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Growing Small Towns

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Growing Small Towns is headquartered in Oakes, North Dakota, and we challenge small towns across the country to think differently about how they become places people love to call home.

10/20/2026

This week’s episode of the Growing Small Towns Podcast is a solocast with Rebecca, and we’re talking about love.

Specifically, Marcus Buckingham’s new book and how it relates to community development.

His Gallup research found that only a five-star experience actually changes how people behave. A “4” doesn’t do it. The word included in every five-star experience? Love.
If that’s true for companies, it’s true for communities. People move to a town, stay there, and build it up for one reason: they love it there.

Think about the difference between liking something vs. loving something. It’s a completely different experience, right? It feels different in your body and shows up differently in your actions. So, why not focus more on what makes people love their small towns?

In this episode, we cover:
- The two feelings Rebecca chases: heart swells and brain sparks (and what those mean!)
- Why only a “five” rating changes how people behave
- Marcus Buckingham’s definition of love at work
- The one question every community decision should pass
- Why love may be the most AI-proof thing we have

🎧 Listen to “Helping People Love Their Town More” wherever you get your podcasts.

📞 Then tell us what you love about YOUR town. Leave us a Love Note voicemail at 701-203-3337.

10/17/2026

Everyone, meet Judy.

She’s 79. She doesn’t text. She doesn’t email. (We are jealous of her lifestyle).

Also, though: she got a community app built.

Judy serves on the economic development board in a town of about 700 people. She and two fellow board members, Jim and Tracy, landed a significant state grant, hired a software company, and built an app that puts their whole town in one place: events, businesses, jobs, the school lunch menu, city contacts, and even water bill pay.

Along the way, Judy also brought four new businesses to town and found buildings for them.

Judy is a rockstar.

Why does this matter? Because:
a) helllooo actual example of people doing big things in their small towns and
b) Porchlight ended up acquiring the app so towns everywhere can use it!

In this week's podcast episode, Jessica talks about this story and gives us all some stellar advice: be like Judy.

Hear the whole story on this week’s episode of the Growing Small Towns Show.

👇 Who’s the Judy in your town? Tag the person who just gets things done!

10/15/2026

How easy is it for new people to get plugged in when they move to your town?

One of the best things about small towns is the community and proximity! The community is smaller, tighter-knit, and it doesn't take an hour to get from school to soccer practice at the park (🙌🙌🙌).

But what happens when someone new moves to town and wants to get involved? Is it really easy to find out how to join sports teams, the local running club, or learn about the town's amenities and events, or is that more "insider" knowledge only locals have?

Jessica Meyers from Porchlight is here on the pod this week, and she talks about Porchlight's community certification and why they include this component (and how there's an app for that!)

It's not enough to be awesome just for the people who have been in our small towns forever, you know?

How is your community at welcoming new people and getting them plugged in to everything you have to offer?

10/12/2026

New podcast episode and this one's for, well, the vast majority of communities in America. Why? Because 75% of American communities have 5,000 people or fewer. In South Dakota, it’s 95%, and in North Dakota, it’s 97%. 🤯

Small towns aren’t the exception, they're kind of the rule. But most don’t have a full-time economic developer or a marketing budget, so how do they show the world they’re open for business and make it easy for new people to move there and get plugged into the best parts of small-town life?

This week, Jessica Meyers of Porchlight joins Rebecca in the studio to talk about Porchlight’s rebuilt community certification. It’s a simple, self-led, thorough, actionable checklist that walks your town through everything a family wants to know before moving there: groceries, healthcare, internet, the coffee shop, and a real welcome plan for newcomers.

She also talks about the community app that puts your whole town in one place, and the 79-year-old who got it built (yes, really!)

And, bonus, we have a coupon code! Use code GST for $250 off your town’s Porchlight certification.

Listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts or on the GST website: https://www.growingsmalltowns.org/post/season6episode16

10/10/2026

"I don't want to have to say no to my kids if they want to come back to the operation."

What if we considered the business's future as we build it? For many people in rural America, this means thinking about succession, growth, and how many people a business can support long before any of those things are needed.

Why? Because when we consider kids, it can change our perspective quite a bit, and present challenges that are best planned for in advance.

Nick Jorgensen has five children, including twins who, he assures us, are the IRL version of Dr. Seuss' Thing One and Thing Two.

Before kids, he loved the hands-on side of ag: being in a combine, cutting hay, chopping silage, all the operational stuff. And while he still loves those things, he realized he could probably have more impact on the admin side of the business, which led to him becoming CEO (and shout-out to Nick's dad and uncle for letting the next generation assume responsibility early on!)

"I view my job now as a fourth-generation operator making sure that the fifth generation inherits a business that is better than it was when I started," Nick says. "More importantly to me: none of my kids have to come back to the operation. It would survive without them. But if every one of them makes the choice that they want to, I don't want to have to say no to any of them."

That's an abundance, future-focused mindset if we've ever heard one.

Can you imagine? Saying, "Hey, how do we give our kids choices? What if they had different options for how to come home, if they want to?"

Did you just get the shivers? We did. That's how transformational this mindset can be.

10/09/2026

💌 Send us a love note! 💌

What do you love about your small town? Big or small, we want to hear about it.

Does your town have a spectacular Halloween celebration?
Do you have truly stellar support of your school's sports?
Is the clerk at your local grocery store a ray of sunshine?
Do you love the decorations on Main Street?
Do you have the best mail lady on the planet?

We want to hear all about it and share it with everyone!

Call in to 701-203-3337 and leave us a message with a love note to the place you call home, and we might share it on air!

10/07/2026

In this week's episode of the Growing Small Towns podcast, Rebecca and guest Nick Jorgensen discussed community development, building things (sometimes literally), and the inevitable skepticism that pops up when people do stuff.

Skepticism isn't inherently bad, but Nick sees two kinds of skepticism. One is rooted in curiosity and genuine questions about the whys and wherefores of an idea: "Hey, I can get behind this, but I want to know more." The other is just a wholesale lack of support, regardless of the details.

When we are trying to do big things in small towns, not everyone is going to get it. It's okay for people to have questions and for support to come after clarity. But when we encounter the Oscar the Grouches who Shall Not Be Moved, it's okay not to spend too much time worrying about what they think and instead to spend our time working with the people who get it — or will, in a bit.

What do you think? Do you see people from your community who embody these groups?

10/05/2026

💥NEW PODCAST ALERT!💥

The pod is back! We're back with the second part of season 6 and we're over the moon to share some amazing guests with you over the next several months!

We're kicking it off with Nick Jorgensen, CEO of Jorgensen Land & Cattle in Ideal, South Dakota (population: 86). He's a fourth-generation rancher and a dad of five, in addition to running a complex, multifaceted business (including Ideal Soil Solutions, this season's podcast sponsor!). We talk about risk, roots, investing in our communities, and what it takes to build something your kids can and want to come home to.

(And real estate--their Dorothy June is an old bank building in the next town over!)

In this episode, you'll hear:
- Why refusing to take a risk is still taking a risk
- How leasing a few extra bulls turned into 6,500 a year
- What a closed Wells Fargo in Winner, SD became
- Why Nick never wants to tell his kids "no room for you"
- How a rancher who can't code builds his own business software with AI

Listen wherever you get your podcasts or on the GST website here: https://www.growingsmalltowns.org/post/season6episode15

We're so dang glad to be back!

10/02/2026

Picture it: you're in another (larger) town and you see an amazing park. Or, you're at a conference and the speaker is talking about an amazing initiative in their (again, larger) town and you just love it so much.

Now (keep picturing) you bring those ideas back to your small town improvement committee or your chamber or your economic development committee and you're telling them all about it...
..and they say, "Well, sure, but that will never work here."

Womp womp.

Sometimes things aren’t “big city” ideas; they’re just really great ideas. We need to talk about adapting big-city ideas to smaller communities.

This is a special skill. It's a skill that's a part of a particular set of skills. Rebecca, our fearless leader, happens to have this particular set of skills and will bring it to your event so people don't leave saying, "That will never work here."

They'll leave saying, "Holy cow, I can't wait to get started."

09/30/2026

Since the day I hired Bailey Adams, I have been dreading the day when I, inevitably, knew I'd have to write this post.

Today is Bailey's last day with us at GST.

I first met her when I visited Kathy Marquette's buiness law class at NDSCS in November of 2021. I hadn't even paid the last bill to renovate our building then.

In February, Kathy brought a busload of students over to Oakes for a visit. Bailey was on that bus.

In June of 2022, she started working for us part-time as she wrapped up her marketing coursework at NDSCS.

On February 13, 2023, she joined us full-time.

It's been a wild ride for me and Bailey.

I needed help. I didn't always know exactly what that would look like. Sometimes, it was changing air filters in our HVAC system (how amazing this was her job in the Air Guard, right?), doing her level best to keep our plants alive, handling all the contracts for the customers who rented our venue, being the best bus tour sidekick alive, setting up countless meeting rooms, and running to every store in town to grab last minute things.

And sometimes? She just listened. Offered ideas. She was MY person here.

Every event we hosted and every program we ran was better because Bailey was a part of it.

Today, I'm incredibly sad to say goodbye to her.

But, this sadness is only because of the genuine care and love I have for this young woman. Hiring young people right out of college can be scary. I wanted to be a great place for her to learn and grow, but I always knew I wouldn't get to keep her forever.

She fully moved to Oakes for this job and got to know more people in the community. Since being with us, she's been deployed with the Air Guard, fell in love with and got engaged to a great young man, went back to school to puruse her passion (teaching young kids...how perfect!) and most recently, moved to Fargo to continue her education.

While I'm sad to lose her, I'm not sad about the beautiful life she's building.

I will miss so much about her. We'll forever share a loathing/fear of snakes and a passion for cult shows. I'll always hug her, unintentionally make her cry, and be impressed by her ability to act like she's listening when she's really not. 😄

I just hope that she'll think fondly about her time in Oakes, at GST, and all the people she got to know during the past 3 years.

She might be leaving today, but she's never losing us. Sorry, Bailey, you're stuck with us now. ♥️

If you're around Oakes today and want to stop in and wish her well, please do. She's not big on fanfare, so let's be reasonable about this. You can always just leave a comment, too.

Here's to your future, Bailey. We can't wait to see what you do next. And we'll all be cheering you on.

Address

Oakes, ND

Website

http://www.growingsmalltowns.org/

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