ABOUT BECKY MCCRAY
Liquor store owner and cattle rancher is not the usual career path for an event speaker, is it? Well, that’s me. My talks come from my own experience using new technologies in my own businesses. My background working with government, community and business gives me a positive view of the future of rural communities and a certainty that locally-owned small businesses build our prosperity.
I don’t just talk about business, entrepreneurship, tourism and rural issues; I live them. To keep from losing that connection, I limit my speaking trips and keep in touch with my own small town businesses.
Communities and organizations from Canada, the U.K., Australia and across the U.S. have made me part of their events: entrepreneur conferences, business groups, small town conferences, tourism associations, economic development organizations, marketing associations, and chambers of commerce.
Rather than static canned orations, my sessions are interactive. In addition to question and answer time, most of my keynote talks include table or small group discussions. In workshop or breakout slots, “ask anything” roundtables let your attendees get answers to their most pressing questions. Sessions can also be “flipped,” with most of the content delivered ahead of time with audio or video, saving the in-person time for the most important part: the interaction.
BIO AND PHOTOS FOR PUBLICATIONS AND INTRODUCTIONS
Download Photos of Becky for Promotional Needs Here.
SHORT VERSION
Becky McCray says that small businesses and small towns have a future. She is a small town business owner, she and her husband Joe co-own a retail liquor store and a cattle ranch. She writes and speaks about small town business, and she and Chicago entrepreneur Barry Moltz are the authors of the award-winning book Small Town Rules.
She has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur Magazine. Her blog, Small Biz Survival, ranks in the top 20 small business blogs worldwide. She makes her home base in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people.
THE LONG VERSION
A few people asked for a longer bio, so here it is.
Becky McCray started her first business venture in junior high school, and has been going ever since. She is an entrepreneur from Northwest Oklahoma, where she and her husband Joe co-own a retail liquor store and a cattle ranch. She writes and speaks about small town business, and she and Chicago entrepreneur Barry Moltz are the authors of the award-winning book Small Town Rules.
McCray is a recognized expert in rural small business and social media. She has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur Magazine and many others. Her blog, Small Biz Survival, ranks in the top 20 small business blogs worldwide.
Her presentations on small town business and social media have taken her from Dodge City, Kansas, to London, England. From Ontario, Canada, to Queensland, Australia, she’s presented to more than 100 events.
What makes all this possible is her wide experience in small town business, community and government. That includes work as a small town city administrator, a consultant to small town governments, a non-profit executive with the local workforce development council and the Girl Scouts, an antiques store owner, a business and computer consultant, and a newspaper reporter. For nine years, McCray spent her evenings and weekends teaching a variety of computer and business classes at local technology centers, making her the fourth generation of her family to teach. In 2004, she was an unsuccessful candidate for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, losing by only one vote per precinct. She believes we learn from both our successes and our failures, even when those failures are printed in the local newspaper.
She served on the National Board of Directors for the Business and Professional Women USA. She was the youngest state president in the history of the Oklahoma Business and Professional Women, and is a past president of the Northwestern Oklahoma State University Alumni Association. She was named the volunteer of the year for the Waynoka, Oklahoma, Chamber of Commerce and the Outstanding Resource Partner of the Northwest Oklahoma Small Business Administration. In 2011 and 2012, she was named a Top 100 Champion Small Business Influencer.
