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TARYN SCHER “ If I think something is wrong or needs to be changed... I’ve never been afraid to say that.” TARYN SCHER
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Q1 2014 // Business Black Box
/ FUTURE LEADER
A leader, says Taryn Scher, is “somebody who thinks differently. “One, they just get it. But two, they see the future possibility there and they’re open to it.” For the 30-year-old New Yorkerturned-South Carolinian, it’s that type of quality that she most admires in local leaders, although she’ll admit, she is more focused on community integration and volunteerism than necessarily examining the big picture. So, when she moved southward, due to her husband’s medical residency, she wasted no time in getting personally involved. Still working as a consultant for her former firm in New York, she first started her own business—TKPR— to serve as a public relations agent and consultant. But she soon turned her sights to the many different organizations and businesses that she knew she could help. “I think, when you move from somewhere else and you don’t know anybody, it’s really important to find somewhere to get involved,” Scher notes. Her first undertaking: Euphoria—a food, wine and music festival that brings foodies from all over the nation into the heart of Greenville. Today, Scher is serving her fourth year on the board of Euphoria, where she still maintains PR efforts for the group. In addition, she’ll serve her third year on the advisory board for the Small Business Development Center, and as chair of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund. She’s also taking on projects that are near and dear to the Upstate community, like the Duck Derby, the Center for Colon Cancer research and TEDx Greenville. She’s been responsible for high-level response to the Upstate community by publications
like US Air’s in-flight magazine as well as Southern Living. “When I tell people to volunteer I don’t just mean to necessarily just go buy Toys for Tots or donate canned goods or go help in a hospital,” Scher says. “I mean to donate their services. If that’s what they do and they can actually offer it to an organization… volunteer those services.” Despite being one of the youngest people in most of the rooms she’s found herself in, Scher has had little problem affecting positive change in the Upstate. “I think that’s what’s been really fun—being a Northerner I think I can get away with a little bit more— but that is my personality, to just say what I’m thinking,” she says. “If I think something is wrong or needs to be changed, or needs to be done differently, I’ve never been afraid to say that.” But while she may credit her outspokenness, there is no doubt that since her move into South Carolina only six years ago, Scher has made her mark on the Upstate. In addition to most recently being honored as one of GSA Business Journal’s 13 Visionaries for 2013, and as Greenville Business and Professional Women’s Young Careerist, Scher also holds the title of the Small Business Administration’s South Carolina Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Still, she’s quick to note that she didn’t get there alone. “I think the biggest thing I learned along the way was to ask for help,” she notes. “You don’t have to know everything and you’re probably better off not knowing everything. Just know what you’re really good at and then ask for help from other people.”