I like to go on morning walks. Along with the physical and mental health benefits, time outside helps me work through problems, see things differently, and find inspiration. Sometimes, especially when I've been procrastinating, a walk is exactly what I need to work through an issue or come up with a new idea. I also like to talk through my problem-solving process into the Notes app on my phone.
On a recent Sunday morning, in the crisp Montana air, I found myself thinking about two conversations that have been part of my work lately: rural business succession planning and the importance of building relationships with communities.
Recently, I participated in a panel discussion, The Missing Middle Meets the Silver Tsunami, hosted by CoBuild Montana at its inaugural summit. We discussed the growing number of business owners preparing to retire and the options available to keep those businesses operating through employee ownership options. At the same time, Trillium Cooperative has been preparing presentations for several webinars about our approach to working with rural and Indigenous communities.
At first, these might seem like two very different topics. To me, they share something important: the need for education, relationships, and a broader understanding of how we can build economies that serve our communities.
My perspective on economic development was formed when I co-owned a flower and antique shop in my rural hometown. Later, as a county commissioner, I worked to understand how my struggling, boom-and-bust coal town could rebuild and diversify its economy, and what my role was as an elected official in that effort.
During that time, I met Kathy Bailey, a respected leader in Montana's economic development community who became a mentor to me. She helped me understand that economic development isn't one project, one grant, or one big idea. It is the patient work of building a strong foundation, one relationship and one opportunity at a time. I found a picture of my notes from an economic development community engagement talk she gave.
Those experiences eventually led me to cooperative development.
Here's what continues to fascinate me about cooperatives: the cooperative model helped build rural America, yet many people don't know it's an option for a business. The fact that many businesses don’t know that cooperative ownership is an option for succession planning was recognized by all the experts on the CoBuild panel discussion.
From rural electrification and agricultural cooperatives to credit unions, people have pooled their resources, knowledge, and purchasing power to meet needs they couldn't meet as effectively alone. Federal policies and laws helped support cooperative development, recognizing that farmers, ranchers, and rural communities were being left behind as the American economy changed. By working together- using the cooperative model, people gained access to electricity, markets, and financial services that might otherwise have remained out of reach.
Yet cooperative education as a business model is still largely missing from our schools and colleges. Whether someone is starting a business, trying to keep a local service alive, or planning for retirement, they may never learn that cooperative ownership is an option.
This lack of awareness matters, especially in rural communities.
Think about the local grocery store, hardware store, or café whose owners are ready to retire. These businesses are often more than places to shop. Their owners have spent decades supporting local schools, volunteering, employing neighbors, and contributing to the life of their communities.
When they close, we lose more than a business. We can lose jobs, essential services, gathering places, and a piece of the community's identity.
In my 10+ years of working in economic development, including the last five focused specifically on cooperative development, I've found that many business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs don't even know the cooperative business model is an option. That includes established businesses facing succession and people just starting out.
That possibility deserves to be part of our economic development conversations. It deserves to be taught in schools as a business model for more than just agriculture based business. I can't believe I just typed those words. How, in 2026, is the cooperative business model still not taught as a business structure people can consider?
I sometimes wonder whether it because our deeply held belief in self-reliance gets in the way of recognizing how much we have accomplished together.
People cannot consider an option they don't know exists. Making cooperative ownership more visible is one way we can help communities recognize possibilities they might otherwise overlook.
My Sunday morning walk also brought me back to the other side of our work at Trillium: relationships. Economic development requires community leadership, planning, and relationships. It takes for people to build trust and work toward a shared vision. As Kathy told me; economic development is not a single event. No single organization can do all of that for a community, and no formula or AI-generated plan can replace the knowledge, relationships, and decisions of the people who live there and who deserve to be making the decisions.
Whether we're talking about rural business succession, food systems, housing, or economic development in communities, I keep coming back to the same question: How do we help people see what's possible when we work together?
Part of the answer begins with sharing ideas, building relationships, partnerships, and making space for conversations about different ways to shape our economic future. I’m glad the inaugural CoBuild summit provided space for the conversation and for this particular blog, I’d like to make mention of the keynote topic and speaker for the event; Capital Evolution, The New American Economy by Elizabeth MacBride and Seth Levine. I hope this blog can contribute to those conversations, particularly around cooperative education, relationship-building, and building an New American economy - one of democratic governance and economic solidarity.