Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nothing better than connecting communities through conversation. This is the
Community Connections and Commerce Podcast. I'm Drake Watson, with my
co host 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.

(00:36):
And I just want to start with providing the listeners
just a little bit of feedback or excuse me, a
little bit of a background on who we are, and
I'd like to get your story first. Sure.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So, I'm Wendy Anderson. I'm the executive director of the
Saint 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 six.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I'll be sixty four.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
At the end of the year, So tell me a
little bit about you.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wow, I'll be twenty in twenty twenty five. 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

(01:26):
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 thing going and this
is just another one to add to the plate of

(01:47):
things that we've got going on. And I could be
more excited to hop on well.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Was I was born in nineteen sixty, so that was
a long long time ago. I graduated from Wieley Park
High School and I went to West Liberty. I went
to West Virginia Northern, and I got married right out
of a year into college. I got married and had

(02:13):
three beautiful children, and I am a proud grandma of
sixteen grandchild 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

(02:36):
a chamber. You know, 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, and
that way we can understand that how they need to
how we can help them, and how they can help

(02:56):
us in the community. You know, I think there's a
gap between the ages which you and I have. We
have a big.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Gap, a little bit different ways of looking at things.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
It will so do you know, do you remember cars
that had a crank window that you had to crank
come down?

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Maybe long ago, maybe in like two thousand and seven,
but no, I don't remember, for I was not around
for the bulk of that. I also wasn't around for
the Calvin COOLIDG administration. But no, yes, so I'm definitely
a lot a lot younger than you. You know, I
don't call you, oh what, I call you experienced, thank you,
But but yeah, and I think we'll bring that aspect

(03:38):
to it and kind of when we when we speak
to people, I'm hoping to get you know, you 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

(03:59):
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
gonna come on, Matt Welsh, who you know very well,
and Mario Grady, some great people that are coming on.
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

(04:20):
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're gonna
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 accomplish
that and hopefully do it really well.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
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

(05:00):
into the businesses. 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 in our chamber. We're all

(05:22):
about the small businesses in the Ohio Valley. And I
say that the Ohio Valley we are all.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
One, not just one community here. 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 the university. You know, when the dean
came to me, there was great conversations about when we
wanted to start this thing, about well, how can we
benefit both parties? Right, So we want to promote these businesses,

(05:51):
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 in the university plays in that.
And so one of the things I planned to ask
a ton of our guests, especially the ones that that
we have lined up that have gone to Ohio have
or we planned to ask them what they what advice
they would give to a student, maybe my age or

(06:11):
younger and 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 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 will and hopefully we

(06:32):
provide some some very good, hopefully entertaining, but also informative
conversations in the future.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
And I love the idea of the partnership. I'm all
about partnerships, and with us partnering with High University, stron
and the Chamber, this has been an incredible journey getting
to this point right now because I remember speaking to
Dean Roe Hall. Yeah, and we had a conversation about Wendy.

(06:59):
You know, he said, we need to get some of
this information out there, and we put our heads together
and this is this is it.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah. I remember spring semester of twenty twenty four 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 at the gym
with what used to be the Nay Center now it
is the Eco Center, and we would just have conversations.
And it took a while to get it, you know,

(07:27):
off the ground. But we're we're taking off right now.
I hope we can. We can reach a cruising altitude
of about thirty five thousand feet, but we Yeah, we'll
do the best we can to get the stories of
these people out there and to get their their mindset
out there, because I think that's what 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

(07:48):
different things. And I think that'll provide great value.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Yeah, and I you know, we want to know like
you said, we want to know why, Well, what's their
Why why do they continue? Because it's a struggle for
some of these small businesses that we 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,

(08:12):
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.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
So I also know we're going to talk to like
a couple of nonprofits. Yeah, and I think that's important
to get to know what they're up to and you know,
why do they do it?

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Why just as invest it in the community as any
of the businesses that are in it to make. But
but 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 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 we're going to be fortunate enough to
hear some of those stories. And you think, like that's

(08:58):
just a sliver, like this is just one person, for example,
who owns a shop on the corner of the of
the of town here, but that that's everywhere, that's that's
and that's beyond the Ohio Valley, and that's kind of
a little bit of a of a national aspect. But yeah,
I think it'll be incredible.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
That'll be the tapestry of our community. And each one
has a story that goes into this, this 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.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, it's it's going to be hopefully a fun ride,
and it's been incredible so far, and 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, absolutely Danielle and Dan and
and and obviously Dean Roe Hall for for helping us
get this started. And we want to thank I don't
think she wants to be mentioned, but we want to

(09:48):
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.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
To say, that would be Sam, and we appreciate iHeart
ww v A for allowing us to do this.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah. Yeah, one time, they're keeping me off of the microphone.
We can't hear you just doing the hard work.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Oh okay, I don't know. I think you have some
of the hard work there because but I think this
is a great partnership and I just can't wait to
see what the future holds for us.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, I can't wait. Well, once again, for our viewers,
or excuse me for our listeners, we can accept your
your feedback or your comments or or even concerns if
you have any. I don't have any concerns, but if
they arise, we can be reached at ou 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,

(10:40):
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.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
Yeah, we don't want it. We don't like I don't
like mean. I'm too old to be haveing mean people
in my life.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Anymore, and I have too much pride to to not
look at it. But anyway, that's been It's been incredible
to get things introduce 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 with Wendy Anderson,
this has been community, connections and commerce. We look forward
to having you back for future episodes and thanks for listening.