The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 22 with Stephanie Hockenberry

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

Welcome to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm your host, as always, Drake Watson with my co-host, Wendy Anderson. Hello, Drake. How are you? Or should I say Blake? Ha! Just kidding. I love it.

I'm here for it. I'm well. It's an incredible day. We've got an incredible guest. We'd like to welcome Stephanie Hockenberry, the Manager of Growth and Retention at Ohio County Economic Development Authority. Did I get that correct? Almost, but yes, you got the gist. So I'm titled under the Ohio County Development Authority,

but I actually work for multiple groups. Okay. Yeah. Well, we're thrilled to have you on. We certainly appreciate you coming on and giving us your time. And we look forward to what hopes to be an insightful conversation and an exciting one. So you went to, so you graduated from West Liberty. I did. And you said you had a semester at Ohio University Eastern? I did. So I have sort of a, one of those stories where, you know, the kids are like, oh, I tacked on an extra year in college. And so I had one of those. I actually started my college career at WVU as an education

major. And at the time it was the first year that they were doing the master's program for teachers. And so I started in that program and then had a whirlwind of a freshman year story that that's a story for another day. But we, but, but ended up coming home and spent was still an education major and just told my parents, like, I don't want to go back down. I didn't feel like that was the place for me. So spent a quarter at OUE and I loved it out there. I wasn't used to the quarter time frame for classes. And so I think what happened is I missed somehow missed registration. And at that time, I wasn't like super I was a little bit I was shy. I know that probably seems hard for people to

believe now. But like at that time, I was really shy, didn't ask a lot of questions. My parents kind of relied on me to do it myself, which is great because now I'm super independent. But but I but I was there for a quarter and loved it one of my favorite classes there was a child development class that i took that i learned so much about and then um yeah so i ended up there uh for a semester or a quarter and then i ended up at northern for a semester and then finally landed at west liberty and then once i was in education for like i think it was a semester went and student taught for a couple weeks at a local school. And this one little boy kept saying,

my maiden name was Klee. He'd say, Ms. Klee, Ms. Klee, I need some help using my glue stick. And I'd say, Jordan, you know how to use a glue stick. And I went home one day and I told my mom, I said, I cannot teach kids every day. God love the people that do, but this is not for me. So I switched

to be a business major. I think I've met more people that hold that point of view than the other one. Yeah, but I'm so thankful for the people that do because, you know, that's just not my gift. I agree with you. I totally agree with you. Well, we're glad about the OU connection we talk about all the time trying to get our guests. So Forever Ohio. I know Danielle will love that. Oh, yeah. So you've also worked for American Heart Association,

Russell Nesbitt, St. Michael's Parish, and J&M Distribution? Yeah. Fireplaces? So that was a family business. So my father started a retail store, Top Hat Stoves and Pools, when I was four. And a year later, he started his wholesale side, which was the J&M distributing business.

And so years later, I went to work for my dad on the wholesale side. And he sold his retail side in 2007 to his business partner. And so I worked for him for quite a long time. And so we had an unfortunate forced closure. After 30 years in business, there were some manufacturer changes that didn't fare well for us as a distributor in our territory. And they were 98% of our business. And after promoting a brand loyally for over 30 years, it was just really hard to recover from that. We had all of our network of dealers had bought into all the things that we said because we believed it. And so we just couldn't, we tried to bring in other lines, but it just wasn't, it just wasn't working. We were just talking about that on our last podcast

about the integrity and trustworthy and that goes that ties right into that that's applicable all across the board yeah yeah absolutely line of work uh but speaking of work tell us a little bit about if you could what you currently do and and how you got your start in that and what your journey to this point has been sure so so i'm currently the growth and retention manager for uh County. And the position is unique. It was a new position that was created. And there's a group of people that support the position. So we've got the county, the city of Wheeling. We've got Bellarmar, Community Foundation, the CVB, the Wheeling Area Chamber, RED. Let me think. And so what we've done is taken this position. And

so I say I don't work for just one. I work for them all. I am titled under the Ohio County Development Authority. Just big picture that I'm over the whole county. But I really am here to support and enhance all of their efforts because they're already all doing pieces of growth and retention. So the thought with this position was that I would have two main goals, one to focus on population growth and retention and the other to focus on small business growth and retention and what that looks like from a big picture view, and then tying in the pieces so that we can essentially get people to relocate here. And, you know, being such a small area, it's it, it, my job is for Ohio County,

but it's, it's bigger than that. Right. You know, we talk about all the pieces that tie together because we're all so close, you know, so we've got Marshall County, very close. We've got Belmont County, very close. We've got, um, Brooke and Hancock. And so and even our airport is partially in Brooke County. So I think all the pieces kind of tie together, which makes this part of our community so special. But yeah, so I'm focused on trying to do that. And I've been spending the last 10 months or so trying to reel in all the pieces in my brain because there are a lot of moving pieces and trying to figure out how they all connect has been quite trying sometimes. And I've never worked in government.

I mean, I've worked in small business and I've worked in nonprofits and I've worked in a large cabinet company. I was a sales rep for the biggest cabinet manufacturer in North America. So, you know, trying to figure out how that all ties together. When they put the post out for this job, I read the job description and I really thought, you know, this incorporates all the things that I've done in my entire life. And it's a very meaningful and purposeful job. Like I feel very connected to small business because my father had, I mean, I grew up helping him put together marketing packets that at the time we didn't call him that. We just called him dealer packets because we were handing them to his customers, you know, and marketing that's not we called it back then but um but I

loved helping him do that I should have probably known you know when I was four that I really liked that but um but yeah so I it's been um it's been a learning curve for me because government can work so slow um and there's so many players right there's so many players, right? There's so many players. Yeah. So that's been interesting. I'm learning people and ways of working and, you know, just trying to think how can we effectively bring people here. I think to touch on one of the things you said when you're bringing folks in and trying to attract people to the Ohio Valley, you know, it's not necessarily Ohio County itself or Wheeling, but just the Valley in general, because you know that people who are in the Valley one way or another at some point or another are going to end up in Ohio County for whatever reason. And they're going to help out those small businesses and kind of play a role. We talk, Wendy and I talk all the

time about the role that the river plays in being a connector as opposed to a divider. And so you know that. And I think that's fascinating. So what I want to ask you about is kind of what's your pitch or what's your, I guess, how do you approach attracting somebody to the Ohio Valley? So I really just started to do that. Well, I guess I've always done that. I always tell people all the good things. Right. do that. Well, I guess I've always done that. I always tell people all the good things, right? So I guess that's the way is talking about the good things and seeing. I went to, you may have seen that I went to San Francisco to LG Nova's InnoFest and I got to meet some investors and

some startups. And West Virginia seems to be a big deal for them because they just recently put in a satellite office in Morgantown. And so that was kind of helpful that they already really loved West Virginia. And so I got to talk to them. And one of the things I would ask these startups was, what are you looking for? What would be enticing for you to come to West Virginia? And then the question always sort of, their answers always turn to, well, what does it cost to live there? And which is funny, you know, we talk about that all the time, like it's very affordable to live in this area. And so I think that's a key that we focus on is really like affordability. For me, it's community. And maybe that's because I've lived here my whole life or maybe not, because

I think you find the people that have moved here, like they think it's the community too. So it's the embracing of the community. Everyone seems to be, if you bring a small moved here, they think it's the community too. So it's the embracing of the community. Everyone seems to be, if you bring a small business here, people are supportive. Sure. And they're excited about it. They're like, oh, what's this new place? Let's go to that. So I think that's, for me, that's the pitch.

And I announced, we had a big growth and retention update. And so what we kind of talked about were the things that I've been working on and what we're kind of moving forward with. And one of the big things is this positivity platform. And I keep talking about it. And so I call it POP and it's positivity on purpose. And it's not just here, you know, it's, it can be anywhere. And I think that really we have to make an intentional effort to, instead of focusing on the negative and instead of focusing on, you know, I heard a lot of people saying about the construction outside, you know, downtown. Well, to me, I didn't look at it as like negative. I saw that as progress.

And oh, my gosh, we're elevating and we're going to we're about to move up and just look out. Here we come. And so, like, I look at it like that. And so, you know, really focusing on driving our efforts and energy to if you see something good, you talk about that online and stop tearing people down. Like that's a good thing, right? Right. We know that we had a guest on from Shell Crescent. And he was talking about that he had brought a gentleman over from Turkey I do believe that was looking to start a company here and one of the main things that he saw I

mean it was here the in the Ohio Valley and he brought him here they stayed in a local restaurant or hotel they ate at the local restaurant and I guess the gentleman was really impressed with how we behave as as the Ohio Valley because he went across the bridge he went across the river both you know Belmont County and Ohio County and he just really loved it and his wife for his family was really impressed with Ogilby Park Wheeling Park our school systems yeah they were so impressed with our school systems. And the fact that, you know, he said he walked his dog around the Schenck Lake. Oh, yeah. And it was just, he said, it's just so awesome. And to hear that, that's exactly what we have here. Yes. We have, we have Bark Camp. We have,

you know, Grandview. We have Oglebay. We have Wheeling. Sally Buffalo. Sally Buffalo. Yes, yes. A little connection there. Yeah, I know. Sally Buffalo. But we do have some beautiful places around here. And not just in the Ohio Valley, around the Ohio Valley. Like you said, Brooke County.

There's some beautiful places up there. So I think that part is so important. And small business is near and dear to my heart. And you got to keep them here. You got to keep them happy and successful. Because when they're successful, we are successful as a community. Right. And, you know, I love when people just show that positivity.

Yes, you're going to have your negative Nellies. Yes. But, you know, turn those negative Nellies around. And sometimes they're just negative because of an issue that they had. So you got to go peel back the onion, find out what it was, try to fix it, try to understand it. And then we can move on. Oh, for sure. I mean, I think that and that's a that's always that, you know, some of the people on my team are like, Steph, are you always this positive? I said, well, probably not. I mean, I think I've always been incredibly optimistic my whole life.

But I think what happens is like there have been times in my life where it's been darker than others. And I've probably not been, that's probably not been my best moments. But sometimes you have to grow through it to go to the next step, right? Right. Or what is it? Go through it to grow through it. Go through it to grow through it to go to the next step, right? You know, or what is it go through it to grow through it? And go through it to grow? Yes. So I feel like that's happened to me. And I think I'm in a place now where I've done some serious like searching and healing and, and I'm surrounded by

incredibly supportive people and some incredibly supportive women. Right. And no offense, Drake, but we just talked about that. Yeah, so we've said the same thing. Yeah. To see the powerful women in this Ohio Valley is absolutely amazing to me. And it just feels like it's just been happening. They've always been here. Yes. But I feel like now they're rising up because they feel empowered.

Right. We each empower each other. And I just think that that's what we need because especially for our youth. Oh, 100%. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And our youth. I thought the most important investment any community can make is in its own youth.

Yes, absolutely. Agreed. Well, it's funny that you say that about the river and the bringing it together. So, and I do support. So my son is 10. He plays soccer for the Wheeling travel team. And we've got a lot of friends on the wolfpack soccer team oh yeah okay and so he was invited to play as a guest player on the wolfpack team and uh and i just love the wolfpack team like i we went to a tournament with them and i'm like i love these families like yeah they're and the the community that that that that soccer group

in st claire's was building is amazing and what they're doing for those youth and the confidence they're building in them, that is a key component to creating good humans for the future. Absolutely. That's where we have to invest our time and everything that we do is in our youth. And it starts out younger.

It starts out like, you know, really young and then move on up. But can you tell us a little bit about RISE? Oh, yeah. So what is that? RISE is, so Dr. Borchers at West Liberty has been heading that up. And I was just lucky enough to get to be a part of it. And so I feel like he and I work pretty hand in hand on that. There's a, there's a pretty large group. And so it started out being called the Workforce Collective, right? Okay. He had multiple conversations with people throughout the community and he and I had a conversation and I remember sitting down with him when he first started and he said, Steph,

what do you think is missing? And I said, the thing that I think is missing is connecting the kids to the community, right? How do you connect them at an earlier age so that they understand what we have here. Because, you know, I'm in my mid-40s, and I think back to when I was college age or even high school age, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. And I still see that today in some of these young people. It's like, what do I want to do? What do I want to be? And getting direction from people. And really, it's a self-finding process. Like, you have to figure out your own path, but you need some direction and guidance. So RISE, it started out as Workforce Collective. And I said to him one day, I said, you know, that just sounds so governmental to me. And not that I'm opposed because I work for the government. But I think, could we change the name to something

that would be more elevating and uplifting, right? So I did some acronyms. And I said, I came up with two and they both were rise, but I had different words. And so we renamed it to stand for reshaping the impact for students and employers. And really what that is, is from a grade level of K through 12 and then collegiate, or there are a lot of kids that don't maybe want to go to school. Maybe they want to be a part of the trades or vocations, or maybe they want to go to cosmetology school or whatever it might be, or maybe they just want to work, you know, and they're not ready to make a decision. But how do we create the opportunity for them to know what we have, see the assets that we have

available, create additional opportunities for workplace tours, job shadowing, which these are not new things, right? We've talked about these all the time. And I had an internship 20 some years ago when I was in college. But how are we effectively managing that in our local businesses, nonprofits, school systems to make sure that we're not losing kids

and they're not falling off? And because that is such a a problem you look at statewide i mean and definitely in west virginia and i don't know all the statistics for ohio but you know i think it's like 44 or something kids that don't go or maybe it's only 44 that do anyways the the i know the governor has made strong efforts and there's a lot of people statewide locally trying to make those efforts But this is our piece where we're saying, okay, Ohio Valley, like, let's pull it together. Yeah. Which is how I met Dan. Okay. Was at a RISE meeting and, and, and Jen, like we from OU and, and we, we said, let's, let's start

pulling all the schools together. So we've got Ohio County schools, we've got Wheeling Central, we've got Linsley, Country Day, like, you know, we've got Bridgeport schools. And I think St. Clairsville. And we've got OUE and Bethany, Wheeling University. So like West Virginia Northern. So I'm probably missing something. And Project Best. So you think about all of those pieces.

Let's just do an intentionally good job connecting our kids. Like, you like to build Legos, maybe you're a future engineer. Let's connect you to somebody that, that likes that. You like airplanes? Let's get to the airports. Let's check out the aviation program. Let's like buddy you up with somebody so that you can see if it's, you know, if you still like that, you just keep helping you grow down that path. It's eyeopening that there's those things and opportunities around here, which sometimes may go unnoticed. Yeah.

And they probably have been here for a long time. It's just now it's in the forefront of people's minds because like that's a big missing component. Sure. That's something that I've noticed that we have had a lack of. And it's because of you and this committee has done an amazing job at bringing this to the forefront.

Yeah. I mean, I think I give kudos to Dr. Borchers a lot. I really like him. I think he's a special person. And I think all the schools, they all have a special person that's really taken charge from that perspective. But I think it's just I keep telling you, do you want to invite people? I know you keep inviting them. They're showing up when you ask them.

So, you know, until they stop showing up for you, you ask them because I think that's important, right? And I think what you're seeing is people are starting to show up because there's a, and it's an energy, you know, people want to see things go up. So, well, we see how bad it is in the workforce today. And I hear this. I can't tell you how many times I hear this daily at my office. Hey, Wendy, we need employees. I'm going to have to shut down one day because I don't have anybody to work.

So I think you, what you're doing is so valuable and so important to get these people talking and get people to come to the table the right people at the table so we can figure this out yeah and it starts in kindergarten you're absolutely right yeah it actually starts with the parents of the kindergartners yeah so they have the open mind to be able to accept this and run with it too. And I'm glad you said that. And I think that's some of the challenge, right? Because not all parents are so dialed in. And so we are really relying on some of these educators to pull it together.

And if you recognize something in a kid, bring that to our attention. Let's get them connected because they may not have that support at home i mean i kind of they all joke with me and say oh stephanie you live in this like happy hallmark kind of world and i and i i do but i realize like even just through my own kids like that you know some of their friends don't have the opportunities that they have and and it could just be because their parents aren't as connected, you know, so trying to figure that out and making sure we don't lose them along the way. And that takes me to the youth service systems.

They have the mentor program. And to me, I get that. I understand that. It used to be big brothers, big sisters, but now it's the mentoring. But, you know, to be able, like you said, there's some parents that just can't. Right. Because they're working two jobs, each of them, husband, wife, or, you know, they're working two jobs and the kids are left to raise themselves. Right.

By no fault of the parents. Sure. It's just how they have to do things to put bread on the table to make ends meet so those mentoring programs are so incredibly important to those kids that are sitting there have nothing to do I know you know they have these this these talents and I'm sure there's tons of kids out there with talents I think we need to really push that mentoring program. Yeah. And I know they are. I know they're always at one of my events talking about it.

Yeah. And I think that's incredibly important. I didn't really realize about that mentoring program until Mrs. Dietrich, principal at my kid's school, she's a mentor for YSS. Oh. at my kid's school, she's a mentor for YSS. And she did like a spot, a radio, or I mean an advertising spot or some kind of commercial for it. And I was like, oh, that's really interesting. And so I think you're right.

I think, you know, we buddy up. I know Spencer Porter had a couple of young girls with her at Obie Fest. And she was kind of taking them around. And so I asked the girls, I said, what do you love about school? And they go to a school with my daughter and they're a couple years younger and the ones that I love history and I said oh we should you know you got to go to Independence Hall and then and the other one said she liked math and I said well

you got to meet Brian Joseph because he's like this oh yeah like inventor and all like meet his team and like so I always think, how can we connect them to people that will continue to inspire them? And that's what we do. Or places, you know? And then that facilitates growth. It's kind of a circle in that way, or a cycle, I guess, in that way.

Yeah. I mean, even my own daughter, she's 13 and she's very entrepreneurial minded, but I think she gets that from me because like she started a bracelet business and she kept asking me, she's like, mom, when are you going to register my business with the state and i'm like she's kid like you know but but she's like she's interested in it so it's like you gotta keep fostering that yeah and even

though it's probably a pain oh it was such a pain come on yeah but you know what she knows that you are there you are her cheerleader yeah you are the person who she can look up to and will help her along her journey. Yeah. And we have to do that. We have to do. We do. And it's hard. It's not easy.

Gosh, it's not easy being that all the time. And, you know, sometimes when we want to have meltdowns, like. You're not allowed. It's not your time. I know. I know. I know. Kids, my grandkids, they all come first. And if I'm having

a bad day, I'm not allowed right now because one of my granddaughters or grandson needs me. They need to talk to me because they had a bad day at school. Not that I can help, but I'm there to listen. Yeah. So and that's a key component, right? I'm not always great at that with my own children. I'm learning that. But but there's a there's a group out, right? I'm not always great at that with my own children. I'm learning that. But there's a group out of Columbus that I took my daughter to. It's called ROCKS. It's ruling our experiences. And, you know, because kind of mean girl stuff is still real.

Sure it is. And so I had taken her to this half-day mother-daughter retreat, and it was amazing. And it just teaches parents how to talk to their daughters daughters kind of how to understand their parents and one of the key takeaways that I got from that was don't give them the I mean I'm sure you remember this my parents will be like oh I was a kid I had to walk eight miles in the snow so like one of the yeah right one of those stories so I'm always like okay what I found myself doing I'm not always great at it I will admit that is that I'm like okay do you want me to listen and give you advice or do you just want me to like listen and so um but but I I fail at it sometimes um because you know we get exhausted and we we have a lot of things where that that I'm juggling and so I'm trying to like but um so I just got to remember like she's only 13 he's only 10 like you know what my adult daughter is 34 years old sorry Amanda if

you're not 34 I can't remember anyways I when she calls me it'll be all right do you need me to help you do you need me to you know walk you through this or just to listen? Right. Because I'm a fixer. Me too. Because, you know, I want to fix. What do you mean they said that to you? And what do you mean they were that mean to you? Oh, no. No, no, no.

We're going to go fix this. Yeah. Sometimes she has to fix it because that's her growth. She's growing, learning how to fix it. I can just be the listener. Right. And I think sometimes education, our teachers, sometimes they need to just listen. Yeah.

It's hard. It is hard. Our nature is, I think, most of the time to want to fix it. Oh, sure. Yeah. You're right. Well, if there's anything else that you have, I think we've had a quite productive conversation.

Let me ask you real quick. Yeah. else that that you have i think we've had a quite productive conversation let me ask you real quick yeah what would you say to your younger self about where you are today and about what you have gone through what would you say to just be true to yourself, right? You know, it's okay to be weird. It's okay to be different. Yes. But I, I, I also would tell myself, you know, and I look back and I was really quiet then. And now I think the one thing that I like now is talk less, listen more, take it in, and enjoy every step of the way. And every step of the way is not going to be easy. And I think I've seen it throughout my life. I try to tell myself, you know, there's purpose in the pain. And I've had a very roller coaster career and life and story as if as everyone does.

Right. Some of it is really funny. But just to remember that the one thing I always remember is like this too will pass. Yeah, it will pass. And you'll you'll grow through it. And, you know, hopefully you just keep pushing. That's a key for me is keep pushing. Don't give up.

You know, just keep getting back up. Keep doing it because that's the only way you can do it is just keep going after it. I think that's a great way to end there. That's a great message. Yep. And we want to thank you, of course, for your time this morning. Thank you so much for having me.

We'd like to thank the listener for checking us out. And if the listener has any feedback or suggestions, you can reach us by email at ouepodcastatohio.edu with any feedback or suggestions. Stephanie, thank you again. Wendy, thank you. This has been Community Connections and Commerce. Thanks for listening.