People ask me every day—ok, not every day, but at least every third day or so—how I came to publish Unleash Jacksonville. They have other fun questions as well: Is it a franchise? How did you know how to publish a magazine—you … a blonde. How many employees does Unleash have? Can I work for you? The answer to all those questions is no.
Wait. That’s too simple and it doesn’t make sense. Maybe I should use our first blog post to pull back the dog hair so you can get to know us better. It’s time. It’s time.
Is Unleash a franchise? Ok. No seems to make sense for this one. Unleash is original to Jacksonville! Aren’t we all lucky? I birthed a magazine called Beach Unleash back in 2014 directly from my brain onto slick pages of recycled paper with eco-friendly ink. I had tried to start several businesses in the past, but had only gotten so far with them before hitting a wall with “I don’t really want to do this” graffiti scrawled all over it. One day I looked at my facebook page and noticed it was all dogs. Dogs that needed homes, dog videos, my dogs … It appeared I had an affinity, if not a passion—for dogs. I had a strong desire to help. I thought, if I could just help get the word out about shelter dogs, especially those who didn’t get exposure or who’d been homeless for a long time, I would be fulfilling my purpose.
I started to put together a plan. I had a degree in creative writing, I had been designing various magazines for the past 15 years—none of which I felt a true connection to, and I had a strong pull toward animal photography. I could do this! Could I do this? I had to try. While working part time at a publisher in Ponte Vedra, and also designing another magazine all freelance style, I began to put together the first issue of Beach Unleash. And that is the story of the beginning.
People ask how many employees we have at Unleash. The answer is 5. There’s King George I, our trusty editor; Barklie, The Assistant of Nothing (who is in charge of nothing but she looks cute every single day); Lulu, who’s in charge of grounds security; Deb and Jessie, who help people find opportunities to get the word out about their businesses through Unleash (aka ad sales). We mostly get our editorial through community submission, as one of Unleash’s goals is to have a varied voice. Nobody wants to hear me talk all day long.
Can you work for Unleash? Well, the answer to that is maybe! We’re always looking for good ad sales people. But currently, we have the rest covered, unless you have some time to volunteer. We are flattered you want to work with us, though! That means a lot. Hopefully we will just keep growing and expanding and we can one day have a water cooler surrounded by people chatting about Game of Thrones or whatever the kids are watching these days.
I think that’s about enough for now, what do you say? We all have other things to do today. Thanks for being a person who cares and thanks for reading.
Time to unleash.
Unleash Jacksonville ... The Blog 