Interview with Amanda McAuliffe of Arsenic magazine

Hello and welcome to the Life of an Entrepreneur. I'm Jan McCarthy with Entrepreneurial Voice and we are broadcasting from skidrowstudios.com downtown, real radio on the internet. And we are here every Tuesday at 11 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. And if you have questions during the show, you can call in at 1-800-893-9562 and we would love to hear from you. Today I am so excited. This is really, really thrilling to be able to interview Amanda McAuliffe and she has the magazine Arsenic, well, the magazine. So, welcome. Thank you. It's great to be here. So, tell me, we've met briefly before and you're completely fascinating. So, tell me, I want to know everything. Like, were you thinking about this when you were growing up that I want to have a magazine? What led you to where you are having this magazine? So, tell me a little bit about you. Like many things in my life, I sort of, I joke that it was an accident and it really wasn't. There were a lot of deliberate, deliberate choices, but I did not set out to start a magazine. My background is film and TV production. And like many, many people in this town, you'll be familiar with the development process and you oftentimes set things up and you're trying to attach directors and actors and it's kind of a hurry up and wait game. And I, so last winter, actually, about a year ago, I was in that situation. I had set a few projects up. We had some financing, but we needed other elements. We had some financing, but we needed other elements before we could get a green light. And I was really, really missing the collaborative process of being on a movie set or a commercial set and was sort of looking for something to do to let me collaborate with other creative people and create something. And, you know, you sort of get a Jones off doing that that's different than just developing projects to sort of see something come to fruition and come to light. And so out of a kind of a moment of desperation, I called up a friend of mine who is a photographer and asked her if she wanted to, you know, do a movie. And I said, yeah, I want to do a still shoot. Her name is Kate Romero. She's an unbelievably talented photographer. And we did two shoots together. And they went really, really well. And I had these images left and wasn't quite sure what to do with them. So I was sort of looking around at my options and thought maybe I would do a blog. Maybe I would, you know, submit them to magazines, et cetera. And in that process, also realized what a lack of curation there was on the internet, which sounds like a silly thing because it should be painfully obvious. But I had always used it. I had always used the internet for such very sort of specific things that I was looking for something. So it was easy to put in a search term. But if you put in a broad search term when you're looking for some sort of a vibe or an aesthetic, you get everything. I mean, literally people's kids' pictures are mixed in with their party pictures mixed in with what you're looking for. And I started thinking about the fact that I thought there would be a lot of value in curating what is out there artistically within a certain genre. And that's sort of where Arsenic came from. It was this need to. Put my images somewhere as well as this realization that I could curate other artistic endeavors in the same vein. So Arsenic is it's a magazine, but it's really meant to be a platform for other creative people that are on brand and sort of have the same voice that we do. So though, you know, we would love to get to the point where we're 80 percent of the content is submitted right now. I don't know the exact percentage. I would estimate somewhere between 50 and 60 percent and the rest we're producing. But really, we would just kind of like to turn the magazine over to the other side. So I would like to see that. So I would like to see that. If you were to the crowd, our tagline is, it's your magazine, we just help you run it. And that's really where we want to take it. Right down to having the readers vote on things and that's how they sort of get, you know, hierarchy. So almost like a cool, edgy, sexy version of, you know, a BuzzFeed or Reddit. That happens now, but it happens with us. We do it. I put things up in my team and I sort of look at what's getting a lot of traction or likes and then we choose to either ask that person for more images. or do an interview or work with them. I would love for that to literally be completely hands-off without the sort of subjectivity of us being involved. And this magazine is strictly online at this point, right? It is. It is. If you came to the Arsene Krof, you would hear me say at least once a day, print is dead. And while I don't completely believe that the medium is completely over, I do think for a new magazine, the Internet is an amazing way to get your voice out there and be heard. And if you look at magazines that are print, they're having a hard time sort of getting a foothold in the digital market, whereas if you have a foothold in the digital market, you can then kind of decide if you ever want to issue special releases or stay strictly online. We like being online. I like that we can pivot and change, and if something's working, we can do more of it. If it's not working, no big deal. You know, move on. So I'm actually not interested in getting into the print game, even though everyone seems to think that's the brass ring. Well, by the very nature, that you are very creative, and you wanted this to be a creative venue to be able to do exactly what you just said, be able to pivot, to be able to change, to be able to add and delete content as you see fit, and even change the whole scope of the way the magazine looks. And if it were print, that would really limit you. Exactly. It can breathe this way. You know, it's really fluid. That's a great word, breathe. And I love that. I think it's part of why, you know, in the film business, there's so much expense, even on a low-budget movie, that at some point you're committed, and that's what you're doing, and you can't afford to go back and reshoot huge chunks of the movie unless you're a giant studio movie. This is easy. I mean, we can, as you said, like literally from day to day, as the audience demands, we can sort of react to them and change. Well, I think this is really, really exciting, and you've touched on several things that entrepreneurs need to be thinking about when they're starting out is that it's, it's really kind of, even though it may have sort of started as an accident, or I find that most things start from a place of pain or passion, and meaning pain, that there was a problem out there. You said, oh, there's no place to put all of this content, and I want to be able to find a place to do that. So you did. You created this thing, and then you do have to be very creative. You have to think outside the box in terms of, well, there are lots of magazines out there, and knowing that print is definitely going in a different direction. It can't stay the way it has been with all of the technological advances that we have. I mean, that's just, that's just crazy to think that it could, and you didn't want that anyway. So you have to think, okay, well, how can I stand out there and be different? And I love that you just mentioned also that you started out at this place of digital, and you can go actually back to print easy, more easily than someone can go from print to digital. So they're having to rework. They're having to rework everything. I also love the idea that you, in being different, you said, oh, okay, let's curate, and let's really bring this in instead of hiring this full-time staff, which you may have a full-time staff, and we'll get to that in a little bit, but instead of hiring a full-time staff where they do the same things every time, you're really reaching out and thinking outside the box, and that's really important to realize what's going to help you to stand out and how you're going to move forward with that. So. So let's back up back to when you were a little girl. All right. Because I want to know how you actually even get to this place, and then I want to fast forward again to go back to say, okay, yeah, you had this idea, but people have ideas every day, but they don't always execute them, and so how did you go forward with that? But let's start back when you were little. What were you thinking about I wanted to do when I grow up? I wanted to be a killer whale trainer. And what made you think that? This would be something that would be fun and different. So obviously you have an adventuresome spirit, and that's critical for every entrepreneur. I mean, I don't think I thought about it very much. I think that all sort of, I grew up in a ranch in Texas, so big horses and cows and sort of those kind of animals didn't seem that interesting or foreign to me. So I think I was fascinated with sea creatures, sharks, whales, you name it, from a very young age. I was obsessed. And so I made my parents drive me to SeaWorld many, many times. And at some point, and I mean, I was very young, I became sort of entranced with this idea of getting to play with them and swim with them and, you know, communicate with them. And so for many, many years, that was really what I thought I wanted to be a killer whale trainer. Then I got in high school. I took biology, and I discovered that I didn't enjoy science very much. And so being a marine biologist, which is the background most killer whale trainers have, seemed like maybe not really in the cards for me. I realized that sort of my passion really stemmed from sort of this love of animals, not this deep-seated desire to be a scientist. And I started looking into kind of other ideas. And sort of with a lack of something to do, I stumbled into the theater in my high school and did not want to be an actress at all. But saw this need for a stage manager. Or almost really in my school, it was almost like a producing role. We had this amazing creative teacher, but he was not very organized. And I guess at, how old are you when you're a freshman? 15 years old, I sort of kind of started organizing this department to the point that the high school even was just like, leave her be, just let her do her thing. And I sort of was this student professional role in that I kind of ran the whole theater department until I graduated. And that was sort of the first clue. I had that I might like to get into something like that, which eventually led to my film career. So you've touched on some skills that I think are very important for entrepreneurs too. And the fact that you're very organized and you were able to see a problem and how do I solve it and move forward with that. And then you're also courageous because obviously you must have moved from Texas at some point to get to Los Angeles. I did. I did that also. I look back and I think that there were many moments in my life where I was at a crossroads, but I seem to be blind to those moments until after the fact, which has served me well. I don't know if it's a good quality to have, but it certainly served me well. And moving out here was one of those. I had been working on movies in Texas. I realized that you can only sort of grow to a certain point, not living in New York or LA. It's difficult to get sort of beyond a certain level. And, you know, I knew that that wasn't going to be satisfying to me so that maybe LA was in my future. And I was just playing with that idea and somebody overheard me talking to one of my girlfriends and they were going to be out of town for a month when this movie wrapped and they offered me their house. So I came to LA to house sit for a month and I never left. I have amazing parents, which really play into so much of my life and how I've been able to do the things that I've done. And my mother literally packed my apartment and put it on a tree. And I was able to get a truck because I found a job in the month that I was out here. So I did move to LA, but it was one of those things that I think in the moment of making that decision, I didn't realize what a major decision it was going to be. It just sort of kind of, it happened and I had an opportunity and I just grabbed a hold of it. Well, I think that's great. We have to say yes to opportunity. And sometimes even if we don't know how it's going to all fall out, just at least trying it. And those are certain traits, I think, that are so important. for an entrepreneur and having some of the skills that you had. So did you recognize early on to say, I have the skill set, these are my strengths and really recognize them and how can I best parlay these into something that I want to do? I mean, maybe subconsciously. Consciously, I sort of looked at the opportunities that were in front of me or the jobs in the film business and quickly sort of went, well, I either want to be an assistant director or a producer. It suited me. And I think part of the reason it suited me is, you know, everyone likes to be good at something. So I kind of recognized that that was somewhere where I could excel, where I had been given accolades, where people had patted me on the back. And so why not sort of stay in that arena where you know that you're going to achieve something. And then, so then it was sort of narrowing down those two positions. And I realized, well, the task of an assistant director is monumental. It wouldn't really have been satisfying to me creatively. And so I started to think about what I was going to do in the future. And I started to think about what I was going to do in the future. And I started to think about what I was going to do in the future. And worked for this, once I got out here, I went to work for a woman named Sally Newman, who I had met previously in Texas. And she really took me under her wing and sort of taught me not just the production side of things, but how you develop a project and how you set up a project and what the editorial process would be like. Prior to that, I had really only worked in the strict production on set because that's pretty much what they did in Texas. Yeah. Well, learning from others, that's, that's, that's really, we don't always give as, as much importance to that. And looking at role, looking at who can be a role model and, and asking for help and, and learning how to do things that help set us up for that next stage. So when you decided, okay, I've got these, I want to do something really creative. You got these, these photos going. You said, oh, this would be a really, really cool, awesome venue of a way I can, I can share these with others and, and I haven't seen this done before. How did you know what your next step was? Oh, well, I didn't, truth be told. So I started asking lots of questions. Okay. So ask. That's a, I love that. See, we have to ask. And I, I sort of knew that I wanted to put them out there. And I started with a WordPress blog. And I think WordPress is an amazing venue for some people. And people seem to figure out, how to navigate it. It did not work for me. And that was one of the, I'm so glad to hear you say that. And that was, and I only bring that up because that was one of the hardest things was, it, it, I had managed to produce these images and talk people into coming out and working all for trade and all this stuff. And then I was trying to get them out there and I would get so frustrated. And some friends helped me in that. They sort of stepped in and said, take a step back. Maybe this isn't the best version for somebody who has no web background. And, and, you know, started talking to people and find, found out that there's a lot of different resources that you can do to start a, a website very easily. We ultimately ended up on Squarespace. And it's a funny thing to bring up, but the reason I do is it really is that sort of that decision in that moment of realizing that trying to make WordPress work for me, which wasn't and moving to Squarespace is really when the magazine started to take shape. And within weeks it started to look and feel like a real website and a magazine. And from that moment, I was able to start talking to people about what I was doing and show it to them. And the showing it to them made a really big difference. We push the envelope with content. It's very, very sexy. I think it's very tasteful. I think it's very artistic. It's beautiful. But because it's so sexy when you can't see it living and breathing as something that looks professional, it scared people. And then once they could sort of start to see it next to other images and with blog posts and things, people immediately, you know, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. People immediately started to click in and understand what it is that I was trying to do. And then people started getting excited and wanted to be involved. So, I mean, I would say that I sort of felt my way into how to start building the site. And then once I had that, people started to come on board and I've had so much help. There are so many people that kind of kept parlaying me just to the next step and the next step. And the coolest thing is how quickly some of my contacts and friends from the film business sort of also started to come on board, which really helped, I think, in a short period of time, take arsenic to the next level. So you've really grown organically. And do you have a vision now, now that you've started it? So I understand how it kind of, you know, evolved. But at this point, it's growing. You've got a lot of people wanting to participate in it. You've got a lot of readers. Do you now say, okay, gosh, shoot, I better figure something out. I'm going to figure something out. I'm going to figure something out. I've got to have a vision of where to take this thing. Or let's just see what happens. What's your philosophy on that? It's a little of both. I have lofty goals. I want arsenic to be the largest crowdsourced magazine in the world. I want arsenic to go beyond being a magazine and into a lifestyle brand. I see some of that start happening. When I started, one of my sort of fantasies was that people would start using arsenic almost like a descriptor. You know, that's so arsenic. And I hear it happen. I mean, not with me doing it. I hear other people do that. Or they'll email me and be like, I saw this. It's so arsenic. And I was like, so check goal one. Moving on to goal two, world domination. So I do. I want arsenic to be the biggest sort of crowdsourced platform for sexy, artistic, edgy, provocative content. We have just opened up a shop, Shop Arsenic. Great, because that was my next question. So great. You're growing, you're big, you've got all this. How are you monetizing? So the shop is going to be an important piece of that. You know, the other decision I had to make when I started early on was, did I want to cater to traditional investors and or advertising? And I decided I didn't want to do either one, that I would sort of self fund the magazine, at least while I established the brand. Part of that was just because I was a salesperson. So I was so, I wanted to move so fast that it was an easy decision to make because I didn't want to wait around for those things to come on the table. But also I knew that the content I wanted to do wouldn't necessarily lend itself right off the bat to advertising or investors. I wanted to push the envelope and I didn't want to be getting phone calls at 7am about, you know, the sexy picture I put up last night. Having to answer to all of that. Yeah. Correct. So, so I, we sort of leapt in and just started producing content that really felt right and good. And I was so proud of and not worrying about backing into what would be the, you know, sort of acceptable norm. Correct. And how, and how we would ultimately monetize it. My feeling has always been, and it remains that if I have an audience that's sticky, if I have an audience that is excited to come and look at the magazine, that will parlay itself into value, even if it's never going to be banner ads. And it probably isn't. I mean, there's, there are companies that will be really excited about working with us in the, the group of people that are looking at the magazine. But there's a lot of companies that will feel like our content is too racy. I'm completely okay with that, but I have enough, I have enough people looking at the magazine that, and if I was just a regular old blog, I could throw up banner ads right now and start making some money. It just, it just doesn't fit what I wanted to do or what our content is. So the shop has started to become a really viable thing that we're starting to build. And that really stemmed from people starting to talk to us on social media. We would post images. Yeah. And, you know, there's a moment that people started communicating back. It wasn't just that they were liking them or that they were telling their friends to go, you know, follow our Instagram or go look at the website, but that they were actually communicating. Where did you get that? How do I get that? I want, you know, who is that? What's the designer? And so that's when I sort of took a step back and went, okay, I think the time is right to start at least tiptoeing into making some of these products available. So the shop is two weeks old. We've just started building it out. But I'm very, very excited about it. I think that there's huge potential there. So getting started and building that audience, what was your philosophy? What was your plan for doing that? I mean, again, it grew a little bit organically, but still, you've got a pretty big readership here. So how did you continue to just kind of go viral? You're using, you mentioned Instagram, Facebook. What is it? What's your focus? What's your focus? Was there a definite strategy there about? I mean, it was definitely utilizing, and especially again, since the magazine was self-funded, it was really figuring out how to utilize what was available to us and available to us for very little money. I am possibly the last person in the world to get a Facebook page as I only got one when I started Arsenic. And I wasn't somebody who Instagrammed or Twittered. So it was, I had a crash course. I had to really sit down and figure out like, okay, how do these things work and how can we make them work for Arsenic? And so it grew organically in the sense that we didn't do any advertising. We didn't, our followers on Instagram all came to us one by one. But we did start reaching out to people that were more established than us, that were still like-minded and in the same sort of genre or aesthetic as we are and sort of making those relationships and inroads to those people. And talking to them about what we do. Yeah. And what we were trying to do and getting them excited. And then in turn, you do sort of ride the coattails of the people that you're associated with, especially in social media. So as people that were bigger, but sort of considered cool brands or interesting models, as they started to click in, and it was in a true, real, genuine click in, but once they sort of started getting on board, then some of their fans and their friends would get on board. Yeah. And we try to keep that sort of pay it forward. We try to keep that in mind at Arsenic too. If we find somebody that we think is really interesting and cool, and that's part of the magazine being crowdsourced that I reach out to people on Instagram every day. They might have 30 followers or 300, but if I like what they're doing and I like their aesthetic, I want them to tell us what they're interested in, tell us something they're excited about so we can potentially talk about it on Arsenic. And so the social media world has really become very exciting to me. I think it's a great way to discover something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. traction and interest from people. And the cool thing is, you know, there is a tipping point. Once you sort of start getting momentum, it continues. And everybody wants to get on board with something new and exciting. Were there naysayers? What the hell are you thinking? Sure. I mean, you know, I take it really personally. And so there were definitely people who looked at our brand and thought it was too sexy or that we were pushing the envelope too much. There was certainly far more positive feedback than negative. And, you know, I was pretty down in the dumps the first time somebody sort of came at us with like, what is this? You know, and you're a woman, why are you doing this? And a good friend of mine gave me some really good advice. Like, if people aren't making noise about what you're doing, you're not doing anything. You know, so get committed, know that you're proud of it and expect the fact that, you know, some people aren't going to like it. That's important. You're making people react. Yeah. And, you know, I have to, remind myself of that. I mean, because of course you want everybody to love you, but for the most part, we've had really positive feedback. Well, that's really great. Let me put out our number again for any of our listeners. If you want to call in and talk to myself or Amanda, the number's 1-800-893-9562. You'd think I'd know this number by now, but we'd love to hear from you. So how do you stay committed? I mean, to this vision and knowing that this is the direction that, you want to go when, when there are frustrations, when there are struggles and saying, I mean, because there's a hundred different ways you could have gone and still allow for people to have self-expression and, and everything else. So what, how, how did you pinpoint this and say, I am very committed to this particular vision and, and want to stay with this? I, I, it's really fortunate now when you start a business because you can interact with the, the readers. And the people so much more than you probably could have, than you certainly could have five years ago. So when you have those moments where I sort of hit a wall and I, or I wonder, is this the right choice? Almost always there's something I can immediately look at, which, you know, whether it's some Instagram post or a comment on the website that sort of I can click into. And that reminds me that a lot of people are reacting to what we're doing and it's really positive. So, so that helps tremendously. The other thing is I just sort of, you know, there's, there's a saying that always goes through my head. It's, you know, some days you're the Louisville slugger, some days you're the ball. And, and I just remember that. And so that like every day, you're not going to hit it out of the ballpark, but so far we're hitting more out than not. And, you know, I just kind of remind myself of that and just keep going, stay the course. That's great. And I love that saying, I've heard it before and I, I think it's really, really great. So what is your proudest moment? Oh, wow. It's so interesting because it changes so fast. The, the amazing thing I've discovered about having a magazine is it moves really quickly. So the bar keeps moving. I mean, what was my proudest moment a month ago is probably not my proudest moment even today and may not be next week. I did an amazing shoot last week with two people that I wasn't necessarily, um, would not have necessarily thought six months ago that I would be shooting with. Um, which was really, really cool. And I'm gonna, I'm just going to tease you guys with that, but keep an eye on the magazine. We're going to be publishing some really cool photos very, very soon. Yeah. Is that because it went in a different direction or because these are like some of the greats and you're going, wow. These are people that I thought would have been out of, six months ago, I would have thought would have been out of our reach within this year. Um, and so to have found myself, you know, working with these people was, last week was pretty awesome. And pitching yourself then, right? Yeah. And working with them in a completely, collaborative, fun, you know, everyone was there to have a good time way. Not even in a like, oh, thank you. Thank you for doing this. But I mean, though I do thank them for doing it, but like everyone was there cause I wanted to be there. Uh, that was awesome. Um, we, you know, seeing the, the, the Instagram grow and grow fast has been kind of really, really neat. Um, we have, um, we're starting to get a few sort of notable people following us and sort of on board. And that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's been a really exciting, cool, amazing thing. Uh, so it's, it's hard to post, to point to one thing. Yeah. Um, you know, and I also, you know, I don't do this alone. I do this with this incredible team of interns and watching all of them grow and get sort of better at the different tasks they have at the magazine, as well as form genuine friendships from working at the magazine, um, might be even one of the most rewarding things. Uh, they all, they all give me a lot of their time and give arsenic their time. So, um, I think it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, feeling like they're getting something out of it is, is pretty awesome. Why don't you share the magazine, um, website, how someone can go and look at that? It's, um, the, it's www.arsenicthemagazine.com and our Instagram is arsenic magazine, which would link you as well back to the website. That's great. Um, give everyone a chance to go and look at that. So you have interns. Do you, is this your full time? It's, I mean, it's become my full time. I guess I'm currently, working full time plus, um, is I certainly haven't shut the door on my film and TV endeavors by any means, but this definitely sort of takes up the bulk of my day to day hours right now. I'm lucky in that the other things can sort of, in many ways, kind of take care of themselves while I wait for people to read and give me answers. This is, well, that's great. And a lot of entrepreneurs start out that way. I mean, they, you'll, you'll hear some of the most successful say, yeah, I was, I was working by day and, and, uh, and finding what I wanted, what I wanted to do by night. And then it became eventually bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And I had to let the day thing go because, yeah, it's, um, I think that, I think it's true. It's really hard to start something, to be in a position to start something new and not sort of keep your quote unquote day job. But, um, I'm, I'm fortunate in that my day job gives me a huge amount of time and hours to, to dedicate to arsenic and, and they feed off of each other. So I also, when I'm working on one, I don't actually feel like I'm, you know, ignoring the other. Now, do you find yourself, um, always being motivated to go in and work on this or are there moments where you say, I don't know, maybe, maybe this wasn't the right path to go down. I am not super woman. There are definitely days where I wake up and I think, oh, I don't want to do this today. I want to go to the, you know, Griffith park and go for, for our hike. But, um, you know, the, the, one of the greatest motivators, if I'm not doing it, no one is. Um, well, I do have an amazing team of people. I'm the cheerleader or, or the coach or, you know, what have you. And so if, you know, if, if I decide to phone it in, there's nothing new going on the website. Um, and, uh, I think that being stale or stagnant is going to, would be the death of us. So, um, it's a, you know, it, yes, I have those moments, but, um, I have this giant cattle prod and the idea of like, no, I have to go. This is, I've spent too much time to, you know, ignore it just because I'm, you know, having a difficult time, you know, having a day where, you know, wearing my jammies sounds like more fun. Yeah. Now, um, not sure where you want to, if you, you know, if this is private, but a lot of, um, a lot of entrepreneurs start in their garage, start in their basement, start in there, you know, especially with having a website being on the internet that allows you to have a lot of privacy of where you start. Um, it sounds like you have an office that you go to. Um, and, and how did you arrive at that and say, this is important, you know, especially, especially since you do have people, but. We were really lucky. I had a production office, I mean, for my film company. So, um, and I had, when I had gotten, got the space, um, it was, it's sort of a big bullpen area so that when I would be in production or working on a commercial, I could bring in additional people. And when I wasn't, it was sort of just, you know, me. So I had this space with sort of desks and the inter, I had a turnkey office. Um, so it was easy. So for the magazine to just sort of get absorbed into what already existed. That's great. Um, so, um, so, um, who inspires you? A lot of people, my, my dad, certainly, uh, he was a completely self-made man and an entrepreneur, um, and so much of what I do and, and, and how I, uh, move forward everyday is, is sort of, I think often what would Al do? Um, he, and, and he's, thank goodness, also, you know, a phone call away. Um, so he's a big driving force in, in my life. Um, and then I also I have a few friends who have in their own way sort of been the voice in my ear when I needed it, especially initially. A really good friend of mine really, really encouraged me to do this and to pursue this, even when I felt like I would be shortchanging my film career. And he helped show me that I could have both and both could be better for it. And he's been absolutely right. And then a lot of other friends that, and the team of interns, they show up, they do the work. And that's, you know, sort of inspires me that I at least owe it to them to kind of give it my all every day. So have you always just owned it, just felt like, you know, I'm an entrepreneur. I find that a lot of times people don't necessarily, they kind of skirt it. Like this is, well, this is a hobby. Well, this is something I'm doing. They don't, but you are, you have such, such a presence and such seemingly great confidence. Have you always just, well, of course I'm an entrepreneur. You know, it's funny. It's actually not a word that I wouldn't use to describe myself. I sort of always consider myself somebody who just sort of, I'm a little bit of an introvert. I'm a little idiosyncratic. I sort of just do my own thing. And I guess, and other people say to me things like, oh, you have these entrepreneurial ideas. Oh, yeah. Oh, you pursue your dreams. Oh, no matter what you change. It doesn't seem that way to me at all. I just get up and do what feels right. And maybe it was that, like I said, I had this amazing dad and I sort of witnessed this and maybe I sort of organically got it. I don't know. But to answer your question, I wouldn't say that I own it. I just sort of, it's, I don't know how to be any other way. So, you know, it is what it is. So here I am. That's okay. Well, I mean, you know, but for some, for some people, there are moments where you say, wow, I'm doing this. I have a, even, you know, I have a magazine. You know, and it's like that owning moment of, this was just an idea. Oh, yeah, I've curated some things and I've got it too. I have a magazine and owning that. Yeah, there was definitely a moment or a series of moments about two to three months in and I sort of looked around and went, oh, whoa, I have a magazine. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. my friend told me about this amazing magazine it was your magazine or yeah I told somebody I was going to shoot for you and they were like oh I love them and it was sort of this realization that it had grown beyond my circle of friends and their circle of friends into getting this life of its own and that was kind of when I went oh I've really we've started this it's real and you know also you know and in that happening people starting genuine submissions coming in and designers reaching out and publicists reaching out for us to cover their clients and things like that and it's like oh this is this is game on so does this feel different now like when you first started and you were you were looking for people to contribute and now you said you're getting you're getting calls you're getting people are discovering you and they're calling you and it feels different in the sense that it's become a lot of fun at first I think I was trying to sort of like plug a hole I was I was desperately looking for something to you know to fill a creative outlet and now all of that is done I mean I get to be creative every day times 10 so getting to meet all these really cool interesting people who are whether they're designers or photographers or musicians or models and everyone has different walks of life and sort of arrived at this place in a different way it's just a lot of fun you know I'm like a kid in you know on the playground every day now and then the fact that I can legitimately look at it and see that it's you know a real business and it's a real thing is pretty great well it must be very exciting having opened this store and I want to go into that just a little bit more you know to have the store to be able to start bringing in an income now yes absolutely I mean you know it's it's easy to to sort of make light of it and and but yeah I mean absolutely starting to see it become a viable business is pretty exciting now how are you will you have a business that's going to be viable? how are you going to be able to do that? how are you going to be able to do that? will you have to be the fulfillment center? will you have to hold inventory? or are you able to disperse that amongst your vendors? it's really that we have really partnered with people and many of them were designers that we were already talking to anyway as part of Arsenic and you know we want to be sort of this indie brand that's breaking new people and now discovering things you haven't heard about there's amazing magazines and outlets and websites that are talking about sort of the tried and true so we were able to go to a lot of these people that are new brands and up-and-coming you know designers etc and artists and partner with them so we are representing their lines we'll do we do stories or photo shoots we help sort of support it and we sell things to the site but ultimately the fulfillment comes from them so they hold the inventory and they take care of the fulfillment we've you know of course follow up and make sure that it happened and we deal with any customer service issues and things like that but so it's a true it's a true partnership between us and them which is great that makes it easier how I've been meaning to ask and I keep forgetting how often does the magazine come out and currently it's a free magazine do you ever have any thoughts that it may be a subscription right now it's a free magazine I wouldn't rule anything out but you know I feel like I would like to keep at least the core part of Arsenic free to anybody the magazine doesn't come out in issues there is a newsletter you can sign up for that sort of comes out about a week to every 10 days that kind of recaps what the bigger stories were that came up in the last 10 days but we are constantly feeding the beast as I say we kind of and it was a big debate and I don't know if we'll ultimately go to a more sort of traditional monthly or bi-monthly platform but right now we're constantly updating the site with you know different things with you know different things with you know different features stories profiles submissions with blog posts the magazine's different every day I think that's really interesting and it kind of goes back to what you talked about in the first place that it allows you to be very creative spin on a wheel pivot be flexible if it works that you have tons of content coming in on one day great if you don't have anything coming in for a week gasp yeah that would be scary but I feel like we can see I mean that's a good point that's how we consume media now I can't remember the last time I'm constantly reading I don't remember the last time I sat down with a magazine or a book and looked at it all day you know you tend to look at something in little bite-sized bites right now so we've sort of set the magazine up to be that way there's something every day for you to look at and you know take a peek at sometimes there's five of them sometimes there's one of them but it's not like you know on the fifth of every month there's this big barrage of newsreels and new stuff well this also makes me kind of think about even though people can go back and look at past content it's really hard for us to go back I mean we're in a society that is moving at the speed of light fast forward and with even though I don't use this social media platform social snapchat has taken off in just an incredible way and they kind of that's really thinking outside the box because it's really getting people to tune in tune in now do it quickly because for those who don't know snapchat only lasts a few seconds and then it's gone so if you want to get it you got to get it now and kind of your magazine makes me think of it in a similar way I love that the content doesn't actually disappear into the universe but love it that if you want to get the most cutting edge because it is hard to go back that you need to be constantly tuning in and I think that's very creative on your part to have set that up and taking your vision in that direction I want to also just give out our number again it's 1-800-893-9562 and if you want to call us and chat with myself or Amanda we'd love to hear from you and answer any questions that you might have I was going to well what are you've mentioned many things that I would think of are really great strengths but what would you say is your greatest strength that has really helped you in this particular endeavor I'm kind of I'm like a little yippy dog that won't leave you alone I'm probably where does that come under the list of strengths yippy dog I mean I'm probably not the most I'm probably not the most I'm probably not the most I'm probably not as aggressive as some people as far as like pitching and selling and I'm kind of a more sit back and let people come to you but I just don't give up I'm just I'm tenacious I mean I just sort of you know I decided this is what I'm going to do and arsenic is going to be around in a year and it's going to be around in five years and it's going to be around in 10 years when I set my mind to something for better or worse that is what I'm doing and I think in general in the long run that's served me well I think that's I think it sounds from what I know of you a very accurate description and in a very positive way I just I see you with tremendous passion so I don't think of you as the yippy dog I see you with tremendous passion very excited about what it is that you have and just an incredible visionary and thinking about where you can take this and what you can do with this and that's very exciting so I love how far you've come and where you're going with what you're doing now how long is the magazine when did you launch? in May awesome it's been a really amazing interesting six months yeah journey incredible so you are obviously very tenacious and very wrapped up in all of this and it can be all consuming so! how do and we talked about how you stay motivated and I would think that really also comes with a tremendous amount of responsibility and how do you feel about the direction that it's taking and that it's one thing when it's just you and oh my god this is great I can't wait to produce this and put it out there and being very excited with the fact that people are talking about it people are interested people are so thrilled to be a part of it but now there's a certain responsibility as you grow eventually you may have to hire employees that comes with a whole other can of worms and now you have a responsibility kind of to put this content out and to keep growing and keep it going well now that you put it like that I mean yes it occurs to me sometimes that you know we've made a lot of promises we've made a lot of commitment to it and you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know you know of people give you advice and they give you their time, but there's an expectation that you're going to do something good and worthwhile with that. And I guess I compartmentalize. I mean, those things are important and they certainly, I think about them. They're always in the back of my mind, but I just sort of, I think, you know, day to day, I kind of just put my head down and sort of move ahead and try to think about what needs to be accomplished today and what needs to be accomplished this week to get to the next point. And I don't know if it's true or not, but I sort of do that on the idea that, you know, the best I can do for those people and those promises is to just keep my eye on the ball. And doing what you love, because you obviously love this. I really, really do. I'm really fortunate that I didn't realize that this is somewhere where I would be sort of so fulfilled, but it's definitely worked out that way. So exciting. And I didn't mean to put like a downer on it, but it is just a reality. It is a reality. And I think what you just said is I just keep motoring on and being true to yourself, really. Being true to yourself and knowing that being true to yourself and doing something that, since you are such a great visionary and being able to continue to have that creative bent and passion and commitment to sharing all of these, creative endeavors with everyone is, will always speak for itself. Oh, thank you. I'm going to call you the next time I'm having a bad day. You should know that. You're going to be my new sounding board. Thank you. That means a lot. That sounds great. But I think it's important for us to all look at that and knowing what that why is and you know what your why is. And so knowing what that is will help take you forward and knowing what your strengths are will also help take you forward. So as busy and as consumed and as everything else that you are, what do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What do you do to unwind and unplug and also stay refreshed? I like to be outside. So I hike and I run. I have a dog that I drag out of the house. She hates downtown. But that's a big part of, you know, sort of my sanity is sort of being active and taking some time for myself. And then I'm also sort of extra lucky in that my family has a ranch in West Texas. And so it's a really great place to go and unplug. And it's very, very quiet in there. You could, you know, drive to town and not see another car. So after three or four days of that, I can't wait to get back to Los Angeles and the craziness in the magazine and all that stuff. Great. Now, if you could do it all over again, would you? Would you do it differently? I would absolutely do it all over again. There are little things that I probably would do differently, but I am a big believer in all of the things that I do. And I think that's why I'm so committed to it. I'm a big believer in all of the things that I do. And I think that's why I'm so things, the good decisions you make and the bad get you where you are. So I guess not. I mean, I kind of, I'll own it. We had some stumbling blocks, but I don't know that I would go back and do and change them. I think that they all contributed to our success in sort of a relatively short time. How do you face your challenges? Is there a particular challenge that you've had to take a look at and say, okay, this totally is not working and how do I over problems? You know, I think the biggest challenge, especially with arsenic is that I am absolutely an introvert and I didn't really have any desire to be part of social media. And I really kind of, I'm very much a sit in the corner and at a party and let people sort of come over and talk to me. And I'm not shy. I'm just not a big, out there person. And arsenic is a really out there thing. I mean, you're putting content on every day. You're talking to people, you're convincing people that, you know, what your dream is, is something they should come and be a part of. And so, you know, I've really had to sort of step out of my comfort zone. And so I think a big part of what I work on every day is sort of reminding myself to step beyond my comfort zone, to, you know, put myself out there more, put the magazine out there and sort of keep pushing myself. And is that because you believe in the magazine so much that it allows you to kind of step out of your, come out of your shell, so to speak, and put yourself out there in that, in that way? Absolutely. I mean, today is a perfect example. I mean, normally being on a, on a radio show is about the furthest thing that I would ever agree to do. I love arsenic and I believe in it so much that, you know, I would, you know, stand on top of a building and yell that everyone should go look at it. Doing this seems like fun, but it's completely, completely, completely, completely, the opposite of what I would normally say. Share the, share the magazine website again. Arsenicthemagazine.com. Awesome. Hope everybody will go in and, and, and, and look at that. What, what has been your greatest failure? Oh, there've been so many. I, let's go with learning, learning experiences. You know, are you referring to in life in general or with arsenic? Well, you know, with life in general or with, maybe with arsenic, if you can think of one, because I think what, what I really want to share with this show is, is, you know, business tips and, and let people know that it's not all, all perfect out there, but yet there's something really amazingly awesome and great that can happen by following your dream, by doing something that you really want. And, and not only that, you can really share something wonderful with people when you do that. You know, you're, you're solving a problem for them, or you're creating this, this magic for them, or you're, you know, solving a need, filling a need for them. And you are, you're filling a need of creating the space that all of these, these people can come and contribute and collaborate and, and, and earn money from at some point too, you know, so. When we first started, I think there were a few, a few things that we did that I did believing that was the right way to do them. That was the, the way you ran a magazine, or that was the business, process. My dad always has this term, don't honor the process. And, and I don't know that I really realized what he meant so much until I got into the magazine. And since it wasn't something I was familiar with, I had this feeling that I should do it the right way, the way that you're supposed to do it. And I made some pretty big blunders doing that, spending money that really didn't need to be spent, that could have been better spent on other things. Trying to like back into shoots that really, didn't feel arsenic, you know, sort of sell out things a little bit. And all, doing all of that stuff, sort of trying to sort of appease the magazine gods, I guess. I mean, you know, it's sort of feeling like, I don't know what I'm doing, so I should do it the way that people say you should do it. When we stopped doing that and started just believing a hundred percent in arsenic and what arsenic was, and always asking ourselves, is it arsenic? And if the answer was no, moving on, no matter how good of an opportunity it might seem, is really, really hard. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And I think that's what we're trying to do. And I think that's what we're Rolling with the magazines started to click in.! Did you know pretty much, did you have that mission statement and have that real clarity about what you wanted the brand to be? I know maybe you didn't have the full picture of everywhere you thought it was going to go because it kind of happened organically, but did you at least have, really, this is what's going to always remain true to my brand? I definitely knew what I wanted the aesthetic to be, absolutely. I was maybe not as committed in that, you know, you get distracted by shiny objects. Right. At first. I know that one. And so I knew what I wanted. It was, you know, getting the confidence to believe that that's right, even in the face of some, you know, there are naysayers. Like I said, the content is very sexy. It's not for everybody. Most people really, really like it. But, you know, early on when you're just getting going, some of the not positive feedback can just seem shocking and jarring and, you know. It's easy to start questioning if you've lost sight of what you should be doing or to lose sight of what you should be doing. And I would say if I had to, I can't really, I guess I bury my head in the sand. I can't think of specifics, but I definitely know early on there were multiple stumbling blocks and almost all of them involved not being true to the arsenic brand and not being true to sort of what we originally set out to do and getting distracted by either somebody telling me what I should be doing or, you know, trying to kind of get on a bandwagon or something. Right. That really wasn't true to us. Well, I just love how clear you are. And even from the very beginning where you said, you know, you could have gotten advertisers or you could have gotten investors, but yet knowing that you're being very clear about what you wanted and how that might affect your brand and what you wanted to do. It really takes a tremendous amount of courage, especially if you're self-funding it. I mean, for someone to know that there's an easy out to go and get some money from this particular place to be able to, you know, get some money from this particular place to be able to, you know, get some money from this particular place to be able to, you know, get some money from this particular place to be able to, help get this going a little faster. And of course you've grown pretty fast, but that's very enticing. And so to be able to stand true and say, no, I have this vision. I know that I can do it myself. And be able to say no, that takes a tremendous amount of courage and also, like I said, vision. So good for you. And I think that's important to know to not sell yourself out or to sell yourself short. Thank you. Be stubborn. Be stubborn. I'm very stubborn. I like that. Well, you've worn all the hats. You're wearing all the hats. You started out wearing all the hats. But quickly, you brought on a team. Not everybody does that. Did someone tell you, look, don't try and do this all yourself? No. I mean, I think that stems from a film background. Film is super collaborative. You know, the process from the get-go is, you know, even when you start developing a script, you almost always, and I'm not a writer, but I like working with writers, and you're almost always, you know, talking to people, having people read it, giving you feedback. And, you know, and then it just grows from there when you actually get into production. It never occurred to me to try to do it alone. I'm also sort of impatient. So I wanted it to go fast. And I wanted to have a lot of, you know, things on the website. And I was running another business at the same time. So I also recognized that I couldn't possibly do it all alone. And I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And I dipped my toe into this idea that I could possibly get some help and believed that Los Angeles was full of really interesting, creative people that might be looking for an outlet as well. And I got very, very lucky with some really incredible, very dedicated people very early on. And had I had a less than stellar experience with sort of interns or finding people, maybe I would have kind of tried to do it all on my own, but I had the opposite. I still can't believe my luck with some of these fabulous people who came on board early and who have stuck around. Well, you're very generous in the fact, I mean, a lot of entrepreneurs and first of all, they feel like they have to do it alone. So they don't always think creatively about how to build that team, bringing on interns that you may not be paying full wages or exorbitant wages. But it's also hard sometimes for people, entrepreneurs too, especially, to let go of this idea and also to even share that full idea, you know, they keep it under wraps. So the fact that you did, I feel has really contributed to your success at helping this to grow not only as fast as it has, but in the way that it has, because by building your team, I think it's important. We really can't do it all alone. We do have to wear a lot of the hats often, but it allows you to be able to focus on your genius work and be able to let others focus on theirs too and help to bring this forward. And I think that's the key. and be able to let others focus on your genius work to a reality. We only have a couple of minutes left, but we're out of time. All right. Well, I guess we don't. And let me just say thank you very much. Do you have one business tip you can share? Don't give up. Okay. I love it. One of my favorites. Never, never, never, never give up. Thank you so much, Amanda. Thank you. This was a lot of fun. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you.