maintain a fairly sizable collection of books online to peruse. That’s another challenge that I needed to conquer, how to develop and maintain a website for my business. Still learning on that one! But I love improving upon it. The good news for any business owner or creative is that are plenty of new avenues to explore past the initial goals you set for yourself. The sky really is the limit.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.brownbagbooks.biz
- Instagram: brownbagbooks
- Facebook: Brown Bag Books
- Other: Etsy shop at BrownBagBooks, Pinterest at BrownBagBooks
Image Credits
*Esteban Raposo @suspenderbender IG All other photos taken by myself.
