Inspired individuals are chasing their dreams in Iowa
Browsing at the Reading in Public Bookstore and Café is like stepping straight into Linzi Murray’s fairy tale come true. The young entrepreneur opened the stylish indie bookshop in West Des Moines’ Historic Valley Junction in 2021, to glowing reviews.
Linzi saw becoming a bookstore owner as her way to connect back into the community she and her husband fell in love with as Drake University students — and to escape the claustrophobia of living in New York City during pandemic-era lockdowns. Linzi grew up in Kansas and her husband is from Malaysia, but central Iowa feels like home to the couple.
“We always knew we’d go back to Des Moines because that is where we wanted to start a family,” Linzi said, a few months after welcoming her first child.
The lower cost of living here also helped fuel her ambitions as a business owner who believes in the power of books to build empathy and change the world.
“Living in New York City … I was paying $3,000 for a 600-square-foot apartment,” she said. “Why was I putting up with the rats and being stuffed like a sardine in the subway all the time?”
Linzi’s story is fresh and unique, but its theme that Iowa is the perfect place to pursue a dream connects her to many creative, innovative and visionary minds that make their home here.
Iowa Inspires Innovators and Inventors
Iowa cultivates a rich entrepreneurial ecosystem for founders like Blake Renaud who want to bring a big idea to the market. The mom of four launched PicklePlay, a website and app that helps users nationwide find pickleball court details and connect with nearby players.
“It’s a really fun sport that brings people of all different backgrounds together,” Blake said. The sport soared in popularity during the pandemic and quickly became a favorite for her own family. “So, we thought, ‘Hey, let’s build something that’s a good resource, and it can be this fun side thing.’ Well, it’s my full-time job now.”
For her startup, Blake worked with a designer friend to develop the logo and main framework, and local developers built out the rest of the technology. Since its launch, PicklePlay has received national attention from outlets like The New York Times and received Grow Cedar Valley’s 2023 Cedar Valley Innovation Award.
Nearby, another inventor making national headlines is Dasia Taylor. During her junior year at West High in Iowa City, she submitted a “smart sutures” project to a local science fair competition. Her idea for creating color-changing sutures to detect infection was tied to a concept she’d seen that could relay similar information to a phone or tablet. However, Dasia wanted this technology to be more accessible to people who may not be able to afford it.
Experimentation was a grueling process, but with the support of her teachers, Dasia began preparing to compete in the 2020 Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
“I started thinking there was no way I would win with only six months of science experience,” she said. “But I was there with my mentor and right before I went up on stage, she received a text from another teacher saying I was going to dazzle them. And I did just that.”
In 2021 at 17 years old, Dasia was announced as one of the 40 finalists in the 2021 National Regeneron Science Talent Search. She’s been recognized as a role model and enjoys meeting with education groups to promote racial equity. The STEM superstar started VariegateHealth, a medical device company based in Iowa City.
His Chance as a Chocolatier
Although Ben Davis wasn’t starting from scratch when he and his wife Katy bought the beloved Marion Chocolate Shop in 2021, the former Iowa Army National Guardsman had a lot to learn. The couple wanted to continue the shop’s two-decade legacy of crafting creams, caramels, truffles, toffees, gourmet hot fudge and hand-dipped goodies in-house. Fortunately, the retired Engineer Officer found some similarities between his military service and sweet new calling.
“My work in the military is not that different from projecting what I think we’re going to sell and making sure I’ve got the right raw ingredients, enough days to cook it and enough employees here to help put it together,” Ben said. “Iowa is also a hugely pro-veteran state and a great place for veterans to become small business owners.”
Ben was recognized with the Small Business Administration Impact Award during the 2023 National Veterans Small Business Week for his military service and in celebration of his contributions to the local and state economy. The family also received a $100,000 Main Street Iowa Challenge Grant in late 2023 for the revitalization of the historic Coenen Building, a red brick building in the bustling uptown district purchased for the chocolate shop’s future home.
“We’re really excited about that project because we are so vested in Marion,” Ben said. Public art transformed a back alleyway in Marion’s Uptown District into a hub for culture and commerce. “Seeing these dilapidated buildings get restored is just going to continue the success of Marion and Uptown — the soul of the city. Everything is going to radiate out from that.”
Putting Public Art on the Map
Across the state, Jeff Davis is another military veteran who recognizes art’s placemaking potential. Working from his home base in Woodbine, an hour north of Council Bluffs, the sculptor wows fans from around the world with large-scale metal pieces he’s installed in cities near and far.
A five-foot-tall purple guitar Jeff was commissioned to create in honor of the late musician Prince is now prominently located outside the Music Hall of Fame in Minnesota. In Wisconsin, a huge metal fish he forged jumps out of the landscape at Lake Menomin. And, at a recent sculpture competition in Mankato, Minnesota, a towering 11′ 5″ figure he calls “Viktor the Viking” stunned guests — earning Jeff the People’s Choice award for the third year in a row.
Jeff describes his larger-than-life welded warrior as: “Courageous, yet kind. A legacy of triumph assembled by many pieces and many personalities. An idol: Hammered from steel.”
His own story is similar. Jeff opened his art studio, Heavy Metal Renaissance, in 2015 after winning an Open 4 Business contest hosted by Main Street Iowa. He spent 22 years as a sheet metal worker, learning the trade after a stint serving as a medic in the United States Army. Jeff has shipped pieces all over the country, and to Europe, but the ones on display in his own small town speak to his connection to the place.
“Rural Iowa has some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet,” Jeff said.
“My escapes into those places provide me with the clarity, reflection and connection that I want to relay in my art,” Jeff said. “The things I build are appreciated by people with similar backgrounds and lifestyles. I fit in here and relate to folks. I also find great satisfaction in seeing local people experience art in person.”
Doing Well and Doing Good
People like bookshop owner Linzi Murray, Marion chocolatier Ben Davis, award-winning STEM student-turned-inventor Dasia Taylor, metal artist Jeff Davis and Pickleball app developer Blake Renaud each created something special while leading meaningful lives in Iowa.
“Giving back to my community is in my blood,” Dasia said.
“Being here for so many years, I’ve gotten used to people waving at me in the street, which can’t be replicated anywhere else,” Dasia said. “And because of that, Iowa is the place where I want to build something and continue to grow in whatever way that path unfolds. I want to show that Iowa has cool things, too.”
