Serenbe Stories

Naturally Stylish & Sustainable with Danny Seo

July 06, 2020 Serenbe / Danny Seo Season 3 Episode 10
Serenbe Stories
Naturally Stylish & Sustainable with Danny Seo
Show Notes Transcript

Danny Seo is known for his national magazine and Emmy awarding winning TV show both named "Naturally, Danny Seo". Danny believes life should be naturally delicious, naturally beautiful and naturally easy, all presented with style and sustainability. Today we talk about his start as an Earth Day activist at 12 years old, how he became known as the sustainable Martha Stewart, when a postcard got him onto the Oprah show and using donated paper as a negotiating tool. We hope you enjoy this final episode of Season 3 of Serenbe Stories.

Mentioned In The Episode 

Earth 2000 - The non-profit organization Danny started when he was 12 years old. By 18, he’d transformed it into the country’s largest teenage activist charity.

Earth Day

Generation React: Activism for Beginners - Danny’s first book

Mohawk Paper - Gave Danny their product for free so he could start his namesake magazine Naturally, Danny Seo

Naturally, Danny Seo House at Serenbe

Naturally, Danny Seo Magazine

Naturally, Danny Seo TV Show

Simmons Natural Care by Danny Seo - Danny’s mattress collection with Atlanta-based Simmons Mattress Company. He first visited Serenbe in the early 2000s to do video and photo promotions for this line. 

Alternative-Lifestyle Guru Danny Seo, Doing Very Well By Doing Good - The Washington Post article dubbed Danny “the green Martha Stewart”

Monica Olsen (1s):
Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, Building a Biophilic Movement, was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it. Every other week Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living, social, and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations. More often than not, nature has the answers. You can find Biophilic Solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us today so you don't miss an episode.

Monica Olsen (41s):
All right, now let's get back to Serenbe Stories. Serenbe is a place where people live, work, learn, and play in celebration of life's beauty. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other and to nature. This is Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 10s):
<inaudible> Seo is known for his national magazine and Emmy award-winning TV show, both named Naturally, Danny Seo. Danny believes life should be naturally delicious, naturally beautiful, and naturally easy. All presented with style and sustainability. Today, we talk with him about his start as an earth day activist at 12 years old, how he became known as sustainable Martha Stewart, when a postcard got him onto the Oprah show and using donated paper as a negotiating tool, we hope you enjoy this final episode of season three of Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 54s):
But first, Serenbe Stories is brought to you by The Inn at Serenbe. The Inn is nestled in the rolling countryside at bucolic Serenbe, where guests can walk on the 15 miles of trails through preserved forest land, the wildflower meadow, and the animal village. You can relax by the pool, hot tub, or in rocking chairs on the wraparound porch. Play on the croquet lawn, swings, and in-ground trampolines. Connect with nature and each other all while staying in luxurious rooms on The Inn grounds or within the community of Serenbe. Book your stay today at serenbeinn.com. So I want to welcome everybody back to Serenbe Stories. Today, today we have Danny SEO of naturally magazine and the famous TV show that he won many Emmys for welcome Danny.

Monica Olsen (2m 35s):
Oh one Emmy, but we wish you'd been nominated for a bunch of them. I believe

Danny Seo (2m 39s):
When two losses take that statue to the grave with me, I love it, but I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me guys decide to have

Steve Nygren (2m 47s):
You here. Yeah. This will be fun to see you. Yeah. I don't know what it is, but

Monica Olsen (2m 57s):
Danny tell us we've known you for so long now, but what, how long have we known you ages? And also prior to you being good friends with Steve and I, you came to Serenbe and did a photo shoot. I think I was

Danny Seo (3m 10s):
Here. Gosh, more than 10 years ago. I took, I think even further along where I didn't know you, Steve, I didn't know what the community was about, but the Semen's mattress company based here in Atlanta, they rented out. Do you remember this? Cause it was like, there was just like the Daisy couple of buildings,

Steve Nygren (3m 31s):
But you did most of the shoot over at the end. And Dan and

Danny Seo (3m 34s):
I filmed a commercial and we rented

Steve Nygren (3m 36s):
Out the out the lake house or something. We did, you totally

Danny Seo (3m 38s):
Remember this. And I was launching a mattress collection with them and they found this amazing location. And I stayed here and was like, what is this place? And then I forgot about it. And then years later we reconnected when I was launching the magazine. And, and then I remembered, I was like, oh my gosh, I've been here. I totally it's like, it's all the evolution.

Monica Olsen (4m 3s):
And I think we were in your second issue possibly

Danny Seo (4m 7s):
In two thousand fourteen thousand fourteen. Okay. And, and that's, it was something that just made sort of, part of the actually Serenbe was sort of part of the magazine's DNA. So with this magazine created more than five years ago, I just had this idea that, you know, sustainability and the environment, it wasn't this niche thing anymore. It was so mainstream. And it wasn't a question of like, if you want it to live with wellness, if you wanted to live green, it was more like, how are you doing it? Because we're all trying to strive to do it. I said, it's how you naturally do it. You just sort of have this intuitive sense where it's like, you naturally do it. And so the map originally, the magazine was just called naturally and the departments were like naturally beautiful, naturally delicious, naturally easy.

Danny Seo (4m 50s):
And at the very last second are because you have to trademark, you know, this is the boring stuff, but you have to trademark the name. And we were about to publish it. And the lawyers came back and said, there's already a magazine called naturally. I go, what are you talking about? I've never seen it. And they go, it's an Australia. And when I finally got a copy, I was like, oh my gosh, it's a nudist enthusiastic. Right. That's fine. I was like, oh my gosh, it's so not what we're about. And What are we going to do? I was like, we're about to launch it to go. Well, usually the fastest thing to do was to add your name to it because you own your name. And so we called it naturally Danny Seo. It wasn't because I was a narcissist myself.

Danny Seo (5m 32s):
And it's funny. That's the second time it's happened to me guys with a magazine title. I worked at Rodale. I know you guys have worked with the rationales. And that was where I started my career. And we were launching a new lifestyle magazine about sustainability and the environment in 2000. And it was called organic style. So the name of the magazine was when we launched it, the original title, the whole time was working on it was, oh, and then Oprah beat them to the punch. Oh my God. Can you imagine working on that? And of all the people to come out with a magazine it's Oprah, you're like, well, we have to. Yeah. If we're not going to win that battle.

Danny Seo (6m 12s):
So that's how it was a quick pivot to organic style.

Monica Olsen (6m 15s):
I love it. And did that end up becoming the organic life magazine or

Danny Seo (6m 19s):
Organic style sort of in the heyday of publishing. And so in my I'm in my twenties, like early twenties and here I am this editor at this magazine and like jet setting around the world and doing photo shoots in Australia. And you know, I was like spending like a week at Daryl Hannah's ranch out in Telluride. Like it was crazy that the amount of time you would have to do these amazing photo shoots, but then it folded after about four or five years at the magazine, it was only after we launched my magazine, that Rodale came up with the idea to rebrand organic gardening into organic lives. So I don't know if it's the truth that we had something to do with that, but I think we were proving the category was alive and it could be beautiful and it could be more than just something coincidentally, that one didn't stick around either.

Danny Seo (7m 14s):
No. And <inaudible> How did you get Into it and publishing? Oh, publishing totally accidental. So I'm a high school. You are, I didn't know. That's what drop out. I failed English.

Monica Olsen (7m 36s):
And now you're the editor of a magazine. Well, welcome to America. You don't even have to read to be president.

Danny Seo (7m 50s):
I, it all goes back to like my 12th birthday. So I, my birthday is on earth day, which is guys, what day is it? Well, 21st, April 19, April 27, helping Steve. I was like one more day, April 22nd. Okay. April 22nd. But you would be awesome on the prices. Right? The washer dryer is yours. I was born on earth day and I grew up in a Korean American household at a predominantly white community.

Danny Seo (8m 31s):
So like, you know, when I say that, because my being the youngest, my brother and sister, we all went to the same school. And so as the Seo children, it's like, you have my older brother who went from K to 12 and was valedictorian, you know, perfect sat score, went to an Ivy league school. So like we sort of set that bar at that. So then my sister came along, you know, she also went to an Ivy league school, Ms. Concert chair, or at state orchestra played the violin. You know, it was in the lead in the school, play all this stuff. Then I come along at the age of 12. I discover that the world is coming to an end in 1989 and I'm reading the newspaper and you're very naive and idealistic at 12.

Danny Seo (9m 12s):
Let's be honest. Yeah. So like, I believe everything, but I also believe I can just fix up. And I was convinced the world was coming to an end and I was just like, I have to do something about it. And I didn't realize at the time I made this very deliberate decision at that age where I wasn't going to be another Seo child, where I was going to be just focused on my academics. I was going to, I got fixated and obsessed about activism. And so I created an activist organization that was just a couple of friends. I started funding and, and growing it. And then I had to do like the articles of incorporation. I had to register as a charity. I started getting a thousand members, 2000 members, 5,000 members, 20,000 members became a national organization. I started having lawyers, you know, working pro bono for us.

Danny Seo (9m 54s):
I was, you know, working on legislation. I was lobbying Congress. I had a force that I created all organically. So even though I was never in school and which is why I dropped out of school because I was failing everything at the same time, I didn't realize that I was giving myself my own education in business and in marketing and, and community organizing. And I, and, and I'm, self-teaching myself like critical thinking and problem solving where they don't teach that in school because my parents weren't helping. And I realized, you know, when I raised too much money, I met a threshold very early as a charity. If you make $25,000 of charity and donations, you have to register as a five oh one, three charities.

Danny Seo (10m 36s):
You can ask a 13 year old. Now there's one and I didn't have the internet. So my gifts from my parents, they would drive me to the public library. And I would just spend hours there on the weekend, learning how to do this, you know, getting all the documents I needed creating a board of directors, you know, filing the paperwork and the mission statements. But like it's stuff now where I found out I was just like in the best. Yeah. Possible. Yeah. I did all of that. Flunked out flung term dropped out of high school. What happened then?

Monica Olsen (11m 11s):
Well, you also tell us the name of it. You haven't mentioned that yet.

Danny Seo (11m 13s):
89. So we called it earth 2000, because I thought twice, my age is a year, 2000. That's around the corner. We'll save the planet by that. And it was, it was this incredible movement, but at the same time, it's like, when I grew up at 18, it's like, it was a movement, was like, it kind of died with me. You know, it says to me, it's not a legacy that could kind of live on because it was a truly a grassroots movement, which is fine. But then I was like, what do I do with my life? And so I ended up trying, I figured out how to get a book deal with random house. Okay. Tell us how that went. Okay. Well, it Was at the, I went to a bookstore at the mall, but I was just going to the bookstore and I saw this book, like it's a guide to eight literary agents, book, publishers, whatever, how to get published.

Danny Seo (12m 2s):
And it's this big phone book. And I was, and it had like a list of every literary agent and all the publishing houses and all the people you need to contact. Remember pre-internet. And so I wrote a letter to a bunch of agents and I sent them just a bunch of clips, newspaper clips, you know, of the actives. And we did. And I said, I would love to write a book. And one of them reached out to me and said, it's like, maybe you have something here. And he helped me write a book proposal and random house bought it for $32,000 to do my, a semiauto biography. 18 book is published when I'm 19 and $32,000 to an 18 year old is hell of a lot of money.

Danny Seo (12m 42s):
So I told my parents, I'm moving to Washington, DC. I rented an apartment. I worked for a nonprofit for on forestry. So I was still lobbying and being an activist. And I was writing the book and the book was published and no one bought it. Oh no. What was it called? Generation react. This generation that reacts to things. And I, and I told my book publisher, I was like, what do I have to do to sell the book? And these are all obvious things, by the way. And they said, you know, the Oprah show is like, that's the holy grail. I was like, okay, let's go on the Oprah show. Like, literally this is how naive I am

Monica Olsen (13m 21s):
Best is exactly how things

Danny Seo (13m 22s):
Can happen. And they're like, kind of like, well, you can't really do that. It's like, okay. So I called like a PR firm and I was like, how do I get on the Oprah show? And they go, you know, for $20,000 a month, you know, we'll keep campaigning and pitching and we'll work. But we can't promise. I was like, I don't have 20,000. I don't have a thousand dollars. I can't do this. So I was like, well, I have, there's no money lost in writing a letter. No, because that was the way to do it back then. And so I took a postcard from a local restaurant at absolute vodka on the front. Cause they were free. I was free postcards. And in my mind I thought Oprah still opened her own mail. Well, she doesn't have to open an envelope.

Danny Seo (14m 3s):
She just has to flip it postcard like dear Oprah, you know, I have this new book on how to be an actors. I was a child activist. You can challenge me to do anything and I'll do it. And then I put my phone number and I actually got a call from a producer who was like, well, what do you mean? Like we got your postcard. We don't know what you're talking about. And I go, this is what I did. I have a book about this. I said the book. And he's like, you know, we actually, we have this thing we're working on and it was called. And she basically said, Oprah wants to build a habitat for humanity home in every city that her show airs this season. And we've had like people from like, Coca-Cola come on the show with a big check and go.

Danny Seo (14m 44s):
And Coca Cola is sponsoring, You know, Atlanta and the audience just be like, Cause it's like, you know, I'm not Coca-Cola, you know, and they said, we want a normal person, just a regular person to raise enough money to sponsor a house and tell us how they did it. So I was like, okay, what city? And they go, how about Baltimore? It was the cheapest one. So I was like, I'll do it. So I had 30 days to raise $30,000. And I couldn't mention the Oprah show. I couldn't say Oprah. I couldn't call anyone to do it. And I had to come up with things that anyone could do. And I came up with 10 crazy schemes that I knew could work.

Danny Seo (15m 25s):
So I had to do my own fundraising and like one of them, for example, I won't go through all the time. But one of them for example, was I was at the Georgetown wall in Washington, DC, because remember I didn't have a car. So I had to walk around To take the subway. Yeah. And I noticed in the water fountains at the mall, there's all this money in the fountains. Do you ever wonder what happens to it? It's supposed to go to charity. So I went to the mall where you just ask questions. And I went to the mall management office and go, what happens to all of the fountain coins you have here? And they go, and this guy goes out, it goes to charity. And I go, well, what charity gets it? He goes, oh, are you with a charity? I go, I'm working for habitat for humanity.

Danny Seo (16m 5s):
He goes, oh, come with me. And he opens his closet door and it's the worst smell I've ever smelled in my entire life. But it was just buckets of wet, dirty coins to clean the fountain. And he's like, nobody will take it. You'll take it because you have to clean them, dry them, wrap them, all this stuff. And I was like, I was like, how much is in here? It was like thousands of dollars. And I go, I'll take them. You couldn't even lift them. Like I said, I didn't have a car. So I couldn't even take them with me. He was like, but I'll take them. I figure this out. So then I figured out like, okay, who's in charge of money. The U S meant, so I called the U S met again, no internet guys.

Danny Seo (16m 47s):
So calling it, I call the U S mint And he say, I have, I made it. The story is like, I am a coin collector. And I just have buckets and buckets of coins that I left outside and it rained and they got destroyed. It's like, I don't know like what I can do with this. And the woman goes, just hold please. And I'm holding for like a minute. And then like the phone I'm on, like this hold music. And then like, I get this like person picks the phone as if their phone has never run before. Or like, I just interrupted it. And it was kind of like, hello. And I go, and he goes, oh, I'm mutilated, coined division.

Danny Seo (17m 29s):
Or knew to call them. I said, I explained my storage to the mutilated Coin division U S mint. It does exist. And he goes, oh, it's no problem. It's like, you have a bank account. I go, I can set one up. We'll send it. The bank will send a truck to pick up all the coins and then they're gonna, they'll sort it out. And then we're going to just credit your account. So I didn't even have to touch them. It is brilliant how much, I think it was like $3,000, like $3,300, more than like about more than 10% of my call. So that's the stuff that I want on the show and said, you can do this guys. Right. And so Oprah loved it. The book did really well, like a tread another book and I kept writing books.

Danny Seo (18m 10s):
And then it wasn't until my next book, which was still about like activism. And I was like, I don't want to be like this activist for life. Like I want to make a difference, but I don't want to profit off of activism. Like, it's kind of felt weird. So, and so like I, this reporter from the Washington post came over to my apartment and this was, I upgraded my apartment now from three 50 a month to about 700 a month. And I remember I went to decorate it. And so it's all like, I was like, I had to be very resourceful. And so like, there was a church that threw out furniture and I had it all. I repainted it and did things. I created all these things in the house and people who came over to my apartment, I'm like, you have such a nice place.

Danny Seo (18m 52s):
I go, it cost me nothing. That's being eco-friendly and resourceful. She came over to do a brief interview. This will be a small story for the Washington post. And she asked me all these questions about the furniture and what I made for lunch and whole foods didn't exist. None of those existed. I said, oh, this is just the way I like to live. And then she had a follow-up day where she's like, can I just like go shopping with you? And she kept like doing this interview. And I was like, this story is never going to run. It was like weeks and weeks and weeks. And then one morning I got this phone call and he goes, have you seen the Washington post today? I ain't go, no.

Danny Seo (19m 32s):
And so I go to like CVS, I buy the Washington post and you know, and I look at it and I go to the style section, the Sunday Washington post. And it, I am the literally the entire cover. And then you turn the page and it's a whole full second page where she wrote a feature story saying, this is the next Martha store. Wow. Not what I expected. That's amazing pitched. She'd never talked about the buck to the horror of Simon and Schuster, But, And I was horrified because I was like, I didn't go to culinary school. I didn't go to design school. I just blinked to do this.

Danny Seo (20m 13s):
I thought she was just curious. And that's when it all started to snowball from there where it's like, maybe showing people how to live your life this way, where it's beautiful and delicious can actually change people to be greener and healthier, more sustainable. And that story then got picked up by the LA times. And then all of these celebrities saw it. And so I started getting these calls from their assistants saying, so-and-so would like to work with you. And now I'm like 22, 23. And I like the very first Allister that I worked with. Thank God for NDAs. So we're talking a huge Oscar winners, recent Oscar winners.

Danny Seo (20m 59s):
You want me to guess is what you're trying to And like, and we never became like friends. Don't like, think we're like friends. And I remember I would land at lax. I'm in Los Angeles is so exciting. And then I go to rent a car and they're like, you have to be 25 and I'd be like, and pick me up,

Monica Olsen (21m 18s):
Can rent a car or the assistant picked

Danny Seo (21m 21s):
You up. So it all worked out, started working with All these different celebrities and I would and do small things. They weren't huge projects. I wasn't renovating houses or anything. I was like suggesting they maybe want to try wearing like Canadian sort of diamonds that are more sustainable and traceable, or maybe taking a Prius somewhere to an award show. And then these little things, we get so much press. And I was like this stupid little suggestion, insignificant suggestion, you know, got millions of people to talk about hybrid cars. And I was like, it's like, as much as I was not into celebrities, I was like, it's such a great platform to use to actually talk about more than like, what are you wearing?

Danny Seo (22m 7s):
You know, what's your favorite lipstick? How about, you know, you know, tell me about your, you know, recycled garment or tell me about, you know, like the organic food you're eating or tell me about like the hydrogen fueled car that you took instead of a gas, guzzling limo. So that like sort of kept evolving into lifestyle. And I, and as I was working with celebrities, like the magazine business came in, cause they were like, we want to work with, you know, so-and-so and I accidentally became a celebrity Booker because which is a weird business because book people to go to events and I'd booked people to be uncovers. And I would book all these A-listers and work with their publicist and their team, because there's almost like this fear, a lot of people have about how to approach them.

Danny Seo (22m 50s):
And I was sort of like, I just didn't care, you know? And so I was like, why can't you just ask, you know, I would be at an event and there'd be some someone really famous at this event. And someone comes to you. It's like, oh my gosh, could you introduce me to, so, and I go, Would you like, would you ever come up to me and say, would you introduce me to the waiter? No, no, just Talk to them. They're right there. Yeah. No different. But I realized it was a skill set. So I started doing that. And then that's how I got into publishing because then Maria Rodale gave me my first job at Rodel publishing for organic style, started booking covers. But then I ended up at Elle magazine and I created the green issue. I was the editor of that.

Danny Seo (23m 32s):
And that was fun because I was able to really help them marry their luxury and beauty and their DNA with sustainability at the same time too. And then it kind of just like never ended. Right. I mean, you had a column

Monica Olsen (23m 49s):
In a couple different publications for awhile. Yeah, yeah. Before you had your magazine, like a country home and

Danny Seo (23m 57s):
Better homes, gardens. And so I had this, like all this learning I was getting on like designed fashion, beauty, celebrity, and also working at like a big mainstream title taught me like how to think about like mainstream sensibilities, you know, how do you also just tap into like what she might be thinking Iowa, not just in New York city. Right. So that makes sense. Yeah, definitely. You know, for me it was even like, I got an opportunity to be on home shopping network of all places, HSN ever. Steve, you watch HSN, right? Yeah. All the time you can't pull them away.

Danny Seo (24m 36s):
Really. You just taking it as a huge home shopping versus Christmas <inaudible>. But like, there was a Japanese like, you know, skincare line that was clean and had no preservatives and they were struggling on selling it. And I knew right away, I was like, say, you need an agent. I was like, that's fine. It's positive. Embrace the ad. And because I knew nothing about beauty, I just, I only asked him questions about the ingredients and the efficacy. And like, I didn't really care about like what I look like. So like most people selling beauty would come on and just be like, and these usually a woman and that's just has perfect hair and makeup and everything.

Danny Seo (25m 21s):
And I would go out there, like in a t-shirt with no makeup on. And then I wouldn't be afraid to like, just like put on a product in my face and show you how it works. And so I was selling like, oh my God, at one point, if you put it on your nose, like a band-aid and I would just tell the camera, I'm like, all right, it wasn't selling. And I was like, okay, let me just show you how this works guys, because I really do love this. And I go, I have white heads on my nose. Let me put it on. Let's just all wait together for a minute, let it dry. And I'm going to tell you about this activated charcoal and story behind it. And then I would say, tell the camera K Zuma and get in tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter. Okay. If you're eating stop eating, I would just show Weiser and they would sell really well.

Danny Seo (26m 4s):
But my goal was not to sell products like I cared and the brand care, but like, it wasn't like what got me excited. What I learned from doing hundreds of hours of unscripted live television to talk about products is that it gave me the ability to work without a prompt. I learned how to write a script in my head in real time, which me then to do the television show with this producer is the show that I created without a script or a prompter. And so if you ever went behind the scenes of my show on NBC, it's like they were, I think the producers were shocked because they were used to dealing talent that would get a massive script or they'd have a prompter.

Danny Seo (26m 47s):
And they, and the talent would need to know every word that had to be said at every single time. And they'd want to do like a rehearsal or like it would just be a disaster or whatever. And I just would look at a recipe, you know, for five seconds. Okay. Got it. And there, and I would have a card, like a post to, and I would write it usually like four words on it that I knew, like were very critically important, like four. Cause I knew it had to be like four cups of something. And I kept thinking in my mind, I was like, I usually use three, but I gotta say four or like three 50 for the oven, temperature 35 for the minutes. And then maybe that would be, but the rest I would have the facts about the nutritional levels, the good to know facts, you know why we're making a, why you should make, why it's important to you.

Danny Seo (27m 32s):
And it was the conversations always directed back to the viewer. It's like, why is this important to you? Because I was taught to talk that way from HSN. Why is this product important to you? Why is it? It was never about me. And, and that's where I think the connection was.

Monica Olsen (27m 49s):
And did that show come out of it? Like, did those producers see you or did you go pitch the show after the magazine had been out for a few years? Cause you did that like 17, 18

Danny Seo (27m 57s):
Exactly. Made it sound like a show, just magically appear.

Monica Olsen (28m 0s):
And we like to give behind the scenes and understand how things happen. So if the magazine started in 14, one 14.

Danny Seo (28m 8s):
So we'll talk about the magazine first. Let's talk about the magazine. Yeah. It's a lot easier to get your own magazine, I guess,

Monica Olsen (28m 15s):
Because you had had all this experience, you had different columns, you had worked with celebrities.

Danny Seo (28m 21s):
Yeah. And I was like one day, I just, I've never wrote, I've never written a business Plan, ready bag, you know? And So when I look back now, I'm like, I don't know if that's foolish or intuition people trusted you. So I think, or my intuition just like, it feels right. So I woke up on a Sunday and I remember going, there should be a magazine. I'm going to do a magazine. I don't know why I was like, there's just nothing in this space. Right. Whole living had folded natural health was struggling. And I was like, this is, this is like kind of the time to do it. And American media, which publishes is a national Inquirer, another Steve favorite.

Danny Seo (29m 1s):
Right. At least I know what that is. And, and what they publish natural health. And I knew the publisher and I said, what do you think about doing like a mini magazine inserted in natural health called naturally that's where it started. And so I went in and, and they love the idea and they're like, let's work on it. So we just created a prototype and then like AMI was like, we don't want to do it because natural health was struggling. And I could tell they were about to fold it. And like, why would we do this project? But my parting gift was the prototype. And it's so funny to hear this because when I, part of my, is it a thesis?

Danny Seo (29m 44s):
Like when you're at your, what's the thing you have to write in college or one that thesis your final, like my thesis would have been on Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart, because she went to Conde Nast with a magazine idea. They spent all this time and money developing a prototype and then signed new house said, I just can't wrap my head around, naming a magazine after a person. Cause like, what's next Anna Wintour's vote. So he didn't yet. But that was his own. Your parting gift is the prototype and the prototypes cost

Monica Olsen (30m 15s):
Money. I walked with that and she

Danny Seo (30m 17s):
Took it to TimeBank and got her own magazine. So I took the prototype out to different publishers and, and with a very specific list of requirements. Here's the magazine, here's the business that I think it could be here are the advertisers, here's the audience and they're going to be love it. I go, and here are my terms and they were all like Oprah doesn't even get that. And I go, well, it's just important to me. I want to control the editorial. I want to final say on the cover, I want to own it. And I want to own all the content and all the trademarks and you can publish it.

Monica Olsen (30m 51s):
But I like it. And

Danny Seo (30m 53s):
They all said no. And the big ones they all wanted to do, but they all said, no, they kept countering. And I was like, no, it's just, it's not a, I'm not looking at as a business. I just need to have that control because I don't want someone to come in with a focus group and tell me to do something on okra. Just because Debbie and the focus group loves okra. So even though I've been Working in this field for so many years, suddenly my opinion doesn't count. So I Found a smaller publishing company and they said, the only way we're going to give you the terms that you need as if like you put in the money, it also do it. And I go, well, why do I need you? Right. I go, so I said, well, what's the actual cost.

Danny Seo (31m 33s):
Then they go, well, the biggest cost is paper. So I was like, okay. So if I can get the paper for free, but you do it. And they did the, they crunched the numbers. Like, yeah, we only have to sell like 1% to make money. Like, and it's a great test. I go, who's going to give you a free paper. It's expensive. And I was like, I'll Find it. And again, I said, I did my like thesis on Martha Stewart and I knew Martha Stewart, how this whole American made program they were doing, which is recent. And I think they're still doing it. And there's a company called Mohawk papers. They do the papers for Tiffany Harry Potter, very expensive. And I had seen Mohawk as a sponsor, you know, for American made.

Danny Seo (32m 13s):
And so I reached out to them and I was like, do you want to give me a paper? And they're like, no, we're, you know, we've thought about it with Martha's story. But you know, we don't know who you are, But like, you know, but you know, we wanted to print Martha Stewart living on it, but like, it didn't work out for whatever reason, you know? And I'm making guys, I'm making the money symbol right off my hands. Right. And so I actually said, you know, well, I'm going to in your neck of the woods tomorrow, it's like, do you mind meeting with me? I'll show you the prototype and we can talk about it. I wasn't going to be a mother, but I made that drive and this cause I just knew a face-to-face meeting.

Danny Seo (32m 54s):
I just wanted them to see that this was not a business transaction. And I would probably put it on the cover printed on Mohawk paper. I would have looked at all their innovation and they had an app. They created a called a Mohawk live, which you download it. And if you went through the magazine, it was a QR code for photos. So the photo was a QR code. So you would hold the app over. Let's say a photo in our magazine of, let's say I'm a zebra. And then it would actually come alive on your phone and show the zebras running. Very cool. So I said, we will shoot all of our photos in the magazine. I'll also shoot video. And then we'll make sure the whole magazine comes alive. And they're like, okay, we'll give you the paper. Wow.

Danny Seo (33m 34s):
And when they did the test, they publish it on Mohawk paper and the publishers enthusiastic, they came back and go, we usually a magazine has like a 15 to 20% south or a newsstand. We had 83%, but the largest

Monica Olsen (33m 49s):
Share it was,

Danny Seo (33m 52s):
I don't think it was the paper. I mean, the paper was nice, but again, I was just left to my own devices. The cover was a bunch of juices, healthy juices people. Reducing. We put that on the cover. The very First one, very first one here, which is now a hundred dollars on eBay. Wow. I'm going to go sell mine later. That that equals two bamboo juices

Steve Nygren (34m 17s):
And how much it is an autographed one. Oh,

Monica Olsen (34m 21s):
Steve. We'll put it on home shopping network. I think it's considered Christine anymore in a plastic cover you to not.

Danny Seo (34m 35s):
So that gave, that gave me the magazine because the publisher didn't have to take any risk and I was able to get the terms. Okay.

Monica Olsen (34m 44s):
And did you just do the first one with the Mohawk or have they been tested

Danny Seo (34m 48s):
And then like down the line, our 10th issue, I got a call from the plant that go, what do you wanna do with the rest of the paper? And I was like, we're doing a special anniversary issue is what we're doing. So my point is, is that people always ask me how this all happens. And I was like, there's no formula For any of that. Anything There's no easy way of doing it. You just have to ask the right questions. I'm constantly asking questions. But once you actually are presented with the facts, stop asking questions, go use that information and do it because a lot of people will be told the information, but they're not listening

Steve Nygren (35m 30s):
Well. And you never see a closed door. Yeah. It's just, how do I open it in?

Danny Seo (35m 36s):
How do you just say thank you for that information. I will be in touch. You know? So like the mall management office, thank you for this information that you have a room full of wet coins. I Will be in touch. I am not going To, because if you knew how to get rid of the coins, you would have done it. I'm not going to bother you to help me figure this out because you obviously don't know. Thank you for this information. That paper is the most expensive part of a magazine. I will go figure this out. Know there's always a solution. And then sometimes the answer or there's always a solution or there's always an answer. And sometimes that answer is it can't be done.

Steve Nygren (36m 18s):
So what are you thinking about now? Like right now, like lunch,

Monica Olsen (36m 23s):
I it's almost four o'clock I don't have lunches in your

Danny Seo (36m 28s):
No. I mean, you know, it's and that make us an interesting experience for all of us. And it's an interesting life experience, but I actually thrive when things are challenging. I know it sounds masochistic, but I thrive just for me personally. I love a challenge. And so when I launched the magazine, everybody was like, why are you doing a print magazine? Like everyone's doing a digital program, do digital. It's all, it's all eyeballs. Digital is the future. And I was like, because like anyone can buy a $20 piece of software, a program and do a flip magazine and suddenly have a digital site. And then you're under all this pressure to keep generating content, cotton content.

Danny Seo (37m 9s):
And I was like, I just want to have a life too. And I figured what the magazine it's like, it's real estate. Like it's Seren B when you're out of land or out of land. So my real estate is 132 pages and I'm going to really be very careful what I put in 132 pages and every issue. And I'm going to grow the magazine. And also there's not a lot of people who have, and this is when I found out I had to add my name to the magazine. I go, and then he can count on like two hands. Who's had a magazine after them, Rachel Ray, Oprah, Winfrey, Rosie. O'Donnell actually the store Dr. Oz. And

Monica Olsen (37m 47s):
Where are we forgetting? There's gotta be, we'll insert it. Maybe an editing, you know, even like chip and Joanna. Yeah. They call it Magnolia. That's not even named right. Again,

Danny Seo (38m 2s):
It's just, it's a handful of people. And I was like, I want to be part of this like kind of rarefied group, but also just like, it's special. Like, you know, even our doing the TV show and NBC it's like, everyone's like, why aren't you doing this? Like, you could do it on YouTube or you could do it as a digital series. And I go, no, I like, or you could do it on this like fringe channel called, you know? Yeah. Like, no, not Netflix. Like It would be things like, you know, there's this new channel that TLC is launching called. I used to meet this and you could find it here I go. I not saying that to everyone that I meet, what I want to say is like, oh, you can watch it on NBC. And there's not one person who goes what's NBC.

Danny Seo (38m 44s):
Right? Like I just want to be like, I wanted to have a magazine that you could find at Hudson news at whole foods, you could go to Barnes and noble and buy our books. You could go to home goods and buy our products. It's like, I just wanted it to be accessible to Linda. And Iowa was always again, back to the mainstream.

Monica Olsen (39m 4s):
She's not telling you to put it in your magazine. I do like okra.

Steve Nygren (39m 9s):
So if you had a cocktail party of all the people that have had magazines named after him,

Danny Seo (39m 14s):
That would be, that would be amazing. And would we invite Dr. Oz?

Monica Olsen (39m 30s):
You amazing Oprah, Martha, Rachel. And you, is that the four that are still the one we're forgetting? Oh, there was Gwyneth, but that was group. Yeah, that folded.

Danny Seo (39m 43s):
Oops. I don't know. I mean, I it's, it's been a journey for sure. And then the TV show came after that and

Monica Olsen (39m 51s):
You did that for three seasons. I

Danny Seo (39m 54s):
Want to say you did three seasons and he shot one here. We did a whole season At Serenbe, which was my favorite season. Cause it felt like I was at home. So you were, it was, it felt like home and it gave me a good separation of work life. I think. So I was thinking like people who do work and live here, you have that clear definition of separation, which is so nice. When I was filming the first season, it was in the summer in Palm Springs, California. So like you're in this beautiful, modern home that's air conditioned, you know, frigidly cold. And then you go outside, it's 110 degrees. And then, so you have to go back to your like friends hall and never go outside.

Danny Seo (40m 35s):
So I didn't enjoy the app. That was the first year. That was the first year. And I lost so much weight during that show because I was just thirsty all the time. Second season we did in Los Angeles and I'm not an LA person, so I never left the valley cause I didn't want to drive an hour and a half to go somewhere. So I didn't feel like I was at home. And then even on the weekends, it was like, it would take forever to find a place to go hiking or do something natural. And so I was kind of miserable, but that was the season that got us, the Emmy.

Monica Olsen (41m 7s):
Exactly. They could feel it.

Danny Seo (41m 10s):
And then the third season I approached you and I was like, can we bring the show here? And I think it was a huge hit. It

Monica Olsen (41m 17s):
Was a huge hit. And then you, and that was right after we had done the house

Danny Seo (41m 21s):
With you naturally has, that's been good collaborations.

Monica Olsen (41m 25s):
And so we're going to do another one

Danny Seo (41m 27s):
Different one different one style, You know, is it eight bedrooms?

Steve Nygren (41m 34s):
It is six bedrooms and a study that could convert as a bedroom.

Monica Olsen (41m 39s):
Okay. Tell us a little bit about it, Steve. We're going to go walk the framed building in a minute here, but tell us Steve a little bit about it. What is it? It's called portal

Steve Nygren (41m 48s):
Portal. So it's a, it it's everything you believe in Danny it's DNA. It's a portal into a healthier lifestyle and a lot of people have that. Did you just get that? I should explain that to you in the beginning.

Danny Seo (42m 5s):
Well, this time, I didn't know.

Steve Nygren (42m 7s):
And so many people, even if it's going to be a, a health retreat, but not where you go and choose what you want to do, you check in on a Saturday and you get to check out on the following Friday. And we have a complete program of exercise and diet and conversation. And because it's a Serenbe, which is right in the middle of a community. And so we intentionally put it right in the heart of Mado because usually when people go on retreat and then they have a trouble integrating back into their busy life. And so this is try to help them to find how they can balance both being healthy, having an exercise program, eating well and still be in their busy lifestyle.

Danny Seo (42m 52s):
I was such a huge fan of this cause I've done those. Week-long sort of, I call them control alt, delete your life like a reboot. And I did one in Malibu, but I felt like I was a, like a treatment center Because it's way up in the Malibu Hills. And it was a beautiful place. But like you have No cell reception, which is fine, but like you have no connection to the outside world until there's this one moment where we have lunch on the beach, that's like a salad with like, and that's like, whatever. And so you're on the beach and you just see other people and you see a restaurant And you're just like, oh my gosh, who are All these people?

Danny Seo (43m 37s):
Also? I didn't like that part of it. Cause there was, I felt like when I was done, I was afraid to go on the plane. Right. I was afraid and they had no caffeine, no alcohol, no meat, no dairy. And I was just like, I had a look at Starbucks at the airport and I just felt like I had just failed. That's what

Steve Nygren (43m 56s):
Most of these programs are said about, or it's luxury and you can have a menu and you have a massage one time and maybe I do a little exercise and you, you come out. Not really. So it's to finding that balance between it all and you were, you know, your, your first days will be very, very regimen, complete schedule. But by the end of the week, we're, you know, we're going to the restaurants and ordering so that it's, it's, it's, it's sort of showing you, you can have both it just learning how to balance it.

Danny Seo (44m 26s):
Yeah. You'll probably end up a little lighter and clearer. You know what, at the whites of your eyes are always brighter is what they say.

Steve Nygren (44m 35s):
And we're, we're working now. W w we'll we'll have a program where you can sign up and if, if you want to have a group and check in or have a counselor and how hard it is to, you know, so we're going to have some programs where you can touch back in. And if you've been on a, on a full six day program, then we're going to have weekend boosters and you can come back and tuck right back into it. Why don't you call it Serenbe,

Monica Olsen (45m 2s):
Then we're stuck with portal. There's a whole architectural details,

Steve Nygren (45m 10s):
You know, it's that whole idea. Yeah. You go through and, and the idea is, you know, if you can learn how to move between the various sides of the portal, you can simply be. Yeah. And so that's the whole journey that we should be on. Yeah.

Danny Seo (45m 24s):
This is like a no booze thing also. No, it's not. Okay. Cause you're right by Halsa

Steve Nygren (45m 31s):
This whole idea that, that we can have incredible decadent foods that are good for you rather than the idea that to be good, you have to starve yourself in that. So that's what a lot of these programs were based on.

Danny Seo (45m 47s):
Yeah. The one I did was a raw food diet, vegan, raw food. And then I remember one day we had like a two hour open window after hiking for five hours. My body was just so sore and hungry and they're like, why don't you go to the garden? And I walk into the garden, this is why it's in Malibu. And I noticed there's a fig tree. And like, all the figs are ripe and I, it just started, okay. I was like, I just like start to vouchering the tree and it just couldn't stop. And I was just like, what's wrong with me?

Monica Olsen (46m 22s):
It's too much. It's not, it's not realistic. It's not sustainable. And so, you know, I think there's a place for that kind of retreat, but this idea is going to be much more.

Steve Nygren (46m 32s):
And we think it's a space that we're not, we're not aware of anyone that's really doing it in this way, especially on the east coast specialist. Well, on the west coast are very, very programmed. It's just a different color, a different program, a different arrival.

Danny Seo (46m 48s):
Yeah. So it was very, it was just cloistered and

Steve Nygren (46m 53s):
It's about being integrated into a community, which I can't think of any place that does that. Well, I'm excited to be part of it, but we're delighted. That's an fun,

Danny Seo (47m 3s):
I got some fun things to add some flair and Some gardening ideas. Well, before

Monica Olsen (47m 8s):
We go, I want to ask you one last question. If there's anything that we don't know that you're working on, that you want to share, or any dreams, maybe a new TV show, or you've been here at Serenbe for a week shooting some covers and a couple of houses, but is there anything big, big dreams you want to tell us about or

Danny Seo (47m 28s):
No, I'm in survival mode right now because This whole Corona thing, The one thing I've just been so adamant about is that, you know, I've just, we've kept the team intact. I haven't had to lay anyone off, but also I haven't had to really reduce talent pool of photographers and writers and everyone. And they've all been faced with just cut backs at all the major publishing houses in there and their fees. And I just made it a point to not cut back on anything. And what it's actually done is one it's like, it's just, I feel strongly about it. Cause I was freelance for so long, but to, I actually got like better work out of.

Danny Seo (48m 8s):
So was like, I like the quality of work I'm getting is so much stronger that I'm like, okay, that's win-win, you can focus on the work.

Steve Nygren (48m 17s):
When Danny, do you think these times to have focused more on what you and I believe in people are really looking at both health and environment and all these issues?

Danny Seo (48m 25s):
I think so. I mean, statistically, you know, just to look at data first and foremost, our March and April was our strongest month of sales. So in a, in an industry that's seeing a downturn, we saw a major uptick in sales and we were just covering health and wellness and recipes and some tips. And also we don't cover really the pandemic at all. So I think escapism was important for people we're not in denial. It's just like, not everybody has to talk about it, you know? And it's like, I was like, it's no different than the Kardashians. I don't have to talk about it.

Monica Olsen (48m 59s):
I like how they're together,

Danny Seo (49m 2s):
Which one's worse. But, But also it's like, I think during this time it helps you prioritize. Like what's really important, you know? And so it's, it's nice to actually clear out some of the noise. And I think it's given people permission to also say no, you know, I don't mean like no to work and being irresponsible, just like, no, you know, I have to think about my myself, my mental health, my family, I have to think about self-care and, and that's something, I think we were all in this crazy cycle of just like running and speeding towards what, and I'm not, I don't want to be in denial that people are struggling and that people need work and people are worrying about how they're going to feed themselves.

Danny Seo (49m 45s):
But at the same time, it's like, it's like, we all just had a moment to go, okay. Let's just think what's happening. So it's a little bit of a re I hope it's not too long

Steve Nygren (49m 59s):
Muscle memory. I think there are some things that will be permanently changed and it's advancing a lot of the trends. I mean, some of the things we see, you know, big, big shopping malls and big department stores were already not a tread down, working at home was already on a trend up. It's just accelerated all these things. Yeah.

Danny Seo (50m 17s):
I think it's always good to see glimmers of positive. You know, it was a good, well, I'm

Monica Olsen (50m 29s):
Sorry. That was the real thing. What, we're sad to see you go today and we hope you come back soon. I know I'm going to go pet the goats now at go yoga. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thanks to you. There are two rubrics in building a city. You can follow the sprawl mentality or you can preserve land while boosting economic development, semi builds and designs to be both beautiful and environmentally sustainable. If you're a city planner, developer landowner, or a policymaker, there are come send solutions. You can take to build a biophilic center community, attend the Nygren placemaking conference this fall to learn more details.

Monica Olsen (51m 10s):
And nygrenplacemaking.com. That's nygrenplacemaking.com. Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. Please rate and review the podcast and make sure to email your questions for Steve Nygren to stories@serenbe.com. You may even get to hear them on the podcast. More details about episodes and guests are available on our website, serenbestories.com.