The Messy City
The Messy City Podcast
From Small Developer to Mayor
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From Small Developer to Mayor

Allan Branch of Panama City, Florida, talks downtown redevelopment, hurricane recovery, and local politics

Kevin’s note: Apologies on the audio quality. Riverside did something funky to this episode, and I did my best to correct it.

We all love to study success, and learn how to emulate it. Allan Branch likes to study failure. He studied it for his businesses, and for his city. Remarkably, it’s helped lead Allan to a lot of success in all his endeavors.

Allan traces his roots from art school and family entrepreneurship to software and building businesses, to literally building buildings in his hometown. Of course, that’s not enough, so Allan decided to run for Mayor as well. And won.

There are Allans in every city and town in America. And yet, very few of them actually have his success, or take the initiative to help fix local politics. I wish more would, as we’d all be better for it.


Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page.

Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here. If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5.

Intro: “Why Be Friends

Outro: “Fairweather Friend

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