In today's day and age, when social media influences customers, Missy Creed wants to change the way people see businesses in her hometown. The social media guru and lover of all things local wants to expand the entrepreneur network in Mid-Missouri.
Voices of Infuence
Jefferson City is lucky to have generations of women who have tremendous impacts on their companies and the community. Five women are featured in the Oct. 29, 2018, issue of #jcmo Inside Business as "Voices of Influence" in the business community.Creed owns Dogwood Social, a third-party social media marketing company, which began in October 2015. The idea was hatched when she did a Pinterest search for "things to do in Jefferson City." The inaccurate results - personal travel, odd jobs and digital training - led her to be the boss of two online networks and create opportunities for up-and-coming professionals.
"We are in such a good position to make exciting changes and improvements," she said. "There's an entrepreneurial vibe and underground that's coming up, and people are doing some really cool things. I personally am seeing a lot of change, and it's good change."
In January 2018, she started jeffcityblog.com, which focuses on local staples and new things around town. The site features sites to visit and a "Mo Swag" shop with clothing designed by local artists.
Born in Korea, Creed was adopted at birth and raised in Jefferson City. Being here her whole life gave her the urge to flee after college. In 2011, she earned her fashion design degree from Missouri State University and left for South Korea to teach English and dive into her native culture.
"I obviously thought I was going to go into fashion but honestly, I feel like that industry may have been too cut-throat for me," Creed said.
Missing family, she decided to make Jefferson City home again and create a place she wanted to live.
She currently is working on her third business, Campus, a co-working space, with business partner Sarah Bohl. She hopes the business will open in early 2019 and bring out local entrepreneurs to brainstorm and host meetings in a professional setting.
Beyond these ventures, Creed is the marketing chair for Young Professionals, co-founder of 1 Million Cups Jefferson City, member of Jefferson City Arts Foundation and other organizations.
The flexible work times allow her to be a dog mom, stay up to date on photography and seek out new possibilities.
Editor's note: Answers have been edited for length and clarity.
Q. Who influenced you early in your career and how did they do so?
"Mike (Moscato with River City Florist) is a huge influence because I was working there at the time when I thought of all this. Chris Lewis at Rite-Way Truck brokerage was a huge inspiration to me. Chris was one of the owners there and an awesome mentor for me and exposed me to a lot of the business world that I had never seen. Kim Marshall from Marshall & Company, she's been a huge inspiration for me throughout this whole experience. She was actually my very first client. I love her as a female business owner, her spirit, her desire to help others succeed and her consistency even when times get hard."
Q. What drives you as a businesswoman?
"Honestly, I want to do what I can to make our community a better place. I think that there are so many people in town that are doing the same thing, and we all have different strengths and skill sets. And by applying what we can do individually for the city as a whole is why we're making so many great, positive changes."
Q. How do you want to influence your company or the community?
"You don't say no to anything. You just see where that can go and make something happen. When I hear people talk about the things they don't like I just always have to turn the question and say, 'What can we do to change that?'"
Q. What advice would you give to young women starting a career?
"Follow through with the things you say you're going to do (and) show up. Go to the networking event, go to the little get-together, go to the event happening and start to make relationships. Take care of yourself. At the beginning of any project you're going to put in extra hours than you will a year later. But you also need to take time to drink water, do yoga, go for a walk, get some sunshine, get some fresh air eat meals."
This article appears in the Oct. 29, 2018 issue of #jcmo Inside Business.