About the Show:

"There's something here for everybody in Northwest Arkansas, and it's the kind of place that, you know, you really can make your dreams come true in a space like this. It's not gonna be easy, but because, you know, people are really open to building relationships and really connecting with you, I mean, I can't think of more fertile territory for you to start something."

— Randy Wilburn

On this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, recorded in partnership with the Startup Junkies Podcast, Daniel Koontz and Ty Steele welcome Randy Wilburn, founder and host of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, to share his journey from Boston to Fayetteville and the power of community, storytelling, and entrepreneurship in the region. Randy talks about building the podcast he wished existed when he moved here, the growth and unique character of Northwest Arkansas, and how relationships are the secret ingredient for business success.

Randy shares why he believes the region is fertile ground for founders, thanks to its welcoming ecosystem, mentorship opportunities, and teams willing to support even newcomers. Whether you’re inspired by the stories of Walmart, Tyson, and J.B. Hunt or you want tips for discovering your "why" and connecting with your audience, this episode gives you the tools to dream big—and start small.

• Relationships Matter: Success in Northwest Arkansas starts with building authentic connections. Taking time to network and ask for help—from mentors or other founders—can open the right doors 08:32.
• It’s a Fertile Land for Founders: The region’s collaborative spirit, from the legacy of local giants like Walmart and Tyson to today’s startups, makes Northwest Arkansas a unique place to launch and grow a business 10:16.
• Embrace Change and Be Ready to Pivot: The market speaks loudly. Randy shares the lesson that knowing when to change course is critical for lasting success 13:32.
• Storytelling is Timeless: Every founder needs to be able to clearly articulate their story and their why. Start with knowing who you are and what makes your business stand out 18:44.
• Incremental Growth Wins: Focus on getting just 1% better every day, and over time you’ll see huge results, both for yourself and your business 25:33.
• Take Advantage of Local Resources: From free tech tools to the Fayetteville Public Library and organizations like Startup Junkie, Northwest Arkansas has what founders need to test ideas and get started without huge upfront costs 37:40.
• Listen to the Market: Seeking honest feedback—beyond friends and family—is the fastest way to know if your idea has potential. Don’t ignore what real customers want 14:32.

All this and more on this episode of the I Am Northwest Arkansas® podcast.

Important Links and Mentions on the Show*

• I Am Northwest Arkansas® Podcast Website
• Fayetteville Public Library
• Startup Junkie
• Onyx Coffee
• Zweig Group
• Sam Walton’s Autobiography
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Northwest Arkansas Council
• JB Hunt
• Tyson Foods

This episode is sponsored by:

FindItNWA.com - Find It Fast. Find It Local.

Signature Bank of Arkansas

ONBoardNWA.com HyperLocal Jobs in NWA

This episode is sponsored by*

FindItNWA.com - Find It Fast. Find It Local.

Signature Bank of Arkansas "Community Banking at its Best!"

Try ONBoardNWA.com Today!

*Note: some of the resources mentioned may be affiliate links. This means we get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

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• Connect with our Fearless Host, Randy Wilburn on LinkedIn

Thank you for listening to this I am Northwest Arkansas podcast episode. We showcase businesses, culture, entrepreneurship, and life in the Ozarks.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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Looking to discover the best local businesses in Northwest Arkansas? 🌟 From cozy cafes to essential services, FindItNWA.com has got you covered. Connect with your local community with just one click and explore something great. Visit finditnwa.com today! #LocalBusiness #CommunitySupport"

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Signature Bank of Arkansas "Community Banking at its Best!"

There's something here for everybody in Northwest Arkansas, and

it's the kind of place that, you know, you really can make your

dreams come true in a space like this. It's not gonna be easy,

but because, you know, people are really open to building

relationships and really connecting with you, I mean, I can't

think of more fertile territory for you to start something.

This is the Startup Junkies Podcast. Hello, ladies and

gentlemen. Welcome to another episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast. Thank you for

tuning in wherever and however you're tuning in from. My name is Daniel

Koontz, and I'm one of your hosts. Today I'm joined by Mr. Ty Steele

and Ms. Grace Olson. Ty, how's it going? How are you doing? How are you

here? Glad to be here. Yeah. Grace, how are you doing today? Doing well. Thanks.

Thanks for having us. Yeah. This is your breakout episode, right? Breakout. First

one. First time, yes. Okay. Well, we're glad you guys are with us

today. Well, we're also glad because we're joined by our new friend.

He's the director of communications and marketing at the Fville Public Library,

the founder and the host of I AM Northwest Arkansas, Mr. Randy

Wilburn. Randy, how are you doing today? I'm good, man. Thank you so much for

having me. It's great to be back here with Startup Junkie once again.

Once again. So this is fun. We were talking. This is what, your third

time? Yes, third time. So you kind of know how we like to start these

episodes then, don't you? Yes, I do. Okay, so for some of our

audience who might not know that you've been on that show before, give

us your origin, Give us your background story a little bit. Sure. So

again, Randy Wilburn, founder of I Am Northwest Arkansas.

It's a podcast that covers the intersection of business, culture,

entrepreneurship, and life here in the Ozarks. Started it seven years

ago. I can't believe it's been that long. Basically, it's the

podcast I would have wanted when I moved here in 2014, but it didn't

exist. And so, fast forward five years later. I

created it in 2019, and now seven years

and over 400 episodes later, still doing the podcast, still

telling stories. I have not missed a Monday in seven years. So

every every week, brand new episode. And just

honored to be able to tell the story of all the amazing people that make

Northwest Arkansas what it is. So who's typically the

guests that come on the show? We get a variety of people, so

we work with organizations, we work with individuals. Anyone, as

I people Ask me all the time, how do I get on the podcast? And

I say, well, if you have an interesting short story, I

probably think that you might be appropriate to bring on. But

we've had, I mean, everybody from Charu

Thomas, from Ox to Tanner

Green to Mark Zweig, who's a really

dear friend of mine. He's also a professor at the San Walton College

of Business. He has a chair there in entrepreneurship.

And so just another amazing individual. I've had Startup

Junkie on the podcast. So we've. We've had, you know,

all, all, all, all individuals are

fair game. And again, we just like telling really unique

stories. So. Yeah. So you moved here in 2014, correct? Yes.

Where were you beforehand? Boston. Boston. Yeah. For 17 years, I was in

Boston. And I was in Boston, and that's where I met Mark

Zweig. He and I were owners of a company called Zweig White

and Associates. It was a management consulting and publishing firm which

serves the design industry. That firm continues to run

to this day, and they're the reason why I relocated here in

2014. Firm was originally

sold. We got acquired by somebody else. I left to go do my thing. Mark

left to come teach here in Arkansas. And then we

reunited again. And so, you know what they say. You always want to

keep strong relationships, right? Because you never know when you'll get that call.

You'll never know when you reach out, back out to someone that has worked with

you in the past and says, hey, let's work together again. And so I

answered the call again, and he convinced me to move to

Arkansas. My wife and I and my three boys. And we've been here 11

years and have loved every minute of it. So, yeah, Mark,

he's very convincing, isn't he? He is very convincing. I took his class at the

university. So, you know, you know, the history of Mark Zweig and, you

know, his ability to compel students to really do

the right thing, especially as it pertains to business. And, you know, I think about

all of the different entrepreneurs that have come through his program over

the last more than a decade, and we've seen some that

have done really, really well. And so it's always nice to

be related to or with someone like that that is really

speaking into the lives of the next generation of entrepreneurs

here in Northwest Arkansas. Yeah. What was a

transition like going from Boston, coming to a city who that's

growing rapidly, like nwa. Man, I'm still

acclimating myself, still figuring it out. I mean, you know, my biggest issue is,

like, I can't go out after 9 o' clock and get a slice of pizza

or something like that. Not like real pizza. And then, you

know, my wife and I, we still kind of complain about the big city things

that just don't have here. I'm from right outside of New York City, so

that's a city that never sleeps. Boston, I won't say it's a city that

never sleeps, but I mean, I can go out at 10 or 11 o' clock

at night and still get a decent meal. You can't really do that here unless

you want to go to Sonic or. And there's nothing wrong with those

places, but I prefer to, you know, to eat something of

substance. And so, yeah, that's the only challenge. But outside of that,

this area has really grown on me again. When I

got here in 2014, I remember landing at XNA and

I looked around and you know, back in the day you landed at XNA and

it was how fields. I'm like, where am I? And I

said, man, you know, I said, I don't know if I can do

this. And I remember taking the rental car and driving into Fayetteville and then

slowly but surely, you know, it really clicked that, wow,

this could be a good place. And you know, at that point in time, northwest

Arkansas was, it was and still is on the come up. Right. I mean,

it's an evolving space. It's one of the fastest growing MSAs in

the country. More and more people, like when I first started doing my

podcast, about 28 to 29 people a day were relocating here.

Now it's closer to 40 and that's huge. Right. And we,

this, this area, this region, Northwest Arkansas is

going to be about a million plus people somewhere around 20,

45, 2050, depending on how fast they move here. So

it's been exciting. It's been exciting, yeah. And hopefully, you know, in the future,

restaurants stay open a little later, Bars may stay open. Well, yeah, I mean,

I mean, we'll get there. But you know, it's funny you say that,

I laugh about that. But at the same time, just the other day,

Onyx Coffee was awarded the best

coffee shop in the world. And it's right here in

northwest Arkansas. Right. So that's something that you can be proud of.

I remember when they first started really on the national

scene and they were competing against coffee shops like

Stumptown up in Oregon and some others. And you

were thinking, man, maybe one day they'll be there. And now they. They're there.

Right. I mean, it's like, and you, you think about it and it's like, yeah,

we, that, that's a regular coffee spot for me. Yeah. I mean, I've had so

many meetings at Onyx and I've had John and Andrea on the

podcast a couple of times. And so, you know, I mean, that's

the eco, the entrepreneurial ecosystem that exists here in Northwest

Arkansas. And so when you see that type of business

excellence in practice on a daily basis, it

can't, it can't help but hurt. Hurt. It can't hurt

but help you as you decide what you want to do, especially if you're trying

to start a business, you know, and that's why I really appreciate what you guys

do in this marketplace because you give a lot of

entrepreneurs hope. You provide a blueprint for

success. You provide resources and tools which every

startup needs. And it's important, you know, and that's,

I mean, I think this is one of the most thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems

in the country. Yeah, thank you for that shout out, by the way. We got

to make sure we clip that. Use that social right there. But

no, totally agree. This is kind of a little bubble here and you've had so

many awesome founders and entrepreneurs on your podcast. When talking to these

founders, what's one thing sticks out that says that all them have

in common, that says, yeah, this person is going to be successful here in Northwest

Arkansas. Relationship building.

Right. I mean, everything that I've done here literally

has been born out of one solid relationship.

And I just mentioned his name earlier, Mark Zweig. And people think I joke about

that, but he has introduced me to people

who've introduced me to people and so on and so on

and so on. And the relationship. The thing that I love about

Northwest Arkansas in general, not just business, but it just. The people

here are really cool and people

legitimately want to see you succeed and have success,

even if they're in a competing space. Right. And that's something

that you don't normally see. I spent time out in the Bay Area in San

Francisco, pre.com boom. I know I don't look that old,

but I've been around a little bit. I actually, my first office

when I got outta school and I had an office in San Francisco on

Townsend between second and third. I was in the same building where Wired magazine

got started. And so I've kind of been around and seen a lot of

different things. But Boston's very parochial and

if you, if you don't know somebody in Boston, it's gonna be hard for you

to get ahead. But here in northwest Arkansas, I've seen so many people just

relocate here, hang a shingle, and then all of a sudden you're

like, man, these guys are. They're blowing up. They're doing it. And I've

had people like that on my podcast. And I just think that's

why I love continuing to tell these stories, because there's something here

for everybody in northwest Arkansas, and it's the

kind of place that you really can make your dreams come

true. In a space like this, it's not gonna. But

because people are really open to building relationships and really

connecting with you. I mean, I can't think of more fertile

territory for you to start something. Yeah, very well said.

You know where it all comes from, right? Where it stems from, where the

relationship and leaning on one another to build your business. You know where it's come

from, right? Where it's really corny, it's really cheesy. What's that? But Walton's, J.B.

hunt and Tyson, they all had to lean on each other, help each other grow.

Just gets passed down for generation. Generation. Yeah. Well, and that's

a good point. And that's honestly, for us here, that is the

elephant in the room. Right, Right. We don't always mention it. I mean, you know,

we're talking. I mean, Walmart's a Fortune 1 no matter what

Amazon is saying. Walmart is legitimately

a huge company, and they're really making inroads. I've become

a student. I read Sam Walton's autobiography

prior to moving here. Then I've read it again three times. I also

follow a lot of what Sam Walton has done and the stories that people

tell. And I've had a few people that are fos, friends of

Sam on my podcast, and, you know, they all share really

unique stories about what made him special. And, I mean, Sam Walton was

the kind of guy that would go around the country

to investigate other successful businesses. I

mean, the reason why he created Sam's Club was because he went

out and hung out with a guy named Saul Price out in California, and

because the Price Club, and that's where he got the whole idea of the Big

Box Warehouse, like that. And I, of course, you know, we know about Costco,

which is their biggest competitor, but I mean, he, you know, I

mean, there's nothing new under the sun, right? And a lot of times we want

to create something that no one's ever seen before. But, you know, imitation

is a sincerest form of flattery. And there's always gonna Be.

There's always a way for you to improve on something, especially with the

mindset that Sam Walton had. And so we see that with

the trucking and logistics, with what JB Hunt has done. We

see that with poultry, with Tyson. And again,

you know, while we all can't be that huge,

large company, I think Tyson is the second largest meat producer in the

world outside of a company in Brazil. But, I mean,

that's huge when you think of it. It's right here in our backyard

in these two counties between Benton and Washington County. We

have all of that entrepreneurial experience,

entrepreneurial history. So we're

standing on some pretty broad shoulders. And I

think, you know, anyone that comes here has an opportunity to

really do something special with their business, with their ideas,

where they can grow them, because, I mean, people are looking

to see folks succeed here. They really are. Yeah.

What do you think that means for business owners or founders like yourself?

I just think it means that, you know,

again, anything is possible. I don't think that, you know,

I think if you have a really good idea and you've stumbled upon something

that you think you want to bring to market, I can't think of a better

place to test it out. You're going to find out fairly quickly whether or not

it has legs, whether or not people kind of believe in what you're

talking about. And sometimes you may get that casual tap on the shoulder

that says, I don't know if that's the one you want to do. Maybe you

should try this. Right? And that's the other thing about the

agility of small businesses to be willing and able to pivot.

Right. Because sometimes what you find with founders is that they struggle

with this idea that, I'm gonna make this thing happen, I'm gonna bring this to

market or so help me God. And that's not

always the best thing. Sometimes you need to know when to pivot. And

I've had the pleasure of coaching a lot of small

businesses here, some startups with pitch competitions and things of

that nature. And I've gone and been a judge for the Governor's cup down in

Little Rock. And I've seen a lot of these businesses, and I'm

always aware. And one of the first things I say to companies that win a

pitch, it' like, hey, this is great, but this may not ultimately be

the end for you in this particular position or the company.

You may end up going in a different direction depending on what the market will

say. Right? And that's the thing we sometimes ignore. We Think we know best.

The market will tell you unequivocally whether your idea is good

or not. Yep. Right. You'll know your, your grandmother will, will love it, your mother

will love it, your, maybe your, your other family members. But the market

never lies. The market bats a thousand. And so you

can ignore the market to your own peril or you can

pay attention to what the market's saying. And especially if you

connect with other people, like minded individuals that are here that have had

some success, you know, they may help you along the way. And again, that's why

I say the relationships are so important that you've got to connect with

other people in this area that have kind of been there and done that

because they have the scars to show it. And they can say, hey, avoid that.

Don't go down that road. There's multiple potholes under the road. This road's

gonna be a little smoother sailing. Yes, there may be a pothole or two, but

you can navigate it. And I honestly, I think every business

owner wants that type of help or advice.

There's a few that like to be lone rangers and just do it on their

own. But you know, that, that's, that doesn't always work. If you want

to go far, you gotta go far together. You can't go far by yourself.

Yeah. I love the fact that you bring up pivoting and kind of paying attention

to the market. Can you share a time in your career where you

paid attention, you had to pivot it. Yeah. You know, it's

funny, recently I started a job board called

Onboard nwa, which still exists. But I realized that the

market was changing pretty rapidly. This is at the early stages of

the AI boom. And so things have changed a

lot. I don't think job boards are what they used to be. I still

see a value in them. I think job boards

are really valuable from a niche perspective. So

what I'm seeing is niche job boards are still having a lot of,

but just the general. We're gonna fill every type of position. Job board

is not the same. And that's kind of what I had started. And so even

though it still exists, I recognized fairly quickly

that my efforts and the time that I was putting into it, I needed

to pivot off of that and refocus on a few other things that I was

working on because I didn't think that it was gonna have the staying power

that I would have hoped for. And so, yeah, so

I think the lesson learned from that is simply that you

need to know when to say when. And be

willing to kind of go in a different direction. You can't be so wedded

to an idea or to a certain missions

that if they don't come to fruition, you just keep going down that

road, because that's the definition of insanity.

You just don't wanna do that. And so I've learned

some valuable lessons that way and it's helped me personally

and honestly. The one thing that I have done that has really always

served me well is just the ability to communicate effectively stor

storytell and to do the podcast, which has,

you know, kind of taken on a life of its own, you know, in terms

of what I do with my business. And so I, I'm. I'm gonna continue to

do that because they were writing drawings in

caves and telling stories that way, and now they're doing it behind

a mic. Right? And so I don't. Storytelling's never gonna go

away. You know, it's why Joseph Campbell wrote, you know, he talked

about the hero's journey and we've seen it manifested in most of the major

movies that you watch. The. The arc of a hero's journey that

to business practices and business principles. Your customer is the hero

in the hero's journey. You can also be the hero in your journey as well.

But there's a lot of different ways to look at it. But I think it's

important to understand that, you know, storytelling is

timeless and every business needs to be able. And I'm kind of

switching gears here now. If a business can't effectively tell their story,

the why behind why they do what they do, why

am I gonna invest in you? Why am I going to purchase items or

products from you? It's gotta be very difficult for me to that, right?

So. Well, if you can give one piece of advice to some of those businesses

who need help, you know, telling their story, what would it be? Oh, yeah, I.

Well, first of all, the first thing I would say is you

need to understand who you are, why you're doing

what you're doing. Right? Because people can smell desperation a mile

away, right? And it. And, and so first of all, you need to know your.

You. You need to know your true North Star and your why.

I mean, Simon Sinek talked about starting with your why. And that

matters because people, if can believe in what your

mission is, then I can invest in you, whether that means buying your product

or investing in your company. But if I can't, if I can't

believe you, then it's going to be really difficult. So I would start with knowing

and having the narrative of who I am down first,

then identifying who my ideal client is, my ideal

avatar, who am I selling to and what problem am I trying

to solve, and start storytelling around that with regard

to the products and or services that I'm offering that, that I think

can help that individual. And if you're not doing that, I mean, you've

gotta be able to, as I tell, I told a bunch of folks at the

McMillan Innovation Studio the other day, I said, if you can't in

30 seconds tell me why I should even be

remotely interested in what you're selling, then you've lost it.

And that's what you have to get down. And too many people fumble around

with everything, trying to disclaim everything and

focusing on all of the features of their business as opposed

to talking about the benefits. Right? Because every

consumer in the world on this planet focuses

on what they need. Right? It's what I need. When you

go into the store, it's what you're looking for. There are certain things that you

need to the exclusion of everything else. And so when I

tell small business owners and startups, you gotta focus on

what that customer needs. And if you have what they need, you have to articulate

that as quickly as you can to let them know that they've come to

the right place. Whether that's your website, whether that's your social media

channel, whether that's meeting you in person at an expo, or something

along those lines. Yeah, yeah. How do you do you do that? How do you

figure that out? Is that through trial and error you find out what you need

for. If I'm going to the store, then Walmart has what I need or whatever.

Like, how do you figure that out, what your audience needs or what you're looking

for? Well, and that's the funny thing, it's my wife and I have a joke

because we always say, hold up, now, Walmart's got everything. They really do

have everything, right? And you don't always need everything that they have,

but there's always a good chance that if you walk in the Walmart, you could

walk out with something that, that would be desirable, that

would fit your, what, what your needs are. But I, I think it's,

again, you have to determine what your

customer wants. And once you do that, then you can

figure out, okay, is this something that, that I have this service

or this product, does that insert, fill in the blank,

do what my client needs it to do. And it just, it's not something

that you Know there is trial and error. You have to talk to

people. You have to communicate and get feedback. I mean, that's why I think

surveys are so important. People just, you know, you

could throw out quizzes out there to find out where people are. People will tell

you where they are, but you have to ask the right questions. If

you're not asking the right questions, you will never know where that

consumer is. So I think that's important.

That's why, you know, we, we strongly emphasize here, you get on a consulting call,

just customer discovery. You mentioned earlier, Grandma's gonna think it's an awesome idea. Your

mom's gonna think it's an awes. Yeah, we tell people, you know, if you've got

this idea and you need to validate it, go talk to people. Yeah. Go to

Walmart, go to Farmer's market, if you go to the gym, go talk to people,

ask some questions. Like I said, you gotta ask the right questions. But your mom's

gonna tell you what you want to hear. Your friends are probably gonna tell you

what you wanna hear. My gosh, I mean, it's crazy now.

And here's the thing, and I will say this, I'm a little older than you

guys, I got a few more gray hairs, but I only wish

that I had access to the tools that you

guys have access to in a lot of instances, for free.

Right? I mean, when I graduated from college, I barely had an email

address. And now you guys have chatgpt,

Claude, you've got Gemini. You have all of these

tools at your disposal to do whatever you want to do. So if you want

to call up or ask ChatGPT to

pretend or act as if they are a modern

survey expert, and you say, I'm working on this particular

project, project in this particular industry, and I wanna

survey the public to determine exactly what their need is,

you have that ability to do that back in the day, Man, I would

have to be working on that for weeks to come up with that. And now

you literally have access to it at your fingertips as quickly as you can

type and as quickly as you can prompt it properly,

it being the AI, properly, to then determine

and come up with some answers for you to then go on. I mean, so

the ability to iterate in this day and with a small business, with

a startup is phenomenally faster

than any any time prior in history. And I

think it's important, especially for, for people listening to this,

that, you know, if you take your time, all of the answers are out

there. For the most part, it's just, you know, everybody

wants to build a bigger, better mousetrap and I just think the tools

to build that bigger, better mousetrap are easily at your disposal and you can

do it in your parents basement if you want to. That's the difference

of between now and say 25, 30

years ago when I was coming out of college and it was just a lot

different. Yeah, we're definitely in a fortunate position. Yeah,

absolutely. Absolutely. The Startup Junkies podcast

is brought to you in part by Arise. Arise helps Arkansas Tech and

tech enabled startups grow with no cost coaching, capital, navigation

and expert connections so founders can scale faster. Learn

more@arise Arkansas.com. okay, so I've got a question for

you. I was looking at your LinkedIn great headshot, by the way, but your

banner, it says get 1% better every day. Oh yeah.

Recently, what's something you've been doing to get 1% better every day? Well,

so that came from that. I'm not going to take credit for that, although I

use it. I even carry the, I have these, these little, little banners,

these little bands on that say get 1% better every day.

I wear these as reminders to, to just focus on just

incremental improvement. Did you get it from Atomic Hack Habits? I, I got, yeah, the

talk was from Atomic that. But, but he, he did, he wasn't

the first person to talk about it. He basically said based on all

the studies that he, that James Clear participated in, he saw that

even just incremental improvement can move the needle forward.

And that's why the whole 1% better every day makes a huge difference even

in the, the span of one year, if that's your focus. And so

what people, people want to take these giant leaps, right? And what I

tell folks is just one, just one small step step can get you

that much closer to your goal. And so yeah, get 1%

better every day. That's, that is, that is at the banner. I need to change

it because it's been. No, I like it, I love it. It's been like that

for a while and there are mountains there and everything. And the whole idea is

just simply, it's a point of encouragement. That's kind of why I named

my company Encourage, Build, Grow. It's an escort. But I mean, I, I've,

I've just wanted to encourage people to grow and build something special. Right?

Maybe something that the world has never seen before. Although there is nothing new under

the sun. Like I said earlier, there's still space

for you to create your dream business. Right. And

that dream business could, honestly, it could be a laundromat. It could be, you

know, but it might be the best laundromat in the world, or it might be

a laundromat where it's got wifi and all these other, you know,

things that you wouldn't think a laundromat would have. And although I know

that's been done in the past, you know, a lot of times we look at

these unsexy businesses as like, oh,

nobody wants to do that, but people are making money with laundromats, people are making

money with vending machines, and you name it. There's. There's no

shortage of opportunities to, to run, start and

run a business and have success. It's just really dependent

on how much work you really want to put in to make it happen. Yeah.

So, no, I love just the incremental. Incremental growth. Luke is behind the

camera. He's heard me say it several times this year. But I've been saying. I've

been saying people forget that a mile is made up of inches. It

is. I also say slow motion is better than no motion. Exactly. And let me

add one more thing. So. So in the 60s, Mr.

Toyota, this was post 20 years after

we dropped the bomb in Japan, both in

Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It took

Japan a long time to rebuild, but once they got going.

Mr. Toyota talked about this whole concept when he started his company,

Toyota, about just consistent improvement. They call

it Kaizen. They teach that in business school. And it's just the idea

that you're making these small, incremental steps to

grow. And we saw what happened. The Japanese, they took

this kaizen approach. Mr. Dotson did the same thing,

which is now Nissan. They all did the same thing, and then they ended up

eating Detroit's lunch. Right. When you think about American

cars, and we still haven't really

recovered from right now, so the reality is that there's

something to be said for this idea that all it takes is you just

take one step at a time and you have one small victory,

and then you. You take that victory and you build off of

that, and then the next victory is that much better. So,

you know, that's something that I tell people all the time. You don't have to

go really far right away. Just take a small step. And that's why I say

get 1% better every day. I've read James Clear's. I mean,

I tell people all the time, if there is one book that you want to

read, I think it's A book about habits. Because those habits

will inform how you handle your day to day activities, both in

your personal life life as well as in your professional life. And if

you allow that level of excellence to creep into

all aspects of your life, you're going to have a much

greater opportunity of being a successful entrepreneur. Yeah. That

idea of 1% better, if you do that every day, when you look back from

a year from now, if you've gone better 1% each day, then you will see

the progress you've made and it can continue year after year. I mean, I, I

think, I don't do public math, but I want to say it's like 30, a

37% increase over one year. Right. Because I mean it

just, it' huge. And I, and I would always tell, I would, I do these

leadership classes and I would tell people that, you know, if you think about a

plane taking off from LAX and going to jfk, if that

pilot changes the, the, the, the, the

counter on that plane just three degrees off, he's going to end up in

Washington D.C. right. So it's, it's, it doesn't take much

to get you to, you know what I'm saying, to get you where you're going.

So that's why I tell people all the time, just, just slight

incremental growth. And before you know it, you, you're like you're killing it 1% every

day. Yeah. Yeah. And that, that's mean. A lot of entrepreneurs can get so wrapped

up with everything, you know, and the day to day grind and then just revenue

and customers and all this, everything just seems so big where it's like,

no, maybe today you treated customers better than you ever have

before. Maybe today you made that marketing post that you really didn't want to. You,

you didn't feel like making that graphic on camera. You didn't, you posted, you uploaded

it, or you just had these small incremental changes to where you look back in

a year. You do something like that every day, you're gonna have a good business.

Yeah. And you know, I, I think for me it's like one of the things

that a lot of people always, that I talk to about podcasting, they're like,

man, how do you do it? And how do you get an episode out each

week in seven years? That's a long time. I mean, I've been podcasting since 09,

so I've done over 2,500 episodes. But what

I tell people is if you, if you stay

consistent, right. And so my whole thing was I

always my, it was just simple, just press record, just be willing to

press record as much as I can. And after a while you

build up some momentum and you use that momentum to kind of take

you to where you want to go. And honestly, at this point, as I

tell people, I always have several months worth of content in the hopper

ready to go. And then at new things as they present themselves,

I'll record those as well. So I always have something thing ready

to go. But it wasn't like that at the beginning. I had

to work at it and I had to build it up. But once I built

it up, it's just kind of taken on a life of its own. And I

think for a lot of entrepreneurs, once you really, you know, prime that

pump, right, and you think of the flywheel, you get it going over

time, it's like, man, it starts to inertia, builds up and then it

starts to take on the movement, just propels itself. Right.

And so that's the thing. And with a business, I mean,

you have to put that work in on the early stages, but down

the road you can kind of benefit from the time and effort that you put

in up front. Those long nights, those extra sessions,

if you're recording, to get something recorded and to save it so

that you can send it, share it out with your audience. I mean, it

just takes time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. Yeah,

an object in motion stays in motion. Exactly. You know, 100%. They hear me

say it. 100% every now and then. Yeah. We've thrown out so many cliches and

so many things. Oh, I love cliches. Yeah, I do. Cliches

and just truisms, if you will. Right. And

I think a lot of times we laugh at them, but when you look at

every successful business, they all can apply a truism

and say, this is what we did. And in the case of Walmart, I mean,

Sam Walton treated customers right and treated

his employees right. And I know that. Yes. I mean,

no company's perfect and every company has their challenges. But the bottom line is that

the found of what Walmart started, they're still

benefiting from it today. Yeah, right. And that's, that's

how you have to look at it. And when you look at how he treated

people, especially as that thing got off the ground, and you know, it's the hardest

thing is like, how does an airplane get off the ground? But once it gets

off the ground, that airflow and everything else just lets it get

take off takes care of itself. Yeah, absolutely. 100%. Yeah. The.

The golden state of capitalism in America, the 30s to 60s. They. They

live by four principles in order. They'd go, take care of your employees.

Yeah. After that, take care of your customers. After that, take care of your community.

You know, who's around you. Fourth thing is profit. Yeah. Typically, we

don't say it's a startup saying, I like to say this to people I meet

with. You take care of the first three. That four is going to take care.

It's going to take care of itself. Yeah. Typically finds a way. Yeah. No,

without a doubt. And, you know, you said something earlier, and I didn't. I didn't.

I didn't get to talk about it. But, you know, when you think of like,

I think of like, I've worked with an organization called the Northwest Arkansas Council, which

was founded by Walton, J.B. hunt,

and Don Tyson. And when you

look at their whole thing was, while it was for them, make no

mistake about it, for their businesses, they wanted

to holistically see Northwest Arkansas come up.

Right. So while all of these companies are

on the stock exchange and all of that, they're doing great. They

wanted to create. Create an environment where other businesses

could really do great and excel. And so when you look at the

list of businesses that are now part of the Northwest Arkansas Council,

I can only imagine that somebody like Sam Walton or J.B. hunt,

that if they're looking down on this, they're saying, man, you know, that was that.

I'm really glad we started that, because look at where it is

now, and it's only gonna continue to improve. And so when I see somebody

like a Todd Simmons or someone like that that has had a

significant AM of standing on the shoulders of what

Don Tyson and his dad did to start Tyson, or

just looking at what Sam Walton did or JB Hunt, it's like,

yeah, we have all these examples, and they laid the

foundation and created a framework that in just about any business that

comes to Northwest Arkansas, if they really, truly want to have success,

I believe in my heart they can. They got to put the work in.

There's no substitute for that, but this is a really

good place to try to do that. Yeah. Yeah. What personally

motivated you to spotlight individuals in Northwest Arkansas?

I think, again, from my podcast. It was the

podcast I would have wanted when I moved here in 2014, and it didn't

exist. So I was my perfect

listener or client or customer. And so I said, I

want to create a podcast like that. And sure enough, There were other people that

wanted to listen to that. And so that was the reason why I

created the podcast. And then that podcast has then

basically translated into a lot of other different things that

I've done in the seven years since I started that, since I

left the company that I came here to work for. I worked with

Zweig Group for five years, and then I left to start Encourage, Build,

Grow. And it's been seven years. And yes, I do work at the Fayetteville

Public Library, but I work there because I've always been.

I grew up in the library. I don't know about you guys, but I mean,

I've always had a library card. I was that kid that spent my Saturdays in

the library when I wasn't doing sports. So the library is very near and dear

to my heart. Heart. And I've had a chance to feature the library on my

podcast several times and had a chance to build a relationship with David

Johnson, the executive director there. And of course, you know, I tell people all

the time, the library is one of the reasons why we moved here as well,

because my wife was really blown away by the library. And this

was pre expansion. Now we have 190,000 square

feet of space. We've got a restaurant, we've got our Segas

coffee shop. We've got an event center that seats

750. We can have 500 for a banquet and

1,000 standing for a concert. They've hosted off

Broadway plays. I mean, and you can get

any library book that you want, host a startup junkie events. And host a startup

junkie events. And then the other thing is, I mean, like I tell people, with

a library card, you can cut an album, you can shoot a short video

or documentary or a movie, you can do a photo shoot,

you can record a podcast. There's not much you can't do.

And I want to see more libraries libraries expand the way

the Fayetteville Public Library has. And that's another reason why this

area is so such a fertile

place for businesses to grow. Because like we said earlier, even

if you're just getting started and you just have the lack of

resources that most people have when it comes to startups, that

building just down the street from this startup junkie office

can really be be a very great place for you

to get started because there's so many tools at your disposal,

whether it's, you know, temporary office space in some of our

study rooms, whether it's any of those other items that I just

mentioned that you need a 3D printer, you want to make some buttons? Whatever you

want to do, it's all there for you. And you can do it all with

a library card for free. Yeah, I love how passionate you are. It's all. It's

cool to see. Well, it seems like in the past seven years, you've done a

lot of great work work here. What do the next seven years look like for

you, man? You know? Well, I hope to get all my kids through high

school here at Fayetteville High School. I've gotten two through. I got one more to

go. And he's actually over in Spain studying and

learning Spanish and playing soccer. But he's still got

two more years to go when he comes back. So I want to get my

kids through there and then, you know, whatever else they're trying to work on.

Because I really. I'm trying to create as many opportunities

as I can for them to be successful, as I'm sure most

parents are of their kids that are here or anywhere. And then,

you know, I have a lot of life left in me.

I'm not the retiring type. My grandfather, who

was a broadcast journalist for ABC News, he

worked until he was in his early 80s. And the only

reason why he stopped working was because we had to take his license away from

him. Cause we weren't sure he could really see us, though. But he would drive

over to New York City every day to go to the United nations to cover

news stories. And eventually we took his license from him. And then

after that, that's only then did we see a

slow decline. And so my goal is to work as long as I can,

doing things that I love. Helping other people to storytell. I think

anyone can tell stories because that's something that's

timeless. Right? And even as we get older, you typically

give people with more gray hairs with more

tread under their tires. You give them the ability to share those

stories. Cause you feel like, well, they've probably seen and done things that I haven't

done. Let me listen to this person. And

so I hope to be able to be that for small

business owners that are coming up and need advice or guidance or just

an encouraging word. Cause I think we all need that. But, yeah, I hope

to continue to do that for quite some time. So we'll see how it goes.

Yeah, I say we're looking forward to seeing you continue to do good work here.

Continue to storytell the way we kind of like to wrap up these episodes.

Earlier you mentioned all this awesome technology and all these great programs that the

Fayetteville Library has, has. One thing you mentioned, Fayetteville Library does not

have is a time machine. Right. If it did have a time machine, you can

go back and give a younger Randy a piece of advice. What would that be?

Yes, well, I owned a couple of pieces of property

in Boston that I should have never sold. Yep. And, and,

and I, I always kick myself for that. And I wish I had just held

onto them and I could have. I didn't need to sell them, I just sold

them. And you know, just, I think a lot of times we think, oh, this

is, this is great, I'm going to take this money and do it. You don't

the sale. You make money when you purchase a property. And I got them for

dirt cheap and I should have just held onto them. And the other piece is

that I had a hundred shares of Amazon in

1998, long time ago,

probably before some of y' all were born. But the bottom line is I

wish I still had those a hundred shares. I remember exactly the day that

I sold them. And there was at a time when, you know, when they had

the dot com bubble and people were like, oh, Amazon's a flash in the

pan. It's not going to work. And trust me, I've done the math. You know,

it was, it's probably like, I think, because I actually remember the

exact day I purchased it and, and when I sold it, but,

you know, it probably about four, $4.5

million later. Yeah. So that was a mistake I made.

Right. I'll live with that for the rest of my life. And I've had, I've

had conversations with other people that have been like. And I've, I've shared this story

before, but I've had friends that have told me similar stories, some with

even bigger zeros on the end. And so, I mean, I think

if you're blessed to live a long life, you're gonna make some mistakes.

The real question and real challenge for anyone listening is

do you learn from those mistakes or do you keep doing them

over and over again? Right. Because that's the

definition of insanity. And so you want

to learn from those mistakes and move forward. And so my

advice to anyone is let compound.

Let, let, let your money really grow for you and don't feel like

you've got to be in and out of things. I know the poly market is

one thing and calshi and everybody likes these, this quick

stuff. And I would just, I would just caution that, you

know, gambling and all that other stuff, the poly markets are cool.

And I don't want to. I'm not reading. I'm not reading. I'm not talking to

anyone in particular. I'm just saying in general, just be

mindful that these markets are in business for a reason because

they see a need and they're meeting that need at

inexorable clip right now. And so my advice would simply

be, hey, just be mindful of that, because that ties into.

You're gonna make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and

hopefully those mistakes don't have too many zeros at the end of them. Right, right.

And then you can go. You can move on from there. But, you know, like

I said, for the most part, a good stuff stock,

good real estate. Hold on to it for as long as you can and

don't ever let it go unless you really need to.

Because. Because you can leverage that as an asset as you grow

your. Your personal wealth. Yeah. Your net worth. And. And that

will help you certainly start a business, too. So. Yeah, you hear that, Grace? No

sports betting. And hold on to your stocks. All right.

None of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, well, Randy, if

any of our listeners want to learn more about you or Northwest

Arkansas, where can they go? Yes, they can just go to iamnorthwestarkinsas.com

that's the website. We have a brand new episode that drops every

Monday, rain or shine. As I like to say, we're on every

major podcasting platform, iHeartRadio,

Apple Prime,

YouTube, YouTube, Podcast. Everywhere you go, you can find

the podcast. It's been out. Like I said, we have over 400 episodes, so there's

a little something for everyone there. And then, of course, you can always check me

out at the Fayetteville Public Library. My email is R.

Wilburn. Just my first initial last name.

If anybody watching this video needs time

at the library to work on something or just some ideas about how

to take advantage of the library space to get your business

idea off the ground, come see me, Tell me you saw me on

Startup Junkie. I'll be happy to walk you through what you need and then send

you back up here to Startup Junkie so they can get your Kiva loan

or you can get help with some funding so that you can get your business

off the ground. Right. But. But yeah, we got it all covered. And like

I said, with. With an organization like Startup Junkie, I mean, you have

everything that you need right here in your own backyard, so why not take

advantage of it? And I'm here to help as well, so please reach out. You

can also connect with me on LinkedIn as well. I'm on there and

happy to help in any way that I can. Yeah, we appreciate the shout out

there. We encourage our audience or listeners to check out the

library. Check out I Am Northwest Arkansas to even email

Randy and to follow the Startup Junkies podcast on Apple, Spotify and

YouTube. Yes, Randy, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys so much.

Appreciate you. If

you enjoyed this episode, make sure to share with a friend, subscribe and

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