Interview with Courtney Pogue - Direcctor of Economic Development City of Dallas, Texas

Chad Chancellor of the Next Move Group interviewed Courtney Pogue, the Director of Economic Development in Dallas, Texas.

My favorite part is quoted below:

Chad Chancellor: We have a lot of young up-and-comers that listen to our show. So, what have you learned in all these stops that you might share with a young up-and-comer who wants to be Courtney one day?

Courtney Pogue: Well, I think it's really about building relationships. I think that’s probably what I’ve learned in this industry is going around and meeting other people around the country and just really getting out there and engaging new people and really understanding them, their markets, their experiences; get to know people, but I will say this to anyone young in this industry. Don't be afraid to meet challenges. Don't be afraid to take on those complex projects. Don't be afraid to look at new opportunities in the market place. I’ve work in a small county of 250,000 people. I think now Clayton is 300,000 people, but I also worked in a county of five or eight million people. So, you got to be able to kind of adapt. I’ve work in the city of 2.8 million people in Chicago. Now, I’m in a city of 1.3 million people. So, I kind of happen to know about a wide range of activities that I wasn't afraid of taking on those challenges and I also started my own business, too.

So, it's really about taking on challenges, being ready to adapt, building your relationships. What I will say is in the midst of this current crisis with the pandemic and the battle of really understanding systemic racism, really be open to taking advantage of the moment, understanding the moment that you're in. Don't put things off. I think all of us six months ago had different plans; taking vacations and projects and engaging with you at the various conferences and so on, but now we're not doing that. So, I really encourage my counterparts to really take advantage of the time. Take advantage of the moment. Understand the movement and really understand the issues of this time and how you need to kind of pivot in a moment's notice. That's really critical right now.

You can read the full transcript here.