(upbeat music) - The thing I'm most proud of is getting to be a part of the entrepreneurial journey of many startups in Nebraska.

(upbeat music) Weirdest thing that I have ever thought of creating was a product.

Even named it, Oh Hail No and it was a cover for a car that when you have to park in stormy weather in the Midwest, it would protect it from hail.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) One quirky thing people don't know about me is I ride a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] A store that's unique for a lot of reasons, including the students who run it.

- Here you go.

-[Customer] Thank you.

-[Mike] And meet entrepreneurship professor and leader Lisa Tschauner.

(upbeat music) What If... (upbeat music) extra cheesy.

(upbeat music) -[Crew] 3, 2, 1.

Cue Mike.

- Welcome to this episode of our series about innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in Nebraska, What If.

This time we're focusing on rural entrepreneurship, innovative ideas happening in our smaller communities.

We start with the story of a unique grocery store in tiny Cody.

(western music) Every Tuesday, a truck arrives with inventory for the Circle C Market, so it's a busy day for the store's workers.

-[Liz] Benji and Wayne, I'm going to have you guys bagging bread and breadsticks, and then Joe and Isaac, you guys are gonna work on putting frozen stuff away.

Just the frozen stuff.

Got it?

-[Students] Yeah.

Okay.

Go, team.

(western music) (western music) -[Mike] What makes this unusual?

(western music) Students and their school, the Cody-Kilgore Consolidated District, run the Circle C.

(western music) How did this happen in Cody?

First, a little background.

(upbeat music) The village sits atop Cherry County, a sparsely populated chunk of Sand Hills ranch land bigger than the entire state of Connecticut.

(upbeat music) Just 170 people call Cody home.

Not a prime location for any retail business.

Cody's previous grocery store closed in the 1990s.

(upbeat music) More than a decade later, a couple teachers had an idea.

Open a store that's a nonprofit business associated with the school.

(upbeat music) (adding machine running) Erin Heath was also involved in early planning.

(upbeat music) -[Erin] For this to be viable.

That was probably the best option, was to go ahead and fund it with some help with the community, some help from our local governments and with the labor coming from the students.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Was there ever a point during the discussions where people were saying, you want to do what?

- Yeah, a lot.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] In 2013, the idea became reality.

The USDA and other groups helped with funding and planning.

It took a few months and lots of volunteers, including students, to construct the building, which uniquely has walls filled with straw for insulation.

(upbeat music) A board comprised of people from the school, village and broader community oversee the business.

(upbeat music) -[Liz] That's really good for everybody to see what's going on, and they're all briefed on the same things.

It's an open book.

- And it also kind of keeps One or two people from really having a ton of influence over it, right?

- Correct.

So today we're going to cover the first objective, construct a chart of accounts for a service business organized as a proprietorship.

-[Mike] Liz spends a lot of time here.

She teaches business classes in a room that's part of the store she manages as its only non-student employee.

-[Mike] You're back there teaching accounting, and then you may have to come up and deal with an order or deal with a customer, or help some students that are stocking, and then you go back and teach again.

-[Liz] Yeah, it's a lot of stop and go, and sometimes it's all a challenge, but at the same time, it's really good for the kids to see that because not very often do you have a classroom inside of a working business.

(beeping) -[Tony] In the middle of the class?

If a customer comes in, the student can go out here and be like, hey, how's it going?

Great to show them what they need or ask them what they need.

And you just can't replace hands-on experience.

- $10.33 would you like to round up?

-[Customer] Sure.

-[Mike] So I know all teachers are busy, you're busy, but my gosh, Liz.

- Oh yeah.

She's she never stops.

(quirky music) - On the very bottom behind that prime rib.

(quirky music) Nicely.

-[Mike] during the school day.

Students work in the store as part of different classes.

Other times, like evenings and weekends, they're paid to work here.

(quirky music) They do everything.

(quirky music) -[Lilly] I am tracking all of the labels here and seeing if they match up with what's on the shelf (quirky music) - stocking shelves.

(quirky music) - We're just packaging up all the breadsticks and (quirky music) bread in general.

(quirky music) -[Ashley] Just making sure that these boxes go with the right tags.

(quirky music) -[Mike] Why do you like working here?

Because it's just really fun.

You get a lot of experience with customers and just how to do stuff and work at a store.

(quirky music) - You guys have a good day, -[Customer] You too.

(quirky music) (drawer clicks) -[Mike] We thought we'd have a little fun with a new what if product.

(quirky music) Let's see what they do with this.

(quirky music) (quirky music) (quirky music) -[Cashier] What If?

(quirky music) (quirky music) (quirky music) (quirky music) (quirky music) -[Kayleigh] Yep.

Have a good evening.

-[Customer] You're welcome.

- How are you?

(package crackling) - Good.

- Good.

(package crackling) -[Mike] Kayleigh's worked here with her mom for five years.

Tell me about working here at the store.

- Honestly, it's been a really great opportunity.

At first, I wasn't too sure about it because I was like, well, everybody works at the store and I don't really like to do what everybody else does.

But no, it's been a really good icebreaker.

(register clunking) This is where I learned how to count back money.

I used to be very shy, like three years ago.

Me doing this like probably wouldn't have been asked, but no, definitely it's been an icebreaker for me.

Okay.

Who's together and who's not?

- I'm buying all these guys.

- Okay.

- Kayleigh's now student manager.

She says that's helped her grow as a leader.

-[Kayleigh] I've been a leader on the court.

I've been the leader in the sports, I've been in in the classroom, but being a leader in the workplace is a lot different, a lot more liability.

(school bell ringing) -[Mike] About 200 kids K through 12 attend Cody-Kilgore.

Whether taking classes or working, almost all will be involved with the store at some point.

-[Tony] We have students that are interested in being in retail.

We have students that are interested in starting their own businesses, and this gives them a great snapshot of looking at the numbers, looking at inventory, what the stock, what's selling well, what's not selling well.

(soft music) -[Mike] Real world experience and real world problem solving, right?

-[Tony] Yeah.

(soft music) -[Liz] These kids, they don't even think realize how many skills they're gaining from just communication at the register when they're ringing up customers or communicating when those customers are coming in.

(soft music) -[Mike] Bentley Jenkins worked in the store for several years, eventually serving as student manager, gaining leadership and communication skills she now uses as a bank customer service supervisor.

- Here, if you have upset customers or upset employees, kind of knowing the right path that they need to direct them into and just kind of learning how to defuse the situation, just kind of learning how to navigate some of that stuff has been helpful and knowing how to word things.

-[Mike] Yeah.

(soft wind blowing) (metal creaking) -[Liz] Who's excited about stocking groceries?

-[Kids] Me.

(paper crackling) (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) -[Helper] Got muscles.

-[Helper 2] Don't put it back on the shelf.

-[Helper] All right.

-[Helper 2] Good job.

- You think they would be by the beans?

Or do you think they'd be by the soup?

-[Mike] Liz is getting young.

Cody-Kilgore, students involved in the Circle C.

(indistinct chatter) -[Liz] Open the door.

Give it a good pull.

(indistinct chatter) It's just mainly so they can get excited and know how to do it.

- Learn how to do it.

- Yeah.

-[Boy] See how this is full, right?

We keep everything else in the storage.

- We'll have to figure out what goes in each of those.

- You see how these are kind of similar?

There you go.

Let's open it up.

Yeah.

-[Liz] And I think and I think you have to grow them from small all the way up.

(soft music) -[Mike] From the start this wasn't viewed as a money-making venture.

(soft music) -[Erin] Back in 2012, what we figured out is if we could get 2 or 300 families spending $50 a week there, we can make it run.

It would break even at that point.

(soft music) -[Mike] Now Circle C does about 18 to $20,000 in sales each month, close to breaking even.

(soft music) There have been plenty of challenges along the way.

(soft music) (truck horn blowing) One of the biggest getting distributors to bring products to someplace so small, so remote.

(soft music) (whirling sound) But it's working.

(soft music) A unique business model.

You might find a couple other places in the country that's serving the people who live here.

(soft music) Because the next closest grocery store is 40 miles away.

Tell me how important this story is for the town in the area.

- It's very crucial.

Without the store, this area would be a food desert.

(bell chiming) -[Liz] There's some of our community members that can't get to the grocery store easily.

They can't get out, especially in the winter months when we get snow and ice and things like that.

(soft music) -[Mike] It's a store that's become the identity of a town that calls itself too tough to die.

(soft music) -[Liz] And it's kind of funny.

I go places and people know who we are and people know what we're doing, and they've heard our story and it's really, truly special.

(soft music) -[Mike] When you think about the fact that a community the size of Cody could pull that off.

- Yes.

- What do you think of that?

I just think it's amazing, the community support and all those people who are willing to donate their time and their money.

It's great.

It's amazing.

(soft music) -[Erin] I think it's a testament to us keeping our town alive and growing, and that we want this school and we want this community here for the next hundred years.

(soft music) -[Liz] We started out when we opened the store with a 99 year lease on the ground.

So we've got a little bit to go.

- What's that put you at 87 left or something like that?

- Something like that.

- Okay.

(soft music) I would say that we're very tenacious people.

Like we're pretty tough.

Like we get it done.

We persevere.

Like we push through.

And I think that is true of any Sand Hiller really that is at our heart of who we are.

And I think that definitely speaks for these walls.

It wouldn't be here if we didn't have that spirit of pushing through and making it happen.

(soft music) (upbeat music) - By the way, all the music you heard in that story was created by Nebraska composers, and that's the case with all the music in all of our stories.

Learn how your music can be featured in What If.

On our website nebraskapublicmedia.org /WhatIf.

(indistinct talking) -[Crew] Three.

Two.

One.

-[Mike] We've showcased lots of rural entrepreneurship and innovation since we started working on What If in 2018.

From two brothers thinking differently about farming to a school gelato business, to sisters, creating a hotel for horses and their owners, and more.

Creative ideas happening everywhere.

And Lisa Tschauner knows all about this.

She's a superstar Entrepreneurship leader who's currently an assistant professor at UNL and previously led UNK Center for Entrepreneurship and Rural Development, plus programs at Doane in Central Community College.

Hi, Lisa.

- Hi.

-[Mike] Good to.

Good to see you.

- Thanks for having me.

-[Mike] Yeah.

So what I didn't mention is you're also an entrepreneur.

- Yes - You're an author and you've done a little bit of everything.

You know, I know when we chatted first a few years ago, we talked a little bit about the magazine that you started, which is called open for Business.

Um, what did you learn about entrepreneurship from creating a magazine?

- Oh gosh.

Um, so much you go into it thinking that, you know, uh, know a lot, but you just learn every single day.

Um, first was the magazine industry and media.

Um, my, my co-founder, Megan Arrington Williams and I, we both, we had never ran a magazine before, but we'd kind of been connected adjacently, right.

- Yeah.

- And so just getting educated on what that means, how to communicate, how to tell stories.

That was probably really, um, it was probably a good, uh, preface to writing a book.

-[Mike] Right.

- Because you have to become a really good storyteller when you are sharing the stories of successful entrepreneurs.

And that was probably the biggest thing.

-[Mike] And with all that, because of the focus of the magazine, what did you learn about entrepreneurship and the more rural parts of the state from the stories you were telling.

- The necessity, the importance of businesses and small communities, and the importance of supporting one another as well as, um, marketing.

That was probably that was one of our biggest goals with the magazine, was to get the word out beyond the communities about these really great businesses, these really important and impactful startups that were happening.

And, um, you know, we wanted to tell that story to everyone in the world, basically.

And so that's why we had the print and digital, you know, platforms for that.

- So in general, what are sort of the different challenges that face innovators and entrepreneurs in more rural areas?

- Resources, of course, are a big deal.

But in the state of Nebraska, we are so lucky to be... We have an interstate going right through.

We're close to, you know, airports.

We have space to create.

So really, instead of looking at what we don't have, look at what we do have.

And in the rural communities, we have each other, right?

And so using each other's businesses, patron, you know, being good customers to each other and good supporters is really important.

- Is it kind of a different sort of ecosystem though, for those sorts of businesses in smaller areas?

(rustling fabric) - Um, yes.

I mean, obviously you're looking at, you know, you have to look at who your customers are.

You also have to really understand the customers, which are a lot of times the people who are living in that community.

And I always teach my students and any entrepreneurs that I'm working with always start with the problem.

And there are certainly lots of problems that you can look at in rural communities, whether it's agriculture or it's the struggle to market a business or to gain customers, you know?

And really, how do you solve that problem in an innovative way?

-[Mike] Yeah.

And that's what we saw with Circle C, and I know you're familiar with it a little bit.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- And then I know there's been some other businesses over time that, that we've connected in different ways about, you know, we look at Dusty Birge and Fast Forward in Kearney, there's another, right?

-[Lisa] Yep.

Perfect example.

Yeah.

And that's something that I think, you know, really looking at.

I love what they're doing in Cody, but really looking at how do we share these stories in a way that appeals to young people?

Because that's something especially during community development.

When I was at UNK and community research, we see these communities and they're kind of waiting to be saved, right?

And so it's really, um, it's really a privilege to get to work with them and help them recognize that they get to be the ones who control this.

They get to be the ones who lift their communities up and can really make the difference.

And a lot of that is appealing to those young people and letting young people know that there's a lot of opportunity here and there's a lot of space to grow.

There's a lot of space to make mistakes and learn from them, and we're going to support you, and we want you to start a business here or come back home after college and work in our community, start a family here.

It's a great place, great education, safe and lots and lots of support.

- Yeah.

Over time, I mean, you've dealt with so many different people and helped so many different people.

Best founder's story that you can think of.

- Oh gosh.

Um, there, you know, my best founder's story.

I have to go to, um, Kelsey and Troy Hofmann in Aurora, Nebraska.

They were some of my first students when I started teaching at Central Community College in Hastings.

And Kelsey is just a dynamo.

Um, she has Urban Chic Boutique and she was also a cosmetologist, but she got her business degree from Central Community College first.

And that's where I met her.

And she took my entrepreneurship workshop.

And I actually had a class with her husband Troy, too, who has After Hours Grafix in Aurora and it is so wonderful to see them in these thriving businesses.

Um.

There in Aurora, Nebraska, very rural.

And they're making a difference there.

Part of their Chamber of Commerce.

They're doing work all over the state of Nebraska.

Troy's business.

He does vehicle wraps all over for all the emergency vehicles and everything.

But it was really kind of full circle.

This January, they asked me to come and speak at their Chamber of Commerce annual meeting.

And so I got the privilege of, um, seeing them and being a part of their community and really celebrating all the work that they've done.

And so that's probably one of the best stories I have.

- Yeah.

And with people like that, the starting point is literally just like drive and passion, right?

-[Lisa] Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

- So you work with UNL's, you know, Business College's Center for Entrepreneurship.

Talk a little bit about what you do there and the students you work with.

- Yeah.

So with the center for entrepreneurship, we are globally ranked number 35 in the world, which is really an awesome privilege to be a part of that, right?

-[Mike] Yeah.

- I get to teach their Foundations of Entrepreneurship class.

So it's a really big class and it has been a lot of fun to kind of I'm a very hands on experiential educator.

And so it's been really fun to kind of find ways to take 200 students and have them do activities in class together and really kind of learn more about the entrepreneurial mindset.

But it's just really great to be a part of the College of Business at UNL.

So many resources, such a great culture and entrepreneurship is definitely a big part of that.

And so it's, it's a real honor to be a part of it.

- When you look at the students you're working with now, as opposed to the students you worked with, maybe, you know, a decade or more ago, is there a different in terms of differences in terms of like their drive and things they want to do and that sort of thing?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So we had a pandemic, right?

And that really shifted kind of students and how they learn and what they expect from education.

And so as educators, we kind of had to like figure out how to teach.

And so that's been kind of a learning thing.

And it definitely difference that we've seen in the students.

And then we're also seeing AI.

I mean, we can't ignore it.

And so it is changing again, the way that we teach our employers are asking us to produce or help produce these graduates that are going to be able to come into their businesses and be really smart with how they use AI and how they, how they, um, create new job opportunities and how they work smarter versus harder using these resources.

And so that's definitely a change that we're seeing in students.

And I think it's also change that we're going to see in small business as well is who's doing it right?

How are you doing it?

How are you keeping up with it?

Which is hard.

It goes fast.

- It is.

- But but that's really a fun challenge as an educator.

And so that's definitely been a big change that we've seen.

- You know, I think over time, when we've done so many stories, especially with people that are involved in agriculture, and one kind of recurring theme when we talk to people is, well, in agriculture, if you're a farmer, if you're a rancher, whatever, we've always been entrepreneurs, right?

- Yep.

- Um, How do you sort of tap into that mindset with the students you're working with now?

- Yeah.

We always start with a problem, right?

And so agriculture, there's always problems.

- Yes, definitely.

- And so, so that is definitely I think that kind of helps us in Nebraska kind of own that entrepreneurial role, right?

Because we're always solving problems.

And if you think about it, our lives are just solving problems day after day after day, hour after hour.

Right.

And so if we can get students more comfortable with seeing problems and not being stopped by them, but instead being empowered by those problems, that is the first big step.

And then finding out who else has the problem, right?

Who are our customers?

Who are our users, and how can we create an experience for them that is going to solve those pain points and provide value for other people?

And so that's really kind of the approach that we take.

I'm a design thinking instructor.

-Right, but that's probably that's kind of your first stage when you're working with younger entrepreneurs is you have to identify that and then go from there, right?

- What's the problem?

- Yeah.

Um, you know, when you are working with UNL students or anyone else, um, if you had to give your best advice to a younger entrepreneur, what would you tell them?

- Start.

Just start, just jump into it.

And, um, it can be scary.

It can be intimidating, but start something and take action.

Um, especially if you're a student, that's the safest place to do it.

- Right.

- There's, there's a safety net for you and there's this, this network of support.

And so just take that step, start and use your resources.

Um.

That's it's really fun.

I have, um, an alum from UNL come back to my classes and talk about their experience, their successful entrepreneurs now, but what was their experience like at UNL?

And the advice they always give to the students is if I would have had all the resources you have now when I came to UNL, it would have been amazing.

And so make sure that you know all the things that are at your disposal, that the resources that you have around you, the people you have to support you and just start somebody will help you, um, and share your story, talk about it and get really comfortable with being an entrepreneur.

I think sometimes we don't want to do that.

We think that's... - Right.

It's scary.

- We don't want to say it because then that makes it real, but own it and take that step and just be confident in what you're doing.

And if you're not confident, act like you are until you become confident, right?

So yeah.

- Okay.

Great place to leave this.

Lisa, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

It's a lot of fun.

(clapping) - Lisa had some great advice for entrepreneurs.

Here's more from other folks.

Innovator Insights is a different part of our What If project.

Short web videos with advice for young innovators created with the help of Nebraska Public Media's education team.

Here's a sample.

- Hi, my name is Ricardo.

Talk about the importance of persistence.

- I think a lot of times when people think about persistence, they think about maybe like a ram or a bull hitting their head on something over and over until it topples over.

And I don't really think that's what persistence is to me.

To me, persistence is more like a river.

(upbeat music) When a river hits like a mountain, it's not going to try to go through the mountain, even though over time it will millions and billions of years.

But it goes around the mountain, it goes over the mountain.

And to me, persistence is when you continue trying, but you have that flexibility to figure out if this isn't the right door, then maybe the one right there or on the other side is the right door to walk through.

(upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Zach.

Talk about identifying mentors.

(upbeat music) - Finding mentors is really important.

Is a person that's going to walk with you for any advice, for a journey, an obstacles and challenges.

(upbeat music) You always need someone to talk to, someone with honest questions that can have answers.

(upbeat music) - I'd like to think that if an individual can create relationships with people as you grow, those are your mentors.

Find people that have the same values that you do, and don't be afraid to go and talk to them and see what they did to become successful.

I've done that my entire career.

I've been involved with a number of businesses.

I didn't think of all of this stuff on my own.

I used people that I knew to answer the questions that I couldn't answer myself, and if they didn't know the answer, they probably knew somebody that did.

So mentors is a big part of anybody's business.

And even in your life, mentors is what everybody needs.

(upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Abigail.

Tell me one thing from your youth that still influences you now.

(upbeat music) - Considering you know the things that I missed out on when I was younger that you know I still want to do.

You know, I have no problem with waiting to have experiences and things like that.

So I think that, you know, holding on to some things from my youth that I didn't get a chance to do or that I always wanted to achieve.

But I think it's important because it keeps you young, it keeps you creative, keeps you in the know.

(upbeat music) - Hi, my name is Jaylyn.

What's your best advice for young innovators?

(upbeat music) - I think young innovators should be curious and young innovators should pick things apart.

(upbeat music) The easiest way to learn about creating something new is to take something that already exists apart, figure out how it works, figure out what you would change and try to put it back together.

(upbeat music) - Use that student card really wisely and never stop using it until you have to.

People want to help people, and the most vulnerable person out there is a young person.

So use that card because people want to help you right now.

They want might always be as easy of the case.

Be really surprised at who is willing to talk to you simply because you're a young person, maybe trying something that's a little bit unconventional.

Advice number two, you're probably going to put yourselves in rooms where you're the youngest person really, really lean in on the fact of you were invited into that room or into that place for a reason.

So no, you don't know everything.

And don't pretend like you know everything, but be really confident in the experiences that you have and what you do know, because you really might be expert in areas as a 20 year old and use that because you probably really are an expert in some areas.

If you start now.

(upbeat music) - That's it for this episode of What If.

Check out all our shows, our stories and Innovator Insights at nebraskapublicmedia.org/WhatIf You'll also find What If on Nebraska Public Media's YouTube channel and follow what we're doing on social media at #WhatIfNebraska.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music) Just like PowerShot.

(upbeat music)