Creatives & Entrepreneurs Mixer: How To Make It Work
Tuesday, March 31 | 5:30 – 7:30 PM
@The YES! House | 726 Prentice Street, Granite Falls, MN 56241
Join us at The YES! House for a night of insight, strategy and connection!
No matter what stage you are with your business or creative idea, this networking event is a low pressure environment for artists, creative entrepreneurs, small business owners, activators and nonprofit volunteers to hear from three business owners making it work in their rural towns.
Join two of DoPT’s program’s, The YES! House and Activate Rural, at the Creatives & Entrepreneurs Mixer where attendees will be able to:
5:30 - 6:00 PM: Connect with fellow artists, creatives and small business owners during social networking time
6:00 - 6:45 PM: Learn and be inspired by a panel of 3 small business owners
Lauren Marquardt of Mother’s Cupboard, Remedy Bar and Market (New London, MN)
Bethany Naab of Stella + Poppy (Granite Falls, MN)
Nicole Zempel of Wild Roots MN (Granite Falls, MN)
6:45 - 7:30 PM: Group roundtable discussions and facilitated activity
Appetizers and beverages will be provided.
This event is open to the public and free, please register at the button below.
For event and registration questions, please contact Luwaina Al-Otaibi, The YES! House Program Director, at luwaina@publictransformation.org.
This event is a part of the Activate Rural Public Workshop Series, workshops and sessions designed to offer support, peer learning, and resources to creative entrepreneurs, artists, organizations and small business owners with creative physical places of connection based in rural Minnesota communities and the Native nations that share this geography, with a population of 20,000 or less. This program is supported, in part, by the State of Minnesota through a grant from The Office of Small Business Development, Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Bios:
Lauren Marquardt is the owner and operator of Mother’s Cupboard, a wellness-focused business in New London, Minnesota, dedicated to nourishing community through whole foods, natural remedies, and meaningful connection. Born and raised in Kandiyohi County and a 2006 graduate of New London-Spicer High School, Lauren’s path to entrepreneurship has been anything but conventional.
Her love of photography and storytelling led her to California, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Professional Photography and spent over a decade pursuing creative work in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Along the way, she freelanced as a photographer while traveling the country, living out of a van, before eventually landing a corporate role with an international company based in Australia. Through that experience, she worked within niche medical markets and had the opportunity to travel the world.
A turning point came when Lauren’s dog was diagnosed with lymphoma, leading her to work closely with a homeopathic veterinarian. That mentorship sparked a deep interest in natural health and holistic wellness that would ultimately reshape her path. Five years later, Lauren returned to her hometown of New London, where she and her partner — alongside a family of nurses — opened Mother’s Cupboard in March 2024.
Today, Lauren wears many hats as a small business owner: product maker, designer, marketer, photographer, and yes, even dishwasher at the end of the day. Through Mother’s Cupboard, she brings her passion for creativity, wellness, and community together to help others nourish both body and spirit.
Stella + Poppy (named after the owner’s two dachshunds) is an artisan line of small-batch, handcrafted natural home & beauty products born from her love affair with botanicals.
Owner Bethany Naab has been studying herbalism and making handmade olive oil soaps, salves, lotions, lip balms, and more under the name Wild Wind Soap Company since 2004. In 2018, the business name was changed to Stella + Poppy, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Stella + Poppy is based in Granite Falls on the prairies of Southwestern Minnesota. Our products are handmade from the ground up using pure, natural, and as many organic ingredients as possible, a good share of which are grown by Bethany; our candles are hand-poured using 100% U.S.-grown soy wax, cotton-core wicks, essential oils, and some fine phthalate-free natural fragrance oils, with apothecary-inspired packaging.
Everything we make revolves around pure intention- because anything more would cloud our final product.