A couple of times last year I had the chance to hear Dell Gines talk about collaboration. Both times, he used the phrase “build robust networks for targeted purposes.” That resonated for me as Deb Brown and I often tell you stories about Building Connections and turning your crowd into a powerful network as part…
What’s the best way to get volunteers to take lots of required training or complete an intensive commitment? Help them take small steps. Take a large volunteering goal: Break it into easier subgoals: And make it flexible for them: It’s the same goal! But wording it differently made a big difference in how volunteers reacted…
Two people at the Oklahoma Arts Council conference mentioned their support message groups. This is such a simple idea I wanted to share it with you. Alena Jennings said people call her The Doodle Lady because she runs The Doodle Academy, an art experience education business in downtown Ponca City. Alena has connected with several…
Last year during entrepreneurship week, I saw lots of articles about what big cities can do to support entrepreneurship. Advice for small towns got left out. Again. So I wrote this entrepreneur week advice for small town economic developers and chambers of commerce, whether you serve 5,000 or 500 in your local population. 1. Create…
Caldwell, Kansas, has a population of about 1000 people. The city has taken an active role in improving the condition and availability of housing in their town. That’s a LOT for a town of 1,000 people! But the city is not the only group interested in housing. When I visited the town, we made a…
You’ve probably noticed, but housing is a top challenge in most rural communities and small towns. That makes it hard to remember that back around 2013, cheap housing was a key draw of new residents to rural places, according to Ben Winchester from University of Minnesota and others. But by 2019, lack of housing was…
The other day, I told you about how the kids’ Photovoice project stopped me in my tracks and why we made a video for those kids. Today, I want to share one of the photo ideas the kids made and what Deb Brown and I said to those kids. It’s also part of the video…
When we were talking about finding more volunteers in a virtual session with Radically Rural, some people brought up liability as a barrier to all kinds of volunteer projects and events. I get why this came up. Somebody in your town probably brought up liability when you shared an idea, too. “You want to let…
It’s pretty common to hear rural people say something like, “There’s nothing here!” That’s because they aren’t remembering all the new business activity or they maybe aren’t paying attention. Or maybe they’re only thinking of big new employers, the kind that come with visiting dignitaries for the ribbon cutting and announcement. Most small towns don’t…
This is my favorite finding from our latest Survey of Rural Challenges: rural people are optimistic about the future of their community. In fact, they were twice as likely to say they were optimistic than negative about their community’s future! Over 300 rural people answered the question, Do you think your community will be better…
8 years ago, I asked Deb Brown if she would like to do something together for small towns. Deb was a full time Chamber of Commerce director, and I had my liquor store and cattle ranch. We started by making email courses and picked the name, SaveYour.Town. Fast forward through 8 years of experiments, and…
When Deb first told me about The Tour of Empty Buildings, I thought it was brilliant. Here’s how it started. In her first week on the job as Chamber Director, she got asked:“What are YOU going to do to fill those empty buildings?” And she said:“WE are going to hold a tour and show them off.”…
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