Living In The Ozarks

John Lopez says he was afraid of dogs for most of his life. He got bit as a kid, and then a first sergeant's words stuck with him after he came home.

This one's with John Lopez, a serial entrepreneur behind K9s For Camo, Sprouting Spot Preschool & Daycare and Unchained AI Solutions. We start in Marshfield and Springfield, follow him through the military, a tree and stump business, ice storms and a pet resort he says grew into the largest boarding, daycare and training facility in the four-state area. He tells me about Sprouting Spot, his Marshfield daycare that he says is still waiting on its last inspection, and the apps and restaurant ideas he's building now.

We also talk about how he sees AI changing work, what a day of prayer and gratitude looks like for him, the 16-acre farm

he says is his real focus, the mentors who shaped him, and why he thinks the best thing any of us can do is put the phone down. He closes with K9s For Camo, the nonprofit that he says trains service dogs for veterans at no cost to them, with no paid staff.

Recorded at Sprouting Spot in Marshfield. Thanks to John for having us.

To learn more about K9s For Camo: k9sforcamo.org

CHAPTERS

0:00 From Marshfield to the military

0:44 What brought him back to the Ozarks

1:19 Dog training and the pet resort

1:57 Why the Ozarks works for business

3:14 "Terrified of dogs" and a first sergeant

5:13 Growing the pet resort

8:32 Barkies, and Sprouting Spot

9:56 What he's building now: apps for restaurants

15:31 Unchained AI Solutions

16:47 AI and the future of work

23:09 What it saves a company

25:20 Working five or six hours a week

28:55 Gratitude and prayer

31:01 The farm

33:01 Mentors

34:54 What he does for fun

36:19 Putting the phone down

41:34 K9s For Camo

43:34 Closing out

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

About two years ago, Lauren Southern's husband passed away and she had to put her youngest in full-time daycare. It made an idea she'd been turning over for about ten years personal: why do parents still have to choose between going back to work and being there for their baby?

This one's with Lauren Southern, founder of The Company Nanny. Her idea is a trained nanny on site at the workplace, in a room the company sets aside, so parents can bring their babies to work. She walks through how it works and who pays for it, the MBA class pitch where classmates asked her to please start the business, and the more than a hundred people she says applied to her first job posting.

We also talk about her eight kids, the Marine Corps moves from 29 Palms to Washington State, then Oklahoma City and Grand Rapids before coming home to Springfield, her time at Leadership Springfield, the people who carried her through the hard stretch, and why, in her words, this is less about the entrepreneurial dream and more about fixing a problem.

Recorded at Valiant Group. Thanks to Lauren for sitting down with us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 A new idea: The Company Nanny

0:35 Work, or being there for your baby

1:52 Losing her husband, and daycare gets personal

3:42 "Why are we still doing it like this?"

5:33 How it works: a nanny on site

7:03 Ages, space and flex rooms

8:18 Who pays: a benefit like health insurance

9:29 Ten years in the making

10:53 The MBA pitch: "Will you please start this business?"

12:27 Eight kids, ages 27 to four

14:51 Over a hundred applicants

15:48 Why she's keeping the ratios low

18:00 What HR professionals are telling her

20:48 The right-size business for this

23:56 How much space it takes

25:29 Marine Corps moves, and coming home

28:40 Leadership Springfield and a city that talks to each other

31:19 Simmons Bank, and why flexibility matters

33:02 "Every single day is a gift"

35:55 Mentors: her mom and Carrie Richardson

40:24 What drew her back to the Ozarks

42:34 Sports, volleyball and coffee

44:45 Five a.m. mornings

48:27 Beaches, Branson and the travel list

50:14 A first business, from a middle child

52:29 "Like showing people your baby"

53:04 An advocate at heart

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

This one's with Samuel "Big Sam" Koban — content creator, Tall Tour alum,

and Ryan Koban's brother. Sam makes content for and about tall people, and

he tells the story of the night he hung out with Shaquille O'Neal, the one

video he says took off past 30 million views and changed his path, and what

it took to go from feeling confused about his height to using it as his

edge at 18. Recorded at SATO 48 — thanks to the SATO 48 crew for having us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Big Sam Koban

1:21 The Shaq story

3:07 Collabing with influencers

5:36 Finding confidence at 18

6:46 The DJI mic chat

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

He was 15, his dad had passed away, and his mom had started a bakery. Nathanael Toms was washing

dishes in the back, and he was already fascinated with electrical work.

This one's with Nathanael Toms, owner of Mr. Electric of Southwest Missouri. We start in the

mountains of eastern Kentucky, follow him to Virginia and then to Springfield, through the 2008

housing crash, and to the phone call that led him to buy his first Mr. Electric franchise in 2009.

He says the company is now at about 10 vans, with a goal of putting technicians in small towns

across Missouri.

We also get into what he calls behavioral science, which is how he matches the right technician

with the right customer, a vacuum in every van, the franchise coach he tried to fire, and the

teacher who looked out for him as a boy. Later he talks about the hard years, and a project he's

been working on for four years: what he calls the world's tallest flagpole.

Recorded at Mr. Electric of Southwest Missouri. Thanks to Nathanael for having us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Fifteen, a widowed mom, and a first electrical job

1:01 Growing up in the Kentucky mountains

3:48 Moving to Virginia and chicken-house electrical

5:25 Coming to Springfield

7:24 Opening his own electrical company at 25

7:47 The 2008 crash

10:29 The phone call that changed things

12:48 Buying the first Mr. Electric franchise

14:49 From one van to ten

16:59 Behavioral science and the right technician for the customer

23:17 When life outside work walks in the door

24:29 Benefits, pay and keeping good people

27:17 Quality, reviews and the one-star ones

29:25 A vacuum in every van

31:06 Showing customers what's inside the panel

33:46 The code of values

34:49 Mentors, and the coach he tried to fire

38:15 Franchisee of the Year

40:00 The teacher who cared about a redhead kid

44:23 Gratitude for the hard times

46:28 A Revolutionary War ancestor

48:48 A trip to see the President

49:55 World's Tallest Flagpole

52:01 The brick plan

52:55 The volunteer board behind it

55:30 Advice from his board: you're a builder

1:00:45 Leaving the Mennonites

1:03:38 The hardest years

1:06:18 Endurance builds tenacity

1:07:06 His faith

1:09:06 Don't decide with someone you can't look in the eye

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

This one's with Ryan Koban, who's on his fourth (maybe fifth) SATO 48

film — the 48-hour local film challenge here in Springfield. Ryan shoots,

writes, edits, and directs his own films ("the only thing I don't do is

act"). We get into the editing tip he swears by, the year he pulled an

all-nighter and still turned it in three minutes late, why writing is the

hardest part for him, and his advice for anyone thinking about trying

SATO 48 for the first time. Recorded at SATO 48 — thanks to the SATO 48

crew for having us.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Ryan's fourth SATO 48 film

1:20 Year one vs. now

2:38 His day job: videographer and editor

4:25 Advice for first-timers

6:09 Writing isn't his strength

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

Living in the Ozarks is a project that I've been building for the last eight months focused on highlighting the people, businesses, and culture that makes our region great.

This one's with Noah Graham — a fourth-generation farmer from Patterson, Missouri, and the founder of AcreView Analytics. When Noah asked his dad if there was a place for him back on the farm, the answer was "You can come back. You may just be surviving." So he started running the numbers.

We get into what it actually costs to raise a calf, hay barns and haylage, the airbox company he started in high school, what a banker sees when a 21-year-old walks in asking for a loan, and the stress farmers carry that nobody talks about. Recorded at Clear Spring Ranch in Texas County — thanks to Anne for having us out.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Noah Graham and the family farm

2:34 Forward-looking numbers vs. the accountant

5:45 14 clients, 30 head to 300, and spray drones

8:23 Why row crops are easier to figure

13:58 Backgrounding, feedlots, and the hay barn math

18:25 Hay vs. haylage: the pickle and the cucumber

20:33 The objections: "I don't have my numbers"

25:57 Nobody else does this

28:53 What you actually get: the spreadsheet and the dashboard

31:50 Patterson, Missouri, and FFA

36:06 The airbox business he started in high school

40:55 Why Mizzou

42:29 What's next: school or full-time

44:21 Six farms, $26,000 a year

47:30 "Sit out here and talk to the cows"

50:26 "This is my fun": the four burners

55:08 Family

57:02 Who should be on the show

1:01:36 Getting into farming without a family farm

1:05:24 The banker story

1:10:25 The stress nobody talks about

1:13:57 Thanks to Clear Spring Ranch

Real Stories. Real Ozarks.

livingintheozarks.com

Will Carter picked the Rail Haven motel on Route 66 before he knew what SATO 48 was going to throw at him. Then his crew of 25 shot Safe Haven there until five in the morning, and there wasn't a dry eye on set.

Will got into SATO 48 in 2023 over backyard barbecues with his cinematographer James, made every first-year mistake, and now runs a film company between Springfield and Kansas City. His 2024 short Cold Heart took Best Set Production Design. Safe Haven was the one where he pushed past comedy and sci-fi into something that mattered — a script written for two specific actors, a subject he doesn't take lightly, and mental-health checks they stopped for on set.

We talk about why he'll never bend on how people are treated on a set, what six location changes taught him in year one, why audio matters more than the camera, and why he thinks independent film is having its moment right now.

Recorded at SATO 48, Springfield, Missouri. Thanks to Kyaw Tha Hla, Jeff Clinkenbeard, and the SATO 48 crew.

Watch the video: youtube.com/@LivingInTheOzarksMO

LivingInTheOzarks.com

Ask ten people in southwest Missouri what region they live in and you'll get ten different answers. That's exactly the problem Allison Cash is working on.

Allison is the first executive director of LORE — Leaders for Ozarks Region Evolvement — a young organization asking a question nobody else is: who's looking out for the region as a whole? Not Springfield versus everybody else, but one region that plans together, competes together, and eventually goes to market under one identity. And they're not inventing a new name — they're digging into what people here already call this place.

Her story runs deep in this region: born and raised in Christian County, Nixa schools, a marketing career that took her from Noble & Associates to Nestlé Professional, a beverage startup, Askinosie Chocolate (that one starts with a chance meeting in San Francisco), and the C-suite of a global coffee and tea company — before coming home to work on the place itself.

We get into the regional identity research underway, why housing is likely next, what 186 conversations in six months taught her about this region, and why the family-name analogy might be the best way to think about who we are.

Learn more about LORE at ozarkslore.org, or find Allison Cash on LinkedIn.

Every corner of the Ozarks has a story worth telling — a person worth knowing, a business worth supporting, a community worth celebrating. That's why we do this.

Find us at LivingInTheOzarks.com
Facebook: facebook.com/LivingInTheOzarksMO
Instagram: instagram.com/livinintheozarks
YouTube: youtube.com/@LivingInTheOzarksMO
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/living-in-the-ozarks

Elise Crain has watched Ozark, Missouri grow from 1,000 people to 20,000+ — and she spent a career in construction and public service helping build the Ozarks along the way.

Her first name is Martha, and she's never used it. Elise grew up in a 1931 house in downtown Ozark, the same house her parents bought when she and her twin brother were 11 months old. From there she built a career nobody would have predicted: keeping the books at a Springfield, Missouri engineering firm, building highways in Arkansas, handling the mobilization for $180 million of construction work in Cairo, Egypt, and coming home to manage the restoration of Springfield's historic Gillioz Theatre and the green addition to the Discovery Center of Springfield. She also served as executive director at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, where she took the idea of "Attractions" highway signs all the way to the Missouri Senate.

She's the fourth generation of her family elected to public office in Christian County — and the only woman. In this conversation: jumping off the Riverside Bridge at six years old, her mentor Anne Drummond and what it means to pass it on, training women for the construction trades, brownies on the job site, and why the volunteer spirit of southwest Missouri gets noticed across the state. She's retired now, but you'll hear it pretty quick: she's not done.

Every corner of the Ozarks has a story worth telling — a person worth knowing, a business worth supporting, a community worth celebrating. That's why we do this.

More stories at LivingInTheOzarks.com

In this episode of Living in the Ozarks, we sit down with Stephen Grove, owner of Sigwo Arms on West Commercial Street in Springfield, to talk about building a custom firearms and manufacturing shop from the ground up. We cover the morning he woke up falsely named in a Minnesota shooting — Facebook account gone, wanted posters with his business address on them — and what 23 years in the Army National Guard taught him about treating customers and employees like people worth keeping.

This episode is part of the Ozarks Experience series, focused on the people behind the work shaping our region.