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    Kitchen Table Conversations gains national recognition

    In building happy families and healthy relationships, Cheryl Bassitt has some words of wisdom for you: don’t shoot the duck. What she means is no idea should be rejected or dismissed and everyone has something meaningful to offer their household, marriage, or workplace if others can be receptive to listening to them.

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    This policy of allowing everyone to contribute their voice to group decisions is emblematic of Bassitt’s mission with her one-woman family-connecting business, Kitchen Table Conversations. Her business is a reflection of her family’s journey to emotional, physical, and financial well-being that all starts with reclaiming the family meeting.

    When Bassitt, her husband, and two teenage sons began sitting down for weekly family meetings, they focused on goals, performing acts of kindness, making good habits and breaking unpleasant ones, and voicing gratefulness for the bounty in their lives. Bassitt defined three rules to making this conversation a fruitful, affirming one for all family members: all electronics must be disabled, all discussions should be “above the line” with regard to accountability and integrity, and, of course, never ever shoot the duck.

    Inspired by the nourishing conversations of a family reconnecting, Bassitt created the interactive Kitchen Table Conversation placemat.  The placemat is an interactive guide to the conversation that allows each family member to learn to budget and meet savings goals, to give back to the community, and succeed at work and school. It serves as a guide for other families to start their own conversations. Bassitt’s efforts have made such an impact that Kitchen Table Conversations was recently chosen from more than 1,000 entries as one of the Best New Ideas for Humanity by Humanity Unites Brilliance.

    “If we can strengthen our families, then we can strengthen our companies,” says Bassitt. “If we can strengthen our companies, we can strengthen our communities. If we can strengthen our communities, we can strengthen our nation. And if we can strengthen our nation, why can’t we strengthen our world?”

    With all the national recognition Bassitt began to receive as a family connector, she came to ECDI for a small business loan to help her develop her website, finish her eBook “How to Hold a Family Meeting For Real,” and expand her public speaking portfolio to include corporate wellness initiatives. In the past, ECDI has been able to finance businesses like Kitchen Table Conversations primarily through federal, state, and local programs. As the demand for our small business financing products skyrocketed, we knew it was time to create a new source for loan funds by launching the Invest Local Ohio campaign.

    Every dollar committed by individual investors to the Invest Local Ohio program will be loaned to a local small business and leveraged with at least two more dollars from other ECDI loan funds and guarantees a minimum two percent return. Investors have the opportunity to lift up hardworking entrepreneurs like Bassitt, whose success bolsters the local economy, creates jobs and taxpayers, and translates to more Ohioans participating in the economic mainstream.

    To learn more about Cheryl Bassitt and Kitchen Table Conversations, visit KitchenTableConversations.com.

    If you could invest in fuller lives for Central Ohioans looking to capitalize their dream, would you? For more information on becoming an investor in the Invest Local Ohio campaign, contact ECDI President Steve Fireman at 614-732-0577 or [email protected].

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