Zach Stephens, President and CEO of the Livingston/Overton County Chamber of Commerce, was recently featured as a guest on The Volunteer Roadmap, a podcast hosted by Arch Trimble that explores the people, places, and ideas shaping communities across Tennessee. The episode, released August 24, takes a close look at how Livingston and Overton County are turning the challenges of a rural county into an advantage.

The conversation centers on a simple question, which is whether success comes easier in a county with fewer than 30,000 residents, and Stephens makes the case that it can, because a small and tight-knit community can act on a good idea before a larger county has finished scheduling its first meeting. Over the course of the episode, he walks through the Chamber's approach to economic development and quality of life during his first year and a half in the role, and he explains why moving quickly and working together across organizations has been the key to the county's recent momentum.

Among the topics covered in the episode are the connection between healthcare access and business recruitment, including why a company will not relocate to a place where its employees have to take a full day off just to see a doctor; the Chamber's Bright Futures Initiative, which proposes converting a vacant nursing home wing into a solution for the county's childcare shortage; and how the presence of a community college, a university, and a Tennessee College of Applied Technology within easy reach of Overton County has become one of the region's strongest selling points for prospective employers.

"I was grateful for the chance to sit down with Arch and talk about what makes this place work," Stephens said. "Overton County has never had the advantage of size or the deepest pockets, but we have something better, which is a community small enough that everyone actually picks up the phone and works together, and that is exactly the story we want people across Tennessee to hear."

The full episode is available now on YouTube at https://youtu.be/iEo8B6gJyEA?si=YoECsT6alSwq_CyC and can be heard on all podcasting platforms by searching The Volunteer Roadmap.

About the Livingston/Overton County Chamber of Commerce: The Livingston/Overton County Chamber of Commerce serves as the lead organization for economic development, tourism, workforce development, small business support, and government advocacy in Overton County, Tennessee, working to strengthen the local economy and improve quality of life for residents and visitors alike.