September 16, 2025 • 33 mins
Brett Hulsey's journey from college newspaper staffer to media company owner defies conventional wisdom about print's demise in a digital world. As owner of Holsey Media Group and WNC Business Magazine, Brett shares how he transformed a small publishing operation into a thriving enterprise with approximately twelve magazine titles serving Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.
"I'd worked for over a decade on the digital side of the publishing world where everything seemed to be going digital," Brett explains. "But I was pleasantly surprised that magazines still have life—they're being picked up by highly qualified consumers who are actively looking for information." This insight has fueled Holsey Media's growth strategy, resulting in partnerships with around 800 clients across diverse industries.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Brett discusses the unexpected business lessons he's learned. Rather than focusing solely on qualifications when hiring, he discovered the profound impact that personality fit has on small team dynamics. "One person really changes the culture in a small group," he notes. Through personality profiling, Brett identified critical gaps in his team's collective strengths—gaps that, once filled, dramatically improved company performance.
As a longtime sponsor of the Asheville Business Summit, Brett offers valuable perspective on regional business recovery following Hurricane Helene. Drawing parallels to COVID-19 challenges, he emphasizes resilience: "Tough times make tougher people... nothing impacts us more than what we choose to do every day." Recent market indicators point to renewed optimism, with increased tourism, business expansion, and publication demand signaling economic improvement.
For entrepreneurs across industries, Brett's message is clear: despite surface differences between businesses, fundamental challenges remain similar, creating opportunities to learn from unexpected sources. "Running a brewery may sound very different from running a dentist's office, but there are things that have to be done no matter what kind of business you have."
Join us at the Asheville Business Summit to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and discover strategies for growth in challenging times. Get your tickets at WNCSummit.com and be part of the conversation shaping Western North Carolina's business future.
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Bill
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
I'm Bill Gilliland, your host,and I am also the principal at
Action Coach, business GrowthPartners and one of the founders
of the Asheville BusinessSummit.
Speaking of the AshevilleBusiness Summit, our guest today
is one of the sponsors.
But before we get there, I wantto remind you hey, it's not too
(00:25):
late, you can still get ticketsto this major event that we're
having in Asheville.
Just go to WNCSummitcom.
Wncsummitcom and all theinformation is there the
schedule, the whole deal and howto get tickets, the sponsors,
everything is there.
Just check it out.
W?
(00:45):
Wncsummitcom Today I'm superpumped to talk to my friend,
brett Holsey.
Now.
He owns one of our majorsponsors, which is called the
WNC Business Magazine, and it'spart of a large organization
that he owns called the HolseyMedia Group and he's got a
number of publications in there.
(01:05):
So, brett, welcome to thepodcast.
Yeah, thanks, bill.
Yeah, tell us a little bitabout you and Holsey Media and
the WNC Business Magazine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, thank you.
We have been in business nowunder Holsey Media for, I guess,
going into 11th going on 12years now under Holsey Media,
for, I guess, going into 11thgoing on 12 years now.
And we're really a continuationof a previous company, the
Fisher Publications, based inHendersonville, with a
publishing history that goes allthe way back to 1982, when
(01:36):
Hendersonville Magazine wasstarted.
So the products that we have inour group with Holsey Media the
magazine titles a couple ofthem are older than our company.
Really, you know they werearound and then we acquired them
back in 2014 and formed HolseyMedia.
But myself I'm a I guess I'lluse the word veteran now because
(01:56):
I'm getting older.
I think I've been in in localmedia now for almost 30 years,
starting back to my college days, when I was at the University
of Alabama and started workingat the Crimson White student
newspaper, and that's how I gotinto this business, and I wasn't
really studying that industryin college at all, but as a
(02:18):
part-time job it actually led toa career that I never expected.
So I've always been thankfulfor that opportunity, for sure,
and it's opened a lot of doorsfor me and given me a lot of
good experience.
But originally.
I moved to the Asheville areabeginning of 2001 and worked at
the Asheville Citizen Timesnewspaper.
I was there for a couple ofyears and then moved to a couple
(02:39):
of different newspaper groupsin the eastern part of North
Carolina and up and just overthe line in Tennessee different
newspaper groups in the easternpart of North Carolina and up
and just over the line inTennessee and I was on the
digital side of the newspaperindustry for over a decade.
Most recently I worked as thevice president of digital
strategy and development with agroup called Jones Media at the
time that published communitynewspapers throughout eastern
(03:01):
Tennessee and as well as up inthe Boone and Blowing Rock
Banner Elk area in NorthCarolina and ran their digital
division for about seven oreight years.
But we'd always wanted to comeback to the Asheville
Hendersonville area.
My wife and I had and we'dstarted off here and always kind
of looking for opportunities toget back here.
Through mutual colleagues inthe newspaper world I was able
(03:22):
to connect with Joni Fisher whohad Fisher Publications in
Hendersonville and she hadpublished Hendersonville
Magazine and HealthcareResources of Western North
Carolina for many years andfortunately it worked out as a
good opportunity for us to comeback and acquire those
publications and start growingfrom there.
I always tell people you knowthe story about getting into
(03:45):
that.
It was a question I had waswhat is the future of magazines?
I mean, I'd worked for over adecade, as I mentioned, on the
digital side of the publishingworld and everything seemed to
be going digital, kind ofdrinking Kool-Aid every day,
read all the headlines.
And certainly digital haschanged a lot of how media
functions and how people consumeinformation.
(04:06):
No doubt about that.
But I was pleasantly surprisedthat magazines still have a life
and it's a different reason whyI think people would use them
and I think there's a lot ofmisunderstanding about how media
works and how consumers behave.
But I've kind of seen firsthandover the past 10, 12 years.
You know what really happensand so that's part of our story
(04:29):
is that you know we share withpeople that you know.
As I was kind of kicking thetires on the company looking to
buy the magazines, my biggestquestion was how long will I be
able to do this for?
Will these, you know, continueto be strong or are they just
eventually going to fade away?
And you know the thing thatgave us confidence in moving
forward with buying those twomagazines at the time and then
(04:50):
afterwards starting otherpublications, is we see that
they're being picked up and used.
And they're being picked up by,I think, highly qualified
consumers who are very engagedand they're actively looking for
information which really makesthem a shopper.
They're on the hunt forinformation as they use our
publications really, and youknow we saw firsthand, you know,
as this market has grown andboomed and you know tourism has
(05:13):
always been a major influencehere.
Relocation here as well, youknow.
Healthy economy, really diverseeconomy.
You know we find that we keepputting magazines out and people
keep picking them up and ourclients have been with us for
many years now and there aresome people who are advertising
in Hendersonville Magazine whohave been advertising since it
started in 1982.
And they've been in the editionannually ever since then.
(05:34):
There are others that startedtheir business after
Hendersonville Magazine beganpublishing but since they've
started they've been in themagazine every year since then.
So we've really been fortunateto have a lot of loyal clients,
you know, and a strong retentionrate.
But I think that comes from thesuccess and the benefits they
receive from the marketingpartnerships we have.
So it's been a fun ride.
(05:56):
And what's really been fun, youknow, the last 10 years is once
we got into the business andstarted publishing the two
existing magazines.
It gave us a platform to seeother opportunities where maybe
some markets were underserved.
And you know we've jumped in andwe've launched or acquired
about 10 other titles in thattime.
We've launched several newbrands, you know, in terms of
(06:19):
local media publications, thatall have a digital component as
well, with, you know, thewebsites, social media, email
newsletters, et cetera.
And then over the last severalyears there have been other
opportunities where people whomay have had one publication or
a small group of publicationshave come to us and said it's
time for me to retire or dosomething different.
Would you be interested incarrying this on?
And so it's been a good fit forour company to do that.
(06:41):
So you know, if you look backover the past decade, only two
of the titles you know wepublish today existed back then
under our group, and so thegrowth we've had has been, I
think, a testament to the goodpeople we've had working with us
who are really engaged in thecommunity, and certainly you
(07:01):
know the hundreds of businessesthat we work with across Western
North Carolina and now intoupstate South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's cool.
That's cool.
I'm going to ask you some.
I know you're a sponsor andwe'll get to the summit in a
minute and what that's about,but I want to.
I'm going to ask you thebusiness questions that I always
ask business owners, because Ithink it, I think it could be
useful for for our audience.
So listen, if you had to startover in business, what?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
would you do differently?
That sounds like an easyquestion, but mine goes a lot of
places when you ask that, Idon't have a great answer for
you.
I think I've learned thingsalong the way and adjusted as
(07:48):
I've gone and I think you knowprobably I think this plays into
what you offer through ActionCoach as well, because I've
benefited from you and ActionCoach, as I've worked with you
over the years is maybe a littlemore planning on the front end,
but I also think it's okay thatyou know sometimes you don't
(08:10):
know what you need to work onand need to plan for until you
get into it.
So I don't know that I wouldhave known what to plan for at
the very beginning.
But I would certainly adviseanyone you know plan as much as
you can on the front end, butexpect that you're going to need
to continue planning andadjusting because it doesn't
stay the same.
You know I didn't know what toask myself or what I needed to
(08:32):
find out information on 10, 12years ago and I've learned some
of that over the years and so.
But I think anybody wouldbenefit from getting the best
plan in place on the front endAt the same time, not putting it
on the back burner.
You know, continuing toproactively plan for what's next
(08:52):
and what ifs, and those kind ofthings.
I will say I probably haven'tdone as much of that and I think
you know something likeHurricane Alene is hard for
anyone to plan for or avoid, butyou know there were some
lessons that businesses learned,you know, as a result of that.
They never thought they neededto be prepared for, but they
learned.
You know that now you should be, and so you know whether it's a
(09:15):
hurricane or whether it's justa bump in business or a change
in the business climate or newopportunities or whatever.
I think being more proactiveand less reactive in planning.
You know, hindsight, I wish Iwould have done more of that
over the past 10, 12 years andsomething I continually try to
remind myself as I go forward,that you know, trying to get
ahead of the curve, more ofreally kind of driving the bus,
(09:40):
so to speak, of where we'regoing next.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Sometimes you have to , like, actually do some stuff
for a while before you canfigure out what to plan for, but
being proactive is way betterthan being reactive, for sure,
so it's.
I mean, we, you know we teachproactive strategic versus
reactive tactical.
So you know it's an interestingone.
So, yeah, I think you hit onthe next one, like what are some
(10:03):
of the bigger learnings thatyou've had over that time?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, I think From a hiring standpoint, a team
standpoint, I've noticed thatin my, in my career, when I
worked for someone else you knowa larger organization, a
newspaper group or media company, and I was in managerial role,
roles where I had responsibilityfor hiring, and you know a
larger organization a newspapergroup or a media company, and I
was in managerial roles where Ihad responsibility for, you know
, hiring and you know trainingthe divisions of my staff.
(10:34):
I think and this might've justbeen kind of coming with you
know, early age in the workingworld I shared this with someone
the other day that I used tothink that when it comes to
hiring someone, it was simplyabout you know, the most
qualified person on paper is whoyou should go for.
And I'm not saying that we'vemade mistakes in that area, but
(10:56):
what I've seen, just in generalbusiness and talking to other
business owners, that I thinksometimes there hasn't been as
much emphasis as it should havebeen on you know who's the right
fit for the team.
And the other thing I thinkI've seen is when I worked with
much larger companies thatmight've had, you know, I've
worked in newspapers that had400 people in one building.
You know, if you hire someoneat a 400, you know, and
(11:21):
everybody has a differentpersonality, different working
style, different strengths,different weaknesses, different
experiences.
Um, you know, one persondoesn't change the culture that
much of a group of 400 unlessthey're in a, you know, top
leadership position, let's say,um, but what I realized in
working with a really small teamyou know of you know we've got
(11:42):
you know roughly 10 people whoare really full-time with us and
you know 10 of you know we'vegot you know roughly 10 people
who are really full-time with usand you know 10 more that you
know do different a variety ofof jobs and tasks in our group
to help us get things done thatare on different levels of you
know part-time plans.
But especially in a kind of acore full-time team, one person
really changes the culture in asmall group and so and that not
(12:17):
that this, not that this changesit for the worst, but it can
feel different.
I've gone through stages of ouroffice environment feeling
different based on who's sittingstagnant.
It keeps you on your toes.
You realize that you knowthere's a new dynamic when
different people with differentstrengths and weaknesses, ways
of doing things, et cetera, arein the mix.
But I think it also leads toneeding to be more thoughtful
about you know.
(12:37):
You know who's the best fit forthe team right now.
You know what.
What do we need?
We went through an exerciseseveral years ago of you know
doing personality profiles anddisk profiles, and what we came
out of that with was.
There was a and I can't rememberall the you know the different
labels that are kind of titlesthat are given to those
classifications but there was akind of a gap in our team.
(13:00):
We didn't have somebody whoreally had a strong leaning
towards, you know, this profileand this is how they work and
this is what they excel in.
We had a lot of people who kindof had the opposite personality
, but we had a, you know aquadrant, so to speak, of that
disc circle that was justmissing from our team and
looking back on it, I realizednot having somebody who had that
(13:22):
work style and that mentalityand that natural leaning you
know, was really kind of holdingus back because I didn't
realize it until we broughtsomebody who had that.
Then I saw how much we improvedby having that type of person
in the company.
And so those are things youdon't think about when you're
starting off in business.
At least, I didn't for sure,but it's something I've learned
along the way.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, no, I love it, I love it.
Well, that gets into theemployment side as well.
What do you think some of thecommon misconceptions about
running a business are?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I don't know that anybody assumes it's just easy,
but I think only business ownersknow what goes into it, that
nobody else is ever going to seethe little things that you know
, at the end of the day it hasto be done by somebody and if
(14:17):
something hasn't gone well, itwasn't planned for successfully
or just wasn't executedsuccessfully, it's got to get
done.
The little things to take careof, you know, there are those
early mornings and nights andweekends and craziness behind
the scenes that I never knewexisted until I was in it.
And I just think you can'tuntil you're in it, and I think
(14:39):
the goal is to avoid that asmuch as possible.
And I know planning from yourteam can certainly help with
that.
You know, not having someonewho's doing everything and
trying to bring some order tothe systems, I think sometimes
there's no way around it.
There are going to be thingsthat just have to be done and it
a lot of times comes down tothe owner of the business to
make sure that happens.
I think it's also the, you know,it's the feeling of
responsibility because and Ithink especially gosh over the
(15:05):
last few years surviving COVID,recovering from Hurricane Helene
, you know, with larger teams atthe time.
You know, our team was biggerduring COVID than it had been,
you know, several years beforethat, as we were growing.
And then our team had gotteneven bigger over the last couple
of years, particularly with theacquisition of the Laurel of
Asheville magazine, whichpractically doubled our staff.
(15:26):
And then Hurricane Alene comesand the first thought I had,
after just the shock of what hadhappened to the area, was what
is this going to mean next andhow are things going to be
different?
What do we need to be preparedfor?
How do we take care of our team?
How do we make sure that theycontinue to have support to be
(15:50):
successful?
And you know, when you'reyou're, you're kind of the
caretaker of that, of that, Ithink.
And you know, for the employeesthemselves, for the families,
for the businesses that youserve and their clients, you
know, trying to help them grow,you definitely evolve into
having that sense ofresponsibility for everybody
(16:11):
who's part of the organizationto make sure that it's it's
serving everybody who's part ofit.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I like that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, I like that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
I think it's been easier to aswe've launched something new or
maybe acquired an existingpublication that was in the
market.
That was a good fit for us.
I think certainly just theeconomies of scale and
scalability make it easiertactically to do that.
But I think with time comes theexperience and I think trying
(16:50):
to get better every day, everyweek, every month, position the
product, how to market it, howto, you know, grow the revenue,
how to make sure it's servingclients well and doing the best
for them, I think kind of.
(17:15):
You know, from a practicalstandpoint, one of the biggest
things that has helped us herein the market is we're
publishing more magazine titlesthan anybody else in Western
North Carolina is that ourdistribution just keeps
strengthening when we add morethings to it, because it means
that we're you know we'recross-distributing one product
and another in multiplelocations.
You know so, for example, wemight work with the healthcare
(17:36):
community through our healthcareresources.
Publication and deliveringmagazines inside of those
facilities and those locationsmight also lead to expanded
distribution of another productthat makes sense to be there for
that audience.
So that has strengthened ourvisibility, our distribution
network, which, ultimately, iswhere the rubber meets the road
(17:58):
for us is getting our clients'messages into the hands of the
people they want to connect with.
That's really, at the end ofthe day, what we do, and that
has gotten better, I think, aswe've grown, because we've been
able to leverage the assets.
We have to make that stronger.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Let's switch gears a minute andtalk a little bit about it and
talk a little bit about thesummit and what's going on
business-wise in our regionright now.
So you've been a big supporterof the summit.
You've sponsored it everysingle year.
(18:35):
We've done it and first of all,I just want to say thank you
for that.
That's been a big.
You believed in it before.
A lot of people did, and so wewant to thank you for that
Enjoyable.
Why do you keep supporting theAsheville Business Summit?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, I guess you know several reasons, but you
know one is just I think it'simportant for the local business
community.
So the timing was perfect andwe were glad to be able to
(19:35):
sponsor Dan and have copiesthere at that event and, you
know, kind of helped us kick offas well and, you know, kind of
helped us kick off as well, youknow, at the same time.
So it's been good to grow, youknow, with you all, as we've
been doing the summit and beingthe media partner of that for
the last several years.
So I think you know it justobviously goes hand in hand.
We created the WNC BusinessMagazine because we realized
(19:57):
there was a gap in the markethere.
There really was no, there wasno business journal, there was
nothing that was reallyproviding helpful information,
keeping people informed of whatwas going on around the region.
And we've tried to focus notjust on Asheville.
Our WNC Business Magazine isWNC-wide, so to speak.
It's 22 counties across WesternNorth Carolina where we seek
(20:19):
news and information.
We have subscribers and clientsfrom across the region and so
it's, you know, it's beyondAsheville and we look for, you
know, what we can share from.
We really try to be as diverseas possible in terms of the
industries.
We're talking about theexamples and the, you know, the
kind of the showcase featureswe're doing on who's doing what
(20:39):
in a variety of markets indifferent geographic locations.
You know, we want to know andshare what's going on in Banner
Elk, what's going on in MaggieValley, what's going on in Tryon
or Franklin not, you know, notjust Asheville and
Hendersonville, but I think youknow connecting the audience we
have of local business owners.
(21:00):
Most of them are just smallentrepreneurs.
We also have people that wereach who are, you know, they're
not the owner of a company, butthey're the VP of sales or the
CFO or the HR director.
And I think they all belong atthe summit as well, because I
think there are lessons you canlearn, whether you're the
business owner or whether you'reworking in the business.
You know, really, at a higherlevel, you should be thinking
(21:21):
like the business owner.
Even if you're not the owner ofthe company, you should be
thinking about your division ofthe company as the business you
run.
So I think there are lessons tolearn, whether you're the owner
or whether you're a keyemployee of a company.
That's there.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, no, I love that , I love that.
And you know we called it theactual business summit because
it's in Asheville, but it serves.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, we had a we had a guy from from.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Africa last year, from Ghana, you know, come.
So yeah, we're I mean we whatone of our visions is to this
thing that people would comefrom all over the world to
Asheville to to experience andlearn business and and, uh, so
that, and so that's coming about.
So certainly we're aboutWestern North Carolina as well.
I have always thought it was agreat fit.
Now, what have you seen in the?
(22:17):
You know we had a lean.
I mean part of the deal withthe summit is like all right,
it's been about a year.
What do we do now?
Like, how do we?
You know, people have had achance to absorb it.
It's, you know, it's one ofthose impactful things of people
in our region, like where wereyou on the day?
Like it was.
There's a few events in yourlife, like where were you on the
(22:39):
day that the hurricane hit andwhat happened and how were you
impacted?
Because everyone was impacted.
And then you know what we'veseen is, you know, somewhere in
late spring, early summer, Ithink, people finally wrap their
heads around and are startingto think about all right now,
how do we use this positively?
First of all, how do we?
(23:00):
I mean, one of the things whenwe created the summit was
because it was we were comingout of COVID.
I mean, it was one of the firstevents where the big events
where you could actually gettogether and not be too scared
or you know, there were a lot ofmasks still there but you know,
one of the one of the mainfunctions of the summit is to
get people together, cause Ialways say you're probably gonna
learn more in the hallway orover lunch.
(23:21):
Then you know you're going tolearn a lot from our speakers.
We got great speakers, but youknow putting them together.
So what are you seeing like inthe marketplace around?
You know where people's headsare going now and you know how
we're going to be able to usethis as a catalyst to move
business forward in WesternNorth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, I think I've seen kind of slow but steady
improvement in the outlook andthe mindset and just kind of the
you know it's not realquantifiable but the vibes that
people have Some of the thingswe were seeing are very
quantifiable.
That people have Some of thethings we were seeing are very
quantifiable.
But I reminded our team lastyear as this happened and of
(24:08):
course you know we had we hadone team member who was really
displaced, I mean was in aremote area with a lot of damage
and gosh.
I mean they literally hadrescued people on a paddleboard
for several days and runningfood and supplies and that kind
of thing.
I mean everybody in our teamwas going through a very
different experience based onwhere they live.
This one, you know, wentthrough a lot more than the rest
of us did.
But you know, one of the firstthings we said to everybody is
(24:31):
that you know, tough times maketougher people and we've already
gone through COVID, which wasscary and uncertainty was there
and it was hard.
But I think we came outstronger from that.
And you know, one of the firstthings I thought of when Lean
happened was we've got to drawback on some of that experience
(24:52):
from COVID of what was it we did, what was it we said, how did
we behave?
That led us through it, and soI tried to, you know, remember
what worked then that we canreapply now and it still wasn't
exactly the same, but there weredefinitely some lessons.
But, you know, one of the thingswe talked about as a team back
during COVID and reemphasizedagain in Helene is that we know
there are some things we can'tcontrol.
(25:13):
We know that real things havehappened.
You know some lives have beenturned upside down, for sure,
across the region, but nothingelse really impacts us more than
what we choose to do every day.
We we've got to have themindset that we're going to
(25:43):
continue to do what we do and doit well and, you know, do it
even better than we have beforeto make sure we stay strong.
So I think what we've seen overthe past year is that you know,
early this year I think therewas certainly you know you go
through, you go through a leanand you also go through an
election year.
You know, and you have thefollow-up from the election year
(26:04):
and what's on people's mindsand what are they unsure about.
You know, in the marketplace.
But more practically speaking, Ithink we've seen some
improvement.
We've seen some pickup and somecomfort among the business
community and some optimism overthe last several months.
I've really noticed that Oneway we measure that is, you know
(26:24):
, obviously just demand for thebusiness we do with.
You know, businesses who areeither new or existing
businesses reaching out to usand saying we want to, you know,
have a marketing partnershipwith you to reach your customers
, because we're going into thismarket or we're starting a
business, or we've been here butwe want to expand, so we're
going into this market or we'restarting a business, or we've
been here but we want to expand.
So we're seeing an increase inthat, particularly over the last
(26:47):
several months.
And what we've also seen is andthis is, I think, a great
measure of the activity in themarketplace here is just the
pickup rate and the restock rateof the publications that we put
out for free all around thearea, when we started noticing a
really big uptick in the middleof summer, probably early mid
July, that things were movingfaster and there was more
(27:08):
traffic around the area thanthere had been, you know, in the
spring and in the early summer.
And we measure that in thingslike Biltmore State emailing us
every week or two saying we needmore copies of the discovery
map of Asheville, we need morecopies of the Asheville Ale
Trail, we need more copies ofthe discovery map of Asheville,
we need more copies of theAsheville L-Trail, we need more
copies of the Laurel ofAsheville.
And we get you know the similarrequests from the Asheville
Airport saying bring more ofthese, bring more of that.
The Asheville Visitor Centersaying we're out of these things
(27:29):
, we're getting busier, pleasebring more.
And so I think that's a goodsign.
You know when that activity ispicking up and we have high
demand for what we're doing,people.
That activity is picking up andwe have high demand for what
we're doing.
People are coming to the area,they're spending money, they're
still visiting here, looking atrelocation here as well, and I
(27:51):
think we've seen just localbusinesses seem to have more
optimism right now about kind ofgetting geared back up and
moving on and moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
That is very encouraging.
That is very encouraging.
So what that means for youfolks is that the summit, that's
what we're going to be talkingabout.
We're going to be talking about, like, what do you do now?
Like, how do you, how do youmove forward after something
like this?
So, yeah, is there anythingelse you'd like to say or any
(28:20):
advice you have for businessowners in our marketplace?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I think you know we all benefit when we work
together better, whether it'sjust from a networking
standpoint or sharingconnections and doing business
with each other as much as wecan standpoint, or, you know,
sharing connections and doingbusiness with each other as much
as we can.
We're very fortunate.
I think we've been doingbusiness with around 800
different clients across Westernand upstate South Carolina over
(28:49):
the last couple of years, andso our business is very diverse
in terms of the industries wereach big and small businesses
and everything in between.
We're thankful for all thosepartnerships, you know,
regardless of any size, but it'sit.
It also gives us an insightinto all these different slices
of life in the business world ofyou know, from one to another
(29:11):
around the area.
That's what I enjoy about whatwe do.
But I think you know, one of thereasons we started WNC Business
Magazine as well was because ofall those industries that we
touched through our otherpublications.
We've seen that, even though theindustries may be different, on
the back end of things thereare a lot of similar challenges,
similar questions that businessowners have, regardless of the
(29:32):
industry.
They're in similar opportunities, and running a brewery may
sound very different fromrunning a dentist's office, but
there are some things that haveto be done, no matter what kind
of business you have, and youcan still learn from each other
and I've seen that.
You know through connectionsthat we have with people and, I
think, opportunities.
Like you know what we sharethrough WNC Business Magazine
(29:53):
and through our WNC BusinessToday newsletter.
The content we publish onWNCBusinesscom is very similar
to the learning that comes fromyou know the Asheville Business
Summit of.
You know hearing some expertisefrom key speakers, but, as you
mentioned, connecting withpeople in the hallway,
connecting with people at lunchand at the vendor tables, and
(30:13):
you know talking to people inthe breaks.
Regardless of the industry,there's opportunities to learn
from each other and I'vecertainly learned things from
you know business owners thathave nothing to do with my
industry, but as you sit andtalk to them, we have a lot more
in common.
You know behind the scenes thanmost people might think.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, Like I said, the speakers are going to be
great, but this is going to beone of the biggest, best
networking opportunities in ourarea, so you're going to want to
be there.
Hey, listen.
Thanks, Brett.
We really appreciate you doingthis and getting on the podcast,
sharing your wisdom, and thankyou so much for being one of our
(30:54):
well-being the media sponsor.
That's one of our keysponsorships that we have every
year.
Well being the media sponsorthat's one of our key
sponsorships that we have everyyear.
We appreciate you and.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
WNC Magazine and your support of business here in
Western North Carolina.
Yeah, thank you for theopportunity.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
We look forward to it .
Hey, make sure you get thosetickets, and until next time,
all the best.
Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic
Entrepreneurs.
I'm Bill Gilliland, your host,and I am also the principal at
Action Coach, business GrowthPartners and one of the founders
of the Asheville BusinessSummit.
Speaking of the AshevilleBusiness Summit, our guest today
is one of the sponsors.
But before we get there, I wantto remind you hey, it's not too
(00:25):
late, you can still get ticketsto this major event that we're
having in Asheville.
Just go to WNCSummitcom.
Wncsummitcom and all theinformation is there the
schedule, the whole deal and howto get tickets, the sponsors,
everything is there.
Just check it out.
W?
(00:45):
Wncsummitcom Today I'm superpumped to talk to my friend,
brett Holsey.
Now.
He owns one of our majorsponsors, which is called the
WNC Business Magazine, and it'spart of a large organization
that he owns called the HolseyMedia Group and he's got a
number of publications in there.
(01:05):
So, brett, welcome to thepodcast.
Yeah, thanks, bill.
Yeah, tell us a little bitabout you and Holsey Media and
the WNC Business Magazine.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yeah, thank you.
We have been in business nowunder Holsey Media for, I guess,
going into 11th going on 12years now under Holsey Media,
for, I guess, going into 11thgoing on 12 years now.
And we're really a continuationof a previous company, the
Fisher Publications, based inHendersonville, with a
publishing history that goes allthe way back to 1982, when
(01:36):
Hendersonville Magazine wasstarted.
So the products that we have inour group with Holsey Media the
magazine titles a couple ofthem are older than our company.
Really, you know they werearound and then we acquired them
back in 2014 and formed HolseyMedia.
But myself I'm a I guess I'lluse the word veteran now because
(01:56):
I'm getting older.
I think I've been in in localmedia now for almost 30 years,
starting back to my college days, when I was at the University
of Alabama and started workingat the Crimson White student
newspaper, and that's how I gotinto this business, and I wasn't
really studying that industryin college at all, but as a
(02:18):
part-time job it actually led toa career that I never expected.
So I've always been thankfulfor that opportunity, for sure,
and it's opened a lot of doorsfor me and given me a lot of
good experience.
But originally.
I moved to the Asheville areabeginning of 2001 and worked at
the Asheville Citizen Timesnewspaper.
I was there for a couple ofyears and then moved to a couple
(02:39):
of different newspaper groupsin the eastern part of North
Carolina and up and just overthe line in Tennessee different
newspaper groups in the easternpart of North Carolina and up
and just over the line inTennessee and I was on the
digital side of the newspaperindustry for over a decade.
Most recently I worked as thevice president of digital
strategy and development with agroup called Jones Media at the
time that published communitynewspapers throughout eastern
(03:01):
Tennessee and as well as up inthe Boone and Blowing Rock
Banner Elk area in NorthCarolina and ran their digital
division for about seven oreight years.
But we'd always wanted to comeback to the Asheville
Hendersonville area.
My wife and I had and we'dstarted off here and always kind
of looking for opportunities toget back here.
Through mutual colleagues inthe newspaper world I was able
(03:22):
to connect with Joni Fisher whohad Fisher Publications in
Hendersonville and she hadpublished Hendersonville
Magazine and HealthcareResources of Western North
Carolina for many years andfortunately it worked out as a
good opportunity for us to comeback and acquire those
publications and start growingfrom there.
I always tell people you knowthe story about getting into
(03:45):
that.
It was a question I had waswhat is the future of magazines?
I mean, I'd worked for over adecade, as I mentioned, on the
digital side of the publishingworld and everything seemed to
be going digital, kind ofdrinking Kool-Aid every day,
read all the headlines.
And certainly digital haschanged a lot of how media
functions and how people consumeinformation.
(04:06):
No doubt about that.
But I was pleasantly surprisedthat magazines still have a life
and it's a different reason whyI think people would use them
and I think there's a lot ofmisunderstanding about how media
works and how consumers behave.
But I've kind of seen firsthandover the past 10, 12 years.
You know what really happensand so that's part of our story
(04:29):
is that you know we share withpeople that you know.
As I was kind of kicking thetires on the company looking to
buy the magazines, my biggestquestion was how long will I be
able to do this for?
Will these, you know, continueto be strong or are they just
eventually going to fade away?
And you know the thing thatgave us confidence in moving
forward with buying those twomagazines at the time and then
(04:50):
afterwards starting otherpublications, is we see that
they're being picked up and used.
And they're being picked up by,I think, highly qualified
consumers who are very engagedand they're actively looking for
information which really makesthem a shopper.
They're on the hunt forinformation as they use our
publications really, and youknow we saw firsthand, you know,
as this market has grown andboomed and you know tourism has
(05:13):
always been a major influencehere.
Relocation here as well, youknow.
Healthy economy, really diverseeconomy.
You know we find that we keepputting magazines out and people
keep picking them up and ourclients have been with us for
many years now and there aresome people who are advertising
in Hendersonville Magazine whohave been advertising since it
started in 1982.
And they've been in the editionannually ever since then.
(05:34):
There are others that startedtheir business after
Hendersonville Magazine beganpublishing but since they've
started they've been in themagazine every year since then.
So we've really been fortunateto have a lot of loyal clients,
you know, and a strong retentionrate.
But I think that comes from thesuccess and the benefits they
receive from the marketingpartnerships we have.
So it's been a fun ride.
(05:56):
And what's really been fun, youknow, the last 10 years is once
we got into the business andstarted publishing the two
existing magazines.
It gave us a platform to seeother opportunities where maybe
some markets were underserved.
And you know we've jumped in andwe've launched or acquired
about 10 other titles in thattime.
We've launched several newbrands, you know, in terms of
(06:19):
local media publications, thatall have a digital component as
well, with, you know, thewebsites, social media, email
newsletters, et cetera.
And then over the last severalyears there have been other
opportunities where people whomay have had one publication or
a small group of publicationshave come to us and said it's
time for me to retire or dosomething different.
Would you be interested incarrying this on?
And so it's been a good fit forour company to do that.
(06:41):
So you know, if you look backover the past decade, only two
of the titles you know wepublish today existed back then
under our group, and so thegrowth we've had has been, I
think, a testament to the goodpeople we've had working with us
who are really engaged in thecommunity, and certainly you
(07:01):
know the hundreds of businessesthat we work with across Western
North Carolina and now intoupstate South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
That's cool.
That's cool.
I'm going to ask you some.
I know you're a sponsor andwe'll get to the summit in a
minute and what that's about,but I want to.
I'm going to ask you thebusiness questions that I always
ask business owners, because Ithink it, I think it could be
useful for for our audience.
So listen, if you had to startover in business, what?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
would you do differently?
That sounds like an easyquestion, but mine goes a lot of
places when you ask that, Idon't have a great answer for
you.
I think I've learned thingsalong the way and adjusted as
(07:48):
I've gone and I think you knowprobably I think this plays into
what you offer through ActionCoach as well, because I've
benefited from you and ActionCoach, as I've worked with you
over the years is maybe a littlemore planning on the front end,
but I also think it's okay thatyou know sometimes you don't
(08:10):
know what you need to work onand need to plan for until you
get into it.
So I don't know that I wouldhave known what to plan for at
the very beginning.
But I would certainly adviseanyone you know plan as much as
you can on the front end, butexpect that you're going to need
to continue planning andadjusting because it doesn't
stay the same.
You know I didn't know what toask myself or what I needed to
(08:32):
find out information on 10, 12years ago and I've learned some
of that over the years and so.
But I think anybody wouldbenefit from getting the best
plan in place on the front endAt the same time, not putting it
on the back burner.
You know, continuing toproactively plan for what's next
(08:52):
and what ifs, and those kind ofthings.
I will say I probably haven'tdone as much of that and I think
you know something likeHurricane Alene is hard for
anyone to plan for or avoid, butyou know there were some
lessons that businesses learned,you know, as a result of that.
They never thought they neededto be prepared for, but they
learned.
You know that now you should be, and so you know whether it's a
(09:15):
hurricane or whether it's justa bump in business or a change
in the business climate or newopportunities or whatever.
I think being more proactiveand less reactive in planning.
You know, hindsight, I wish Iwould have done more of that
over the past 10, 12 years andsomething I continually try to
remind myself as I go forward,that you know, trying to get
ahead of the curve, more ofreally kind of driving the bus,
(09:40):
so to speak, of where we'regoing next.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Sometimes you have to , like, actually do some stuff
for a while before you canfigure out what to plan for, but
being proactive is way betterthan being reactive, for sure,
so it's.
I mean, we, you know we teachproactive strategic versus
reactive tactical.
So you know it's an interestingone.
So, yeah, I think you hit onthe next one, like what are some
(10:03):
of the bigger learnings thatyou've had over that time?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
You know, I think From a hiring standpoint, a team
standpoint, I've noticed thatin my, in my career, when I
worked for someone else you knowa larger organization, a
newspaper group or media company, and I was in managerial role,
roles where I had responsibilityfor hiring, and you know a
larger organization a newspapergroup or a media company, and I
was in managerial roles where Ihad responsibility for, you know
, hiring and you know trainingthe divisions of my staff.
(10:34):
I think and this might've justbeen kind of coming with you
know, early age in the workingworld I shared this with someone
the other day that I used tothink that when it comes to
hiring someone, it was simplyabout you know, the most
qualified person on paper is whoyou should go for.
And I'm not saying that we'vemade mistakes in that area, but
(10:56):
what I've seen, just in generalbusiness and talking to other
business owners, that I thinksometimes there hasn't been as
much emphasis as it should havebeen on you know who's the right
fit for the team.
And the other thing I thinkI've seen is when I worked with
much larger companies thatmight've had, you know, I've
worked in newspapers that had400 people in one building.
You know, if you hire someoneat a 400, you know, and
(11:21):
everybody has a differentpersonality, different working
style, different strengths,different weaknesses, different
experiences.
Um, you know, one persondoesn't change the culture that
much of a group of 400 unlessthey're in a, you know, top
leadership position, let's say,um, but what I realized in
working with a really small teamyou know of you know we've got
(11:42):
you know roughly 10 people whoare really full-time with us and
you know 10 of you know we'vegot you know roughly 10 people
who are really full-time with usand you know 10 more that you
know do different a variety ofof jobs and tasks in our group
to help us get things done thatare on different levels of you
know part-time plans.
But especially in a kind of acore full-time team, one person
really changes the culture in asmall group and so and that not
(12:17):
that this, not that this changesit for the worst, but it can
feel different.
I've gone through stages of ouroffice environment feeling
different based on who's sittingstagnant.
It keeps you on your toes.
You realize that you knowthere's a new dynamic when
different people with differentstrengths and weaknesses, ways
of doing things, et cetera, arein the mix.
But I think it also leads toneeding to be more thoughtful
about you know.
(12:37):
You know who's the best fit forthe team right now.
You know what.
What do we need?
We went through an exerciseseveral years ago of you know
doing personality profiles anddisk profiles, and what we came
out of that with was.
There was a and I can't rememberall the you know the different
labels that are kind of titlesthat are given to those
classifications but there was akind of a gap in our team.
(13:00):
We didn't have somebody whoreally had a strong leaning
towards, you know, this profileand this is how they work and
this is what they excel in.
We had a lot of people who kindof had the opposite personality
, but we had a, you know aquadrant, so to speak, of that
disc circle that was justmissing from our team and
looking back on it, I realizednot having somebody who had that
(13:22):
work style and that mentalityand that natural leaning you
know, was really kind of holdingus back because I didn't
realize it until we broughtsomebody who had that.
Then I saw how much we improvedby having that type of person
in the company.
And so those are things youdon't think about when you're
starting off in business.
At least, I didn't for sure,but it's something I've learned
along the way.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Yeah, no, I love it, I love it.
Well, that gets into theemployment side as well.
What do you think some of thecommon misconceptions about
running a business are?
Speaker 2 (13:56):
I don't know that anybody assumes it's just easy,
but I think only business ownersknow what goes into it, that
nobody else is ever going to seethe little things that you know
, at the end of the day it hasto be done by somebody and if
(14:17):
something hasn't gone well, itwasn't planned for successfully
or just wasn't executedsuccessfully, it's got to get
done.
The little things to take careof, you know, there are those
early mornings and nights andweekends and craziness behind
the scenes that I never knewexisted until I was in it.
And I just think you can'tuntil you're in it, and I think
(14:39):
the goal is to avoid that asmuch as possible.
And I know planning from yourteam can certainly help with
that.
You know, not having someonewho's doing everything and
trying to bring some order tothe systems, I think sometimes
there's no way around it.
There are going to be thingsthat just have to be done and it
a lot of times comes down tothe owner of the business to
make sure that happens.
I think it's also the, you know,it's the feeling of
responsibility because and Ithink especially gosh over the
(15:05):
last few years surviving COVID,recovering from Hurricane Helene
, you know, with larger teams atthe time.
You know, our team was biggerduring COVID than it had been,
you know, several years beforethat, as we were growing.
And then our team had gotteneven bigger over the last couple
of years, particularly with theacquisition of the Laurel of
Asheville magazine, whichpractically doubled our staff.
(15:26):
And then Hurricane Alene comesand the first thought I had,
after just the shock of what hadhappened to the area, was what
is this going to mean next andhow are things going to be
different?
What do we need to be preparedfor?
How do we take care of our team?
How do we make sure that theycontinue to have support to be
(15:50):
successful?
And you know, when you'reyou're, you're kind of the
caretaker of that, of that, Ithink.
And you know, for the employeesthemselves, for the families,
for the businesses that youserve and their clients, you
know, trying to help them grow,you definitely evolve into
having that sense ofresponsibility for everybody
(16:11):
who's part of the organizationto make sure that it's it's
serving everybody who's part ofit.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, I like that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, I like that.
So what do you attribute yourgrowth to?
I think it's been easier to aswe've launched something new or
maybe acquired an existingpublication that was in the
market.
That was a good fit for us.
I think certainly just theeconomies of scale and
scalability make it easiertactically to do that.
But I think with time comes theexperience and I think trying
(16:50):
to get better every day, everyweek, every month, position the
product, how to market it, howto, you know, grow the revenue,
how to make sure it's servingclients well and doing the best
for them, I think kind of.
(17:15):
You know, from a practicalstandpoint, one of the biggest
things that has helped us herein the market is we're
publishing more magazine titlesthan anybody else in Western
North Carolina is that ourdistribution just keeps
strengthening when we add morethings to it, because it means
that we're you know we'recross-distributing one product
and another in multiplelocations.
You know so, for example, wemight work with the healthcare
(17:36):
community through our healthcareresources.
Publication and deliveringmagazines inside of those
facilities and those locationsmight also lead to expanded
distribution of another productthat makes sense to be there for
that audience.
So that has strengthened ourvisibility, our distribution
network, which, ultimately, iswhere the rubber meets the road
(17:58):
for us is getting our clients'messages into the hands of the
people they want to connect with.
That's really, at the end ofthe day, what we do, and that
has gotten better, I think, aswe've grown, because we've been
able to leverage the assets.
We have to make that stronger.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's awesome.
Let's switch gears a minute andtalk a little bit about it and
talk a little bit about thesummit and what's going on
business-wise in our regionright now.
So you've been a big supporterof the summit.
You've sponsored it everysingle year.
(18:35):
We've done it and first of all,I just want to say thank you
for that.
That's been a big.
You believed in it before.
A lot of people did, and so wewant to thank you for that
Enjoyable.
Why do you keep supporting theAsheville Business Summit?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, I guess you know several reasons, but you
know one is just I think it'simportant for the local business
community.
So the timing was perfect andwe were glad to be able to
(19:35):
sponsor Dan and have copiesthere at that event and, you
know, kind of helped us kick offas well and, you know, kind of
helped us kick off as well, youknow, at the same time.
So it's been good to grow, youknow, with you all, as we've
been doing the summit and beingthe media partner of that for
the last several years.
So I think you know it justobviously goes hand in hand.
We created the WNC BusinessMagazine because we realized
(19:57):
there was a gap in the markethere.
There really was no, there wasno business journal, there was
nothing that was reallyproviding helpful information,
keeping people informed of whatwas going on around the region.
And we've tried to focus notjust on Asheville.
Our WNC Business Magazine isWNC-wide, so to speak.
It's 22 counties across WesternNorth Carolina where we seek
(20:19):
news and information.
We have subscribers and clientsfrom across the region and so
it's, you know, it's beyondAsheville and we look for, you
know, what we can share from.
We really try to be as diverseas possible in terms of the
industries.
We're talking about theexamples and the, you know, the
kind of the showcase featureswe're doing on who's doing what
(20:39):
in a variety of markets indifferent geographic locations.
You know, we want to know andshare what's going on in Banner
Elk, what's going on in MaggieValley, what's going on in Tryon
or Franklin not, you know, notjust Asheville and
Hendersonville, but I think youknow connecting the audience we
have of local business owners.
(21:00):
Most of them are just smallentrepreneurs.
We also have people that wereach who are, you know, they're
not the owner of a company, butthey're the VP of sales or the
CFO or the HR director.
And I think they all belong atthe summit as well, because I
think there are lessons you canlearn, whether you're the
business owner or whether you'reworking in the business.
You know, really, at a higherlevel, you should be thinking
(21:21):
like the business owner.
Even if you're not the owner ofthe company, you should be
thinking about your division ofthe company as the business you
run.
So I think there are lessons tolearn, whether you're the owner
or whether you're a keyemployee of a company.
That's there.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, no, I love that , I love that.
And you know we called it theactual business summit because
it's in Asheville, but it serves.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I mean, we had a we had a guy from from.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Africa last year, from Ghana, you know, come.
So yeah, we're I mean we whatone of our visions is to this
thing that people would comefrom all over the world to
Asheville to to experience andlearn business and and, uh, so
that, and so that's coming about.
So certainly we're aboutWestern North Carolina as well.
I have always thought it was agreat fit.
Now, what have you seen in the?
(22:17):
You know we had a lean.
I mean part of the deal withthe summit is like all right,
it's been about a year.
What do we do now?
Like, how do we?
You know, people have had achance to absorb it.
It's, you know, it's one ofthose impactful things of people
in our region, like where wereyou on the day?
Like it was.
There's a few events in yourlife, like where were you on the
(22:39):
day that the hurricane hit andwhat happened and how were you
impacted?
Because everyone was impacted.
And then you know what we'veseen is, you know, somewhere in
late spring, early summer, Ithink, people finally wrap their
heads around and are startingto think about all right now,
how do we use this positively?
First of all, how do we?
(23:00):
I mean, one of the things whenwe created the summit was
because it was we were comingout of COVID.
I mean, it was one of the firstevents where the big events
where you could actually gettogether and not be too scared
or you know, there were a lot ofmasks still there but you know,
one of the one of the mainfunctions of the summit is to
get people together, cause Ialways say you're probably gonna
learn more in the hallway orover lunch.
(23:21):
Then you know you're going tolearn a lot from our speakers.
We got great speakers, but youknow putting them together.
So what are you seeing like inthe marketplace around?
You know where people's headsare going now and you know how
we're going to be able to usethis as a catalyst to move
business forward in WesternNorth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
Yeah, I think I've seen kind of slow but steady
improvement in the outlook andthe mindset and just kind of the
you know it's not realquantifiable but the vibes that
people have Some of the thingswe were seeing are very
quantifiable.
That people have Some of thethings we were seeing are very
quantifiable.
But I reminded our team lastyear as this happened and of
(24:08):
course you know we had we hadone team member who was really
displaced, I mean was in aremote area with a lot of damage
and gosh.
I mean they literally hadrescued people on a paddleboard
for several days and runningfood and supplies and that kind
of thing.
I mean everybody in our teamwas going through a very
different experience based onwhere they live.
This one, you know, wentthrough a lot more than the rest
of us did.
But you know, one of the firstthings we said to everybody is
(24:31):
that you know, tough times maketougher people and we've already
gone through COVID, which wasscary and uncertainty was there
and it was hard.
But I think we came outstronger from that.
And you know, one of the firstthings I thought of when Lean
happened was we've got to drawback on some of that experience
(24:52):
from COVID of what was it we did, what was it we said, how did
we behave?
That led us through it, and soI tried to, you know, remember
what worked then that we canreapply now and it still wasn't
exactly the same, but there weredefinitely some lessons.
But, you know, one of the thingswe talked about as a team back
during COVID and reemphasizedagain in Helene is that we know
there are some things we can'tcontrol.
(25:13):
We know that real things havehappened.
You know some lives have beenturned upside down, for sure,
across the region, but nothingelse really impacts us more than
what we choose to do every day.
We we've got to have themindset that we're going to
(25:43):
continue to do what we do and doit well and, you know, do it
even better than we have beforeto make sure we stay strong.
So I think what we've seen overthe past year is that you know,
early this year I think therewas certainly you know you go
through, you go through a leanand you also go through an
election year.
You know, and you have thefollow-up from the election year
(26:04):
and what's on people's mindsand what are they unsure about.
You know, in the marketplace.
But more practically speaking, Ithink we've seen some
improvement.
We've seen some pickup and somecomfort among the business
community and some optimism overthe last several months.
I've really noticed that Oneway we measure that is, you know
(26:24):
, obviously just demand for thebusiness we do with.
You know, businesses who areeither new or existing
businesses reaching out to usand saying we want to, you know,
have a marketing partnershipwith you to reach your customers
, because we're going into thismarket or we're starting a
business, or we've been here butwe want to expand, so we're
going into this market or we'restarting a business, or we've
been here but we want to expand.
So we're seeing an increase inthat, particularly over the last
(26:47):
several months.
And what we've also seen is andthis is, I think, a great
measure of the activity in themarketplace here is just the
pickup rate and the restock rateof the publications that we put
out for free all around thearea, when we started noticing a
really big uptick in the middleof summer, probably early mid
July, that things were movingfaster and there was more
(27:08):
traffic around the area thanthere had been, you know, in the
spring and in the early summer.
And we measure that in thingslike Biltmore State emailing us
every week or two saying we needmore copies of the discovery
map of Asheville, we need morecopies of the Asheville Ale
Trail, we need more copies ofthe discovery map of Asheville,
we need more copies of theAsheville L-Trail, we need more
copies of the Laurel ofAsheville.
And we get you know the similarrequests from the Asheville
Airport saying bring more ofthese, bring more of that.
The Asheville Visitor Centersaying we're out of these things
(27:29):
, we're getting busier, pleasebring more.
And so I think that's a goodsign.
You know when that activity ispicking up and we have high
demand for what we're doing,people.
That activity is picking up andwe have high demand for what
we're doing.
People are coming to the area,they're spending money, they're
still visiting here, looking atrelocation here as well, and I
(27:51):
think we've seen just localbusinesses seem to have more
optimism right now about kind ofgetting geared back up and
moving on and moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, I love that.
I love that.
That is very encouraging.
That is very encouraging.
So what that means for youfolks is that the summit, that's
what we're going to be talkingabout.
We're going to be talking about, like, what do you do now?
Like, how do you, how do youmove forward after something
like this?
So, yeah, is there anythingelse you'd like to say or any
(28:20):
advice you have for businessowners in our marketplace?
Speaker 2 (28:29):
I think you know we all benefit when we work
together better, whether it'sjust from a networking
standpoint or sharingconnections and doing business
with each other as much as wecan standpoint, or, you know,
sharing connections and doingbusiness with each other as much
as we can.
We're very fortunate.
I think we've been doingbusiness with around 800
different clients across Westernand upstate South Carolina over
(28:49):
the last couple of years, andso our business is very diverse
in terms of the industries wereach big and small businesses
and everything in between.
We're thankful for all thosepartnerships, you know,
regardless of any size, but it'sit.
It also gives us an insightinto all these different slices
of life in the business world ofyou know, from one to another
(29:11):
around the area.
That's what I enjoy about whatwe do.
But I think you know, one of thereasons we started WNC Business
Magazine as well was because ofall those industries that we
touched through our otherpublications.
We've seen that, even though theindustries may be different, on
the back end of things thereare a lot of similar challenges,
similar questions that businessowners have, regardless of the
(29:32):
industry.
They're in similar opportunities, and running a brewery may
sound very different fromrunning a dentist's office, but
there are some things that haveto be done, no matter what kind
of business you have, and youcan still learn from each other
and I've seen that.
You know through connectionsthat we have with people and, I
think, opportunities.
Like you know what we sharethrough WNC Business Magazine
(29:53):
and through our WNC BusinessToday newsletter.
The content we publish onWNCBusinesscom is very similar
to the learning that comes fromyou know the Asheville Business
Summit of.
You know hearing some expertisefrom key speakers, but, as you
mentioned, connecting withpeople in the hallway,
connecting with people at lunchand at the vendor tables, and
(30:13):
you know talking to people inthe breaks.
Regardless of the industry,there's opportunities to learn
from each other and I'vecertainly learned things from
you know business owners thathave nothing to do with my
industry, but as you sit andtalk to them, we have a lot more
in common.
You know behind the scenes thanmost people might think.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Yeah, Like I said, the speakers are going to be
great, but this is going to beone of the biggest, best
networking opportunities in ourarea, so you're going to want to
be there.
Hey, listen.
Thanks, Brett.
We really appreciate you doingthis and getting on the podcast,
sharing your wisdom, and thankyou so much for being one of our
(30:54):
well-being the media sponsor.
That's one of our keysponsorships that we have every
year.
Well being the media sponsorthat's one of our key
sponsorships that we have everyyear.
We appreciate you and.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
WNC Magazine and your support of business here in
Western North Carolina.
Yeah, thank you for theopportunity.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
We look forward to it .
Hey, make sure you get thosetickets, and until next time,
all the best.
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