Mr. Magazine

HGTV & Hearst Magazines: A Success Story From Pixels On The Screen To Ink On Paper.

“I think the future is incredibly bright for print and I think that if you just look at what we’ve been doing at Hearst, which is Food Network and HGTV as partners, you can also see Esquire and Elle partnering on cross-content things. Diversity is key. We have a very diverse portfolio at this company. I think the successful print publishers are going to be the ones who are innovative, but whether it’s print, digital or TV, everything is really all about content and that’s what print does so well.” Dan Fuchs

The success of HGTV Magazine has been phenomenal since the day it was launched. The magazine was inspired by HGTV’s own exciting and informative programming and brings the same helpful and trusted advice to the pages of print.

Dan Fuchs is publisher and chief revenue officer for the magazine. I spoke with Dan recently about the innovations Hearst is doing between the titles of its very successful magazines, such as the cross-content of HGTV Magazine and Food Network, Esquire and Elle, and the possibility of other dynamic combos that show true marketing and creative trailblazing. It’s an exciting time for Hearst and all of its prosperous titles.

Dan has been with Hearst for 13 years, having spent the first part of his career with the company at The Oprah Magazine and a brief stint at the now defunct Lifetime. But with HGTV Magazine, Dan is seeing a level of success that crosses boundaries between Hearst properties and brings the most important factor for Hearst and HGTV Magazine to the forefront, audience-first appreciation and consumer satisfaction.

So, I hope you enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Dan Fuchs, Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, HGTV Magazine, as we talk about the success and popularity of a fun and exciting brand.

But first, the sound-bites:

On being approached about the publisher’s job at HGTV Magazine: I had been talking to Michael about a publisher position and he had said that there would be an interesting opportunity coming up and that I should stay tuned. And so while I was working at The Oprah Magazine, he and I had some conversations.

On keeping his new appointment as publisher temporarily under wraps at first: That’s because as the publisher I am client-facing. And when you’re out there actually talking with the advertisers about their budgets that means you’re in business. And while I was fairly anxious about hitting our goals for our first issue, I think we had about 10 weeks to do it and a staff of three at that time, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my career, because to be so empowered by Michael and to have a great partner in Sara, and Jeff Hamill and his team, I just can’t say enough about the Hearst integrated media corporate team.

On why he feels HGTV Magazine and Food Network Magazine’s worked and the short-lived Lifetime didn’t: As an insider, I would say that it had a lot to do with timing. I came aboard Lifetime after the launch, so we were already a few issues into it. And the circulation hadn’t performed the way that we had expected it to. So, I don’t really know much about the time leading up to the launch; what I do know about HGTV is the way that magazine was launched was similar to the way Food Network was launched. It was very shrewd and very responsible.

On whether he felt he was taking a gamble in leaving his secure job at O, The Oprah Magazine to go the new HGTV Magazine: Did I feel like I was taking a gamble? No. I think in terms of career progression and that may be a subject for another interview, there’s a big difference between being an associate publisher and being a publisher. And were it not for having a great boss and mentor like Michael Clinton, I think it would have been much more challenging, because you really do have to rise to the occasion, particularly when you’re in a work situation where everything is being built from the ground up, meaning not only are you building strategy and weight cards, but you’re building the whole staff and you’re building the way you go to market.

On the major stumbling block he’s had to face and how he overcame it: Expectations were high because HGTV is a superbrand. And I wouldn’t call it so much of a stumbling block, but more of a challenge. Advertisers are excited about a new magazine and new ways to reach their consumers, but when you’re tied into a multimedia brand there are high expectations about how all the pieces are put together.

On the innovative methods he’s implemented at HGTV Magazine: In terms of working with Food Network; Vicki and I as you know used to work together back at Self, so we’ve got a longstanding relationship and we partner a lot because our magazines have some similarities and they’re both doing very well across consumers. They also have a great sensibility and we both work with the same great joint venture partner, so last year we did our first-ever joint cover and Sara and Maile used to work together too at, I believe, Time Inc., so they have a longstanding partnership.

On whether he believes in the future of print: I think you know the answer to that. (Laughs) I think the future is incredibly bright for print and I think that if you just look at what we’ve been doing at Hearst, which is Food Network and HGTV as partners, you can also see Esquire and Elle partnering on cross-content things. Diversity is key. We have a very diverse portfolio at this company.

On his most pleasant moment so far in his career: I’ve been privileged to have had a few of those. And reflecting back over the years, there were some pretty special moments at The Oprah Magazine, particularly as Oprah was ending The Oprah Winfrey Show after 25 years. The way the magazine was really able to communicate with readers and how special the brand was to them. I feel like magazines are a way for people to communicate with brands.

On what motivates him to get out of bed in the mornings: Well, this isn’t just HGTV Magazine specific, this is the nature of our business. What I love about this business and what makes me excited to come to work every day is every day really is different. Sure, there are production emergencies and fires to put out, but each day is an opportunity to get that feeling of wow, we accomplished something; we sold a great deal; we got a great compliment from an advertiser on an issue.

On what keeps him at night: There’s great disruption in the media business and there’s great unpredictability and I do think that it can be easy to lose your way. What are we doing on social; what are we doing with events; how are we monetizing this; how are we doing in print and e-commerce? The number of options that we’re given now, while it can be exciting, it can produce a good deal of anxiety too, because what you don’t want to ever do is lose your way.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Dan Fuchs, Publisher and Chief Revenue Officer, HGTV Magazine.

Samir Husni: Can you recreate the moment when you were first approached about being publisher of HGTV magazine and how it all came about?

Dan Fuchs: I’ve been at Hearst now for 13 years and I had worked with Michael Clinton before at a previous company. Since coming over to Hearst, my experience here has really been all partnership magazines; so there was my brief stint at Lifetime, which I think, as you’ve heard David Carey talk about, we’re always launching new products and we’ve learned from all of those enterprises, and I learned a lot from that one.

I also had eight great years working underneath Jill Seelig at O,The Oprah Magazine, just a tremendous partnership and a great way to learn about how you extend what is not at first a print brand and turn it into a print execution. Also working with joint venture partners and how you take that to advertisers.

I had been talking to Michael about a publisher position and he had said that there would be an interesting opportunity coming up and that I should stay tuned. And so while I was working at The Oprah Magazine, he and I had some conversations.

Everything we do at Hearst is so very purposeful and our partnership with Scripps is really fabulous, the level of trust and sharing; both parties really benefit from the partnership. So, with Food Network being such a success and the amazing job that Vicki (Wellington) and Maile (Carpenter) had done there and the conversations that were ongoing with HGTV, but in the beginning I didn’t know for sure that it was HGTV, although I sort of figured it out as we were looking at various ad categories and some of the assignments that Michael had me doing. I’ll tell you though for a brief time I had to tell our open staff that I was working on “a special project for Michael Clinton.”

And then when I relocated offices from the Tower to The Sheffield, which is a Hearst property and where we have some of our businesses, including an amazing new office for Cosmo.com; I was sort of working there by myself in an office, but as you know I’m on the business side and Sara Peterson had been hired the year before and she had a whole team working on the editorial development of this magazine, so it was going on in the press and I was sort of stealthily going to presentations, but she didn’t know that I was going to be the publisher, nor could I tell her that.

By the time we got to the point where our test issues had come out and they were a tremendous success on newsstands, both our test issues sold over 350,000 copies, so we knew we had a hit on our hands. Scripps did a lot to promote the magazine, there was a wonderful TV special, an hour long special on HGTV called The Making of Our Magazine, narrated by Genevieve Gorder, an HGTV star, and featuring Sara and her team. We sold thousands of subscriptions the night that aired and we knew we had a really exciting thing. So things moved along very quickly after that.

And one day I was able to pick up the phone and call Sara Peterson and was able to say that I was the mystery guest. We both live on the upper east side and we met at EJ’s on 3rd Ave. and it’s amazing that that was over three years ago. You know in 2015, the most effective businesses have the highest level of collaboration between editor and publisher and I have such great respect for what she’s been able to do; to take a TV brand that was so beloved by people and actually give consumers something that’s in line with that brand, but content that in many ways is unique and different and complementary. We’ve done so many great things together over the past few years and in many ways we feel like we’re just getting started.

Samir Husni: I hear a lot of stories about media companies and magazine companies keeping titles under wraps and Michael and David have both hinted about the next new title coming up from Hearst, but no one will ever reveal the title. This is the first time however that I have ever heard of them keeping a publisher quiet.

Dan Fuchs: That’s because as the publisher I am client-facing. And when you’re out there actually talking with the advertisers about their budgets that means you’re in business. And while I was fairly anxious about hitting our goals for our first issue, I think we had about 10 weeks to do it and a staff of three at that time, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my career, because to be so empowered by Michael and to have a great partner in Sara, and Jeff Hamill and his team, I just can’t say enough about the first integrated media corporate team. They all did such a great job bringing this magazine to market, talking to some of Hearst’s advertisers, both big and small, so by the time my team was fully up and running, we had really been set up to succeed by the company.

Samir Husni: Do you recall Sara’s reaction when you told her?

Dan Fuchs: She told me that Ellen Levine had said that when they were going to make an announcement about the publisher, Ellen had told them that “he” was someone with a goodly amount of experience and that Sara should sit down and talk about issue themes and things like that with him and Sara asked, oh, it’s a he? (Laughs) So, she was playing the same guessing game that I was.

But I could tell right away when Sara and I first sat down together that it was going to be a great collaboration. Sara is a 21st century editor and she is able, whether it’s through the most basic fundamental means of communication or whether it’s letters, emails or social media; she has her finger on the pulse of what’s going on with consumers and readers and also she knows this brand very well. And she’s a very quick study. She’d spent a lot of time with the HGTV folks in Knoxville and so I could tell right away that she and I were going to see things very similarly.

If HGTV Magazine is anything, and you know it is because you did the first interview with Sara, it is fun. Sara is the queen of fun and she and I both love this business very, very much and we come to work everyday and we have a great time. It’s a great brand and it’s really exciting and really fun and when we’re working together on a quad cover, a native ad unit or a cool event; I think that we’re very appreciative of our partnership and that we have a very fun brand to work on.

Samir Husni: Within the industry, you hear people saying that the reason HGTV Magazine, Food Network, O, The Oprah magazine or Dr. Oz The Good Life are doing very well is because they had television networks or television programs before they had the magazines, yet the first experience for Hearst with this type of endeavor was taking the television network Lifetime and creating a magazine from it, and that didn’t work. Why do you think Lifetime didn’t work and the others did? As an insider, what was the difference?

Dan Fuchs: As an insider, I would say that it had a lot to do with timing. I came aboard Lifetime after the launch, so we were already a few issues into it. And the circulation hadn’t performed the way that we had expected it to. So, I don’t really know much about the time leading up to the launch; what I do know about HGTV is the way that magazine was launched was similar to the way Food Network was launched. It was very shrewd and very responsible.

I think that if you look at magazine launches today versus let’s say Lifetime 13 years ago or magazines before that, by the time that we’re ready to go to market, we’ve done enough research, not just on the consumer side, but the business side as well, that the advertisers’ comfort level is very high.

This has been the first model for the last couple of magazines: we do the investment up front, without the advertisers and we put the product on newsstand and we market it, so there’s a lot of investment that goes into that, but then we know what the consumer likes and we know really right away. And I think when we’re out there as magazine people, the numbers don’t lie. You look at circulation numbers and that’s consumer wantedness right there.

The launch of HGTV Magazine was so well orchestrated that by the time I was up and with a full team, I was able to have real concrete data on consumer response so that people were saying, OK, you’ve already proven it to me now and I have a bigger comfort level, so let me get onboard this train because this thing is going to go really far, really quickly.

And it’s a great feeling for me to look back on those advertisers who came onboard the first three or four issues in 2012, who are still with us and have grown with us and in many cases have grown their businesses, so it’s a tremendous win-win because the bonus circulation that we’ve delivered over the last few years is in the millions of copies. And so I think that there’s a great trust factor about working with a brand like HGTV, but a really big trust factor also in working with a company like Hearst.

Samir Husni: When you talk about HGTV, you can feel that excitement in your voice, the same level of fun that I found with Sara talking about the magazine, it seems that the two of you share that fun experience working on a new launch, leaving an established launch and coming to a new launch where all the odds are technically against you. Did you feel that you were taking a gamble leaving your secure job at O and coming to HGTV?

Dan Fuchs: I managed to run it by Michael and what he told me was, and coming off the success of Food Network, he said let’s see if lightning can strike twice. And it did.

Did I feel like I was taking a gamble? No. I think in terms of career progression and that may be a subject for another interview, there’s a big difference between being an associate publisher and being a publisher. And were it not for having a great boss and mentor like Michael Clinton, I think it would have been much more challenging, because you really do have to rise to the occasion, particularly when you’re in a work situation where everything is being built from the ground up, meaning not only are you building strategy and rate cards, but you’re building the whole staff and you’re building the way you go to market. And Michael really let me determine a lot of that and continues to guide us along the way.

HGTV is such a strong brand and I think when I was looking through the research that was done, one factor was does the brand have the power to extend itself outside of TV and digital and it seemed very clear that the answer was yes.

Another factor was do we have an editor-in-chief who can communicate that? And once I started looking through prototypes and then the first test issue, we talked about the fact, and I know that Ellen (Levine) and David (Carey) talked about this too, consumers love the new. And they have a strong sensibility and excitement about new products.And what I saw in the first two issues of HGTV Magazine was like nothing else I had seen before. I’d seen some other magazines try and come close to that, but our execution was so spot-on.

I think Hearst takes risks and we take risks in our career, but this one felt like a very calculated one and again it’s the three-years-later-look-how-far-we’ve-come moment and you can tell the excitement that Sara and I have and part of that is because even though it’s been three and a half years, it still feels very much like a launch in many ways. We’re still breaking new ground; we’re making new ad categories and we’re trying new things. We just got into the bookazine business and we’re doing more in terms of events. In many ways, look how far we’ve come in a short period of time, but it still feels like we’re just getting started.

Samir Husni: What was the major stumbling block that you had to face during these three and a half years and how did you overcome it?

Dan Fuchs: Expectations were high because HGTV is a superbrand. And I wouldn’t call it so much of a stumbling block, but more of a challenge. Advertisers are excited about a new magazine and new ways to reach their consumers, but when you’re tied into a multimedia brand there are high expectations about how all the pieces are put together. If I’m advertiser X, I’m really interested with the opportunity of buying HGTV Magazine and HGTV on-air and HGTV dot.com; you’re two separate companies, Scripps and Hearst, so how are we going to do that kind of business?

So, that to me, and I wouldn’t really call it a stumbling block but more of a challenge, was a major focus on our launch. And we’ve been very successful. It’s varied over the years, but maybe 20% of our business is across all three HGTV media. And there are some print executions in our magazine that you won’t see in any other magazine because those advertisers are buying the brand and they’ve challenged our marketing team to, in some cases that advertiser may not have print creative, so our associate publisher of marketing, Kate English, someone who came to us within Hearst Corporation, has put together not only a great marketing team, but also a great design team. So we actually execute on behalf of the advertisers a lot of their creative.

I think we’ve overcome that stumbling block or challenge, which is how are you going to have a great process, and I attribute it to the success and skill of our marketing team, but also we acknowledge and thank Scripps who works with us as part of the family and every week someone on my team is meeting with an advertiser in conjunction with an HGTV.com sales person or an HGTV on-air person.

Samir Husni: And you’re doing a lot in terms of innovation in print, whether it’s the different cover treatments or the combination between the covers of the Food Network magazine and HGTV Magazine; can you talk a little bit about some of those innovative methods that you’ve implemented with HGTV Magazine?

Dan Fuchs: When you’re brand is all about fun, these cover treatments are exciting and a lot of fun themselves, especially for advertisers. And consumers love them. They love the things that open up and they like the surprise and the delight.

In terms of working with Food Network; Vicki and I as you know used to work together back at Self, so we’ve got a longstanding relationship and we partner a lot because our magazines have some similarities and they’re both doing very well across consumers. They also have a great sensibility and we both work with the same great joint venture partner, so last year we did our first-ever joint cover and Sara and Maile used to work together too at, I believe, Time Inc., so they have a longstanding partnership.

The four of us will get together not infrequently, either proactively or challenged by an advertiser, to come up with something exciting, but last year we decided we were going to do a big spring party and we were going to do cover executions that would be designed by those editors and I think that was the first time that ever happened, where you have two separate editors, two separate magazines designing and going to the same photo shoot. They had a great time with it.

We did a beautiful spring party that lived across both magazines and then when we put that idea out in the marketplace, our partners at Pepsi said they were bringing Pure Leaf tea back to market again and they really wanted to tie into the fun and the table setting and the recipes and they thought it was a perfect match for them.

So, we got together with them and it seemed like the right environment and then the added challenge, which was also the fun part, was they didn’t have four pages of print creative, they had one, so we, Food Network and HGTV Magazine, worked together on marketing teams to design it for them.

It turned out to be a beautiful execution and one those great advertiser stories where you’ve got editors, clients, agency salespeople and marketing, all working together and it got us a half-page story write-up in The New York Times about the great cross opportunity.

That has led into other things. We did two great partnerships with Citibank, where we did cross-content promotions. We did holiday gifts and DIY handmade gifts in December and when you opened up the gatefold there was bonus content from Food Network magazine. And then vice-versa in their magazine.

If you look at our July/August issue, you’ll actually see in our summer entertaining section, that we feature recipes from Food Network and if you look at Food Network’s July/August issue and in their entertaining section, they have great table settings and place setting ideas brought to you by HGTV Magazine.

It’s really a great partnership and I think it’s fairly innovative and at the crux of it lies a great partnership and great communication.

Samir Husni: Do you think that’s the future of print, that you have to continue to be innovative and coming up with new ideas? Or you don’t believe in a future for print?

Dan Fuchs: I think you know the answer to that. (Laughs) I think the future is incredibly bright for print and I think that if you just look at what we’ve been doing at Hearst, which is Food Network and HGTV as partners, you can also see Esquire and Elle partnering on cross-content things. Diversity is key. We have a very diverse portfolio at this company. And hopefully the next time we talk, I’ll be able to share with you that we’re meeting with other magazines in the company beyond Food Network about cross-content ideas, because advertisers want environments, but they also want audiences and we, at this company, have both of them in different formats.

I think the successful print publishers are going to be the ones who are innovative, but whether it’s print, digital or TV, everything is really all about content and that’s what print does so well. How you become successful with that is when you really start working with advertisers and you’re not just selling them the page, but you’re trying to find out how to help them tie into content or build content for them that we know our consumers and readers are really going to engage with.

Samir Husni: What has been the most pleasant moment so far in your career; maybe one where you said wow, I don’t think this could ever happen again?

Dan Fuchs: I’ve been privileged to have had a few of those. And reflecting back over the years, there were some pretty special moments at The Oprah Magazine, particularly as Oprah was ending The Oprah Winfrey Show after 25 years. The way the magazine was really able to communicate with readers and how special the brand was to them. I feel like magazines are a way for people to communicate with brands. Whether it’s what they write into editors about; how they reflect on things; we’ve done a good job with magazine space being social, so to me, I knew that was a special point.

And now a decade later The Oprah Magazine is still going strong and we’re seeing the brand sort of moving to a new thing. I’m excited though to have been at the magazine at that time. That was a really special thing for me.

The opportunity to launch HGTV Magazine and while we had a really great launch year, I think the second year when things really picked up; I think there was a bit of a reaction that said wow, this is incredibly amazing; how are we going to continue to do this? But we found a way to do it.

I think when you interviewed Chris Mitchell (publisher at Vanity fair) and asked him the “what keeps you up at night” question, it resonated with me, which is in the magazine or periodical world, there’s always a next issue. There’s always the next thing coming up.

But I think that I’ve learned not to be anxious about that, but instead to be excited about that, because for us, again, we’re still holding onto, and this is the fake word that we use, our “launchiness” at HGTV Magazine. We try and look at every issue as our second or third issue, not our 33rd or 34th issue. You can work your whole career and never get an opportunity to do something like this, so I’m very appreciative of it.

Samir Husni: What motivates you to get out of bed each morning and say wow, it’s going to be a great day?

Dan Fuchs: Well, this isn’t just HGTV Magazine specific, this is the nature of our business. What I love about this business and what makes me excited to come to work every day is every day really is different. Sure, there are production emergencies and fires to put out, but each day is an opportunity to get that feeling of wow, we accomplished something; we sold a great deal; we got a great compliment from an advertiser on an issue. I could be meeting with Triscuit in the morning and Sherwin Williams at night; I’m in Cleveland one day, I’m in San Francisco the next.

It’s nonstop excitement for me and that’s what energizes me is that everyday’s a new opportunity and each day is going to be something different. Maybe when I get a little bit older I would like a little more predictability in my career, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It still remains to me one of the best careers that a person could have.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Dan Fuchs: I sleep really well, Samir, I really do. We can get into the fact that my daughters, which one is a teenager now and one is very preteen, keep me up at night. (Laughs)

There’s great disruption in the media business and there’s great unpredictability and I do think that it can be easy to lose your way. What are we doing on social; what are we doing with events; how are we monetizing this; how are we doing in print and e-commerce? The number of options that we’re given now, while it can be exciting, it can produce a good deal of anxiety too, because what you don’t want to ever do is lose your way.

And I always want to remind myself, and this is one of the reasons that it’s so great to have such a close relationship with an editor, we have many constituencies and advertisers, joint venture partners, but our readers are really the ones who make us success. Are we doing right by all three constituencies and I would hope if you talked to our readers, our friends at Scripps and our advertisers, they would tell you yes, so far so good.

That allows me to sleep at night as long as I stay focused on making sure everyone is happy.

Samir Husni: Thank you.

“How it all worked out was we were seeing so many dynamic people and so many amazing creations and these great efforts in curation and sharing, but we thought, it’s still not enough. We wanted to propagate it further in a way that was almost sacred to people and we thought that magazines were in that category.” Blake Brinker

“I get motivated every day when people come up to us and say, creativity is the most important thing we have and you’re putting it into this beautiful print publication that I can get on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Just wow; what you’re doing is so inspiring and the world needs this, with the things that are happening in the world today, we need something like this to give people hope and optimism. With all the negativity that we hear every day, this is an incredible amount of positivity showcasing people doing absolutely amazing things.” Brad Thomas

What can you say about a magazine that literally takes your breath away? One that is so visually and design prolific that your reaction each and every time you pick it up is nothing short of amazing?

Creativ is a concept born from the minds of Blake Brinker and Brad Thomas, publisher and editor-in-chief respectively. The magazine is an extension of their global online network that is serving to integrate print and digital to the acme of their intertwined possibilities.

A showcase for the creativity of the Creativ community; the magazine celebrates the human imagination and originality in tangible form, cradling creativity of all kinds. With every spread between the magazine’s covers, links are offered to the featured artist’s individual portal on Creativ.com. It’s a unique and ingenious gratuity that conjoins the tangible with the conceptual.

I spoke with Blake and Brad recently about the inspiring and wonder-filled magazine and about the celebration of human potential they offer with every issue. Gracious and fun-spirited; the two men offered a glimpse into the Creativ world and their hopes and expectations for the brand’s future.

I hope you enjoy the Mr. Magazine™ interview with Blake and Brad; the powers-that-be behind Creativ Magazine as you open your mind and let your ‘Creativ’ juices flow. And be sure to watch the two Creativ videos embedded in this blog by the Creativ team… I will not spoil the surprise, but I know you would thank the Creativ team for creating them and me for embedding them in this Mr. Magazine™ interview.

But first, the sound-bites…

Brad Thomas (left in blue) and Blake Brinker (right in black)

On the Creativ story: (Blake Brinker) Early in my life and pretty much early in Brad’s life, we just developed this fascination around the human potential. And around what makes good people great. What makes some people leave lasting marks on the world? What is it that makes up their character? What are the things that they do and what are the thoughts that they have that enable them to push further and look at the world differently and create things which ultimately make a difference; things that create inspiration and wonder?

On being a bit crazy to start a print magazine after being a digital-only entity first: (Brad Thomas) (Laughs) I believe we’re just crazy enough to try things that make other people want it. Cheers to the crazy ones, right? (Laughs again) Creative jobs are a little bit crazy; otherwise, we wouldn’t have the iPhones or anything else creative, so I think being crazy to a certain extent is a good thing, because doing what we’re doing, and not even just what we’re doing, but just being an entrepreneur in general, is really a scary thing. You have to be a little naive and a little crazy to even go forward with it.

On why they decided on a print component: (Blake Brinker) How it all worked out was we were seeing so many dynamic people and so many amazing creations and these great efforts in curation and sharing, but we thought, it’s still not enough. We wanted to propagate it further in a way that was almost sacred to people and we thought that magazines were in that category.

On a major stumbling block they’ve had to face: (Blake Brinker) The execution; the actual publishing side of it has been a huge stumbling block, a lot more than it was, but thankfully we have a very tendered gentleman that has helped us. He has a lot of history in manufacturing and working with tradesmen and he’s really came in here and helped us take this dream of making this magazine and turned it into what you see today, which is this ultra-high quality piece.

On the decision to start out as a monthly magazine: (Blake Brinker) We chose to go monthly mainly at first because we really wanted to see what the market opportunity was. Where I think strategically what we realized was, one might be the best idea for us to do in all reality considering the fact that we are attempting to create impact, but bimonthly is actually probably better for us for a certain period of time because it allows us to propagate awareness about each issue much longer, instead of running into that distribution triangle problem that we have for the last month or two.

On the most pleasant surprise they’ve encountered along the way: (Blake Brinker) Seeing people’s reaction in 2015 when we hand them our quality publication that comes from a company that has a social media platform, seeing that reaction to a tangible product is great. People say: oh, I get it. People who may not have gotten what we were doing before who get it and say: there are 72 pages here; I can see who you guys are and I can see what you’re doing. That was a very pleasant surprise.

On whether they’re stronger believers in the power of print now that they have a print component within their brand: (Blake Brinker) I think that to some degree we are, but I would say we always understood the power and the beauty of print. And as students of history, we look back at how the printing press changed the world so dramatically and it’s such a special thing to humanity, so I think that it’s on par with this mission that we have.

On what motivates them to get out of bed every morning and say it’s going to be a great day: (Brad Thomas) I get motivated every day when people come up to us and say, creativity is the most important thing we have and you’re putting it into this beautiful print publication that I can get on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Just wow; what you’re doing is so inspiring and the world needs this, with the things that are happening in the world today, we need something like this to give people hope and optimism.

On what motivates them to get out of bed every morning and say it’s going to be a great day: (Blake Brinker) I just wanted to say Brad did a really good job of expressing some really good examples that are contextual as to why we wake up in the morning. I’ll just say this from my own level; as entrepreneurs and creatives and as humans, we’re not remembered by how we projected ourselves to be; we’re remembered by the stories of our own paths and by the paths that we’ve forged.

On whom Creativ Magazine would be if they had a magic wand that could turn it into a human being with one strike: (Blake Brinker) Honestly, I would say a combination between Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.

On anything else they’d like to add: (Blake Brinker) Just how everything is so all about digital. It makes me think of a science fiction movie where the future is really dark and people are scared and depressed, but there’s an underground movement where people are holding onto art, because it’s so sacred and real. It’s funny how accurate sometimes science fiction can actually be.

On anything else they’d like to add: (Brad Thomas) Getting people out there to buy the magazine and to support this movement, to support all of these people who are really putting their lives on the line to do something that matters, to realize that they can be a part of effecting change and a part of inspiring curiosity.

On what keeps them up at night: (Brad Thomas) All of the unknowns. It’s knowing that we feel we have something so incredible here that the world is craving. And it’s the worry that you have something so beautiful and something that you believe people truly want and you just want it to succeed.

On what keeps them up at night: (Blake Brinker) I think about people who haven’t seen the light. I think about people who are living their lives in a way that they’re being told to and they’re living their lives in ways they don’t even understand because they’re not awake. I think about how good it would feel to help be a part of something that brings them to the light, so to speak.

And now the lightly edited transcript of the Mr. Magazine™ conversation with Blake Brinker, Publisher and Brad Thomas, Editor-in-Chief, Creativ Magazine.

Samir Husni: Congratulations on the magazine. It is just beautiful.

Blake Brinker: Thank you very much.

Samir Husni: Blake, allow me to quote from your publisher’s letter; you write: curiosity drives imagination, imagination sparks creativity, and creativity manifests solutions, inspiration, and wonder. Creativity is the realization of human potential.

Tell me the story about Brad approaching you with the idea and how, after two hours in a hot tub, it really began to take shape. And also have you graduated yet; are you an M.D. now?

Blake Brinker: I actually dropped out of medical school to build this company with Brad. It’s one of those choices that you can’t necessarily look back from.

Early in my life, and pretty much early in Brad’s life, we just developed this fascination around the human potential. And around what makes good people great. What makes some people leave lasting marks on the world? What is it that makes up their character? What are the things that they do and what are the thoughts that they have that enable them to push further and look at the world differently and create things which ultimately make a difference; things that create inspiration and wonder?

We just believe that when we look at the attributes of the human condition, that pathway quote that you just read from the publisher’s note; you encounter the pathway to finding ourselves and connecting with each other in a way which breaks down borders, creeds, religion, and race. It connects us in such unique ways; creativity is this invisible cord between people.

When you look back at history, which is something that Brad and I like to do often, you see what happened as a result of the Renaissance, in Europe and throughout the world. You see what happened when a few key members of society engendered artisans and creators and encouraged them and gave them venues for expression. It ultimately connected them and had a real economic impact.

We looked at this new era, with this huge technological boom and we saw the opportunity to create a similar catalyst as was done with the artisans in Italy back in the day. We wanted to create a place that further catalyzed that primal element of ignition, which was the tie between curiosity and the manifestation of imagination, which was creativity, and which is the most powerful tool that we have.

And I will say lastly that we see so many people in this world who are doing great things. There are a lot of them that are focusing on the problems and that’s great, we need people focusing on the problems to provide solutions, but we look at the world a little bit differently. We said, OK, there are a lot of problems, we get that, but who are the people who ultimately create solutions? And who are the people who ultimately inspire solutions?

And when you look at that, you look at the population, which is overtly creative, the ones who are carving their own path and we ultimately just wanted to provide a resource and a catalyst for them to see that they’re not alone and that it’s a really good balance.

Samir Husni: Brad, I know this was your idea and your brainchild. I always I tell my students that you can’t be creative unless you’re crazy. Are you crazy to publish a print magazine in today’s digital age, after beginning on the digital front first?

Brad Thomas: (Laughs) I believe we’re just crazy enough to try things that make other people want it. Cheers to the crazy ones, right? (Laughs again) Creative jobs are a little bit crazy; otherwise, we wouldn’t have the iPhones or anything else creative, so I think being crazy to a certain extent is a good thing, because doing what we’re doing, and not even just what we’re doing, but just being an entrepreneur in general, is really a scary thing. You have to be a little naive and a little crazy to even go forward with it. (Laughs)

There is so much uncertainty with everything, but I don’t think we’re crazy. I consider ourselves smartly creative and we’re just going for it. We’re trying to do something that’s different. Whatever direction everyone else’s path is going in; we’re trying to go in a slightly different one and to show that there are a lot of amazing people out there, doing a lot of incredible things using all types of creativity.

Samir Husni: You started with digital; the first four issues were digital-only. Then with issue five you moved to print. Why?

Blake Brinker: Our thought was to get the word out about what we were doing. We had been out in the world at a few different conferences internationally and we had brought some sample issues with us that we had digitally printed, because we wanted to get reactions to the concept.

Another thing to remember is we started this company by building an online social media platform first and we really started when it was the foremost current of the digital realm.

How it all worked out was we were seeing so many dynamic people and so many amazing creations and these great efforts in curation and sharing, but we thought, it’s still not enough. We wanted to propagate it further in a way that was almost sacred to people and we thought that magazines were in that category.

So, we wanted to test it out. We printed the copies and we took them to the conferences at different places in the world. And the reaction was great. People were asking; what are you doing; is this like a brochure? It was really amazing to see the reaction of people who were covered in our social media platform and people who were sharing on social media, because many of these people had never even thought about being published in a magazine. And when it happened, it was just different for them. It was different from being featured on a blog; it was different from someone sharing a Facebook post about them. It felt different; it felt real.

It was then that we said you know what; what the heck? Let’s see how far we can get this thing out there and bring physicality to what we’d been doing all along.

Samir Husni: What has been the major stumbling block that you’ve had to face, from the point of conception to the point of delivery?

Blake Brinker: The execution; the actual publishing side of it has been a huge stumbling block, a lot more than it was, but thankfully we have a very tendered gentleman that has helped us. He has a lot of history in manufacturing and working with tradesmen and he’s really came in here and helped us take this dream of making this magazine and turned it into what you see today, which is this ultra-high quality piece.

So, publishing definitely would have been a lot bigger stumbling block had we not had him, but it’s still challenging, because there are so many pieces to put together, from the creation to the binding, to the palletizing and shipping for distribution.

Ironically, we didn’t even realize it, but living in Phoenix, there are some very high-tech training platforms about 30 minutes from our office. When we started investigating how we would create these magazines, especially the covers, and have the quality be so high, we started realizing that we could now do something extremely different in terms of the design and the quality and we could do it at a cost that wouldn’t bury us and we could sell the magazine at a good price and still make a little money.

And the second thing is we got a major distribution deal two months ago, which is the reason why you saw the magazine. And we got it on our first print issue. We were placed in all the Barnes & Noble’s in the country and lots of other stores, around 300 stores initially. Now we’re double.

I’d say the biggest stumbling block for us now is trying to put the pieces together and create the whole circle. We want to create a really valuable and meaningful magazine on top of extending our distribution in intelligent ways and commanding exceptional ad prices for the publication and also extending into the digital platform that we have. So, the challenge now is really to put all those pieces together and turn it into a viable and self-sustaining project.

We consider ourselves a media company, so the print publishing is one side and the digital side is the other; we have this huge online community. We also have a whole development team in Vietnam that’s currently working on the version 3 of our community platform, which is going to be really exciting because we’ll be making the whole experience online very cohesive with the experience of the magazine.

So, that’s the other challenge. We have all of this stuff going on with the magazine and then we have this huge platform that we’re building. We have 20 or 22 employees that are solely tech. And one thing that we’ve realized, all the conferences that we have gone to all over the world, especially last year, what we have realized without a doubt, between the publication and the platform online, is that we’re serving a recipe that everyone wants. We have the dish; but what’s the most effective way to get it out there so that people know it exists. We can’t tell you how many people have said: this is what I’ve been waiting for. And that’s validation for us.

Samir Husni: Where most of the new magazines that are coming out into the marketplace, which I might say, have much less creativity and much less production value and the expensive look than Creativ, are published four or six times a year, you’re publishing monthly.

Blake Brinker: It’s interesting; I think because we started in a space that we probably really shouldn’t have been in, there are no rules for us, which is kind of invigorating, right? We don’t have to abide by a certain set of rules that are handed down by a big multinational company or something.

We chose to go monthly mainly at first because we really wanted to see what the market opportunity was. Where I think strategically what we realized was, one might be the best idea for us to do in all reality considering the fact that we are attempting to create impact, but bimonthly is actually probably better for us for a certain period of time because it allows us to propagate awareness about each issue much longer, instead of running into that distribution triangle problem that we have for the last month or two.

You’re working and working, turning things out and you take a day off; then you’re working doubly hard again for the next 26 days trying to get the next one out. We realized that our team may be a little too small still to be able to knock out that exceptional quality of a magazine every 15 to 20 days and make sure that we obviously focus on the rest of the business at the same time. We don’t have any rules on this, but we’ve strategically decided now that for the time being we are going to go to a bimonthly, so that we can really make sure that every future issue is better than the least. Not only better, but also equally important, making sure that every issue has, at least with the size team that we have, making sure that every issue is properly marketed.

As soon as we got this last one done, we actually just finished up what would have been the June issue, we realized we really hadn’t spent any effort in trying to figure out how to effectively market the May one or any future ones. We’re just spinning in circles here. We need to slow down a little bit and really figure out how to let people know we have the dish that they want. How to do that takes time to learn. So, we’re going to slow things down just a bit, at least until the end of the year. Our intention is to be monthly again and we’re going to be doing a weekly newsletter digitally too.

Samir Husni: What was the most pleasant surprise that you’ve had during this experience?

Blake Brinker: The reaction of people when they receive something that is beautiful like this; the reaction, especially of young people, because again, it’s almost foreign to them. I’m 31 and Brad’s 35 and we grew up with National Geographic on our coffee tables and TIME magazine and it was sacred to us, almost as sacred as it was to our parents’ generation.

Seeing people’s reaction in 2015 when we hand them our quality publication that comes from a company that has a social media platform, seeing that reaction to a tangible product is great. People say: oh, I get it. People who may not have gotten what we were doing before who get it and say: there are 72 pages here; I can see who you guys are and I can see what you’re doing. That was a very pleasant surprise. You see 17 year-olds who get a copy of it and their eyes light up and they’re intrigued and want to know what it is. We actually had someone tell us last week that their young kids couldn’t put it down.

Samir Husni: Are you now stronger believers in the power of print than you were before you brought the magazine to print?

Blake Brinker: I think that to some degree we are, but I would say we always understood the power and the beauty of print. And as students of history, we look back at how the printing press changed the world so dramatically and it’s such a special thing to humanity, so I think that it’s on par with this mission that we have.

Samir Husni: What motivates you to get out of bed each morning and say wow; this is going to be a great day?

Brad Thomas: Well, I could give you a million examples. Recently, we were in Las Vegas at a major tech convention. Our tech company is being showcased as one of the top special companies in 2015 and we’re a tech company with a print publication, so we were getting a lot of attention.

And I get motivated every day when people come up to us and say, creativity is the most important thing we have and you’re putting it into this beautiful print publication that I can get on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Just wow; what you’re doing is so inspiring and the world needs this, with the things that are happening in the world today, we need something like this to give people hope and optimism. With all the negativity that we hear every day, this is an incredible amount of positivity showcasing people doing absolutely amazing things.

Someone else came up to us recently and she almost had tears in her eyes when she was looking at the magazine and she said, oh my gosh, you guys are doing exactly what I’m so passionate about. And she pulled up her sleeve and she showed us this tattoo that was in Arabic and it read “Bring Arab Creativity Back,” and it was a pretty special moment. I mean, she literally started crying.

Samir Husni: It’s an amazing thing you’re telling me about the younger generation falling in love with print. So many times I’ve thought that it is we who are our own worst enemy; we who predicted the demise of our own medium; we who predicted the death of print and almost force-fed the new generation the idea that everything is now digital, from E-paper to E-books, which of course now, we’re reaching a plateau in that area.

Blake Brinker: I just wanted to say Brad did a really good job of expressing some really good examples that are contextual as to why we wake up in the morning. I’ll just say this from my own level; as entrepreneurs and creatives and as humans, we’re not remembered by how we projected ourselves to be; we’re remembered by the stories of our own paths and by the paths that we’ve forged.

And so for us, this whole project; this whole endeavor is about creating impact that creates a legacy of impact where that new generation is affected. And that we change at least one paradigm into a positive reaction and I think that from a high level, we think about that every day and every morning, despite the fact that we’re a startup and it’s so hard. There are so many different things that startups have to do, that they’ve always had to do, no matter what age it is. We call them startups now, there weren’t necessarily called that before, but the impact of what we’re working on is the sole reason that we get up every morning.

Samir Husni: I read both of your backgrounds and it looks like curiosity and creativity are the common denominators between the two of you. What would be an additional ‘C’ besides curiosity and creativity that drives the both of you?

Blake Brinker: I would say opportunity in the largest sense. We both look at the future and we see opportunity more than we see challenge. We didn’t know each other four years ago and we’ve become such great business partners because we became such good friends. Our deep belief in everything we’ve just discussed over the course of this interview has actually made us into better friends than could have ever happened. And even though this is very scary, being a startup and everything, with all the unknowns that we have to deal with; it’s great knowing that you’re in it with a best friend who is right there with you on the exact same page, which I think is a huge advantage for us.

Brad Thomas: We have a very human connection with one another and it’s not based on profit.

Blake Brinker: It’s a very deep connection.

Samir Husni: If I gave either or both of you a magic wand and you struck Creativ Magazine with it and a human being appeared instead of the magazine; who would that person be?

Blake Brinker: Can it be a combination of two people?

Samir Husni: Yes, it can.

Blake Brinker: Honestly, I would say a combination between Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.

Samir Husni: That’s a very good answer.

Blake Brinker: Thank you.

Samir Husni: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Blake Brinker: Just how everything is so all about digital. It makes me think of a science fiction movie where the future is really dark and people are scared and depressed, but there’s an underground movement where people are holding onto art, because it’s so sacred and real. It’s funny how accurate sometimes science fiction can actually be.

I mean, when you think of digital; digital creates a lot of things of course, but there comes a point when we have to keep some things sacred. It’s important for our past and it’s important for our future.

Brad Thomas: Getting people out there to buy the magazine and to support this movement, to support all of these people who are really putting their lives on the line to do something that matters, to realize that they can be a part of effecting change and a part of inspiring curiosity.

The biggest thing is just trying to call all people and that is our thing right now, to get as many people as possible to join the movement. We’re reaching out with open arms to the world and saying: join us.

Samir Husni: My typical last question; what keeps you up at night?

Brad Thomas: All of the unknowns. It’s knowing that we feel we have something so incredible here that the world is craving. And it’s the worry that you have something so beautiful and something that you believe people truly want and you just want it to succeed.

We have a picture on our wall of a pie. One slice of the pie is 15% and the rest of the pie is 85%. And the slice of pie is the 15% of what you can control and the last 85% you’re dealing with circumstances. I have a difficult time sometimes dealing with the fact that there are uncertainties. And all that we can focus on is the 15% that we can control. And that you have to pretty much roll with the punches and when you do that and you have an awesome partner and a great team, you can take those punches a little easier. And that’s the one thing that helps me sleep at night. Otherwise, I’d be a wreck. (Laughs)

Blake Brinker: I agree with that as well, but for me; I think about people who haven’t seen the light. I think about people who are living their lives in a way that they’re being told to and they’re living their lives in ways they don’t even understand because they’re not awake. I think about how good it would feel to help be a part of something that brings them to the light, so to speak. I come from a place where many, many people are just accepting of the circumstances handed to them and I think that can be said about a lot of places in the world. There is a big part of the population that does that. And I think about how much happier so many of them would be if they just kind of looked on the brighter side of things. And it’s really not just about that; it’s a matter of seeing opportunity everywhere and showing up, opening the door and then running through it. I think about people who are struggling to run through that door, who are doubtful of doing it and are scared.

And that makes us want to work harder to get to them, to show them that they are not alone.

Samir Husni: Thank you.