Aryn Henning Nichols

Maryann Baldwin loves to plant the seeds of ideas. Whether she’s mentoring local entrepreneurs, supporting city agencies like the Lansing Parks and Recreation department, volunteering through the Lansing Women in Business group, or running her new coworking space, Lansing Office Works in Lansing, Iowa, Maryann perfectly illustrates the positive impact a community builder can have. 

However, she quickly credits those around her for making things happen.

“The way I see it, I’ve just created a garden. I provide the sunlight and fertilizer and water, and then I stand back and let it happen,” Maryann says. “Everything is connected, and it’s so fun to watch things grow.”

Connections, both intentional and unexpected – plus a little bit of serendipity – have shaped Maryann’s path since she retired from a media and market research career in 2017. When she decided to resume the violin lessons she enjoyed as a child, for example, she spotted a flier from a violin teacher who happened to live just a mile down the road. When Maryann wanted to teach Pilates, she approached the Lansing Fitness Center owner about offering classes there, and within a few months, she ended up purchasing it. Later, as she contemplated a new business concept, a coworking space that would offer resources and events for small businesses, someone reached out about buying the fitness center from her. 

 “For me, that’s what’s great about life. These paths open up, and you look down them and say, ‘That sounds like fun. I think I’d like to do that,’” she says.

Maryann grew up in Rochester, New York, and worked in Green Bay, Los Angeles, Orlando, Chicago, and beyond before discovering the Driftless Region 20 years ago. She and her husband bought property in western Wisconsin two weeks after their first visit, and they made a permanent move to De Soto in 2013.

“The fact that I have lived in large, metropolitan areas makes me really appreciate what I have here. While big cities have lots to offer, I’d rather visit the cities and come home to a rural environment. It’s incredible to be able to live in a place like this,” she says.

Maryann tired of the frequent work travel in her corporate career, but all that time on the road paved the plan for her new venture, Lansing Office Works. While visiting clients in various cities, she often plugged into shared office spaces with flexible membership levels. Geared toward remote workers and entrepreneurs, these coworking spaces typically bundle the use of communal tables or dedicated desks, charging stations, office equipment, internet access, and other perks. Some also offer networking events, educational seminars, and business coaching services.

As she outlined how a Lansing coworking space might look, Maryann talked with Jordan Degree of the Rural Ideas Network. The Dubuque-based nonprofit serves entrepreneurs and economic development organizations in rural communities, providing in-person and virtual resources for small business owners. Through its Innovation Lab program, the Rural Ideas Network also operates coworking hubs in five eastern Iowa communities. (Read about the organization’s Dyersville coworking space here.)

Once again, fate was on Maryann’s side.

“At the end of our first conversation, Jordan mentioned that they were looking to open other coworking spaces throughout rural Iowa. He said they could help me, if I was interested,” she says.

 Maryann started scouting locations and found herself drawn to the former Grand Central Station restaurant in downtown Lansing. The building had been sitting empty for several years.

“It was this huge space on the primary business block of Main Street. Every time I came into town, I’d drive by it and think, ‘Someday, someone is going to buy that. I wonder who it’s going to be.’ As I started thinking about selling the fitness center, I realized that I might be the one to bring it back to life,” she says.

After closing on the property and kicking off interior updates, Maryann worked with the Rural Ideas Network team to build out programming and marketing plans for Lansing Office Works. In advance of the facility’s opening, she tapped into the nonprofit’s coworking accelerator program for customizable website templates, technological tools, and operational support. 

“We launched our network of coworking spaces to create a model that we knew would be sustainable in rural communities, and now we share what we’ve learned through our coworking accelerator,” says Eric Dregne, who directs the Rural Ideas Network’s Innovation Lab initiative. “We can help with everything from choosing furniture to building a website to maintaining an operating system that lets people join and manage their coworking plans, book meeting spaces, or navigate door access systems.”

While the nonprofit provides an array of business tools, Eric says it takes a strong local partner to make a place like Lansing Office Works succeed. He praises Maryann’s professionalism, commitment to the community, and genuine interest in creating opportunities for others. 

“She had the vision for bringing a space like this to Lansing, which makes her somebody special. She also has a great business background. Because she’s run her own business, she knows the potential pitfalls, she understands what success feels like, and she appreciates what it’s like to do your own thing. That makes her super relatable,” he says.

Maryann opened the doors to Lansing Office Works in October of 2021. She created three membership plans for members, each with varying levels of facility access. All plans include workspace use, a high-speed Wi-Fi connection, complimentary coffee and tea, and invitations to roundtable discussions, presentations, and workshops. Members can also take advantage of individual business coaching sessions through the Rural Ideas Network. 

“I definitely wouldn’t have grown as fast as I have without the business coaching opportunities,” says Wood Media founder Elizabeth Loberg, who operates her web design agency out of Lansing Office Works. “I can hop on a call with them as often as I want, and they’ll help me work through obstacles or decide to pivot or find whatever support I need when I’m stuck.”

Basing her agency at the downtown Lansing facility connects Elizabeth with local entrepreneurs and potential clients. She has worked on projects for Main Street Lansing and Red Barn Campground & Restaurant, which maintain Lansing Office Works memberships. She brought vendor sign-ups, housing reservations, and rider information online by crafting a comprehensive site for Lansing’s 2022 RAGBRAI events. She’s welcomed an intern from the Kee High innovation class that meets daily at Lansing Office Works, as well.

“Elizabeth is the perfect example of what this space was meant to be. I wanted a place where entrepreneurs can hang up their shingle and say, ‘I’m here. How can I help you?’ Her business has been a huge success, and I’m thrilled about it,” Maryann says. 

Elizabeth considers Maryann a friend and mentor who is always available to talk strategy, socialize, and support a facility that is “full of laughter and joy and ideas being tossed about every single day.”

“Lansing Office Works is just an outstanding resource for anyone that wants to grow a business. There are so many opportunities here, and this place can do so much for the community,” she says. “Maryann genuinely cares, and it’s really nice to have someone like that. We all build off her beautiful creations and what she has put together by being involved with different groups and efforts here in town.”

Build Your Business!

Lansing Office Works is located at 274 Main Street, in Lansing, Iowa. To learn more about coworking memberships, meeting room rentals, events, and entrepreneurship support, visit lansingofficeworks.com.

Connect with the Rural Ideas Network

The Rural Ideas Network brings business development tools to individuals and organizations working to strengthen small-town economies. “Rural communities are often missing resources, whether it be coworking spaces, business coaching services, or strategic planning support for new and existing companies. Either the support isn’t there at all, or it’s delivered by one person who has to travel around a multi-county region,” says spokesperson Eric Dregne. “We offer in-person, virtual, and hybrid assistance that’s customized to all kinds of communities, and we’re always open to new partnerships.” www.ruralideas.net.

For me, the winter theme “Wrapping Up” encompasses both the idea of cozying in, and the fact that we’re finishing up a year, with all its good days and bad days over and done. As we head into this season, let’s spend some time thinking about the past year, learning from our experiences, and remembering we need to rest and recharge to start anew in 2022.

“Rest is Productive” is a mantra that’s been something of a lighthouse for me through 2021. It was the first year in many that I put my mental and physical health as a top priority, and it has made all the difference in EVERYTHING. And, ironically, I’m getting more done than ever.

Rest is something we need throughout the whole year – not just winter or the end of the year – but the stillness of this season (and the occasional ice storm or -10 degree day) lends itself perfectly to beginning this habit anew.

In fact, the start of a new year often coincides with new habits (news flash, right?!). I recently read this is called the “Fresh Start Effect” – the idea that a person might modify past behaviors with new, positive ones once they reach a temporal (i.e. time-based) landmark (like a new year, new month, birthday, anniversary, etc). It can act as a reset button to help us get back on track with our goals.

On the opposite end of that spectrum is what I’m calling the “Deadline Effect” (as a publisher of a magazine, I live with so many deadlines!). I put my goals into high gear as I approach a deadline, and like to look at goals on a monthly basis, with fresh starts at the beginning of the month, deadlines at the end, and lots of good rest in between. I believe we are more likely to achieve our goals with a series of fresh starts and deadlines – they can be daily, weekly, monthly, yearly…it’s all up to you! Throughout the next section of this Inspire(d), you can read more about rest and transitions, and see what works for you.

As for me, I know my desire to always have “productivity” is a whole other ball of yarn I’ll need to unravel! But I’ll have to do that work myself. Maybe in 2022?!

Happy New Year, friends! Let’s make it a good one!

XOXO – Aryn

Brooke Pfeffer wouldn’t describe herself as a “community builder.” But community has a way of happening all around her (even some fun four-footed kind). That can’t be a coincidence.

Brooke is the owner and operator of The Peddler, a colorful and cozy little gift shop tucked into a side street of Lanesboro, Minnesota. A Minnesotan from the start, she was born in Mankato and grew up near Pemberton. She met her future husband, Joel, on a blind date in 2000. “I was planning to move to Detroit to become a flight attendant and told myself not to get distracted,” she remembers. “After three dates I got distracted.” They married, bought a fixer-upper house in Joel’s hometown of Madelia (where he was a self-employed contractor), and established their most important community, four kids: Brynn, Havilah, August, and Jolie, ranging from age 10 to 15.

Then Lanesboro happened. “Relatives in Preston invited us there for a birthday party,” she says. “We’d never heard of Lanesboro but as we drove down the County Road 8 hill on a beautiful fall evening, we were blown away with the look and feel of the place. We came back to look around and do some biking and soon found ourselves talking about moving here.”

On one of those visits in the spring of 2017, she walked by an antique shop downtown that had a “For Sale” sign in the window. “Other than brief Target and Herbergers jobs, I’d never worked retail before,” she says. “But I started imagining an antique shop that might also offer fun clothing and craft items. We made an offer. Six months later it all happened.”

Brooke’s desire to get involved in and give back to her new community started with simple questions. “When Joel and I first considered moving to Lanesboro we asked ourselves, ‘what can we bring to this place? What skills or talents can we add? How can we benefit the town?’”

The answers are coming for Brooke through The Peddler, but also through her volunteer efforts like serving on the board of the Friends of the Lanesboro Library, helping to organize recent Taste of the Trail events, her Farmers Park fund raising efforts, and volunteering with the Girl Scouts. “We had nearly 30 girls in the shop recently for an art project. It was a bit of a squeeze for our space, but I love doing events that bring people together. We also offered a pinecone painting class with ‘artists’ from age three to 80. I want the Peddler to be an inclusive, welcoming place for everybody who comes in.”

The Peddler has prospered, even through the COVID pandemic, evolving into the store Brooke envisioned.  “I have fewer antiques now, more clothing and crafts. We also have homemade handbags, hats, swimwear, candles, baskets, pillows, furniture, toys, shoes, and gifts, among other things. A fun variety. I look for whatever sparks peoples’ interest, what they’re looking for and talking about. That’s how I connected with the Fair Trade community.”

Fair Trade items come primarily from developing countries, made by workers who receive fair wages in healthy work environments. No sweat shops. “The work and the workers are monitored and certified,” says Brooke. “You feel good knowing that what you’re buying didn’t involve suffering of any kind.”

Fair Trade helps create the “feel” and the inventory of The Peddler. “We have knit-ware from Nepal, wrapped skirts and blankets from India, decorative trinkets from Thailand, Peru, and Mexico. I majored in geography, traveled some, and have always been interested in other cultures, so this is a good fit for me. For many customers the items spark memories of their own travel.”

For now, though, Brooke and her family have put down roots at their five-acre, formerly Amish farm six miles south of Lanesboro. It works for storage of Joel’s equipment, and was a perfect location for an expansion of their family – the four-legged kind. “We certainly weren’t looking for a new house. But I had dabbled in horses long ago and Joel said maybe this could be a place to do that again,” Brooke says. “Girls like horses, you know. He sold me and here we are.”

The farm now hosts a community of eight horses, seven alpacas, and two dogs. Most of the horses and all the alpacas came from Wisconsin via Craig’s List (“the lady made me promise that we’d keep them all together as a family”). Brooke has rescued the other horses from “kill pens” as well.

“People sometimes end up with older horses, often in bad health, that are difficult to re-home,” she says. “They don’t want to keep feeding and supporting them so they offer them for sale online. If the horses don’t sell in a week they end up in a kill pen to be shipped off for slaughter. We bought three including one that looked very overweight. A few months later she surprised us with a foal. They’re all doing well and we love them.”

Why alpacas? “I like alpacas,” she says. “They’re different. They also can present some challenges. For one, they need to be sheared at least once a year. I knew nothing about that. I figured it must be like bathing a dog, right? I ordered clippers on Amazon and watched YouTube videos to learn about it. I gave it a try one summer afternoon but after an hour in 100-degree sun with cranky alpacas and crying kids I realized it was not like bathing a dog. I called a local sheep shearer who did all seven in about an hour. I plan to call him next year, too.”

Are there new communities that Brooke plans to build? “My daughter wants chickens but I’m not sure about that. We might expand The Peddler so we can do more there. I’d like to offer more support to other business-friends in town.” As a busy mom and business owner, there’s much to keep her busy. “I need to keep my head down and not get distracted,” Brooke says.

But it happens. “On a recent Saturday morning I went for a walk to get some coffee and passed by an Amish family selling quilts and things. They had a crate of puppies. One had a broken tail. What can I say?”