A Collier County woman is being honored for what she does to help businesses prosper and grow.
Melissa Severance founded a consulting firm called Inspire Big Dreams. She won the award from the group SWFL Inc. It describes itself as a marketing and networking organization for businesses — sort of a regional chamber of commerce.
Severance won the INCredible Award for her work coaching business leaders and giving presentations on future challenges for companies. The award also salutes Severance for going outside her own business to promote other companies around Southwest Florida.
"I felt a lot of love from the community as soon as my name was announced," Severance said. "It was amazing to be recognized for my work to help businesses learn and grow."
Severance said she worked for large companies in Philadelphia before moving to Collier County during COVID.
She said she tries to help small businesses with AI -- artificial intelligence. She admitted that some owners and managers are uncomfortable with AI, but she sees it as another way to build success.
"Even small businesses have to adapt and be open to automation," she said. "They have to be able to use it to the best way possible for efficiencies. I've seen that rock a lot of businesses around here, but we have to grow and do better, and a part of that is with AI."
She said that she tells small business owners that the competition is intense, and will only get more so in the years to come. So moving into the future with new tools is vital to success, she said.
Severance often talks to groups or individual companies. She said she urges people to be open to change.
"It is so important that we go with the change and keep evolving and learning," she said. "Because we are going to have to change. Our jobs are going to look totally different in 10 years, maybe even in five years.
"I'm really a proponent of disrupting the future of work, making sure that we have new ideas and innovations going on."
Severance said she deals a lot with managers interacting with employees.
"We definitely need to trust our people and empower them," she said. "Micro-management is gone from leadership style. We need to make sure we are there to support and coach, but we have to have trust in the people that we are hiring."
Severance emphasized that she likes the fact that Southwest Florida still is a place where person-to-person connections are vital for business. She said those people connections can be difficult in the huge business centers like New York City or San Francisco.
She also noted that this region is home to a lot of retired executives, and they can be a big resource. She said some of them are most generous in giving their time, experience and insights to help the local business community.
"I love it here," Severance said. "I plan to make it my forever home."
Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
