Where the Beat Goes Out:Carolyn Smith Reflects on 200 Issues of DrumRoll
Two hundred issues ago, DrumRoll began with no budget, no elaborate business plan and no certainty about where it might lead. What it did have was a dream, a belief in connection and the determination of one of its original founders, Carolyn Smith.
This month, DrumRoll celebrates its 200th issue. In a fitting piece of synchronicity, Carolyn also celebrated turning 80 in the very same month.
But turning 80 does not mean this is a story of stepping away. Carolyn remains a vibrant and active member of the DrumRoll team, still watching the spiritual and wellbeing landscape, discovering interesting people and ideas, and sharing the passion that has driven the publication from the beginning.
What she has handed over is much of the administration - not because she is leaving, but because succession matters. A publication that has reached 200 issues needs a working hive around it if it is to reach 300 and beyond.
Carolyn remains firmly part of that hive. She still keeps watch for people whose work might interest DrumRoll readers. She still shares ideas with the team.
“I still keep my finger on the button,” she says. At its heart, DrumRoll remains much the same purpose Carolyn had when she was a child.
She has always loved gathering information and passing it on. She remembers cutting interesting articles from newspapers, putting them into scrapbooks and then rather enthusiastically telling other people how they might fix a cold or headache.
“I was always a collector of information,” she says.
That instinct eventually led her into publishing.
In 1995, Carolyn created a small resource directory, teaching herself Publisher so she could put the booklet together. Distributed free, it brought practitioners, services and useful information into one place.
The project also arrived during a deeply difficult period following the death of her husband. Carolyn felt a responsibility towards the people who had placed advertising in the directory, and that responsibility helped keep her moving forward.
“I felt responsible to the advertisers,” she recalls. “It meant I had to get out of bed in the morning.”
When the World Wide Web began opening new possibilities, Carolyn immediately recognised its potential. Instead of publishing once a year, she realised she could share information whenever she wanted.
Always curious and willing to learn, she taught herself HTML and worked with a web designer to create Wisdom Seekers of New Zealand, one of New Zealand’s early spiritual websites.
“I have always been curious,” she says. “And I continue to be curious.”
Wisdom Seekers continued for 15 years, connecting people interested in spirituality, wellbeing and personal development with practitioners serving that community.
Then, in 2013, the website was hacked.
Suddenly, Carolyn found herself asking what came next.
Over coffee with two friends, she began discussing how she could continue helping people promote their products, services and events. They imagined something simpler than Wisdom Seekers, easy to read on a mobile phone and supported by a straightforward website.
From those conversations came DrumRoll Promotions.
The name itself carried meaning.
DrumRoll was inspired by one of humanity’s ancient forms of communication, with drums beating out messages from village to village. The tribal and drum imagery honours communication across the centuries, while the idea remains simple: DrumRoll is about letting people know what is happening and what is available in their universe.
Carolyn had found herself back in familiar territory.
“I was back in my happy place,” she says, “sharing information, quotes and inspiration.”
Together, this team created an accessible way for people within New Zealand’s spiritual and wellbeing communities to be seen.
In the beginning, DrumRoll was not yet a magazine. It was a newsletter filled with advertisements and information about events happening around New Zealand.
For small practitioners and businesses unable to afford advertising in larger publications, DrumRoll offered another way to reach people.
“It was exciting searching for people who were out in the marketplace,” Carolyn says. “We could gather these people together and they could list themselves on DrumRoll.”
Over time, the team realised that many of those advertisers also carried extraordinary knowledge and experience. There were stories to tell, ideas to explore and wisdom worth sharing.
Editorial content began appearing alongside the advertisements, and the original newsletter gradually evolved into the full magazine format readers recognise today.
“We discovered that some of the advertisers had wonderful skills and knowledge,” Carolyn says. “So we began sharing their skills and knowledge too.”
Today, DrumRoll is supported by regular, long-standing advertisers and readers who have become part of its continuing story.
And while the way people communicate has changed dramatically over 200 issues, Carolyn believes there is still an important place for the publication.
DrumRoll has adapted rather than stood still. Social media now works alongside each monthly issue, extending the reach of its practitioners, advertisers, stories and events.
The team has evolved. What began with only two doing almost everything themselves, has grown to welcome younger members bringing new knowledge of digital technology and the changing ways of communicating.
Carolyn has handed over much of the administration, not because she is leaving, but because succession matters.
She remains firmly part of the hive, watching for people whose work might interest DrumRoll readers, sharing ideas with the team and remaining one of the publication’s strongest connections to the community it serves.
“I still keep my finger on the button,” she says.
One of the clearest expressions of that community spirit came in 2020.
As New Zealand entered lockdown and uncertainty spread, many small spiritual and wellbeing businesses lost their usual ways of connecting with people. Carolyn herself was living through lockdown alone.
After talking with her colleagues, the DrumRoll team decided the publication needed to keep rolling.
For a time, advertising was offered free of charge.
The decision was partly about keeping practitioners and small businesses visible, but there was another reason too.
People were facing isolation, fear, unsettling news and an uncertain future. Spiritual practitioners, wellbeing providers and supportive communities offered connection, perspective and reassurance when many people needed it deeply.
Keeping those practitioners visible meant people could still find the support that might help them through lockdown and the unknowns surrounding them.
“We gave free advertising to support and uplift everyone,” Carolyn says. “It uplifted us as well as the people we were supporting.”
That period captured what DrumRoll had always been about - communication, connection and making sure people knew who was out there and what was available to them.
Now, 200 issues after it began, DrumRoll looks very different from its first advertising newsletter.
It has become a magazine filled with articles, practitioners, events, inspiration and voices from across the spiritual and wellbeing community. Some advertisers and readers have remained alongside it for many years, while new people, practices and ideas continue to arrive.
Could DrumRoll reach another 200 issues?
“Oh, yes,” Carolyn says.
For all the changes in technology, design and publishing, the impulse behind DrumRoll remains remarkably close to the one Carolyn had as a child - collecting information she believed someone else might find interesting or useful.
“It is my happy place,” she says. “Sharing inspiration and sharing knowledge.”
Carolyn at 80. DrumRoll at 200. Two milestones arriving together.
The methods of communication have changed many times. The purpose has not.
DrumRoll - where the beat goes out.
