Navigating Opportunity with the Missoula Economic Partnership

From artisans to restaurants to manufacturing, Missoula County is home to businesses of all shapes and sizes. The Missoula Economic Partnership exists to facilitate growth, collaboration and mutual understanding between the private and public sectors.

Christine Littig, business development director at MEP, joined the commissioners this week to discuss local business trends and how entrepreneurs are responding creatively to the economic landscape.

 
Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

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Juanita Vero: [00:00:10] Welcome back to the agenda with Dr. Missoula County Commissioners. I'm Juanita Vero and I'm here with my fellow commissioner, Josh Slotnick. Dave Strohmaier is in a conflicting meeting, but this week we're joined by Christine Littig. And she's the business development director for Missoula Economic Partnership. Welcome, Christine.

Christine Littig: [00:00:28] Thank you for having me.

Juanita Vero: [00:00:29] So excited that you're here. Thank you.

Josh Slotnick: [00:00:31] Have you here?

Christine Littig: [00:00:32] Yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Josh Slotnick: [00:00:33] Yeah. So we've we've had Grant from MEP on in the past, but we haven't been able to talk to you yet. So would you mind describing what your job is all about at MEP?

Christine Littig: [00:00:44] The casual way that we talk about my job, and maybe the easiest way to understand it, is that I'm the boots on the ground. So I'm the person who is going out and having conversations with businesses intentionally, purposefully going out and discovering what's happening with businesses. Where are their trends? What are their strengths? How are they feeling challenged? Everyone at MSP plays a role in business development, but my life and soul of the organization is being sure that I'm having those conversations on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Juanita Vero: [00:01:19] I just realized we should probably back up a little bit. What do you tell people that? What is MSP at? Cocktail parties? What do you say to folks?

Christine Littig: [00:01:28] What I tell people is that MEP is a public private partnership. And again, I try in this role to keep my language simple. A lot of times people in the community don't understand some of the vernacular that we use around business. But what I tell people is my role is to help you as a business, understand what it looks like to grow, what it looks like to be resilient, what it looks like to understand your own business, but also what it looks like with the possibility of partnership with city or county, and understand the regulations and the rules that exist with city and county, and then vice versa. I tell people in business, our role is also to help city and county officials, elected or employed, to also understand what it's like to be in business. And hopefully the more we do that, the better everyone will be at understanding their significant places in the community and we'll have more thriving businesses.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:19] And you're really well suited to be someone who's in communication with businesses. Given your background. Do you want to tell people a little bit about that? Rich that's a pretty rich small business background here in Missoula.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:30] So iconic, iconic, iconic places.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:32] Your fingerprints are on those spots.

Christine Littig: [00:02:34] Yeah, my fingerprints are all over this community. It's wonderful what happens. I was thinking before I came how long you and I have known each other for.

Josh Slotnick: [00:02:41] We go way.

Christine Littig: [00:02:42] Back. Yeah. Yeah, we go way back. Well, I think when I returned back to Missoula, like a lot of Missoulians, I left to after graduating from the University of Montana. And when I returned, I started by managing the Old Post Pub.

Juanita Vero: [00:02:56] What year was this?

Christine Littig: [00:02:57] Oh, boy. You would ask me that? I think 93, 1993.

Juanita Vero: [00:03:01] Josh had hair down past his shoulders.

Christine Littig: [00:03:03] I did a little longer then. Yeah, maybe wore shorts more frequently. Although he wears them quite frequently now. But, um. Yeah. 1993 Old Post Pub. There was limited food at the Old Post Pub at that time, and I brought food to the Old Post Pub. That was sort of my fingerprint there. Oh that's fantastic. And as I it was a big thing and as I was doing it, I realized I didn't really love taking care of people while they were intoxicated. But I loved serving them food. And so I tried to figure out, well, what do I do with that? And I was lucky enough, while I was living in New York City to have met a four star chef. And so I flew myself to New York and apprenticed with him for an entire month in his kitchen. And it was slamming, rocking affirmation that I could survive in a kitchen, that I had talent and skills. And so then I came back to Missoula and started looking, where can I have a restaurant in Missoula? And so after 13 business plans and knocked on my door. Yeah, 13. And this is a great story that I share with businesses when I'm talking to startups and entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out where they want to go, how they want to do it. Sometimes you look at 13 different locations and so you have to reassess. Is my target customer still the same target customer I had? Am I going to have the same numbers, same number of tables? What's it going to look like? What kind of revenue is it going to generate? But the 13th was The Shining Star and that ended up being Redbird Restaurant. And so I was a chef owner for five years.

Juanita Vero: [00:04:34] Oh my gosh, five years. Five years.

Christine Littig: [00:04:37] And I loved every minute of it. Really. Just I'll say that those of us in small business, we really do like running our small businesses. But in the meantime.

Juanita Vero: [00:04:47] But chef owner that is that is next level intensity. I'm just amazed that I didn't realize you were. Yeah. Five years. Wow.

Christine Littig: [00:04:55] Such a big.

Josh Slotnick: [00:04:55] Commitment. You're all in. You're all.

Christine Littig: [00:04:57] You're all in, you're all in. And it didn't feel like it at the time. I mean, some of those things are I was married, but I didn't have any children. Like, it was my first baby and I had a lot more time to commit to it. I loved showing up every day. I loved being creative every day.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:12] What was on that location at the time, like in.

Christine Littig: [00:05:15] Previously in the 90s, it was Santoro's. Santoro's Italian restaurant was in the Little nook space in the Florence Hotel, where right.

Juanita Vero: [00:05:23] Now I don't yeah. Don't remember.

Josh Slotnick: [00:05:25] First contact with that space was the Redbird.

Christine Littig: [00:05:27] Oh. Thank you. I'm glad you.

Josh Slotnick: [00:05:29] Came. Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:05:30] Anyway, I digress. So I had the Redbird for five years, and then my sous chef was looking around, wanting to open a restaurant, and he looked all across Montana. And it's it's never been easy to do business in Montana to start a business, especially if you don't come to it with being financially backed or you own your home, so you have an asset that you can lean on. And he had been snooping around a while. And finally he came up to me and said, would you sell me this place? And I was like, yeah, actually, I think I will. And so I sold it to my sous chef. And at that time I had met my husband, Marco, and we were starting to have kids, and it seemed like just the right moment. And I took about an eight month hiatus and realized who I was a better mom when I was a working mom.

Juanita Vero: [00:06:15] Oh my God, I did.

Christine Littig: [00:06:17] You know, I had this fantasy of.

Juanita Vero: [00:06:20] Of.

Christine Littig: [00:06:20] Being the all thing mom, whatever that thing is, that we somehow are sold. But then I saw the opportunity to go and work for Esther Chesson at Bernice's, and she was looking for a general manager, and Marco and I didn't want to leave our children entirely, but we wanted to get back into the working world. Yeah. And and have some other energy coming into our lives besides the frenetic energy and lovely energy of children. And Esther was also a long time customer at Red bird.

Juanita Vero: [00:06:47] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:06:48] So she hired us as a shared general manager. We weren't hired two weeks and she wanted to know if we wanted to buy that gosh darn thing. And, uh, you know, two and a half years later, we bought it from Esther and had Bernice's bakery for 13 years.

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:01] And grew it quite a bit.

Christine Littig: [00:07:03] Yeah. Grew it. Sure. Gosh. But I think we brought it into the century.

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:07] Oh, I totally agree. I would totally agree.

Christine Littig: [00:07:09] This is part of what's happening in Missoula right now. Right. Some businesses are having to figure out how to move forward where new business is operating. And I think that's really what we did to Bernice's. Yeah. And I think maybe I brought a little chef's touch to the cake program. But you know.

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:25] That elevated.

Juanita Vero: [00:07:26] Elevated elevated elevated elevated.

Christine Littig: [00:07:29] Just a touch. But yeah there it is. And does all of that help in my job? Sure. Of course. [00:07:34] Understanding of what it's like to have 50,000 things going on in your head, being responsible for the wages and livelihood of people that you're employing. Challenges that face businesses. It doesn't mean I'm an expert in every industry, but what it does mean is that we can start a conversation on common ground, and that really helps me in my role at MEP. [00:07:55]

Josh Slotnick: [00:07:55] So what are some of the challenges you have faced then, that entrepreneurs in Missoula are facing right now, and what are some new ones?

Christine Littig: [00:08:03] Wow, that's an interesting question, Josh. I tend to think that all the problems exist in sort of this ebb and flow. So when I had Redbird.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:14] Back in the magical night.

Christine Littig: [00:08:16] Yeah. And yet you want to call it the magical 90s. And yet there was a period of time where we were employing people with master's degrees.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:24] Oh, yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:08:24] To wash dishes.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:25] I remember. Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:08:26] Dog walkers.

Juanita Vero: [00:08:27] Right.

Christine Littig: [00:08:28] And it feels like right now we're sort of. We thought we were in this place where we didn't have workforce, and now it feels like, well, no, we have workforce again. And are the jobs really out there? Well, they're out there for businesses who found the opportunity that's getting the zhuzh going right. That the revenues generating. But in other industries it might not be out there, and it's becoming more and more difficult to find a job again. So that's one I think also, there's always challenges around how do you market yourself? What what does it look like to find your niche in business? I think business has also changed a lot when you think about marketing yourself.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:06] Yeah. So how did you go with your 13 business plans, like starting out with like just starting to put food in a bar to the Redbird, one of the finest dining establishments in Missoula. It's time. Yeah, sure. For sure. So, like, how did you decide to land or how do you help burgeoning entrepreneurs decide to land where they do?

Christine Littig: [00:09:26] Well, I think I'm going to focus on the the entrepreneurs coming up, because I think it's there was a time in my life where I thought I was going to be a serial entrepreneur. I was going to be that Missoula person.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:37] Oh my God, I could open a business after. Oh, but it was the.

Christine Littig: [00:09:41] Funnest part.

Juanita Vero: [00:09:43] For me was.

Christine Littig: [00:09:44] Absolutely the creation. Just generating, bringing to life what was dancing around in my mind. Yeah. And sometimes in my role, I have to reel myself back a little and realize that someone's idea across from me isn't my own. But I get very excited working with Missoulians, who are looking at contributing to our community, who have really cool ideas, and I don't I don't think there's ever a time where there's a wrong idea. It just might not be the time for that idea. Some pass and some never come to fruition, but some are like seeds, like the 13 business plans that if you just keep planting them and watering them a little bit, all of a sudden it's their time. And so, you know, in supporting businesses, I think the entire team at MVP, we focus on keeping our minds open and figuring out where our resources, where our opportunities, how can we help them fine tune their business pitch if they need to pitch it for the tech industry? Or how can we help them fine tune a business plan? Or is their business plan too long? I did recently just meet with someone whose business plan was way too long? I said, wow, you've done all the work and that's great. When the tennis balls start pummeling you, when you're open, you'll be ready to answer every question. But no one's going to read this 44 page business plan. Yeah, you did the homework, but you got to peel it back and now make it a pitch plan so that you're securing your funding.

Juanita Vero: [00:11:05] What's the commercial landscape like in Missoula or surrounding areas now in 2020? Like September 15th, 2025.

Christine Littig: [00:11:12] There's opportunity for people who are ready for the opportunity. And part of.

Juanita Vero: [00:11:17] Being you sound like my dad, but it's true.

Christine Littig: [00:11:19] It's true. And isn't that the rub, though? I can remember, you know, I grew up in Missoula, so I can remember my grandparents being right over on the corner of mountain 13th. They were on the edge of town, and my grandfather used to say to my dad all the time, you need to buy that land out there. You got to buy that. And my dad would say, with what? And I think that's really where we are right now, is that other place of there's opportunity if you're ready for the opportunity. And not everyone is. Not everyone has the finances to make it happen. There are areas of the community that are more affordable. But is that business owner in a place where they understand who their target market is? Do they actually want to be on that side of town? Would they prefer to be out in the county? Out at the. Why is that the right place for their business? And is the opportunity right? Well, maybe the infrastructure isn't completely finished out there, right? So is there going to be more? That's going to have to be invested. That will impact their risk. So there's opportunity. But in the end, I mean, it really does right now in Missoula come down to.

Josh Slotnick: [00:12:21] So that that kind of golden era where we're, we're speaking wistfully about where we hired master's degree folks to wash dishes. There were a whole bunch of businesses and nonprofits that kind of were born during that era that have become part of our cultural landscape. So much so, they're almost like institutions, like we can't imagine Missoula without Bernice's bakery or with the M, right? These are just features of our of our landscape. And for a lot of those entities, Kevin, I was right in the thick of it with you during that time. It was scrappy. Yeah, yeah. Scrappy young people who could afford to live small and put most all of their energy towards making their dream become real. Right now, it feels like living small isn't a possibility in Missoula. So what? What sort of advice?

Juanita Vero: [00:13:06] What do you mean by living small?

Josh Slotnick: [00:13:08] You can't pay your rent working 20 hours a week somewhere, and then put 60 hours a week into making your dream come true? Yeah, yeah. It's just too expensive to live here. And yet we see all kinds of space for entrepreneurs and new businesses and new ventures happening. What would you recommend to somebody as strategy? How do you how do you start small in a landscape with that costs a lot?

Christine Littig: [00:13:31] Well, I have to make this recommendation all the time. I remind people, and even though the landscape is different, and even though it is more expensive to get into business. And I think if we did the math, it's not equally more expensive with inflation. It's more expensive to do business in Missoula, but opportunities are out there if you're creative. So I do remind people to think outside of the box. Do you have a.

Juanita Vero: [00:13:57] Story or an example?

Josh Slotnick: [00:13:58] Yeah. Can you talk about. Can you talk about some successes? Is it okay to. I don't wanna breach anybody's confidence.

Christine Littig: [00:14:04] I think I can because one is open. But we recently just told the story in a MEPs newsletter and we made a video Missoula makers was.

Josh Slotnick: [00:14:14] Yeah, yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:14:15] Thoughtful out of the box in their thinking and starting their business. They started their business embedded and partnered in another business. So they shared a retail space with another business. When that business sold and the dynamic of the relationship changed. They put their heads up right away and said, okay, what do we do now? How do we change? How do we move? How do we shift who we are and find our own space or a new partnership. Our role with them at MEP, we held them for almost a year, helping them move through. Now they didn't have to do 13 business plans, but I think they looked at five different spaces and created five different versions of what we now see on Front Street. That's Missoula makers, and that wasn't their first choice of a location. They had that location initially, and it was just this teeny small little opportunity that not many businesses could fit in a 500 square foot space. Right? So they found that teeny little opportunity, and then, lo and behold, the business next to them recently closed. That is a sadness. But they were able to then expand. And now they have this full business. And I think if you look all the way down, Higgins, you can see entrepreneurs right now finding opportunity south of Higgins. Like creating opportunity. You think of Smith Black is down there. Ditto. Bottle shop just opened up. Bertie Thatcher gather for good. I would argue that every Missoulians who wants to work out if you don't like hike in the mountains, do the big.

Juanita Vero: [00:15:48] Circle all.

Christine Littig: [00:15:49] The way to the bottom of Patty Canyon, right? And just circle and you can stop. You can eat. You can have a picnic. You walk right past the park. You walk past the dairy Queen. You walk past just this beautiful, functioning circle of economy.

Josh Slotnick: [00:16:04] Wow. The interwoven economy.

Christine Littig: [00:16:06] Yeah.

Juanita Vero: [00:16:07] I'm gonna walk it. Yeah. That's fantastic.

Christine Littig: [00:16:09] I want it. I've been wanting to walk it. I haven't, but I also want to know how you know. Is it three miles? I want to be able to tell my friends. No, let's do this.

Juanita Vero: [00:16:15] Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:16:16] So we've been talking small businesses. How about for larger scale industries? What's what's it look like out there.

Christine Littig: [00:16:22] Mm. Depends on the industry. But if we focus on the county I think that there is opportunity for industry in the county. You're seeing it at the Y. Yeah. We're seeing Montana Knife Company complete their new building out there. Paradise Dental Technologies just celebrated 25 years. Now their newest location is out at the Y, but they've also just expanded out there. I can say that I asked, I have a current client business in Missoula that I'm working with who's also expanding in that area, and that's Montana Fire Pits. Missoula. And so they are also going to increase their business size. They imagine over the next four years that they'll have another 30 employees in their business. So they're finding opportunity in their industry. You know, we hear a lot that the county's pretty creative and flexible with people, and I think that does give some extra opportunity. Well, I think of Bonner. Yeah, right. The Bonner Mill site, there's a lot of businesses out there who started smaller botany Soap Company so successful. So yeah, I think there's another one that goes back I.

Josh Slotnick: [00:17:25] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:17:25] We.

Josh Slotnick: [00:17:25] Employed.

Christine Littig: [00:17:26] Lindsay.

Juanita Vero: [00:17:27] I know.

Christine Littig: [00:17:28] And they took our half and half containers and made soap in the, you know like these are the stories that people again the garage thing that that, you know, get lost a little bit when you're new to our community, but they're out there. Hot chocolate.

Juanita Vero: [00:17:41] Is out there.

Christine Littig: [00:17:42] Doing their chocolates, and now they have a nifty little bakery.

Juanita Vero: [00:17:46] Cafe shop.

Christine Littig: [00:17:47] That you can stop in. But I love what the county just supported in that area with the zoo town rec facility. The volleyball.

Josh Slotnick: [00:17:55] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:17:55] Which really well, and I mean, and that's not industry, perhaps in the truest sense, but it's responding to industry in a way that our community wants.

Juanita Vero: [00:18:05] So does a business go find MEP or does MEP head hunt business or how does the relationship work?

Christine Littig: [00:18:11] I think one of the most wonderful things that I learned about MEP when I first came on the team is it's a very networked team and it's a really committed team to the community. We know a lot of people, so we are intentional with having conversations, being at networking events, hosting networking events, connecting with the community as often as possible so that we aren't cold calling. Yeah, we want to be embedded in the community. And I think in the last three years, as the team has gotten to know each other more, Chelsea Rabidoux, our marketing director, and I both arrived at the same time. So there was growth from Chelsea and I as we were getting, you know, stabilized in our job and then growth from the rest of the team. And now we're all operating together and in sync, and we're very well connected. And we have fewer and fewer calls coming in that are cold calls and more conversations or recommendations coming in from community members throughout Missoula County.

Juanita Vero: [00:19:13] Oh that's exciting. Yeah, great to hear. Yeah.

Josh Slotnick: [00:19:15] Yeah. What do you make of the changes in the wood products industry that we've seen and felt in western Montana as of late?

Christine Littig: [00:19:22] Way to ask me a tough question.

Juanita Vero: [00:19:25] All right.

Christine Littig: [00:19:26] Well, the first thing I'll say is, is that me, myself, in my role, I have not been intimately involved in what has been going on with the wood products industry at large, really. Grant Kerr, our CEO, and Nicole Rush are still working diligently to try to figure out how to solve some of the gaps that we have, how to solve for pyramid lumber space. Still a blank slate, I think as a team with the Roseburg Forest Products site, we were in the know a little bit early enough that we could plan a little bit and think broader. We had a few months that allowed us to imagine what might work in that space, and did we imagine that it would be best for the business or the community to have all those historic buildings go down and tumble down, or be taken down, or was there something new we could put in them? So there was a little bit of anticipation time that we were gifted there that allowed us to have an introduction with story house pictures, and then be able to talk to them and discover, whoa, these guys could be a good fit for Missoula. Let's do some more due diligence here. Then let's make an introduction to Roseburg. Then let's see if an actual sale. So we had a little bit more time and flow. But as far as the wood products industry, Josh, I mean, I think we've been gifted a gift from the board to be able to stretch further, to not just think of Missoula County, to think of how solving that nut if it lands in Missoula County. We're thrilled, but it's solving that nut.

Juanita Vero: [00:21:00] It's regionally important.

Christine Littig: [00:21:01] It's regionally important, right? It impacts it impacts so much. And I think, you know, it's going to take us a little bit of time. And it's a tough nut.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:08] Yeah. Wow.

Juanita Vero: [00:21:10] What are you.

Josh Slotnick: [00:21:11] Guys are on it.

Christine Littig: [00:21:12] Oh. Every day we're talking about wood.

Juanita Vero: [00:21:17] Sure. Um, well, besides wood and timber, um, uh, what are you hearing from business owners or. Or those looking to move a business to Missoula County?

Christine Littig: [00:21:27] Well, what I understand from our partners and those individuals do receive the cold calls from out of state. And in a business attraction sense. There are a lot of businesses outside of our state that are interested in coming to Missoula. Our partners communicate that they have a full queue. What they're hunting for are some of the pieces we've already talked about, right? The right space, the right price point, the right location. Is it going to cater to their target market as far as locally? There's mixed feelings about whether or not there's enough entrepreneurial energy in Missoula right now to facilitate and maybe hold true to some of that. Here's what Missoula used to like when all these people had these small businesses. I'm working really hard and I think MEP as well. I shouldn't just say I. We're working really hard. [00:22:16] We understand that local business ownership changes the vitality and the uniqueness. It holds that uniqueness of a community. So we're working hard to search out and discover who are the new entrepreneurs, who wants to be in Missoula? What can we do to support them? And I have to say, I'd push back that we don't have that entrepreneurial energy. I think I just reported to the board in June last year. I had 27 startup conversations, all with local entrepreneurs who are dancing around some ideas now, some of those take a little bit more time than others, right? To find the space, do the right thing. They're open so I can say ditto bottle shop. They were one, you know, two local gals wanting to do something different, wanting to bring something different with wine to Missoula. They're just one of the 27. [00:23:04]

Juanita Vero: [00:23:04] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:23:05] Conversations.

Juanita Vero: [00:23:06] Wow. If you were to give the economic landscape in Missoula County a grade, what would it be?

Christine Littig: [00:23:12] Yeah, I read that question. When you guys.

Juanita Vero: [00:23:15] Gave it to me. I didn't bite.

Josh Slotnick: [00:23:16] On.

Juanita Vero: [00:23:17] That one. I know.

Christine Littig: [00:23:18] And I laughed out loud. Um, I really, you know, I've lived here a long time, and so I feel like I have an opinion. But being here as a representative of the Missoula Economic Partnership and giving a grade to the Missoula economy, I think that's my CEO's job, not mine.

Josh Slotnick: [00:23:38] There you.

Christine Littig: [00:23:38] Go. Um, yeah, I know it's a very political answer. And yet there is a lot of truth in that. You know, the thing is, is that we have a really beautiful team and people who are, if not experts, working on being experts in their arm or role at the organization. So mine is business development, Julie's land development and capital stack. Nicole is workforce. And then we've got Chelsea doing marketing and communications. I don't imagine that I know all those jobs. And then Grant's broader job of just watching how everything moves. I'd love to see you guys ask him that question.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:16] He would be thoughtful and careful.

Juanita Vero: [00:24:17] Yeah, he is kind of a I don't know, it's like a vibey question.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:22] It is a vibe. It is.

Juanita Vero: [00:24:23] Maybe.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:23] Maybe. Yeah, maybe the grade is too harsh. But the A vibe question. So I'm going to ask one in the same vein.

Christine Littig: [00:24:30] Okay.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:30] So to what degree do you think we are tied into the national economy and separate from the national economy?

Juanita Vero: [00:24:37] That's a great.

Josh Slotnick: [00:24:37] Question. Far away. We're always a special place.

Christine Littig: [00:24:41] And yet I think we're at risk of becoming more impacted by the national economy than ever before. I think I can look at you, Josh, across the table and know that we lived in this other time, and we're in business and nonprofit during this other time, and we lived through the challenges of those times and we felt the bubble. Yes, we knew when we were living it, we felt.

Josh Slotnick: [00:25:02] Totally.

Christine Littig: [00:25:02] Protected.

Josh Slotnick: [00:25:03] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:25:04] I don't feel that way anymore. That doesn't mean we don't have a partial bubble in Missoula. I think we do. I think we're trying to figure out how to hang on to it. And some of the beauty in that. Yeah. Talking to humans on the street?

Juanita Vero: [00:25:18] Yes. You know. Yes.

Christine Littig: [00:25:19] Connecting with people on a daily basis. Finding ways to mix ourselves up with individuals that we agree or don't agree with. Supporting local businesses.

Juanita Vero: [00:25:28] This is like the viscosity of the bubble. Yeah. Is that right there?

Christine Littig: [00:25:33] I do think it's the viscosity. I can't even say that word. Yes, I think it protects our bubble. Are we at risk? I think we are. Because what we've rediscovered is how tied we are, or how our hands are tied by state regulation and laws that come down from the state and regulations even that come, you know, from the federal government. But what I see, yeah, it is what I see. I see Missoulians still trying to push back on that. I see us trying to hang on to the bubble, which doesn't have to be the one you and I know.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:04] Josh. Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:26:05] For sure. It doesn't have to be that because we're going to change and we're going to grow. But is there something that we can do? Wiser, richer? Do we have to follow every other city, or can we do it our way?

Juanita Vero: [00:26:17] Yeah. That keeps the soul of Missoula. Yeah. Everyone is always concerned about.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:20] That soul in the middle.

Christine Littig: [00:26:21] As a 60 year old Missoulians, I think we've been doing it pretty well so far. We, you know, we make mistakes just like any other human community in the world. Sure. Um, but we give it a lot of thought. We give it a lot of thought.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:35] That does make us special.

Christine Littig: [00:26:37] I think it does.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:38] I think so. Okay. I'm gonna get you with our last question.

Christine Littig: [00:26:41] Okay. Last question.

Josh Slotnick: [00:26:42] So anything you've run across in the world of culture in the last couple of weeks, you feel like it's worth repeating. So this could be a nugget you got in a podcast or something from a book or a movie or a conversation out there. Anything you feel like. Well, that really stuck with me that you might want to relate and share with our vast audience.

Christine Littig: [00:27:00] Well, thank you for giving me this question ahead of time.

Josh Slotnick: [00:27:02] As we should. As we should.

Christine Littig: [00:27:04] Because I had to think about that. I'm pretty, um, intentional around seeking out whether it's books, movies, friends, community events, things that keep me inspired. Yeah. Um. And thoughtful. And so I sat at my desk and thought about it for a little bit, and then I realized, oh, I was closing out my notes from working as a community organizer just pre-COVID and early into Covid. And I found this note and it said, and I was, I should say, I was a community organizer at the Missoula Food Bank. I want to give the Missoula Food Bank a nod here, but I found a note to myself, and it's been dancing around in my inner monologue, and the note said, can we manage what we already have and are we managing it well? And I looked at that and I was like, whoa! That was from my community organizing time. And a lot of, a lot of times we can put things in buckets, right? Oh, I was a community organizer. I was a business owner. Now I'm a business developer. And I was like, from a business development lens, this note offers me a different lens to look at how we're doing business. And I just met Julie and I, Julie Lacy, my colleague, and I just met with another young gentleman who's doing business development up in the Flathead. We were all having the conversation of maybe business development right now is about business resiliency.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:26] Yeah.

Christine Littig: [00:28:27] And that is an important role that we can play. And that is an important role that MEP plays. And so when I read that note and when I read this question, I was like, okay, where's that? What where is that note. What did it exactly say. And it says can we manage what we already have and are we managing it well? And if we're doing that, we do that. If MEP helps businesses do that. Back to protecting the bubble.

Juanita Vero: [00:28:52] Yeah. Yep yep. I mean that's that's so beautifully said. Whether you're a parent or a chef restaurant owner like I mean that's.

Josh Slotnick: [00:29:00] County commissioner even.

Juanita Vero: [00:29:02] I guess even county commissioners would feel that way. You're right. But no, that's great reminder. Thank you for that.

Josh Slotnick: [00:29:08] Yeah, that's super good. Thanks a ton for giving us a chunk of your time and for all the work you do for this place we love.

Christine Littig: [00:29:15] Yes, I love this place.

Juanita Vero: [00:29:16] Thank you so much, Christine.

Christine Littig: [00:29:17] Yeah. Thanks.

Josh Slotnick: [00:29:18] Thanks you guys. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for listening to the agenda. If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you use.

Juanita Vero: [00:29:29] And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:29:35] The agenda with the Missoula County Commissioners is made possible with support from Missoula Community Access Television, better known as MCAT, and our staff in Missoula County Communications Division.

Josh Slotnick: [00:29:47] If you have a question or a topic you'd like us to discuss on a future episode, email it to communications@missoulacounty.us.

Juanita Vero: [00:29:55] To find out other ways to stay up to date with what's happening in Missoula County, go to Missoula.

Dave Strohmaier: [00:30:02] Thanks for listening.