Owner, Dogwood Social

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Missy Creed is an idea machine. Her Jeff City-centric marketing company, Dogwood Social, mints new “likes” daily for a growing community of clients. Her community leadership forges new relationships among local professionals. This month, her newest venture, jeffcityblog.com, launches with a mission to inspire more residents to experience everything the city has to offer.

This energy helps her bridge some business owners’ gap between “familiar” and “fan.” While working part time at River City Florist, she recognized an opportunity. “Everything at River City Florist is so photogenic,” she says, “and they weren’t putting much of it out there. I said to Mike, ‘Why are you not Instagramming?’”

His response? He simply didn’t have the time.

Capitalizing on social media is a common challenge for small businesses. When you only have a few employees, it’s easy to put posts on a back burner. After test marketing for River City, Creed realized she could help more business owners in Jefferson City. “Local businesses and business owners are my people,” she says. “They’re go-getters, and I love that I get to be surrounded by them every day because of this job I’ve built.”

Armed with a passion and love for local, she now helps potential customers learn their options when searching for where to shop for products or services.

Working for herself has created an additional benefit to Jefferson City: the time to volunteer with United Way and its agencies. “I now have a flexible schedule and time to set my own priorities,” she says. “I haven’t always been in that position, but now I am, and it feels good to be able to help out.”

“Missy is definitely on the fast track and already has made her positive mark on this city,” writes United Way of Central Missouri president, Ann Bax. “She truly cares about this community, as evidenced by all her philanthropic activities in addition to owning her own business at her young age. I have talked to many other leaders of philanthropic organizations, and already Missy is known to be caring and kind and willing to share her social media expertise with those of us in the nonprofit world.”

Early on, Creed branched into groups like Capital City Connections and Young Professionals. “I knew I wanted to be involved because when I came back to live here as an adult, I realized there are so many people I have yet to meet.”

Most recently, she has served as a founding organizer for 1 Million Cups, a networking group for entrepreneurs.

Now, Creed is taking her work in the community to the internet. Her new blog is dedicated to residents of Jefferson City, and will help be an independent voice for promoting the city’s businesses to visitors. “I’m looking forward to seeing what this will become. More than that, I’m excited for new collaborations and celebrating our city.”

What would you be doing if you weren’t in your current position?

I’d be an Amazon seller and/or a personal shopper and stylist. 

Community Involvement:

Young Professionals, marketing chair
1 Million Cups Jeff City, organizer
Capital City Connections
Marketing committee, United Way of Central Missouri

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