(light music) (upbeat electronic music) (bicycle whirring) (upbeat electronic music) - [Mike] That was pretty cool.

I think we could replace our equipment van with that.

(upbeat electronic music) - [Justin] No.

-Mm-mm.

-(upbeat music) - [Mike] How entrepreneurs saved small town Sidney, (upbeat music) how entrepreneurs turned tragedy into this business, and a behind the scenes look at the entrepreneurial way we created this story.

- [Crowd] "What If...!"

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Mike] Making something good from something bad.

That's the theme of this episode of our series on innovation and creativity in Nebraska, "What If..." That happened here at the Eberspacher Farm.

But before that story, we're gonna tell you how it happened a little differently 300 miles west of here.

-(electricity crackling) -(hand thudding) -I am Mike Tobias, we'll take you inside the new Tecumseh State Correctional Institution.

(upbeat music) -I'm Andrea Gallagher.

This week on "Statewide", we'll take you to Sidney, Nebraska where a small-time fly fishing operation turned into a multimillion dollar industry.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Cabela's and Sidney, the outdoor recreation retailer and its hometown have been connected since the sixties.

50 years later, Sidney was home to the company headquarters, a nearby distribution center, and the first of several massive retail stores nationwide.

(upbeat music) -[Cory] I wanted to work there, because it was the place to work when you moved to Sidney.

-[Melissa] There was always great comradery between employees.

It was just a really good place to work.

-[Mike] At its peak, about 2,000 people living around here worked in good-paying jobs for the Cabela's Corporation.

The entire population of Sidney was a little more than 6,000.

- We're able to market the community or sell the community just because of their presence.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Easy to understand how important Cabela's was to the local economy and the devastating impact when Bass Pro bought Cabela's in 2017 and eventually, eliminated almost all of those jobs.

-[Mike] So when the sale happened, what happened?

(soft music) - That was a dark time for all of us.

-[Cory] Hundreds going into the thousands of jobs that were lost over a two or three-year period.

-[Sarah] It was a lot of our friends, a lot of our family that was moving away.

-[Cory] You saw homes come up for sale.

-[Sarah] We didn't know necessarily what our future held.

It was a financially insecure time.

-[Cory] Businesses closed, things shut down, hours being limited.

And just general mood in Sidney?

Negative, it was almost a time of despair.

(somber music) -[Mike] Someone anonymously bought this half page ad in the Sidney newspaper.

-(light switch clicking) -(playful music) -[Lady] Hi, buddy.

-[Mike] For many folks who lost those Cabela's jobs, Sidney was where they wanted to live, work, raise kids.

-[Speaker] Hi, dude.

-[Alisha] No one's gonna come and save us, right?

I was not leaving.

I moved my family out here.

This is where I wanna be.

There were enough passionate individuals that also had their reasons for staying.

-[Sarah] Our city and our county in some ways started to think differently.

The thought behind it was to grow our own.

Grow our own business owners, encourage our kids to get into entrepreneurship, support one another.

- Using the strengths of the community to help build each other up.

So, specifically, we started a group called Sidney Connect.

-[Sarah] We started by just holding like workshops or networking events to try to bring the bright minds together.

Eventually, over time, that morphed into what we call E3, Energizing Entrepreneurial Ecosystems.

- And essentially, what I do is I help businesses.

I'm a free service.

Wherever you are in your business lifecycle, I help provide you the resources that you need in that stage when you need it.

- You're a connector.

- I am a connector.

I navigate, I point you in the right direction.

-[Cory] Once you start seeing other people be successful and starting to do their own thing, that's when other people become more brave and they decide to, you know, take the first step, which is just a conversation.

- A lot of this early on was very grassroots.

Absolutely.

(cheerful music) -[Mike] Bottom line, the people of Sidney decided to save themselves with entrepreneurship.

(birds chirping) (upbeat music) - One of the first businesses started by former Cabela's employees was a place a lot like where they used to work.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) -[Trent] Nextgen is an outdoor retailer.

We sell hunt, camp, and shoot products.

We've got six of us in here that just absolutely love some corner of that, whatever it may be.

Depending on the product you're after, we got somebody that's an absolute expert in it.

(upbeat music) -[Dan] I've spent a lot of my adult life in retail.

It's a hell of a lot funner when you're selling what you love to do.

(upbeat music) - So how early did you have the notion that you were gonna get together with some other former coworkers and start this?

- Well, I think as soon as we walked out the door, all my partners here at Nextgen, we jumped in a garage and sat down and said, "Okay, what do we wanna be when we grow up?

Because we're gonna have to figure that out really quick right now."

- [Mike] Now, with a name that's a nod to these former Cabela's employees starting a next generation of an outdoors retailer, the small company sells online and from a store.

All the Cabela's experience in an environment that encouraged innovation helped.

But... -[Trent] We'd run a business, but not like this.

Not your own business, not where you had to touch every piece of it and somebody had to own every bit of it.

That was different.

- And it was your skin in the game.

-[Trent] Absolutely.

Everybody's gotta pony up and everybody's gotta put something in and we've gotta just run with it, and that's scary.

That's a different animal.

(upbeat music) (cat growling) -[Mike] Nextgen actually started here at Western Nebraska Community College's Sidney Campus in a space that used to house a cosmetology program turned into an innovation and entrepreneurship center.

-[Paula] What that does is it helps start with new startups.

So, if you're an entrepreneur, you come in and we give you free space.

-[Mike] Like there.

-[Paula] We give you resources -[Mike] Like this classroom, right?

-[Paula] Yep.

-[Mike] Okay.

-[Paula] That's where Nextgen started.

-[Mike] Okay.

-[Paula] Yeah.

You have an office, you have free wifi, you have all the furniture for you to launch your business.

-[Mike] Another idea sparked by discussion among community leaders.

-[Paula] It was like, you know, this is a perfect time to maybe start something for all these extremely educated people from Cabela's leaving.

-[Trent] That was a big deal, and I'll give them a ton of credit, because that really paved the way for our business.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Did they really sort of kickstart a lot of what's going on here?

-[Paula] Absolutely.

It took a lot of guts for them to kinda step out, especially under the umbrella of Cabela/Bass Pro.

But I think other people said, you know, "If those guys can do it, then we can do it."

(upbeat music) -[Mike] An abandoned gas station is home to another new business.

Pedalers Corner bike shop.

(playful upbeat music) (playful upbeat music) (bell ringing) - So, why a bike shop?

What's the personal connection to this for you?

- I was always an avid bike rider, an avid sportsman.

So bicycles was just a natural fit for me, because of the mechanical aspect and helping people, which I've done most of my career.

(playful upbeat music) Yeah, that would work.

-[Mike] It's something Sidney didn't have.

A full service shop fixing and selling all kinds of bikes.

The trained electrician who went back to school to learn bicycle stuff was also well-suited to get into the growing e-bike market.

(playful upbeat music) Loghry was one of the last to leave corporate Cabela's.

He could have taken severance pay and retired.

But... -[Doug] I figured that there was a bigger purpose for me to open a business like this and give back to the community in some capacity.

(playful upbeat music) (vinyl scratching) (upbeat music) (beer splashing) (upbeat music) -[Mike] Our last stop is a hopping place, but before we learned about the Norgaards and their brewery, know that after Stan was one of the early layoffs, Melissa left on her own.

And you left to become the economic development director?

-[Melissa] Yes, I did.

-Of a city that was facing some massive challenges.

- Call me crazy.

(Melissa chuckling) -[Mike] Melissa was another driving force in those early discussions.

A common story, someone who grew up here when Cabela's was a little downtown store, moved away and came back when it was a big deal.

(upbeat music) -[Melissa] I think the number one thing that attracted me to a company like Cabela's is the entrepreneurship spirit that it was built around.

I knew that there were a lot of great people who worked at Cabela's, and probably some of them would be forced to leave or choose to leave, but I also knew that there was that group of entrepreneurial spirited people that would wanna stay in Sidney.

(liquid splashing) -[Mike] Home brewer Stan always wanted to open a brewery.

It measures the sugar content.

(metal clanking) -[Mike] When a local pizza restaurant went up for sale, they saw an opportunity.

(plates clanking) -[Melissa] So I went home that night.

I told Stan, "This might be the opportunity that we can step into craft brew industry by buying into this pizza franchise and seeing if it will work."

So yes, worst timing.

January 2020, we bought the business.

-(person screaming) -(buzzer buzzing) -[Mike] They survived Covid and moved into this bigger building with more brewing capacity.

(jazzy music) -[Stan] All right, Guinness has six official steps to pour the perfect pint, which is the for the fourth step?

-C!

-Yes!

(patrons cheering) -[Stan] In what century was the earliest known instance of using hops in beer?

-[Stan] Hey, Hey, Hey -[Melissa] No, no, no.

You can't Google it!

You're cheating!

Mike has actually written three questions about "What If..." Which one of these is an actual story that has appeared in the "What If..." series at some point.

Okay, the correct answer is A, Grain Weevil.

(patrons cheering) (liquid splashing) -[Mike] Boss City, like other businesses here, was built from long hours, ups and downs, and support.

A lot of the folks here tonight are former Cabela's employees like Alisha and Cory.

He also made these menu holders.

Look how full this place is.

-[Melissa] Yeah.

We're excited to keep growing.

We're excited to grow our distribution footprint across the state of Nebraska.

We are just teetering on the edge of growing into something great.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Did you ever think a few years ago, Sidney could have a packed bar for a trivia night?

-[Melissa] On a Wednesday.

-On a Wednesday?

-No.

-What's this tell you?

-This is awesome.

This makes me have faith in what we're doing is the right thing and we're gonna keep moving forward.

(glass clinking) -Mine's a little sour.

-Just like you.

Yeah.

(laughing) (soft music) (cars swooshing) -[Mike] Sidney's been through a lot over time.

Some of its nicknames like Boss City and Toughest Town on the Tracks came from the 1880s when the streets were full of prospectors seeking gold in the Black Hills, and entrepreneurs were opening gaming halls and brothels.

The businesses are, well, a little different these days.

(playful upbeat music) (playful upbeat music) (playful upbeat music) - Sarah Sinnett keeps a running list of the more than 100 businesses launched since 2017, and a decent number are Cabela's people.

-[Sarah] Yes, or they've inspired other people to move here and start their own business, those same people, or they've inspired young people to do that, because they're an inspiration to them at that time.

Get on.

You ready?

Here you go.

(soft music) -[Mike] Sarah says, there are other signs, Sidney, her words, is "building back better".

Like this new park built after the community raised $800,000 in a year.

- That tells you a lot.

-[Sarah] Yes, the community's here, we're strong and we're not leaving.

- It's been this group of just incredible people that are like, we're not gonna die.

And you don't just see one person fighting for their business, they're fighting for the community.

Yeah, this has been wonderful.

-[Trent] We all knew each other really well, but it worked out to where we could go to each other depending on what we're after and say, "How'd you do this?

Have you run into this?

What are we gonna do when this happens?"

And that's a big deal.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] Is Sidney a healthier place now than it was before?

-[Alisha] I think so.

If we didn't grow out of a hard place, none of this may have happened.

- It feels good to know that the lights are still on.

-[Melissa] You just don't think that something like that would happen and that something positive could come from something that was so negative.

-[Cory] The fact that like we filled the homes, maybe there's not a mega business up on the hill anymore, and that's okay.

-[Mike] The jobs on what they refer to in a slightly snide way as the hill are gone.

Replaced by something new.

A culture of entrepreneurship.

(soft music) - We are the innovators and entrepreneurs of Sidney, Nebraska.

(screen popping) (screen swooshing) - [Mike] Mother Nature created a tragedy here.

Here's how the Eberspacher sisters turned it into triumph.

(horse snorting) (birds chirping) (upbeat music) (upbeat country music) - [Mike] The Eberspacher sisters have been riding horses almost as long as they've been alive.

How old were you when you started riding?

- I was five.

- I was six.

- I was three.

- So you were the baby.

- Yep.

- When you got started.

So, and then after that, pretty quickly traveling the country in competitions, and showing horses and things like that.

Who's the best?

- Oh.

- Should we have a ride off?

- Oh.

(laughing) - We could do that right here, right now, right?

I think instead, we'll go inside, but we'll see some trophies, and maybe we can just see who won the most stuff, so.

- That should tell alot.

- Emily follow me.

We're gonna talk about 2014.

- Mm-hmm.

- So there was a Saturday in May, really big day for you, friends and family here.

It was your high school graduation party, everybody at the house having a good time.

The next day, Sunday, tell me a little bit about what happened.

- Yeah, we were, just got done celebrating that day before.

It was about 24 hours different, like time difference.

And we were looking outside, and it was just getting green, it was getting dark, storms were in the area, and that's when a tornado was heading our way.

My dad's like, "You know what?

"I think we should get inside."

- Yeah.

- And right after that, that's when it hit.

- Yeah.

So that was an EF-3 tornado that hit the Eberspacher farm that day.

(gentle piano music) It destroyed the indoor arena, the barn, damaged a lot of other buildings.

Fortunately the house where the family took shelter was spared.

Emily, what happened to the horses that were here?

- Unfortunately we had two that we lost in the storm.

There were several that needed immediate medical attention.

They got that, and they actually recovered really, really well.

Overall, we ended up a lot better than we probably could have.

- Yeah, so fortunate in a way, so.

- Yes, absolutely.

- So the family rebuilt, they rebuilt the, the big arena, they rebuilt the barn, they built this little building on the front basically to do laundry and have a bathroom to use, right?

- Yep.

- And then next fall you start college at UNL.

- Mm-hmm.

- You're a hospitality major with an animal science minor, and an Engler entrepreneurship minor.

Seems like it kind of set you up for possibly a pretty good business idea.

- Yes, absolutely.

It was like the ultimate trio.

I was able to combine my three passions, you know, and make a business, and it ultimately, everything happens for a reason, and it really actually allowed us to open the doors to people and horses.

- Yeah.

And with that, Triple E Equine was born, and we're gonna take a look inside.

(inspirational music) So think of this as like a hotel for horses, and people traveling with them.

(inspirational music) And throughout you're just gonna see a celebration of all their passion, and all their success with different horse competitions.

(simulated cheering and applause) So that little add-on building they created, they actually turned it into a two-room bunkhouse.

And did some interesting things with recycled materials.

So a lot of the stuff in the kitchen here, is from the Habitat for Humanity Restore, which looks really nice, and also saved them some money.

And this window was actually a part of the door to the house.

And it got damaged a little bit by the tornado.

So they took that, put it in here, and created this great window looking out onto the arena, which is where we're going next.

(uptempo synth music) (horse neighing) So, by the way, you know, a lot of times in "What If..." stories, I like to kind of do things and participate.

So, should I ride a horse?

Umm... (cat meows) I don't know.

It's probably not a good idea.

I haven't been on a horse since like junior high summer camp, so I think we'll skip that part.

(horse neighing) (uptempo music) So, neat thing about all this, it's all connected.

So somebody staying in the bunkhouse overnight, can come out and check out their horses anytime, and see how they're doing.

Those are the Carrolls from North Carolina.

We're gonna chat with them in just a second.

(uptempo synth music) (dog panting) (uptempo synth music) So the three sisters are all still involved in the business.

Emily, who got things started, got married and moved to north central Nebraska.

But she still does a lot of marketing, the website, social media, takes pictures of the facility, which is actually a really good fit.

'Cause Emily is a photography entrepreneur.

(uptempo music) Hanah and Sarah have taken over the day-to-day operations of things, and they've actually added to the business.

Hanah trains horses.

Hi, Leroy.

(chuckling) Tell me a little bit about what sort of an initial thing you do to sort of start working with a horse.

- So when we get a new horse in, we'll take 'em to the round pen, kinda see what groundwork that they know, and make sure they know basic cues, but make sure they're gentle and tame, and ready to start riding.

- Okay.

And you told me once that you've learned a lot about yourself from working with horses.

Talk about that.

- I have.

I mean, again, it's something that's gonna teach you a lot of patience.

It's very challenging, but it really, it does teach you a lot.

And I think it makes you a better person in the long run.

- Yeah.

Well I think I've sort of made a friend.

I don't know.

Sarah.

Sarah raises mini donkeys.

- Yes.

- Who doesn't love mini donkeys, right?

What is a mini donkey business?

- What do you do?

- Yeah, so we raised a couple babies each year.

We work with them, and then we sell 'em after they're weaned.

And this is a little bit of a throwback to what you did as kids when you had mini ponies, and you raised them and sold them as well.

What did you learn about entrepreneurship from doing that at such a young age?

- Yeah, so just working with different people.

Like Hanah said, each horse is different, each donkey's different.

So it's really fun to find the right fit for the new owner with the donkeys that we have and everything like that.

- I want a mini donkey.

- (laughing) Yes.

You should get one.

- Yes.

Alright, we're gonna go look at big horses now.

So this is a busy time of year.

There's a lot of horse competitions happening all over the country.

A lot of people traveling.

Place is busy here.

These are the Carrolls.

The Carrolls are traveling here from North Carolina on their way to Wyoming for the National High School Rodeo finals.

Cadee is a barrel racer.

- Yeah.

- Tell me about your horses.

- This is Beau.

He's six.

He's my backup barrel horse.

That's Run.

He's nine, and he's my main horse that qualified me.

- You like them?

- Yeah.

- They're good horses?

- Yeah.

- Tell me a little bit, Brandy, about the importance of having this place.

- It's good to know that you have a place that you can stop and relax, and you can rest, and your horses can also rest.

Especially after being on the road for 10 or 12 hours.

- Yeah.

And you've been here before?

- Yes.

This second time coming through.

And we really enjoy staying here with the girls.

- What do you like about what they do here?

- It's so comfortable.

They're very welcoming, and they let you come in, and it's easy to get rest.

easy for our horses to relax and get rest, and then we move on to Wyoming.

- Make you wanna start a horse business someday?

- Maybe.

- Maybe.

- Yeah.

- Well good luck in Wyoming.

- Thank you.

- Hope you do well.

Yes.

(gentle guitar music) - [Mike] Since the Eberspacher sisters started the business in late 2015, they've had customers from 49 states and Canada.

And as a matter of fact, if somebody shows up from Rhode Island, the whole map is full.

They really got off to a good start because of all their connections in the horse industry.

And, on a weekend like this, you know, it's gonna be busy.

There's gonna be trailers hooked up out here.

Matter of fact, there's other families that are headed to that same high school rodeo championships of Wyoming.

- (gentle guitar music) - (dog barking) - So the Eberspachers have a history with entrepreneurship.

It starts with Curt and Angie.

In addition to running the family farm and such, Angie also helps out with Triple E. Curt created some of this from a damage center pivot, like some of these pipes right here.

So, very creative stuff going on here.

It just kind of shows how this whole story is about making good from something bad.

- Right?

- Yep.

- Tell me a little bit about, is this where you, you always want to be now?

Is this your future?

- I think so, yeah.

I've loved doing it so far, and I'd love to keep doing it.

- It really is.

It's just doing what we love.

- Yeah.

And Scarlet takes over someday maybe?

- Maybe.

She likes ponies.

- Ha.

So Emily, does this happen without the tornado?

- I don't think it does.

I think God had a plan, and I think we're doing it.

(gentle guitar music) (swooshing sound effect) (star dinging) (birds chirping) - [Mike] Did you notice that last story looked a little bit different?

Well, we've always believed that a series about innovation should also challenge us as storytellers, so we tried something you don't see very often.

Here's an inside look.

(upbeat music) -[Mike] It's game day for the "What If..." team shooting a story about three entrepreneurs and the horse hotel they created.

(gravel crunching) We're here.

(gravel crunching) -[Tiffany] How you guys feeling?

- Good.

- Ready to make some TV.

Epic, epic television.

(soft music) -[Mike] Epic, because we're trying something different.

I'll explain.

(soft music) A typical "What If..." story or really anything you watch is created with lots of different shots edited together, like this one.

There's more than 160 different shots in that seven minute story.

The story about Triple E Equine is nine minutes, one continuous shot, no edits.

The technique is sometimes called a oner or one shot.

It's occasionally seen in movies and TV shows, but rarely if ever in a show like "What If..." - There you are right there and you're talking about, and as you can see, they're really good at what they do.

Should we do it in here?

- Justin and I started talking about doing this after seeing a one shot episode of "The Bear," a series we both really like.

It took lots of planning, meetings to discuss equipment, movement, the best way to tell the story and a full walkthrough the day before.

Then more prep and set up once we arrive for the shoot.

- We're behind the scenes.

(guitar music) - I think less is more.

- Or do you want to have Mike on the outside and us like having a conversation like here?

- Maybe you don't get as close as you want.

We can punch a little bit on the 4K.

- I always wanted to be a Ghostbuster.

This is as close as I'm gonna get.

So I follow her out this way or I go around?

-[Mike] I think, well you were talking about going all the way around.

- I wanted to but?

-[Mike] I think you can.

The three sisters ride up.

Tornado picture.

Tornado picture.

Tornado picture.

-[Mike] I scripted my narration and questions for people in this story.

A four person team followed me.

(soft music) - Go Mike.

-[Mike] Justin is shooting with a camera on a gimbal rig.

-[Justin] That gives me more control, mobility, leverage while still keeping a steady shot.

-[Mike] Tyler is using a remote lens controller to help with some of the camera work.

- We're like, okay, once we're mic'd up we gotta be on like good behavior.

(people laughing) - Oh, I love it when people aren't though.

That's the best.

(people laughing) -[Mike] Emily and Ryan record audio.

Ryan's boom is a backup in case there's an issue with the wireless mics, Emily is putting on six people.

- So I'm just trying to coordinate frequencies and make sure that there's wind protection on them and you know, fingers crossed that it all works.

(laughing) - I think we're as close and as ready as we're going to be.

So I'm anxious to kind of get going and make it happen.

- I'm excited, I'm massively stressed.

- Lift with the legs.

-[Mike] Now it's go time.

The goal, get it right with minimal takes to avoid burning out everyone involved.

- Go.

(dramatic music) -[Mike] So neat thing about all this, it's all connected.

So somebody staying.

-[Mike] The "What If..." team pulled it off, did something epic because of show about innovation and creativity should do the same, right?

-[Justin] This is insane.

This is the craziest thing.

I think we've tried for "What If..." But that's why I like "What If..." 'cause we take these chances, you know, we're always pushing ourselves and we're trying new things.

-[Mike] The people that I am fortunate to work with, the talent that we have is just crazy.

And then when you try to do something like this, the way people get motivated and they want to do it and they want to try something new and they, you know, we're trying equipment we've never had before.

We're trying techniques we've never had before and I think it's, you know, it's kind of inspiring, it's fun, it's exciting, it's something different.

And you know, that's why we do this right?

(birds chirping) (upbeat music) - [Mike] That's it for now.

Thanks to the Eberspacher family for all their help with this show.

Now is usually the time where I stay on camera and I tell you about all the places where you can find all of our "What If..." content, but apparently the crew believes that people would rather see cute mini donkeys than me for the rest of the show.

So here you go.

(whimsical music) (whimsical music) (whimsical music) (whimsical music) (whimsical music) (whimsical music) - [Mike] So we tried something you don't see very often.

Here's an inside look.

(horses clopping) (upbeat music) (Mike snickering) - [Alisha] Sorry, thank you.

- [Emily] No, you're good.

- I'm just gonna- - [Alisha] Appreciate it.

- [Mike] That's the entirety of our makeup - and hair budget right there.

-(crew members laughing) - [Crew Member] All around it, let Court.

- [Vicky] Then you just gotta- - [Mike] There is something Justin is trying to accomplish here and it has nothing to do with bike safety.

(Justin chuckling) No, he wants me to look like a buffoon.

That's where we're going here.

-(Mike laughing) - No, you don't.

- [Mike] Okay, now come over here.

Over here.

(upbeat music) Come over this way.

(upbeat music) There you go.

(groaning) Keep going, big guy.

I got nothing.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)