OOPS Tuesday Takeaways, Jan 20, 2026
Welcome, to 2026 and our first official Office of Possibilities Tuesday Takeaways newsletter! Every week we gather to support one another along our entrepurenurial and changemaker journeys.
We're kicking off this new weekly newsletter with a double edition. Here's just a bit of what was shared at our Jan 06 and Jan 13 gatherings :
A Few Wins
Last year, Megan and the Cater's Compost crew hauled over 125,000lbs of food waste. That's up 1983% from when she took over the social enterprise just four years prior. (Interestingly, 1983 was also the year David Bowie relseased Let's Dance. Coincidence?...yeah, obvioulsy wildly unrelated. But still kinda neat.)
Jack and Alyssia sold over 3,300 Flabocce units in their first year! (Then they proceeded to sleep through most of winter break...)
For the first time ever, our friends at the NWMI SBDC hit all of their annual goals last year. Way to go Matt, Joni, and Sam and the Baker College crew! (And where you may ask did the majority of their clients come from? You guessed it; Tuesday OOPs gatherings!)
A Few Asks
Given their growth, Carter's is now looking for space to expand their opperation and divert even more food waste. The're hoping for 5ish acres within 20miles of Traverse City. Give Megan a shout if you can connect her with some possibilities!
Holly needs folks to help her project future costs (utilities, etc) for her forthcoming indoor sand vollyball complex. Pls reach out or connect her with others in your network. (We've already connected her w/ KEEN, but other referrals are helpful!)
A Few Gives
Jimmy is a great go to for financing guidance, evaluating loans, SBA, etc. (We wouldn't recommend just any banker, but Jimmy shows up week in and week out to be a part of our OOPs group!)
Heather loves helping folks reinvision how their home and work spaces can be better layed out/ optimized/ etc.. (Tust us: she's always the one to rearrange the tables on Tuesday...)
Rose is always looking for more entrepreneurs to be on her Michigan Innovation podcast. Feels like more than half of all our OOPsers have already been on; your turn next!
A Few Quotes
Stu on persevering through tragedy: "These past few months, I've really been thrown into the fire. But I'm trying to be the Phoenix which comes out of it."
Michael on why he comes to OOPS: "I come here 99% for fellowship and 1% for networking. "
Holly on securing capital: "It's not like you just meet someone and they say 'I love your idea. Now let's do some money together'."
A Few Upcoming Opportunities
Long-time OOPsers Tuklor and Amber Hasan have an upcoming showing for their doc A Water Trail at the State Theater on Wed, Jan 28 at 7pm.
If you've already seen their doc please join us for our first TC SOUP of 2026! This early-stage pitch event--which includes live music and tasty food--is a great opportunity to support local .
To honor the deep expersitse of our OOPs community and broader network, we're begining to use 2nd half of our Tuesday gatherings for peer and partner-led learning sessions. We're already got the MSU Reasearch Foundation, Crosshatch, and Solutions by Farr signed up to lead learning sessions.
We're still updating our calendar, but check back in early next week and you'll be able to check out upcoming sessions here. If you'd like to lead a laid back learning session on an upcoming Tuesday, here's a link to get started.
Huge shout-out to Solutions by Farr, this week's newsletter sponsor
We've repeatedly turned to Brayton for support with our website and getting our internal systems to place nice with one another. We appreciate how hard he works to help other OOPsers and to serve the community at large. He's also one of the best connectors in Northern Michigan!
And that's it for this Tuesday Takeaways newsletter. Future editions will be a little shorter and (ideally) sent out on, yuh know, Tuesdays.
Thanks for reading and see you at an upcoming OOPs gathering!
P.S. Here are a few more excellent--and completely out of context--quotes from the last few OOPs gatherings:
- "When I called you, I could hear the hangover on your breath."
- "Listen men, pretty much everything else is built around you. So you can go kick rocks on this one."
- "But up here, we kinda just call it crystal meth."
- "Oh yeah, one half of the winning team is here today. We're among royalty."
- "That was the last time I ever want to get fingerprinted at the Antrim Co. jail..."
