S5:E30 - Life by Design with Brooke Clay Taylor

Brooke Clay Taylor is a force. We are so excited to have her on the podcast because her story is so darn inspiring, and she’s just a really cool human. In this episode, Brooke shares her journey from growing up in a small town, moving to the big city for college and work, moving back to a small town for entrepreneurship and love, and then becoming an entrepreneur, mother, and cancer survivor.

This episode explores what it really looks like to design your life with intention, build community by being a “villager,” and choose authenticity in both business and life.

About Brooke:

Brooke Clay Taylor has made a life of clearing hurdles, but she’d be the first to tell you she didn’t jump a single one alone. Born into a farming family in Franklin, Ind., and raised on a ranch in Perkins, Okla., anyone reading the plot to date might’ve said Brooke’s story was more Lifetime than real-life, more Hallmark than even half-believable.

When a high school guidance counselor told Brooke her average grades and would-be first-generation college student status made her a better candidate for job training than higher education, Brooke leaped anyway. She landed with bachelor’s and master’s degrees and firm footing for a career in strategic communications.

Her career, and later, love, took Brooke from Oklahoma City to Charlotte, Austin to Nashville. She left Music City for Payne County when the fairy tale proved fiction, trading the keys for a middle-Tennessee Craftsman to a red-dirt-speckled horse barn. With three figures in her bank account, Brooke jumped again: This time to launch Rural Gone Urban, a strategic communications business to support farmers, ranchers and agriculture clients worldwide with her digital prowess.

She married Damon — a fellow Perkins kid and junior high crush come full circle — in a snow globe scene, and together, they made a home on the shores of Lake Tenkiller in Eastern Oklahoma.

The next summer, they welcomed their daughter, Elsie, the same day Brooke was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Despite extensive treatment and being declared cancer-free, it returned two years later. And it was angry.

Whether in finding the courage to take the first step into a lecture hall she allegedly didn’t belong or the infusion center to face another round of chemo, Brooke credits her support system for never letting her fall. She founded the Rural Gone Urban Foundation to help women jumping hurdles — the B students, the big dreamers, the start-overers, and especially the women in the ring with cancer — who don’t have the support that has propelled her at every leap. 

In this episode, we cover:

• Leaving big-city success to build something meaningful in a small town

• Receiving a cancer diagnosis the day her daughter was born

• Building a nonprofit as a vehicle for legacy, not just charity

• The quiet tension of being nationally respected but locally unseen

• Why pain comparison silences connection—and how to change it

Links + Resources Mentioned:

Rural Gone Urban website: https://ruralgoneurban.com/

Rural Gone Urban Foundation: https://ruralgoneurban.org/

Sponsor Spotlight:

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Founded by Nicole, who grew up in a home that prioritized holistic living, The Yellow Bird was born from a simple truth: what we put on our skin matters. Their mission is to make effective, affordable skincare using minimal yet powerful ingredients like coconut oil and essential oils. You can shop their full line online, including on Amazon.

Use https://www.theyellowbird.co/?ref=REBECCAUNDEM for a discount when you shop! 

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Some of the best parts about radio shows and podcasts are listener call-ins, so we’ve decided to make those a part of the Growing Small Towns Podcast. We really, really want to hear from you! We’re have two “participation dance” elements of the show: 

1. “Small town humblebrags”: Call in and tell us about something amazing you did in your small town so we can celebrate with you. No win is too small—we want to hear it all, and we will be excessively enthusiastic about whatever it is! You can call in for your friends, too, because giving shout-outs is one of our favorite things. 

2. “Solving Your Small-Town People Challenges”: Have a tough issue in your community? We want to help. Call in and tell us about your problem, and we’ll solve it on an episode of the podcast. Want to remain anonymous? Totally cool, we can be all secretive and stuff. We’re suave like that. 

If you’ve got a humblebrag or a tricky people problem, call 701-203-3337 and leave a message with the deets. We really can’t wait to hear from you! 

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