The Kurty D Show

014 - Making Waves with Zach Weisberg from The Inertia

Episode Summary

Joining us on the show is the founder and CEO of The Inertia, Zach Weisberg. The Inertia is a new media platform that has emerged as the definitive digital voice of surfing and the outdoors. In this episode, Zach and I relived our experience in Kelly Slater's surf ranch in central California for an event called Making Waves- a premium event at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Central California. It was an intimate retreat of investors, entrepreneurs, and service providers from the LA Tech Startup Community sponsored by Hunt Club, Crosscut Ventures, Fenwick & West, Artium, & Pacific Western Bank. We dove into how the Surf Ranch "created the conditions for the magic" and how the power of imagination combined with follow-through is the key for bringing new businesses into market, with the Surf Ranch being one of many examples. We also press rewind and survey Zach's early career, where he worked as a freelance journalist for The New York Times, Esquire, his time as online editor at Surfer Magazine - the seminal print publication- from 2007 through 2010, plus a fascinating story on why he left Surfer Magazine to found The Inertia in September 2010. Zach also completed the MBA Program at USC Marshall School of Business, and Zach shares an unexpected insight about an important lesson he learned at USC that was deeply insightful, and useful- that relationships are the key. This show has a lot to offer for anyone interested in surfing, story telling, online communities, the Los Angeles Tech Community, and more.

Episode Notes

Key Takeaways:

Surf Ranch discussion around the whole experience from going to the venue to actually ride the waves
Jack Dangermond - above the line (context vs. content) concept
Education background in USC
Earlier experience in Journalism at NY Times
Impact of surfing on Zach's career
What is "The Inertia" and the idea behind the voice
Transformation from idea to reality

Episode Quotes:

"I'd like to create that sort of magic and opportunities like that for other people too, the fact that the surf ranch exists and it was built. Anyone who goes through there is leaving. Happier, they're leaving feeling better. They're leaving, feeling fulfilled. They're leaving thinking what the possibilities might be. How could they translate that into their own life? What plays to make that kind of impact. And it's so just kind of got me sitting, like how can I help create magic like that in this world? That's my biggest takeaway was. And strive for that. Try to, because that was not a possibility, not very long ago, but now it is." - Zach Weisberg
"I feel that those are often the most exciting time when you're making a pretty big change. That also in my view is kind of a fun zone to live in, and maybe not constantly, but that's when you would learn a lot, you question a lot what's going on and you make some big decisions and you see how they shake out."
"An insight that one of my mentors, duke stump, quotes frequently is that we can't create the magic but we can create the conditions for the magic. And that's definitely what the surf ranch has achieved, are the conditions for the magic." - Kurt Daradics
"Jack Dangermond, my former boss, over at Esri had that idea of living above the line and above the line is having context and below the line is having content. And he would talk about that frequently and say that part of the reason for his success is he would always try to sort of step back and look at the big picture and not get so caught up in the automatic stimulus-response function, but try to have some space" - Kurt Daradics

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Kurt’s newsletter

The Inertia's Instagram

The Inertia's Website