Deb Brown, IOM

Cofounder SaveYour.Town

A Lifetime of Learning and Serving

Debra Brown has spent her entire varied career helping communities and organizations be more successful.  She is able to define where the community or organization is when she first interacts with them and works together, creating an action path to help communities and organizations even in the direst circumstances to move ahead toward success. Those skills have taken her across America and overseas, where her expertise has been welcomed in places where success appears to be out of reach.  Working with Deb, the places begin moving forward, at first taking small steps to anchor the effort in the community and then forging ahead to make progress in the community as a whole.  Even though she has worked in communities of many sizes, Deb’s heart lies with smaller towns and rural communities where economic development and greater economic success are critical for a community to begin thriving again.

Administrative, Retail, and Knives

After leaving college and rural Iowa for Chicago, she applied her ability to stay organized and execute administrative skills in a series of jobs with increasing responsibilities. In positions such as a Finance and Insurance Officer, accounts receivable, audits, and underwriting, skills that still enable her to successfully manage several projects at once. Deb never misses a beat when an action needs to occur, or a client needs attention.

Next came gaining a command of skills in retail, as a manager for a multi-store retailer, and her introduction to tourism, selling to people who were traveling and wanted the best products to do so. Deb polished more retail skills as the manager of one of the first internet cafes and direct sales of a high-end product, knives, which took her throughout the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska.

Chamber of Commerce Executive

After moving back to Iowa, her work as the Director of a Chamber of Commerce began as serving as a volunteer at another Chamber of Commerce!  That job also required that Deb learn the ropes in economic development, the chamber, and tourism.

When the job of an Executive Director of a Chamber of Commerce opened up in a neighboring town, the collective skills she had acquired led to Deb being hired immediately.  In that job, she really began to shine and where so many of the ideas that work for today’s communities emerged. Overseeing the complete responsibilities of the Chamber, Deb planned and organized new services for members, engaged in planning and implementing an ongoing series of events, hired and trained staff, and managed day-to-day operations.

She implemented a Tour of Empty Buildings that led to 10 of 12 buildings being filled within 18 months, started a 501c3 to save the local theater, and ultimately raised $250,000 to do so. Chamber membership increased by over 60%, and a newly created event, JunqueFest, brought 5,000 people into town on a weekend. When the largest television station in Iowa came to town to spend the day, 3,000 area residents showed up as well.

Those successes resulted from Deb getting command of digital and social media marketing, another skill that has also taken her to new heights.  She learned to use a website as an online tool to manage operations and promotion, increased Facebook interaction by 58%, expanded organic reach by 79%, and achieved a newsletter open rate of 41%!

SaveYour.Town

Ms. Brown now brings all of this experience, expertise, and success to communities across the nation.  She has worked on substantive efforts in 41 different counties, located in 14 different states, all the way from One Day “Tour of Empty Buildings” Events and week-long visits to thoroughly explore the assets and resources of a region and engage with the community, and everything in between.  Deb gets the conversations moving and past the “nothing will work here” or “we’ve already tried everything” stage and on to productive action.

Her comprehensive knowledge of businesses, communities, and organizations, how they work, and how they can improve their circumstances, led Deb to co-found Save Your.Town a decade ago, a business that works directly with rural communities to improve their economic prospects. That work has made her a recognized rural expert.

Over the years, Ms. Brown has made over 60 presentations to a wide range of organizations and conferences and has visited communities ranging from Ritzville, Washington, Estherville, Iowa, and Bennettsville, South Carolina, to the five-county region supported by the Missouri Council of Governments, a two-year project to five counties in Montana and Shawnee, Oklahoma.

In addition, she has participated in more than 40 webinars and virtual events, a series of radio interviews, been featured on more than 20 podcasts, and been involved in a series of educational efforts where she shared her collective knowledge on a more formalized basis.  Much of this knowledge has now been put into a book: From Possibilities to Reality: Save Your Town with these Uniquely Do-able Ideas, Projects, and Success Stories.

Just a little more

A LinkedIn connection with National Travel Center led to Deb being asked to join the team, as needed, as an independent contractor. NTC recognized that her comprehensive expertise, experience, and methods apply to counties, communities, and towns of all sizes. Her bias for action is a strategic complement to the detailed research and analysis that other team members engage in to develop realistic, feasible, and implementable strategies for success.

Education

Luther College – History

Institute for Organization Management – graduate 2017

Landmark Education - Personal Development and Leadership Courses, ongoing

 

Software Applications: Microsoft Office Suite, WordPress, and too many apps to mention.

 

Online Tools: Google applications, Instagram, Facebook, X, Blogging, Flickr, LinkedIn

Professional Development

Institute for Organizational Management graduated with an IOM designation.  The Institute offers education on running a nonprofit organization from membership recruitment, retention, and marketing to legal issues and finance.

Leadership Iowa 2015-16 Leadership Iowa is a premier issues-awareness program promoting leadership within Iowa.

Ag Urban Institute 2014—Hosted by the Iowa Soybean Association under the tutelage of Gus Gustafson, a group of urban and rural ag leaders around Iowa met every other month for a year and explored what it means to be a great community leader.

Community Involvement: 

Handsboro/Mississippi City Civic Organization - 2023 to present
As a member, I assist by connecting people and organizations to help save KP Hall in the Handsboro community. I find grants, write them, advise the executive board, attend events, and share about the organization, just to name a few of my duties.

Legacy Learning Boone River Valley (LLBRV), Board member and secretary  (2016 to present)

LLBRV is an instructional arts organization focusing on the arts, culture, historical/traditional art, and nature in rural settings. I help create a yearly schedule of workshops and markets, update the website, plan annual fundraising event dinners, and focus on bringing the local community and the arts together in a way that serves the local area.

Targeted Certified Business, Iowa designation by Iowa Economic Development Association  All Iowa state government agencies must establish annual TSB spending projections and report quarterly TSB procurement goals. By becoming a certified TSB and selling products and services to the state, TSBs help the state’s government entities meet these goals  (2017 to 2023)

Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, volunteer (2014-2021)

Volunteered to work with businesses to bring Hero2Hired information to the business, set up Boss Lifts (a day away for bosses to visit Camp Dodge and spend a day as if they were guard members), and serve as a liaison between the guard and businesses.

Iowa Central Community College Digital Mass Communications Advisory Board Member (2016 to 2022)

This board comprises industry experts and meets to discuss program developments and curriculum changes, as well as any additions or changes that need to be made based on the program's current state.

Help Entertain and Restore Organization (HERO) Board member and secretary, 2013-2015

I helped begin the organization and form a 501(c)3 that raised over $250,000 to save the local movie theater.