Category: Advocacy

Small Business Passion with Peter Guzman

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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Our guest for this episode is Peter Guzman. Peter currently serves as the president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce in Nevada. The Latin Chamber of Commerce is the most powerful Hispanic Chamber in Nevada, with over 45 years of community work and business representation. The Latin Chamber of Commerce has provided services to the community for over 45 years and continues to grow. The Latin Chamber of Commerce has been a beacon of light for the community and is a shining star of hope for those in need of assistance throughout the community. Peter is also an accomplished realtor, small business owner and real estate investor, and he came to Nevada 50 years ago at the age of two, but Peter, we’re excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better well. Thank

Peter Guzman 2:05
you for that incredible entrance. I appreciate it very much. It’s amazing to hear that number of the length of years this chamber has been involved. We’re approaching 50 years now. It’s unbelievable. And my founder, Otto Merida, did an incredible job a long, long time ago, and I took over as president after him, but so thank you for that. That intro something interesting about me. I don’t find myself that interesting, I guess. But something that people don’t know is that I love turtles. I mean, I really love turtles. And I’ve, I’ve had a desert tortoise now with me 24 years, and I just love that turtle to death. And, yeah, that’s, I guess that’s interesting.

Brandon Burton 2:52
That’s, yeah, that’s cool. I actually, I had a pet turtle growing up, and it was just a box turtle, but whenever my brother would get upset with me. He’d go in my room and put the box turtle on top of its jar that had its water So stand up there and couldn’t move it, just sit on top of the jar. He’s like, thanks. Thanks for that. Yeah. No, I’ve been a big fan of reptiles my whole life, so that’s cool. Well, tell us a little bit more about the Latin Chamber of Commerce, give us an idea of the size staff, scope of work, budget, just to kind of set the stage before we get dive into our discussion today.

Peter Guzman 3:31
Yeah. So you know, like I said, our chamber is approaching 50 years, 48 to be exact, but we’re approaching 50 and, you know, predominantly we represent the Hispanic community, but because of the strength and growth of our chamber, we’re representing a lot more than just that, right? And so that was something that was intentional. I wanted non Hispanic businesses to be doing business with Hispanics and vice versa. And so we’ve really accomplished that, especially over the last three years, 30, 32% of my growth over the last three years has been non Hispanic business owners. That’s a really great number, and very intentional. Because again, I want business to be conducted and I want business to grow, and the only way you can grow is sometimes you got to go outside your comfort zone. And so, you know, we have, we have over 2000 members. We are a statewide chamber and and like I said, we represent the incredible small business community, which, in my opinion, is the most important segment of our economy representing the most job creations and and just just the whole plight of a small business owner, and we know how difficult that can be, and so we predominantly focus on that. We’re very, very focused. So that’s first and foremost, of course. Dollars because we’ve been around so long, and my founder ultimately did such a great job building a trust with the community. You know, we have to get involved in a lot of other things, you know. So we’re we have people that show up at our lobby that need help with immigration, or, you know, what hospital they should be going to, and all kinds of things that you wouldn’t believe. So our responsibility at the Latin chamber is much bigger than than a lot of chambers who just focus on on the small business community. We have to focus on even more than just that, because the demand is so big and the trust is so so high with the Latin chamber that inevitably, my day is filled with all kinds of things, so I’m grateful for that and and look forward to our future.

Brandon Burton 5:49
Yeah. So being a statewide chamber, how many staff do you guys have? And are you Where are you physically located? Are there multiple offices, or how does that work? Yeah.

Peter Guzman 6:00
So we’re physically located in Las Vegas, and we have, we have about eight people on staff and about four volunteers, and you know, there’s definitely room for more employees, but we got to be the right employees, and we’re going to look at that in 2025 because we’re just bursting at the seams. As far as other offices, we’re in Reno a lot Carson City is our you know, is where it all happens. As far as politically. So we always have an office there during this legislative session every two years. But stay tuned. The next time you and I have an interview, there’s going to be a lot more news regarding that. Okay,

Brandon Burton 6:44
build some anticipation there. I like that. Yes. Well, for our topic of conversation today, we’re going to focus on the small business passion that Peter has. It really drives the work there at the Latin chamber, and we’ll dive in deeper on that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Peter, we’re back, as I mentioned before the break, we’re focusing our conversation today around small business passion, and I hope everybody listening has a passion for small business. But when somebody says that that’s that’s always your focus, that’s always your topic, that that is your passion, I’m always curious to dive in deeper, to hear what drives you, what motivates you? And I think you’re you may have alluded to it a little bit just with the the novelties of the the Latin chamber, that it’s more than just the small business community, but it’s the community in general you guys are focused on. But what is your approach? What gets you so excited when it comes to small business and serving that community.

Peter Guzman 11:03
Well, listen when you think about, first of all, I’m very, very grateful for, you know, having been born in America, the greatest country in the world. I say that because my father escaped communism of Cuba and came here and, you know, simply because he knew that his children will have a chance here. And so that’s kind of where this beginning passion starts, right like this is a country where a person can dream about owning their own business and can really pull it off. It’s not an easy road, but certainly that’s why I’m passionate about it, because Nothing excites me more than knowing about folks that take their pension or their savings and starts their business and, you know, one day, starts it off, and you know, three years later, they’re on their second or third location, or they’re on, you know, they went from one employee to five, then to 15. We have those stories. They’re very common in the Latin chamber. And I just, I don’t, you know, it’s hard to pinpoint why that, why that drives me and turns me on so much, but it just does. It’s just, it just does. And I also, because I’m a business owner and struggled in the beginning, I know what that struggle feels like. So I know the struggle, and I know the success of it, and I want everybody to that, wants that, to feel that. And so that’s why I’m so passionate in this position at the chamber where I can actually pick up the phone, make some calls and make things happen for folks, maybe a little quicker, maybe get them through an obstacle a little easier. That’s what really drives me again. My founder and mentor told me who ran, who opened this chamber and ran it. He said, What good is the power if you’re not using it to help others? And so that’s really the power of the chamber. Is the ability, if you do things right, to be able to pick up the phone and make things happen a little quicker, maybe a little easier. That drives me every morning.

Brandon Burton 13:19
Yeah, I love that. I love just the idea of the American dream and being able to create a business and have it grow and be successful, and with you being a business owner yourself, to be able to relate to the members that you’re talking to, to the potential Chamber members, and being able to resonate with them, I think that’s super valuable. Yeah,

Peter Guzman 13:38
and listen, you know, I like what you said in the opening there. Even if you’re not a small business owner, your life’s affected by a small business owner. I mean, every time you get in the car, you need that car to run. So chances are you’re going to, you know a mechanic, or you know a small business owner that that works on cars. We can start with that. Then when you need, when you need milk, you you may not run into the big grocery store. You may just stop at a little place and grab a gallon of milk. So small businesses is is intricate in our day to day life.

Brandon Burton 14:16
Yeah, I would say small businesses that it’s kind of the, backbone to our, our ecosystem, to our, our ability to be able to function as a society and and we saw it through the pandemic where small businesses got shook pretty hard, and those businesses you might have counted on, you know, reliably that that mechanic, or, you know, the the convenience store, whether They change their hours because of, you know, staffing issues through the pandemic, or whatever it may be, that disrupted their normal day to day operations. We felt it as citizens that are trying to carry on with our life, and it throws you for throws a wrench in your schedule. When, when that stuff happens? Yeah,

Peter Guzman 14:58
and, I mean, we haven’t even two. That’s the pandemic. I mean, the you know what I knew, what I already had, had experience and known. You can multiply it by 1000 during the pandemic. I mean, the the fact that business, small business people, have to pivot every day in normal society, because life changes. Consumers, needs and wants change every day. So you good business people know they have to pivot and and meet those needs, right? Uh, imagine during COVID. I mean, we were thrown such a curveball, and yet, especially in the Hispanic community, I saw these entrepreneurs pivot and figure it out. And, you know, I’m almost embarrassed to say that even during COVID, our our we are actually our chamber grew, first of all, which is unbelievable, because we delivered things that they needed. We pivoted. That’s what my mentality is. I’m a small business owner in the chamber is a business and and we pivoted. And that’s why we had success, even through COVID. But that’s, that’s, that’s how it is, that how that’s how it works. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 16:09
And being able to be nimble is so important, because these small businesses, they’re constantly pivoting. They’re constantly doing what they can to figure it out, just to make it work. You mentioned earlier, a lot of them put their entire life savings on the line to start a business, to be able to put their neck out there and provide a product or service, and constantly adjusting and honing in those skills to be able to make it work. I’m curious, in the the intros, you’re talking about the the Latin Chamber of Commerce. You had mentioned that with your the recent growth, 32% of that growth is non Hispanic business owners. And I’m curious the approach that you have to them, and especially as it comes to small business and and being able to resonate to them, to have them participate with the Latin Chamber of Commerce. What, what’s that approach been like? Because 32% that’s a good percentage, to see that growth in that segment, yeah.

Peter Guzman 17:07
And so I think that what was important was the fact that, you know, we intentionally went out and started going out to the community more, not just the Hispanic community. And you know, we have a very vibrant events programming, which is a fancy way of saying network opportunities. And so I, you know, some people use networking improperly. I think, I think networking is a science. I owe my entire very successful real estate career to networking and relationship building. And so there’s network, networking, where you walk in a room and have a cocktail and say hi to a couple folks you already know. And then there’s networking science, which is walking into a room of people you do not know, and getting to know people that you didn’t know. And so we, we have that down to a science, and that just made us grow and grow and grow.

Brandon Burton 18:23
So as you were talking, I turned around and grabbed a book off my shelf. I’ve plugged it before on the podcast, but it’s it’s titled, you’re invited by John Levy, great book. Yeah. So at the art and science of cultivating influence, and I think that should be on the mandatory reading list for any chamber to really curate a really effective networking situation. And

Peter Guzman 18:50
you know, when you combine that and I talk to young people, that’s really another passion of mine, is really talking to these young people who are still full of this innocence and inspiration and motivation. I love talking to kids like that, because if you mold that right, they’re going to be successful. And so I tell these folks how obsessed I was and am with networking and relationship building. I mean literally I came up with, and it’s not scientific, but it’s something that I drilled into my brain, because I believe in thinking to grow power, thinking to grow rich, which is another book, yeah, I convinced myself in year two of my real estate career, that every new person I met was going to turn into three transactions, three real estate deals, one way or another, either directly or indirectly. I’m telling you that it absolutely worked and continues to work and so I. What does that mean? It means I’m going to go up to people. When I go into a room, I’ll say hi to the people I already know, but it’s going to be brief. I’m going right at the people I don’t have no idea who they are, and I’m introducing myself. And that turns into transactions, that turns into deals. And so that’s that, that’s key to everything, yeah,

Brandon Burton 20:19
and that thinking gives you the confidence to make those approaches where a lot of people get in these networking situations and say, I don’t really know anybody, or you come in and get your drink, and then you have, you know, all the different sales people that are there coming and selling you insurance or whatever it is. So

Peter Guzman 20:37
that that reputation really grew for the Latin Chamber of Commerce. People now openly all around the state, talk about, yeah, it’s a must place to be. Is one of a Latin chamber events, because they know they’re going to be people of influence in that room. They know that there’s going to be people they don’t know in that room, and they’re going to come from all walks, not just Hispanic. And so that grew from, you know, 70 people to 150 people to 300 people to 500 people at a luncheon that we throw every month. You know what I mean? I mean, it just grew. And so we decided to even add a breakfast that we do monthly, where we intentionally keep that a little smaller and intimate. So that’s 50 to 80 people called desos Amigos, breakfast with friends. And it’s just wonderful opportunities. It starts there. You know, I always tell folks that want to join our chamber, because I’m brutally honest, don’t join this our chamber just to check a box because that we’re not interested in that. Yeah, we need to see value, and it’s value both ways, not just one way. And so I tell them, I’m not a magician. If you join this chamber and you apply yourself, inject yourself, you will have success. If you don’t, then don’t blame me for telling me you didn’t get a return of investment on your membership. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 22:07
I’ve, I’ve got several friends that have approached me because they know I do the podcast and I’ve worked with chambers a long time, and they’ll small business owners will approach me and say, Hey, I know you work with chambers. Do you think I should join my local chamber. Like, what do they do? I don’t know. What are you going to do? Where are you going to are you going to get involved, or do you just want to join and have some magic happen? Because you got to figure out what the mission of your chamber is. Get behind it. Get involved. Volunteer. Be a be a part of something to help build the community. And that’s where you’re going to see the magic happen.

Peter Guzman 22:41
It’s like, it’s like opening a business, right? You, you can’t just decide that you’re going to open this business, open the doors, and people are just going to come right? No, that. It takes marketing. It takes effort, right? Same thing with the chamber, but the fruits, the the return on investment can be huge, yeah.

Brandon Burton 23:01
So we’ve touched quite a bit on the networking aspect when it comes to having a passion towards small business. What are some of these other needs that you see rise to the top quite often with small businesses, to help them really get up and going and see success as they get involved with the chamber? Yeah,

Peter Guzman 23:22
a lot of a lot, if not most small business owners don’t realize that, you know that they hate politics, but they don’t realize how much politics is a part of every, everybody’s day to day life and in business as well. So what we another thing we do, really, really well is we help some small businesses entrepreneurs navigate politics, navigate the political side of you know, of getting your license of, of getting your project through Planning and Zoning, you know, finding, finding the right construction company, union, non union, all that kind of stuff. We navigate that really, really well. And so that’s a big advantage for a small business owner, because you can imagine, you know, walking into City Hall with nobody that can help hold your hand and navigate all of that can be overwhelming and can be destructive,

Brandon Burton 24:23
absolutely. And having that support, that guidance of what to do next and how to navigate those confusing, intimidating situations for a new business owner, small business owner is so crucial, and being prepared as a chamber to be able to help them navigate that is very important, exactly well. Peter, as we start to wrap things up, I wanted to ask you, for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you suggest for them to try to implement that goal?

Peter Guzman 25:02
So you know, every every community is different, so every chamber can operate a little differently, but there’s some fundamentals that are, I think, key to every chamber success, and that is, you know, deliver on what you promise. So be careful what you promise, because you must deliver the folks are folks. You know this this how seriously I take this. My mentality of being President of the Latin Chamber of Commerce is I run a publicly traded company. The members are my shareholders. They literally write a check to this chamber, but in a lot of ways, they’re writing that check because they believe in me. I have to take it that serious. So yeah, that’s putting a lot of extra pressure on me, and I love it, and I take it very, very serious. So I want my shareholders to have value. They have a share in the Latin Chamber of Commerce. You’re going to have value. And I wake up every day thinking that way. So that sets the tone of what I’m going to do. And so I’m very focused, very laser focused on bringing value to my shareholders. That’s my members.

Brandon Burton 26:27
I love that approach and that it really just tones it down to, what do you need to do to provide value? And I mean, listen, what? I promise that’s huge.

Peter Guzman 26:38
Yeah, I’d like to provide you, you know, some fancier, long, strung out answer, but that’s the fundamental what I do. That’s the fundamental of how I think and wake up every morning. Yeah, but the the

Brandon Burton 26:51
first thing you said with that response is deliver on what you promised. And I think there’s a lot of times where chambers are really good at thinking of programs or accepting new programs that are presented to them, and things can become very overwhelming with all these things that need to be done, and just deliver on what you promise. And if you can’t deliver, don’t promise it. Don’t do it, you know, cut it out and and really focus on those things and move the needle. So I like that.

Peter Guzman 27:19
That’s That’s my approach. And I think if we start there, chambers will have success. Yeah, you have to be very careful to not turn into a social club. And you know, the the same old, same old, think outside the box. Get bold, because remember, you represent your shareholders, and they’re looking at to you for value, right?

Brandon Burton 27:43
So, Peter, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Peter Guzman 27:54
Well, listen, you know, there’s, there’s, I know, there’s nervousness out there in the chamber world because of artificial intelligence and and, you know, automation, computer modernization, I we look at that at the Latin chamber as all opportunities. It all it goes back to the very fundamental that I already said, but all of these tools now are going to help me deliver that with much more speed, much more accuracy. So don’t fear that. Don’t embrace you got to embrace it. If you want to exist in the chamber world, you have to embrace these things.

Brandon Burton 28:31
Yeah, I love that. So important to be able to embrace the the technologies and the changes that are coming and and, you know, I’ll say that with a caveat, because there’s some ideas that come out that they get a lot of traction and and they fizzle out, but those things that you can you get that feeling, that sense, this is going to stick, this is going to be around for a while and make an impact on business. You got to be all in. You got to learn it. You got to teach it. You got to be all in. With

Peter Guzman 28:58
the caveat for me, and you know, I’m old school, but I’m never going to change what I’m about to tell you, and that is, you can automate, modernize, embrace all those tools I do and I will, but walking up to an individual, the one On one, person to person contact, making them feel a way that AI and automation won’t be able to still makes us important,

Brandon Burton 29:29
yeah, that the human contact that person can’t replace that. Yeah, yeah. Amen, well, Peter, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about your approach or things you guys are doing there at the Latin chamber. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect? Yeah, man,

Peter Guzman 29:52
feel free to say hello. Feel free to, first of all, go to our website. LVLCC.com, LV, as in. Las Vegas, LV, LCC, as in Latin Chamber Commerce.com, uh, our phone number is 702-385-7367. My name is Peter Guzman, and I promise you, and if you call, you will speak to me.

Brandon Burton 30:16
Awesome. We’ll get that in our show notes to make it easy. If someone’s driving, they don’t need to try to jot it down that phone number. We’ll get it in the show notes. So Peter, I appreciate you spending time with us today, sharing your approach, your passion towards small business this. This should be one of those episodes that reinvigorate somebody listening and says, Yes, let’s go basics, let’s drive. What’s important, right? I

Peter Guzman 30:41
hope so, and I hope we can do this again. Let’s, let’s make this an ongoing thing.

Brandon Burton 30:46
That sounds great. I look forward to seeing what the future is for the Latin chamber and what some of these upcoming changes might be. Sounds like a plan.

Peter Guzman 30:57
Excellent. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 31:00
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Create a Thriving Community with Nikki Devitt

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Our guest for this episode is Nikki Devitt. Nikki is the President and CEO of the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce, a passionate community champion. She’s honored to lead an organization that emboldens positive outcomes by building a culture of thriving business to create a thriving community. With a background in broadcasting, management and marketing, she works creatively to build relationships and connections that foster positive change and growth. Nikki currently serves as chair of the Northern Michigan chamber Alliance, a coalition of 18 chambers and economic development organizations advocating for rural central business policies. She was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to serve on the Michigan statewide Housing Partnership to help facilitate Michigan’s first ever statewide housing plan. She’s on the board of directors for ACCE, a board regent for the US Chamber Institute for organization management, and is on the board of directors for the Michigan Association of Chamber of Commerce professionals. She’s a graduate of the US Chamber of Commerce business leads fellowship program, the Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, leadership and diversity cohort, and is a US Chamber of Commerce, Institute of organizational management graduate. She is a member of the Petoskey noon Rotary Club, and she donates her time to the Northern Community Mediation, Little Traverse, Pacific Theater and Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan. Nikki lives in Petoskey, Michigan, and spends as much time as she can hiking and enjoying all the beauty Northern Michigan has to offer. And Nikki, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Thank

Nikki Devitt 3:01
you, Brandon, and it is Petoskey.

Brandon Burton 3:06
I should ask these questions before we start.

Nikki Devitt 3:09
It’s okay. It’s Petoskey, Michigan. There’s a long history there, which is pretty fantastic. So thank you so much for allowing me this opportunity. It’s just absolutely a wonderful thing that we can do to as chamber professionals, to speak to one another, to learn from other one another, and share from one another. So I really appreciate that very much. And being here something interesting, I guess, or unique. That is, you know, not in my bio, although that sounds interesting in a lot of ways, I guess, is that. So I do have a broadcasting background about 10 years, and also spent a little bit of time as an audio book narrator, so something that kept me busy when I wasn’t on the stage. So I’ve spent a lot of time as well performing since I was a child, and still perform in our local community theater. Very

Brandon Burton 4:05
cool. So what type of broadcast it was? TV, or right? TV? Radio? No. Radio. You were built for this. This is awesome radio.

Nikki Devitt 4:15
I’ve done a few podcasts here and there, yes. So I was, you know, started out on the sales and marketing side, and then eventually was lucky enough to have the honor to be operations and programs for a very large cluster of stations, and spent quite a bit of time on the air as well. So kind of did every facet of it. And broadcasting is a fascinating industry, and I think until I ran into the chamber industry, I thought there was probably nothing as challenging. And then I entered chamber life,

Brandon Burton 4:49
yeah, and the story is still being written, exactly. Well, tell us a little bit about the Petoskey Chamber of Commerce. To give us an idea of the size staff, scope of work, budget, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today,

Nikki Devitt 5:05
absolutely so our chamber is is, like many, I find it so fascinating. How many chambers are over 100 years old? We’ll celebrate 105 years next year, and we are so Petoskey, Michigan, is located at the very pretty much northwest tip of the Lower Peninsula. So for those who aren’t familiar with the lower and upper peninsula, I am about 35 miles from the Mackinac Bridge, and then I can be in our beautiful upper peninsula, which to Michiganders, as we like to call ourselves, is just a place that is hard to describe, unless you have the opportunity to be there. So Northern Michigan is a wonderful resort community. We’re built on a tourism economy. So our chamber is unique in the sense that we have a very thriving year round community. Our population in the city of Petoskey, or townships, if you will, incorporate, it is about 16,000 our county has about 34,000 so we’re not very large, but we essentially triple to quadruple that population in our summer months, and also have a huge uptick in our winter months as well, because we are a year round destination with our beautiful Lake Michigan, but also fantastic ski resorts. So there’s all kinds of things that you can do. So with that in mind, and our Chamber’s history and our community’s history, we’re also put in a situation where we are lucky enough to be on places in our state that has a huge tribal history. So Petoskey actually is goes back to Ignatius badass gay, who was the first Chief of our area, way back when, and the late 1700s or late 1800s and so our community is very diverse in the sense that we have a very rich cultural history here, and yet we cater to a new element of people coming to discover this region. So we have about 770 members. We’re one of the larger chambers in the state of Michigan, especially geographically and population wise. And we have four full time staff, and about 500,000 is our budget. So we do a lot with a little, if you will, from a small staff standpoint, and I like to consider us an impact chamber. And so that means that while we still host a farmer’s market every summer and do an art show in the summer in our beautiful park, we are a very much an advocacy chamber. So we’re very involved in our community’s future, whether that be economically, how we look at it, from a prosperity way, and also still maintaining that traditional programming of networking events, we like to call them connecting events, and then a very heavy programming piece that we utilize to make sure that our members have the tools at their disposal to grow their business, enhance their employees and enhance their relationship within our community and those around us. Oh,

Brandon Burton 8:07
that’s awesome. There’s a lot going on, and I’m always impressed by the chambers that can do so much with you know, little staff, and it’s just it’s a great testament to the work that you guys do. So sounds like you’re doing great work. And we’ll focus our discussion today on creating a thriving community, which is going to go on very well with the continuation of what you shared with us so far, but we’ll dive in much deeper on that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Joe Duemig 6:26
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Brandon Burton 7:58
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All right, Nikki, we’re back. So as we talk today about creating a thriving community, what sort of things have you seen? Obviously, every community is a little different. Every chamber is a little different. What works for you guys? Aaron Petoskey and to create a thriving community? And it sounds like I don’t know, I’ll let you define what you see as community, because I think the definition of community kind of changes over time.

Nikki Devitt 11:18
It does change. I think one of the most important factors that we take into consideration at our chamber is that the line between the business need and the community need is not a line at all. They are so interwoven within each other, we believe that from our standpoint, that our businesses only thrive when our community thrives. So we’re really looking at things in our community that impact our community and therefore would impact our businesses. So things that we hear about all the time now and more and more chambers are really into this space. Is what is that workforce impact? Is it housing? Is it childcare? Is it education? Where are the hurdles? Where are the places that our businesses need to grow and enhance themselves? We talk a lot in the state of Michigan about attracting talent, while we very much know in Northwest Michigan that we need to attract talent, we also need to retain talent. And so for us, the thriving community is giving our businesses the tools that they need to really, truly be the best that they can be. And we believe that, you know, it’s a basic conscious capitalism standpoint, if you will, the advancement of the human quality of life happens when your community is doing sustainable business practices. So that is everything that’s looking at, are you taking care of your employees? Are you taking care of your environment? Are you looking at the future of what your community could look like? So for us, we call it just chamber passion, and when you want to build a thriving community, you have to remember that first and foremost, everybody is involved, and everyone has a voice. And as we all know, that can be a very difficult prospect. With 770 members, not all of them have the same exact needs. So for us to make sure that our community thrives and our businesses thrive, we have to be nimble and we have to be ready to if we don’t have the answers or the resources to make sure that we find them and provide them for our businesses, so that our community can grow, and that everyone who wants to live and work in this beautiful, incredible place that I get to call home, has that opportunity

Brandon Burton 13:35
that’s awesome. So you touched on a ton of things there in that response, and as I, as I revisit some of that, I’m hoping you can dive in a little bit deeper. But as you talk about creating a thriving community, you talked about for these businesses to be the examples you gave, are you taking care of your employees in the environment and but then you talk about all the voices that come from people in the community and the businesses, and 770 members. So there’s a lot that needs to go out from the chamber, and a lot that comes in, as far as you know, feedback and data and so forth. So what is your approach? Because it’s hard to tackle everything all at once, so there has to be some strategy and how you build a thriving community. What, what approaches do you do from a strategy side to implement some of these things? First and foremost,

Nikki Devitt 14:29
it’s collaboration. You can’t do anything alone and community. I mean, by definition, is the work of many, not the work of one. So as a chamber, you have to realize that you are, at best, the collaborator that no one else can be. So you have to put yourself into the position when you’re looking at the issues that impact a community’s success, especially our members. Success is who needs to be at the table and whether as the. Where you’re leading those conversations, or you’re participating in them as the voice of business, you have to make sure that everybody that needs to be at that successful roundtable discussion is always there. So I mean COVID, I think we use as an example in chambers now more than ever, and I think it’s a fantastic thing that we do chambers. Were able to step into a space where we were working with our municipalities, our local government, our state government, as well, as you know, our human resources elements within our community, whether that be your health department or your hospital. How are you making sure that everybody knew what was going on and what challenges were coming for your community? It’s that same concept, except you do it for every issue that you have. So always making sure that, from a strategic standpoint, you reach out to the players that need to be involved for whatever that issue is. So if it’s housing, are you making sure that you have those relationships and that they have the information, say, from a you know, what your planning and zoning committees look like. Do they understand where the challenges are? Have they heard a business, whoa, why they can’t get employees or retain employees? Do they understand that it could be something that is within their power to address and change? And then, are you also making sure that the voices that come in are not just your big business, but your small business. So I think it’s that one first and foremost is strategically you have to if you’re talking about a thriving community, collaboration has to be your first step, and the recognition that you can’t do it alone. And it’s going to take many, many people to work on each of these individual issues to push a community as a whole forward. Yes,

Brandon Burton 16:43
yeah, you said it very well. Collaboration, as far as the what you have to work with within your staff, with within the office, how do you how do you disseminate, you know, all the things you need to do to kind of spark that collaboration and take some of the voices that you’re hearing and taking them back to those other partners in collaboration.

Nikki Devitt 17:07
I think you said it really well, though. You said with your staff. So I think that’s kind of it’s like, you know, if you’re gonna talk the talk, walk the walk, one of the first

things we do, and we’ve understood with our staff is we all have different skill sets. We all have different places of passion. We work with our members differently. So while we have defined titles and roles, we are a staff that works very collaboratively at all times, because we understand that, whether it be convening a work group to discuss child care challenges in our community, or whether it be instituting a program of work that is going to be more HR focused for some of our businesses, that helps them understand some best practices for talent retention that we have to be able to nimbly flex between those things as staff to make sure that we’re putting our resources forward, just as we’re asking our community members, our community leaders and our agencies to do to work together. So you’ve got to kind of lead with that mentality from a strategic standpoint as well, or you will burn your staff out in seconds. It does mean that we’re constantly having to adapt to circumstances within our community. Sometimes you put a lot more effort into one topic or one challenge, and then three months later, that’s something that you have to put a little bit on the back burner because something else has elevated itself into being a prior need for your community. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 18:39
I can see that for sure. So I’m curious, do you guys segment your membership at all to see, like, which ones have you know this need, like you’ve mentioned? HR, so if that is a need for, say, 20% of the businesses, business members, do you segment that or do you leave it open for any member? Because maybe there’s a need you don’t know about. I’m just curious on the approach. We do a lot of

Nikki Devitt 19:02
targeting. So everything that we offer, especially from a programming standpoint, or when we do say, you know, we do a housing Town Hall, we do Hot Topic conversations on childcare, on workforce, on legislative issues, all those things. So it’s always open to our full membership and our community as well. We make sure, especially if it is an issue that drives the community, that it is something that is open to anyone in the community, regardless of membership, when our programming is focusing on those talent attraction issues, what’s the corporate Transparency Act look like? What does the you know, latest Bill look like in the house? That how it could impact you? And there’s a lot going on with Michigan right now, and some of those, those we will open up to our home membership, but then we take a strategic approach from a staff standpoint, and say, who should be at this table? Who do we have to reach out to and maybe give a personal invitation to make sure that they are part of this conversation and or. Knowing that we know our businesses well enough, because we’re still a really small town, that which ones are going to be greatly impacted by whatever this may be, or who’s going to get the most of a benefit fact from it, and who do we make sure that they understand? So it’s always an open ended approach to everything, but then we dive down after the fact, usually give it a little bit, see where the interest lies, see who’s excited about it, and then start doing those targeted approaches by segmenting our membership based on just our category structure and how we know them. And that seems to have always worked quite well for us.

Brandon Burton 20:35
Yeah, sounds like a great approach. The worry I have with segmenting is that, you know, somebody gets invited to attend, and you have a seat at the table, and somebody else says, I had no idea the chamber even does that, not that they wanted a seat at the table, but they need to know, you know what? What is it the chamber does, and being able to get that messaging out there, so your approach seems to be well balanced, and it’s open for anybody, but then kind of hone in on those that that really need to be there. So some

Nikki Devitt 21:03
of our individual members always need that you know that special touch, and we know that, yeah, you have to know your membership well. You have to know your community well, especially when you’re taking this kind of approach. And always keep in the back of your mind that no matter what your best intentions are, you may, at some point, make someone feel like they were left out. And you have to be prepared and ready to, you know, remedy that in the best way that you can. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:29
so going back to the title, or the topic for this discussion, is creating a thriving community. And I’m asking, on behalf of a listener in, you know, I’m not even going to name a state, because I don’t want to get in trouble with anybody, but

Nikki Devitt 21:45
you’re doing it right now,

Brandon Burton 21:48
in the middle of nowhere. That says, you know, Nikki’s doing great. This is a, you know, she’s doing fascinating things, but she lives in a beautiful part of Northern Michigan. Got a lot of tourism. It brings people in year round. It might be a smaller community, but the reach is so much bigger. You know, I’m here in, you know, fill in the blank. How can somebody who maybe doesn’t see their community in the same light as you do? I can feel the love that you have for your community. Others may not have that same view, right? So, how can we, how can we help someone get excited about or to have that ability to create a thriving community? Because I think your enthusiasm drives that as well.

Nikki Devitt 22:30
I think, well, the first thing is, is, if you don’t feel that way about your community, why are you there? You have to have the passion for your community. First and foremost, I would be remiss if I, you know, I realize I can paint a picture that makes it look perfect, but you know, we have some huge challenges in our region and in our community in general, in that we are, while we are a, you know, mid sized, you know, chamber and pretty big for our area. We’re also in a very rural, remote area. It just happens to be pretty but rural areas come with a lot of challenges. I think my the bane of my existence will always be infrastructure. Water and Sewer are the absolute barrier to housing or commercial development or anything that we could possibly look out for future, forward thinking. And also we are a very, I’ll say, a non diverse community. So in a lot of ways, that presents challenges as the world changes, as our business needs change, what we are able to that’s just push forward is a strong sense of a term, but what we’re able to introduce our businesses to. So we have a lot of challenges, and it’s very difficult sometimes, when you see something that’s a pretty shiny Penny, to understand that maybe the other side isn’t so great. So you have to have passion, first and foremost, for your community, and you have to look at, what are our resources that make us unique. What is something about our community that makes us special? Why do our businesses choose to invest here and stay here? And you have to really believe that that is something worth fighting for and getting behind and really, really protecting, if you will, protecting from the mindset that your community isn’t special, because every community is special, if you really look into it and find what that is that makes it a place where somebody wants to live and work, and why a business wants to be there. So I think finding the passion is the first piece, and then the second piece to that comes with being aware of what your challenges are. Being aware there are obstacles you will never overcome. You can’t you can lay the groundwork for somebody 1015, 20 years from now to tackle that issue, and you can make sure that that’s an aware, an awareness to your community. But you can’t fix everything, but you have to love it first and foremost.

Brandon Burton 24:57
Yeah, I love that. The question you ask is, what makes your community special? Or find something to find, find what that is. And I’ve seen some communities that you know, what makes them special is a certain industry you know, that thrived 50 years ago, that maybe isn’t around in their community anymore, but they still recognize that. They still do a parade about it. They still have roots, you know, in that industry. And I think that’s great for a start. And then let’s look at what’s that next thing, you know, what this area was great for this industry for a reason. How can we make things great again? But I love that passion needs to drive all of it. So, absolutely fantastic. Um, so I like asking this question for listeners out there who are looking to take their organization up to the next level, or they have that that goal or desire in their mind, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them in trying to accomplish that goal?

Nikki Devitt 25:57
I think you have to take a very strong assessment of where you are and where you want to go. I mean, it’s strategic planning. 101, where are you today, and what makes your chamber what it is in your community? What? What do you do so well that the neighbor chamber couldn’t, couldn’t top it, that they want to, they want to R and D, that they want to rip off and duplicate that all day long. So taking stock of where you are and what you do well helps you determine where you want to go and what you can do better. And really, truly believing in your organization and your community is the first piece, and a very, very important piece, is you have to have the right people in the right seats. Everybody has to be on board to go with where you want to go and grow how you want to grow. And that’s a hard conversation sometimes, especially from a CEO standpoint, is to is everybody rowing the boat in the right direction? Because I truly believe that the best chamber is the chambers that is is a team. They are. They’re almost like an organism. They work so well together, and they believe so much in their mission and their vision and where they’re headed. So you have to make sure that critical piece is into place, or getting to that space in time that you want to and that goal that you have for your organization is either going to be something you won’t achieve or it’s going to take you a long time and a lot

Brandon Burton 27:28
of heartache. Yeah, I like that strategic planning 101, you got to have a vision of know where you are and where do you want to go and how you’re going to get there, so and have

Nikki Devitt 27:39
grace and space with yourself. Know that it takes time, and know that you’re never going to get everything in the time frame. You think either, you think we can do this in a year, two years, two years go by, you go, wow, we only moved the needle about 60% remember you moved the needle? Yeah, and remember that you went from where you were to where you are now, and that’s progress. And really, truly, credit yourself for that. Credit your team.

Brandon Burton 28:07
I wish I could remember who said the quote, but how people overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what they can do in 10 years, right? So absolutely moving the needle, but in that 10 year range, you’re really gonna see progress. Well, Nikki, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Nikki Devitt 28:29
You know, I truly believe I’m a big I would say supporters is an understatement. I’m a believer in acces Horizon Report, when the first one came out, it was so, let’s just say, comforting to see that. Here’s, you know, our national chamber organization, saying, these are the places chambers belong and should be, and the things that matter. And thinking, all right, we got 10 years to get there, and then 2020 hit. We all went, Oh, wow, look. We we just did all that in five years. Yeah. And so it comes back to kind of what the core theory really truly is of, you know, the horizon initiatives. And if you are not familiar, if you are listening and you do not know what the Horizon Report is. And by the way, little hint tidbit that the updated 2035

reports out. It comes out by very shortly. So we’re super excited about that,

but you have to look into that, because it really truly talks about that chambers are the most trusted entity. And the future of chambers, it’s limitless, because we truly, truly are the conveners. We truly are the entity that isn’t just the voice of business. We’re the voice of communities. We have the power to shape and build not just our businesses, but our communities and the Horizon Report, really. Helps you kind of hone in on that and and say, there’s, you know, nine of the different initiatives, and they’re everything from timeless to timely to linchpin initiatives. And it gives you the opportunity to look into it and go, okay, my community, this is never going to be an issue, or it’s not an issue that my chamber is willing or ready to get behind. But there might be others that you look at and say, Yes, this is something we need to go because these are things that are going to affect us all. I mean, we know without a doubt scarcity and abundance and political and social fragmentation, and you can’t even get into what technology is doing as far as affecting business and our future in the population shifts that we’re having, these are all huge, huge things, and and chambers, really truly are the only entity uniquely positioned to engage in all of them and really truly make a difference.

Brandon Burton 30:57
Yeah, sounds like you’ve drunk the Kool Aid too. So that’s

Nikki Devitt 31:01
I did. I can’t deny it.

Brandon Burton 31:04
Going back and looking at the first Horizon Report, for somebody who’s just hearing about it now, to go back and look at it, you have the advantage of hindsight, of saying, Wow, that you know, this really came to pass, like this really the way? Yeah, I mean, it’s, it kind of makes your, you know, hair stand up on the back of your neck, because you’re getting it absolutely

Nikki Devitt 31:24
does. Because if you could read it and think about the fact that it came out, you know, with the intention of being having come it would all come to fruition by next year. So it came out 10 years ago, and you look at it and realize that 2020 you as a chamber professional, whatever month it was, April, May, June, July, whatever, in that year that you woke up that day and you went to bed that night and realized what you accomplished from a chamber perspective, and you read that report and you go, Oh, wow. Okay,

then I just hit all nine of those in eight hours or 12, depending on what you were working but yeah, yeah.

Brandon Burton 32:04
Very good. Well, Nikki, this has been fun having you on. I love your energy. I love the enthusiasm. I love the impact that you’re making there. Toski, thank you for being with us today. Please share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you. Where would you point them to?

Nikki Devitt 32:22
I would absolutely and I’ll spell it because Heaven knows you can’t pronounce nobody. Don’t worry, nobody can pronounce it. Petoskeychamber.com and that’s P, E, T, o, s, k, e, y, chamber.com and my email is really easy. Nikki, nikki@petoskeychamber.com, and I would love to hear from anyone and just wish everyone the best for 2025 because I think that chambers are going to be needed once again, like we always have been, percent, you know, over a century, now more than ever. So this is our time to really bring our communities and together and elevate our businesses

Brandon Burton 33:02
Absolutely, and we’ll get that in our show notes. Make it easy. People don’t have to spell. They can just click and make it easy to connect with you. But thanks again. This has been wonderful, and wish you the best as you continue to build a thriving community.

Nikki Devitt 33:17
Thank you so much.

Brandon Burton 33:18
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Advocacy that Bolsters the Community with Michael Guymon

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Our guest for this episode is Michael Guymon and native tucsonan The new word for me. Michael’s 25 year professional career has primarily centered on political strategy, business development and advocacy and organizational management. As president and CEO for the Tucson Metro Chamber, Michael is responsible for developing and implementing the goals and vision for the chamber to fulfill the Chamber’s mission and champion and to champion an environment where your business thrives and our community prospers. Michael’s previous positions include vice president of regional partnerships for sun corridor Inc, the executive director of Metropolitan Pima Alliance, chief to staff to Tucson city council member Fred Ron Stan, Assistant Vice President for governmental affairs for the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and political consultant to the bridges, a 360 acre mixed use, mixed use infill development that includes tech parks Arizona, Geico regional headquarters, housing and 111 acre commercial development. Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Arizona. On a personal note, his passion is baseball, and he was named the official score for the Tucson Padres triple A baseball club from 2011 to 2013 the team moved to El Paso in in 2014 But Michael, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Michael Guymon 2:48
Yeah, absolutely. Brandon, thank you so much for that, that great introduction, and I’m happy to be here to talk to all of our team chamber champions that are out there. I guess one other little fun fact is, as much as my passion is baseball, I actually play ice hockey. So a lot of people ask me, Wow, a native tucsonan That plays ice hockey. How the heck did that happen? And when I was in college, my buddies and I were just kind of bored playing too much hockey on Sega, so we decided to buy some stick, a puck, and some roller blades, taught ourselves how to play, and that ultimately morphed into playing ice hockey. So So yeah, I am also an ice hockey player, and I still play in the adult league here in Tucson and and it’s a lot of fun. It keeps me, keeps me busy and and it helps me get, you know, some of that pent up nerve that some chamber CEOs can can experience out on the ice.

Brandon Burton 3:46
That’s right, that’s a I would not have guessed that, you know, baseball and hockey. I would not have guessed, you know, but yeah, that that’s awesome. Glad it keeps you active, keeps you involved,

Michael Guymon 3:56
absolutely.

Brandon Burton 3:58
Well, tell us a little bit about the Tucson Metro Chamber, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, give us an idea of the size of the chamber staff, budget, scope of work and all that, just to kind of give us your perspective.

Michael Guymon 4:10
Yeah, you bet. Thank you, Brandon. So our chamber has been around since 1896 and we have been the voice of business in a variety of forms for those 100 and now 28 years. So we are a staff of 11, budget of about 1.8 million, and we have 1400 members, and those members are everything from restaurants to Raytheon. Raytheon is our largest private employer here in the Tucson region. Aerospace and Defense is our biggest, not only employer, but also just from a economic impact part of the economy, our biggest player, between Raytheon, with its 14,000 employees and 200 companies that make up our airspace and defense. Sector here in in the Tucson region. So so that’s that’s a big component, but so are a lot of our small businesses here. And of course, the chamber is the main organization that helps to advocate and be the voice for those small businesses. So So it ranges, really good range, but that that’s kind of what makes up our chamber?

Brandon Burton 5:21
Very good. And I know Raytheon is a great company to have in your backyard there. We’ve got a campus probably about 15 miles from our house here in Texas, and they’re great employer and great community player and just a great one to have have on your team there in Tucson, absolutely well, as we try to hone in on what our focus for our conversation is going to be, today, we decided to focus our the majority of our discussion around advocacy, but more specifically, advocacy that bolsters the competitiveness of your community. And we’ll dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Michael, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about how advocacy can bolster your community’s competitiveness as we take that approach, what does that mean to you as far as advocacy and keeping the maybe the relevance in your community and staying on the cutting edge? Just tell us what that means from you and your approach to advocacy in this with this focus. Sure.

Michael Guymon 8:19
So you know, advocacy really is it really is our main value proposition for the chamber. We, as I mentioned before, we are the voice of business, and part of being the voice of business is making sure that we are that bold advocate for a lot of things that relate to the business community and really try to push pro business policies through our city and county, and actually, when I became CEO of the chamber about three years ago, I shifted our focus to purely local, local advocacy, because we did have staff member, various staff members who would go up to Phoenix to lobby positions at the legislature. But I felt it was there. There’s plenty of work to do within the city of Tucson and Pima County that we really needed to focus our efforts locally and address the pro business policies that would help bolster our business community here locally and partner with those organizations like the greater Phoenix chamber and the Arizona chamber that has a stronger presence of the Capitol. And if there are ways that we can, that we can partner with them on state legislation that addresses pro business policy, then we’ll do that. But the chamber is really going to take the lead here locally and and we’ve been very successful at doing that. So, so when it comes to competitiveness now, it really dry there, there are, there are main components to that. Competitiveness. It it comes down to workforce and talent. It comes down to transportation and. Infrastructure comes down to public safety, comes down to housing affordability and quality of life. Those are, those are the five sort of pillars that we look at when we are talking about our competitiveness. As a former employee of our economic development organization, the big thing that I learned there is that talent and workforce and labor drives 99% of the relocation expansion decisions, and it also helps drive whether companies decide to stay within a community so as the retainer of business now at the Chamber I when I was at our economic development organization. I was it was my job to help companies expand to relocate to Tucson now at the Chamber, it’s my job to make sure that they stay here. Talent drives a lot of those decisions, and so working on workforce development and making sure that our educational institutions, our post secondary educational institutions and our K 12 system, quite frankly, are laddering up to the skills and positions that are needed within our companies. Is critically important to make sure that those connections are made. So we do a lot of that work. We have collaboratives in healthcare. We have collaboratives in mining. We have collaboratives in that are focused on construct the construction industry, and then we partner with those organizations that address the issues in and around some of our other targeted sectors and industries. But but addressing workforce development is a big component of making sure that we are competitive, not only for companies that are looking to expand, to relocate, but also those companies that are here and want to expand here in our region

Brandon Burton 11:45
that is so important, and it’s kind of the chicken or the egg, right? Like you want the big business there, you want the companies to relocate, but they need to have the workforce. And at the same time, you’re trying to build the workforce, and kind of think, if you build it, they will come kind of a sense, you know, if there’s your baseball tie in, right? Very good. But I’m curious with the approach, with this, the schools, the, you know, school system, the secondary education, what, what approach is the chamber able to do from that advocacy effort to make sure that these students are being prepared to enter the workforce, and specifically in these key we’ll say categories, these key industries you’re looking to have workforce for. What’s that approach look like?

Michael Guymon 12:34
So Brandon, really, it’s our job as a chamber to make sure that the industries and the companies are engaged. You know, I’m not. I’m not here to tell our community college system or our university who do incredible work in our community and our true are truly our economic drivers of the community. I’m not here to tell them what to do. But what I can do is bring, come more, more and more companies to the table, for them to say, here are the positions that are open. Here are the skills that I need. Here are the skills that I think are lacking in our community, to have those conversations so that our post secondary education institutions understand what the needs are, in hopes that they will help address them. So it’s my job as a chamber to encourage those companies to be a part of those conversations, and we’ve been successful in that we have a lot of companies that are at the table. Could I use more? Absolutely, it’s imperative that I have more and more industries at those tables so that they can express the types of challenges that are they are facing from a workforce standpoint. But outside of that, you know, a lot of the issues that we hear, especially at the retail level, are related to public safety, they’re related to transportation they’re related to housing affordability these days. I mean, boy, you know, this is a topic that is certainly not unique to Tucson, but it is something I am hearing more and more chambers talk about how we need to make sure that we address our housing affordability. And the recent term I’ve heard is income. I don’t think it was income based, but basically, you know, income based housing, so making sure that we’re that we’re addressing the various aspects of housing, because it is diverse, we want to make sure that our housing options are diverse, but but those are, those are issues that our communities are facing, and we as a chamber, making sure that companies are at The table to be a part of those conversations and dialogs. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 14:44
I imagine having the companies at the table specifically with workforce and talent, is trying to keep some of that talent in the community. For whatever reason, it seems like a lot of maybe high school students see that they’re the. Horizons are somewhere else, right where they need to go away, leave the community, to go to school or to find a job and to be able to show them the opportunities that are right there in Tucson, I think is key in what you guys are after with this approach, absolutely,

Michael Guymon 15:13
and it’s, I’m glad you mentioned that, because we’re having conversations right now, particularly with our university, about that, whether it’s, you know, seen as a brain drain or a brain gain, and the ways that we can address that we used to actually host an event called the career crawl, and this was getting local companies and students connected. Because a lot of the jobs fairs that occur on college campuses are companies that are from outside coming into our community and saying, Hey, we got a great job for you the Bay Area, or we got a great job for you in Chicago. And they and those students leave because of that. Well, we wanted to create a local job fair so that students could have a better understanding of what that local job opportunity looks like. And the U of A the University of Arizona actually picked that up. They now have a have an annual and actually sometimes twice a year, Job Fair called Tucson jobs now. So they took our idea and they created their own job fair that focuses on local job opportunities. And what we’re seeing now, we’ve actually seen some of those statistics shift. It used to be that that a quarter of our of our graduates stayed here in Tucson, which is a really low number, because in some communities, it could be upwards to 50 and 60% that is now inching up. We’re now seeing that number is now 35% of our graduates staying here in Tucson. And so from a statistical standpoint, we’re actually seeing a brain gain over the last three to four years as a poor as opposed to a brain drain. Could we do better? Obviously, we could, but we’re at least sitting seeing those those graduates, stay here more than they have in the past, and and we’re hopeful it’s because of things like that, where we’re opening more doors to local opportunities.

Brandon Burton 17:14
It’s trending the right way, for sure,

Michael Guymon 17:18
absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:19
I love the approach of local advocacy and in these areas that you talked about with transportation and quality of life and public safety and housing, and can you talk to us a little bit more about some of the different approaches? Maybe in these other categories, we spent some good time on the workforce and talent development, but talk to us a little bit about the transportation or quality of life and things of that nature? Yeah,

Michael Guymon 17:43
absolutely. So I’ll start with public safety. So couple, two and a half years ago, I created our coalition against retail theft. It was small businesses, even, oddly enough, one of our one of our mortuaries, as well as you know, places like CVS and Walgreens were a part of this coalition because they were experiencing retail theft today, more than they have, like, extremely, more more than they have in the past. And so we created this coalition to address a lot of those challenges that those companies were facing, and we brought in local law enforcement, we brought in our city and county attorneys. We brought in a lot of the individuals to be a part of those conversations, direct conversations, so that we could come up with with solutions. One of the solutions that we did come up with, we were the recipients of a local grant that awarded small businesses micro loans, or actually, sorry, micro grants. It wasn’t a loan a micro grant to put in new lighting, to put in new vegetation, to put do things with on their own property, to discourage retail theft and and vandalism and things that would happen, you know, private property vandalism. So so we were successful in that, and we want to do more of that. And so now our conversations have grown outside of retail theft and are really focused on public safety and things that we could do to to make sure that we are addressing public safety, and a lot of that comes down to making sure that we’re hiring more police officers and other things to to address public safety in our community. As it comes to trans transportation, we have a reauthorization that’s going to be on the ballot next year of our Regional Transportation Authority. This is a 20 year half cent sales tax that was approved back in 2006 it will sunset in 2026 so next year we’re placing on the ballot an extension of a 20 year extension to that half cent sales tax. And that, again, is just Pivotal, especially in a state where we’re seeing. Fewer and fewer state shared revenues coming toward transportation. If we don’t reauthorize that we locally are going to be in a world of hurt, and we know how important transportation is to our economy, to deliver the goods and services that companies and small businesses depend on, it is absolutely critical that we maintain a robust transportation network. And so that’s that’s some that’s a huge, going to be a huge focus of ours going into next year. And

Brandon Burton 20:31
I’ve seen chambers, you know, in other areas, have a lot of success with taking on initiatives like that transportation to get it on the ballot. And this is a renewal. So hopefully it’s a little easier to tell that story. But for the person that says, Well, I don’t take you know public transportation well, but a lot of the people that are you know, serving you your dinner at the restaurant, they do, and if you are not participating in this, you’re going to pay a lot higher or not have a wait staff, or whatever it is. I mean, there’s all different industries that have employees that rely on public transportation, and you see that across the board, for quality of life within a community, if you don’t have a strong, you know, transportation, says public transit system, then you suffer. So hopefully that’ll, you know, get that momentum you need, get it across the finish line and renew that and keep your community thriving. Are there other areas you touched a little bit about housing? What are some of the the approaches that you guys are taking on with housing?

Michael Guymon 21:35
So when it comes to housing, we are working with mainly our our county. So Pima County is the county that serves our region, and our Pima County, believe it or not, is the same size as the state of Connecticut. So counties in Arizona are quite large. We only have 15 we’re the sixth largest state, but we only have 15 counties. So our counties here are pretty big, but so Pima County does a lot of work. In fact, it does a lot of work that counties typically a lot of urban work that counties typically don’t do to counties typically provide rural services, but our county does a lot of urban services. So they’re pretty big player in terms of making sure that we continue to to establish a pro business environment here in the region. But when it comes to housing, they have established a Housing Commission, and we are looking at various proposals and initiatives that would that would help address that some of it, quite frankly, Brandon is going to come down to to public support, but we can also look at ways in which we lessen some of the regulation. So regulation is a big, big issue when it comes to being able to provide the housing supply. And as we all know in the chamber world, supply and demand, economics is a real thing, and understanding that is pivotal for communities as they’re trying to address some of these issues. And so the better we can lessen regulation, or at least address regulation in the right way that provides the ability for developers to build housing stock is going to help address the supply and demand issue, and if they’re able to build more supply that meets the demand, then those housing prices are going to come down. It is just basic economics. So So our focus has been and will continue to be on the regular regulation side of things. And there are some great examples out there. We’ve learned some examples in the Minneapolis area. There are some examples that are going on in California that really address that, that supply issue, and so we want to enact some of those things outside of sort of public support for for housing.

Brandon Burton 23:54
Yeah, no, that’s that’s great, and it really gives some ideas about how housing can be approached. Again, the local approach to advocacy, I think, is so important. And like you said at the beginning, it’s normal for chambers to have staff that are tasked with going to the state capitol or going to Washington, and there’s a place for that, absolutely, but be able to turn the advocacy internally within the community, to build that that place making really within your community, to have it be a place where businesses want to be, where people want to live, where you have that quality of life, is so key. Yeah. So I wanted to ask on behalf of listeners who are wanting to take their chamber up to the next level, kind of tip or action item might you share with them as they try to get after that goal?

Michael Guymon 24:46
Yeah, I would say just make sure that you are providing the right kind of value proposition, whether it’s serving your members on a regular basis or, you know, one of the one of the actions that we took was. So knowing that our advocacy was a primary driver for companies, small, medium and large to join the chamber, we actually embedded our Public Policy Council into our bylaws. So you know the normal committees that you would find in bylaws of it, like the Finance Committee and the Governance Committee, but we actually put our public policy council committee in our bylaws because we knew how important that was to our members, and by putting in the bylaws, that means that a board member of ours has to chair the public policy committee. So it’s that direct link between Board activity and our what we consider our number one value proposition for our members, and to demonstrate how important that is, our community, our connections important. Of course, they’re important. We’re going to continue to provide events. We’re going to continue to provide mixers and breakfasts and ways in which our businesses can connect and connect, whether that means connecting with leaders so that they can share their thoughts or connecting with each other so they can do business with each other. We want to make sure that we’re continuing to do that, but we are also putting together our next three year strategic plan, and as it stands right now, it has yet to be approved by the board, but we’re we are having conversations with all of our committees, our board, our high level investors, and at the end of the three years, we’re looking to have 80% of our funding go toward our advocacy efforts. That that’s a big percentage, that’s that’s certainly more than most chambers would be comfortable with accepting, but again, that is something that our members are telling us is important to them, and they’re willing to shift and maybe even grow dollars on the advocacy side of the of the of the staffing coin, so that we can be that stronger advocate for for the region and and part of that is because of what we are up against in Tucson, maybe different from and unique from other communities. We have a a government that doesn’t see the value in in business, thoughts and opinions, and so we have to push harder than some other chambers have to when it comes to our local governments, to say, This is why the business voice is important. This is why you need to include the business community in a lot of your conversations as you develop your ordinances or your initiatives. And so because of that push, because of that added push, we’re going to have to add resources on that side of the ledger, and our board seems to be comfortable in moving that direction.

Brandon Burton 27:51
That’s great. Just between the board and your members recognizing the impact and seeing you guys move the needle with your advocacy efforts to want to lean into it even more. I think is huge. So yep, Well, Michael, I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Michael Guymon 28:14
Well, it’s interesting. You say that because we are in a due diligence process right now to potentially merge with our economic development organization, the very same one that I used to work for, and I was there for seven and a half years. I’ve been to the chamber now here for for six years. And so I’ve seen both sides, and what I truly feel is and I and in my conversations with chambers across the country who have got who have actually successfully merged with their economic development organization to have the expansion slash attraction and retention arms under one roof, I think, is powerful. So I see, and again, based on a lot of the conversations and a lot of the trends that we are seeing in the chamber environment across the country, I see more of that happening. And so I think the trend to answer your question is moving in that direction, to to establish a merged relationship with economic development organizations, I think, is going to be the future of chambers. To be, not only that advocate for a pro business environment, but also, like we’ve talked about, be that advocate for their community’s competitiveness, because it is a much more competitive world out there. Companies are moving and relocating more today than they have in the past. And so for chambers and economic development organizations to be aligned in their messaging, be aligned in their content, I think is going to be not only the trend for chambers moving forward, but also to establish a more powerful organization. That can bring all of those services to bear and be that advocate for pro business policy and for competitiveness in their respective communities. So

Brandon Burton 30:13
out of curiosity, and I know it’ll look a little different in each community, but how does a conversation like that begin when you talk about a possible merger with the chamber and Economic Development Authority, yeah,

Michael Guymon 30:26
based on a lot of the conversations that I’ve had, some of them are like, like us. It’s come down to there are too many business organizations in your region, and sometimes it’s hard for that collective, unified voice to exist, and the more dispersed voices that you have in a region, sometimes can dilute that voice as you’re trying to advocate and lobby for a pro business environment. So sometimes it starts there, other times it starts with and I’ve had these conversations with other communities as well. It started with an exiting of of a senior official, like a CEO of either a chamber or an economic development organization, where, when that person exits the community, kind of takes a step back and says, Okay, well, that person’s exiting maybe now, maybe the timing is right now for us to take a look at whether or not these two organizations should should be under one roof.

Brandon Burton 31:27
Yeah, I think that’s helpful, just to be able to keep minds open and perspectives open, to see when that opportunity, when it makes sense. I would argue in a lot of cases, it does make sense, but to see when that timing matches up and how to start those conversations. Yeah, well, Michael, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information you’d like to put out there for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Tucson. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Yeah, happy

Michael Guymon 31:58
to do that. So our website is TucsonChamber.org and my email address, should anyone want to email me, is mguymon@tucsonchamber.org happy to love answering emails. I’m definitely one of those individuals that gets back to folks within 24 hours. So love to communicate, love to learn, love to share ideas. Love to share best practices. And just love to communicate, like I said earlier, with other chamber executives. Because my way is not always the right way, but I can share what works for us, but I can also learn what works for others. So happy to do that absolutely

Brandon Burton 32:48
well. We’ll get that in our show notes to make it easy to find you and for listeners to connect with you, but I do appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcasts and sharing what is working for you guys there in Tucson, and thank you for being with us and sharing your perspective with us today.

Michael Guymon 33:06
Thank you so much. Brandon. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 33:08
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First Reaction of the Chamber Industry with Dale Kooyenga

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Our guest for this episode is Dale Kooyenga. Dale grew up in as the oldest of four children in a blue collar family. He played college basketball at Moraine Valley Community College, followed by Lakeland University. Following graduation from Lakeland University, Dale moved to Milwaukee and immediately fell in love with the Milwaukee community, inspired by the events of September 11, Dale joined the US Army alongside two of his brothers. He attended a fit Officer Candidate School, followed by the Army’s military intelligence officer training program, Dale was assigned to the United States Army, civil affairs, psychology, Operations Command in 2008 he was deployed to Iraq with the 400 and 32nd civil affairs battalion as part of the surge strategy led by General David Petraeus. Dale was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Iraq. In addition to his service in Iraq, Dale has served in military intelligence units attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency, two company commands, including command of Wisconsin’s First Army Reserve Counter Intelligence Unit, and overseas assignments with NATO allies in Europe and in South Korea. Dale currently holds the rank of lieutenant colonel and as the battalion commander for the 407th Army Reserve civil affairs battalion. In his civilian career, Dale is the President at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. The MMCA represents over 2000 businesses serving as the region’s boardroom in pursuit of a globally competitive economy that fosters high value jobs, sustains a vibrant quality of life for all, Dale is a certified public public accountant, and obtained his MBA from Marquette University prior to joining MMAC, Dale served eight years as Wisconsin state representative and then four years in the Wisconsin State Senate, where he developed a reputation as a hard working, pragmatic Problem Solver who worked across party lines. Dale and his wife Jennifer have four children, their son grant and three daughters, Taylor, Quinn and Ada. Dale, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, thank you for your your dedicated service, but welcome to the show. Give you a chance to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and I’d love to give you a chance to share something interesting about yourself, maybe that we didn’t cover, so we can all get to know you a little bit better.

Dale Kooyenga 3:37
Yeah. Well, thanks for having me on the show, and hello to my fellow colleagues in the chamber world. This is a whole world I’d never thought of three four years ago. I do a lot of speaking with high schoolers, and we do a lot of programming as far as you can’t be what you can’t see. And I you know new associations existed, knew they had presidents and CEOs and all that stuff, but never thought of myself in that role up until about two and a half years ago in the interview process. So great. I love it. It’s It’s amazing where life brings you love, where I’m at in regards to interesting things that people don’t know about me, that’s only to be revealed on your podcast no one else knows, besides the koinga kids and some of their select friends, is I do a very mean, authentic Donald Duck impersonation.

Brandon Burton 4:28
All right,

Dale Kooyenga 4:32
there’s some interesting those

Brandon Burton 4:34
are one of those things that between father and the children, like grandchildren, something like, that’s that’s something, a special bond that you’ll have. I can’t. It’s a weird thing. I

Dale Kooyenga 4:45
can never be able to snap. I try to try to be like, Oh, it’s so easy. Why didn’t they try to teach you I cannot snap. But somehow, God gave me this ability to make Donald Duck noises.

Brandon Burton 4:53
There you go. Hey, that’s got to be worth something. It’ll never be on the resume, but there it is. That’s right, you. Well, give us some background about your chamber. Give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget, just all of that to kind of set the stage for the perspective that you’re coming from as we enter into our discussion today.

Dale Kooyenga 5:12
Well, I appreciate that, because as we talk about how healthy and impactful the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce is, I have to acknowledge, is that I’m fully aware that I’m on third base. I did not get a triple. It was primarily my predecessor before me, Tim Sheehy, who has been the president for 30 years, 31 years, and there for 40 years at the MMAC. So very, very appreciative for his leadership. The impacts he’s had, really has led a great chamber, and also the community in general. So we’ve been around since 1861 so we have, you know, just like a lot of associations, there’s a bunch of at the time, gentlemen who were upset with things going on in the community or just thought that there needed to be a change in some institutional guidance, in addition to a government and formed our association in downtown Milwaukee. We’re now, you know, we’re metro Milwaukee, but really more of a Regional Chamber in Southeast Wisconsin, and we do have aspects of our business, including health insurance program and a food and beverage group, among other initiatives that are statewide in Wisconsin. So it’s a very robust chamber. We do a lot of lobbying, primarily at the state level, to a lesser extent, at the federal and local level. We, like any association, do events. We have a health insurance plan. We actually have a sub Sarah doing Milwaukee development, corporate sales, real estate, and that’s just a scratch of service. So we’re in a lot of different things and really making a big impact here in Milwaukee.

Brandon Burton 6:45
Yeah, that’s fantastic. I’m excited about our topic for discussion today, especially after going through your bio, the background that you have, the military service, estate service, you know, civil service, to be able to get your perspective as you entered the chamber world, and what some of those first impressions were, how you adapted, and just the story around that. And we’ll dive into that much deeper as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Dale, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break today, we’re going to be focusing our discussion primarily on what some of your first impressions were as you entered into the chamber world. Like you mentioned, you didn’t even know this world existed to the level it does until you’re in it. But just tell us from from your background and the the introductions you had in the chamber world. What were some of those first impressions and reactions that kind of introduced you into this space? Well, my

Dale Kooyenga 9:28
first interactions with the association was when I was in political office, and they would come and lobby me. So it’s funny, when I was looking for jobs, I was interviewing, I actually had a couple positions already in mind where I knew the direction I wanted to go, and it was not a political direction. I didn’t want to go. Politics was always something I did. It was never something I was and so I didn’t want to do something where I was in the political realm. So I remember our current chair, Austin Ramirez, was CEO. Of a husco, which is a manufacturing company in the automotive space in here in Milwaukee area. He called me up and said, Hey, you Tim, she’s not going to be around forever. We’re looking for someone to be positioned at MMAC and then transition into possibly his role someday. Would you be interested? My reaction, immediately, without even thinking about was, No, I’m not, and the reason was because I thought of NBC as a lobbying organization, and I didn’t want to be a lobbyist. I didn’t want to have that be part of my post political life. And I remember I hung up the phone that night. I’m a solid sleeper, but I woke with the middle of night, and just thought about that very brief conversation, and I looked at MHC on the internet, and it just struck me, man, there’s a lot more to this organization than what I saw on the receiving end of the lobbying, economic development, the events, the the business line activities that we provide to our members. And it really struck me as like, this is actually a perfect fit for my background. Was a business background and a political background and the military leadership I learned. And so I remember thinking, Is there a time too early to call a CEO a multi million dollar company and say, Hey, can I get a take back? And I did just that. I called him at 7am and said, Austin, can I get take back? I actually am interested. That’s that’s perceived with what this process looks like. And so proceed with that process. There’s a national search and an interview process, and it obviously went well. Here I am. So that was my initial thought. And I just, you know, really, actually enjoy the public policy work we do. I would say it’s about 30% of my job, if I had to quantify it, but it’s been really impactful. And I just have a really deep respect for associations, because I really deep respect for America, and I mean some cheesy about that, but if you look at TED Talk, Phil as far as what makes America America, he talks about those institutions and the institutions that are outside of government to help shape the Democratic Republic governance process and how impactful that is. You know, just one more thought on that. I apologize be long winded. You know, just last week, there was a Nobel Prize, a peace prize, awarded to two authors of a book called Why nations fail and the book goes around the world and talks about places where there’s the same people, it’s genetic makeup, the same climate, but somehow radically different economic results, or community health. And you look at East Berlin, West Berlin, Nogales, US side Nogales, Mexico, side North Korea, South Korea. And there’s a couple key takeaways in the book about what works and what doesn’t work. But one of the things is that institutional strength leads to a healthier community and economy, and the Chamber world is part of that institutional strength, clearly. And so I’m a romantic. I believe in our country. I believe in meaningful work, meaningful relationships. And so when I find myself in this job, I mean, this is the perfect job for what I believe and live and what I want to do, and looking at what I think makes an impact to community. I think associations really do matter, and I think I’m at an association that has is and will matter in the future.

Brandon Burton 13:29
Well, I’m glad that Austin reached out to you. I’m glad that he took your your immediate call back the next morning, because we need people like you in the chamber world and having the unique background you do. I was going to ask about the percentage of lobbying time that you give in your current position, and I think you covered that with about a third of the time is kind of focused in that, that direction and the advocacy part. But I guess my question is, how? How can the chamber community in general, how can we do a better job of relaying what it is that the chambers do for communities, to strengthen and build communities. So when you know the next Dale coin goes out there trying to be recruited for the next chamber executive seat doesn’t shoot it down because, you know, the it the work is being seen. It’s being recognized. And it’s not just that surface layer initial reaction, I guess, do you have any thoughts of what, what the chamber community at large could do better to to attract people with with great backgrounds to the industry,

Dale Kooyenga 14:43
I think primarily telling the story I just told, as far as the importance of institutions. I mean another great book by Robert Putnam that I think is now, gosh, 20 years old, but it’s still very relevant, maybe older than that is bullying alone and the propensity of individuals. Go alone and be alone, as opposed to plugging into associations and institutions and groups like the rotaries and the legions and things like that. So I think it’s that person that wants to press and push for a community. I also think it needs to be a doer. I see a lot of associations and chambers that tell people what they do. I don’t think they are as effective as showing people what they do. And what I mean by that is you can’t have your meetings. You can’t have your board members being given a show and talking about a topic. They want action. They want to see things shaped. They want to see state statutes eliminated, modified or created. They want to see buildings going up. They want to see crime going down. They want to see relationships form that create tangible, substantive fruits for the community. So I see a lot of event, heavy conversation, heavy associations and chambers, and my recommendation would be, that’s good, that’s deliberative, that’s healthy, but you gotta translate that into effective action that actually changed the landscape. Otherwise, you’re just a bunch of talking heads about radio show.

Brandon Burton 16:25
Yeah, I think that’s a key point to be be a doer show that action, and I’d say, from your perspective, before you came into the chamber world, your your point of view of the doer, the action that the chamber is doing was as a lobbyist. So it makes sense, that’s what you would see, right? Yeah, it

Dale Kooyenga 16:45
was in my office. So that was the engagement. I was my value to the association, was my ability to write and vote on laws. And so that was the face I saw. I was in the business community, but at my level of CFO in midser companies, I was not engaged. Maybe I should have been, but I was not engaged from a business level with the Association, like, like I should have been. So that was my perch. That’s what I saw. And you see what you see from your perch. And so it’s really good to see now all the different other aspects to what we do and why we do it.

Brandon Burton 17:19
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s just a it’s a fascinating idea, just to think about the perspectives that one comes into the chamber world. I love getting people’s stories of how they found the chamber industry, how they were invited in. Some people, you know, it’s out of high school, some it’s after a very productive career. Some it’s just by total accident, right? But being able to see how people are introduced, how they can take their skill set and be able to apply it to make a an organization of action, to be able to really drive things forward within their community, is what I think. That’s what makes the chamber work so special. That’s what makes it the industry, such a special thing. I’d like to always ask for chambers that are out there looking to take their chamber next to the next to the next level. You’ve given some great, you know, action points already, but what kind of tip or action item might you share with listeners who are interested in taking their organization to the next level? Um,

Dale Kooyenga 18:23
I mean, have an engaged board that you could actually call upon to help with things. I mean, they’re there for a reason. And so, you know, don’t be afraid to engage your board and have them be what we call the military force multipliers. So, so that’d be the big thing I would. I mean you gotta serve your members and what the members want. I think in this space, there’s probably few memberships that are politically uniform in one direction, and so therefore, I would encourage a chamber of association to be mindful that if you look like you are a part of a political party, or just relationship wise, on one side of the political party, you’re probably going to minimize your ability to get things done. And now I say that because the nation’s different, and I can’t pretend or dive down into what’s your politics look like, where your chamber association is. I can tell you from Milwaukee, we are a purple state in Wisconsin. Milwaukee is blue, like most large metros, our outer part of our region is more red, and so therefore we have and we will and to be most effective, we have very healthy relationships with both sides of the aisle. And I would say that our membership, especially our board, is bipartisan and probably increasingly no partisan that claim no party. And so we need to be in the relationship business. We can’t be in the political ideology business, and we. Need to know what’s right for our community, and sometimes that falls in different parts of political spectrum. But I mean, I’ll just give an example, like last year, we had a really, really big win. The city and the county of Milwaukee were in a very tough financial position for reasons that was no fault of anybody that was in office or in power. These were decisions made decades ago related to pension issues, and the big compromise we need with both parties was Republicans wanted more police on the street. Wanted more public safety. Democrats wanted additional revenue in the form of a sales tax and sure and more shared revenue from state. Both parties wanted more fiscal solvency, which meant freezing some pensions. It meant so that goes to the whole deal, but there was a compromise made on both sides that we put together, and now this fiscal State of the County the city are much, much better. They’re not closing libraries. They are adding police to the street. They no longer have this infant, these infamous pension plans. So that’s what I’m talking about. I mean, for us, I think you really don’t be a be politically astute and make sure you’re in the relationship business, not the political ideology business.

Brandon Burton 21:18
I think that’s great advice. And your comments, you know, resonate with being the same center, you know, when it comes to political issues. But I, I’ve heard it said that if, if you can resonate with what makes for a good, you know, pro business environment. If that’s your members, that’s what’s, you know, supporting organizations and business members when it comes to politics, if you’re doing things that are that support business, that grow business, you have that to stand on, and it’s not doesn’t have to be a political party at all. And oftentimes you’ll find things on both sides of the aisle that support business. And if that’s your mission, to drive business, drive your local economy, you can’t go wrong if that’s your focus, but builds relationships along the way. So that’s absolutely key.

Dale Kooyenga 22:09
See, like, for example, is, you know, I can really be angry right now with you and like, be hostile because you’re clearly a 49 ish fan.

Unknown Speaker 22:17
Yeah,

Dale Kooyenga 22:18
I’m a Packers fan, but I’m still going to be pleasant and polite and find common ground here. So yeah, and I’ll forgive you a perfect example.

Brandon Burton 22:29
That’s right, and you’ve got the American flag behind us. That makes it all better. So we’re there you go. We’re on the same team. Yeah, that’s good. Well, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce. How do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Dale Kooyenga 22:45
Well, you need to fight for it. I don’t think you can assume that there’s some sort of inertia with membership, either growing your membership or retaining your membership, if you’re just going to keep the same model that you had yesterday. I there has to be value propositions within your I mean, I know they say it’s not transactional, and you know, you should do this for the good of community. I think there’ll be a good percentage of companies that believe that, but it’s going to erode when a recession happens. I think you gotta find your value proposition, whether directly or indirectly. And you know, you gotta have your why, like, why do I need you part of the you know why. And for us, it’s Milwaukee without the Metropolitan walk. Association of Commerce is in Milwaukee without the Milwaukee Brewers. It’s in Milwaukee without the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s a Milwaukee without a river that’s being cleaned up, that’s going to return native species of fish and cleaning up chemicals from 100 years ago that are at the bottom of the river. It’s a Milwaukee that has huge financial issues, as opposed to solvency day. So we, we, our value proposition is, imagine a Milwaukee without a Mac and you think, oh gosh, and walk without, without. That is not a city I want to live in. It’s not a city I can recruit talent to. So you got to get there. And I think non dues revenue is has to be part of your plan. For us, our non dues revenue continues to grow and grow and grow, and we are hungry after growing that our health insurance plan and combination United Healthcare has been very, very good for us, and that continues to grow. And not only is it good for our revenue, but it’s clearly a solution to our members, and we actually offer it to non members as well, which is why they’re purchasing it. I mean, they wouldn’t purchase it, but wasn’t a value for them. So they’re they’re saving money. We’re making money. It looks like we’re going to go to market with some other innovative things revolving around maybe 401, Ks to help reduce costs and give access to some of the HR tools that larger companies would have. So it’s a twofer, but I think you really need to focus on you. A stream for that non dues revenue to diversify your revenue streams, because I’m just leery that the philanthropy and the community involvement will be as strong as it has been in years past in America.

Brandon Burton 25:18
Well, I think in that explanation you just gave the what the new tagline, or slogan for the Milwaukee, you know, MMAC should be, you know, think of Milwaukee without the bucks, without the brewers. Yeah, that’s what we do, right?

Dale Kooyenga 25:32
Yeah. And this is very specific to Milwaukee, and I know, and I’ll just give it put me it means a lot to us, a whole lot to us. But the biggest one is, imagine a Milwaukee without, and I can name it doesn’t mean, I think to you, but without a st Marcus, without a Milwaukee Academy of Sciences, without an odd prep. And what those schools represent, I just said, is, they represent very high performing schools that are in parts of Milwaukee with high poverty. And one of the things I think my predecessor, if he had, if I had to choose one accomplishment to put on his on his marker someday, say, This is what Tim Sheehy accomplished. Is Tim Sheehy alongside a former superintendent of walk public schools here in 1991 so this is not working when you try something radically different. And that’s where the concept of school choice came from, and now you see the concept of school of choice growing nationally. And they came out of Milwaukee. It came out of MMAC, and our relationship with a gentleman named Howard Fuller, and now that has grown not only in Wisconsin, but it’s grown to a national concept that parents should be able to decide where to send their kids based on your academic standards and based on your principles, whether that be rooted in religion or ethics, whatever that is. And so that’s, that’s the big, bold change. And I think, you know, chambers and associations do need to take some risk. I mean, you can’t just always put your weight on a topic that you have 100% agreement on because if you have 100% agreement on it, you’re probably not getting after a social injustice. You’re probably not getting after an issue in your community, because there are people and sometimes institutions that are rooted in social injustices, and you need to get out to that. So I would also argue, as I talk about, you know, being smart and being pragmatic, that doesn’t mean that you’re always safe. And in the long run, I think you’ll be rewarded for taking some risk and taking some big issues head on.

Brandon Burton 27:36
I agree. I think that’s that was very well said. Well, Dale, as we wrap things up, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things and taking care of business there in Milwaukee. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect LinkedIn?

Dale Kooyenga 27:56
Send me a LinkedIn message, D, A, L, E, and his last name’s K, o, o, y, E, N, G, A, and I am the only Dale coin go in the world. So you will not be confused with a another deal coin go.

Brandon Burton 28:08
That’s good. Well, we’ll get a link to your LinkedIn account in our show notes for this episode too, to make it nice and easy and they don’t need to worry about spelling if they’re in the car driving or wherever they’re doing. Sounds good. Dale, it’s been great having you on the show. I appreciate you taking some time to be with us and share some of the impact and and your perspective as you entered the chamber world and and how chambers can make a bigger impact in their communities. I really appreciate you sharing your insights with us today.

Dale Kooyenga 28:37
Thanks, Brandon, thanks for having me. If

Brandon Burton 28:39
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Greater Sarasota Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Heather Kasten

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 chamber of the year finalist series, and our guest for this episode is Heather. Kasten. Heather is the President and CEO of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. Heather is from a small town just outside of St Louis, Missouri, and has been in the Sarasota region for over 14 years. She’s currently the present CEO. Prior to coming to the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, she was the President CEO of the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance for five years in St Louis, she worked for Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and Six Flags Theme parks in a variety of regional management roles. Heather’s community involvement includes membership on the board of directors for career source, Suncoast, United Way Suncoast the educational foundation of Sarasota County. And she also serves on several local advisory councils, including the USF Muma College of Business Advisory Board and the 26 West Entrepreneurship Center Advisory Board. She completed leadership Sarasota in 2014 and leadership Florida in 2023 Heather received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in Business Administration, and she has an MBA from Webster University in management marketing. Heather and her husband, Clint, of 32 years and their three children enjoy calling Sarasota their home, but Heather, I am excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. And first of all, want to say a big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber of the year finalists. Very exciting, but I want to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening, and to be able to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Heather Kasten 3:00
Great. Well, thank you so much Brandon for having me today. I’m truly honored our entire team here at the Sarasota chamber. We are so thrilled and just blown away to have this recognition from ACCE. We’re really looking forward to Dallas and just so grateful for this wonderful opportunity. You know, something unique about me, I would have to say, you know, going back to my years at Six Flags Theme Parks, a lot of people, my husband, used to joke that I run the rides. And truth be told, on some of those early spring days before all the high school kids, everybody from the CEO, all levels of management. We’re working in the park for those early spring days. And so, you know, it’s just, it’s not too often you talk with somebody who actually, you know, worked on the ride. Worked on the rides. Mine was the giant Ferris wheel, so got very comfortable saying you keep your arms and legs and hands inside the ride at all times. And, you know, working for a theme park, it’s, it’s fun, as you could imagine, just a wonderful place. Did a lot of events there for a lot of companies. And just a really great time, you know, in that period of my life,

Brandon Burton 4:19
yeah, did you ever have to dress up in costume at the theme park.

Heather Kasten 4:22
We did have to, every ride had a ride costume outfit. So absolutely so you never knew, you know, if you were talking with a high schooler kid or you were talking with the CEO of, you know, the of the park, because we were all out there, all pitching in on those, you know those early spring days

Brandon Burton 4:42
still in all the secrets That’s awesome. Well, tell us about the greater Sarasota chamber. Give us an idea of the size of your chamber, staff, size, budget, scope of work, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion. Sure.

Heather Kasten 4:56
So our chamber, we have been around for 100 And four years, you know, going back to the early days, some of our things you know that we focused on, as you can imagine, Florida, going back 100 years ago, things like good roads, mosquito management, you know, competing for for tourism, you know, trying to get people from the northeast to come down and invest into the state of Florida, and obviously our scope of work have has truly evolved over the last 104 years. But we work with about 1400 local companies that employ about 60,000 employees in the region. Our team here, I always say we’re small but mighty. We have 12 full time and three part time team members. And, you know, I know we’ll get into the discussion about some of the program, programmatic work that we do here. It’s truly incredible what this small body of people, what we’re able to accomplish with with that, you know, tide of a ship we have. You know, we’re always looking to diversify our economy. Sarasota, as you can imagine, very big in tourism and real estate. And a lot of the work that we do, you know, is in that economic development space of trying to support other industries that make our community a little bit more resilient during, you know, economic downturns. So I know we’re going to talk about some of our programs later. We’ll, we’ll get into that, but we do a good portion of, you know, probably close to over, well over 100 events per year, ranging in size and scope, something you know, small and and more, you know, intimate type of events for 20 to 25 people, all the way up to last Friday, we hosted our Small Business Awards with over 600 people in a significant wait list on that event. Our but annual budget is about $1.8 million in annual revenue. And out, we’ll get into it a little bit. But just, you know, we’re finding that, you know, getting away from solely relying on membership dollars and some of these programs that we’ve kind of brought under the umbrella, you know, have really helped to, you know, fund the mission and the work that we’re doing here at the Sarasota chamber. That’s

Brandon Burton 7:20
great. Yeah, anytime you can talk about non dues revenue, ways to bring in the dollars, please feel free to interject that into our conversation. Today, I find it interesting where a community where tourism could be viewed as kind of the bread and butter of the community, to be able to have your mindset on economic development, what do we do as you know, to keep the community thriving economically, even if there’s a downturn or in different times of the year, where maybe tourism is not as popular, although in Florida, the weather’s always beautiful, right? Yeah, so for the majority of our conversation today, we’ll focus on the two programs or submitted on your chamber the year application, and we’ll dive into the details and what those programs are all about. As soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Heather, we. Are back, if you would please introduce to us what the first program is you’d like to address. It was on your chamber of the year application, and kind of what the origins of it were, and why that became an area of interest for your chamber to address.

Heather Kasten 10:17
Sure, the first program is called Career Edge, and we have a very, very strong workforce arm here called Career source Suncoast, which works very closely in that workforce space. They deal with a lot of federal dollars. About 14 years ago, a program was created called Career Edge, which was funded by private funders, so foundations, locally and really at a national level, funded put money into this fund, the Career Edge fund. And what we do with that money is we look at what are the top industries, we look at the employers in our region, what are their needs? And then, what are some career pathways where someone can get kind of that first level certification and really be put on a path, on a career ladder, or journey, you know, to be able to make more money over the course of their lifetime. And so for us in our region, the five industries that we really honed in on were insurance, automotive, healthcare is huge, and that’s what we started with 14 years ago, manufacturing and then the trade. So think about HVAC, plumbing, electrical. We’ve we’ve moved a little bit into some logistics and transportation as well as some technology and as well as, you know, being on the coast of Florida marine technology, so you know, the ability to work on on boats and and marine products. But what we do is we partner with a training provider. So it could be a locals. Could be our local state college of Florida. It could be an independent private training provider. We talk with our employers. First, we find out what their needs are, we find a training partner, and then we market the program. We market it through here in Sarasota, and even within our chamber, we have over 200 nonprofits who are connected with a lot of these folks who are, you know, they’re, you know, in a minimum wage job, it could be fast food, it could be, you know, it could even be someone within a current company, someone working the linen room at the hospital, that someone sees some potential impossibility. And then we put these folks through the training in one of these industry segments. We fully fund that training. If it involves buying tools. We purchase the tools if it involves, if it’s healthcare and they need certain, you know, vaccinations, or, you know, all of those things are funded. We put them through the training, and then we place them in chamber member companies. So it’s a win for the individual. It’s a win for these companies. And when you look at the opportunities that are put before these people who participate in the training, it really does, you know, change the trajectory of their lifetime, incoming, you know, income potential. It’s such a phenomenal program over the course of the 14 years. I mean, we literally have trained 1000s of individuals and placed them with local companies.

Brandon Burton 13:28
That’s awesome. So you shared a few examples of how you find these, these young people, to get into the program. But are there other examples of how you find them to kind of fill that pipeline and pull the intro. I love that example, somebody working in the linen department in the hospital or something. But what are some of those resourceful ways of finding these people to join the program?

Heather Kasten 13:50
Yeah, well, the cohorts, you know, we put them through because we do a lot of hand holding and shepherding these cohorts. We do them in groups of 15, usually is kind of the magic number, and it can be, like I said, our community partners, our nonprofits, be surprised. You know, even the churches, you know, somebody’s grandson is, you know, not on the right path, and grandma refers them to us. It they come all different ways. You know, of course, we do the traditional ways of, you know, we do a press release. But really, it’s so much more organic than that. It really comes from these partners, or even the Salvation Army, or, you know, could be any of our any of the nonprofits that we work with that refer them. And then, you know, these people, you know they’re where they are for a reason. You know, they’ve had some life circumstances that have happened to them, and so we have a dedicated person, our Career Edge manager, who really comes alongside of these folks and helps them. If they miss a class, he’s calling them, Hey, why’d you miss class last night? Oh, your car broke down. Guess what? I’m going to send over a couple of Uber gift cards. Cards. Don’t miss class tonight. Here’s your ride to class. It’s that level of intention and detail that help get these folks across the finish line.

Brandon Burton 15:09
Yeah. And so are you able to put any kind of tracker on these? These people who go through the cohorts to see their their career development, and kind of get some check ins with them along the way.

Heather Kasten 15:21
We they are checked in with through the entire program. Now, once they come out of the program and they’re placed, it’s a little bit hard to, you know, keep tabs on that, but we have some incredible success stories. I mean, there’s, you know, there’s some folks that you know constantly reach back to us and say, you know, if it weren’t for you, I, you know, I’d still be flipping burgers, or I’d still be, you know, whatever the you know, the minimum wage job is. But we do have, every year that program, we hire an independent third party evaluator. So it’s not just, you know, the chamber and career beating our chest of like, Oh, look at the great work we did. We fund an independent evaluator to come in and really evaluate the work. Look at the wage increases like we track, okay, what wage, when they started this program, they were at this wage, and when they completed the program, they were at this wage. And we can track those, you know, you know, those differentials between, you know, when they started and when they completed the program. And that’s how every year, we’re able to go out and get this private funding. And that is really what differentiates us from career source, Suncoast, which we refer people to them all the time because our money is private. There is no red tape. We make it as easy as possible to get these people into the program and then shepherd them through. That’s

Brandon Burton 16:42
wonderful. So I know for a lot of people, their experiences as they go into a career option or enter the workforce, they’re based upon their their experience, what they’ve seen from their parents or mentors that are in their life. And if they don’t have that example to look to or to be able to see what options are available a program like this is so crucial being able to just open their mind to what the options are and see, you know, just how big the world is and what they can do. Is there an application process to get into a cohort, and what kind of things are you looking for on an application to justify somebody joining the cohort? Yeah,

Heather Kasten 17:21
it really depends on which industry segment, you know, the insurance segment has different qualifications than the nursing than the electrical cohort. So it really does depend. There is an application process and we do do some personality testing. You know this we this funding is so crucial, and we want to have the absolute best return on investor investment for our funders. And so we do do some testing to see, you know, is this person you know are the odds that they are going to complete the program? And again, you have to keep in mind the population you know that you are dealing with. They, you know, they do come with some struggles and some, you know, some things from their past. We don’t just put them through the training. We also really incorporate some life skills training and some kind of emotional intelligence training, you know, interviewing skills. So they’re not going to their first interviewing and the first question they’re asking is, how much vacation time do I get? Really setting them up for success, helping them with their resume. So it’s, it’s much more than just a job training program.

Brandon Burton 18:25
Yeah, I love that. I love seeing the opportunities for people to develop their careers and see their horizons be widened. So I can just imagine that the sense of pride that you see as these people go through the program,

Heather Kasten 18:38
it really is. Brandon, yeah.

Brandon Burton 18:42
So as we change gears to the other program on your application, tell us what that’s about.

Heather Kasten 18:49
So our another program that we have, we have gotten private funding for through one of our local foundations, is called our opportunities for all program, and it has kind of two prongs. The first prong focuses on interns. So placing minority interns, uncovering what their interests are, and then placing them with companies that they can learn and grow through an eight week internship process. And we fully fund that so the employers, you know, hold those pay stubs. And at the end of the eight week internship, they submit us, you know, the pay stubs to us, and then we reimburse that company fully up to $3,000 for that eight week internship. We also, this year, something new. We added, we added an intern half day conference called spark, and that was actually just held this past week. We had about 70 local interns, 30 of which were our opportunities for all interns, but did a half day workshop on again, resume, building, networking, mentoring, how to, you know, connect with others, how to build their personal brand and and now. Work. So that’s really exciting. These are interns who really would not have had any opportunity like this to actually work within a company and get paid in their field of interest. The other prong for the opportunities for all program is minority business grant funding. So this program has been around for about four years. And last year, for example, we had, we had probably close to 100 minority businesses apply. We funded 20 of that the 100 that had applied, and we deployed about $100,000 so each minority business, you know, had different asks. For some, it was, I need, you know, some support to market my company. So we’ve, you know, funded, you know, six months of some social media advertising. For some it was capital things like a laptop, so that they could get their finances out of, maybe their personal checking and into QuickBooks and onto a laptop computer. Every ask was was different. The grants were anywhere from 1000 to $10,000 in nature. And then we really support these. These 20 companies, all were granted chamber memberships. We have programming throughout the year to support them, entrepreneurial classes that we partner with 26 West, which is our business incubator here in Sarasota, to again come alongside of them and give them resources, solutions, and also funding to really help build their businesses. And that has been so rewarding as well. We’ve got some incredible success stories of companies that, you know, have gone from, you know, someone kind of doing it as a side hustle, to, you know, being able to, you know, quit their corporate job and, you know, really come over into that entrepreneurial space.

Brandon Burton 21:54
Yeah, those $1,000 grant applications, when you said that that really pulls at my heart strings. Somebody’s needing to ask for for that amount to be able to make their business work. And I almost just on the amount, want to make sure that those ones are awarded. But it’s got to be tough to go through that many applications and and find where the money goes. Yeah. So with both of these programs, you’ve you’ve mentioned the chamber is kind of foot in the bill for a lot of these things, whether it’s helping get supplies for someone entering a workforce, or the vaccinations or reimbursing their their pay for the eight weeks in the internship. Do you mind speaking a little bit to how these are funded? You mentioned they’re both privately funded. So how do you go about funding these programs? So we

Heather Kasten 22:45
have started again. We we really track our funders. So Career Edge being that it’s been around for 14 years, we probably have eight to 10 funders, and we have two very large foundations here within Sarasota who really believe in that mission of workforce and upskilling workers. So they are great funders. The best thing you know when you’re out looking at grants is the flexibility of grants. You know, there’s some grants that are so limiting and narrowing that it’s just impossible to fulfill. You know, the request of the grants. And what’s nice about the foundations that we work with, they, you know, they support the funding of staff to run these programs. Because, as we all know, these programs do not run themselves. So without the funding for actual staff, these programs, they couldn’t occur. They couldn’t couldn’t happen. And so, you know, we, every year, are looking at, you know, private foundations, whether it be the Walmart Foundation, whether it’s Boeing foundation, you know, there are foundations who, you know, you really have to invest the time to find out, you know, what their missions are and what they invest in. And we’ve spent a lot of time doing that. And that’s really how we’ve, you know, come to have funders for both Career Edge and then, you know, funders for the opportunities for all program. These are foundations that, again, believe in this work. We’re doing the work, and they, you know, they fund it every year.

Brandon Burton 24:17
That’s awesome. Yeah, you guys have put in the work, for sure, that’s That’s great. So I like asking, especially as you guys are a chamber, that you’re a finalist. Chambers across the country are looking to you guys in your example, so no pressure. But for what kind of tips or action item might you share for a listener who is looking to take their chamber up to the next level.

Heather Kasten 24:44
You know, I’ve thought a lot about that question, and one of the things I think, well, I’ll share two things. First is process in the chamber world. It does, you know, we don’t stop, right? It is, you finish one event and you’re on to the next. Next 10. So I’m a big believer in, you know, setting up processes for everything that occurs under the roof of a chamber. And that way, you know, when you do have turnover, which we all do, you know, you’ve got a trail of breadcrumbs for that next person to come in and follow. So, big believer in process. And then, you know, I would say secondly, as chamber leaders, the importance of really taking care of your staff. I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and say, I’ve done everything in my power to keep the staff intact, to keep them encouraged and motivated and challenged, not overwhelmed. I don’t want anyone showing up to work feeling, you know, worn down, ragged out, exhausted, overwhelmed, that’s I don’t want to show up at a place and work like that. And so I would say, the last two to three years, we’ve just been really hyper intentional of the things that we’re doing with our staff making sure that, you know, we’re having early outs in the summer. We’re planning fun activities. We we’ve got a beautiful new aquarium coming up in our town, and just last week, took the team to do a behind the scenes tour. You know, nobody else got this opportunity but the chamber team. So I’m always looking for unique and special things to really bless them with. And, you know, just make sure that they are feeling good about the work and energized about the work. And you know, that’s something that you have to do with intention. It doesn’t just happen. And the timing is never good. You can say, Oh, well, we’ve got this big thing next week. Well, guess what? After next week, there’s going to be the next big thing. So making sure that you’re taking time to, you know, really engage your staff and build a culture that is one where people want to come and show up and work, and then for the chamber leaders and the CEOs, make sure, you know, in the the airline world, make sure you’re putting your oxygen mask on as well, because you cannot pour into members, pour into your board, pour into your staff if you aren’t refreshed and and, you know, refueled yourself. And so making sure that you’re taking that time and listen. I need, I need this advice as much as anybody I’m giving it as if I’m, you know, you know, I buy into it. And we really do have to plan those intentional days, you know, a half day, even if it’s once a quarter, where you get out of the office and you clear your head and you give some thought to working on the business instead of working in the business. Those would be my couple of tips. Brandon,

Brandon Burton 27:43
yeah. Fact, when you said process at the beginning, my mind went to where you just ended with to be able to take that pause and to be able to to process what you went through. So if there’s a big event that you you’ve put on, to take time afterwards to process the how things went and evaluate and take a breather, put on that oxygen mask, and be able to kind of re energize for the next thing. But to your point about taking care of your staff, I’d love that example, yeah, taking them out to that aquarium that see the behind the scenes, something special just for your team. And of course, we want to be able to take care of them monetarily whenever you can. But we all know chambers don’t always have the funding to take care, to pay what they’re deserved, right? But to be able to have those opportunities really adds to that experience. And

Heather Kasten 28:34
you know, that’s something that you do have to be intentional about, too. You know, we I do want, I want our team to be paid as well as any, you know, regular corporate jobs. So I feel that’s my responsibility, is to, you know, find that money to bring in the resources so that anybody working here at the Sarasota chamber, you know, has a, has a really good, you know, way of life.

Brandon Burton 29:00
Yeah, you’re gonna be flooded with applications. Now, I’m just kidding. No. Seriously, though, Heather, this has been great. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the Greater Sarasota chamber.

Heather Kasten 29:19
Absolutely. Again, it’s Heather Kasten. My email is hkasten@sarasotachamber.com. I’d love to connect with with anyone. I love bouncing ideas off each other. The great thing about the chamber world is I feel like there’s so many opportunities to share best practices. You know, as long as it’s not you know, the Chamber up the street. You know, aside from that, I mean, the world is your oyster, right? For new ideas and fresh ideas. My office line here, 941-556-4050, and really, just excited, you know, love to to talk chamber stuff. So anyone who’d like to reach out and. Be happy to connect with you and learn you know, really enjoy learning more about you as well.

Brandon Burton 30:05
That’s awesome. I appreciate that, and that’s the whole point of the show, right? Share those best practices and be able to help people connect. So we’ll, we’ll post your contact information in our show notes for this episode so people can find it there. But Heather, this has been great. I’ve enjoyed having you on the show and have I wish you and your team best of luck. It’s chamber of the year in Dallas.

Heather Kasten 30:26
We’re so excited we can’t wait. Thanks so much bringing in for your you know the opportunity today. Really enjoyed our conversations.

Brandon Burton 30:35
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Bend Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Katy Brooks

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. Our guest for this episode is Katy Brooks. She is the president and CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce in Oregon. Her vision for the chamber is to catalyze and environment where businesses and employees and the community thrive. The chamber supports a collaborative business environment and leads efforts to resolve tough issues like affordable housing and childcare shortage, assisting businesses with resources and advocating for businesses at the local and state level. Katy’s background and economic development coalition building and government relations enables her to understand public policies and issues in order to advocate for the businesses of band as well as forming partnerships and alliances that support a growing business community. Her career has included over 20 years working in public affairs and economic development for the ports of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. She has been a public affairs and strategic planning consultant for public and private organizations in Oregon, Washington and Alaska and manage Community Relations for the Oregon Department of Tourism. Katy is a member of the Oregon State Early Learning Council and has served on numerous regional, state and city boards and committees. Prior to coming to bend, Katy served on the Public Affairs Committee for the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and the board of directors for the Washington State Business Association. Katy received her BS at Southern Oregon University with and graduate studies at Portland State University. She’s received extensive training and facilitating public issues and resolving conflict her and her family reside in Bend. But Katy, I am excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. And first of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a 2024 chamber, the year finals. That’s a huge accomplishment. But please take a minute to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Katy Brooks 3:25
Well, thanks. I’m really, really honored to be here. It’s just so terrific. Being a finalist. And in this fabulous industry that we’re all in. I have been in the chamber world for about eight years since I moved from the coast and port world working for port authorities for a long, long time. And it’s been a great transition. I live here with my family, we do a lot of mountain biking enjoy a bit of a higher elevation than what I was previously at. And for those of you haven’t been to this part of the world is quite beautiful. And it’s full of great things to do outside, which is what we’re all about.

Brandon Burton 4:09
That’s right. It is a beautiful part of the country for sure. Well, please take a few moments and tell us a little bit about the Bend Chamber of Commerce. What makes you guys so special, what’s your your chamber look like the work you’re involved with? Size staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of give us some perspective as we get into our discussion?

Katy Brooks 4:33
Sure. Well, we’ve had quite a bit of population growth. So the business sector has grown as well. We are population of about 110,000. We are on the east side of the caste range. So we are a little bit removed from where most of the population of the state is. So bend is kind of a it’s a mountain community but it’s really a self sufficient ecosystem here. That’s really unique. And it’s something that we take into consideration. Anytime we put any of our strategies together. We have great networking programs. Here we have a really strong advocacy program because our state capitol is in the valley. And to lift up our voice from Central Oregon, we align with a lot of partners here. We build our leaders, we concentrate quite a bit on how we support a system of of leadership and workforce development that can sustain our growth, not just in population, but our business growth and several industry sectors that have taken off here. And we look for our niche initiatives, we look for ways to take on things that we see and our members see as obstacles and impediments or opportunities. And really try to capitalize those and bring up solutions. And I’ll get into that here in a little bit of what that actually looks like.

Brandon Burton 6:04
Yeah, well that’s the crux of the Chamber’s to solve those problems, right that face the community. So very good. Well, as we focus on these chamber, the year finalist episodes who really like to dive in, in more detail on the programs that were submitted on your chamber that your application, I think those are a really good indicator of the type of work you’re involved with and, and where you’re seeing those levels of importance to be able to make an impact in your community. So I’m excited to dive into what those programs are and all those details as soon as they get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

All right, Katy, we’re back. As we dive into the meat of this episode and talking about the programs that were submitted on your chamber, that your application, please share with us what what the first program was? And we’ll dive into that and save the good stuff on second program for for a few minutes.

Katy Brooks 8:52
Yeah, it’s always hard. I’m sure everybody else who submitted an application feels this way, it was hard to choose in some respect. Because we just do so much. And as with all chambers, we have changed so much over the last several years. So when you look at at our programs, it looks like like today rather than yesterday. And it looks like what the key issues are that we’re struggling with here, rather than some of the more traditional things you think about in chamber world. But I’ll I’ll talk a little bit about Ben 101. So Ben 101 was established in collaboration with a bunch of folks from the community from several industry sectors, who said essentially, you know, we are growing faster than any other city in our state we have the more more jobs per capita than any other city in our state and we’re losing touch with the culture we worked really hard to establish we’re very bootstrap kind of a community here. We were lumber mill industry, which declined dramatically in the 80s, we reinvented ourselves. Now we’re biotech, health care sciences, outdoor industry, product development, high tech, all sorts of things are happening here that frankly, didn’t exist 10 years ago. And what happens when you bring that many new people and new industries together, you kind of lose touch with everyone, you go from a small little town to, you’re actually a small city. And that’s got a different dynamic. So Bend 101 brings in key leaders from our community to tell the story of our history, tell the story of our culture, which is be nice, you’re invent, and we’re collaborative, we’re dolphins, we’re not sharks. And we have a lot of ways for people to plug in. So it’s like getting a turbo charge in everything you would want to know if you move to a new place. And not only do you get the information, but we match you up with people from the community in various industries, from the workforce. So it’s not like insta friend, but it’s close to it. It’s it’s hard introductions of folks that you might find really interesting and want to have coffee with later. And then we work with the human resources, folks to really make sure that we follow up. How do your folks feel about this? Did they meet somebody there that they didn’t get to connect with that they want to and really make those connections meaningful? So you have the background information, you know, where we’ve been where we’re going to, and you have access to the people who made it that way? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:45
So I think it’s interesting to to inform newcomers on the culture of Bend. And I imagine that’s a tough task to try to infuse culture. But what is it? What does it look like this with Bend 101? What’s the format? How do you? How do you structure I love the overall the, you know, the high level view of making those connections and welcoming those newcomers. But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, what what is the structure of it look like? Well,

Katy Brooks 12:15
we use a lot of humor, because we have some idiosyncrasies and little things about them, like every community does that are pretty funny. And one of ours is our claim to fame is roundabouts. They’re everywhere. And anybody who’s new to bend goes what is going on. You can’t get anywhere without going in a circle. So we kind of poke fun at ourselves, we have a really great welcoming video, where we talk about how friendly we are and kind of help people navigate the why of things and kind of laugh at ourselves a little bit. But then we we give the overall here’s how the city operates. And here’s some information for about 1015 minutes. And then every time we hold a one on one, we do it three times a year we fish feature a different part of bend. For example, last time we did this, we featured our healthcare system, educating folks on what that looks like, how do you access it? Who are the leaders there? Who should you know, what should you know, this month, we are, in fact, this week, we’re holding one that features our park system. Our Park system is amazing. It’s very robust, very well funded. There’s mountain bike trails, literally hundreds of miles you can ride and it connects different communities in Central Oregon. So we’ll share all that information. And then talk a little bit about, hey, this is everybody’s chance right now to reach out to somebody you don’t know, unless make those connections happen. So it’s kind of infusing that cultural welcome as much as we can. It changes a little bit every time we hold the event, depending on the information we share, but the outcome is the same. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:57
So does anybody come to multiple sessions have been one on one? How does that like if you want to learn about the parks? And you didn’t get that in your session? How does that work? Oh,

Katy Brooks 14:07
totally. We have repeat offenders. And because it’s really fun. And we are beer town, we have 14 breweries. And so that’s some fun, people just enjoy showing up and interacting folks that have been here for a really long time. They like to show up. In fact, we reach out to them. We want them there. Because how else are newcomers going to meet the establishment? Right? And so you need some of those people to come multiple times. And really mix it up with the old the new the the in between. And if folks are new, and they think hey, that was great. I want to learn about a different sector because I’m thinking about getting involved, then that’s great.

Brandon Burton 14:49
Yeah, that is that’s fantastic. I love that. The idea of it. I love the execution of it and making all the connections and really welcoming people to a community that really sets them up to thrive from the beginning. And I’m sure there’s success stories that you can share with people that have come in and been able to make those connections and, and be able to get their feet on the ground much quicker so to speak. Absolutely. So as we, as we move along, let’s let’s shift gears into what the second program is it was submitted on your chamber the your application. Yeah,

Katy Brooks 15:26
our workforce housing initiative. So I’m co chairing the ACC II horizon initiative that Sheri Ann is, is heading up. And I was so intrigued by this, and I’ll tell you why it matters to the workforce housing issue, asking people about what is the most pressing issue and opportunity in front of you right now? And then saying, Alright, so in 10 years from now, what would that look like? And how do we get from point A to point B, I think is a really useful thing to do. And we’ve essentially been doing this for a few years. And every year, both in the front windshield and 10 years down the line, people are worried about housing, a little bit of background about bend, it’s, it’s quite lovely here, and I’m sure everybody’s community is. But we we experienced something in Cote COVID that a lot of us didn’t see coming. Obviously, nobody saw the pandemic coming. And that is a lot of folks who are professionals who could work from anywhere, say, why not live in Bend, and they came in during COVID, much of the housing stock has been occupied, and it drove prices up 75% In about two or three years, wow, it’s kind of ridiculous. And we looked around and said, Holy smokes, this is not, we knew it was bad. But now we’re 5000 units behind in a community of 100,000 110,000. That’s, that’s significant. So we hear this from our, our business partners and members all the time, we can’t hire biggest thing that’s deterring us is folks can’t afford to live here. So we started out about three years ago with research. And the research was alright, how do we assess how ready Ben dites are to address this population issue in this housing issue, and we ask questions around density. Because this is, everybody has a little yard and your little house and or it’s a cabin or whatever, and started that conversation about so we’re gonna have to go up, we’re gonna have to get more dense, people are going to be living closer together in certain parts of town. And we’ve tested that. We tested what made everybody accept it and feel better about it. And we use that information to form our platform. And one of the things that we ask that I think is really important is who should be leading this effort. And in that public poll, business sector came out at the top, as did the bend Chamber of Commerce, more than government and more than Housing Authority, nonprofits, etc. So we decided to take this on. So we developed several, several, I guess, strategies from they’re all based on research. And one strategy was alright, what we learned from the initial poll is, folks are hesitant to really talk about densification of a community that was an old mill town. But when we talk about what you get in exchange for that, they’re really willing to do it. So we launched a social media program called I Am bent, trying to educate folks on what this is, we’re not talking about everywhere, we’re talking about places in Bend, that are designed for people for community for Makerspace for art, and also here are the people we want to live in this. It’s a full range. And we would feature nurses and firefighters and massage therapists and artists and restaurant managers, the folks who could not afford to get a place here, rent or to own definitely not own. So we started that education process about two or three years ago, and it’s been going really well. So that’s one piece. The other piece was, what is the go fast button? And how In other words, how do you get more inventory out there as quickly as possible? accessory dwelling units. ADUs are one of those ways. If you have extra property, which a lot of people do here in Bend. If you put a small living unit back there, you can create some income for yourself and help solve the workforce housing issue. So we put together a website on how to build an adu. How do you finance it? How do you permit How do you manage it over time? And it’s just an easy step by step process and then we’ve partnered with the city of Bend to have pre approved plans. And we’re going to be starting to populate that here in the next couple of months of choose your style. And you go through a streamlining process streamlined process. So you’re permitted and ready to go much, much faster and much more less expensive. So the adu is another strategy. The other strategy really dovetailed with our advocacy program. How do we raise our voice as a region, the state level and at the federal level, on the need for affordable and attainable housing. So we met with the Tri County leaders in our area, it’s a pretty big area, and came up with one platform that we went to our legislature with, and it was very effective housing was top of mind with Governor Tina Kotek, this session, and a lot of great programs came out of that. And then finally, we brought in expertise from across the country to really take a look at our zoning, and look at our methodology of getting homes on the ground that are affordable and quickly, and use that person and those methods to inform policy at the local level too. So that was pretty successful. And during this time, we also wanted to do the thing, not just talk about it. And so we raised money, we raised a couple 100,000, and just did an initial investment in a nonprofit Land Trust, who was doing an experiment and the experiment was getting some subsidized housing and a cottage style. So for a lot that’s like 6000 feet by 3000 feet, which is typical city a lot you could put in maybe three to four cottage style homes in there. And so they built these, put it on deed restricted property, but lowered the price enough. So folks in in a below area median income could actually afford the downpayment and to purchase that house, and own the house, not the land, but the house. So we bought down that cost, those homes are net zero, they’re worth about, probably about 600,000. Here, we got it under 200,000. Wow. And all of those homes are now occupied by people who work invent. But the real unique thing about this was we decided we wanted to take a risk. And we wanted to demonstrate how employers can actually participate in solving this problem. So what happens is when you donate money for a certain amount per house, you get extra points preferential points in a lottery. And that lottery is alright, if I own Katy’s ice cream shop, and I give X amount of money to one of those houses, I know one of my employees is going to get that house as long as they qualify. And those qualifications included, you have to earn under 80, ami, you have to have had a job and bend for a year, you have preferential points if you’re a minority, and so on, and you have to be pre approved, you’ve got to be able to buy this house and pay pay the mortgage, that

Brandon Burton 23:13
I was gonna ask about that about the qualifications to purchase that house because I could see somebody say, Oh, what a great deal, like get a $600,000 house for 200,000. But the criteria and the application process for that. And I imagine so the the businesses that help pay into that fund, kind of get first dibs, so to speak as far as their employees being able to apply for that routing, is that correct?

Katy Brooks 23:37
That’s absolutely right. And it’s deed restricted for 99 years. So if the house ever sells the same restrictions apply to the next buyer. The great thing is that shit, that preferential chick comes back to you as an employer. So another one of your employees get a shot at qualifying to buy the house. So we bought down four houses. And instead of using it for my employees at the Chamber, we pushed it out to do a demonstration project with any business event. So if you agreed as a business at Brandon’s candy shop, if you said okay, I’m going to pay $2,500 down to help my employee with the closing costs. And here are my five employees that qualify, you would have had a shot and those employees would have had a shot and that’s what we did. And so, folks all throughout the city, radiology technicians, manager, Windows Store, folks who you think of when you think of middle class or or entry, you know, mid level that had access to this home these homes and it was so successful, that they built 50 more this year. They’re in the process of it, and almost all those 50 homes have been subsidized by employers. They built another 100 You In the adjacent neighborhood, to the west, and another 100 plus to the north of us in another community, and they’re doing the same methodology. So in one year, we went from let’s experiment with four houses and just put these these opportunities out as an employer subsidized formula, and proved a concept that is now over 200, or over 100, no 200 homes that will be occupied and subsidized by employers in the area for 99 years. That

Brandon Burton 25:32
is awesome. I can see it being a template, even that some of these bigger employers might might do their own system, right, where they do housing for their own employees, and almost like a military base used to see you know, military housing, but you could you could do something similar with some of these big

Katy Brooks 25:50
kids so that that people earn equity, the whole point to home ownership. Is that generational wealth, yeah. And so that has to be a part of this and doing it with a partner who’s a nonprofit on deed restricted property was the way to go. And we’re just now rolling out our next investment. We raised about a half a million so far, we’re trying to get over the million for a revolving loan to help nonprofits and builders just put more mid market product out there on deed restricted land. So we’re doing our next experiment. Yeah. Which is what chambers should do.

Brandon Burton 26:34
I love these creative solutions. I mean, starting with the the adu website and encouraging people to build the smaller dwellings on their existing land. I mean, that’s, I think any community would rather see that than a big high rise apartment complex or something, you know, it fits in the community a little better. And then, you know, this path with housing and being able to help people own it own a house is amazing. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and really taking ownership of this and finding a solution. I love this. It’s a it’s a great model that can be followed in other areas, as well. So yeah, as we begin to wrap things up here, these chamber the year finalist episodes, I think are special because you guys are top of the game at the moment, right? So for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what can a tip or or action item might you suggest for them to employ to try to accomplish that goal?

Katy Brooks 27:38
Be willing to take risks, have a have a board? That is you bring along, work with your board? And identify, ask the hard questions identify what the issues are, that’s preventing folks from growing or the opportunities that would help businesses grow, and go for the ones that are gnarly and tough to do that require convening. And a lot of work to bring partnerships online. That is what we are made to do. And get people on board, do your research and make it happen. Because I think there aren’t very many organizations like chambers, who are built for this. And that’s how we’ve all changed right over the many of us went through COVID. And that changed a lot. But I think it’s much, much bigger than that, over the last 10 plus 20 years, something like that. I think that as businesses change, we have to be the first ones to we have to see it, identify it, predict it and do it.

Brandon Burton 28:46
Yeah. On those gnarly goals. That’s what people can get behind. Right? If it’s just something that’s barely going to move the needle, it’s hard to get get their interest and getting behind it. But yeah, there’s big hairy audacious goals, right, that that’s what people can get behind and and get some ownership in. I love that. So I like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future. And I understand you’re working on the horizons report as well. So you might have some additional insight. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their future and purpose going forward?

Katy Brooks 29:22
So I think chambers are the leading edge. I think that we have an intrinsic design of who we are, to convene, to go beyond partisanship, to ask the harder deeper questions and take things on that don’t have an apparent immediate answer. There aren’t any other types of organizations who can do that in the private sector is a huge responsibility and it’s super fun, by the way. And so I think that is our Our future is asking that what’s 10 year out? Question? If it’s 10 years out, what are the signs? Read it? If you don’t know, ask somebody. That’s the other thing that we do is ask a lot of folks with great expertise. We don’t have to have the answers. We just need to know who to ask. And we have to have the the fortitude to identify things that make sense for us to take on that really requires collective effort, and foresight, and a little bit of risk. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:32
I love that chambers being the leading edge and taking on those things that don’t have an apparent answer. And that is the the DNA of what a chamber is, though. And especially when you think of AI and advancements in technology, like there’s there needs to be that continuing purpose of a chamber. And that’s it right there. I love it. So Katy, you mentioned asking if you don’t know as somebody so I’d like to see for people listening who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn a little bit more about how you guys are doing things, doing things in band, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Katy Brooks 31:11
Well, anybody can give me a buzz but my email address is katy@bendchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 31:22
Easy, we will get that in our show notes for this episode as well to to make it easy to look up and connect with you. But Katy, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast and again, huge congratulations to you and your team being selected. As a finalist. It really is a indicator of the impact you guys are making in your community as as indicated through our discussion today. So you guys are are moving that needle and big. Congratulations to you guys.

Katy Brooks 31:49
Thanks so much. We’re so thrilled.

Brandon Burton 31:52
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Vail Valley Partnership-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Chris Romer

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You’re joining us for a special episode and our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Chris Romer. Chris serves as the President and CEO of Vail Valley Partnership or the VVP. Vail Valley Partnership is a Regional Chamber of Commerce, destination sales organization and economic development organization representing Eagle County, Colorado and was named Chamber the Year by ACCE in 2016 and 2020. As CEO of the Vail Valley Partnership, he brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, business development and partnership building to the organization. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities facing Colorado’s mountain region. Chris is dedicated to driving innovation and collaboration to ensure the continued success and sustainability of local businesses and communities. Chris is a macroscopic thinker who believes in tackling big issues through localized solutions. He is a graduate of the US Chamber Foundation’s IOM program and is CCE certified chamber executive. He’s also been named a top 25 Mind in hospitality sales, marketing and revenue management by hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International Chamber Executive of the Year by the Colorado Association Chamber of Commerce and Industry Colorado chamber executives, and was named a PEDDIT award winner by the Western Association of Chamber Executives. Chris is a respected voice in the chamber and economic development fields and is known for his ability to bring stakeholders together to achieve common goals. Chris has a is committed to making positive impact within the Vail Valley and on a broader scale, serving on advisory boards and participating in initiatives aimed at advancing community prosperity and enhancing quality of life. Chris, first of all, congratulations to you and your team on this great accomplishment of being named a ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist again, that’s a huge feat, but uh, welcome to the show, I’ll give you a chance to say hello to all the listeners out there and and I love to have you share something interesting about yourself as well as we kick this off.

Chris Romer 3:32
Yeah, Brandon, thank you so much. And you know, it is such a such an honor to be recognized by ACCE as a finalist for chamber of the year. It’s such a testament to the people and the board and the community that we represent. And it’s something that we never, ever take for for granted. You know, we really try to keep our foot on the proverbial gas pedal, to move things forward and to represent the interests of our business community. So, such a great opportunity to share a little bit of our story with you and to be recognized by ACCE for those community programs and community impact that we that we strive to make so thank you so much. I also certainly realized that an interesting thing about me is probably the fact that I can’t write a short bio, that bio was awfully long and awkward. So I would I would love to have a second crack at that and just keep it a whole lot shorter. So we could talk about the fun stuff because talking about me not so much fun talking about our chamber and our community and our programs. A whole lot more interesting to people.

Brandon Burton 4:49
I could agree with that it talking about the the great work you guys are doing is much more impactful and meaningful anyway but it is fun to get to know the background on yet and you I’ll share a fun fact I think you are the first three Pete chamber chat podcast so there should be I feel like there should be a trophy or something for you for being I’ll take a trophy

Chris Romer 5:14
I would love to take a trophy for being the first three time visitor or three time guests on the on the chamber chat podcast.

Brandon Burton 5:22
Yes, yes, you You deserve it. So well tell us about your great team, their the Vail Valley Partnership, the the work you guys are involved with the size of your staff budget, scope of work all that as we get into our discussion today.

Chris Romer 5:37
Yeah, we have. We’re really fortunate I have a great team. We have a team of eight full time and two part time. Employees We are located in Edwards, Colorado. That’s Eagle County, Vail and Beaver Creek ski resorts, home to Vail, Beaver Creek ski resorts for those who might not know what Edward’s are or know where Eagle county might be. But we’re right in the heart of, of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We have you had asked about our budget and membership size, we have just under 800 members. And our community is about 55,000 people. And that represents nine nine towns and we’re a countywide regional organization, our annual budget is about $1.3 million per year. You know, and I think the last part of what you had asked for in regards to giving people a perspective, we are a we’re a program driven chamber. We are a program driven chamber we have we have multiple 501 C sixes, we have c threes. And we have these different initiatives and we branch them off. And we’ll talk a little bit about more more about this, I think as we go through the podcast, but very program driven. And it reflects in in how we approach problems. And if that leads to some of our retention and other components that we may or may not touch on but we are we are very program driven group and you know, we’re not afraid to take big swings we take we take some really big swings within our community and in sometimes we strike out and sometimes we hit a double and occasionally we hit a homerun Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:29
I think chamber works should be about those big swings make an impact. If you’re not if you’re not swinging big, what kind of impact are you making right? So I am excited to dive into this. So on these chamber the are finalists series for those who may not be familiar with the format, I’d like to really focus on the two programs and being program driven will focus on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the your application and dive into some detail around those and why they worked for Vail Valley and we’ll dive into this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Alright Chris, we’re back. So let’s let’s dive into these programs you submitted on the chamber the your application, I know. It can be tough sometimes to kind of narrow down the focus and what you want to put on the application and really highlight the work that you guys are doing. But how did you land on these on these two programs? And what are they?

Chris Romer 10:08
Yeah, it’s, you know, how we landed on them is a little bit what I talked about earlier in the podcast, around taking big swings. And recognizing that big ideas require big solutions. Both of our both of our Synopsys, both of our case studies are around that idea that big ideas require big solutions. So our first Synopsys is the Eagle Valley Transportation Authority, where we lead the yes for transit ballot campaign to create a transportation authority, which is something that had been lacking in our community. Our second synopsis is the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. That is a talent pipeline, Workforce Initiative, in partnership with our K to 12 school system to identify and train young people into the jobs that our community needs. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:12
So just from our background, and having on the show a couple times before, I guess I have a little bit of maybe added perspective, I think about your community and and why these, these two programs specifically would be of importance. But let’s dive in a little bit more on the Regional Transit Authority. Why? Why was that a hot topic? Why Why was that a big swing in your community? What was the need? And and how did you guys go about addressing that?

Chris Romer 11:41
Yeah, it’s so it’s so important for us. So we started this process. Actually, before the before the pandemic we had brought together, we recognized our population is growing, our ski resorts need to be world class destinations, our visitors are continuing to come. And yet our community growth, strained our housing and transportation systems, and our ability to move our workforce from one side of our valley to the other. We’re about a 40 mile wide, 40 mile long valley, and about a mile and a half wide, right, you’re surrounded by mountains and national forest on two sides. So we’re along linear Valley, and our housing prices, our median housing price is $1.3 million. So we really needed a transportation system that could effectively and efficiently move our workforce, up and down our valley or housing is a little bit less expensive, on the western end. So our basic premise is that improved transit supports workforce that helps our residents get to work home and school, it allows our visitors to better enjoy their experience. And this is a regional issue that required a regional solution. So we initiated the business community, we brought together our local municipalities and county, some of them run their own transit authorities. But there was nothing collaborative and nothing that was truly Valley wide. So we did focus groups, we did phone surveys of voters, we looked at what different models exist for funding transportation. We looked at 18 different models and governance structures, and landed on the Regional Transportation Authority as our best bet forward. Then we looked at how do you fund this thing. And we could have done property tax or a sales tax. And we made the decision. To move forward, we made the call in June of 2022, to go to the ballot in November. At the time for it’s hard to think about now. At the time, inflation was at 9.2%. So when we talk about having having courage and taking big swings, we said we’re gonna go to the ballot, and we’re going to ask people for a sales tax to fund this. And by the way, knowing inflation was over 9%. And we made that call, unfortunately, inflation dropped a little bit by the time we had the election. But we passed. We passed in November of 2022. Pretty overwhelmingly, I think, because we really helped to tell the story and identify the need and what this would create. As we sit here today. We have a complimentary free bus system that runs the length of our valley. Ridership for this past winter season was up 164% over the previous model, and it’s saving people time and money.

Brandon Burton 14:58
That’s amazing. It just it to be able to see it through to. So a lot of times when we’re talking about these programs and maybe leading a ballot initiative, you haven’t seen it all the way through to this point, but being that you’ve been able to lead that been able to collect the data, you know, have a successful ballot measure, and then to be able to see the results, the fruit of it right now happening throughout your Valley. That’s, that’s amazing. And I’m sure you’re seeing economic tickers, you know, the different indicators that you can measure to see the impact throughout the community as well. We are

Chris Romer 15:36
we’re able to see the increase in ridership, we’re able to see how many routes are are scheduled, how they’re completed. We did include funding for air service development in our ballot initiative. That’s a program that we’ve run for years at the chamber. And we always fundraised for. So we actually baked that into the ballot question to fund that. And we have two new flights this summer that we’re able to use that that funding to support two new Air Service flights. So we’re seeing the benefits on a local level, from a workforce standpoint, from a visitor standpoint. And we have long term enhancements that are baked into this as well, which included affordable workforce housing for transit employees, and included zero admissions, conversion, to help meet our climate goals for our region. So we’re really we’re really excited about not just the bus transportation, which is a big part of it. But the secondary components that were able to be part of that ballot initiative and more part of our storytelling around air service development and increasing opportunities for visitors to get here and locals to go on vacation. And to help achieve our climate goals. So we’re really, this one’s a was a big swing. For all the reasons we talked about, and a really nice success story that is helping make people’s lives easier. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:07
So with the bus system, it’s a it’s a free transit, right? So is there a way to track when people get on how long they’re on? Or is it just kind of hop on hop off as you go. And now there’s

Chris Romer 17:20
bus counters, there’s counters to know what the ridership is and how it increased. You know, in January, for example, of 2024, we had over 218,000 unique riders on the bus. And that’s an increase from 167,000, the year before, in the same timeframe in January. So we’re huge ridership increases. And we’re, we’re paying for it through the sales tax instead of having people pay a fare. And we have new routes because of the new authority and able to bridge a lot of what the individual communities were already doing to provide that connectivity.

Brandon Burton 18:01
Yeah. So as far as bringing workforce into the valley, is that are you able to see that direct tie in where they’re coming from the west side of the valley? Like you’d mentioned?

Chris Romer 18:10
Yeah, we are a route. Again, we saw a 64% increase in in transit ridership from the lower part of our Valley. So we can track that. The new authority tracks it, they share it with us, our work is kind of done on this one. But yes, it’s a it’s a huge success. And the community recognizes the role that the Chamber played in initiating leading and passing this ballot initiative to create the new authority.

Brandon Burton 18:42
That’s great. And it’s always nice when you can hand it off when it’s done. And you don’t have to keep ownership of it ongoing. Right.

Chris Romer 18:47
You know, we we at the chamber at the partnership, we might be experts on our community. And we’re certainly experts on on convening leaders in order to get things done. We’re certainly an expert on being a catalyst for for business growth. We are not an expert on how to run a transportation authority. Right. So we’re happy to have this one off.

Brandon Burton 19:11
Absolutely. Well, let’s switch gears to the second program that was submitted on the application around that building that talent pipeline and kind of again, the the origins of it and how it developed and in the impact that it’s making in the community. Yeah,

Chris Romer 19:27
so the second is synopsis was the eagle county Collaborative for career pathways. And that was a program that had had grown and morphed. We’ve been running a youth apprenticeship programs for a number of years. We have a very successful youth apprenticeship model. We’re involved with career exploration, in partnership with another local nonprofit in our school system. And this we really recognize that There are a handful of us doing great work. And there is still an opportunity gap at the end. So we work in sync to create viable, affordable alternative pathways to get people into high quality careers, with the idea that those need to be transparent about the outcomes and the cost, help young people obtain their relevant job skills, and ensure that employers value recognize and hire from the kids that we put through this pathway. So in Eagle County, specifically, Brandon, our businesses show an average 10% gap in securing and retaining young professionals across industry sector, with health care and education, are rising to near 30% levels of that gap. So working with our business community, our school district, youth serving nonprofit agencies, were able to target those key sectors and build the collaborative, we’re very fortunate to receive a million dollar grant by which to do this work with the idea to strengthen the systems that already support the career pathways, increase student readiness to pursue pathways and increase students exploration and experience in career exploration, and exploring those career opportunities. So it’s a really nice partnership. It’s a really meaningful program with very tangible results. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:43
I think that’s a struggle that a lot of chambers have is trying to retain the workforce that you put them through K through 12. And, and for whatever reason, it’s like these students graduate high school, and they want to move on to the bigger and brighter things outside of the community they grew up in, right? And, you know, what can we do to try to keep them local, show them how great this community is, and, and maybe they go away to school somewhere and you’re, you know, get some kind of education, but bring them back is such a key to be able to entice them, show them what there is in the community to bring them back why it’s a place for them. So having a program like this, I think really hits on those points of need. And I could see being something that and I know a lot of chambers have some sort of a workforce development, you know, pipeline or program with the school districts and whatnot. But to be able to draw that attention and keep them, keep them in the community is so key. So I think this is great work that you guys are involved with this program specifically. There’s anything else stand out to you with this program? As far as trying to retain this workforce here? Is there any any kind of secret sauce that you’re seeing that’s really been the AHA kind of moment, or they just with how the partnership has developed that is really made a big, big impact? I

Chris Romer 23:13
think so I think the secret sauce or the the aha moment is that this needs to be a program that is business centric, right? It can’t be a program that is just a feel good or a do good for the kids. It has to benefit the business. And it has to strengthen the systems that support not only the career pathways for students, but solves problems for the businesses. And I think that’s a that’s a big component that sometimes when we think about workforce, even in the chamber business, inherently, to serve the needs of our businesses. When we ask businesses to donate their time, we ask businesses to donate their expertise, instead of flipping that equation and saying, we’re going to do this for the business. And it happens to help the kids. We do it for the business. We do everything we do to build a stronger community and stronger businesses, the kids and the career pathway is a way to build stronger businesses. It’s not asking the businesses to help kids.

Brandon Burton 24:23
Yeah, I think that is that is a key. I’m glad you made that point, that distinction, because I think it’s easy to look at the kids and they Oh, we want to help give them a good career. And that’s noble. That’s

Chris Romer 24:35
Yes. But but that’s a that’s a that’s a secondary outcome. That’s not the primary purpose. Exactly.

Brandon Burton 24:40
Yeah. So you get the businesses on board by letting them know this is about you. This is about strengthening your business and providing good talent, you know, to keep the strong. I’m glad you made that distinction. That’s great. So I like it, especially as a as a chamber the year finalists? I think chambers can can look at you as kind of the top of the game right now, you know, as a chamber, they are finalists, and for a chamber listening who’s trying to elevate their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tips or strategies might you offer for listeners to try to accomplish that goal and to try to give that their organization that boost they’re looking for?

Chris Romer 25:24
Yeah, it’s it’s such a great if thought challenge for for chambers of commerce, to think, how do we what is that? What is that one tip? What’s the one thing you would share? And I’m going to answer that by suggesting and challenging chambers, to move away from thinking that what we do have it fixes technical challenges in our community. We don’t have technical challenges. Technical challenges are things that can be fixed by engineers, they can be fixed by surgeons and people with specific training. There’s not too many of us that came into this business, trained to run a chamber of commerce, right, we’re trained in a more of an adaptive way. So that’s my takeaway. Recognize that you have adaptive challenges, not technical challenges. And let me expand on that a little bit. Because I expect that doesn’t make much sense. Without context. When we think of adaptive challenges, the things that we face in our community, maybe it’s early childhood, transportation or workforce, maybe it’s homelessness, it could be any number of different things. We have the white. So then the question is, so what? Right, so what right that that’s a problem. And then it’s now what? How are we going to do that? So the framework, and the challenge to listeners thinking about adaptive challenges? is learning learning the what? Listening, taking action, I think we collectively do a great job of listening. Every chamber listening to this listens to their businesses listens to their community does surveys, they listen. It’s the question of taking action, how do we take action? How do I identify the steps to take action. The two last parts I’ll add on this is adaptive challenges have long term implications. They’re not transactional, they’re not, we’re going to do this, they have long term, community benefit, long term benefit to the chamber to the, to the community, to the businesses. And we’re really never ever going to fix quote, unquote, fix, and adaptive challenge. All the things I listed early childhood, workforce, housing, workforce development, talent pipeline. It’s homelessness, when we say fix what we mean is make better chambers have a very unique positioning and a position of trust within their communities, to tackle these adaptive challenges that are hard, they’re long term, and fixing the endzone always moves. So fixing these challenges really means making it better. And that that changes year after year, initiative after initiative, it never really goes away. And that creates stability. And that should hopefully create fundraising opportunities and grant funding and membership retention, and all the things. So that’s my one takeaway, and it was a really long answer. But I really want to share that if we can do that. And we can shift our thinking away from technical into adaptive, that chambers are going to fly, we’re going to thrive, because we’re going to be so uniquely positioned that no one can do what we do.

Brandon Burton 29:01
Yeah. So I like the idea that that adaptive challenges have long term implications. And I know you mentioned at the beginning of the episode about retention, and that kind of plays into here. Is there. Is there more you wanted to touch on with the aspect of retention before we wrap things up? Um,

Chris Romer 29:22
no, I don’t think so. I mean, I think that if anything, it’s really just when we talk about retention, there’s so many ways to spin that as retention of employees retention of people in our communities retention of business, retention of membership. I think if we as chambers, have had this mind frame of tackling big problems in our community and approaching it in an adaptive relationship driven manner. Then our work becomes central to the success of the community. And if we become central to the success of the community, we have solved retention at each of those levels that I talked about.

Brandon Burton 30:06
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So the question I asked everyone as they haven’t on the show is about the future of chambers, which I think you kind of touched on with your your tip there. But how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Chris Romer 30:21
Yeah, I did lead into this a little bit or leak into this, if you will. But the I think the future of chambers is really, really bright, with a caveat. And that caveat is if we roll up our sleeves and tackle the big problems, our purpose, our purpose needs to be around that, that problem solving. And again, when I say problem solving, I mean, making things better versus versus traditionally fixing things. But we can make things better. I think all the finalists that you’re going to be talking to throughout this series, probably have one, if not both of their synopsis, focusing on how they made their community better. And I think that’s a lesson for everybody within the chamber of business. And if we can focus on our purpose being problem solving, and how we do that, knowing that it’s really hard, knowing that it’s long term, knowing that it causes some sleepless nights, knowing that it’s probably not going to go over well with everybody in our community. And we’re going to have the courage to do those things. Boy, the future of chambers is so bright.

Brandon Burton 31:31
Yeah. encouraged as important in that, as you mentioned, so absolutely. Swing big and have courage. Chris, this has been fun to have you back on chamber chat podcast. I love the pieces of advice you share the experiences you have, and especially the impact you guys are making. They’re there in the Vail Valley. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what you guys are doing there at the VVP we’re what would be the best way to connect with you. Yeah,

Chris Romer 32:06
you can find all of my contact information on our website at VailValleyPartnership.com. That’s VailValleyPartnership.com. I can be reached at cromer@VailValleyPartnership.com. And you can find me on most of the social channels and my phone numbers on the website as well and all of that, but VailValleyPartnership.com is your best place to go.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Very good. So back from Episode 21, I think was your first appearance and we’re at episode 285 Now, but this has been a blast, Chris. Thanks for being with us. Again. Here. You’re on chamber chat podcast today and wish you and your team the best of luck.

Chris Romer 32:48
Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 32:51
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Opelika Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Ali Rauch

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series. And our guests for this episode is Ali Rauch. Ali is the President and CEO of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. And she was a recent guest back in episode 266. So not too long ago. So if you wanted to go back and listen to what we talked about back then she’s kind of a firecracker and has a lot of energy coming into the chamber. So she’s been in a Opelika for I guess about three and a half going on four years now. Yeah, four years, four years and in that time of have earned a five star accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce and really making a big impact there in Opelika. Prior to her role at the Chamber, she served in a wide array of industry including software manufacturing, higher education, and most notably, franchising and food services where she served eight years as director of marketing for Chicken Salad Chick. I remember stumbling on that last time as well. But Allie, we’re excited to have you back with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. I want to start by saying congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalists what an accomplishment. But good and saying hello to everyone listening. And if you’ve got another interesting tidbit about yourself to share, we’d love to hear it.

Ali Rauch 2:39
Thank you. I don’t remember what I shared last time, which was funny. I should have listened back to remember but thank you for having us. We are so thrilled I remember setting like watching the West Alabama chamber who was you know, a major leader in our state and in the country, watching them win and I had this little inkling like, I’m a competitive person, but I was like, Man, I really want I want to do that Sunday, and I thought it was going to take like a really long time. Like and honestly, it just, you know, I went on a walk with one of my board members last night and he told me he’s like Alec No, you have just gotten into hyperdrive it’s not that it doesn’t take that long to do great things you’ve just somehow you know gotten your the right people around you and have been able to make a major impact very quickly so we’re thrilled we’re excited we’re grateful can’t wait for Dallas but yeah, I guess let’s see. Little known fact about me is I am also I’m a shareholder of the Green Bay Packers wait I heard that was

Brandon Burton 3:39
my last I was

Ali Rauch 3:40
discussing okay different one. I used to drag race cars I drag race to 1973 Camaro nice all throughout high school I’ve won a Wally which is a the official trophy of the National Hot Rod Association.

Brandon Burton 3:57
Awesome. I’ve got a six random string. Yeah, so we do the cruise together someday.

Ali Rauch 4:06
Okay, that sound that sounded just love

Brandon Burton 4:09
it. Love it. Yeah. Awesome. Good deal. Well tell us a little bit about the the Opa Locka chamber your team your wonderful team that with you to to make this achievement and just give us an idea of size staff Scope of Work budget just to set the stage. I’m

Ali Rauch 4:28
so open like it is a smaller, I would consider to be a rural community in Alabama. We’re in East Central Alabama and we are the sister city to Auburn, which is home of Auburn University. So we have that like super cool college town adjacency but up like it is a tip older sister that has a really special and unique downtown area. We have a massive number of entrepreneurs and businesses in the area. It’s a very prosperous area that tends to be Knock on wood be a little bit recession proof, because between the university and the hospital, and we’re very much on a transportation kind of hub that we tend to still continue to do well, and we’ve got a lot of growth happening in our community. We’re the third fastest growing city in the state of Alabama. So very, very proud of kind of our growth. But our chamber is, you know, we are the Opalite chamber. So we represent the city of Oberliga. However, because we are in a larger MSA area of about 170,000 people, through Alberto Blanca and the county, we have a lot of businesses who fall outside of that actual city of OPA Leica. And so we’re kind of, we’re kind of in this in between where yes, we have, we have a town of 33,000. But we’re serving a larger region as well. So we have about 1000 Members, we’re 13 shy of 1000 members right now. And we are very excited to break 1000 and stay broken, stay over that 1000 home. In 2024, we’re almost there. We’ve got a budget of under a million dollars, we have a team of currently a team of seven. And then of course, we utilize some interns for help as well. But we have a really great partnership with our city where we have a contract for services where we’re responsible for entrepreneurship, we’re responsible for kind of business development, we do not do economic development, we do not do tourism, we have great partners for that. So we really stay hyper focused on making sure our business community has what it needs. And we do that and stay focused on our mission of strengthen our community as the champion for business. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 6:42
Awesome. Yeah. So you guys are kind of in a weird, not weird, but it’s a interesting situation. I mean, you’re not just the typical, you know, hometown chamber, right. It’s kind of a quasi Regional Chamber as well. So and

Ali Rauch 6:57
we have a fellow chamber right across the street, across the street, but you know, seven miles up the road in our other sister city who’s just as large and doing the right thing. So it’s really interesting.

Brandon Burton 7:08
Yeah, that is cool. Well, on these chamber the year finalist episodes, I like to spend the majority of our time really diving into the the two programs that you submitted on your synopsis and the application for chamber the year and we’ll get much deeper into those details and what those programs are as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Ali we are back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re going to be diving into the two programs synopsis that were included on your chamber that your application I understand the first one has to do with food trucks or something like that. Yeah, dive into that and tell us what that program is about and the impact it’s made in the community.

Ali Rauch 10:09
Yeah, absolutely. A few years ago, it was actually in response to COVID. We had numerous restaurants closed in our historic downtown and our historic downtown. It’s beautiful. It’s, it’s very cool. We have a courthouse square, we’ve got a railroad tracks, and then we’ve got downtown merchants. And, you know, we had some businesses, specifically restaurants closed during COVID. And we are also home of the very first legal distillery for bourbon and vodka and everything in the state of Alabama, since prohibition is made right there in our downtown. And so we’ve got a distillery, we have two breweries, we’ve got a brew shop. So it’s a very eclectic, cool space. And people weren’t coming downtown, because they there were such few restaurants that they couldn’t get into them. They’re great, but they’re busy. And so they couldn’t get into those restaurants. And those brew shops and such were like, how can we get people downtown, we’re struggling. And so the idea came to maybe bring one food truck down. And then I thought, well, instead of just one want to, I don’t do anything small. So why don’t we do more and make it kind of like an event. And it started by almost by force, because our city ordinances do not allow food trucks in our downtown, that were a special event. So I had, I had to create a special event for the food trucks to get approved. But then on top of that, I had to go to our city council, there was a lot of advocacy efforts put into this because we had to convince the city council to allow us to create this event and bring these food trucks in. And it didn’t just stop with Okay, let us do it once we had to prove ourselves. So we came back every three months and reported on results and said, This is good for business, this is bringing people down. And so what we do is we bring about 20 to 25 food trucks to our downtown, we do not close all of the streets, because we’ve got a lot of street parking. And so it’s important that people can get down and be convenient. So we block off some parking spots, and we put the food trucks in place. And they’re right up against the sidewalk. So all that pedestrian traffic stays right there on the sidewalks next to the businesses. And it’s on the third Friday, every month from five to 9pm. We’ve got about 30 trucks down there. And we’re seeing an average of 3600 people every Friday night that come down for this, which is amazing. We have grown from having I think 11 Food Trucks registered to do business in OPA Leica to nearly 60. And so that’s sales tax revenue for our businesses. That’s, you know, permits for our city government. But then, of course, that also has driven membership for us. So we have a good number of food trucks who choose to be a member, you actually don’t have to be a member to be a part of food truck Friday. But you know, we charge a fee to every truck that participates. They’re required to be licensed and health department and pay their taxes and all of those things. And so it’s a really great partnership for us that has just built so much community for our for our citizens, we have, we have a very good community that’s about 5050 When it comes to African Americans and white people and and then we’ve got a growing Hispanic population. And I was always told that, you know, a lot of African Americans didn’t feel comfortable coming downtown, and it just didn’t feel like their place. And it could not be more different now, because of food truck Friday, it has been just life changing. Because again, a lot of the food trucks that we’re bringing, these are businesses, you aren’t ready, they maybe they don’t have their finances in order to have a brick and mortar store. But they can get themselves together for a food truck. And they’re traveling around. And so we also have, we have a ton of African American food truck owners, which then bring the African American citizens to come down and get that food. And it has just created this true melting pot that our community on future Fridays looks like our community in downtown and it’s just really special. That’s

Brandon Burton 14:27
awesome. I think it was just this past week, I had seen a meme if I remember right, I think it was put out by the 13 ways organization, you know, 13 ways. And it said something to the effect of show me a vital downtown and I’ll show you a vital community, right. So essentially, downtown is going to be a reflection of your community as a whole. So being able to put that focus on it, I see a huge value and I love being able to see that representation of your community in the downtown. You mentioned it started Did through the pandemic? And I’m sure restaurants shut downs and things like that. Are any of those restaurants? Did they go from a brick and mortar to a food truck? Do they still operate that way? Or how? What’s that dynamic look like today?

Ali Rauch 15:15
It has been so cool on to watch the growth. So we had, one of the ways that we really made this work was a few in the early days, we didn’t have that many food trucks. So we had some caterers that really wanted to grow. So we would let the caterers prepare their food in their Commissary Kitchen and then set up in the brewery. And then they would serve their plates from the brewery. And so we have had, let’s see, I think one caterer that became a food truck, we’ve had another caterer who now has one brick and mortar restaurant, she was just nominated for Business of the Year for our annual awards. She’s working on her second location. We’ve had trucks, we’ve had another truck that was just so popular, called last Latinas. They have now opened up their own Commissary Kitchen, for catering services and for takeout but are still operating their truck as well. So there’s been a lot of growth and success as a result of open like a having a hub for food trucks. And now it’s turned into brick and mortar and just expanded service in the area. That’s

Brandon Burton 16:21
awesome. So you had also mentioned you had to go back to city council, like every three months to state your case, and really show the evidence of why this works. What are some of those more compelling pieces that made them decide? Yeah, this is a good thing to have on a regular basis?

Ali Rauch 16:38
Well, you know, what we showed them is that when you’re when food trucks are parked, closest, like close to a restaurant, you might think, oh, that’s bad. We can’t do that, because it’s going to take business away from the restaurant. But what we were doing is that we were driving such an influx of people, the food trucks couldn’t handle the demand. So what we saw was that people would be hungry and decide, oh, I’m not waiting in that line. And they’d go into the restaurants. And so we provided photos of our restaurants being packed to the brim at seven o’clock on a Friday night. While there are still 1000s of people out and about downtown. So we proved that. I think there just was such a high number of people downtown, like the mayor would come out and get his Friday Night Dinner every Friday night. We had asked restaurants if they could provide reports if they were up or down. And the vast majority of them were up. Interestingly enough, the the restaurants who refused to have a truck anywhere near their restaurant, did not see success. They didn’t, they decided I don’t want to be a part of it. So we respected their wishes and kept the trucks farther away from them. And they’re the ones that aren’t experiencing that influx. My one of my biggest wins is there’s a brewery that was pretty against it. They didn’t like the idea. And so we respected them for the first couple of months. And then I went to them and I said, Will you just trust me? Will you let me try this for two months, let me close this street right in front of you. Let me put a truck right in front of your doors. And if you don’t see an increase, then we’ll go back. And now they’re our biggest advocate because their restaurants back or their breweries back doesn’t

Brandon Burton 18:29
say that, that seems like such a perfect match, you know, at the food truck so

Ali Rauch 18:34
well, they serve food. And so they serve pizza and pretzels. So they were like kind of standoffish about it. But again, now they’ve seen such an influx. And now we put this really great milkshake shake shop right in front of them. That’s beautiful. That’s, you know, got great LED lights on top. So it draws a crowd. It’s just like a, you know, a beacon of light to send them over.

Brandon Burton 18:56
I love it. That’s awesome. So our time goes quick in these chamber, the your interviews. So let’s let’s shift gears into the second program, if you want to introduce it. The second program was submitted on your application.

Ali Rauch 19:09
Yes, our second public. Our second program was the public policy program that we have put in place. And, you know, the world today has a lot of political fragmentation that we have to overcome. And it was really important for us to be that unified champion for public policy. And so we started by creating an issue focused public policy agenda to engage our public sector. We host candidate forums. We supported our school system by being the main voice and advocate for the five miltax referendum renewal. And then we also started distributing regular public policy newsletters to ensure our members understood that big picture impact of federal and state legislation on their actual business.

Brandon Burton 19:56
Awesome. I’m taking notes as you’re going you guys covered a lot of things lot of issues there from the candidate forums, the school district and the newsletters. Are you able to see like engagement with the newsletters as far as informing the community and any feedback you’re receiving as providing that information? You

Ali Rauch 20:13
know, funny enough, it’s quiet, always quiet and quiet is okay. Because

Brandon Burton 20:18
there’s something of buzzworthy right, then then everybody’s

Ali Rauch 20:23
quiet is okay, we’ve really taken that stance of trying to make sure that informing is the goal, we’re not taking opinion. And we’re not, you know, advocating one way or the other, we are simply informing and so our public policy emails, I think, have at least a 45%, open rates. And we do send them on a regular basis just throughout the year, we will send them no more often than once a month. But when our state is in session, for those two and a half months, we try and do it every other week, so that we’re updating people on Friday afternoons for what’s happened in the past week and or so. And so, it is, it’s a segment of our membership that’s interested, but they’re not really loud and vocal, but that’s okay. Our goal isn’t to create this movement, we’re simply trying to inform people and make them better educated. Right?

Brandon Burton 21:14
Yeah, I think in in so many communities across the country, there’s local newspapers or local radio that used to cover these things that now maybe they don’t have the bandwidth, they don’t have the reporters, some of them don’t exist anymore. And chambers perfect to fill that void to be able to keep the citizens informed of policies and things going on in the community and from the public policy arena. And it’s a it’s a perfect alignment. And I’m actually kind of surprised more chambers weren’t involved with it before there was that kind of need, where there was those local news outlets.

Ali Rauch 21:47
It’s kind of scary, you know, like, you don’t want to get involved. But at the end of the day, I think Sherry Ann has shared this in the past, there’s that I think it’s the Edelman barometer of trust. The community trust the business community more than they trust the government more than they trust the media. So why not us to be that communicating force. And so, you know, we do, we do a lot of intentional efforts. So we connect with our legislators through our leadership programs, we do a 20 under 40 leadership program where we bring our legislators into connect with them. We do our Lee County Young Leaders program for high school juniors, where we go to see them at the state capitol and visit with the governor and lieutenant governor. And so we’re doing all these little things that are getting just informational, just trying to create those relationships and connections. We also host our annual State of the City event, which is kind of like an inaugural address, but for our mayor, and that is a great way for him to celebrate what’s been happening at the city. It’s a way for us to really establish our foothold as the voice for business and our community on all things advocacy. And it’s really been, it’s been exciting to see us take that elevated approach. And there was nothing more prominent in that elevation than us leading the charge for the tax mill increase, or the tax mill renewal for our schools. We you know, we put out yard signs, and we did text messages and email reminders to people to vote, and we had a 92% voting approval rate for the tax bill. So like, Hey, it works.

Brandon Burton 23:24
That’s awesome. And I think I’ve shared it before but our, in our community, we had a recent bond being proposed for the school district and my wife works for the school district. So she had a little bit of insider knowledge as far as the conversations going on about the number of participants voters coming out to vote on this bond. And we’re talking obviously, millions of dollars for this bond. And there was such a tiny percentage of the community that is making big decisions for the entire community and, and committing the community and the school district to huge debt. I mean, it’s a it can be a good thing and good purpose and everything but when it’s such a small percentage of the overall community that participates, it’s so important for a chamber to take ownership of that to drive voter turnout and to just get the general public involved with sharing their voice and, and their values in the community. So kudos to you.

Ali Rauch 24:24
Thank you. And I will say I’m just going to pull out a little brag because I realized that 45% open rate was actually 57% which i Hey, wow.

Brandon Burton 24:35
That’s awesome. Yeah, and as far as email open rates go, that’s a that’s huge. Wow. That is awesome. So, as you know, recently being on the show, I like having my guests on the show talk about any tips or action items for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level. especially as a chamber, the year finalist, you guys are kind of top of the game right now. So for those listening who would like to elevate their chamber, what kind of tip or advice would you offer for them?

Ali Rauch 25:12
I would say start small. You, you eat the elephant, one bite at a time. You know, it is not something where, you know, you go to sleep one day, you wake up the next day, and all of a sudden, you are this, you know, legendary public policy person on behalf of your community. It’s those little steps what our first step was to build a public policy agenda. We’ve never done that before we leaned on each other to do that. We connected with other communities that have done it before, to get a good baseline. We surveyed our membership, we built a partnership with other chambers in the area and said, Let’s do this together. So start small, what does that what’s that top priority and start there? And then we realized, okay, we need to do more. How do we update that our members on what’s happening every week in the legislation later, so then we started our newsletter. And then before we know it, we get asked to be the leading voice for the tax mail. And so it just kind of snowballs but start small, don’t be afraid to start small and it will grow and grow and grow as as you’re ready for it to grow.

Brandon Burton 26:16
I think great advice. I think the especially the point about partnering, partnering with other chambers, especially when a when you’re talking about public policy and advocacy efforts, work with other chambers work with your State Chamber, they provide so many great resources, that they’re doing a lot of the legwork and you’re able to pass along the information and and share it locally, right? Yes.

Ali Rauch 26:38
Well, that’s the important thing to note about our public policy newsletter, we are not writing anything from scratch in that newsletter, every single thing that we are sharing. It is it’s a press release from the governor’s office, it’s articles from the US chambers email or from ACCE easy now that it’s talking about specific policy that’s happening. We are simply copying, pasting it sort of shortening it for our format, from an informational prospective, and that’s it. And so you can absolutely do that. And they actually encourage it, which is really nice.

Brandon Burton 27:13
Yeah, yeah, it’s great having partnerships with these organizations that say, We’re doing this for you, please take this uses, your communities. They want you to do it. So. So the other question I like asking is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ali Rauch 27:35
I think you know, what I said last time still applies. I think we’re going to have an even bigger role and space to be those catalytic leaders for the future. How do we be I think, Sherry and says it, how do we continue to be the same center that makes sure that we are helping our business community in ways that matter? Let’s I think the future means that we’re not just going to do what we’ve always done. The the chambers that are going to be successful, that are going to make waves and do great work for many, many years to come. are the ones that are adapting and trying to do bigger things versus sticking to what has been traditionally considered what a chamber does.

Brandon Burton 28:16
Yeah, absolutely the same senators that it resonates very well. So especially in this crazy world,

Unknown Speaker 28:23
crazy world.

Brandon Burton 28:27
Well, Ali, I wanted to give you a chance again, to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn a little bit more about these programs that you guys are highlighting that are definitely making an impact in the open like a community what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you. You

Ali Rauch 28:43
can find us at OpelikaChamber.com or on any of the social channels at Opelika Chamber and we are of course you can find me as well my email addresses listed on the website and you can find me on LinkedIn and Ali Vice Rouch but I’m really excited, grateful and appreciative and looking forward to July

Brandon Burton 29:06
Yes, and I can I can say your your social media, your LinkedIn stuff you like eat, eat, drink, breathe everything chamber so great, great person to find you

Unknown Speaker 29:21
nothing halfway Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:24
That’s right. We’ll get all of that in the show notes to make it easy for people to reach out and connect with you. But again, congratulations to you and your team. What an honor to be selected as a finalist and I wish you guys the best of luck in Dallas.

Ali Rauch 29:37
Thank you so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 29:40
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Policy & Advocacy with Brian Francis

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

Becki Womble 1:03
I’ve been using Community Matters for probably six or seven years now. And in a previous life, I sold commercial printing so I can highly recommend Community Matters because it’s a complete turnkey job for any busy chamber exec and it’s a wonderful, beautiful printed product whenever you’re finished. And I just I’m very sold on Community Matters. And with a printing background I just big endorsement from me.

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Brian Francis. Brian is founder and CEO of Lumin Strategies, a firm that helps Chambers of Commerce build eight plus advocacy programs through one on one consulting and a signature of advocacy framework online program. Brian’s experience covers nearly all facets of the policy and political world from political campaign leadership on successful bond referendum to successful advocacy as a registered lobbyists. He is past public affairs officer for Mecklenburg County and past vice president of public policy programs at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. He founded lumen strategies in 2016. This year, Brian joins the faculty for the US Chamber Institute of Organizational Management. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Davidson College, whose basketball program he’s supported since before Steph Curry. Brian, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well,

Brian Francis 3:11
great. Thanks, Brandon. I’m really excited to be with you all today. And you hit on one interest, perhaps interesting thing about me I’m big, big college basketball fan. So the last couple months have obviously been a lot of fun for me, both for my alma mater, Davidson College, but also in the Big East. My son is a freshman at Butler this year. And so we’ve been following them. A more controversial thing about me perhaps one of my passions is that I think we should eliminate timezones. And we can certainly talk about that. But that’s probably a different podcast.

Brandon Burton 3:42
Yeah, you can get on your soapbox there for a moment right. Now, that’s great. So I’d like for you to take just a few minutes and tell us a little bit about lumens strategies, what the company is like, who you serve, and it’s about advocacy, but just maybe in a brief nutshell, to kind of set the stage for discussion. Yeah,

Brian Francis 4:04
probably like a lot of companies. You know, we’ve evolved over time. So we’ve been in business for about eight years, we started as a strategic communications consulting firm, that really dabbled in a lot of different areas. But over the last several years, we’ve really honed in on chambers of commerce and helping them build advocacy programs. And we we do that two ways. One, we work one on one with chambers in a consulting role many times serving essentially as the VP of public policy for their Chamber of Commerce. In fact, some of our clients put us on their staff page as their Director of Advocacy or VP of public policy. And we also work with chambers of commerce through our signature online program, the advocacy framework. This is oftentimes for chambers that maybe are a little bit smaller, aren’t looking for the kind of the investment required to have somebody working directly with them. But what to get involved with advocacy wants to learn how to do advocacy, and through our program, we basically teach them how to institute and run a public policy or advocacy program.

Brandon Burton 5:06
That’s very helpful. And as listener might guess, we’ve decided on a topic for our discussion today to be centered around advocacy since you guys are kind of the experts on that. So we look, we look forward to dive in deeper into this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

Alright, Brian, we’re back. So before the break, when you were telling us a little bit about lumen strategies, it’s obviously a company that you built around helping chambers of commerce and build advocacy programs. Why do you think that advocacy programs are so important for chambers to be involved with?

Brian Francis 7:23
Well, if you think about chambers of commerce, historically, really, the whole reason we have Chambers of Commerce is to help businesses in a community grow. And chambers do a lot of great work around networking activities, helping their members meet potential customers. But I think a core part of helping the business community grows, ensuring that there is a public policy climate that allows for businesses to grow. And really, Chambers of Commerce were instituted to represent business interests in their community. And so from a foundational perspective, I think it’s really important. I think it’s also really important as you talk to maybe your higher investor members, you know, a lot of times if you have a manufacturer in your community, they’re not looking to sell to the community, their market is global. If they’re going to get involved in the chamber, they need a different value proposition. And really the value proposition for them is what are you doing to make the overall business climate better, so their business can succeed? Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 8:25
And I know chambers of all different sizes, you know, they’re in different areas of spectrum, right, as far as being involved with advocacy. So I’m hopeful that our conversation today will help shed some light on different ways to get involved on an advocacy front, whether that’s bringing in somebody like yourself to help with that effort, or just to expose them in ways to to better support those business members that they have. So kind of along those lines with advocacy. I think there’s a real argument to have ag advocacy as an investor hook. Right. So as you’re going after new members, you’re trying to bring in new businesses to join the chamber. How would you see using advocacy as an investor hook? Well,

Brian Francis 9:15
I really do think it is something and you have to think about your high level investors, it is a way to get them to participate more in your chamber and to put more money into your chamber. And you there’s some four boxes out there people will have probably seen when you think about your Chamber members, you have chambers who Chamber members who are looking to get something from your chamber, and you have Chamber members who are looking to get something done. And one of the things we talked about is you we often think about the return on investment for members and a lot of members are looking for that return on investment. And if you think about you know a lot of your smaller members, your local retailer or maybe a residential realtor or a copier salesman, they’re looking to find customers and they’re going to measure their return on how many customers? And how much revenue Did you directly produce for them? Like I mentioned for a manufacturer or maybe even a bank or a bigger member of your community, and oftentimes the longer member longer time members of your community, those who are the pillars of the community, as it were, they’re not really looking for that so much the return they’re looking for is, how much can they grow their business, because you have helped foster a climate that is positive to them. I would also say, you know, for those smaller members, there is a direct return as well in in North Carolina, a couple years ago, there was a tax issue related to PPP loans, that local Chambers of Commerce got behind and ultimately saved small business in North Carolina $640 million through their advocacy. Now that 640 million was 5000. Here, 5000. There, but that was it made a big difference to a lot of small chamber members. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 10:57
absolutely. And I think there’s a lot of examples through the pandemic, and the PPP loans and things of that nature, where you can really see the advocacy efforts of chambers really being recognized, especially by those businesses that maybe were more transactional, to begin with, and kind of moves them over to the transformational side of things and understanding the bigger picture of what chambers can do. You didn’t necessarily use those that phrase of transactional, the transformational, but are there other ways that you can see where you can take somebody from a transactional relationship to more than transformational in this kind of a advocacy conversation

Brian Francis 11:36
100%. And in fact, one of the things I would say is you need to talk about that value. I’ve seen this with a lot of chambers we work with they they’ll have a tiered do structure, which I 100% support, and I think it is the direction all the chambers need to go and if they don’t have one already, but when you get to those higher tiers, the value that the Chamber often puts on that piece of paper is we will give you a foursome at our golf tournament, or we will give you a table at our annual meeting. And a lot of times, that’s not necessarily what those larger investors are looking for. What they’re really looking for, is we saved your company money by helping navigate this regulation or changing this local zoning regulation, or, you know, we were at the forefront of this tax policy change that is making a difference of 10s or hundreds of 1000s of dollars for your business. So part of it is changing what you talk about and recognizing the and giving credit to those people because of your investment, we were able to do this advocacy. And because we were able to do this advocacy, you saw this return.

Brandon Burton 12:45
Absolutely, yeah. But just the examples he gave there, I can see where some members may say I’m, I’m really just not a golfer like that doesn’t appeal to me, or I really don’t need to go to another meeting, like as much as I appreciate the prime table at the annual meeting, I don’t really care to go, you know, whereas if they can look to the chamber and say, Man, you guys really helped us tackle this big issue of child care, or workforce or whatever it may be, then they can really see where the needle is moving with their business with the involvement with the chamber. So

Brian Francis 13:18
absolutely, I mean, we I think we forget, sometimes sometimes it can be a hassle to have to try to fill a table. And so you’re actually making your members life more difficult on by trying to give them something that they really aren’t looking for. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:32
So great arguments for being involved with advocacy, what from your experience, and just reasonings that you can see why. What holds the chamber back from getting involved with advocacy.

Brian Francis 13:44
I would say the first thing and I hear this all the time is chamber presidents executive directors and their boards say, we don’t want to get involved in politics. And oftentimes that comes from a bad experience that maybe they had years ago where somebody said the chamber is too political. And so we’re dropping our membership. And one of the things that we emphasize to people, we’re not talking about getting involved in politics, we’re talking about getting involved in policy. And here’s the distinction that I make politics is about people and power. Policy is about laws and regulations. And I will put the caveat out there. There are some chambers out there who get involved in politics, they have PACs, they endorse candidates. And I would say that’s kind of at the end, you talked before about a spectrum that’s at the end of the spectrum. If you’ve never done anything in the political realm or the policy realm before, that’s not where you start. Where you start is identifying the issues that matter to your members and working on those issues, regardless of who supports them. So this isn’t, hey, we’re going to support this ordinance because the mayor asked us to it’s we’re going to support this ordinance because we had a rigorous process to identify what is important to our members. And they’ve told us this is an important issue that needs to be corrected in order for their business to grow.

Brandon Burton 15:03
Absolutely. And I would even say even some of the pushback that they might have gotten in the past, I think getting involved with politics rather than policy is an obvious reason why they might hear some of that pushback, but there’s always going to be somebody who’s not happy with something, and they tend to be the loudest, right? So if you’ve got 1000 members, or 400 members, and you hear that one squeaky wheel, you know, that’s not indicative of what everybody else is thinking. So everybody else is cheering you on, even though they may not be coming to your front door to patch on the back.

Brian Francis 15:37
You know, that’s 100% Correct. And I imagine most of your audience are chamber staff, folks. And that’s one of the things that we talk about. When that squeaky wheel starts to squeak, we think it’s very important for your chamber to have a member driven policy process where you have a committee that’s developing the policies, it’s reviewed by your executive committee, it’s approved by your board. So when that squeaky wheel calls up the director and says, Why did you decide this? The director can say, Whoa, I didn’t decide this, this was decided by our members, by the people who participate, who learned about the issue and identified it as being something important for us to be involved

Brandon Burton 16:15
in. Right, right. And I think for all the staff to be able to understand this is how you respond when when there is opposition. I think that’s very important. So I can understand your chambers may not want to get involved with politics. But to think more on the policy side, I think would hopefully generate some interest for chambers to get involved. Are there other reasons that that you can see why chambers hesitate from getting involved with advocacy? Yeah, so

Brian Francis 16:45
I think once chambers make the decision, they want to get involved in policy. The next step is where do I start? And where do I find the time to do it. So a lot of chamber executives don’t have experience in the policy world. They, they literally don’t know where to start. And then also, you run into this all the time, especially with your smaller chambers. You know, there’s 1000, things that they have going on, you need to get your invoices out, you’ve got business after hours, you have to plan annual meetings coming up. The local school system wants to talk about workforce development, where do you find the time to put together a policy program and and I’ll say, that’s really where we step in. Both from our past experience, I’ve been involved in the political and policy arena for more than 25 years, we kind of have the expertise of how the process works. But then also, from the capacity standpoint, we try to make it easy for our clients in either our consulting or our online program by providing email templates, draft agendas, really all the work that needs to be done behind the scenes we do for them, so that they can just go out and execute on on running the policy program. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 18:00
no, I can see where where the expertise and capacity could be, you know, hurdles to overcome. Maybe starting with with expertise, if you don’t feel like you’re equipped to be able to handle this, what are some solutions or ways to overcome it? I think every chamber needs to be involved on some level on that spectrum with advocacy and policy. But how do you overcome that big hurdle of not having, you know, the not being fully equipped, or you may not feel like you’re equipped enough to handle these these topics? Well,

Brian Francis 18:32
I think the first thing is to accept and feel confident that it’s okay that you don’t understand every issue in the middlee. Elected officials don’t lobbyists don’t There are a lot of niche areas. And so the first thing I would do is say, look for your experts. So if there is an issue that a lot of members are talking about health insurance costs, and you have an insurance agent or representative who’s a member of your chamber, go to them to look for information, go to the local hospital system. If broadband is a a coming issue in your community and and investing there, look to the telecom providers that may be involved. So within your membership, you have a lot of expertise. And one thing you can do is look to your members to help educate you on their areas of of expertise. The second thing I would do and this varies a little bit from state to state, but oftentimes the State Chamber of Commerce can be a great resource. We work in South Carolina quite a bit and the South Carolina chamber does a great job every week of putting out a an email and a social media post that has just three things to know. And oftentimes, those are focused on policy issues that are moving through their legislature. And so you can often kind of repurpose that content and share it back out to your members and establish yourself as an expert just by finding the information for your members that they don’t have time to find.

Brandon Burton 19:57
Yeah, and that that helps with The Capacity stand front too, if you’re able to have a trusted source, like a State Chamber who’s doing a lot of the legwork, they have staff members who are facing, you know, the advocacy issues, and being able to put that out, be involved, like tap into that resource, but then repurpose it, then it shows Hey, we’re tapped into knowing what’s in the know, and what’s important to you. And, and all of that, are there other ways as far as tapping into the capacity issue, that time issue for chambers with getting involved? Or is that the the main thing you’d go to?

Brian Francis 20:34
So I think those are definitely helps. You know, I would say, if you have volunteers who have capacity, this is a great way to plug them in. One of my favorite tricks, so to speak, is to find a former chair of your board, who still wants to be involved. A lot of times, you know, these chairs kind of they they have their chairmanship year, they’ll have their immediate past chair year, and they still want to be involved with the chamber, they’re not sure what to do next. And so getting them involved in chairing a policy committee, you’re drawing on somebody who has a lot of experience and a lot of leadership within your your organization. And so you can rely on them. You know, and I’d say, your drawl from other Chambers of Commerce. You know, a lot of that one of the important things to get started is developing a legislative agenda. And Chambers of Commerce typically will put those on to their websites. So go around to other communities that are of like size to yours in the state are maybe even a little bit bigger, maybe more involved with it and see what they’re talking about. And use that as a jumping off point.

Brandon Burton 21:39
I love that. It’s it’s always good to collaborate good ideas from other chambers. And and the the idea of using a past chair, I think is is crucial, because they’re intimately involved with the the goings on with the chamber. They understand the mission and vision they’ve been highly involved. And to be able to keep them involved in a meaningful way, I think is a great way to utilize a past chair, that’s a great idea.

Brian Francis 22:03
Well, the other thing I would say to with working with other chambers in advocacy, coalition building is really important. And so sometimes people are like, Why do you still want to take what somebody else did, and I can make some arguments, you shouldn’t just do that, because you want your members invested in your policy positions. So I always say use them as ideas, rather than just taking something old cloth from somebody else. But once you say, hey, childcare, and ensuring that we have more childcare workers is an important issue to us, and we want to work on it, you can leverage the other chambers who have said the same thing to work together. And not everybody has to be the leader and carry all the water on each issue. Sometimes simply saying me to our chamber to supports this can really help move something forward. And the other people who have already identified that issue will be happy to have you working with them, and won’t really see it as you’re taking something from them, but rather, you’re adding something to their efforts.

Brandon Burton 23:02
Right. And I think as far as coalition’s go, especially with a regional focus, if you’ve got the chambers within your county or a Tri County area where you’re facing a lot of the similar issues together, it’s one thing from a chamber from another state, there’s still value that can be found there for sure. But you definitely wouldn’t want to copy paste, you know what they’re doing. And then South Carolina if you’re in Tennessee, for example. But if you’ve got other chambers in your county, that you can collaborate together and really build something that’s efficient and meaningful for your members. I agree.

Brian Francis 23:36
And particularly because we’ve really tried to focus our clients on working at the state level, what we have said is at the federal level, it’s just so big. And the process, especially these days is so unwieldy. It’s hard to have influence. And at the local level, a lot of stuff just happens kind of ad hoc, you know, you run into the mayor, and you talk about an issue and it gets resolved. But the state process, it’s it is more of a process. There’s a timeline that needs to be involved. There’s, there’s a lot more work, that move happens to move something through. But chambers really can have a lot of influence. You’re seeing your state reps, hopefully, you’re seeing your state senators, they’re calling on you for advice, and it’s a place where you can really have an impact. Right?

Brandon Burton 24:18
Absolutely, you can make that impact. And I’d like to argue that maybe it does make an impact on the federal level if enough states are doing it and the broader level can see what’s important. But Brian, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask for the chamber listening who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level? What tip or strategy might you offer to them to try to accomplish that goal?

Brian Francis 24:43
So the first thing I would say is have a conversation with your board. You know, this is really I’ve started by saying needs to be a member driven process and that starts with your leader members who are on your board of directors. Talk to them about why you You think advocacy is important, we have on our website or by contacting me, I can send to you a PowerPoint draft presentation that you can literally drop your Chamber’s name into. And it kind of walks through how to have that conversation, a lot of what we talked about today about how to talk to them about being involved in policy, not politics. What you need to do to get started with kind of the steps are that you’ll go through the process, but the very first thing you need to do is have buy in from your board, because this is not an easy thing to do. If it is staff driven, you really need to have that volunteer leadership on board.

Brandon Burton 25:34
Absolutely. So I like asking this question to everyone that I have on the podcast, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Brian Francis 25:48
So the first thing I would say, obviously, we know we’re a much more global economy. So the the hometown member to member transactions become less and less prevalent, it’s easy to find a website provider who’s across the country across the world. And so I think there is a need for chambers to evolve, and to continue to provide that value. But I would also say, when you look at the political world these days, I would say that we are oftentimes dominated by extreme conversations or folks who are more at the the ideological fringe. And I think there is a need for a common sense, bro business policy advocate in just about every community. And it’s if the chamber is not doing it, we always say if the chamber is not the voice for business, then business has no voice in the community. And so I really think the futures of chambers, if they are going to continue to be relevant, they have to be involved in providing that voice to say, regardless of all the stuff that people are talking about, that elected officials are talking about, here are the things that we really need to do to invest in our community, to invest in our workforce and to promote our businesses so that our economy can continue to thrive.

Brandon Burton 27:07
Right. And I think you hit on the political fringes, I think so much of that we see on the national level, right? Watch news channels and things like that, where you get in the local levels, you get into local policy and and even state policy. And you don’t see quite as you know, dramatic ends of the you know, the those political fringes that the opposite ends of the spectrum, there’s a lot more in the middle. And there’s a lot more that chambers can can stand on as being that same center and being able to bring people together, that I think that that vision you have of chambers, the future, I think is spot on. So thank you for sharing that. I wanted to give you an opportunity, Brian to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you or ask for the PowerPoint that you mentioned, to be able to have these conversations at their board, what would be the best way for listener to reach out and connect with you?

Brian Francis 28:04
Well, I’d say there’s two great ways. First of all, you can always email me is bfrancis@luminstrat.com, that’s L u m, I n s t r a t, or connect with me on LinkedIn on Brian Francis, from North Carolina, Davidson College, that should give you enough to find me, we try to put out a lot of content that is helpful for chambers of commerce through the LinkedIn. And so that would be a great place as well. That’s

Brandon Burton 28:32
perfect. And we’ll get that in the show notes as well make it easy to find and, and I would encourage everyone to reach out to Brian and ask for that PowerPoint to be able to start these conversations with your board. They will to get ideas of where on that spectrum you want to jump in at and getting involved with policy and advocacy at your chamber. And, and maybe you’re already involved. But let’s see, you know, how can you continue moving that needle. But, Brian, it’s been great having you with us today. I appreciate you taking some time to deal with us here on Chamber Chat Podcast. And I think you’ve pulled back the curtain on a lot of important topics and around policy and chambers getting involved and overcoming you know some of the hurdles that they might see as hurdles, but to see that it is possible to move, move past and move through those obstacles to really get involved in a meaningful way. So I appreciate you being on here and sharing your expertise with us. Well,

Brian Francis 29:29
thank you for having me, Brandon. Maybe I can come back and talk about Thompson sometime.

Brandon Burton 29:33
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