The Hangout Podcast - Episode 5 - Josh Wolsky

EP 5 — JOSH WOLSKI

🎙️ Episode Five is live. The Man Who Gave Minot a Voice.

He went from caddying in South Carolina to reforming Minot’s city council from 15 members down to seven. He built the Minot Voice when local media started disappearing. He launched Savor Minot so you’d never miss what’s happening right outside your door. And this Thursday he’s opening a free summer concert series at Citizens Alley right around the corner from where we’re sitting.

Christine Staley & Corey Long sat down with Josh Wolski and what came out of that conversation is everything this podcast was made for.

Josh has been one of the quietest and most consequential builders of downtown Minot’s future. This is his story in his own words, and Minot deserves to hear it.

Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and everywhere you listen. Link in bio.

Made possible by a Shop Small business grant from Main Street America and American Express.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:22

Hey guys, welcome to the Magic District Hangout Podcast. I'm Christine Staley.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Corey Long, how you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Yes, and we have a really special guest here today, guys. This is a guy who I met, gosh, he introduced himself to me years ago in a business function, and I didn't know who he was, but then I found out at some point he had a running for city council, but then he also is an advocate for a lot of things. Mine not, it's crazy. His name's Josh Wolski, and he's in the house right now. And I'm very excited to interview you.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

Well, I'm uh excited to be here. This is a fun uh short notice Sunday invitation, right? Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

So you know behind the scenes of about an hour and a half ago, I said, Hey, Josh, gave him a phone call and uh he came. Yeah. And yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

This is this is this is how he rolls. He is so on top of things. Yes, fun, uh, fun conversation. Glad to be here. And by the way, Corey, sorry, I have to tell you guys something just to get off. When I first met you, you know what I said? I said you would be Josh Walske's brother. True.

SPEAKER_03 1:14

I guess we You guys have a look that looks similar. That's uh that's the nicest compliment anybody's given me all year. Really? Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I love it. I had to tell you because I didn't know that you weren't related.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

No, we're it shocked me.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

You are classmates, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

We are classmates.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

I graduated 95 as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Oh my gosh, guys, this is 95 in the house. Jen next who's in the house. Yeah, yeah. Oh my god, this is exciting. So, so Josh, I mean, thanks for coming last minute. Absolutely. But you know what? You're not last minute. You do so much research. There's a lot. He you I heard you went to like 18 downtown somewhere. You drove around, you do some crazy stuff. You gotta like get involved here.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Uh when I see something uh that looks fun to support, I I don't hesitate. I just kind of dive in. He just goes. That's awesome. Uh and then you know, whatever seems to to happen from there is all a part of what was meant to be.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So you're like an entrepreneur because you're like that's like the first, the first uh rule of being entrepreneurs like risk taker. Just go.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

Say yes and then figure it out along the way, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yes, do a high five in the air there because that's exactly what it takes. I mean, really, this that's what this was. We had no idea we were gonna do this.

SPEAKER_03 2:19

No, and it's uh I'm delighted to see you guys doing it because uh we need local conversations, we need people informed about uh what's right under their noses in many cases that they might not have a whiff of. Right. And so, and and we discover that I I think a lot in Minot, people who've maybe lived here a whole lifetime and right didn't even know there were, you know, a whole commercial district two blocks off Broadway. Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

So not just that, just even restaurants, like even like serving services.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

That that I'm just I'm just throwing that in there. Go ahead, Corey.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

No, well, no, so so that brings us to the point, Josh. You grew up here in Minut, you graduated from Minet. What happened after graduation? Oh boy, uh there are a couple lifetimes after graduation.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Sure. But uh I was one of those kids who uh was curious about the world, and so uh I went off to college on the East Coast, uh, the University of Delaware. Okay, Delaware, home of tax-free shopping, uh, made famous by Wayne's World, uh, of course. Right. And it's every bit as alluring. Um, and I had an just an awesome four years there. Uh got the East Coast experience. Delaware is kind of right in the middle of everything, so it was uh a couple hours up to New York, a couple hours down to DC, a couple hours into the mountains for the week.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

You were next to Philadelphia, you were everywhere. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Cheesesteaks, New York pizza. Yeah. Uh all of it was within uh a weekend or a you know relatively short drive, especially for a guy from North Dakota who's happy to drive for you know a couple hundred miles with a brick and an eye. So all these things that were uh seemed out of reach to folks who've grown up in that part of the world were for me just like, well, that's gonna be Friday from 3 30 to 5 and I'll be in New York City.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, was that like a culture shock for you though when you got there?

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Uh it is a little eye-opening as to how close everything is compared to here. Uh at the same time, it is close but far away, in the sense that it's not as nearly as predictable, right? So, you know, if we were to get in the car here today and drive to Bismarck, we know almost to the minute when we're going to arrive at what destination we want to get to. Whereas there's a lot more uncertainty in the hundred miles on the east coast. Oh, I agree. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Don't talk about construction, the detours. Don't even think it's bad here and Myanot.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Right. No, it might not be far away, but there is a lot more uncertainty in terms of how accessible it really is. So wow, just so how subtle little differences.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

So, how long were you there in uh Delaware for?

SPEAKER_03 4:46

I spent four years in Delaware. Uh, and then after college, I uh I was one of those guys who hadn't quite made up my mind as to what I wanted to do, even though I managed to get a degree.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

Uh and so I chose uh an alternate path. I decided I was gonna go be a golf bum. Okay, and and after kind of literally driving uh around the country uh counterclockwise, starting in North Dakota, I uh detoured into Arizona for about eight or nine months and then ultimately landed in Charleston, South Carolina. Okay, and spent the next 10 years there uh on the fringes uh of the golf business and in the golf world. Um kind of took uh uh uh had a taste of playing competitively a little bit. That was kind of the the goal behind all of it as I was gonna go out and play on the PGA tour. Okay. That was like your dream. Certain certain realities. Well, that sounded like more fun than getting a job. That's it, right? At least you weren't a caddy, right? Well, no, I was a caddy. That was actually how I paid my bills.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

That was a golf bump hard.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Okay. So that was that was how I paid the bills and and caddies uh in the environment I was at, we had privileges to some really nice golf courses. So I can play and practice green fees.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

And have you ever head down to Miami?

SPEAKER_03 5:59

You ever go to the Blue Monster Miami? I made it as far as Orlando and Daytona for uh a few tournaments, and and I I had some success in the caddying world. I I got a taste of playing in some of the big uh I would say working in some of the big events. Um but ultimately uh you know certain realities start to take shape and and the likelihood of me, you know, ending up on the PGA tour was a smaller chance. And and and then uh so I ended up with a kind of a landscape construction business for four or five years building putting greens.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Interesting, like for people at their homes?

SPEAKER_03 6:39

For people at their homes.

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Oh yeah, so that was you know, just driving in from Granville, yeah. Every day there's a little small little green. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but they have it it's right on the side of the highway. I did not build that one.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

There are some in an area that I can't build that.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

That's interesting. Josh, I never knew this.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

I never knew, yeah. So that was uh kind of the first foray into entrepreneurialism. Okay, and uh what ultimately you know brought me back to North Dakota is uh niece and nephews, family uh you know, growing up around me that I didn't have uh as much access to because I was farther away, and so I wanted to be a little closer to home while those you know important life events started to happen a little more frequently. Yeah, as everybody has that in their 20s and 30s, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

Yeah, so a real quick recap, you actually you got into the entrepreneur world outside of minor.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Outside of minor, yeah. That was uh the first foray into it was this little putting and landscape construction business. Yeah, and it was it wasn't a whole lot more than a guy in a pickup truck and an occasionally rented bobcache and uh a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

But you had a can do attitude, and that's important. That's what it takes sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

And putting greens were one of those things where my uh it is a unique landscape element in the sense that it requires some fine-tuning to pursue away an actual putting green does.

SPEAKER_02 7:59

And so my background in golf allowed me to really deliver on uh the golf side of that at a higher finish work because you're talking about hitting a ball on uh on a flat surface.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

It it needs to be true, it needs to roll, it needs to it it needs to be experienced the same way naturally.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

So, did you design the actual uh putting greens too, like everything around it, like in the sh the sh you know, the area they're gonna go into following the pass?

SPEAKER_03 8:25

So it would be uh an evaluation process with the homeowner to say this is a good place, it's gonna work really well, this isn't a good spot. Maybe there was, you know, it it seemed picturesque because there were a lot of, you know, maybe there were a lot of pine trees near it or something like that, and it would sit in a cove, but but then what you discover is it becomes kind of a maintenance challenge because it's always got uh nature falling onto it. You saw that so you know, I I would help people, you know, make that determination of you know, what's the right fit, what's the right size, what are you trying to get out of this? Is this a backyard fun feature? Are you a serious golfer that's trying to improve your game?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

This is really research going into this and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

You would design the product according to what people really wanted to get. Yeah, and it was artificial turf. I wasn't we weren't planting real grass. So this was uh a essentially a manicured lower maintenance type of golf backyard green, then then trying to grow one and maintain it yourself because that golf is not really a reasonable path for for most homeowners.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

So then what how did you venture out of that? Because that sounds like that was a really good fit here in North Dakota. A lot of people love golf here.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

Well, they they are uh putting greens are a real niche type of product, right? It's uh uh not a not a lot, a lot of people uh want them in their backyards. Sure. And people never actually want to look at a golf club again after they had a error of it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the so that so their home is some respite from what they sometimes experience on the course. But um what I learned in that business, and this was kind of the height of Google's uh pay per click era, um, because the business was kind of a struggle at first. I was trying to figure out how do I actually reach these people. I know they exist, I know there aren't a lot of them, but I need to get in front of them and let them know that I A, have the service that I can provide and and then have the ability to deliver it uh the way they want it.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Um, and so as I, you know, got into this, the the initial struggle was marketing and reaching people. Yeah. And and so I struggled for for a year and then I built what ended up being a very, very simple website. And I connected it up with Google and I started spending a little bit of money on pay-per-click advertising. And for that particular business, that was such a niche search backyard putting green, yep, that I could I could be in front of my potential customers in the first place they looked, and I could be at the top of the list for very little. You had no competition, and as soon as I did that, the business started to work. Oh my gosh. So I became a real believer in this new world that was emerging at that time that is now commonplace, that uh a smart internet presence was a really valuable element. Yeah, and and that was kind of the the concept that I brought back to North Dakota, which is just to help small businesses uh figure out a very simple website. It doesn't need to say a lot. In some cases, I I I really advocated for the idea of saying less because with most relational businesses, it's not you're never gonna make a deal or close a sale on a website. You're gonna close it after you build the relationship.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yes, it's just a first impression of what you're selling them, basically.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

It is the uh the call to action is to pick up the phone and call. Yeah, they can get a sense of who they're talking to. And in that case, uh it was a less is more environment. You didn't want every single picture on the planet. You weren't trying to sell yourself there, yeah. You're trying to get the call phone call. And then you could take the rest of the sales process. So you seem like you know, that's an emerging concept here too, because at the time, but it's a it's a perfect fit for certain businesses, other businesses people want and and need that information to be able to evaluate you know, how do we make decisions? Yeah, but but it is, I think it's it it should be and often is with with good designers and developers, tailored to the business itself. Yeah. Ultimately, what are you trying to get out of course out of that marketing? Um, and so that kind of led me into uh a short period of time doing that for small businesses. Uh, and then my uh my pathway, you know, in my not and into politics kind of started with the recognition 10 or 15 years ago that uh our local media was a diminishing force in our community. Uh and that led ultimately to the Mynot Voice.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Which tell people what that is, because I that's how I met you.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

So the Mina Voice uh is uh is still in existence and it will be coming back. It's on a short hiatus right now due to a side project that I've diverged into. I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit. But uh the Mina Voices was designed to be a new iteration, a new version of what local media might look like as we move away from the newspaper, as we move away from the six o'clock news, the traditional media outlets or traditional media outlets that people are used to people were very common, that were very common. Yeah. Um, and and Mono is one of those small nucleus places. We're a little geographically isolated for a long time. You could very reliably reach every person in this community with an ad in the newspaper.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Yes, you could have. Oh, yeah. You're looking for a job, there was three full pages.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

The classified section was huge.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

That's actually how I found the business that I bought. Right. It was in the newspaper. Sure. I still have it, I kept it.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah, right. That's such a cool story, too. And but also, you know, now look where we are 15 years later, and and this medium is uh it's struggling. Yeah, let's just say, yeah, right to be to be kind in the larger scheme of things. Um, we've had this enormous rise in social media, which means we have access to more and more information, maybe even more than we can handle.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

I I believe there's way too much out there. Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

And that's that's that's my and here, and yet here we are, right? Like we're all creating more, and that's great. Yeah. The challenge the news consumer, the information consumer has is like, what do I stop and listen to? Yeah. What do I trust?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Credibility in where you're getting the content from, and that's absolutely true.

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Right. And and and so it what is more different today than I think at any point in the past is that we have all this information, but we trust much less. And it's that trust element and that lack of it, I think, that we are seeing express itself in the world around us. I think if you ask an average person, they were like, Well, I don't want to watch it, it's just too crazy out there.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah. Right. Uh or or or or if something happens, people are waiting for a decision, but you're like, let me digest it first, but you don't even get to because by the time it's the next day, they already came to a resolution or decision. You're like, wait, I just learned this. How do you process so fast?

SPEAKER_03 15:25

Or the news cycle has moved on to the next thing to keep you crazy. Yeah. And tuned in for a few seconds here and there. Yeah. You can sell an ad. So I think what you guys are doing, I think local media is the pathway out of this morass we seem to be in culturally as a society. Yeah. So that was what the minor voice was. It was designed to be this local source that people could turn to to know how that information got in front of them. Correct. Which was this was a real person providing some editorial, providing a little bit of local journalism, um, pointing them to other worthwhile news stories from other news sources. Yep. Um and what did you go to school for then? Because you you didn't go to school for journalism, did you? I was not, I was uh economics degree. Oh, fantastic. So it which ties in, I think, to almost all the various uh you know opportunities that exist. Yeah. Because at its core, that's what economics is, is kind of a study of of what's going on around us in some way, and and then observing how it gets, you know, how the problems get solved. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

The needs in our problems get solved. Let's go to Josh Wolski, the the former council member. Sure. How did that how did that yeah, how did that come out?

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yeah. So that arose uh early on in a some MINA voice coverage. I began I began writing about the fact that at the time MINA had the ward system.

SPEAKER_04 16:57

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 16:58

We had seven wards. We had two aldermen elected from each ward. Each ward. That's and four T. So there were 14 city council members, plus a mayor. Plus a mayor.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

So we had 15 local. That's a lot of overhead. And not just that, but opinions. And oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

And I simply started pointing this out. I started bringing back comparisons to other communities in our region, in our society.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Oh, I like that. So you had case studies kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Just like, okay, here's how Fargo does it, here's how Bismarck does it. Yeah. Here's how it and as it turned out, Minot at the time had a very large elected council in terms of number.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Um, but we what we also discovered through you know some some writing and coverage that I delivered was the the fact that we were also not having many contested elections. Many of those 15 members on council were running regularly unopposed. Oh, so it's incumbents and just it was uh I I think it was a couple things. It was a a complicated system that made it hard to understand who I can even vote for. Sure. Right? Because if you didn't know which ward you lived in, and the lines were fairly arbitrary. You had some that extended from South Hill to North Hill. So they weren't they weren't neighborhoods that we often cut and dry and simple to follow where there are common tied interests in a specific place. These were just arbitrary lines on a map. So it was hard to understand who you could even vote for. Yeah. Uh and then and then it required a candidate and you know, multiple candidates to get to a uh a competitive election, and then you would have seven of them across the city. And so it was just it was a complicated uh government election process.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

And so I pointed that out. Uh people started talking about it. People started asking me what we should do about it, and yada yada yada, make my not came to be, which was a city council reform group, uh, a group of citizens that essentially acted from the outside looking in, saying, We uh want this change in our community. We went out of the wheel. Make the minot movement, I remember, yeah. And and ultimately the voters supported the concept we delivered overwhelmingly, which was the reduction to the current council makeup, which uh would have been six elected at-large city council members and an elected at-large mayor who has essentially full voting rights. We have seven people, yes, yeah. Seven people and we've been in the system now since when uh the the transition took place. The first election to that system of government was in 2016. That's the rising election was in 16.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:52

Um, until it was approved by the voters in 2016. In 2017, I felt a little bit of an obligation because I had been a party to this reform.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Spearheading it kind of, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

To step into the game and actually put my my stake in the court.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

And and I think that's right around the time I met you, too, right around that time. Could have been.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

Yeah. Uh and so that was that was how I kind of got into politics because I felt like I sure I had meddled enough that I had the responsibility to and you're still a strong voice, though, even though you're not in in in the council anymore.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

You're still a strong voice. So you moved on from I mean, you you served your technically, was it five years?

SPEAKER_03 20:29

It was actually a pretty short term uh because it uh because of the off-year transition. Yeah, my term was three years. Three years, okay. Um so I stepped away in 2020 at the height of COVID emergency. And that's tough. Uh it was a delightful time to be able to step away from tradership. Oh, I bet. Sure. But but you know I feel a little guilty in the sense, but also grateful to have Nari had to make many of those tough calls. Right there. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

So moving on from that, then what have you been up to lately?

SPEAKER_03 21:00

Yeah. So I I spent uh a little bit of time with the downtown business professional association. I was the interim director for about 18 months, uh, and then got back into publishing because that was uh the what I really determined still to be the need. Um the minot voice, I spun up a new concept called Saver Minot, which I like I I I'm on, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

It's a really cool concept.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Also on hiatus right now, a little bit, but I will be getting back to this uh very shortly. And um it and all all along I just continue to try and improve the platform. I delivering this content through in part uh to make it more user-friendly for the people, the audience, but also to make it more user-friendly for we're closed, guys. Um for the back end management um for For local media to compete with social media, to compete with Elon Musk, to compete with Mark Zuckerberg.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

I remember telling you you telling us about that, saying, you know, like one day if they do decide to shut us all down, how are we still going to get our information? Which I love because that is really true. Look at what happened to TikTok, for example. As dumb as that sounds, that was huge for people. They freaked out. They were literally freaking out.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

And it was a short-term platform. It wasn't even around that long.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Well, and it's uh we have all become so dependent on these multinational corporations to deliver content to us. Um, one, they're not doing it. This isn't people choosing what we see. This is algorithms and psychographic information.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

If you look at it once, you're gonna see it on your timeline and you're like, oh, I want to buy that now. You're like, I just wanted to search for someone else.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

We're we're all a little creeped out by it.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

It is. Well, hey, are phones listening to us right now? Yep. I mean, seriously, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Right after this, I know. I presume. So um, so yeah, that that was kind of what I got back into. Again, this is all just continues to evolve with the the goal of uh of developing a platform where people can access local information, where they can know where it's coming from, sure, where they can uh know that it's supported by local businesses and that's ultimately what we have to figure out as a model where local businesses reinvest in local media.

SPEAKER_04 23:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 23:27

Right. Um, and I spent uh again, I kind of took a break uh the end of last year, but I spent about a year and a half digging into historic newspapers. Um, cool from basically 1900 to 1960. Uh like a bunch of them or just local here, mostly hyper local time. Oh, yeah. Uh so from in that era, those are the most important things.

SPEAKER_02 23:49

And I noticed, yeah, that that on your on your platforms that you've built that you'll bring them every once in a while, did you know? Or uh like a yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

You know, and so from 1900 to 1960, there was a weekly uh newspaper in Ward County called the Ward County Independent. It had just a glorious run, uh fantastic, like very sharp local editors who could intake w news from around the world, still it very quickly, and and give their readership, which was you know, maybe 10 or 15,000 local subscribers at its peak, give them a take on the world as it was happening, and make sure they knew what they needed to know about what was out there. I love that and and people in that moment were not inundated by information, television hadn't yet emerged, or it's only just emerged. And at the end of that stretch, radio uh in the middle began to emerge, but but we had a like a citizenship that was so well informed because once a week they sat down to read that newspaper or the My Not Daily News, which was emerging again in the middle of that stretch. But but that was how we got our information.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

You know, I'm glad you I'm glad you I'm glad you brought that up because I want to make a point though. Something I realized, we all grew up around the same time in the era. I will say this. Um, I know when I used to go to school, all of our friends would know what was going on because we all watched the same shows. There's only three channels. So it's almost like we all were still a part of everything and we all part of the conversation. Nobody felt left out unless they didn't have a TV or they didn't read something. But that we all had access to the same chorus. Yeah, we weren't being distracted by what our what we wanted.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Like, so if you're looking at the name down in 88 in the 90s or the 80s, yeah, they would have the Mine at Lunch Letter would always be.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Oh, I love that. I was in that. I loved it. I love that. I I love that. But I'm talking about like, and even from school, right? Like we can go to school, we all related even in from games to movies to everything to music, because we all it there was not so much saturation in media until cable started. Yeah, and then social media and internet. So I'm just saying all of that's changed everything. Right. So all of our our our attention, which is now an attention economy, am I right? It's it's it's disjointed, it's all distracted and it's more and more.

SPEAKER_03 26:06

And I I I I I continue to believe that that is uh reflective of what we see happening around us, this fracturing of information. And so um the the hope is to be able to uh deliver all that back uh in some small way, right? Where where we can have information of consequence, a place we can turn to uh and trust. But and I keep saying I've been taking a break, and it really uh all that has been uh this spring to to begin working on the uh 11 amp minot. Yes, which is which is awesome. Um so yeah, I I I don't want to get to the end of this little session and not have kind of shared. No, no, we'd love to hear it. Yeah, we'd love it. No, we'd love to hear it. Please share save the best for last. Yeah, exactly. And the the most timely uh the the data put on everybody's calendar is this coming Thursday, uh over in Citizens Alley, just a block away from where we're sitting right now. Uh we've got a a summer-long music series on Thursday nights uh that will kick off. And we've got free community concerts with uh uh in some cases local artists, in some cases regional artists, right, in some cases international touring artists that will be setting up and and playing a set for us. Right. That's fantastic. It costs as much as uh deciding to come downtown on a Thursday night and uh stroll down Main Street, right? Uh see what's going on here, kick over to Citizens Alley and you can park over here too.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

There's a lot of parking guys. Let's use those parking lots, guys.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

The uh yeah, I think uh you know, if you park on the the the north parking lot, it's comparable to walking from Sears to or the old Sears or the old J or the JC Pennies to Shields.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Uh yeah uh uh and it's a it's an interesting walk too.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Uh yeah down central.

SPEAKER_03 27:58

Beautiful new facades down here.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

Yeah, some of these buildings, the dreep paintings, which by the way, Josh was on the facade renaissance zone um board as well. I ended up taking over your seat when you uh stepped down. Thank you very much. And thank you very much for allowing me to sit on it because I've seen such like amazing work downtown because of that.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

I I really believe it's been a transformative program. I do too. Uh we've we've been living with in some cases these buildings that just didn't quite look the way they were supposed to look for so long that we'd almost stopped noticing them. And now when we we get back to the historic architecture, the way they were designed, the windows to their full heights and widths in the window spaces, so you can actually see the masonry that's around them. Yeah, um, it it it almost feels like you know, we've like really cleaned up the living room after a long weekend and we feel good about living in our space.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

And that and that's what you're talking about too, where these concerts are taking place. Tell us a little bit about that area.

SPEAKER_03 28:54

Yeah, so Citizens Alley is a just a glorious public space. Uh the uh hard work of the Axel Group, which has been redeveloping that little corner of downtown for probably at least six What's the address on that? Uh so Citizens Alley is 106 East Central.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

Um, but the work, the larger work of Axel Group is is really all evident in that area with Prairie Sky Breads, the Joe's Italian building, the weekender building, um, and more to come to be sure. Um, but Citizens Alley is is now just a a place to be able to go and hang out. Um Alman Collins, there's pickleball courts up there. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Um in the winter, there's there's you can go skating.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Skating, yeah, there is a refrigerated, uh, probably available, we hope this year, maybe even October 15th, November 1st, somewhere in that area, long before you can actually skate outdoors in North Dakota, because the weather will create the environment. Yep, yep. We've been able to uh through through again the the work of Axel Group uh been able to deliver this rink into that space in the wintertime so it transitions gracefully through the seasons. Right. Um, and and yeah, this this summer concert series is gonna be fun. Yeah, and and as a matter of fact, we're opening Thursday with Dakota Faye.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Yes, guys, we just had him on.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

We just had him on, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, so he is so excited.

SPEAKER_03 30:21

Uh he has been such a great advocate. We've we've seen the energy he's been sharing on social media and he's a homegrown talent.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

I mean, that's really what it comes down to. To show just to begin with him, right? Is really like gracious on you guys' behalf too.

SPEAKER_03 30:34

Yeah, you know, and that's part of the fun of this too, right? Is we it's a celebration of music, but it's also like you know, there's opening the door for somebody else. It's opening the door. There's yeah, exactly this. This larger idea of uh building um a music and artist ecosystem right that celebrates and pushes these talented individuals up, yeah, gives them a platform, a stage so that so that people can see them and go, Yeah, look, he's one of ours, right? Right. We can be proud of him and claim him, yeah, and and and boast to our friends and you know from other places, like, no, yes, we we we've got some really cool stuff going on here. And Dakota's a a great illustration of that, and so he fit really well on a wet night as uh as a demonstration of the larger ethos. Yeah, but yeah, we've got a just a great lineup. Uh Week Two is a band out of the cities. Um, I don't know if you guys uh are familiar with the Paul Simon Graceland album. Yes. Uh one of my favorites growing up, and the backing music on that album was uh inspired by uh one of Paul Simon's trips to South Africa. Oh wow in multi-layered if you were. Yeah, so very African influence. And and I had this artist that's coming up on June 11th reminds me a lot of what I heard growing up on that Paul Simon Graceland.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

So I'm really excited for that one.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Tell me about the arts though. You guys also have different arts things going on, like go because we also, our next guest, which we haven't announced yet, but he's an artist that's going to be featured there too. Awesome. So, but but what exactly are you guys doing with that part two?

SPEAKER_03 32:18

So the Leban Minot is an evolution of arts in the city. Okay. The city is the Minot Area Council of the Arts Main Street program that started probably five or six years ago. Um, and it was a Thursday night event uh focused on Main Street and and local artists and musicians. Okay. And so part of that programming was always the featured artist. Yeah. So they'd got musicians on stage, but they're also celebrating the visual arts and the makers and the creators. Yeah. And so that was an element of that programming that we wanted to continue as we folded the Arts in the City concept into Levitant Minot. Okay, great. It's been an exceptionally valuable and important partnership with Monetaria Council of the Arts. Um, they are uh they stepped up in such an enormous way to help us deliver Levitamp Minot this year. They are sponsoring all of our opening artists.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Oh, fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

Mineot, Bismarck, local, regional people who uh maybe not quite ready in some respects for the headline position on a Levitamp stage. But it gives them the beginnings. We still get to celebrate and again create that ecosystem for all of these local artists. And so um Monetary Council of the Arts has sponsored uh uh the entire summer of opening artists, a wonderful commitment. And and so as a result of all of those things, the way this has all evolved, we we are keeping that idea of the featured art alive. Mac will have a presence uh on stage for us, or excuse me, um, in our vendor market on Central Azure. So they are very much a part of this event moving forward, and we're really grateful to have.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

So the days that that uh that on Thursdays they're gonna take a I believe the week off of the fair.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

We're so we uh opening night is June 4th. Yeah, uh we are taking July 2nd off because uh people start getting uh a little bit of floating out. Sure, sure. So we're gonna take that night off, and then we aren't gonna compete against the North Dakota State Fair. So July 23rd, yeah, we'll be off. But uh all the other Thursdays uh throughout the whole summer. Yep. And then at the end of our run, uh, I think our last show is on Thursday, the 20th of August. Yeah. Uh it'll be a uh a little longer break, uh, almost nine days between the next one. But the silobration, the celebration, uh the uh gorgeous mural that went up on the elevator over there on 4th Street uh will be in its second year. And so the folks who delivered that uh just extraordinary piece of work into the community.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Yeah, so that started last year then. Yeah, and you guys are continuing that. So that's gonna be a continuing annual event then for next year or two. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

I am and so that is that is a hosted in Citizens Alley event. That's okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Oh, so they they they you they lend you lend the Citizens Alley to them.

SPEAKER_03 35:26

Okay, okay. The the folks who delivered Citizens Alley, or excuse me, the the uh the mural uh uh needed and wanted a place to celebrate. What is the group that does that? It is uh I you know I don't know what formally their names are. It was Cole Krueger and Tim Bauman and Chelsea like were the but is there like a group that you could follow them to with their stuff too?

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Like a website? It is.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Okay. I know they have a Facebook page. Okay. I just I for some reason it's it's not at the tip of my neck.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

No worries. I just figured I'd I'd let people know.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

So if they want to look more and more and more absolutely fantastic work uh on those part, on the part of those individuals to deliver that piece of work, uh, that talented artist from literally the other side of the world.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Yeah, I saw him painting last year. It was phenomenal to watch him. Yeah, and it was crazy because when you looked at him, you're like, what is he doing? Like it doesn't make sense. And then like a week later you come back like, oh, I get what that is now. It was kind of like a puzzle he was putting together. Yeah, it's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Really fun to watch that emerge last summer. And yet another example of just the extraordinary uh community pride that's emerging. Yeah, and and all the things that flower out from that simple idea of kind of caring about your place and see it if you use yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

And I and that's the one thing I can tell you that I've known Josh now for quite a while. It's almost going on, maybe I would say I'm about 10 years this year, because if I met you in 2016 when I did that My Not Connect talk, oh sure. Remember, that's how I met you. Is it up at the Hilton kind of thing? Yes, that was when I met you. Yes, you were the entrepreneur. Yes. I was invited there to talk. I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing, and you were so nice to talk to me, and I didn't even know who you were. And and it was just nice. So it's been about 10 years I've known you now, thinking about it.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Yeah, I gotta say, Josh, you've brought a whole element of uplifting downtown in this whole area down here. Well, thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

You're still you're still you're still pushing over the whole bunch of other things we haven't even touched on, but maybe we have to have you back another time to talk about that. Maybe at the end after maybe the winter time when we want to talk about what we want to get started on in the spring.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

Well, I know I I had those three years on city council and uh and the good talk, the recent yeah, oh that's the other one. I wanted to that's the podcast that Jonah and I did.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yes, and that's the last time I did a podcast with you. I was on it as a guest. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

You guys gotta be careful. I'm a little microphone starved these days.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

So I'm hey, hey, hey. Hey, if Corey or I can't sit in, maybe co-host. I'm cool with that. That would be great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm cool with that.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Yeah. Keep uh keep me on those lists. Uh I'd love to come and chat whenever that's approaching.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Where can we learn about like what's going on? Where what are the what are the handles? What are the places? What do we do to let people know? Because again, this is one thing I did want to say, Corey. Yep, I got a message one lady did say, and I want to, I want to, I don't have her name, so sorry, but you know who I'm talking about. She mentioned on the first episode we aired, she's so happy that we're doing this, but she had to always aggregate everything, what's going on. So for you and what you're working on and Citizens Alley, where do you recommend people go to really find questions? Yeah, like where do we need to go?

SPEAKER_03 38:22

So uh for Citizens Alley, uh, and and I am a huge advocate for divorcing your dependence on social media. Okay, okay, uh, because we just don't know what it's going to serve to us if we sign up and follow a place. We don't we have no idea if they're actually showing us what we want to see from those various businesses and associations. So for Citizens Alley, go to the Citizens Alley website, Google search citizens Alley, okay, and subscribe to the email list. Okay, so it's a newsletter. The the newsletter comes up once a week, and that will keep you up to date on everything that's happening in that little area.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:02

Um, and then after you do that, go to the my notvoice.com or savor my not.com.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

It's S-A-V-O-R.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

S-A-V-O-R.

SPEAKER_02 39:13

Savor, like savoring food guys. We want to uh we wanna go out for a nice meal, want to savor that that delicious cake.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

It's got everything from events to cool um like happenings that are just only like local, maybe like one night. So it's always on point.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

Right. Uh and if any of those businesses are listening or watching, figure out how to get in touch with me. Uh, my numbers in places, my emails in places, use the contact forms wherever they are because I am not actually going to ask anything from businesses. I want them to adopt and use. This is a self-publishing platform.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Yeah, I've been using it for quite a while now.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

Magic City Hoagies has their monthly specials here, yeah, um, and has been for a year, and I'm grateful for that content. Yeah. The challenge we have in media that that is especially local media, is we're trying to build advertising models the same way it previously existed, but we're competing against companies that give it away for free. Yeah. And so I uh I have decided I'm gonna uh I'm gonna follow their lead. And if local businesses uh, especially the unique local ones, the food and drink, the local retail, the only things we can get in mine get in minor. Uh-huh. Um we'll figure out a way to support you. Okay. And but it requires a little bit of time. Gotta just be able to grab your username and password and sign in and share what you're already sharing with Mark Zuckerberg. Just give it to local media too.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Let me tell you guys, let me tell you, okay, when I have to change my hoagie of the month every single month, I this is the first thing I do. I actually first post it on Saver My Not so I don't forget it. It's like on my SOP list because if I don't do it, I'm gonna forget it. Right. And then I go to everywhere else. Then I go to Google and post it, and then I go to Facebook, and then I go, you know, and the website, all that stuff. So yeah, it's it's a lot of work, but it's worth it.

SPEAKER_03 41:11

It's uh uh and the the goal and what we will be back to very soon is is actually the the saver my not, the my not voice, the for my not network. It is a daily ecosystem. It is a newsletter that goes out every morning. There's content that is updated there, and again, I'm I'm overselling a little bit right now because it's not in that state at the moment, yeah, but it will be within a few days. And uh and you'll be in the loop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Um, you'll know like the modern lunch letter, guys. All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:42

If you guys know what that is, that might point you exactly where to get lunch, right?

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Yes, you have your living at those the usual. Yes, yes, and and and listen, it's it's really neat. Like, I I will definitely say that like Josh, you're definitely a wealth of information. And if you guys don't know this guy, introduce yourself. He he can maybe point you in the right direction of anything you need to know. Usually, I mean he was in politics here in Minot, all the way down to like art, now to downtown. I mean, really. Right. And he's a local, yeah. I mean, you can't get any better than that. I'm not, so don't ask me those questions all the time. Well, I feel like Christine, you've earned local status.

SPEAKER_03 42:16

Oh, I appreciate that. Yep, you're your magic safe. Over and all through and through at this point. So I'm telling you, magic safe goes through by itself. Yeah, the energy it permeates out into the world is such a good example of that. Yeah, and mine it's an inclusive town.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

Yeah, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

I mean, you know, and if you don't find your path of where you want to meet, like that's where you come up to us guys, and we'll say, Hey, we know what's going on, and just find your people. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

If you haven't found it here, you're you're not yet looking in the right place. I agree with you there. I agree. Turn it over rocks because it's here somewhere. Right. Yeah. And uh and and and it's just a matter of be part of the narrative now.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

Don't don't sit here and like Corey said in the first beginning, it's like, don't be part of the problem. Try to find a solution to the problem.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Yes. Uh Corey and I, well, we all grew up in the 80s. Yeah. I don't know if uh Christine, uh the experience was the same where you grew up. But if you grew up in North Dakota in the 80s and 90s, uh and you whined, somebody made you pay for it.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

I didn't have time to whine. I was outside playing and I was outside doing things. I was sun. Yeah. I was on the side of the year. But I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I I yeah, they made us do something if we were whining.

SPEAKER_03 43:25

So we we we were taught real quick that it was uh uh uh keep your mouth shut or uh or make something happen happen, right? Which is great.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

And that's it's a can do attitude. And that's the one thing I love about North Dakota that guys, again, if you're thinking about moving here, there's a lot of cool stuff. But I really believe that this is there's something for you to do, no matter what. There is to get up and start something. Yep. And that's that's the opportunity. I mean, like I said, I've met you and I've met you. I mean, it's just a huge ecosystem.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

And everybody is all out there doing their own thing, pulling in some way, uh, but everybody takes a break to go out. Help somebody else comes along. And you know, so we all have the things we care passionately about, but but but we also take time to enjoy it. Yeah when we get the chance.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

I'm I'm hopeful that uh for everybody who's working hard on whatever their thing is, take a break on Thursday nights this summer, come on downtown, yeah, uh stroll down Main Street, right?

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Park uh there's two parking garages, guys.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Remember or there's this glorious large parking space uh across from City Hall on to the east there. I don't know who's using that right now or if Trinity's still using it, but there's always parking spaces there. Yes. Uh get some exercise, walk down Main Street.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Yeah, there's a lot happening downtown, guys. It's really moving and shaking this time.

SPEAKER_03 44:41

Get some ice cream here in Magic City Suites, grab a glass of wine at off the vice.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

Yeah, do you see their new uh their new uh setup outside? It's beautiful. Uh the sidewalk is beautiful, funnier room too. Yeah, I saw I saw her the other day and I said, congrats on that. I said, I've been waiting for someone to do that finally on Maine.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

Is she yeah, the first there's more to do down here than uh than most people realize actually and and it's now you know really becoming one of those environments where you don't have to do anything just show up to show up here to be in a really beautiful environment.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

It's taken time to change and evolve to this, but now it's starting to really come into its own.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

This this summer season, too, with all the the planters full and nice and colorful.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah, Christine Help with the uh the pollination project, right downtown here.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Awesome, yes, and Tim Bauman was definitely part of that help, and then you know, the Parks District with their their very uh festive patriotic colors this year.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

And that uh just that larger contribution and daily upkeep of those is sold than people realize.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Right. Somebody doing something behind the scenes in order to keep this going.

SPEAKER_01 45:46

Yeah, yeah. Actually, I I I had a talk with the realtor's board recently about that and saying, hey, you know what? If you guys want to support downtown, that's the best way.

SPEAKER_04 45:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

And you know, people are really open to wanting to know how they can help and volunteer, and that's the biggest thing. You guys have volunteer opportunities too where you're at, so we absolutely do.

SPEAKER_03 46:02

And uh also through the Citizens Alley website, uh, you know, there the opportunities to get involved are over there, and we have planting programs, we have Thursday night opportunities. Uh, we're gonna have wintertime volunteer activities.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Yeah, so get the kids moving, guys, get them out of the house. Don't leave them cooped up. Right. Well, Josh, thank you so much. Is there anything else you wanna us to know that I didn't ask you or Corey didn't ask you?

SPEAKER_03 46:29

I appreciate the opportunity to to give plugs all those things and talk about it. Uh yeah, that's that's what I got for a Sunday afternoon. Cool, cool. Okay, I'm good. Are you? Yeah, yeah, we're good, guys.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

So I just want to say thank you to Josh Wolski here and Corey Long, the co-host. Sorry to introduce you in the beginning of the video. It's all good.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

No, no, we introduced each other.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

I got so excited to talk to Josh. I was like, forget Corey. No, but it's it's been great. Like this is, guys, again, if there's any questions you have, we're gonna put his information in the um post here. And please come on out and support downtown. Remember, it's a big year this year, 250 years and 140 years from my knot.

SPEAKER_03 47:08

Yeah, lots of celebration. Yeah, we're going on for this. Right.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Yeah, so we're excited to be a part of that. We want you guys to be a part of it too. So just follow us again, and then um, you guys have a great day. Thank you guys. Okay, take care, bye.

unknown 47:20

That's the magic of me, me, me.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Am I yet no tea now? You see, life ain't no way, that's what you dream. It's the way that you make those things reality. You see, that's the magic of me, me, me.