Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store
Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store takes you behind the counter of a real small business run by two parents raising four kids while building their dream. Each episode shares honest weekly wins, failures, lessons, and the beautiful chaos of running Fort Orange General Store—from inventory challenges to bedtime routines, customer stories to relationship balancing acts.If you’re a small business owner, an aspiring entrepreneur, a parent juggling too much, or someone who loves authentic conversations about work and life blending together, this show is for you. Expect candid storytelling, practical takeaways, and a real look...
10: What’s Missing in Downtown Albany? Community Voices, Small Business, and the Future of Our City
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello celebrate a major milestone—10 episodes—by turning the conversation outward and asking a powerful question:
What’s missing in Downtown Albany?
What started as a simple post on social media quickly grew into a much larger conversation. With over 160 comments and thousands of views, the response revealed something deeper than just ideas—it showed a commun...
9: Growing a Small Business the Right Way: Why Community Comes Before Expansion
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello reflect on a series of recent conversations and experiences that led to one powerful realization:
Not all growth is good growth.
After participating in a pop-up event and reconnecting with past communities, Joe and Erica began to connect the dots between their current business decisions and lessons learned from earlier chapters in their careers.
...
8: Customer Relationships: The Secret to Building a Loyal Small Business Community
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello dive into one of the most important elements of running a successful small business: relationships with customers.
For many businesses, transactions are the goal. But for Erica and Joe, the real foundation of Fort Orange General Store is the connections they build with the people who walk through the door.
Drawing on Erica’s years in th...
7: Redefining Success: From Stable Careers to Small Business Ownership
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello take a step back from the day-to-day realities of retail and ask a deeper question:
What does success actually mean?
For both of them, the definition has changed dramatically over time.
Joe and Erica reflect on the different versions of success they grew up with, from hard work and financial stability to public perception...
6: Marketing a Small Retail Business: Events, Social Media & What Actually Drives Sales
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello pull back the curtain on how they actually market a small retail business — without a big agency, massive ad budget, or corporate team behind them.
From downtown events like First Fridays and seasonal strolls to Instagram posts written late at night, this episode breaks down what truly drives traffic and sales for a brick-and-mortar store.
They discuss:
Wh...5: Marry Someone You’d Go Into Business With: Love, Trust, and the Reality of Building Together
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello reflect on a single sentence spoken during their wedding ceremony that continues to shape their lives: “Marry someone you’d go into business with.”
What started as an unexpected line from their officiant—and longtime friend—became a powerful lens through which they now view their marriage, family life, and entrepreneurial partnership. This episode explores what that idea really mea...
4: How We Bought Fort Orange General Store: Risk, Family, and Trusting the Leap
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello share their origin story—how a late-night Instagram scroll turned into buying a brick-and-mortar small business in Downtown Albany.
What started as a joking text—“We should buy this”—quickly became something neither of them could shake. Erica had been a longtime customer and admirer of Fort Orange General Store, and when she saw the post announcing it was for sa...
3: Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Break-In, Resilience, and the Reality of Small Business Ownership
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello share one of the most difficult stories they’ve faced as small business owners—one they didn’t know if they were ready to tell.
On Christmas morning, just minutes after midnight, Fort Orange General Store was broken into. What followed was a surreal, emotional, and exhausting chain of events that unfolded while their four kids slept upstairs waitin...
2: Hot Chocolate, Santa, and Controlled Chaos: Inside a Small Business Community Event
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In this episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store, Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello break down what it really takes to pull off a major community retail event as small business owners—while juggling family life, exhaustion, and very big ideas.
The focus is Downtown Albany’s Hot Chocolate Stroll, a beloved annual event that brings hundreds of people into local businesses in a single afternoon. After their first year owni...
1: Our First REAL Holiday Season at Fort Orange General Store
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Welcome to the very first episode of Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store—a behind-the-scenes look at what really happens when you run a brick-and-mortar small business while raising a family and navigating marriage at the same time.
In this episode, hosts Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello share an honest, unfiltered conversation about surviving their first true holiday retail season after taking over Fort Orange General Store in Albany, NY...
Trailer - Why 'No' is the Biggest Motivator for Success
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Welcome to Small Business, Big Life: Inside Fort Orange General Store — where entrepreneurship collides with marriage, kids, community, and a whole lot of controlled chaos.
In this trailer episode, hosts Joe Slichko and Erica Cubello pull back the curtain on what it really looks like to build a small business together while navigating everyday life. As partners in marriage and in business, Joe and Erica share the mindset that drives them forward: taking risks, hearing “no” more times than t...
