About Steve Cory
A business owner, interviewer, and lifelong student of leadership.
Steve Cory created Ignite Tennessee around a simple belief: stronger leaders build stronger businesses, and stronger businesses help build stronger communities.
Why Ignite Tennessee
After years of working with small-business owners, entrepreneurs, and local organizations, Steve saw the same thing again and again: some of the most valuable business lessons never make it into a classroom or a textbook.
They are learned by people who have hired the wrong person, made a difficult decision, survived a hard season, served customers for decades, built a team, taken a risk, and kept going.
Ignite Tennessee was created to capture more of those lessons and make them useful to the next person.
A Practical View of Leadership
Steve’s approach to leadership is practical rather than theoretical. He is interested in what actually works: how good leaders communicate, how businesses earn trust, how teams get stronger, and how people grow through experience.
That perspective shapes the interviews, videos, articles, and resources published through Ignite Tennessee.
Background
Steve has spent much of his career around small business. His background includes business consulting, media and video production, marketing, entrepreneurship, and building his own companies. He is the founder of Cory Media Group, a Middle Tennessee digital media and marketing company. He has also spoken on the TEDx stage and continues to spend much of his time talking with business owners about leadership, growth, and the lessons they have learned. Those experiences provide context for Ignite Tennessee, but Ignite is not intended to be a promotional platform for Steve or Cory Media Group. Its purpose is to highlight useful ideas, local voices, and people who can help others become better leaders.
"Honor God with our businesses. Connect with fellow entrepreneurs. Leave better than we arrived."
Why Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is growing quickly, but growth is not only about new buildings, population, or economic statistics. It is also about the quality of the people leading businesses, teams, organizations, and communities.
Steve believes some of the region’s best knowledge already exists inside local businesses. Ignite Tennessee is a way to bring more of that knowledge into the open.
The Mission
Building the Leaders Who Are Building Middle Tennessee
That mission is intentionally bigger than any one company or person. Ignite Tennessee exists to help local leaders learn from one another, share what works, and make useful business knowledge easier to find.
A Note From Steve
“I do not believe I have all the answers. The value of Ignite is that I get to sit across from people who have learned things the hard way, ask them good questions, and share those lessons with other people who can use them. If Ignite helps someone become a better owner, leader, manager, or entrepreneur, then it is doing what it was built to do.”