Meet Transform GSO member Chelsea Dickey!
Chelsea Dickey is the founder and director of Motley NC, a community development and creative placemaking firm based here in the piedmont. She has a degree in economic development, and has used that to help her community through Motley.
Motley NC was founded two years ago and works with small businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, tourism associations and municipalities to engage people in a way that tells a story while simultaneously strengthening economic and community sustainability.
Chelsea explains it like this, “We focus on content creation and marketing for small businesses, while we focus on economic development at scale for municipalities.”
Luckily, they have not lost any clients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but have actually gained more small business clients. Much like the rest of us, working remotely and relying on Zoom was a slight learning curve in the beginning but everything has been going smooth since they got the hang of it!
Chelsea was working out of coffee shops and a home office, however she came to Transform GSO to have a bigger space that she’s described as enhancing productivity. A key benefit as her business grows and she increasingly gets more and more busy.
Chelsea’s favorite part of her job is the relationships she gets to build with her clients, and being able to see how Motley’s efforts have helped grow communities. She enjoys that she isn’t just “in and out” of each community she works with. Instead she gets to see them excel first hand over time.
One obstacle she has had is her age and gaining the trust she needs from some of her clients to do the tremendous amount of work needed to develop and market their businesses and communities.
“Being the youngest in the room, and most of the time the only female, sometimes you encounter some distrust or hesitation. I’ve had to express and prove that a younger, woman perspective is very useful, and a lot of the time quite needed, in the world of marketing today.” (Girl Power!)
We are so happy to have you, Chelsea!