04: The Small Town Business Lesson Hidden in Community

1 00:00:00,400 - > 00:00:02,879 SPEAKER_00: The funny things about small towns is that people 2 00:00:02,879 - > 00:00:04,719 often talk about the buildings first. 3 00:00:05,040 - > 00:00:09,039 The historic architecture, the charming storefronts, the places 4 00:00:09,039 - > 00:00:11,919 that end up on postcards, and tourism brochures. 5 00:00:12,160 - > 00:00:14,400 But the longer I've lived here, the more I've realized that 6 00:00:14,400 - > 00:00:16,000 those things aren't really the story. 7 00:00:16,239 - > 00:00:19,519 The story has always been the people who keep showing up for 8 00:00:19,519 - > 00:00:19,839 them. 9 00:00:20,800 - > 00:00:24,239 Welcome to Small Town Stories, the podcast exploring the 10 00:00:24,239 - > 00:00:27,120 business behind Main Streets and the people shaping small towns 11 00:00:27,120 - > 00:00:28,960 across Canada, the U.S., and beyond. 12 00:00:29,120 - > 00:00:32,880 I'm Jim Dishrow, top-right podcast host, marketer, and 13 00:00:32,880 - > 00:00:34,000 small town local. 14 00:00:34,159 - > 00:00:37,039 And every Thursday, we're diving into honest conversations about 15 00:00:37,039 - > 00:00:41,439 entrepreneurship, creativity, marketing, reinvention, and what 16 00:00:41,439 - > 00:00:43,759 it really takes to build something meaningful in the 17 00:00:43,759 - > 00:00:45,119 small town today. 18 00:00:45,359 - > 00:00:48,560 From local storefronts to growing brands, community 19 00:00:48,560 - > 00:00:51,759 builders to nationally recognized names, this is where 20 00:00:51,759 - > 00:00:54,159 modern business meets small town life. 21 00:00:54,320 - > 00:00:55,759 Let's get into it. 22 00:00:56,960 - > 00:00:59,600 Well, hello, and welcome back to Small Town Stories. 23 00:00:59,759 - > 00:01:02,560 I'm your host, Jan Ditchfield, and I'm really glad you're here. 24 00:01:02,799 - > 00:01:05,760 A few weeks ago, I sent an email about chickens to my email list 25 00:01:05,760 - > 00:01:07,040 for my online business. 26 00:01:07,200 - > 00:01:10,400 And now I realize that that's probably not the most dramatic 27 00:01:10,400 - > 00:01:12,400 way to begin a podcast episode. 28 00:01:12,560 - > 00:01:15,439 And there are entire industries built around teaching people how 29 00:01:15,439 - > 00:01:17,439 to write better opening lines than that. 30 00:01:17,680 - > 00:01:19,519 But that's where the story begins. 31 00:01:19,760 - > 00:01:22,319 So here we are talking about chickens. 32 00:01:22,640 - > 00:01:25,359 I've wanted backyard chickens for years. 33 00:01:25,599 - > 00:01:29,359 They're one of those oddly specific dreams that somehow 34 00:01:29,359 - > 00:01:32,879 survives every stage of adulthood, like quietly 35 00:01:32,879 - > 00:01:35,519 following you from one season of life to the next. 36 00:01:35,760 - > 00:01:38,640 It's the kind of thing that you keep imagining you'll do someday 37 00:01:38,640 - > 00:01:41,599 when life slows down enough, or when you finally have a little 38 00:01:41,599 - > 00:01:44,879 more space, or when the future vision of yourself you've been 39 00:01:44,879 - > 00:01:47,519 carrying around in your head eventually catches up to 40 00:01:47,760 - > 00:01:48,400 reality. 41 00:01:48,719 - > 00:01:52,640 And then, somewhat unexpectedly, this spring, it did. 42 00:01:53,120 - > 00:01:55,840 A few weeks earlier, we had driven over to the home hardware 43 00:01:55,840 - > 00:01:58,560 in Spencerville and put our names on the waiting list. 44 00:01:58,719 - > 00:02:01,760 And then one Saturday morning, we came home with six tiny 45 00:02:01,760 - > 00:02:05,120 chicks and promptly became that kind of family that spends an 46 00:02:05,120 - > 00:02:07,840 unreasonable amount of time talking about chickens. 47 00:02:08,080 - > 00:02:11,919 Within 24 hours, our entire family had become completely 48 00:02:11,919 - > 00:02:13,759 irrational about the babies. 49 00:02:14,000 - > 00:02:15,680 We checked on them constantly. 50 00:02:15,919 - > 00:02:18,080 My daughter became fascinated by them. 51 00:02:18,240 - > 00:02:22,560 We gave them names, and almost immediately, before long, I was 52 00:02:22,560 - > 00:02:25,919 taking an embarrassing number of photos and sending them to 53 00:02:25,919 - > 00:02:28,639 people who had absolutely no reason to care about my 54 00:02:28,639 - > 00:02:31,840 chickens, which includes my email list. 55 00:02:32,240 - > 00:02:35,120 The whole thing became a family event in a way that I hadn't 56 00:02:35,120 - > 00:02:38,560 anticipated, which is probably why I ended up writing about it. 57 00:02:38,800 - > 00:02:42,879 The funny thing is that email wasn't really about chickens, at 58 00:02:42,879 - > 00:02:44,319 least not entirely. 59 00:02:44,639 - > 00:02:47,599 What I was actually writing about was the kind of life I 60 00:02:47,599 - > 00:02:50,479 found myself thinking about more and more over the last few 61 00:02:50,479 - > 00:02:51,120 years. 62 00:02:51,439 - > 00:02:54,719 Not a different life exactly, but a different pace. 63 00:02:55,039 - > 00:02:59,120 A life with a little more room in it, a life with more margins 64 00:02:59,120 - > 00:03:02,639 around the edges, a life that isn't quite so dependent on 65 00:03:02,639 - > 00:03:07,039 being connected, available, visible, and online every waking 66 00:03:07,039 - > 00:03:08,000 minute of the day. 67 00:03:08,319 - > 00:03:11,520 In many ways, the chickens were simply the story I was using to 68 00:03:11,520 - > 00:03:13,280 talk about something much larger. 69 00:03:13,599 - > 00:03:16,479 Or at least that's what I thought I was doing. 70 00:03:16,800 - > 00:03:19,120 What I wasn't expecting was a response. 71 00:03:19,360 - > 00:03:22,479 Some people loved the email and immediately started sharing 72 00:03:22,479 - > 00:03:23,360 stories of their own. 73 00:03:23,520 - > 00:03:26,400 I heard from people who had chickens growing up, people who 74 00:03:26,400 - > 00:03:29,759 currently own chickens, and a surprising number of people who 75 00:03:29,759 - > 00:03:31,680 seem to have been quietly carrying around their own 76 00:03:31,680 - > 00:03:34,400 backyard chicken aspirations for years. 77 00:03:34,719 - > 00:03:38,080 But mixed in with those responses were a handful that 78 00:03:38,080 - > 00:03:40,000 genuinely caught me off guard. 79 00:03:40,319 - > 00:03:42,000 Not because people disagreed with me. 80 00:03:44,800 - > 00:03:48,479 And the longer you spend writing and creating and podcasting or 81 00:03:48,479 - > 00:03:51,439 sharing your thoughts publicly, the more you realize that 82 00:03:51,439 - > 00:03:53,599 disagreement just comes with the territory. 83 00:03:53,919 - > 00:03:56,719 What surprised me was something else entirely. 84 00:03:57,039 - > 00:04:00,080 What surprised me was how much meaning people attached to the 85 00:04:00,080 - > 00:04:01,520 chickens themselves. 86 00:04:01,919 - > 00:04:04,719 Because somewhere between me writing the email and somebody 87 00:04:04,719 - > 00:04:07,919 else reading it, the chickens had quietly stopped being 88 00:04:07,919 - > 00:04:08,639 chickens. 89 00:04:08,879 - > 00:04:11,759 They had become a representation of something else. 90 00:04:12,159 - > 00:04:15,039 For some people, they seemed to symbolize a particular 91 00:04:15,039 - > 00:04:16,000 lifestyle. 92 00:04:16,240 - > 00:04:19,759 For others, they appeared to represent a set of values or a 93 00:04:19,759 - > 00:04:23,600 philosophy or a way of looking at the world that extended far 94 00:04:23,600 - > 00:04:26,800 beyond six tiny birds living in a brooder in my downstairs 95 00:04:26,800 - > 00:04:27,600 bathroom. 96 00:04:27,839 - > 00:04:30,240 And honestly, I found that fascinating. 97 00:04:30,480 - > 00:04:33,279 Mostly because while everyone else seemed to be interpreting 98 00:04:33,279 - > 00:04:36,079 the chickens, I was still trying to figure out why one of them 99 00:04:36,079 - > 00:04:38,800 was insisting on sleeping in the least comfortable corner of the 100 00:04:38,800 - > 00:04:40,480 brooder every single night. 101 00:04:40,720 - > 00:04:43,680 The entire thing left me thinking about the stories we 102 00:04:43,680 - > 00:04:47,439 attach to the ordinary things and the assumptions we make 103 00:04:47,439 - > 00:04:50,480 about people based on the small pieces of their lives we happen 104 00:04:50,480 - > 00:04:51,040 to see. 105 00:04:51,279 - > 00:04:54,240 And the more I sat with it afterwards, the more I realized 106 00:04:54,240 - > 00:04:57,279 that we do something remarkably similar with small towns. 107 00:04:57,439 - > 00:05:00,639 Because just like the chickens, most people carry an idea of 108 00:05:00,639 - > 00:05:02,639 what small town life represents. 109 00:05:02,879 - > 00:05:06,720 They have a story about what it means, what kind of people live 110 00:05:06,720 - > 00:05:09,360 there, and what those communities stand for long 111 00:05:09,360 - > 00:05:12,160 before they spend any meaningful time inside of one. 112 00:05:12,319 - > 00:05:14,800 I think most people carry a version of small town life 113 00:05:14,800 - > 00:05:16,000 around in their heads. 114 00:05:16,240 - > 00:05:19,360 Sometimes it's the Hallmark version where every main street 115 00:05:19,360 - > 00:05:23,120 is charming, every storefront is decorated for the season, and 116 00:05:23,120 - > 00:05:25,439 everybody seems to know everybody else. 117 00:05:25,680 - > 00:05:28,639 It's the version where neighbors are endlessly friendly, 118 00:05:28,959 - > 00:05:32,160 community events are always well attended, and nobody ever 119 00:05:32,160 - > 00:05:34,000 appears to be much in a hurry. 120 00:05:34,240 - > 00:05:37,759 Sometimes it's the Instagram version, filled with beautifully 121 00:05:37,759 - > 00:05:40,959 tended gardens and farmer markets and sourdough starters 122 00:05:41,040 - > 00:05:44,639 and backyard chickens, and those century homes that somehow 123 00:05:44,639 - > 00:05:47,759 always seem to be bathed in the perfect golden hour light. 124 00:05:48,000 - > 00:05:51,120 And sometimes it's the tourism brochure version, where 125 00:05:51,120 - > 00:05:55,279 communities become destinations and entire towns get distilled 126 00:05:55,279 - > 00:05:58,399 down to a handful of photographs and carefully chosen 127 00:05:58,399 - > 00:06:00,959 descriptions designed to convince you that you've 128 00:06:00,959 - > 00:06:02,240 discovered somewhere special. 129 00:06:02,480 - > 00:06:05,600 And the funny thing is that none of those versions are entirely 130 00:06:05,600 - > 00:06:06,160 wrong. 131 00:06:06,399 - > 00:06:09,519 I live in a town where neighbors really do stop to talk on a 132 00:06:09,519 - > 00:06:10,240 sidewalk. 133 00:06:10,480 - > 00:06:13,839 I live in a town where volunteers somehow manage to 134 00:06:13,839 - > 00:06:17,839 organize an astounding number of community events every year and 135 00:06:17,839 - > 00:06:21,360 where local businesses often become gathering places in ways 136 00:06:21,360 - > 00:06:23,839 that have very little to do with whatever they're actually 137 00:06:23,839 - > 00:06:24,480 selling. 138 00:06:24,879 - > 00:06:27,920 I live in a town where people genuinely care about what 139 00:06:27,920 - > 00:06:28,800 happens here. 140 00:06:29,040 - > 00:06:31,920 But what I've realized since moving home is that most people 141 00:06:31,920 - > 00:06:35,439 here aren't consciously participating in some idealized 142 00:06:35,439 - > 00:06:36,959 version of small town life. 143 00:06:37,120 - > 00:06:39,360 They're simply living their lives. 144 00:06:39,600 - > 00:06:42,800 They're getting kids to hockey practice, trying to remember 145 00:06:42,800 - > 00:06:46,319 garbage day, opening their business in the morning, helping 146 00:06:46,319 - > 00:06:50,399 neighbors, volunteering when somebody asks, and genuinely 147 00:06:50,399 - > 00:06:53,439 doing the same things people do everywhere else. 148 00:06:53,759 - > 00:06:57,439 The difference is in that a place like this, those small 149 00:06:57,439 - > 00:06:59,600 acts tend to be a little more visible. 150 00:06:59,839 - > 00:07:02,879 Nobody I know wakes up in the morning trying to embody some 151 00:07:02,879 - > 00:07:04,959 romantic version of small town living. 152 00:07:05,199 - > 00:07:07,600 They're simply going about their day. 153 00:07:07,839 - > 00:07:11,279 They're opening businesses and walking dogs and coaching hockey 154 00:07:11,279 - > 00:07:15,360 teams and serving on committees and organizing fundraisers and 155 00:07:15,360 - > 00:07:19,519 helping neighbors and doing the countless ordinary things that 156 00:07:19,519 - > 00:07:21,519 quietly keep a community functioning. 157 00:07:22,160 - > 00:07:24,800 And I think that's the part people often miss. 158 00:07:25,600 - > 00:07:28,639 Because when you're looking at a place from the outside, it's 159 00:07:28,639 - > 00:07:32,560 easy to focus on the visible things the historic buildings, 160 00:07:32,639 - > 00:07:37,120 the cafes, the shops, the architecture, and all the little 161 00:07:37,120 - > 00:07:39,040 details that end up in photographs. 162 00:07:39,680 - > 00:07:42,800 Those are the things visitors notice first because they're the 163 00:07:42,800 - > 00:07:44,000 easiest things to see. 164 00:07:44,720 - > 00:07:47,920 But the longer I've lived back home, the more I've realized 165 00:07:47,920 - > 00:07:50,800 that the buildings and the shops and the cafes aren't really the 166 00:07:50,800 - > 00:07:51,600 story at all. 167 00:07:52,160 - > 00:07:54,800 They're simply the setting in which the story takes place. 168 00:07:55,519 - > 00:07:57,839 The real story has always been the people. 169 00:07:58,480 - > 00:08:01,680 Particularly the people who decide to participate in the 170 00:08:01,680 - > 00:08:04,480 life of the community instead of simply passing through it. 171 00:08:05,279 - > 00:08:08,160 Because every community is filled with people who could 172 00:08:08,160 - > 00:08:11,439 choose not to get involved and yet somehow do anyway. 173 00:08:11,839 - > 00:08:15,360 They're the people who volunteer, who organize, who 174 00:08:15,360 - > 00:08:19,839 show up, who contribute, and who quietly invest pieces of 175 00:08:19,839 - > 00:08:22,319 themselves into the place where they live. 176 00:08:22,720 - > 00:08:24,879 Most of the times they aren't doing it because they're trying 177 00:08:24,879 - > 00:08:25,839 to build community. 178 00:08:26,000 - > 00:08:28,160 They're doing it because someone has to. 179 00:08:28,480 - > 00:08:31,839 And when enough people keep making that choice over and over 180 00:08:31,839 - > 00:08:34,480 again, community becomes the result. 181 00:08:34,799 - > 00:08:37,039 I was thinking about this recently while working on a 182 00:08:37,039 - > 00:08:39,679 project for a local organization in Merrickville that's 183 00:08:39,679 - > 00:08:42,000 celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. 184 00:08:42,320 - > 00:08:45,200 60 years ago, a group of volunteers looked around 185 00:08:45,200 - > 00:08:48,480 Merrickville and noticed there was something that felt worth 186 00:08:48,480 - > 00:08:48,960 saving. 187 00:08:49,200 - > 00:08:52,080 Historic buildings were disappearing, and pieces of the 188 00:08:52,080 - > 00:08:55,759 community stories were quietly being lost, one building at a 189 00:08:55,759 - > 00:08:56,000 time. 190 00:08:56,240 - > 00:08:58,960 And instead of assuming somebody else would step in and take care 191 00:08:58,960 - > 00:09:01,840 of it, they decided to do something themselves. 192 00:09:02,080 - > 00:09:05,840 So they organized, and a new volunteer community group was 193 00:09:05,840 - > 00:09:09,840 created, and they spent their time, energy, and effort working 194 00:09:09,840 - > 00:09:12,320 to preserve the places that would eventually become some of 195 00:09:12,320 - > 00:09:16,080 the most recognizable parts of this village by buying the 196 00:09:16,080 - > 00:09:19,120 buildings that would be torn down and preserving them. 197 00:09:19,360 - > 00:09:22,480 And they didn't do this because there was money in it or because 198 00:09:22,480 - > 00:09:24,559 anyone was waiting to hand them an award. 199 00:09:24,799 - > 00:09:27,360 They did it because they cared about what happened to the place 200 00:09:27,360 - > 00:09:28,399 they called home. 201 00:09:28,559 - > 00:09:31,840 And the more time I spend telling small town stories, the 202 00:09:31,840 - > 00:09:34,399 more fascinated I become by people like that. 203 00:09:34,639 - > 00:09:36,960 Because when we talk about history, we usually talk about 204 00:09:36,960 - > 00:09:37,759 big stories. 205 00:09:38,000 - > 00:09:41,840 We talk about major cities and famous leaders and moments 206 00:09:41,840 - > 00:09:44,320 important enough to make their way into textbooks. 207 00:09:44,799 - > 00:09:46,559 But that's only part of the story. 208 00:09:46,799 - > 00:09:50,399 The truth is that history is being written every day in 209 00:09:50,399 - > 00:09:52,559 places most people never think to look. 210 00:09:52,879 - > 00:09:56,159 It's written in community halls and volunteer meetings. 211 00:09:56,639 - > 00:10:00,639 It's written on main streets and inside local businesses. 212 00:10:01,200 - > 00:10:05,039 It's written by ordinary people who decide that something they 213 00:10:05,039 - > 00:10:06,399 love is worth protecting. 214 00:10:06,720 - > 00:10:09,600 And maybe that's what those volunteers understood 60 years 215 00:10:09,600 - > 00:10:10,000 ago. 216 00:10:10,159 - > 00:10:12,320 That communities don't preserve themselves. 217 00:10:12,559 - > 00:10:15,039 Someone has to care enough to show up. 218 00:10:15,279 - > 00:10:18,559 Somebody has to decide that the story is worth saving. 219 00:10:18,799 - > 00:10:21,440 And the more I thought about that, the more I started 220 00:10:21,440 - > 00:10:23,360 noticing the same pattern everywhere. 221 00:10:23,679 - > 00:10:26,480 I noticed it in the local business owners who quietly 222 00:10:26,480 - > 00:10:30,080 unlock their doors every morning and create places where people 223 00:10:30,080 - > 00:10:30,879 gather. 224 00:10:31,279 - > 00:10:34,879 I noticed it in the volunteers who somehow managed to keep 225 00:10:34,879 - > 00:10:38,399 community organizations running year after year. 226 00:10:38,639 - > 00:10:42,960 I noticed it in the artists and committee members, firefighters, 227 00:10:43,279 - > 00:10:46,879 coaches, and all the people whose names rarely make the 228 00:10:46,879 - > 00:10:50,159 headlines, but whose fingerprints are somehow all 229 00:10:50,159 - > 00:10:52,240 over the communities they help shape. 230 00:10:52,639 - > 00:10:56,000 Small towns aren't sustained by a handful of important people. 231 00:10:56,159 - > 00:10:59,679 They're sustained by hundreds of ordinary people who decide to 232 00:10:59,679 - > 00:11:00,960 keep participating. 233 00:11:01,200 - > 00:11:03,759 And maybe that's why I become so interested in the businesses 234 00:11:03,759 - > 00:11:04,480 here too. 235 00:11:04,720 - > 00:11:07,279 Because the more stories I've collected, the more I've 236 00:11:07,279 - > 00:11:09,600 realized that local businesses aren't separate from the 237 00:11:09,600 - > 00:11:10,240 community. 238 00:11:10,480 - > 00:11:13,120 They're one of the ways that community gets built. 239 00:11:13,360 - > 00:11:17,279 They're gathering places, they're landmarks, they're often 240 00:11:17,279 - > 00:11:21,679 the backdrop for relationships, memories, and conversations. 241 00:11:22,480 - > 00:11:26,320 Which, if I'm being honest, is a very different understanding of 242 00:11:26,320 - > 00:11:29,600 success than the one I've spent years surrounded by online. 243 00:11:30,240 - > 00:11:32,559 Online, success seems to be measured by things that could 244 00:11:32,559 - > 00:11:35,759 easily be counted: visibility and reach and growth and 245 00:11:35,759 - > 00:11:39,120 followers and metrics, the endless collection of numbers 246 00:11:39,120 - > 00:11:41,279 that tell us whether we're moving forward. 247 00:11:41,519 - > 00:11:44,799 And while those things certainly matter, I've started wondering 248 00:11:44,799 - > 00:11:47,840 whether some of the most meaningful parts of life are the 249 00:11:47,840 - > 00:11:50,240 things that resist measurement altogether. 250 00:11:50,480 - > 00:11:53,759 Trust doesn't fit neatly into a spreadsheet, and neither does 251 00:11:53,759 - > 00:11:57,759 reputation or belonging or that quiet feeling that your presence 252 00:11:57,759 - > 00:11:59,360 matters to the place where you live. 253 00:11:59,600 - > 00:12:03,039 And maybe that's why people seem so drawn to small town stories 254 00:12:03,039 - > 00:12:03,679 right now. 255 00:12:04,000 - > 00:12:06,799 Not because everybody is secretly wanting chickens, 256 00:12:07,039 - > 00:12:10,240 although I'm gonna say, based on my inbox, there are clearly more 257 00:12:10,240 - > 00:12:13,279 aspiring chicken owners among us than I originally realized. 258 00:12:13,600 - > 00:12:16,879 I think people are drawn to the stories because there's stories 259 00:12:16,879 - > 00:12:18,000 about connection. 260 00:12:18,480 - > 00:12:21,679 There's stories about participation, there's stories 261 00:12:21,679 - > 00:12:22,879 about belonging. 262 00:12:23,200 - > 00:12:25,679 Because for all of the incredible things the internet 263 00:12:25,919 - > 00:12:29,600 has given us, it has also made it remarkably easy to move 264 00:12:29,600 - > 00:12:32,559 through our lives without becoming particularly connected 265 00:12:32,559 - > 00:12:33,840 to the people around us. 266 00:12:34,080 - > 00:12:36,240 And I've lived that version of life too. 267 00:12:36,480 - > 00:12:39,519 For years, most of my world has existed online. 268 00:12:39,919 - > 00:12:43,279 And there was absolutely nothing wrong with that to a degree, 269 00:12:43,440 - > 00:12:46,320 because in many ways it's built the life I have today. 270 00:12:46,559 - > 00:12:50,480 But somewhere along the line, I forgot how good it feels to run 271 00:12:50,480 - > 00:12:54,240 into somebody at the post office and spend 10 minutes talking 272 00:12:54,240 - > 00:12:55,840 about absolutely nothing important. 273 00:12:56,080 - > 00:12:59,200 I forgot how much I enjoy the conversations that happen on the 274 00:12:59,200 - > 00:13:02,879 sidewalks and in the coffee shops and in the line at the 275 00:13:02,879 - > 00:13:03,840 grocery store. 276 00:13:04,080 - > 00:13:08,159 The conversations that aren't content, the conversations that 277 00:13:08,159 - > 00:13:12,080 don't scale, the conversations that aren't trying to accomplish 278 00:13:12,080 - > 00:13:14,720 anything except being conversations. 279 00:13:15,200 - > 00:13:18,000 And maybe that's what this show has really been about from the 280 00:13:18,000 - > 00:13:18,639 beginning. 281 00:13:18,879 - > 00:13:24,000 Not Merrickville, not even small towns, but belonging. 282 00:13:24,240 - > 00:13:26,639 Because every message that's been sent to me since we've 283 00:13:26,639 - > 00:13:29,919 launched the show over the last week has reminded me of the same 284 00:13:29,919 - > 00:13:30,240 thing. 285 00:13:30,480 - > 00:13:33,679 People have written from communities across Canada, from 286 00:13:33,679 - > 00:13:37,519 cities, from villages, from places much further away than I 287 00:13:37,519 - > 00:13:39,759 ever expected this little podcast to reach. 288 00:13:39,919 - > 00:13:42,399 And I want to say a special hello to my listeners in 289 00:13:42,399 - > 00:13:43,279 Morocco. 290 00:13:43,600 - > 00:13:46,960 You've shared stories with me about towns you grew up in, 291 00:13:47,200 - > 00:13:51,279 businesses you still remember decades later, neighbors you 292 00:13:51,279 - > 00:13:54,879 miss, and communities that left a permanent mark on you. 293 00:13:55,120 - > 00:13:58,320 And at the time of recording this, Small Town Stories has 294 00:13:58,320 - > 00:14:01,519 been in the world for barely a week, and somehow it's already 295 00:14:01,519 - > 00:14:04,720 become a top 30 entrepreneurship podcast in Canada. 296 00:14:05,120 - > 00:14:08,559 Honestly, that feels slightly surreal to say out loud. 297 00:14:08,799 - > 00:14:12,000 And I am deeply thankful to you for helping to make this dream 298 00:14:12,000 - > 00:14:14,080 come true for this beautiful little show. 299 00:14:14,320 - > 00:14:17,440 But if I'm also being honest, the charts aren't the part 300 00:14:17,440 - > 00:14:19,039 that's been the most meaningful to me. 301 00:14:19,279 - > 00:14:21,120 What matters are the stories. 302 00:14:21,519 - > 00:14:24,720 Because every one of those messages has reminded me that 303 00:14:24,720 - > 00:14:26,960 the thing connecting us isn't geography. 304 00:14:27,120 - > 00:14:30,080 It isn't whether you live in a small town or a big city. 305 00:14:30,320 - > 00:14:33,519 It's the desire to feel connected to the places where we 306 00:14:33,519 - > 00:14:35,919 live and the people we share them with. 307 00:14:36,240 - > 00:14:38,879 Communities don't survive because of tourism brochures or 308 00:14:38,879 - > 00:14:41,840 Instagram posts or charming main streets. 309 00:14:42,320 - > 00:14:46,320 They survive because people keep showing up for them and creating 310 00:14:46,320 - > 00:14:50,799 the things like the brochures and the posts and the stores and 311 00:14:50,799 - > 00:14:54,879 even the podcasts that celebrate what we love most about them. 312 00:14:55,039 - > 00:14:57,519 And maybe that's what we're all longing for. 313 00:14:57,759 - > 00:15:01,600 Not small towns, just the feeling that we belong 314 00:15:01,600 - > 00:15:02,480 somewhere. 315 00:15:02,799 - > 00:15:06,559 Anyway, just something to noodle on until next time we talk. 316 00:15:08,399 - > 00:15:10,559 Thanks for listening to Small Town Stories. 317 00:15:10,720 - > 00:15:13,039 If you've enjoyed today's conversation, make sure you're 318 00:15:13,039 - > 00:15:15,120 following the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 319 00:15:15,200 - > 00:15:18,240 And if you haven't done so yet, I'd be really grateful if you 320 00:15:18,320 - > 00:15:19,600 left a rating and review. 321 00:15:19,759 - > 00:15:21,919 It really helps more people discover the show. 322 00:15:22,159 - > 00:15:24,879 You can follow along on Instagram at the Small Town 323 00:15:24,960 - > 00:15:28,559 Stories Podcast and visit us online at the Small Town Stories 324 00:15:28,720 - > 00:15:29,919 Podcast.com. 325 00:15:30,559 - > 00:15:32,960 All right, I'll see you next Thursday for another 326 00:15:32,960 - > 00:15:36,159 conversation about the business behind Main Street.