The Bottom-Up Revolution

Jeff Eidson—founder of Explore Elkin—shares how listeners can encourage residents to "buy in" to make your town stronger, including how to find and pitch a shared vision to residents, how to motivate residents stuck in a psychology of decline towards their town, and how to use the funds generated towards small bets.

Joanna Jurgens—Head of Business Affairs at Sofar Sounds—shares how you can foster a local music scene in your community, including how to awaken that DIY spirit that’s so essential to kickstarting a local music scene, how to identify low risk strategies for creating a venue, and how to get local elected officials involved in the process.

Rik Adamski, Principal at Ash+Lime, a neighborhood planning firm, shares how you can adopt Strong Towns principles for your neighborhood planning firm, including how to identify low risk, high return projects for a city, how to encourage city leaders to embrace the next increment of development, and most important, how adopting Strong Town principles for your neighborhood planning firm makes our cities and towns stronger.  

Skyler Yost — Ecosystem Builder for the city of York, PA — shares how you can foster entrepreneurship in your community, including how to assess the existing resources in your community, how to create an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are supporting one another, and most important, how fostering an entrepreneurship in your community makes our cities and towns stronger. 

Ryan Short — CEO of CivicBrand — shares how you can find your community’s true essence, including how to engage with your community to ensure the creation of your brand is a grassroots effort, how to ensure your brand actually aligns with what your community offers, and how finding your community’s true essence makes your city or town stronger.

Kea Wilson — Communications Manager at Strong Towns — discusses what her time as a bookseller at Left Bank Books in the St. Louis taught her about making local businesses a third place, including what building a third place actually looks like, how third places are more economically resilient, and how you can make your local business a third place.

Dustin Ratcliff – founding member of Walk2Connect – shares how you can connect with your community on foot, including how to motivate your neighbors to form a walking group, how to use your walking group to influence how your city or town is develop, and how connecting with your community on foot makes our cities and towns stronger.

Jordan Katcher – Community Development Specialist at the State of Utah with a focus on rural communities – shares how government employees can break down silos in rural communities, including how to choose who to get involved in the process, how to understand the needs of rural communities, and how breaking down silos can make our towns stronger. 

In this episode, Jacob chats with three local leaders in open data—Kyle Taylor, Jesse Hamner, and Habib—share how open data works, including how you can use open data to act on your ideas, how you can encourage your elected officials to adopt open data policies, and how open data can make your city or town stronger.

Latoya Wilson — founder of the Rebuild Workforce Consultancy — shares how you can invest in the youth in your community, including how to understand the learning landscape for youth, how to create programs that are beneficial for students, and how to make your investments last throughout a student’s time in primary school and beyond.