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Murray County Economic Development & Marketing Coordinator Bryan Stading
Bryan Stading
The new Murray County Economic Development and Marketing Coordinator has hit the ground running. Bryan Stading started at the Murray County EDA January 12 and is already meeting with a variety of organizations, businesses and officials.
“I want to meet everybody,” he said just days into his new position. “The more involved I can be, the better. Any meeting, any event – I plan on being there.”
Stading said he plans to walk up and down every main street in Murray County making sure people know he is available, and then his plan is to listen.
“And it’s not enough to just listen,” Stading said. “It’s about being attentive, using compassion and empathy. It’s about finding the champions in the community who want to invest in their community.”
Stading believes economic development is all about entrepreneurs and Main Street.
“Whether you are a beekeeper or a bookkeeper,” he said. “But it’s also very important to keep businesses in business.”
Entrepreneurship exploded about a decade ago, according to Stading. Young people were determined to create their own thing – take their passion and desire and turn it into a livelihood. Helping that process is something he enjoys.
“I’m a firm believer that anything can be fixed over a cup of coffee,” he said with a smile.
Part of that problem-solving is where the community comes in.
“Everyone has different skills. We just need to tap into them,” he said. “Everyone needs to jump in and have ownership of their community and area. If everybody helps, nobody gets tired.”
Stading spent many years with the Regional Center for Entrepreneurial Facilitation (RCEF), something he says he helped build from the ground up. From there, he went to work for Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA), which covers about a dozen counties and many cities.
RCEF was very entrepreneurial focused,” he explained. “We worked at making communities self-sustaining, and it was extremely successful. We would ID champions who would help grow the culture.”
Stading is excited to help grow that same culture in Murray Coumty.
“Communities all have the same problem,” he said. “It’s what they do with them – that’s the deal breaker.”
Originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, Stading spent a lot of time working on a family farm. He said he loves agriculture and studied it.
“I’ve been blessed to be able to help a lot of people with these types of endeavors,” he said. “You can work your way out of a job if you can get people to stand on their own.”
