Meet Anne Keery, owner of an online marketing and media business called Alpine Trail Press. Her focus is on affiliate and display advertising.
Anne is an active member on the Fernie Pride Society Board, and volunteers for Skate Canada Figure Skating Evaluator.
As a dedicated desk member, Anne appreciates having a work environment outside of her house where she can work alongside more people. She loves the location of 2nd Edition Coworking as it allows her to be close to all the businesses downtown! Its a bonus she is able to start and finish her day with a walk to and from work.
Q. How long have you been doing this work?
A. I have owned websites and blogs since 2012; I left my full time job in November 2022 to pursue this as my primary source of income.
Q. What do you love most about the work you’re doing?
A. The flexibility to travel and attend events and be connected to the community, unlike the fly-in fly-out work I was doing previously. I was recently able to attend my cousin’s wedding, ski Revelstoke and go on a 10 day Vancouver Island road trip to see friends and family, thanks to the flexibility of working for myself.
Q. How do you define success?
A. Creating content that’s focused on helping people solve problems and learn. Additionally, structuring a business to financially support flexible lives for our team. We have a diverse team of freelancers, and this style of business lets people work around their lives, such as parenting, sports and health.
Q. Who inspires you?
A. An acquaintance, Jillian Johnsrud, who lives in Montana. She’s a big proponent of the concept of mini-retirements, which is somewhat what I am doing at the moment. Once you create space in your life, it’s pretty cool the opportunities which present themselves.
Q. What’s one thing – either industry-related or not – you learned in the last month?
A. Ha! How to have downtime for myself. It’s been a struggle! Going from a job where I worked well more than full time, with a business on the side, to just a business on the side has felt like a whiplash experience. I’m still learning how to chill and relax.
As a technical answer, how to reset my headphones when they are acting up lol.
Q. When not working how do you spend your time?
A. I figure skate, cross country ski, road bike, mountain bike, trap shoot, read and lots of things I’m forgetting. I am also a raging extrovert, so I like to spend time with friends and am constantly looking for activities to do in the community, like attend gallery openings, book club at the library, concerts, races, etc.
Q. How long have you lived in Fernie?
A. 14 years now.
Q. What’s one thing you love about Fernie?
A. I absolutely love the amount of community involvement and things happening in this town. There’s always a race or a Film Festival or music or an arts production happening. It’s a special characteristic of Fernie, thanks to the awesome folks who live here being so involved and passionate about so many different things.
Q. What’s the last book you read?
A. My most recent book was Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary by local author Kevin Allen. I left it in the little free library on 4th st and the highway, for someone new to discover. I’m currently reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, as well as Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald.
