Arkansas Inc. Podcast: 2025 Economic Development Roundtable

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Arkansas Inc. Podcast - Economic Dev. Roundtable

Hi, it's Andrea Allen, Executive Director of the Delta Center for Economic Development.

Hi, I'm Matt Twyford with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

And I'm Shelby Fiegel with the University of Central Arkansas.

And we welcome you to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast.

Welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. This is Clint O'Neal. I serve as Executive Director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Each year during Economic Development Week, established by the International Economic Development Council, we take time to celebrate the professionals and programs that help grow strong economies and thriving communities. This year, Economic Development Week is May 11th through 17th.

For the past few years, I've had the pleasure of hosting a special roundtable episode of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, featuring economic development professionals from around the state. Here in Arkansas, we have incredible communities and some impressive leaders working every day to strengthen those communities. These professionals wear many hats, supporting small businesses, leading quality of life initiatives, training and equipping future leaders, and ensuring Arkansas's communities are places where both people and businesses can thrive.

This year, we're putting a spotlight on community development, and I'm thrilled to be joined by three outstanding community developers from across the state.

Shelby Fiegel is the Director of the University of Central Arkansas Center for Community and Economic Development and the Community Development Institute.

Andrea Allen is Executive Director of the Arkansas State University Delta Center for Economic Development.

Matt Twyford is Director of Community Development for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Shelby, Andrea, Matt, welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast.

Thank you, Clint.

Yes, thank you for the opportunity to join you today.

Okay, we're going to dive into the profession of economic development, of community development. I think if you were to ask your closest friends and family to describe what you do, maybe they would stumble around a little bit. But if you were to meet a new neighbor, a new friend, and if you told them you worked in the field of community development, and they gave you a blank stare, how would you go about explaining what you do?

Andrea, let's have you take that one first.

Sure. Thank you for the question. To me, I think it's helping communities dream big and turn those dreams into reality. I like to say or tell people, imagine sitting down with your neighbors, local leaders, and businesses to ask what kind of place do you want to live in. And then everyone rolling up their sleeves to work towards making that a reality, whether it's building safer neighborhoods, creating vibrant parks and public spaces, or attracting new businesses. I guess think of it as helping a town become the best version of itself.

Thanks, Andrea. Shelby, why don't you take that one, and along the way tell us a little bit about the Community Development Institute.

Absolutely, Clint. So when you said blank stare, that is exactly what happens in reality. When I introduce myself, I say, hey, I'm Shelby. I'm with UCA Center for Community and Economic Development. The eyes glaze over, and folks say, so you're a professor at UCA? No, not in the academic world. We're the community and economic development arm within the University of Central Arkansas.

And then I have to, within one short elevator pitch, make them understand what I do and why it's important within higher education to be involved in community and economic development. So my elevator pitch that I normally say is we're the outreach arm of the university. We educate individuals through traditional undergrad, graduate, PhD programs, but we also continue that lifelong learning by being involved on the ground in communities all over the state and even within the region.

And we do that through training and technical assistance programs and uplifting, like Andrea said earlier, uplifting those communities, focusing on thriving economies, quality of life, and just ensuring that they have the tools and resources they need to be successful and meet their vision for their community.

And you mentioned Community Development Institute. That's our signature training program we've been doing for almost 40 years, 38th year this year. It's just a training program for community leaders. And when I say community leaders, that's a really broad definition of just folks that want to make their communities better places. But they come to CDI for three years. They get those tools, skills, connections that they need, again, to make their communities the best that they can be. Great. Thanks, Shelby. Well, Matt Twyford is a returning guest to the Arkansas Inc. podcast, despite having to be reminded of that. Let the record show for the second time. Matt, tell us about the Community Development Division at AADC.

Well, I am blessed to have the best team at the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. I think that is a subjective, I'm sorry, an objective fact that most everyone would agree upon outside of a few people in this room. But no, the Community Development Team, I actually have been on the receiving end of some of those blank stares when I talk about what it is that I do. So I sometimes will refer to our website that does a really good job of explaining our role.

So at AEDC, our regional managers provide Arkansas communities with tools that help them excel at all facets of economic development. That includes strategic planning, product development, marketing, business retention and expansion, and business development.

Regional managers offer a variety of services around the state by collaborating with regional economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, local economic development organizations, and local elected officials. We also help to build regional and local capacity, making the state of Arkansas a thriving environment for citizens and businesses. And people can always tell that that is just fresh off the top of my head, not read in any form or fashion.

So I've been with the agency for a little over 11 years, and I've been blessed to work with some really good community developers. I really think, though, that the division kind of shifted gears when I was able to bring Amy Williams on board. Amy covers the northeast part of the state for us, and I feel like my team criticizes me a lot for being too self-deprecating. So one thing that I will take credit for is having, in that time, working as a community developer, built some relationships, established some credibility, and really fostered an environment where people wanted to come work with me on the team.

So Amy really helped kind of get this particular version of the team started, and then that momentum continued when Dana Poindexter joined the team. Dana has been covering South Arkansas, and now we're kind of rearranging things to where she's focusing more on Southwest Arkansas. And I think with the work that the three of us were able to do, we were able to kind of demonstrate to our leadership that we could be even more effective if we were not spread quite so thin.

And so we were blessed with a little bit of agency reorganization to acquire two great team members that I'm blessed to have, and that's Ashley Williams, who came from the existing business resources division, along with Tom Ginn. And Ashley serves West Central Arkansas and Tom Northwest. And just recently we filled the team, completed with Georgiana Cozzi, who works for and lives in Southeast Arkansas. And I just feel like we have the perfect team in place right now, all of us very passionate about helping the state.

And to give you just a really dated reference that probably not many people will recognize, I kind of feel like we form like Voltron. And at any given time, different ones of us can be the head. Really, our focus instead of, you know, battling Japanese monsters, we really try to go help the state of Arkansas.

I 100% should have gotten up early to drive down there for all this. Poor Andrew, yeah.

Well, thanks, Matt. Let's get straight to success stories. So don't worry about taking too much credit. There's really no such thing as an MVP, individual rock star in community development. It all takes a team. But let's talk about success stories, something that you've been involved in, something that you've seen an Arkansas community do that has really taken them to the next level. What was that? What was the initiative? Who were some of the leaders behind that?

Shelby, you want to start with that? I knew this question was coming, and this is probably one of the toughest questions you're going to ask me today because we have been very fortunate to be connected to leaders across the state who are doing incredible work. From our urban areas to our rural areas, every leader that we work with touches their community in a unique way that, again, uplifts that citizen quality of life, benefits their economy. Off the top of my head, I'm going to share two examples. I'm going to take a little bit of liberty there. I'm going to share two. So one recent and one past example.

A recent example that I want to point out is we have a program right now called the Community Development Pipeline Program, and it's focused on Washington and Benton County leaders and communities. And the city of Pea Ridge has been one of our partners in that program, one of the participants in the program. Mayor Nathan C., other members of his staff have come through CDI. We've worked with them on everything from a strategic action planning initiative to most recently a community branding project.

And through that community branding project, what made it so unique and what it made it stand out from other projects that we've been involved in or seen from afar is it was truly a community approach to identifying what their identity is. So we had a broad community convening where we collected ideas and feedback from citizens and leaders about what makes Pea Ridge Pea Ridge and what is the vision for the community because they're exploding in growth. We all know Northwest Arkansas is the fastest growing area in the United States, projected to be a million people in the next 10 years. So they know that change is coming, that growth is coming, and they want to be intentional about what they want to be in the future.

And so through that feedback, we convened a small group of leaders representing many different areas of the community, and they kind of led the charge on what that identity was going to be. And we came through with what we feel was a brand and a logo that really communicated their story in a unique way, focusing on those assets and resources they have locally. Something that citizens can be proud of, but that tells the story of Pea Ridge to the outside world.

And we think that's the first step when we want to grow business, when we want to entice folks to invest in our community, is you have to tell that story and you have to share that vision so people buy in. So I would encourage everybody, go search for Pea Ridge on Google or Facebook, check out that new logo, give them a shout out. It's really, really cool.

We have a creative brief that we created that explains why pieces of the logo are significant from the font used to the colors, celebrating their rich military history, but also celebrating their namesake, the Pea Vine, as well as their intention to continue that positive growth.

Another great story I want to touch on is Paris, Arkansas. We worked with Paris about a decade ago, but we've continued the relationship with them throughout the years. And one of the coolest things that I've ever seen in my career is when we were in Paris, we were doing our community development advanced year program.

And when you think of Paris, what do we all think of? Eiffel Tower, Paris, France. Some people might say Paris, Texas, but we want Paris, Arkansas to be at the forefront of their minds. But yeah, so they have that natural connection to the Eiffel Tower, Paris, right? And so they really wanted to find a way to capitalize on that association in an Arkansas context.

One of the phrases that came out of some of those meetings was, we should say bonjour, y'all. And that's our unique spin on Paris, Arkansas. So through those conversations, again, between citizens and leaders, somebody had the idea of saying, why don't we have an Eiffel Tower in Paris? That would be a really cool tourist attraction.

And a local business owner said, yeah, why don't we? You know, I have the capabilities to help build the Eiffel Tower. We could install it as a fountain. The city had a piece of property in downtown that was ripe for development. They didn't know what they were going to do with that piece of property. And they said, hey, let's build the Eiffel Tower fountain there, create a community gathering space.

And genuinely, just through connections and conversations and folks raising their hand and saying, hey, we're going to take on this project and make it happen. Within a couple of months, they had Eiffel Tower Park and they do weddings there now. They got a grant to build a stage so they have community gathering space outside. They have a love lock, quote unquote, bridge. It's more of a gate, but folks can go and do the love lock on it. They painted a mural.

So it really was that connection of the arts and community quality of place making a tourist attraction in their downtown to uplift their small business community. And I really thought that was just one of the neatest things that I'd ever seen. It was community development in action. in a really authentic way. Yeah, great stories. Two excellent communities. I'll give Mayor Nathan C. a shout out. He has a very strong LinkedIn game. I'm sure he does on other social media channels as well. Absolutely, he does. And yeah, the great work that Tanya Fletcher and others are doing in Paris. It's very good.

Okay, Andrea, same question for you. If you can think of one or two stories of communities doing it right, making progress, seeing some good momentum from community development efforts. Well, absolutely. You know, every Arkansas town has a hidden gem, so maybe I'll just talk a little bit about all of them. No, I'm joking. But, you know, two come to mind:

The city of Perigold Land Bank Initiative. The reason it comes to mind is that Mayor Josh Agee went through a leadership program that we support and help administer. It's the Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy. And while Perigold had had a land bank commission for years, he took what he had learned and seen through best practices that we show through the Leadership Institute, and he reinvigorated that land bank initiative. And now they have three districts that are doing overlays. We actually took our current class to Perigold to see the work that he has done through the land bank initiative. And they're just taking abandoned properties and creating public-private partnerships to go in and build, I guess they're not, they had built some new houses, but they're also revamping older homes and drawing new people into these historic neighborhoods. And so they're doing a great job over there. Of course, you know, they've had the tornado hit, and so Mayor Agee has been working in that, but he's doing a fantastic job. Wanted to brag on him for a little bit.

The second story is because I always like to brag on my hometown, Walnut Ridge. For years, I've been completely obsessed with how Walnut Ridge, Beatles Park, and Beatles on the Ridge Festival came to be. Yes, of course the Beatles landed at their airport in 1964. My mother was there. But the real magic is how the community turned that, you know, five minutes into a global draw. The residents, leaders, and businesses teamed up to create a quirky, music-themed annual festival that put Walnut Ridge on the map, even earning them coverage in outlets like Rolling Stone and Wall Street Journal. Travelers, I see them over there a lot, stop to snap photos with the Abbey Road mural, and it boosts local businesses because they spend money while they're there. And so while the festival does strengthen the community pride, it's also a masterclass in collaboration and leveraging a unique story to shine. So I'm very proud of my hometown of Walnut Ridge for that, and Mayor Charles Snapp has done a fantastic job.

Very good stories. Thanks, Andrea. So let's talk about challenges that communities face, some opportunities. Matt, let's start with you. What's currently the biggest challenges you see communities facing across Arkansas? I think that one of the biggest challenges that a lot of communities in the state have to face is being more reactionary with their community and economic development efforts instead of kind of strategically putting themselves in a position to grow in a way that is most healthy for that community. It's easier for larger communities that do have staff that focus on community and economic development efforts to avoid that kind of trap. But with some of our smaller rural communities, it can be a really challenge to first build a team, to identify a plan, and to implement that plan. So what ends up happening is just waiting for AEDC to bring them a big project and getting upset when that doesn't happen. So my team works really closely with communities to help them kind of step by step identify, number one, what should their initiatives, their strategic vision, what does that look like, and who are the people in the community that can put together and help start making those things happen. Building capacity, I think, is something that's very important for any community to do, and I don't believe that any community can do that alone. So we really work together with those communities and partner with our organizations like Shelby and her team and Andrea and her team and draw upon all the resources that are out there to help them really move forward.

Yeah, so we're going to talk about opportunities and I would just add on to that by encouraging community leaders to take up the opportunity to work with Matt and the team at AEC. Our community development team can be a good resource to educate partners about our entrepreneurship initiatives, what we're doing with the Community Assistance Grant Program, and some additional legislation that came out of this session.

We'll be talking a lot over the next year and a half about economic development districts and the opportunity that that could present as a constitutional amendment that will be before the vote of the people in November of 2026. Site development program, all the opportunities in becoming a competitive community through the CCI initiative, looking at the economic development organization, funding, workforce development narrative, product readiness, a lot of good resources at AEC that the community development team can be helpful in helping you discover.

Let's also talk about opportunities with Shelby and Andrea. Andrea, you want to take that one first? If you were to go out to a community and they were to say, what am I not taking advantage of? What can the Delta Center for Economic Development help me to discover or to advance my initiatives? Where would you point them?

Thank you for the question. And one of my first people that I refer them to is, of course, Amy Williams on your team. And I don't mean to just signal Amy out, Matt and his entire team and everyone at AEC, Esperanza, everyone does a fantastic job. So thank you to the leader, Clint O'Neill, for molding all of them into that.

I think one of the biggest opportunities for communities that I'm working with now, it's about housing and workforce development. That's the things that I hear over and over again. Affordable quality homes are critical for attracting workers and supporting growth. So it's like which one comes first? I recently heard a story about a small rural town here in northeast Arkansas that had hired a new basketball coach. However, the new coach was not having any luck finding a house in the town for his family. And people are only going to live where there's good affordable housing.

And so I see our role in that is helping connect communities with the resources that are out there, like AEC, ADFA, USDA Rural Development, HUD, and on and on. We've also brought in consultants to speak at different workshops on housing and sharing best practices that encourage creative solutions. And so, you know, that's one of the things I think is most important right now is housing and workforce development.

I'll just wrap that up with housing is a massive opportunity for everyone. Communities that can crack that housing code, they're going to attract the new residents, they're going to boost their workforce and fuel economic growth. And so working with each of those communities on the housing opportunity is what we're here to do. We look forward to working with them.

Great. Shelby, same question. Opportunities that you would advise communities to look into.

I'm glad that you asked me this question last because I'm going to echo what Matt and Andrea have already said. It's absolutely critical that we build that strong foundation first. And that comes from that capacity building, leadership development, strategic planning, being proactive in what we're going to do instead of reactive, like Matt shared.

And then on Andrea's side, the first three things that came to my mind when you said, you know, how do we address challenges and find opportunities to overcome those challenges? Definitely in my head, workforce development, housing and infrastructure were the top three things that kind of rose to the top.

And when we talk about opportunities, obviously connecting communities and their leaders with the resources, we are abundant in resources in the natural state from a figurative and nonfigurative perspective. But also being such a small rural state is actually a really unique and positive position to be in because we're all so deeply connected to one another.

It's really difficult to go to any corner of the state and not find somebody that you don't know or have some connection to. And so what I always encourage communities to do and what we try to leverage in every community we work in is R&D. And the audience might think research and development. No, it is the method of rip off and duplicate. That is probably the best thing that we can do to share those shining moments, those bright ideas,take them and spread them throughout the state and tweak them as needed because every community is unique and has different needs, but when we can connect leaders with places that are already doing something really good and ask them to learn from them, create mentorship, create lines of communication, whether it's regionally or statewide, that's when we're going to see Arkansas really grow and thrive because we have the opportunity to create those deep connections and share those good ideas.

And so those are the things that we focus on at the University of Central Arkansas: connecting folks with assets and resources at the state level, nonprofits, federal, but then also connecting them with those assets and resources in other communities, leaders that have been through it, been in the trenches, and can share best practices.

Yeah, thanks, Shelby. Let's talk about the profession for a little bit. What would you say to students or young professionals who are thinking about community or economic development as a career path? Matt, you want to take that one?

Yeah, that's a great question. Thank you, Clint. Well, first and foremost, if you are even considering the career path of community or economic development, I would encourage you to look into CDI. Just give Shelby a call. I think it's an excellent program to introduce people to what the career of a community developer looks like, something that I didn't really know existed for the majority of my life, that you actually can have a good career in community development.

But one thing that I've always talked to people that interview with us and that are considering coming onto the team is that community development is a marathon. It's not a sprint. There's not a lot of instant gratification. Community development is a process. So if you're the type of person who really needs to have that immediate feedback, that immediate gratification from the work that you've done, then this might not be the field for you.

But the gratification is just significant. It's so impactful when you can see that you've made a difference in not just one project and not just one person, but in a community and helping out families, helping out employers, helping out anyone who wants to live, work, or play in a community. The work that we do, I think, is really gratifying when you actually do see the fruits of that labor.

So I would encourage anyone who's considering it to, like I said, number one, check out CDI, and then feel free to give me a shout and we can kind of go into detail about what it looks like if you really want to try to pursue this field.

Very well said. Okay, we're going to move on into our lightning round. But before we do, I want to give each of you the opportunity just to anything that you wish would have worked in, questions that you wish I would have asked, the final word on community development that can include community development as a profession, success stories, how communities are doing, any final shout outs you want to give. Andrea, why don't you take that one?

You know, I think each community has a story to tell, but great storytelling starts with showing, not just telling your community's value. Mississippi County's Work Here, Live Here program is a good example. Local industries, banks, and foundations teamed up to offer financial incentives for employers to build or buy homes in the county, which is desperately needed over in Mississippi County.

With the steel industry growing as fast as it can, we need homes and education over there, so it's a win-win. Workers put down roots and the community showcases its appeal widely, nationally, as a place to live and thrive.

And their best practices include using social media to share their stories, like a new homeowner's journey and hosting events to invite outsiders to experience the community firsthand.

So I did want to just showcase some of the things they're doing over in Mississippi County.

All right, thanks, Andrea. Shelby, what about you?

Yeah, so when I think about community development, I tend to think about it from a 10,000-foot view, all-encompassing of what that means. And one of the things that I think is so critical to understand is that community development really has to involve the whole community. We hear oftentimes community development is a team sport, and it truly is because you have to have leaders at the table. You have to have citizens at the table. And those folks have to be representative of your community. Each sector has to have space. Each individual group has to have space in those conversations and decisions about the future of our communities.

And I always like to say when we think about tourism and workforce and retention, business expansion, leadership development, business retention expansion, all the things are really under the same umbrella. When you touch one of those areas, it's going to have an effect in another area. And I always like to think of that as when you have a stone and you throw it in a pond and the ripples happen, that's what community and economic development is. It's a push and pull, give and take, and all things touch one another.

And so when we were talking earlier even about encouraging folks to get into the field, or if you have a young professional who is interested in the field, they might already be doing community and economic development work. If they're making a positive impact in their community, I would challenge and say they are a piece of that puzzle. They might just not be intentional in how they're communicating their individual impact. And there's just such a wide variety of ways you can get involved locally. And so I really encourage everyone as a part of some community, whether physically or in a group, and we just have to understand how we fit into that shared impact. And we've got to each take that role very seriously and raise our hand and say, hey, I want to be involved. Hey, I want to be a part of what's happening here. And when you can get that momentum and that movement, that's when you can see incredible things happen.

I'm into that. Shelby and Clint, if it's okay, if I could jump right back in. Jump in. Because my favorite part is seeing people in communities light up as they discover their potential. And I think it starts young. And there's nothing like watching a young person step into their own confidence. And a good example is a program that we started up here in the Delta Center. It's thrown to the Wolves High School Innovation Competition, very similar to Shark Tank, but it's for teenagers. And so if you could just picture high school students inventing products, then boldly pitching it in front of a crowd and judges, it's something to see. I'll never forget one of our students who completely nailed their pitch with great confidence and then started their own business that's making real money and he's still in high school. He's a junior. So it's moments like that where you see young people realize they can shape the future. Remind me why I love this work, because it's guaranteed they are going to be investing in their community from now on. So it's just pure hope and action watching that take place.

Yeah, good stuff. All right, Matt, final word. Anything you left on the table from community development, best practices, you as a professional, best advice you've ever received, anything you want to address?

Yeah, thank you. I think that when I started working for AEDC as a regional manager for community development, I did not fully understand what community development meant. I came from a background of finance. And I was blessed to be hired by Denise Pennington, who was the division director at the time. And I more than one occasion went to Denise and said, OK, tell me what to do. Tell me how I can learn this. And she said, Matt, you got to go out there and do it. It's just going to take about a year or more, and then you'll understand it. And I thought that that was, frankly, I thought that was incorrect. I thought that she didn't know what she was talking about. Like I said, my background was finance, and I was just kind of like, there's no way it's going to take me a year to learn anything. I just passed my Series 6, my 63, my 65, and all my insurance exams on the first try. This is just going to be easy. And then about a year later, when I still didn't really know exactly what I was doing, I realized that she was actually very much correct in that statement. And I think it was an important life lesson for me, but I think it kind of gave me a broader understanding of community development in particular. It made me humble to understand that this was not something that I could just immediately pick up and be able to make an impact, but that I had to be able to build those relationships, to meet the people that do this in the state and do it well, and learn from them and be open-minded and understanding that I don't have all the answers and that when we kind of come to that conclusion as a person or as a community and can really take on the assistance of the resources that are available out there, that you can really then grow and succeed in this as a community or a person.

Well, thank you all for sharing your insights on community development. To help our audience know a little bit more about you, we're going to do a lightning round. So ground rules of lightning round: you can't think about it too much. You got to give a brief answer. Whatever comes to the top of your mind. I'm not going to ask you what your favorite community in Arkansas is. They're all great. That would be deeply unfair, Clint. So I'm glad you're not going to ask us that. But here we go.

All right, Andrew, we're going to start with you. If you've got one weekend for an outing in Arkansas, where do you go?

Oh my gosh, that one's not fair either. I go to Lake Norfolk and get on the lake.

All right, Matt, same question.

I'm going to cheat and give you two. Hot Springs, they both have springs in the answer though. Hot Springs, I love being out on the water and I happen to have a friend who has a house with a boat that allows me to stay with them from time to time. And my dog gets along with his dog. So that's always a good weekend. And then Eureka Springs, where I got married and carries a special place in my heart as a kind of a funky little town there in Northwest Arkansas.

Shelby?

I'm an Arkansas foodie, so I'm going to plan around food. So what we're going to do is we're going to go down to Little Rock from Conway. We're going to go hiking or maybe go on a bike trail. And then we're either going to Keo, home of famous Charlotte's Eats and Sweets, shout out to Mayor Stephanie White, the pecan capital of Arkansas. Or we're going to Lone Oak to dine at the Grumpy Rabbit in downtown, two of my favorite restaurants in Arkansas. So I'm making my activities center around where the good food is.

Well, Shelby, you've already knocked out your question number two. So this one's only for Matt and Andrea.

Matt, highlight one or two small businesses in Arkansas that you would recommend people go to.

Well, it's easiest for me to kind of copy Shelby's example and use food. So I would say what has become my favorite spot where I'll be going to eat my birthday dinner here shortly is Wright's Barbecue, which started in Northwest Arkansas. But we were lucky to get a location open up here in Little Rock.

All right, Andrea.

I'll have to stick with the food too, but I would say Rice Box in downtown Jonesboro is where I would go.

Okay, Matt, you can't use yourself on this answer, but this is a question I've asked for the last few years. I'll just throw it out again. Economic development professional in Arkansas with the best hair.

Well, that's got to be Timbo, right? That's Tim Allen, right?

All right, Shelby.

Oh my gosh. Okay, I didn't think I was going to get asked this question too. I thought that was very targeted to Matt. Oh man, I would say, you know what? I'm going to say Dana Poindexter because her hair always looks so nice. And Matt's sitting in front of me and she was the first person that came to my mind. And Amy Williams has really nice hair too, and Georgiana Cossie and Ashley Williams and Tom Ginn. They all have good hair. Definitely. Doesn't have to be limited to the community development team, but didn't realize that's what y'all were known for.

Okay, Andrea.

Okay, I'm going to have to go with Clint O'Neal just because. And I'd throw Allison Heston in there as well.

All right, you may just want to give that to Allison. First time I've been nominated for that one. Allison has really nice hair too. I'll back up Andrea's statement.

Okay, last one. Andrea, you're up first. If you were not working in this profession, what would you be doing? What's your dream job outside of this profession?

I'd be coaching in the WNBA.

Nice. All right, Matt.

I would be a professional poker player.

Shelby?

If I had a dream job, I would win the lottery and become a bazillionaire and then do whatever I wanted to do. But through that, I would actually still do community development because I would want to invest in local nonprofits, help communities. I love the work that we do, but then I wouldn't be obligated to do those things, you know?

You could also do food blogging, right?

Yes, food blogging. Yeah, I want to be a travel influencer. I would travel a lot.

Well, thank you all for your time, your answers, your insight. It's been a lot of fun. Appreciate all the work that you do.

You've been listening to the Arkansas Inc. podcast. I'm Clint O'Neal, Executive Director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. You can subscribe to the Arkansas Inc. podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast apps. For more information about AEDC and to sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit arkansasedc.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. Thanks for listening.