Page 39 - Sorry, We're Not Hiring Any Visionaries Today

CHAPTER 6
people’s faces. That’s not what a visionary does. A true visionary basks in the warmth that his idea has brought joy or happiness to someone or to society.
With Concrete Wave, my whole theory stemmed from this one sentence, which was: one rider at a time, one reader at a time, one subscriber at a time. I wanted people’s attention to be on riding different types of skateboards. That was key. Then, I wanted them to read what I was writing. I wanted more of their attention. Finally, if they could subscribe or advertise, it meant I could spread the message even further. And if you don’t want to pay, my hope is that you “subscribe” to the message. If there were 100,000 readers of the magazine, I knew that 1% of them, about 1,000, were responsible for 80% of my success.
The principle for marketing is that each year, we meet thousands of people who aren’t ready to buy from us at that time. The trick is for you to get them to remember you when they are ready to buy. You need to focus on building a database, and the customer base will come. A free newsletter or event is a good way to get people to remember you when they do want to buy.
There are people who hated my magazine because they didn’t like the layout and thought it was weak. Were they right? Partially — I didn’t meet their ver- sion of “cool”. It didn’t correspond to what they thought Southern California should look like. Advertisers would show me other magazines, and I would tell them, “This is the vision that I have, and you have your vision, but my readers love Concrete Wave. My readers felt the soul of the magazine. That’s a great feeling.”
Andrew, you and I both took the Kolbe A index test which measures a person’s instincts. If I look at your first Kolbe score (fact finding) which examines how you handle detail, it indicates you research in depth. You establish specific priorities, quantify rank, order particulars, define objectives, assess well, de- fine terms with exactness, determine appropriateness, provide historical evi- dence, create analogies, and develop complex strategies. Would you say that sums you up?
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