Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep #65:Happy Anniversary! Village Centre Press Celebrates 6 years

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

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Join us as Village Centre Press celebrates 6 years and the powerful connections forged within our community. Vince and I reflect on the privilege of capturing the stories of our neighbors, enhancing our own sense of belonging in the process. We dive into how these relationships have enriched our lives and fueled our passion for storytelling. Whether you’re contemplating your own venture or simply enjoy a heartening tale of community spirit, this episode offers inspiration and encouragement. Let us take you on a journey that underscores the beauty of creativity, community, and enduring connections.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.

Speaker 2:

Welcome. And so today's podcast is a little different because we're actually talking about the Good Neighbor Podcast is powered by Village Center Press, which publishes three magazines in Auburn and Opelika, auburn Living, north Auburn Living and Opelika Living. And we're coming up on an anniversary six years for Auburn Living and North Auburn Living and five years for Opelika Living. And with me today I have my husband, vince Hodges, and he's with me because he helps me with the magazines. He's a co-publisher in them, and so we both do this as a married couple. We're kind of in business together. So welcome, vince.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, how did this happen? Five, six years Wow?

Speaker 2:

I know how many blinks was that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we're excited to be talking about the magazines today. So, vince, why don't you tell us a little bit about how we got started? How do we get into the magazine publishing business?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's the. That's the. That really has turned into a great story. You know, you and I were working together even before the magazines, because we were both working together in Montgomery at WSFA, at the television station there, and you were on the business side of things and the marketing side and the sales side, and I'm still there in the newsroom side.

Speaker 3:

So, even though we worked together there, we really didn't see each other much at all. And I would say the exact same thing. Now we're working together, but we really didn't see each other much at all. And I would say the exact same thing now we're working together, but we really don't see each other because you're you're doing, you're doing the magazines and I'm I'm still working in Montgomery, and I think what started it was just, um, uh, I don't know how detailed you want to get, but, man, it was a really neat story because you happen to see a video of someone that you used to work with in the sales office at WSFA and then a big light bulb went off and then you called me and said hey, I think I want to do this, and I was like let's go.

Speaker 2:

And we did. We jumped off that cliff and went into business for ourselves and moved to Opelika and started this journey with our magazines and six years later, we're still, you know, going strong with them. I think the best part about this experience is learning how to be an entrepreneur and, as I say in a lot of my podcasts, I like to encourage other people that are maybe thinking about being, you know, in business for themselves or are in the process of doing that, to encourage people, people to do that, because, yes, it's hard, you know we can't, you know, say that it's not good, that it's going to be easy and it's not going to be hard. It is hard but the benefits are just so overwhelming. As you get into the business and you, you really do learn about yourself and you learn and you're creating something on your own and it's a beautiful process.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I think the really neat thing about it as well is because we're both, you know, on the new side in Montgomery, where I, you know, still work. It's all about, you know, local, local, local is it. And on your, on the business side, where you live, it's all about our local people and our, you know, our neighbors. It's all about our local people and our neighbors. And this magazine effort and these magazines that we've been able to publish for five and six years now, it's right on par with that.

Speaker 2:

That is exactly where our heart has always been, and especially when we actually moved our address to Opelika and discovered a new bunch of neighbors and a new myriad of neighborhoods. Man, that was just gravy really, because that's what it's all about is just being a part of a community. That, and especially a community like this one that we live in now just a great place to be. And you know, we've met so many people through our magazines telling their stories, whether you know, you're featured in the magazine or you're a sponsor. It's just been a real pleasure to to really get to know the people of this area.

Speaker 2:

I like to tell people that everybody has a story. I've come across people that like, oh no, I couldn't be featured in a magazine. I live, you know I don't do anything. That's exciting, but really once you sit down and you look at what you have done over your life, you really do learn that you do have an incredible story. Everybody does, and every single month we get to tell the story of a family, an individual or a couple that lives in this area and it really does help to bring people together, as we, you know, as as we strive to let people know about other people in their neighborhoods and in the city. And it really is. It really has been a pleasure and an honor to publish these magazines.

Speaker 3:

And the organizations and all those people that are make those things run, that really, really help to make a community, and the partners we've had with the schools and the cities and the chambers and just all of the sponsors and just chambers and just all of the sponsors and just um, just having that having that chance just to you know, just for a second, you know, just tell that little bit of story to get get people to learn a little bit about their neighbors and also to, um, you know what what it does for me. I obviously learn every time we write a new story, but it really just helps further and deepen that connection that, um, you know we have in the community and just get to learn and meet so many new people and just try to realize it's overwhelming when you look at it. All that's here you know, oh, just little. You know a couple towns in Lee County. Man, there's so much going on here, oh yeah, and it's just so much fun, so much fun.

Speaker 2:

So in the January issues of all three magazines we're going to be celebrating our anniversaries. We're going to give an update on the very first families that were on the cover of our very first issues. So we're going to be an update of those. We're also going to feature our current photographers. Our photographers have been so wonderful. We have really worked with some great photographers. But we're going to be featuring our current photographers in the January issue and we're also going to tell you how you can submit items for the magazines. That's something that we do. It's kind of like social media. You just send us a picture and a few paragraphs about you know what you want to say. You can do birthdays announcements, sports achievements. You can nominate your neighbor for a cover feature. There's all kinds of things you can send us. We'd be happy to put it in the magazine. We don't charge for it and so we would love to hear from our readers. Just feel free to submit. And what are some of the ways you can submit articles and items to the magazine Vince?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the best way really is just go to our website, villagecenterpresscom, and also to talk about submissions, this podcast. You know you could submit a friend, a neighbor, a new business owner, a 50-year business owner, whatever that would like to be, on your Good Neighbor podcast that we're on right now. So that's something that was developed, you know, just over the last couple of years with this podcast and the newsletters that we have. You can ask us to get you on our digital newsletter.

Speaker 2:

Email list yes.

Speaker 3:

Email list that's sent out. So there's just so many different ways, but really you can kind of get a look at all of it just at Villagecenterpresscom. That's really the best way to do that and kind of see everything that's going on and learn more about our like you mentioned, our photographers that just work with us and are just oh my gosh, if you've looked just you know it's really cool to see these January issues come out, because we've got a montage of some of the you know, some of the covers over the over the you know couple, three, four, five years now that we've been doing this and just awesome pictures and just great stuff. So Village Center Press, that's the place to go. You'll see information about this podcast and everything there that you would need to know to help get something submitted to us, and it's really that easy. It's just like posting a picture on, like you said, facebook, you know on LinkedIn or you know TikTok.

Speaker 3:

Even Just send it right to us and we'd be happy to put that in the magazines and feature those as well and what's really cool and it's kind of a bad, a good problem, but tough. You know, we do have a good list of people that we'd like to feature, and it's you know so. We don't lose your names once you submit it to us. And it's you know so we don't. We don't lose your names once you submit it to us. We will. We will try very hard to get to those feature. You know the list that we have because we've had so many great people nominate their friends and others to be on our be on the covers of the magazines.

Speaker 2:

All right. Well, happy anniversary to Village Center Press and the magazines that we publish Auburn Living, north Auburn Living and Opelika Living. Please feel free to call us or send us an email. It's Susanna at VillageCenterPresscom or Vince at VillageCenterPresscom. My cell phone is 334-237-1858. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

All right. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburncom. That's gnpauburncom, or call 334-429-7404.