Not Now Boarding….

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Daryl Phillips, CEcD

I was off taking care of one of my other endeavours this weekend and heard a presentation by Andy Goodman titled ‘Storytelling for Good Causes’ from the Stanford University Center for Social Innovation. My take away was that it is more effective in convincing people of the value of what you sell (marketing) to tell a good story than to present a bunch of facts. For example, the Red Cross doesn’t advertise that they collected ‘X’ gallons of blood, they tell about a few of people whose lives that blood saved. In economic development, we’re just not into telling stories, it’s about giving other people the opportunity to write a better personal story. The people who build the signs, make the shotgun shells, distribute to war fighters, sell us goods and services, benefit from a bigger tax base, etc. have a better story to tell than they would otherwise. Maybe those of us involved in economic development should concentrate a little more on marketing what we do and a little less on marketing our communities. Maybe not.

About Daryl Phillips, CEcD

I am a professional economic developer. I presently work for communities and companies in developing and implementing workforce and economic development solutions as CEO of Phillips Economic Development Solutions (Phi EDS). Prior to September 2017, I was the economic development professional who served a community team of elected officials, business people, community leaders and dedicated stakeholders for economic development in Cheatham County, Tennessee (pop. 39,880) and its four towns. During my five-year tenure, I served the team as Cheatham County grew over 1,700 jobs, turned around population declines at the start of this decade into healthy population growth, increased tourism expenditures 20.3% and local tax revenue from tourism 25.4%, grew sales tax revenue 36%, focused on developing the local workforce and was recognized by SmartAsset as having the 9th highest Incoming Investment Index of all the 95 counties in Tennessee. I am a member of International Economic Development Council, Southern Economic Development Council, Tennessee Economic Development Council and International Council of Shopping Centers. I have earned the designation of Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) from International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) certification from National Development Council and hold a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.
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