Small Town Stories | Local Business Marketing, Small Town Business, Entrepreneurship

About Small Town Stories | Local Business Marketing, Small Town Business, Entrepreneurship

Are you trying to grow a small town business while feeling like most entrepreneurship advice was never designed for the reality of local business? Do you ever wonder why some Main Street businesses become thriving community staples while others struggle to stay visible in a world that’s changing faster than ever? And are you craving more honest conversations about what it actually takes to build something meaningful in a small town today — from marketing and creativity to reinvention, tourism, leadership, and community? If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place! Welcome to Small Town Stories, the podcast exploring the business behind Main Streets across Canada, the U.S., and beyond. Each week, we’re diving into conversations about local business marketing, entrepreneurship, and the realities of building a small town business in today’s modern world. I’m Jan Ditchfield — top-ranked podcast host, marketer, entrepreneur, and longtime storyteller. After spending years building businesses and working in marketing, media, and online entrepreneurship, I eventually found myself back in the small town where I grew up: Merrickville, Ontario. And what I realized very quickly is this... small town business works differently. The relationships are different. The visibility challenges are different. Reputation matters differently. Word of mouth matters differently. And yet most business advice completely ignores the nuance of what it takes to grow a local business in a tight-knit community. That’s why I created this show! Inside the podcast, you’ll hear interviews with entrepreneurs, founders, creatives, shop owners, community builders, tourism leaders, and the people shaping modern small town life today. You’ll also hear solo episodes where I break down the marketing strategies, customer experience ideas, local branding lessons, and business insights that help small businesses stand out and grow sustainably. We talk about everything from local tourism and community-driven growth to small business marketing, creativity, entrepreneurship, customer loyalty, destination businesses, and what it really means to build a business people want to keep coming back to. So whether you own a storefront, run a service-based business, dream of opening something one day, or simply love the culture and character behind Main Street businesses, I’m so glad you’re here. Hit follow, subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us every Thursday for new conversations about the people, places, and strategies shaping small towns today. And if you want to connect beyond the podcast, you can visit thesmalltownstoriespodcast.com and follow along on Instagram at @thesmalltownstoriespodcast for guest announcements, behind-the-scenes updates, and more stories from small towns across North America.

Publisher

Jan Ditchfield | Small Business Marketing Strategist & Small Town Business Entrepreneur

Category

business · business · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 May 2026

Latest episode

10 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Sept 2026

   What Makes a Small Town Feel Like Home? 10 Stories About Business, Community and Belonging

   What makes a small town feel like home? Maybe it’s knowing your coffee order before you reach the counter. Maybe it’s waving to the same neighbour for three years, or walking into a store for five minutes and staying for twenty because someone started talking to you. When I started Small Town Stories, I thought I was going looking for the stories behind local business and the people who built them. Ten conversations later, I realized I’d been finding something much bigger. Across this first...

2. 

   3 Sept 2026

   16: A Community Business Gem: What Keeps People Coming Back to This Small Town Store

   What makes a community business become more than a place to shop? Sometimes the answer isn’t what it sells. It’s how deeply it becomes part of the life happening around it. In Athens, Ontario, JoAnne Sytsma owns The Village Store, a local business inside a historic building she and her late husband, Sid, spent 13 months bringing back to life. What they created together was rooted in JoAnne’s memories of the village grocery stores she knew growing up—the kind of places where people knew your ...

3. 

   27 Aug 2026

   15: Built on a Handshake: The Business of Reputation in a Small Town

   What does it mean to build a business in a small town where your reputation follows you everywhere—and a handshake still means something? For more than four decades, carpenter Ron Eagle has built his life and work into the fabric of Merrickville, Ontario. There are houses he’s built, roofs he’s repaired, a community centre he helped transform, and nearly 40 years of calls answered as a volunteer firefighter. His story is about local business, but it’s also about what happens when a lifetime o...

4. 

   20 Aug 2026

   14: The Small Business Website That Was Good Enough... Until It Wasn't

   A small business website doesn't always need to be the first thing you build. Sometimes, getting started matters more than getting everything perfectly in place. When I launched Small Town Stories, the show didn't have its own website. I tucked a landing page onto my other business site and got to work making the podcast instead. It wasn't a particularly sophisticated plan, but it gave me the space to find the guests, tell the stories, and discover whether anyone actually wanted to listen bef...

5. 

   13 Aug 2026

   13: Small Town Arts: The Hidden Growth Lever for Rural Entrepreneurship

   What role can the arts play in rural entrepreneurship and the economic growth of a small town? In Merrickville, Ontario, artists have spent decades helping shape the identity of a village known for creativity, craftsmanship, and a thriving small town arts scene. But maintaining that reputation takes far more work than most visitors ever see. When Kenna McCall retired to Merrickville, she didn't arrive intending to become part of its artistic leadership. A silversmith, gem cutter, and jeweller...

6. 

   6 Aug 2026

   12: Rural Leadership Redefined | How a Small Town Girl Became Mayor

   What does rural leadership actually look like once the campaign signs come down and the election is over? For Corinna Smith-Gatcke, Mayor of the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands, it begins long before public office. It starts with growing up in a small town, leaving to build a career, and eventually returning home with a deeper appreciation for the place that helped shape you. Like many people who grow up in rural communities, Corinna believed that opportunity existed somewhere else...

7. 

   30 Jul 2026

   11: The Small Town Business That Became the Heart of Its Community

   Some businesses sell products. Others become part of the story people tell about where they live. When Jess Pasinetti opened Found and Forage in Kemptville, Ontario, she wasn't trying to build the biggest retail store. She was trying to make it easier for people to shop in a way that reflected their values. What started as one small town business has grown into a home for more than 40 local makers, creating space for creativity, connection, and community to flourish. Jess shares how her backg...

8. 

   23 Jul 2026

   10: How We Tell Local Business Stories | Behind the Scenes of Small Town Stories

   Small Town Stories has never really been about making a podcast. It's about earning someone's trust and sharing the local business stories that help define our communities. People often ask how I find my guests, how much planning happens before we record, or whether I know where a conversation is going before we ever sit down in front of the microphones. The truth is, every episode begins long before recording day. It starts over coffee, with an old notebook, a lot of listening, and a genuine...

9. 

   16 Jul 2026

   09: Rural Entrepreneurship Reimagined | How One Farmstand Owner Built Her Dream

   What if the biggest obstacle to rural entrepreneurship isn't a lack of opportunity—but the belief that small towns can't support big dreams? While many people wait for certainty before they begin, Kirstin Levy, the founder of Rustic Roots Farmstand, chose to start with what she had: a roadside farm stand, homemade bread, and a desire to serve her community. That simple decision grew into a thriving farmstand business in Jasper, Ontario that's rooted in purpose, craftsmanship, and connection. ...

10. 

    9 Jul 2026

    08: I Thought I Was Making a Small Town Business Podcast. I Was Wrong.

    What if the story you thought you were telling was never the story you were actually discovering? When I first started Small Town Stories, I thought I was creating a podcast about small town business. I imagined conversations about entrepreneurship, the remarkable people building businesses in small communities, and what inspires someone to invest in a place where everyone knows their name. Then the messages started arriving. Some came from people who grew up in small towns. Others came fr...

11. 

    2 Jul 2026

    07: The Growth Conversation Every Small Town Is Having

    When does growth stop being about building and start becoming about belonging? Every small town eventually reaches a moment when the future begins knocking at its door. New families arrive. New businesses open. New homes are proposed. Change becomes inevitable. The harder question isn't whether communities should grow. It's how they grow. Because every decision shapes something larger than the landscape itself. It shapes the people who live there, the businesses that serve them, and the chara...

12. 

    25 Jun 2026

    06: The Hidden Reason That Keeps People Coming Back to Small Town Businesses

    For most of us, customer service and hospitality probably sound like the same thing. I certainly thought they were. But after hearing one simple idea on another podcast a few weeks ago, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the difference. The more I travel through small towns and spend time with local business owners, the more convinced I become that people don't always remember what they bought. They remember how a place made them feel. They remember the conversations, the welcome they...

13. 

    18 Jun 2026

    05: The Secret Behind a Small Town Business That Connects

    When did we stop having places where we simply belonged? Not home. Not work. Just somewhere in between. A place where someone knows your name, asks how your week has been, and notices when you haven't stopped by in a few days. In an increasingly digital world, those kinds of spaces feel rarer than they once did. We're more connected than ever, yet many people feel more isolated. We can order coffee through an app, work remotely, and spend entire days interacting through screens. But convenien...

14. 

    11 Jun 2026

    04: The Small Town Business Lesson Hidden in Community

    What if the things we notice first aren't actually the story? A few weeks ago, a simple email about backyard chickens sparked an unexpected conversation. While the chickens may have been the catalyst, what emerged was something much larger: the stories we attach to ordinary things, the assumptions we make about people and places, and the ways community quietly shapes our lives without us even realizing it. It's easy to look at a small town business and see only what's visible. The storefront....

15. 

    4 Jun 2026

    03: Why Some Small Businesses Are Impossible to Forget

    What makes certain businesses impossible to forget? Lately, it feels like we're all consuming the same advice, following the same trends, and watching businesses race to keep up with whatever the algorithm rewards next. And somewhere along the way, a lot of brands have started to look remarkably similar. But the businesses that stay with us rarely do so because they mastered a trend. They stay with us because of how they made us feel. That idea sits at the heart of this conversation with arti...

16. 

    4 Jun 2026

    02: What Nobody Tells You About Starting a Small Town Business

    Starting a small town business sounds simple enough until you're actually doing it. The storefront might be ready. The business plan might be finished. But what happens when your customers are also your neighbours, your reputation spreads faster than your marketing, and the success of your business depends as much on community relationships as it does on revenue? In this conversation, entrepreneur and economic development leader Yves Grandmaitre shares what decades of experience have taught h...

17. 

    4 Jun 2026

    01: What Small Town Businesses Know That the Internet Forgot

    There’s something small town businesses understand that the internet seems to have forgotten. Not everything meaningful can be optimized. Not every relationship should move fast. And not every business is meant to scale at the speed the online world keeps demanding from us. Recorded in Merrickville, Ontario, this first conversation begins with a homecoming. After years spent building a career in marketing, podcasting, and online business, coming back to a small town revealed something unexpec...

18. 

    28 May 2026

    Why Small Town Business Is Different Today | Small Town Stories Trailer

    Small town business is different — and after years of working in marketing, entrepreneurship, and online business, it’s something I didn’t fully understand until I moved back to the small village where I grew up. Welcome to Small Town Stories! I’m sharing the story behind why I created this podcast, what surprised me most about returning to small-town life, and why I believe we need more honest conversations about local business marketing, entrepreneurship, and the realities of building a sma...

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.5 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Contact Small Town Stories | Local Business Marketing, Small Town Business, Entrepreneurship

Guest appearances

Books guests

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