From Possibilities to Reality: Save Your Small Town with these Uniquely Do-able Ideas, Projects, and Success Stories
A motivating Workbook for small towns to get into action right away with success stories from other communities, ideas for your town and a guide for each session to get you started.
BuildingPossibility.comBuyTheBook Tip sheet information
I'm at 36% towards my crowdfunding goal!
Your help is needed to complete the crowdfunding and get the book to the publisher.
Please take a look here - and feel free to donate, order a reward or even just share it with your friends.
July Updates
NOW YOU CAN USE VENMO! And PayPal!
July 25, Do you live out of the country? You can now participate in the crowdfunding! Choose a level and send payment via Venmo with my business name @BUILDINGP PayPal is a choice too! deb@debworks.com is the email address to use. Feel free to email deb@buildingpossibility.com if you want to use another method.
The levels are:
- $10 Supporter - you get a Facebook shoutout
- $35 The Workbook
- $125 Book Club Buy
- $400 Coaching and Books
- $750 Insider Membership and Books
- $3000 Webinar and books
- $8250 Live 3-day visit and books
July 16 ...What a whirlwind summer it has been so far! I moved last month because my old apartment had mold. It affected my health and I've been spending time getting back to better health. The good news is I'm improving and Shirley and I are not exposed to mold. I did extend the closing of the crowdfunding until mid August so I can properly share the book and future release with you.
I've traveled to Montgomery Alabama to speak at the Rural Grocers Summit and meet phenomenal people doing much needed work in the rural South.
I'm currently in Alpine, Texas at the West Texas Rural Philanthropy Event talking about the Idea Friendly Method for non-profits. There is a lot of wonderful things going on in rural, and it's my pleasure to learn more at each event I speak at!
The book cover
The full launch of the crowdfunding has begun!
This book will provide communities with the tools and resources they need to revitalize their downtowns, attract new businesses, and create jobs. It’s a workbook that includes success stories from other communities and ideas for your town. Each section has directions and space for you to write down your next steps. You’ll receive practical steps that immediately get you and your crowd in action!
Have you gotten a reward reserved yet? Please do so now!
Have you got questions about any of the rewards? Interested in bringing me to town? shoot me an email deb@saveyour.town Let's visit!
Table of Contents
Section One: Bring people together
- Coffee and Calendars
- Industrial Businesses Need to Gather
- Dig Deeper - Ask People What They Want
Section Two: Community
- Build a Library of Things.
- Fix Up Your Parks
- Invite The Community To Plan Events
- Why New Residents Are Moving To Rural Areas
- Dig Deeper - Montana Builds a Community
Section Three: Youth and Young Families
- Youth Involvement
- Involve Your Students
- Support High School Entrepreneurs
- Your Students Want Places To Eat
- Don’t Forget The Former Youth Who Moved Back Home With Families
- Dig Deeper - Add Young People To Your City Council
Section Four: Art As Economic Development
- Public Art: Anyone Can Do It!
- Make It Easy And Temporary
- Create An Outdoor Museum
- Make Seating
- Discover Textiles In Placemaking
- Light Up Your Town
- Use Your Fences
- Planters For All
- Crafters Unite!
- Find Places To Beautify
- Dig Deeper - Art Is More Than Pretty Things
Section Five: Empty Buildings
- Have a Tour of Empty Buildings
- Make Empty Buildings More Appealing
- Empty Lots
- Create A Downtown Living Room
- Dig Deeper- Why Are The Buildings Empty?
- Try Targeted Incentives For Code Compliance
- Empty Building Codes
Section Six: Business
- Try An Incubator Project
- Divide And Share A Building
- Plan Or Participate In A Pop-Up Event
- Attracting Remote Workers
- Tourism As Economic Development
Section Seven: Promotion and Marketing
- Make Selfie Stations
- Hashtag, Great Idea!
- Dig Deeper - Shop Local
Section Eight: Funding
- Fundraisers Everyone Wants To Participate In
- Junior Rodeo story
- Old Paint
- Fill The Empty Walls
- Consider a Transient Occupancy Tax
Find Your People
- Create More Community Leaders
Finally, Focus On Your Assets
Bonus Section
- Dig Deep Bonus -Later Hours
- Add An EV Station In Your Town
- It’s A Snowball Effect
A Gift For You
Book Club Discussion Guide
Soft Launch now until June 1
You're special! I want you to help me celebrate my birthday with the soft launch of the book.
Sign up for email updates:
We got you! Now you're on our email list for updates from me.
Thanks!
Now... if you don't remember how you got here, but want to keep updated, fill out the form below.
What's going on with the book?
Crowdfunding starts June 1
I hope all of you take advantage of this level!
I did NOT choose a crowdfunding platform you probably know. I went with TLC - The Local Crowd.
Of course, I've written a book about rural communities, and I do believe in supporting local. I chose them because
- they are a cooperative that supports rural
- they use words like paucity - it comes from the Latin word meaning little
- they really do support rural!
The TLC Cooperative will provide a solution to the paucity of market-driven finance tools available to rural areas.
Why Mars?
Mars Manderico is the designer I'm working with for:
- illustrations in the book
- the book cover design
- the entire layout of the book!
Why Mars?
- He educates people. Check out this article.
- He's been patient with me and answered the zillion questions I asked before I signed him onto the project.
- He is the brother of my dear friend Jube. Jube and Chris are the main instigators of why I moved to Gulfport, MS.
- I do love his illustrations - they reflect what I'm thinking about rural.
15 Early Readers 
POSITIONS HAVE BEEN FILLED - thanks to all who applied!
I need a few of you to read the PDF version before crowdfunding begins on June 1. My only ask is that you write a short quote for me to use throughout the launch.
Here's what to do:
Email deb@buildingpossibility.com and let me know if you're interested and that you can read the book over the next few days.
Enjoy the book!
Crowdfunding Levels 
The reward levels are:
$10 - shout out on Facebook - and a nice easy simple way to support this work!
$35 - a copy of the book shipped to you directly
$125 - Bookclub Buy 5 books and directions at the end of the book for a successful bookclub reading
$400 Coaching from the author (me!) and 5 books
$750 Insider membership at SaveYour.Town and 5 books
$3000 Private webinar and 10 books
$8250 3 day community engagement and 10 books
What have I missed? What would you like to see?
Excerpt from the book:
I write a weekly newsletter and this week I shared an excerpt from the book! Read it here
Want a sneak peek at the crowdfunding pages?
It's May 11 and the book is written and in editing stages. Now, I'm working on setting up the crowdfunding! Here are a couple of sneak peeks for you!
Crowd Sourcing
I want a professionally prepared book that every rural community can use in their work. It takes cash flow! I have taken a Crowd Sourcing Course from Crowdfund Better. They've been great to work with, and we've had a relationship over the years. They know their stuff!
I have decided to use The Local Crowd for a few reasons. They are THE rural crowdfunding experts and were recommended by Jen Risley at AMIBA. Jen is another great rural connection doing great things for small businesses.
The plan is to roll out the crowdsourcing in June! Stay tuned.
Book Cover
The book cover is being designed by artist/illustrator Mars Manderico. Meanwhile, here's a fun placeholder!
Editing stage
May 4 ... The beta readers are done. Now it's going through a line-by-line editing by Mary Redmond. Kim Lozano will be helping with proofreading edits—standardizing section headings, bullet lists, parallel construction stuff, comma joys, and woes, etc.
Beta Readers have started
The first draft of the book has been written and the fun part has started! The response to the call out for beta readers was bigger than I imagined. So we have two rounds!
More than a notion
I'm working with Mars Manderico to prep the book for publication. The list below is a recap of one of our conversations. I share it so you can get just a taste of what is involved in preparing for publication.
- Printer questions + notes
- Size of pages will be 8.5 x 11
- Total pages = 132 pages (including cover). I subtracted the 9 table of contents pages. [ Total estimated body = 128 pages; cover = 4 pages (OFC, IFC, OBC, IBC) ] I'm now at 150 pages!
- Spine thickness will be determined by the printer after the number of pages is confirmed. (TBD)
- Bleed, trim and safe zone specifications?
- What format will the printer require for delivery?
- Press check or proofing process w/ printer?
- Cover concept options - Below are the pages that will be built for the concepts
- outside back cover (OBC) -- will need content: probably contact info, logo, any closing statements, and ISBN code
- inside front cover (IFC) -- will need the condensed table of contents here to put here
- and inside back cover (IBC) -- will need bio info/content here
- spine (if it's thick enough) -- will be FPO until we find out the thickness
- The templates included:
- title pages (8)
- basic pages (50)
- pages with images (59)
- pages with charts (1) -- although this is only one page the chart look will need to be created, so I'm adding it here.
- FAQ / intro pages (8) -- the number of pages may be reduced (taking out large pict and blank pages)
- FYI: table of content page -- this has now moved to IFC and will be part of the concepts
Other Miscellaneous items:
- Highlight text call-outs -- this is included in the basic page layout
- Footer url text will only be on the notes pages and will be taken out everywhere else
- Photo credit will be placed along side or bottom of small photos; if large enough in layout then it can be placed inside the photo
- When work is approved:
- New handwriting font will be chosen to replace the one shown in concept for title pages and body pages
- Cover concepts can begin
- Proofing -- will be done by outsource
- Edits -- suggested and agreed on 2 rounds at most
- There are 72 images to handle, prepare, and convert for print
- Due date goal: in June