Deb Brown

Small Town Expert
Co-Founder, Save Your Town

Deb Brown is an expert for small-towns and co-founder of Save Your Town. She has worked to develop programs to combat various small-town challenges. Deb’s programs help town leaders decide what to do with empty buildings, improve customer service, develop marketing and economy, and more. 

Over her career, Deb has helped chambers, economic developers, tourism specialists, museum experts, business groups, and both national and small-town conferences with programs like Filling Empty Buildings and Innovative Rural Business Models. Deb also works onsite for 4 days during her Embedded Community Experience. She talks to everyone and every group finds out what they want in their town, and then shares that data and stories of other communities who are already doing it. 

Deb’s advice is practical and comes from real-world experience. Over 60 years on the planet have given Deb knowledge on how to do a lot of things and how to work with many different types of people. Her background ranges from farming, foreign casualty insurance underwriting, retail management and even bartending.

Alongside Becky McCray, co-founder of SaveYour.Town, Deb will bring you practical advice on how to shape a brighter future for your small town.

Filling Empty Buildings

Why do building owners keep holding on to empty buildings? Why are they so resistant to all attempts to fill them up? It’s frustrating to deal with reluctant building owners, but there are practical steps you can take. In Pullman, Washington, festival organizers borrowed just the windows of an empty building to display event posters. While they were hanging posters, they went a step further: they washed the windows and swept the floor so the building looked better. Their efforts motivated the building owner to finish clean up and put up a “for rent” sign. Within 2 months, the building was filled with an active business. Learn more practical steps you can put into action right away to begin filling your empty buildings. 

Tactical Innovation for Small and Rural Towns 

Learn the Idea Friendly Method to implement big ideas in your small town.  This engaging session with a national small town and rural expert Deb Brown will explain the importance of gathering your crowd, building connections and taking small steps to encourage the growth and success of your community.

Marketing in a Small Town 

 Online and offline marketing for small businesses, small organizations, small towns and small projects using no or a small budget to market events, businesses, projects and more. It’s more than just Facebook! Learn marketing tools you can use for any size project (or business) that will help you with your goals. Want to market an event?  Want to bring in more visitors to your store? Want to showcase what you have to offer? There are many marketing tools we will show you to move your forward quickly. 

It’s not about learning a bunch of stuff and then sitting back and waiting for change. It is about putting ideas into action, utilizing the power of your crowd and the connections you build. In other words – the Idea Friendly way to market in a small town. 

Our Downtown Needs Help  

Has your downtown lost its spark? Bring it back with the help of Deb Brown. The co-founder of Save Your Town has worked with countless town leaders to find uses for empty buildings, improve customer service, develop marketing and economy and more.  When Deb is done, you’ll have the tools to attract more businesses and improve economic development.