Lioness Books Champions Audiobooks with Libro.FM: Make the Switch and Hear the Difference
November 15, 2024

Key Takeaways


  • Libro.fm prioritizes supporting independent bookstores like Lioness Books.
  • Libro.fm allows you to own audiobooks outright.
  • Libro.fm offers a curated library with a focus on independent voices and backlist titles.
  • Libro.fm provides personalized customer support and easy navigation.
  • Libro.fm curates monthly playlists with recommendations from independent bookstores.


At Lioness Books, we believe in fostering a love of reading in all its forms. Whether you crave the tactile experience of a physical book or prefer the convenience of an audiobook, we're here to guide you on your literary journey. As the audiobook market continues to expand, we're thrilled to partner with Libro.FM, a platform that goes beyond simply offering a vast library of audiobooks. Here's why Libro.FM might be the perfect switch for your audiobook needs.



Key Differences Between Libro.fm and Audible


The core difference between Libro.fm and Audible lies in their philosophy. Audible, owned by Amazon, is a subscription-based service with a focus on convenience and a vast selection. Libro.fm, on the other hand, prioritizes supporting independent bookstores like Lioness Books. With each purchase on Libro.fm, a portion goes directly to your chosen independent bookstore, allowing you to enjoy audiobooks while nurturing the literary community you love.


Here's a breakdown of some key differences:

  • Ownership: Libro.fm allows you to own audiobooks outright. Once purchased, they remain in your library forever, even if you cancel your membership. This means you can listen at your own pace, take breaks when needed, and never feel pressured to rush through audiobooks just to use up credits before they disappear. 
  • Supporting Local Businesses: By choosingLibro.fm, you directly support independent bookstores like Lioness Books. Your audiobook purchases contribute to our ability to bring literacy and the love of reading back into local communities.
  • Great Customer Support:  Unlike faceless customer service bots, Libro.FM offers personalized support from fellow book lovers, ensuring your questions and concerns are addressed with a genuine understanding of your reading journey.

Library Selection and Availability


Libro.FM is home to a carefully curated library teeming with captivating audiobooks across various genres. There are over 400,000 options to browse and get lost in.From the latest bestsellers to secret finds waiting to be discovered, you'll find an abundance of titles to fuel your audiobook curiosity. 


Independent Voices and Backlist Titles:

Libro.fm shines a spotlight on independent voices, offering a haven for audiobooks that might be overlooked on larger platforms. You get to stumble upon a diverse range of authors and publishers as you browse, ensuring a richer literary landscape thrives. Libro.fm has a wealth of backlist titles – treasures from past publishing seasons that continue to resonate with readers. So, whether you crave the latest indie sensation or seek a captivating classic, Libro.fm has the perfect audiobook adventure waiting for you.


Independent Bookstore Recommendations:

One of Libro.fm's unique features is their integration with independent bookstores. Lioness Books, for instance, curates audiobook recommendations on Libro.fm, allowing you to explore staff picks and some sweet reads we love.


Libro.FM Makes Navigation Easy


Libro.FM offers a seamless and intuitive navigation experience. The platform's clean interface allows users to effortlessly browse through its audiobooks, categorized by genre, author, promotions, or bestseller lists. Advanced search features enable precise searches, helping you quickly find the exact title you're looking for. Libro.FM's user-friendly design ensures a smooth and enjoyable browsing experience.


Libro.FM Playlists Take Out The Guesswork


Feeling overwhelmed by the many options available? Libro.fm takes the guesswork out of choosing your next listen with their curated monthly playlists. Lioness Books and other independent bookstores contribute their expert picks to these playlists, creating themed collections that highlight hidden gems, new releases, and staff favorites. Whether you're in the mood for a heart-pounding thriller, a heartwarming romance, or a captivating nonfiction title, Libro.fm's playlists offer a convenient starting point to discover your next audiobook obsession.


In the end, the choice between Libro.fm and Audible comes down to what matters most to you. If you value supporting independent bookstores, owning your audiobooks, great customer service, promotions and deals, networking through reading,and exploring diverse voices, Libro.fm offers an advantage. By choosing  Libro.fm and selecting Lioness Books as your partner bookstore, you're not just getting a fantastic audiobook experience, you're helping us curate a vibrant literary space, host exciting  events, and continue fostering a love of books in our community. Lioness Books’ mobile trailer is a haven for bibliophiles, offering a carefully chosen selection of books, a warm and welcoming atmosphere, and a passionate local bookseller eager to help you discover your next great read (or listen!). Visit our website to learn more!


FAQ:


What is the key difference between Libro.fm and Audible?

The core difference lies in their philosophy. Audible focuses on convenience and a vast selection, while Libro.fm prioritizes supporting independent bookstores like Lioness Books. With each purchase on Libro.fm, a portion goes directly to your chosen bookstore.


Does Libro.fm have a good selection of audiobooks?

Yes, Libro.fm offers a carefully curated library of over 400,000 audiobooks across various genres. You'll find everything from the latest bestsellers to hidden gems and backlist titles.


How does Libro.fm help independent bookstores?

Libro.fm allows you to directly support bookstores like Lioness Books. A portion of your audiobook purchase goes towards the bookstore, helping them bring literacy and the love of reading back into local communities.

By Biff Rushton August 11, 2025
At Lioness Books, we believe that books are not merely a matter of ink and paper, but are armories brimming with the untamed ordinance of freedom, ideas, transformation, progress and inspiration; arsenals forged to fight the soul-silencing tyranny of ignorance and suppression. Under current political conditions, the United States has seen an alarming escalation in the scope and scale of book censorship, with our great state of Texas leading the charge in aggressive restriction of accessing books which explore race, gender, sexuality, and social justice. In 2025, the banning of books has re-emerged not as a fringe idea or lesson in history, but as a strategy within a broader effort to control cultural narratives and shift our truths. Disguised as protection, this current call for censorship threatens the very essence of what a bookstore believes in and represents… a free exchange of ideas. We, as Texans, are standing at an epochal crossroads, facing a challenge that is not simply a battleground for intellectual freedom, but a fatal threat to democracy herself. Here at Lioness Books, we are resolute in our dedication to this struggle, and we are committed to fight without compromise nor capitulation. Texas, more than any other state, leads the country in formal book challenges and bans. According to data from PEN America, a nonprofit organization that tracks censorship in literature, Texas school districts have led the nation in book bans for the past five years. These bans often target works of LGBTQ authors, books by and about people of color, and works that confront America’s historical injustices. The political justification tends to hinge on vague or loaded terms such as obscenity, indoctrination, or inappropriate content, without recognizing the literary or didactic value of the works in question.  What we are witnessing in Texas is not just a reaction to individual titles, but the deliberate use of censorship as a political weapon to reshape public education and discourse. State legislators have passed and proposed laws that limit how teachers can discuss race and gender in classrooms, and library materials are now under scrutiny from elected boards, whose knowledge of literature and learning is more often than not, slim to none. These developments are not isolated. They are part of a coordinated national trend that has pushed Texas out front as the ideological epicenter and political testing-ground for this refurnished brand of censorship. These bans do more than remove books; they erase the experiences of marginalized communities, signaling to students - especially those from underrepresented groups - that their stories don’t matter. We believe our youth deserve better. They deserve literature that reflects the full spectrum of human experience, and to deny access to those diverse perspectives is to rob them of a chance to develop critical thinking, empathy, insight, and a nuanced understanding of the world. The pages of history are stained with the consequences of book bans, a tactic employed by those who seek to suffocate the human spirit’s capacity for thought and soulful transformation. In Nazi Germany, the beginning flames of fascism were fed with kindling constructed of novels, poems, political papers, and science texts deemed un-German, degenerate , or contrary to the country’s nationalist ideology. Their 1933 book burnings were not vandalism but a calculated effort to erase ideas that threatened fascist control, setting the stage for the cultural and moral devastation that was soon to come. In the Jim Crow South, from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights era, books that affirmed the dignity of Black Americans or exposed the horrors of racism - like Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God - were systematically excluded from public access to preserve the narrative of racial inferiority. The McCarthy era in 1950s America also echoed this fear of ideas, as the government’s frantic, anti-communist crusade led to the blacklisting of authors, librarians, and teachers. Works such as Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath were pulled from library shelves beneath the accusation of promoting leftist ideals, and for daring to question the status quo. History offers countless parallels: the 16th century burning of Mayan codices, and the erasing of indigenous knowledge by the Spanish, or the Chinese Communist Party’s destruction of counterrevolutionary texts during the Cultural Revolution. Each instance reveals censorship as the weapon of choice for those who fear the power of knowledge and the capacity of the right words to awaken consciences, stir emotions, and ignite movements of change. These lessons from the past compel us to resist the book bans of today, recognizing them as assaults on the very essence of intellectual and moral freedom. Texas - where freedom and independence have long been considered God-given birthrights - we must resist being the next to fall into the goose-step march of oppression, censorship, and control. Our children deserve better. Our teachers deserve better. Our future deserves better, and our democracy - messy, plural, and defiant - demands better. For Lioness Books, our resistance to this suppression is not just a matter of principle. It is a recognition of literature’s role in the eternal struggle for justice and truth. We call home a state where the political climate has become increasingly hostile towards dissent, and where public education is being transformed into a war of ideological conformity. As a bookstore, we are under no illusion that our shelves alone can halt these efforts. But we believe in the power that books possess in uniting and sustaining resistance and delivering hope. By preserving access to stories, we preserve the heartful soul of culture; we preserve truth. When we defend the right to read; we affirm liberty and the right to question, dream, and dissent. This has nothing to do with nostalgia. This is survival. Lioness Books will continue to stock what is banned, what is hidden, what is suppressed, and we will celebrate what is silenced. We will carry the voices forward proudly and full-throated. Because history shows us, when you ban a book, you don’t erase its truth… you ignite its power.
By Ainsley Shaw August 1, 2025
Lioness Books is highlighting the freedom to read and the dangers of censorship this August with Banned Books Month. Anne Russey, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, talks with us about advocating against book bans and censorship, and the biggest roadblocks they face in the process. Russey also shares the inspiration for their nonprofit organization as well as their mission and values. We are running a social campaign all month long—DM us a photo of you with your favorite banned book to be featured on our socials (@lionessbookstx)! Check out our curated booklists featuring a variety of banned books on our Bookshop and Libro sites too.
By Biff Rushton July 30, 2025
In a world increasingly built on the transient, the trendy, the swift, and the disposable, rare and antiquarian books stand as testaments to permanence, intention, and the physicality of knowledge. They are not simply vessels of content, but expressions of culture; culture you can touch and preserve. At Lioness Books, our mission transcends the simple act of selling books. It is about curating experiences, assembling libraries not only of words, but of meaning. That is why we have decided to expand our collection to include antiquarian, rare, and collectible books. This is a natural progression for us, not a TikTok craze or a trend driven pivot. It is a purposeful expansion born from our core values, an evolution committed to depth and legacy. For in the world of books, trends are fleeting but legacy always endures. Let’s define our terms carefully, because this is a space where language matters. The distinctions between antiquarian, rare, and collectible books are rooted in their origins and significance. Antiquarian books, typically born before the boom of industrial printing, are historical artifacts. Printed on handmade paper and bound by artisans, they were labors of love and craft, and from an era when books were considered treasures, often housed in private collections and passed down from generation to generation. Rare books, regardless of age, are valued by their scarcity, whether due to limited printing, notable provenance, historical suppression, or singular attributes like authorial inscriptions or errata; a first edition of Galileo’s “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems” (printed in 1632 and banned by the Inquisition), and Harriet Ann Jacobs’s slave narrative “Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl” are both perfect examples of this rarity. Collectible books, while sometimes overlapping with antiquarian and rare, are defined by their historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance. For example, a signed first edition of Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities” or the seminal and prosecuted poetry collection “The Love Book” by counterculture icon Lenore Kandel, are both considered collectible, along with illustrated editions, niche genres, or books with personal inscriptions. These treasures are often coveted due to their unique ability to encapsulate pivotal moments in literary history or embody the personal, artistic touch of their creators, making them cherished pieces of our cultural heritage. The allure of these books is their capacity to signify beyond their content. A rare book, such as a copy of a 19th-century abolitionist pamphlet, is a codex of resistance, its scarcity a testament to what it defied. An antiquarian book, with its marginalia or bookplate, becomes a linked-text, connecting readers across the centuries through recognized and shared engagement. Collectible books, whether valued for their aesthetic beauty or their role in literary history, are icons of cultural memory, their value amplified by the stories they carry. For the book lover, handling such volumes is a dialogue with the past that reveals the eternal power of the written word. At Lioness Books, we consider our expansion into the antiquarian, rare, and collectible book market an act of cultural stewardship, a commitment to preserving the material signs of human thought and creation. These books are not mere commodities but relics. They are legacies and testimonies which outlast trends, endure censorship, and speak to us from generations past. To engage with them is not just to read, but to remember, to feel, to understand, and to inherit. To make our collection more accessible, we have launched an eBay storefront, where the majority of our rare and antiquarian collection will be available to browse and purchase. This platform allows us to reach a broader audience (collectors, scholars, and passionate readers around the world) while ensuring each book is accurately described, carefully packaged, and treated with the care it deserves. For those who prefer the immediacy of browsing in person, we are curating a rotating in-store selection of notable works - titles chosen not only for their value or rarity but for the way they resonate with our community and the literary spirit of Lioness. In this era of doom-scrolling and self-serving algorithmic curation, we offer an alternative: intentionality. To collect a rare book is to rebel against disposability. To preserve an antiquarian volume is to guard the voices that history tried violently to silence. And to walk into a store like ours is to believe that discovery still matters, that there are still books waiting to find you, and still readers who will know what it means when they do. We at Lioness invite you to join us in this new chapter, and we encourage all collectors, readers, historians, and lovers of the written word to support small local businesses like ours, especially now. The existence of independent bookstores like Lioness depends on a community that still believes in craftsmanship, care, and the power held in objects that bear our stories, our sufferings, and our splendor. Because that’s what books are. They are not simply commodities, they are evidence. Of defiance. Of beauty. Of brilliance that refuses to disappear.
July 18, 2025
International Youth Day is held on 12 August and was created by the United Nations to honour the voices and ideas of young people. It’s a day to recognise the role youth play in building a fairer and more inclusive world. To honour the day, we’ve put together a list of 12 young adult novels that explore themes like identity, strength, friendship, and change . All of these books are available through our network of independent bookstores in the USA, so by reading them, you’re also supporting local communities. 1." The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon This story follows two teenagers from very different backgrounds who meet by chance in New York City. One is facing deportation to Jamaica, and the other is under pressure to follow a strict life plan set by his Korean American family. Over the course of one day, their connection challenges what they believe about love, fate, and the future. It’s a thoughtful look at immigration, cultural identity, and the choices young people make when their lives feel out of their control. Purchase The Sun Is Also a Star 2. "Clap When You Land" by Elizabeth Acevedo Two teenage girls are living in different countries, one in New York City, the other in the Dominican Republic, when they discover they share the same father after his sudden death in a plane crash. As they process their grief, they begin to uncover long-held family secrets. This novel is written in verse and explores sisterhood, loss, and finding trust after betrayal. It highlights how young people can grow stronger when faced with painful truths and unexpected change. Purchase Clap When You Land 3. "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez After the sudden death of her older sister, a teenager tries to make sense of her family’s expectations while uncovering secrets her sister left behind. Living in a traditional Mexican American household, she struggles with grief, cultural pressure, and her own plans for the future. This novel gives an honest look at mental health, family roles, and identity. It speaks to young people who feel torn between different parts of themselves and the people they want to become. Purchase I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter 4. "Sunrise on the Reaping" by Suzanne Collins This prequel to The Hunger Games takes readers back to the 50th Hunger Games, long before Katniss Everdeen’s time. It follows a new set of characters living under the same harsh system, where survival depends on strength, strategy, and luck. The story looks closely at power, fear, and what it means to resist. It gives a voice to young people living in systems they didn’t create but must find a way to challenge. Purchase Sunrise on the Reaping 5. "Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow" by Jessica Townsend In the latest Nevermoor book, Morrigan Crow continues to explore her place in a magical world where not everyone is welcome. She faces hidden truths, powerful enemies, and new lessons about her own identity. This series shows a young girl learning to stand up for herself while also protecting others. It speaks to the importance of courage, fairness, and belonging—especially when growing up means facing things that don’t always make sense. Purchase Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow 6. "The Enchanted Greenhouse" by Sarah Beth Durst Two sisters discover a magical greenhouse that seems to respond to their emotions. As they spend time there, they learn more about themselves and the world around them. This is a gentle story about change, hope, and connection. It reminds readers that even in small, quiet moments, young people are always growing, sometimes in ways they don’t notice right away. It’s a story about healing and the value of being open to something new. Purchase The Enchanted Greenhouse 7. "We Are Not From Here" by Jenny Torres Sanchez This novel follows Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña—three teens who flee violence in Guatemala and journey north through Mexico toward the U.S. border. Their path is dangerous and uncertain, but driven by hope. Through their voices, the story shows the real struggles faced by many young migrants. It’s a powerful look at courage, friendship, and the search for safety, encouraging readers to think deeply about justice, borders, and human dignity. Purchase We Are Not From Here 8. "A Thousand Steps into Night" by Traci Chee In this fantasy tale inspired by Japanese folklore, Miuko is cursed to slowly become a demon. She leaves her quiet village to break the curse and discovers a world filled with gods, spirits, and power struggles. Along the way, she learns what it means to speak up in a world that tells her to stay quiet. The story reflects real-world questions about gender, freedom, and who gets to decide their own future. Purchase A Thousand Steps into Night 9. "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao In a world where girls are used to power giant battle machines, a young woman takes a stand after her sister dies. She joins the system that took everything from her, but instead of following the rules, she fights to change them. This story mixes science fiction with history and challenges ideas about gender, power, and control. It’s a strong reminder that young people can question unfair systems, and rewrite them. Purchase Iron Widow 10. “The Grace Year” by Kim Liggett In Garner County, girls are sent into isolation for a year when they turn sixteen. The community believes this “grace year” removes their dangerous magic. Most don’t return the same. Tierney, the main character, begins to see how fear and control shape their lives. The story explores survival, power, and gender-based violence in a rigid society. It encourages readers to question harmful traditions and reflect on how young people are taught to follow or resist. Purchase The Grace Year 11. “The Black Flamingo” by Dean Atta This novel follows Michael, a mixed-race British teen growing up between cultures and expectations. He feels out of place until he discovers drag, a space where he can explore who he is without fear. Written in free verse, the book gently explores race, masculinity, and queer identity. Michael’s journey is about self-expression, pride, and being seen. It’s a strong example of how creative spaces can help young people define themselves on their own terms. Purchase The Black Flamingo 12. "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson Jade is a thoughtful and driven African American teen who lives in a low-income neighbourhood but attends a mostly white private school on a scholarship. She’s proud of her abilities, especially in art, but often feels that adults focus more on “fixing” her than listening to her. When she’s placed in a mentorship programme, she begins to speak out about inequality in her school and community. The story explores race, privilege, and what real support looks like. Purchase Piecing Me Together Ready to Read, Reflect, and Support Local? Each of these stories offers a window into the lives, challenges, and voices of young people today. Whether you’re reading for yourself, your classroom, or your community, we believe these books invite powerful conversations about identity, justice, and belonging, and empower the next generation to lead with empathy and courage. You can find many of these titles right here at Lioness Books . We're a proudly independent, community-focused bookshop based in Texas. And we're thrilled to be opening our first permanent location in Old Town Leander , bringing even more books, events, and literacy resources to local readers. Visit our homepage to browse, shop, or see where our mobile bookshop is headed next. We’d love to see you there.
colorful ribbong symbolising pride month
By Ainsley Shaw July 11, 2025
July is Disability Pride Month and commemorates the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lioness Books is celebrating this month by featuring authors with disabilities, amplifying their voices, and highlighting literature that focuses on self-representation, reclamation, inclusion, and history. Here are some authors with disabilities and literature to engage with this month and beyond:
By Ainsley Shaw July 1, 2025
Lioness Books is welcoming the sunshine this July and celebrating summer reading! Incorporating reading and promoting literacy over the summer holiday is not only important, but should be fun and relaxing! Therefore, we created a summer reading bingo game for everyone to enjoy. Check out our summer reads July booklist here , and challenge your friends and/or family to see who can get a bingo first! Happy summer reading! 
woman reading a book while holding a coffee in one hand
By B. Rushton June 23, 2025
Book Review by B. Rushton In mid-twentieth century America, the publishing industry was revolutionized by the streamlined production of pulp novels. The printing and distribution of cheaply produced and cheaply priced paperback novels, which had begun in the late 1930s, steadily grew until it reached its full force in the early 1950s. These books were sold at drugstores, newsstands, and other places where one might purchase inexpensive, consumable entertainment. They were compact enough to fit in your pocket and cheap enough to discard when you were through with them which, given the surreptitious nature of purchasing these books, was sometimes a necessity. It was in this environment that the burge oning golden age of lesbian pulp novels took place, where new, independent publishers made transgressive fantasies of lesbian life available to readers through dime-store shelves or discreet mail-order catalogues. While many of these titillating books were aimed at an audience of curious heterosexual men, it was also through these clandestine entertainments that many lesbians found the maps and signposts for entering the half-hidden world of their own sexualities. The transportive power of reading these books gave reflection to the hidden desires of readers that often could find no expression beyond the wood-pulp pages of their imaginations. Even well into the women's liberation movement, pulp novels like these were like life-preservers for lesbians seeking community.
new lioness books brick and mortar bookshop in texas
By Ainsley Shaw June 6, 2025
Photos by: John Miller Bookstores belong to the community. Lioness Books embraces this philosophy and is opening a new independent bookstore! We recently opened the doors of our new brick and mortar for a Vision Night to gather feedback from local authors, artists, community leaders, and key stakeholders about what people want to see in their local bookstore. The idea for the night was to give people the chance to walk through the store before it is renovated, gather ideas and hopes for what the store can become, and foster connection and collaboration between local authors, artists, businesses, and creatives.
Performer interacting with an excited crowd at a colorful queer event in Austin, Texas
By Ainsley Shaw June 1, 2025
Co-founders of Local Queer ATX , Caleb Armstrong (he/they) and Chase Brunson (he/him), share the inspiration behind their organization and tell us about their non-profit, Pride Month events, and monthly book club called The Local Queer Book Club. AS: Can you start by introducing yourselves and telling us about your backgrounds? CA & CB: “We’re Caleb Armstrong (he/they) and Chase Brunson (he/him), co-founders of Local Queer! We’ve been organizing queer community events since we met at Texas A&M in 2013. While at A&M, we founded Transcend, the university’s first recognized organization dedicated to transgender and gender expansive students and faculty. We also lobbied to have Texas A&M pay for the queer community to walk in the 2017 Houston Pride Parade—pretty exciting for a campus consistently ranked in the top 10 least LGBT friendly universities. So, when people ask us how we manage Local Queer we simply tell them it’s what we’ve always done! It also helps that outside of Local Queer, we are both event industry professionals operating in the nonprofit space. We have working experience planning galas, fundraisers, conferences, seminars, and other events which you can see reflected into everything we do for Local Queer.”
people gathering during old town street festival
By Ainsley Shaw May 19, 2025
Leander Chamber of Commerce President Bridget Brandt talks with us about the annual Old Town Street Festival in Leander with a local business focus. The festival is taking place on Saturday, June 7th from 11am to 10pm at 100 N. Brushy St. The 5K check-in begins earlier at 9:30am. Lioness Books will be there all day long with our shelves stocked and ready to celebrate! Even as Leander’s population continues to soar, local businesses still struggle to gain exposure. Whether that’s due to the wide geographical spread of the city, or the obvious difficulty of growing a business in the early days, the Old Town Street Festival (OTSF) brings an astonishing amount of recognition—and the Leander Chamber of Commerce makes it a point to put local businesses at the forefront. The OTSF began 11 years ago as a community catalyst idea. “We wanted to do something that would put Leander on the map,” says Bridget Brandt, President of the Leander Chamber of Commerce. “We wanted something that helped small businesses. At that time, and even today, getting awareness in Leander is very tough for small businesses.” Businesses from all over Texas flock to take part in the OTSF every year, but the Chamber keeps a local focus and gives preference to those from Leander. “We are very intentionally creating local shopping,” says Brandt. “You’ll see a ton of local food vendors, breweries, and wineries when you come to the festival. It’s local vendors that provide the petting zoo, the rides, and local artists do the sidewalk chalk. All of those things are really curated to create a local feel and expose you to things that maybe you didn’t know existed before.” The importance and value of community events like the OTSF for small businesses is not solely about the money—it truly comes down to awareness. “100% of the proceeds go back to the local businesses for the 5K through the work that the chamber does in our community,” says Brandt. “Last year we put $1.2 million back into the pockets of our local businesses. And that is a conservative number, because not all of the vendors share their sales with us. It is probably more like $2.5. On a bad year—if the weather is bad—we’ll see 10,000 people come. If the weather’s good, we’ll see 20 to 30 thousand people. So even on a bad year, that’s 10,000 new people that didn’t know your business existed before and have now seen it. If even 500 of those people become customers, you have made an incredible change. That’s sort of what [the OTSF] creates and that’s the goal. Awareness in those early stages of your business is so critical to helping you grow.” At the OTSF, there’s no age limit for generating recognition of your work—kid entrepreneurs are welcomed and encouraged to participate. The Chamber offers free registration and sets up a tent for kids with businesses to sell their products. The only criteria is that it has to be a kid-owned business with their own product and handiwork. “Over the years, probably 30 to 40 different kid businesses come through the festival and grow,” says Brandt. “It’s a great way for them to get experience with actually selling whatever their product is. That ability to interact with customers and create exchanges of conversation and exchange money are really good soft skills that are impossible to learn in any other way but the real world. I love to go to that tent and see all the kids talking to their consumers. It’s a really nice way to help the kids of Leander grow.” Over 11 years time, the OTSF has expanded exponentially—in both attendance and size. Today, the festival has the 5K, a wide variety of food and beverage vendors, rides, a petting zoo, live music, and more. “It has grown substantially, but it is representative of the growth of Leander,” says Brandt. “Every single thing about the festival is money going back into our local community. It really is the perfect storm of a local event.” The best way to support the OTSF and the local businesses involved is to simply show up. With no entry fee and free parking at Leander ISD and around Old Town, getting in and out of the festival is accessible and uncomplicated. “Bring your kids, bring your dogs, and come do all of the fun things that make Leander great!”