After attending a Colorado marketing workshop, Kathy Pasley is planning give her Recollections antique store in Lecompton a complete makeover to better attract regional customers.

Kathy Pasley apologized Thursday for her hurried words as she talked on the phone about the complete makeover she is giving her Lecompton antique store.

“I’ve got so many ideas my head is overflowing,” she said. “I’m reinventing my whole business from what I’ve learned.”

The ideas Pasley is applying to her Recollections antique store were learned at a 20-hour, three-day workshop she attended last month in Longmont, Colo., with five other Douglas County women and Jill Jolicoeur, assistant to Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug. Called Destination BootCamp, the workshop of marketing consultant Jon Schallert focused on how attendees could market their businesses or entities to a much broader audience.

“The philosophy behind Destination BootCamp is to market yourself a one- to three- hour drive outside your immediate area,” Jolicoeur said. “It teaches businesses how to market themselves as a destination.”

The seven women made the Colorado trip through a $10,000 grant to the county’s E-Commerce program received from the Kansas Department of Commerce, Jolicoeur said. The Douglas County E-Community program is tasked with helping start or grow businesses in Baldwin City, Eudora and Lecompton.

Once the grant money was secured, selection of two workshop attendees from each community was left to the local chambers of commerce in Baldwin City, Eudora and Lecompton.

Pasley said Schallert encouraged her and the other attendees to market what was unique about the businesses. With that, she said she was now marketing her business as a “purveyor of vintage goods and things remembered” rather than an antique store.

That’s just the start of her makeover to-do list, Pasley said. After returning from the workshop, she has started or plans changes to the store’s lighting, storefront display, floor-space layout, logo, advertising approach and internet presence.

To help get more attention from a larger audience, she is also tapping Lecompton’s many historical attractions.

“I’m working with the museums and restaurants to make it a destination and encourage visitors to make a day out of a visit,” she said. “We’ve had good luck in the past through word of mouth. We’re hoping that by working and sharing, we can step that up and grow all our businesses.”

One of those she’s working with is Lynn Ward, curator at Lecompton’s Territorial Capital Museum, who also made the Destination BootCamp trip. She returned from the trip just as the museum was opening its annual exhibit of Christmas trees decorated with antique or vintage ornaments and quickly put to work the marketing tips learned in Colorado.

“It’s the largest exhibit of its kind in the Midwest,” she said. “I thought, ‘Why not put that in advertising?’ It’s the truth, so why not tell people?”

She seized on the exhibit’s rarity in press releases, which those attending the workshop were encouraged to use, Ward said. To date, the exhibit has been featured in four Lawrence and Topeka media outlets, she said.

Ward has also seen success on Facebook after learning how to use some of the features of that popular social media venue at the workshop.

“I’m a curator. I know how to take care of artifacts,” she said. “Going to this boot camp really taught me how to market the museum. We did a little bit before on our Facebook page, but I just didn’t have any training in how really use it.”

She learned how to increase the visibility of a Facebook post with a $25 advertising boost and to target the message to specific audiences, Ward said.

“I picked women from 35 to 65 years old plus,” she said. “We’ve reached 20,000 people with just this one post.”

Pasley said she also has had success for her new Facebook knowledge. Since Nov. 1, she had added 2,000 Facebook friends to the 100 she had before attending the workshop, she said.

The real proof of the destination marketing success is added visitors, and Pasley said Lecompton appeared to have benefited during first weekend of November.

“We had a great weekend in the store,” she said. “There were a lot of people in town. The museums and restaurants said they were busy.”

Like Pasley, Sara Castaneda doesn’t offer a product in her Baldwin City Jitters coffee shop that potential regional customers can’t find in their hometowns. But she is now heeding advice at the workshop and emphasizing the unique feature of the business on U.S. Highway 56.

“We’re actually more a coffee trolley,” she said. “We’re one of the few in the Midwest and the only one in eastern Kansas.”

She’s also emphasizing the expertise of her longtime baristas and the quality of the coffee and food served at the business, Castaneda said. And like Pasley, she is linking to the community with Baker University, Kansas Belle Dinner Train, Midlands Railroad, Maple Leaf Festival and regular weekend events, she said.

Schallert preached that business owners should step back from the day-to-day task of running their businesses to take time for a holistic appraisal, Castaneda said.

“He encouraged us to look at where you are with your business and where you want to go and set practical goals,” she said. “The great thing is he showed us how to break down goals into steps you can achieve, so you’re not doing everything at once.”

Schallert is coming from Colorado to visit the businesses of Castaneda and Pasley and with Ward at the Territorial Capital Museum as well as the other three women who were at the workshop, Lori Gardner, owner of Homestead Kitchen and Baker in Baldwin City; Mary Kirkendoll, owner of Eudora Yoga; and Janenne Rothwell, of PBJ Studios of Eudora. He will then share ideas with the six women from his direct observations, Jolicoeur said.

While in the county, Schallert will also present a program on destination marketing from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at Peaslee Technical Center, 2920 Haskell Ave. Jolicoeur said the event is free to small business owners with advanced registration. To register, contact Jolicoeur at jjolicoeur@douglas-county.com or call her at 785-330-2890.