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January and February was a difficult start to the year. Both my cousin (who was incredibly smart, funny, talented) and my uncle who was like a father figure to me passed away. Wish there was something more upbeat to share...and not sure if this is the type of thing we should even be including in these, but in this case this was the most impactful thing in my life at this time.

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My first step in Michigan City was getting settled into the Airbnb and getting a feel for the personality of the region. I spent many an evening talking restaurant business, general small business climate, and local hot takes at my favorite MC dives. Pic: My favorite of them all - Local Option. One of the few places you can eat after 10pm in MC.

My first step in Gary was taking a tour of the metro with Chris Harris my host, and Gary native. Chris did a great job of explaining the significance of various areas and giving me a history of the city. It was incredibly impactful for me to hear about the significant history of Gary (first black mayor of a major city, home of the Jacksons, home of US Steel - the largest steel producer in the world at the time) as well as the disinvestment: mass exodus after the first black mayor, the first Congressional Black Caucus, property tax hikes due to US Steel, and real estate profiteering.

It was definitely an "oh wow" moment for understanding how Gary got to where it is, and the scale of issues the city faces on its path back to greatness.

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Still fresh in my fellowship, Chris and I met with the Mayor following a tour of the city with Ja Rule. This meeting transitioned to a speech writing session that went until 1am. I loved every minute (probably aided by the fact that I'm a night person). It was incredibly valuable to gain more initial understanding around the (highly) guarded hope the people of Gary have for this administration being the one to finally change the course of the city.

This also highlighted the complexities of delivering change in a way that residents can see versus what's actually needed for change. There is a balance of needing to do what it takes to create the infrastructure for lasting change, but also showing visible progress. And the people of Gary are impatient and tend to accuse you of not really caring while hoping you prove them wrong. This all comes from what I would later realize was the traumas of past regimes inaction, or worse.

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Real Estate Developer & Investor Mastermind Event in Detroit

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Addressing Pressing Needs: Finding Developers to Invest in Gary 

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Addressing Pressing Needs: Finding Developers to Invest in Gary 

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One of the biggest needs I heard from the Gary administration early on was the need to have more developers interested in the city. Wanting to help with this critical problem, I took the initiative to go where the developers were guaranteed to be at: masterminds, conferences, and special events! And it worked! I found some developers and talked them into developing in Gary! Unfortunately, the administration ran into some surprise challenges with their internal city departments (or lack thereof) that they had to address before even thinking about entertaining future developers. It's unfortunate that this new administration has had to clean up so much from previous administrations, but I think they were the exact right people to do it.

This was such an important time for me because it showed that I could! be an asset and solve some of these really hard problems for the city like finding and convincing developers to come seriously look at building in Gary despite the (undeserved) reputation. Coming from outside the public sector, it was also a lesson in how much a new Mayor's administration has to deal with that citizens will never see or know...and how that can drastically impact the priorities and course of action.

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In the runup to the initial Broadway Summit, myself (and for a couple of days some interns and a colleague) walked the entire Broadway corridor 1st to survey the business owners - which yielded incredibly valuable information about their mindset and what they needed; and again to get them to ACTUALLY show up to the Broadway Summit we were hosting. Overall it was a phenomenal way to really get to know the needs, wants and desires of the small business community, understand the character of the Boulevard, earn trust, and begin to win them over for the new administration.

I look forward to doing the same on Michigan Blvd and Franklin in Michigan City.

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Organizing this was a huge challenge for me, but we were able to get significantly more surveys done than expected and had significantly higher attendance from Broadway business owners than expected. There were several challenges along the way like needing to change venue, needing to change food provider, the library not having an HDMI cord day-of even though they confirmed when previously asked about it, etc. but it got done and was a good event!

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Broadway Summit Information Flyer -CH (1)

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Above is a picture of the upstairs of the recreation center I was going to convert into an auditorium with black pipe&drape and a stage. The (working name) Greater Gary Broadway Summit was going to be a 3-day, 4-track, 4-location conference engaging developers, citizens, the arts community, and small business communities. It was going to end in a Friday breakfast and tours for each group of areas relevant to their track.

It was going to be a big launch and bigger deal and... I couldn't pull it together. I failed. The mayor gave us almost 7-weeks to name it, organize it, and execute it, and unfortunately, after much stressing, I dropped the ball and wasn't able to make it happen. While I believe I am familiar enough with the city to execute it in that timeframe now, it was a huge blow back then, and I know that my host in Gary was disappointed.

It definitely affected my mental state as well due to me thinking back to all of the things I could have done to pull it off in the timeframe. One of the guys in the office would remind me that the Notre Dame study we were going to make the central aspect of it still wasn't done yet, and it was a lot of moving pieces, but I still couldn't help feeling like I failed the city.

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Got Kicked out of Airbnb in Michigan City (lol!)

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Got Kicked out of Airbnb in Michigan City (lol!)

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An important lesson I learned is that Michigan City airbnb hosts and rental unit owners value Summer traffic above all else. So while we had an understanding of continuing to renew my airbnb all of that changed when Summer season came and they saw the interest in their other units. It was a great "Welcome to a Beach Town" moment for me, and I tried to stay positive while searching for a place to live on short notice.

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Lifting up the Local Business Community & ESOs

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Lifting up the Local Business Community & ESOs

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I was incredibly honored to actively participate in, and dabble in MC'ing for the Black Chamber of Commerce of Northwest Indiana Annual Convention. While this is just one of a few things I did with area ESOs, it speaks to the work I had to put in early to earn the trust of the ESOs and stakeholders who traditionally don't particularly like-or-trust outsiders...regardless of their title or resources.

Once I understood this on the ground, I knew I had to EARN their trust (or even getting my calls answered lol) by helping stakeholders with their issues before I ever could ask them for anything.

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I initially understood my mission in Michigan City to be ensuring that the Vibrant Michigan City plan happened. Since the primary group that had traction upon arrival was the Arts & Placemaking committee, I latched on to see how I could help them knock that out so I could then move on to some of the other committees that would need a lot more effort and cajoling. While the host Janet was welcoming, I was happy to get there and no one cared who I was or what I was doing there! Hahahaha. Perfect, I had to earn their respect, similar to in Gary.

Over the course of several weekly meetings, I was able to slowly give ideas & feedback that helped me earn everyone's trust. I would need it for the point at which everyone got frustrated with one another and the process.

We hit a point where people had stopped showing up and it was looking like the initiative...(my very first in the VMC Playbook!!!)...was going to die! Several weeks before our mural unveiling I had to step in and rally everyone to keep it together! To achieve this, I led a mini-campaign to change the event to what is now known as "WestFest Arts Fair" and incorporate novel aspects like teaching art & photography lessons there and incentivizing attendees (many of whom were from underinvested neighborhoods) to engage the arts with cash prizes for best new-learner pictures (photography lessons), t-shirt designs, and drawings (drawing lessons).

It worked! The committee really came together and there was an incredible amount of energy and purpose behind this new approach! Also, it proved my hypothesis that you COULD bring arts to underserved communities with lots of other problems, you just had to make it accessible and properly incentivize them to start learning the arts. Once they were exposed to it, they fell in love and went all-in.

Proving this theory wasn't just important to me for the arts, it was important to me because it represented a way to introduce a therapeutic coping mechanism into these communities where so often the raw emotions that come with a harder than average life manifest themselves in violent ways if not given an outlet.

With that said, it was not without challenges! Attendance was not where I had hoped it would be. While I tried everything from passing out flyers at farmers markets, to church announcements, press releases to door knocking the Westside neighborhoods (both days it started raining on me lol...but that was less important than convincing the naturally skeptical neighbors that it WOULD actually happen) - I realized that the MCers needed longer runway time on radio spots, take a while to believe you if in person, and need to hear it from people they trust on social media. While this was baked into my plan, some of the balls got dropped by the team while I was at our conference in Denver. This was my fault. I should have delegated better. With that said I learned, and now I understand how to manage the different personalities to get the best results for the team. Moving forward I believe it will be a HIGHLY successful event with lots of influential unofficial promoters and trusted "local legends" involved early and taking ownership over mobilizing people...as long as we inspire them, get them everything they need early, give them the promotional ideas, and support them with resources to amplify their impact.

To help evolve the operations side of the festival I created a new website to inspire vendors (afterall the vendors make an art fair), will have youth & community feeders into next year's, and created project management and marketing strategy docs to help everyone stay on task and on schedule.

I'm excited for where this can go, and as I transition to other tasks, am looking forward to it not needing me to kill it!

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This is the new website I designed and had built (using my own money!) for the future of West Fest! I'm excited for the added aspects of engaging the East Side with arts & placemaking activities leading up to the festival; potential murals on the East Side; and the committee implementing the tools I created to make it into a very successful and meaningful event for the city.

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One of 10+ youth art winners, this young lady said she couldn't draw before and had never thought she would be able to...to being in the top 8 after just a 2-hour drawing lesson!

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This was just one of our "new artist" award winners who had never drawn before her 2hr lesson at WestFest! She said she would continue drawing, which makes us happy because she now has a creative outlet for her emotions outside of things that can get her in trouble.

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Bringing the SBA Closer to ESOs & Stakeholders

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Bringing the SBA Closer to ESOs & Stakeholders

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While I'm from Missouri which says it's the "Show Me" State, I would like to regift that moniker to Indiana. If you're not from here, the only way you can earn the trust of those in the region is by adding value above-and-beyond what they thought of. This was a piece of that.

Knowing that I would need the ESOs to do some heavy lifting with potentially sitting down with others they didn't know (or particularly like) for the development of a strategic action plan, the forming of the foundations of a sense of understanding & community amongst them, and at the same time wanting to upskill them on new options highly relevant to small businesses from the SBA - I organized a meeting with the SBA and ESOs.

It was a success and we got lots of comments about how valuable they thought it was. One of the easiest ways to support lots of businesses is to support those that work with them hands-on!

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With some strategizing, we figured that offering free Brunch was the best way to get ESOs together in the same space to understand what eachother focused on, that they weren't competitors, and for the first time work towards creating models to build up local businesses on Mainstreets & beyond.

While I could not succeed in getting everyone together due to interpersonal differences, I was able to get a significant number and they played nice while there. We will use the information from this several hour engagement for the growing local business strategic action plan.

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It became clear very early that one of the main issues keeping local businesses from filling in vacancies in the main corridors was the lack of access to capital...even for those with good cashflows who needed more money to grow.

After several conversations with lending institutions who confirmed how hard it was for them to get great small businesses loans or capital products from their current or previous banks, I knew I would ultimately have to be the bridge. To achieve this, I needed to be able to understand their perspective and speak a conservative bank's language.

To do this, I enrolled in three small business financing courses: a CUBG Commercial Lending course, a Bootcamp on Consumer Lending, and a Loan Packaging for Entrepreneur Support Organization Certification. As a result of completing these, I now understand how a conservative financial institution thinks and am hopeful for designing a solution that helps our high potential NW Indiana local businesses scale, add more jobs, reinvest back into neighborhoods, and most importantly - infill the vacancies on the core Boulevards that need to be filled in order to create a sense of community and vibrancy that is critical for the broader city.

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Intro to Urban Planning. Learning How Much I Didn't Know!

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Intro to Urban Planning. Learning How Much I Didn't Know!

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The Urban Plan Development Workshop put on by EDCMC was by far one of the most transformative events of the fellowship. It really helped me understand the lens I needed to be looking through as we approach building up strong downtowns and central corridors as a way of building up a city. This was a very different approach than I had seen our local government take in Kansas City which focused more on communities and clusters, but I 100% bought into what I learned and it helped me see what my hosts were seeing. I realized then that we had different life experiences that contributed to why we were sometimes unintentionally on different pages.

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While what we are looking to build in Michigan City is so much more than a coworking space, it helps to understand the best practices coming from them. To see what coworking spaces were in the region I went to several. It was great to look at how they executed it.

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A mural ad...I had once given a talk about how LA was creatively financing their building costs with them, but had forgotten until coming across some in Chicago.

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Figuring out how to make the (absolutely essential) new Innovation Center financially viable, I did a lot of exploration. I am excited because I believe that we will absolutely be able to raise the money needed for the buildout the region deserves.

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"Excuse me, I've got to give this keynote real quick!"

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"Excuse me, I've got to give this keynote real quick!"

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The Midwest Innovation and Entrepreneurship Summit at DuPage University was a great opportunity to meet stakeholders on the other side of the NW Indiana region and Chicagoland. Not only did I learn about several resources for building strong entrepreneurs in the region, I also met some incredible people who offered to help with SMB upskilling or finding additional resources. They also enlightened me to the fact that some IL county leaders might be willing to facilitate products being distributed in Chicagoland because of a general affinity for IN and an acknowledgement that Chicago has pushed a lot of its East Chicago problems onto IN.

My understanding that there might be allies among different Chicagoland jurisdictions was a really phenomenal takeaway. Plus I got to hang out with the author of "Who Owns the Ice House" and several very influential entrepreneurship books. After a spirited discussion before I knew who he was, he offered to come speak for free, or help setup programs at the Innovation Center or for youth when we were ready! He then excused himself and walked straight on stage to speak!

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2024 Innovation Ecosystem Summit put on by the SBA

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2024 Innovation Ecosystem Summit put on by the SBA

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The 2-day conference was extremely valuable because it gave us as ESOs a different framework with which to discuss data. It also highlighted a lot of great Indiana data that I plan to refer to in my Innovation Center Business Case Study.

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Gaining Midwest stakeholder insights on Innovation Center model and how not to suck!

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Gaining Midwest stakeholder insights on Innovation Center model and how not to suck!

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I was selected to present to a breakout session for the Indiana ESO Summit. I was incredibly thankful for the opportunity, and gained a lot of great insights that went into the model I created!

More than anything, I learned how to make sure it doesn't fail. Evidently, there are a high number of coworking spaces across Michigan and Indiana (as well as NW Indiana) that are not what most at the conference would consider a success.

With a range of voices across the room (sorry I was only able to capture the left side of the room with my subpar selfie skills) I began to learn all of the things that can (and have) gone wrong with incubators, accelerators, and coworking spaces in the bi-state area, so I walked away with a much enlarged understanding of what NOT to do, and what to make sure we account for in the planning.

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Towards the end of the year we heard that our ODAN Application Phase I was approved and we were moving to the next round!! While Phase II comes with a significant amount of requirements, this was a core part of why Gary wanted a fellow, so I'm excited to be one step closer to fulfilling the mission and making the city proud!

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The Quest to Map Every Parcel on Gary’s Main Artery

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The Quest to Map Every Parcel on Gary’s Main Artery

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The weather was chilly, but it was a great feeling being able to get out and help by creating an inventory of parcels and building structures. This was really meaningful work considering all of the people in the city who will use it.

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Building Entrepreneur Ecosystems  For Thriving Corridors

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Building Entrepreneur Ecosystems  For Thriving Corridors

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My work to create a strong entrepreneur ecosystem that can support a vibrant Corridor will hopefully be my lasting impact on the cities of Gary and Michigan City. My hope is that we can create a template for other cities with little-to-no true entrepreneur ecosystem to fill their Main Streets with thriving businesses that attract shoppers and create jobs.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1STy3xAHzsxFVml7r7-R3qJ13JEhYAafg/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114617466574595964805&rtpof=true&sd=true