Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael OBrien. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I publish a magazine that appeals to a very narrow, locally concentrated audience: members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (artists formerly known as The Mormons!) The area in which we distribute the magazine was at one time predominantly populated by this group. As the region’s population has grown, predominance has faded. The mission of The Arizona Beehive Magazine two-fold: to help maintain a sense of community amongst members of the Church, tying our readers together by featuring content interesting to, but not necessarily occupied by, this group, and to create a positive presence about this group to people who are not members of this church. We do that by creating lifestyle content about people to meet, places to go, things to do, businesses to patronize, events and attractions to attend. We also include some religious content as well.
Nearly everyone working on the magazine is a member of this church, though that is not a requirement of involvement. Content is considered and presented by a team of writers who live, work and play in the community. The magazine is distributed where members of this church live, work, and play.
Our mission is meaningful to me as I understand the misconceptions about and hostility sometimes shown to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members. (Periodically magazine displays or stacks of magazines are vandalized or thrown in the trash because of this.) With education (hopefully) comes understanding. The Arizona Beehive Magazine helps people to understand the Latter-day Saint lifestyle and supports that lifestyle, simultaneously.
Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been a professional sales person since I was 22 years old. I started in the professional beauty industry, selling beauty products to beauty salons. I engaged in route sales, maintaining existing clients and prospecting for new clients. Service was more important than acquisition.
From field sales I became a regional sales manager, and ultimately Sales Director leading sales managers and their sales people in the western United States. I also worked in the marketing department of this same company where I learned the importance of branding and how to effectively create and promote a brand. The company was sold and the team in the marketing department was dismissed. This same team started a new independent marketing and graphic design company, which began producing a regional lifestyle magazine. I’ve worked as the primary advertising sales person and now sales manager for this organization for the past 17 years.
It was at this company that I learned my print advertising skills. And where I gained the courage to purchase The Arizona Beehive Magazine. I still work for my original company while owning and operating my own magazine.
Print advertising is now a strange beast. In a digital world that very quickly broke up with hard copy, people are returning to the peace and quiet of reading content from paper. Paper does not have pop up ads, or email/text notifications. It is tactile and concrete and real. And people are realizing that such things are missing and are important in their lives. Reading a book or a magazine is now a luxury. As a result, The Arizona Beehive is involved in the digital world – our magazine can be read cover to cover on issuu.com. But we are primarily a print vehicle. And our advertisers who fund 98% of our operation look to reach our audience with print ads.
Another fascinating thing about print advertisements: people chose to engage with print ads. They don’t pop up on a page of paper like they do on a digital screen. And they don’t interrupt a television program right at the best part. In a magazine, print ads tell as much about the goings-on in a community as do the articles. I often hear “I read your magazine cover to cover and I look at all the ads!” I have never once heard anyone exclaim “I scroll through every page of (insert name of) website and I click on all the ads that pop up while doing so!” People engage with print ads.
The main thing that sets The Arizona Beehive Magazine apart from any other print (or digital) publication is that we are the only media in our area that exclusively caters to our target audience. To reach members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Phoenix, Arizona area from a business, PR, or content standpoint, The Arizona Beehive Magazine is the only way to do so.
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
I purchased the Arizona Beehive from the original owners. After working as an advertising salesperson for the magazine, and seeing that owners living outside of the area could not effectively manage and grow the business, I offered to buy the business from them. I believed in the business and felt I could operate and grow it more effectively as I live in the area in which the magazine is published and distributed.
Once I let the owners know that I was interested in acquiring the business we negotiated a price. I paid for the business over time, using company revenue to make payments against the purchase price.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Two things I do to effectively “manage” morale on a sales team: Be genuinely interested in them and their success, and involve them in bigger picture aspects of the company, where appropriate.
Salespeople are front line people. They directly interact with company customers and should have a say in company direction, especially from a product creation and production standpoint. Companies that listen to their clients needs conveyed via company sales people vs guessing what their clients want succeed much more than companies that do the opposite.
When salespeople see that their input matters and is actually implemented, they tend to believe in their company more and take more ownership of the business they conduct for the company. It’s very simple: Treat people like people, like the way they want to be treated, and they will respond with production and be happy in their career.
Contact Info:
- Website: arizonabeehivemagazine.com
- Instagram: @the_arizona
- Facebook: @BeehiveNews
- Other: https://issuu.com/search?q=the+arizona+beehive+magazine
Image Credits
All photos courtesy of The Arizona Beehive Magazine