Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 7 with Dan Milleson

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Welcome back to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson
with Wendy Anderson and our part two with special guest
Dan Millson, again the founder and owner of Waterfront Hall
and Wheeling and president of Milestone Insurance. Dan, we had
a great conversation with you on the previous episode and
we've wanted more.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, we just want more.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Thanks, It's like, just keep digging. Yeah. One of the
first things we talked about when we were with you
the last time the how you've kind of stayed in
the valley. You've almost always been around the Ohio Valley.
And we talked to a lot of the people that
we bring on what brought them back, because a lot
of them leave and then have to come back. You've
never quite left, and so I'd like to ask what

(00:58):
you think is most active about the about the valley,
Why you know you continue to stay around here, and
then what would bring folks in and be attractive to them.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Well, for for me, it's it's mom. For me, it's mom,
and for a lot of people, I think it's mom,
and it's the cost of daycare for a family. So
I'm thirty six, A lot of people I know a
lot of people have had kids and went, like in
other places, it went holy cow. Yeah, And because you're

(01:32):
the cost of living associated with city and daycare for
a parent at this point is outrageous. And we could
talk about wealth inequality if you want to. We'll save
that for another day. But but but no, I think
the first and foremost it's the family, you know, for
those who were coming back from the place that they
had been when they were growing up, and and I

(01:53):
see that more and more. But and then it's the
familial type atmosphere, right. Sure, it's the unit and what
the unit does across units, you know, family units, familiar
with family units, and some people, you know, get sick
of a small town's being so small, right, and then
the gossip and all that stuff, which is a bummer sometimes,
but ultimately what wins out is people that love one

(02:17):
another and who see commonality in one another. And even
though Facebook has has in just general media and the
present day, has done a lot to get in between
that relationship between neighbors, yep, it still feels like a
family around here. And I love that just about more

(02:37):
than anything else, you know. But as far as people
moving here, I mean, that's also like an advantage. It's
like it just feels like a more caring, nurturing kind
of place. And generally speaking, I guess that's that's what
I would That's what I would bring up first, is
the way that it feels, which somebody kind of has

(02:58):
to learn from themselves. But but yeah, so as far
as as far as like solutions that need to occur,
in my mind like that one of the most important
things is to communicate with the fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen
year old that you know, there's a way not to
leave in the first place, not that you can't you

(03:21):
shouldn't and can't go away to college, but just that
what is the compelling message that we're offering to these
kids that can compete with Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and
the like. What is the message? You know? And in
a major way, maybe maybe the main reason why I

(03:44):
wanted to pursue something like Waterfront Hall was to make
a statement about that. And the key to that is
that it's fun. Yeah, right, you know, like you have
to make a place fun. And I know that no
mayoral candidate or and no commissioner is going to talk
about fun all that much. But man, you can bet

(04:07):
that's why kids are leaving and going to other places.
So like, I just think that there needs to be
more focused and emphasis placed on how do we make
this place exciting and fun and culturally relevant and and
and how do we heighten and illuminate the creative class

(04:29):
in the place that we live. Wheeling has a dynamic
and awesome art scene. There is there are there are
artists and musicians lying all over the place that we
we have to put in front of other people, you know,
and that's really what the music thing is about. At
Waterfront Hall. There's a place, there's an art studio in
Wheeling called client Tele that if it is amazing that

(04:52):
people don't know about it, they need to learn about it.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
It's amazing, yeah, Clientele.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
If you want to be hip, go to Clientele. It's
it's cool than our place. And I of course say
that with some hesitation. I love Will Wallace, the owner
and his fiance Jenna. They they with a group of
other cool people run it. It's an East Wheeling And
that right there is an example of something that fifteen, sixteen,

(05:19):
seventeen year old kids need to know about. That a
guy from here opened an art studio. It's succeeding, and
people from all over the state want to have their
art in there. And it's in a garage, which is
also cool in its own way, but ultimately, like, that's
the thing. It's like. And the chamber does a lot
of good in that respect too, you know, in highlighting

(05:42):
businesses and things like that, But there's a whole creative
class that might get missed there, and it's like, okay, well,
how do we heighten those voices and what have you.
There's also a great magazine called Ynst that just came out.
There's been three editions of that I think up until now.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Oh that's right.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, there's a it's a very it's an art forward magazine.
There's fashion in there, and it's based in West Virginia.
And there's a guy named Adam Payne I think is
the editor of that. That's from right here and Wheeling. So, okay,
how do how do we get this into the arms
of kids in high schools in the area so they
know that there is a scene, right, where is it fun?

(06:21):
Where is there a scene? Well, they can guarantee that
it's there's gonna be in the urban centers that there
will be so that that's that's where you see him go.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
And yes, economic opportunity is important, but so is like
figuring out what you like and what you think is
fun and it needs focus.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Right, we could talk and we could talk forever about
you know, maybe uh, creativity among young people being limited
when they're coming up. You know that that's a whole
conversation that we could very easily get into. But another day, Yeah,
I think I think all of what you said is
really important about how you know, there's more of the culture,
the intangible things, maybe more so than economically, but also

(07:02):
economically as well. I want to ask you about some
challenges that you may face with the waterfront and the
things that you're doing. And one of that, we talk
to everybody who's got things going on in the Wheeling.
We talked to them about the construction and the streetscaping
and everything like that, and I want your take on
potentially the impact that's had on you. I don't know,
I don't know. Has has waterfront been open when that

(07:24):
hasn't been going on? No, So, you know, I just
maybe inserting myself into your head thinking about, well, what
could it be when people can easily get here, get
here more easily.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I like thinking about that. I
like thinking about what it would be like if twenty
percent more people came, right, Yeah, but they I guess
they might, you know, they might, or they might go
to the Highlands, you know, I don't know, But I
think what's important is that Wheeling has a reopening. Yeah,

(07:56):
a grand reopening of Wheeling.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
That helps the whole area, as you mentioned earlier, you know,
the value of the entire area up a little bit.
That's something you think about.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Small business ownership is exploding across the country. If you
look at the statistics, there's more small business applications in
the past year than like any point in history. Owning
a business has been demystified by TikTok and all these
other places where we can easily gather information created by
the very best communicators out there. So in this explosion

(08:30):
of small business ownership, it's reflected back on Wheeling, you know.
And so what better way to I'll just say it,
compete with the Highlands than to reopen Feeling after the
streetscape is finished, and then also create a downtown business

(08:50):
alliance where the issues are geographically dialed in because we
all share the experience of the Streetscape, we all share
the experience of that person who's at the Capitol tonight
or whatever night. We all share the experience of the
West Banco Arena's schedule of events. So why wouldn't we

(09:11):
pull together, hire an executive director, get the ball rolling,
be a chamber member too, and like, ultimately network the
thing down into a place where the advertising is spot on,
the level of competition rises, and all of these small
business owners who are risking their their financial future on

(09:35):
their ideas are supported in a network. I just think
that that that's an opportunity that exists as we come
out of the Streetscape, right as in an opportunity to
redefine Wheeling once and for all, right, I mean, and
I don't know that that's ever finished defining what a
city is, but ultimately it represents a great opportunity to

(09:55):
say something's new now. And there's an awful lot of
excitement down town with all the projects that are going on.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
We talked, maybe you know, several weeks ago about how
you know, there might have been the sense of fear
to open with everything that's going on, to open up
around here, or if you have something existing, you know,
you're fearful that you know your business is going to
be limited. And now I think with the with the
end or the completion being nearer and nearer, you're going
to see a lot more come in because they think

(10:24):
of what the great opportunities that are going to be
there whenever everything's completed.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, and for some of us, we were slightly ahead
of the curve, and hopefully that there's that to your point,
there's that twenty percent bump maybe or whatever it is
on the back end where people are like, yeah, I'll
go back downtown.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Now, because do you sense when you open Waterfront last August,
do you sense that that was at a time where
everybody else still may have been hesitant because of everything
that was going on.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
I followed the lead of the Bridge Tavern. I always
quick to point that out the bridge. The Bridge was
early to the to the scene, I think, and their
confidence and examples is one that I follow because without them,
you know breaking I at least in my case, because
it's they're similar. They broke the mold and they took

(11:10):
the risk, and they did that provided me with a
certain level of confidence too to go ahead, you know,
So I gotta commend them first and foremost. But yeah,
they they were ahead of it, and then probably suffered
because of that a little bit. I say suffered, But
but what I mean is, you know, their sidewalks were
tore up for a while, and they were managing a

(11:32):
very difficult situation.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
But but they did it.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
They did it. Yeah, and they're they're open, and they're
and they'll benefit here soon from from this too. But
but yes, I am excited to see who else comes
up with an idea after everything's nice and pristine down here.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, you might be hard to compete for a for
a spot.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah maybe, I hear. I hear of a lot of
new projects popping up, and I just can't imagine a
more exciting time to be downtown. I just can't imagine it.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
And I think sometimes with these small businesses, they feel
like they just cannot do it anymore. Instead of closing,
maybe press pause, Yeah, just take a break, you know,
maybe shut your doors for a little bit, but then
have that reopen, you know, because I understand. I mean,
it's got to be hard for a small business, especially
with the streetscapes not allowing their clients in to purchase

(12:27):
anything that they have that would be tough.

Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, yes, and there's I think there's been five businesses
closed since the Streetscape open. So I don't mean to
paint a jolly picture. I guess I'm just looking at
it from the angle that I've tried to look at everything,
which is as optimistic as possible. But I think there
is always an opportunity for these businesses to retool, re
emerge in a new way exactly. And whatever the business is,

(12:55):
I mean, whether it's shared space with another business, whether
it turns into a pop up thing or an online business,
the key to anything anything is to evolve along with
it or else you will get left behind, you know.
And it's not that these business owners don't know that.
It's just like man, sometimes it's painful, you know, sometimes
there's pain involved in it, and sometimes you want to

(13:16):
move on too, you know, like it's really up to
the person that's operating it. Right.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
So You've mentioned a ton of people in the time
that we've spoken to you, and you know, you've spoken
highly of all of them, and I'm wondering if you
had to give us like a short list of folks
that you think would be great candidates for us to
bring on. You know who would you suggest?

Speaker 3 (13:40):
Will Wallace owner a clientele who I mentioned, who's hilarious
and it would be a lot funnier than me. Logan
Schmidt incredible artist just did Tyler Childers poster for his
Burgetstown concert, made it like is the artist who did it?
He did a mural for us down a waterfront haul too.
Those are two amazing people. Rosemary catch On dynamic public speaker,

(14:02):
Uh been been involved in politics, has phenomenal ideas, is
future facing in all ways and is optimistic. Uh. There's
Chris Dutton who just did Ranch Night up in More
well not More excuse me, but Flushing area. Yeah, and

(14:23):
then I'll give you a list afterwards. But that's those
are those are a few names that come to mind,
and yeah, I do feel John Russell is another one
who has a newsletter that actually financially supports him. And
then he also makes YouTube videos. He lives in East

(14:44):
Wheeling from Wellsville. He makes YouTube videos for a nonprofit
that have millions and millions of use and they're usually
on issues of workers' rights and things like that. But
this is somebody from Wellsville who went to Cornell, got
an agricultural science degree, ran for Congress, and Columbus lost

(15:04):
same time I did, moved back, lived in my the
upstairs of my little Bridgeport building over here. We barretended
that Johnny's in Bridgeport together, and that gave us our
chops to open Waterfront Hall. He started doing well enough
shooting YouTube videos that he quit quit down at water
for all. But he's an amazing person and one of

(15:25):
the coolest cats around. And that's what I'm saying about,
Like kids in high school don't know that that man exists.
You know that somebody who grew up here is doing
some of the coolest stuff that I can find on
the internet.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Yeah, and that's kind of the reason why we're here.
That's an incredible example.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, because we want to connect students the seventeen.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
Eighteen, nineteen years old myself, Yeah, trying to.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Connect them to what we have going on, because for
my older generation, because I'm I'm older and I take
advantage of what you do. I take advantage of the
Waterfront concerts. You know, I go to Clientele. I love
these things, you know, I go to the Foundry. There's
some cool things going on Audrey's Kitchen is going to

(16:11):
open up soon in Saint Clairsville. That's awesome and that
is something we've not had something like that.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, I think that's what I mean. It's like there's
a small business explosion taking place. And not to take
anything away from franchises, you know, the cheddars in the
outbacks of the world, but it's a place. Yeah, their
headquarters are based somewhere far, far away exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
We just talked about that, we did.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
And those profits go into yachts.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Yeah. We saw a statistic several weeks ago that said
sixty of all the money spent locally is reinvested locally.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah. So my argument there is not to say no
longer go to franchise restaurants. Yeah, it's it's to think
about what you're doing. Because the money that you spend
at a small business, and there's more and more and
more every day to the point we just made it
means more to you and it doesn't take long for

(17:07):
that loop to travel back around to you.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
You know your you can contribute to the positivity of
your lived experience by the way that you spend your money,
and that includes not spending it on Amazon and instead
going to Center Market.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Right, we talk about the price of convenience all the time.
Because of the convenience, you know, that's a that's a
that's easy, that's as.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Easy to do, and don't say, you know, because people
are tired or they're they're working like crazy and they
just get home. I'm just going to scroll through by this,
like you said, go to Center Market, go to downtown
Saint Clairsville, go to Stutentville, go to Weirton.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Yeah, you have to ask yourself, how am I complicit
in creating the conditions that I say I don't want?
So if I don't, if I want my community to thrive,
why am I buying these particular goods on Amazon? If

(18:07):
I want downtown restaurants and bars to be where where
I get to go out, or if I want there
to be some kind of scene, why why are you
not buying local art and going and going to the
places where the business owners live where you live. Because
the profits are coming back round to you. I can
tell you that I have ten things I want to

(18:28):
do with whatever profit eventually shows itself, if then he does,
because right now we are breaking even and we're trying
to dial in the expense side of the business, and
it's not easy because distributors want so much money and
that continues to rise, and then I don't want to
charge you fifteenth not you, but you fifteen dollars for
a cocktail, you know. Like, so when the profits do

(18:51):
eventually come, there's ten things that I want to do
at Waterfront Hall that are going to hopefully make it
a cooler thing. Whereas the profits that come back to
Outback Steakhouse are going to want lined up in Monaco
on the Outback Staycoat House, the CEO's yacht, you know exactly.
So that's that's a major like picture everybody needs to
see in their head. And if there were a downtown

(19:13):
business alliance, these are the billboards that I would create,
right Like, it would say profits profits for downtown businesses,
and there would be an arrow and it would go, like,
I don't know, back to a picture of the valley itself. Yeah,
and then on the other side of it, profits for franchises,
and it would go, you know to Cancun, Mexico, some

(19:35):
condo building. Like but I think that's the image people
need to have in their head. You know, it can't
just be small business Saturday.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
No, you're right, And I know there's Stacy Luninette has
Route forty Lumberjacks. She also has a bunch of us.
She has Rustic Salon and the Sudger Duds. She has
a gold mined out there. Lumberjacks is so cool because
you can go and it's an adult playground basically.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
I've been there, yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
We have a good time. But somebody likes Stacy local
and that's what she does, and I'm going to ask
her to be on the show. But she also sponsors local.
She sponsors our things that we have for the chamber
or the local softball team or baseball team or basketball

(20:25):
team or cheerleaders. So that's what you're missing. If you
go to those franchises, they're not gonna really they don't.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
They don't sponsor. That's the loop I was referring to.
If you're a regular at a small business and then
you go in there and you're like my kids trying
to sell candy bars. We're gonna buy all of them, right,
you know, And and and outback is going to say
call this one eight hundred number, and I'm sorry to
dig on out Back. I'm killing them. I actually don't

(20:56):
mind it.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, but but yeah, that's unfortunately they are the catch all.
But yeah, these have been great conversations. One thing I
do want to touch on before we get you out
of here is Ohio University, And you know, I have
a role to make sure that's a part of our discussion,
and I also think it's important and what you feel like,

(21:17):
how do you feel like that prepared you for what
you're doing now? And also like if you had to
go back and be a student again, with everything that
you've been through and everything that you've done since then,
what would you do differently? And just kind of your
your whole thoughts on on everything that question.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah, well, first off, let me point out the importance
of branch colleges. You know, when I was having my
crisis of conscience, Yeah, through the ages of and get
ready drake, because through the ages of twenty to twenty four, right,
and it might it might happen sooner or later for
all of us, I don't know. But when I was

(21:54):
having that crisis of conscience about what do I do?
What do I do? What do I do? Which I
think happens too early in a person's life, anyway for
some of us because I didn't know. You know, it
took me a while to figure it out, but the
branch college caught me at an important time. It was
like it was like a beautiful blanket I was wrapped
in because I could still live at home with dear

(22:15):
old mom and dad, and at the same time I
could I could further the experience of the education while
while still maintaining all of those deep and important familial
and friend connections that I had. And if the OUE

(22:37):
wasn't there, I would have maybe tried to find that
somewhere else, but it wouldn't have felt as because it
wasn't home for you, right, and it wouldn't have felt
as big to me because it still connected me back
to a big time university. I still could say like, yeah,
I'll go to OU at some point, and I felt
proud about that portion of it. And so this is

(23:00):
this is a PSA to keep branch colleges out there.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
There's a big smile out.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Of the room, because you know, I would never have
had if OUI didn't exist, and my family didn't have
the patience for me, and how university didn't have the
patience to see OUI through. I mean, my entire story
would be totally different. I don't know what it would
look like necessarily, but it sure wouldn't be as good
as it feels right now. And I also want to

(23:29):
say that I was able to go to OU not
feeling ill prepared, but instead just like trying to acclimate
myself to how much fun it was. But also as
far as the classes were concerned, it didn't. I wasn't
like out of bounds and not knowing what was going on.
I felt pretty comfortable about where I stood in the

(23:50):
classroom right And that was after a couple of years
of being an OUI. And I know this doesn't exist anymore,
but man, the Hoops the Hoops program, I love that too,
I know you. We presented me with an opportunity to
like have a locker room and a hallway full of
people that I got to make friends with, and that
was cool. That extended my connections throughout the Ohio Valley

(24:12):
and I met so many cool people from Belmont County,
Monroe County, Ohio County, West Virginia. And that probably helps
me today. Oh yeah, I mean in the insurance business,
that helped me enormously and Yeah, so there's all And
I guess that's part of the name of the show, right,
the connection.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
I was just about to bring that up. I was
more than pleased with the way you did that because
I think what we could have summed that all up
as is regional campuses do a great job of connecting
you with your community because you still can stay there
and get the education that you need.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
And I love that you said it's still felt like
a warm blanket, like very comfortable, warm blanket.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
That's really nice green blanket.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
With a bob katwoman.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Well that's uh. That's been a super productive a couple
episodes that we've had with you. We we greatly appreciate
your time. Once again, Dan Millison, the founder and owner
of Waterfront Haul, we can't advertise that enough. I mean,
it's incredible what you've done there, and the president of
Milestone Insurance. We really appreciate your time. We also would
like to remind the viewer that there is a way
for you to give us feedback at o u E

(25:24):
Podcast at Ohio dot edu. You can send any kind
of submission or comment, any kind of feedback you'd like
to that email and we will consider what you've what
you've submitted. Once again, that is O U E Podcast
P O D C A S t at Ohio dot
ed U for your submission, Dan, we appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for Wendy, for Dan myself. This

(25:44):
has been community connections and commerce. Thanks for listening.