Dear Woodforest Community,

Here it is. Your magazine. For you, by you, from start to finish. I don’t plan on talking much about myself, but maybe this once I can introduce myself and how I ended up here.

To sum up the early years: I went to college, studied marketing, and walked out the doors in May 2006 to take on the world. But when I got there I found out Facebook had already changed the entire landscape of the industry.  I moved to the weird land of Austin, TX  around the time of the housing crisis, the big bank bailouts, and many upset people. I was pretty apolitical at the time and I remember people on the left were screaming “This is crony capitalism!,” and people on the right were saying, “What? Are you crazy? This is socialism!” I walked away from that experience deciding all we regular folk could do was support small businesses and keep some autonomy for ourselves. So I started an online publication called AlwaysVille, which would produce an album of the greatest local singer-songwriters supporting the hippest local food establishments. After losing $6,500 of my young recent grad money I called it quits. The greatest ideas fail because they make no money, am I right? For the next 10 years I became what I needed in that great failure, the right-hand man to well-known Austin entrepreneurs. Some bloomed without me, some fizzled, and then covid finally killed off my final venture and I moved back here where I grew up. 

Then, roughly a year ago, a long-time friend of mine invited me to meet her family in the Carlton Woods village in The Woodlands. She was telling me how she loved her big fancy house, but almost moved out because it didn’t feel like home. One day she took special notice to this magazine in her mailbox called “Stroll Carlton Woods” and it had an invitation. It said come on out to this house and meet this family we just introduced you to on the front cover. Normally, she figured she was too busy for these events she’s invited too, but this time she said “Honey, we’re going to this house and we’re gonna meet this family.” And she made a friend. Her whole family made a whole friend family actually. And as she went to more of the events community continued to build the old fashioned way, and her fancy house became her fancy home. Facebook could only dream.

At the end of the day, my young entrepreneurial endeavor failed because I was a purist. No Advertising! Many like to complain about advertising but let’s be honest, it brings us some pretty cool stuff. Or it should. Advertising is not an exact science, but these partners have decided to skip all the data mining, tracking and shoving their faces on every billboard to instead give you something we all need, community. And what better way to be a Community Sponsor than legitimately sponsoring the ability for each and every one of us to tell our stories. So I hope you enjoy learning about The Guilbeaus whom I loved meeting as well. And then stroll on down to learn about Troy Lane and the beautiful pools he's built.

So, politics aside, let's get together. Because what I've found is whether you're saying Make America Great Again or Keep Austin Weird, we're all saying the same thing: Support your neighbor. And I'm thankful this publication can be a little piece in aiding that. 

Ben Houston

Publisher / Owner

(936) 380-0725