About This Episode

Gloria Johnson, State Representative in House District 90, is a former educator who ran for office after seeing certain political issues not getting the attention they deserved. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, she describes what that journey was like and how important it is to get involved politically if there’s an issue that’s important to you. Gloria also reveals her deep roots in Knoxville, and shares wonderful insights into why people love our city.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:19 Julia introduces Rep. Gloria Johnson, who describes her Knoxville roots and why her and her family were eager to return to Knoxville
• 03:31 How Gloria went from being an educator to running for a seat in the state legislature
• 07:06 Ad - GoSeeDrJoe.com
• 08:30 Julia and Gloria discuss why it’s important to speak out about political causes you care about
• 12:20 How children’s mental health affects the classroom
• 14:20 Gloria discusses the importance of teaching children how to think, not what to think
• 16:47 The big issues that Gloria is planning to push for this year in the state legislature
• 19:26 Ad - Just Homes Group
• 22:21 Gloria and Julia discuss the importance of women running for political office
• 23:50 Gloria’s favorite memory of growing up in Knoxville
• 24:39 Gloria describes some of her favorite restaurants and spots in Knoxville

Transcript

Julia: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I am your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville to the nation. Today’s guest is one of the top performing state legislatures in Nashville, Tennessee, the Honorable Gloria Johnson who represents Knoxville, part of Knoxville city. So, Knoxville has gotten so big now there are several people. We’ll let her explain that to you. Gloria, welcome. Thank you for taking the time. And if you don’t mind to introduce yourself, and your connection to Knoxville and just tell us your whole story here and how you ended up where you are.

Gloria: [laugh]. I don’t know we have time for the whole story, but thanks for having me on. I’m excited about doing this and having this conversation. Yeah, well, I am Knoxville. My family has been here for generations, my father’s family, and after dad graduated law school, they live down in Fort Sanders and then they lived in Norwood.

But when dad graduated law school, instead of going into practicing law, he went into the FBI. And so, when you go into FBI, they start you out in a large city and then they move you to—you have to go after that to a top ten city. So, we moved to Denver—or my parents moved to Denver—after law school with the FBI, and I was born in Denver. And then Denver was the large city we went to. Then he got transferred to Los Angeles, and that was the top ten city he got sent to.

And you know, my dad is a Tennessee—he was a Tennessee boy, and so his goal was always to get back to the city. And so, we went from Los Angeles to San Diego. There was an opportunity to come back to the southeast in Jackson, Mississippi, so we came back to Jackson. But we got back to Knoxville when I was in the sixth grade. So, I’ve been here since the sixth grade and my family’s been here for generations and Knoxville is definitely who I am.

I lived in Denver briefly and I love that, but I always miss the people. The thing that is so different are just the people here. And so, I stayed in Denver for three years when I moved there back in 2001. And came back because my dad wasn’t doing well. He had a mass and mom needed help, so that’s why I came back, but I also came back because I knew I always would.

It’s just one of those things that you try moving away but you’re always drawn back to Knoxville. I know so many people who have done the exact same thing. So, I absolutely love it here. Grew up in West Knoxville, went to Farragut—Cedar Bluff and Farragut. But as soon as I—after college, I knew that I wanted to stay, you know, closer to that area, and so moved there and lived around downtown for several years before finally buying my house over by North Hills.

Julia: That’s fantastic. I have met so many people that own businesses in Knoxville that I’ve known for years and had no idea the history that they had connected to Knoxville. So, it’s really been a treat for all the people that I’ve known and got to know over the last 20 years to understand how deep-rooted you all really are in the Knoxville area. So, tell us about—so I know you are a teacher. Tell us about how that ended up, and then get into what made you want to run in a political setting. And you went there as a female in any party that it’s not one small feat in this area. So, how did you go from teacher to legislator? How did we get there?

Gloria: So, I love teaching more than anything. That is the greatest career. It’s one of those things. I’m a lucky human being in the fact that they say you know, get a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life and that’s certainly how I felt about teaching. The kids part, I’m not going to say it was easy.

I worked with teenage emotionally disturbed students who, you know, that had special needs. And usually it was behavioral, not academic but more behavioral. That’s the majority of my 27 years in education. And just, you know, I learned so much about these families, how these kids get to this point, you know, what systems in our government and everything else that has led to them being in the situations that they are, and you know, knowing lots of ways that we could improve those situations. And so, it was always something that was on my mind.

But until there were all the attacks on teachers and the attacks on public education, where they’re [removing 00:04:57] a teacher sitting at the table, I’m mean, no one consults teachers anymore when they’re making policy on education. Teachers are making less today than they did ten years ago based on the cost of living. So, this is outrageous. And so, that is what got me into it. Then and a combination of another thing.

I got involved with the Obama campaign and learned a whole lot about organizing and all of that, and one of his big issues, of course, was health care. That was big for me because I had a sister and her brother-in-law, who own their own business, and struggle because it was a small business, getting health care is difficult. She had a long-term illness that required multiple brain surgeries, and ultimately, they were kicked off their insurance while my two nephews were fighting in Afghanistan. They lost their home and their business—

Julia: Oh, my God.

Gloria: Because of health bills. And she needed another brain surgery. And those two things, you know, made me run. Because there was a situation of a special election here back in 2011, and listening to the three candidates that were running on the other side, there was no discussion of health care. There was none.

And that was a huge discussion nationwide. And everybody’s like, “Gloria, if you don’t get in that race, no one’s going to be talking about health care.” So, I knew the numbers were impossible, but I got into the race, just so I could talk about health care.

Julia: How did that first race end up? I honestly don’t remember, I was coming out of Nashville as you were trying to come into Nashville. So, I was coming out of a seat and I did not keep up with that one.

Gloria: Well, it was a special election when Jamie Woodson went to SCORE, and it—

Julia: That’s right.

Gloria: Yes.

Julia: I’d completely forgotten what how that was—that feels like a lifetime ago.

Gloria: It was a li—it was 2011.

Julia: Yeah [laugh].

Gloria: Special election. It was a short timer and I had already—you know, we had just been watching and I was at a debate with a bunch of college students and the three people running were just trying to [outright 00:07:09] themselves. It’s like if they kept going, they were going to fall off the stage. And I know that didn’t all feel exactly the way they were saying. And I was just like, “Somebody’s got to do something.”

And then the state party contacted me, and they said, “Gloria, we’re not going to have a conversation if you don’t get in the race, and there’s only two-and-a-half months left.” And I did it. And it was a 75/25 district, I think. We moved the district about seven points in two-and-a-half months. Never expected to win.

It was about bringing a different conversation to the race. And I believe that everyone, every voter deserves a choice. I think every race should be challenged. I think voters deserve a choice. And they also deserve a good, thorough, in deep conversation about the issues. They owe that to the people voting for them.

Julia: That is something that I think is the new conversation—not to change topics about a whole different subject but it’s kind of related—that you’re starting to see Gen Z talk about a lot, especially on the ne—on TikTok. And a lot of people don’t like TikTok. You don’t have to, but billions of people are on TikTok every single day looking for new ideas and new conversations. And what I am seeing in the younger generation—I mean, I’m 40, so I’m an elder millennial. So, there are two generations after me now, which makes me feel interesting—

Gloria: [laugh].

Julia: —but the next generation, the Gen Z generation, all they can talk about is options. It’s not necessarily that they aren’t willing to have a conversation about what they believe versus what you believe, but they want the option to talk to both or multiple. And not throwing your hat in the ring is taking something off the table. And that in and of itself, as a female in the political arena, in the Knoxville market, in the southeast as a whole, is a feat in and of itself. So, it’s like, “Hey, look, I’m from here, my family’s from here. I moved away a little bit. I’m back. I was a teacher for something I loved, and now we have a real issue and I’m going to leave this thing that I love to contribute back to my community, at least give an option.” I think that’s huge. And I think that as we progress into the next decade, that’s going to be—every race will be challenged. Every conversation will be on the table.

Gloria: Yeah. And it’s really interesting where Knoxville is so far ahead in some ways, but so far behind in others. When I went to Denver when I taught there, one of the most interesting things was they really treated teachers as professionals. I’ve never seen teachers get treated so well. And I’m not—you know, it’s just and it’s little things. It doesn’t cost money to treat teachers well.

When we had in-services or professional days or something like that, we’d go to some business center where other folks met and we had an adult-sized table, I didn’t have to put my 37-inch inseam into some kindergarten chairs for eight hours, you know? And they served as, you know, nice lunches and not anything, you know, exorbitant or anything like that, but treating you like any professional in any business. And it makes such a difference about how you feel about—when I got there, I felt like, “Man, these teachers are so on top of their game,” but it’s because they required continued education to get the salary bump every year. Your bump came from how many hours you took, graduate hours you took. And so, the first year I got there, I took 20 hours because they paid for a lot of it, and that bumped my salary up $12,000 by taking 20 hours.

And they allowed you and they encouraged you to do that. So, I was working with teachers who had not gone a year without at least having one class. And here, you know, you there’s nothing, there’s no benefit to continuing. And I think we’re doing a disservice in education and especially in Tennessee now, where they don’t even want to recognize graduate degrees and master’s degrees, you know, doctorates, that sort of thing. And we should not just—one of the goals you see on every website for schools is, “We want our kids to be lifelong learners.”

It doesn’t say they want teachers to be lifelong learners, though. It’s just, we need to be smarter and more intentional about what we do in education. And I think we can do that. But one thing that Colorado did terribly was special education. They broke a lot of rules and did not acknowledge—when I went there, I taught at a school that was about three miles from Columbine. And they had no program for mental health. And so, I literally wrote a grant using our program from Knoxville, and they loved it and they put it into practice.

Julia: That’s fantastic.

Gloria: And my school was one of the two schools that the kids who couldn’t—some kids just couldn’t go back to Columbine, and so I was one of the two schools where those kids came, and we were able to get help and support. I had a psychologist in my classroom, you know, every day. So, it was—they were open to new and great ideas, and that was a Knoxville idea that really brought Colorado forward, at least in Jefferson County.

Julia: I think mental health for kids now has been—we talk about it a lot.

Gloria: [laugh]. Yeah.

Julia: A big hot topic to talk about. Action is lacking. But I really feel like the conversation is shifting at least. So, as you know, Knoxville is 20 years behind some of the biggest cities in the world, so if we can start talking about it more, maybe we can bump that timeline up to only a decade behind, which [laugh] I would not be upset about [laugh].

Gloria: It’s so important because I think about the structure of the classroom, the intervention classroom that I taught would be beneficial to any class all regular ed kids. It would be beneficial to those teachers because it makes your classroom so much more manageable. Because part of what you do is build trust between the classroom. And kids have so much problem with trust these days. And so, spending some time in the first two weeks of school on team-building and trust-building activities would make a huge difference in the rest of the year as far as discipline and all of those things go.

And every kid needs it. And it benefits the entire classroom, how much information you can get to your kids, and how much time you’re spending on discipline. Because it will—I would maybe send a kid to the office three times out of the year and I had the worst kids two steps away from juvenile. But the behavior management system is so good and it’s all about making them responsible for the teamwork and the trust in the group.

Julia: We all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group Realty Executives have the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call just Homes Group Realty Executives today.

Julia: I think something that we struggle with as a society as a whole—not just Knoxville but as a whole—is the conversation that we want children to grow up to be independent thinkers and want them to be creative and we want them to understand that they have power, but then we sent him to school eight to ten hours a day and say, “Nope, do as you’re told. You don’t need to know this information. We just need you to stay here and be quiet and do this.” [laugh]. And I think that it’s a stark contrast to what we want for them.

Gloria: And a lot of that is, you know, would come through if you use some of the activities and some of the mindsets in my classroom because it was a lot of thinking outside of the box a lot of problem-solving. We did a lot of problem-solving activities, which are great soft skills that all of our kids need and we see that they’re lacking in those skills. And I have seen a shift in teachers being more consciously considering, you know, asking probing questions and doing more problem-solve activities and critical thinking. But yes, within the legislature, they’re trying to take away all the time for those things to happen.

You know, they think there’s this idea that teachers are indoctrinating. Look, it’s the same teachers they had years ago and they were not indoctrinated. It’s all made up. But the reality is, we teach kids how to think, not what to think. We never tell them, “This is right or this is wrong.”

You know, you lay out all the different things and you decide which one you think is best. I always did during the presidential election, I would—there’s a world’s smallest political quiz and then there’s a little more in-depth political quiz for which candidate do you align with. And so, we would always go through the questions and the kids would always decide. And it was always funny because it was usually somebody that they really didn’t pick, you know, that they didn’t think about. And sometimes it was some obscure candidate even I hadn’t heard of [laugh] because there’s a lot of them on there. The big quiz had all of them.

But I would have them do some in-depth research, you know, and write about that candidate. And if you are going to, if you are going to design a logo or a sign for that candidate, what would it look like? You know, those kinds of things. It just got them to think. And it may not have been somebody they would have voted for, but it made them think civically, you know, and it made them think about why did I align with this candidate, and you know, what issues are important to me, and you know, what should a president been doing?

Julia: What a great segue to my next question because you have a, you know—and again, we’re going back to what you just said—you are an advocate for challenge every seat, you get challenged every year. I’ve never not known you to have a challenger. And good for you, you keep pulling out those W’s and that is tough to do, that is tough to do anywhere. So, you consistently are running a campaign. I don’t think you’ve had one year unchallenged.

And as you continue to go and you are solidifying that power base—that’s what I call it; your power base is Knoxville—people in Knoxville continuously choose you. And once you put yourself out there and you keep doing that is that is an amazing step forward. What are the topics that you’re going to be taking to Nashville this year, this coming up legislative year that are important to you? Because I think that civic-mindedness for kids, just putting that kind of conversation out there at any age is really important. But I think as we age, we tend to curb our open-mindedness to conversation because of what our experiences are versus what’s going on around us as well. So, what are you taking in Nashville that your constituency is bringing to you to take this year? What are your hot-button issues?

Gloria: Yeah. Well, there you know, there’s so many things, and it’s hard to narrow it down to one. And there’s so many things—I still am going to push for Medicaid expansion. I’m still going to push for adequately funding public ed and teacher pay, those things. Never going to stop making sure that our schools get better and better.

But also, you know, to me, making sure that people have good jobs with good wages and benefits. I mean, we need to be lifting people out of poverty and not letting them drop back into it. And part of that is making sure that everybody earns a wage so that they can support their family and not have to decide between groceries and medicine, you know, that they can get both of those things. And one thing that I brought because I had at one time, within one year, I had three friends pregnant with triplets.

Julia: Oh, my God. How does that happen, statistically [laugh]?

Gloria: One was a police officer, one was a firefighter, and one owns her own business. And so, having triplets automatically means a C-section, and that automatically means six weeks off. That’s if, you know, a lot of times they come early, they’re small, there’s NICU time, all of those things. And how does somebody who’s a police officer or a firefighter, they don’t have six weeks off, you know? That just doesn’t exist.

And so, in talking to so many people and looking around the country at how paid family leave can work, I brought a paid family leave bill every year since 2018 and I’m going to keep doing it. Because the reality is the program that we picked—I work with a group called A Better Balance because they help, all around the country, they’ve worked with people on paid family leave—and so I chose the most conservative plan because this is Tennessee. It doesn’t require any—this doesn’t cost the state a penny and it doesn’t cost the business a penny. It’s employee-driven, it’s kind of like insurance. I put in the cost of a cup of coffee a week, that’s about 3 to $4, and then when they’ve been there a year’s time, if you’ve been there a year’s time, when you have—either you want to have a baby, or your child has an illness, you have your own long-term illness, or say you have a parent who’s ailing and you need to stay with them, you’ll have 12 weeks paid leave for that time that you put in.

Julia: So, is it kind of like a program where I can pay into it, kind of like a medical savings program?

Gloria: Well, everybody pays in, you would pay and your 3 to $4, whatever the comptroller’s office or, you know, whatever they decided what that amount needs to be for all of Tennessee—and even sole proprietorships you know, anybody and [that’s working 00:21:40] getting a paycheck can be a part of this plan. So, I just think it’s important that if we’re going to prioritize families if we’re going to force people have families before they’re ready, we should be able to take care of them.

Julia: Yes. Because we’ve both—I’ve been in Nashville—I understand. I understand. If you only could have one thing, one bill, and you know what, you know how it is, you’re going to present your ten and you’re going to get maybe a half of one. So, if you only had one, what would be the bill for 2023-2024 that you wouldn’t do nothing but that bill?

Gloria: Always—until we get smart, Medicaid expansion. I mean, it would change the life of every Tennessean. Because when people have access to affordable care, guess what that means? Mental health is health care. And so, everyone has access to that mental health care.

When you look at the states who expanded like Michigan, those great study out of Michigan, what they wanted to look at was how did it help people in Michigan when they expanded Medicaid? Was it effective? Did it work? And what they found, they looked at low-income people, it raised them up. They were able to get loans because they didn’t have to worry about not having health care or not having affordable health care.

They were able to get insurance, improve their health. They were able to, they save enough money to have loans, they bought new cars, which got them better jobs, they didn’t have to be on a bus line. It was an enormous boon to their economy. And so, the 10% at this point that there were required to pay after the federal taxes coming back to your state, easy peasy. They said it overwhelmingly paid that much.

Plus, it will pay in perpetuity because it will always do that. And that’s what they found. And then in Ohio, what they found was everyone they were able to insure on Medicaid expansion—which is most people in addition to those who already had insurance—of those with opiate issues, they were able to treat 96%. We only treat 13% in Tennessee.

Julia: We do have that problem in Tennessee.

Gloria: We do have that problem. And we’ve lost, you know, 13 rural hospitals because of Medicaid expansion because that’s our poor community, they don’t have that money, the hospitals aren’t getting their typical reimbursement. Everybody should have insurance now. And what so many don’t understand, it is this leadership that is keeping that from happening. And you know, something you said before which I think is so important, talking about women and women running for office, I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have Medicaid expansion.

Julia: I think if there were 50% women up there, we would have a whole different state.

Gloria: Yeah. We would.

Julia: [laugh].

Gloria: I was the first woman in House District 13. I’m wondering, were you the first woman in your district or no?

Julia: No, actually, there was a lady—oh my gosh, and everybody knew her name and I never met her, she passed away. So, she was the mentor to my predecessor. And then she had passed away and then I had taken that seat. Now, we were the only two women that have ever held that seat. And I don’t believe—I actually don’t believe Loudoun County, the other half of my seat, had ever been held by a female. So, I was the first female in Loudoun County to hold a statewide position. And as I can recall, the last so far [laugh], in a decade.

Gloria: Kind of shocking to me that your county beat Knox County, though. I mean, really. Just wow.

Julia: You never know [laugh]. You never know. All right, we have four-and-a-half minutes. So, shifting that, we wish you the absolute best of luck in Nashville. We really hope that you get something that you want one.

I know your constituents where they may be in the minority still want to see you succeed and they elected to you to do that, so we do wish you the best of luck. But let’s reel this in to be more Knoxville-oriented and less Nashville at the moment because I’ve got so many questions for you. Because you’re from here and your family’s from here and you’re going to remember so many cool things. So, what is your best memory as a child in Knoxville as a whole? Like, like any memory, like, other than the World Fair; that doesn’t count because everybody says that one [laugh].

Gloria: I wasn’t a child in the World’s Fair. But I was in school at UT in education and so I got a gig doing tours for school groups that came from all over the country.

Julia: [laugh]. That’s awesome.

Gloria: I had to carry this tall thing with a little flag on the end with our number so all the kids could follow along. And it was so [laugh] much fun.

Julia: Try that today. 30-something kids with a flag. They’re not—you’re done. You’re out.

Gloria: You’re going to have to get a rope and a leash [laugh].

Julia: “My dad’s bonafide.” I don’t know if you remember that scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou? where she tied all of her kids—

Gloria: Oh, yeah [laugh].

Julia: —to one rope. She was like, “My dad’s bonafide.” That’s all I can remember of the rope of the kids. Anyway, so okay. Best remembered restaurant versus now favorite restaurant.

Gloria: Okay. So, I have to—let’s see, I have to go back to places that—not such a great restaurant necessarily, but that I remember Steak and Ale [laugh]. It had another name too, but I can’t remember. But I worked in high school and in college at Kingston Four Theater, and so Steak and Ale was right across the street. So, we used that a lot. Also, Michael’s was down—no not on Michael’s. What was that? Doodles. Doodles—

Julia: Oh, my God [laugh].

Gloria: And we would go over to Doodles on our dinner hour because they would have ten-cent shrimp or something like that [laugh].

Julia: That was expensive. Ten-cent shrimp’s expensive [laugh].

Gloria: [laugh].

Julia: You were at the classy bar.

Gloria: Now, my favorite. I’ve got so many favorite restaurants, but like, a standard of mine is probably Bistro at the Bijou. You know, I like comfort food, you know? I’m not a fancy—I’ll eat any kind of food [laugh] but you know, I love that they have this varied menu. Every time you come in the specials are really different. And it’s dark and cozy [laugh]. I like that.

Julia: Yeah, I love it there. Their brunch is good.

Gloria: Oh, their brunch is really good. Yes.

Julia: Yeah, their brunch is fantastic. All right. Favorite, like, scene I guess you could say. Like, give me—set the scene? Where do you go, like, for hiking or biking or relaxing or just to read a book? Like, favorite, favorite place?

Gloria: Well, so just any of our parks. I mean, we have amazing parks. I like to go to UT Gardens. I mean, they’re absolutely gorgeous. And a friend of mine, [Anne 00:28:54], goes there all the time and she kept saying, “Gloria—” You know and so now I’ve gone and now I go back and now I take my mom and I just—it’s beautiful. And it’s a wonderful place to just sit and be quiet. But there are so many places like that around here.

Julia: We’re very blessed. Knoxville people don’t even know, Knoxville is the hidden gem. All right, one last question. What is your best-kept secret that whenever somebody comes to visit you from out of town, you take them to this place and no one really knows about it. Only you know about it.

Gloria: Well, it used to be, years ago, it was King Tut.

Julia: Oh yes.

Gloria: [laugh].

Julia: Yes. Oh man, I’m so glad you said that [laugh].

Gloria: Always. It was always an experience. But now, it’s just some of my favorite little, like, you know public house or some of my favorite little places to go and just down around here. Used to be—again another place that’s gone was Tootsie’s.

Julia: Oh. Oh yeah, that was a fun place.

Gloria: Tootsie’s in Nashville, but Toot’s here, which is down sort of around in my neighborhood. And it was so interesting because it went from being kind of a—people thought it was a scary Happy Hour kind of place, to being this place where the hipsters did karaoke, you know?

Julia: Yes [laugh].

Gloria: So, I had some friends from Colorado come in and I took them there and they were just—they loved it, but they were sort of stunned [laugh].

Julia: Knoxville is a special place. I hear that a lot. It’s like, “Oh, well I came to visit. I may want to—I’ll invest in this place. I might relocate here, I might retire here.” But it just kind of that. “This was so much fun and I don’t know what I was expecting. It wasn’t this.” And just kind of the deer-in-headlights look.

Gloria: And my friends from Colorado, most of them were younger than me and just really energetic, but I remember my friend Casey doing the worm on the floor at Downtown Grill and Brewery [laugh].

Julia: I mean, why not? [laugh]. Naturally. Naturally.

Gloria: Oh, but they absolutely had a blast. And a couple of them have come back and they still want to come back. So, it’s been great. And then a couple of them I did a road trip of with a RV, we did a redneck road trip and we came from Colorado in a principle friend of mine’s RV and we stopped at Graceland and we stopped at the Jack Daniel’s distillery.

Julia: Where they don’t actually give you Jack Daniel’s because a it’s dry county. Oddest place to visit but I love it.

Gloria: The final stop was Dollywood, and I had never been to Dollywood.

Julia: Oh, my gosh.

Gloria: First time to go to Dollywood was with them, and we just had an absolute blast.

Julia: We went there in Covid. There were eight people in the whole park.

Gloria: Oh, my God.

Julia: We had the best day of our lives. We literally rode the same roller coaster three times.

Gloria: You’re outside. It’s perfect.

Julia: It was great. We had a blast. We love Dollywood. All right. Well, everybody, listen, our time is up. We’re going to have to bring you back after session to see how something turned out for you, so count on that invitation. We appreciate your time today. Everybody, this is the honorable Gloria Johnson. Very good friend to all people in Knoxville, but especially for women in Knoxville. We appreciate you very, very much, touting our flag, as I guess you could say, as we follow you through your trips to Nashville. We appreciate you. This is Julia Hurley, hostess of Connect the Knox. Thank you Gloria thank you, Gloria.

Gloria: [laugh]. Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

Julia: Bye.

Gloria: Bye.

About This Episode

Tammy White, President & CEO of Leadership Knoxville, came to Knoxville in 1990 and has been working to shape the growth of the city ever since. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, she describes the incredible work that Leadership Knoxville is doing in our community, including the many programs they offer for UT Students, business executives, and the leaders of tomorrow - the youth of Knoxville.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:06 How Tammy came to Knoxville and what it was like as a newcomer and now
• 03:40 The history of Leadership Knoxville
• 06:55 Ad - Just Homes Group
• 07:25 Tammy walks through the programs that Leadership Knoxville offers and their focus on diversity as an organization
• 11:56 Tammy describes a partnership with UT Knoxville called Leadership Knoxville Scholars
• 13:50 Leadership Knoxville’s fourth program, Youth Leadership Knoxville
• 17:24 Tammy describes Connect Knox, a civics solutions lab, started by Leadership Knoxville
• 19:12 What is The Big Table program, and how it brings people together throughout the community
• 23:17 How people can get involved with Leadership Knoxville and find more information on their programs
• 25:40 Julia takes Tammy through a lightning round of questions about her favorite spots in Knoxville

Links Referenced

• Leadership Knoxville: https://www.leadershipknoxville.com
• Email: https://twhite@leadknox.com

Transcript

Julia: Welcome everybody to another episode of Connect the Knox, connecting the nation to Knoxville, Tennessee. I am your hostess with the mostest, Julie Hurley, and today’s guest is a true leader in the Knoxville area. You will want to connect with her, promise when this is all done with. Who we are interviewing today is the president and CEO of Leadership Knoxville, in itself one of the coolest entities in the Knoxville market, Mrs. Tammy White. How are you today? And thank you for being here.

Tammy: I’m doing awesome, Julia. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you.

Julia: Absolutely. Tell us, aside from number one just signing your daughter to a lacrosse scholarship who got recruited—congratulations, Courtney—aside from all that amazing that’s going on, you stay so busy. Tell me about Leader—tell us all, tell us all about Leadership Knoxville and how you found your way into that, and kind of your backstory of Knoxville.

Tammy: Yeah. It’s kind of a crazy story. So, I will tell you I came to Knoxville in 1990. I was born and raised in South Carolina, and yes, I’m a Gamecock. That was my—I grew up really close to Clemson, right, so, so I still don’t wear orange just because it’s sacrilegious at this point, you know from that Penn State rivalry of Carolina/Clemson.

But I do pull for UT every game except for this one game every year that when they played my Gamecocks and I have to pull for my alma mater. So, needless to say, this past weekend, I was very surprised. I didn’t see a single play because I was in Dallas with my daughter at a lacrosse tournament. So, we never saw any of it.

But anyways, I came to Knoxville in 1990, and I remember coming up and visiting a friend when I was in college and I remember thinking, “Wow, Knoxville is, like, this really cool, fun place I would love to live here.” Never had any thought, you know, that like, six years later, I would end up here. And I did. And it was just, you know, it’s just kind of been a God thing and I love it. It’s been a great place to live and to work and to raise my daughter.

And my parents actually retired from their jobs in South Carolina when Courtney was born and they moved here, and they just live up the street from me in my neighborhood. So, the family came, right? So, it’s been a great place. So, I worked for a company out of Wisconsin, I was doing sales for them when I first came here. And ended up leaving that company and doing sales for Bell South at the time, so that shows you how old I am. It’s now back to AT&T [laugh], right?

At the time, nobody knew who AT&T was when I went to work for Bell South. It’s kind of funny how all of that comes full circle and makes you dated. But anyways, and then I did a lot of political work throughout the years and just made a lot of friends, a lot of connections. And that’s one of the things I’ve loved about Knoxville is that, you know, being an outsider, it was truly easy to get plugged in here. I mean, people were very welcoming.

You know, and Knoxville has really changed a lot. I think back to that 1990 timeframe when I first moved here, and that I was somewhat bored as a single person, I didn’t feel like there was a lot to do. And now there is just a plethora of opportunities every night, you know, and every weekend, you could go and do something in this town, where it wasn’t always like that when I first moved here. But it’s evolved into a phenomenal place, again, to live and work.

Julia: Well, tell us a little bit because I don’t know—has Leadership Knoxville always been an entity here?

Tammy: Yes. Yes. So—

Julia: Okay—

Tammy: So, this is kind of a good history lesson. And I may not get the dates exactly right, but I’m going to be pretty darn close. But it was around 1957 that the first leadership program in the country started and it was in Philadelphia. And then the second program was Savannah, Georgia, around 1962. And then Atlanta, Georgia was around 1965, ’67.

And so, there was value in doing this. And the reason why they started was really to prepare people for change and things needing to change in these cities. And then you had a whole swath of leadership programs that really evolved in the 1980s. And I believe Leadership Nashville started in 1978. We started in 1984.

And it was really the result of Jim Haslam and Honey Alexander being on a trip, an economic development recruiting trip to Japan when Lamar was governor, and Honey said to Jim Haslam, “Does Knoxville have a leadership program like Nashville?” And he said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” And so, they had this conversation and then Mr. Haslam came back to Knoxville and put together a steering committee, and then Leadership Knoxville started in 1984. And so, you know, we’ll be celebrating our 40th anniversary in a few more years.

But typically, there’s about 800 leadership programs around the country today, and practically every city has some sort of community leadership development program. The vast majority of the programs that exist today are based through a Chamber of Commerce. We have always been a standalone 501(c)(3). We just happen to, at this point, lease our space from the Knoxville Chamber, which they’re great partners. And they were one of the three founding partner agencies, along with United Way and Junior League, when we started to support leadership Knoxville’s evolving.

And so, you’ve got 501(c)(3)s, you’ve got the chamber-based model, and then you have a few that are based through a university or community foundation. By and large, what I will tell you, while there are lot of really strong chamber-based programs, the vast majority of the, you know, chamber-based programs are also in smaller rural communities, and so they’re not necessarily as big. And so, most of your bigger city programs are standalone 501(c)(3)s. And right now, we consider ourselves just based on the affinity groups that we’re in at a national level, we participate with Austin, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver and Seattle and Louisville and Baltimore. And, you know, so it’s pretty big cities compared to Knoxville, but we’re on par with a lot of them, based on the size of our staff and also the size of our budget and the number of programs that we offer. So, that puts us in about, probably, the top 10% of leadership programs, nationally. And right now we are the largest leadership program in the state.

Julia: As well it should be. I feel like there’s a lot of leadership in Knoxville.

Julia: We all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group Realty Executives have the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call just Homes Group Realty Executives today.

Julia: You said programs within it.

Tammy: Yes.

Julia: So this, in and of itself, is the 501(c)(3), what are the programs inside of Leadership Knoxville?

Tammy: Okay. So, I’m glad you asked. So, I don’t want to miss any of these. So, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about the first and I’ll walk you through where we are today. So, the flagship program started in 1984 and it’s a ten-month program, and that’s what the vast majority of leadership programs have is that type of program.

And that’s really geared for people who are, like, seasoned C-suite leaders or nonprofit directors. We’re very intentional about creating a very diverse group, and that’s from racial, you know, from male, female, from gender, to sexual orientation to religious beliefs, et cetera. I mean, we really need to have, for the best experience possible, we need to have a group of committed leaders who really look like in our entire community. And so, that’s really important. And that’s what gives it, I would say, the depth in making relationships because people were coming together for this ten-month process and they’re spending an incredible amount of time getting to know people that they would probably never ever cross paths with otherwise.

And that’s where the richness happens. It’s where people change jobs, or they start organizations or they start businesses or they work to find solutions on issues that are happening in the community. So, it is more—it’s an in-depth. And our focus is teaching servant leadership in the flagship program. But we are also very intentionally designing the program to talk about our biggest community issues and challenges and then what are those opportunities> and so it’s, you know, carries—you know, we think servant leadership carries this ethical and moral obligation as a leader to do something, right? To be a positive change agent. And that’s what that program is really about.

The second program that we have is called Introduction Knoxville and it started in 1993. And Natalie Haslam was actually the person who started that program for us. And that program is really geared—it’s a six-week, one day a week for six weeks. We now run that program. Initially, it started, you know, just that one time every year. In 2010, we changed it to be twice a year, and then in 2017, we’ve added a third program.

So, we run it in the spring, in the fall, in the winter. And so, three times a year. So, we have about 150 people a year go through that program. And it’s geared for people who are either new to the community in a new management positions who need to quickly learn a lot more about the community. And it’s a great networking opportunity as well.

And so, people sign up and they’re in. The flagship program is much more challenging to get into because we have about 400 nominations and about 200 applicants every year, and we only have 55 seats. And so, it’s a selection process because we want that diverse makeup, right? We want diverse makeup in all of our programs, but the others are, more you sign up, you pay, you’re in. But Intro Knox has been a really fun program.

And we actually—you’ll appreciate this Julia—but we actually worked with our friends in Nashville to help them start Intro Nash a few years ago. We served as a consultant in helping them. With the growth in Nashville, I kept saying to them, “You guys need a program like this.” And they’re up and running and doing fantastic. So, that’s a really important, you know, piece to the puzzle of everything we’re trying to do.

And when you look at the growth of our city, if we just had the one program, we’re not building to scale for impact. And so, that’s really the other piece here is to think about, you know, what’s missing? What can we do? How can we best impact? And so, what used to be just two programs when I started, and we would have approximately 85, maybe 90 people you’re going through Leadership Knoxville program—two programs—we now have other programs and we have about 250 alumni coming through every year.

Julia: Wow. I mean, still 250 people in the grand scheme of Knoxville is not a lot of people, but for Leadership Alumni Association, that’s big.

Tammy: Bingo. Bingo. And so—

Julia: Yeah.

Tammy: —so here’s the other the beautiful part of it is, so the other programs that we have, in 2013, we launched our third program, which is called the Leadership Knoxville Scholars. And it is a partnership that we have with the University of Tennessee, for the Jones Center for Service and Leadership at UT. And it’s a two-year cohort. And again, they have to apply, they have to compete for the seats, but there’s about—it’s two years, so they apply their sophomore year, they go through their junior and senior year. And so, we have guest lecturers from our alumni that go and go to their classes, which are credited classes, but we also work to pair each scholar with one of our LK alumni to mentor them in their, you know, career field.

What do they want to do? So, we’re trying to—how do we keep this best and brightest talent in the region after they graduate? So, that’s really the intent of the program. Our retention rates been around 50 to 55%. I mean, we’d like for it to be higher, but a lot of these kids I mean, we’ve had—

Julia: What do you mean, retain [crosstalk 00:12:57] graduate rate, or stay in the program?

Tammy: How many are staying in Knoxville after they graduate.

Julia: Got you.

Tammy: And so, what’s interesting, though, a lot of them, you know, they’re really bright students and a lot of them are going to grad school and other states or they’re going to do Peace Corps or Teach for America, but the indicators are that they want to come back to Knoxville, which that makes it a higher percentage, which is great. But we’ve got work to do. I mean, we’ve still got, you know, to work to keep them here, right? But the beautiful part of that is in our—so that was in the ten years that we’ve had it, we’ve had 23 Torchbearers come from our program. So, we love that. That’s the highest academic honor at UT.

Julia: Wow.

Tammy: Yeah. And one year, all seven torchbearers were from our program, which that was kind of unheard of. But um, yeah, so we love that. So, then the fourth program, we started in 2014, and that is Youth Leadership Knoxville. And this is for, the students apply their sophomore year and it’s about February timeframe of their sophomore year, and they go through their junior year of high school.

And about three years ago, I approached Pellissippi State with this idea because I thought, you know, we’ve got this great partnership with UT and we love Pellissippi State, and we love Dr. Wise, and how can we do something that would work with them, too? And had this idea approached him with it and he didn’t hesitate. He jumped in, you know, all in, which I love about him. But the idea was, you know, could we change our curriculum somewhat for the youth and could we partner with Pellissippi State and have one of your college professors who teaches leadership, teach the leadership curriculum to the youth and make this an accredited class?

So, the beauty of this—

Julia: Yeah. Okay.

Tammy: We have about 50 to 55 students every year. They come from all Knox County public high schools and private schools, and we have a few home school students every year as well. But again, once they’re selected, they have to register as a student at Pellissippi State. And so, then they do their classwork online as if they were a full-time students at Pellissippi. They are having the experience of communicating with a college professor.

So, it’s kind of giving them a leg up. If they’ve never done dual enrollment, this is giving them that opportunity to experience what taking a college class is going to feel like. And at the end of their youth leadership year, they earn three hours of college credit from Pellissippi State. So, we love this program. And it’s a lot of fun.

I will tell you, Courtney was actually in last year’s class and she still talks to her classmates. And I love hearing the stories of these kids and how they’re coming home from college and they have groups getting together. And it’s all because their friendships, you know, formed in youth leadership. And I’ll tell you my favorite story was probably about three years ago. It was pre-Covid; I guess it was in 2019.

I was with our kids and we’d gone to volunteer at the Knoxville area Urban League Shoes for Schools. We’re one of the largest volunteer groups, we take our kids every years the volunteer service project. They’re wearing their youth leadership t-shirts and they help whatever needs to be done, we do it, whether it’s picking up trash, interpreting for some of this lost kids to help them find their parents, giving out waters, you name it. And I happened to come across a booth and it was a senior who had just graduated. And she had been in the cla—no, actually no. She was going into her senior year, forgive me. But she had been in the previous year’s youth leadership class. I’m like, “What are you doing?”

And she said, “I loved this event so much last year that I’ve spent the last year collecting 2500 books and I’m giving them away today. And I’ve categorized them by ages for the kids.” So, that’s one student and that impact of that exposure to this event and how it moved her to action. And that’s just a simple example, though, of the things that we see happen. And sometimes we know the stories and sometimes we don’t, but that’s the beauty of it, right? And when it connects in the servant leadership kicks in, and they want to give back and they want to be a change agent. So, that’s that program.

So, then in 2017, we actually started a civic, what I call is a civic solutions lab. And it’s called Connect Knox and—not Connect the Knox, but Connect Knox—

Julia: [laugh].

Tammy: —[laugh] and what we’ve done in this is we were identifying through—we did some report cards for the community, and we did those in ’17, ’18, and ’19, where we had the data guys from the chamber and from the city and the county and from UT worked together—they had never met, never worked together—and so we put them together to help us measure some key factors, you know, to see as a city are we thriving? As a city and a county are we thriving? And then how do we compare on these indicators to the 865, the region? And then how do we compare to the state? And what it gave us were green, yellow, or red lights of where we’re doing good, where we need to be looking out, and where we’ve got work to do to move the needle in a different direction.

And so, we’re in the process of maybe reconstituting that work—again, Covid put everything on hold—but when we were identifying issues, part of our work was also, you know, it was trying to identify, like, early childhood literacy was one of the huge indicators for us, right? And so, one of the things we did was identify who are the stakeholders that are doing all of this work around literacy. And then we would invite them to meetings. Nobody had ever been inviting them all together to be in one space to talk about what everybody’s doing and to talk about where we are and where we need to be and how can we collaborate. How can we work better together to get us, you know, to move that needle?

And so, that’s really the role of Connect Knox. And then, in addition to that, another thing that we launched in 2017—and we did it 2017, 2018, and 2019, and I’m committed to bringing it back in 2023—but it was called the Big Table. And what I loved about this, I got this idea from Cleveland, Ohio—actually, I’m sorry, Columbus, Ohio. Sorry, to my Cleveland friends. It was from Columbus. And they had actually—they are the ones who launched this, but there are cities all across the US that are doing some sort of event like this. They may call it different things.

But what we would do is we would identify a day for the Big Table. And let’s say it’s—I’m going to make up a date—it’s August 23rd. On August 23rd, leading up to that time, we would ask people all across Knoxville to be a Big Table host. And so Julia, if you are Big Table host, I’d say, okay, you get to choose what time you want to do it on August 23rd, if it’s in the morning, if it’s early morning, mid-morning, noon, night, whatever. If it’s around, you know, lunch, or if it’s around drinks, or if it’s just around water and lemonade, whatever that looks like for you.

And you want to do it at your home or your place of business or in a community library? You choose, right? That the concept was, you would invite four people that you know, that probably don’t know each other, and you would ask each of them to bring someone that you don’t know.

Julia: Wow.

Tammy: And so, the idea was to have 10 to 12 people sitting around a table for about an hour, hour-and-a-half, meeting each other, probably for the first time. And just talking about what are the things you love about our community? What do you love about Knoxville? And, you know, then if there are things that you could change, what would those things be? And I’ll tell you, I hosted—and you’ll love this as a realtor—I hosted some guys in my neighborhood that had moved here from Chicago several years ago. And they came in 2019, that was the last year that we did it.

And one of the things they told me is when they moved from Chicago, they knew they were moving to the south, and it was either going to be—they were looking at Asheville, North Carolina, Knoxville, Tennessee, or Nashville. They had only been to Asheville, they’d never been to Knoxville, and they’d never been to Nashville. So, they went to Asheville and they were kind of iffy. They didn’t know that they liked it as much as they thought they did. So, they came to Knoxville and Bill says, “Gary and I are driving down Kingston pike and we see a Jewish synagogue.” And he said, we looked at each other and thought, “Wow. We thought this was the Bible Belt. There’s a Jewish synagogue here. This is great.” And then he said, and not even, you know, half a mile later, there’s a second temple. And he said, “This is amazing. This has to be”—their thoughts immediately went to—“This has to be a welcoming community.” And I completely paused because I thought I’ve lived here 20 to 30 years and I’ve never looked at the diversity of religion and how we have it and that for a same-sex couple was viewed as a way of welcoming them.

Julia: Yeah.

Tammy: And that really was—that really blew my mind. Long story short, they had a house under contract in Knoxville within four hours of being here.

Julia: Wow.

Tammy: So, you know, little things like that we can’t take for granted, right? They didn’t talk to anybody. They just went and found a house and made an offer, and it happened to be in my neighborhood. So anyways, those are things, those are the kinds of stories that I love hearing. And I don’t think we get there and get deep enough, necessarily, unless we’re intentionally in relationship with people who are very different from us. And so, it takes work.

Julia: Well, we only have eight minutes left. So, I feel like we need to do a podcast on each of the programs—

Tammy: Yeah, I’d love that.

Julia: Because I feel like each one of those in and of itself is a—yeah, I would, too, actually. Do, like, a leadership series on Connect the Knox. I think that’s a big deal. So, we have eight minutes left.

Tammy: Yeah because I’ve got two things left to tell you.

Julia: Well, we’re going to have to—we’re going to—we’ll have to bring them back because we need to talk about how people can get in touch with you—

Tammy: Sure.

Julia: Where they can go to learn more about it, websites, information. Let’s get into that a little bit. So, that way we can ask just a few more questions.

Tammy: Absolutely.

Julia: How can people find you and find more information?

Tammy: Absolutely. They can call our office or they can email me. My email address is twhite, T-W-H-I-T-E—at leadknox.com. And our website address is www.leadershipknoxville.com. And then our main office number—and you know, I never call it—oh, it’s right here. It’s [laugh] 865 I knew you were going to laugh—523-9137.

And I do have to tell you, we are launching another program next June and it is going to be called Encore, and we are targeting people who are either close to retirement or in retirement and looking for ways that we can really plug in for their talents of these sages and get them better engaged in community.

Julia: You’re going to have to make that a year-long event that can’t be just six weeks. There are so many retirees here. I get asked that all the time. “What can I do? What can I do?”

Tammy: Yeah.

Julia: I’ve got a whole book of people to send to you.

Tammy: Okay, awesome.

Julia: You already got—I’ve got a built-in volunteer base for you for your very first time.

Tammy: That’s awesome.

Julia: Seriously.

Tammy: And then hopefully we can toss you some business Julia because we’re going to be hosting our national conference, people who do what I do and our team does. I have an amazing team at Leadership Knoxville that our colleagues from across the country are coming to Knoxville next July for our national conference. So, we’ll be hosting them here. So, maybe there’ll be some of them might be wanting to stay.

Julia: Yes. And some people to interview.

Tammy: Yeah, absolutely.

Julia: Yeah. We got the podcast, so we thought—yeah, and at that point, they will be connected to Knoxville. So, a lot of their conversations can get out. We’ve got about 175,000 followers on TikTok channel—

Tammy: Awesome.

Julia: So, we kind of we tend to, like, push out our local content very hard. It’s very relative.

Tammy: Oh, yeah. I’ve seen it. It’s awesome.

Julia: All right, four minutes left. This is my favorite round of every podcast. It’s my absolute favorite—

Tammy: Oh, this has to be the favorites stuff.

Julia: Okay. It is my favorite. So, this is the most difficult question I always ask.

Tammy: Okay.

Julia: When people visit you that have never been here before, what place do you take them that if any—like, no one else really knows about? Or maybe you think no one else knows about? What’s your secret spot to entertain out-of-area people?

Tammy: Oh, my secret spot. Oh, gosh. Okay, I love the Botanical Gardens. I think that is an amazing place. And I love Ijams, as well. And then always go to the KMA, the Knoxville Museum of Art, and then the East Tennessee History Center.

Those are probably my four favorite things, favorite places to visit and take people. And in fact, we’re always taking our classes from Intro Knox to all of these venues because it’s they’re so important. And they’re little hidden gems to a lot of people.

Julia: Our mutual good friend, Glory Johnson said the same. The Botanical Gardens was her very first one. I was like, “Man, that’s a good one. That is such a good one to add to the list.”

Tammy: Yes.

Julia: Favorite restaurant?

Tammy: Any Randy Burleson concept. I love Randy, I love everything from Aubrey’s to the—

Julia: I need this man on my podcast.

Tammy: Yes. It’s a—

Julia: Oh, my gosh. Every single person—not a joke. Even people that aren’t from here. I interviewed a guy from Johnson City. Not from here. I said, “What’s your favorite restaurant?” He said, “Aubrey’s.”

Tammy: Yeah, I love Aubrey’s, I love Bistro, Sunspot, Fieldhouse Social. Like if you want if you don’t want to watch a game at home, go to Fieldhouse Social. It’s amazing. Yeah. Any anything he does is awesome. And he was an LK alum, too, so I got to talk good about him [laugh].

Julia: Oh, that’s fantastic to know. I’m telling you, though, every single person has said Aubrey’s. Hands down, Aubrey’s. So, I think that man has definitely got a talent for pleasing people. All right.

Tammy: I love it.

Julia: Favorite grocery store?

Tammy: Butler & Bailey, hands down. Rocky Hill, that’s my hood. I love it. And it’s so small but it’s got everything you need. In and out. You’re in and out. It’s awesome. But because it’s so small and it’s so popular, you don’t want to go looking haggard because you’re going to run into somebody you know, always [laugh].

Julia: [laugh]. I learned that the hard way. I learned that the hard way. I would go out and I would just be normal, you know, ponytail, hat, and I would always run into somebody. And then I would dress up and no one would ever be around. I’m like, “Listen.”

Tammy: [laugh]. Love it. Love it.

Julia: Favorite bar. It can also be a restaurant, but favorite bar.

Tammy: Okay. I do love, if you want to drink with a view, the Five Thirty Lounge rooftop at the Hyatt Place downtown. It is spectacular.

Julia: Oh, my gosh, yeah. I totally forgot about that.

Tammy: Yeah. You’re looking at the amazing mountain view of East Tennessee. And then if you want a little privacy and you don’t want to be seen, the speakeasy bar which is called the Library at the Oliver Hotel downtown. Love it that it’s limited capacity, like, 40 people.

Julia: It is. All right. One minute or less, so I’m going to sign off here. This is Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting the nation with Knoxville, Tennessee. And today’s guest—and we are having her back to talk about every single one of these leadership programs—Leadership Knox CEO, Tammy White, one of the most important people in Knoxville, and she claims that she’s not, which tells you servant and humble leadership is at the forefront of Knoxville. Tammy, thank you. Hug Courtney for me. I’m very excited for her future. Very big congratulations. Thank you for Connecting the Knox.

Tammy: Appreciate you, Julia. Thank you.

About This Episode

Randy Boyd, legendary Knoxville entrepreneur and current President of the University of Tennessee, is a lifelong Knoxvillian who’s dedicated to giving back to his community. On this episode of ConnectTheKnox, he describes how an early failed business in his career lead him to where he is today, and the work he’s doing to help send Tennessee kids to college free of charge. Randy and Julia discuss how UT is growing along with the rest of Knoxville, and ways that the local community can get involved in their Everywhere You Look, UT campaign.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:50 Randy introduces himself and describes his dedication to Knoxville and family
• 2:16 Randy describes his entrepreneurial journey and how he started his non-profit, tnAchieves
• 05:04 Why Randy launched the “Everywhere You Look, UT” campaign
• 10:19 Randy describes the partnership between UT and Oak Ridge National Lab
• 12:24 The Tennessee Promise program and how it inspired Randy to create something similar for UT
• 15:19 Ad - Just Homes Group
• 17:13 The growth plan for UT Knoxville and the rest of the UT campuses state-wide
• 21:17 How people can help support the Everywhere You Look, UT campaign
• 22:25 Randy describes his running career and his favorite marathons
• 25:20 Julia fires off her lightning-round questions on Randy’s favorite local spots

Links Referenced

• tnAchieves: https://tnachieves.org/

Transcript

Julia: Welcome, everybody to Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting the nation to Knoxville, Tennessee. Today’s guest is literally my all-time favorite Knoxvillian. I don’t know how everybody else feels about it, but that’s just how you’re going to get it today. Mr. Randy Boyd, University of Tennessee Knoxville’s president, all-around most amazing father, most amazing son, most amazing husband, most amazing friend, I think the best president UT has ever had. I’m going to keep going. But we’re going to start and let him talk a little bit about himself. Randy, can you tell us a little bit about you, about your family, your Knoxville history, and how you ended up where you are today?

Randy: Oh thanks, Julia. And I’m going to go back and check your other podcasts and see if you introduce all your other guests exactly the same way.

Julia: [laugh].

Randy: But for the moment at least, I’m going to suspend disbelief and say thank you for that very kind introduction. But yeah, I’m a Knoxville native, born and raised, president of the University of Tennessee. I tell everybody all the time that I’m going to be a resident long after I’m a president. This is where I was born and this is where I’ll finish the rest of my lives. I guess if I started with the most important thing to know about me is that I’m a grandfather.

I’m called Poppi and I have two granddaughters that are the most adorable in the world. One’s four-and-a-half; she’s [Wiley 00:01:23]. Another that’s two; her name is Penelope. I have two sons. One is the father of my granddaughters, Thomas, and his wife Lindsay, and my younger son is Harrison.

Both live in Fourth & Gill in Knoxville, Tennessee. I’ve been married to Jenny now for 37 years. We’ve known each other for 39 years, and we built this wonderful life here in Knoxville. She’s the talent in the family. She plays the clawhammer banjo, the fiddle, the mandolin, and owns Boyd’s Jig and Reel. That’s her place where she has—

Julia: My favorite restaurant.

Randy: Oh, thank you for that. She tries to—her mission is to preserve and promote our musical heritage, which is the Scots, the Irish, the African music that kind of combined here and created this great music scene that we think of as Appalachian Country, and all the things that emanated from it. So, that’s her contribution to the community. For me, Born and raised in Knoxville, went to the University of Tennessee. First one of my family’s history to graduate from college.

Started my first business at age 23, which failed. I always tell young people that it’s always a good I—

Julia: Fail forward.

Randy: Yes. It’s always good to get a failure out of the way early. You learn more from your mistakes than you do from your successes. Started a second company that was a bit more pedestrian, selling electric fencing out of the back of a Dodge [unintelligible 00:02:41] van with no air, no radio. Customers started asking me for this product called the Invisible Fence.

Make a long story short, I decided to make one of my own. 30 years later, it’s an $800 million company with 4000 products and 1400 employees selling in 45 countries around the world. I sold the company about July of 2020. Meanwhile, had a few other little side projects. I’ve been Special Advisor for higher education for Governor Haslam and was able to create something called the Tennessee Promise and the Drive to 55.

I was able in 2017 to start a nonprofit called tnAchieves, which has now sent over 130,000 kids to community college free of charge. They’ve all on their own, have provided 4 million hours worth of community service, so we’re really proud of that little organization. Got to serve as Commissioner of Economic and Community Development. Had a lot of great projects working with Governor Haslam that I wanted to keep going and the best way I felt like to make sure that they didn’t end was to run for governor myself. That didn’t work out but I ended up in an even far better place.

I believe God always has a better plan for you than you do for yourself and I’m now the president of the University of Tennessee. I’m just about to hit my four-year anniversary on November 26th, 2022. And it’s been just an incredible adventure. I believe that if you want to serve the people of Tennessee, the University of Tennessee is the best place that you can do that.

Julia: I feel like after you lost the gubernatorial election, that Covid hit, and honestly [laugh] I was like, “Hmm…” I felt like God had a better plan for Mr. Randy Boyd. When you started at the University of Tennessee—it’s one of the biggest campuses that I’ve ever visited. I’ve visited all the state—the SEC colleges anyway. I was very lucky to have that, my very first failure, at the age of 23 myself, so I understand and appreciate that.

As you continue to grow UT, there’s a project that you all have: Everywhere You Look, UT. And when you started doing that and really promoting it, I genuinely felt like, even just living in the area, we saw more of UT everywhere. And now we’re looking at—I can see places—the second largest fanbase in the world by the way, right behind Florida, and I think that’s only because they have Gatorade. That’s the only reason I think that people know about Florida is Gatorade. But University of Tennessee is the second largest fanbase, and I feel like as president, you’re not just growing the sports fanbase, you’re actually growing the college fanbase.

I’ve relocated less than I think 25 to 30 new professors that are teaching new and exotic ways to think outside the box, new curriculums, new conversations. Tell us about that project and what you’re really growing there.

Randy: Well, so the Everywhere you Look UT campaign isn’t so much a project but a brand awareness campaign to make sure that people understood that Everywhere You Look, UT is present across the state of Tennessee. We are the land-grant university for the state of Tennessee, which means we are here to serve the people of Tennessee. Unlike a lot of other universities, our mission is to serve the people of Tennessee. And we literally are everywhere. And you know, President, I’m not just responsible for UT Knoxville, but for all of our campuses.

In the West, we have the UT Health Science Center that trains over 70% of the dentists and over 40% of the doctors for our state. And they have five campuses around the state. They’re not just in Memphis. They have faculty and students in Nashville, working out of the hospitals in Knoxville, in Chattanooga, in Jackson, Tennessee. And they have exactly 888 different clinics across the state of Tennessee providing medical care to people in the state at the same time training students.

Then of course we have UT Martin in Northwest Tennessee. And they have five satellite campuses all across West Tennessee. We have UT Chattanooga. They became a University of ours 52 years ago when they were acquired into the system. They had 1000 students then; now they have over 11,000. Doing a fabulous job in that part of the state.

At UT Knoxville, our flagship, we’ve grown by over 15% last year in our undergraduate enrollment. It’s 32,000 students now. And within UT Knoxville, we also have the Institute of Agriculture with an extension office in every single one of our 95 counties across the state. And then finally, we just added a new campus called UT Southern in Pulaski, Tennessee. We created something called the UT Promise a few years ago that says if your family income is under $60,000, you can come to any of our campuses, free of tuition and fees.

Julia: Wow.

Randy: So, that makes it possible—

Julia: Wow.

Randy: —for over half the population to come to UT for free. But if you can’t, if you lived in Southern Middle Tennessee, there was no campus anywhere near you. The only way you could have come get a college education at UT was to move and live on campus. And if you’re like a lot of people, leaving your family is not an option. And so, by acquiring what used to be called Martin Methodist, we now have a new UT campus in Pulaski, Tennessee, changing and transforming that part of our state forever, giving more high-quality public education opportunities for the people in that area. Also, by the way, we manage this little laboratory over in Oak Ridge called Oak Ridge National Labs, which I’m currently the chairman of UT-Battelle that runs the lab as well. So—

Julia: Just a little, just a little something extra [laugh].

Randy: Across the state, literally everywhere you look, UT is there with the mission of providing more opportunity for more people to get a great education and a better job and a better life.

Julia: Combined with what you have actually been able to accomplish in your very short lifespan of being here, let’s say, you know, at all—at 23, so you barely had 30 years in this business of being in business, what you have accomplished in this very short time having such a successful campaign of passion, especially toward education. We—I just had an interview with Loudoun County Education Foundation Director, Michelle Lewis, and she actually commented on this as well that education feels like—and I’ve said this—it feels like it’s changing and it’s changing so fast. And having someone like you’re passionate for this education growth and the workforce development, what future do you see UT playing in more of a mechanical, hands-on process, versus just the university path? Where are we headed with that, do you think?

Randy: Well, I think the University of Tennessee is going to be training a lot of the teachers that provide the education and a lot of our other types of schools. But that but there is a difference between I think what maybe what she was referring to in the technical fields that you would [unintelligible 00:09:29] one of our Tennessee colleges of applied technology. Those are critically important to our state and we’re trying to be great partners with them in our community colleges. Where I think the university’s biggest role is in providing transfer pathways to those students. So, they should go to the state—the [unintelligible 00:09:46] should go to a technical school and get some of that hands-on training, but then some will want to transfer into a community college, and then others still will decide, you know, actually, I want to learn even more and I’d like to transfer to a university and be able to get a bachelor’s degree in engineering. It was great to learn to weld, it was great to get a mechatronics associate’s degree, but I think I could actually like to get it all, a mechanical engineering degree. And our role in that continuum is to be great partners for the technical colleges and the community colleges.

Julia: That is amazing. What’s the new partnership—it’s not new—but what is the partnership like with Oak Ridge National Lab? That’s actually been a topic of conversation a lot recently. A lot of relocations coming in with Bechdel on top of that and a lot of things come out of Washington DC. In this very small town. I don’t think people know that the Knoxville, Tennessee, area houses all of this and the responsibility is connected.

Randy: Yeah, Oak Ridge National Labs has had tremendous growth over the last ten years. In fact, I’m going to be celebrating soon at a retirement party with Thomas Zacharia who has led a lot of that growth after having served as the lab director for the last five years. But the lab has grown over 2000 employees in the last five years. There are now an organization with 6500 of some of the smartest engineers and scientists, the most loyal, dedicated staff in the country. They’ll do $2.7 billion in research this year, which is also up, like, 40% over what it was just ten years ago.

The partnership with UT has been since the very beginning. UT’s engineers and faculty members helped in the creation of the lab back in the ’40s. Twenty-two years ago, the Department of Energy had a bid for a contract to manage the lab. The University of Tennessee partnered with Battelle out of Ohio for that bid and we won. And so, now we’ve been the managing partner in partnership with Battelle for 22 years.

Every five years, the bid comes up for renewal. We’re hopeful that we’re going to be the managing partner of Battelle—or Oak Ridge National Labs, hopefully for decades to come. We have a really, really close relationship.

Julia: Yeah. Huge. It’s huge. I think that is one of the biggest research facilities in the country.

Randy: It is the largest non-weapons research facility in the country.

Julia: Right. All housed again, in the Knoxville, Tennessee market. A lot of things that people just don’t know. A little bit about the Connect the Knox situation is connecting the dots in Knoxville to the things that go outside of this area. And a big question I had for you—going to revert back to education; I still think that is such, such an amazing opportunity for the rest of the country to mimic, maybe, or possibly, you know, rip off and develop your process for getting kids a free education. How is the University of Tennessee Knoxville’s platform, I guess, as president allowing you to have those conversations and show the rest of the nation, hey, this can work and you can build your workforce out at almost no cost?

Randy: So, I’m really—as I mentioned—really proud of the work that we did around the Tennessee Promise. And that’s a state-led program that allows everybody in the state of Tennessee to be able to go to a technical college or community college free of charge, forever. And they were matched with a mentor, which is so critically important to make sure that not only go but they’re also successful once they get there. And they also—and it’s technically not free because when they go, they also had to do one day’s worth of community service each semester. So, that’s the Tennessee Promise program.

When I got to UT, seeing how well the Tennessee Promise program worked for students wanting to go to technical community colleges, I wanted to do something similar at the University of Tennessee. The trick to the Tennessee Promise was that it’s a last-dollar scholarship so that at the state, we would apply or provide the funding for students to be able to go that was already provided by either state programs like HOPE Scholarship, or federal programs like Pell. Now, the fact is that 53% of those students could have gone free anyway, they just didn’t know it. We apply that same kind of logic and same kind of plan to that program that we call the UT Promise which says that if you can academically earn the right to any one of our colleges you can go—universities, you can go free of tuition and fees. We’re the first system across the country to be able to do that.

[unintelligible 00:14:21] means there have been a few other single campuses that have done some programs somewhere, but no statewide system had ever done anything like what we were able to do. And I mean, it’s been game-changing for so many families and students. Last year we had over 1100 students be able to come to one of our campuses completely free of tuition and fees as a part of this program. They also are required to have a mentor, which even though it’s a requirement, it’s actually a benefit to have somebody, like yourself maybe, like so many others that volunteer to help support these students and then also like Tennessee Promise, they’re required to do a community service project, which I think is also not only something that—a way in which they’re giving back but they’re also learning at the same time. Because a lot of times they get exposed to programs they might not otherwise have known about and find that they have a passion for it. So, we actually create lifelong people that want to give back to their community. So, we’re really excited about that program.

Julia: So, we all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group Realty Executives have the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call Just Homes Group Realty Executives today.

Julia: It feels good because I was actually waiting in line, I don’t know, a [Petros 00:15:50], I think, at the UT football game a couple of games ago, and this young lady next to me, she says, “Julia?” And I was like, “Yes, that would be me.” She goes, “You were my mentor in Tennessee Promise.” And I was like, “That is—” right there, just standing right next to me.

So, I mean, you get some sense of she’s there, she’s accomplished, she’s telling me all about it. And she walked back to our chairs with us and she was so sweet. And I was like, one, I can’t believe you remembered me, and two, I can’t believe that fortuitously we were standing here together, it’s your junior year, you’re about to graduate. You get such a reward of giving back to these kids. And it’s just like they actually remember the impact you have on them and it changes your life and their life and the whole community. It’s an opportunity.

Randy: I think sometimes we mentors, or just adults in general, forget how—or even supervisors or leaders in organizations—forget how a kind, supportive word at the right time can transform somebody’s direction. And you don’t—sometimes you don’t even think about it. You don’t think it’s very material, but it really does make a huge difference. And we’re always recruiting mentors [unintelligible 00:16:55] turns into a pitch for recruiting mentors because we’ll always be [closing 00:16:58]—

Julia: That’s okay. Take what you can get [laugh].

Randy: But the time that’s required is so minimal but the impact that it can make on a person’s life can be so, so transformative. It’s a great investment that really makes a difference.

Julia: Where do you see the future of the University of Tennessee, including—I mean, it’s a small town in and of itself, right? 32,000 people, that’s almost as big as our county over here, one county over. Where do you see the growth on that? How are we going to continue housing the students on campus? Are we going to continue to build outskirt campuses? What’s your growth plan there?

Randy: Yeah. Well, so—and remember, I as the president of the University of Tennessee system responsible for all the campuses, and we have 53,000 students across the state and each one of them has their own growth plans. UT Knoxville has a tremendous amount of demand, more than we could possibly bring in. Well actually, we had 38,000 students apply to come to UT Knoxville, we’re only able to bring in 6800. This coming year, I can tell you that the applications are going to be even greater still.

So, it’s a real challenge to be able to choose the few very fortunate students to get to come. But in every case, we’ve got to make sure we give them a great experience. So, one of our challenges as we continue to grow is to make sure we’re building out housing, building out apartments on campus, but also encouraging the broader community. If we had a growth plan to add 5000 additional beds—we have about 8000 now—if we had another 5000 over the next five years, which would be incredibly aggressive, that would only meet the enough for the freshmen and about 25% of the sophomores, which means as this growth keeps continuing, your upperclassmen are going to need more and more beds.

So, the same number of beds that we’re having to increase for the freshmen and that percentage of the sophomores, the broader community is going to need to be able to create. So, we’re—just for Knoxville campus alone, we need a tremendous amount of new construction. And then you add to it all the faculty and the staff that come here to support them. One of our biggest challenges in Knoxville is creating the housing to meet just UT Knoxville’s growth in addition to all the other businesses that are growing.

Julia: Amen to that. It’s one of our biggest struggles in my industry as well. We’re constantly asking for more land to be open for development. There’s only so much land around your campuses, even statewide though. How do you find more opportunity for growth, like the land and the building? How does that come across?

Randy: Well, I think [unintelligible 00:19:38] of think about land differently. If you look at the University of Tennessee on an aerial map, there’s a tremendous amount of it—I don’t know the exact percentage, but a tremendous amount of surface parking. I think we just can’t afford to have a significant part of our campus anywhere taken up by surface parking. So, changing the way we think about parking is one. And also maybe the way you think about even allowing cars on campus.

You know, a lot of campuses around the country don’t allow cars for their students in their freshman year. And so, we think about what kind of impact that would have on the need for parking, which then what impact that would have on our space. So, we’re going to have to be more efficient with the land that we have, we’re going to need to be going up, and we’ll have opportunities to go and expand a bit as well. A project that—this will be interesting to the those that are in Knoxville, if they don’t know, but the city along with UT has proposed to the governor to finance a pedestrian bridge from Thompson–Boling River over to the South Knoxville waterfront, if the state provides the funding to do that, if the governor funds that, then suddenly, there could be a whole community on the other side of the river that can walk to UT’s campus within ten minutes. And that would be a tremendous boost for that part of our community and gives us the ability to have some additional very accessible residential space.

Julia: Is there anything that the public in all 95 counties can do to educate themselves more on what they can be involved in, what they can’t be involved in, how they can help grow or maintain? What can everybody help University of Tennessee do for that Everywhere You Look, UT, and they can understand how to be involved in that and watch its growth?

Randy: Yeah, there’s so many opportunities, but reaching out to your local campus. If you’re in Northwest Tennessee, reaching out to UT Martin or UT Southern, there’s so many volunteer opportunities. One of the things that I’ve been amazed at in this University of Tennessee system is how many people step up and volunteer. So, much of the work is done by volunteers, people that either graduated or just have an affinity to the University of Tennessee. So, reach out to the local campuses and volunteer.

Another opportunity is reach out to the local extension office. Again, we have one in every county, they have all kinds of programs, including 4-H. We have 186,000 4-H students in the state of Tennessee. They’re all managed by the 4-H agents at UT’s extension offices. So, UT manages that whole program and they are always looking for volunteers. There’s unlimited ways in which one can volunteer. If you have no time, you just got a lot of money, you can also donate as well.

Julia: [laugh]. If you have a lot of money and you’re looking to donate, I’ll find a way to connect you. That’s the whole point of the podcast. I’m going to shift gears just a bit. A lot of things that people do know about you and don’t know about you: you are an avid runner, and I think that by even just looking at your social media pages, and now UT’s social media because you are head to toe orange wherever you go; everyone knows where you UT is. Tell us a little bit about your running career and some of your favorite places and maybe not so favorite places of where you run.

Randy: Well, first of all, I will say, I do run a lot, but I do it from my mental health as well as my physical health. And I only get participation medals. I’m never standing on a podium, just to be clear. But I have done a lot. I have ran 47 full marathons and 85 half marathons. Goals would be to run 100 halves, 50 fulls.

And I want to do a full one every continent. I’ve done three continents so far, including Antarctica last December, which that’s a whole podcast story, but it was very, very challenging. It just turns out by the way, it’s pretty difficult getting to Antarctica. Getting there was an adventure just by itself. But my favorite marathon is New York. I’ve done it 15 times in a row.

I just did it two weeks ago and I like it because of just the pageantry and the immenseness of it. There’s 35,000 runners from 150 different countries, 2 million fans along the way. It’s a spectacle. And it’s just really fun to be a part of. And so, that’ll probably the one that you know, at age 90, I’m just trying to stay ahead of the street sweepers and try to get my medal and finish. But that’ll be the one that I’ll continue to do forever.

Julia: I just finished a half marathon at Disney about three weeks ago and it was not—

Randy: Good for you.

Julia: —yeah thank you. I’m back running. It took me two years to heal for my injury. It’s not going to keep me down, so I was like, “We’re going to fix this. I’m getting back on the road.” Those balloon ladies were one mile behind me the whole time. I was like, “You’re not getting me. You’re not getting me.” I made it, but I [unintelligible 00:24:18] understand the struggle bus. I understand the struggle bus.

Listen, is there anything that anybody out here right now, anything you need to be connected to? You’re very connected in and of yourself, but is there anything that anybody on our podcasts that can help UT or help you grow, get to know? Is there anything you need to be connected with that Connect the Knox can help you with today?

Randy: I’d say just what we talked about earlier. Go to the local campus website, reach out to a local extension office. Probably most everybody on this call knows somebody that is involved in UT; ask them how you can help. This university is here to serve the people of Tennessee, but it serves best when the people of Tennessee are also serving the university and we all work together to make a difference. And I hope that we can. Julia, thanks so much for letting me be on with you today.

Julia: Oh no, this has been my pleasure. It always is. You always make time for everybody, and I think again, that’s the servant leadership part you’ve always had, always. Love to do a whole ‘nother podcast on that. I’m telling you. I got a whole lot of [unintelligible 00:25:18] Randy Boyd stories. Anyway, fire round: favorite Knoxville restaurant?

Randy: Boyd’s Jig and Reel.

Julia: Boom. It is the best. It’s where I take all my [NIL 00:25:28] kids on the football team for lunches because they never leave campus and I’m like just meet me at the Jig and Reel [laugh] and they love it. They love it. Favorite bar?

Randy: Also Boyd’s Jig and Reel.

Julia: [laugh]. Why, though?

Randy: Yeah. But I’d say Brother Wolf, right next door—

Julia: Oh yeah, it’s really good.

Randy: —would be—

Julia: Jig and Reel has the world’s largest Scotch selection, correct?

Randy: That’s right. And if I were going upmarket, I go to the Brasserie.

Julia: Oh. Off Northshore. Yes, yes. Yes, they still have the whole Fish Fridays, which is rare to find anymore. Rare to find. Okay, let’s see what we’ve got. Favorite grocery store?

Randy: I like Fresh Market. My wife likes Butler & Bailey though, so we’re kind of a split family on that. I like Butler & Bailey, as well.

Julia: Butler & Bailey actually came up two podcasts ago. It’s very interesting. Everybody’s got a different conversation with how all the favorites. Favorite gas station?

Randy: Any Pilot. But also, I like [Weigel’s 00:26:22], too.

Julia: Coffee?

Julia: Uh… you know, it’s maybe not politically correct, but I do like Starbucks. I like to get a grande black [unintelligible 00:26:34]. It’s two shots.

Julia: I’m big on the flat whites. They’re fantastic. Flat whites. All right. I appreciate you. I’m not going to grill you anymore on favorites. Thank you so much for taking time. We know that your time is valuable. Everyone: Everywhere You Look, UT. This is UT president—and this is statewide—Randy Boyd, again one of my favorite people. And no, I don’t introduce everybody like that. We’re going to do another podcast on that run in Antarctica, and do just a runner’s Podcast. I’m really excited for everything that you’ve done and appreciate you so greatly, again. Thank you for being on our show today. Is there a website specifically that everyone can go? I would love for them to look at the volunteer opportunity for tnAchieves.

Randy: Just Google UT and you’ll find plenty, plenty of different ones. Thank you, Julia.

Julia: Thanks, Randy. Have a good one.

Randy: Bye-bye.

Julia: Bye.

Today’s Housing Market Is Nothing Like 15 Years Ago

About This Episode

Michelle Lewis, Executive Director of the Loudon County Education Foundation, has been supporting excellence in local education for over 11 years. Watch this episode of ConnectTheKnox to learn how she got involved with LCEF, as well as how LCEF is supporting local educators and students. Michelle and Julia talk through some of their favorite LCEF fundraising events, and Michelle explains how that money is used to help fund programs like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, grants for local educators, and so much more.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:02 Michelle introduces herself and her local roots, and describes her journey to become the Executive Director of the Loudon County Education Foundation
• 02:37 The history of the Loudon County Education Foundation and the changes she’s seen in education over the past 11 years
• 06:11 Michelle explains how the LCEF works with Imagination Library and why it’s so important to Loudon County children
• 07:35 Ad - Dr. Joe Chiro
• 08:57 Michelle and Julia discuss how LCEF currently fundraises, as well as some of their biggest annual fundraisers and favorite fundraisers of the past
• 16:10 Michelle explains how COVID has affected fundraising for LCEF
• 21:04 Julia asks Michelle how LCEF is anticipating the growth of surrounding areas like Farragut and Knoxville
• 24:33 Ad - Just Homes Group
• 25:43 How you can find and support the Loudon County Education Foundation
• 26:27 Michelle tackles Julia’s lightning round of questions about her favorite Knoxville hot spots

Links Referenced

• Loudon County Education Foundation https://lceftn.org/
• Dr. Joe Chiro www.goseedrjoe.com
• Just Homes Group www.justhomesgroup.com
• Meadowview Greenhouse & Garden Center https://www.meadowviewgreenhouse.com/
• Painted Tree Knoxville https://paintedtree.com/locations/knoxville-tennesse

Transcript

Julia: Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley connecting the nation with Knoxville, Tennessee. Today’s guest is an all-time personal favorite person of mine, a very close friend and supporter for many years, Michelle Lewis. And Michelle is the Director of the Loudoun County Education Foundation. And Loudoun County touches Knox County, and we actually share a school district, we share a lot of the same traffic patterns, we share a lot of the same shopping and employees.

So, it is extremely important to get to know the Education Foundation in Loudoun County as it does also affect Knox County. So Michelle, thank you for your time. Thank you for being here today. Tell us a little bit about you, how you ended up in this specific area, and just take it from there.

Michelle: All right. Thank you for having me, Julia. As you said, I’m Michelle Lewis. I’m the Executive Director of the Loudoun County Education Foundation. And I have held this position for 11 years as of October the 18th.

So, I’m very proud to be in this position. I feel like I have the opportunity to do a lot of good work for Loudoun County, and as you say, as it affects Knoxville, which I’m actually from and live in Knoxville. So, you asked me how I ended up in Loudoun County and in this position. So, I have always kind of worked in nonprofit. My education, I have a degree from the University of Tennessee in public relations communications.

So, I worked at the Knoxville Museum of Art, I worked with Florence Crittenton, and then eventually I applied for an Executive Director position here in Loudoun County for the Education Foundation. I come from a family of educators, my father taught at Farragut High School where I graduated from, my aunt teaches at UT, my other aunt and uncle both teach in Maryville. So, as I said, it’s kind of the family profession. And so, when I saw the opportunity to support education in Loudoun County, it felt like a true calling. And so, I applied for the position and was the lucky candidate, and 11 years later, here I am [laugh].

Julia: Tell us how it started. Like, I’m sure the Loudoun Cou—it hasn’t always been here. Tell us how the Education Foundation started and kind of where it’s gone in the last 11 years. Like, what have you seen change in education as a whole, in the Foundation, in growth? Tell us about that.

Michelle: When I first started with the Foundation, I had a lot to learn, obviously. The Foundation had been going as an individual organization since 1998. It started as a program of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce began the Education Foundation as an outcry from the community for support from the chamber for education. And even though we became a standalone organization, that was mostly so that we could be a 501(c)(3), the chamber is not a 501(c)(3), so when people contribute to the Foundation, it is tax deductible.

But we’re still sort of the stepchild of the chamber, we rent office space with them, and rely a lot on them for office equipment and things like that help keeps our costs down so that we can contribute the most that we possibly can to education. When I started with the Foundation, it actually had sort of a backward business model. The schools were really kind of supporting the Foundation as opposed to the Foundation supporting the schools. The schools were funding programs that the Director of the Foundation was going into the schools and providing for the students. But right around 2010, 2011, which is pretty close to right before I started, the education model overall kind of turned to where it was much more testing and state standards and that sort of thing, so obviously, there’s nothing that I can provide to a student that would benefit pulling them out of a classroom with a degreed teacher who’s teaching to curriculum.

So, you know, we really took a long, hard look at that and decided that we needed to really adjust how we support the schools. Mostly what we do are classroom grants, and so I worked very hard to raise funds in the community so that teachers have the opportunity to write grants to me for classroom projects. So, we don’t support a budgetary needs, we don’t support bricks and mortar. So, we’re not here to provide the schools with money that they’re already receiving through, you know, county budgets and such, but this is to give teachers the opportunity to reach out and get funds for things that they don’t have access to through their normal budgets. And of course, teachers are the ones who know what’s going to grab a student and make them want to learn, and so when teachers have the opportunity to access funds like that then our kids benefit.

And when we have an educated workforce, an educated community, then everybody benefits. Our slogan, our motto is, “Education is the foundation of a successful community.” And we believe that very strongly. So, there’s been a lot of changes since I first started with the Foundation. We were probably contributing maybe $25,000 a year, and as I said, a lot of those funds were actually coming straight from the schools.

Since I started with the Foundation, we have contributed over $950,000 to education in Loudoun County. We do that through individual contributions and corporate and business contributions. We do not receive government funding really at all. So, the City of Lenoir contributes to us annually to assist with one of our fundraisers Run LoCo. But that is the only municipality that’s contributing to the Foundation. The city of Loudoun donate services and so we get support that way.

But overall, that’s how we raise our money. One of the things I think you asked me about earlier was the Imagination Library. And most people think that Dolly Parton pays for all of it. But Dolly is actually the initiator and a partner of the program. So, each county that has an Imagination Library has to have a host organization that accepts the fundraising responsibility for that program. In Loudoun County, we have 1950 kids enrolled right now [crosstalk 00:06:33]—

Julia: Wow.

Michelle: Yeah, we are—that’s 73% of our saturation of eligible kids in our county, and we’re one of the top counties in Tennessee. So, while Knox County may have more kids enrolled in their program, percentage-wise, you know, it might be less than what we have. But—and I’m not going to say that’s true with Knox County because it may not be, but we are one of the top counties in Tennessee. But we have the responsibility of raising $25 per child per year. So, that would be about 48, $49,000 a year for us to raise. But we do have the benefit of the Governor’s Early Literacy Program Foundation in Tennessee, and they help with 12.5 dollars for that. So, $12.50 from them, $12.50 for us. So, it’s a bottom line of about $25,000 for our budget annually to provide that benefit and resource to the kids in Loudoun County.

Announcer: Pain head to toe? Go see Dr. Joe, certified sports chiropractor with specialties and dry needling, soft tissue therapy, TENS unit targeting, and spinal manipulation. Fifteen years of athletic chiropractic training at your service right here in Knoxville, located off of South Peters Road. That’s Dr. Joe Chiro at goseedrjoe.com. Call the office today or visit our website.

Julia: Yeah, I had Imagination Library growing up, so I know that the effects of that are lifelong; they’re long-term effects. I mean, I remember growing up around kids who had no books and those were the only books I got. So, I mean, that was… it’s a staple. It’s a staple need, I think. For every county and especially counties, you know, butt up against larger counties like Knox County that gets most of the time, attention, and resources for the outlying rural communities to get that program. So, that’s fantastic.

What are your biggest fundraisers of the year? And what does that look like… like, basically your fiscal—you don’t get a break. You’re 365 fundraising. I can only imagine every single person that you talk to you, you’re at the grocery store and you overhear, like, 1031 Exchange, you’re like, “Donate.” So, it’s [laugh]—you know, what are your biggest fundraisers?

Michelle: I’m always looking for those opportunities. Covid has changed some of how we do things and what we’re doing. We used to do a Dine Out for Education, very similar to what Knoxville has where we ask restaurants to participate, and they contribute 10%. But of course, Covid just really hit restaurants hard and they have not recovered yet, service staff, food costs, all of those things. So, we’re trying to be sensitive to that and not hit restaurants when they’re down.

So, instead of doing a day where we ask for contributions from restaurants, we changed that to a pancake breakfast. Last year that was supported by Aubrey’s, who are a huge community neighbor, and always do so much and support us so very much. So, that was a little different than what we’ve done in the past. We have been working with Del Conca for several years. They were doing a tile sale for us, but as of last year, they determined that we would now make that an annual event. I’m very excited about that.

That sale will be the first Saturday in May and it’ll be annual, so if you’re doing a DIY project at home, don’t buy tile [laugh] at top prices; come to the Del Conca sale. It’s Italian tile, it’s made here in Loudoun County, it’s beautiful, and they’re selling it for 30 cents to 50 cents square foot during our sale. So, I’ve seen people pull in with, you know, trucks with trailers behind them and load the whole thing up and spend $300. So, you know, you could tile your entire front yard house and backyard for just a small amount of money and support education at the same time. So, that’s going to be a new standing event that I’m very excited about. I think we have a lot of potential. You know, as much tile as we can sell, we can make money off.

We have our Run LoCo marathon, that’s going to be December 3 this year. And that’s a marathon, half marathon, and 5k. And that’s been going very well. Covid obviously had a big hit on that in 2020; we had to cancel the event. So normally, it takes about three years to build an event like that. We’re in our fourth right now, but having had Covid kind of hid in the middle of it, we’re still working on that event to build it to its greatest potential.

But it brings people in from Knoxville, it brings people in—actually we have 14 states represented so far this year signed up to run. And yeah, so that really draws people into the entire area. So, when people are coming in from New York, Kansas, North Carolina, I mean all over the place, you know, they’re definitely going to go to Knoxville, they’re definitely going to go, you know, to different sites around and hopefully spend lots of money in Loudoun County, too [laugh].

Julia: Loudoun County is not an easy run. These roads are up and down like this. I mean, people—it’s a Boston qualifier, correct?

Michelle: Yes, it is. Yes it is.

Julia: That’s a big deal—

Michelle: Boston qualifier.

Julia: Because we have quite a few people that have relocated that are runners and a lot of leaders in the communities that are runners who are looking to qualify for Boston so they can get into the New York as well. So, that is an opportunity for people I don’t think they are aware.

Michelle: Mm-hm. Absolutely.

Julia: I know [crosstalk 00:11:59]—do you all still do the bus, the Fill the Bus?

Michelle: Well, we do something a little different this year because—and there again, when I started with the Foundation, they did Stuff the Bus. We parked the bus on tax-free weekend in Walmart parking lot, which always fell, like, first weekend in August, so of course, it was 190 degrees in the parking lot at Walmart, you know [laugh]? And I lost at least five pounds every day. But little by little, some of the other organizations in town started picking up efforts in stuffing backpacks. And so, what we found is that a lot of churches, the Good Samaritan center, were offering backpacks to kids.

So, most people were already contributing to those efforts. And we never want to duplicate and we also don’t want to take away from other nonprofits, so we decided that we would do it a little differently. One of the things that we were hearing is that with our Stuff the Bus, we were getting a lot of repetitive products. So, they were getting, like, at the time, like, a whole big bunch of hand sanitizer, and, you know, maybe not enough magic marker. So, we decided we’d do something a little different and raise money. So, we now have what’s called Banking on Education.

Julia: That’s right. Sorry, I’m going to interrupt you. I remember I’ve got—I was like, there’s another fundraiser that I really love and I forgot the name of it. Yes.

Michelle: Banking on Education. So, we have local banks, we usually have four banks that contribute a $500 prize eat, and then we sell 100 chances for each $500 prize, each chance is $20. So, you have a 1 in 100 chance of winning $500 for just a $20 contribution. And from that we have contributed a minimum of $4,000 a year to the school systems so that they have a resource. So, when those backpacks are depleted and those kids don’t have any supplies, what happens is teachers go to their own pockets and buy those things.

So, now they can go to the family resource center and say, “Hey, Susan Fox,” or hey, “Cindy [Perdie 00:13:54], I need, you know, this amount of money,” or, “I need this amount of you know, magic markers,” or composition books or whatever it is they need. So, we help support with classroom supplies that way. So, we have Banking on Education, Dine Out for Education, Run LoCo for Education, [laugh] we have DIY for Education. And then we also have our celebration of excellence in education. And that’s in March.

And that’s where we acknowledge 200 students from the Lenoir City and Loudoun County School Systems for being outstanding in their classes. Out of those 200, we choose 20 grade-level winners and then four finalists. And those four are submitted to the International Leadership Network and have an opportunity to compete nationally. And we have had several national winners that have won prizes from the International Network as well. We usually have about 1200 to 1500 people show up to that event to see those children come across this stage and win prizes.

We acknowledge 12 teachers, six from each school system, and then we also have our essay contest, which is sponsored by [Fullon 00:15:08] Insurance that we have three winners for three different grade levels. So, there’s nine winners total and we give out $1,050 in prizes for the essay contest winners. All total that night, we give out $3,050 in prize money, but that event we also have sponsors for, and the money that we raise through that event is what we fund our Great Idea Classroom Grants with. So, it all goes back around.

Julia: It’s all connected. I think [crosstalk 00:15:40]—

Michelle: It’s all connected

Julia: It’s all connected with Connect the Knox. It’s all connected. It’s an entire trickle-down system and every single person plays a part. Even during Covid, we didn’t shut our schools all the way down. I mean, we had the option, so there was still a need. And I think a lot of the financing from the school district itself was getting depleted and a lot of parents were getting depleted. And how did the Education Foundation stay solvent? And how did you reach those teachers and parents through those times?

Michelle: Hmmm. Well, that was—you know, it was a difficult time because there wasn’t a lot of movement in between. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to even do Young Achievers in person that year. It was the first time in over 28 years that that event hadn’t been held in person. We were still able to acknowledge our Young Achievers and make awards and mail those out and notify the school so they were able to publish those names and those sorts of things.

So, we were still fundraising, we were still able to award classroom grants, we still did Banking on Education, we still supplied classroom supplies funds, so we tried very hard to keep things going. As I said, we did have to cancel Run LoCo that year as well. So, it you know, those effects weren’t necessarily felt right then. We’re, you know, we had funds together and people met their commitments for that year, but it’s the years have come after that have gotten more difficult for fundraising. I’m sure every nonprofit you talk to will say the same thing.

It’s just a hard economic environment right now to raise money in. But, you know, it’s important. It’s an absolute important job to do and it makes a difference. You know, we’ve been able to contribute microscopes to Greenback, books to Fort Loudoun Middle. I mean, I could tell you just incredible stories about things that teachers have been able to do with grant funding and how it’s encouraged the kids.

But just even one small project. One teacher asked for money for an escape room and it’s based on mathematics. And so—

Julia: How fun.

Michelle: Yeah, exactly. And so, the kids know, as they’re learning each section, like, if they’re working on fractions, they know they’re going to have to use fractions to figure out the clues to win the escape room. They are motivated [laugh], you know? They are ready. They know this is going to help him win the game. And so, you know, those sorts of things, like I said, you know, teachers know, you know, what kids are going to want to do. So, being able to fund those sorts of things have just been really important. And to continue—

Julia: I love it.

Michelle: Yeah, yeah.

Julia: I love it. What was the event that you had that we came to where you celebrated the World’s Fair and had that bit—

Michelle: [laugh].

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:18:19]. Because I have to tell you right now, that was probably the most fun thing we did almost the whole year. We did, you know, a ton of not-for-profit events; your event was so much fun. What was that event?

Michelle: [laugh]. Okay, so our galas are a little different than most galas. Our galas, first of all, are donor appreciation. So, you received an invitation to that because you were a supporter of the Education Foundation. So, thank you very much.

And that evening, making sure that everybody has a good time is our way of saying thank you. So, our galas, right now for the past couple of years, we’ve been playing trivia during our galas, and we have some sort of theme. So, this past year was based on the world’s fair because it was the 40th anniversary of the World’s Fair. The year before we did the Love Boat Gala because we were—all had been in lockdown and everybody needed a cruise. The year before that, we did the Summer of Love Gala because it was the 50th year anniversary of Woodstock, Sesame Street, the landing on the moon. So, everybody came dressed as hippies [laugh]. And yeah, so we have so much fun. And we give away prizes. And I mean the prizes start off from anything from, like, bank swag, like, you know, earbuds that—

Julia: I won a whole tree.

Michelle: Yeah.

Julia: Like a whole, grown tree. And it takes 40 years to grow a tree. I’m like, I won a whole tree. That is such a perfect gift.

Michelle: Absolutely.

Julia: I loved it.

Michelle: Congratulations. I didn’t realize you got the tree.

Julia: I got the tree. I got the tree. I actually swapped it with the people in front of me. They really—whatever it was that I actually got, they got—I got $100 gift card to Aubrey’s and I’m going to tell you right now, every podcast we have recorded, I will ask somebody, “What’s your favorite restaurant?” And they said Aubrey’s.

Michelle: Aubrey’s. Yeah.

Julia: Every single time. It’s like, “Aubrey’s.” I’m going to have to get the guy on here. I’m going to have to get him on here as a podcast guest. But Aubrey’s showing up. But I got a $100 gift certificate to Aubrey’s and I giggled because I said, “You know, I eat at Aubrey’s so often anyway.” The people across me had just moved here and they had not eaten at Aubrey’s yet and I was like, “I will trade you for that tree.” And she was like, “You want a tree?” I was like, “I want the tree.”

Michelle: “I want the tree.” [laugh]. That’s awesome. And it’s not just the tree; it’s installation as well. So yeah.

Julia: It’s oxygenation, it’s beautification. But it’s events like that you have so much fun with. And you don’t even know who all the donors are until you get to that event at the end of the year. And then it’s an opportunity to meet all the businesses in, like, 13 counties that show up, and you’re like, I had no idea that you contribute to Loudoun County Education Foundation. That’s amazing. And it’s people you see all the time and you don’t think about it.

And so, you are connecting all of these people through education and for these kids. What do you see as the future? Because you know, Knox County itself is the hub, it’s our biggest city, and they are exploding growth-wise. Although in the last census—a decade—Loudoun County was the largest percentage growth. Knox County is still the largest growth County and now you’re pushing out of the city limits, butting up to Farragut, Loudoun County, Lenoir City shares some of a school district.

And we kind of have a little bit of the city itself into that. How do you anticipate managing, partnering with the Knox County School District—really more Farragut at this point—and moving forward to what they need and incorporating and keeping safe just Loudoun County Education Foundation?[ because keeping that separate is a big deal.

Michelle: Yeah. You know, I’m going to admit that those are probably larger questions than my arena. But what I’m very aware of, especially since I live in Knox County and I work in Loudoun County, and so I deal with, you know, daily traffic going both ways. And what I know is that many Loudoun Countians work in Knox County. Having an educated workforce in Loudoun County benefits the surrounding counties because they’re drawing from our labor force.

Many Knox Countians work in Loudoun also, but you know, little by little, you see that traffic pattern is starting to even up a little bit, but when I first started working at the Foundation, driving from West Town Mall to, you know, downtown City of Loudoun took me all of 20 minutes. Now, it’s taking me an hour to get from Loudoun to Knoxville, and that’s because there’s so much traffic, you know? And when I first started, I would just be whizzing by and I’d look over in that lane going the other way and they were at a dead [still 00:23:05]. So, you know, it’s starting to even out as far as the work exchange, but there’s been so many people from Loudoun County that have supported Knoxville through their work efforts, through their labor for so very many years, and vice versa. So, when we have Knox County people working in Loudoun County, they’re getting gas here, they’re going to lunch here, you know, they’re still spending their dollars here. Same thing with us, you know?

But as long as we have that educated workforce, then we still have that foundation for Loudoun to continue to grow, you know, and to protect the assets that we have here and keep those two counties, you know, separate. Because, you know, if Loudoun can’t, you know, sustain itself, then it’s going to become Knox County [laugh].

Julia: Right. Right.

Michelle: So ultimately, you know, keeping—making sure that we maintain a good education system—and we have an amazing education system here in Loudoun County. We have reward schools, you know, our schools are constantly being acknowledged. Our teachers, we have one of the I think the Teacher of the Year came from Loudoun County this year for, you know, statewide recognition. So, you know, we have quality programs, we have excellent schools here. So, you know, as people move into this area and look at schools, as people move into the area and go, “Do I want to live in Knox County and go to Knox County Schools,” where you have schools that are you know, busting at the seams, or do I want to go to Loudoun County where I have a smaller, you know, classroom size, you know, more teacher attention, you know, that sort of thing. It’s just all important, all of it.

Julia: Well, it is all connected, obviously. Everything that impacts Knox County impacts Loudoun County and vice versa. And you made a very good point there, something that I don’t think a lot of people inside of their own individual counties—and that counts are Blount County, Union County, Anderson County, Monroe County, they don’t think, “Hey, my educated workforce contributes to the success of the larger cities,” and I think that is something that you brought up and I think that is a fantastic point which is even more relevant to support the Education Foundation. Michelle, just a couple of minutes left. Where can people find you? Where can they help you? Where can they contribute?

Michelle: So, my website is lceftn.org. Loudoun County Education Foundation Tennessee dot org. So, you can go there you can read all about the Education Foundation. We didn’t even talk about the leadership program which comes under our umbrella as well. You can find a contribute button there, you can contribute to scholarships, classroom grants, Imagination Library, all of the things that we fund in this community. You know, it really does take a village, you know, to raise these kids, and we’re trying to do our part, so any help that we get is greatly appreciated.

Julia: I love that and I’d love contributing to the Education Foundation. It’s very near and dear to my heart and I appreciate all that you do. I have just a couple of we call them the fire-round questions—

Michelle: [laugh].

Julia: —of Knox County area.

Michelle: Okay, I’m ready [laugh].

Julia: So, favorite restaurant?

Michelle: My favorite restaurant? Well, Aubrey’s, of course. I love the Sitar. The—oh, what’s the name of it? The sports bistro. That’s one of my new favorites. It’s right off of the interstate on Kingston Pike, near where the Highway Patrol office used to be.

Julia: Oh Walk-On’s.

Michelle: Yes, yes. Walk-On’s Sports Bistro.

Julia: Yes, that’s [crosstalk 00:26:21]

Michelle: Yes. Yes.

Julia: Very good. I like Walk—I like Sitar as well. Have you been to that one in Turkey Creek that has the buffet?

Michelle: Yes [laugh].

Julia: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh, I can eat—I could live there.

Michelle: Yes.

Julia: I could live there and—

Michelle: Bombay.

Julia: —eat naan bread all day long. All day long.

Michelle: Oh, their food is delicious.

Julia: All right. Favorite, like, bar slash brewery slash pub, like, favorite just kind of place to hang?

Michelle: Oh, Julia, I’m old now. I don’t hang at breweries or bars [laugh].

Julia: Every restaurant is a bar [laugh].

Michelle: The Sitar has a really good Taj Mahal. It’s a really big beer.

Julia: I forgot about that. It’s like a 40-ounce—

Michelle: It’s a 40—yes.

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:27:04] glass shape. Just so classy [crosstalk 00:27:06].

Michelle: They’re delicious. Yeah. And they’re again um, I guess last time I actually sat at a bar, it was at Walk-On’s. So, I’m going to say Walk-On’s [laugh].

Julia: Walk-On’s is really entertaining. And I’ve been there a few times now and I’m very impressed with their food selection and the availability of sports. Ever—just sports everywhere.

Michelle: Everywhere [laugh].

Julia: It’s fantastic. It is a very good—it is a good space. All right. Let’s see… favorite dessert? Like, in which restaurant has your favorite dessert?

Michelle: Mmm, maybe the Cheesecake Factory. I just had their chocolate cherry cheesecake just the other night [laugh]. It’s very good.

Julia: Delicious. Are there any businesses that we forgot to mention and thank? Just, I’d love to give that opportunity for you.

Michelle: Well, Tate & Lyle, now known as Primient, it is a huge supporter of the Foundation. They’ve been in this community for years and they have contributed, on their own, over $100,000 to the Education Foundation. They designate $15,000 of that every year as a classroom grant, so—for math and science. So, those are the skills that they need in their plant and they’re putting their money where their mouth is. Those are the skills that they’re growing in our education system.

Julia: So, I sat next to them at the event.

Michelle: Oh, okay.

Julia: And I asked because the gentleman—because I introduced myself to everybody at the table, I said, “Oh okay, who are you here with?” And he said, “Primient.” And I was like, “Uh-huh.” I was just like, [nods head]. I didn’t know they had changed their name at that time, so I was like, this must be really new—I was like, “Uh-huh.”

I had no idea, and then ten minutes later, he was like, “Tate & Lyle.” I was like, “Oh, ah-ha.” So, that is so absolutely fantastic. Last question. If people were to visit to you, out of state, out of the country, or whatever, where’s your special spot that you take people to do anything at all that you think nobody else might know about that people visiting Would love to know?

Michelle: Okay, so my in-laws were just in town from England. And so, I had Monday with them that I got to take them to the things that I wanted to do. And the first thing I did was taken to Meadowview Greenhouse and Garden Center.

Julia: Love it.

Michelle: They absolutely loved it.

Julia: Love it.

Michelle: And then on the way back, we went to the Painted Tree, which is—

Julia: Oh yeah.

Michelle: Yeah. Oh man, it is so cool.

Julia: [unintelligible 00:29:17].

Michelle: And yeah. And they were just, I mean, they could spend days and days. And my mother-in-law was like, “Oh darling, why didn’t you bring me here first?” [laugh]. And so, that’s my mother-in-law for you. And then when my husband gets home, he immediately takes him to Newfound Gap and then over the mountain into North Carolina to see the elk. So, he loves the elk.

Julia: Thank you for sharing those top secrets. I’m going to start recom—I’ll make sure to put it in your bio so the businesses get a shout-out. Everybody, this is Connect the Knox. I’m your hostess with the mostest, Julia Hurley, connecting Knoxville with the nation. Our guest today was Loudoun County Education Foundation Executive Director—that is a lot—Michelle Lewis. Michelle, again, thank you so much for taking time out for us today.

Michelle: Thank you.

Julia: lceftn.org. Thank you so much.

About This Episode

Marcus Hall, CEO of Marc Nelson Denim, has been bringing high-quality custom fashion to Knoxville for the past 13 years. Tune into this episode of ConnectTheKnox as he and Julia discuss how his great-grandfather and family ties to Knoxville inspired his journey, his focus on local manufacturing, and the growth he’s seen in Knoxville both as a business-owner and as a downtown resident.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:01 Marcus introduces himself, tells the story of how his great-grandfather influenced his career, and explains why he moved from L.A. back to Knoxville
• 05:13 Marcus describes the growth that he’s seen in Knoxville over the past 13 years, both in his business and the city overall
• 08:06 How Marcus developed his talent for designing and tailoring custom clothing
• 11:12 Why custom clothing is an investment, and how to ensure the pieces you buy will last you a long time
• 13:49 Ad - JustHomesGroup.com
• 14:18 Marcus shares how he focuses on local manufacturing as well as how his travels have influenced his brand
• 23:45 Julia and Marcus chat about the small-town feel of Knoxville as well as the opportunities that come with its tremendous growth
• 29:38 Marcus answers Julia’s lightning round of questions about his favorite Knoxville hot spots

Links Referenced

• Marc Nelson Denim: https://shopmarcnelson.com/
• Marcus’s Favorite Knoxville Realtor: Just Homes Group

Transcript

Julia: Hey everybody, welcome to Connect the Knox. I’m your host, Julia Hurley connecting the nation to Knoxville. Today’s guest, let me just make this introduction; it’s going to be a long one, maybe not so long. But I want to say this: this is one of the most talented clothiers I have ever seen. This man has vision, he has style, he’s got class, he used to have a ladies' line.

I have one of the very last hand-designed skirts from Marc Nelson Denim. I’m going to tell you right now, the man is absolutely talented. Marcus Hall, owner of Marc Nelson Denim, introduce yourself to our crowd because I am so excited to hear your story. And again, I have to say this, one of the most talented design clothiers I have ever seen. So, take it away, Marcus. Tell us a little bit about you and how you ended up in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Marcus: Well, thank you for that amazing introduction, first and foremost. And now you are not a realtor, you are an entertainer, by far.

Julia: [laugh].

Marcus: [laugh]. So, but yes, thank you for having me here. But my story is, my family, originally from Georgia and Ohio and my great-grandparents moved to Tennessee, and so that brought me and my family there. My great-grandfather who Marc Nelson Denim is based out of—or the last name is from, was actually a janitor at the TVA Credit Union, but he wore a suit every day. And he taught me and my brothers no matter who you are—you’re a janitor or the mayor—you always want to leave the house looking like someone.

And so, that resonated with me and that’s why I pay homage to that’s where the Nelson comes from in ‘Marc Nelson,’ from my great-grandfather.

Julia: That’s a good story.

Marcus: So, there you go. Yeah, it’s a beautiful story. Yeah. And as a matter of fact, I was living in Los Angeles before we opened the shop downtown Knoxville, where we’re currently located, and when I came to see the building, it’s literally three blocks from where my great-grandfather lives. So, that all kind of, you know, made me make the decision to move back home to Knoxville. And here we are, almost 13 years later, in business.

Julia: That is a crazy—I had no idea that that was even part of the story here. In my head, I had imagined, like, you were in Milan, Italy, and just some random [unintelligible 00:02:39] fan was wearing a hat and you’re like, “I’ll check that place out.” [laugh]. You actually have a rich heritage here.

Marcus: Yes, absolutely. Yes, my great-grandfather and grandparents. And if you didn’t know, there used to be a Levi’s plant in East Knoxville over on Cherry Street. And that plant was there for decades and actually supplied jobs to the most of the East Knoxville community. And so, that’s how we—the denim even became [unintelligible 00:03:04] for me.

I took tailoring at Austin-East High School so that I could then leave there and go work at that Levi’s plant, but they shut down and started producing in Mexico and China. And so, years later I was like, you know what? I appreciated the feeling that I had and the pride that I had that my family members and other East Knoxville community members worked and made a product at that Levi’s plant that was sold throughout the world. And I wanted to bring some of that pride back and start manufacturing here in the US and bring, you know, community members and family members on board. And we all made a product that potentially could be as big as the Levi’s brand.

Julia: I am so confused and jealous. I absolutely, one thousand percent, never learned a trade in high school. They didn’t teach us anything like that that is—

Marcus: Yeah, so you’re not, you’re not that old yet.

Julia: [laugh]. No, I mean I started—I don’t even know how to sew on a button. It’s just not something that we were ever taught. And they actually had an entire class for that. Wow!

Marcus: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Back in the olden days, they you know, they tau—[laugh] Austin-East used to have a brick mason class. They used to have, obviously, like, a Home Ec, but it also taught you how to cook in restaurant environments. They had an auto mechanics class, they had tons of—yeah, heating and air class, they had tons of vocational classes so that you could—for those who chose not to go to college and wanted to immediately go into the work field could do that. And it was, yeah, it was amazing. Absolutely.

Julia: That is absolutely fascinating. I’m going to do a little more research on that. I think our education system can use a little more of that.

Marcus: You know, and now, in this day and time, that’s where—yeah, exactly. Because school is expensive and a lot of kids go on to school and never use that, you know, education to go do anything that they’re doing in the future. They end up doing something absolutely different and they spent a ton of money and time in college when they could have immediately went on to, you know, start making money. And now I’m all for a college education. That’s an amazing deal, but if you’re going to use it and you know what your what’s your path is going to be.

Julia: Right. I agree with that one thousand percent. I remember when you first opened the store in downtown Knoxville. And can you paint the picture for us of when you first opened that building and how everything around you has changed? Like, give us the last 13 years of the growth that you’ve seen in just the downtown Knoxville market.

Marcus: Oh, wow. You know, Knoxville isn’t the same place at all. Thirteen years ago, we opened our shop in the basement of the building that we’re currently in and there was only one food truck, a Sweet and Savory. And we would have First Fridays there and we would get about 300 people because no one else was doing First Fridays. And so much has changed to the fact that you would—if you came to Knoxville then to visit and then came back today, you would think you were in a totally different town.

I mean, the Old City used to be in a place where we couldn’t spark in and get restaurants or any you know, [staple to stay 00:06:11], Market Square. There was only a few things that you could go to for dinery, or you know, just entertainment in general. And now Knoxville is as cool as it’s ever been in my lifetime. There’s food places to eat and fine dining, like Tim Love’s Lonesome Dove, you’ve got the Boyd’s, you’ve Merchants of Beer, you’ve got an athletic club that you can go to that stays open 24 hours. And we haven’t even talked about Gay Street and Market Square now is a thriving area that I’m proud to invite my friends and just in general visitors to come along and stay the weekend. And there’s so much to do now other than to go to Dallas or go on to the Smoky Mountains. You could actually have a full weekend of entertainment in downtown Knoxville. So, I’m so proud. Not to mention that our Vols are kicking butt right now. They’re [crosstalk 00:07:04]—

Julia: Oh, my goodness. I was actually going to segue right into that. I’m so glad you did it because I want everyone that’s watching this to know that you are the number one clothier for the Vols football team.

Marcus: There you go.

Julia: Most of the staff—

Marcus: —Coach Heupel—yes. You got it.

Julia: —the coaches, Pretty much everybody wear Marc Nelson—Marc Nelson Denim. I was trying to put that on one word—Marc Nelson Denim. Yeah, and it’s some of the—so I just so happened to be at your shop, meeting with Derrick Furlow, who was just on—our podcast with him was released yesterday, and you had some of the top senior football players there for fittings. And I’m telling—the quality, these kids are—we’re all—I mean, they know what good quality clothing are, but when they were putting on these clothes. I mean, it was just a consistent, like, “Wow,” “Wow,” “Wow.” I mean, it was just a continuous, “This is so soft.” “This is so nice.” “This fits so well.”

And you hadn’t even made any changes to it yet. You are very talented to be able to even eyeball what somebody’s fit needs to be and cut needs to be. Tell us, how long have you been doing this? And how did you work your way into such a specialty, a rarity in today’s market and clothing, honestly?

Marcus: So again, my mother taught me to sew at twelve. I took tailoring, so it’s something that I’ve had in my blood and been a part of most of my life. But from a professional status, again, I’ve been in business 12 years. And we started with denim and especially denim because we’d have a ton of athletes who have small waist, big butts, and they couldn’t find a jean that [crosstalk 00:08:38]—

Julia: Dang those squats.

Marcus: [laugh]. Yes, right? And they couldn’t find a jean that fit them. And so, I was like, “Oh, wow.” And so, we found stretch denim that obviously helped in that, but they still needed some tailoring.

And we just evolved from there to, you know, suiting and now we’re a lifestyle brand. And one of our biggest deals is it’s not just that, it’s the service part of the deal. Like we don’t want to—we take pride in what we do. Because when you wear our clothing, you represent our brand. And we still are a small brand.

But that being said, the service part of our deal is that we want you to not only look good but feel good. And then we believe that when you look good, you feel good. That being said, with fast fashion nowadays and this online service, I don’t believe that you get the full service out of the deal. So, we keep a full-time tailor at our shop which is needed because again, you’ve got—most people don’t fit a base 32, or 34, or whatever, you know what I mean? There’s you know, either they’re short, or they’re too tall, or they’re—again, you’ve got big waist and no but, or you’ve got no waist and a big butt.

So, it’s important that you get a customer—or a clothier that can provide the alterations and a little tweaks that make that clothing item feel the way it’s supposed to fit.

Julia: I just love your store. I wish that more people understood the quality of their clothing. I don’t think that people, especially my generation, and I know—I know—the younger generation has not a clue how to really and truly take care of custom clothing. It’s not something we’re taught. It’s not something you can read on tags somewhere.

It’s either dry clean only, or throw it away, you know? And once I started getting into custom clothing, honestly, that skirt that you made for me, I have—I should have brought it in here to show the world that skirt looks like it was brand new from 13 years ago. I mean, I’d take such good care of that piece of clothing. And so, I think that that’s something that you also pass on through the conversations, and every person that gets something at your store is also being taught something they’ve never known before. And it’s so rare to have that customization aspect of it and to also feel like you’re still at home in downtown Knoxville.

Marcus: No, no, I agree. Again, quality is—when you go to a clothier and you get custom clothing, it should be something that is an investment, you know what I mean? Like, it’s not something that you’re going to wear one time, and then like you said, throw it away or put it in the back of your closet. And so, we sit down with our clients and we talk about fabrics and what do you do for a living so that the fabric in the cut of your clothing and the meets up or matches up with what you’re doing for a living. We talk about, in the last few years, how has your weight changed.

Or are you planning on losing weight or gaining weight or whatever the case may be because athletes tend to do that, but also dads do, too. I mean, you know, if you’re a new dad [laugh]—

Julia: Dad bod.

Marcus: You may put on a pound, right? You’re going to have a dad bod in a few years. So, we may need to, you know, add for some let-out space. But more importantly, again, yeah, if you invest in a quality piece, it should hold up and it should be something that not only you wear for years, but if you have children, you can pass that garment down. Because I’ve worn tons of my grandfather’s clothes. I remember the first tuxedo that I owned was my grandfather’s, you know what I mean? It smelled like mothballs but it was still—[laugh]—

Julia: I bet it was—I bet in today’s… what am I—what is—that tuxedo was probably the hottest—

Marcus: Trendy.

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:12:36]. If you put it on today—

Marcus: Yeah, you got it. What’s trendy today—

Julia: —[crosstalk 00:12:38], like I have to have that.

Marcus: That 60-year-old tuxedo is really cool right now, except for the mothball smell. But no, a hundred percent. So, when you invest in quality clothing, it will. It should last. And we’d love to talk to our clients about how you keep that up.

And again, it doesn’t take a lot. If you bought something of quality, it should withstand the test of time and short of you, you know, mud wrestling in it or you know whatever the case may be. And honestly, Julia, it’s not good to dry cl—over dry clean your clothing because it breaks the product down and that creates you know tearage or, you know, the spaces where you may have things that threads come out or whatever. So, you don’t want to—because wool or good fabrics are natural and, like, you know if a sheep or whatever, they don’t go to the dry cleaners they just, you know, [laugh] they air out. A good shampoo will do just fine, with some soap and water. But no, sincerely, a great product will last forever if you take good care of it. And you should be able to pass it down and keep it forever. So, there you have it.

Julia: So, we all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group Realty Executives have the true expertise, pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area. Call Just Homes Group Realty Executives today.

Julia: Well, I feel like that you are the epitome of what a Clothier should be, especially somebody that’s local, but national. Tell us about your travels. What have you learned outside of Knoxville and how has that helped you bring that into Knoxville and pass that along?

Marcus: Wow. So yeah, well, travels have been New York, California. And again, we try to produce and manufacture most of our garments in the United States, which has been hard to do. I started off in Los Angeles where we launched our first line, and the a hundred percent of our line was created in Los Angeles. But it was always my passion to come back to Knoxville and use local talent.

And when I—so, we started manufacturing in downtown Knoxville, but we also used a company out of Bristol, Tennessee, LC King, who’s been there for over a hundred years. And that was a great experience when we only did denim. But if you’re going to use wash techniques and use chemicals like the stone washing and the potassium that you use in lightning clothes and all these different washes, there’s only a few places in the United States that you can do that in. And again, Los Angeles tends to be the place. A great story was the fashion editor for The New York Times, was actually in Bristol and saw my line, and she really did a huge write-up of my line and in The New York Times, and that was the biggest weekend of our e-commerce that we’ve ever had.

And was able to—fortunate enough to go up to New York and meet with stores like Bergdorf and Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstroms, and we—I was a little country boy, this was two years into creating the line, maybe three, and we met with Bergdorf and the meeting was going so well, and then this other guy sat down and he looked at our line and says, “This is really country.” Uh—[laugh].

Julia: Oh, [laugh]. Thanks to New York. Love you, too.

Marcus: Right? And we were trying to sell it, and as a grown man, that was one of the very few times I was like, “I think I’m about to cry.” Like, I was—it was like he really hurt my feelings. It was—and he’s like, “Listen, what are you doing with this and that?” And you know, so he shot us down. And that was Friday’s meeting.

Julia: I think at that point, I probably would have snapped back and said, “Well, thank you so much. Dolly Parton said so, too.”

Marcus: [laugh]. I left there with my tail tucked between my—I was like, distraught, like, I’ve made think I’m thinking about not doing this anymore. But I had two more meetings. I had one Monday and—two on Monday and I had to stay in New York the following weekend, and—this is a cool story—I was in Soho, New York, just randomly. And like, “Man, I need a drink.” You know what I mean?

Julia: [laugh]. After that conversation.

Marcus: I was like, “Oh God, I need a drink. Like, that was harsh.” And so, I went to this random bar and I sit down at the bar and ordered a drink. And the bartender looked at me and he goes, “Man, aren’t you that denim guy?” And I’m in New York City, by the way. And this is—like, nobody knows me. And I’m like, looking around for cameras. And I’m thinking, like, somebody’s punking me right now, you know what I mean?

Like, I’m in New York. Nobody knows who the hell I am. I’m in New York. And he goes, “Man, I read your story in The New York Times and I love what you do and I saw your website. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

And it went from, like—right? Isn’t that crazy? Like, that’s amazing. Like, and that was like—and so I knew God was like, he—

Julia: Oh, yeah he was.

Marcus: —sent an angel out to be, like, “Hey, like, don’t let that one experience change you.” So, I went out and bought a Hugo Boss suit that I could not afford that day because I’m like, I’m going to be so on point Monday that they are not going to be able to tell me no. Like, I’m regrouping. And so, put it—kind of restructured everything. And Monday morning, I’m never on time for things, and I was early for this meeting and took a cab and I was sweating because I was in the suit and it was really [laugh] hot outside. And so—

Julia: New York is brutal [laugh].

Marcus: —it’s like—and so I show up and I looking at the—you know, give my spiel to this guy who shows up in a t-shirt and painted jeans and painted holey tennis shoes, like, I’m like I did all this and I was like and he goes, “I love this. I love that. Da-da-da. Change the button on that. I’ll take this, this, this, and this.”

And in 20 minutes, I had an order for, you know, all this stuff. And I’m like it was just the total opposite. So, from a rollercoaster ride of that experience. And just you know, again, New York and that was my experience in New York. But it worked out, you know, and it learned me to, you know, we all have our opinions of what art or fashion should look like, and I think being in the south is an amazing.

And that’s what brought me back home is that we have a great culture. And if you think about denim and you think about farming, and but—you know, so we just started a hashtag #southernluxury, you know what I mean? Because we make luxury items and—

Julia: Oh, I love that.

Marcus: Yeah, yeah. And it’s amazing. We have a store in Florida, currently, that we also and you know denim and now people don’t wear suits anymore, you know? They wear blue jeans, a custom shirt, a blazer, a cool pair of cowboy boots or a loafer or whate—or sneakers, you know what I mean? And so, the world has changed so much. But what is consistent is denim is still here, baby. So, there you go [laugh].

Julia: I just, I think you should write that man that told you that a letter thirteen—exactly thirteen years later and be, like, “From your country friend in Tennessee #southernluxury. These jeans are for you.” [laugh].

Marcus: I’m still here. Yes. So, um but coming back to Knox—yes, “I’m still—hashtag #imstillhere.”

Julia: I’m still here [laugh].

Marcus: But coming back to Knoxville has been truly a blessing, it is, and to see the growth of Knoxville and the fact that I can contribute to making Knoxville a cooler place. Again, our building is situated in downtown Knoxville where you know and I know that we’re building a major baseball stadium now and more—

Julia: Oh, that’s so cool.

Marcus: You got it. It is. And there’s more residential spaces in downtown Knoxville. So, I can’t imagine where we are in the next five years or so in Knoxville because it’s just—yeah, again, you don’t even recognize it. So, I’m so stoked and excited about it.

Julia: I left my condo in Knoxville and I think I sold it for, like, $160,000 which at the time was unheard of.

Marcus: Wow. Yes now—

Julia: One-sixty, everybody was like, “I can’t believe you got that much for your condo.” That same condo is worth $500,000 today.

Marcus: It’s crazy, right?

Julia: A $500,000 condo. 800 square feet. 800 square feet [laugh]. It’s like, come on.

Marcus: Yes, yes. How long ago was when you sold the condo?

Julia: We moved out of downtown Knoxville in 2014. 2015, I think. 2015.

Marcus: So, yeah. So, less than ten years, eight or nine years ago, right? Yeah. So, there you go. It’s amazing, though. But again, I’m proud of Knoxville. And to see that the height of our growth and where, like you said, property value right now, it’s crazy. It’s crazy.

Julia: Yeah. Do you own that building?

Marcus: I do.

Julia: Thank God. Good for you. Could not imagine what the lease would be on something in that space right now. Because I remember when that whole area—when you put that building down there, I was like, “Oh, that’s—” [laugh]—

Marcus: [laugh].

Julia: [crosstalk 00:22:04] when your opening and I walked across the railroad tracks with my dog, and I was like. I don’t know if I need to be [unintelligible 00:22:12].

Marcus: Like, “I’m not coming over here.” Like this is, like—yeah, I agree. It was a puke ugly yellow-green building and we’ve transfo—it was—and we’ve transformed it.

Julia: It hurt [crosstalk 00:22:22]—

Marcus: —[laugh] we painted the building black, and it does. Now, it’s stu—we’ve actually won an award for landscaping, and whatever the case. Yeah, so it is. Yeah, so I was pioneering. I was the pioneer of downtown. I’m the reason Knoxville is so cool.

Julia: I love it. I love it. You were though. You were the brave person that went to that side of downtown Knoxville, and we were all like, “I hope he’s okay.” We were all like, “What? Let’s hope this works out.”

Marcus: [laugh]. I don’t know. You were like my guy at Burgdorf.

Julia: Exactly. Yeah, but we—yeah, you really should write that guy letter and take a picture of your Florida store and your Knoxville store and some awards and send him a free pair of jeans. And [unintelligible 00:23:11]—these are for you, country.

Marcus: No, no, no. No free. No [laugh]—

Julia: It’s one leg. You have to pay for the other leg.

Marcus: Oh, there you go [laugh].

Julia: Negotiate.

Marcus: “Here’s one leg for free.” If you want the other leg. Yeah, that’ll be $200.

Julia: It’ll be $200 for the other half? [laugh]. I love it. I love it. So Knoxville: big small town. I feel like this is an almost overlooked space. So, I’ve traveled all over the country. I was in, I think it was 36 states in 2019. I was coaching other businesses on how to open and do all their stuff, basically a business consultant at that point, and I would always tell people I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Where’s that?” And I would say, “Dolly Parton.” And they’re like, “I know Dolly Parton.” I’m like, “Awesome.” And that was all they knew. They Memphis because of Elvis, and they knew Dolly Parton because of Dolly Parton. That is all they knew.

And I will talk about Oak Ridge National Lab and I would talk about our teaching hospital and I would talk about our massive campus, and we’re one of the largest colleges in the country. I would talk about our failing football team which is now the best football team in the country. And they had no idea. They all thought we were just country bumpkins with no shoes, and they were always very impressed that I could speak properly with my little drawl?

Marcus: Do you have shoes on right now? Do you have shoes on right now?

Julia: I got on Ons. I got on the Ons [laugh]. But I think that that conversation over time has changed. And Knoxville is more welcoming but still the same small town. I still see the same people everywhere I go, which makes me feel so good about it, but there’s new people every time you turn around. I think Knoxville is an opportunity.

Marcus: Agreed. I recall moving out to Los Angeles for the first time, and coming from Knoxville, A, the traffic is you can’t even imagine, and I mean, in LA, it’s just so—I mean, I literally had a nervous breakdown in my car one day, and I was like, “Oh God, I’m going back home.” But I also remember going to, like you said, a bar or a restaurant and going to the same place multiple times and never being able to have a conversation with anyone. You know what I mean? Like, I felt like, I’m in a city where there’s millions of people, but I felt very alone.

And in Knoxville, there’s no way you can go and not have a [laugh] conversation with someone. It’s like you—everyone is—you never meet a stranger in Knoxville. We all have a common bond and [audio break 00:25:51] each other like family. And so—and being in the downtown and that resonates with me. And I recall, and we have mentioned that, getting in trouble, and getting in trouble for gambling, and having to go to prison for 14 months and coming back home and thinking, “Man, what am I going to do?”

And when I got home, I was shocked at how support and the kindness of the community that, kind of, brought me back to my feet and says, “Hey, it’s all good. We’re going to support you anyway.” And you know, several years later, and so. But I’m from Knoxville and so I think one of the draws if you ever to come to Knoxville is, A, although the cost of living has gotten higher, we’re still very affordable a city. I was in LA two days ago, and gasoline is, like, $6 a gallon. And I’m like—

Julia: No, thank you.

Marcus: Yeah, right? It’s like, what in the world is going on? And so, you pay to be inconvenienced in cities like that. It’s a dirty city and like I said, you’re in traffic for hours. And I think the draw to Knoxville is it is a super clean city, it’s safe, the cost of living is fair. And although it’s rising, rent is rising, but it’s still better than most places in the United States.

You never meet a stranger. There’s so many outlets whether it’s the Chamber of Commerce, you know what I mean, or Knox Business Center. I mean, there’s so many outlets for new businesses and/or new companies. You got ORNL, or the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which, you know, it’s huge.

Julia: Huge. Jobs everywhere. People just opened a pilot corporation this year. Boyd Sports. Boyd Entertainment.

Marcus: Clayton, you got it. [unintelligible 00:27:34] Boyd.

Julia: Dollywood. [laugh].

Marcus: And yes, you got the University of Tennessee. And there’s so much room for growth that yeah, I think Knoxville is a gem. And you know and quietly I don’t want Knoxville to become Nashville.

Julia: There’s no way that our infrastructure—

Marcus: Infrastructure. Right there you go. That’s real. But yeah, I do. I love the fact that—and it’s good. I live downtown, I work downtown. I don’t have to leave downtown Knoxville. I can literally walk, ride a bike. You know, then there’s South Knoxville, which is amazing.

Julia: Blowing up. Love it. I remember I was selling houses in Island Home back in 2014 for, like, $30,000 and couldn’t convince people to buy them. I was calling people all over the country saying, “Hey, you need to get into Knoxville. I can get you a house in Island Home for 30 grand.” “Oh, that’s really expensive. I don’t—Knoxville?” And now they’re begging me for property. And I’m like, “There’s nothing down here, man.”

Marcus: You know with Covid, there was a lot of negative, but people realized that being in a big city like New York and Los Angeles and paying this astronomical amount of rent and not knowing, you know—without the entertainment factor there you know what I mean? Like, if you go to Broadway play or you know, shopping on, you know, in Soho—

Julia: You got to pay $10,000 a month for a maintenance fee on an apartment you can’t leave.

Marcus: You can’t leave, right? What’s the draw? And so, and being able to have a backyard, you know what I mean? And then, like, wow, you can—you know what you were getting in New York and LA for half a million dollars was 800 square-foot of something, now you can get land, and you know? So yeah, I agree.

I think Knoxville is an amazing place, again. And we are nestled at the foot out of the Smoky Mountains which is beautiful, and having traveled all over the United States, again, it’s so green and we have four seasons and unlike most places, you know, Florida or whatever, there is no earthquakes and, you know, you don’t have to worry about tornadoes, hurricanes, all this stuff.

Julia: Perfect [laugh].

Marcus: Yeah, we are. Knoxville is a perfect place to live. Yep, you got it.

Julia: All right. I have less than 30 seconds left. Favorite restaurant?

Marcus: Favorite restaurant is Chivo for casual, and Lonesome Dove for if I want to go to a night out. You got it.

Julia: I love Lonesome Dove. I really get back down there and—

Marcus: Fridays they have that burger special that is cra—it’s like 12 bucks for a burger that is the best burger in Knoxville, hands down.

Julia: Oh, I like that.

Marcus: Yeah, Fridays. Yes.

Julia: Favorite bar?

Marcus: Favorite bar? Chivo for—[unintelligible 00:30:04] yeah, it is. Chivo is my favorite bar. It is. Yes. I like Wagon Wheel when I’m, like—

Julia: That’s the second Wagon Wheel. Mark Jernigan is getting some shout-outs this week.

Marcus: Yeah Mark Jernigan’s place is amazing. But yeah. But I go to Chivo, like, almost every day.

Julia: Marcus Hall, Marc Nelson Denim. Thank you for the opportunity.

Marcus: You got it, babe. Thank you. Oh, favorite realtor?

Julia: Oh, Julia.

Marcus: Right [laugh].

Julia: [laugh].

Marcus: All right. Bye. Have a good day.

About This Episode

With so many people moving to Knoxville, there’s no doubt that a woman-owned business like Eugenia Almeida’s A New Hue paint and plaster company is in high demand. Join me as we discuss why she chose to make Knoxville her home, her journey as an entrepreneur, and her mission to help future artists of Knoxville.

Highlights

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:21 Eugenia introduces herself and explains how she came to Knoxville and became a business-owner
• 05:09 Why Eugenia decided Knoxville would be the perfect place to settle down and follow her passions
• 08:35 Eugenia lists some of the residential and commercial clients she has worked with
• 11:17 Having come from Argentina, Eugenia describes how Knoxville encompasses a perfect blend of culture and comfort
• 13:48 Eugenia explains how the A New Hue studio is open to the public and expanding
• 16:04 The next steps for Eugenia and her goal to collaborate with up-and-coming artists
• 21:01 Eugenia answers the lightning round of questions about all her favorite local spots
• 24:29 How parents of Knoxville can involve their children in the arts

Links Referenced

• A New Hue: https://anewhue.net/

Transcript

Eugenia: Julia, thank you so much. My name is Eugenia Almeida. I am originally from Argentina, South America. I came to this country 38 years ago with my husband and my kids. And my husband was at the University, Iowa State University, so for many years, I did many different jobs.

But when we came to Knoxville and my youngest daughter started school, I decided to do something that was going to fill my heart. So, we are a plaster company, we do plaster sand for finishes, we work with the boxes, and concrete, and all the materials that you can imagine. And the beauty about our company right now is 80% woman, female, and 70% Hispanic. So, we are a company full of artists that love what they do. And we travel all the time, we travel all over United States.

At this moment, I am in Charlotte, and a week ago I was in Texas in Woodland. So, we travel a lot for work. We are humble, but we have so much pride in the product that we give. And when we said we have a hundred percent client satisfaction because our priority is the people that we work with. For many years, we didn’t have cards or anything, not Instagram, Facebook, because it was a word of mouth.

And I really believe that is super important for a company to have that, to always have their eyes on the client, on what the client wants, what you can provide. You never promise things that you cannot achieve. Be honest. We are a hard-working group of people. I have 15 full-time employees. We have a beautiful studio in Knoxville that I hope you come for a cup of coffee.

Julia: Oh, you count on that. Count on that. Yes.

Eugenia: And get your fingers dirty with some plaster and color. And we’ve been blessed. We’ve been blessed with super fantastic jobs that we can create and innovate and bring new things into the plate. Because I am Hispanic, I have a different view of colors, so it took some time for people to have faith in me, you know? I was like, “Oh, we need to paint this store red.” And they were like, “I don’t think so with red.” No, it’s like, “It will look phenomenal.”

But now it’s something incredible. We are blessed. We are a blessed group of people who do what we love. And we do it with honesty and hard work and always God with us, honestly. I cannot have a conversation without mention him because he is the one that took us through so many different things.

Julia: So, tell us, everybody out here in the world, from Argentina to Knoxville, Tennessee, to all over the country with clients, how did you settle on staying in Knoxville? What makes Knoxville the place for you?

Eugenia: The most important thing in my life is my family. I have five kids and I came to this country because my husband was going to do his Master’s and PhD in Iowa State University. So, I was like the bag, you know? We are carrying her with us.“, oh, she’s going to make it.”

I came to this country with no English. I learned French in my country. My parents thought that it was a great idea to send me to a Catholic school that was French. So, when I came here, I didn’t have any, any English. So, from Iowa State, when my husband finished with his PhD, he have a position at the University of Tennessee.

So, we move here, my kids went to school. My youngest one started school and I decided this is the time that I’m going to do something that it will fill my life. Before I did so many odd jobs and I did everything that I need to do, you know, to help, but at the point that I was able to say, “Okay, I’m jumping. I’m going to jump and I’m going to do it and it’s going to work.” And I think that is what we need to feel when we start something and put every cell of our bodies on what we do.

Julia: I think that that’s probably the best advice I’ve heard from people in general. And that is a across the board conversation with every person that we’ve interviewed, every person I’ve met who’s successful, you’re either in it or you’re not. And it’s one thousand percent, every part of you has got to be in it to win it.

Eugenia: And it’s harder, you know? When you start it’s really hard because you get, oh my gosh, where is the money going to come from? I don’t have any clients. I cannot show what I do. I worked from my basement for years until I was able to rent a studio, and now we own our studio close to downtown.

So, they are hard times, but I really believe that we need to do it in faith and hard work. If you don’t put the sweat and the prayers together, when you do it, I think it’s harder, you know. So it, we were extremely blessed. There were years that they were hard, really hard. But right now, our company is, I think we are one of the best companies in the country because we have such manpower that we can come and do 15,000 square feet in ten days.

Julia: Wow.

Eugenia: Of plaster, Venetian plasters, concrete, carved concrete. Because we are a group. We are a group that we love each other. We know what the other person needs all the time, but our main focus is our client, our clientele, the people that said, “Okay, I have faith in this company. Let’s do it.” And I don’t think I have one client, never, that cannot—can say that he wasn’t satisfied. We don’t leave the place until the client says, “Oh, I love it.” If you say that you like it, I’m sorry. It’s not enough. You need to love it [laugh].

Julia: That is so perfect. I love to hear that. Can you share—if you cannot that’s okay—can you share some of your client list with us? Is there anybody that we would know?

Eugenia: Residential, I work with many, many different people. I worked for developers downtown in Knoxville. When I started, I worked with David [Duchart 00:08:45], I worked with Jeffery Nash, I worked with, oh, so many, so many developers downtown. I can name many residential clients but I didn’t ask them, so I’m sure they will be happy to do it. And in commercial we were with Patricia Nash. She’s a phenomenal artist. I love working with her. She’s my personal friend as her family is.

I work with Altar’d State, the clothing company that is in Maryville. We do all the stores for them over the country. And wonderful people, wonderful people. We work for many, many—we done some stores for [unintelligible 00:09:38], and we just finished the first Saks Fifth Avenue that we done in Atlanta with some—

Julia: That’s amazing.

Eugenia: [laugh] we did some columns with Venetian plaster for them. And but I’m going to tell you, absolutely everything that we do, somebody refers to. Somebody said, “Oh, I know the person.” We done a concrete [unintelligible 00:10:02] under cabins, and the person could call us said, “You know, they told me that for this crazy idea, the only human that can achieve this or the only company is A New Hue.” And we done it.

We are going to do another big project with [trees 00:10:18] in Oklahoma, in January. We are going to be doing a huge hotel downtown with the Fall architects and designers. We do big places, but we do some residential. That is what I really love, you know? I like that connection between my client. I mean, I love the coffee, I love talking to them and knowing how can we help. We have servers. We are really servers.

Julia: I love this. I love this so much. So, one of the questions that I ask every person on the podcast is, as you’ve traveled and experienced all the world and all the food and all the culture, how do you feel like Knoxville is still culture-forward, but home? How does Knoxville encompass that for you?

Eugenia: And you’re asking that question to the perfect person because my roots are in Argentina, South America, but Knoxville is the city that make me feel home. I’ve been here 30 years, 30-something years in Knoxville, and Knoxville, and the people from Knoxville, the city, the culture, the artists, I felt home. I feel a hundred percent calm. In Knoxville, you can get any food you want from any country you want because we are so diverse. You have artists who are magnificent in the city, you know?

You have artisans that they are proud, we’re proud of what we do. I’m a part of The Maker City that I love with all my heart. They invited me a couple of years ago to be a part of that. And it’s so many things that make Knoxville my home. On top of that, I have all my grandkids—three of my grandkids here, too in Ithaca, New York.

But I think Knoxville and after living for five years in Ames, Iowa, every day when I woke up and I leave my house, I live in a top of a hill and I see the mountains as a background and I see the green. I said, “Thank you God. What a beautiful place to be.” On top of that, I develop friendships who are family. And that make it even more home. I go to Europe, I go to South America, I go to Central America, and when I come back, Knoxville is my home.

Julia: I love that. And everybody that we talk with says the same thing. It’s the biggest small town.

Eugenia: Exactly.

Julia: Exactly. You see the same people that you see everywhere you go with new twists and turns, but it’s so familiar.

Eugenia: It’s familiar, it’s inclusive. I always felt a part—even you know when I arrived. I always felt a part of the city. And the weather is beautiful [laugh].

Julia: Yeah [laugh]. Sometimes you get four seasons in one day [laugh].

We all know that real estate is location, location, location. Our team at Just Homes Group Realty Executives has the true expertise: pairing buyers and sellers with the right opportunities. Whether you're looking to buy or sell a home right here in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Clinton, or Farragut, we have the expertise throughout every Knoxville surrounding area.

Call Just Homes Group Realty Executives today.

So, all right. Is your studio open for tours or is that a closed studio? Tell me about the studio.

Eugenia: My studio is open, on a schedule. We have visit, but we have somebody at the studio every day from nine to five. We are expanding the studio right now because when we bought the property, they have a couple of houses on the side that my plan is to have it for people who wants to learn and wants to come and take classes—I teach a lot—and for artists that don’t have a place yet to fit in. So, we got these two houses and we’re renovating right now. Probably by February, we’ll have them working. And it’s a great idea.

All that area, I mean in Tennessee Avenue, in the Lonsdale, it’s improving by the day, it’s getting beautiful, it’s getting full of people who wants to do things, you know? So, it’s going to be a really—I have a vision. I can see that that is going to be a small art district in the city where people can come and participate, or if you don’t have a place that you can do your samples or your paintings, “Hey, Eugenia, can I use this?” Come and use it.

Julia: I love that. So, where can people find the studio?

Eugenia: At the studio? Actually, you can find it in Google. If you put ‘A New Hue,’ they will guide you to the studio, but the address is 1009 Tennessee Avenue. Now, we have 007 and 111. So, I’m thinking what is the studio [laugh]? 1009 Tennessee Avenue. And people loves it. People who comes really like it, so I hope you come for a cup of coffee soon.

Julia: Oh, I will come for sure. That sounds amazing. So, let me see. You pretty much traveled the world, you design all over the world, you design huge, huge retail stores, you do individual residential. What’s the dream? What’s the next step? What’s the big next thing?

Eugenia: To start, I want to tell you, we do the design of the plasters and the walls. We work with designers who tell us what their idea is. These are the colors, this is what we want to see, we want to see a thick texture, a very soft texture. So, we usually work under them. We do the samples, they approve it, we do the walls.

What is my next step? Because even when I’m trying not to do it, I’m getting older, I think I’m going to start working on huge canvases—

Julia: Oh yeah.

Eugenia: Collaborating with people who do different kinds of art. And I see helping new artists because it was hard, you know? And if you have somebody who can give you a hand and said, “Okay, let’s do it together. Let me show you how you can do it.” You don’t have a place that is big enough for you to be, come to the studio, come to the studio.

I see myself there. I see myself—but the problem is all my people said, “Eugenia, don’t go in the scaffold. Don’t go in the scaffold.” I’m going to go on top of the scaffold until they have to take me down. And probably that will be my last time in the scaffold, but for now—

Julia: [laugh].

Eugenia: —[crosstalk 00:17:28] and more carefully. But I love what I do. I love that life gave me so much, coming from another country with three small kids, I have another two here. I have so much. And I really am a walking testimony that when you work hard and you’re honest—you are honest; if you’re dishonest, you will never make it in life—but if you’re honest and work hard, you’ll make it.

This is a country of possibilities. This is a country who give chances. Don’t take chances from people. Do it. Show them that you can do it and they will give you the space to show that you can. That is my belief, as an immigrant, as a woman, as a mother of five, as a grandmother of five, as an artist, as an artisan, as a woman, [unintelligible 00:18:29] I need to start giving. I always give back, even when I didn’t have anything. But this is my time to give back, to help the new generation that is starting. “Listen, we can do it this way. I know nobody teach you to do it but I promise it will work.”

Julia: Side note, I’m currently in the process of writing my very first book in the book is about exactly that. Like, here’s all the things that I’ve learned to do through mistakes and I’m not only going to tell you what they are, I’m going to share with you how to also do it a different way. And I feel like that’s been missing for so many people. They like to talk about, “Well, you know, you could do it a different way but—” or they say, “Well, this is wrong,” or whatever, but they never help you understand how to do it right or different.

Eugenia: Exactly. We need to give—we need to all hands. I think in this life we have this hands to hold people, to hold people when they are hurting, to hold people to go the next step. Because I had people who inspire me all my life. My parents are my inspiration. My sisters are my inspiration. And I miss them dearly every day, but I have all these other people who said, “Eugenia, yes, let’s do it. You can do this.” And I was like, “Thank you. Thank you.”

And now it’s not that we don’t have to prove ourselves anymore. We need to keep proving ourselves and doing better and better. Because we are creating things that I never thought we will be creating. You see? I’m creating plasters who are three inches thick and carving them. So, we need to help the people and when we see that they are going through that stage, say, “Hey, I don’t hold the truth on everything, but I know how we can do it faster, or better, or shinier.”

Julia: I love that. I love that. I love that give-back spirit. I think it’s very Knoxville-indicative. I feel like Knoxville brings that out in people even if it’s already there, they bring it out in a different way. Because everybody here wants you to be successful.

Eugenia: Yes.

Julia: I really feel like that. I feel like Knoxville itself is just like this big hug and it’s just waiting for people to come in and say, “Okay, what can we do for you today?” And that’s how Knoxville makes me feel.

Eugenia: Yes.

Julia: All right, so I’ve got a few interesting questions for you.

Eugenia: Okay.

Julia: Okay. What is your favorite Knoxville restaurant?

Eugenia: Can I do OliBea.

Julia: I like OliBea’s breakfast. It’s so good.

Eugenia: We’d eat OliBea. All the finishes on the walls are from us.

Julia: What is your favorite, like, ethnic food restaurant?

Eugenia: Casa Don Gallo.

Julia: Yes. So, one of my favorites is the Ethiopian restaurant on Sutherland.

Eugenia: I’ve been there. I love it. I’ve been there. I love it. I love it. I love all the foods from every country and every culture. And I’m open to try absolutely everything on food, and drinks, on anything. I want to—when I leave this world, I want to experience all that I could.

Julia: I think that Knoxville has such a diverse ability to do that.

Eugenia: Exactly. You know, I want to try it all, right? This is so magnificent. I’m freezing here, but at the same time the time—

Julia: [laugh].

Eugenia: —the sun is shining. Life is good. Life is good.

Julia: Life is fantastic. All right. Favorite bar in Knoxville?

Eugenia: Favorite bar? Actually, I’m going to tell you I love my margaritas. It’s a restaurant, Chez Guevara. I cannot find another Margarita like that. So, when I go to drink, I go with my husband to Chez Guevara and we are old enough that if we drink too much our kids pick us up.

Julia: That is a—you’re the first one to list that but I was actually there last Wednesday. I love that place.

Eugenia: You need to have those Margaritas [laugh].

Julia: [laugh] okay. Let’s see. Um, favorite clothing store?

Eugenia: Altar’d State [laugh].

Julia: Oh, yes, obviously. Obviously. Um, favorite grocery store?

Eugenia: The Whole Foods.

Julia: Yes. We only have the one Whole Foods. I’m waiting for more. You know, I’m waiting for more. I’m like, “Okay, can we get one in [Veragan 00:23:20][laugh]?”

Eugenia: It’s going to come. It’s going to come.

Julia: It will. If Knoxville is growing—

Eugenia: Yes. Oh, yes. And it’s building and so much work here to do, so much work is offer. So, even us, we are going to recruit more artists to work with us because we have more work for next year. So, everybody’s hiring. We are going to keep growing. It’s no way that this country doesn’t keep growing.

Julia: Well, since you mentioned that, I know that the Knoxville Museum of Art does so many things that people don’t know about, classes, just like beginner lessons for parents and for kids. They do a lot of things that people don’t know are very hands-on artist projects that if they don’t—if parents outside of the downtown market do not have the ability to understand art or don’t have an art class at their schools, tell us a little bit about what they can do in Knoxville to connect with you, to connect with the art scene, to get their kids involved in understanding art.

Eugenia: We are working with a couple of organizations. I’m working with [unintelligible 00:24:35] and we are trying to bring more kids to have—you know, I want to start with a Saturday play date. And after the kids have Covid, it stopped absolutely everything that we were planning. We were planning this three years ago. So, now what I done is I went to a school and I work with the kids as a volunteer doing summer work.

But we are going to be reaching out to families and I want to reach out to my community, to the Hispanic community because some of the parents, you know, cannot communicate very good in English, it’s hard for them to understand what they can do. I’ve been talking with Austin-East School, too. We did a huge mural for them there a year and a half ago. So, the idea is to start working with elementary school, middle school. We will start with elementary and see how this goes. But I will keep you posted with all this news.

Julia: Yeah, please do. You know Mark Nelson…

Eugenia: Yes, I know—

Julia: Mark Nelson [crosstalk 00:25:47], he went to Austin-East and while he was there is when he took all kinds of classes on design and sewing, things my generation has no access to and I think this next generation after me, the Gen Z generation has no idea about art or working with your hands. It’s just not something they talk about or teach. And I think that what you’re doing is amazing. Please let us know so we can get that information out.

Eugenia: I will keep you posted. Julie, I will keep you posted.

Julia: Yes. And I’ll come visit you in a couple—after Thanksgiving, after the holiday, I’m going to come visit your studio.

Eugenia: Perfect.

Julia: Perfect. All right. We are out of time and you’re freezing. Thank you for taking time for me today. Thank you so much for sharing your blessing with the world.

Eugenia: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me and I want to meet you in person. I know Patricia put us in contact because I saw the comments that oh because you went to [unintelligible 00:26:48] Village.

Julia: Yeah, yes. Oh, my I have—I’m interviewing. I’m interviewing their marketing—like, the lady that runs the whole thing. Marissa. Melissa.

Eugenia: She’s phenomenal. She’s phenomenal. You’re going to love it. That was a fantastic project. You see proof like this that comes from an idea, from a dream that you were able, you saw the walls, and absolutely everything, that they—the core.

Julia: Stunning. I took pictures of the bird, the little bird [unintelligible 00:27:18]. It’s this big. I took a picture of it. I was like I cannot believe that one person did all this amazing.

Eugenia: It’s incredible, but it was my crew. I always said when we finish a project like this, this is 15,000 square feet what we’re doing here, it was not me. It’s not me. I cannot do it. It’s all my people. It’s all this talent and talented people who loves art and love me.

Julia: You’re easy to love.

Eugenia: I’m [crazy 00:27:49].

Julia: You’re easy to love [laugh].

Eugenia: You so much.

Julia: Thank you, Miss Eugenia. Have an amazing day.

Eugenia: You too, my dear.

Julia: Bye.

Eugenia: Bye-bye.

If you’re thinking of updating, remodeling or repairing your home this year, it’s time to start planning. 

Want to make the most of your efforts? Don’t overlook color. Color plays a big role in your home’s aesthetic and mood, and it can affect your overall property value, too. 

If you’re not sure where to start, get acquainted with the trending hues for 2022 and take a look at these tips for incorporating color like a pro.

1. Let the colors of the year guide you. A great place to start is by reviewing the “colors of the year.” For 2022, hues of green are in for two of the most well-known brands. Benjamin Moore went with October Mist, a pale, silvery green, while Sherwin-Williams opted for Evergreen Fog, a soothing “green-meets-gray” shade. Pantone went in a different direction with Very Peri, a periwinkle shade with violet-red undertones meant to “encourage courageous creativity.”

2. Have a color-placing strategy. How will you use the colors? You can opt for a more nuanced approach and paint an accent wall, your crown molding or your baseboards, or you could go all-out and use it on your kitchen cabinets or even an entire room or ceiling. Another option: You could focus on accessories like bedding or drapes if you want something more temporary. 

3. Factor in durability and upkeep. White and light hues photograph well and make a room look nice and clean. On the downside, they may get dirty easily and often require a lot of cleaning and upkeep. They’re typically not good choices in a well-used space (like a playroom or right around the kitchen sink or oven, for example).

Planning to sell your home or buy a new one this year? Reach out today for guidance. 865-237-7328

Technology has made buying a home in another state easier than ever before; for example, if you can’t travel to see a potential home in person, you can take a virtual tour—and get a feel for the flow and layout of the house without ever stepping foot inside.

But just because the process is easier doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges associated with it—and if you want to successfully purchase a home in a different state, there are definitely things you’ll want to keep in mind.

So what, exactly, are those things? A recent article from realtor outlined must-know tips for buyers considering purchasing a home in a different state, including:

• Choose your real estate agent wisely. Choosing the right real estate agent is always important—but it’s especially important when you’re purchasing a home out of state. Your real estate agent will be your eyes and ears when you can’t be there to look at properties in person—so make sure to do your research and choose a local agent you trust.
• Ask questions. The homebuying process can vary widely from state to state—so it’s important to ask as many questions as possible to understand the process in the state where you’re planning to buy. For example, how much earnest money will you need? Will the inspection happen before or after the closing? How long will it take to close? Getting these questions answered at the beginning of your home search can make the process significantly less stressful—so if you have questions, make sure to ask your real estate agent.
• Ask for a remote closing. Back in the day, if you purchased a home out of state, you would have to travel for the closing—but thanks to remote closings, that’s no longer the case. If you don’t want to make a trip to another state just to close on your home, ask your agent to coordinate a remote closing.

Between holiday travel, holiday parties, and hosting out-of-town guests, the holidays can be a busy time of year. And if you’re selling your home, you might be tempted to take your property off the market and push your home sale into the new year.

But, as it turns out, you might want to rethink that strategy.

An article in realtor recently outlined the top reasons not to take your home off the market during the holiday season, including:

• It’s easier for your listing to get attention. Because the holidays are so busy, a lot of sellers pull their homes off the market and would-be sellers hold off on listing their home—both of which reduce available inventory. Less inventory means less competition, which will make it easier for your home to get attention and interest from buyers who can’t wait weeks or months to make offers and move forward with a purchase.
• The buyers are more serious. Most people don’t want to add “buying a home” to the list of their holiday to-do’s. But that means that the buyers that are out there looking for homes are serious, motivated, and ready to purchase a home ASAP—a major plus for sellers.
• Lenders are more motivated to close the deal. Because fewer homes are being bought and sold during the holiday season, lenders are more motivated to close transactions—which can make the process both easier and faster.

Bottom line? You might think the holidays aren’t the best time to sell a home—but if you’ve been thinking about selling your home, it turns out this is a great time to make a move.

We will sell your house.  865-237-7328.