“Who taught you how to do that?”
I love the possibilities in that question. Whether we are talking about a recipe, a craft or a tradition, it gives someone room to share the people and experiences behind what we see. For me, that is an important part of understanding a destination.
Through our work with Springfield, Missouri, we had the opportunity to get to know Shawn Askinosie, founder of Askinosie Chocolate. What initially appeared to be a story about an award-winning local chocolatier quickly became something much more.
Before opening his shop on Springfield’s historic Commercial Street, Shawn was a successful defense attorney. He left law to study artisanal chocolate, eventually traveling with his daughter to regions of Ecuador, Tanzania and the Philippines to source cocoa beans directly from smallholder farmers.
Learning where the cocoa came from led to more questions. Who were the farmers, and what did those relationships look like?
We learned that Shawn personally built relationships with the farmers, shared financial information and created a model that included profit sharing. We also discovered Chocolate University; an initiative he founded to share these lessons with young people.
What began as a conversation about chocolate became a story about reinvention, family, fairness, global relationships and meaningful work.
That discovery shaped how we shared Shawn’s story through our work for Springfield. Instead of simply presenting Askinosie Chocolate as a place to visit, we could help journalists understand the purpose and people behind it and give them a meaningful place to begin asking their own questions.
A visitor may walk into Askinosie Chocolate curious about how chocolate is made and leave thinking about the farmers who grew the cocoa or the courage it takes to pursue an entirely new calling.
The people who help us understand a place give visitors somewhere to begin. Leaving room for the next question gives the story somewhere to grow.