09/14/2026
This page shares so many of our ideas, living here for 12+ years and still being called an outsider, a big city business, a business with big city prices, too fancy for us, outsider ideas and so on and so forth.
WE CHOSE KNOXVILLE - and will continue to do so, that has to show for something.
What we want to express to you, we are for EVERYONE. Knoxville and the surrounding communities deserve more creativity, changes, progress, people, diversity, love and support, we deserve better than it was (not that it was bad, it was just different) we deserve your support, we deserve to have businesses that are successful, we deserve fresh faces and better structures, we deserve to and want to influence over other small towns, we deserve to have sustainability, we deserve our eclectic outlook on life and to bring our brilliant light to the streets.
We deserve to let our freak flags fly!
We are on the precipes of great things, we are supported by so many of you, and we'd love the support from ALL of you!
This week I encourage all of you to step outside your comfort zones, visit a business you've not visited or haven't been to in a while. Take a gander at the grandness of our square. Check out all the new and upcomig changes headed your way! Be a part of the solutions so you can brag about the progress!
Be proud of where we are going, don't wallowor dwell over where we once were, that is gone. Life moves forward.
Love you, Love your work!
Small Town Startup
You know that whole thing about how you have to love yourself before anyone else can really love you? I think small towns work a little bit like that, too.
We spend a LOT of time talking about how to get more tourists into our towns. We build festivals, create campaigns and talk about how to convince someone from two hours away that we're worth spending a Saturday in.
But sometimes I think we're skipping a pretty important step: the folks who live here have to fall in love with it first.
We have SO many people who genuinely love our town, but maybe don't quite believe in it yet. You hear it in the "only ifs" and the "maybe if someone woulds." This town would be amazing IF ONLY we had this. Downtown would be better IF SOMEONE WOULD open that.
At some point, though, we have to realize there isn't always a mysterious "they" coming to make our town what we want it to be. Sometimes loving where you live means planting flowers on a corner because it deserves to be beautiful. It's showing up, volunteering, picking up the trash or simply being willing to believe something could work.
And I think the people leading movements in our towns have a responsibility here, too. Sometimes that's as simple as better communication regularly. Tell people what you're working toward, what's taking longer than expected and even what didn't work and why. Celebrate small wins instead of waiting for the giant ribbon cutting announcement to finally let everyone in on it.
I know there's a fear that transparency will create another 187-comment HIP group argument, but when people don't know what's happening, they fill in the blanks themselves. Transparency won't make everyone agree, but it sure can take a lot of oxygen out of the rumor mill.
Great towns aren't built by one giant development or festival. They're built when enough people decide a place is worth investing a little bit of themselves into, and others see it happening and start believing, too.
So before we spend all our energy convincing tourists to fall in love with our town, maybe we need to make sure the people who wake up here every morning are falling in love with it first. 🚀 ❤️
