December 8, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of Joyously Free!, host Joanie Lindenmeyer talks with Kemberly Todd, Technical Assistant Coordinator for Community Economic Development for the CCD Community Development Corporation. The discussion focuses on the unique strengths women bring to entrepreneurship, highlighting the economic impact of small, rural, and women-owned businesses, the critical need for supportive networks, and the barriers women face in scaling their ventures. Todd emphasizes the value of community, collaboration, and dedicated resources, including technical assistance and inclusive events, to empower women and nonprofits. The episode also encourages women to trust their abilities, celebrate achievements, and leverage conversations and networking to grow their businesses, while fostering inclusivity and support within the local business community.
Host: Joanie Lindenmeyer; Producer: Joanie Lindenmeyer
Music is from freepd.com, in the public domain.
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual participants. Curry Coast Community Radio takes no position on issues discussed in this program.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Hi, and welcome KCIW
listeners of one hundred point seven at kciw.org,
Brookings, Oregon, and syndicated with our listeners at
KZZH
ninety six point seven FM access humble Eureka,
California.
Yep. This is me, Joni Lindenmaier.
This is our show, joyously free. I'm a
(00:30):
best selling author, and I'm so glad you
are tuning in today. So besides being an
author, I'm a thirty four year resident of
Harbor, Oregon, a retired Del Norte High School
teacher, and, of course, you know all about
my books. They're all over town. But more
importantly, I love life, and I love being
the producer and host of this show. I'm
so glad all of you are here with
(00:51):
us today.
So as we do every week, let's begin
with our morning salutation.
I say it's a brand new day, and
you respond with never been lived before. Alright.
Everybody ready? Here we go. One, two, three.
It's a brand new day. Never been lived
before. Woo hoo. I love it when my
guest speakers can just automatically tune right in
(01:13):
with that. And you too, wherever you happen
to be today, it is a brand new
day. So this radio gatio show, as Will
and Viv named it, is a show that
talks about LGBTQ
plus stories and tips
along with religion, church, faith, spirituality,
and joy,
joyously
freedom. This is a place where we can
share and radiate and spread that joy and
(01:34):
that freedom in so many ways. It's also
my second book, and you know that's how
it got its name.
So this radio show, as in life, everywhere
in our town, from business to churches to
schools, no hate speech,
no hate behaviors, and no bullying.
It will be blasted with the three c's,
courage, confidence, and collaboration, and you're gonna hear
(01:56):
a lot about that today from our guest
speaker, courage, confidence, and
collaboration.
So let's be open minded as an open
parachute.
As with every show, let's begin with a
prayer.
Let's open our hearts.
We ask our creator to shine light on
our community and our world.
I excitedly believe in hope, in the power
(02:17):
of the divine, and that Jesus, God, whatever
name you put on a higher being, is
always with me and always with you.
So we do not have to be afraid
or troubled,
saddened or depressed.
Joy and peace are an internal expression of
that love and harmony, and all we have
to do is reach deep within and let
(02:38):
it out.
Let's center ourselves.
Let's take a big deep breath in
with the good
and out with any doubt.
Again, breathing in through your nose
with hope and out from your mouth with
fears.
(02:59):
Last one,
take a big, big deep breath in with
joy
and out with any worry or despair.
In the name of mother Earth,
our creator God, a Jesus, a redeemer, the
blowing winds of the spirit, we say good
morning. Good morning, holy one.
The quote that I picked today for our
(03:20):
reading is pretty simple but very powerful.
Dreams.
When you share a dream,
you work together to make it happen.
I'm gonna read that one more time.
Dreams.
When you share a dream,
you work together to make it happen.
(03:41):
When I read that in my spiritual living
room corner this morning, all I could do
was thinking about
all the ways that we connect with other
people.
When we share a dream,
they get involved in it.
When somebody shares a dream with us, we
wanna know, how's it going? What are you
doing? How can I help?
(04:02):
And that's what collaboration
is. That's what makes dreams work, and there's
no limit to what kind of dream you
might have. Whether that's business or personal or
religion or sexual identity, whatever your dream is,
go for it because you always will have
people around you.
Well, those are my quick short reflections today.
(04:23):
So with that, I say, you know what?
Let's lift up our friends and our family
right now today in our community.
May our creator guide us and heal us.
May he bring us joy and happiness.
And that's what this show is all about.
Thank you, dear lord. Thank you, everybody, for
being here.
Well, with that, we are in rural America
(04:44):
here on the coast, and I am excited
to introduce
a friend, a new friend, but also a
really, really cool dynamic. And if you can
get this, she has more energy than I
do. Her name is Kim Todd. Oh my
gosh. I'm so excited. She is the technical
assistant coordinator,
community economic development for women in business.
(05:05):
And guess what our topic is?
Women's
superpowers.
Kim, thank you for being here. Good morning,
Joni. I don't think anyone has better energy
than you. Let me just say. I don't
know. I don't know. I think you do.
I think you do. I'll try and match
it. Okay. Well, what a joy it is
to have you here to talk about women's
superpowers.
So I'm gonna start off. We I know
(05:26):
you drove in from Roseburg today. How are
you? I'm great. We drove in yesterday actually
from Roseburg in the rain, and then we
as always, what happens when we get to
rural Southwest Coast is we were greeted by
the sun eventually.
And ended up having a wonderful event last
night at the shop small women in business,
at Chetco Brewing.
(05:46):
And we had several small business owners and
pop ups
at the brewery,
wonderful
off the wagon food truck food, and
it was great. All the community partners out
there and really trying to support those local
small businesses with those first holiday
forays.
Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And we have
a great community of business people here in
(06:08):
this town, So I'm looking forward to chatting
about that. So how did you get involved
in women, business, and community?
Well, I am a woman, so we'll just
start with that. But I had had I
had a small business, and small business owners
are the biggest economic engine in America.
They generally are five or fewer employees, so
(06:28):
they are not maybe as organized as the
larger employers. But
six out of 10 jobs in our country
are related to small business owners. Wow. And
then we start talking about rural. So my
business was in a rural area, which has
a great
amount of advantages.
There are certain numbers where you can really
make a larger impact just because it's a
smaller community, depending on the the small business
(06:49):
that you have. After I closed my small
business, I decided to go back to school
and
learn how I could be a supporter of
small business owners because it was so clear
to me that I didn't have a lot
of
mentorship,
places that I could talk to people who
weren't my friends and family members. I don't
suggest people talk a lot about their small
(07:09):
business to their friends and family because it's
it's just a different category.
And
after I after I went to school, I
started working at the small business development centers.
You have one here in Curry. It's the
SWOC Small Business Development Center. They're a great
organization.
And at the pandemic times,
rural areas were very tested. Because one thing
(07:31):
that happens in rural areas is when there
are emergencies, there are,
things like fires or,
there's reactions to national emergencies or local emergencies.
There's money and resources that flood in, but
very often, cities and counties aren't
at capacity to distribute these. So I learned
quickly CCD Business Development Corporation, where I work,
(07:52):
they're a fifty five year old fifty five
year young
economic development company in, Southwest Oregon serving Coos,
Curry and Douglas. That's what the CCD stands
for.
They were the instrument
of distribution for all the grants
and all of the resources that were distributed
during specifically
the,
coronavirus pandemic. Oh. So
(08:15):
as somebody who helps small businesses, I kept
directing people to CCD. They quickly realized that
there were some gaps and some obstacles that
small businesses are overcoming even getting those grants.
And they started this department that I now
head called technical assistance.
And we've been going four years strong. This
September marked our four year anniversary.
And we've been able to close gaps and
(08:36):
overcome obstacles for small businesses and then turn
them to
the other resources like the small business development
centers and other economic development in the region
that can continue to support and help them.
That is so awesome. Oh, I know that's
a mouthful right though. If I had to
put a summary on it, I'm hearing mentorship.
I'm hearing,
(08:58):
camaraderie for people and putting people together for
the use of resources.
I'm hearing grants. I'm hearing money. I'm hearing
support for a businesswoman
or business a small business. Right. So one
of the things that we learned during this
time were a lot of people a lot
of things were happening that had never happened
before. A lot of new resources. We had
somebody come to our region from a statewide
(09:19):
organization called Accelerate Women. They had a fund
to loan to women,
small businesses.
And they shared during this conference that we
all attended that only 4% of all women
owned businesses exceed 1,000,000 in revenue. And their
particular objective at that organization was to see
women scale their business. So they were coming
(09:39):
out to these areas and saying, who are
your scalable businesses, traded sectors that can be
sold over state lines and things like that?
We all left that meeting, a group of
us women, and we were like, well, that
was cool. And we just started talking. And
they said, we should keep meeting like this.
And I took it back to our, community
and economic development director and said, these women
(10:00):
wanna keep meeting. What should we do? What
should and he said, I want you to
organize these, but do it in all three
counties. And so he took what was a
concept and grounded it down with the resources
and, facilitation
costs of someone like me,
to start these meetings. And
one thing I share, you talked a lot
about sharing your dreams when we started this
(10:21):
today, and I agree with that. I agree
that sharing your dreams with the right people
matter too. Mhmm. And
when I talk to small business owners and
they are very much in a concept mode
kind of trying to develop how this is
gonna look, because the ideas really can spread
out. Mhmm. My goal is to help them,
again, ground their ideas and maybe prioritize what
(10:42):
those first steps will look like. And I
tell them, when you have a dream and
you set it up here,
trust that the scaffolding is gonna show up
to get you there because you have to
trust the process. And you don't always know.
It can't be plotted on a map. It
can't be predicted.
But people like me are gonna come out.
People like Accelerate Women are gonna come out.
People like,
(11:04):
local community members are gonna come out and
say, I see a,
partnership or a collaboration. And that's how things
happen
organically.
Because when things happen organically,
they might take longer than we think. We
always have this expectation
of,
you know, wanting things to materialize sooner. But
when it takes longer, it's stronger, it's more
(11:25):
organic, and it has staying power. And that's
what we've learned about the women in business
events. They started with a few people gathering
in living rooms, and now we have regular
meetings once per month. And depending on the
topic or the month, they they're just amazing
in their numbers.
They are. And and to me, they are
joyously free
(11:46):
monthly gatherings
because I know as as an author. Here
I am as an author, and next next
thing I know, I'm a businesswoman.
I'm running my business of books and promotion
and da da da da da. And and
everybody is starting somewhere. So when we gathered
on those monthly meetings, one was at the
Umbrella Farms, one was at SWOC. There have
been numerous places where they are. Right. The
(12:07):
collaboration,
the the networking, the tribe of these women,
I think those superpowers just burst even more.
I agree. I you're just you're making me
so excited right now. They burst so so
much over the last three years that we're
actually planning our first women in business leadership
conference where we're gonna get all three of
the counties together under one roof Oh, wow.
(12:27):
To really start honing
in
collaborations,
but on a on a larger scale. We
call it, in our groups, chocolate and peanut
butter. Mhmm. And it's just, again, an organic
story that came about.
And chocolate and peanut butter is when you
have two already great things on their own,
but then you combine them and they make
(12:48):
something even greater. And that's the kind of
magic and collaboration you're referring to that happens
in those meetings. Yes. Yeah. Yes. You know,
and related to that, can you tell the
listeners if if a woman is out there
and she's thinking, oh, I would like to
start a business or, I wanna support businesses.
Where can they go? What can they do?
One of the first things you can do
(13:09):
to get in touch with our organization is
go to our website at ccdbusiness.org.
And there is a,
page that will say, put your email in
here for more information. So just your presence
is amazing. And I will share with you
that when we started on this journey of
technical assistance,
we didn't limit it just to small businesses.
We also help nonprofit organizations.
(13:31):
Oh. And this is important because
not everybody has funding to help nonprofits because
a lot of funding is based on taxes.
Right? And do nonprofits, you know, they're a
different status.
One of the statistics I learned, and we
know this, we all volunteer or we all
benefit from nonprofits in our own communities. One
of the statistics I learned at a conference
was that 15% of any community's economy is
(13:53):
tied to nonprofits,
whether it's the money they bring in that
wouldn't be there otherwise, the jobs they're providing
that wouldn't be there, and then, of course,
the intrinsic values and the things they're actually
providing the community. So we don't maybe
support that kind of effort enough. And we
have a great team at CCD
that can help nonprofits with their gaps and
their obstacles that they're having. So I would
(14:15):
encourage everyone to visit our website. And then
And can you repeat that one more time,
please? Ccdbusiness.org.
And CCD stands for Kooskuri Douglas. So the
other thing that we do is those the
women in business meetings are open to everybody.
They are free. We provide refreshments,
and we provide,
raffles. Yes. Raffles is another organic item. Somebody
(14:36):
brought a big raffle basket once and we've
never given it back. We just keep filling
it and giving away. So it's really this
level of comfort when you come to these
meetings. You don't have to come prepared.
Women, I always tell them, you come at
whatever level of commitment you can. If you
can't stay for the whole meeting or you
have to come late, just come as you
are. We're it's it's,
(14:57):
very common that we have to,
bring kids with us or do things that
are maybe not a traditional meeting. That's why
I like having these. They're just the most
comfortable place for you to gather for that
first time. When I was a pro when
I was a small business owner, I would
get flown to a conference for the industry
I was in or maybe I'd get a
training. They'd come to our area. But I
didn't get professional development. And I really get
(15:20):
fed in the job I'm at now to
get professional development, to get those tools and
learn what other people that do what I
do are doing at an even greater you
know, so I can incorporate it.
This is one of those places that you
can come for some professional development. You're not
the only one that's been against some of
these things. Every meeting features a small business
spotlight, and that means that a business is
gonna stand up for ten minutes, show a
(15:41):
slideshow sometimes, or just talk about where they've
been and where they're going. And very often,
they start off with,
I've been doing this for five years, and
I really just now wanna get serious about
it. So I think a lot of people
hearing that can understand that they're not operating
at level 10 every day. Right? We have
a lot of other constraints on our time
and our capacity. So I really feel like
(16:02):
it's meeting people where they're at and helping
them to move forward, providing those steps. That's
so excellent. Isn't it? The best. And there's
no expectations. It's what a person wants to
put into it. Mhmm. Absolutely. Sometimes people stand
up and say that they're working on a
fundraiser for one of the volunteer organizations and
can we all support that?
That is just as much a part of
our lives as anything else. And
(16:24):
in these meetings, I've learned to say,
for women in business especially, conversation is our
currency.
We really are able to hold so much
wisdom at the same time and
know when to deliver it to the next
person. And when people do present to our
groups, I say, if you you wanna tell
us stuff that you wanna get out to
the rest of the community because we're they're
the doers. They keep track of things. They
(16:46):
care about things, and they like to share
the things they care about. Oh, that is
so right on. So right on. And and
it's all applicable to what they're doing. So
it's not you just show up and talk
and then nothing happens. There are next steps,
which I love about it. You're there as
a resource as I say, hey. I'll email
you. I can help you with this. You
want a web page? Hey. Here's what we
can do. Absolutely. One of the game changers
(17:08):
with technical assistance is professional services.
So
I appreciate that I came from the small
business development center background because I knew I
love their programs. I I am the biggest
fan for them. When I came to CCD,
it was more about listening,
a lot of listening. There isn't a nationwide
network saying these are the things that we've
learned are good. This was leaning in and
(17:28):
going, what's the problem here? And they said,
well, I haven't applied for this grant because
I haven't done my taxes in two years.
You haven't done your taxes? Okay. That's not
uncommon. It takes a business owner a lot
of vulnerability
to say those words. And so I appreciate
that coming out to their place sometimes creates
that space that they can tell me the
things. So after I learned of some of
the gaps they were having, I would come
back to our team and say, you know,
(17:49):
if we could find an accountant to catch
up people's taxes, and they go, let's do
that. Let's find a couple of local accountants,
and then they can meet with them privately,
and we can,
we can fund for those professional services. Do
you know what a load that takes off
of a business? Because not only are they
getting caught up and now able to gain
resources
potentially through,
being able to submit the right documentation,
(18:11):
they now have a resource in their community
because all of our resource providers, professional providers,
are locals
in the three counties. And so now they're
able to go forward and know where they
can go next year when they need to
file their taxes or when they need to
ask a question about changing their business entity.
On the coast, one of the biggest things
we learned
through the process of letting our partners share
(18:32):
was how important being visible is.
Being visible because
your numbers swell,
no pun intended, to extraordinary amounts during your
high seasons.
And if you're not discoverable on Google, particularly,
then you
aren't gonna be getting that kind of business
that you really see. So 90% of all
(18:52):
search aggregation is done on Google. We learned
that at one of our meetings. That's not
gonna change anytime soon. So So now we
don't need to tell everybody, do everything we
say. Get your Google My Business. It's free.
It's a low barrier. And we sit next
to you on your laptop. Once you become
a client, all my time is covered, and
we sit next to you on the laptop
and say, click here. Now you're gonna wanna
add pictures. And then that's where we maybe
start with some clients. But then when they
(19:14):
come to our women in business groups and
they share a raffle item, somebody takes a
picture of it and then Google reviews them.
So we really do practice what we teach,
which is,
you know, the ways to support business are
buying from them, supporting them on their digital
space, sharing their events, and leaving reviews.
Exactly. And I'm I'm all into it. I'm
giving you high fives, high tens, big hugs,
(19:36):
you know. And
coming from an LGBTQ standpoint, what I have
loved about being involved in the local women's
business here in Curry County is that every
single one of the businesswomen I've met have
been so supportive of LGBTQ.
And what can I do to make it
more friendly, Joni? How can I how can
I attract more LGBTQ
people to this? And so there become safe
(19:58):
spaces in terms of business. Because many times
in my life as a lesbian woman, we
were,
disgruntled when we walked in and we were
shunned or not looked in the eye as
a customer for a business person. And this
community here is open to all of that,
which is beautiful.
Oh my gosh. Do you wanna give any
shout outs to some of the local women
that are super empowering people and themselves right
(20:20):
now? Well, I will share with you. There
is a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth
Gilbert. She wrote Eat, Pray, Love, and I
had read it. And she talks about this
squirrel of ideas. She's an author, longer story.
But the
ideas are always circulating around. They're looking for
a ground rod. And if you're not gonna
move on it, it tends to hop over
to somebody else. That's why sometimes when you
(20:41):
have a good idea
and you don't develop it, and a couple
years later on TV, you see somebody's selling
something, you're like, I had that idea. That's
because it was swirling for other people too
and they developed it. So that's pretty common.
But what was happening in what happened because
we went to a meeting in Douglas, once
we came over to Curry County, I met
up with a few women and I said,
(21:01):
hey. I noticed you guys are very active
on your Facebook group over here,
promoting each other's businesses.
And we're kinda working on a women in
business group, and they said, we're already meeting
in each other's living rooms. We love this.
We would love for you to organize. And,
again, that chocolate and peanut butter came together,
and that was Michelle Bubert, who we all
know now as the executive director of the
(21:23):
Curry County Chamber, and Marie Curtis,
who is one of our most stellar,
real estate brokers here in Curry,
at REMAX. So those two, instrumental.
They were already having a new residence meeting.
And so I showed up to that new
residence meeting, got a bag full of goodies
and flyers and samples,
and she really introduced me to a lot
(21:44):
of small businesses through those samples. I didn't
know you had a a gold buyer in
town. I went to visit that person. I
went to the Agnes store. So those are
my shout outs. And if you haven't
been, to the Curry County Chamber recently, you've
got to go. And not only do you
have to go, you should join. She is
a megaphone that is a marketing genius.
(22:04):
She's also one of our professional service providers
for websites.
So,
those are my shout outs for sure. And
I do wanna say that there's so many
women that are women in business
that have never missed a meeting
and have really been the backbone of this.
So, there's so many I can think of,
but I don't know if we have enough
time for all of them.
(22:25):
Probably probably not. But if you wanna throw
some more out there, tell us a little
bit. Pithitude. Have you seen her comic strip
on LinkedIn? Yes. I crack up on it.
I try and comment all I can. If
you haven't seen it, then you need to
check it out. It's, and plus her her
merchandise is just hilarious. I've usually spend money
every time I come here and see her.
And then we have And she's a pickleball
(22:46):
friend of mine. So Yes. He is. Oh
my gosh. We go that round too. We
had people from the at the event last
night that were on their way to pickleball.
They kinda stood out in their gear. So
now good go pickleball forever. Yes. Yes. Anybody
else you wanna give a shout out to?
Well, I wanted to talk a little bit
about,
I wanna share with any of the people
listening to this that if you're a small
(23:07):
business owner, one of the most common things
that I hear is that you don't think
you're doing enough. So sometimes when people are
talking to me, I say, if you're talking
to me, you're doing enough. If you're listening
to this, you're you're doing enough. Sometimes we
don't reflect and it's important to maybe sit
and look back at what you've accomplished and
give yourself some credit.
But
by coming to a meeting or two, by
(23:28):
working slowly on your things, you're doing a
lot. And it's it's difficult to prioritize when
you're a small business owner.
One of the things that we do talk
about in Women in Business is that superpower
piece. And that superpower piece is really just
recognizing
what comes to you
naturally and organically that you can amplify.
(23:50):
I'm I'm fond of saying to people, if
you don't know what your superpower is, ask
your best friend. They know what it is.
It's something you do so easily. For me,
once I was challenged to figure out what
my superpower is,
I know that it's chocolate and peanut butter.
It's creating those spaces where people can come
together. It's,
saying you should go talk to them, you
should go and keeping all of these resources
(24:10):
together. But what I think is important about
knowing your superpower
is the ability to trust it.
When you play to your strengths.
Play to your strengths. We all have our
strengths and each one's different, so use other
people for their strengths. But once you know
your strength, you can go out more confidently,
and you can also really
(24:31):
promote that as your unique
value to people. Right? And then when you
amplify it, you're a superhero.
So these are some of the things that
we talk about in the meetings because it's
just as important to layer confidence and support.
Hope is a metric.
You have to continue to tell people that
what they're doing is valid.
And,
as they share their dreams, which is super
(24:53):
vulnerable.
And those are are some phenomenal tips. I
know we're running out of time already, Kim.
I know. But, you know, I'm thinking, okay.
What did I get out of this today?
Chocolate and peanut butter.
Trust your superpowers.
Reach out.
Know that you can you can trust the
community that we're in. There are resources. Kim
is available. Kim, how do they get a
(25:13):
hold of you for the last final comment?
Find me on Facebook at CCD Business.
Find me on,
you can
email me at k.todd@ccdbusiness.com.
It's different than the website, which is .org.
I don't know. I don't make the rules.
But really, you reach out to Joanie, you
reach out to Michelle, you reach out to
(25:33):
your community. They know how to find me,
and I travel everywhere.
My cell phone is on my business cards
so that people are able to text and
message because that's the way we communicate these
days, and that's fine with them. Fantastic. Oh
my gosh. What a plethora of information.
Oh my gosh. Thank you, beautiful listeners on
the gorgeous coast of Southern Oregon and Northern
(25:54):
California for being with us today in this
joyously free Kim Todd small business superwomen stories.
Oh, the tips were just unbelievable today. Golden
nuggets. We thank you, Mike and Rick and
Candice and Tom and
Rose. That's who I remember. And so we
also wanna thank all the all of you
who listened in today. Remember that you can
(26:15):
get a hold of us at any time
here at KCIW
for follow ups on anything. We wanna wish
you good dreams,
great dreams.
Follow your dreams.
Use chocolate and peanut butter as your motto
today to reach out and go deep within
to find what you need to do to
make our community even better. We wanna say
(26:35):
smile big, bright colors, and
wahoo,
Kim. Thank you, Kim. Talk. I'm inspired.
I'm inspired, Joni. Thank you for having us.
You betcha. My pleasure. Thank you.
Hi, and welcome KCIW
listeners of one hundred point seven at kciw.org,
Brookings, Oregon, and syndicated with our listeners at
KZZH
ninety six point seven FM access humble Eureka,
California.
Yep. This is me, Joni Lindenmaier.
This is our show, joyously free. I'm a
(00:30):
best selling author, and I'm so glad you
are tuning in today. So besides being an
author, I'm a thirty four year resident of
Harbor, Oregon, a retired Del Norte High School
teacher, and, of course, you know all about
my books. They're all over town. But more
importantly, I love life, and I love being
the producer and host of this show. I'm
so glad all of you are here with
(00:51):
us today.
So as we do every week, let's begin
with our morning salutation.
I say it's a brand new day, and
you respond with never been lived before. Alright.
Everybody ready? Here we go. One, two, three.
It's a brand new day. Never been lived
before. Woo hoo. I love it when my
guest speakers can just automatically tune right in
(01:13):
with that. And you too, wherever you happen
to be today, it is a brand new
day. So this radio gatio show, as Will
and Viv named it, is a show that
talks about LGBTQ
plus stories and tips
along with religion, church, faith, spirituality,
and joy,
joyously
freedom. This is a place where we can
share and radiate and spread that joy and
(01:34):
that freedom in so many ways. It's also
my second book, and you know that's how
it got its name.
So this radio show, as in life, everywhere
in our town, from business to churches to
schools, no hate speech,
no hate behaviors, and no bullying.
It will be blasted with the three c's,
courage, confidence, and collaboration, and you're gonna hear
(01:56):
a lot about that today from our guest
speaker, courage, confidence, and
collaboration.
So let's be open minded as an open
parachute.
As with every show, let's begin with a
prayer.
Let's open our hearts.
We ask our creator to shine light on
our community and our world.
I excitedly believe in hope, in the power
(02:17):
of the divine, and that Jesus, God, whatever
name you put on a higher being, is
always with me and always with you.
So we do not have to be afraid
or troubled,
saddened or depressed.
Joy and peace are an internal expression of
that love and harmony, and all we have
to do is reach deep within and let
(02:38):
it out.
Let's center ourselves.
Let's take a big deep breath in
with the good
and out with any doubt.
Again, breathing in through your nose
with hope and out from your mouth with
fears.
(02:59):
Last one,
take a big, big deep breath in with
joy
and out with any worry or despair.
In the name of mother Earth,
our creator God, a Jesus, a redeemer, the
blowing winds of the spirit, we say good
morning. Good morning, holy one.
The quote that I picked today for our
(03:20):
reading is pretty simple but very powerful.
Dreams.
When you share a dream,
you work together to make it happen.
I'm gonna read that one more time.
Dreams.
When you share a dream,
you work together to make it happen.
(03:41):
When I read that in my spiritual living
room corner this morning, all I could do
was thinking about
all the ways that we connect with other
people.
When we share a dream,
they get involved in it.
When somebody shares a dream with us, we
wanna know, how's it going? What are you
doing? How can I help?
(04:02):
And that's what collaboration
is. That's what makes dreams work, and there's
no limit to what kind of dream you
might have. Whether that's business or personal or
religion or sexual identity, whatever your dream is,
go for it because you always will have
people around you.
Well, those are my quick short reflections today.
(04:23):
So with that, I say, you know what?
Let's lift up our friends and our family
right now today in our community.
May our creator guide us and heal us.
May he bring us joy and happiness.
And that's what this show is all about.
Thank you, dear lord. Thank you, everybody, for
being here.
Well, with that, we are in rural America
(04:44):
here on the coast, and I am excited
to introduce
a friend, a new friend, but also a
really, really cool dynamic. And if you can
get this, she has more energy than I
do. Her name is Kim Todd. Oh my
gosh. I'm so excited. She is the technical
assistant coordinator,
community economic development for women in business.
(05:05):
And guess what our topic is?
Women's
superpowers.
Kim, thank you for being here. Good morning,
Joni. I don't think anyone has better energy
than you. Let me just say. I don't
know. I don't know. I think you do.
I think you do. I'll try and match
it. Okay. Well, what a joy it is
to have you here to talk about women's
superpowers.
So I'm gonna start off. We I know
(05:26):
you drove in from Roseburg today. How are
you? I'm great. We drove in yesterday actually
from Roseburg in the rain, and then we
as always, what happens when we get to
rural Southwest Coast is we were greeted by
the sun eventually.
And ended up having a wonderful event last
night at the shop small women in business,
at Chetco Brewing.
(05:46):
And we had several small business owners and
pop ups
at the brewery,
wonderful
off the wagon food truck food, and
it was great. All the community partners out
there and really trying to support those local
small businesses with those first holiday
forays.
Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And we have
a great community of business people here in
(06:08):
this town, So I'm looking forward to chatting
about that. So how did you get involved
in women, business, and community?
Well, I am a woman, so we'll just
start with that. But I had had I
had a small business, and small business owners
are the biggest economic engine in America.
They generally are five or fewer employees, so
(06:28):
they are not maybe as organized as the
larger employers. But
six out of 10 jobs in our country
are related to small business owners. Wow. And
then we start talking about rural. So my
business was in a rural area, which has
a great
amount of advantages.
There are certain numbers where you can really
make a larger impact just because it's a
smaller community, depending on the the small business
(06:49):
that you have. After I closed my small
business, I decided to go back to school
and
learn how I could be a supporter of
small business owners because it was so clear
to me that I didn't have a lot
of
mentorship,
places that I could talk to people who
weren't my friends and family members. I don't
suggest people talk a lot about their small
(07:09):
business to their friends and family because it's
it's just a different category.
And
after I after I went to school, I
started working at the small business development centers.
You have one here in Curry. It's the
SWOC Small Business Development Center. They're a great
organization.
And at the pandemic times,
rural areas were very tested. Because one thing
(07:31):
that happens in rural areas is when there
are emergencies, there are,
things like fires or,
there's reactions to national emergencies or local emergencies.
There's money and resources that flood in, but
very often, cities and counties aren't
at capacity to distribute these. So I learned
quickly CCD Business Development Corporation, where I work,
(07:52):
they're a fifty five year old fifty five
year young
economic development company in, Southwest Oregon serving Coos,
Curry and Douglas. That's what the CCD stands
for.
They were the instrument
of distribution for all the grants
and all of the resources that were distributed
during specifically
the,
coronavirus pandemic. Oh. So
(08:15):
as somebody who helps small businesses, I kept
directing people to CCD. They quickly realized that
there were some gaps and some obstacles that
small businesses are overcoming even getting those grants.
And they started this department that I now
head called technical assistance.
And we've been going four years strong. This
September marked our four year anniversary.
And we've been able to close gaps and
(08:36):
overcome obstacles for small businesses and then turn
them to
the other resources like the small business development
centers and other economic development in the region
that can continue to support and help them.
That is so awesome. Oh, I know that's
a mouthful right though. If I had to
put a summary on it, I'm hearing mentorship.
I'm hearing,
(08:58):
camaraderie for people and putting people together for
the use of resources.
I'm hearing grants. I'm hearing money. I'm hearing
support for a businesswoman
or business a small business. Right. So one
of the things that we learned during this
time were a lot of people a lot
of things were happening that had never happened
before. A lot of new resources. We had
somebody come to our region from a statewide
(09:19):
organization called Accelerate Women. They had a fund
to loan to women,
small businesses.
And they shared during this conference that we
all attended that only 4% of all women
owned businesses exceed 1,000,000 in revenue. And their
particular objective at that organization was to see
women scale their business. So they were coming
(09:39):
out to these areas and saying, who are
your scalable businesses, traded sectors that can be
sold over state lines and things like that?
We all left that meeting, a group of
us women, and we were like, well, that
was cool. And we just started talking. And
they said, we should keep meeting like this.
And I took it back to our, community
and economic development director and said, these women
(10:00):
wanna keep meeting. What should we do? What
should and he said, I want you to
organize these, but do it in all three
counties. And so he took what was a
concept and grounded it down with the resources
and, facilitation
costs of someone like me,
to start these meetings. And
one thing I share, you talked a lot
about sharing your dreams when we started this
(10:21):
today, and I agree with that. I agree
that sharing your dreams with the right people
matter too. Mhmm. And
when I talk to small business owners and
they are very much in a concept mode
kind of trying to develop how this is
gonna look, because the ideas really can spread
out. Mhmm. My goal is to help them,
again, ground their ideas and maybe prioritize what
(10:42):
those first steps will look like. And I
tell them, when you have a dream and
you set it up here,
trust that the scaffolding is gonna show up
to get you there because you have to
trust the process. And you don't always know.
It can't be plotted on a map. It
can't be predicted.
But people like me are gonna come out.
People like Accelerate Women are gonna come out.
People like,
(11:04):
local community members are gonna come out and
say, I see a,
partnership or a collaboration. And that's how things
happen
organically.
Because when things happen organically,
they might take longer than we think. We
always have this expectation
of,
you know, wanting things to materialize sooner. But
when it takes longer, it's stronger, it's more
(11:25):
organic, and it has staying power. And that's
what we've learned about the women in business
events. They started with a few people gathering
in living rooms, and now we have regular
meetings once per month. And depending on the
topic or the month, they they're just amazing
in their numbers.
They are. And and to me, they are
joyously free
(11:46):
monthly gatherings
because I know as as an author. Here
I am as an author, and next next
thing I know, I'm a businesswoman.
I'm running my business of books and promotion
and da da da da da. And and
everybody is starting somewhere. So when we gathered
on those monthly meetings, one was at the
Umbrella Farms, one was at SWOC. There have
been numerous places where they are. Right. The
(12:07):
collaboration,
the the networking, the tribe of these women,
I think those superpowers just burst even more.
I agree. I you're just you're making me
so excited right now. They burst so so
much over the last three years that we're
actually planning our first women in business leadership
conference where we're gonna get all three of
the counties together under one roof Oh, wow.
(12:27):
To really start honing
in
collaborations,
but on a on a larger scale. We
call it, in our groups, chocolate and peanut
butter. Mhmm. And it's just, again, an organic
story that came about.
And chocolate and peanut butter is when you
have two already great things on their own,
but then you combine them and they make
(12:48):
something even greater. And that's the kind of
magic and collaboration you're referring to that happens
in those meetings. Yes. Yeah. Yes. You know,
and related to that, can you tell the
listeners if if a woman is out there
and she's thinking, oh, I would like to
start a business or, I wanna support businesses.
Where can they go? What can they do?
One of the first things you can do
(13:09):
to get in touch with our organization is
go to our website at ccdbusiness.org.
And there is a,
page that will say, put your email in
here for more information. So just your presence
is amazing. And I will share with you
that when we started on this journey of
technical assistance,
we didn't limit it just to small businesses.
We also help nonprofit organizations.
(13:31):
Oh. And this is important because
not everybody has funding to help nonprofits because
a lot of funding is based on taxes.
Right? And do nonprofits, you know, they're a
different status.
One of the statistics I learned, and we
know this, we all volunteer or we all
benefit from nonprofits in our own communities. One
of the statistics I learned at a conference
was that 15% of any community's economy is
(13:53):
tied to nonprofits,
whether it's the money they bring in that
wouldn't be there otherwise, the jobs they're providing
that wouldn't be there, and then, of course,
the intrinsic values and the things they're actually
providing the community. So we don't maybe
support that kind of effort enough. And we
have a great team at CCD
that can help nonprofits with their gaps and
their obstacles that they're having. So I would
(14:15):
encourage everyone to visit our website. And then
And can you repeat that one more time,
please? Ccdbusiness.org.
And CCD stands for Kooskuri Douglas. So the
other thing that we do is those the
women in business meetings are open to everybody.
They are free. We provide refreshments,
and we provide,
raffles. Yes. Raffles is another organic item. Somebody
(14:36):
brought a big raffle basket once and we've
never given it back. We just keep filling
it and giving away. So it's really this
level of comfort when you come to these
meetings. You don't have to come prepared.
Women, I always tell them, you come at
whatever level of commitment you can. If you
can't stay for the whole meeting or you
have to come late, just come as you
are. We're it's it's,
(14:57):
very common that we have to,
bring kids with us or do things that
are maybe not a traditional meeting. That's why
I like having these. They're just the most
comfortable place for you to gather for that
first time. When I was a pro when
I was a small business owner, I would
get flown to a conference for the industry
I was in or maybe I'd get a
training. They'd come to our area. But I
didn't get professional development. And I really get
(15:20):
fed in the job I'm at now to
get professional development, to get those tools and
learn what other people that do what I
do are doing at an even greater you
know, so I can incorporate it.
This is one of those places that you
can come for some professional development. You're not
the only one that's been against some of
these things. Every meeting features a small business
spotlight, and that means that a business is
gonna stand up for ten minutes, show a
(15:41):
slideshow sometimes, or just talk about where they've
been and where they're going. And very often,
they start off with,
I've been doing this for five years, and
I really just now wanna get serious about
it. So I think a lot of people
hearing that can understand that they're not operating
at level 10 every day. Right? We have
a lot of other constraints on our time
and our capacity. So I really feel like
(16:02):
it's meeting people where they're at and helping
them to move forward, providing those steps. That's
so excellent. Isn't it? The best. And there's
no expectations. It's what a person wants to
put into it. Mhmm. Absolutely. Sometimes people stand
up and say that they're working on a
fundraiser for one of the volunteer organizations and
can we all support that?
That is just as much a part of
our lives as anything else. And
(16:24):
in these meetings, I've learned to say,
for women in business especially, conversation is our
currency.
We really are able to hold so much
wisdom at the same time and
know when to deliver it to the next
person. And when people do present to our
groups, I say, if you you wanna tell
us stuff that you wanna get out to
the rest of the community because we're they're
the doers. They keep track of things. They
(16:46):
care about things, and they like to share
the things they care about. Oh, that is
so right on. So right on. And and
it's all applicable to what they're doing. So
it's not you just show up and talk
and then nothing happens. There are next steps,
which I love about it. You're there as
a resource as I say, hey. I'll email
you. I can help you with this. You
want a web page? Hey. Here's what we
can do. Absolutely. One of the game changers
(17:08):
with technical assistance is professional services.
So
I appreciate that I came from the small
business development center background because I knew I
love their programs. I I am the biggest
fan for them. When I came to CCD,
it was more about listening,
a lot of listening. There isn't a nationwide
network saying these are the things that we've
learned are good. This was leaning in and
(17:28):
going, what's the problem here? And they said,
well, I haven't applied for this grant because
I haven't done my taxes in two years.
You haven't done your taxes? Okay. That's not
uncommon. It takes a business owner a lot
of vulnerability
to say those words. And so I appreciate
that coming out to their place sometimes creates
that space that they can tell me the
things. So after I learned of some of
the gaps they were having, I would come
back to our team and say, you know,
(17:49):
if we could find an accountant to catch
up people's taxes, and they go, let's do
that. Let's find a couple of local accountants,
and then they can meet with them privately,
and we can,
we can fund for those professional services. Do
you know what a load that takes off
of a business? Because not only are they
getting caught up and now able to gain
resources
potentially through,
being able to submit the right documentation,
(18:11):
they now have a resource in their community
because all of our resource providers, professional providers,
are locals
in the three counties. And so now they're
able to go forward and know where they
can go next year when they need to
file their taxes or when they need to
ask a question about changing their business entity.
On the coast, one of the biggest things
we learned
through the process of letting our partners share
(18:32):
was how important being visible is.
Being visible because
your numbers swell,
no pun intended, to extraordinary amounts during your
high seasons.
And if you're not discoverable on Google, particularly,
then you
aren't gonna be getting that kind of business
that you really see. So 90% of all
(18:52):
search aggregation is done on Google. We learned
that at one of our meetings. That's not
gonna change anytime soon. So So now we
don't need to tell everybody, do everything we
say. Get your Google My Business. It's free.
It's a low barrier. And we sit next
to you on your laptop. Once you become
a client, all my time is covered, and
we sit next to you on the laptop
and say, click here. Now you're gonna wanna
add pictures. And then that's where we maybe
start with some clients. But then when they
(19:14):
come to our women in business groups and
they share a raffle item, somebody takes a
picture of it and then Google reviews them.
So we really do practice what we teach,
which is,
you know, the ways to support business are
buying from them, supporting them on their digital
space, sharing their events, and leaving reviews.
Exactly. And I'm I'm all into it. I'm
giving you high fives, high tens, big hugs,
(19:36):
you know. And
coming from an LGBTQ standpoint, what I have
loved about being involved in the local women's
business here in Curry County is that every
single one of the businesswomen I've met have
been so supportive of LGBTQ.
And what can I do to make it
more friendly, Joni? How can I how can
I attract more LGBTQ
people to this? And so there become safe
(19:58):
spaces in terms of business. Because many times
in my life as a lesbian woman, we
were,
disgruntled when we walked in and we were
shunned or not looked in the eye as
a customer for a business person. And this
community here is open to all of that,
which is beautiful.
Oh my gosh. Do you wanna give any
shout outs to some of the local women
that are super empowering people and themselves right
(20:20):
now? Well, I will share with you. There
is a book called Big Magic by Elizabeth
Gilbert. She wrote Eat, Pray, Love, and I
had read it. And she talks about this
squirrel of ideas. She's an author, longer story.
But the
ideas are always circulating around. They're looking for
a ground rod. And if you're not gonna
move on it, it tends to hop over
to somebody else. That's why sometimes when you
(20:41):
have a good idea
and you don't develop it, and a couple
years later on TV, you see somebody's selling
something, you're like, I had that idea. That's
because it was swirling for other people too
and they developed it. So that's pretty common.
But what was happening in what happened because
we went to a meeting in Douglas, once
we came over to Curry County, I met
up with a few women and I said,
(21:01):
hey. I noticed you guys are very active
on your Facebook group over here,
promoting each other's businesses.
And we're kinda working on a women in
business group, and they said, we're already meeting
in each other's living rooms. We love this.
We would love for you to organize. And,
again, that chocolate and peanut butter came together,
and that was Michelle Bubert, who we all
know now as the executive director of the
(21:23):
Curry County Chamber, and Marie Curtis,
who is one of our most stellar,
real estate brokers here in Curry,
at REMAX. So those two, instrumental.
They were already having a new residence meeting.
And so I showed up to that new
residence meeting, got a bag full of goodies
and flyers and samples,
and she really introduced me to a lot
(21:44):
of small businesses through those samples. I didn't
know you had a a gold buyer in
town. I went to visit that person. I
went to the Agnes store. So those are
my shout outs. And if you haven't
been, to the Curry County Chamber recently, you've
got to go. And not only do you
have to go, you should join. She is
a megaphone that is a marketing genius.
(22:04):
She's also one of our professional service providers
for websites.
So,
those are my shout outs for sure. And
I do wanna say that there's so many
women that are women in business
that have never missed a meeting
and have really been the backbone of this.
So, there's so many I can think of,
but I don't know if we have enough
time for all of them.
(22:25):
Probably probably not. But if you wanna throw
some more out there, tell us a little
bit. Pithitude. Have you seen her comic strip
on LinkedIn? Yes. I crack up on it.
I try and comment all I can. If
you haven't seen it, then you need to
check it out. It's, and plus her her
merchandise is just hilarious. I've usually spend money
every time I come here and see her.
And then we have And she's a pickleball
(22:46):
friend of mine. So Yes. He is. Oh
my gosh. We go that round too. We
had people from the at the event last
night that were on their way to pickleball.
They kinda stood out in their gear. So
now good go pickleball forever. Yes. Yes. Anybody
else you wanna give a shout out to?
Well, I wanted to talk a little bit
about,
I wanna share with any of the people
listening to this that if you're a small
(23:07):
business owner, one of the most common things
that I hear is that you don't think
you're doing enough. So sometimes when people are
talking to me, I say, if you're talking
to me, you're doing enough. If you're listening
to this, you're you're doing enough. Sometimes we
don't reflect and it's important to maybe sit
and look back at what you've accomplished and
give yourself some credit.
But
by coming to a meeting or two, by
(23:28):
working slowly on your things, you're doing a
lot. And it's it's difficult to prioritize when
you're a small business owner.
One of the things that we do talk
about in Women in Business is that superpower
piece. And that superpower piece is really just
recognizing
what comes to you
naturally and organically that you can amplify.
(23:50):
I'm I'm fond of saying to people, if
you don't know what your superpower is, ask
your best friend. They know what it is.
It's something you do so easily. For me,
once I was challenged to figure out what
my superpower is,
I know that it's chocolate and peanut butter.
It's creating those spaces where people can come
together. It's,
saying you should go talk to them, you
should go and keeping all of these resources
(24:10):
together. But what I think is important about
knowing your superpower
is the ability to trust it.
When you play to your strengths.
Play to your strengths. We all have our
strengths and each one's different, so use other
people for their strengths. But once you know
your strength, you can go out more confidently,
and you can also really
(24:31):
promote that as your unique
value to people. Right? And then when you
amplify it, you're a superhero.
So these are some of the things that
we talk about in the meetings because it's
just as important to layer confidence and support.
Hope is a metric.
You have to continue to tell people that
what they're doing is valid.
And,
as they share their dreams, which is super
(24:53):
vulnerable.
And those are are some phenomenal tips. I
know we're running out of time already, Kim.
I know. But, you know, I'm thinking, okay.
What did I get out of this today?
Chocolate and peanut butter.
Trust your superpowers.
Reach out.
Know that you can you can trust the
community that we're in. There are resources. Kim
is available. Kim, how do they get a
(25:13):
hold of you for the last final comment?
Find me on Facebook at CCD Business.
Find me on,
you can
email me at k.todd@ccdbusiness.com.
It's different than the website, which is .org.
I don't know. I don't make the rules.
But really, you reach out to Joanie, you
reach out to Michelle, you reach out to
(25:33):
your community. They know how to find me,
and I travel everywhere.
My cell phone is on my business cards
so that people are able to text and
message because that's the way we communicate these
days, and that's fine with them. Fantastic. Oh
my gosh. What a plethora of information.
Oh my gosh. Thank you, beautiful listeners on
the gorgeous coast of Southern Oregon and Northern
(25:54):
California for being with us today in this
joyously free Kim Todd small business superwomen stories.
Oh, the tips were just unbelievable today. Golden
nuggets. We thank you, Mike and Rick and
Candice and Tom and
Rose. That's who I remember. And so we
also wanna thank all the all of you
who listened in today. Remember that you can
(26:15):
get a hold of us at any time
here at KCIW
for follow ups on anything. We wanna wish
you good dreams,
great dreams.
Follow your dreams.
Use chocolate and peanut butter as your motto
today to reach out and go deep within
to find what you need to do to
make our community even better. We wanna say
(26:35):
smile big, bright colors, and
wahoo,
Kim. Thank you, Kim. Talk. I'm inspired.
I'm inspired, Joni. Thank you for having us.
You betcha. My pleasure. Thank you.
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