“I find that we’re the perfect size. We’re not too big, not too small. And people can find connection here.” Lauralee Hites once thought that being successful meant leaving Wayne County. Now she knows better, and in this episode of the WWN podcast she shares her story with Kate, reflecting on the importance of small wins, her love of being able to walk around town, and how we can grow and thrive as a community even in times of conflict and uncertainty. Enjoy!
Transcript
Lauralee Hites: I’m Lauralee Hites, and I’m the founder of Stratavize Consulting.
Kate Jetmore: From Civic Spark Media and the Western Wayne News in Wayne County, Indiana, I’m Kate Jetmore. As a native of Richmond, Indiana, I’m excited to be sitting down with some of our neighbors and listening to the stories that define our community.
My guest today is Lauralee Hites, who spent years in corporate America at Accenture, Microsoft, and Wells Fargo, before deciding that helping businesses thrive was way more fun than just being another corporate cog. Now as the founder of Stratavize Consulting, she’s on a mission to help leaders build better workplaces, where people actually want to show up. She’s got a business degree, a master’s in executive leadership, and has a knack for making workshops and retreats feel more like an exciting game night than boring boardroom meetings. Outside of work, she’s paddling whitewater, traveling to far-flung places, or trying to convince her dog, Nala, to like hiking as much as she does. Welcome, Lauralee. Thanks so much for sitting down with me today.
Lauralee Hites: Thanks for having me. I’m excited.
Kate Jetmore: Me too. Well, as you and many of our listeners will know, the Western Wayne News has its offices in Cambridge City, and that also happens to be where you live. So, are you originally from Cambridge City or how did you end up living there?
Lauralee Hites: I am a boomerang. So, I was here, born in Richmond, grew up in Ohio, but for my kindergarten year, I lived actually in Pershing, which I remember the Coffee Pot. My mom worked at the Coffee Pot when I was a young person. So, then we moved away, and I grew up in Ohio, and oh, many years later I’m back.
Kate Jetmore: And how did that come to be? What brought you back to this community?
Lauralee Hites: It’s funny because in my corporate life I moved, I went to the East Coast, I went to the West coast, I went to Nashville, and each time I came back to Wayne County. And to land in Cambridge City, we downsized. We owned a house out in the country. We sold it and moved into an investment property that we have right here in Cambridge, right in town, and it’s wonderful. I walk to the bank, I walk to the gym, the Golay, which is where I took my swim lessons when I was a kid. So, it all came full circle. I pay my water bill by walking to a town hall. I walk to our restaurants. I eat most weekends in a local restaurant right here in Cambridge. I shop locally. I buy from our clothing store that’s here in town. I buy from our antique stores. So, I’m a huge supporter and I love living in town.
Kate Jetmore: Wow. Well, how intentional was that decision or was it sort of a happy coincidence that you moved into this investment property in town as you said, and then all of a sudden you discovered, “Oh my gosh, I can really do everything I need to do right here in town”?
Lauralee Hites: It’s funny that you say that because we lived in the country … All of my kids are in their 20s, and their entire lives we lived in the country. They did not walk to school. They did not have bike night out at their friends, but I did as a kid in New Paris.
And so, when we sold our house, right after, I’d say 2021 or 2022, right when housing prices were great, the plan was we would sell and just move into our rental for like a year. Well, that’s now been several years because I just love walking in town. And so, we downsized and it’s offered a lot of freedom to my lifestyle as far as traveling more. And there’s just less of a commitment. I don’t have a huge yard to take care of anymore. It takes us two seconds to mow the lawn. There’s just so many advantages. So, it is a happenstance, but I love it.
Kate Jetmore: I hope this isn’t too personal a question, but how has it affected your health? I mean, I’m thinking of someone who’s walking everywhere. That’s a very healthy dynamic in anyone’s life. Is that how you’ve found it to be?
Lauralee Hites: Absolutely. So, I will say to you that I started walking actually to walk the Camino in Spain, walk across the Camino.
Kate Jetmore: Oh my goodness.
Lauralee Hites: Yeah. So, I did that in 2022, and that’s when we had moved here just about two months prior to that. So, January 1st of 2022, I started to prepare to walk the Camino, and at the end of March, that’s when I began walking every day. So, I started walking to the stores, the Golay, everything. And so, now three years later, I’m still walking every day. And I’ve since done other really long hikes and I’m actually preparing to go to Germany for a three-week hike there. So yes, it did truly radically change my life by just walking my own community.
Kate Jetmore: That’s amazing. And I just have to, quick aside, I didn’t know that you had hiked the Camino, and so, that’s something that you and I have in common. And for our listeners out there who don’t know, I came to Spain to hike the Camino for my first time ever in Spain, and that is why I live here in Spain because I met my husband while I was hiking the trail. So, I love that we have that in common.
Lauralee Hites: It’s a life changer. It’s a life changer.
Kate Jetmore: For sure. For sure. We’ll have to have a whole nother conversation about that.
Well, of course, Cambridge City is just one of the many, many diverse communities in Wayne County, many of which I’m sure you’ve been to and worked with and engaged with. How do you see the relationship between different towns and cities in the area, and what do those relationships mean when it comes to developing a cohesive sense of community identity?
Lauralee Hites: I think that’s a great question, and I think it’s been an evolution. And I’m going to look from my personal perspective, just the things that I’ve personally touched, either whether I sat on a board or it was part of my work at Stratavize.
So, I think the communities really started to come together right before say, 2018, 2019, a little before COVID. And to me, it really began with Buy Local Wayne County weekends, which was a chamber initiative. And this was an opportunity to coordinate all of the different festivals that were happening and to try to get synergy around shopping. Instead of competing with each other, why don’t we announce that one particular community is doing something? And I think the chamber did a great job with that initiative.
Fast-forward, 2020 came and the Forward Wayne County and the great folks over there, Rebecca and Acacia, they took the initiative to start to gather the main street organizations. And so, they actually began to meet prior to any of the COVID funding that came to be later. And so, it was a great opportunity that for the first time, the different main street organizations, and at this time, Fountain City had not stood up their main street, but they were still invited to the table. She would gather them, have conversations, and this was again, one more step in the right direction of, how do we work together instead of competing with each other?
And then, I don’t know if you’ve heard about Lilly and the Lilly Foundation funding that’s come and then the state and federal.
Kate Jetmore: Right.
Lauralee Hites: So much opportunity began to flow into Wayne County. But the great thing was that because of the Chamber and because of the Foundation, they started already working together. They were like 10 steps ahead. Huge. Huge.
So, the second part of your question was what about a sense of identity? And I think it’s an excellent question because they’re wrestling with how do we work collaboratively? But we’re also competing for resources, people, time. So, they need to have their own identity. And I think one way, and this is just my opinion, one way they hold onto that is through their festivals that speak to what’s unique to them. So, Cambridge City, we have the Canal Days, we have the waterway. Right?
Kate Jetmore: Right.
Lauralee Hites: If you think of Centerville, they have Archway Days because they have arches, right?
Kate Jetmore: Right.
Lauralee Hites: Fountain City, Levi Coffin House. Hagerstown, The Fly-In. So, I think that there is a balance between working collaboratively and then still holding on to what makes us unique. Does that make sense?
Kate Jetmore: Absolutely. Yeah, it makes tons of sense. And I’m wondering, well, it sounds like, as you said, the foundation was laid pre-COVID, a year or two before COVID, and now with these new resources coming in and abundant resources, that foundation has already been laid. But I’m wondering at what point in the process, and maybe this is ongoing, you bring in sort of, I guess I would call it education? Like working with different people in these different communities to show them and teach them that this is the way to go and this is why it’s important. Is that part of it?
Lauralee Hites: It’s funny that you say that. It’s as if you know behind the scenes, and I know you don’t. The Foundation in Forward Wayne County, part of my work was we hosted a series, and the series was about co-creation. So, how do we co-create? Why is that important? And we actually talked about really small, incremental wins, small projects, and the foundation actually put funding behind it.
So, they were able to come up with a really small project, and the idea was to activate local volunteers to give them a sense of ownership that there are small projects that we can do. And the people that were invited to the series of calls that I facilitated, again, this has been years ago, was really different volunteers. It was people with non-profit organizations, traditional community members. We put the outreach to anyone that wanted to join. And the essence of it was co-creation happens when we work together, and it takes everyone. Right? It’s not just left to government officials or city officials, folks like that. It takes every one of us.
Kate Jetmore: That’s an important message. Well, from what I understand, you’ve done a lot to help individuals and organizations discern and identify their strengths and weaknesses. What insights can you share about how a community like ours, like Wayne County, can find its way in the face of specific struggles such as unity, momentum, and direction?
Lauralee Hites: That’s an excellent question. And I think it’s something that we can look at not just at the community level of Wayne County, but we can look at the state level, we can look at as a nation, and we can look at as organizations. And I think one of the things that’s critical when we are in a high conflict state, which is what we are right now, so the US is in a high conflict state. It can feel that way as high conflict within our political environment at the state of Indiana. And it can feel that way right here in Wayne County. One of the ways that communities and organizations can change the dynamics, change the conversation is to find a common enemy.
Now, I know that sounds kind of strange to say, a common enemy, but not by people, but by a thing that we can all tackle together, collectively. And in my mind, that’s population decline. Wayne County is facing significant population decline. I think I just read a report how many counties in Indiana actually grew in population, but Wayne County, we continue to decline. And so, this is the one thing that we could rally around as an entire community and have a common enemy, if you will. And that is we understand that yes, as communities, we’re in competition over the students that go to our school. We’re in competition for the limited resources. We’re in competition for having people tour our main streets. But at the end of the day, the one thing that we all are faced with that can hurt every community in the county is population decline.
And so, I think it’s finding that fundamental challenge that impacts all of us and then rallying the troops around it. And I think that we’ve seen other countries are doing this too. It’s not just a Wayne County challenge, it’s other countries are faced with it. And I think about, I want to say Ghana is one of the countries, I believe they did a Year of Return and then a Beyond the Return initiative to bring people back. So, Africans that had moved away, asking them to come back to Ghana. Romania has done something very similar. I believe I read Romania ended up with 83,000 Romanians that returned to Romania because they started-
Kate Jetmore: Wow.
Lauralee Hites: … to make some investment, tried to show, “Hey, we could be a high-tech sector too.” Italy has a program as well, and the list goes on and on. And so, in my mind, it’s let’s find this one thing that we can all battle against, and that helps bring unity.
The funding we have and the work we’re doing is bringing the natural momentum. Right? So, we’ve had a lot of funding come into Wayne County, more than we could ever have imagined in the last five years between Lilly, the state, the federal, all this opportunity, our employers are stepping up in a big way, that has given us momentum. And I believe that the county commissioners are embarking on a strategic plan, again, as a county. So, typically each city will have a strategic plan, but for the county to have one says, “United, this is the way forward.” I think that’s another thing that will give us all clear direction.
Kate Jetmore: Right. Wow. I really appreciate a lot of the words that you’ve chosen to address this question. What did you say? You didn’t say a state of conflict. You said, “We are in-“
Lauralee Hites: High conflict.
Kate Jetmore: “… a high conflict state.” That’s how you phrased it. But your choice of words and also your energy are so matter of fact, we are in a high conflict state. It really is a fact. That is the moment in history that we find ourselves in. And so the question is, what do you do with that? How do you get up each day and live the day to the fullest and move forward as an individual and as a member of a family and as a member of a community, as best you possibly can? So, I really appreciate everything that you said in answering that question, but also your energy. I really appreciate that.
Lauralee, as we begin to wrap up, I’d love to give you a chance to speak to other people who, like you and I, really care deeply about Wayne County. What do you wish others knew about our community?
Lauralee Hites: So, when I think about that question, I was part of the problem, right? So, I told my children the only way to be successful was to leave Wayne County. And that’s what I wanted to do. I was part of the problem. We moved away three times and moved back three times. My children went off to college and my son went off to the military. I said to them over and over again as a young person, for them to be successful, they had to leave. I regret those words. I regret those words because they can be successful in Wayne County. We’re a great community.
And when I think of the numbers or the things that we’re up against, Gallup just finished a poll that 20% of US adults rated they were lonely yesterday. A Harvard study showed 21% of adults are experiencing disconnection from friends and family and the broader community. Much of this related to the high conflict state that we’re in. But also Harvard’s longest study they’ve done, 80-plus years, the key to happiness and longevity are relationships, not health and not wealth. It’s relationships. And so, when you say, what do I think people should know about Wayne County? I find that we’re the perfect size. We’re not too big, not too small. And people can find connection here. And I think human connection is what builds resilience. It’s what brings us happiness. It is what gives us longevity of life, I think, being connected to each other and in a meaningful way. And I think people can do that here. I found it here and I’ve tried to leave, and yet, I found my place in the very place I tried to leave.
Kate Jetmore: So interesting. You and I have very different stories, but also a lot of common ground in the sense that I have never really left Wayne County either. I haven’t lived there full time since I was 18, but I come back every summer with my son and spend the entire summer in Richmond. And part of that is, of course, to do with my family, but a big part of it has to do with the community of Wayne County. There’s nowhere else like it. It is an incredibly enriching place that is full of opportunity and culture, and it still has many challenges, but it is filled with people who are interested in tackling those challenges, and I think you’re one of them.
So, Lauralee, I want to thank you so much for joining me on the show today. It was so great meeting you and learning more about you and what you do, and I want to wish you and your family all the best.
Lauralee Hites: You’re welcome. I enjoyed our chat.