Episode 61 // Justin and Heather Slack of The Post & Office

Aug 22

This week we’re featuring the town of Harrington, Washington (pop. 424) and sharing some of the stories of rural revival happening here! Be sure to check back, as we’ll be posting new stories every day!

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This week on the podcast we’re in Harrington, Washington (pop. 424) with Justin and Heather Slack of The Post & Office — a local coffee shop and co-working space. As self-described ‘accidental business owners,’ Justin and Heather are sharing about their quick move to Harrington and the adventures that have followed — from opening up new businesses to Justin’s new role as mayor. Plus, you’ll appreciate the perspective they gained from their time spent living in a big city, and the ‘why’ behind everything they’re doing: to bring the community together.

The whole purpose of this business and redoing this building was to provide a space for the community to come together. And that’s what brings us the most joy from it every day, is seeing the people come in and connect with each other.

— Heather Slack

You’ll love their perspective on looking at their small town from a place of opportunity rather than a place of lack. There are big things ahead for Harrington, and all week long we’ll be featuring stories of rural revival happening in Harrington on our blog. Be sure to check out ruralrevival.co to follow along.

Listen right here or on these platforms:
APPLE | GOOGLE | SPOTIFY | STITCHER

We didn’t mean to be, but I think we ended up being like an ignition switch or a spark. They saw that it could be done.

— Justin Slack

When we came here I think we both looked at it as we could see opportunity everywhere we looked. Instead of seeing old run down buildings and nothing happening here, we looked around and thought, this is a really great place to raise a family, it’s a great place to be, there’s a ton of opportunity here. And we kind of ran with that.

— Heather Slack

We’ve never looked at the other businesses in town as competition. It’s always been complimentary to each other. The more people we can bring to town the better for us. We’re all here to work together and we’re all here to support each other, we’re not here to compete with each other.

— Heather Slack

As mayor, hopefully I’ve helped to bring to the city the mindset that yeah, we’re local government and government always slows things down and it’s red tape, and that does exist for various reasons. But we also can be business friendly, renovation friendly, revival friendly to get these things back there.

— Justin Slack