Kathryn Witherington recently confessed that she’s been using Idea Friendly for 6 years! Truly cannot say enough about the Idea Friendly method for this – I’ve used it in the last 6 years to create two downtown public spaces, including millions in investment from the city, and am now using it to grow affordable housing…
People ask Deb Brown and me, “What would business would work in a small town?” or “What business does every small town need?” or “How can we fill all these empty buildings?” The questions are all related. 1. Try a pop-up. Set up a temporary store, restaurant, cafe, interactive experience, etc., just for the busy…
What do you do about the people who just complain about everything but don’t ever take any action? That was one of the questions when I visited Caldwell, Kansas, recently. Here’s my advice: Recruit them to join the Pillars of the Community: to show up and encourage people. They can show up with their lawn…
Melody Warnick’s books have been refreshing reads for me in thinking about how people and place interact to create the culture in rural communities. In This Is Where You Belong, Melody talks openly about her own struggle to feel connected when she moved to a new town. In If You Could Live Anywhere she shares…
See our mood board, above? It’s all about how SaveYour.Town is helping you along the way in 2024 and beyond. Deb Brown and I picked that phrase, helping you along the way, because we know that you’re full up on work to do. You’re probably involved in multiple organizations in your community. Certainly you are…
A couple of times last year I had the chance to hear Dell Gines talk about collaboration. Both times, he used the phrase “build robust networks for targeted purposes.” That resonated for me as Deb Brown and I often tell you stories about Building Connections and turning your crowd into a powerful network as part…
You’d like to do more for your small town or rural community, but you’re held back by at least a couple of things: You don’t actually need either of those. Small steps can be meaningful and usually don’t require permission. That’s why Deb and I say: 99% of the best things you can do for…
The other day, I told you about how the kids’ Photovoice project stopped me in my tracks and why we made a video for those kids. Today, I want to share one of the photo ideas the kids made and what Deb Brown and I said to those kids. It’s also part of the video…
When we were talking about finding more volunteers in a virtual session with Radically Rural, some people brought up liability as a barrier to all kinds of volunteer projects and events. I get why this came up. Somebody in your town probably brought up liability when you shared an idea, too. “You want to let…
8 years ago, I asked Deb Brown if she would like to do something together for small towns. Deb was a full time Chamber of Commerce director, and I had my liquor store and cattle ranch. We started by making email courses and picked the name, SaveYour.Town. Fast forward through 8 years of experiments, and…
I’m Becky McCray from Oklahoma. I co-founded SaveYour.Town with Deb Brown. Deb used to live in Iowa, but just moved to Mississippi. That meant I had to update our SaveYour.Town “about us” page. Now seems like a good time to share more about who we are, really. We are part of our communities, just like…
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