The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 1

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Nothing better than connecting communities through conversation. This is the Community Connections and Commerce Podcast. I'm Drake Watson with my co-host who will be joining me throughout all these episodes that we will put out in the coming weeks and months. Wendy, it's a pleasure to have you on. It's great to work with you as a co-host on this exciting new project. And we couldn't be more thrilled to get started. And I just want to start with providing the listeners just a little bit of feedback or excuse me, a little bit of background on who we are. And I'd like to get your story first.

Sure. So I'm Wendy Anderson. I'm the executive director of the St. Clairsville area Chamber of Commerce. And I've been there for seven years. And also, because you're my co host, which you're younger, I am 63, I'll be 64 at the end of the year. So tell me a little bit about you. Well, I'll be 20 in 2025. I'm a student going into my sophomore year at Ohio University Eastern studying communications. And I think there's great value in being able to speak and to talk to people and connect with people in that way. And that kind of goes along with what we're doing. And I think there's nothing greater to accomplish that than a podcast and really get into the minds of some of the great community leaders around here. But I'm a proud Harrison Central graduate. And I do a lot of media things for them, such as broadcasting football games and handling some digital media

on social platforms for them. And they treat me really well. And I work with my cousin on a lot of things. And we've got a great, great great thing going and this is just another one to add to the plate of uh of things that we've got going on and i couldn't be more excited to to hop on well i was um i was born in 1960 so that was a long long time ago um i graduated from wheeling park high school and i went to west liberty i went to west Virginia Northern. And I got married right out of, right a year into college. I got married and had three beautiful children. And I am a proud grandma of 16 grandchildren. But that does not, that is who I am.

But why I do this is because of I love the chamber. I understand the chamber. I get it. And I don't see any negative part of belonging to a chamber. We're going to talk to different businesses throughout this podcast that we're going to do, the businesses that are really rooted deeply in the communities. Oh, yeah. And that way we can understand that how they need to,

how we can help them and how they can help us in the community. You know, I think there's a gap between the ages, which you and I have a big gap. Yeah, a little bit different ways of looking at things, if you will. So do you know, do you remember cars that had a crank window that you had to crank them down? Maybe long ago, maybe in like 2007. But no, I don't remember. I was not around for the bulk of that.

I also wasn't around for the Calvin Coolidge administration. But no, yes. So I'm definitely a lot younger than you. I don't call you old. I call you experienced. Thank you. But yeah, and I think we'll bring that aspect to it. And kind of when we speak to people, I'm hoping to get, you know, you obviously know kind of the ins and outs of business and commerce and community. And I'm also trying to add to the conversation with my own perspective while also trying to sit back and use my ears and learn a little bit because there's nothing, there's nothing better than listening. And when you listen, you learn, and when you learn, you know, and there's no shame in knowing. And so that's the, that's the kind of the perspective we're going to have heading into this thing. And we're going to talk to some great people. Like we've got Dan Millison's going to come on Matt Welsh,

who you know very well, and Mario Grady, some great people that are coming on. And, and not only is there the disconnect between you and I in terms of age, but there's also, I think, you know,

I don't want to say anything about the average listener, but I think it's very valuable for the average listener to hear the stories of some of these successful people and also hear what motivates them. We, we're going to, we have a ton of stories that we've, that we've touched on that we can, that we can really pull some inspiring things out of. So we're hoping to, to accomplish that and hopefully do it really well. And I want people, our listeners to understand and to learn if you're an entrepreneur how to how to go about doing what you want to do starting your own business how hard it is it's not just easy and you know i know some of these businesses that we are going to be talking to

have put their heart and soul into the businesses and And that's what I love about living in this Ohio Valley and to bring people here to the Ohio Valley, how important it is for everybody. The idea of living local, loving local, eating local, shopping local, it is like that's something that resonates with me and that's something that we do at our chamber. We're all about the small businesses in the Ohio Valley.

And I say that, the Ohio Valley. We are all one. Not just one community here or there. That's right. And there's great value in crossing the bridge and working all over the valley. And I think as a student, kind of the perspective, and we, the university, when the dean came to me,

there was great conversations about, when we wanted to start this thing, about how can we benefit both university, you know, when the dean came to me, there was great conversations about when we wanted to start this thing about how can we benefit both parties, right? So we want to promote these businesses, and we want to obviously shine a light on what you do and the good that you do for the community, but also what role the university plays in that. And so one of the things I plan to ask a ton of our guests, especially the ones that we have lined up that have gone to Ohio.

We plan to ask them what advice they would give to a student, maybe my age or younger, maybe even a little bit older, or even a high school student. What advice they'd give to a younger person, how being a Bobcat forever has helped them in their journey. So, yeah, we certainly think it's a great endeavor that's going to end up benefiting not only you, not only me and the university, not only our guests, but hopefully the listeners as well. And hopefully we provide some very good, hopefully entertaining, but also informative conversations in the future. And I love the idea of the partnership. I'm all about partnerships. And with us partnering with high university eastern

and uh the chamber uh this has been an incredible journey um getting to this point right now because i remember speaking to dean rohall yeah and we had a conversation about wendy you know he said we need to get some of this information out there. And we put our heads together. And this is it. Yeah, I remember spring semester of 2024. And I'd be, you know, I'd get an email from him like, hey, I'd love to talk to you in my office. And I'm working in, you know, between classes how to get over there. He'll stop me at the gym with what used to be the NAY Center.

Now it's the Eco Center. And then we would just have conversations. And it took a while to get it off the ground. But we're taking off right now. I hope we can reach a cruising altitude of about 35,000 feet. But we'll do the best we can to get the stories of these people out there and to get their mindset out there because I think that's what's important. Don't just tell me what you did. Don't tell me who you are right tell me why tell me

how you think about these different things and um i think that'll provide great value yeah and i you know we want to know like you said we want to know why what's what's their why why do they continue because it's a struggle for some of these small businesses yeah that we um that we're going to be talking to and I know that firsthand but I want to know and I think our listeners should know how important it is that they put their blood sweat and tears into these businesses and how important it is to to support them you know take a trip take a trip to their you know their locations and try them yeah so i also know we're going to talk to um like a couple non-profits yeah and i think that's important to get to know

what they're up to and you know why do they do it why just as invested in the community right as any of the businesses that are in it to make money but uh but yeah yeah i think it's important to kind of you know maybe to use an analogy here, get off the highway every now and then and stop through and get a look at these local towns. And what I think is so interesting is every little place has its own story. And we are going to be fortunate enough to hear some of those stories. And you think like, that's just a sliver. Like, this is just one person, for example, who owns a shop on the corner of town here. But that's everywhere. And that's beyond of town here. But that's everywhere.

And that's beyond the Ohio Valley. And that's kind of a little bit of a national aspect. But yeah, I think it'll be incredible. That'll be the tapestry of our community. And each one has a story that goes into this tapestry that we're going to create over the Ohio Valley. And I think that's so important. And I'm just glad to be on board with you. Yeah, it's going to create over the Ohio Valley. And I think that's so important. And I'm just glad to be on board with you. Yeah, it's going to be hopefully a fun ride.

And it's been incredible so far in the conversations that we've had so far leading up to this. And with the Dean and everybody else, we'd like to thank, you know, the folks at Ohio Eastern, Danielle and Dan and obviously Dean Rohal For helping us get this started And we want to thank I don't think she wants to be mentioned But we want to thank the lady In the other room over there Who's going to press stop here

When we're done talking When we run out of things to say That would be Sam And we appreciate iHeart WWBA For allowing us to do this Yeah One time they're keeping me Off of the microphone

We can't hear you Just doing the hard work Oh, okay I don't can't hear you. Just doing the hard work. Oh, okay. I don't know. I think you have some of the hard work there. But I think this is a great partnership, and I just can't wait to see what the future holds for us. Yeah, I can't wait. Well, once again, for our viewers, or excuse me, for our listeners, we can accept your feedback or your comments or even concerns if you have any.

I don't have any concerns. But if they arise, we can be reached at O-U-E podcast at Ohio dot edu. That is O-U-E-P-O-D-C-A-S-T at Ohio dot edu for any comments or feedback. Or if you want to tell us like, hey, I've got a buddy who has an incredible story and we want to we want to hear from him. So any kind of suggestions are open. Just don't be mean to us. Yeah, we don't want to. I don't like mean.

I'm too old to have mean people in my life anymore. And I have too much pride to not look at it. But anyway, it's been incredible to get things introduced here, and we've got some incredible folks lined up for us to talk to in the future. So I'm Drake Watson, as always, with Wendy Anderson. This has been Community Connections and Commerce. We look forward to having you back for future episodes. And thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.