Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeanette Pierce. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jeanette, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I grew up on the Eastside of Detroit and thought I knew everything about the city I lived in…until I moved downtown in 2003 and starting walking places. I discovered beautiful buildings, amazing small businesses and an entire other side of town that I never knew existed. How could I live here and not know these thins? Part of the reason was because there was no one trying to tell me. So I realized that when you ask the question, “Why don’t we have this?” the next part should be “I guess I’ll do it.”
Too often locals assume they know everything about their city or town, but because we’re creatures of habit we frequently know only our small slice of it. I realized that when we educate locals about the people, places and projects in their own backyard it has a huge long term impact. They can go back to a small business they learned about, be a more educated voter, discover volunteer opportunities and/or nonprofit services they could tap into. It’s a relatively simple way to impact resident’s quality of life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Our work is two-pronged, working on the ground in Detroit as well as with cities around the globe.

Within Detroit, we work with companies & organizations to help their teams have a deeper understanding and connection to Detroit. We believe the only way to equitably engage in Detroit is to understand the bigger picture – to understand Detroit in context. Through our Private Tours & Learning Journeys, we provide a deeper contextual understanding by connecting the dots between the city’s past and present, and providing the tools to better equip residents & stakeholders to play an active role in shaping its future.

Our team combines observations of current conditions, historical facts and recent statistics with powerful anecdotes and individual stories of Detroiters to help clients understand the complexity and dynamism of the city of Detroit.

Beyond Detroit, we share lessons learned from Detroit and our work over the last 20 years. Our Sought-After City Program helps cities of all sizes attract & retain residents by deepening understanding and connection in the community. This program helps cities tell their story so people can have a better understanding & appreciation of where they live and work. When people appreciate and feel connected to where they live they are more likely to stay in that community, invest time and money in that community and overall help their community thrive.

Our Leadership Exchange Program provides civic leaders from around the world with a turnkey Leadership Exchange Trip to Detroit that includes keynote speakers, panel discussions, site visits, special access tours, meals and activities. Leaders learn best practices, get an insider’s perspective on the assets and challenges of a peer metropolitan area, and be inspired to apply lessons learned from Detroit to their own community. The most successful leaders focus on continuous learning and innovation and Detroit is full of innovation & inspiration.

Have you ever had to pivot?

As more and more cities began asking for my help I became excited at the idea of sharing lessons learned from Detroit and helping other places tell their story. I was so overwhelmed with my existing clients and businesses with eight full-time staff and 40 part-time staff and a physical Welcome center and the heart of downtown that there never seemed to be enough time to work on other projects and so I decided I needed to hire an executive director and give up running the organization. Though it wasn’t easy it was one of the best decisions I ever made, and it allowed me to begin to see possibilities in working with other communities, and helping them attract and retain residents and workers. It also prepared me for the next thing in my life that was very much a surprise, and that was one month after stepping down as executive director, I found out I was pregnant… With triplets! That required a whole other level of problem-solving and adjusting my expectations for motherhood, as well as for my career. But in some ways being an entrepreneur had prepared me for this huge life twist by providing years of experience of dealing with surprises and having to learn to adjust at the drop of a hat. Also, it worked out that I had stepped away from leading the organization as it allowed me to have more time with my triplets once they were born, and eventually I was able to take my work to the next level and launch programs working with other cities

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think a lot of people will talk about resilience when they talk about their response to the pandemic, and that was certainly true for me not being able to take any people around and introduced them to their community in person I was able to start offering virtual tours, which I thought would pale in comparison, but would be something and it turns out they are they were and still are a powerful storytelling tool But resilience is something that we’re born with in Detroit Detroit, his face more than a fair share of crisis and crises, great innovation, and so we also have more than our fair share of innovation. My organization has been through the collapse of our major industry in 2008, our mayor being sent to jail for 28 years for racketeering, the city itself filing for bankruptcy in 2013, let alone the 50 years of disinvestment that caused so many challenges in the city I love. I would say that creating my organization and creating the work that I do has and is because of, not just my resilience, but because of the city’s resilience, the stories that Detroit has to tell are even more amazing because of what everybody here has been through and what they’ve been able to create despite the challenges they;ve faced, which reminds me of one of my favorite facts about Detroit. We had a great fire in 1805 and lost our whole city and after that the city’s motto was coins, but still can be seen in Latin on our city steel and that is: “We hope for better things it WILL arise from the Ashes.” That’s why you can never count Detroit out. We will always come back bigger and better and that’s what we’re in the midst of doing right now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thecityinstitute.com
• Instagram: @cityinstitute_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecityinstitute
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thecityinstitute/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cityinstitute
• Other: Wondering what makes Detroit special? Watch this short video: https://youtu.be/3qPnWVA8yzg?si=dk3NQMavaXs9ikOV