S6:E13 - How to Harness Creativity to Create Value in Small Towns with Jordan DeGree

You are listening to the Growing Small Towns Show, a podcast dedicated to supporting you, the person who really cares about the future of your small town. We believe when people get better, everything gets better, and our episodes offer the ideas and actions that prioritize people and small communities. Thank you for listening. We're so glad you're here. Our guest on today's episode is Jordan Degree. Uh, today he's joining us primarily, uh, as the founder, one of the co-founders of the Rural Ideas Network. Um, this is a national network of people in small communities all over the country that we've been partnered with from the start. And while we're really— we— he joins us today to just kind of talk about the I would say the iteration and the evolution of their membership program and just what benefits they're going to be layering in. And as a member of the GST Club with us here at Growing Small Towns, you also get access to all of those things. And I just felt like there's, there's a lot of value in this. It's not simply understanding what you could get by joining. That's a piece of it, but it's also really understanding a few other key things. And I think one is that Jordan is, he is a serial entrepreneur. If you browse his website, you'll be blown away, just like like I am, and I feel very lucky to have him in my world. That's a, that's a whole thing too. But you'll hear that he is very much actively an entrepreneur himself. And so you'll hear how the last, you know, handful of years as they've been building and growing the Rural Ideas Network, they've been trying things and not failing at things, but kind of like learning what works and learning what doesn't work. And that, that journey, that part of entrepreneurship just frankly, to me, in my opinion, it just does not get discussed enough. It's always like we bring people on once they're successful and it's like the success is in the doing, the success is in the learning, the success is in the trying. And so we talk a lot about that, you know, kind of his journey, what he's, what he's done, how he approaches the world. He's a special dude. And I think the other thing that's cool about bringing Jordan on is he is in Dubuque, Iowa. I've never been to Dubuque, Iowa. We're going to fix that. That's We can make that happen, maybe. But I also have never met him in person. And he— I joke, like, I want to call him a ride or die. But, you know, that's like kind of for personal friendships. But he's probably like a business ride or die. I'm not going to let him shake me even if he tries to. It's special. It's special to get connected to people. And it's not just because he validates the way I think about the world. It's that he challenges me. He challenges me to think creatively, to innovate thoughtfully. His whole thing is, how do I create value? Through the people, you know, for the people that I serve, whether it's a community, a Main Street, or an entrepreneur. And that's just a special kind of spark, sparky human to be connected to. So he's been with us from the very beginning. We wouldn't be in a podcast studio in our little town if it weren't for his support along the way. So buckle up, friends, and enjoy this conversation with our dear friend Jordan Degree. Hey Jordan, welcome back, my friend.

Yes, thanks for having me.

What is this, your third? Is this your— is this your third? Just second? Are you sure?

Well, I think it's my second, but I also have a notoriously bad memory for things in the past because I only care about things in the present and the future.

You know what, I— that's great. That's what we're actually here, not so much to talk about the past, but we will link your previous episodes if episode and/or sodes if there's two. We'll get Cass on it. She's got it. So just great to see you. So let's talk about the Rural Ideas Network, and I believe we're calling it 2.0. Is that right?

Yeah, it's still called the Rural Ideas Network, but after 5 years of learning and growing and connecting, we saw a lot of opportunity to really ramp up the network helps folks in rural communities kind of rev up what they're doing. And so we went about a process of revamping it and really growing it. And so we call it— we're referring to it as Rural Ideas Network 2.0, right? It's just kind of a way of thinking about the future.

Yeah. So it's the next iteration of the Rural Ideas Network, but it's still just called the Rural Ideas Network. So I, for, again, for our listeners, I think, and I told Jordan this when we were talking before, you know, too, that it's, I don't, I don't feel, and I know that I have, that I and we as an organization here at Growing Small Towns have not done as good a job as we should have done, um, just constantly reminding people of our affiliation with you, of our inclusion in your membership. And that's something we're really gonna try to do better at going forward, um, because we've been connected to you from the very beginning. And, and again, if people haven't heard, uh, the first episode where we talked about it, you were— you and the Real Ideas Network team were seriously like critical to helping me get our building done the, the way that it's done for the use that we wanted it to have. Um, so, and now it's just like we're now partnering on the activation of the space, right? So it's like you're no longer necessarily providing that like strategic and planning support and advice that you gave at the beginning because the building is done. But now we're constantly talking about what kinds of things bring people together, who do we want to bring together, who needs our support, all those things. So what, what has changed? What, what do you— where do you want to start with the offerings of kind of the next iteration?

Yeah, well, it's a big thing to unpack. So I think the first thing I would say is, you know, the idea that you're not promoting the Rural Ideas Network the right way or your partnership with us the right way. I'm going to push back on that a little bit just because we really see ourselves as being a tool in someone's toolbox.. And we don't have big egos at the Rural Ideas Network. And so it's not about everyone needs to know our name, everyone needs to see us all the time. It's really, we are absolutely fine working behind the scenes to create value and create impact for rural innovators, for our partners across the country, for folks like Growing Small Towns. And we don't need to be front and center because it's really the work that we care about and the impact that we care about more than anything. And so that's kind of how we've approached this work. We do think there's value in people understanding that there is this network out there that is helping people who have big ideas for their small towns or within their small towns to be able to connect with other people that have those same big ideas or access resources or get, you know, the ability to just kind of like stay inspired about those ideas, which is sometimes hard, and then also to be able to connect with people that can actually help them move those ideas forward faster and maybe more efficiently than they could on their own. So that's kind of— I'm going to push back on that idea that, you know, you're not talking about us enough, because if you want to talk about us a lot as a partner, you can, but we absolutely don't require that. And don't really care if people do, as long as they're like you are, engaging in this really impactful work on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, and creating good outcomes for those that come into your sphere of influence within your, your neck of the woods. And so I'll start there, but then we'll transition to maybe answering the question, why Rural Ideas Network 2.0? Even came about. So the Rural Ideas Network launched in the middle of the pandemic when a lot of businesses were closed, and we were running a coworking space called the Innovation Lab, which we still run. It's a sister entity, also a nonprofit organization. But we were seeing people not really feel comfortable coming into a shared coworking space. They were doing work from home. And at the same time, we saw a lot of folks that were really nervous about the future of their business and whether they were going to survive the mandatory closures and the decrease in walk-in traffic if they were allowed to be open, all of those things. And so what we realized in that moment was that really two things. Number one, that folks had— a lot of people in a very short amount of time had all of a sudden become very comfortable with online meetings. And before that, it was a minority of people were comfortable with online meetings and all of a sudden the majority were. And then the second thing that we recognized in that moment was that a lot of the entrepreneur support programming and business support programming and innovation services that we had been doing for users within our space and for companies within kind of our community, we were now able to offer those through a virtual meeting model to just about anyone anywhere. And so when we asked ourselves, what does that mean for how we deliver services, who we deliver services to, it became very clear that there was an opportunity to take all the things that we had been doing for people in person and package them up and make them available to folks that maybe didn't have as much access to those types of supports. And that's really what gave birth to the Rural Ideas Network is that we had some expertise in-house that we could make available to anyone and everyone across the country, and a recognition that we knew that people living in rural communities often didn't have the same access to those types of resources as startups or businesses that existed in urban centers. And so that really led us to say, hey, we can help people launch coworking spaces in rural communities. We can help startups launch and grow their businesses in rural communities. We can help existing businesses think through their business models, think through opportunities, and continue to expand in rural communities. And we can make that available to anyone, anywhere. Mm-hmm. So that created the Rural Ideas Network. And for the last 5 years, that's been going really well. We've made services available to individuals directly through our membership levels. We've made services available through community partners who then, you know, deliver those services or make those access to those services available. So, you know, all the members of the Growing Small Towns community and coworking space can access those services because of our partnership. People and, you know, we partner with economic development entities, we partner with city governments or county governments, we partner with regional entities that make the services our team has been providing up to this point available to the folks in their local service area. Okay, so that's kind of the, the history, and that's been going well, but then we had this opportunity to work with, uh, and actually through another sister entity that we have that is also a nonprofit. Uh, we have our hands on a lot of different initiatives and projects because we're experimenters at heart, so we're always trying to solve community problems. The Rural Ideas Network is one vehicle for that, but we've got, you know, like I mentioned, coworking spaces, and we've got— we actually had an opportunity to take over management of the Iowa's statewide nonprofit association, which was a relatively new entity, and we were honored to be able to help that entity continue to grow and evolve. But as we thought about that project, it really helped us think through and create some new models for how a network can support its members more effectively or maybe more robustly. And so kind of through that, the process of working on that, it gave us a lot of inspiration for how we could amplify the benefit that we create for Rural Ideas Network members. And so that's really what led to Rural Ideas Network 2.0, is just this flood of ideas for how not only can we make the services that we provide available to more people, but through the network model, an online-based community, we can help innovators in rural communities connect with other innovators, access the expertise of a growing number of members across the country, make connections that help you learn what you don't know, share what you do know, and really create this scenario where truly a rising tide lifts all boats. And in this case, rural innovators living, working, and creating in their small communities are the boats, and we see ourselves as that tide of just helping to flood more ideas to those people flood more support to those people and flood more connections to those people so that they're more resilient, they're more resourced, they have a stronger personal and professional network when things get tough or challenges arise. And so the Rural Ideas Network 2.0 is really about adding a bunch of new benefits for members that make it easier for them to connect with each other, not just access the services that we've been providing in the past and will continue to provide in the future.

Okay, so there's— that was a whole lot of words, and I was listening to you, and I want to just— a couple things I want to call out, of like pull out of what you said. So, um, one of the things that I, I genuinely believe that doesn't maybe get kind of acknowledged enough in this work is the importance of staying surrounded and connected to people that keep you inspired like that. You said it fairly early in your conversation, but like, that's— and just, you know, who do you, who do you go to? Where do you go when things aren't going well? You know, because in a small community, it's like there's not a lot of safety where you can just easily like Like, who do— who is that if it's not your best friend or whatever, right? So I think there's so much value in finding other people. And, and the— I, I actually, I love the phrase rural innovators because it also, it does something else. Like, not only does it, it say, hey, like, it's a way of moving through the world. It's not necessarily, you know, you're this person, you have this title, you have this role, right? Like, a rural innovator could literally be Anybody, they, they might work full-time in some other capacity, right, for somebody else, and yet they're showing up and they're creating change and they're wired to create, I think.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, you could be a secretary at your day job.

Exactly.

But maybe you're working on this really cool community event or you've got an idea for how to engage more volunteers in your community to do, you know, a project or a neighborhood beautification effort. Yeah. So Rural Innovator, That's one big change from Rural Ideas Network 1.0 to Rural Ideas Network 2.0 is in the past the network is really focused on those rural entrepreneurs, right? And how do you start and launch a business in a rural community? We're still going to offer all of those services that were kind of packaged within that, but for us it's also just as important to recognize the entrepreneurial spirit, yeah, that exists in rural communities and that idea that As humans, we're all wired to be innovators. It's just whether we've allowed ourselves to be, whether we've had the training, you know, some of the practice that it takes to really be confident in moving ideas forward and creating new ideas. And so, you know, we see rural innovators as being anyone that's trying to launch a business, grow a business, start an event, start a nonprofit, just do something interest— do a community, you know, a public art project, a whatever, just anything that's really interesting that's going to help make your community a little bit more vibrant. And if your community can be a little bit more vibrant, then it's probably going to move a little bit more in the direction of a thriving community because nobody wants to live in a non-vibrant community where nothing's happening, nothing's changing, and everything just remains static and boring, right? Like nobody has that on their wish list. For where they want to live. And so the idea of the network is really about, yeah, rural innovators exist everywhere. They are doing lots of different types of things. But, and you experience this directly, right? When you first said, I'm going to open a coworking space in a small community in North Dakota.

Yeah.

And, you know, our first conversation, I remember this very clearly. You kind of came into it and you were pretty ready. You were like, you were maybe 5 minutes away from hanging up the towel, I feel like, and saying, nobody understands what this is, nobody gets it, I've been talking about it forever, and there's just like— it's like I'm talking into an empty room. And I said, well, we get it and we understand it, and in fact we're doing it, and here's what we've learned. And so that kind of, in my mind, is exactly what this is about, is if you're feeling isolated, if you feel like your idea isn't getting the traction that you wanted to get locally, but you know it's a good idea, or you at least want to try it and see if it's a good idea, the Rural Ideas Network is a place where you can find other people to keep you motivated, keep you inspired, and probably find somebody that has maybe done something similar. Exactly. And it's working so that you don't have to feel like, is this just some crazy idea that Nobody's ever going to understand because right now I feel like I'm talking about it and nobody ever understands what I'm talking about, where they're like, well, that's crazy. I mean, some— sometimes you get that, right?

People come right out and say 100%. Yeah. Yeah. That's the other thing too, Jordan. Like I've said so many times, because I like to frame out entrepreneurship as a way of being, not as a— as an end result. Right. So what you just said, like, I think That's something every small community should actually, should be thinking about. I try really hard not to like do the shoulds on people, but it's like, how do we, how do we encourage more people to have that kind of fluid, adaptable, nonlinear thinking, right? That can result in stuff like cool new things happening. So one of the things I've often said is like, every great thing your town has was once just somebody's idea and every great thing your town needs is likely just an idea that hasn't yet fully come to fruition. And that's where we need people that are, you know, it's, it's a lot of things, right? Not only is it the way they think about things, but it's that, uh, willing to take a risk and what a, what a healthy risk can look like. And sometimes again, you're talking about doing it in a place where really out there, quote unquote, things feel very risky. And so when you can be surrounded by people that can kind of just add additional perspective to you, you know, for you, like, like you saying, well, we're doing it because you're not wrong. Like that assessment of where I was and where I still sometimes am, you know, it's like, I just want to quit. I want to quit all of this. Like, it's so hard. People don't get it. You know, all the things. Literally every single time I talk to you, I feel understood. I feel seen. I'm reminded that this is different, but it's good. And again, it keeps it— that support has kept me going. And that's 100% why I'm connected with you still, because I want to offer that to everybody that comes into contact with us too. And so this is just a really special way to do that. And it is reasonably priced in a way that's really important, because I think— so the other thing I wanted to say is you're literally offering something thing to a group of people that doesn't know where they fit, potentially, you know? Like, I have felt that way, you know? I— part of my journey was I was like, I think maybe the way I, I think and work can fit in the world of economic development. Um, it's not exactly the fit, right? And so it was like, so where does somebody like me go? I have a business, I run a nonprofit, You know, I, I've stood up some community projects. I collaborate really well. Like, where does a person like me go? I belong with you.

That's exactly— you know what I mean? I belong with you.

Like, that's what it is.

Yeah. And that's exactly the type of people that are in this network, is folks that don't necessarily want to just focus on one aspect of how you make a community better, and they really take more of a comprehensive view of You know, economic development is community development, is people development, is arts and culture, is all of it. Yeah, I mean, it's everything, right? And if you're only looking at one little piece, and so part of, you know, I want to go back to this idea of, um, you know, ideas and craziness of ideas. And sometimes when you start an idea, you get bad reactions from people, or you get non-enthusiastic reactions from people because it's a new idea to them. And You know, you mentioned every great idea that's helped a community at one point probably did seem crazy. And I would absolutely say that's true because, and I would expand it to every great idea in our entire world at one point was an outlier. You know, when you look at how do ideas get adopted and you look at those bell curves, right? Ideas, products, whatever it is, how do new things get adopted? You know, you've got your very early adopters. You've got your early adopters, and then, you know, all of a sudden the bell curve goes up. And once enough people have kind of accepted that, hey, this is an idea that has value, could work, could do something good for me, all of a sudden you get all these follow-on people. And unfortunately, most of the people in the world are follow-on people. Yeah, are follow-on people. And, and that's okay, but, you know, there's a recognition that that's true. And so What I like to say to people is that the Rural Ideas Network is where you can go to find your very early and your early adopters who are going to listen to your idea, suspend their disbelief for a little bit, or suspend their natural reaction toward new idea, no thank you. And they're going to actually instead come at it with, oh, a new idea, that's interesting, tell me more about that. Because those people exist out there. Of course they do. Those are actually usually the innovators out there. Who have started new ideas themselves and see the potential of new ideas to create value. And so when you have a new idea, the Rural Ideas Network is a great place to go and actually test it with people that are more willing to listen and think about new things versus that intrinsic kind of reaction that most people have of, "Ooh, new idea? No, thank you.

I'm good the way I am." The Growing Small Towns show is recorded locally at the Growing Small Towns podcast studio located in Oakes, North Dakota. It's produced by Pheasant Canteen Studio in Aberdeen, South Dakota, with marketing support from Cassidy Johnston in Canyon City, Colorado. Our intro music was created and produced exclusively for Growing Small Towns by James Bergman, singer and songwriter from Fargo. North Dakota. Local and small. It's what we support and it's who we love. Get your community a shout out on the podcast. Call 701-203-3337 and share your small town success that you just don't feel is being celebrated quite enough. And let us shout you out. You can also share your biggest people challenge, and we'll dedicate an episode to offering ideas to help. Hell, you can basically tell us anything, and we'll do what we can to answer. We can't wait to hear from you.

The other thing I want to talk about is, um, you know, with Growing Small Towns and the Rural Ideas Network, I want to make sure that folks know You know, there are a lot of ways to become a part of the Rural Ideas Network. You can go to the Rural Ideas Network website and purchase an individual membership. We also have a free membership if you want to just kind of get a taste and maybe upgrade later.

Yep.

We also work with partners who are, you know, nonprofits and coworking spaces and economic development entities and cities and communities and a huge range of partners who want to make the benefits of Rural Ideas Network membership available to the people that they serve. And I want to take this opportunity to make sure that all your listeners know that Growing Small Towns is a partner, and I want to give you a very clear platform to talk about how people that are connected with you, that are fans of Growing Small Towns, can not only through Growing Small Towns get access to the Rural Ideas, Rural Innovator membership perks, which we'll probably talk about in a little bit, Yep. But also layer onto that all of these great things that Growing Small Towns offers too. And that's the beauty of these partnerships is you don't just get one thing with our partners. You usually get everything that the Rural Ideas Network offers its members, plus add-ons and extra value from our partners. So I'm going to let you talk about what is— Rebecca, I'm going to flip the script here. I'm going to interview you.

Oh, okay, Jordan.

What is your membership option for people that maybe either are in your local community or are not in your local community?

Thank you for asking, sir. I didn't— just so everybody is very aware, I did not pay Jordan to ask that question, nor did I actually know he directly was going to ask that question, but I appreciate it. So, um, again, I think we too, um, our organization started really at kind of the same time, right? We, we were renovating end of 2020 through '21, um, and us, we too have been experimenting, right? Iterating, trying different things, seeing what works. And what— there's, there's a couple of things. So everything you offer with the, with the Rural Ideas Network, the Rural Innovators membership specifically, I fully wholeheartedly believe in as being just a really important part of creating that support system for the people that we just were talking about. Right. And again, it's like I felt such a— I felt such a nomadic feeling, like, where do I fit? Where do I belong? And so what we've just identified is exactly where I belong, right? So I always wanted to be— I always wanted our organization to be a catalyst for that. And The other thing, um, that is, I think it's, I think it's one of my specific skill sets and what I hope, what I hoped to bring to this work is, uh, real-time processing, brainstorming, creatively approaching challenges for people. And in my consulting work, my org, my org dev consulting work, some of my clients, that's what they actually pay me for is just like access to, to my brain to help them think through. A lot of it is like, how do I say this thing? Like, I have to have this difficult conversation. How do I say, what are some ways I could approach it? Right? And that is, that's really invaluable because you can access it. You can come to our, our membership with a challenge like that really at any time. We have two set times a month where we have these calls. So all the members come on and members will have submitted a challenge or something that they're having a hard time with. So like I often say, what's the thing that wakes you up at night and you're just like, I don't, I don't know how to solve this thing, right? Or I just don't even know how to start. That's the kind of stuff that people, our members can bring to these Catalyst calls and they happen at 2 set times a month for now. If we would have more and we couldn't tackle everybody's challenges, we can, we'll deal with that. We'll deal with that if we get there. Right. But so that's what our GST Club membership is. It's all the benefits of the Rural Innovators, uh, membership through Rural Ideas Network, plus this real-time processing of your challenges. And the cool thing is you can get that as a standalone, or if you're a coworker and you— so you either need the support, which is the standalone GST Club membership, or you get support and space. So all of those benefits are just wrapped into our coworking membership. So if you need even once a month or once a week space and you want to like have your meetings here and all of those things, that's all part of what people get with our membership.

And that's awesome. We love when people take, you know, kind of the core set of Rural Innovator membership benefits and layer on this personal connection, this local connection, this regional connection. Or even just a thematic connection on top of that, because, you know, the stronger the connections that get created within the rural networks that we're all trying to form and build, the more cool things can happen, the more vibrant the communities become, the more communities move toward really robust, thriving communities. And then all of the beautiful natural rural spaces in our country can continue to create value for the people that currently live there, the people that will live there in the future, and maybe even the people that leave and then decide to come back when they have, right, you know, when they see the value of the place that they left after exploring a few other places. Um, well, so let's talk about the Rural Ideas, the Rural Ideas Network Rural Innovator membership, since You know, as part of the GST Club, you get the access to these live catalyst calls, as you call them, that help people solve challenges and help each other solve challenges in real time, which is amazing. Then they also get, as part of the GST Club, all of the Rural Innovator membership perks on top of that. And those include, you know, the way we think about those perks is really We have a bunch of perks that help people make connections, which we've already talked about is super important. We have perks that help people build skills. So if they're working at launching something or just want to get better at doing what they're doing, we have a wide range of perks that help people access trainings and professional development and things really tailored to help you build your skill set so you can get better at what you're doing. And then this is my favorite section of benefits. We have benefits that help people inspire other rural innovators and also get inspired themselves. So maybe, you know, you're a rural innovator, but you haven't found your idea yet. Or maybe you've tried a few ideas and you're looking for more. We have a bunch of perks, things like our Rural Ideas Roundup newsletter, things like quarterly rural innovator showcase events where we invite people who are doing really interesting things in rural communities already. To get up and talk about and share what they're working on, what they're learning from it, why they started doing that, what the need was in their community, their solution to that need, and how it's going. And then that not only helps people see really interesting things that are happening in communities across the country, but now you have someone that if you're doing something similar or think you might want to do something similar, you now have an expert that you're connected with, that you can reach out to through the Rural Ideas Network membership directory and connect with them and ask them questions, or through our online discussion groups, ask people questions and get diverse perspectives, but all from like this self-curated group of people that see themselves as innovators and those early adopters to ideas, people willing to explore and experiment in order to help make things better. So that's pretty cool. We also have obviously perks that help you get advice, whether that's one-on-one business coaching. Every member gets a personal idea advisor because we are experts in the network. And so when someone joins the network, they get to, you know, have a consult with us and we help learn about, you know, we learn about what they're trying to do, things that they're interested in. And then we try and help them get connected to other members or events or discussion groups or whatever it is within the network that we think will benefit them and help them think through their idea and move it forward. That personal idea advisor is really like the network concierge. Yeah, we help you find the connections within the network. So some cool things, I'm not gonna go through all the perks because literally there's like 20 or 30.

Right, right.

I mean, it's a, it's a huge list. You can see it on the Rural Ideas Network website. You can see it on the Growing Small Towns website. But some of my favorite perks, things that I think really create value for people. Number 1 is our member directory. We have a really rich, robust member directory. We actually reinvented our member directory when we launched Rural Ideas Network 2.0 last month. So for those of you— or I guess by the time this comes out, 2 months ago. So in May, when this comes out, we actually launched Rural Ideas Network 2.0 at the end of February.. And so some of the things that we improved, right? We had a member directory prior to that, but it wasn't very good. You couldn't search by state or by topic or interest area and see kind of who out there was working on or thinking about things that you were working on. Rural Ideas Network 2.0, the member directory, you can search and you can filter and you can more, you know, quick, quickly and easily find the people that are doing things that you're interested in. But in addition to that member directory, we also launched our Rural Talent Directory. And so, so this Rural Talent Directory, we know that a lot of rural innovators out there have services that they're selling to clients, that they're making available to people. And if you can make your service available to anyone, anywhere— so graphic designers are a great example of that, right? As a member, you get to put yourself in the rural talent directory, and now rural innovators have this built-in shop where they can find people to help them move their idea forward and connect with and hire consultants and designers and all of these things that we need to help move our ideas forward and maybe don't want to do it all ourselves. You can find those— that talent in the directory. Another cool thing I love is our rural innovator showcases. I know I talked about this briefly already, but these are cool events. We're just finding members out there that are doing interesting things, and we're helping lift those ideas up and shine a light on them so that other people can learn about it, see it, be inspired by it, and then also have a way to connect with someone who's doing it. So Rebecca, you got— you have a great— Growing Small Towns does a great— you call it an un-conference. It's a bus tour. It's a way for people to gather and but instead of being like in a conference room at a hotel, you actually load all these people up on a tour bus and you go around and you visit communities and you visit projects and you visit things that are making these places really vibrant places to live and work and do business. And you're showing them and they're meeting the people and that's just such a great idea. So, you know, you would be a great example of a rural innovator showcase, talking about what it is, why it exists, and then anyone that wants to do something like that could connect with you and get, you know, support and advice. And I know you have a field guide that you're creating for how to do these tours. And so that's the idea of these rural innovator showcases, is really just helping people see what amazing things are happening out there and then have a very easy way to kind of think about Is that something I could maybe do in my community? And if so, I'm going to connect with this person to learn how to do that or where to get started or maybe pitfalls to avoid, right?

Mm-hmm.

So that we can do it with less risk as well. And then the last thing I'll talk about here, we are launching— Rural Ideas Network 2.0 is launching Rural Innovator Awards. So every year we're going to take applications for innovative ideas in a handful of categories. Innovative ideas in rural marketing strategies, rural community events, rural business strategies, rural community projects, and then my favorite, we have a wildcard category because we know there's ideas out there that, that you can't classify.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, you just can't. They're wildcards.

You can't pin them down, but they're awesome and we need to talk about it.

Yeah, for sure. That's right. So we're doing these Rural Innovator Awards, the cool thing is, is that this is a way to again shine a light on the ideas out there that are really making a difference in their community or that are helping rural businesses grow, that are helping rural communities grow. And not only do you get featured and you get recognition, but these are coming with cash prizes. So you get a little bit of cash when you win an award to be able to further your idea. And I will say these awards are great, but they are only open to members. So you have to be a member to be able to apply. And we collect applications for those August 1st of every year. And then we announce the winners as part of our annual Rural Ideas Summit, which I know you've been a part of. In fact, you were the featured keynote speaker last year. And you want to tell everyone to save the date on that? Do you remember the date?

I do. It's Thursday, October 8th this year, which is great. I, so I want to just share a little bit because I think again, like it's important for people to understand what it's like. Yes, I was, I was a speaker, which was a wonderful experience. But it's also, it was also, it's been really fun to host, to be a host location for that summit. That's such a, such a cool event because Everybody's kind of choosing their own adventure throughout the day. You get to pick and choose the sessions that you participate in. So everybody is, we're all in the same room, but we're not all taking in the same thing except for like kind of the opening message. Um, but you know, even just with some time under, you know, under our belts with this thing, right? Like we had, I don't even remember how many people we had the first year, but it was a small group, was under 10 and we had 13 people physically here last year. And so it's just It's— and yet then people from all over the place joining in.

And again, let's clarify real quick, right? So the Rural Ideas Summit is a travel-free conference. You can join from the comfort of your own home. But the cool thing about the conference is that, again, as a network that promotes connection and a sense of place in rural communities, we also, as part of the conference, partner with local organizations and coworking spaces like Growing Small Towns. And so not only is the conference open and available to everyone across the country without having to travel, right? If you want to get an in-person experience as part of this conference, you can by finding an in-person host like Growing Small Towns that is convening people. So yeah, you guys had 13. I know we had an in-person, uh, host in Maquoketa, Iowa. They had about a dozen. We had an in-person host in Illinois. They had about a dozen. And so there's hundreds of people that attend the conference and participate, and then you get this really curated in-person local experience where you not only get to participate in the conference, but then you can also network and connect and talk about things relevant to your region. Through local host sites like Growing Small Towns.

Yeah, it was super, it's super fun. You know, I just, and again, like I, anything we can do to put people in the way of, you know, new ideas, fresh perspectives, and interesting other humans, like that's, that's all I want. And it's what's so weird about it is I've always felt like my organization has always felt a little bit selfishly motivated because the truth is being, I guess I can call myself a rural innovator, right? Being a person like that, I need the support. I need it. I, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be, there's, and, and also too, I just always wanna remind people like, you never know when the next person you meet, like when the next connection you meet is gonna completely change things for you. Like it's so special how, how that happens. Um, but it doesn't happen if you don't put yourself in the way of it. And that's kind of, that's why our membership exists. That's why the work that we do exists. Um, and same with you guys. Like, it's just really cool. I also just wanna remind people, like, uh, when I think about our Catalyst calls, there is such a generosity baked into the way those people show up in those calls. Like, a lot of times they're, they haven't brought their own challenge to the table, right? And they're showing up because They want to hear what other people are working on, and you pick stuff up, even solving other people's problems, right? Or, or coming up with ideas. That creative brainstorming is just, we don't find ourselves doing that very naturally in our day-to-day, right? You just kind of do the next thing, and this is a really cool way to turn that part of your brain on or give it access. And it's the generosity that's so cool. Rural people are so generous. Truly. And, and so it's fun to have partnered with you guys to create a home for, for those people that otherwise maybe wouldn't know who to talk to, where to turn, who to ask.

Yeah. Or even how to help. Right. The other cool thing that you just brought up there is that you're creating a forum and the Rural Ideas Network is creating this forum where even if you're totally happy with the ideas that you have going and you're not really interested in creating a new idea for yourself, you can absolutely still show up and support and help create new ideas or new possibilities for other people to then carry forward, you know. And that is still, you know, we do a lot of work. One of the ventures that we have, uh, again, another sister nonprofit, is a creative play center where we foster creativity and innovation skills through informal play or playful experiences. And so through that and all the research we've done around how do you become more creative, how do you become more innovative, we know research shows 100% creativity is a muscle. The more you work it out, the more you use it, the better you get at it, the stronger that muscle becomes. And so those forums where we're helping, even if the idea is not helping ourself directly, but we're being creative and thinking of new possibilities. To help others, that's still creating that very tangible, very real benefit of we're exercising our creativity and innovation muscles. And that's putting us in a better position to not only come up with new ideas, but also to come up with better ways to solve the myriad of just small challenges that we face in our day-to-day activities, in our day-to-day work, in our, in our family life, in our community life, in our friend relationships. Right? There's always little challenges coming up, and creativity and innovation is the resiliency that you can have to help you overcome those challenges, make big things seem smaller, make small things seem like not even a challenge at all. And so really being creative and innovative is also a way to just have a little bit of a less, uh, a life with less friction, right? Because the challenges that you face, if you can approach them with creativity and innovation, they become less— they seem like smaller obstacles, right? Or not obstacles at all, right?

Yeah. Less daunting. Yeah.

You have to spend less energy overcoming that.

Totally. One of our members, Justin, shared almost that exact feedback with me. He said, like, I come to these calls. He said, I haven't submitted a question of my own yet. And he's like, but every time I come, I remind myself that I can think differently. Or, you know, it's like, he's like, it's almost, it's almost just a reminder that I do think this way and I can add value. And then it unlocks things about my problem, even if it was completely unrelated. So I think even though that's anecdotal, I mean, I understand this, right? But it's, it is, I think sometimes we just, we get really stuck inside our own either heads or echo chambers, or just kind of, we get a little myopic about things and we start to, that, like I told you before, like when things don't go my way and I don't do enough of this where I'm talking to people that remind me, um, that I, that I do have ideas that, you know, or even just you give me a way to like use those things. I, it's really easy to start, it starts to chip away. You start to not only feel crazy, but like maybe you don't have that much to offer. It really, I mean, seriously, that's the other, it's a huge mental health benefit. You know, we've been talking about the fact that this isn't just about like successes in the traditional sense of the word. It's about thriving as a human because our, our entire mission is to help communities be places people love to call home, right? That's like the big overarching, like if it doesn't make you love this place more. We don't need to be a part of it. It has nothing to do with us. That's it. It sounds— I mean, of course, it's— visions are supposed to be kind of, you know, big picture. But when people are thriving, communities are better places to be. Because when people show up better, everything gets better. Like, that's— I have felt that, and I know that to be true. I think all of us feel that. But without a support system like this, or like what we're talking about, it can be really hard to access some of that. And we're not meant to do this work alone either, right? There's no reason for in 2026 that we're feeling isolated or lonely.

Yeah, that's absolutely true. And we talk a lot about perspective because we all approach things with a certain perspective, and that perspective in a lot of ways dictates what we see about an issue or a challenge or an opportunity, how we see it, and then ultimately how we approach it, right? And when we think about perspective, we like to talk about where you're standing determines what you see. And if you want to see things from a different perspective, a different angle, that means you have to move where you're standing. You can't approach things in the same way every time if you want find new paths forward. And so, you know, when we talk about coworking spaces and things like offsite meetings and working from a different location, that's physically moving where you're standing so that you can unlock new perspective. And we see it all the time. You probably do too in your coworking space.

Yep, for sure.

Groups that have been meeting around a topic will move their meeting offsite and all of a sudden have a breakthrough. We have a partner that we work with in our coworking space, the Innovation Lab,. And they made an interesting comment. We've, they've had an offsite meeting space in our facility now for almost 4 years or maybe even 5. And the CEO of that company, and they've experienced a lot of growth, not just because of us, but because they're awesome, obviously. But was sitting in the room and said, I don't know what it is about this room. This room is magic because every time we come here, we have a breakthrough that, that we wouldn't have had otherwise. Or that we have a breakthrough on a problem that we've been working on for a long time. And this room is just amazing. And what we said to them was, well, the room's not magic. We all know that. But what is magic is that how sometimes even just physically shifting where you are working on that problem unlocks those breakthroughs because it forces you to think about it from a different perspective. But in addition to the physical moving where you're standing, Mm-hmm. There is a metaphysical shift that you can have when you're thinking about your perspective and how you see things and how you're approaching things. And a lot of times that comes from hearing about how other people see things or are approaching things. And so I think you, you tapped into when you started talking about perspective, this idea, this fundamental core reason for things like Growing Small Towns and your Catalyst Calls and things like the Rural Ideas Network and all of our online community interaction membership perks to exist is that when you hear other people talking about their perspective, it helps broaden your perspective. And the broader your perspective, the more angles you can, can look at a problem with, the more, the, you know, the different perspectives you can take on a challenge or on an opportunity and you end up with a richer result. You end up with a stronger result. You end up with a something that has a better likelihood of creating positive outcomes. And so if you're only sitting in front of your computer in your office or in your home thinking about your opportunities, your challenges, the same old way, you're limiting in a very real way the opportunity to solve those, to create better solutions. But if you're out there, if you're running into other people, if you're actively helping other people solve their challenges or listening to inspiring ways that people are solving their challenges or approaching opportunities, all of a sudden you're broadening how you're thinking about your own stuff. And that's where we see a lot of people really have those breakthroughs and stay motivated because they see that they're not alone in trying to do this. There's all these really amazing people out there that are trying to create better lives for themselves and for those, you know, their neighbors and their communities that they live in. And those are the people that join the Rural Ideas Network. We have over 1,700 members across the country. We have dozens of partners that we work with to make memberships available to the people in their communities. And it's just really becoming, after 5 years, you know, of building, it continues to grow. And the amount of ideas and the types of ideas and the types of support that people can find through something like the Rural Ideas Network just continues to get better and better. And the more people that participate, the more diversity you have, the more perspectives you have, and the richer everything can become. And so I would invite everyone listening to this to head to the Growing Small Towns website to look at becoming a Growing Small Towns member so that you can not only access all of the Rural Ideas Network member perks, but that you can also participate in Catalyst Calls and bring your own challenges and help people solve other challenges and be a part of a community that's bigger than just yourself and what you're working on, right? Because that's where the true value you're gonna reap it, you know, that's where it lies, that's where it's hidden, that's where it's uncovered, you can mine it, it's easy to mine it, and you can get it, and you can hold on to it, and just, and then it helps empower those around you too. So it's like this really nice thing that you can take possession of it, but it's not just yours, it helps create value for everyone around you as well, and that's the type of stuff that we think rural communities need more of.

Us too. And well said. Thank you so much, Jordan. Honestly, you know, just again, for being such a steady presence for me as a person, again, out here trying to do things that maybe have been not, not either not done before, maybe not done in the way I want to do them, right. And you're, you're constantly reminding me that I'm not as crazy as I sometimes feel. And I mean, again, we know we're all shades, like we're shades of crazy, of course, but like it really is isolating when you feel like you're the only one that thinks that way. And you always remind me that I'm not, which is so lovely. And it's also just so fun. You're in Iowa. It's so fun to be connected to somebody that's a couple states away and bring all of that north, in my case, right, to North Dakota and beyond. Right. Because all— everybody anywhere can access this. So I hope everybody does the same, uh, plug into this network. Um, we're all out here trying to make not only our own communities better, but our lives better because of it, right? Because this isn't just a— I, yeah, I, I see a lot of people that like fall on the sword of community improvement, but they burn out. That's not, that's not what I'm here to, to promote. I don't think that's healthy. I think you feel that way too. That's why we've kind of shifted this conversation to like, we don't just want you to be successful, we want you to be holistically healthy and thriving while you do it. Right. So, yeah. So come and join us, friends. So that's, that's it. And I appreciate you, appreciate you taking your time to share again this update. And I hope it also reminds everybody that like, we can constantly be iterating. We can constantly be shifting and improving based on what we experience, and that's how we all get better.

Yeah, that's right. And thank you, Rebecca, for all the work that you do in your neck of the woods and for everyone listening to this podcast for all the work that they're doing to have bigger, fuller lives. And through that, helping the community that they live in be bigger and fuller as well, even if it's a small town.

That's right. That's right.

And so thanks for having me. It's, it's always a pleasure to be on this podcast and I really appreciate what you're doing. And till next time.

Yeah, till next time for sure. Thanks, Jordan.

Bye.

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