Tending The Garden
Context
I left Baltimore two years ago to live with my sweetheart and become hippie gardeners in southeastern Chester County, Pennsylvania.
After six months, I joined the Oxford Area Chamber of Commerce and attended their monthly networking lunch the next day. I met the Executive Director and gave an elevator pitch to the group.
A few months later the Executive Director and I codeveloped 6 brand storytelling workshops designed to help nonprofit leaders better clarify and articulate not just their purposes, but also, what’s in it for the rest of us when they fulfill their missions. They need allies, and their stories are meant to attract like-minded people to their causes.
Outcome
Here’s what I’ve learned about myself living in a small town. I don’t network, I find and make friends.
Here’s what I’ve learned about value in a small-town chamber.
Instead of posting on Linkedin offering “value” to whoever is scrolling their feed, I show up at local business and community events.
I show up for coffee meetings and share the power of stories.
If I can help that person, I do, and we’re both happy.
My personal brand isn’t crafted or curated.
It makes itself evident as I engage with people.
Take Away
Staying small in a small town and keeping it personal works for me.
I just turned 71. I’m not building an empire or driven by growth.
I give away much and charge less.
Yet, I am never without a client, and because I’m operating at the top of my game, my margins are the same as when working in Baltimore and pretending my business universe was the entire Mid-Atlantic.
The smaller my world, the deeper the meaning I get from participating in it.
As a vegetable gardener, I experience this every day. And now, Oxford, PA is my garden, and I tend to it with the same love and care.
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