Finding love in small businesses, owners

I absolutely love meeting small business owners. 

 

Maybe that love started when I worked in Waseca, highlighting the businesses that keep the community alive. 

 

But this past week, I have had the pleasure of meeting some very lovely small business owners in the heart of the city of Denver. With the state of the world today, many people tend to opt for phone or video calls when agreeing to do an interview with me. It’s now rare I get the opportunity to put on real clothes and venture out into the world as part of my work day. So I was glad when I had not only one, but two in-person interviews this week, one at a bookstore and one at a restaurant. 

 

I ventured to the bookstore on Tuesday, Little Blue Pigeon, located in downtown Denver. 

 

The owner, a mother of two boys, was fulfilling her dream of owning a bookstore while catering to her passion of providing literature and education to both kids and adults. 

 

As I walked in, I was greeted with a hug and a warm smile. The bookstore was small, but the owner had made it her own and worked diligently to keep the space welcoming and inviting to all. Through stop and go questions interspersed with her attending to customers, I learned all about her story, her love for the bookstore, and why it was so important to her to provide this space to the community and to families. I watched as she greeted every single customer and made a point to go past the “hello” and actually show she cares about each and every one that enters the store. I admired her as she learned that two young girls were on a school trip from D.C., a gentleman from Kentucky on a work trip was buying a cookbook to bring home to his fiance, a couple had just flown in from Ireland the night before, and two friends were passing through on a road trip from Seattle to Pennsylvania. 

 

While her store was quaint and cute and a booklover's dream, it was her story that inspired me to leave with a smile on my face. 

 

The restaurant I got the chance to visit was a small venture on the corner of a main street in one of the Denver suburbs, Arvada. It was on the first floor of the oldest building in town and the prized work of a local chef who lived just four blocks away. 

 

We sat in a booth, so I got to face him to ask him all my hard hitting questions. What’s your favorite thing on the menu? What does it mean to be working with the community? Is there anything I should try? 

 

My smile grew as I got to watch his face light up talking about his passion and what the restaurant means to him. His love for not only his work, but the community he lived in was palpable. He even invited me to come back and try some of his food, which I will be doing next week. 

 

It’s interviews like these, people like this, that I get the fortunate chance of meeting that make the dreary days stuck in my apartment clacking away at my keyboard seem worth it. While I might not always get the chance to sit down and learn a person’s story as they trust me to put it to words, it’s the little moments I’ve learned to cherish. 

 

Learning about people, the community, I live and work in makes it all seem worthwhile, and life a little brighter, in the end. 

 

My Determination: “Remembering a man's stories makes him immortal.” ― Daniel Wallace, Big Fish.