Company: Green Apple Strategy, Nashville, TN
Company Description: Green Apple Strategy was founded in 2012. Green Apple guides businesses through a strategic marketing process that aligns their business and operational goals with their sales and revenue goals. GA implements a comprehensive approach that includes but is not limited to such tactics as blogging, email marketing, social media, PR, and events.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Female Entrepreneur – Business Services –10 or Less Employees
 Nomination Title: Samantha Pyle
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated woman, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below:
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 189 words used.
Samantha Pyle is the Owner of Green Apple Strategy and serves as its Chief Marketing Strategist. After having worked on both the corporate and agency sides of marketing, Samantha started Green Apple Strategy to fulfill a lifelong ambition of bootstrapping a marketing business that transforms the prevailing agency-client framework into a more thoughtful, relational approach.
Green Apple’s process places as much value on strategic thinking and planning as it does on creativity and hard work. By starting with strategy, Samantha has built an agency that helps clients transform marketing from an obligation into a desirable, habitual practice in creative storytelling that is mutually beneficial to her clients, their customers, and their communities.
Representation and inclusion is a cornerstone of Green Apple Strategy’s success. Samantha is proud to lead a woman-owned enterprise with a core employee group composed of 90 percent women that prioritizes diversity in its hiring and business development practices.
A diversity of experiences and perspectives in any workforce, especially within the marketing industry, drives creativity, productivity, and empower organizations to genuinely empathize with their audiences by recognizing the cultural blindspots driven by age, gender, race, or religion.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 202 words used.
Green Apple Strategy has remained fully bootstrapped since its inception. Just eight years after its founding, at the onset of the pandemic, the company reached two critical milestones as a small business—winning a 2020 Best of Business Award from the Nashville Business Journal and qualifying as a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization with annual revenue surpassing the $1 million benchmark each subsequent year.
A majority of Green Apple’s client base is made up of long-term clients who value a full-service strategic marketing approach. Under Samantha’s leadership, Green Apple’s average client size has grown by 300% year over year, with its largest and longest tenured client growing over 1000%. Green Apple’s client roster has increased tenfold since its initial founding. And in 2019, Samantha grew her business beyond $1 million in annual revenues.
Samantha’s influence and efforts extend far beyond Green Apple Strategy. As a lifelong learner committed to professional development, she is currently pursuing her MBA at Lipscomb University, one of the nation’s top-ranked business programs.
She recently completed her term on the EO Nashville board as the co-chair of Catalyst, an entrepreneurial-focused development program that supports small business owners in Nashville, after her own participation in the Catalyst program in 2018.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 231 words used.
Nashville is home to more than 20,000 small businesses and ranks consistently among the top ten U.S. cities in terms of job growth. Small- and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of Middle Tennessee’s economy. Their success sustains Nashville’s growth; and at Green Apple Strategy, the success of other businesses is our primary objective.
Green Apple’s biggest client has grown from a $30,000 annual account in 2013 to $540,000 in 2023. As this client has expanded their business, they have grown with Green Apple and developed a profound, abiding trust in the agency as a partner. Nearly 100% of Green Apple’s current clients are repeat clients, meaning even those retained from 2022 are continuing their work with the agency in 2023.
75% of our clients have been with Green Apple since 2017 or prior to that year. The agency’s goal is to create long-term relationships with its clients, and these data points speak to Samantha’s success in delivering tremendous value for her clientele.
As an active member of the community, Samantha also serves as board president of the Survivor Fitness Foundation, a nonprofit that supports cancer survivors with their health and fitness goals after cancer treatment. In the past, she served on the advisory board for the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, American Cancer Society of Middle Tennessee, and on the board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 60 words used.
Survivor Fitness Foundation profile: https://survivorfitness.org/2022/03/21/board-member-spotlight-sam-owens-pyle/
Lecture Series at Pinnacle Financial Partners
https://www.pnfp.com/rsvp/samantha-pyle-green-apple-strategy/
Contributor Profile - Nashville Business Journal
https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/bio/20081/Samantha+Owens+Pyle
EO Nashville Members - Green Apple Strategy
https://eonashville.com/members/
Nashville Business Journal - 2020 Best in Business Awards
https://greenapplestrategy.com/advertising/green-apple-strategy-honored-as-nashvilles-best-in-business/
Nashville Post - In Charge 2023
https://www.nashvillepost.com/magazine/leaders_2023/in-charge-2023-marketing/article_83d98fea-dee6-11ed-b98b-17acde0584f7.htm
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