Episode 10 | Entrepreneurship in the Rural Future

Rural Futures Institute Author

01/17/2018 Added

7 Plays

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In this episode Chuck is joined by RFI Fellow Bob Stowell to discuss rural community development and entrepreneurship.

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[00:00:05.336]Welcome back to Catch Up with Chuck.
[00:00:06.950]This is a periodic broadcast we do from the Rural Futures
[00:00:10.317]Institute at the University of Nebraska.
[00:00:13.307]I'm Chuck Schroeder, I'm the founding
[00:00:14.722]Executive Director of the Rural Futures Institute.
[00:00:17.707]You know we've said many times that our goal
[00:00:20.203]is a thriving high touch, high tech future
[00:00:25.090]for rural Nebraska and the Great Plains by 2040.
[00:00:28.852]There are some things we didn't say,
[00:00:30.112]that we didn't say for rural towns along the interstate.
[00:00:34.925]We didn't say for communities of 5,000 people or more.
[00:00:40.167]We didn't say for towns with an employer with a
[00:00:43.792]500+ person payroll.
[00:00:46.647]Our number one core belief is that we believe
[00:00:50.083]in people's capacity to shape their own future
[00:00:53.358]and that of their community.
[00:00:55.290]So I want to tell you that today,
[00:00:56.854]joining me is a fellow that I've wanted to have
[00:00:58.786]on this program since it's inception.
[00:01:01.279]Bob Stowell is a living breathing embodiment of that core
[00:01:06.026]belief that people can take action to shape their
[00:01:09.984]own future and that of their community.
[00:01:12.912]Bob has, through a long career of thoughtful wise
[00:01:18.512]assertive leadership, helped to shape the future of
[00:01:22.150]his community and influence the lives of countless
[00:01:25.465]others for decades, so Bob, welcome.
[00:01:27.894]Well thank you, I'm honored to be here.
[00:01:29.382]We're delighted to have you.
[00:01:31.065]So okay, Ord, Nebraska, it is a nationally
[00:01:35.377]renowned anomaly in breaking all of these silly
[00:01:38.816]myths about what makes a successful community.
[00:01:42.533]It's not on the interstate.
[00:01:44.262]It does not have 5,000 people.
[00:01:46.449]It doesn't have a huge employer, it's got a pretty
[00:01:50.263]diverse economy.
[00:01:52.396]So all of those musts, they have broken in Ord.
[00:01:57.190]But Bob Stowell, you had a distinguished military career
[00:02:02.365]before making the decision to return to Ord, Nebraska
[00:02:07.983]and get involved.
[00:02:09.095]Here was a community, which at that time
[00:02:10.950]did not necessarily have this golden glow
[00:02:14.651]over it that said yes, it's going to be this
[00:02:17.126]myth buster now and forever more.
[00:02:19.749]Bob, talk a little bit about your relationship
[00:02:22.448]with Ord, and what you saw in that community.
[00:02:26.173]Well Chuck, I grew up six miles east of Ord,
[00:02:29.922]so I have that feel for country.
[00:02:33.349]Sure.
[00:02:34.182]And the rural, and love it.
[00:02:35.846]I left at age 17, though, to go into the military academy,
[00:02:39.442]started an 11 year journey that took me through
[00:02:42.451]various places like Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
[00:02:45.622]Fort Benning, Georgia, Vietnam, and then back
[00:02:48.503]to Lincoln, and through that time, we kept really
[00:02:53.577]close contact with our families cause our families
[00:02:55.736]are really important, and our church,
[00:02:58.316]and so we decided while serving the military,
[00:03:03.430]it was really important to us to raise our children
[00:03:06.648]in a rural environment where they could understand
[00:03:08.747]the interconnectedness of multi-generations.
[00:03:11.622]They could feel safe running around the courthouse
[00:03:13.725]square, and sitting on a park bench with an 80
[00:03:15.663]year old person and learning.
[00:03:17.000]Yeah.
[00:03:17.833]So it was the rural way of life and family
[00:03:20.580]that attracted us back to Valley County.
[00:03:23.782]What a big decision.
[00:03:24.791]It was a big decision.
[00:03:25.624]One you didn't have to make.
[00:03:26.492]No, I love the military.
[00:03:28.066]The military was really good to me.
[00:03:30.342]And sometimes you look back, but when you meet
[00:03:32.964]that crossroad, you, you embrace it and you go forward.
[00:03:35.818]You have to make a choice.
[00:03:36.651]You make a choice.
[00:03:37.484]Absolutely.
[00:03:38.317]But we love that, but we love having come home.
[00:03:40.445]Well Bob, when we think about rural communities,
[00:03:44.346]and we think about the text books and the instructions
[00:03:47.679]that are thrown around sometimes,
[00:03:50.252]so many communities have tried to build their
[00:03:53.113]success strategy around the idea of someone,
[00:03:56.330]a major employer, a big manufacturer, whatever,
[00:03:58.916]that we would recruit from somewhere else,
[00:04:00.943]would come in and become the economic driver
[00:04:03.408]of that community, and by the way,
[00:04:06.589]very often ends in disappointment.
[00:04:09.030]That whole strategy, well you never took that approach.
[00:04:11.382]No.
[00:04:12.215]So talk to us about the strategy that you employed,
[00:04:15.532]along with other like minded parts in your community,
[00:04:19.249]the strategy you employed to make Ord
[00:04:21.081]what it is today and put it on the track that it's on.
[00:04:24.972]As you said, it's about people.
[00:04:26.874]And we believe that the grassroots approach
[00:04:30.594]was important for us.
[00:04:32.920]I mean, we align totally with we didn't know what
[00:04:35.418]your core value number one was going to be,
[00:04:37.232]but we aligned with that.
[00:04:38.884]And in doing that, it's important to look around
[00:04:42.599]your community and find the bright spots.
[00:04:44.811]To find out what's working, and look at your assets.
[00:04:47.055]And every community's a little bit different.
[00:04:48.671]Absolutely.
[00:04:49.640]And if you find those assets and build on them,
[00:04:53.557]I like it a little bit to build it and they'll come,
[00:04:56.988]we did not chase smoke, smoke stacks,
[00:04:59.859]but we thought if we build the infrastructure,
[00:05:01.588]if we built the culture in which entrepreneurs
[00:05:03.837]could thrive, and if we had a good leadership structure,
[00:05:07.936]if people liked it, and if companies liked it,
[00:05:10.946]they would come and so,
[00:05:14.065]we did observe through the Ag crisis in the mid 80's
[00:05:20.330]and the early 90's that, we experienced that outflow
[00:05:23.453]of people and all of a sudden we realized,
[00:05:25.557]we need to do something about that.
[00:05:27.658]Nobody's gonna do it if we don't do it.
[00:05:30.012]So the thing that we, the vehicle we used was
[00:05:33.632]an inner local agreement, cause that brought together
[00:05:35.523]the local people.
[00:05:36.419]Sure.
[00:05:37.252]Our county board was fantastic.
[00:05:38.312]Our city council cooperated.
[00:05:39.727]We brought together the chamber, which was struggling.
[00:05:43.029]And we had a 501C3 of some pretty progressive
[00:05:46.168]people, brought them together, did an inner local agreement.
[00:05:50.499]That helped us, provided a little funding.
[00:05:52.462]I think our first robust budget was $45,000
[00:05:55.592]plus a place to hang out in the building.
[00:05:58.812]And I advertised in four states to find an economic
[00:06:02.163]development director, and the reason I did that
[00:06:04.602]and looking at our bright spots, we had great
[00:06:06.447]people that had great ideas, and they were
[00:06:08.192]committed to doing good things.
[00:06:09.825]No organization, no direct movement on that,
[00:06:14.473]and so finally I said, we have to get somebody
[00:06:16.229]to help us mobilize.
[00:06:17.835]Advertised in four states, got eight wonderful applicants.
[00:06:20.986]Went through the interview process,
[00:06:22.187]and a late applicant was a little gal used to clerk
[00:06:24.664]in my office, and she was midway through her Master's
[00:06:27.383]in Business at the university.
[00:06:29.705]And she decided to come home.
[00:06:32.252]Beth Ann Kuntz is her name, and she came home
[00:06:36.513]and my goodness gracious, and in those days,
[00:06:39.010]she was 23 year old young lady,
[00:06:41.306]and with all these meetings, we had eight person
[00:06:43.586]economic development board, and it was like
[00:06:46.425]Snow White and the eight grumpy old men.
[00:06:48.213](laughing)
[00:06:49.046]Now thankfully that has changed.
[00:06:51.720]We have different generations and so forth,
[00:06:55.379]but in any event, we used that as a spring board
[00:06:58.451]so we had an organization and little bit of money,
[00:07:01.031]and we knew we had to have access to resources,
[00:07:03.711]And you know resources is a lot like, it's kind of akin
[00:07:07.151]to chasing the smoke stack if you chase that federal
[00:07:10.495]grant, you're gonna be disappointed a lot of time,
[00:07:13.386]so we decided at some point,
[00:07:14.961]how we've gotta have resources here that we can manage.
[00:07:17.686]So we passed a, 2001 we passed a 1% sales tax
[00:07:22.530]dedicated solely to economic development.
[00:07:25.940]And it was the first one, I think it was passed
[00:07:27.457]in the state.
[00:07:28.540]We also did it for 15 years, which was longer than most
[00:07:31.261]of them, but the other thing that was first in the state
[00:07:33.535]was that we collect the tax in Ord, but we spend it
[00:07:37.463]in all of Valley County, with the idea you understand,
[00:07:40.500]this has got to be more of a regional approach.
[00:07:42.438]Sure.
[00:07:43.514]And that's worked well, so we got resources.
[00:07:46.955]So the two things then, we were building infrastructure,
[00:07:49.961]so we would have, build a culture for entrepreneurs.
[00:07:55.331]We worked on leadership, and we, the youth were
[00:07:59.305]a big part of everything and then for the other part
[00:08:03.360]of the funding, we decided we needed to use philanthropy
[00:08:07.266]to build a little war chest.
[00:08:08.514]Uh huh.
[00:08:09.919]That was our strategy.
[00:08:10.954]Well, it's obviously been successful.
[00:08:13.873]Well listen, Bob, through my own work
[00:08:15.961]with the Heartland Center for Leadership Development,
[00:08:18.515]through Rural Policy research, Institute of Agriculture,
[00:08:20.810]Future of America, and now the Rural Futures Institute,
[00:08:23.796]it's been clear to me throughout my career,
[00:08:26.281]that just as you just said, it's always about the people.
[00:08:30.239]That's for sure.
[00:08:31.072]It's not about location and economic mix,
[00:08:33.659]it's always about the people.
[00:08:36.437]Well you talked a little bit about your investment
[00:08:38.871]in leadership and leadership development.
[00:08:42.638]That was not just off the rack down at the extension
[00:08:46.203]office.
[00:08:47.036]No.
[00:08:47.869]I have been so impressed with the investments
[00:08:49.410]that you have made in developing the genuine
[00:08:54.290]way down here leadership capacity of people
[00:08:57.546]and not only in Ord, but in Valley County.
[00:08:59.804]You've got to tell us about that initiative.
[00:09:01.845]I'd love to, 'cause that's one of my favorites.
[00:09:04.508]We recognized very early in 2001, that we needed
[00:09:08.954]formal leadership, and I'd always been involved in it
[00:09:11.644]through West Point and the Army, and I'd taught
[00:09:13.948]leadership at ROTC here at the university,
[00:09:16.871]a little different style.
[00:09:18.550]It's kind of command style leadership.
[00:09:20.337]And so we reached out to some of the folks you just
[00:09:23.948]talked about, Mylon Wall at Heartland,
[00:09:26.367]and Craig Schroeder, and Don Mackey and his guys
[00:09:30.047]from places here in Lincoln, and they helped us craft
[00:09:34.829]a program we called Leadership Quest,
[00:09:37.171]and we did that for three or four years,
[00:09:39.373]and then we got really busy with ethanol recruitment
[00:09:42.051]and all sorts of things.
[00:09:43.019]Sure.
[00:09:43.852]So we kind of took that off the agenda.
[00:09:47.653]Well, we found out in a business and retention
[00:09:50.341]expansion survey of our community,
[00:09:52.089]which we do every year, people were missing that.
[00:09:54.793]They were wanting some formal leadership,
[00:09:56.170]so they said this time we're gonna really do it.
[00:09:58.500]So we looked over the whole country
[00:10:00.770]and we ended up finding a lady by the name of
[00:10:02.775]Doctor D, Denise Tridopaskas.
[00:10:06.128]She has a number of connections to the university, here.
[00:10:08.466]She went to Kearney, she got some education here,
[00:10:11.075]has worked here, knows Connie pretty well
[00:10:13.203]and Lindsey, and so she knew Nebraska,
[00:10:16.286]she knows rural, has done some international work,
[00:10:20.551]anyway, she was at the University of Minnesota
[00:10:22.271]at the time, we hired her.
[00:10:24.447]And a really good leadership program isn't
[00:10:27.774]necessarily cheap, but we were able to leverage
[00:10:31.894]some of the philanth, earnings from our philanthropy
[00:10:34.779]from our endowments that we built with a
[00:10:37.966]three year grant from Sherwood, and so we got our
[00:10:41.530]first three years that way, and then of course,
[00:10:43.643]we needed to find out how to do it on our own after that,
[00:10:46.084]which we've done.
[00:10:46.966]So five years into it, and as you said,
[00:10:48.773]it's not superficial, it starts here.
[00:10:52.152]And you learn about personal development,
[00:10:55.681]and then apply that to your family,
[00:10:59.769]your workplace, and then ultimately
[00:11:01.365]into the community and it's a little bit like,
[00:11:04.737]remember you always admonish to put on your own
[00:11:06.696]oxygen mask first, before you help others, yeah.
[00:11:09.748]That's what we did.
[00:11:10.779](laughing)
[00:11:11.612]And so you really understand and develop the,
[00:11:14.292]I want to be an authentic leader.
[00:11:17.406]I'm, I want to be a servant leader
[00:11:20.816]and transformational, and you can work in one of those
[00:11:24.483]areas more than another to explore, but all of those
[00:11:26.815]are such key parts in the community.
[00:11:30.167]And so we've had a lot of our graduates now,
[00:11:32.965]we've impacted over a hundred people in a small town,
[00:11:35.702]that's quite a few.
[00:11:36.535]Sure.
[00:11:37.368]And we're going on and on and that ripples out now
[00:11:39.618]a number of businesses have come in
[00:11:41.128]for this leadership coaching, and so
[00:11:43.623]our graduates have started new businesses.
[00:11:46.663]They've dared to write, become authors,
[00:11:49.394]and now we're starting to see them run for public office.
[00:11:52.400]It's exciting.
[00:11:53.399]Well, I know I have talked to people in your community
[00:11:56.807]that have changed careers.
[00:11:57.989]Yeah.
[00:11:58.822]As a result of this experience.
[00:12:00.620]That's right.
[00:12:01.453]That have decided I have the capacity to change the world
[00:12:04.232]a little bit and I'm gonna do it.
[00:12:05.843]And I just, I'm so impressed.
[00:12:07.574]It's a multi year commitment on the part of folks,
[00:12:10.972]so it's, this is no trivial deal.
[00:12:13.786]Anyway, I just admire that.
[00:12:15.268]Okay, my friend, now this all sounds like a fairy tale.
[00:12:18.058]Sure.
[00:12:19.229]But I know that in Ord, just like in Chicago,
[00:12:22.649]L.A., anywhere else, not everybody sees the world
[00:12:26.800]just alike, so Bob, I know that you've had to deal
[00:12:30.007]with the cynics and the folks who said we don't
[00:12:33.930]particularly want to change.
[00:12:35.169]Talk a little bit about how you've dealt with that
[00:12:38.443]resistance over time to the trends
[00:12:41.314]you've tried to establish in your community.
[00:12:43.371]Sure, when we first started work,
[00:12:45.554]we've had some elections and some things
[00:12:48.785]that give us an idea, a feel and we've done
[00:12:51.148]some surveys, and we probably only had about 55%
[00:12:54.723]of really strong supporters in the beginning.
[00:12:58.054]I believe that's changed quite a bit,
[00:13:00.427]and it's wonderful.
[00:13:01.304]You're right, it doesn't come without a price.
[00:13:04.175]I have a good friend in another community
[00:13:06.785]who really worked hard in that community
[00:13:08.527]and another really good person in that community
[00:13:11.836]was a mover and shaker, said you know,
[00:13:15.056]this guy has done so much for this community
[00:13:17.033]they could name it after him,
[00:13:18.676]but right now he probably couldn't get elected
[00:13:20.340]as a dog catcher.
[00:13:21.173](laughing)
[00:13:22.445]And so there, you're right, it takes some grit
[00:13:26.406]and a little thick skin, but if we just keep
[00:13:30.442]our eye on the ball, if we just keep our eye
[00:13:32.883]on the goal, it's worth it and I remember back
[00:13:37.702]to one of Tom Osborne's books, when he was getting
[00:13:40.536]some heat, as we look back we think,
[00:13:43.349]well, how did Tom ever get any heat?
[00:13:44.809]Yeah.
[00:13:45.642]But when he was, he said you know,
[00:13:47.142]if you keep your eye and direction on your true north,
[00:13:52.256]you won't get knocked off course.
[00:13:55.721]And so you're right, it does take some grit,
[00:13:57.555]and anybody who wants to start and really work hard
[00:13:59.898]in the community, not everybody's gonna love that.
[00:14:02.955]But you said something about, things, want to keep
[00:14:06.218]things the way they are, well I had a good friend
[00:14:08.887]who had done a lot of this work say,
[00:14:10.462]you know, the people who tell me that want to do it,
[00:14:12.395]keep things the way they are, think about
[00:14:14.006]being in a river and in a canoe.
[00:14:16.908]He said, you gotta paddle like the dickens to stay
[00:14:18.663]where you are.
[00:14:19.574](laughing)
[00:14:21.202]Well put, well put.
[00:14:23.238]Well listen, Bob, you're a cool guy.
[00:14:24.782]You've been a, you've been a great leader in your
[00:14:26.186]community, but as we've talked to young people
[00:14:30.431]on this program that are preparing to go back
[00:14:33.974]to their communities and are thinking about
[00:14:36.450]to making an impact in rural, so often they come back
[00:14:40.074]to saying it's, it's what my family does.
[00:14:43.425]It's part of what we do.
[00:14:46.212]You come from a great family.
[00:14:47.475]Thank you.
[00:14:48.308]And in your part of the world certainly
[00:14:50.657]that have had generations of impact,
[00:14:52.221]talk just a little bit about how that
[00:14:55.472]has motivated you and I know you have generations
[00:14:59.838]following you that have watched that example
[00:15:02.537]and are saying "I'd kind of like to make
[00:15:05.004]my mark, too."
[00:15:06.906]As I said, I grew up on a small farm east of Ord.
[00:15:12.902]Mom and dad always said to all four of us kids,
[00:15:16.760]you want to better yourself, and you have to get
[00:15:18.838]education; it was not if, it was when.
[00:15:22.938]And so we did as the kids,
[00:15:24.744]and my brother traveled the world.
[00:15:26.460]He was on a NATO committee, he was the chairman
[00:15:29.381]of the US Free Grade Crowns, excuse me,
[00:15:31.754]US Feed Grade Council, traveled the secretary
[00:15:34.165]of agriculture and made a big impact in a lot of ways.
[00:15:38.226]My sister married a guy who designed floating platforms
[00:15:42.868]and they, they went to the Persian Gulf and supervised
[00:15:47.564]the installation and also in the Caribbean,
[00:15:49.657]and I think back to what mom and dad said,
[00:15:53.372]as you want to better yourself but always with that
[00:15:56.765]was love and hope.
[00:15:59.403]And when you want to better yourself in those days,
[00:16:03.476]meant go away, get education, go someplace else.
[00:16:06.481]Thank you Lord that this is changed,
[00:16:08.988]because our, our job is to create opportunity
[00:16:15.006]in our communities.
[00:16:15.839]We love our communities, which we do and our families
[00:16:17.941]and I know many people are passionate about the
[00:16:20.101]rural areas, but we, as the older generation,
[00:16:24.040]need to create opportunity and maybe show a little direction
[00:16:29.449]and then be willing to step aside and let those leaders
[00:16:32.713]grow and make a few mistakes, maybe.
[00:16:35.641]But maybe they're gonna bring, the lens through which
[00:16:39.645]they see the future is the better lens than my lens
[00:16:44.526]because they know what their heart's desires
[00:16:47.360]and passions are.
[00:16:48.453]Sure, well Bob, you've had, you've really had
[00:16:51.107]an impact.
[00:16:52.562]You were selected as part of the inaugural class
[00:16:56.423]of RFI fellows, and we've talked about that program
[00:16:59.573]some on this broadcast before,
[00:17:02.909]but you're actually part of what makes that class
[00:17:05.791]so unusual, fellows programs are typically
[00:17:09.987]scholars and distinguished scholars,
[00:17:12.821]and we have a number of those in that class,
[00:17:15.422]but we chose to also include community fellows
[00:17:20.563]who are out there making decisions, driving change,
[00:17:24.712]making rural communities a great place to live
[00:17:28.997]and I have to tell you, we've just been so proud
[00:17:30.806]to have you involved really from the start.
[00:17:33.033]You've also been part of our luminary advisory cabinet.
[00:17:36.691]And which I am so appreciated.
[00:17:38.624]For the institute that we've had a lot of fun together.
[00:17:41.060]So listen, I hope that over time, we can continue
[00:17:43.925]to do some of this work together.
[00:17:45.256]Me too.
[00:17:46.143]Anything you'd like to add today?
[00:17:48.717]Just as a wrap up, Chuck, I think
[00:17:50.302]if we all remember this is a process.
[00:17:53.624]This is never a one and done, and as you said,
[00:17:56.525]so aptly in the beginning, this is not
[00:17:57.945]an outside fix coming in.
[00:18:00.328]We need to decide what we want.
[00:18:02.075]We need to decide what our passions are,
[00:18:03.950]and we need to work to do it,
[00:18:05.074]and we can do it, cause if we can dream it,
[00:18:06.562]we can do it.
[00:18:08.003]Well, you've been a dreamer and a doer for a long time,
[00:18:10.240]Bob, and we're glad to be associated with you.
[00:18:12.220]Well listen, we want you to stay in touch
[00:18:13.842]with the Rural Futures Institute
[00:18:15.438]through Facebook and Twitter.
[00:18:17.374]Go see our recently revised website.
[00:18:21.238]It's a lot of fun.
[00:18:22.794]And know that we're gonna be back in weeks to come
[00:18:25.385]talking to real people, looking at real places,
[00:18:28.581]and seeing folks that demonstrate that strong
[00:18:32.069]rural communities can be a legitimate best choice
[00:18:34.893]for worthwhile living.
[00:18:36.219]Thanks for joining us.

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Episode 10 | Entrepreneurship in the Rural Future

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