A meeting at Lamp Post GroupIn Chattanooga, there are a handful of folks who go to work each day and do something. Something a little quirky, maybe, or something that maybe has been done forever but has taken on a wonky new title like “director of happiness,” or “maker of awesomeness” or even “seafood chef ” (not the Red Lobster kind).
Chattanooga bills itself to the nation as a progressive, Southern city on the brink of cool and next-level innovation. Maybe it’s that personality – a disposition outside the ordinary – that has seeped into Chattanooga’s business community.
But with off-the-wall job titles and descriptions, there are often more questions than answers provided when one of Chattanooga’s quirky titlers hand over a business card. But maybe that’s the point.
Shelley Prevost, director of happiness at Lamp Post Group, happily entertains queries into her title and duties. One of the venture incubator’s co-founders, Prevost’s title is a self-appointed one.
Prevost says her responsibilities include directing happiness, sure, but much more than that. It means talking with small business founders and company employees who are dealing with private issues all their own.