Buy One Product Locally

This blog post is written for residents of Greater Franklin County.  But you know what?  Change the name to your local chamber and your local businesses and the message is just as strong.  Buy Local. This year the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce rolled out our Buy One Product Local Campaign.  We focused on…

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Living Loess

Yesterday I met with the Living Loess group of people.  It included artists, a lavender farmer, aronia berry growers, historical society leaders, a goat owner and cheese maker, a numbers cruncher, restaurant owner, web designer, and me.  This fine group of people are partnering together to bring visitors to their area to see why the…

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International Dot Day – Changing the World

I am a big fan of Angela Maiers.  She has championed the You Matter cause and is literally changing the world. In April she brought a group of students to the 140 Character Conference/State of Now in Des Moines and they made me cry.  Me and a room of full people.  Because they showed us…

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Corn Shocks – A Rural Tradition

A corn shock is a group of corn stalks tied together.  Tuesday I spent the morning helping chop down corn stalks, put 12-15 of them together in a shock and tied them up with twine.  Then we threw them on the back of the pick up and I headed off to town to deliver them…

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Luxurious Living: Tour Hampton

Sadly, we had to cancel this event today due to lack of enrollments.  I was just going to delete this post, but then I thought maybe you could help me.   Would you share in the comments what you liked about this event idea, what you didn’t like or how you would have marketed this…

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Dreaming of a better world

I dreamt I lived in a world where cops in cars waved at me and wished me a great day. I dreamt I could walk down my town’s streets and see all kinds of cool stores and not a bunch of big box stores. I dreamt of going to live plays right where I live…

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Ag in August in Ames – State of Now First Mini

We know not everyone has a full day to dedicate to hearing about the effect of real time internet on today’s human being. What if we could drill down and present you with information specific to your area of interest? Presentations are given by people using the technology of now every day. They will address…

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Elbert West, the real deal

Today’s guest post is from Brian Thies, retired educator from Hampton, Iowa.  Brian and  I live in a community that supports the arts and we often get to hear musicians from around the United States.  Brian is also a writer, and both of us had the opportunity to meet and work with the artists that performed…

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Jason Falls Coming to Des Moines

Ben Smith is a friend of mine and I’m honored to be able to work with Ben on a project coming to Iowa.  Ben made it possible for Brian Solis to come to Des Moines to speak and he is now bringing Jason Falls here!  Here’s Ben, in his own words … Social: IRL is…

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