107. Creative Community Development

Our guest on today's episode is Melissa Nelson of Hungry Canyon Design, which is a greeting card company where she specifically— they're snarky and kind of funny, and they're for the agriculture and ranching community. Melissa joins us today to talk about how to creatively develop community, and she shares a couple of specific ways that she, through not only her side hustle business, but also through her involvement in the community and her full-time job. Some of the things and events that she has spearheaded, these are ideas that we all can take. We can listen to them, we can think about how they might look if we tweak them for our community, and you're just going to hear the fire and passion she has for the small town that she calls home. Enjoy this episode with Melissa Nelson. Well, hey Melissa, welcome to the Growing Small Town Show.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Oh, so I like our origin story a whole lot because we have never met in person. And the person who connected me to you, you've never met in person, and I haven't met the person that did the connecting either. So my brilliant virtual assistant Cassidy is the person who connected us, and she was very wise to do so. So I'm super happy to have you here.

Yeah, I agree. I have to laugh when I talk out loud about my friends from the internet because I think my grandmas would probably like to tsk tsk me. Me like, you have friends that you've never met before that you met on your phone? Like, what, who are, what are you talking about?

Are you being safe, Melissa? Does she say things like that?

Yeah, yeah, probably.

Oh, it's so good. So why don't we just start, you can give kind of a brush overview of who you are, like why you care about small towns, because we're gonna get to some of the specific things that you've been a part of. We'll talk a little bit about like what I, I get to do with you and your class on Monday. Like we'll get to all of that. But first, just maybe kind of an overview where you're at, how big the town is that you currently live in. Just kind of tell us your origin story.

Yeah, so my name is Melissa Nelson and I'm originally from Nebraska. I grew up in a small town outside of Omaha and it was what you would probably call a bedroom community. My family farmed and we have cows in that area. And so we grew up with all the amenities of the city, but definitely still were like small town rural people. I went to college, I moved to Iowa after and married my husband who farms and we feed cattle and have cows up here in northwest Iowa now. But the town that we claim now is Mauville, Iowa, which is on Highway 20 in northwest Iowa. It's about 1,400 people, but we love small town rural America. My full-time job is I work in ag department for a local university in Sioux City, Morningside University, and I work with our ag students.. And a lot of our students are small-town kids. They're farm kids or rural kids that come to college. And so, I think they appreciate that I, working here, even though we're in the city, have that connection to the small towns and to something like home for them. Sure. I kind of wear several different hats. My full-time job is teaching ag at Morningside, and then I have a small business called Hungry Canyon, which is farm and ranch-related greeting cards and gifts. And my husband and I are very involved in our communities. Whether that's helping out with ag-based things, commodity organizations, or posting things on Main Street in our town. And we have two little boys who we're trying to instill the importance of doing good in their communities. So that's kind of a lot, but we like to wear a lot of different hats and we do that.

You know what's cool about it, Melissa? First of all, it's just so everybody knows, Hungry Canyon, super fun stuff. You've got a really great sense of humor and it's witty, and of course I love that. So everything that we talk about will link to whatever we can in the show notes so people don't need to frantically be writing stuff down. We'll make sure that we get it to them. But I think there's two things that I want to expand on or expound upon or have you maybe tell us a bit more about. First of all, I think it's really like the second I met you and we just— by met, I mean over Zoom. That's some air quotes around the word met, right? Like we met over the internet. Sorry, Grandma, but it's—

Yeah, sorry, Grandma.

It works. It works. But right away, I just knew that you were my kind of person because even the desire to wear a lot of different hats, the desire to be a person that helps move a community forward, but it still stays really positive and hopeful and optimistic. Like, that's my people, right? So I love that. First of all, I just love that you do that. Secondly, the fact that you care about nurturing or fostering that same sense of community and civic pride in your kids. But the truth is, like, they're going to become that way because you're doing it, right? Like, everything we do, they model it after watching us more than they're ever just gonna listen. I don't know if everybody knows that. Listening— kids aren't really that great at listening. They pick up everything that they see. So I just I think it's really special. 1,400 people is a small town, and it takes people like you digging down deep and saying, how can I help? So why don't we talk about the kind of community development or like the Main Street things? What's your favorite thing that you've been a part of that as you're thinking about our listeners, right? Because there's people from all over the country in tiny little towns from every corner of every state that listen to this show, which is really cool, right? Is there something you've been a part of where you're just like, yeah, other people can do this, other people should do this and tell us about a thing like that.

Yeah, I have a really good friend here in my small town, which was— I know is rare to find someone just like you in your small town. And we both feel very lucky that we have found each other. And her name is Marissa, which gets very confusing with Melissa. But we have kind of taken it upon ourselves to start planning events, and some of the things that we've done in our community have made a really big impact. And so it's been really fun. But the one thing that we're working on right which this is the third year we've done this, it's called the Rural Route Ramble, and it's a self-guided small town shop hop covering like 10 to 14 small towns in rural Siouxland. So it has to be outside of Sioux City. We kind of base our towns that we choose off of the businesses that are in those communities. And then also like, are you rural? Are you a small town? Do you have cool things in your town going on that we want to showcase to people? And majority is yes. We're very lucky to have business owners and just really neat things happening in our region. And so we wanted to show that to people. So we started the Rural Route Ramble, and last year we had 50 vendors that were in 14 small towns. Most of them were women, small business owners. Then we promote the vendors pay a registration fee and we use that fee to help promote the project. And so last year we were on all 3 of the major news stations in Sioux City promoting our small business owners, and we were in the newspaper and we we had 2,000 shoppers come out and shop over the course of 2 days right before the holiday season. And so this is our 3rd year to do that, and it's gotten bigger and better every year. And it is the most gratifying weekend because we ramble through the towns and you see people from all over the place come to shop our friends and our small business owners because we have really cool things happening in these tiny towns and we want to show that. And so we bring these people to these tiny main streets and just blow the business owners out of the water. Like they come and they shop and it's amazing.

Yeah, it is such a— when you and I visited about this and you talked about this event, you're working on some way to kind of systematize this, right? In a way that people can get their hands on. Like that's something you're working on. Like, and again, not— you don't like make any promises about when it'll happen or anything, but I know you know, when we talk about every cool thing that we come up with or that we do, if we implement it, we've already done what percentage of the work, right? Like, you could say 100%, but people are always going to have to take even the best of ideas and maybe customize them. Yeah, customize them a little bit for their community. But that— people just want a roadmap, man. I mean, that's all they want, right? They want to say, like, how do we do this? So is that— am I correct?

Yeah. So that's something that I'm working on as part of— it's kind of The next arm of my Hungry Canyon business is taking these events that we do, whether it's the Real Route Ramble or a number of the other things that we've planned, and making them approachable for someone who has no experience or little experience doing that and giving them the confidence to make it happen in their own towns, in their own communities.

Yeah, I think it's so powerful because honestly, let's be real, right? Like, let's get right down to it. Hosting anything that you're requiring yourself and the participation is among several communities, you're talking about media placements, you're talking about PR, you're talking about marketing. It just can feel like such an overwhelming thing for people, right? But I think just in concept, it's such a great idea. And we've done a few things kind of like that here locally as well. And it's so fun to collaborate with the communities next to you. That's one of my very favorite things. And there's still a lot in my community of this attitude of like, well, we want to be better than them. And it's like, well, sure you do, but that doesn't mean that we get better at their expense. That doesn't feel good to me. I don't know why people still feel good about that, but cutting other people down doesn't feel good to me.

And especially in our small towns, I think it's hard for people to understand. The more businesses you get in your town, the more people you're going to get in your town. I'm more likely to drive 40 minutes to a restaurant that I've heard about if there's a shop down the street that I can go to, or if there's multiple things in that town to spend my time and money on, I'm more likely to go there. It's hard for me to understand why some people haven't quite wrapped their head around that.

Right. Well, even take it a step further. It's when the communities around us have other stuff going on as well, then it makes your region appealing to come and visit.

Right.

So, yeah, it's such a great idea and I can't wait to see. And again, we'll update everybody. And as soon as you have that ready and people can get their hands on it, we'll be sure to help share it and promote it because anything we can do to help each other I just think is so valuable. Why don't you share a bit about the project that you've done with your students and kind of some of the things that— because I think this is another thing for like Main Street folks or community development people. We're always talking about how do we engage our youth. Now you have a cool opportunity being that you actually do the ag programming at a college, right? Like we don't have a college in my neighborhood, but I have a high school. And we have a career and technical education facility in our community. So those are 2 things like there's ways that we can engage students in a meaningful way. So do you want to share a bit about what you've done with them? Because it's super cool.

It's one of my favorite things ever. So my husband and I joke that for me especially, it's hard to not raise my hand when someone says like they have a cool idea or have an activity or something to be a part of. I long to find other people like that. And I think that what I want to instill in my students as 18 to 22-year-olds is I want to help them be that person because say they're going to go back to their small town or they're going to go live in a city they've never lived in before or whatever communities they subscribe to. And that's whether it's their church, their school, their job, their team, whatever it is, that's their community. How can they be a force in there? And how can they be the person that people go to to say, hey, we have this idea, let's make it happen, and to do the cool things in all those communities. And so we have a project that I started last year called Cultivators of Good, my little play on the ag college or the ag students there. So they plan and put together a project that serves a community that they subscribe to. So I give them a workbook that they work through and it starts helping them think about, okay, well, what communities am I a part of? What are the needs in those communities? Are they a social need? Is there something that they need for entertainment? Is there a fundraising need? Is there a service need? Like, what is the need in those communities? And then how do we help them and how do we put a project together to help fit that need? So I give them a budget, they get $100 of real money and they get to use that however they decide, and they have the whole semester to do it. My favorite story to tell about it is when I did this last year for the first time with these freshman students, they all started out and said, not all of them, but maybe 3 of the 6 groups said, okay, we're just going to take our $100 and we're going to go to the grocery store, buy canned goods and give it to a canned food drive and call it good. And I shook my head and I said, that's boring. You know, like, yes, canned food drives are great, but everybody does a canned food drive. How can we do something more unique? How can you do something could do more good with that $100. And by the end of the project, they all had these unique ideas and ways that they helped communities. So like one group used their money to put together a raffle basket and they sold the raffle tickets and used the money to buy recess equipment for a city or a Sioux City school. And they took the recess equipment to the kids and they got to hand deliver it to them and see the reaction on the kids' faces. One group decided to write notes to military men and women of their age group and send care packages. Another group decided to raise money to buy items on a fetch list for a Humane Society. They all came up with these unique ideas that I love. And this year there's some other ones. There's— my team is going to put together Thanksgiving meal kits for people who are in need. There's a team raising money for first responders. I love seeing them come up with the ideas and then run with them. And I'm kind of there to help them plan, ask the questions like, oh, well, what about the liability issues with that? Or how do you book a room on campus for this? Or kind of help with that kind of stuff. But I want them to leave having the confidence to go into a community and say, oh, I've put on a dodgeball tournament before, how can I help? Or I've made a raffle ticket before, how can I be of assistance to help for this cause or whatever it may be.

What's so cool about this approach is that giving is always personal. We get involved in stuff because we care enough about it on a personal level.

Yeah.

So this is maybe something as we think about, like, again, the people listening to this, it's so common that when we have our set stuff in a community, like whatever it is, right? If it's the annual festival, an apple pie bake-off, like chili cook-offs, like whatever the things are that make your community great. And then at some point we can't get volunteers for those things. We start to lose, we feel like, and then we say nobody's helping or nobody's volunteering. But we always need to take a step back and just remember that there was a group of people dedicated at one time that loved this thing. And so if over time a love for that exact thing falls away, then the love for the event is going to fall away. And that doesn't mean the event's not valuable. It doesn't mean anything. It's just we need to always remember that giving of both time, money, and talents is a personal choice, and we can't compel people to do it, and we certainly can't guilt them into it, right? People may do it out of guilt, but long term, that's pretty nuts. That's pretty unsustainable. You're literally trying to help connect kids from their passions and interests to something that the community needs. And there's almost always connections.

Yeah.

Because we all care about something, right?

Yep.

So I think that's a really special approach because it kind of ticks off all the boxes of the human-centered design that I think more communities need to be thinking about.

Yep. And I want these kids to come to your community and be that person to help either take over the project that is dying out or make a new one.

Right.

So that's my hope for it. I'd like to think maybe they will someday.

Right. Well, can you tell us a little bit about how did you start Hungry Canyon? I mean, where did the inspiration for that come from? And what I have to just say is that we're covering a lot of topics, but really this is about— this to me, what we're talking about is overall just fostering creativity in small communities, right? Because you are being a creative force for good in everything that you're a part of and having a business of your own. It's a very creative business by itself, but you're using it in a way that can help all of us, which is just special and unique.

Yeah.

Do you want to share a little bit about Hungry Cannon? Can you?

Yeah. And I think that it's being creative, but it's also being entrepreneurial. And that's another part of this, these projects that I have my students do. You don't have to be owning a business that makes money to be entrepreneurial. So I think that's part of it. And I have that spirit in me. And when you talked earlier about instilling that in our kids, that was my parents. My parents were in every organization. They had 20 different businesses from the time I was born to today. And so I saw all that and it made me exactly who I am today. And Hungry Canyon started because I needed a Valentine's Day card for my boyfriend and nothing at the store spoke to the ag way of life that we live. And anything that was— had a cow on it was a dairy cow. And that's not what we raised or anything with the tractor was green. And that's not what I could give to my red tractor boyfriend. And so I started making my own because I had just enough graphic design skills to be dangerous. So I started making cards and friends and family said, hey, can I buy one of those for my significant others? And so it just kind of started from there and it's really been my creative outlet. I teach college kids, so I can't do the corny crafty stuff and be creative that way, but I can be creative in other ways. And Hungry Canyon is definitely one of my creative outlets.

How long have you been running it?

This will be my 5th year. I started it in 2018.

Are you primarily online?

Yes.

Do you do any in-person sales?

Every once in a while. So I did a market this last weekend because there was some gals in my town who started a market called Made and Found, and it's a market for vendors who make and find things. And they brought almost 4,000 people to their 500-person town last weekend. And it's just a really cool thing since it's— I mostly sell online, but I do come sell in person for friends that do cool stuff like that.

Yeah, that's a heck of a story.

Yeah, that's for another day. Yeah, we could talk for hours, but yeah, I do some pop-ups here and there, but the majority of it is online.

Either you or your husband from the community you live in now?

My husband is, yes. He grew up there.

So how has the community been in terms of their receptivity to you or of you being again, there's air quotes around the not from here, right? Because we sometimes struggle with that in small communities.

Yeah, that's a fun question because when I moved here, I felt like everyone knew me as Mark's girlfriend. Like, that's how they knew me. When I moved to this area, I started a nonprofit where I did ag in the classroom for the area. And so I was going into schools and was all over the place there. And so I felt like after a couple of years going in and meeting all the people, and eventually I would walk into the cafe on Main Street and people would me as Melissa and not as Mark's girlfriend. And I knew all the names on the trucks at the elevator and like, I felt like I had finally made it. But we are lucky to have some really forward-thinking people in our community that I have kind of hitched myself to. And some of them are from here and some of them are also transplants. But I think being that, like, the volunteer, the serial volunteer, especially before I had kids, I don't raise my hand quite as much now that I have little kids. Right. But right when I moved here, I thought, how am I going to get involved? Because I got to know people and they got to know me. So I went to the fair board office and I said, I love the county fair, how can I help? And they promptly put me in charge of 3 different things at the county fair.

That's not surprising to me. I don't know if anybody listening to this is like, what? That's of course. They were like, what? Where did you come from? Uh-huh. So I thought, thank you, Paula Jensen. You sweet angel person, you.

Looking back, that was questionable of me to do that, but it's kind of how I became ingrained in the community, was doing stuff like that.

I need to reiterate this because I think it's that valuable. You went and talked to somebody that does something that you have experience with and that you care about.

Yeah.

You didn't go and say, I'm just looking for something to do. It was like, look, I love the county fair. Yes, I love the county fair. You did need to meet people. Like, there was some personal reasons for that involvement. But I think more of us need to be thinking about how to align our volunteering opportunities, where that we contribute our money and where we contribute our talents, because there's enough to go around in communities like ours. There is. But we just need to maybe shepherd it or steward it a little more effectively.

I totally agree with that. Yeah.

And I feel like you are just naturally given to think that way, but I think sometimes we forget that people make these decisions from a really emotional heart-centered place when it comes to where they give of their time and their talent. So let me ask you this. If there's somebody listening to this and they're new to their community, they're not like they're new, they're a transplant, they're new.

Yep.

What is the very first thing that you would tell them to do to make the place that they've moved to feel like theirs?

That's a good question. I think that it's important to find your people. And so you think about, okay, where are the people? First of all, maybe church, maybe a community organization. And I always lean ag, obviously that's my background and my interest area. And so a lot of times in rural communities like Farm Bureau or the local cattlemen or commodity organization or whatever, maybe you're lucky enough to have something like that. Start looking for where the people are. One of the things that I did when I first moved here, when I was looking for a place to rent, was someone said, go to city hall and ask who are the people that have homes for rent. And I think a lot of times those city hall managers have their thumb on a lot of things in the community and might have a place that if you say, oh, well, I really love helping children with art, oh, then you need to go find this person because they have an art in the park activity every other week. And so go talk to them or kind of find where the people are and then tailor those interests to match what you like.

Right. Well, and I think also what you're saying is, yes, city— poor city managers or admin people, like the people in your city office, they really do get just bombarded with the weirdest slate of questions. But what that just means is that they're a good resource. So I would also throw in, if you have a Chamber of Commerce in your community, they're probably another really great place to start. We often think that chambers really are only there for the business community, but most especially in a small town. Most chambers also have a quality of life component to what they do. And they just, like you said, I think the question that, or the way you phrased it is the way to put it, right? Who has the pulse on your community?

Yep.

And you might have to ask around a little bit to figure that out, but there's an underground network in every small town. And so you need to figure out your way into it if your community doesn't have a great website or like a great way to kind of personally navigate it. Can be really hard to figure out where the juice is, right? Yeah, that's kind of what you're talking about.

That's exactly it.

Yeah. So, Melissa, you are such a delight, and I'm so excited to come to your class on Monday.

I'm excited to have you there, too. And I like when they can hear from people like me that are not me, to know that there are other people saying the same things or better things than what I'm saying, to expose them to that.

Well, I think it's kind of just the you're never a prophet in your own backyard kind of thing, right? And as their teacher, at some point you just become like background noise to them.

Exactly.

And they just go, oh, well, sure, it's whatever she's saying. Mrs. Nelson saying the things she's saying, right? Instead of, yeah, like you said, finding out that no, this is actually a way of being that other people besides me.

Exactly.

Believe and think and feel. So it's been so fun to talk with you just now. And again, I liked you immediately. It was just like, oh, she's got so much going on and you're willing to give that. And every community needs a Melissa. And it sounds like a Marissa too. We need a Melissa and a Marissa, right?

That's right. Two is better than one.

That's always right. So as you go, for sure, we'll be sharing anything that you create that becomes kind of that template that people can take and use because that's so helpful. And it's so awesome that you're thinking that way because I don't, again, I don't think enough of us think that way. Like, what if we just started sharing the best of what we're doing in all of our respective places? That's what we hope this can actually foster, right? Is those conversations like, what worked for you? Because it could probably be appropriately adapted or tweaked to fit wherever it could land. It just takes great people.

I appreciate that. So thank you.

Yeah, thank you. So everybody, we will have the show notes updated with every place that you can get your hands on all the goodness of Melissa, plus Hungry Canyon. It's really— they're quite exceptional. So this isn't the end for you, my dear. You're going to have to come back and see us again. Okay?

Yeah, I'd love to.

Thank you.