Episode Details

Growing without losing your identity is hard for a town and for a business. Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown has worked on that question from the chamber of commerce and from city hall, and she knows what she wants her hometown to keep.

Paige graduated from high school early so she could leave Gallatin, and she planned never to come back. She hosted a TV show in Tallahassee at 17, worked as a reporter and anchor, and came home to Middle Tennessee for a job at The Nashville Network. After the 2006 tornado hit Gallatin, she left television, led the Gallatin chamber, and was first elected mayor in 2014 by a narrow margin.

Kathryn and Paige talk about what newsrooms taught her about telling both sides, the phrase she uses when she shares an opinion, and how Gallatin landed on grit and grace as the heart of its brand. They also get into leading through hard seasons, why she still shows up for ribbon cuttings, and what rising home prices mean for the young families a growing town depends on.

This one is for business owners and nonprofit leaders watching their town, or their own organization, get bigger and wondering what should stay the same.