People of Northwest Arkansas
The People of Northwest Arkansas is an award winning podcast celebrating the power of storytelling by providing a platform for individuals living in Northwest Arkansas to share their unique and inspiring life experiences. We believe that every person has a story worth telling, and through our podcast, we aim to amplify these voices through thoughtful interviews and engaging storytelling.
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Telling stories: Bentonville City Lifestyle Magazine with Wyatt Layman
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Bentonville is buzzing with energy, but the real story is in the people who make the city feel like home. We sit down with Wyatt Layman, publisher of Bentonville City Lifestyle magazine, to unpack how a conservation writer-turned-operator returned to the Ozarks, took a leap into entrepreneurship, and built a print magazine that the community looks forward to opening.
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Meet Wyatt And The Magazine
SPEAKER_01Danielle. Yes, ma'am. How long have you been running your magazine?
SPEAKER_02Let's see. We just put out the fourth issue for November. And so about four months. Four months? Not not super long. So it's pretty fresh and new. But yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's fun and it's kid focused. And I personally love a fan of like a physical magazine. I love print. I love when I go around to different businesses and I see different magazines. And the other day I was in a store and I saw one called Bittenville City Lifestyle Magazine. Yes. And the funny thing was I had a friend who had just texted me about Wyatt Lehman, who's joining us here in the studio today. He owns and runs Bitonville City Lifestyle and said, you gotta have him on. And then like two days later, our producer Brock was like, I know who you have to have on. This guy named Wyatt. I was like, oh my gosh, I've already reached out to him. He's coming in. Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02And then I was like, you know this guy running this magazine, we need to have him on the show. All jokes aside, fun fact one of the things that I like love about Bentonville City Lifestyle is the way the magazine feels. Like the way you touch it, I think that a magazine is bringing us back. There's a lot of kind of magazines that are coming out, their city lifestyles throughout Northwest Arkansas, and they're they're coming directly to your home if you live within the city limits. And the way it felt. And so when we were kind of talking about how we were gonna do our magazine, and I was like, I want it to feel good, like city lifestyle. Their magazine feels good. I want it to feel good. Also, another fun fact about Wyatt is he was in the film of one of our other guests from this season, Alice film. So we have lots to talk about today. But first we're gonna open it up, Wyatt. And we love to ask all of our guests the first question is what brought you to Northwest Arkansas? So tell us about that journey, how you got here, when you came here, and all that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, uh well, thanks so much for having me. That was way too much flattery, by the way. Um but thank you for thank you for having me on. The there's a very long version of what brought me to northwest Arkansas, but the short version is like I grew up in the Ozarks. I grew up about three and a half hours east of here in a little tiny town in southern Missouri called Birch Tree, and moved around quite a bit, and I'd
Moving To NWA And Finding Purpose
SPEAKER_05I'd ended up in Montana, and I lived in Montana for a few years, and and then some health things developed in my family, and so I wanted to get back closer to home and back to the Ozarks. And I knew I loved northwest Arkansas, I'd visited here, and uh I also knew you know there's so much opportunity here, and and it was such a vibrant area and really thriving that yeah, I had settled on that. I had also by that point I had gotten married to my wife Kayla, and I just started sending her Zillow links of homes. Awesome. And she's like, wow, yeah, this sounds this sounds great. And so yeah, we we we made the jump. I guess that was in 21 and got back to the Ozarks, which which has been great.
SPEAKER_02She'd be the final call.
SPEAKER_05Yes, yeah. Eventually, yes, she did, in fact, pick our house out. Good job.
SPEAKER_01And I found out that his wife was actually my dog's vet, and I didn't even realize. Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_05You'd be surprised how many times that happens.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. What's her veterinarian clinic that she works at?
SPEAKER_05She works at All Pets and Rogers. So nice little plug for All Pets and Rogers. One of only a few AHA accredited clinics.
SPEAKER_02And what is an aha accredited clinic?
SPEAKER_05You know, you should have her on the show more in detail. We'll look it up. Okay, we'll talk, we'll stop. Basically, they just they hold themselves to a really high standard of care.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. That's really awesome.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you moved here, you said in 21. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then okay, so it's been four years. What I know that you had mentioned when we were talking before that you had a job before you went into running the magazine. What were you doing before you got into the publishing magazines?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so I think I think to kind of understand that there's sort of a lot of personal experience or professional experience that came into that. So my background is in writing. I got my degree in professional writing and wrote for the Missouri Department of Conservation for about seven years, and I I loved it. And it was great. I worked as a naturalist for them. Eventually I ended up transitioning out of that. I had a couple doors open with a very large shipping carrier in the US, and I I I ended up in operations management for them. So I had bounced around working in different centers for them. And so I had this kind of writing background and then this operations background. By the time I got to Northwest Arkansas, my wife and I had really two goals. One was to get really involved in a community. By that point, I'd moved a lot. My wife was a lifelong student, so not a lot of opportunity for roots in college towns most times. And so when we got here, that was part of it. And then the other part was that I was experiencing a lot of burnout, and so I was ready to move on from that operations management career and wanted to get back to kind of what I knew. I worked for a great small business in Bentonville
From Conservation Writer To Publisher
SPEAKER_05after I had transitioned out of my previous job, and that really made me fall in love with Bentonville, and it made some really wonderful connections. I mean, the guys on on the Arkansas Traverse are just just incredible folks. Mike Rush and that whole crew were it was just a an amazing experience to spend a week with them. And seeing those kind of folks pour into the state of Arkansas and the and Bentonville on the whole just really made me fall in love with it. And then enter enter city lifestyle. My my sister-in-law actually works in our franchise office, and she called me up one day and said, Hey, we're looking for publishers and in Arkansas. I think you should think about doing this. And I dug into it and I looked at the model and I looked at the opportunity to tell stories locally and I got really excited about it. And so I quit my job and I started working on launching a magazine.
SPEAKER_01And you just hit had your one year celebration in September?
SPEAKER_05It wasn't October. It was October. Yeah. So September our first issue was September of last year. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you had a lot of I mean, you your background was in writing, your sister uh worked at the franchise office. So one year, and I've I'm in Centerton, so I I only see when I'm in Bentonville. And the funny thing is, I'm my kids go to school in Bentonville, I work in Bentonville, so whenever I'm out, I see it. But you have been so kind to give me copies. It's a great magazine. And I'm all about Danielle knows the lifestyle. Danielle thinks I'm quote unquote bougie. And I think I know like it's okay. I appreciate finer things. Own it. Yeah, and just craft and and your magazine kind of covers a spectrum of things like wellness, experiences. I know you've covered one on like cigars, and tell us a little bit about what you've been covering lately.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so those are those are great questions. And we have been we have been called bougie. We like to think that we don't we don't want to box ourselves in. We love telling everyone's story and and all kinds of stories. And there are so many great stories in Bentonville. And there were there were there have been a lot over the last year that we've gotten just so excited about being able to tell Gary Vernon's story, talk about the rule of three. I mean, really, really dig into the bike scene has been awesome. But as you mentioned, you know, some of our partners, I mean, what Bobby Duncan has done with Cigar District is just amazing. Yeah, it it really is.
SPEAKER_01We have to shout out Bobby because he's the whole reason, like well, he he introduced us.
SPEAKER_02He's the first intro to you.
SPEAKER_05Yes. He and his wife are just such kind folks, and definitely so genuine.
SPEAKER_02So genuine. Yeah, sorry to interrupt.
SPEAKER_05No, no, no, no. That was one of my that was one of my favorite editorials that we've done, and I I talk about it all the time. And it's only, you know, it's a it's a two-page spread, but we had had Bobby slated for the men's issue, which, you know, on the surface, you think cigars, men, and we've just felt like he was getting lost in there, you know, we had a bourbon piece in there, and we and one of Bobby's goals was really to reach out to anybody who was cigar curious and and not, you know, you know, not just to focus on on the male audience. And so our next issue coming up was the July issue, which is is the explore theme. And we had this idea, you know, what if we what if we punt and put them in the explore theme, and instead of talking about cigars and just really sort of focusing towards towards men, what if we talk about the origins and we really do appeal to a broader audience? I think everybody loves an origin story, everyone loves knowing what where craft comes from. And so we really dug into the countries behind these cigars, and we took this theme of exploring Central America from the from the cigar district and from 6th Street in Bentonville, and and leaned on Bobby's expertise to talk about these cigars and the different countries that they came from. And so that was a that was a really fun one. That was a really exciting one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, makes you want to go to those countries, does it? I want to go to those I I don't smoke cigars, but I appreciate it. And I really would love to go see where where they get their leaves from and where they produce their tobacco. Like it would just be a really cool experience. I'll enjoy a cigar. Yeah, you do enjoy a cigar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, but it only because Elliot is into it. But I will say I think the story matters because if if you're telling me this cigar is special and it was made this way or that way, where like what family makes it, how long they've been doing this, passing it down, the art and the like craft behind it. My mind is like going with this story, and I'm like, okay, I feel like you enjoy it more. I agree, right?
SPEAKER_02See, this is why storytelling is so important. This is why we love, you know, that's why we love what we get to do and why you love what you get to do. So it's very it's is it's an honor to share people's stories, honestly. So I really think so.
SPEAKER_05It really is. I mean, there's a level of trust, I think, that is involved in print that you just it's hard to find that in other forms of media than when somebody trusts you with their story and it's executed well and they're happy with it when when the when the print comes out. That's why I do this. I don't I don't do it for ad sales or you know, those are those are great. But you need those ad sales. We do, we're gonna do that.
SPEAKER_02So if you want to advertise with Ben Mills and Lifestyle, look up Wyatt. That but that's important. I mean, we should talk about that for a minute because I think a lot of people like just being in publishing
Editorial Focus And Bentonville Stories
SPEAKER_02and being in media in general for like the things that we do, like those ad sales help us to share those stories, to continue to share those stories and continue to make an impact on the community.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's very cyclical, right? I mean, we start we start by planning an issue and looking to execute an issue that provides value to Bentonville.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05If we don't do that, if we don't create a magazine that people want to read when it hits their mailbox, we're not we're not doing anything to provide value to Bentonville for sure, and we're definitely not serving as an effective marketing vehicle either, because we we have we do have incredible partners who not only see the vision of connecting with these folks and and spending these precious marketing dollars to connect with their friends and neighbors. I mean, every one of our partners is a small business, and so for them to invest to connect with you is is a is an incredible amount of trust. And then again, you know, going back to that cycle, we have to create a magazine that people love and look forward to in order to be an effective marketing vehicle, in order for those folks to believe in us to create a magazine, right? Yeah. So yeah, I think it I think it all kind of kind of lends into it. Yeah, but we're we're we're so thankful for our advertising supporters, and I hope that everyone who who gets the magazine takes takes a look at those ad pages because they're your friends and neighbors for sure. Yeah, if you believe in shopping small, you should look forward to to those pages.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I remember when I got the very first issue that you guys put out, and I was like, what is this? This is nice. I was like super impressed. How did you get people to jump on board with a new magazine? What was that experience like? Yeah, well banging on doors, please.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a good question. I sometimes I look back and I'm like, I don't know how how I did that.
SPEAKER_01Grind happened.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it was. It was it was a lot of grind, but I mean glaringly absent from from the history that I just told you about how I arrived at this was any sort of sales experience. And so that was that was wild. You know, the franchise support is is huge. And you know, people sometimes ask me why a franchise. Well, this wouldn't be possible ground up, you know. The advertising cost would be astronomical if I had to do the whole thing and build it all ground up. And so the franchise and the the franchise is also incredible. They they do this to tell local stories. So I I'm sorry. I think I I think I'm I think you answered it. Yeah, I think you did a great job. Oh, you were talking about the grind, yeah. So thank you. I'm sorry, I got this is how a lot of my conversations go.
SPEAKER_03So you it's fine.
SPEAKER_05I got back here and so I went to the franchise trading and they're kind of telling you how to launch a magazine, right? And I get back here and I'm just sort of running around Bentonville with this mock magazine of of what it could look like, right? And I'm I'm just telling business owners, like, hey, this is what I want to do. I want to bring this to Bentonville, I think it's gonna be great for your business. Will you help me? And again, you know, no no sales experience. So it was a lot of grind. But the the incredible thing about Bentonville is this is you know, the franchise tells you this is the average amount of meetings that it takes to launch one of these magazines. We've launched 200 of them across the country. We know this is the average amount of meetings that it takes to launch one of these magazines. And we came to Bentonville and and and Bentonville does they did what Bentonville does. Yeah. And we launched this magazine with half of the average meetings that it normally takes. We had so many folks just see the vision so quickly, be very forgiving of me not having any any sales experience, and just really come on board and and be excited about it. So yeah, again, going back, incredibly thankful for the for the folks who who launched us.
SPEAKER_01I'm always curious as someone who's not in magazines or publishing. I know Danielle is. I'm not, so I'm always curious what the production schedule looks like. Like, how far in advance are you planning for a December issue? Not soon enough. Just when you go to print, like what is that time? Like, when are you conceptualizing what does that look like? Like, are you thinking about Christmas in June or sooner or later?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, probably we start thinking about editorial 12 months out. 12. Yeah, we start thinking we've got an editorial calendar and we started planning, we start planning that 12 months out, and then we start executing, you know, about two to three months in advance. But I think the life of anyone who who has spent any time in the writing field is you just know that no matter what, it's gonna come down to the deadline. Our deadline the last minute. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our deadline for editorial was actually 10 a.m. this morning, and it's
Cigar District Origin Story Angle
SPEAKER_05always like, all right, let's, you know. Yeah. But I have an incredible managing editor, Michelle, who who has a background in journalism and just loves telling Bentville stories, and this magazine very much would not be possible without her. And so she takes so much of the stress of that off of me. And I I don't have to worry about it getting done.
SPEAKER_01No, I always like to find out the schedule and the timeline. I I'm someone who procrastinates, but like I need the deadline. I work really well under pressure. I would be a terrible person to plan out 12 months. I'm the person that's like, I need this done into the week. You got it. Like, I work so well. Like if I have papers do and like college or even now, I'm great under pressure. Now tell me to plan something 12 months out. I'm like, this is not the job for me. I can't even think.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's more like you're planning like the themes 12 months out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, like when I'm not vibing with it, like you just change it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, nobody's gonna know. I mean, unless it's like specific to your advertisers, nobody's gonna know. I already changed some of our December theme like a month ago because of a story I uncovered. So I'm really pumped about it. You know, we were doing our November issue has adoption stories and foster family stories, and I was like, ooh, surrogacy would be really cool to go along with that. Well, then I heard this woman's surrogacy story, and I was like, nope, that's going in our December issue because it's an amazing story, and so it's kind of a standalone. So sometimes you do make like different sorry, we're not talking about me.
SPEAKER_01No, so I do have a question for Wyatt. Okay, so what are some trends that you've noticed or that you've covered in your magazine that are uniquely Bentonville? Because you talked about how like the average meetings were a set number. You didn't mention the number, but that in Bentonville it was half. Have you noticed anything? Because I'm sure you have kind of a heartbeat on the other, maybe Fayetteville or other lifestyle that are uniquely Bentonville trends and wellness. Because I know we have the new the Alice Walton School of Medicine opening. What are you seeing trends here?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, well, I think firstly, just like you said, there there are, you know, city lifestyle magazines in in the in Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale, and Fayetteville. And sometimes people ask, wouldn't this make more sense if it was a regional magazine? And I think one of the key things like you mentioned is that there are there are so many things that are uniquely Bentonville, just like there are so many things that are uniquely Fayetteville. And one of the one of the things I love about the City Lifestyle model is we are hyper-local, right? We drill into to a community and really want to get to know those stories. And so I think the first thing that I think the first thing that I learned when I started launching this magazine and I started really sitting down and talking to small business owners is that there's so much more to Bentonville than what meets the eye or what what folks might think, right? And we really have have loved telling those stories. Like everybody knows about the the bike scene here, and I we we all bike, everybody on the team bikes. We we love the bike scene here, but you know, what are those other stories that we're uncovering? And usually they're also people who bike, right? But they have other things going on. Farmhand is a great example. We just recently told that story of of Dominic and Riley just just taking that on in a new direction and opening that up as a nonprofit to incubate small farmers who are just trying to get their their start. I mean, that's a great I mean yeah, where else are you gonna see that in downtown anywhere? Right? That is right here, right down the road from where we're sitting right now. That's something that's so uniquely Bentonville, I think. And there's so much, like you mentioned, um, on a kind of more macro level. I mean, where are you where are you where else are you gonna see a a school of medicine of that caliber coming into a small, relatively small town, right?
SPEAKER_01I think the bike scene is what everyone thinks of when they think of Bentonville. And the funny thing was we just had Allison on the podcast with AWOL Productions, and she released her just had her movie in the film festival. And Danielle and I um were at the premiere showing and we saw you in the movie. I didn't even know you were gonna be in the movie. Quiet! Yeah, how are you? There is again, there is again.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, so I worked for this I worked for this great company and I'll I'll shout them out. I worked for 37 North. Fortunate to be the operations director on that. And and so when that trip came up and Mike Rush started talking about planning that trip, kind of had the opportunity there of do we do we find a guide who could go on this trip or do I do it? And of course I was like five days across to Arkansas on this epic journey. And really the documentary, we didn't know a lot about it, honestly. There's a camera crew there, we had we had no idea that it I mean, you see Rached River, the final final product, and I mean I was on the such a great film, by the way. Yeah, it's incredible. And uh, you know, even having been on that trip and watching it through that lens, and I'm like, man, that it made me want to to mountain bike and I don't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it made me for a split second think, maybe I do. Yeah, maybe I should try this out.
Trust In Print And Ad Support
SPEAKER_01I yeah, I was a city biker, okay? I know I've said this way before. I have like a single speed like fixed gear bike. Like I'm used to like a city, like little thin tire. There's no shame in that. I'm scared to break something, but Allison has convinced me maybe I will try out Women of Oz.
SPEAKER_02You really should.
SPEAKER_01But the film was really inspiring because I, you know, give a shout out to Allison for capturing the stories. I like I I figured it was just when I she first talked about it, it was just gonna be about you know, cycling. But it wasn't. It was like all the voices all down to the delta, and it made me like want to go visit. Yeah, you know, and that's kind of like how I feel when I read your magazine, like I look at all these places. I'm like, ooh, that'd be a fun experience. Like, ooh, that you know, it kind of like inspires you. Uh and that's why I think the local this type of media is so important. And to be honest, I like better than like some of the news. Like, I like watching the news a little bit, but then for my own personal, like well, you know, mental state, I I like reading stories because that's like where we connect, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and there's something about something physical in front of you and touching it and and looking at pictures and looking at articles and reading through it. Yeah. I think that there's something really special about it. It's really neat. When I saw when I first saw the City Lifestyle magazine come in the mail, I was like, this is amazing, and this is like the perfect time for this. So it really, it really, really resonated for me personally, having a background that I have in journalism and media, and so it was just really neat to see this journey. So, Wyatt, tell us a little bit about you. What are some of like your favorite stories to tell?
SPEAKER_05You know, I I told this, I don't know, having this platform is is wild. We've we've gotten to tell these really incredible stories, and and a lot of them, I don't know. I'm not gonna, you know, say that I have a favorite. I feel like that would be a lot of people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, and and I don't think you necessarily am asking like a particular story from your magazine, but like what are kind of the types of stories that you like to like to tell or the stories that really pull you in and kind of grip.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for maybe someone hasn't read the magazine. Explain like what how you like to to tell stories.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think anything that similar to the question you're asking me right now, yeah, right, is what's the story behind the person behind the business? Like the why. Yeah, what is their why? Um, those are the stories, no matter what story we're telling, no matter what the business is, those are the stories we really want to get into, right? One of our most recent stories was Susan Woodward at Pinspiration. Mm-hmm. I love that place, by the way. Yeah. Her story's powerful. It is so powerful. So sitting down with her and just learning about her business, and then you know, she finds out just not long at all after after opening the doors and taking the sleep to to open this this small business. She has she's diagnosed with breast cancer. And stage four. Stage four. And so she just and it was COVID. So she opened this business. It was very much about community, it was very much about coming together in these rooms and creating these these crafts. And you know, she just got hit with a tremendous amount of adversity all at once and just leaned into her faith and and powered through. And she's you know, here we are four years later, and she's still thriving and um just a just an incredible story. I mean, those stories, right? Those stories that when you drive past it, you would never know unless you're never gonna know that. You're never gonna know that's the person who you're coming to see and you're coming to support with your business.
SPEAKER_01And yeah, it puts like a face in a person behind the storefront, what you're seeing.
SPEAKER_04Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I love meeting people like you, Wyatt. Like I love no, really genuinely, I genuinely mean that because I think that there's something so special about being able to tell other people's stories and being able to meet them in those places. And it's it's an honor, honestly. It really is. Like what we get to do here on the podcast. My background, I don't know if we talked about this, but my background is in film, and I did I actually been working on a documentary film about stage four breast cancer for years now. And so when I read her story in your magazine, it really resonated with me because of the things that I'd experienced through my film journey. And so I think it it really is an honor. So, what is what is your why? Why do you keep doing this? Why are you doing this?
SPEAKER_05You know, I think I think I have a lot of whys. The first why is is one of my one of my previous jobs, not 37 North, but one of my previous jobs right before that. I didn't know when I was gonna be off work, right? I knew my day was gonna start at 7 a.m. I had no idea when my day was gonna end. And the structure, there was no flexibility whatsoever. And and so when my wife and I were talking about starting a family, I I knew that that wasn't at all sustainable to be to be living. I mean, I had just seen so many of my colleagues miss every T-ball game and miss everything because they were and not not saying anything against against that. I mean, they were working hard to provide a living for their family, but I I knew that I I wanted to do something a little bit different. And so one of my whys is definitely my little guy Beckett. And I'll never forget. So I when I when I decided to quit my job and start this business, my wife was four months pregnant, and I had asked her, you know, hey, big me. Yeah, it's a huge ask of of your wife. You know, I want to take a pay cut to, you know, a hundred percent pay cut to start a business. We have a baby on the way, and she really didn't batten eye. She she's been tremendously supportive. She did say, Well, you've got five months to get this done. And we we five months it is. We were very close to making that. We
Launching A Magazine Without Sales Experience
SPEAKER_05we launched just after after he got here. But I remember holding him, and it's hard to start a business, and there's a lot of grinding.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, have a newborn, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of times where where you can get really discouraged. And I remember, you know, when I was trying to to find support for this, at one point he had he had just gotten here, and my wife was just exhausted and she was on maternity leave, and I really couldn't take any time off, right? I was trying to get this thing launched, and uh I remember cold calling people and I was holding Beckett. And cold calling sucks, right? Like it is the worst thing, and and I hate doing it. And so I remember, man, I've never been more motivated than you know, literally looking down at him while he's sleeping and and cold calling, and also just thinking, one of these calls, he's gonna start, he's gonna wake up and start screaming, right? And that's that one motivation. Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe maybe they'll sense the I really need you to take this meeting. But yeah, so that's a huge why. Back is a huge why. That's that was a long, that was a long-winded answer. It's a great answer.
SPEAKER_02It's a good answer.
SPEAKER_01It's a really good answer.
SPEAKER_05This job this this children are a good motivation, they are, and this affords me a ton of flexibility. I I haven't missed anything yet.
SPEAKER_01This lifestyle magazine has given you the lifestyle you also wanted.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it really has. I love it. Yes.
SPEAKER_01So hey, I mean, working for yourself, there is something to it. And we've talked to a lot of other entrepreneurs about this, and Danielle and I are entrepreneurs as well. And it's, you know, you just you eat what you kill, right? There's no guarantee. You have to hustle and get out there, and you have to find that daily motivation, your why. And when you forget the why, you gotta like keep coming back to the why. And it has to be a passion, right? Yeah, because the other stuff, it will all come, right? If you build it, they will come.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Well, and yeah, and I should I should also say, I mean, I would I would say, you know, my wife Kayla and my my little guy Becca, those are definitely my my personal whys. But professionally, this job is the most rewarding career I've I've ever had. Getting to see that magazine show up at my door every month. And and it's one thing to see the print proof, it's one thing to go through the edits, you know, and all that, and you see it on the screen. But man, when it comes to life and you finally get it and you hold it, it it's I'll reread the stories through there, right? Yeah, been through I've been a part of them, but I'll still reread them. So yeah, we just it that's a I really do love what I do, and so that's a massive motivator as well.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome. So, what are some things that you like to do in your free time, aside from publishing and being a dad and husband? But what are some things that you like to do?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that's uh those are those are great questions. I love to be outside. My my little guy loves to be outside. We've officially we already started to spell outside for our dogs. We say O-U-T. Yeah, you know, and our dogs, I think they're starting to pick up on they really do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but now inflection in your like how you say it. My dog will like kinda like a halfway perk up. Yeah. She knows like ours for sure, no. She just they can sense your intention, right?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah exactly. And our little guy is uh is the same way now. So this morning, when he's fussy, the if you take him outside, he's gonna be happy. Which just makes me s just makes me so happy. Yeah. Thanks.
SPEAKER_03So my wife Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. So my wife asked him this morning. He's a you know, he's just having a having a fit. And she's like, Do you want to go outside?
SPEAKER_03And he just goes, Yeah. There we go.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, he's just so excited. And so I loved I love to be outside. I like to bike. I started out as a roadie, which is a very unpopular opinion in Bentonville, you know, if you're not a gravel guy.
SPEAKER_01Mike Rush has so I'm a roadie then.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Right. It's very unpopular. It's dangerous where I live also in Sunerton. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02What were you gonna say about Mike? He has a lot of opinions about this, I bet. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05He's guilted me into gravel riding. And I had an excuse for a long time of like, well, Mike, I don't have a gravel bike. You know, I got a baby at home. I mean, I you know he's like, I got another one back to you. Yeah, pretty much. Well, Chris, one of the other guys that went on the the traverse, he's like, hey Chris, come, you know, we were at a function and he's like, Chris, come here. And Chris is like, I've got this topstone in my garage, you can just ride it. So I I've lost my excuse, right? So now I get to ride with Mike and we do some gravel riding, which I've you know, I'm just hooked. I've fallen in love with it. So and then on the in the summertime, we love to put the kayaks. I think Daniel, I think you and I have talked about the Jackswork River. So my wife and I love to put the kayaks on the river and and float, and we take the dogs out and float.
SPEAKER_01We've got my husband built the canoe, which I've been meaning, I told him if he got all the footage, I would like put it together. And of him like during COVID. Oh, yeah. Built a canoe.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's cool.
SPEAKER_01Out of wood. That was really cool. Um, because you can build them all different ways. He didn't do like a tree, he did like wood strips.
SPEAKER_02Well, some people like listeners could have seen that motion that you like hollow out of a tree truck. Are we axing something? No, he didn't axe anything.
SPEAKER_01He was like wood strips and like epoxy,
Planning Ahead And Hitting Deadlines
SPEAKER_01and anyway. But no, we love to float too.
SPEAKER_02That's really cool.
SPEAKER_01And I would take my dog, she is from Jasper, and she gets so car sick I can't take her anywhere. Or she throws up everywhere. But no, we love to float. We have kayaks too. So we like to wrap up and just say, what is your I know you've covered so many things you like about the area, but what is like your absolute favorite thing about living here?
SPEAKER_05Oh man, that's that's a hard, that's a hard question. You know what? I'll I'll I'll I actually have a really clear example. I because it made me really happy the other day. So so we just launched our our paper route through an incredible collaboration with Nargo Bikes, and so we're riding around Bentonville and distributing magazines, and I was I was riding around with Benny, the the really fun kid who's dropping these magazines off, and we were waiting to cross the street at a light, and these two folks had come up to us who had rented bikes, they were from the east coast, and they said, Where should we go eat? And you know, what's a great place to eat? We're flying out this afternoon. So we started listing off restaurants, and they're like, We've already been there, we've been there, and you know, they they landed on oven and tap, and so they had they had ridden over, we kind of rode with them and told them where to go, and we uh went and had a great lunch, apparently, because we were headed back to Ledger to park the bike. We ran into them again and they're riding the other way, right? We're just kind of yelling at each other at Ace you know on A Street, and they were just saying, like, hey, this that was great, thank you so much for the recommendation. We can't wait to come back to Bentonville, right? And I think that seeing this place be so exciting and seeing it just how vibrant it is and it drawing people in and the work that so some really great folks have poured into this community to make it that way. That's gotta be one of my favorite things. And so being able to plug into that, and you know, we've done photo shoots at Evan Tap, right? So so being able to plug into that and say, hey, this is a great place, and then have have folks say, I'm gonna come back. I we love Benville, I'm gonna come back. I think that just speaks volumes. And so that was a that was a moment where I was like, man, I love I love being here. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that experience that you get to have. Yeah, I know. So before we close, can you tell our listeners where they can find your magazine, your social handles, and then if you have anything fun or exciting coming up, like events or just digitally or in the issues, tell us a little bit.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, thanks for asking that question and give me this opportunity. Uh you can you can find our magazines if you don't get it to your home, you can find our magazines at Ledger. They're always at the front desk at Ledger. We have started, like I said, we've started the paper out, so you can find them at Bike Rack, you know, Markham and Fitz. There's some great businesses. Spinville Bicycle, there's some great businesses who have jumped on board and allowed us to put our magazines at their business. So you can you you're gonna be able to find them around town more now. And then as far as really exciting things coming up, we've we've had some incredible collaborations and and been able to work with some really awesome organizations. But one of the things that I'm most excited about is coming from a really small town and and loving writing when I was growing up, but not really having a great outlet for it. When I was thinking about launching this magazine, I knew that I wanted to give that to you know some students in the area. So beginning with our November issue, we did the introduction for them, but we're we've had this amazing collaboration with Thayton School. Huge shout out to Sam Burton Ceno for seeing the vision there and and helping that come to life and the instructors there. But we have taken on students for a three-month stretch at a time, and they're gonna intern with us, they're gonna provide photography, they're gonna do, you know, some social media work with us, and they're gonna write for us, and they're gonna have that. They're gonna have their name in print as a contributing writer on a byline, their photography credit, and I'm just I'm so pumped to figure out what a what a 17-year-old sight line in the Bentville looks like, and then print it for everyone to read. So that's one of the things I'm really excited about. You can find us on Instagram at Bentville City Lifestyle and follow us there. Yeah, and then pick up the magazine wherever you can find it. If you don't get it, email me and I'll start sending it to your home.
SPEAKER_00All right, thanks, Wyatt. Thank you, Wyatt.
SPEAKER_05Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Hey, thanks so much for listening today. If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also follow us on Instagram at People of NWA. Thanks so much.
SPEAKER_06People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Danielles, produced by me, Brock Short of Brock Entertainment. Please rate, review,
What’s Uniquely Bentonville
SPEAKER_06and like us on any podcast platform where you listen. For more information about today's guests and the show, please check the show notes. Thanks for listening.