
Maurice Davis has held many roles over the years. The entrepreneur, author, National Guard veteran, and marketing professional has previously worked as a Kung Fu instructor, owned a marketing company and has been dubbed the “Dr. Dre of business shows” for his work in launching business podcasts. For his latest role as executive director of […]
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Click here to purchase a paywall bypass linkMaurice Davis has held many roles over the years.
The entrepreneur, author, National Guard veteran, and marketing professional has previously worked as a Kung Fu instructor, owned a marketing company and has been dubbed the “Dr. Dre of business shows” for his work in launching business podcasts.
For his latest role as executive director of the South of 6 Iowa City Business District, he plans on leveraging his passion for marketing to boost the district’s visibility.
“How do you market a city?” is a question he’s been mulling over since he was hired this past October.
“My short answer at this point is figuring out what it is that the district wants to be, (and) how we want the district to be identified as,” he said. “I have some ideas as far as what I think that identity should be in order for the South of 6 to create a sustainable position in the city and give people reasons to come here,” adding that he’s keeping those ideas mum until he and the board reach a consensus on it.
Mr. Davis became acquainted with the South of 6 several years ago through Angie Jordan, Tasha Lard and Marlén Mendoza, who were instrumental in developing the SSMID and launching the district’s Diversity Market in 2021. The three participated in an entrepreneurial program Mr. Davis was operating in Cedar Rapids.
“I did some support for entrepreneurs in the first Diversity Market,” he said. “So, I’ve been around the South of 6 for a while, and since then, I’ve worked with Tasha on a few projects.”
When Ms. Jordan stepped down from her role as executive director in May 2024, the gap remained for several months before a connection reached out to Mr. Davis with the suggestion that he apply.
As with many new roles, it takes some time to ease into a rhythm. So far the transition has been “a little rocky,” Mr. Davis admits, but “all in all, I would say (it’s) good. I think there is a ton of opportunity for the South of 6, and it’s trying to figure out what things we want to focus on now versus what things need to be moved to later.”
Moving forward, he’d like to help facilitate the South of 6’s alignment with the overall objectives that the city has for long-term planning.
Getting to know the community
Having been in his role for only a month, Mr. Davis is still learning about the community’s needs, he said. A major factor right now is encouraging traffic to the district and giving it an identity.
“If you talk to people in the district, they love the South of 6,” he said. “When we talk to people outside the district, they don’t know what’s going on, and maybe even feel like there’s not much here. And so to me, that’s a disconnect — communication disconnect. So there’s some opportunity around, ‘how do we better control the narrative?’
“If you want to control the narrative, or you want to drive the narrative, you have to be in the driver’s seat,” he added.
Calling the South of 6 a “natural cultural hub,” Mr. Davis praised its diversity while pondering the dilemma of encouraging growth without losing the essence of the community.
“The question becomes, ‘how do we bring in those different identities of the people that are here and help the business district reflect that?’ So that’s kind of the long-term vision,” he said. “We’ve already got some good stuff. It’s just a matter of getting people to recognize that this good stuff exists.”
The Introvert’s Survival Guide to Networking
You wouldn’t know it just from speaking to him, but Mr. Davis is a self-proclaimed introvert. And an introvert in a position that demands networking and regular face-to-face interactions needs some strategies to prevent burn out.
It’s why he was inspired to write the book, “The Introvert’s Survival Guide to Networking.”
“I spent a lot of time trying to make networking look like what everyone said it should look like,” he said. “The picture of networking was always ‘go out and meet a bunch of people, give out a bunch of business cards, go to these events, be the center of everything,’ and you just get so tired, and you don’t have the emotional energy to then get up and do the things that you have to do tomorrow, because you spent it all.”
His advice is to lean into your own style and think of networking outside the box. For him, that means more one-on-one meetings.
Introverts are “willing to listen to people talk,” he said. “If an introvert can harness that… people tend to like them a lot because (introverts) just let (people) talk about what (they) want to talk about, and they feel heard.”
Recharging his social batteries looks like listening to an audiobook or podcast, or surfing Netflix. His default free-time activities usually explore marketing strategies.
“I am a marketing business nerd,” he said. “I love this stuff, so usually in my free time, I’m doing something with that.”
Mr. Davis moved to Iowa in 2013 from his hometown of Plainfield, Illinois, initially seeking work as a penitentiary guard following his stint in the National Guard, but found the position “limiting.”
He returned to school and graduated from Upper Iowa University in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and financial management services after attending Kirkwood Community College, going on to earn a master’s in business administration from Capella University.
He didn’t always have a marketing career in mind, though. As a child, he wanted to be a chef. Then, an assignment in high school planted the first seed that marketing could be an interesting career.
“In my sophomore year for microeconomics (class), I made a commercial. And that was probably the first time I was like, ‘this is so cool. I don’t know what this is. I don’t even know what career this would be, but this is so dope,’” he said.