eyewitness to appalachia - entrepreneurship for the public good portfolio presentation

Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Portfolio Presentation

This presentation is meant to highlight and emphasize the coursework, fieldwork, insights, personal growth, and research in Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Cohort 11s Trail Town/Social Media Efforts in the summer of 2014.Date: 3 July 2014By: Jacob Heller

eyewitness to appalachia aps 286 & gst 386

Introduction

This presentation is meant to highlight and emphasize the coursework, fieldwork, insights, personal growth, and research in Entrepreneurship for the Public Good Cohort 11s Trail Town/Social Media Efforts in the summer of 2014.

1

So youve been busy this summer?Yelp! ReviewsTripAdvisor ReviewsTripAdvisor Views as of6/21/2014 Interviews and intercepts in Berea by my teamInterviews and intercepts in total for my cohort

27261,29917204

Jacob Heller, Eyewitness to Appalachia, 07/03/2014

Throughout our travels we would have to eat and have lodging of course, so one thing we participated in was user-generated reviews. I posted 27 reviews on Yelp! And 26 on TripAdvisor, totaling 1,299 views on TripAdvisor alone. We interviewed and visited 17 businesses in Berea and developed Business observation labs utilizing the Stanford Model. In total, our cohort conducted 204 intercepts and interviews with business owners, civic leaders, and locals. 2

Generational change and adaptation in AppalachiaCoal MinersWilliamson, WV. Community Garden

Salstrom, P.Appalachia's path to dependency: Rethinking a region's economic history 1730-1940. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky,1994. Print.

The most significant new insight I gained about the Appalachian region was from Dr. Chad Berrys talk, as it helped me to better understand Appalachias Path to Dependency.

Dr. Berry showed us how the settlers came through the Shenandoah Valley in search of land, settled once they found it, and then the next generation would continue to head further south and eventually west through the Cumberland Gap. Once they settled in Eastern Kentucky and had learned to live through subsistence farming, they suddenly had the coal industry offering them money so moving west no longer was attractive. Farms became ever smaller, farm work was labor intensive instead of capital intensive resulting in large families, little capital in the region resulted in little innovation and options for residents, and the civil war resulted in a large reduction of agricultural production in the Appalachias (Salstrom, 1994, p. 20-25).

Citation: Salstrom,P. (1994).Appalachia's path to dependency: Rethinking a region's economic history 1730-1940. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky.

3

Economic dependence of the appalachias

Salstrom, P.Appalachia's path to dependency: Rethinking a region's economic history 1730-1940. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky,1994. Print.

Before the Appalachian people knew it, they had sold their land to coal companies and were economically dependent upon the coal industry, who essentially ran a monopoly on the goods sold in the coal towns sending all the money back to the northeast from where it predominately came (Salstrom, 1994, p. 77-78). Appalachias destiny was to be mined, but the manner in which it was established and done is leaving its people devastated and dependent on a non-renewable resource.

For many places, geography is destiny. This insight helps me to better understand the impact location has on a regions economic situation and how the Appalachian region came to be both single industry dependent and uneducated. The large issue I see confronting Appalachia is the lack of education in the region, as most people have been able to get well paying jobs at the coal mines in the past with a high school education or less. I will further elaborate on this later.

4

Ten key conceptsThe Barter Creeper Phenomena from the Virginia Creeper TrailUtilize existing models that are workingPersistence is crucial in all endeavorsSeeing the big picture but focusing on a single issueKnow your customers demographics who are you selling to?Pick your low hanging fruit first. - Shad Baker. Take advantage of the opportunities already presenting themselves.People make decisions more often than not out of fear. Shad Baker. Its crucial to have the necessary information and research to reassure people that what you want them to do is in fact the right thing to do. Time management is key to success Finding your hustle is key to happiness and a fulfilling lifeSocial media marketing and utilization for business use is necessary to compete in the modern economy


These are ten key concepts I learned from these courses.5

Ten key conceptsThe Barter Creeper Phenomena from the Virginia Creeper TrailUtilize existing models that are workingPersistence is crucial in all endeavors even something as simple as an Ice House Seeing the big picture but focusing on a single issueKnow your customers demographics who are you selling to?Pick your low hanging fruit. - Shad Baker Take advantage of the opportunities already presenting themselves.People make decisions more often than not out of fear. Shad Baker. Its crucial to have the necessary information and research to reassure people that what you want them to do is in fact the right thing to do. Time management is key to success Finding your hustle is key to happiness and a fulfilling lifeSocial media marketing and utilization for business use is necessary to compete in the modern economy


Here are three Id like to elaborate on6

Finding the Spark and Replicating it

Heath, C, and D. Heath.Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York: Broadway Books,2010. Print.

To elaborate, an important new insight I gained was through the book Switch. Switchs authors Chip and Dan Heath exhibit the importance of doing field work instead of sitting in an office and studying through their story that they tell about being in Vietnam. I feel this story best illustrates the importance of this concept.

Placed in Vietnam with the mission to help fix malnutrition, the author realized he must get out of his office and see the problem first hand. Once in the field they realized that not all children were malnourished, so they studied the areas children were healthy the spark - to find what these families were doing differently, though they had the same resources. They found that the healthy children were eating the same amount of food but in 4 meals a day instead of 2, and the mothers were mixing in both crab and shrimp, as well as sweet potato greens for added protein and nutritional value (Heath, and Heath 28-29).

Once they discovered an existing, sustainable model to combat malnutrition, they began a new mission to replicate that in the impoverished communities.

7

Seeing the big picture

Heath, C, and D. Heath.Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York: Broadway Books,2010. Print.

Once in Vietnam, instead of studying existing research on the problem or trying to tackle an array of problems that contribute to malnutrition, the authors of Switch focused their sights on only fixing malnutrition, just as we have tried to narrow our focuses in Eastern Kentucky. We could have focuses on revolutionizing the school system so that people would be better educated and have more opportunities, but instead of eating the whole elephant we chose to bite off a foot. Its obvious were not going to solve all of this regions problems, but by narrowing our focus on helping these communities enhance their tourism through Trail Town Certification, we greatly increase our chances of success. We saw this in Livingston, and as we know the small town has been struggling and the Mayor had the insight and leadership to focus on developing tourism in the town through Trail Town Certification. 8

Finding your hustle


The hustle concept which Work On Purpose Demonstrates and that we tried to find in our exercises is best defined to me as finding our passion, which to me is one of the most important concepts Ive learned this summer - next slide -9

Galinsky, L, K. Nuxoll, L. Armstrong, D. Ulman, G. Canada, and T. Deifell.Work on purpose. New York: Echoing Green,2011. Print.

Because to me, and through our readings in Work on Purpose, Ive seen that this is what truly matters. Heart + Head = Hustle. We can pursue careers or professions we might be good at, but if we dont love it and our hearts aren't with it were going to struggle to find our hustle and happiness. This summer has helped to shape my personal perspective and mold my journey to self identity.

Galinsky, L, K. Nuxoll, L. Armstrong, D. Ulman, G. Canada, and T. Deifell.Work on purpose. New York: Echoing Green,2011. Print.

10

Learning styles acquiredResearch in class reading assignments, lectures, independent researchPractice hypothetical situations we performed in classField work going out and doing what weve learned, learning the value of what we were trying to developInterview and intercept was crucial to help me develop empathy and gain primary source informationJacob Heller, Eyewitness to Appalachia, 07/03/2014

Research in class reading assignments, lectures, independent research this new style of learning fit my learning style very well independently studying and then conducting research

Practice hypothetical situations we performed in class greatly aided my understanding of complex matters and helped me to see the picture that Dr. Hackbert was trying to paint for us before going into the field.

Field work going out and doing what weve learned was unbelievably critical to my understanding and development during EPG. It showed me the value that we can bring to these communities and allowed me to actually use what weve learned.

Interview and intercept really changed the way I think about research and helped me to develop empathy towards travelers, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders. This method gave me primary source information which was crucial to develop my understanding.

11

Abilities and values learned Advocating ChangeEngaging Complexity and Uncertainty Facilitating Group DecisionsRecognizing OpportunityMobilizing Resources Exploring Values and Ethical Structure


Here are six of the crucial abilities and values EPG helped us to learn this summer.12

Abilities and values learned Advocating ChangeEngaging Complexity and Uncertainty Facilitating Group DecisionsRecognizing OpportunityMobilizing Resources Exploring Values and Ethical Structure


Highlighted are the three values that I will elaborate on how I developed these skills in our experiences13

Recognizing opportunityOpportunity recognition in Abingdon, VirginiaRecognizing opportunity in a cemetery

In our travels to Abingdon, Va. We saw an excellent example of people acting after they had recognized opportunity through the Virginia Creeper Trail and Blue Blaze Bike Shop. Once the trail was in place, Tonya Triplett told us the story of how the Blue Blaze Bike Shop founder saw the opportunity to rent bikes to people and to provide a shuttle service, this is an excellent example of opportunity recognition.

Everywhere weve travelled this summer we have been exposed to opportunities and asked to help uncover them in the KRADD region. A good example of this would be in Owsley County where they have a Lincoln Statue which is listed in the inventory of folk art in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, yet it is covered in weeds, hard to get to, and considered unimportant by the locals. Our team identified this as an asset, or an opportunity, in Owsley County that they could use to bring in tourists.

We also were shown many businesses who spawned off of the natural assets of an area, the founders recognized the opportunity presented to bring tourists to their area and capitalized some of these would include Torrent Falls Rock Climbing, Miguels Pizza, Red River Gorge Zipline, Old Alvarado, Virginia Creeper Bike Shop, and Pine Mountain Outfitters. 14

Advocating change

My team and I experienced a strong need for change in Owsley County, Kentucky, the poorest county in the nation. Here we were advocates for change and found that many people are against changing. I had one resident tell me he didnt want any outsiders in these parts.

Another told me he wasnt interested in bringing industry to the area, as that would bring outsiders into his home. He misunderstood what I was suggesting.

Here we saw a sense of complacency with how things are and have always been, and it was our job to show the locals that there is a great opportunity for adventure tourism in their county. Though they are in the beginning stages, Judge DeBords signature supporting Trail Town pursuit in the nearby City of Buckhorn was a prime example of our efforts succeeding in advocating change.15

Engaging Complexity and Uncertainty

Above is a photo that demonstrates my teams ability to engage complexity and uncertainty. In this photo we are leaning over a map, mapping out the cultural and physical assets of the county. My teammates Nicoleta and Dylan acquired this map from a very kind lady by going to her in person and having a conversation, we then took it to our colleagues at the Owsley County Action Team and they helped us to fill in the natural and cultural assets on the map.

One of the most useful things Ive learned from this program is the importance of how to ask questions and how they can shape our experiences. To me, this is the best tactic Ive learned to diffuse complexity and uncertainty. There is always google to aid us in our research, but when theres uncertainty or ambiguity Ive found that its best to ask someone who knows pick up the phone, take a trip to their place of work, or email them. Weve found the most effective way to do so is in person. We saw the importance of Shad Bakers advice reminding us that People make decisions more often than not out of fear. We framed our presentations in a manner that would reduce uncertainty and fear to the ultimate decider the executive judges.

Here is an example of how we helped to reduce the uncertainty for our audience: In our presentations we broke down the complex maps in to sections to make them easier for the viewer like these for Judge Kent Clark16

City of Berea Trail Master Plan_3.18.13

This map scream uncertainty and ambiguity.

Because this map is so complicated and difficult to read to the uninformed, we have highlighted some of its elements.

City of Berea Trail Master Plan_3.18.13

This is an example of ways we helped to reduce complexity and uncertainty for the viewer.

Entrepreneurial leadershipJacob Heller, Eyewitness to Appalachia, 07/03/2014

The six abilities listed are key to entrepreneurial leadership, but my personal theory would emphasize the characteristics of empathy and of good habit forming because in order for a leader to be good, he or she must be able to put themselves in the consumers shoes and, to me, good habits can shape a persons entire day and help them to utilize their time better.

Empathy is something we have focused on a lot and developed in our interactions with people of many different backgrounds through interviews.Habit forming is something I have recently recognized as being crucial to my personal success to reach my goals.19

5 Key Economic and Social IndicatorsWhat they mean for the regionUnemployment StatisticsHigh unemploymentPopulationLow population indicates less dense regions for the rural communities

Average Age of PopulationHigh average age indicates youth are leaving the regionRace StatisticsIndicate a lack of diversityEducation StatisticsIndicate a highly uneducated populace


Here are 5 social and economic indicators that are telling for the region.

I believe that many of the underlying causes of unemployment, low population, and high average age are related to the lack of education and entrepreneurship in these areas. \Because of the uneducated populace, industry is discouraged from coming into town unless that is the type of worker they need, and because of the poor access to good roads in many of these areas there is another factor to discourage industry.

I believe that civic leaders must work on improving the local school systems by working with state officials so as to promote education and potentially increase the college-going rate. The interest of the public common good would be to increase the education of its citizens so they might reduce unemployment through entrepreneurship, retain their youth once they become adults, lower the average age, and increase racial diversity through industry. The town might lose its relatively remote and unknown status, bring in outsiders, and potentially change the layout of the town some people might not like this.

20

Our goalJacob Heller, Eyewitness to Appalachia, 07/03/2014

Our goal for Owsley County was to Support the members of the action team in their tourism effortsMap and explore the countys assets natural and culturalExplore Trail Town options for BoonevilleFind a catalyst in the community to spearhead the tourism effortsMeet with civic leaders to discuss Trail Town Certification interest and development and maintenance of existing assets.

Our goal for Letcher Co. was toExplore their natural assets to utilize that knowledge in Owsley County and in BereaDevelop connections to help us navigate the countyMeet with catalysts and leaders of the Trail Town movement and learn from themDiscuss future trails and the logic behind them ease of use, thematic, howd they come to be

21

Community partner owsley county

Owsley County Action Team. "OCAT." N.p., Web. .

Kirstie Wilder and Kacey Smith of the Owsley County Action Center were our original contacts and the Action Center was our headquarters that we worked out of when in Owsley County.

The Owsley County Action Team builds local capacity through leadership development and exploring new ways to solve old problems (Owsley County Action Team ). Some of the strategies they used to accomplish these goals were social media to recruit and inform people, newspaper ads, and word of mouth. I believe this relationship might be improved if instead of doing we ask them to also do, because I felt as if they took us for granted and werent willing to put in the work themselves.

They originally presented to us the countys assets that they knew about and then they told us they were forming a tourism committee and the meeting was coming up, we were very interested and eager to help them spark some interest in the community to develop trails.

We aided them in exploring and finding out what the community had to offer a tourist as we had a fresh set of eyes, and we would often ask them who we would need to talk to in order to attain a certain piece of information.

Citation: Owsley County Action Team. "OCAT." N.p., Web. .

22

Investigate before you validate


In Owsley County, we were led to believe that this park was overgrown and out of maintenance by the people on the challenging judges side. We didnt take peoples word when they told us things were unkempt instead we went and checked it out it wasnt. We found the park in fantastic shape, probably one of the best weve seen. 23

Community partner letcher county


Shad Baker, UK Extension Agent for Letcher County was who we were directed to over and over, and once we found him, sat down and had a talk, we found out exactly why everyone told us to talk to him.

As the county extension agent, Shad as a vast array of responsibilities that include the trail system in Letcher County. He was a catalyst who helped to spark the founding of trails there and he helped us to better understand the process of proposing and establishing trails.

Shad was a key to helping us solve the puzzle as to how to proceed to begin the process in Owsley County and how to establish more trails in Berea. His insight and guidance provided us with information crucial to our Trail Town pursuit in Berea. 24

Civic leadership in the Appalachian region


The most important new piece of Civic Leadership information about the Appalachian Region for me is that with these small communities an election can be swayed very easily by a large familys vote or for reasons that it shouldnt be. Weve seen first hand in Owsley County the type of division that politics can create. The director of the Owsley Countys Action Centers brother is apparently challenging incumbent Judge Executive DeBord in the upcoming elections, and when they heard we were meeting with the judge we began to feel uncomfortable and like we werent welcome at the Action Center anymore. They went from being our main contacts to hardly speaking to us.

The reason this is bad is because this often means that officials can be elected based on relationships rather than merit, which can potentially lead to corruption and a lack of qualification to fulfill civic duties. A good example of this would be the corruption in Mingo County, West Virginia, where we were told by Eric Mathis both the sheriff and judge are being prosecuted for drug related activity. 25

Who Owns the ice house?BootstrappingChoicePersistenceOpportunity Recognition

Taulbert, CL., and G. Schoeniger.Who owns the ice house?: Eight life lessons from an unlikely entrepreneur. Cleveland, Ohio: ELI Press,2010. Print.

Ted and Serena Moore, Co-founders of Elohim Cleaning Contractors, demonstrated to us the values of bootstrapping, persistence, and opportunity recognition. When out of a job, they used what they had to start their business and recognized the NEED for a construction cleanup business 26

In a team of leaders, learn to follow


Teamwork with a group of leaders everyone accepted into EPG is accepted for great qualities such as leadership, and I recognized early on that everyone in my group was a phenomenal leader, though we all have our different styles. Learning to work in a similarly highly productive and motivated team was a learning experience for me, as I am used to leading in work, academics, and on the field. A great quote that fits this situation is If youre the smartest person in the room, youre in the wrong room. Coming in I expected to be surrounded by the best and brightest and I truly was.

Dr. Hackbert gave me an early piece of advice: Sometimes being a good leader is being a follower. I have made an effort to be a follower as opposed to a leader this summer and, thanks to my team, I really benefitted from that.

I hope to work with highly motivated and successful people in the future, and I know what my team helped me to learn will be critical when I need to take a back seat from leadership.27

Design thinking


Dr. Hackbert asked us to think outside of the box through design thinking and to challenge ourselves to see through the consumers eye and not our own.

Left is pictured a crude Cajon, this was our prototype.

By creating a model, like the Virginia Creeper Trail, you can find out what does and doesnt work in order to better build the next trail.

On the right is the finished Cajon. This one has no mechanical fasteners to reduce rattle, varieties of sound capabilities through the sound tabs, rounded edges to protect children who it was designed for, and an open bottom for a deeper sound.

We saw the design process demonstrated in Letcher County as Shad Baker informed us of the keys to having a successful trail, based off what he experienced at the Virginia Creeper Trail. He found that it was necessary to have easy paths (downhill), safe routes, long distances, and themes were key to increase the likelihood of tourists coming and staying for multiple nights. 28

Increase value


This is one piece of wood sawed in half. When you resaw a piece of wood you get what is called bookmatched faces, creating this beautiful matching effect.

Creating jewelry boxes for my mother and girlfriend, I incorporated into my design process a way to connect the two boxes below is pictured the finished lids, both made from the same piece of wood, and when you put them together you see the bookmatched phenomena.

By creating a connection between the two, value is enhanced. I learned that this theory could be applied in many more ways than with art.

This is similar to the gap we have tried to bridge between Creepers and Barterers. We saw in Damascus and Abingdon the economic value that was created and enhanced by the Creeper Trail when paired with the pre-existing cultural assets. We hope for the same in Berea.29

Breaking down stereotypes - @realappalachia #Appalachia

Personally influenced by both our reading and experiences, at the beginning of this 8 weeks I began thinking about ways that I could help to tear down the negative stereotypes surrounding Appalachia, and my knowledge about social platform twitter was one I thought I might explore. I started this account to show the beauty of Appalachia to the world in an effort to change their minds.

This account was started on May 17th and since then I have received 651 followers, acquiring a positive follower ratio, with many being from across the country and international. I have developed a presence on twitter as a positive entity among other Appalachian based accounts and received some very strong support from many people.

I mainly tweet landscape pictures I take, that people tag @RealAppalachia in, or that are tagged with the hashtag #Appalachia.

Here are some examples of photos shared, photos taken and photos tagged:30

example


Example of a typical picture 31

Example


Does this look familiar to anyone?32

Example


Pine Mountain? Isnt that in Letcher County?33

Learn, practice, do The Abingdon model

The Abingdon trip and bike ride on the Virginia Creeper was the most significant event for me, as it took what wed been learning and made it all concrete. It gave me the opportunity to both practice what weve learned, create closer bonds within the cohort, to interact with the tourism we were trying to create, see firsthand the economic value of trails and adventure tourism, and showed me the improved quality of life available in places where tourism supplemented the local economy and local businesses flourished.

It clearly exhibited the model we desired and gave us the opportunity to experience the Creeper Barter phenomena before exploring Trail Town Certification for both Berea and the KRADD region. This experience gave my research and work credibility and enhanced my desire to see trail towns spring up across Kentucky.

Across all of the amazing experiences this summer, it was hard to single one out. Before I start the 36 hour section of the presentation. I would like to thank Dr. Hackbert for all hes taught us, his time, selflessness, and wisdom. 34

Works citedGalinsky, L, K. Nuxoll, L. Armstrong, D. Ulman, G. Canada, and T. Deifell.Work on purpose. New York: Echoing Green,2011. Print.Heath, C, and D. Heath.Switch: How to change things when change is hard. New York: Broadway Books,2010. Print.Owsley County Action Team. "OCAT." N.p., Web. .Salstrom, P.Appalachia's path to dependency: Rethinking a region's economic history 1730-1940. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky,1994. Print.Taulbert, CL., and G. Schoeniger.Who owns the ice house?: Eight life lessons from an unlikely entrepreneur. Cleveland, Ohio: ELI Press,2010. Print.


Works Cited MLA format

Thank you for your attention.35

eyewitness to appalachia - entrepreneurship for the public good portfolio presentation

Small Business & Entrepreneurship