Circle City Chatter Podcast Spotlights Indy Businesses
Photographer / Michael Durr
One of the best aspects of the City of Indianapolis is the tangible support that the community has for local, small businesses. The local love is strong and this is evident through the annual Small Business Saturday events, and the partnerships that these businesses create together. Avenues for local business owners to share their stories can be difficult to come by, but podcasts provide a means to empower potential entrepreneurs, and inspire others in the community.
There have been various podcasts that have focused on interviewing business owners in Indianapolis, but Circle City Chatter hosts Andrea Jones and Shay McCoy are excited to cover businesses that are just starting out, long-standing pillars in the Indianapolis community, and those without a brick-and-mortar storefront. By highlighting these businesses, the hosts hope to increase awareness of the community of small businesses in Indianapolis.
While the hosts of Circle City Chatter are not Indy natives, their love for the city is evident in their vision for the podcast. Jones moved from Illinois to Indiana in October of 2021 and found that the best way to get to know her new city is to explore all the local businesses it has around her. She settled in the Bates-Hendricks area with her husband and began her wedding planning service, J2 Wedding Co. She has a background in organizational leadership and management, and exercises this in her many roles like lending a hand with the back-end work of her mother’s women’s store, 46:10 Boutique.
Jones appreciates how close-knit the Indy community is to not only the local business owners, but also the residents of the city. She appreciates the impact that local support has on her neighbors, community members and the local economy overall. Her passion for local businesses will be evident in the thought-provoking and clear questions she plans to ask interviewees, and she says she is “so excited to be able to shed a light on several of Indy’s small businesses – the popular ones and the hidden gems.”
McCoy is a local content creator who strives to help young adults live a full life in the city through her blog and Instagram page, City of Shay.
“I kept looking for creators who were talking about cool things to do, and when I couldn’t find them I decided I needed to become that for myself,” she says.
Many locals are always craving the next new thing, and they come to McCoy’s page to learn about fresh and new events, restaurant openings and more. McCoy also works in social media at her full-time position at Hotel Indy as an experience curator.
Originally from Iowa, she has found that there is always something to do in Indy, but it is never too overwhelming. She has a sense that the local businesses in Indianapolis are all about community over competition, and can remember numerous times when a business came to another’s aid to offer help and assistance, especially with the difficulties of the last couple of years. She loves living in the downtown community and appreciates that people are still excited to come back downtown and enjoy all it has to offer.
Jones and McCoy are both big fans of the podcasting format and listen to other Indianapolis-based podcasts regularly. The Drink Culture podcast was a major source of inspiration for them, and they felt there was a gap in the Indy community for highlighting small businesses and providing a platform for owners to tell their story. Jones reached out to McCoy to ask if she would be interested in starting a podcast.
By using the podcast platform to give small businesses a bigger voice, the hosts hope to build awareness of all the good that these businesses do for the community and for Indianapolis. Their goals are to introduce the community to businesses they may have never heard of, as well as learn from long-standing businesses that have built their home in Indianapolis and have found success. They also look forward to learning how these owners built their businesses and what keeps them going, and telling the story of Indianapolis through their passions and the lessons they’ve learned.
You can keep up with the Circle City Chatter podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts, and on Instagram @circlecitychatter.
