Behind the Pages: A 3rd Birthday Retrospective Exploring the Journey of a Magazine with Our Founder Kim Bleeze

“We can throw every excuse at ourselves to not do the thing, but we are only hurting ourselves, and you’ll always be left thinking, “What if?” if you don’t. The thing about the universe is that it wants us to succeed and is constantly putting opportunities in front of us.”

Fueled by an unwavering desire to create a sacred space where souls can unite and share their passions and life’s purpose, Kim Bleeze embarked on an inspiring journey to bring Fierce Truths Magazine into the world. And now, as we celebrate its third birthday, we couldn’t think of a better way to honour this milestone than to sit down with our visionary founder herself and dive behind the pages of her creation.

As we plunge into the heart of our conversation, Kim bares her soul, recounting the exhilarating highs, the challenging lows, and the vibrant dreams that dance within her. We’ll get a brief glimpse into the fabric of her being, her personal connection to this challenging journey, and the profound impact of birthing such a magnificent beacon of mind, body, and spiritual wisdom into the world.

Together, we’ll celebrate the growth that both Kim and Fierce Truths Magazine have experienced.

Oh, but let’s not forget the wild adventure of transformation that Fierce Truths Magazine has taken over the years! We’ll explore the winding path that led the magazine to discover its voice, navigating twists and turns, shedding old layers, and emerging as an award-winning publication of spiritual truth. It is an interview that speaks to Kim’s resilience, courage, and unwavering dedication that continues to pour into her heart’s mission.

Fierce Truths Magazine is not merely a publication—but a guiding light, illuminating the way to a life lived in harmony with your most profound desires and beliefs.

So, dive headfirst into the wisdom that Kim Bleeze shares, and together, let’s celebrate the past, embrace the present, and eagerly anticipate Kim’s creations yet to come. Fierce Truths Magazine is more than ink on paper—it’s a testament to the power of following your heart’s calling and spreading the spiritual truth into the world.

FTMag: Can you share about yourself with our readers who don’t know who you are?

Kim: I’m used to asking this question, so being on the receiving end of an interview always feels strange! Before anything, I am a single mum of two incredible adults. I am a down-to-earth woman who loves to travel, walk barefoot on the earth and beat her drum to the morning sun. What many of the readers might not know is that I actually travel full-time and live in my van most of the time. Which people often find super strange. My first love is spirit and my calling as a medium and teaching people about our soul journey. I am, of course, also the founder of this beautiful magazine, which has been such a gift to birth into the world and now THE SOUL JOURNEY APP. I am also birthing my company’s book publishing component, which is still hush-hush. I am so excited about it, though. I could burst!

FTMag: It’s three years on? Talk to us about your journey.

Kim: I can’t believe it has been three years! Wow, what an experience it has been with many mistakes that have brought many incredible lessons. Put it this way, if I were to choose one word to associate with my journey to birth a magazine into the world, it would be ‘Challenge’, and it has been, in all the best ways, but also some really difficult ways too.

I threw myself into the deep end when I decided to create a magazine, and I had no idea what I was doing. I have to wonder sometimes if I even do now! This journey has pushed and continues to push me from the start. Three years on, and that hasn’t changed. I am just more adapted at navigating it now and getting better (I think!) every day at taking on more of a ‘publisher’ role within my psyche, which I struggle with. This big part of me wants to lock myself away from the world and spend my days creating art and jewellery. But apparently, and much to my horror, my path and purpose are bigger than that. So I find myself in this constant state of resistance – like a child getting told to do a chore when they’d much rather play!

I laugh at myself every day I recognise this within myself. So I breathe and connect into my heart, which is very connected to my bigger vision, and continue to commit to this journey. Even if some days I am holding on by a thread.

FTMag. You spoke about your future visions when we interviewed you for our 1sr birthday. Has anything changed knowing what you know now?

Kim: My future vision has always been to build a platform to support people sharing their truth. My idea was to go into book publishing eventually and online courses, and that hasn’t changed as a way of really helping people.

If anything, the vision and what I am creating have just gotten bigger. Enormous from where I am sitting at the moment, in a “how the hell am I going to achieve that’ sort of way. And I do not know if I will make it happen, right? I only know one thing; if I don’t show up, my vision won’t happen at all. I owe it to my path and the people to whom I can give a voice to give it my best shot.

FTMag: What are the highs and lows of becoming a magazine publisher?

Kim: So many, and all possible over a day! Most magazines have big teams for a reason, but with us, it is 80% me, so it often feels like too big a job for me – I have come close to quitting so many times.

Yet each time I sit precariously on that fence, something fortifies my path and gives me the courage and inspiration to keep going.

For example, I recently had one of those moments and felt I was done. I was even contemplating the steps I’d need to take to close my company down. Then the print issues of the magazine I’d ordered arrived, and I saw how beautiful they looked and felt in my heart how important it is for Fierce Truths Magazine to be out in the world. She has so much change to help bring to our reader’s hearts. How could I not want to honour that? So I shook all that shitful thinking away and focused on the incredible gift I am contributing to the world instead and how important she is. Other times have been a PR to a Hollywood actress reaching out to secure an interview. Or Gabby’s Bernstein saying yes to an email interview for our last issue. They both happened when I contemplated the magazine’s path and whether or not I should keep going. I took them as confirmation that I should keep going, which is a win.

FTMag: What is the one message you want to say to someone sitting on the sidelines of following their own purpose and unsure if they should take the step?

Kim: Just fucking do it. Say yes to yourself and honour whatever way you are here to contribute to the world. We can throw every excuse at ourselves to not do the thing, but we are only hurting ourselves, and you’ll always be left thinking, “What if?” if you don’t. The thing about the universe is that it wants us to succeed and is constantly putting opportunities in front of us. That is translated to us through moments of inspiration, and you have a choice to say yes to it in that moment. The opportunity will move on to the next soul if you don’t. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve thanked myself for saying yes to being brave enough to birth Fierce Truths Magazine.

FTMag: How has the magazine evolved in content and design since its inception?

Kim: I think when you can look back at earlier work and cringe, you know you’ve grown, haha! I do that with our earliest issues. Not because the content and design weren’t great, it was. I might be biased, but I truly believe that every issue we have published has been incredible. Still, it just keeps getting better and better. The articles, not dating them, the design, and especially the covers and the covers have probably been the most significant change we’ve made. And choosing to publish bi-monthly instead of monthly and making it a 120-page tabletop magazine that you could read ten years after release and still be relevant.

At the start, not knowing anything about magazines, I made a lot of assumptions about what I thought they needed to be. One of them assumed that we needed to have our interviewees on the covers, which meant we had to make do with the images they supplied us with. The covers still looked great but didn’t speak to who we were as a spiritual-themed magazine. By the end of 2021, the magazine’s energy was calling for a change, so I called it, and I think it is the smartest choice I could have made. You only need to look back at our covers to see the difference. Our app has evolved too. We had to change app hosts because the old one had many glitches not addressed as diligently as you would expect from an app software company. Readers have problems accessing the magazine after purchase. So we lost many subscribers, received abuse on social media and had to issue many refunds because of it. Now our app is through a different company, and we haven’t looked back.

FTMag: What are some of the highlights and milestones you are most proud of during the magazine’s three-year journey?

Kim: Publishing our interview with Gabby Bernstein, whom I admire tremendously, would have to be the biggest. Although it was only an email interview, it still meant a lot. Gabby’s work first inspired me to get comfortable sharing my story, ultimately leading to Fierce Truths Magazine’s birth.

Another is our print issues; they are beautiful! Especially now that they are 120 pages of spiritual growth goodness! They are only print-by-demand at this stage, but I am focusing a lot more on getting them in stores this year. We are also in over 1000 digital newsstands, bookstores and libraries, which is a huge achievement. We’ve also just signed another distribution contract, so I can’t wait to see what that brings to our reach. Sometimes I google us to get my fix on seeing how much we have grown – we are everywhere!

FTMag: Can you share some behind-the-scenes stories or challenges that you faced while building and running the magazine?

Kim: Me trying to build the whole thing whilst living and travelling full-time in a van would have to be one of the biggest ones! Who actually does that? It’s crazy. I had to do an interview once in the toilets of the camping ground I was staying at to get decent internet access. My choice of lifestyle definitely makes it challenging, but would I choose differently? No, I don’t think so. I love being on the road. I just need to have a better structure for how I do things and a more lifestyle/work balance so I don’t keep burning my candle at both ends.

Our budget for marketing is another one. I started the magazine through that first wave of lockdowns while I was in bed with nerve problems in my back in 2020. I didn’t have business capital, so we’ve never had significant expenses for advertising or branding. It makes it challenging to build brand awareness on the scale I would like it to be to the point that I am currently sitting with the idea of bringing in an angel investor to get this party really started.

FTMag: What role does your magazine play in the larger media landscape, and how do you differentiate yourself from other publications?

Kim: As an indie magazine, we are so small scale compared to the larger media landscape. I fluctuate between seeing that as good and detrimental to what I am trying to build. I can’t decide! When I do some self-inquiry into that more, though, my fear of being more visible agrees we should stay small. Because the reality of what I want to build, is that Fierce Truths Magazine is recognised everywhere and read by soul seekers all over the world. And, of course, we need visibility to do that.

Fierce Truths Magazine has depth. She speaks to your soul and guides you to be a better version of yourself without the fluff and more aligned with your life path in a way that facilitates profound growth and spiritual evolution. Then by the same token, giving you the tools you need to get the best out of your human experience.

FTMag: What are your aspirations and goals for the magazine in the next three years?

Kim: A focus on our print version, for sure. More brand awareness, of course. I want the whole world to find inspiration through what our issues offer, or at least as many readers as possible! There’s that part of me that recognises what a stretch this is, and the other part says fuck the perceived limitations; let’s shoot for the sky anyway.

FTMag: What has been the most fulfilling aspect of being the founder of this magazine for you personally?

Kim: Witnessing each new issue come together. That time of the month is often so wild with everything to do, and I always feel like we won’t make the deadline, it won’t come together in time, or we won’t have enough content. But it does, and she’s beautiful – EVERY TIME.

FTMag: How has starting and running this magazine impacted your own personal growth and development?

Kim: This journey is incredible at showing me all the ways I am yet to grow and all the ways I am not walking my talk if I flounder on my path. It is leaving no room for me to stay small (unfortunately!) because I am coming to realise for the magazine to be seen, I need to get comfortable with being seen too, and that is uncomfortable and pushes my edges in ways I’d rather ignore, but I can’t. My heart won’t let me hold off anymore.

FTMag: What has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learned as a magazine founder and entrepreneur?

Kim: Stay focused on what you are creating, and keep going. To develop strong boundaries to what you say yes to and what you say no to. That meant learning to say no to anything that does not align with my business and what I am trying to build. That came with me thinking I could do all the things at once, where it needs to be about prioritising my goals and working only on what was important for my company to grow right now. So every time I have a colleague or friend say, hey, do this thing with me, like an event or show or something, I need to be firm to my commitment and say no. It’s been challenging, and I am sure I won’t be saying no forever, but I am for now. I am sure there are other lessons I could share too, but this has been the one lesson more prominent for me this year.

FTMag: How do you manage the inevitable ups and downs that come with running a magazine, and what keeps you motivated during challenging times?

Kim: Trusting in what will be is a big one. This allows me to let go of what is not working and go with the direction I am getting pulled in, not being scared to change direction if needed. Actually, let me rephrase that as it is not entirely true – to be willing to change direction even if it scares me, I’m still working on that one!

FTMag: Have there been any sacrifices you’ve had to make to ensure the magazine’s success, and how do you handle the balance between work and personal life?

My sociability is what suffers the most. Running the magazine and working on our expanding areas is exhausting. Even when I am not working, I still give mental energy to my vision because I find it challenging to switch off. So at the end of the day, the last thing I feel like doing is getting on the phone. I was never a big phone talker anyway, but now I am considerably worse – just ask my friends! We have to pre-book our catchups because I am so precious with my energy, and so I am constantly mindful to not overload my plate, which I am an epic fail at often. I am learning though.

FTMag: Looking back at the past three years, what advice would you give yourself when starting out as a magazine founder?

Kim: Don’t do it!!! I’m only joking, well, sort of! Seriously though, if you feel called to it, go for it, but do your research and be prepared to invest a lot of your time. Especially if you want to do it properly. You could follow a few avenues to get it out into the world, find what works for you and stay the course. If your vision is worth it, you’ll find the hard work worth it too.

FTMag: Last question. Kim, what is your fierce truth?

Ooo I LOVE this question! I like to answer it by touching my heart and asking from that space. My answer today is the acknowledgement of how incredible we all are, and how incredible I am. Our souls fought to have a place to learn in this world, and we are the ones who made it through. My truth right now is that I will treasure this experience and make the most of answering the call to be more and do more out in the world.

Now, as founder, I get to ask you. What is your fierce truth?