Family Business Connection

About Family Business Connection

Family Business Connection is a Prairie Family Business Association podcast where we lift up the stories behind family businesses who thrive for generations. We explore the topics our family business members request most often: Communication, Culture, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy, and Succession by hearing from the family business leaders who are solving problems day-in and day-out while building a legacy for their businesses and their families.

Publisher

Prairie Family Business Association

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Apr 2024

Latest episode

1 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

25 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   1 Oct 2026

   The Cost of Growth

   Jason Boutwell of Pro Resources and Jonah Snyder of Pomegranate Market on what growth quietly costs a family business, and how to cover it. Growth doesn't just show up in new locations and rising employee counts. It shows up in what nearly gets left behind along the way. Jason Boutwell of Pro Resources talks with Jonah Snyder, a second-generation leader at Pomegranate Market in Sioux Falls, about what growth actually costs a family business, and how the right kind of help changed the outcome. Jonah shares how his dad started Pomegranate from what he describes as a middle-of-the-night idea, opening Sioux Falls' first organic grocery store years before that way of eating caught on locally. But growth brought its own price: as Pomegranate expanded to a second downtown location, one office manager splitting time between bookkeeping and HR could no longer keep up. [08:08] Jonah: "We either need a full-time HR person. Or we need something else. What we were doing was not going to work." So could a PEO be exactly the kind of help a growing business needs? Jason says it depends on the size of the gap, not just the size of the business. [12:46] Jason: "We're not a fit for everybody... an organization with say 50 employees, God, that's tough. They have the need, but do they have the budget to justify?" Jonah walks through what that partnership has looked like in practice, from streamlined onboarding to benefits guidance that's already saving the business money. [18:11] Jonah: "You don't often get to save money and provide better service to your people, but I feel like we've accomplished both of those." Jonah also shares how a family mission, carried across generations, gave his family a roadmap for making the shift between the two feel like a real plan instead of guesswork. Listen in for a good look at what growth really costs a family business, and what it takes to keep growing without losing sight of why it started. Links Pomegranate Market's Website Jonah Snyder's LinkedIn Pro Resources' Website Jason Boutwell's LinkedIn Prairie Family Business Association’s (PFBA) Website PFBA’s Instagram

2. 

   24 Sept 2026

   The Stuff AI Just Can't Replicate

   Jenny Weg of 9 Clouds and Kris Kluver of Therm Dynamics talk AI, trust, and the relationships a family business can't afford to automate Bringing AI into any business is easy to overcomplicate, and even easier to lose that personal touch. Jenny Weg of Nine Clouds talks with Kris Kluver of Therm Dynamics and host Eric Erickson about how a thirty-year-old, family-owned heater manufacturer in Tea, South Dakota is bringing AI into the business without losing the relationships that built it. Jenny and Kris met through the Prairie Family Business Association, and that connection shaped how Therm Dynamics approaches new technology: quickly, and on its own terms. As Kris puts it, family businesses can make a call, like switching marketing partners, without approval from a board or, in his words, “an act of Congress.” [07:44] Kris: "We call it tribal knowledge here... so much of that knowledge is stored in people's brains, that experience." That tribal knowledge is exactly what Kris is protective of. Therm Dynamics uses AI to organize and summarize scattered information but draws a hard line at decision-making and that line looks different depending on the generation. [11:49] Jenny: "The strongest marketing materials that a family business has that AI cannot replicate is just your founder's story, lessons you've learned through generations.” [20:49] Jenny: "The businesses that will succeed in this AI world are not going to be the ones who automated everything. It's gonna be the ones where they say, 'Okay, technology adds value here,' but the relationship, the conversation, the decades of experience from generations past, that's gonna still matter more overall." Listen in for a candid conversation on where AI earns its place, where it needs boundaries, and why trust is still the thing every family business is really building. Links 9 Clouds' Website Jenny Weg's LinkedIn Therm Dynamics' Website Kris Kluver's LinkedIn Prairie Family Business Association’s (PFBA) ⁠Website⁠ PFBA’s ⁠Instagram⁠

3. 

   17 Sept 2026

   People Build Legacies, Not Businesses

   Dawn Amend and Ashley Ficken of Runza share how family trust, humor, and values built an 80-year Nebraska legacy, now in its 4th generation. Deciding to finally sit down and capture your family's story can feel overdue and overwhelming all at once. What do we even remember? What matters? What if we wait too long? Dawn Amend and her daughter Ashley Ficken talk with Melissa Parks and Dave Goetz of Journey Sixty6 about preserving four generations of family history behind Runza, the Nebraska-born sandwich chain their grandmother trademarked in 1949. Dawn and Ashley share that founder Don Everett Sr. led with charisma, as much as strategy, building Runza's game-day business from a single converted mail truck and later opening a Rock 'n' Roll–themed restaurant with roller-skating servers & Elvis impersonators. Dawn describes him as "super social" and "uber creative," the kind of leader whose can-do attitude became the foundation for the company's five guiding values: common sense, can-do, charisma, compassion, and care. [0:03] Dawn: "One night she was asleep in the back of the motorhome. I was asleep and she woke up to my dad laying beside her. And she was like, who's driving? And it was my sister with my brother in the passenger seat."That same spirit carried into the business, where titles never mattered as much as showing up for each other. [22:54] Ashley: "I would say every family should capture their family history story because people build those legacies. Businesses don't. These legacies and these histories and stories are important and essential to hear because of the people that make them." Preserving a family story ultimately means making time before the memories are gone. Listen in for a candid look at family harmony, humor, and what it takes to write it all down. Links Runza’s Website Dawn Amend’s LinkedIn Ashley Ficken's LinkedIn Journey Sixty6's Website Melissa Parks' LinkedIn Dave Goetz's LinkedIn Prairie Family Business Association’s (PFBA) Website PFBA’s Instagram

Who has been a guest on Family Business Connection

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Abby Woodford
• Megan Green
• Rick Hustead
• Sarah Hustead
• Parker Jones

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

8,173

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 29 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

15

Social presence

0

YouTube

74

Engagement

32

Contact Family Business Connection

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Family Business Connection