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It’s kind of a hidden place, upstairs in the newly-reopened movie theater in Elkhart, Kansas. It’s a little bar, almost a little speakeasy, tucked above the ticket booth and concession stand, with exposed brick walls and uncovered rafters, and a view out the little windows that overlook the whole downtown. It’s a small space, a…

When I was speaking about how everyday people can shape the future of their towns, an audience member asked about local governments. How can they survive, even as they need to do more with less money? How do they keep the water flowing and maintain all the other essential services? It’s a critical question, and…

After last week’s discussion of people using downtown buildings for storage, Linda replied to me. She’s one of those people who owns a downtown building.  Here’s what she said: This one hit me hard…..Guilty. Truly.The best laid plans….Change of plans……Plans fell through, fell flat, fell . . . Hard times, no time, wrong time . . ….

onday I led a session on filling empty buildings in your downtown. One of the thorny issues that came up was buildings used to store junk. I think every town has a few of these. They’re doubly annoying because not only are they hogging a building that some active business could locate in, they are…

When Deb Brown and I spoke at the RuralX Summit, one of the ideas we mentioned was the tiny business village, where businesses pop up inside of storage sheds in Tionesta, Pennsylvania.  Dylan Fulton and Camden Breitling, high school students from Miller, South Dakota, heard that idea and ran with it. Together with some supportive…

Rural OmniLocal. It’s the new rural retail buzzword. I know because I made it up. I didn’t make up the trend; I just decided we needed a name for it.   In the world of big retail companies, “omni channel” means using as many different channels as they can to try to reach their customers…

When I asked for your questions and challenges, Mike said “Getting people to live here or come here for the jobs we have open NOW!”  Mike’s not the only one with workforce challenges. It was one of the top answers in our Survey of Rural Challenges, and is mentioned often as a rural economic development…

You’re important to me because you read these ideas, and you make your community better. That’s why I pack so much value into what I write for you each week. But this isn’t the only place I share my ideas, so I wanted to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the good…

Every year, we get inundated with hundreds of trends articles: business trends, tech trends, marketing trends. Not one of them focuses on rural business. Unless, of course, you count mine. Because all the trends I focus on are rural trends.  This year, I’m watching several larger society trends that are squarely in our favor. Big…

When Deb Brown and I did our Q&A show, we noticed that many of you face related questions, ones that other towns are also dealing with.  Gaylin asked us to address this issue:How to bring together a diverse community with poverty and discrimination issues. If you’re thinking you’ll skip this question because your town isn’t…

When Deb Brown and I did our preview of 2017, we noticed a pattern in the questions that you sent in. Many of you face related questions, ones that other towns are also dealing with. So I wanted to share one of those answers this week.  Jonya from Minnesota asked: What are some good first steps…

Last week we talked about the behavior changes that Idea Friendly promotes: from Formal to Informal, from Control to Chaos, from a Few to a Crowd, from Deciding to Testing, from Isolated to Connected, from Big to Small, from Failure is Bad to Failure is Good. This week, three examples crossed my path that I’d…