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10/26/2021

Believe it or not, one of the first interviews where I’m getting asked the questions. Turns out she’s better than me at everything.

10/11/2021

I teamed up with Midland Brewing Company to brew this Drink Pink New England IPA with hibiscus where a portion of every pint sold will go to my Real Men Wear Pink of Mid Michigan fundraiser!

The MBC crew invited me over to film the brewing process and, of course, to drink some luscious! MY GOODNESS, this beer needs a category of its own: juicy, fruity, drinkable and FUN. Swing by MBC Tuesday through Saturday from 12 PM to 9 PM or Sunday from 12PM to 5PM to grab a pint...or four!

To donate directly to my fundraiser, follow this link: https://bit.ly/PhilPink

10/08/2021

Nyeisha, Bay City, Michigan.

10/06/2021

I just finished leading a "storytelling for kids" workshop with the Saginaw County Youth Ambassadors. We covered the "nuts and bolts": running an interview, taking good photos, writing something people want to read.

But mostly we talked about talking and listening, how to ask better questions, and how to hold a conversation. We talked about looking people in the eye, what body language says about who we are and what we think about others, and the importance of earning people's trust by being kind, paying attention, and doing good work. We talked about how we don't really know each other as we should and how being curious and creating new, meaningful relationships can change the world.

Most of these topics weren't in my plans. But as it turns out, "storytelling" is just a packaged presentation of the highest and best interaction we can have as humans: the intentional and authentic pursuit of knowing each other better.

During my senior year of college, I was talking to a friend in my dorm room about an interpersonal communications class we both were enrolled in, when she asked me a question that changed my life.

"Why haven't you ever asked me a question?" she said. I fought her on it. I mean, NO questions, ever? That couldn't be true.

But she was right. I hadn't ever asked her a question, and if I'm being honest, I hadn't really asked most people much of anything. I wasn't a mean person, and for the most part, even had a reputation of being nice.

But I wasn't an interested person. And it wasn't that I didn't care about others or was angry at the world, I was just busy, distracted, and consumed by things other than really knowing people in a meaningful way. I'm also naturally an introverted person, so many times, asking a question took guts I just didn't have.

But questions in everyday interactions are where it all begins. I ended by telling the kids to become of moments in their everyday lives where they can become better storytellers: give an answer that's deeper than just a word, take more pictures of their friends, ask someone something they've never asked before or find the courage to ask any question at all.

We are all storytellers.

10/05/2021

The last two episodes of Season Three of Hey, Bay City! are live! I interviewed Marisa a year ago after she decided to pursue a double preventative mastectomy due to the BRCA1 gene. She comes back for an update, to talk about selfies and self-love, and more!

Dr. Matt Travis is the Director of Produced Programs over at the Midland Center for the Arts so we get to CHOIR NERD OUT for an hour, talking about his path to the MCFTA and the role of music within a community.

Listen to the two episodes (subscribe and leave a review!) on Google, Apple, and Spotify!

09/14/2021

👏 THREE 👏 NEW 👏 EPISODES.

Erin Patrice talks Breaking Bread Village and the importance of conversations that pursue understanding first.

Kora Nixon entered the pandemic and came out of it as MIZNXN, releasing her first album and it is AWESOME. She talks about the album and performs songs live!

Kyle Hanley is The Yard Card Guy, spreading joy and happiness throughout the land (and lawn).

Listen and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and Google!

Apple: https://bit.ly/HeyBCApple
Spotify: https://bit.ly/HeyBCSpotify
Website: https://heybaycity.buzzsprout.com/

09/06/2021

You. Me. SEASON THREE of The "Hey, Bay City!" Podcast! Josh Sharrow is one funny dude with a heart for his community, and Chanda Lee Swartz gives some insight into schools over the last 18 months and is on a mission to keep helping kids! Listen on Apple, Spotify, and Google!

Apple: https://bit.ly/HeyBCApple
Spotify: https://bit.ly/HeyBCSpotify
Website: https://heybaycity.buzzsprout.com/

09/03/2021

Introducing the cast of the Hey, Bay City! Podcast Season Three: Adam J. Salgat, Chanda Lee Swartz, Erin Patrice, Hannah Maine, Emily Schrems, Josh Sharrow, Kyle Hanley, Kora Nixon, Marisa Kimmel, Matt Eich, Matt Travis, Rob Clark and Ryan VanDenBoom.

Amazing humans, great conversations, and awesome stories from the people in the Bay City community - with a couple visits from some neighbors! Episodes start NEXT WEEK! Listen and subscribe here:

Apple: https://bit.ly/HeyBCApple
Spotify: https://bit.ly/HeyBCSpotify
Website: https://heybaycity.buzzsprout.com/

07/29/2021

I’m honored to accept the Regional Small Business of the Year Award at next month’s Great Lakes Bay Regional Chamber Summit.

When talking about the countless meals and conversations Anthony Bourdain had over his career, Chef David Chang said, “For Tony, it was almost never about food. It was about becoming a better person.”

If there’s any hope of us making it to the end of this thing with joyful lives, healthy businesses, and thriving communities, it will take a renewed and collective commitment to becoming better people.

We need to be better listeners. Better question-askers. We need to be more interested in each other. Better cheerleaders. Better collaborators and conversationalists. We need to be willing to admit that we don’t know the whole story. To trust others to fill in the blanks. We need to choose and cultivate empathy. We need to be better at giving space and grace and be willing to laugh at each other’s jokes. We need to believe there is more to people than politics and what they do for work.

All of that seems like a lot. But all of that happens, in little steps and moments, when we decide to give someone else our attention and listen to what they say.

Despite this award or what some might say, I'm not a "social media guru" or "marketing expert". But in a world where we can instantly connect to any other human being on the planet while having unlimited access to all humanity’s knowledge, there’s a desperate need to know ourselves, each other, and our communities better than we do.

On the first day of an Interpersonal Communications class in college, my professor drew two circles on the board: a very small circle located in the center of a very large circle.

“The smaller circle is who we really are as humans,” he said. “The large circle is everything people surround themselves with to keep people from knowing who they really are, like armor. Things like ego, busyness, trauma, and negative attitudes and behaviors.

Our job is to be able to understand someone's smaller circle.”

If this work accomplishes anything, I hope it’s to show that if we want to leave this world a better place than when we found it, it’ll take listening more than we speak, giving more than we receive, and never being afraid to sit down and listen to someone else’s story.

04/22/2021

Great beer and great humans!

“I never thought I'd end up back in this building.

It was my family's business, a feed and seed store. I worked here every day after school, every weekend, and every summer break.

This building is why my back hurts all the time.

I went to college and majored in chemistry. I always thought I'd go on to grad school until I got to my senior year of college and realized I couldn't do it anymore: I was burned out and had headaches all the time from working with all the chemicals in the basement.

But I didn't really know what I wanted to do next, so I moved back home and started working in the feed and seed store again.

The idea for a brewery started with my buddy Zach. He said, ‘I want to be a brewer. I don't know how I'm going to do it but I'm going to figure out how to brew. I'm going to learn and then open a brewery.’

Zach isn’t originally from Hartsville, but he came here around 2006 and met his wife. He fell in love with the town and the vibe of Hartsville. He and his wife loved it so much, they wanted to raise their daughters in a small town like this and to open a brewery.

I said, ‘Well, that works out because you can do both of those things here in Hartsville. Let's figure out how to make it happen.’ Zach ended up with an internship at a brewery in Myrtle Beach to learn the trade.

He had the brewing side of things covered, but of course, we needed money.

I reached out to a friend of mine who I knew was interested in a project like this. He got on board and found a few others to create a team of investors to support the project and also provide advice.

I for one am not even close to being qualified to do this, but with Zach's expertise as a brewer, our investors helping on the business side of things, and our chef, Ryland, who has unique flavors to create our dishes, we’ve made it happen.

Hartsville needed a brewery and was ready for a brewery to call their own--not just a place to eat or have a beer, but a place to hang out and build up our community.

Our goal here at Wild Heart is to share our community’s stories and to encourage people to share their own stories.

There are so many people in town that work behind the scenes relentlessly to try to make Hartsville better. One of my favorite little sayings that I'll borrow from one of those people is ‘Hartsville is better than it has to be.’
Our community is what it is because of the people who are here: the time and energy and thought and love they give to our city every day and we want this brewery to be a place to celebrate that.”

- Casey Hancock and Zach Riner, Wild Heart Brewing