PR Profile: Jonny Imerman
INTRO
JONNY IMERMAN is an incredible human being. Those who know him know him for his incessant positivity, unmatched energy and empathy towards others. He’s a connector, motivator, entrepreneur and grateful young adult cancer survivor.
His story began when he was fighting cancer at 26 years old: Jonny received loving support from family and friends, but never met anyone his age who was a cancer survivor. He wanted to talk to someone just like him, someone who truly understood and remembered – someone who had already faced the same type of cancer.
And so, Jonny created Imerman Angels to provide that gift for cancer fighters. Imerman Angels introduces each cancer fighter to one survivor who is the same age, same gender, and someone who has already faced that particular type of cancer. A cancer survivor would be an angel – walking, talking, living proof to inspire the fighter that he/she can overcome their cancer. This was the beginning of Jonny’s vision. In 2003, Imerman Angels was founded.
A serial entrepreneur, today Jonny can be seen on the streets of Chicago with his new venture: CLOZTALK. CLOZTALK is the e-tailer for premium apparel that showcases the name and logo of great causes in our community. Its mission is to raise awareness and funds for charities, nonprofits and socially minded for-profits and imagines a world where everyone, every day, commits to wearing cause-based clothing.
Read on to hear more about Jonny, Imerman Angels, Cloztalk and his vision for the future…
THE BASICS
Tell me about your story: who you are, what you do, and how has your path unfolded?
My name is Jonny Imerman, I'm from Detroit area, and LOVVVVE building social impact movement startups! Thus far in my life we’ve had three. The first one failed and, while it was the most expensive lesson, I wouldn’t trade it for the world and some of the best education I've ever had. Second, I co-founded Imerman Angels in 2006— a free one-on-one mentoring program for families with cancer. Today, 10,000+ cancer survivors and families across the world serve as volunteer “angels” and to give their story back and help another family fighting the same thing they have already been through. I feel so blessed at what Imerman Angles has achieved, but mostly, that it is still alive and helping more and more people every year! Third, in 2017/2018, we co-founded CLOZTALK.com and are building it to grow awareness—and potentially funds—for awesome non-profits. We believe if a charity can get the word out in a big way, awareness will ultimately bring it everything it needs. More below…
In your own words, what does your company do?
CLOZTALK solves a problem that most people never wear charity logo apparel. Most charities struggle to make cool, high-quality apparel. It's no one's fault - most charities lack money & marketing skills. So...CLOZTALK inspires people to wear charity logo apparel to raise awareness for important social missions! CLOZTALK sells high-quality charity apparel at CLOZTALK.com for 75+ US-based charities in order to help these great nonprofit organizations brand themselves and grow their support base. We sell t-shirts, hats, hoodies, etc. and each item promotes the name & logo of a positive cause! The best part? It's free for charities and we donate 20% net profit back to them.
Why is your work important?
We believe it's important to raise awareness for charities with powerful missions because the world needs it. And we don't take a thing from the charities. We're here to help.
What’s your proudest accomplishment?
I believe we’re stronger together. All of my proud accomplishments are TEAM ACCOMPLISHMENTS, and currently the team members of Imerman Angels make me smile every day.
Where do you see the company (and your role in it) five years from now?
In terms of CLOZTALK, in 5 years our vision is to be the world's single world's largest, online apparel store for all charities with REAL impact. We want to be the place people know to go when they want to make a difference and rock the logo of an awesome social cause they love.
THE FUN STUFF
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Best advice we've ever received is something my mentor, Mike Acheson, told me a long time ago: you've got to LOVE the idea of a startup before pulling the trigger to go build it. For me, my first startup I didn't love enough, but for the second and third go-around, I was (and still am!) obsessed with the ideas. It took passion to build them and that passion keeps them alive and thriving today.
What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?
I'm an ULTRA minimalist – less is more!
If you could have coffee with anyone (alive or dead), who would it be and why?
Dalai Lama
IN CLOSING
I believe everyone in this world has a purpose… what’s yours?
Simply put: our purpose is to build social impact movements that make people and animals healthier and happier.
For more, check out:Website | CLOZTALK.com / ImermanAngels.org
Instagram | @CLOZTALK
Facebook | @CLOZTALK
Twitter | @CLOZTALK