“Setbacks are a gift when you don’t give up,” is the mantra that author and journalist Marcia Pledger enjoys sharing. The author of “My Biggest Mistake and How I Fixed It: Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Frontlines, Pledger has a knack for getting small business owners to reveal how facing and conquering challenges makes them stronger.
She’s a business writer and columnist at The Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, where she covers entrepreneurs in a weekly Sunday feature, and women with a million or more in sales, in a monthly feature called “Women Empowered.”
For most of her career, she’s covered businesses, with topics that range from tourism and marketing at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to personal finance, as a Money Magazine correspondent for 16 years. But her passion is entrepreneurs and business etiquette. For three years she fielded questions about the do’s and dont’s of business life in a weekly business etiquette column.
Pledger is sought by women’s groups, business organizations, colleges and universities, to speak about both entrepreneurs and etiquette.
Pledger holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She’s been acknowledged for excellence in journalism by the Associated Press, Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Black Journalists.
A native of Kansas City, Mo, she’s the wife of motivational speaker, Derrick Pledger, and the proud mother of a daughter, Nikelle.
