Resurrecting a Dying Downtown - with Jason Duff

Jason Duff is the Founder of Small Nation which encompasses a group of companies, leaders, and investors who develop places, spaces, and dreams for small towns and small-town entrepreneurs across the county.  Jason and his team at Small Nation have completely revitalized the town of Bellefontaine, Ohio.  In 10 short years, they have turned a dying town around and helped make it a Best-in-State destination. If you want some serious inspiration for how your downtown can be enlivened with passion and hard work, this is a must-listen. 

Mentioned in This Episode:

About Jason & Small Nation:

https://smallnationstrong.com/

Jason’s Work:

Downtown Proponent Breathes Life Into One Small Town, Hopes to Repeat Feat

https://ddc.downtowndevelopment.com/2022/03/01/downtown-proponent-breathes-life-into-one-small-town-hopes-to-repeat-feat-2/?doing_wp_cron=1647274596.8421850204467773437500

BG Leaders Look at Bellefontaine’s ‘Hustle Hard’ Approach Used to Rescue that Downtown

http://bgindependentmedia.org/bg-leaders-look-at-bellefontaines-hustle-hard-approach-to-rescue-that-downtown/

Bellefontaine - The Resuscitation of a Dying Small Town

https://smallnationstrong.com/case_study/bellefontaine/

Articles by Jason:

The Best Entrepreneurs Spend Less Time Marketing And More Time Building Social Media Engagement

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/09/13/the-best-entrepreneurs-spend-less-time-marketing-and-more-time-building-social-media-engagement/?sh=19dd88f76e2c

Other Resources:

Incremental Development Alliance

https://www.incrementaldevelopment.org/

Building Small: A Toolkit for Real Estate Entrepreneurs, Civic Leaders, and Great Communities, by Jim Heid

https://www.jheid.com/small/

How to Get Started as a Small-Scale Developer 

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/11/1/how-to-be-a-small-scale-developer

Seeing Small

https://www.mainstreet.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=e921d7c8-92fe-b822-1975-1254a2f6ee61&forceDialog=0

4 Tested Techniques to Catalyze Small Town Redevelopment

https://meetingoftheminds.org/4-tested-techniques-to-catalyze-small-town-redevelopment-27017

A Common-Sense Approach to Reinvigorating Small-Town America

https://www.ruralbusiness.com/a-common-sense-approach-to-reinvigorating-small-town-america/