Today we meet Steve LeBlanc, president of Diamond List Marketing Co., a one-man shop located in Annandale, VA.
After leaving the military, LeBlanc started his new career in the list business at Best Lists and Freedom Lists in 1993. He joined Diamond in 1996.
“I was hired as director of list services and I brought in a number of clients,” he says. “And then the principals told me that I could run the company myself.”
LeBlanc splits his time about 50/50 between brokering and managing lists for organizations with conservative political agendas.
“I’m very much involved in the political world,” he adds. “My clients are really on the Republican conservative side.”
Working for nonprofit clients through agencies in the Washington, DC area, LeBlanc makes list recommendations for direct mail fundraising campaigns.
“Ninety percent of my brokerage business comes from agencies,” he adds. “I broker 6- to 8 million names annually.”
Organizations he finds lists for include Gun Owners of America, In God We Trust-America Inc., English First, U.S. Veterans Hospice Foundation, The Seniors Coalition, U.S. Border Control and U.S. Border Security.
He did some list brokerage for past presidential candidate Pat Buchanan, but he’s not doing list work for any of the current field of G.O.P. presidential candidates.
His main interests are politics inside and outside of work, spectator sports and his two sons ages, 6 and 17. His favorite teams are the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox and he likes to attend their games. But bigger thrills loom on his horizon.
“I’m going to be jumping out of an airplane soon with my oldest son. I’ve learned to be careful as a parent about what I say, because I promised him a long time ago that I’d jump out of an airplane with him on his 18th birthday,” says LeBlanc.
Is there much difference between brokering lists for small versus large political organizations?
“I find that smaller organizations have tighter budgets and higher expectations. Large organizations have larger suppression files