Lori Gama interviews Greeley Lifestyle Magazine Publisher Tara Rasmuson on The Path Finder’s Podcast with Lori Gama. Find out how Tara Rasmuson’s business career progressed from the Oil and Gas industry into the publishing industry. Tara shares intriguing insights into what makes Greeley tick. Find out why Greeley is a great community and very generous community to live, work and play in. This is another insightful interview with a smart and kind Greeley business owner: Tara Rasmuson.
Both Tara Rasmuson and Lori Gama are big cheerleaders of Greeley, Colorado.
Watch the video: Greeley Lifestyle Magazine Publisher Tara Rasmuson with Lori Gama to learn what two of Greeley’s biggest cheerleaders have to say about Greeley.
Lori Gama’s YouTube Podcast: The Path Finder’s Podcast is dedicated to helping 10,000 heart-centered, purpose-driven people to go full-time with their passion or take their business to the next level by using the magical tools of technology, AI marketing and video.
Lori Gama interviews Greeley Lifestyle Magazine Publisher Tara Rasmuson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNOGzpIvF54
Transcript:
(00:00) (Lori) What what do you think… after your time spent publishing stories about the people that live here from all walks of life… what do you think really makes Greeley, our community, tick.. what is it?
(Tara) oh I love that question. That is something I figured out probably my first year of the magazine and it was other people that helped me that came to me and asked me that and all of a sudden it was like a light bulb [Music/Intro]
(Lori)Welcome to the Pathfinder podcast my friends here’s where we inspire you to go full-time with your passion or if
(00:38) you’re already in your business to break through to the next level and today I am so excited to welcome my guest here Tara Rasmason, the publisher of Greeley Lifestyle magazine. Thank you so much for coming (Tara) Thank you for having me Lori. I’m very excited to be here and very excited for your new show. (Lori) Oh thank you! I’m so excited! Tara you are the publisher of the Greeley lifestyle magazine and you also, before that, had a career in oil and gas industry and I love your degree because I think it’s basically what
(01:07) you’re doing now… you have a bachelor of Applied social science degree from Colorado State University… um I looked up what applied social science is and I’m going to read the definition… it’s all about–and it’s quite–you know it’s really intriguing… it’s about applied social sciences, are those academic social science disciplines professions and occupations which seek to use basic social science knowledge to make impact on the daily life of communities organizations and persons and it sounds
(01:35) exactly like what you’re doing now… and so I wanted to ask you, as our first question, tell me about the journey from that degree to the oil and gas industry to now as the publisher of the Greeley lifestyle magazine, about my favorite subject: living and playing in Greeley!
(Tara) Great question… so if we go back in time when I was going to school I had no idea what I really wanted to study um I went to my counselor and I said you know help I don’t know what I want to do I’m a stay home mom I’m trying to finish my degree I have four tiny babies and uh no
(02:10) idea what to do and he said well what do you do for fun and I said well I read social science books for fun it’s kind of nerdy but that’s what I love and he said great study that so I did and um I remember getting to close to graduation and realizing that I had to get a job because I had all this student debt and had to be an adult and so I called my dad and I said said dad what am I going to do I have this really generic degree and I I can’t I don’t know what kind of job to look for I’m going to have to get
(02:37) a master’s degree right and he said well have you ever thought about doing oil and gas there’s a lot of ladies that do a lot of land work and you don’t have to have a very specific degree for that and my dad’s a geologist in the oil and gas industry and he never encouraged me to do oil and gas before I think because it’s been a very male-dominated industry and he’s seen a lot of women that weren’t treated great but it’s really shifted in the last um 20 years and so he finally said why don’t you look into
(03:06) that and so I said okay and um so I graduated with my degree and went right into oil and gas and I had a great career um still dabble in it a little bit um but I you know I I kind of got a little bit burned out in the oil and gas industry and so I was looking for something new to do and um I had just moved to Greeley and I was very open you know I just kind of said you know what I’m going to be very open and something’s going to come along and it’s going to be and I’m just going to know it’s the
(03:37) right thing and I saw a advertisement on LinkedIn jobs page for um the Greeley market to start a magazine through a franchise and all of a sudden I just had this vision of what a perfect opportunity to number one tell the great stories of Greeley because there’s a lot of misconceptions about the Greeley community and I would have the perfect platform to be able to share all the wonderful things and then number two it was actually right in the middle of the pandemic and people were feeling so disconnected right and so isolated and I
(04:14) thought well what a great way to help people feel connected again to kind of foster that connection and and reintroduce people to the things in their own backyard and so it just made all the sense to me and I felt great about it and all of a sudden I felt like it was my dream job and I went for it I bought the Greeley market and started the magazine and um it’s absolutely become a tool of connection for people for our 50,000 readers to find out what’s going on around town and who are the people and who are the businesses and how can I
(04:46) be a part of it right I just love the magazine because it’s just so such genuine stories about people and it’s a way for people to learn about others in our community that we had no idea they’ve been doing this fantastic thing for decades right and here they are we get to you shine a light on them and I love all the different themes you do in each issue um was that part of like did you get to be creative with that do you get to decide those themes or yeah well so that’s actually the themes come from
(05:17) corporate and that’s one of the huge benefits of having a franchise is I have this beautiful support system that kind of lays out themes and structure and all of the con ceps and then I get to have complete freedom in my community about how to tell the stories within those themes and make those themes come alive based on the community of gy and her culture here which has been so fun for me because I feel like Greeley is a very special place and has very special little things about it and so I’ve taken some of those themes and kind of gone
(05:51) the extra mile with them so for example um one of our themes is the thinkful issue but I love to tell that kind of the story that Greeley is thankful for multigenerational families in business and so that’s kind of become our yearly tradition with the magazine is to tell those stories because there’s so many multi-generational families here in Greeley and to be able to get to share that it really demonstrates why Greeley is so generous why Greeley takes care of each other because it’s it’s in our blood it’s in
(06:24) our families which we were raised doing that um it’s just a beautiful thing to be able to share magazine.
(Lori) …you know that’s a great point… I’ve never thought of it that way before I mean I know about how kind our community is and there’s so many volunteers, so many people volunteer and donate and we really do think of our neighbors in need as neighbors ,right?…and I never thought of it that way– that it’s the multi-generations of families that have grown up here; lived here; um that have passed on to the next Generation: hey
Franchise vs. Starting from Scratch
(06:56) it’s super important to do community work and volunteer and help our neighbors so you’re right …and I love that issue as well I think every issue I I keep telling you boy you outdid that last issue I just say that every single time um and you touched on something I really wanted our audience to to think about too because there are two paths to a business: there’s like the franchise path and then the start-your-business-from-scratch path and I also have been exposed to both in my “other life” uh …before I discovered the internet in 1995
(07:30) and websites and SEO and social media and turned it into a marketing agency in my other life in the 80s and ’90s early ’90s I was a general manager for McDonald’s… it was never what I intended to do but the universe and God has a way of you know saying this is what you should do because it’s going to get you ready for that next PATH in your life and it it was fantastic because I loved my customers I loved my crew and I think they loved and respected me too I think and um it was just a great way to
(07:59) learn learn how to run a multi-million dollar company. I mean, talk about leadership training: the best… and then how to coach your people–they were doing these things way before other people were doing them in their companies… now it’s the norm if you work in a good you have a good company culture you’re going to do those basic things now …um so and then when I started my business from scratch, I had that exposure and that leadership training and knowing that standard operating procedures are important and so I love that you can
(08:29) speak to that as well like how would you advise business owners to think about like the franchise path as well or start from scratch… what are your thoughts about that?
(Tara) Yeah, so I I love to talk about this because I do I currently own a company: a small non-operating oil and gas company with my dad that is not a franchise and also the magazine franchise and I’m looking to add you know a new business to um to my schedule and I’m definitely looking at franchises um it just it’s neat because you can dabble in other industries that
(09:05) interest you and excite you and that you’re passionate about without having to be an expert in that I knew nothing about publishing I knew nothing about magazines but I knew a lot about people and I had studied how people, groups of people, interact with businesses and how to really connect to customers and so you know if with the franchise model they just provide so much for you so much training you don’t have to reinvent the wheel here’s the blueprint this is how you be successful it’s just it it a enables you
(09:35) to focus on what you’re really good at and with oil and gas it’s still a struggle our company we’re having to really figure out a new structure based on some new projects we have and it’s hard there’s it’s really hard there’s no blueprint of how to be successful in this except for our own experiences and so I’m like where’s that oil and gas franchise I need that um but yeah, I love franchises and hopefully we’ll be able to add another one soon… um I just think it’s great I’ve
(10:07) seen so many other people jump into franchises and just be wildly successful because they’re able to use their own god-given talents what they’re good at and really focus on those and then let the franchise support the other areas that they might be weak in.
A Mission Statement is Like a Guiding Light
(Lori) Right, yeah. Have you thought about like… maybe you do have this already but: a mission statement for your new business you’re starting um I I just again I discovered this like halfway through I’ve been owning my own business for 28 years now I didn’t come
(10:37) readymade with all the answers right away so one of the things I learned along the way was having a mission statement so that when you think of a new idea or product or service to add if it no matter how exciting it might seem does it fit my original mission statement right it be like like a Guiding Light to your decision- making and I learned that from this great book I read about Blue’s Clue – the children’s show, which is quite innovative. When my son was really little, we used to watch that show but there’s
(11:06) this book about how they decide to roll out a product or not so they always look at their mission statement first and if it doesn’t fit then they don’t roll it out and it makes sense now right but um I never knew that before.
(Tara) So I love that because that’s the world I’m living in with shopping for franchises right now is you know we my husband and I had six meetings with the franchise which is a lot that’s like six weeks of time time pouring into learning about this franchise trying to envision it bringing
(11:33) it to life and Greeley and then at the end of the six weeks it was like this is not me this is not my mission and my value my number one core value is connection that is so important to me and is so important for me to gift connection to other people through the magazine and so this other franchise we were looking for looking at was just a little bit off of that path and if now that you’ve kind of brought it full circle that makes all the sense if we can figure that out early in the process it’s like what fits
(12:05) with my mission and my values and who I am um then as we step into that new business we’re going to be so excited to wake up every day and it’s never going to feel like work and when you have a business like that you’re successful you just are because you love it people feel your passion they feel your excitement you live and breathe it because you love it and you’re going to be successful so abut thank you for bringing that full circle for me.
(Lori) Oh my pleasure yeah yeah um I like to think of Greeley and our whole community as like let’s
(12:38) look at it as a body and it’s got a brain, it’s got a heart, a pulse. You, I think, know more than a lot of people I know, what do you think, after your time spent publishing stories about the people that live here from all walks of life, what do you think really makes Greeley and our community tick… what is it?
(Tara) Oh I love that question… that is something I figured out probably my first year of the magazine and it was other people that helped me that came to me and asked me that and all of a sudden it was like
“Everybody knows what makes Greeley tick: it’s events!” – Tara Rasmuson
(13:09) a light bulb… it’s like, well everybody knows what makes Greeley tick: it’s events! Greeley loves events because they love things that bring them together. They love to come together and raise money for their community. And these are the most generous people I’ve ever seen. I lived in seven states, multiple communities, and I’ve never seen a more generous community than Greeley…. and so they love to come together to celebrate their nonprofits, to celebrate good people, to celebrate business and families and community and and so that’s why I think
(13:40) a lot of people will say: ‘well there’s not a whole lot to do here’
(Lori) What? (Facetiously)
(Tara) –there may not be like a stationary, you know, we actually, now there’s a lot to do here just in the last couple years, really, you know this library where we out today is a great example but um you know but historically events have always brought people together and so it’s always kind of like a moving target because events are you know throughout the year and and um but I really think that is just a big part of our community
(14:09) and then also I would say the multigenerational families that have built our community and have passed on values um to their children and grandchildren about giving back and supporting each other and being a supportive loving community.
(Lori) I love that! Yes, yes: Greeley is a really special place and I wish that more people–I do and I don’t wish that more people knew about it… and I think maybe a lot of people feel that way but it’s uh you know we want to keep it a secret but we don’t want to keep it a secret.
(Tara) I’ve had people tell me to stop
(14:38) telling people how great it is because they don’t want anyone else to come here but like you know the world needs good places for people to go, right?
(Lori) It sure does and yeah our part of the neighbor–neck of the woods is really, really great… um you really are like a community builder. Do you think of yourself that way or how do you?… like, if you had to label yourself with one title, what would it be?
(Tara) Oh goodness! Well, you know I didn’t think of myself at first like that but now I mean we’re coming up on three
(15:08) years of a monthly publication so we have a stack and I feel like it’s a it’s kind of a yearbook of Greeley. It’s a yearbook. And so I think it’s really neat to now, kind of turn around and look at, you know, what my team has done for three years and and this legacy that we’ve built… and just kind of like a great story and so I think you know even still I want to tell people if you want to learn more like we have a collection right of what our community is all about and and I hope you know it’s interesting when I
(15:43) first came on the scene to start the magazine there were a lot of new uh people you know with the chamber and the DDA and other businesses that really had a vision for our community and we’re just working tirelessly um to be community builders and so it was fun to be able to step into that group of people who were already here, making magic happen, and feel like my my purpose was was so aligned with all of theirs and so it created all these really easy partnerships… and so I think Greeley just has an incredible community of leaders that
(16:15) our Community Builders all together which you know the energy behind behind all of those people coming together is just fantastic. I hope that people see the transformations that are happening in our community every single day I it’s just amazing.
Part 2: Lori Gama interviews Greeley Lifestyle Magazine Publisher Tara Rasmuson
(Lori) Yeah, you’re capturing a lot of really intriguing, wonderful stories and you’re right: I’ve always thought of your magazine that way.. like every month it’s like getting a monthly yearbook about the great goings-on and people in Greeley and um but you do have this
(16:44) backlog. Congratulations! It’s already been three years. I can’t believe that.
(Tara) Yeah, thank you…
(Lori)…yeah and I think they should be put into the Greeley museum and especially the issue you did on the Greeley Stampede it was the 100th year right
(Lori) …and tell me a little bit about that…
(Tara) Oh my goodness! That’s one of my absolute favorites. It was such an honor the Greeley Stampede reached out to me and asked if I wanted to do their official program for the 100th Year celebration and I was really blown away by that and I think
(17:12) it’s just cuz I had really nice paper
(Lori) You do!
(Tara) and a good a solid team you know? 18 local writers photographers team members all working on the magazine… you know people that just really love Greeley and so it was a good fit and so we worked really hard for a couple of months to put that together and it magically… I don’t know how this happened… but the thing with the magazine is, as we build it, sometimes we don’t know how many pages it’s going to be… and I had no idea… I kind of guessed about 75 for the Stampede issue because we build 50% um
(17:47) sponsored ads 50% content and so you know we ask the community and businesses to come and sponsor and and also you know get their businesses in front of our readers and so we we just had such amazing support from the community there that the magazine just grew and grew and we were able to do more and more content and all of a sudden, like a week before the deadline, we hit 100 Pages, completely on accident. And I mean I was in tears, like, I couldn’t believe it. It was amazing that it all came together
(18:17) like that and–
(Lori) That’s magical!
(Tara) –It really was and and my very favorite, my favorite moment, working on that issue was so the Stampede has Archives of 100 Years of photos and so I would go in into the office and sit and just spend hours going through these photos trying to choose you know the ones that I wanted to include that we wanted to share that really embodied the spirit of the Stampede over the years and as I was sitting there one day just kind of in one of their big open rooms they were actually filming interviews of some of
(18:48) the of the men that they were honoring in the Hall of Fame and they were telling the stories when they were little boys, going to the stamped with their families and all the years that they were involved and what it meant to them.. and I’m like going through all these… just the the pictures were already emotional and inspiring enough and then to hear those stories in the background, I’m just like crying at the computer. It was just an incredible experience. And so then I really wanted to make sure that I just really did it justice in the pages
(19:15) of those magazines and created something that people could keep forever that really that they could remember all the years that the Stampede and what it meant to our community and what it meant to their families and you know and that continues onward and now with with us taking our our families there still today and our community and all the people that come from all over to be a part of it it’s just a really special thing for Greeley.
(Lori) It is. And you really did nail it with that issue, as well. And I really strongly believe it should, at
(19:42) least that issue, should go into the Greeley museum not all the issues.
(Tara) …and I have I still have a lot of copies um if anybody wants one because they it’s kind of a really neat momento to have and if so people didn’t get one at the event we had thousands and thousands of copies there there um but I still have some if anybody wants one oh good out to me and and shout out to Justin Watada and his team he’s the general manager and in charge of the Greeley Stampede every year and I don’t know how they make that such a
(20:11) successful event talk about bringing people together it’s just yeah it is amazing they do with a very small team they’re just incredible and they were incredible to work with yeah that’s awesome that’s awesome so again once again it comes down to community and community building and yeah I if I had to label you with one thing I think as the publisher at gy lifestyle magazine you are a community Builder because more people learn about the stories of the special people here and of course there’s special people in every
Empowering Local Businesses
(20:38) Community but it’s really cool that you get to shine a light on so many month after month after month it’s really really great it’s fun and it’s very rewarding to be able to help businesses grow you know CU that’s the other flip side of it is connecting Community connecting our readers to businesses and then helping all those small businesses all those Moms and Pops every everything locally owned right have brand new customers and and people walk through the door that didn’t know they were
(21:04) there and become a great customer it’s it’s incredibly rewarding right right what advice would you give to entrepreneurs current business owners and those who want to become business owners what types of advice come to mind um especially like as you think back to yourself in the early years of all your different business ventures um like I know what I knew in the beginning of my business career compared to what I know now it’s incredible the amount of knowledge and you accumulate in all the hard lessons you have to go through and
(21:36) learn but yeah what advice comes to mind to to share with our viewers yeah you know kind of what we talked about already with the mission is making sure that your mission really aligns with like your core values what’s really truly important you doing that soul searching and figuring out what is the most important thing to you because if you can wake up every day because owning a business is hard as you know it’s it can be very hard and so you’ve got to be all in and you’ve got to choose something that you you are going to wake
(22:08) up every day jump out of bed to do it and if you do that I think you’ll be successful and you’ll be able to attract people to you that can support you because they can fill your energy and your love and your passion that’s great advice and also I would add don’t be afraid to ask for help too because I didn’t even know about the Small Business Development m center the spdc and you know those have been set up all over the country and we do have them in our region as well and their services
(22:36) are free for business owners current business owners and those that are just starting up or thinking of going into business they will guide you along that journey and you don’t have to be all all alone and they’ll help you um avoid some things that you might not have avoided in had a hard lesson to learn about and so that’s there and I I love that we share resources um gy Chamber of Commerce too I I love them there’s so many great groups in our area um forgive me if I don’t name all of them today people watching but um
If You Could Go Back In Time, What Would You Tell Your 20-Year-Old Self?
(23:12) yeah I I also like to right say that again so many resources for help definitely you don’t have to be on your own exactly exactly I also love to ask this question of people and um if you could go back in time to your 20-year-old self what would you tell her now and I could go first if you or you could go first what would you tell her now com you know with all the knowledge you have now and remembering your 20-year-old self what would you tell her you know I love that and I we actually did a story called letter to your
(23:45) younger self which is one of my favorites and we may have to do it again because it was so great um but I think really I think sometimes along the way we forget that we’re very capable you know life as we move into adulthood and different seasons of life we can sometimes forget that we have everything inside of us to be successful and so I would probably remind my 20-year-old self that I’m very capable and I can do it and I have you know resources around me and I have the ability to do it and to never lose sight of that or never let
(24:21) my confidence waver right and we’ve talked about that word you know that phrase of being in a different seasons of your life um share with me a bit about that how does that resonate with you oh yes seasons of life it’s one of my favorite phrases my mom raised me and taught me that we have different seasons in life and I definitely have had different seasons of life I stayed home with my kids for 10 years as a stay-home mom very different season than as a working mother and so my mom always taught me no matter what season you’re
(24:54) in whether you’re home caring for babies or you’re out in the workforce or you’re you’re caring for aging parents you know we have these different seasons and we can’t do everything in those Seasons we have to focus on what’s important in the moment and in the time and when I was home you know raising teeny kids my mom would say well don’t if you can’t get out and volunteer in the community and be a part of this and being a part of that like you don’t have to feel guilty
(25:18) about it because your season is right here with these babies and now I feel like my season having teenagers my season is to really show my children what it is to give back to the community what it is to serve what it is to have a business what it is to be you know financially and emotionally independent and confident and so yeah so I I always tell people you know I don’t believe in guilt women guilt mom guilt parent guilt whatever it is we really just as long as we are you know focused and and and confident in the season we’re in and
(25:51) know that we’ll have other times in our lives where we could do other things and that’s that’s a good thing right it’s such a good thing right right yes um I’m going to Spring a question on you okay what would your 80-year-old self tell you now where you are right here now in your life what do you think your 80y old self would tell you if she could get in a time machine travel back can tell you right now oh probably to exercise more more yoga more yoga yes more yoga um yeah that’s a tough one I have 103
(26:30) year-old great aunt she recently passed away but she lived to 103 and so I think about her often what she would would tell me that I needed to be doing is is walking more right she never got her D driver’s license and she walked everywhere and so she lived to 103
(Lori) Oh wow
(Tara) She was very active so
(Lori) ….that’s why she probably lived that long.
(Lori) yeah right I think it speaks to health too I think my 80-year-old self would tell myself hey get back to yoga it keeps your spine young and um drink plenty of water and and remember to you know everything’s
(27:02) good you know there’s nothing…we’re so blessed they are
(Tara) …life is good you can always find good things
(Lori) …that’s right that’s right well thank you so much for being here today this was so wonderful to get oh you’re very welcome I hope you’ll come back again
(Tara) absolutely
(Lori)…oh good good and where can we find Greeley lifestyle magazine?
yes you can go to Citylifestyle.com/greeley
(27:28) for our digital copy and every copy we’ve ever had is out you can go flip through the pages and then also we have copies at Aunt Helen’s coffee shop the blue mug blush Boutique are kind of our main drops where we have large Stacks where you can go and pick them up and take home a copy.
(Lori) Great, great and it’s free!
(Tara)–and it’s free!
(Lori) Yeah… well thank you so much Tara!
(Tara) You’re welcome.
(Lori) …and thank you everybody for tuning in today to the Pathfinder podcast where we hopefully have inspired you to go full-time with your passion or
(27:56) if you’re already a business owner, to break through to the next level. I’m Lori Gama and I encourage you to please subscribe to my YouTube Podcast Channel and hit the like button of this and please put in the comments below what season of life are you in or share any other thoughts that you’d like to share… we just want to know more about topics that you’d love us to cover and future guests and thank you for watching today!
