As many of you on LinkedIn may know, I have recently celebrated four years with the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal. Given that GFBJ has only been around for five years, I consider it one of my greatest labors of love. 

For the past four years, I have worked -along with our editor Stephanie Meador- to help share the good news of Fayetteville, Cumberland and its six surrounding counties. 

I believe in Fayetteville’s growth and improvements. And by highlighting the GOOD news, I believe we are lifting up not only local businesses, but our local community as well. 

There have been some days when my co-workers and I have asked each other, if the Journal didn’t exist, where would some of these press releases be sent? Who would be sharing these stories? Which of the larger media outlets would look to Cumberland and these rural counties for anything other than crime-related news? (Hint: you would be disappointed at the answer.) 

Did you know that one of our local real estate powerhouses celebrated two national recognitions for one of their team members and hosted the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company last week? You can read all about it on page 5. 

These GFBJ exclusive stories don’t just happen. Every connection, every contact and branch in my network has been painstakingly earned, and I am thankful for every one of them. Every invitation, text message and press release is the result of sowing years of trust, building credibility and being the source of reliable information that we do not take for granted.  

Moving into the role of publisher was not exactly where I envisioned my career going, but now that I’m here, I hope to leave a lasting impact through my work at the Journal, increasing community connections and access points to grow the Journal’s audience and building up our sponsorships to not only maintain the work we do, but expand and take it to new levels.

To every subscriber, sponsor, casual reader and social media follower, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To all of the new readers, welcome, and thank you for trusting us to tell your stories.