The Found Podcast with Molly Knuth: Small Town Business Strategy and Marketing

Before I ever wrote a marketing message for anybody, I spent years with a red pen in my hand. And the note I wrote most in the margins of freshman essays was four little words: What's your point? Four pages of beautiful sentences and thesaurus words found at 11 p.m. the night before...and one idea buried somewhere underneath it all. I still think about those essays, because I read small town business marketing every single day. Websites. Facebook posts. Flyers on the bulletin board at the cafe. And a whole lot of it (bless it) needs that exact same note. This is Part 3 of The Found Framework, and it's the question every Founder hits once they know who they're talking to: what do I actually say? We get into why your message has a different job in a small town, the potluck test, a fill-in-the-blank sentence you'll use for years, the lost-to-found shape that makes a story stick, and that "who does she think she is?" voice that keeps so many of us quiet. You'll walk away with the bones of a messaging house you can actually live in. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR Why small town marketing isn't an introduction, it's an update to a story people already believe about you The three messaging mistakes Molly sees again and again: being vague, being too polished, and being afraid The potluck test: could your aunt explain what you do in one sentence? The "I help ___ do ___ so they can ___" formula, with real examples from a bookkeeper and a photographer Why naming your prices, your hours, and who you don't serve is a kindness in a small town The lost-to-found story shape, plus the three kinds of stories every business or organization already has What years of How It's Made reruns taught Molly about behind-the-scenes content The "don't get too big for your britches" fear, and why talking about your work isn't bragging How to build a messaging house: your one sentence, three pillars, a story bank, and a running list of customer questions THE FOUND QUESTION This one lives in the What do I say? question. Once you know who your people are, this is where you find the words that help them recognize themselves (and you). RESOURCES AND LINKS Small Town Founders Workbook, including the one-sentence page, story arc pages, and the messaging house page: https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Found, Molly's 12-week advisory program: https://mollyknuth.com The Found Framework, Part 1 (How Do I Do This?) and Part 2 (Where Are My People?): https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Molly's Story Forge app: email [email protected] with the word APP to test it out! FREE RESOURCE Grab the free Small Town Founders Workbook, your 2027 business and marketing strategy, with pages built for every episode of The Found Framework: https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook GO DEEPER WITH FOUND The Found Podcast introduces the five questions. The Found advisory program is where you work through them for your own business or organization over 12 weeks, including finding the words that sound like you and building the messaging house you'll actually use. If you've been staring at your website for two years thinking "this doesn't sound like me anymore," start here: https://mollyknuth.com LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 SHARE THE EPISODE Know someone whose website could use a red pen and a little love? Send them this one. And once you write your one sentence, send it my way on Instagram. I want to read it. Website: https://mollyknuth.com · Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyknuth · Email: [email protected]

I went to the grocery store for three things. Milk, bread, and whatever snack one of my kids suddenly needed for school the next day (because of course we were out). Brothers Market is five minutes from my house. The trip took 45 minutes. Not because of a line. Because of a client in produce, my kid's teacher in the cereal aisle, a woman from a committee ten years ago asking about my cows, and a guy at checkout who wanted to talk Vikings. And yet that same town, the one where you can't buy a gallon of milk without four conversations, is the town where Founders tell me over and over, "I just don't know where my people are." This is part two of The Found Framework, and we're answering question two: Where are my people? We're making your market bigger than your town, making your person smaller than everybody, and finding the specific places, partners, and connectors who already have your people's trust. Your people aren't hiding. Let's go find them. What You'll Hear Why "my town is too small" is a market problem, not a town problem The three circles of a small town market: hometown, drive time, and kindred How Dirt Road Candle Co. and The Midwest Girl built kindred markets far beyond their zip codes Why "my people are everybody" quietly sabotages your marketing The random Tuesday exercise: picturing one real person and mapping her lost to found arc in her own words Where your people actually spend their time, online and in real life Borrowed audiences, partners, and the connectors Molly calls mayors without a title The 10 Names Test, and what it tells you if you can't finish it The weight of being known in a small town (and why it's your biggest advantage) The Found Question This episode lives in question two: Where are my people? It builds directly on part one (How do I do this?), because you can't know whether the math works until you know who's buying. Resources and Links Small Town Founders Workbook (free): https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Dirt Road Candle Co. (Michelle Myers, Atlantic, Iowa): https://shopdirtroadcandleco.com The Midwest Girl (sisters Marah and Marissa, Dubuque, Iowa): https://shopthemidwestgirl.com The Found Framework, Part One: How Do I Do This? Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV 1:1 services and Found, the 12-week advisory program: https://mollyknuth.com Free Resource Grab the Small Town Founders Workbook, my free 2027 business and marketing strategy workbook. There's a whole section for this episode: your three circles, your one person, your places, your partners, your connectors, and room for your 10 names. https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Go Deeper with Found This show introduces the five questions. Found is where you work through them for your own business or organization, with someone across the table asking, "Okay, but who is she really?" It's my 12-week advisory program, and you can learn more (plus my one-hour Pick-My-Brain-style sessions) at https://mollyknuth.com. Listen and Subscribe Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 Share the Episode Know a Founder who keeps saying her town is too small? Send her this one. And if you take the 10 Names Test, I want to hear how fast you got to ten (or where you got stuck). Screenshot the episode, tag me, and tell me which circle your people live in. Website: https://mollyknuth.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollyknuth Email: [email protected]

It's 10:30 on a summer Tuesday morning. I've got my phone in one hand, a baseball bag in the other, a client call in thirty minutes, a daughter down in the barn waiting on help with her 4H calf, and a son who still hasn't found his cleats (reminder number four). And I'm standing in my living room thinking...how do I do this? Not how do I run a business. I'd been running one since 2017. The real question was bigger, and a lot more personal: how do I do this business, with this life, in this place? It's where every Founder I work with starts, including the ones who look like they have it all figured out. Especially those ones, honestly. This is the first episode of The Found Framework, a five-part series built around the five questions I hear from small-town Founders across coffee shop tables, at the ball field, and in my DMs at 11 at night. We're starting with the question that sits under all the others, and the answer starts somewhere that might feel backwards: with your life, not your revenue goal. By the end, you'll have everything you need to build a plan that fits on one page and fits the life you actually live. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR Why so much business advice assumes your life will politely step aside while you build (and why out here, it won't) The two questions hiding inside "How do I do this?" What 2017 Molly missed by saying yes to everything, and the different first question she asked when she rebuilt The three things to get honest about before you set a single goal: your real calendar, your enough number, and your non-negotiables The question Molly asks every client: what is this business for? Three decisions that come next: what you're actually selling, who it's for, and whether the math works How to build a one-page plan: one goal, three priorities, four seasons, and a weekly rhythm Why your strategy is supposed to change, and why nothing is wasted THE FOUND QUESTION This one lives in the How do I do this? question: the first of the five, and the one that sits under all the others. It's really two questions at once: how do I build the strategy, and how do I build it around the life I actually have? RESOURCES AND LINKS Small Town Founders Workbook (free): https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Found, Molly's 12-week advisory program: mollyknuth.com A blank year-ahead calendar: Canva, a quick search, or ChatGPT will make you one Next up in The Found Framework: Where Are My People? FREE RESOURCE Want somewhere to put your calendar, your enough number, and your one-page plan? The Small Town Founders Workbook walks you through your business and marketing strategy one piece of the Found Framework at a time. It's free: https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook GO DEEPER WITH FOUND The podcast introduces the five questions. Found is where you work through them for your business or organization, with me alongside you. It's a 12-week advisory program for Founders who want a guide (and an accountability buddy) to build a strategy that fits their life and their town. Learn more at mollyknuth.com. LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth-small-town/id1530616432 SHARE THIS EPISODE Know a Founder standing in their living room with a baseball bag in one hand and a client call in thirty minutes? Send them this one. Then come tell me your enough number...or at least that you finally wrote it down. mollyknuth.com · @mollyknuth · [email protected]

CHS Class of 2005. I had a plan, and if I'm being honest, it wasn't really mine. It was THE plan we were all given at that time. Get the degree, get the good job (the one with the benefits), stay until retirement, and maybe get a sheet cake in the break room on your last day. By 2014 I was teaching high school English in a Calvin Klein sheath dress and heels, pregnant, checking every single box that blueprint handed me. And something in me was still whispering...there's got to be a better way. This one is for the box-checkers. We get into the three things that keep good builders stuck (sunk costs, other people's opinions, and the very real weight of our commitments), what "better" actually means when you build in a small town, and the chain reaction that kicks off the minute you get clear on future you. I even read my own "Wealthy Molly" list out loud. Consider this the on-ramp to The Found Framework, which starts next Wednesday. What You'll Hear The math so many of us absorbed growing up: college degree plus full-time job equals peace and stability The grass is always greener...and what to do when the patch you're standing on is a little brown Why running away from something isn't the same as building toward something The three things that keep Founders stuck: the sunk cost fallacy, OPO (other people's opinions), and the weight of real commitments Why OPO plays a bigger role when everybody knows everybody What "a better way" means, and why it isn't "faster," "more convenient," or "more efficient" The chain reaction: future you, habits, beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, results (and around again) Molly's Wealthy Molly list from a coaching session with Katrina Klooster, and what giggling at your own dreams gives away The "Oprah of the Midwest" (yes, I said it out loud) A first look at the five questions of The Found Framework and Found, the new 12-week advisory program Your 10-minute homework before next week Resources and Links Katrina Klooster's conversation on The Found Podcast from May 2026 The Found Framework series begins Wednesday, October 21 Free Resource: Small Town Founders Workbook Your 2027 business and marketing strategy, worked out on paper. Grab the free Small Town Founders Workbook: mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook Go Deeper with Found The show introduces the five questions. Found is where you work through them for your business or organization, with me in your corner for 12 weeks. Learn more at mollyknuth.com or email [email protected] and we'll talk. Listen and Subscribe Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 Share This Episode Know someone who checked every box and still hears that little whisper? Send this one their way. Then tell me what future you does on a Tuesday. I want to hear it. mollyknuth.com · @mollyknuth · [email protected]

Picture me on a Saturday night at the end of August: a wig with flips I can only describe as aggressive, a fake mustache I've sweat off more times than I can count, and a hanky in my back pocket assigned to one job. Upper Lip Patrol. I looked like a NASCAR driver who lost a bet. That's scavenger hunt night in Cascade. Every year I write the riddles, laminate everything in sight, glue tiny race car drivers to popsicle sticks, and send my family and friends all over town in teams. It makes me zero dollars. And this year, right in the middle of it, I realized it had taught me more about running a business than a lot of the webinars I've sat through. If you've been quietly running on empty (maybe without even clocking it yet), this episode is my case for play. We talk about writing without AI, looking ridiculous on purpose, why I keep refusing to sell this thing, and the branding, storytelling, and word of mouth lessons I didn't go looking for. I came out the other side remembering something I didn't know I'd forgotten. WHAT YOU'LL HEAR Why I wrote every clue by hand on a legal pad this year, and what writing without AI gave back to me The freedom of looking absurd in public when you usually spend a lot of energy on how you're perceived Why I keep saying no when people ask me to turn the hunt into a kit they can buy How play and silliness make the heavy parts of business more sustainable What a little Jeff Gordon on a popsicle stick taught me about consistent branding Why stories (not the details) are what bring people back year after year Bonus: word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing channel there is, especially in a small town The question to sit with: what's your scavenger hunt? RESOURCES AND LINKS Back catalog episode: Just Have F*cking Fun Recent episode: Using AI Without Losing Your Voice FREE RESOURCE Grab the free Small Town Founders Workbook, your 2027 business and marketing strategy built for rural and small-town Founders: https://mollyknuth.myflodesk.com/smalltownfoundersworkbook LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5YACTbRulN4NooX32NgzgV?si=eeab33fd432844ee Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-found-podcast-with-molly-knuth/id1530616432 SHARE THIS EPISODE If this one hit you somewhere in the feels, send it to the friend who needs a little permission to play. Then tell me your scavenger hunt. Tag me or send me a message... I'd love to hear it. mollyknuth.com · @mollyknuth · [email protected]