(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS Station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 2] "It's Your Business with Michael Aikens" is brought to you by WCTE PBS and the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, with funding provided by the Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge and the Tennessee Rural Development Fund.

- Welcome to a brand new season of "It's Your Business."

We are excited to bring you more incredible stories and information, from entrepreneurs and business resource professionals around the Upper Cumberland that help equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the tools they need to make the dream of owning their own business come to life.

Join us as we learn from the successes and failures of those who have taken that daunting step into the world of entrepreneurship, persevered, and came out on the other side.

(bright upbeat music) Sometimes, your passion for something you love can overcome the fears of not feeling equipped to start a new business and give you the drive to take a chance, and that's exactly what happened when Amy Ing and Anthony Herd, owners of Spotlight Costumes, decided to take their passions for theater and design and turn them into a new business that helps theaters near and far bring their performances to life with beautifully designed costumes, as well as give partygoers the chance to impress at their next costume party.

(bright upbeat music) We're here in Cookeville, Tennessee talking with Amy Ing, owner of Spotlight Costumes.

Amy, welcome to the show.

- Thank you.

Thanks so much for having me.

- Well, as we always start out with the basics, tell me, what is Spotlight Costumes?

- Well, we are a costume rental store.

We have many, many beautiful costumes that you can rent for a weekly basis.

Mostly, what we do is theater, but we also do the public if you have a party or an event you need to dress up for, or of course Halloween, anything like that.

- Well, I gotta say, this is one of the most unique businesses that we've ever had on the show.

So tell us, how did you get the idea for it?

How did you get into this?

- I got into it with my partner, Anthony Herd.

I actually used to have a big themed party at my house and he came to help me.

Everyone says, "You need to talk to Anthony."

And he had been costuming shows for a long time in town.

We were really inspired by Performance Studios in Nashville.

- So you started back in 2019, I believe?

- Yes.

- [Michael] And now we're here in 2023.

- Yes.

- Talk me and walk me through, what has your journey as a business owner been like?

- Oh, gosh, well, it's been a bumpy ride because we did open September 2019, so you can imagine that wasn't the best timing.

We thought, "This is gonna be great," and then, of course, COVID happened, and you couldn't have any events, plays, or parties.

So that's what we do.

In the beginning, especially for Halloween, people would come in and say, "Well, I don't understand.

I wanted to buy my costume."

So I would say, "Okay, well there are places for that, but we're just a rental, you know?"

But I feel like the last two years they have said, "What a great idea," because what do you do?

You wear a costume for one night, you know?

So rather than order it, it's not good quality.

Wear it for one night, store it, and give it away, it's just a very wasteful cycle.

And we had a lot of costume contest winners last year, so.

- Tell me about the theater.

How are you finding the customers and where are you selling to?

- Well, they're really finding us because we are one of the last stores standing.

I think a lot of these type stores were opened in the '80s and '90s, so a lot of people are retiring, and then a lot of people really just couldn't make it through COVID, like our Performance Studios in Nashville that we loved.

So we are really one of the few stores.

So it's a very niche sort of thing.

And what you see behind you is "My Fair Lady," which is going to Jackson Prep in Jackson, Mississippi.

So our ripple is getting wider, which I'm really happy about.

- You're right here in Cookeville, in the rural Upper Cumberland area.

You could be anywhere, but especially in a larger urban market, like Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga.

Why did you decide to stay here?

- Both Anthony and I live here, and I guess we just went to elevate the parties, and the theater, and the happenings here, rather than go to a big city.

We just want to make things better for this region 'cause we love it.

There are a lot of great theaters in this region.

I don't know how it happened, but I am so grateful for it.

I mean, a lot of great school programs, and then, of course, you have CPAC and just Backdoor Playhouse.

There's so many great theaters here, so we're really lucky.

- What does it mean to you to be a business owner right here in the Upper Cumberland?

- I think it's been a very special journey to me.

I have loved this more than anything.

I mean, there have been hard times, but my partner Anthony is the talent, and then we've surrounded ourselves with talented people, and I just love to be in their orbit.

So I kind of love to make things happen.

What I do is I just love to network and put people where they need to be or in the group they need to be in to make things happen.

I've learned a lot.

I was never a business person or a business major, business owner, nothing like that.

So I have learned a lot, I've made a lot of mistakes, but I'm actually loving every minute of it.

- Well, it's great to own a business.

Not everything is always very simple, especially in business.

Let's talk a little bit about the challenges you've experienced as a business owner, and more importantly, how did you overcome those?

- Well, I would say COVID was a really big challenge.

So the fact that we made it through that, I really feel good about.

Also, we have been challenged in finding a space.

In our business, we have to have a lot of inventory, and so just finding a space big enough to accommodate what we need was really difficult.

We would love to be on the west side or somewhere closer to town, but because we need such a big space, that just wasn't possible.

So we moved here last summer, and this is 5,000 square feet, and we're still trying to find space for our... We have a huge inventory, so.

But yeah, that was one of the biggest challenges, I guess.

- Amy, this has been a fantastic conversation.

I really appreciate you being on the show.

And we're gonna go talk to your business partner, Anthony Herd, now.

- Thanks.

Well, thanks for coming.

(bright upbeat music) - So now, we're talking with Anthony Herd, co-owner with Amy Ing of Spotlight Costumes.

So Anthony, I understand that you are the talent, so to speak, of this organization.

Tell us a little bit more about what you do here.

- I mainly design a lot of the costumes for the different shows, sew a lot.

Of course, I can't do it by myself.

I have very talented helpers and employees here that work in the shop, and then some that work from home.

But then we have also people who come in and do painting who will paint costumes.

So it takes a village, really, to make a show happen.

So it's not just people who sew.

You also have to have people who can build headpieces, and painters, and people who draw stuff.

And so it's kind of a big huge family of people.

- So how did you get into all this?

- Both of my grandmothers were sewers.

So I started sewing by hand when I was eight, I got my first machine when I was 13, and then I just started sewing from there.

So it was kind of...

I was within church ministries where we made banners, and costumes, and passion plays, and clowning, and puppetry, and all this crazy stuff.

So it all came full circle.

Ballet costumes, that was another.

So yeah, and that's kind of where it all started, was there, and then I just, I've always loved theater, so.

- So fast forward today, you're now a co-owner of a business, so how are you balancing the creative side, but also with the business side?

- Amy and I talk a lot, (Anthony chuckles) which is a really good thing that we communicate about everything.

We try not to argue over stuff.

We'll just be like, "All right, let's figure this out."

I think part of what our biggest learning process has been failing.

Those failures have kind of made us learn like, "Okay, how can we do this different?

What's gonna make more sense?"

'Cause in the beginning, we had tried so many different things and thought, "Okay, well that worked," and then see that, "Okay, well, this doesn't, but this does, so let's go with that."

So I think anytime that we've had some sort of unsuccessful moment, it's actually led us to a better place.

- In my work at Tennessee Tech, I talk to a lot of artists.

I also talk to a lot of entrepreneurs.

And one of the things, not to stereotype, but one of the things that I've observed is a lot of times, artists don't really see themselves as business people, or entrepreneurs, or innovators.

I would say that's not true at all.

I think it's the complete opposite.

What do you think?

- It's very weird because some people are very kind of the introverted, and I think that's where it puts it into their brain that they're not a business person because they don't wanna be out and talking with people.

I, myself, I deal with that all the time because I'm usually back in a room sewing.

I work a lot alone, so I'm used to that.

So then when you're going from that world to being in the middle of all these people trying to sell yourself and your product, it becomes difficult, especially if you have the anxiety about it.

And so I think it's different with everyone.

I know some artists who can go out there, they'll sell themselves, they'll sell social media, they put themselves out there, and they're extreme just extroverts, and very talkative.

And then I've seen some artists who like to just be back and be like, "Here's my stuff," and people will...

So I think it's kind of across the board different for everybody.

- What I would also say is that anybody that wants to be an innovator, an entrepreneur, anybody can do that.

So what advice would you give to an aspiring artist that maybe wants to be an entrepreneur, or maybe even more importantly, doesn't want to, but knows that they should?

- Definitely have passion for it and make sure it's what you want to do.

Because if you get into something that you don't, you're not gonna love it, you're not gonna give it your all.

So even if you think, "I might fail," just try it and see.

So I think it's just those kind of guidelines, just kind of going with your heart, your soul, your passion, and starting there.

- So transitioning back to your business, what makes you feel the most happy about owning a business here in the Upper Cumberland?

- I love what we bring, I mean, I think us as a shop and all of us as a crew.

One of my favorite things is when we can all go to a show together and we can just sit there and it's like...

I like to sit as far back in the audience as possible and look around at all the people in front of me seeing their reaction.

Like, you've made a whole set of costumes and they all come out on stage, it's emotional 'cause it's like your child's out there, and then you see other people react to it.

So I think it's bringing emotion to people, bringing a feeling, an escapism kind of from this world.

And that's what theater does.

So I think that's the biggest thing for me that makes it worth it.

- Well, very cool.

Anthony, thank you so much for being on the show.

- Thank you.

(bright upbeat music) - Many counties across our Upper Cumberland region have seen a lot of growth and rejuvenation over the last several years, enduring through economically trying times.

With a desire to create and retain jobs in rural Tennessee and to improve the quality of life for its residents, the Tennessee Rural Development Fund has worked hard to bring the resources necessary for growth to rural Tennessee.

Let's sit down with the president of Tennessee Rural Development Fund, David Allen, to learn more about the effect they've had on the Upper Cumberland.

(bright upbeat music) We are here in Cookeville, Tennessee talking with David Allen, president of the Tennessee Rural Development Fund.

David, a big welcome to the show.

- Well, thank you for having me.

I appreciate it, Mike.

- Certainly glad to have you here.

So let's start out with the basics.

What is Tennessee Rural Development Fund?

- Tennessee Rural Development Fund is a...

It's basically an economic community development loan fund.

We're certified by the United States Treasury Department as Community Development Financial Institution, or CDFI, for short.

But we make loans across the state of Tennessee in support of economic community development.

We have an emphasis in rural communities.

We do make loans in urban metropolitan areas, but really, overall, that's just to help us to build our capacity to reinvest more back into rural Tennessee.

- [Michael] Many people probably don't realize that we have a CDFI and Cookeville or even what a CDFI is.

Walk us through what it is.

- Our products are typically below market rate loans, so it helps a company to save money, typically, on the cost of their real estate and so they can reinvest that into other areas.

It's just trying to better the quality of life in the economies that we serve and the communities that we serve.

- And obviously, that is so important in a rural area, I mean, particularly with access to capital.

Can you speak a little bit more to what are some of the outcomes of the Rural Development Fund?

- Well, jobs.

Jobs is really important.

And now, even more so, we're focusing more on quality jobs.

That's a big part in bettering the quality of life, making sure everybody has the opportunity to work, and to make an honest living, and to be able to afford to enjoy life.

And so really, I would say, as much as anything, it's the job creation that comes from and just really helping a business to take care of their people any way that we can through the use of financing.

- Well, this all sounds like great work.

How did you all come up with the idea?

- Well, some years back, we recognized... A group of us recognized that there was a lot of public resources available and even some specialized structures for funding that's used in across the country, and predominantly metropolitan urban communities.

And we saw that they weren't being utilized in rural communities.

And so our heart being in rural Tennessee, we decided to create an organization that would serve as a conduit for some of those resources and programs to come in and plug those in to economic community development efforts across the state to help support them.

And so that's where we were born.

- Well as you're doing this work, I mean, it sounds like a lot of this is pretty complicated and really requires a lot of really good leadership.

So you're the president of the Rural Development Fund.

Could you walk me through a little bit about your leadership style and what it's taken to really grow this to where it is?

- Well, I don't know if I have one particular style, I might call it situational.

I would like to think that I've pulled from whatever the situation requires at the time to the best of my ability.

I don't have the corner on leadership or anything.

I'm thankful for everything we've been able to achieve.

I know that, as far as styles goes, what I'm definitely not, and that's a micromanaging, know-it-all type leader, if you will.

You need to have parameters and boundaries.

Like, in an organization like ours, you need to have definition, you need to have a base.

But if I could say, rather than taking 10 components and putting together the shape of a square and saying, "This is what we have as a square," I like to have those 10 components to where, depending on what the customer needs, we can create other shapes of those 10 components to serve what they need.

And so we need the flexibility within our framework and our structure to be able to provide that for the customer.

And so it allows for a lot of creativity within the organization to be able to have that flexibility.

And I really value leveraging the minds of the people that we work with and my brilliant board members that I have the opportunity to work with and consult.

It just makes for a more creative environment.

- Well, thinking back to when it all started.

You started this a few years ago.

What do you know now that you wish you knew then?

- That could be a song, maybe, but it's...

I don't know.

And just thinking about it, I think when we first started, I was a little naive coming into the community.

And I had this plan, had been working on this plan and this business idea for probably six, seven years prior to the time that we started this.

And 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I'm embarrassed to say.

As perfect as I felt like the plan was, having a better strategy to communicate that, I kind of had a propensity to fire hose people with so much information that I felt like it was harder to get community buy-in.

So it took us a little longer probably because of that.

But knowing what I know now, I'd probably do it more in bite-sized chunks and maybe even hold some stuff a little closer to the vest until that time it was needed.

- In your past, I understand that you've been an entrepreneur, probably the better part of your adult life.

There's a lot of small businesses, entrepreneurs that watch this show, and even more so there's probably people out there that are thinking, "I've got this idea for a business," but they just haven't crossed that fence yet for whatever reason.

What advice would you provide to them?

- I would say first, a lot of prayer.

(David chuckles) But secondly, I would say, there's two components in addition to that that you really need.

One is to have the right idea.

Whether it's a process or a product, you need to have that perfected, okay?

Because if you're gonna put your time into something, you need to make sure it's gonna pay you back.

Secondly is it doesn't end with a perfect idea or a perfect concept.

You have to... First, it requires that, and then you have to work that like a dog around the clock until it comes to fruition.

You have to first have something that's worth making that investment of your time in.

But then once you have that, you know what you're gonna do.

You have to work it and not think that it's just gonna fall out of the sky in your lap because it's a great idea.

And so if you don't have a good idea and you work hard at it, you're gonna spin your wheels and you're never gonna get the return.

But if you think 'cause you have a good idea that it's just gonna fall out of the sky without having to put any work into it, that doesn't happen, in my experience.

- Well, you get that good idea, you work really hard, you build something really successful.

One of the things that I think is really important for all businesses, and you've even mentioned this with the Rural Development Fund, is giving back to the community.

I know that TNRDF does a substantial amount of philanthropy.

Can you walk us through some of the examples, and also, why do you do it?

- Yeah.

There's a lot of organizations like ours essentially that are looking to help the community from a different angle.

You've got The Human Fund that's run over by Marc deClaire at the Police Department here in Cookeville, just helping people in need on the spot on the street.

They're also trying to improve people's quality of life, where you've got Cigi, and she owns The Exceptional Bean Coffee.

They're trying to improve the quality of life for those folks in there that are working for her.

There's just so many examples of people in the community that are just contributing and adding value to improve everybody's quality of life.

And we just recognize the need for funding to be able to do that.

And so we're just... We feel very fortunate and very blessed to be able to do that.

And it's really more rewarding to give it than it is to make it, a lot of times, you know?

So we just like to help 'cause that is our overall mission, is to improve the quality of life in these rural communities.

- Looking towards the future, what does that hold for Tennessee Rural Development Fund?

- Well, I said in the beginning that we wanted to create an organization that would be a conduit for a multitude of resources, so that no matter who was coming from what direction or what their need may be, that we would have another tool in the box to help them that maybe we don't have now.

And over the last few years, we've been so busy growing as a CDFI because the Fed is having basically the intent that it, I believe, it meant to have to slow things down in such a hot economy right now.

It's given us time to focus on going after some additional resources through SBA and through the state-led Tennessee program.

And it's good timing because it's allowing us to go back and bring in some of those additional resources that we know are gonna pay off a lot in the future.

So we're excited about it.

- Definitely.

Well, David, I can't thank you enough for being on the show.

We really appreciate it.

- Thank you so much for having me, Michael.

(bright music) (lighthearted music) - Hi, I am Tiffany Anton, founder and creator with Powered By Her.

Powered By Her was an initiative that we started about five years ago when we saw a need for inspiration and community with women in the Upper Cumberland.

We started by having a podcast.

We were approached by a local radio station and they said, "Hey, we kind of have this idea.

What do you think about this?

And can you host it?"

And I was very, very excited to be able to help tell the stories of women of the Upper Cumberland.

And so we started launching that about four and a half, five years ago.

We're about to celebrate our 100th episode coming up soon.

Pretty excited about that.

In the last couple months, we've started releasing weekly podcast episodes, and so you can find those wherever you stream podcasts.

The purpose of the podcast is really to tell stories, to connect with women business owners, and really feel like you're not so alone.

And so with the podcast and putting out content that we felt was valuable for women in the area, we also thought having an in-person meetup would be really, really important and valuable.

So we started a monthly lunch and learn event, and so every second Thursday of the month here in Cookeville, you can come for a free lunch sponsored by Kelly Sullivan and the businesses that she's run along the way.

And so we just have speakers or we have open discussion, and it's just a chance for women to come together, take an hour out of their month to sit down and have a meal together.

Whether you learn something or make a connection with someone new, it's just a very valuable experience.

We also, in this year, were able to launch Powered By Her in Livingston.

And so we were able to have monthly lunches in Livingston as well.

And we look forward to that community growing and how we can actually impact even more of the Upper Cumberland.

Along with what we've been doing over the past four or five years, this year, we are launching Powered By Her Kenya.

We know that in order to be the best we women entrepreneurs possible, giving back and supporting others is part of that.

And so a lot of women I see are supporting their next-door neighbors or the businesses across the street, or promoting others on social media.

I have a heart for service, and I was able to travel to Kenya in February, and I connected with the people of Kenya, I cried many, many times.

And I connected with many business owners, and one in particular, my friend Joyce, just had this heart for mentoring and serving and making an impact using the Powered By Her name and brand.

And so we have started fundraising efforts to start a mentoring program in Kenya with girls that are ages 13 to 20, a year-long program, and how we can have the impact of what we're doing here in the Upper Cumberland as a part of what they're doing in Kenya.

And I'm so, so, so excited.

It just fills my heart to be able to impact these other women.

I actually get to talk to them weekly, they video chat me, and it's like all their little faces around the screen.

And I just love what we're able to do, and I love being able to connect to these people.

I hope that you can connect with what we're doing with Powered By Her, whether it's listening to the podcast, streaming wherever you listen to podcasts; or connecting with us at a lunch, come to any of our free lunches; or checking out what we're doing in Kenya.

You can head over to poweredbyhercommunity.com to find out all the things that we're involved with.

(bright upbeat music) - Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope that you've learned that entrepreneurship doesn't have to be a scary venture when you have the necessary resources for success at your fingertips.

If you'd like to know more information on today's topics, please visit the WCTE website.

To learn more about free small business resources and expert assistance, visit the Business Resource Collective website.

Until next time, I'm Michael Aikens.

(bright upbeat music) (bright music) - [Announcer 2] "It's Your Business with Michael Aikens" is brought to you by WCTE PBS and the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, with funding provided by the Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge and the Tennessee Rural Development Fund.

(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 1] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS Station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

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