NextGen on Elevate Springfield with Ellie Ferriell: Springfield Through a Teens Eyes

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Ellie and Robert discuss the various aspects of Springfield, including local treasures, community events, and potential improvements. They explore ideas for enhancing the local dining and entertainment scene, emphasizing the importance of community engagement and the need for new attractions. The dialogue reflects a shared passion for elevating Springfield and making it a vibrant place for residents and visitors alike.

Takeaways

• Springfield has many hidden gems that people overlook.
• Community events like the Memorial Health Championship are significant.
• Improving existing facilities is a priority for local development.
• A local bookstore selling new books is a welcomed addition.
• Dave and Busters would be a great entertainment option for Springfield.
• The importance of vibrant downtown areas cannot be overstated.
• Outdoor concerts and events can draw more visitors to Springfield.
• There is a desire for more diverse dining options in the community.

Join The Elevate Insider:

https://bigdogbc.com/elevate

Facebook:  @robertferriell   @elevatespringfield

Youtube: @robertferriell

10X Health:  https://10xhealthnetwork.com/BIGDOG

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, y'all. Time to 10X.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Hey everyone, welcome to Next Gen on Elevate Springfield. I'm Ellie and I'm here with my dad Robert.

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Together, we're talking about what really matters to teens today. From school and skills to pressure, purpose, and possibilities. We'll share honest conversations, practical strategies teens can actually use, and a little dad-daughter debate.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

This is about listening, learning, and growing. Together, let's elevate the next generation.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

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SPEAKER_02 1:47

Hello and welcome back to NextGen on Elevate Springfield. I'm Ellie and I'm here with my dad.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Why hello? I went really deep with that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

No, you like dragged it out.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

You were like Deep was the wrong word. Like drug it out really.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Why hello?

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Yes, I drug that one out. Pretty long. Seems like you enjoyed it though.

unknown 2:04

Nah.

SPEAKER_04 2:05

No.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

I really like these new seats. They're not too new.

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Yeah, I was gonna say they're not really new anymore, but they're not I well, they're they're not the OG.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

New in comparison to the other ones. Yeah, they're not the OG reds, but I do think in these pretty much pretty a lot.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Yeah, people that have watched the show for a while remember the old OG reds that we had here. Those are pretty comfy, but they were almost comfy. Yeah, did I say comfy? Yeah, they were pretty comfy.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

They were alright.

SPEAKER_04 2:32

They were they were comfy. They were smaller than these though. And they didn't swivel, so you didn't get you didn't get the hips into it. So yeah, I definitely like these better.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

Or downtown in Springfield today on this wonderful afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 2:48

Was that meant to make fun of me? Yes. Yeah, I figured as much. Whenever you dip into that, hey, I always know you're gonna try to mock me for something. Yeah. For my for my cadence that I use when I'm speaking. Do I speak too slowly for your taste?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

No, I am working on my attention span. I do have I think I mentioned that in another one of the podcasts that I was working on my attention span by watching a YouTube video all the way through before clicking off of it, which is kind of sad to say.

SPEAKER_04 3:17

True.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

But I mean most people don't watch the outro.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

They do not. They do not. And I have kind of a slow cadence. So sometimes when I'm talking to you, you'll just completely tune me out by my second sentence.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Like when you were playing Barbies with us yesterday and you just kept talking and talking and talking and talking and talking.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

You asked me to be a part of the show. I'm gonna dive in and I'm gonna do the best I possibly can.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

I appreciated the commitment. I can you just took up all the screen time.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

That's right. I 10x committed to that. That was that was a fun Saturday activity. Yes. Hey, you guys wanted it. That's what you got.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

So hey, you guys, if you want to elevate Springfield, go out and play Barbies with your daughters or whoever that has Barbies, go play the Merman. That is how we're truly gonna elevate Springfield.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

That's right. I agree. I agree. Well, there's a lot of stuff elevate in Springfield right now, you know. Over uh this past weekend, they had the Memorial Health Championship presented by LRS. I was out there, did a short little segment from the networking on the green event, the golf event that was there, the actual Memorial Health Championship, is a world-class event that we have right here in Springfield. And a lot of people don't realize some of the scope of some of those events. We are fortunate to have such a cool thing like that right here in Springfield. And really, there's a lot of stuff in Springfield that I think people are maybe don't quite know about, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Or slept on.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Slept on. That's a good way to put it. I'm gonna start using that. Thank you. There's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

I'm just so good.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Yeah, there's a lot of things in Springfield that people sleep on, but then there's also some things that we would like to bring to Springfield, you know, one of them.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Or improve.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah, or improve the uh sports park, the Shields Sports Park. That was a conversation for years.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Really? And years I didn't know about that.

SPEAKER_04 5:10

And years before it finally happened. There was a couple of times where they thought it was gonna happen and then it fell through. So you don't you don't know all the history of that, but there were a couple of other quote unquote tries at this that didn't happen. Because when Shields originally came here, there was supposed to be a lot more stuff around there. Not necessarily a sports park, but some other stuff and maybe a sports industry.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Is that just Shields in the middle of nowhere? It's like dang drive all the way out to Tuscoda Shields.

SPEAKER_04 5:39

Right. But now other stuff is starting to come to fruition, like the sports park, which is really great, and some of the other stuff that's coming around there.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

But there's I'm excited for that. I hope it draws. I mean, I know that's what they're hoping for. I'm hoping that it draws more people in, and that means more stuff. And then they'll open more stuff.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

Yeah, it has. It's already started to draw in a lot of people. Teams are really taking advantage of the space out there. It's a gorgeous facility, and people are coming to our town specifically for that. And I still haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

I want to see it.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Well, yeah, because I guess you haven't been inside the dome, have you? And you haven't really looked at the street.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

I haven't even been around there.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

No, just because we've gone to Shields, but we didn't really look over there. Well, maybe we need to do that. Do you want to do a elevate springfield?

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Elevate Springfield field trip.

SPEAKER_04 6:21

From the dome, yeah. Elevate Springfield field trip.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Elevate Springfield trip. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

All right. I guess that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Yeah. Elevate springfield trip.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

It has two purposes. The field and the word has two purposes.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Right. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

You decide whether the space goes there or not.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Well, maybe we uh maybe we do that. We'll have a little field trip, show off some of the dome and everything. Maybe go watch a game. We have nieces that play over there here and there.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

I know I've been wanting to go see them play. Yeah, this isn't just the intro, by the way. This is kind of what our topic is about today. It's about talking about.

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Oh, is it? I don't know which what we're talking about today. I was just I was just yapping.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

Well, today we're gonna talk a little bit about well, more than a little bit, because I don't know how long our episodes usually go for. But today we're gonna be talking about 52 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

No, they typically do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

Today we're gonna be talking about Springfield, what we want to see in Springfield, what we want to improve at Springfield, et cetera, et cetera. Well, we're gonna talk about it anyway, so I don't know why I need to intro it very much.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

So I guess with that, I'd like to specifically know what you or maybe people your age would like to see. We've talked to a lot of people on the show about what would be cool here from my perspective and everything, but I think it'd be really cool to hear from you, you know, as you've talked to your friends. What are some things that you would like here? Things maybe we could do differently. We travel a lot, so you get to see a lot of cool stuff in a lot of other communities that are like, man, that'd be really cool if we had it in Springfield.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Okay, okay, very good questions.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Um, so I think to start is that we want to improve what we have first. So for one, for example, let's say one of the easiest ones for Barnes Noble. I've been talking to my friends about this. They should add couches.

SPEAKER_04 8:05

Hey, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Because, you know, people go there to study and they're always sitting at the tables, right? But they're not very comfortable. Like it's great that they're there for use. However, I'm like, well, I don't really want to go, I'm not the type to go sit down at a table with hard chair and table to read a book when it's a bookstore and it's a big bookstore, so they have plenty of room if they want to add couches. So I think they should add some couches around there.

SPEAKER_04 8:27

For some reason, I'm thinking back in the day they did.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Ours? Well, I think Barnes and Noble in general, the stores had seating areas of that, but as a consumer, I would like to see couches.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

Well, I guess I guess the only consequence would be people might go there and just hang out and sit there and never buy anything. Yeah. Just be taking up a couch spot.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah, but I mean, that happens to so many businesses. That's not new. Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_04 8:50

I'd rather have people in my store, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Yeah. Um and then another thing, for example, like Knights Action Park. We love Knights Action Park. However, they could do for a revamp. You can tell that it's kind of dated and that a refresh would be a good idea. I love all the stuff they have there. Like, for example, when you go on one of the slides, like under your butt, you can feel like there's the little lines, right, of a slide all connecting, and it's just like as you go down and it kind of hurts. And some of the paint is like really chipped off or faded. And it's not huge improvements that need to be done. I mean, some would beg to differ. But it'd like be grateful, you guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Just yeah, it's cool that we have a facility like that here in town.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah, at least we have one. It is the most Midwest thing ever when you're up there and you climb like all the way to the top of like a super high slide, and then you look out, and then it's just cornfields and grass. It's like, it's like, whoa, I thought I was like somewhere else for a hot second. Never mind. I got dragged back to reality. But those are two of the things that come to mind for improvements to start out with.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Yeah, yeah, I could see that.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Now that we're getting a bookstore, I can't say that either. Elderberry and Plum. Yeah, we already getting one. A new bookstore because we had we've had a couple bookstores, but they sell super vintage, super old stuff, which is great. That obviously we have a place for those too, but we've been needing a local bookstore that sells new books too.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

Yeah, that's gonna be fun. Right across the street from uh Incredibly Delicious.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

That sounds like the perfect morning.

SPEAKER_04 10:15

I know, right? We're gonna have to do that. We should.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Are they open?

SPEAKER_04 10:22

Well, this past weekend they had I don't know what they called it. It's kind of like a soft launch thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

Or a maybe they called it a preview.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

Uh but it's supposed to officially open in July. So by 4th of July weekend, we should hopefully they'll be open and be able to run down there.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah, I want to go. That sounds so fun. In terms of what they should bring to Springfield, I mean, it's so hard because I'm thinking I forget we even have a Chuck E. Cheese, for one. So let's close the Chuck E. Cheese. Sorry. And let's bring a Dave and Busters.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Do a Dave and Busters, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

And I'm you know what? This is my dream version of Springfield. So we're not gonna think about pricing about the cost of anything, okay? That's your job, not mine. I'm the imag I'm the imagineer. You are the carrier outer of the imagination thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Carrier carrier outer? Was that a word?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yes. Sometimes I use bad grammar on purpose, you know?

SPEAKER_04 11:14

Oh, okay. So that was that was intentional. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Because I uh for lack of better word.

SPEAKER_04 11:19

Okay. You know? Carrier outer.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Yes. So we should open up a Dave and Busters. Dave and Busters. Everybody loves Dave and Busters, but you gotta execute it properly though. Cause I don't want a Dave and Busters that looks like our Chuck E. Cheese right now. Right. Like that's not the point. The point is I want a bigger building for a Dave and Busters, and you really go all out for it. Also, Malibu Jacks. I love that we have a Malibu Jacks because that doesn't seem like something that would be here. Well, what do you think?

SPEAKER_04 11:44

Well, one thing we've talked about on the show before, and what we'd like to see downtown get some of that vibrancy back. We have some of that, but we've talked about it before where we want a situation where people are down here walking all the time, going to a lot of different shops. We have a decent amount of shops down here, but we would like to see more. We'd like to see more restaurants, we'd like to be able to bring back more of that vibrancy. I think we're moving in the right direction in some areas, but I would like for that to come back more.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:14

So we're gonna be going down to the LevitAmp concert series. If you could have, this is just a dream here, if you could have any concert or act come to Springfield, who would that be?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Ariana Grande.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Think we could get her here?

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Probably not. She's gonna be in Chicago though here in about a month and a half, though.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah, but I don't have $1,656 to spend on my ticket alone.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

They are going for pretty steep at the moment. Maybe we could get on as production assistants or something.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Or maybe we'll just buy tickets and go.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Yeah, good luck with that, sweetie.

SPEAKER_04 12:50

How about that? No. What kind of restaurants would you like to see in Springfield that we don't already have?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

I want a sweet greens.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Ooh, I'd be down for that.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

You said you wanted to open a sweet greens as a family, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:04

Yeah, it'd be fun. It's a good restaurant.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

How would you go about that, Mr. 10X?

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Well, unfortunately, I'm not sure they do franchises. I think they might be all company owned.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

So But if they were franchised?

SPEAKER_04 13:17

Well, if they were franchised, then I would go through whatever process that they have written out and pay whatever money it takes to be able to do it. So with franchises, typically they have a certain fee that you have to pay. Sometimes you have to have a certain net worth in order to qualify, and they have other different requirements that they have in order to get in. They may have requirements for where it's put. For instance, sweet greens, as we've traveled. The only places we've seen sweet greens are in larger cities. So there's a couple around Chicago. There's in Miami, like we've been to. There's all around larger cities. So sweet greens as a company might not. If they did franchises, which I don't think they do, Springfield might not be a big enough community for them to have one in.

SPEAKER_02 14:02

I'd like a Trader Joe's.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

Yeah, and that's similar to places like that. Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, you typically find those in larger metropolitan areas that are bigger than Springfield. That's not to say we can't get one of them, but they're typically in those areas. It'd be nice to have a Trader Joe's and a I'd rather have a Whole Foods right now than a Trader Joe's, but I would certainly take a Trader Joe's.

SPEAKER_02 14:25

I was gonna say that as much as I'd like to have a Whole Foods, I feel like Whole Foods would be stepping on Harvest Market's toes a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

They would they would be Yeah, they would be direct competitors, no doubt about it. Harvest Market has a lot of the same items that that Whole Foods would have. So they would certainly be competitors. And Trader Joe's would be competing with them too, but they just do it from a little bit different angle. They're not quite as big.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

So I've come to a newfound appreciation for our mall lately. I've really been liking our mall a lot, but Really. I still do want more stores there though.

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Yeah, there's still a lot of empty stores in there. Uh and that's not unique amongst malls. Most malls in, especially towns of our size, look similar to our mall, where there's still some good stores in there, but a lot of empty storefronts too. The only malls that are really full anymore are, again, in some of the larger areas. Like we've been to the malls recently in Miami, and they were super full. Even in St. Louis. St. Louis's malls really. Yeah, St. Louis. Their West County well, their West County Mall, I think, is better. But yeah, it was full. Scottsdale, their malls were full when we were out there. So most of the time the bigger city malls are still full, but there's still not as many of them as there used to be. Even in St.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Louis, we used to go to the American Girl Store mall that had the American Girl store in it. And then they closed it.

SPEAKER_04 15:48

That's exactly the one I was talking about. It was the one that was out in Chesterfield. We went to that one even before you guys were born. We used to go to that mall here and there, and then we would take you guys down to the American Girl Store, which was at that mall in Chesterfield, and now it's not a mall anymore. It's either completely abandoned or turned into just one company's building. Sometimes malls get taken over by other entities. Similar to what's happening to our mall. Yeah, that's what I was about to say.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

I really hope ours doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Well, the state already has a portion of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

I just hope it doesn't like seep into the other area. But I've been in the mall a lot lately, and there were two things that I'd want updated or upgraded, I guess. His first American Eagle was literally on the other side of the mall, and it had that cute little cabana type entryway. And then they moved it to the other side that had none of that, which like way less character, I guess. So I'd move that back over to its original spot, and then I'd also bring back the carousel. Yeah. I'd keep the train, obviously, but I still I'd still want the carousel right in the middle of the mall.

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Yeah. Bring that back. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

And then open up as many other stores as we can too. But I really do like our mall because we have Victoria's Secret, we have Pink, we have American Eagle, we have Airy, we have Auntie Ann's, we have Claire's, we have Hot Topic, we have two jewelry stores and more than that.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

Yeah. Any other entertainment type stuff you'd like to see in Springfield?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

We're good on movie theaters. I really like movie theater eight, is it? Eight is the one with the recliners, right?

SPEAKER_04 17:20

The one on Dirksen.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Yeah. I think eight or eleven.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

AMC eight. I don't know. I can't. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:24

AMC Eight. That one's wonderful. No comment on that. It's perfect. Yeah, I guess just bring in a Dave and Busters. I'm trying not to be too unrealistic. We have a water park. We have an indoor, whatever you want to call it.

unknown 17:37

Indoor.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Nights and Alba Jacks. Yeah, amusement, like an indoor amusement park, sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

And those are fundamentally good. We can update a few things, but it's not like we need to. It's not like Chuck E. Cheese, where we're just like, you know what? You can just take that out and then we can just replace that. I mean, those are both good at their core. Like we don't need to, we have everybody likes those. So what do you think? Do you have any entertainment-wise?

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Entertainment-wise, I do think the idea that was on the table for the BOS Center, that whole area there, the expansion there, I think that would be good for Springfield.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

What was it?

SPEAKER_04 18:11

So they're gonna expand the BOS Center, also create a new hotel, also build a new hotel right there, and it would allow us to have the rooms we need for conferences, but also potentially be able to draw bigger acts to Springfield, which would be great. And specifically for us here, it's only about two blocks away from where we're we're sitting, so it would draw more traffic down in here, draw more people down here, hopefully. Because when we do have, you've been down here with me before, some, when there is a conference or something going on or a big event at BOS, there are a lot of people walking around downtown. There's been times where they've had there's one here recently, they had a it was a cheerleading competition, and there was people all over the streets with the why are there like 18 cheerleaders walking around? Where'd they come from? Yeah. But they were at the competition at the BOS Center. So the more of those type of events that we can bring to Springfield, the better off we're gonna be. That's why Shield Sports Park is so important because we're bringing so many people into our town. They're gonna be spending money and we get more tax dollars out of that, get more sales tax dollars. Yeah, get that tourist dollar. You know, Florida gets a lot of our money.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

Should all have an equal opportunity to swindle money from tourists.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

Yeah, deep cut right there. For any of you uh big city greens fans. Yeah. I mean, places like Florida, they get tons in tourist dollars because they've got the beaches, they've got Disney World and Universal, all that type of stuff that's in Orlando. So many people go to Florida for vacation.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

It is so interesting though, because I mean, even though they have all those amazing things and they have all that money to spend on elevating their communities, it still has a lot of work anyway. Like, you know, like the like we were talking about, like the second you get out of Disney property, it's kind of like, you know.

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Well, yeah, yeah. And part of that is the standards people have. Disney standards are pretty high.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

So they want to make sure they keep their stuff.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

It's just in terms of like chip shapes. So like I don't know, even if you think of like not even just at Disney, like all the places we visited, there's these amazing places, but you look around and they still have a lot of work to do in their actual community. Like, okay, yeah, you had this, this, and this. Definitely. But outside of that, it's comparable to here.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Yeah, in every community, there's things that are just absolutely great, and there's things that need work, just like Springfield. We've got some great things here, we've got some things that need work, and we've got things as a community that we need to do to be able to continue to elevate all the people here, all the businesses here, and ultimately Springfield on the whole. But yeah, I would like to see uh the an expansion there. Again, more stuff downtown would be phenomenal to continue to grow that. The outdoor concerts, like the Levitt Amp concert series, has been very, very popular. So it could be cool to have a venue to be able to do something like that more year-round, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Not necessarily all year round because the BOS Center does do concerts sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Yeah, they do concerts sometimes, yeah. And they have comedians in there, they'll do wrestling sometimes, they'll do you know, the circus and a lot of these different things. But that's what's one cool thing about the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes. Now that the foundation has control of the stadium, they're gonna put turf down so where they can start having concerts out on the field out there and start doing some different things. So that'll open up another avenue for outdoor concerts. And you can watch a concert. I like that. Yeah, the way I envision it typically at those type of things. You might have some premium VIP seating on the field, and then everybody else watches the concert from the stands like you would normally watch a baseball game. So Bush Stadium does that sometimes where they have concerts on the field there, so you watch it from the stands like you'd be watching.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Because it's like somebody who has never gone, it's like, oh, I didn't know this was here. Oh, we should go to Lawn. The baseball games this summer, then, and there's use for it outside of just the summertime because then we do concerts more often, not just when everybody's out of school. Right. And then number two, it's also like giving us something else to do, and it's more outside concerts and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

Yeah. So the entertainment stuff is all is always cool. We have everything we need here. Even if we said we were talking about Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, you know, a lot of the stuff that I get at occasionally in Whole Foods when we're out of town, they have some of that stuff here at Harvest Market. They have some of that stuff here at Food Fantasies, just not to the degree that Whole Foods does. They have a really great selection of all the organic, crunchy stuff that that I like. So in terms of a grocery store, they do have the best selection of organic, all natural stuff that we like to buy.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

So do you have any restaurants you want to see come here? Or actually, I was thinking for another store. I know this was a completely local store and we were traveling, but it was that one store. Was it in Jackson Hole? No, it wasn't. It was in maybe it was. Yeah, it was. That one store that was full organic, all natural something that you were like obsessed with because you Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:09

Yeah, it was in Jackson. Yeah, yeah. It was a cafe there. I can't remember I can't even remember what it was called, but it was a cafe that had all organic everything. Organic everything coffee and all the drinks.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

And you came back home and you were like, I need to open one of those. That was glorious.

SPEAKER_04 23:23

Yes, it was glorious. And I I think I absolutely used that term too. Glorious. Yeah, I think that was my favorite cafe probably. So I'll tell you, incredibly delicious here in town. They have organic espresso, so I will get that from them. But this cafe, everybody knows on the show that's been listening, knows that I like my organic stuff. I'm conscious of what I eat and drink. So yeah, I think something like that would be really cool. Because we do have some great cafes here, but none of them are fully organic. Maybe that's not what Springfield wants. Maybe I'm in the minority when it comes to that, but I don't think so. I think we should open one of those up. Open up a blend of that cafe and sweet greens. Yes. All the organic stuff of that cafe. The holy grail of yeah, but then also have the sweet greens essence to where you which if you've never been to a sweet greens, they're similar to what we have at Core Life. It's a similar setup to core life, really. Build your own bowl type. Build your own bowl type thing. It's just a little bit different. And we eat a lot when we're down in Miami for the 10X workshops.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

I think you had it four times in two days.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

I did. I had I think I had it for breakfast, or not breakfast, but lunch, dinner, lunch, dinner. The two days we were at our last workshop because, like we've talked, there's not a whole lot of places where I'll eat out anymore, but that's one of them because they have good ingredients.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

We've gotten better at eating out though. But then I think you got a little traumatized because then you started not feeling good at Disney, and then you were like, oh crap, I think it was the stuff I'm eating.

SPEAKER_04 24:54

It is, it is. I tried to turn the dial a little bit. It's like, all right, I'll I'll eat with you guys at this restaurant, and yeah, it didn't feel too good. So turn that knob back.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 25:04

Sweet greens for this guy.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:06

So, but other things outside of things we want, take advantage of the stuff that's going on already. Like Levit is going on every Thursday night. Springfield Lucky Horseshoes have games all week long with fireworks shows and drone shows and special guests and everything. Yeah, the Legends game about a week and a half ago now, which that was fun. We got whipped that day, but that was fun.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Yeah, you got absolutely destroyed.

SPEAKER_04 25:31

Yeah, we got beat pretty bad. Well, 11 to 4. It wasn't the prettiest ball game from our side, but it was fun. There's all that going on.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Just don't don't sleep on stuff and don't overlook stuff just because you're like, oh, that sucks though. It's not fun. Like I hear that a lot. Like I'll be like, oh yeah, I love this place and this place. And they'll be like, it's so boring. And I'm like, go to Decatur and you'll see what boring is. And I'm only allowed to say that because I grew up in Decatur.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Like I'm Decaturite.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

I I was crap talking Decatur to somebody. And then I like paused and I was like, wait, I grew up there. That's why I'm saying this. Because I lived there for many a year. And I know I'd be suffering if I was a teenager right now. I know that because my cousin's constantly like, oh my gosh, Springfield is so much better. Oh my gosh, Decatur sucks. Oh my gosh, you guys have an actual, like, full coal store. We just have a tiny one in the in our mall. So it's like be grateful and actually go do so.

SPEAKER_04 26:25

Do you feel like as a teenager here in Springfield that you good amount to do?

SPEAKER_02 26:28

50-50.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

And that's that's one thing that we need to work on as a community to make sure that we keep our younger demographic, that even a little bit older than you, that 18 to 34 age range, we need to make sure we have plenty of stuff available for them because too many of them are leaving. So we want to make sure we try to keep them here in town and having some of these extras will do that. But plenty of great stuff in Springfield. Get out there, try that stuff out. I know we talked about a lot today about things we would like to see come to Springfield. Ellie through a teenager's eyes, what she might like to see come to Springfield and a couple of places that we like visiting outside of here. Is there any other places on our travels that you've seen? But man, it'd be really cool that we have in Springfield.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

I don't know. We've gone to a lot of cool stores, but most of our travels we are focusing on like the main thing that we're doing.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

But I mean, we do gallimant a lot and go and see some stuff, but we do. I don't know. I don't know. I think most of the stuff we see is so perfectly curated for where we're at there, to the point where I'm like, okay, it's not even just like not my cup of tea, but it's also just like I can't see that possibly being in Springfield. It's just perfect for where it's at.

unknown 27:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Because most of the time it's also touristy places. You know, that's why it's there because it goes in hand in hand with the other thing, you know.

SPEAKER_04 27:46

Well, don't sleep on what we got, folks. We got a lot of stuff here. Get out there, support it, and we'll all continue to grow together, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

Well, thank you for joining us on NextGen on Elevate Springfield. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_04 27:59

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SPEAKER_03 28:36

Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody. Appreciate you making us a part of your day. Hey, don't forget while you're out on social, check ours out. You can check my personal one out at RobertFarrell at everywhere. Check out those Elevate Springfield pages, those big dog business coaching pages as well. Check us out over on YouTube. Give us a subscribe, give us a like or a follow on any of those channels. We would certainly appreciate it. So, hey, take what you learned today. You bring the discipline and follow through and together. That's right, y'all. We're gonna elevate Springfield. Be great.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

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