Stonehouse & Quarry, The Waverly Cafe, and Hog Heaven Roast House

This episode was full of energy & passion. These three business owners are all in the restaurant industry and were all working through the challenges of COVID during our Startup Reinvention Workshop. Hear how they faced challenges, collaborated, and came out the other side with renewed passion, and in some cases, a whole new brand. 

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Transcript

Betsy Bonnema (00:00:07):
My name is Betsy, and I bring people together who feel isolated and lost in starting or running a small business. Together, I help them work through the challenges, and in the process, they find something that changes everything. These are their stories.

Betsy Bonnema (00:00:25):
Welcome to Lost and Found. This is our first episode, and today, we're going to hear from three small businesses in rural Minnesota who came through the challenges of COVID together. I'm excited to share today some of the progress they've made, some of the changes they've made in their businesses through our reinvention process that have taken them to a whole new place and given them a new perspective on their businesses. I always say I'm going to help people fall back in love with their businesses, and I think today, in our discussion, you'll hear a lot of that love that's been reignited in these business owners.

Betsy Bonnema (00:01:09):
First, we have Donnie, who started out in our program. When he came to us, he was stuck. He had lost his spark, I would say, and with COVID, was really not sure what to be focusing on, where to go next, and how to get inspired again. Donnie went through some difficult realizations, and, through this process, really got fired up and made a very significant change in his branding. You're going to hear about that, and he's going to share that with you. It's really hard to not to be inspired by Donnie and not get excited with all the energy he brings to the discussion, and we were really lucky to have him in this group.

Betsy Bonnema (00:01:57):
The second business we're going to hear from is Stonehouse & Quarry in Pipestone, Minnesota, owned by JoAnn. JoAnn came to us a little lost, in that she was very new to her community and a pretty new business owner who purchased an existing business. She really didn't know where to turn to get support and to get feedback and perspective. She's really young, so just felt a little out of place in the role she was playing in her business, I think. Our group really gave her that safe place to talk and bring challenges and get some really meaningful feedback. We were really appreciative of JoAnn's perspective as well, because she is younger, and she has a completely different way of looking at things, and she has an energy that is completely contagious. It was really fun to have her, and you're going to hear about her take on her business and where it's going to go post-COVID and after the results of our workshop.

Betsy Bonnema (00:03:01):
The third business we're going to hear from is owned by Sarah, who has been a successful entrepreneur with the Waverly Café in Waverly, Minnesota, for many years. Sarah started this process of the reinvention workshop in a really tough spot, and I think it's a spot every entrepreneur can relate to, and we all did. She'd hit a wall. She was overwhelmed, she was frustrated, and she had been that way even before COVID hit, but when COVID hit, it exponentially made things tougher. She rose to the challenge of COVID like a champ, like she always does, but what was unique about Sarah is, through the process that we went through together over 10 weeks, she came upon a new opportunity for her business that she has embraced, and we're really excited about how she's taken a completely new direction in her business and made changes that are really brave and really courageous and really exciting. You're going to hear from a veteran entrepreneur who's starting again another whole business, and we have so much to learn from Sarah.

Betsy Bonnema (00:04:19):
What we're bring to you with Lost and Found is not only the stories of businesses who started out feeling lost and then found something really special in themselves and in their businesses, but we want to bring you a little bit of the spirit of our workshop experiences, which is really collaborative. We're going to do it together, because that's the experience they had, and you're going to hear them talking to each other and sharing the experiences they had as a group, which I think brings a really unique perspective to the conversation, and I hope you enjoy it.

Betsy Bonnema (00:04:56):
I want to start with introductions. Maybe just tell us a little bit about what's happening in your world right now. Donnie, if you wouldn't mind starting. Kat's Hog Heaven is currently the name of your business, but share with us... Give us an intro.

Donnie S. (00:05:16):
Yep. Kat's Hog Heaven is the current name of our business, but after going through [inaudible 00:05:20] with you and your team, it won't be for long. I can get into where we're at in that process soon. We are a small restaurant in southwest Minnesota, about seven miles north of the Iowa border. We seat about 67 people. Open four days a week. As of now, two. That'll change. I'm going to get into that later. We also are starting just off I-90 and Highway 71 coming probably January. We're going to break ground in about three weeks on Cabin Coffee as well.

Betsy Bonnema (00:05:55):
Nice. How big is your community, Donnie?

Donnie S. (00:05:57):
3,400 people.

Betsy Bonnema (00:05:59):
Okay. Pretty small, but right off a major highway, right?

Donnie S. (00:06:02):
Yep, right off a major highway. We also are an industrial hub, so we have about 1,400 people that come to our industrial park every day that are employed there.

Betsy Bonnema (00:06:13):
Okay. Give us a brief history of your ownership of the restaurant that you're running now.

Donnie S. (00:06:18):
Yep. December 2016, on December 4th of 2016, I bought it. It was already an established restaurant, and successful. Pretty small scale. Served a lot of your German-style pork dishes, ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, breaded pork tenderloins. I purchased it with the thought process of trying to grow that business into something that was larger and different. Four years later, we're the exact same thing. Just got stuck with my wheels spinning. I guess, for the first time now today, I feel like it's mine, and we have some surface changes to make, but I can now say I own my business. I'm an owner. I don't know if could say that four and a half years ago, but that's where we got our start to where we are today. We have hired a chef recently. He started about a month ago, an executive chef. Things have been really well. We've really seen, after the mask mandate dropped, it was like you unlocked the doors of people's houses.

Betsy Bonnema (00:07:34):
Oh. And they rushed out and rushed towards the restaurant?

Donnie S. (00:07:36):
Yeah. I don't know what it's like for everybody else, but it appears that, between that and maybe the timing of us hiring our chef and doing some different things and using this tool... It's an online tool called Facebook. It's this weird thing you can post on and stuff. And utilizing that a little bit more. It's been crazy. It's been crazy for us.

Betsy Bonnema (00:07:58):
Okay. Wow. Well, we can't wait to dig in to those details. JoAnn, thank you for introducing Facebook to Donnie in our sessions so that he can now be a social media giant. All right, JoAnn, how about you? Can you give us an introduction?

JoAnn A. (00:08:11):
Yeah. JoAnn Arbach, and I am 27 years old, and I have the Stonehouse & Quarry Lounge in Pipestone, Minnesota. Our restaurant seats about 375 people. We're in a town about 4,600. We have two different style dining options. There's our Stonehouse side, which is more supper club, fine dining side, and then we've got the Quarry side, which is sports bar and grill feel. We've got everything from flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, steaks, the whole appetizer list, and tap beer. We're one of the few that have tap beer in our town. I think the other place has two taps, and then we have eight. Yeah. Very new building. It was built three years ago in June, in 2018, and I took over ownership in July 2019. My first six months were turning things around from the previous owners for the first year, and then after that six months, was about that March range when COVID hit, so we had a year of new adventures and endeavors to figure out.

Betsy Bonnema (00:09:37):
Yeah. You have such a great story, JoAnn. I think we've all been majorly impressed with your accomplishments at such a young point in your career. What background did you have coming into the restaurant business?

JoAnn A. (00:09:50):
Yeah. I graduated with a graphic design degree and learned a lot of marketing in the work field after that. I was a server for about four years, full-time for six months and then part-time for the rest of the four years. And then I worked as a graphic designer in a concert venue/restaurant/wedding venue space. I did a lot of actual advertising and marketing, and then sales. I have a small snippet of restaurant experience, no management experience, and a whole lot of, I guess, advertising and marketing, which helps, surprisingly, in this new ownership endeavor.

Betsy Bonnema (00:10:37):
But you have a personal philosophy about taking on new challenges, right? How would you describe that?

JoAnn A. (00:10:44):
Actually, every job that I ever switched, I decided I was going to do something bigger and more scary than I did before. I think this is the scariest thing I've done, was taking over ownership at 25. I had really a rough idea of what I was getting myself into, but with the pandemic, it was more than I ever expected. I'm not grateful that the pandemic happened, but I'm grateful for the challenge it brought to me, because I know I'm better because of it, and we've grown a lot.

Betsy Bonnema (00:11:20):
Your philosophy is always to find the silver lining or to at least look for the positive side of situations, and we've seen that, hearing your story through COVID, for sure.

JoAnn A. (00:11:31):
Yeah, absolutely.

Betsy Bonnema (00:11:32):
Thank you, JoAnn. Okay, Sarah. Tell us a little bit about Sarah and the Waverly Café.

Sarah L. (00:11:38):
I'm Sarah, and I'm the owner of the Waverly Café and Catering. I've been a part of the Waverly Café since 2004, but started as a server while I was going to nursing school, and then actually took over management responsibilities. In 2011, I became half partner, and then I bought my business partner out in 2016. We're a smaller breakfast restaurant. We seat about 76 people. We do have the distinction of having Minnesota's best hash browns through WCCO. Definitely known for our breakfast.

Betsy Bonnema (00:12:20):
And you've got some new things in the works. Are you going to talk about that, or are you still planning and scheming?

Sarah L. (00:12:28):
We're definitely still planning and scheming, but we are tentatively opening a new concept on August 1st. It will be a hybrid between our existing restaurant format and more of a quick-serve option. We are actually venturing down a canning endeavor, operation. It'll be very farm-to-table. It's a concept that we actually are going to partner with a local farmer and sell their produce and different products for them, and possibly and most likely can things for them for a retail operation. And then we also are partnering with a nonprofit to take produce that would've gone bad and repurposing it into canned goods that can be used for people in need.

Betsy Bonnema (00:13:33):
And we've been really excited hearing all these details from you, because you're doing that 21st-century kitchen concept, where there's a new approach to having a restaurant, but with other options for how people... The flexibility they want in taking their food with them or buying different types of things than a usual restaurant, right?

Sarah L. (00:13:54):
Yeah. We're actually looking at a three-pronged approach, not including the canning. We'll have our traditional dine-in restaurant that'll be open until 2:00 PM, and then from 2:00 to 7:30, it will change over to more of a quick-serve style and market where you can pick up family meals that are either hot and ready or that are still chilled that you can cook at home. We'll offer different salads and things that you would find in a deli. We'll have roasted chicken and other homemade meals ready to go for an individual serving or family-style servings. And then, on the west side of our property, we're actually going to add a food truck concept, where we're going to do our smoked pies, our pulled pork, and a street corn. The farmer that we're partnering with is actually the farmer that provides all of the corn for the state fair, so we're going to be using their corn to do the street corn out of our food truck.

Betsy Bonnema (00:15:05):
Wow. That's amazing. The diversity of everything you're doing all in one business model is pretty exciting. That all evolved as we were working together as a group, right?

Sarah L. (00:15:19):
When we started the process with you in January, I was just taking a step back from the restaurant and trying to decide if I still wanted to stay in the restaurant business. As everybody knows, this was a pretty difficult time to be a restaurant owner. I had decided that we weren't going to fail during COVID, but I wasn't sure that I still had the passion to continue on after COVID. This was a reinvention process for me to walk the walk and decide which direction the business was going to go. While we were in that process, this opportunity started to present itself, and so we decided to take a look and see, "What if?" That's the direction we're moving forward.

Betsy Bonnema (00:16:09):
Yeah. We're excited to hear that. Our group was put together by the Southwest Initiative Foundation, which has been such a great supporter of our programming. They put together you guys because you're small business owners, you're working with them, and they want to support your entrepreneurial efforts, and you're all restaurants. It was the first time for our format that we've had all of the same types of businesses. With COVID, I think it made a lot of sense, because restaurants were hardest hit. We were in the thick of it when we were in our group sessions. It was quite a journey. But thinking about being a small business owner in a small community and then COVID, Donnie, could you describe where your head was at several months ago when we all started working together? What were your pain points, and what was the biggest struggle?

Donnie S. (00:17:08):
To even just take it back a step further, pre-COVID, I felt just stuck. I knew I wanted to do something, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was afraid to make any type of really drastic changes. I didn't know how to make the changes, even if I wanted to make them. I didn't really have a direction. I didn't know who to reach out to to talk to, really, when you only have three other restaurants in your town. We talk sometimes. We're very friendly, but to a certain degree. I didn't really know what to do. I have a friend that owns a couple restaurants in Alexandria, and I would bounce things off him a little bit.

Donnie S. (00:17:53):
Then, COVID hit, and then it was the... Honestly, I was almost at where Sarah's at in wondering, "Is this really something I want to continue to do?" I just didn't feel like I was bought in 100%. First off, I think I've told you already, I didn't feel like it was mine. The biggest struggle for me, honestly, was the day-to-day operations of trying to figure out how to grow my business or be innovative for our customers while trying to do everything including taking the garbage out and sweeping the floors and feeling like I need to be glued to every moving part of the business the entire time. How do you do all that, and where's the separation? That was one of my biggest struggles, probably.

Betsy Bonnema (00:18:44):
Yeah. You mentioned that you didn't feel like the business was yours. Since all three of you purchased a business, you inherited a brand and a name, right? That's a piece of probably what brought you to that moment of truth when you were not sure if you were going to keep going, because maybe it didn't feel as much like yours as it should have at that point, to hang in there.

Donnie S. (00:19:11):
Absolutely. Right. I don't want to get the cart ahead of the horse here, for lack of better terms. I'm getting a little excited. I told myself I wasn't going to get too jacked up on this podcast, but I almost [crosstalk 00:19:26].

Betsy Bonnema (00:19:26):
Oh, we've been waiting. You've been really calm.

Donnie S. (00:19:28):
I almost have to stand up and start pacing, Betsy. All right. I didn't know what this feeling was like right now that I have, right? Yesterday, I had two different customers who were unrelated tell me that I should have benches out on my sidewalk so they don't have to stand while they wait for tables to get inside. Yeah. I'm like, "Oh my gosh. It's crazy, right?" But I feel like this is something that I created. With our team, right? I'm not taking away from my chef and the team that we have. They're awesome. I couldn't do without every single one of them, including all my high school kids. They're all great. But this is mine now, right? Now, we have to make some surface changes, so I guess the outside... The stickers on the truck still say one thing, but what's going on inside and where the truck is going, the outside doesn't explain that yet, and it will. We have to make some more changes to the front of our building and our brand, as far as logo design things, which is already done. The core of it is now mine, and this feeling...

Donnie S. (00:20:37):
One of the things you said, Betsy, was you want us to fall back in love with our businesses again. Man, I'm not in love. I'm head over heels for my business right now. I have so much energy for it that, last night, I got home at about 11:30, and we shut down about 9:30. I'm so excited to be there and do things. I don't have the work ethic JoAnn probably has, but I am excited where it's going, because it's something that I feel is part of me now, where I didn't feel it before. And that's really hard. How do you grow something that you don't feel like you have ownership in? I felt like I was trying to grow somebody else's business and I had nothing vested in it.

Betsy Bonnema (00:21:19):
And you are referring in part to the fact that you rebranded your business in the last few months, right? Part of that rebranding process was connecting it more closely to you? Is that right? Turning the page on the brand?

Donnie S. (00:21:34):
Exactly. When we started your process and the 10 weeks, rebranding never crossed my mind, really. Maybe changing the name, but I didn't even understand what a rebrand really meant until you started delving into, "Why are you doing what you're doing? Really, what's your purpose and your goal here?" There's so much more to a rebrand emotionally for your customers and what you want to give people than it is anything physical, right? Once I understood the emotional connection and the emotional change that I needed to make, not only for myself, but how I needed to make that emotional connection with every person that steps through the door or wants to step through the door, and I've changed that thought process, and it changed the business entirely for me.

Betsy Bonnema (00:22:21):
You guys remember. Donnie came into our group really excited about business, but maybe not as open-minded as we thought he might be. Is that fair to say, you guys? JoAnn, would you say how important it was at some point to crack him open and get him thinking outside the box? We all needed that. We all needed to be pushed outside of the box. When you think about how Donnie came in, at what point did he all of a sudden open up?

JoAnn A. (00:22:56):
Yeah. Donnie was like, "I'm ready to go. Let's go." I don't want to be like, "Donnie was all talk," but Donnie was talk for the first couple weeks, and all of a sudden, it hit him like a train. He was like, "I get it. Maybe I'm not ready for change." And then after that, he was smooth sailing the rest of the way. He was all on board to try any change that was thrown at him. Don't you think, Donnie? I know, when you came to my restaurant, you were like, "Yeah, I'm going to go and do all this stuff." You did.

Donnie S. (00:23:28):
Yes. I'm very difficult change. My wife would tell you I wear the same four T-shirts. I just do the same things every day at the same times, and I struggle with change. My brain wanted to change. Just my heart wouldn't allow me to, because I was comfortable where I was at, even though I wasn't in love with it. It was hard to get the train off the tracks a little bit, and I think you guys helped me. All of you, everybody. Annie, Sarah, all you guys, and Betsy. You guys really helped me understand that there's many different paths that that train could take. It's not just take the blinders off.

Donnie S. (00:24:12):
Honestly, this is crazy, because I wish... Actually, my wife and I are going to a shrimp boil thing tonight or some seafood boil thing tonight. She's getting ready. But I would actually have her jump on here and tell you that this has not just changed my business life. I feel like it has impacted my person life, like at home, because I feel like I broke through something I needed to break through from a part of being more open-minded to things. I almost turned into this crotchety old man of, "No. I don't want it. We go here every Tuesday. Why would we go there Tuesday next week?" It's the same thing we do.

Donnie S. (00:24:48):
But really, I don't want to make this sound almost too golden over what it is, but I'm being very honest here. To embody this change for me, I couldn't just embody this whole thing and implement it only with my business. It has to be a thought process of how I'm going to live my life every day, right? And I think, really, what you opened me up to and all of you helped with was that thought process and what I surround myself with now and what I listen to and the podcasts that I listen to or articles that I will read that talk about... You can't live for the dollar, and you can't live for growing your business. You have to live for a purpose and a cause. Where are your priorities at? And I really think that this whole 10 weeks really realigned that for me. And in the start, JoAnn, I can talk the talk like nobody's business, but-

Betsy Bonnema (00:25:42):
Don't we know it.

Donnie S. (00:25:42):
... when you really had me put it into practice, you run out of that after a while, and then you really have to peel the layers of the onion away and realize, "Wow, okay. We got to deal with some stuff here."

JoAnn A. (00:25:58):
Yeah. I think I remember the class. What class was that? I was extremely overwhelmed, and I'm like, "Oh, boy." And then Donnie shows up and he's like, "I don't like change." And I was like, "There it is." And I remember that. I'm just trying to think of what class that was.

Sarah L. (00:26:15):
She asked us, "What's on the table for you guys?"

JoAnn A. (00:26:18):
Oh, yes.

Sarah L. (00:26:18):
"What are you willing to risk? Where's the line? Where's the box?" And Donnie, who was all about, "Oh, yeah. Everything, whatever," but [crosstalk 00:26:30]-

JoAnn A. (00:26:30):
Nothing. Not that.

Sarah L. (00:26:31):
... suggestions started coming out, he was like, "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no. Not that. Nope. Nope, not that. Nope, nope, nope." Everything. "No, no, no, no, no." It was funny, because then, just a few weeks later, it was like...

JoAnn A. (00:26:47):
"I'm painting my building a different color and I'm getting a new logo on the truck."

Betsy Bonnema (00:26:54):
Do you guys think if these discussions we'd had, which we couldn't have had if we didn't all share the fact that we have owned businesses, but was it... I think there's a certain power in getting that perspective from another person who's in the same trench as you are, in the same struggle. Your ability as entrepreneurs to speak into each other's businesses, super powerful, because nobody knows how it is unless they're doing the same thing in some other community. It's really powerful to see you guys... Well, they called you out, Donnie, and then they just got behind you 100%, and then they just supported you.

JoAnn A. (00:27:34):
No. I just feel like, in this industry, we are in an industry where people come in to dine all the time, and they're so quick to be like, "This should change. This should change. You should change this. Why don't you do this?" But then, you don't feel like they stand behind you when you make that change. Running these ideas by other people who have restaurants, and they're in the same boat as you, for me, it brought out the confidence and the awareness that I needed to try it. But it wasn't from someone who was like, "Gosh, why don't you do this? Why don't you have this?" And then they weren't going to show up to enjoy the change. I don't know if this makes sense, but I always get so much feedback from customers, but then they don't show up to enjoy the change. It was just different from a perspective of people that are going through the same thing.

Betsy Bonnema (00:28:32):
All right. I'm going to come back to you, JoAnn, but I wanted to get some perspective from Sarah, because you also purchased your business, and you had run it successfully for quite a long time, but you'd reached that point. When you started with us, you'd overcome a lot of challenges, there was a lot of burnout, and then COVID hit. Surprisingly, you came from that place to now being just a pioneer in a new business model that's bigger than what you were doing before and more diverse. It's been really amazing to watch that transformation. For the sake of other business owners that are out there in your position, describe what it felt like to be in that place like, "Oh, I don't even know if I want to keep doing this."

Sarah L. (00:29:16):
They say that, if your business isn't growing, it's dying. You're either growing or dying. There is nothing that's stagnant. It's not like you build up this business and then you walk away and everything's great. You're either changing and growing and evolving, or you're not. We had done a ton of changing and a ton of growing. We added a full-service espresso bar, we had added beer and wine, we had grown our catering business. We had done all sorts of new endeavors and tried all sorts of different menu styles and things and added night service. We had tried all the things, and I was bored. I was to the point where, "What's next? We've done all these things. What else is there to do?" And if you're not growing and if it's not exciting, you're not building, then it's not fun.

Sarah L. (00:30:23):
And then COVID hit. You take being in that position where you're like, "Well what am I going to do next? Where can we go from here? How can we grow and change?" And then you add a disappointment of something that was obviously nothing our restaurant industry had seen, at least in the last 100 years. And you're faced with, "Well, I'm either going to sink or swim. We have to figure out a way to get through this." I was engaged and challenged then about, how was I going to survive the pandemic?

Betsy Bonnema (00:31:07):
I had a couple questions. Donnie and JoAnn, it was hard to see Sarah in that place, wasn't it? In the beginning, Sarah was in a bad place, meaning she was very discouraged, and I think we all thought, at any moment, she was done with the restaurant business. It was hard to see her and know what to say. How was that for you, Donnie?

Donnie S. (00:31:31):
I remember the session we were on when you said, "I'm on the fence. I might be done." I was just super shocked. I was like, "What?" I just didn't know... Well, you're right, Betsy. I didn't have, really, words to know what to say, because I think, when you said it, it was like me looking in a mirror, and I got scared, too. If you're thinking about giving up, then what am I doing? You have the best hash browns in Minnesota. Come on. Really, it was hard. It was hard to see.

Donnie S. (00:32:09):
I think we built connections. I had an opportunity to go to JoAnn's place and visit with her and have her explain some of the things she's going to do. I think, even with the rest of you, just through video, we created connections and a friendship in a way. When I heard you at that struggling point, it was hard to hear. I was worried for you. Legitimately. This wasn't some person I caught off the street, whom I would still feel bad for. This was somebody now I'm vested in. I'm vested in your story. I want to see you to the end. I want to be here and offer any tip of help and things that we can do together. To hear you say that, it was hard.

Betsy Bonnema (00:32:52):
It was hard. But you bring up a really interesting perspective, and I think we've all seen it, is that running a small business in a small community is very personal. Maybe, JoAnn, you could share... I know that taking over a business, number one, is difficult in a small town to begin with, and then you're younger, so maybe you had to work harder to convince people that you even were the owner. Is that fair to say? How does that feeling of "this becomes personal" get in the way of running a business?

JoAnn A. (00:33:25):
Yeah. I was not only taking over. It was a messy deal. I was not only younger in a small town, but I was a complete outsider. I had just moved here 30 days prior, maybe, to this happening. I was still learning who people were. People hadn't really even known who I was. I was just this new person in town. They were just trying to figure out who I was. That was extremely hard. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't happen this way, but I think there was a variety of really good, great people who were welcoming, and then there was also, "Who is this coming into our town? Who does she think she is? She's young, she knows nothing about this." It was rocky. It was very hard.

JoAnn A. (00:34:25):
I think it was easy to get in this mode like, "I don't have to do this. I don't have to be here. Why am I doing this? This is going to be a lot harder than I thought." But obviously, I am the kind of person who I feel like I'm always up for a challenge. I just tried to not let those thoughts overtake my goal, I guess, if that makes sense. And I just was like, "You know what? People are going to find out who I really am soon enough, and that'll be enough once they really get to know me." In my opinion, I thought, "If you're a decent person, you're going to get to know me. And if you're not, then you're going to write me off and have this opinion forever." But I figured, the more people that got to know me on their own terms, they'll figure it out, and things will work out. I didn't even think about...

JoAnn A. (00:35:19):
That's where my hesitation was to let people in and let them know that I was the owner, because once the flack happened the first two months, I was like, "Okay. Wall's up. Building it. I'm going to hide behind the building investors, and I'm going to let people think that they own it so they can get talked about, and I'm just going to be the person who's like, 'Oh, yeah. Take the complaints. I'll pass it on.'" But I think this workshop really helped me come out on my own and be like, "All right. I'm reclaiming my stake. Get out of my way. I'm here, and I'm on fire. We're doing this, so get out of my way."

Betsy Bonnema (00:36:04):
Yeah. It was fun to watch that get-out-of-my-way part of you come out.

JoAnn A. (00:36:08):
Yeah. It came in like a windstorm.

Betsy Bonnema (00:36:10):
Yeah, it was fun to see. I think that's what maybe people who have never owned a business don't understand. Running a business is personal, so there's all these other challenges just way beyond financial and business models. It's thick skin. It's having thick skin and having courage. I know you, Sarah, too, are worried. You have such a loyal following with your business. How are they going to take the news? Are they going to be happy? Are they going to come with you? You're worrying a lot about people's opinions, and that's good and it goes with the territory, but it requires a lot of mental gymnastics, I think, as a business owner to talk yourself into the right state of mind in order to make important decisions.

Betsy Bonnema (00:37:02):
That being said, running is business is hard in so many ways. The reason I feel so strongly about what we do in our workshops is, if you can't get excited about what you're doing and feel connected to your business in a personal way, it's really tough to get through all these challenges. It's just hard. You don't have anything to fall back on. What did you learn about your business as we worked through this process together, and yourself? How did you feel like you reconnected with your business?

Donnie S. (00:37:36):
Once you fall back in love... I think you said it best, Betsy. When you own a small business, if you don't love it, get out, right? Or figure out a way to love it. I didn't want to get out. At times, I maybe thought about it, but I knew this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to grow something and be around people. Like I said, I am just head over heels with my business right now. Some days, I want to slam the door, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Donnie S. (00:38:04):
Yeah. I think really getting through that process of falling back in love with it and having somebody help organize the whole process to get there, and being supported by other energetic people that have that entrepreneurial mindset, was really cool and such a unique opportunity, because in a small town, where do you get that? You're not going to find it on a blog or a podcast, because podcasts like that aren't personable to me to listen to somebody in New York or Southern California talk about me growing my business. They have great ideas and it's awesome, but I think, Betsy, what you're doing here is really where places like us are missing something. We're missing the point of... We in rural areas have a hard time getting these types of resources and feeding off each other's energies to grow.

Betsy Bonnema (00:38:56):
Appreciate that, Donnie. Thank you. Yeah. JoAnn, can you comment on that? Maybe share, if you can, what was that why that you finally came to that really helped ground you and reconnect you to the business and where you wanted to take it? Maybe it wasn't reconnect. I think you created a vision for your business as we talked about, "How do I make this JoAnn's vision and not the Stonehouse & Quarry vision that I inherited, whatever that was?"

JoAnn A. (00:39:31):
Yeah. As quick as I can make this, I guess my whole life, I thought... I remember on my yearbook when it said, "What are you going to be when you graduate?", and it was my senior yearbook, and I was like, "Entrepreneur," and everyone made fun of me. They were like, "That's nothing. That's not a thing. We're going to be a nurse. This person's going to be a farmer. What are you going to be?" I'm like, "An entrepreneur. I just want to own businesses." Never, ever really even formed a plan of how I was going to do that. I went to school, I had all these jobs, and then when I moved here, I was like, "What am I going to do here?" I was working at a sales counter job selling screws and nails, and I was like, "Wow, did I just backpedal 10 years. What am I doing?"

JoAnn A. (00:40:15):
And this opportunity came up and I took it, but it didn't feel like I owned a business. I felt like I inherited something and they had brought me in and had me take this over. It didn't click until I was in the middle of this workshop. And you remember the day it clicked. I had a one-on-one with you, and I all of a sudden lost my mind and I was like, "Oh my gosh." I was sitting in another restaurant, and it clicked. That, I think, was the turning point where I realized and actually felt like this was my business, even though it was, but it never felt like it. I felt like I was just trying to fill a void in the community for fixing something that got broke in the wrong hands.

JoAnn A. (00:41:05):
Yeah. I was overwhelmed when I first took over. I was in survival mode. I thought I was coping well, and I was, but I needed the reassurance. And I wrote down on this piece of paper that having people to back you for any business owner... I know we talked about it. You said, "Your tribe. Find your tribe," and I was not for that term. I know I told Donnie. I'm like, "I can't do the tribe word. It just doesn't click in for me." But man, is that... Even not being in this class, I can tell I'm digressing a little. I'm like, "No, I need my people to cheer me on." Yeah. Once I hit that moment of seeing these other business owners, Sarah, Annie, Donnie, and you guys give me the confidence to own it, I was able to be like, "Okay, this is mine. It really is. Remember. Wake up, JoAnn."

JoAnn A. (00:42:06):
And that's when I was like, "But what's important to me?" And it was family, home, history, where things started, where towns began. And then I'm sitting here thinking, "Man, I don't want Pipestone to become this lost town eventually because people didn't pay attention when we had the opportunity." That gave me the drive to be like, "Well, this is mine, so why don't I do something to it instead of just taking over and fixing the fact that they didn't have lunch features on Facebook every day? What can I do that's more than that? If I were to leave, what am I leaving behind? Am I leaving behind something that I made a few Band-Aid fixes and made it run smoothly, or am I leaving behind something that you..." This sounds crazy, but something you could copy.

JoAnn A. (00:42:57):
There's a lot of restaurants that started as a one-and-done, but because it was so awesome, they took them out of Montana and put them all over. And then people go to these places and they're like, "Oh, this is what it's like if you were to go there." I wanted this place to be the original. This is what it's like if you were to go to Pipestone. This is what it's like 10 years ago, 30 years ago, 100 years ago in Pipestone. Being able to transform this restaurant into more than just a new sports bar, I wanted it to be a legacy of Pipestone and how Pipestone was built. I got that through this experience, honestly.

Betsy Bonnema (00:43:35):
Which I think was really surprising. Am I right, you guys? For such a young person to have such a passion for history, and especially for a community that she's new to, was really inspiring that you just embraced Pipestone and you felt so strongly that you wanted to bring its history and people into your restaurant's brand. I don't think we expected that. Is that fair to say?

JoAnn A. (00:44:00):
Yeah. I think the biggest thing... Someone said this to me the other day. I joined a community golf league to meet some more people and help do networking, and I talked to this lady from Pennsylvania that's working here in town for a very short time, and she said, "I like it here, but I'm from a small town, and I don't live in that small town." And she goes, "But living here makes me miss my small town, because everybody here is like, 'Oh, I'm going to go hang out with my friend that I was in high school with.'" And she goes, "It makes me miss the small-town feel," and I think that's the drive, and that was what happened with me, is I came back to a small town, and I was like, "Oh, look at all these people having fun together that knew each other their whole lives." I'm like, "I miss that out of my hometown." It made me miss my hometown, and then it made me think about how I almost forgot about my hometown for a while, and I don't want people to do that here. I want them to remember to appreciate it and appreciate the people that laid the groundwork for what we have today.

Betsy Bonnema (00:45:03):
Really neat. Thank you.

Donnie S. (00:45:04):
I love it. When you sat down and showed me your new menu idea and went over and looked at the wall with the train tracks, and you were just explaining what you were thinking about doing, I could see it and I could feel it, because you just presented the way you presented it. It wasn't just this, "I think this might bring some people through the door." You believed in it, and it was an energy that was almost like you could reach into the air and grab on to it. It was awesome. And I love that type of energy. But I think you brought something up even cooler. You just said something before you got into that part where you said, "I miss my crew, and I feel like I'm almost doing this, because I don't have these..." I totally agree.

Donnie S. (00:45:52):
I know there's been some roundtable discussions and things like that, but us getting together in this type of setting and just touching base. And if I could have something like this to listen to later on, this is really cool to hear other people that are small business owners, and us to get that energy back. Man, I'm already... This is just energizing, guys. I feel good about it. It's like somebody's just hitting me with jumper cables. It's exciting to hear you guys be excited.

Betsy Bonnema (00:46:22):
We've missed Donnie, haven't we? All that energy.

JoAnn A. (00:46:25):
Yeah. I've missed the whole crew.

Betsy Bonnema (00:46:27):
Yeah. It's great. It's great. Thanks, Donnie. I want to go around, and I got two topics I want to make sure that we get to for each of you before we're done, because it's already been an hour. We're going to definitely have to do this again for sure, because we haven't scratched the surface. I wanted to just hear from you, Sarah, too, about your why and what you discovered and how that re-upped your passion and confidence in continuing in the restaurant business. Before we're done, I want to hear two things. What things do we have to look forward to for your business? What are some highlights now of what's coming up for your businesses that are new and exciting and you're fired up about? And then I want to ask you, thinking about who might be listening, other startup people, maybe other small business owners, if you have any advice for people on how to get your thoughts together, how to reconnect to your why and your passion and fall back in love with your business. Yeah. Just a little advice. Sarah, I didn't get a chance to hear that part of your story. How did you reconnect to that why, and how did that give you confidence?

Sarah L. (00:47:49):
It was through the process of going through this workshop and being involved in business owners who were earlier on in the process. I think you look at your business like, "I'm going to build something and I'm going to get there and I'm going to arrive. Okay. But I'm here now, and now what?" And being reenergized about feeling like I had accomplished some things in my restaurant career and had something where I could build on. And the energy and passion that Donnie and JoAnn have that I have been missing lately, that excitement and seeing that again and remembering what that felt like was just really good to be able to step back.

Sarah L. (00:48:51):
That's really the advice I think I would offer to business owners when you get to that point, because the business is always going to be up and down. One minute, you're winning. The next minute, you're not. You're constantly having to change and reinvent and figure out what the next best thing is and where you're going next. When you start to feel yourself losing that steam and losing that momentum, then you have to figure out a way to step back and to find those things that reenergize your passion and where you can get grounded again and start fresh. That's what this did for me.

Betsy Bonnema (00:49:35):
Yeah. And it's inspiring to hear you talk about how committed you are to your people. You're inspiring people through food. Is that your why, if I remember right?

Sarah L. (00:49:46):
Inspiring connections through food. I really believe that that's true. You bring people together with food. Always, throughout history, food has been a part of every celebration. It's just something I've always been very passionate about, bringing people together. I really do feel like our businesses... Especially in the rural towns, but everywhere, small businesses are like the heartbeats of their community. You really have connections to... You touch so many things throughout your community every day, whether it's the people or the different programs and community events. I just feel so passionate about what we do for our community in that sense, and I needed to reconnect to that, too.

Sarah L. (00:50:48):
I watched Donnie step back like, "I could rename my business. I could change this." And then I was like, "Wait. I could just start a new one. I could do that." It's that freedom to step back and imagine what could be next. JoAnn's already talking about, "I want to build something that we could have 100 of throughout the country." And allowing yourself that opportunity to think bigger and to think, "I could do this. Yeah, I can run a manufacturing plant for canning. Of course I can. That's no big deal." To give yourself permission to have that next big dream and think that it's a reality like, "I'm going to do it." We weren't going to close during COVID. We weren't going to give up, and none of us did. And whatever you decide you can do, you can do. You just have to decide you're doing it and go there. I think it's super exciting to get together in a group like this where we can inspire each other to take that next risk.

Betsy Bonnema (00:51:55):
Yeah. You know what I found, is that people on the outside, family, friends, well-meaning, good, supportive people, they want to look for ways to measure your success, but they don't know where to look, so they look at your money. They ask you how many customers you have, they ask you if you're making money. I remember, at Workup, people saying things like, "Oh, I saw cars in your parking lot. Good job. You must be doing okay." You want to say, "It's not the cars in my parking lot. Come in and listen to the conversations that are happening in my building." Cars in my parking lot are not a measure of my success, but that's all they know. They don't know how to gauge that. What's neat about a group like this is we all get it. Yeah, there's a financial side and we measure some amount of success on that, but for a small business owner, that's usually not what's driving the ship, right? Hopefully that's keeping the bills paid, but it's not necessarily what's inspiring you to start a canning manufacturing plant.

Betsy Bonnema (00:52:59):
All right. Donnie, two things. Couple things we have to look forward to that are exciting, which I know you've got some stuff, and then some advice for other entrepreneurs and small business owners.

Donnie S. (00:53:11):
Yeah. A couple exciting things. We will be doing a rebrand officially. Like I said, we've emotionally started it. We have a couple different menu item changes that we're going to make. I was at a car dealership today getting my vehicle serviced. While I was there, the front desk service manager texted me a picture of one of the sandwiches that they got from the restaurant and said, "Awesome." I walked over and I was like, "Hi." And she was like, "Oh my gosh. This is the best sandwich I've ever had. It was amazing." We ran a new special yesterday. Between yesterday and today, I probably had, I don't know, maybe 18, 20 text messages of people complimenting and whatever. There's just this energy that's different. I can't explain the feeling or the energy, but we're just getting started, and it is exciting. We're going to make the change. We're going to do the exterior changes coming up, and we're hopefully going to do a full unveiling of it in the third week of June. And then we're really excited to break ground for our coffee shop, too. That's going to be a whole different venture, another leg of things that we can do.

Donnie S. (00:54:24):
Advice, be open to change. That's number one. But I think the really big thing that I've discovered is that you need to find your team. You need to find your people. Who can you surround yourself with, and where can you go look to find that? It's out there. And you need to find a place or people that inspire you, give you energy, that are like-minded, and that don't keep that parachute attached to your back.

Betsy Bonnema (00:54:58):
Appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah. Getting the right perspective from the right people is critical. Okay, JoAnn. Thank you for sharing so far, but tell us a little bit about what we have to look forward to with the Stonehouse & Quarry in Pipestone. What are some new things that you've got in the works? And then some advice.

JoAnn A. (00:55:17):
Yeah. Our redesign of the railroad thing got put on hold for a little bit. We had some major staff turnover things happen, and we're just catching our breath from that. But we did start doing beer flights, and we're looking at expanding our tap line. I just got the quote back. Good to go from eight taps to 16, because we're introducing a little more microbrews, which we live in a town where it's Bud Light, Busch, Michelob Ultra, and Coors. We've been working really hard the last couple months to nonstop switch our tap beer out with different sour beers, lagers, IPAs, and just trying to get people to look our direction, essentially. I picture wearing silly costumes and things like that, but we just figured, by switching our taps out all the time, it would get people's attention. It'd be like, "Why are you doing this?"

JoAnn A. (00:56:14):
And then we introduced flights last week. Not caught on just yet, but people are starting to ask. Now that they're seeing the taps switch so much, they're starting to request things, and they're requesting things that aren't the Bud Light, Busch Light, and that's what we wanted to happen. Now, we're on the next step of seeing if we can expand our tap line, because it is set up for a 16-tap line, but it's just eight right now. But it's plumbed for it, so we can do it. We just got to make sure of the money. I'm hoping, in the next couple weeks here now that things have slowed down, we're able to start hanging new things on the wall and taking old things down. We're doing it gradually. We did start a Sunday brunch, so that's really cool. It's been going well. Yeah, I guess just that switchover.

JoAnn A. (00:57:08):
And as far as staffing, we are doing a lot more staff interaction. We are going to do one of those Wine and Canvas, probably without the wine for the first one with staff, just to get everyone interacting a little bit more. We've been building and working on team morale, which has been a game-changer. I feel like I had that environment set up already, but instilling it in my new managers has made a huge difference. In the last two months, it has been a lot of me stepping up to the plate, washing dishes. I've been closing the bar because we've been short-staffed. I even got on the kitchen line and did a terrible job helping cook, but we needed it. I think that sent a message out to the staff that, yes, I always talk about this, and they've seen it a few times, but being actually in the place of closing the bar and opening the bar and doing double shifts for days on end, I think they see that I walk the walk and talk the talk. Is that how it goes? Just a lot of that is what we're working on. We tried to sell the golf simulator, and we haven't heard back, so I'm about to trash it and just get rid of it.

JoAnn A. (00:58:28):
I brought my podcast idea up to a few people, and they didn't react like it was a weird thing. They were like, "Oh, that's cool." I'm on track to try and work on that. Yeah. I just think this whole workshop has affected more than just the restaurant. It brought out the entrepreneur in me that I've always wanted to be. Since our classes, we bought another rental house, and we have people approaching us wanting to join our company that my boyfriend and I built, so that's really cool. That's taking up some time. Now, I have two different businesses growing fast, and I'm stressed out, but it is super fun.

Betsy Bonnema (00:59:12):
That's the life.

JoAnn A. (00:59:13):
I wouldn't have it any other way. I really wouldn't have it any other way.

Betsy Bonnema (00:59:16):
Yeah. Yeah.

JoAnn A. (00:59:18):
Yeah. But I don't know. Did you need any advice from me?

Betsy Bonnema (00:59:21):
Yes, we need advice.

JoAnn A. (00:59:22):
I did write some down. I don't have a lot of advice, because I'm only 27. Mine is just trust your intuition on what you think will work. I think we have a tendency to think we don't know, but our gut knows more than sometimes our confidence leads on, I guess. If you don't feel like you have the knowledge or you don't feel like you have the right idea, you probably do. You just need to sit and meditate a little and listen to yourself, take risks, and take crazy chances. Honestly, I know Sarah's statement earlier, "If you're not growing, you're dying," I took that advice, and I literally... It comes in my head all the time. If you're not taking risks and chances, you're staying in one position. If you're not growing, you're dying.

Betsy Bonnema (01:00:19):
Yeah. Look at that, Sarah. You changed her life with your little bit of advice. I think our world has been through a really difficult time, and I don't think there's much more inspiring than hearing you guys with such a positive attitude and such a bright vision for where you're headed with your businesses coming out of what has been, for you in particular, one of the hardest stretches of time in your business, I would imagine. Thank you for being you, and thank you for being part of your communities and doing what small businesses do, which is be leaders in keeping everything going forward and inspiring people to keep going and keep believing. Thank you for just you guys, and thanks for the experience of having these conversations. I hope to have more. I think the podcast is just getting started. We have no idea where it's going to go, but you guys helped us get it off the ground, so thank you for that. Yeah. I think that wraps it up. We will keep in touch. Thank you for joining us.

Donnie S. (01:01:32):
Betsy, I will say this in closing. I think you guys would all echo this. Thank you. I think you have an incredible ability to bring people together and challenge our thought process and create idea-generating minds, and then water those ideas and help sort through ones that are good and not good and really help us grow. I don't want to use the word challenged me. It was different. I find the words hard to even explain, but you really helped me grow and really helped facilitate that. You have an incredible ability to do that, really. And to bring us all together in this whole process, and all minds that want to run, not walk, and you had to slow us down to a walk and walk us through things when I want to blast through walls and just run through everything with energy all over the room. You reined that in for all of us, and it was really, quite honestly, a life-changing experience for me. I will always come back to this and this 10-week thing, and I hope that we all can stay connected, for sure.

Donnie S. (01:02:51):
Actually, I messaged you on Facebook a couple days ago and was like, "Hey, you remember this podcast thing? I want us all to be here." I miss Annie, and I wish she could make it. Hopefully, we can do this again with all of us together. Thank you, Betsy. Seriously. It was great.

Betsy Bonnema (01:03:04):
Well, thank you for sharing that. You made me think, Donnie, of those moments. You make it sound like we had all this fun and it was all laughs and whatever, but in my last session with the group that we just finished, there was a lot of difficult moments where I was staring at a group of people who were like, "I don't know what you're saying." Blank faces. I was saying that to Jenna, and she was reminding me that, "That's how your group was, too." There were sessions when I can remember looking at you, and you were... I didn't know if you hated me, I didn't know if you were thinking about something else. I didn't know. And we got off the call. I'm like, "Gosh, I hope they'll stick with me here."

Betsy Bonnema (01:03:52):
The bottom line is, changing how you think is hard, and it doesn't happen quickly. It's a windy road, and it's a difficult road. I say that just because, if you're feeling lost and it's a little painful, that's normal, right? Would you guys agree? It's normal to feel that way as a business owner. That's probably what we all understand about each other that maybe nobody else does. All right, you guys. Thank you so much. That's a wrap. We will hopefully see you soon.

Betsy Bonnema (01:04:28):
Thanks for listening to Lost and Found. If you want to learn more about our startup programs, go to startupscene.cc. Watch for more episodes and hear more stories from entrepreneurs and small business owners across the Midwest who were lost, and then found something that changed everything. Thanks.