From Corporate VP to Entrepreneur: Benny Williams is Making Executive Marketing Accessible to Churches, Nonprofits, and Businesses

After years of leading marketing strategy at the executive level, including serving as Vice President of Marketing at StartCHURCH, Benny Williams began noticing a gap between organizations doing meaningful work and their ability to communicate that work effectively. In October 2026, he stepped away from his corporate leadership role to launch Atlanta-based Next Visionaries Enterprise, bringing fractional CMO services, strategic communications, and creative solutions to churches, nonprofits, and businesses that may not have access to full-time marketing executives. His vision goes beyond helping organizations become more visible. He wants to give leaders the clarity, expertise, and support they need to connect with the people who can help their missions grow.

Hi Benny, thanks so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to have you share your thoughts and insights with our readers. Congratulations on launching Next Visionaries Enterprise in Atlanta! Your agency is focused on bringing executive-level marketing expertise to churches, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations. Can you take us back to the experiences that inspired this vision and the moment you decided it was time to build an agency around it?
The vision for Next Visionaries Enterprise was being developed long before I realized it.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work across several different environments, from education and corporate marketing to nonprofit leadership and ministry. But one of the most defining chapters was serving as Vice President of Marketing at StartCHURCH, one of the nation’s leading organizations serving churches and ministries.

In that role, I had the privilege of leading marketing strategy, developing campaigns, building teams, and helping connect thousands of ministry leaders with resources that could strengthen their organizations.

But something began to stand out to me.

I was sitting in executive meetings, making decisions about marketing investments, organizational growth, communications, and long-term strategy. Meanwhile, I was regularly encountering pastors, nonprofit founders, and community leaders who needed that same level of strategic thinking but couldn’t necessarily afford to bring a marketing executive onto their payroll.

And I kept thinking, “Just because an organization can’t afford a marketing executive doesn’t mean it doesn’t need one.”That realization changed everything for me.

I began to see an opportunity to close the gap between the executive boardroom and the organizations doing some of the most meaningful work in our communities.

In October 2026, I made the decision to step away from my corporate executive role and fully pursue that vision through Next Visionaries Enterprise.

It wasn’t simply about starting a marketing agency. It was about reimagining how organizations access marketing leadership.

Through fractional CMO services, executive marketing strategy, creative communications, and digital solutions, we’re making experienced marketing leadership more accessible without requiring organizations to build an entire department around it.

For me, this is where professional experience, entrepreneurship, and purpose intersect.

I believe some of the world’s most important missions are being carried by organizations that simply need someone to help them communicate their value more effectively. That’s the work I want to spend my time doing.

Many mission-driven organizations have powerful stories and important work happening behind the scenes, but they don’t always have the resources to communicate their impact effectively. Was there a particular organization, conversation, or experience that opened your eyes to this gap and convinced you that something needed to change?
It wasn’t necessarily one organization. It was a pattern I kept seeing over and over again.

I would meet pastors leading incredible ministries, nonprofit founders serving underserved communities, and organizational leaders creating real change in people’s lives. Their work was meaningful. Their commitment was undeniable. But when you looked at their websites, messaging, digital presence, or overall communications strategy, you would never fully understand the magnitude of what they were accomplishing.

And that bothered me.

Not because every organization needs an impressive website or a large social media following, but because people can’t support, participate in, or invest in a mission they don’t fully understand.

I remember conversations with leaders who genuinely believed they weren’t ready for professional marketing. They would say things like, “We’re just not at that level yet.”

My response was often that marketing leadership might be one of the very things that helps them reach that level.

I think we’ve unintentionally created an environment where smaller organizations view strategic marketing as a luxury reserved for larger institutions. But in many cases, smaller organizations have an even greater need to be intentional about how they communicate because their resources are already limited.

That’s one of the problems we’re addressing at Next Visionaries.

We’re not trying to convince every church or nonprofit that it needs a massive marketing budget. We’re helping leaders make better decisions with the resources they already have, communicate their mission with greater clarity, and create opportunities for meaningful engagement.

Sometimes that means developing a comprehensive marketing strategy. Other times, it’s improving a website, refining an organization’s message, or helping leadership understand how to reach the right audience.

The common denominator is clarity.

I believe a powerful mission deserves powerful communication. And an organization’s size should never determine whether it has access to the strategic thinking necessary to make that happen.

Starting an agency comes with countless decisions, from defining your services to identifying the people you want to serve. What has been one of the most challenging or unexpected parts of bringing Next Visionaries Enterprise to life, and what has that experience taught you about yourself as an entrepreneur?
One of the most challenging parts has been learning to build something that reflects both the depth of my experience and the simplicity of the problem I’m trying to solve.

When you’ve spent years leading marketing at an executive level, you understand just how much goes into building a successful marketing operation. There’s strategy, positioning, creative development, analytics, communications, technology, customer experience, and so much more.

But I quickly realized that the people I wanted to serve weren’t necessarily looking for all those things individually.

They were looking for relief.

They wanted someone who could understand their vision, take ownership of the marketing challenges they were facing, and help them move forward without adding another complicated responsibility to their already full plates.

That realization has shaped how we’re building Next Visionaries.

Instead of simply creating a long menu of marketing services, I’ve been intentional about developing solutions that meet organizations where they are, whether that’s fractional executive leadership, a focused marketing project, website development, or strategic consulting.

Another challenge has been making the transition from leading an established department to building a company where I’m responsible for creating the opportunities, developing the systems, and establishing the brand.

There’s a different kind of discipline required when you’re no longer operating within an established organization.

But I’ve learned something important about myself through the process: I’m not nearly as interested in building a large agency as I am in building an effective one.

I want Next Visionaries to be known for the quality of our thinking, the integrity of our relationships, and the measurable impact of our work.

And personally, this journey has reminded me that leadership isn’t always about having a large team or an impressive title. Sometimes it’s about having the courage to take what you’ve learned, believe in what you see, and build something that didn’t previously exist.

Your agency brings a level of marketing leadership that smaller organizations may not have previously been able to access. Can you share an experience from your career that showed you how the right marketing strategy could transform not just an organization’s visibility, but its ability to fulfill its mission?
Absolutely. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned throughout my career is that marketing becomes significantly more powerful when it’s connected to an organization’s actual mission rather than simply its promotional goals.

During my time leading marketing at StartCHURCH, we were responsible for connecting pastors and ministry leaders with services that helped them establish, protect, and strengthen their organizations.

These weren’t just products being sold. They were resources that could help a pastor establish a church properly, navigate compliance requirements, or gain the administrative support necessary to focus more fully on ministry.

That distinction mattered because it influenced how we communicated.

Rather than simply promoting services and features, we became more intentional about helping leaders understand the problems we were solving and why those solutions mattered to their mission.

Through a combination of strategic messaging, digital advertising, audience targeting, and optimized landing pages, we saw some incredible results.

In one campaign, approximately $12,500 in advertising investment generated more than $182,000 in revenue. We also saw significant improvements in advertising return on investment and increased email engagement through a more intentional communications strategy.

But what made those results meaningful to me wasn’t just the revenue.

It was understanding what those numbers represented.

Every successful connection was potentially another pastor receiving support, another ministry becoming better equipped, or another organization gaining the resources necessary to operate more effectively.

That’s the perspective I bring to Next Visionaries Enterprise.

Of course, marketing should generate measurable results. Revenue, engagement, conversion rates, and return on investment absolutely matter.

But for mission-driven organizations, those metrics should ultimately connect to something bigger.

The goal isn’t simply to make an organization more visible. It’s to make its mission more achievable.

When marketing is strategically aligned with purpose, it stops being just another expense and becomes an instrument for organizational growth and impact.

Churches, nonprofits, and other purpose-driven organizations often operate differently from traditional businesses. What have your experiences taught you about balancing professional marketing strategies with the authenticity, values, and community relationships that make these organizations unique?
I’ve learned that the most effective marketing doesn’t require an organization to become something it isn’t. In fact, I believe that’s where a lot of organizations get marketing wrong.

They see what another successful company, church, or nonprofit is doing and assume they need to replicate it. They adopt the same language, the same creative approach, or the same promotional tactics without considering whether those strategies actually reflect who they are or the people they’re called to serve.

At Next Visionaries, we’re building our approach around a philosophy I call Human-First Marketing, supported by our Speak-First Framework™.

The idea is simple: before you start posting, advertising, designing, or automating anything, you need to understand what you’re trying to communicate, who you’re speaking to, and why it should matter to them.

I often say, “If you learn to say it right, everything works better.”

That’s especially important for churches and nonprofits because trust is such a significant part of their relationship with the communities they serve.

A church isn’t simply selling an experience. A nonprofit isn’t merely promoting a program. These organizations are inviting people to believe in something, participate in something, and oftentimes invest personally in something that has the potential to change lives.

That requires a different level of care.

I believe we can use sophisticated marketing strategies, data, technology, and even artificial intelligence without sacrificing the human experience.

Technology should help organizations communicate more effectively, not strip away the authenticity that makes their message meaningful.

And that philosophy isn’t exclusive to churches and nonprofits. Businesses need it, too.

People want to feel understood. They want transparency. They want to know that there’s a real person, a real purpose, and real value behind what they’re being asked to support.

Our job is to help organizations communicate those things with clarity, creativity, and conviction.

Because at the end of the day, the best marketing doesn’t manufacture a connection. It reveals one that was already possible.

As Next Visionaries Enterprise begins this new chapter, what kind of impact are you hoping to create in Atlanta and beyond? When you imagine looking back on this journey several years from now, what would make you feel that the agency has accomplished something truly meaningful beyond business growth?
When I think about the future of Next Visionaries Enterprise, I don’t immediately think about the size of our client roster or how many employees we’ll have.

I think about the organizations that might still be struggling to reach their communities if we hadn’t crossed paths.

I think about the pastor who finally has the freedom to focus on shepherding people because someone else is helping lead the church’s marketing and communications.

I think about the nonprofit founder who no longer has to wonder why people aren’t responding to an incredible mission because we’ve helped them communicate its value in a way people can understand.

And I think about the business owner who has spent years building something meaningful but finally gains the strategic clarity necessary to take it to the next level.

Those are the stories I want this company to be associated with.

Atlanta is an incredible place to build something like this. We have a thriving business community, influential churches, innovative entrepreneurs, and nonprofit organizations doing extraordinary work throughout the region.

I want Next Visionaries to become a trusted strategic partner within that ecosystem, particularly for organizations that have historically felt executive-level marketing leadership was out of reach.

But this vision also extends far beyond Atlanta.

Over time, I want us to help redefine what access to marketing expertise looks like for organizations of all sizes. Through fractional CMO services, consulting, creative solutions, and leadership education, I believe we can create opportunities for organizations to grow without losing the heart of why they started.

I’m also passionate about equipping the next generation of communicators and leaders. I spent part of my career in education, and I haven’t lost that desire to teach. I want the principles we’re developing through Next Visionaries, including our Speak-First Framework™, to eventually become resources that empower students, teams, entrepreneurs, and organizational leaders to communicate more effectively.

If I look back several years from now and see a company that’s financially successful, I’ll certainly be grateful.

But if I look back and see churches reaching more people, nonprofits attracting meaningful support, businesses growing with integrity, and leaders who are more confident in communicating their vision, that will mean something much greater to me.

Because I didn’t leave an executive position simply to create another executive position for myself.

I wanted to take what I had learned in the boardroom and put it to work for people whose missions deserved to be heard.

If Next Visionaries can become a bridge between powerful missions and the people they’re meant to reach, I’ll consider that a legacy worth building.

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