It was the mid-90s and Michelle Rathman felt like she’d made it. She had successfully launched her own business, Impact! Communications, growing it from a small outfit (think: a card table in the kitchen) to a firm that represented hundreds of clients on national platforms like The Oprah Winfrey Show. Then, in 1996, a cancer diagnosis turned her world upside down. Rathman … [Read more...]
Episode 34: Building Possibility
Deb Brown offers programs on various small-town challenges and has traveled extensively through rural America helping communities on their path to vitality. Her keynotes, webinars and workshops help small towns figure out what to do with empty buildings, improve marketing and economic development, and overall become more innovative and idea-friendly. She has helped all … [Read more...]
A minority, within a minority: A journey to becoming a Black business owner in rural America
TROTFITNESS, a boutique fitness studio in rural Pennsylvania, has made it against all odds. In a pandemic expected to permanently shutter hundreds of thousands of small businesses across the United States, TROTFITNESS remains open. In an industry that crushes 80 percent of fitness studios in their first year, TROTFITNESS counts nearly a decade of successful boot camps. And, … [Read more...]
Episode 33: Overcoming Challenges in Rural Healthcare
Michelle Rathman is the founder of Impact! Communications based in Geneva, Illinois. She started her business in 1989 as a Chicago-area public relations, advertising, and marketing firm. The company represented clients from a variety of industries and provided high-level PR services. This included booking published authors on national television shows, like the Oprah Winfrey … [Read more...]
Dairy farm finds way to thrive amidst tough market
Zero dollars. When they read the number on the check, their hearts sank. After a month of physically exhausting work, the owners of Duivenvoorden Farms received absolutely no money in return. That was thirteen years ago, when the northern California dairy farm participated in the “conventional market” – selling its milk to a co-op-owned creamery. “That’s a pretty … [Read more...]