SELF PORTRAIT Date and place of birth: July 31, 1975, in Fayetteville Occupation: Owner/partner, Vantage Point Communications, LLC A book everyone should read is Walden by Henry David Thoreau and How to Win Friends and In◊uence People by Dale Carnegie.

Something I’d like to be better at is cooking. You really don’t want me in the kitchen.

My favorite TV show is presently a tie between the late 30 Rock and Portlandia. All-time, I’d have to say it’s a tie between The West Wing and the original Doctor Who.

My most-prized possession is the inherited archive of letters, photos and objects documenting my family’s history spanning many generations.

My goal for the next year is to finish my collection of sardonically witty - if I do say so myself - short stories, then get them published.

If money were no object, I’d buy a private island in the British or French West Indies.

My secret talent is the art of found-object assemblage.

The guests at my fantasy dinner party would be Hillary (and Bill) Clinton, Mark Twain, the Dalai Lama, Maya Angelou and Leonardo da Vinci.

A phrase to sum me up: “Driven and opinionated, but diplomatic and grateful.”FAYETTEVILLE - Aaron Bleidt was a White House intern, started a marketing company, won election to public office and launched his own magazine.

By the time he had accomplished all this, Bleidt was still in his mid-20s.

“The last 15 to 20 years have been a roller coaster,” he says. “There’s been a lot crammed into it. I feel 1 like I’ve lived 1 /2 years for every one of my 37.”

Bleidt has an exceptional grasp of the language, so he’s quick to add this is a cliche.

He’s right; he’s 37 years 1 old, not 55 /2. But he’s equally right to say he has crammed a whole lot of life into those 37 years.

He grew up fast, the only child of a single mother who was wildly creative and suffered bouts of crippling depression. Bleidt’s youth was less a childhood than a young adulthood, a partnership with his mom.

By the time he graduated from Fayetteville High School and enrolled in the University of Arkansas, he was demonstrating a passion for his community matched only by his entrepreneurial spirit.

This drive spurred him to get involved with the Democratic Party, first on a local level and then nationally. It compelled him to start Citiscapes, a popular monthly lifestyle magazine based in Fayetteville, and then leave it after close to a decade as publisher and editor in chief so he could move on to his next creation.

“He has a Midas touch,” says college roommate and longtime friend Anthony Clark of Fayetteville. “Seemingly everything he involves himself in becomes successful. That just comes from his drive.”

For Bleidt, the next big thing was Vantage Point Communications, LLC, which he co-owns with Susan Wallace. Vantage Point is a communications partner with several highprofile clients in Northwest Arkansas, includingWalton Arts Center, the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce and the UARK Bowl.

The agency handles a wide array of communications for its clients, everything from advertising purchases to in-house publishing, but strives to provide the attention of aboutique firm. By design, its client base is stocked with arts and cultural clients, as well as civic and nonprofit organizations.

It’s important to Bleidt that he work with these sorts of clients.

“Aaron is one of the smartest guys I’ve had the privilege of working with, and also one of the nicest,” says Karen Kapella of Siloam Springs, the executive director of one of Vantage Point’s clients, the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. “He’s interested in your opinion, handles stress extremely well, and he just has great relationships in the community. ... He makes SONA better.”

Freed from the “treadmill” that was his monthly magazine, Bleidt has more time to pursue his varied interests.

He’s got time to add art pieces to his Wilson Park Historic District house that dates to 1926, or to combine objects and create his own. There’s more opportunities to travel tothe beach, big cities or faraway historic sites with his domestic partner of 14 years, John Clayborn.

But there’s still a ton happening in Bleidt’s world. Staying busy is in his nature.

“Aaron is very driven but methodical,” Clark says. “It’s easy to have a big idea, but he’s always had a plan to make sure his follow-through was right.”

‘WONDERFUL UPBRINGING’

Bleidt is a forgiving soul.

His parents split up before he turned 2, and he barely saw his father in the years that followed. There might be a phone call or visit every few years, but they were brief and never followed up on with anything substantial.

It wasn’t until Bleidt was about to graduate from Fayetteville High that his dad wanted to be a big part of his son’s life. Bleidt could have told his dad “no thanks” - or said something a lot angrier - and nobody would have blamed him.

Instead, he allowed his father into his life. They were close until he died a few years later, and Bleidt has developed relationships with his four half-siblings, whom he rarely saw growing up.

“I could have shunned him - my mom was always very sad after the divorce, and I saw that - or I could move forward and not dwell on the past,” Bleidt says. “Thank God I did that.”

Bleidt’s whole childhood could have gone a different way. He could have raged at the father who rarely made time for him, for the unfairness of a world that gave him a mother prone to bouts of severe anxiety and clinical depression, but instead has chose to see the good in his situation.

There were many days when Bleidt’s mother was feeling great, creating art and inviting her son to help redesign the interior of their house. Other days, she needed Aaron just to get through the day.

At an early age, Bleidt learned about human frailty, about the need for compassion and empathy toward others.

“He’s always gracious,” Clark says. “He was probably born to be a politician because he has this rapport with people he doesn’t know very well, but he also is good at cultivating the relationships he has. He always makes a point to include people. He’s very nurturing.”

Bleidt got his creativity and his love of art from his mother, and his entrepreneurial drive from his father - which he found out after they reconciled. Much of the rest came from his maternal grandparents.

The late Mac and Dorothy McAleb were an enormous part of Bleidt’s childhood. They “co-raised” Bleidt, frequently coming up to Fayetteville, or having him stay at their house in Fort Smith.

They’re a big part of why Bleidt insists he had “a wonderful upbringing.” Bleidt’s grandparents were hardworking people; his grandmother worked until she was87, stopping only because of a brain tumor that ultimately killed her.

His grandfather, meanwhile, was a hospital administrator who baked countless loaves of bread, attached a poem to them, and then told his grandson, “OK Aaron, we’re going to do some rounds.” They would take the loaves to friends, nursing homes ... anyone Mac McAleb thought might need one.

“My grandparents taught me the three G’s: generosity, gratefulness and giving,” Bleidt says. “It wasn’t about giving money; it was more about giving time and just being there for people as much as you can.”GETTING INVOLVED

So Bleidt gave his time, throwing himself into organizations he believed in.

That included the Democratic Party. Bleidt caught the political bug during a Bill Clinton presidential campaign rally in Fayetteville in 1992, and soon began working on behalf of the party.

He was secretary and vice chair for the Washington County Democratic Party, and a state committee member for the Democratic Party of Arkansas. He was heavily involved with the Young Democrats of America, serving as president of Region 6, the Southern states of the Central time zone, and was a volunteer intern at the White House in the summer of 1994.

“The thing that impressedme the most about him when I met him was how young he was and how active he was,” says Helen Lewis of Louisville, Ky., whose late husband, John, was a mentor of Bleidt’s. “He has a keen sense of community, so he was always investing himself in activities and organizations that helped to enhance the quality of life in Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas.”

While still in college, Bleidt would volunteer with three or four nonprofits at a time. Bleidt has been on the boards of seven local organizations and volunteered with several committees through the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce (today one of his clients).

In 1998, the same year he graduated college, Bleidt ran for a seat on the Washington County Quorum Court. He served three terms on the court, running unopposed in 2000 and 2002.

When Bleidt joined the Quorum Court, he made a pretty firm rule: He could only commit himself to one organization, two at the max. As someone who doesn’t believe in doing anything halfheartedly, that’s the way it has to be.

“Today I would never say yes to so many things,” he says. “You can only say yes to what you can achieve and do, so you can do good by it.” A CHANGED MAN

Bleidt has always had a lifelong love affair with Fayetteville. It’s where he wasborn, and where he’s always excited to return to after he and Clayborn go on a vacation.

It’s a perfect fit for Bleidt. He has always felt welcome in the city, whether it’s at his longtime church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, or at just about any event.

The only time he says he ever thought about leaving was when he was considering colleges. He thought about New York University or the University of Texas at Austin, but when he got into politics, he knew he wanted to stay in Fayetteville.

“He’s well-respected in the community,” Kapella says. “He knows Northwest Arkansas and the arts very well. He’s a quick study on what’s going on.”

Bleidt’s love of Fayetteville helped spur him to launch Citiscapes.

After graduating from UA in 1998, Bleidt worked briefly as the executive director for the Northwest Arkansas Center for Creativity, and then at year’s end launched his own boutique marketing agency, Creative Edge Marketing & Design.

Through Creative Edge, he offered counsel and marketing to local and statewide political campaigns. He did this until 2005, meaning that at one point, he was working on it, the Quorum Court, and Citiscapes.

Bleidt says the goal behind Citiscapes, which published its first issue in 2001, was to “be the pulse of the community” and help organizations get the word out about their activities.

“[I wanted for] readers to know what’s going on and to be part of the community - to make the community accessible, because we are so blessed to live in a city that I think is accessible to people,” he says.

Initially, Citiscapes had a staff of three. It relied heavily on freelancers and for the first five-plus years, Bleidt made strong use of his English skills, editing “every single syllable” that appeared in the magazine.

Today, he handles much of the copy editing done by Vantage Point.

“He goes through the red pens,” says his Vantage Point co-owner, Wallace, who was a freelancer for Citiscapes and had her work edited by Bleidt. “But he is not unfairly critical at all; he always has good input.

“He’s probably the best editor I’ve ever been around. He’s got great attention to detail, and can really put that polish on a piece.”

Bleidt sold Citiscapes a few years after its inception, but remained there until 2010, shepherding more than 100 issues into print.

When he got out, Bleidt gave himself a few months to decompress. He traveled, spent time at the beach, and thought about what he wanted to do next.

It increasingly became clear that a boutique marketing agency was the nextvenue for Bleidt. He rented a space in downtown Fayetteville and got to work.

A few months later, he and Wallace merged their companies and Vantage Point Communications, LLC was born.

“He’ll work as much or as long as it takes,” Wallace says. “Mostly he’s very detail-oriented, a perfectionist. He really pays attention to all the little things, which when put together with the big picture makes for good projects and happy clients.”

Bleidt’s a goal setter, but he doesn’t know what the next 37 years hold for him.

His mom died in 2009, leaving him an orphan of sorts. Since her death, he has become more grounded, someone who is passionate about his work but not consumed by it.

He makes time to travel with Clayborn; they rotate between beaches, big cities and places of historical significance (where they can “totally nerd out,” he jokes). He works on his “found-object assemblage,” combining things like a pipe from an organ and a miniature oil derrick to fill his house with pieces to complement their art collection.

And he takes more time to savor his hometown.

“One of the first things my mother ever taught me was a Thoreau quote, ‘Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined,’” he says. “I’ve always had that ‘sky’s the limit’ idea, but especially so now.”

Northwest Profile, Pages 33 on 02/17/2013