Elevate Springfield

Elevate Springfield featuring Celeste Malham and Nicholas Koch: Elevating Through the Power of Community Events and Engagement

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Summary

In this conversation, Robert discusses various topics with Local First board members Celeste Malham and Nicholas Koch, focusing on the success of the West Side Market, community engagement, and the importance of intentionality in vendor selection. They share insights on entrepreneurship, health and wellness business ventures, and the significance of collaboration and positivity in the local business landscape. The discussion also touches on upcoming events, market themes, and the role of insurance in supporting the community.

takeaways

  • The West Side Market had its busiest opening yet, showcasing community support.
  • Intentionality in vendor selection enhances the market experience.
  • Upcoming markets will feature diverse vendors and themed events.
  • Entrepreneurship advice includes starting a side hustle while maintaining a main income.
  • Insurance plays a crucial role in protecting local businesses and individuals.
  • Collaboration among businesses can lead to greater success and community impact.
  • Positivity and support for new businesses are essential for local growth.
  • Engaging with the community through social media can amplify support for small businesses.

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SPEAKER_03

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together, we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your life, your business, all of it. Time to crush those goals, time to get after it. Let's go. You are listening to the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, we're going to Elevate Springfield. We're coming to you again from beautiful downtown Springfield in the Big Dog Construction Studio. Hey, we've got so much going on in Springfield right now. Make sure you are participating. Get out there, network with folks, be a part of the community, support local businesses, support local nonprofits, and let's go, we can all grow together. So, hey, another great episode for you today. We're gonna get right to our guest after the break. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Ruffing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities. From quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. All right, and we are back. Hey, I am not in the studio again. Seems like that's a regular occurrence here over the last week or so, but we just got done with our local first Springfield board meeting, and we're over here at the Crafted Stag Supply. Joining me today are two of those board members from Local First Springfield. We'll talk about what they do in their businesses as well. But we've got Celeste Mallam and Nicholas Cock. Both have been on the show before. How y'all doing today?

SPEAKER_04

Good.

SPEAKER_03

Doing good. Appreciate you popping on here. So one of the things we wanted to discuss just this past weekend, Celeste, you're had your first West Side market of the year, right? So wanted to talk a little bit about how it went, a little recap of that, maybe remind everybody how it all started, and then how local first partnered with that this year. So how'd it go this weekend?

SPEAKER_01

It was awesome. Um, for the second or for the first market of the second season, it was the busiest market we have had yet. It's just so fun to see the community come together for the market on the weekend. Last year was the first year, and I had a vision basically of this market in the Papa's cafe parking lot. And uh basically my husband was like, that would be really cool if you could make that happen. And then we made it happen. We have a board that helps us put that together. And so yeah, this weekend was awesome and it was really nice to have local first there, which you know is something that we were excited to bring that partnership together.

SPEAKER_03

So, how many vendors did you have out there on Sunday?

SPEAKER_01

We had 50.

SPEAKER_03

50, nice. And tell everybody some of some of the types of businesses that were out there.

SPEAKER_01

So we center our core vendors around farmers. So um, we have some meat people, we have people who sell eggs, we've got fresh flowers and then produce. And we even had somebody this year selling plants that you could like take home and then start your own garden, which was awesome. That was a first for this year. Um, so that's our core. We always, you know, want to make sure that our market is centered around that. And then from there, we bring in handmade vendors. Everybody at our market is selling a product that they've put their heart and hands usually into. So we have people who are making things. Um, we also have boutiques that they'll make like tie-dye jackets or something, again, something that they're making.

SPEAKER_03

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

And so between all that, we have uh 50 vendors in our market.

SPEAKER_03

Love it. So last year it was a hit pretty quickly, right? I mean, the even the first couple of markets where there we have great attendance both on the vendor side and the people showing up to visit it, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So whenever we first decided to do this, we reached out to the city, you know, to figure out how legally how we do this. Uh, and they kind of like chuckled when I was on the phone because I guess apparently a lot of people have tried to make a farmer's market happen on the West side for like the past 10 years. And that was a little bit uh intimidating at first, but that also showed me that the West Side wants it. So the West Side will support it, and it, yeah, it would just be more likely to be a success just because of the want in the community for something like that.

SPEAKER_03

Love it, love it. So has anything changed from last year to this year? Have you just stuck with your core, what you're doing, or have there been any changes moving into year two here?

SPEAKER_01

I'm an intentional person, and everybody on our board for the market is very intentional too. So we just were always thinking, how do we do this better? How do we get more people here? How do we have the vendors be more intentional as well? Um, so this year, the element of entertainment with local first, we had a dunk tank for this localfirst group. Um, so that was really fun. And then intentional with our the vibe. So live music as a huge hit and just being intentional with who we're selecting for that. And again, also just making sure with our vendors that they're selling something. So we have a lot of inquiries, people who want to vend at our market. People like Sam's Club, love Sam's Club. I'm a big shopper there. However, they wanted to come sell memberships. And I feel like we're always thinking about the market customer with every decision we're making. So in our minds, we're like, well, if I was a customer, I wouldn't want Sam's Club asking me to be a member. So I was really flattered that they wanted to be at our market because that's showing that the community wants to be involved at every angle. But I also wanted to make sure that something that the customer would like.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So we're very intentional about who's vending at our market.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. So part of that being intentional with new things there and everything, you started with sponsors for each market this year, right? So what are you doing there? We'll talk about the local first part of that, but yeah, what is the idea?

SPEAKER_01

You know, as a small business owner in the community, I've recognized how important it is to link up with local businesses. And so we have a platform, and we thought it'd be an awesome idea to basically every month showcase different sponsors to try to help build that sponsor's platform. And so basically, when it comes to social media and the algorithms, the tagging of other people just really helps bring awareness to us and to those sponsors as well.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. So Local First Springfield was a sponsor in June and will be a sponsor in July. Let's talk to Nick for a second. Hey, when we were thinking about doing this, what was our thought process with Local First Springfield?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Really, it was just a perfect way to collaborate with the West Side Market. Uh, like Slus said, I mean, all the vendors are local. Um there are people that are here in our community. Most of them, truthfully, are probably already, if they're not local first members now, they're they're gonna be local first members. So it's really just a good opportunity for us to get out there and just remind people because, and I like kind of like what Sless said, I mean, Sam's Club is a half mile from Papa from where we were. So you can more or less see it in the distance, but it's like, hey, we're all right here in this parking lot supporting small businesses. Um the amount of people that I saw that I know from personal walk of life to business to seeing personal clients, things like that, it's just a great, great event, a good way to gently remind people, hey, let's let's continue to support these small businesses and remind them what local first is all about.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. So, with that, we had a booth and we wanted to do something interactive, I guess. Fun and interactive. So if people weren't at the market, tell them what we did that day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we figured what better way to get people's attention than a dunk tank. So luckily, uh through some different collaborations and pulling some different strings, we were able to get a uh dunk tank there. And uh Jack Geyser from Clean Cut was uh brave enough to to man a shift up there for it was gonna be for the the full three hours, but it was it was pretty cloudy and windy and it was it was pretty cold. And so luckily Jack brought uh his uh two younger brothers and then Celeste's son actually hopped up there and was a trooper for a while. But I mean it was great though. Seeing the kids' face whenever they would throw the ball and hit it and the person drops and the big splash, and you know, everybody's laughing and clapping, and just uh just just the the positivity that it brought was was was great.

SPEAKER_03

No, I bet the kids loved it. They're probably coming time and time again, I would imagine.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there were some kids we had to kind of gently remind, okay, it's time to have your turn. Let's yeah, let's uh I think Jack spent most of the time in the water. He was uh he was getting dunked quite often.

SPEAKER_03

So shout out to Jack Geyser, clean cut painting and handyman. He was instrumental in getting the dunk tank there, and then also being the person getting dunked all the time. So shout out to him for spending all that time over the weekend with that.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, yep. And uh just they're just showing the power of the connections. You know, Chad Fower from Sign Ventry Service got us hooked up with Noonan and then uh Nick Gintaw from Prairie State Bank got us hooked up with the person to fill it because did not expect it, but one of those dunk tanks is about 500 gallons of water. And that's uh I thought, okay, maybe we'll just go buy some, yeah, we'll go buy some gallons of water, a big five-gallon jug, but no, we we needed a big or run a run a garden hose to it, and uh take a little bit, take a little bit to fill that up. We we might have to work with papos and get that filled with espresso next time, huh?

SPEAKER_03

Ooh, that'd be fun. Yeah, that'd be fun. Awesome.

SPEAKER_02

Great, great time.

SPEAKER_03

No, absolutely. Definitely the the power of collaboration there and working together. That was awesome. So July, we're doing it again, not a dunk tank, but we're gonna do something else fun for July. We'll be another sponsor out there. We'll have an interactive something at our booth. So check us out next month, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I'm uh looking forward to this next one. It's uh still locking in the details, but uh I can confirm it will not be a dunk tank. So that's right. But yeah, we got too much fun with that. Yeah, I think Jack's still trying to warm up and dry out.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Exactly. On the verge of hypothermia from that day, even though it was June. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Water was cold.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah. Well, Celeste, anything new going into July for West Side Market? Or what can people expect at the July market?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so just um wanted to touch base and let you guys know that uh people can expect the market to be the second Sunday of the month. June was our first one through November. Um, so the next one will land on July 12th. We'll have Joel Honey there for our music, which we're pretty excited. He's pretty uh well known in our community and well loved. Um, I believe as far as the vendors go, so we'll have about 50 vendors at every market. However, we had about a hundred vendors that we're working with. So another way that we wanted to be intentional this year was to not have the same exact vendors at every single market. So we'll still have our core: the farmers, the meat, the produce, eggs, and the flower girls. Those are really popular. But when it came to like the, because if you know, if you go to our market in June and you buy a tie-dyed jacket, the next month you're probably not gonna buy a tie-dye jacket. So we'd rather just our vendors just do really well at one market and like take a month off. So um the next, so in July, we'll have our core, but then we're gonna have probably I think 15 to 20 different vendors that we didn't have last month. So this month, you gotta come out if you if you came to the last one, you gotta come out to this one because it's gonna be a little bit different.

SPEAKER_03

No, I really like that. How you keep the the core of the the food and all the stuff that people love to see, but then you kind of mix it up throughout each month, so keeps it fresh for everybody.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and exciting. Like, you know, oh, I haven't seen and and not to, you know, our market's just a little bit different. We're not really a farmer's market, but kind of. But say if you go to a traditional market and you go every weekend, it's like the same vendor over and over, it kind of loses a little bit of that excitement feel. And that's what we want to keep that, we want to keep that high by having those new vendors.

SPEAKER_03

Now you mentioned the flower vendors, those are always super popular. I mean, like Coyote Acres on the list. Coyote acres. They love that place. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_01

And our other flower vendors do as well, do well too. She's just really good with her social media. Um, people will literally come to our market just to come buy her flowers. It's the coolest thing ever. And she's she is very intentional. So it's fun to have her out there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, they have a cool spot out there too. I hadn't been out to their place. I've always only mainly seen them at the West Side Market, but uh around prom when we were doing my daughter, we had got prom flowers from her and went out to they have a really cool spot out there if anybody hasn't been there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. I've only seen from social media that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, really cool spot. So well, everybody, head out to the West Side Market next month and every month. Do the uh markets change as the weather changes? Are they all the same? Do you have any other themes that you work on throughout the year?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think I believe the next one is gonna be red, white, and local. Um and so we're just gonna do, you know, it'll be a weekend past fourth of July, but it'll still, we're still gonna keep the America vibes going for that next market. And then, you know, like for October, we hit the fall themes and uh our last market of the year, November, is actually a Christmas theme. So it's a little bit early before Christmas, but it's it's a fun Christmas vibe, and we always have Santa out. And uh last year we had a a reindeer that was walking around and people love that. We'll probably have it that reindeer back again.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, those rain they love the reindeer. I don't know if it's still there, but there used to be a reindeer farm over in Rantoul where you could go and and pet the reindeer and do all the things. I think it's still over there, yeah. So cool. Well, Nick, for the Fourth of July one next month, you and I, maybe Grant here could get us set up with some like festive suits or something, like some red, white, and blue stuff that we could we could wear next month. Yeah, get a nice bald eagle on the back. That's right. Go through America for everybody that day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, 250th anniversary.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. Yeah, maybe we'll have to talk to Grant after that. He's got so much cool stuff out here. Yeah. I saw you were buying something here before we went on air here. I did, I think. So much great stuff.

SPEAKER_02

I think every time I come in here, I fall victim. So no, there's I I think earlier in our meeting, Chad Fowler said it best. He said, I think I'd wear it, I'd wear anything.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just about everything in the store.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, thanks for Grant for for hosting our meeting and hosting us here. This is uh it's a good little makeshift studio he's got here. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03

I'm thinking about asking to rent this thing out. It's beautiful right here. So I'll take it. I'll take it. And the shoes behind you, that's what I'm gonna look at next. You can't see it in the shot here, but he's got all of his nice wolf and shepherds and all those behind there. So have to check those out. But before we close out, let's spend a few minutes reminding everybody what you guys do outside of the West Side Market and local first Springfield and all that stuff. So, Celeste, Papo's, Fed Kitchen, all the stuff. Tell us a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so that's a little bit of what we do. Um, Papo's Cafe last year we co-branded with Fed Kitchen. So Fed Kitchen is my business, and then Papo's Cafe is my partner, Will Hoaker. We decided to just merge and kind of go all in. They are separate brands, but we do operate them together. Um, Pablo's Cafe, located on West Isles. We have an all-day brunch venue and we're open Monday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. And then Fed Kitchen, healthy, delicious meal prep. All you have to do is throw it in the mic away for two minutes and it's ready to go. Most of what we do is pre-sale, um pre-order online. We take those orders online and then we mass produce them and we package them up and deliver them to a satellite refrigerator, whether that pickup location is at Papua's Cafe, or we have different locations around town, including Chatham and Taylorville and Jacksonville. So, but the other cool thing about this year is that we also are doing business-to-business sales and we are wholesaling our meals at Harvest Market, Robert Seafood, and in Taylorville, but that's a little bit further away. We are also working on something, a new um wholesale spot closer to like the downtown area. So we have we are finalizing details, but we're really excited about this next opportunity to get our meals out to more of Springfield.

SPEAKER_03

Love it. Seems like the wholesale part's been pretty successful. I've seen on social, you're talking about selling out at the stores and everything.

SPEAKER_01

You know, I don't want to get into too many details, but our first uh order with Harvest Market was they ordered 16 meals and the next week they jumped it up to 200 and they cannot keep our meals on the shelves, which has been as a small business owner who I'm part of the behind the scenes, it has been really exciting to see the community just really get behind what we're doing.

SPEAKER_04

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

Cause I thought the direct to consumer was going to be a big part of our business model. And then this year, wholesaling at Harvest Market has just blown our minds with how much we can do through a wholesale situation.

SPEAKER_03

So well, you know, you look at some of those brands that are out there, that's how a lot of them started with the straight to consumer. But then they relatively quickly, when they moved into the wholesale aspect, that's when they really just exploded. So yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01

It's been really fun and exciting for us.

SPEAKER_03

Very cool. You guys also, you and Brennan, you also do coaching, right?

SPEAKER_01

We uh work one-on-one with clients to help them get to whatever goal it is. A lot of people want to lose weight. My husband hates whenever I say that we're like weight loss coaches, but whatever the health goal is, sometimes it's reversing um autoimmune diseases or pre-diabetes or whatever the health goal is. My husband is not to you know sound biased, but he is the biggest expert I know when it comes to human optimization. So him and I do that. And then we also have another business that we started last year. Hey, there you go. Which you're familiar with.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But yeah, we basically we have a healthy vending machine business. I mean, it's healthy, healthy-ish. So our whole thing is health and wellness. We love helping people get healthier, but we also know that we can't force that on everybody. So, same with Papo's Cafe. When we bought into there, we were like, do we just do all healthy? And my I told my partner, I feel like you put yourself in a corner when you do that because some people want, you know, the sugary lattes and the big cinnamon rolls. And some people want to eat the latte with a healthy meal prep. So with the vending machine business, a lot of it is like your typical vending machine items, but then there is a lot of healthy items as well.

SPEAKER_03

Awesome. Yeah. Doing good there too. You guys got a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01

We do.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We love it though. We love being a small business owner, it's it drives us, it motivates us. It's we're passionate. We love our community and we love supporting other local businesses in the community.

SPEAKER_03

Well, being an entrepreneur with all those different businesses, any advice you could give, maybe just starting their first business, any advice you could give them?

SPEAKER_01

I really believe that if you work your career and at the same time start a side hustle and let that side hustle build so much that it can finally overtake your career is probably the safest way to do it. Because a lot of people, they don't own businesses because they're afraid. They're afraid of the risk. And the risk is high, especially if you know that's how you're gonna feed your family and pay your bills. So I was just talking to another small business owner yesterday and he has a career and he's building up all these other small businesses. And he basically says it's a lot less risky. He still has his career. If all that falls and he fails, he's still fine.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_01

So that would be my advice is to keep your keep your main income going and start something on the side and just let it grow so big that it can overtake.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And also just don't be afraid to fail.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's right. Can't be afraid to fail. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01

In in small business, we fail all the time. And I don't even like to say fail because in in our household, we don't lose. You win or you learn because all the failures I've looked at that we've had, oh, because we it happens a lot. Um, you learn.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

And that's a great lesson.

SPEAKER_03

There you go. Well, Nick, let's get an update on Troxel, man. I know you've been on the show a couple of times already, but remind everybody what you do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I don't have nearly as many uh Stokes in the Fire as Celeste here, but uh yeah, I know Troxel uh any type of insurance, home, auto, commercial, um, life health, um, bond sureties, any of that stuff. We'll help you out there. Uh things are going well. I know with this weather we're having here, it's uh a lot of people are is unfortunately now is when people are finding out what their coverage is. Uh I always like to remind people it's always a good time to review your coverages, see what you've got um in place, and then you can obviously make those adjustments wherever you feel necessary. But yeah, things are going well, staying busy, run around like crazy, just trying to make sure everybody's properly covered and take care of people.

SPEAKER_03

Because as we're sitting here, we're on the day where we're supposed to be getting some pretty nasty stuff. We're early in the day as we're recording this, so we're not quite into the meat of it, but yeah, it's supposed to get pretty nasty later on. When it comes to reviewing your coverages, do you do that with folks? Do you sit down with them periodically and go over it so they, you know, because some people when they read their coverages, they might not completely get everything that's in there. Do you explain all that to them?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And that's, I mean, one thing I think I've really realized is how few people understand insurance. I mean, it's a foreign language to some, or they think, oh, I've got insurance, I'm good. Well, there's there's a state legal limit, and then there's proper coverage, and there's a huge difference. I I've had multiple people on from social media just my posts reaching out saying, Hey, here's my policy. Can you review it and just tell me? And there's there's times where I find it, it's like, hey, this is good coverage, good price, explain it to them and everything, and that's great. There's more often than not, I look at it, and there's times where you can see stuff's wildly underinsured or just little small things that aren't accurate that should be. Because well, when a claim happens, if you want to make sure your information's accurate, right? And you don't have insurance to to make money, you have insurance to be whole again. So when that storm rips through your house and tears it up and you've got to rebuild your house, you're not short a few hundred thousand dollars trying to rebuild your house. Because you wanted to save a couple hundred dollars a year in premium. That's what frustrates me the most is when I see things like homes and cars that are just wildly underinsured. And especially when we're talking about small business owners and you work so hard to run your business, and now you're faced with an unfortunate circumstance like that. And now you're having to pay out of pocket for that for something you've worked so hard for.

SPEAKER_03

Right. So we're you mentioned the uh, you know, it's to make you whole, not to make money on. I had a roofing company on company on a couple weeks ago, and they said something similar that a lot of times, like when a tornado comes through or storms come through and they do a lot of damage to your house, there's a lot of people that try to get rich off the off the storm, which is un which is unfortunate. But it's to it's to make you whole, not to build you a mansion that you when you had a 1,500 square foot house.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. And I think that's a lot of people have talked a lot recently about how their premiums are going up and things like that. And part of that reason is because people were using their insurance as a new roof policy. I remember when that Dorisio came through, I remember people being like, you know, almost going up there like, yeah, I need a new roof. Like I'm gonna go up there and really search for hail. And it's like, it's really not what it's for. I think to that point, you know, like I think Chad during a meeting earlier said it better with somebody asked him if he was excited for the for the storm, you know, he's gonna be good for business. And it's like, yes, but at the same time, he'd much rather do a regular removal than than the emergency storm maintenance and just seeing people at their worst is and we see that in insurance as well. When somebody calls you and they're in a claim and it's you know, hey, I've been in a car accident. It's first thing I always ask is, Are you okay? We'll figure out the insurance, we'll figure it out. But I can't insure, I can't replace you. I can replace the car, your house, your fence, or or whatever that may be. But at the end of the day, it's about people. And I think at at Troxel, we we really pride ourselves on that. Uh, we've been local since 1887.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, one of the longest standing businesses in Springfield, really. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02

Uh no plans going anywhere. And really at the end of the day, it's all about the people. And I think that's one thing I personally have liked about working at Troxel, but also seeing Troxel in the community and being born and raised here in Springfield is it's all about the people, and that's a differentiator. You can go anywhere and get an insurance policy, but you can't go anywhere and get a good agent that actually cares about you, that's going to follow up with you and keep in touch and just genuinely are as our slogan says, is educate, advocate, and protect.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Is what we do.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Well, if uh something happens today and we do get the big tornadoes and there is some damage done, walk us through a little bit more of the process. Troxel goes through on a claim.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. So first and foremost, are you okay? Do we need to call the police ambulance? Do we need is everything okay? And first and foremost, take care of the situation. If you have a big tree fall through your your house, I should not be your first call. Right. As much as I want you to let us know, take care of the situation. Do your best to mitigate the situation. Um, and then from there, take as many pictures as you can. Um, if it's like an auto thing or something, you need to get law enforcement involved to get a report, and then send that to us. We've got an in-house claims team. I they're just working overtime right now. I know they're slammed right now, but I had somebody the other day file a claim and they just they sent me a message and said how nice they were treated and how much that meant to them. And that to me, because that's out of my hands, it's nice to know that they're being taken care of for my teammates, if that makes sense. Absolutely. So take pictures, contact your agent, and then just really work with the insurance company. And unfortunately, there's nothing I can do for you. Uh, if if you're not a Troxel client at this point, but as always, I'm more than happy to review policies. There's been multiple times where I've reviewed them and no strings attached. Hey, I can't do anything for you. This is a great, great policy. It's not a sales pitch, it's generally just trying to help you out.

SPEAKER_03

Right. So well, if somebody does want to work with you, how do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Um, you can shoot me an email, n K O C H at Troxelins.com, uh, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever, whatever you got to do, get a hold of me. We'll uh we'll figure it out.

SPEAKER_03

There you go. Well, Nick, it's been said that your varsity in helping out the community. I don't know who originally said it. It might have been Will or Jack. Well, somebody said it initially. Anything else going on big in any of the other organizations that you're a part of?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's a long list I could go through. Some ones I'd like to highlight just real quick. United Way, always a great organization. We've got our uh uh uh Ride United, motorcycle Jeep ride, uh almost like a poker, but no poker run coming up here in a couple weeks. We've got the Chatham JC Sweet Corn Festival, uh, born and raised in Chatham. That's always holds a special place in my heart. And this year uh I'm the marketing co-chair for that, so really gonna try to get out and start promoting that. But got a lot of great lineup of concerts, plenty of food, adult beverages, different events going on throughout the day. We've got uh, I believe it's frozen uh from the Muni, is gonna be out there doing uh one of their sets um during the day on Saturday. So a lot of different opportunities to get out there and check out the place. But other than that, we've got some exciting things from local first. We've got cooking that we're excited to uh see what we can turn that into.

SPEAKER_03

And we talked about a super cool event today. We're not gonna put it out there yet, but we talked about a super cool event that we might be bringing later on this year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that when when Grant said, I've got a crazy idea, my ears perked up. Right. Yeah, and we're looking at Grant right now. And yeah, it was uh we're excited, and I I really think we can again with the collaboration from different businesses and organizations, it's amazing what happens. And I think I don't know who it was, it said on one of your podcasts, but it was people compete at the bottom and you collaborate at the top, and it's yeah, it really is just incredible. We're sitting there at the meeting talking about this idea, and Celeste's just like, wait, I've got a whole crew of people that put on this massive market. We already know what we're doing, we can help organize this. And then it just everybody kind of piped up, it's like, well, we could do this, I know that. And it's really amazing how it all falls together versus one person trying to take it on, it wouldn't go anywhere.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no doubt about it. Love it. So check back soon for more information on that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. And the uh, I guess would be a remiss if I forgot to mention the uh small business grant. Absolutely. Um, from local first, we've got coming up. We're gonna be giving two uh $2,500 um grants to local small businesses. I think it's probably the easiest way to apply for a grant I've ever heard of. Be a local first member, submit a 60-second video of your why and what you would do with the money. Really that simple. And then October 1st, we've got a uh Soiree, as we're calling it, coming up, and that's where we'll announce the winner, uh, have some other awards and things like that, and really just celebrate a wrapping up a year of supporting local businesses and helping drive our local economy.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Yeah. 60 seconds for $2,500. There's not too many places where you're gonna make $2,500 a minute.

SPEAKER_04

That's quick, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Let's get on out there. Let me know if that place is hiring. That's right. Exactly. Exactly. Well, Nick, I asked Celeste for entrepreneurship advice, and I've asked you this question before. I'm gonna see if you give me something different or if it's the same thing. Is there anything we can do community-wide to help all of us here in Springfield and the surrounding communities?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, uh, I I think a couple things, I think. One is let's work together, let's collaborate. Um, there's a lot of great businesses in Springfield, and just because you're in the same industry doesn't mean you're a competition. Personally, in the insurance world, I've had different agents reach out and say, hey, I this is a good person. We can't get a good policy for him, whatever. Can you help? Can you take a look? Yeah, absolutely. Same thing. That's a two-way street. You know, Chad was just talking about earlier about with the trees and this big storm coming up. He's partnering with three other companies in town that are gonna be kind of tag team and all this and working together. Another thing, and I think most importantly, is let's lose the negativity. Springfield is the biggest town of haters I've ever, yeah, I've ever seen. It's just there's all these great ideas, and then boom, there's instantly people ah, parking sucks. The you know, that that won't work. No, but that's not. No, nothing's ever gonna work if we don't try. So just lose the negativity, and we've got so much right now coming um down the pipeline in Springfield with the Shield Sports Park out there. Uh Legends is gonna be opening up soon. That place is sweet, just more unique stores. Like there's no other crafted stag besides the one here in Springfield. There's no other papos, there's no other what's your Mac and Cheese, uh Big Mac fed kitchen bowls.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Scoop. Incredible. Dangerous combo. I can go get coffee, donuts, and a healthy meal now. Yes, not good for me. But uh just losing the negativity, working together. And when people do try to start a new business, go support it. Even if you're not buying something, like a post, comment, share, tell a friend. Just the amount of times where it's free to support a small business is is incredible. I think we could really, really capitalize on that.

SPEAKER_03

Come on, Nick, you're spitting fire. Come on, preach, brother. Here we go. Yeah, no negativity, man. I don't know if you ever noticed, but I always wear this every single day. No day, no negativity allowed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Be positive.

SPEAKER_03

Wear it every day as a reminder. No negativity. Come on. Well, yeah, thanks again to Grant Hammer and the crafted stag supply for hosting us today for one, our local first Springfield board meeting, and two, for the uh best podcast studio in town. So right here. So appreciate that from Grant and from you guys. Appreciate you spending a few minutes with me. Awesome. Thank you for having us on. All right. Well, we're gonna let Celeste and Nick get back to elevating Springfield, but for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity, look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbor's trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangaman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody. Appreciate you making us a part of your day. Hey, don't forget while you're out on social, check ours out. You can check my personal one out at RobertFarrell at everywhere. Check out those Elevate Springfield pages, those big dog business coaching pages as well. Check us out over on YouTube. Give us a subscribe, give us a like or a follow on any of those channels. We would certainly appreciate it. So, hey, take what you learned today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together. That's right, y'all. We're gonna elevate Springfield. Be great.

SPEAKER_00

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