Jill Blashack Strahan used to put together gift baskets and sell them in her Minnesota town as an active rural entrepreneur. She started small and it got bigger and bigger, but it wasn't working as she'd hoped and she decided to close the business. She was asked if she would still like to host a booth at a local event selling individually some of the spices, mixes, and sauces she had put in her baskets. The event was a roaring success.Strahan was a busy mom who didn't love t...

Jordan Phillips is more than a cross-country runner. She's also more than a sister, daughter of a cancer survivor and high school senior. And she's more than a heck of an eloquent speaker. Jordan is an entrepreneur who at 12 years old had a product she created selling in over 2000 Walmart Stores across the country. In today’s episode of The Rural Entrepreneur’s Gold, you’re going to meet an incredibly inspiring, impressive, and articulate young lady. Phillips shares with us ...

In today's episode of the rural entrepreneurs, gold, you're going to meet Greg Franklin, also known by some as the cheesecake ninja in his rural town of Perryville, Missouri, a town of about 8500. Greg is going to share how this guy, who didn't really bake took an odd interest in cheesecake from a mere Facebook post.After trying many different recipes, multiple online sales, and many direct sale door knocks and failing miserably multiple times, he kept at it. He would try various recipe...

Meet Mitch Reed. He's a high school superintendent that saw a cool public project in Brookings, South Dakota. It was an interactive art display on Main Street where people walking by could read a deep thought-provoking question, "What's one thing you want to do before you die". People were encouraged to write their answers on a big chalkboard for all the world to see. He couldn't stop thinking about it and thought this would be a good sociology class project. It became so m...

In today's episode of the rural entrepreneurs, gold, we're going to hear a story of how some businesses aren't planned. This is a journey of an accidental entrepreneur. Sometimes ideas just happen when you least expect them, at any age, and at any time in your life. Dorothy Henke shares the journey of Dot's Pretzels and its surprise arrival and the growth to success over the last 10 years. Her husband Randy also chimed in bringing his fun side-bar comments and his per...

Holly Hoffman was a cast member on CBS Survivor 21 in Nicaragua. She was the last one standing in her tribe and the last woman standing. While she didn't win the million dollars, she certainly won a Million dollars worth of intangible gifts, gestures, lessons, insights, and more. In this episode of The Rural Entrepreneur's Gold, Hoffman shares the entrepreneurial life she created in rural South Dakota as a direct springboard from her time on Survivor and how she's making a d...

In this episode of the Rural Entrepreneur's Gold, you'll hear from Carly Pochop who seems to be a serial entrepreneur who started multiple businesses over the last five years in Aberdeen, SD a town in SD that has a population a little over 28,000. Her first business wasn't created out of a great desire to start her business, but more about getting out of the current job she had. She'll inspire you with her tenacity and gumption.The biggest inspiration for Carly's entrepreneurial...

Blain Mikkonen really liked design work, but he didn't want a desk job at an architecture firm. He loved to farm at his family's organic farm in South Dakota, but allergies made it frustrating. Unsure what to do after getting his Master's Degree in Architecture this lost college graduate decided to start a business. After he and his college roommates and fellow architecture classmates built some furniture for their apartment in college, Mikkonen decided to take a risk by staying away fr...

Both of the stories Maria Bosak shares with us here are inspiring and motivational. She shares the great gift of being foster parents and the difficult journey that road took for them as she and her husband Tate worked through adoption. It's sad and beautiful at the same time. The foster journey she and her husband Tate took is sandwiched in with her rollercoaster life as an entrepreneur running her Eco Chic store. She's overcome near bankruptcy and went on to see amaz...

In this episode, I'm really excited to introduce to you Wilhelmina van Bedaf, also known as Maartje Murphy or Duchessa Gelato. She started a business making gelato in 2018 using milk from her family's dairy farm in Carrington, North Dakota, a small town of just over 2100. Her business has done so well. And it's so impressive that in late 2020, just a little more than two years after starting her business, she was named to Forbes Magazine's 30 under 30 list. Yup. That's right...

In this short introduction or trailer if you will, you'll learn what The Rural Entrepreneur's Gold is about, what to look for in future episodes and why you should listen. You'll hear that if you live in or have a love for rural or you know small town, or maybe you’re a sucker for a great entrepreneurial success story, than this podcast is something you're really going to enjoy. I’ve learned over the years you don’t have to move to a big city to find success. You can have th...