NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18) — Two Nicholasville men created a podcast that deep dives into the history behind local businesses and how they got their start.
An idea that was planted in Dawson Fields and Weston Wilson's minds last summer took root through a mutual friend and grew into a successful podcast: Commonwealth Connections.
The idea was to connect with local businesses to learn how they got their start and where they're at now. And with nearly 50 episodes out, they say this journey has been so beneficial.
"We chatted for like 30 minutes and realized we had the exact same idea and the exact same thought and we decided to be co-host together," said Wilson.
"They introduce themselves, where they grew up and we just go through their life story from there," explains Fields, "We ask them, 'What are lessons you learned? What is your biggest fail, you know what's been your biggest success? What are your processes like?'"
Aram Street was Commonwealth's first guest on their show back in 2023. Street founded LexClean, a professional cleaning service in 2020 and has since developed a software called Clean Space.
"I got to share that as they were debuting the show and getting it off the ground and that definitely, yeah, gave us a lot of exposure to people," explains Street.
He was a professional butler for eight years and says sharing that background is important for others to understand where he started. He admits this podcast has been a great way to meet other entrepreneurs: "If you're a business owner, especially here, there's a lot you can learn because they're interviewing the biggest names in the region, so it's definitely helpful."
Weston says connections are everything: "We've talked to, I mean, everybody from the owners of Malone's to somebody that has a small lawn care business. We've had construction companies, cleaning companies, tech companies, financial advisors."
"We love asking them, what was day one of your business like? Alright, you had this idea, you built up to it; what was it like day one?" Fields explains.
This isn't Fields' first rodeo behind the mic. He has watched his family do it for years, so starting his own wasn't a question.
Weston, on the other hand, is a business owner who says starting a podcast was an opportunity to connect with and learn from others.
When asked what they learned most from the podcast, both men explained that they learned from their own episodes and connected communities.
"Oh so much, there's just a lot of lessons in every episode. I mean I've even gone back and re-listened to our own episodes myself," says Wilson.
"Being able to kind of introduce them also to each other and kind of make it a more tight knit community," said Fields.
The duo describes their first podcast as an audio version of the Yellow Pages because of the variety of businesses they interview. Both say they don't plan on turning the mic off anytime soon.
"I think we're just gonna keep going until we run out," laughs Wilson.
As season one comes to a close, season two will be released in August. Commonwealth Connections releases a new episode every Thursday. You can check out their podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify and now YouTube.
If you're a business or entrepreneur who would like to be on the Commonwealth Connections podcast, you can email them at dawson@novainsurancegroup.com or call them at (859) 618-9009
