Small Town Stories | Local Business Marketing, Small Town Business, Entrepreneurship

What if the story you thought you were telling was never the story you were actually discovering? When I first started Small Town Stories, I thought I was creating a podcast about small town business. I imagined conversations about entrepreneurship, the remarkable people building businesses in small communities, and what inspires someone to invest in a place where everyone knows their name. Then t...

When does growth stop being about building and start becoming about belonging? Every small town eventually reaches a moment when the future begins knocking at its door. New families arrive. New businesses open. New homes are proposed. Change becomes inevitable. The harder question isn't whether communities should grow. It's how they grow. Because every decision shapes something larger th...

For most of us, customer service and hospitality probably sound like the same thing. I certainly thought they were. But after hearing one simple idea on another podcast a few weeks ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the difference. The more I travel through small towns and spend time with local business owners, the more convinced I become that people don't always remember wh...

When did we stop having places where we simply belonged? Not home. Not work. Just somewhere in between. A place where someone knows your name, asks how your week has been, and notices when you haven't stopped by in a few days. In an increasingly digital world, those kinds of spaces feel rarer than they once did. We're more connected than ever, yet many people feel more isolated. We can o...

What if the things we notice first aren't actually the story? A few weeks ago, a simple email about backyard chickens sparked an unexpected conversation. While the chickens may have been the catalyst, what emerged was something much larger: the stories we attach to ordinary things, the assumptions we make about people and places, and the ways community quietly shapes our lives without us even...

What makes certain businesses impossible to forget? Lately, it feels like we're all consuming the same advice, following the same trends, and watching businesses race to keep up with whatever the algorithm rewards next. And somewhere along the way, a lot of brands have started to look remarkably similar. But the businesses that stay with us rarely do so because they mastered a trend. They sta...

Starting a small town business sounds simple enough until you're actually doing it. The storefront might be ready. The business plan might be finished. But what happens when your customers are also your neighbours, your reputation spreads faster than your marketing, and the success of your business depends as much on community relationships as it does on revenue? In this conversation, entrepr...

There’s something small town businesses understand that the internet seems to have forgotten. Not everything meaningful can be optimized. Not every relationship should move fast. And not every business is meant to scale at the speed the online world keeps demanding from us. Recorded in Merrickville, Ontario, this first conversation begins with a homecoming. After years spent building a career in m...

Small town business is different — and after years of working in marketing, entrepreneurship, and online business, it’s something I didn’t fully understand until I moved back to the small village where I grew up. Welcome to Small Town Stories! I’m sharing the story behind why I created this podcast, what surprised me most about returning to small-town life, and why I believe we need more honest co...