As I interview guests on Chamber Chat Podcast, I always ask the same question at the end of each episode. That question is “how do you see the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?”. I get a lot of great answers to this question as it forces us to take a glimpse into the future. Of course nobody really knows what the future holds, but it is a good idea as hall of fame hockey player, Wayne Gretzky says to skate to where the puck is going.
In an effort to gain a better understanding of where the future is going, I believe it is a good idea to look at the habits, trends, and even addictions of the next generations. One of the biggest trends or addictions that I notice is the widespread adoption of immersive role playing “games”. I put games in quotation marks because as it may appear to be a game to older generations, the ones who are immersed in these platforms are living another life within that ecosystem.
Traditional Video Games vs. Metaverse Games
When I was growing up, my friends and I would get together to play Nintendo games. We would play games like Super Mario Bros., Tecmo Super Bowl, and later Street Fighter II. Each new gaming system would bring along greater capacity for more realistic graphics. To play these games, we would insert a game cartridge into the gaming system. We would play until the game was over, we were out of lifes, or until an upset sibling turned the system off. The games of today are very different. Today, these games are connected through the internet to other gaming devices and many of these games can be played on a variety of platforms (TV screen, PC, smartphone, etc.).
Another differentiating factor is that these games don’t necessarily end. A player has their avatar or character in a virtual world where they “live”. These avatars have homes, cars, clothes, among other possessions that they can collect, purchase, or trade throughout their virtual experience. Did you notice that I said purchase? Yes, these avatars are purchasing goods and services within the virtual world. They are doing commerce.
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Metaverse Now
When we hear or talk about the Metaverse, it is really an abstract concept of virtual worlds. We tend to think about how this might look in the future while ignoring that this is happening NOW! The next generations are already plugged into the Metaverse and doing commerce there.
What grabbed my attention around this topic is the annual sales from the top three virtual or Metaverse platforms in comparison to one of the top real goods online retailers. The combined annual sales of Roblox ($2.206B), Fortnite ($5.8B), and Minecraft ($380M) is $8.386B while Etsy, one of the top online retailers for real goods, has a total annual sales of $2.414B. These three Metaverse games are out performing Etsy by 4X! Is that worth taking note of?
Some of the world’s biggest companies and brands are starting to create digital products specifically for the Metaverse. Nike has even launched virtual shoes. Many of these brands are tying their digital products to an NFT which is also connected to a physical product.
Doing Digital Commerce
So, again, as we look to the future, if we look at those people who will be doing business and commerce in the future, what can we learn? We learn that they are already comfortable with conducting business through a screen, a headset, and even an avatar. We learn that their world is much smaller than the world a traditional business person might be used to. When we are not limited by geography a whole new world of possibilities opens up.
As a chamber leader, I would suggest you spend some time with your children or grandchildren to learn more about what their virtual worlds look like. Find out what they enjoy about their virtual experiences. I believe that soon enough, we will no longer call these virtual worlds or virtual experiences, they will just be integrated into our everyday lives.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
It may be worth your time to bring on an intern who can help to make the connection between traditional business and virtual commerce. Once your chamber members see that the puck is going in this direction, they will need to lean on their chamber to get up to speed quickly. Now is the time for you to learn so you can help your member businesses pivot as the ecosystem matures. There is space for every chamber of commerce in the Metaverse world. There will also be a huge upside for those who partake in the first mover advantage.
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No matter the size of your chamber, there never seems to be enough time in the day to get everything done. As a result, we tend to prioritize the most urgent tasks to be done first. This constant triage of tasks inevitably leads to certain tasks falling lower and lower on the proverbial to-do list. We may not notice the cost of procrastinating some tasks until it is too late. One of these tasks that can easily fall by the wayside is new member onboarding. This article will explain the benefits of creating an automation series to onboard new members.
Traditionally, many chambers of commerce will assign a chamber ambassador to help orient a new member on everything the chamber has to offer. I know you probably have fantastic ambassadors. Ambassadors tend to be those who are hyper-involved and want to be a part of everything the chamber is doing. This is great. These ambassadors also have businesses and families to run, and life to live. Your ambassadors are also human and subject to human error. Inevitably something will slip through the cracks, not on purpose, but missed nonetheless.
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Email Onboarding
By creating an automated email onboarding campaign, you can drip feed relevant information to new members while also making sure all of the basics are covered. By setting up the expectation with your new members to be on the lookout for emails, maybe on a weekly basis to help them get the most out of their membership, then you have their attention.
As new members join your chamber, it is always a good practice to learn more about the reason(s) they decided to join and what their expectations are. Are they a transactional member or a transformational member? Should they be connected with your young professionals group or a senior service alliance? By gaining this knowledge, you can create an experience for them where you are connecting them with appropriate events, committees, and people. This information will also help you decide what information you send them in your onboarding email series.
Relevant Communication
Sara Ray from the Douglas County Chamber was a guest on the podcast a couple months ago and she dove in deep about creating relevant and personalized communication. If you are at all interested in this topic, I would highly recommend you going back to listen to that episode.
As much as you may disagree, not every member needs to get an email about your next luncheon or mixer. You should segment your email audience to only deliver the most relevant information to each recipient. Mass email campaigns run the risk of finding their way into junk or spam folders if there is not enough engagement by the recipients.
There are many software options out there for sending automated emails. If you are like many other chambers, then you are likely using Constant Contact, or possibly MailChimp. These have been the most common options that I have seen. Setting up an automated email onboarding series will require some dedicated attention to get started, but that brainpower and attention should only need to focus on this task one time versus creating a custom response every time a new member has a question. Your goal should be to put yourself in the new member’s shoes and provide answers to the questions that they have before they ever ask the question. I had once heard a quote that said something like “if you can define the problem better than your customer, then they will assume you have the answer”. Defining your member’s problems or needs before they ask will also build credibility that your chamber understands what their expectations are.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
Learn to Automate for ROI
I am not the expert in creating email automation campaigns, but Sara Ray and the Douglas County Chamber have a great template. Google will also provide some great tips and resources to get you started. There are also online trainings available across the web that can help to shortcut your learning curve drastically.
“Associations with onboarding, orientation, or welcoming plans boost their new member renewal rates. Local/State associations show the biggest difference in new member renewal rates, jumping from 75% to 82% after similar program implementation.”
2017 New Member Engagement Study by Dynamic Benchmarking & Kaiser Insights LLC
Depending on the size of your chamber, a 7% increase in your membership renewal rate could be a substantial amount of revenue, not only from the increase in membership dues but also the non-dues value that comes from retaining these members for a longer period of time.
We now live in a time where AI learns our habits. Predictive text assists our typing by showing us the word or phrase that we were going to type letter by letter with a simple keystroke or tap on our screen. We have a curated viewing experience on platforms like Netflix. Our attention spans no longer allow for the extra clutter. No matter what platform you decide to use, it is important to your relevance to only send emails to your members that they will care about. This will result in building a more meaningful relationship with each of your members while freeing up some of your bandwidth.
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How does your chamber show up as a storyteller in your community? What types of stories do you tell? Our current social media environment shows us that people love to consume stories. Infact, some social media platforms are shifting from “social media posts” to “stories”. We often hear how Chambers of Commerce need to be storytellers. This is because we live in a world where facts and benefits about your organization are important but largely overlooked if you don’t have good stories to back up what you offer.
I have seen many chamber websites and membership brochures that list the key benefits of and reasons why a business should become a member of their chamber. While these “lists” have their place, showing the impact and value of your chamber is done much more effectively when done through stories.
Story Platforms
Your storytelling can take place face to face. Stories can be shared in newsletters, emails, or on social media in snippets. Some chambers may have a talented staff member who can shoot and edit video to tell their stories. As you might guess, my preferred method of storytelling is through podcasts.
When thinking of the stories you have to tell, think about who is the ideal audience you want to share the story with. Where are they? Where do they hang out digitally? Do they prefer printed text, pictures, video, or audio? Are your stories better formatted towards a specific media?
Many chambers like to go straight to social media to tell their stories. So do a Facebook Live video. My observation and opinion is that people open their social media apps when they are bored, tired, or stressed. Social media becomes a mindless activity to pass time without truly engaging on any kind of meaningful level. For this reason, I would strongly recommend NOT having social media be your primary medium for telling stories. By all means, use social media to magnify and perpetuate your stories but choose another medium to host and share your stories from. You may choose to repurpose some of your stories on social media as a teaser or an advertisement for the story in its entirety.
For most chambers, this would leave two primary content mediums, video and audio. Of course YouTube is the place to host any video content as viewers can subscribe to your channel to receive any updated content. For audio, podcasts are the place to be. I have a wholepodcast course to teach you how to get started with a podcast. Every iPhone comes with a podcast app already preinstalled. This makes it super easy for your audience to listen.
Storytelling Content
Once you know what platform(s) you want to focus on to share your stories, you can then dive into the content for story creation. I have identified eight types of stories you can tell through your podcast or YouTube channel. You can choose as many as you feel are relevant to your community or that would add value to your members or attract new members.
Member success stories or member spotlight. You can interview your own members and have them share how your chamber has helped their business find success. You can also go a little more generic and have your members tell you about their business or entrepreneurial journey. People love to hear a good original story and it ends up being a great commercial for your member business as well.
Impact of nonprofits. Identify and interview other local nonprofit organizations in your area to tell the story of the impact they are making. You can make the connection of how your chamber helps to support these nonprofits or ways you have partnered with them.
Community Partnerships. Community partnerships often need a bit more of an explanation for the general public to understand why the partnership exists and what the combined mission is about. There are often success stories that can go along with partnerships and the impact that is being made in the community.
Advocacy Efforts. In a very generalized sense, many of your members are still transactional members. They want to know what the chamber can do for them and if they don’t see it on their bottom line, then they don’t see any value. By sharing the stories of your advocacy efforts and the direct impact to each member of your chamber, you may sway some of your transactional members to become transformational members. Promoting your advocacy work also will show your community that the chamber is about business and what is good for business. The chamber is the sane center where both sides of the isle can come together for the good of your community.
Impact of Events/Initiatives. If you have people in your community who complain about why the city and/or chamber of commerce shuts down traffic each year for a festival that runs the whole weekend, then it might help to share why. Telling of the economic impact, increased sales tax revenue, and hotel occupancy in addition to the other positive outcomes of your events might help your community better understand what the chamber is about.
Staff Spotlight. Do your members and your community know your staff? Do they understand what the role is of each member of your staff? If they have a need, wouldn’t it be nice if they felt like they knew the person they were reaching out to? Doing regular staff spotlights will lead to building stronger relationships with your members which should help with your retention numbers.
Why Members Join. You are well aware that there are always businesses in your community who don’t know what a chamber of commerce is or why they should be involved. Collecting and sharing stories of why businesses join your chamber can help to tell a better story or what your chamber has to offer without producing a long list of member benefits. Remember, people have short attention spans and taking time to highlight just one or two reasons businesses join your chamber at each time will have the most impact.
Testimonials. A while back, I had Shari Pash on the podcast to talk about testimonial strategies. This is actually a very simple way of telling very short stories. Testimonials can be used in many ways. From reading a testimonial on a podcast episode to including a member testimonial in your email signature, you should be gathering and sharing testimonials all the time! Testimonials create credibility, social proof, and help with recruiting and retaining members. Feel free to leave a testimonial or review for Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple Podcasts and see how I might integrate your testimonial into my storytelling strategy. 🙂
You are now equipped with eight strategies for your chamber to be a storyteller. Now, you just need to lean into your medium of choice (audio or video) and then amplify your stories on your social media channels. You may find it beneficial to tell some stories over video while others are better on a podcast. If you utilize this strategy, you can also cross promote your platforms to each other and continue to grow your audiences.
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When it comes to driving the course for your chamber, you need to have clear direction. Can you imagine going for a drive without knowing your final destination or how to get there? You would end up wasting a lot of time and resources going in the wrong direction while you try to guess where you should be headed. I heard a quote a while back that said “you can work at 100 mph but if you are not clear on your destination, you will end up 100 miles away from your goal.” This is true when making business decisions or operating your chamber. You need to have a clear vision of where your organization should be headed.
Proof of Concept
About a year after starting Chamber Chat Podcast, I started having some chambers reach out to me about how to get started with their own podcast. At first I was answering their questions one by one. Then I thought it would be a good idea to launch an online course to take chambers through the steps to get started. But, before I invested a lot of time into creating a course, I created a simple downloadable Chamber Podcasting Guide PDF that I gave away for free to interested chambers.. This allowed me to test the market to see if there were more chambers who wanted to start a podcast. After I had about 150 downloads of this Chamber Podcasting Guide, then I proceeded to create the course and guess who I marketed it to first? That’s right, those people who had already expressed an interest in podcasting. This was almost a guarantee that I would get sales for the course.
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When making decisions at your chamber, you should be collecting data along the way. Collecting and evaluating data will allow you to create more relevant content, programming, and opportunities for involvement by catering to what is important to your member businesses. Having a clear vision is important, but it also must align with your mission. If you are collecting interest for programs that are outside of the scope of your mission, you might be better served by partnering with another organization or handing the program off all together.
Ways to Collect Data
Let’s brainstorm on some ways to gather data and member feedback to help you make better decisions.
Understand what makes popular social media posts trend.
What are your most attended programs? What is the content about?
Ask new members why they are joining the chamber and what their expectations are.
Provide surveys after each event to collect feedback.
Ask your members what they value most about their membership with your chamber.
Record common questions that members ask your chamber.
Post polls on social media for future programming.
Survey people who attend community events.
A note about surveys…it is important to be clear about the desired purpose for the event or program you are providing the survey for. If the person being surveyed doesn’t understand what the intent for a program or event is, then their responses can lead you in the wrong direction. You should clearly state the reason you put on your community festival for example, the impact it makes throughout the community, and then ask your questions. This gives more context rather than having a person complaining about the festival because it was too hot that day.
I recently came across a chamber who surveyed their members about whether or not they should continue producing a community guide/directory or a map. The feedback came back that the members did not want the chamber to produce either publication any more. This chamber failed to mention the added value to each member of having their name listed in the directory and distributed throughout their community. They also did not inform their members about the non-dues revenue the chamber receives for their budget from these publications and how having a tangible publication can help with branding your community to newcomers and visitors. The expectations and reasoning was not properly laid out and for that reason, the members voted the way they did. With more accurate information, the vote likely would have been much different.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
Interview with Aaron Nelson-Data Driven Decisions
In June of 2021, I had Aaron Nelson from the Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber on the podcast to discuss how he approaches data driven decision making. He talked about how they go about collecting data after every event. They gather data about the venue, the speakers, the food, just about every aspect of each event that you can think of. This creates a very clear path going forward for their future events with the understanding that each event is a continual iteration.
What to do with Data?
One of the tricky aspects about collecting data and gathering member feedback is what to do with it. If you have a quality platform for your membership software, then this should be your hub for storing all of this data and feedback. I am partial to the Chamber Nation platform as it is a robust platform with a ton of added value that you don’t find anywhere else. It is also very affordable for even smaller chambers to adopt this platform. Many chambers even turn the Chamber Nation platform into a non-dues revenue generator within a few months. As you collect data and input it into the Chamber Nation platform, you are also able to produce monthly activity reports for each member so they can see the ROI of their membership. This is providing data to your members to help them make better decisions!
The key is to continually collect and record the data and feedback from your various sources so you can learn what is important to your members. Once you know what is important to them, you will have better engagement with your programming because you are providing more targeted value to your members.
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I am going to start this article with a disclaimer that I realize you may have personal thoughts, concerns, or prejudices towards NTFs and cryptocurrencies. I also understand that some of these terms may be completely foriegn to you. In this article, I will try to explain some of these trending technologies in terms that are easy to understand. I also want to encourage you to read this article with an open mind to maybe gain a better view of the direction the business world may be heading.
Over the past five year or so, I have been learning more about Bitcoin, crypto currencies, and more recently NFTs or non-fungible tokens. As I started this education, I have learned a lot and my thoughts on these technologies have evolved over time and will likely continue to evolve along with these associated ecosystems. I will also mention that the ideas that I will share in this article are very much to help you prepare for the future, not that you have to run and do anything about it today.
My Introduction to Bitcoin
So, let me backup my story to around 2010 when Bitcoin first hit my radar. I remember sitting in my car in Seguin, TX listening to the radio and the radio host was talking about how someone had just bought a Papa John’s pizza, just a large pizza for 10,000 Bitcoin. That was a news headline that day because it is the first time that we saw a real utility for Bitcoin. Still at the time, the guy at the pizza shop probably paid for the pizza out of his pocket and kept the Bitcoin because nobody really understood what Bitcoin was or what it could do. Fast forward to today’s price for Bitcoin, that was about a $300,000,000 pizza! Compare that to the previous high for Bitcoin, that price tag would have been $690,000,000! I guess that’s why they say hindsight is 20/20.
My next exposure to Bitcoin I believe was around 2014 when I was listening to a podcast about investing and the current price of Bitcoin was mentioned to be around $4,000. I was in shock. I could not believe anyone would pay that much for a digital coin that didn’t have any real utility. This did peak my interest though so I started to learn more about Bitcoin and why people would pay so much to own it.
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The more I learned, the more it intrigued me. I learned that the creator of Bitcoin is anonymous and once Bitcoin was launched, he/she/they disappeared. This means that Bitcoin is a decentralized monetary system. There is no company headquarters. There is no person to be subpoenaed if someone has a grievance. Instead, there are 1) Bitcoin miners who are competing with other miners by completing complicated mathematical problems to then be rewarded with Bitcoin, 2) individual nodes on the Bitcoin network which validate transactions on the open blockchain ledger. I also learned that in the code for Bitcoin, there will only ever be 21 million in circulation. This is done through programming and the rewards to miners. So there is a fixed supply, and nobody has the authority or ability to create more.
Because of these traits, Bitcoin is often referred to as digital gold as a store of value or a hedge against inflation. However, unlike gold, Bitcoin is easily sent to the other side of the world almost instantaneously. Bitcoin also established what is known as the blockchain which is the technology that all other crypto currencies operate with.
Many other crypto currencies have since spun off from the initial creation of Bitcoin, each with different purposes and utilities. One of the most popular is Etherium which is known for it’s smart contract feature. However there are others such as Solana.
I mention these other crypto currencies because they are often used to transact NFTs.
What is an NFT?
An NFT is a non-fungible token. This means that it is a digital token with unique characteristics that cannot be duplicated, thus giving unique rights of ownership. If you think of a dollar bill, they are essentially all the same. If I asked you to hand me a dollar bill, I don’t care if it is the one in the front of your wallet, or the one in the back, or the one in your pocket, or from your junk drawer, they are all the same and carry the same value. An NFT, there is only one of a kind, each with a unique value.
In an effort to show utility for NFTs, the early adoption was with digital art. A creator or artist can publish or “mint” their art as an NFT and whoever purchases the NFT would be the authentic owner of that art. For me, there were too many holes with this example for me to grasp onto and I quickly dismissed the value of an NFT utility. Then I heard of some examples that caught my interest much like Bitcoin did back in 2014. Think of the title of your home, there is only one, and you are the owner of it. That could easily become an NFT and rather than purchasing title insurance, the owner of the NFT is verified on the blockchain network. I know, as I explain this, that seems like it is really far in the future, and maybe it is but it is coming. The same is true for a drivers license or any government issued ID. They could be issued as an NFT that you keep in your crypto wallet.
As I continued to digest what I was learning about NFTs, I was looking for other ways an NFT could be applied. I heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary is a podcaster, wine seller, and social media influencer. During the pandemic, Gary started an NFT project called VeeFriends. The way it works is Gary minted over 10,000 doodles of different animals such as Passionate Parrot. Each NFT in addition to the art (which was not very special) you also gained access to Gary. Some of the NFTs also gave you 30 minutes of business consulting with Gary, dinner with Gary, or a game of chess with Gary. Gary also promised to hold an annual conference for the holders of his NFT and the NFT serves as your ticket to the conference.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
Since launching VeeFriends, Gary has continued to “airdrop” more assets and value to his NFT holders. There is also a healthy aftermarket for NFTs and because they are bought and sold within the Etherium smart contract network, Gary earns a 10% royalty on every resale of his NFTs.
How NFTs Can Be Utilized
When I heard about VeeFriends, my mind began to wonder and to explore other NFT uses. I was working on a Chamber Podcast Course at the time I learned about VeeFriends. I had the thought of launching my course as an NFT essentially to give access to the course. My thought was if I only had 10 NFTs for my course, once a chamber took the course and learned how to podcast, they no longer have a need for it. Why not allow them to resell the course to another chamber. This would allow for the first chamber to recover their investment after they got the value they needed, and then they would have motivation to resell and essentially market the course to other chambers and I could get a royalty for the ongoing resells of the course. Great idea right? I think it was a great idea, a couple years too early…
That led me to think about chambers in general. As a membership organization, it is all about providing access to information, events, opportunities, products, etc. Why not bundle these offerings into a tiered dues type of NFT project? Because they are based on smart contracts, if a business were to move, they could sell their membership and you would get a commission or royalty. Your ambassadors could purchase multiple NFTs and sell them to other businesses. The NFT would be their ticket to your annual meeting, luncheons, trainings, etc. Businesses could purchase multiple NFTs for other staff members. You could set the terms within the smart contract for how long the NFT was good for, 1 year, 2 years, etc. I hope this is giving you some ideas.
As the idea of NFTs for membership continues to evolve, we could see a time where a DAO could be set up. A DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization. Essentially, this DAO could function as a board of directors. The options are limitless. However, timing is everything. At this stage, I believe education is key. Do what you can to learn about crypto currency, Bitcoin, and NFTs. Play with some “live ammo” or in other words make some small purchases to see how these things work so you know how to educate your members as the time comes.
Again, the purpose of this article is not for you to stop the way you are doing things and to make a hard pivot, but rather as Wayne Gretsky says skate to where the puck is headed rather than where it is.
If you would like to start playing in the crypto world, I do have an affiliate link for Coinbase which would give you and I both $10 worth of Bitcoin if you use the link provided.
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I recently interviewed Bill Sisson on the Chamber Chat Podcast and in our discussion, he mentioned something as we were wrapping up the interview which caught my attention. It was off of the planned topic that we were discussing, but he mentioned that entrepreneurship attracts diversity. I had never thought about entrepreneurship in those terms before. We ended that podcast recording and I continued to ponder that statement over the next couple of weeks.
Entrepreneurship Programs
I realize that for a long time, Chambers of Commerce did not have a unique selling proposition for entrepreneurs. Chambers did not have the toolset to dedicate to such a small segment of their business population. Besides, an overwhelming percentage of entrepreneurs fail or are forced to close their business within the first two years. Why should a chamber pay much attention to a small business who is here today and potentially gone tomorrow?
If we have learned anything over the past couple of years through the COVID pandemic, we should apply those lessons going forward. One phenomenon that we witnessed has been titled ‘the great resignation’. During the pandemic, for a variety of reasons, employees of many industries decided to call it quits. At least that is how the news is presented to us. As you drive around town, you are likely to see help wanted or now hiring signs in store and restaurant windows. Chambers have been a great resource to help find this needed workforce, but what about the people who resigned?
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Great Resignation
One of the influences which led to the great resignation is that the federal government issued very large stimulus checks while at the same time, people were not traveling for work or leisure and their overall expenses went down significantly during the pandemic. Some of these newly unemployed individuals were now seeing their situation as a great opportunity to take their newfound free time and seed money to make their dreams come true by starting their own business.
I am staging this article in this way to stress the influx of new entrepreneurs in your community. If it is true that most new businesses fail within the first two years, then shouldn’t your chamber do something to help these businesses overcome those odds so they can build something of value to your community, be a part of your organization, and employ more individuals?
Who Are Entrepreneurs?
As we take a closer look at some of the people who decide to go out on their own often do so out of necessity. I have heard some entrepreneurs joke about starting their own business because they were unemployable themselves. This necessity may be due to a handicap. Maybe the entrepreneur is a single mom who needed more flexible hours to still be there for her children. These entrepreneurs could be people who have felt marginalized throughout their employment history and were tired of being looked over for a promotion or even to get hired. Some entrepreneurs don’t have the “needed experience” to get a traditional job.
As we consider the reasons why someone may have taken the entrepreneurial journey, we find out that they are disabled veterans, they are young professionals, they are within the LBGTQ community, they are of minority races, they are women owned businesses. Each of these entrepreneurs fit into any chamber’s diversity, equity, and inclusion outreach programs.
Possible Direction
So, what can you do with this information? First, I would encourage you to ponder this idea and to look deeper into your community. Reach out to a half dozen entrepreneurs in your community and ask them questions about why they decided to go the entrepreneurial route. Then, once you have more specific data for your community, I would encourage you to research what some other chambers have done to build strong entrepreneurial programs.
One example that comes to mind is Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. I interviewed John Urbahns in 2020 and 2021 as an ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist. One of the programs that he highlighted in our interview as their entrepreneurial bridge program. This program took applicants to both be mentors and mentees. In other words, a more established business owner would essentially sponsor an entrepreneur in their community, not for just a year or two, they would make a 5 year commitment to mentor their entrepreneur to help them succeed.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
I could go on and on trying to explain how this program works and why I think it is so great, but it might do the program better justice if you check out the interview and learn about it directly from John.
By using the example of this entrepreneurial bridge program, if you were to introduce 10 entrepreneurs to a program like this each year, by the 5 year mark, you would have 50 entrepreneurs learning the ins and outs of business from a successful business owner in your community. Do you think a program like this could help to break down some barriers? Do you think the success rate of these entrepreneurs would go up or down if they were part of a program like this? Overall would your community be better or worse off by implementing a bridge program?
More than anything, I want us to learn from the lessons that were presented to us through the pandemic and the subsequent movements around race and inequality. I know your chamber has probably already taken a deep look into your organization to see what changes can or should be made. I just want to present ideas for you to conduct your own R&D (ripoff & duplicate) because I believe a stronger, more influential chamber leads to a stronger community.
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Have you had any formal training on how to develop a strong, diverse, effective chamber board? My guess is that most chamber executives who are reading this blog post have not been trained on board development. Many find themselves in the chamber industry by happy accident. What makes a chamber board effective anyway? While I am by no means an expert on board development or management, I will share what I have learned from experienced chamber professionals and non-profit board experts.
When it occurred to me how many chamber leaders find their career in chamber work by accident, it prompted me to do a survey to ask chamber leaders about their experience working with boards before starting with the chamber. The results were interesting. Only 27% of chamber leaders surveyed had worked with a board previous to entering the chamber world. 37% had no experience working with a board at all while another 37% had served on a nonprofit board. I think we could all agree how the perspective changes from serving on a board to being on the other side as the chamber executive.
To start, it may be helpful to understand what an effective board is. I would argue that an effective board is one that will engage in meaningful discussion which leads to action. These outcomes of these actions should support the mission of your organization and further build your community.
Chamber Board Selection
As I recently attended the MAKO (Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma) Chamber Conference, Dave Adkission was one of the speakers. Of the many topics that he covered in his talk, he spent some time talking about the unique qualities of a Chamber leader. He shared how you are often the only person in your city or town who does what you do. You may have colleagues in neighboring towns but you are typically the only Chamber Director/President/CEO in your community.
Dave also talked about how as a Chamber Executive you have a new boss each year, of course referencing your board chair. With this understanding, it is not very common in the workplace to have a say about who your next boss will be. However, in the chamber world, you can be intentional about building your board of directors with people who share a similar vision for your community.
When it comes to board selection, you may be tempted to look to those business leaders who can be a strong source of revenue. You probably want people on your board who are well connected. Oftentimes the people who make up a chamber board are some of the most influential business people in your community. This can lend more credibility and influence to your organization as a result.
On the flip side, by having your board filled with high level business leaders, there is a good chance that their time and resources will be stretched thin. They are probably serving on other boards in your community. They are most likely being asked for money from other organizations. They will likely notice that they are being asked to participate on various boards because they are well connected and have access to money which can change their perception of your organization.
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You want to be very intentional about recruiting for board service as you build relationships with other leaders in your community. Be mindful of what mindsets and skillsets are missing or underrepresented on your current board. Have discussions with some of these leaders who you think would be a good addition to your board to plant the seed or idea in their mind about the value or perspective they can provide.
Developing Board Diversity
In the past, at least in the United States, most chamber boards were composed of older, white males. As demographics change, as social justice and awareness are more front of mind, it is important that chamber boards reflect the makeup of the community which they serve.
With chambers having a sharper focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we are starting to see more of this shift in board seats. As there are more women owned businesses, having the voice and perspective of women on your board is important. As you develop your chamber board, notice if your community tends to have a younger demographic, you may want to recruit board members who represent your younger business owners. Your community may have a larger makeup of hispanic, African-American, Asian, or Pacific Islanders. This should be reflected on your board.
As a chamber leader, you are expected to know your community and to have a pulse on what is important to them. Should you focus on having more veterans on your board or people from the LGBTQ+ community? Although the development of your chamber board should be very intentional, you should be careful not to recruit board members simply because the check a box. Each board member should bring specific skillsets to make your board whole.
It is important as you recruit new board members to work towards filling seats with the people who can help move your community forward and not just who has the money and influence. Ultimately your chamber should carry the influence in your community that you are looking for. You should be leading the way in showing what is important to building a stronger community and why each segment of your population is vital to this vision.
A while back, I had Matt Morrow on the Chamber Chat Podcast. Matt is the President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber in Missouri. Matt talked about the lessons he learned from a book titled “The Wisdom of Crowds”. The main takeaway message was that more often than not, a diverse crowd of people can, together, come up with the most correct answer to problems than any one person or any one demographic can on their own. This is because the diversity brings different perspectives which help point to the most correct answers.
Setting Clear Expectations
Communication and expectations are key to a functional board. It may be tempting to complain about an underperforming board member. You might get frustrated when the ball gets dropped on certain action items that come out of a board meeting. Are certain members always late to your board meetings or not engaged? These board members may not clearly understand what is expected of them and how important their role really is.
From their perspective, they may be complaining to themselves, a spouse, another board member or a co-worker about how unorganized and unproductive the chamber board meetings are. They may not have clearly expressed what their expectations were from you as a chamber leader.
Either way, if the dysfunction is coming from the chamber side or from the board side, this will quickly result in a disengaged board. Have open and honest communication about expectations. Be intentional with the onboarding process for new board members so they clearly understand the importance of their role. While in your board meetings, try to spend the bulk of your time in discussion about things that really matter for your community. You will likely have some of the most influential leaders of your community in the same room so don’t waste their time. Find out how your board members prefer their communications. Do they want detailed drafts for each meeting or a simple outline? By defining expectations up front will save you a lot of frustration later.
Along with clear expectations, always be mindful of your board member’s time. These are often busy people who live by a schedule. Be as concise, yet thorough with communications and meetings to keep up the level of engagement. As soon as you notice any disengagement, have an open conversation to assess the load your board member is carrying and encourage adjustments with assignments as needed.
Board Unity
It is not abnormal to have very strong personalities among a group of business and community leaders. This is not a bad thing at all. Oftentimes, these strong personalities are what land these individuals in the positions of influence where they currently reside. However, some personalities can be like oil and water as they repel each other.
Be intentional about creating opportunities for board members to break down barriers and to get past personalities. This could be done by providing opportunities for these individuals to serve directly with each other and to learn from each other’s experiences and skillset. This is often facilitated through board retreats and training.
If you can build buffer time around your board meetings to allow for your board members to socialize for a few minutes before or after board meetings, you will see more ideas generated once they are outside of the formal setting of a meeting. A good signal of board unity is when you see several board members linger after a meeting to continue discussion ideas or even just getting to know each other better.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
Continue Your Chamber Board Development
As I stated at the beginning of this post, I am not an expert on nonprofit or chamber board development. However, I have learned a lot as I have worked with chambers over the past 15+ years and as I have been interviewing chamber leaders on Chamber Chat Podcast for over 3 years now.
One of the best people I have interviewed on the podcast about this topic is Hardy Smith, author of “Stop the Nonprofit Board Blame Game”. I would encourage every chamber executive to read this book. You will learn key insights about managing your board that you have never thought of.
I would also encourage you to continue learning from others, whether that is through conferences, regional chamber meetings, listening to podcasts, reading blogs, or by reaching out to others directly who you admire and feel like you can learn from.
Chamber service and board development is a continual iteration as our tools become more refined and as the world continues to evolve.
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In today’s world, everyone has a smartphone with them at all times. Thanks to social media and text messaging, we all look to our tiny screens to pass time. If your chamber has not been fully immersed in creating a strong digital presence, then you are missing a huge segment of your community.
Mobile is Everywhere
Next time you are out in public, take a look at the people around you. Look at your own behaviors with your smartphone. Most of society are consumers of digital content. For some this comes in the form of social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. For the younger generation the trend is currently TikTok and YouTube. Podcasting is the digital platform for audio content that people can consume while doing many other tasks at the same time. The gateway to almost everything digital today is done through a mobile app.
I have yet to come across a chamber in the last five years that doesn’t at least have a Facebook page. Most will also have a website. I would suggest that these are the most basic digital platforms to utilize and they also have the lowest barrier to entry. I once heard a quote that said “the lower the barrier, the greater the competition”. There is a lot more ‘noise’ at the lower barrier of entry levels. The Facebook page and website are important digital marketing tools. I believe tools are designed to leverage your efforts.
Leverage Print Media
For example, printed publications are still very popular in the chamber world. They are great producers of non-dues revenue and can often have a digital counterpart. The digital side of your printed publications should be amplified on your website and social media to further spread the distribution of your publications.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
I would also encourage your members who advertise in your printed publications to leverage their advertising using digital. They can do this by sharing a picture of their ad in your chamber directory on their social media pages and tag your chamber in the post. You can take it a step further by encouraging them to use a specific hashtag to further promote the publication.
Repurpose Other Chamber Content
The same is true with other chamber content. Your website and social media pages should be used to amplify your message. Your digital presence will be much stronger as you identify ways to broadcast your traditional/analog efforts.
If you have a podcast, post each episode to your social pages. Tag any guests in the social media posts as well as their company. Your website could have a dedicated section that points to your past podcast episodes with show notes and links to relevant content and sponsorship partners.
If you have a YouTube channel, the same practice can be applied. YouTube will also allow you to have ‘in video links’ to other relevant content you have on YouTube. You can embed certain videos on your website and share your videos on your social media networks.
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Blogs
As you get caught up in the digital craze, don’t forget the importance of the written word. That is by the way how you are consuming this content right now. Blog posts for longer form messaging can still be highly effective and could be a source of non-dues revenue with sponsorships. You can share your blog posts on social media.
I recently worked on a project with a homeowners association. This was a monthly magazine that was mailed to the homeowners. With a younger demographic moving into the community and in an effort to gain more advertising revenue we decided to leverage digital. We decided to repurpose the articles that were already in the printed magazine as individual blog posts. This allowed us to insert additional advertising content and it allowed the HOA to reach a new, younger audience.
Content Frequency
However you choose to approach your creation and distribution of digital content, it is critical to have a plan. Creating a frequency for digital content will help you stay on track. Oftentimes you can repurpose content in multiple ways. I would encourage you to create a content calendar to plot out how you are putting out content in a strategic way. Izzy West spoke about this in a past podcast episode.
As you create your content calendar, see where you can spread some of your content creation. Maybe staff members could be responsible for different platforms or types of content. You may be able to utilize a board member, ambassador, or another volunteer. One unique way of creating content is to use your members. Holly Allen talked about this in my interview with her as she talked about how her chamber was marketing the thought leadership of their members. Essentially, their members became the experts on certain topics that their chamber then shared on their different platforms.
Summary
I will share a personal thought. As you plan deliberate content, consider the platform. For example, people tend to turn to Facebook to tune out, not to tune in to a message from the chamber. However, a platform like podcasting and YouTube have active subscribers who tune into and subscribe to hear from people and organizations like you. I would not rely solely on Facebook and a website as your digital footprint.
The bottom line is that if you are not actively thinking about a strong digital presence, you will inevitably miss out on opportunities. We are living in a digital first world now where people turn to their phones for answers, information, and entertainment. How is your chamber interacting with people on their tiny screens?
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Ghost communities are on their way due to the innovation of ghost kitchens that emerged through the COVID pandemic. This concept allows for customers to order food delivery from popular apps like Uber Eats and Grub Hub. However, rather than having the food prepared in a standard restaurant, brands are learning to cut costs by opening ghost kitchens.
A ghost kitchen allows for the restaurant to utilize less expensive real estate. Some restaurants will even share this ghost kitchen with other restaurants. They also can be hired to prepare food for other restaurants.
When I first learned of this concept, I thought this is a genius way for restaurants to save money, become more efficient, and create a whole new dining experience. I still believe these initial thoughts to be true, but I have started to have some reservations around this concept.
Ghost Warehouse
I recently read an article about grocery chains adopting this same type of model with ghost warehouses. Many people have now experienced either grocery delivery or at least store pick up of their groceries. These concepts allow a customer to “shop” for their groceries online and never have to walk into the grocery store. I know this can be a huge time saver for the busy people in society.
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As I picture the idea of a ghost warehouse or grocery store, I picture a large warehouse with no windows. I picture endless shelves of food that doesn’t even have to be displayed well because after all, an employee is the one grabbing the items from the shelf. I imagine this would look very similar to an Amazon distribution center. The marketing of food companies would have to change entirely. We will become much more a target of even more digital ads from the food manufacturers for us to add their items to our online shopping cart.
Human Experience
While I see some utility and innovations around these concepts, the thought that rings loud in my mind is that we are killing our communities! This thought probably is top of mind for me after my recent podcast interview with Doug Griffiths about his book ‘13 Ways to Kill Your Community‘.
Human interactions at the market and sitting to break bread with others are what we as humans have done our entire existence. Oftentimes it is while sharing a meal that we collaborate and solve problems with colleagues, friends, and family. It is running into your child’s school teacher at the grocery store that makes your child feel special as they are able to have a one-on-one interaction with their teacher outside of the classroom. It is the smile that a stranger receives that makes their day and builds just a little more confidence.
Ghost Communities
This idea of turning into ghost communities is exaggerated even more as we hear more talk and adoption of the Metaverse. Again, I see some great possibilities and potential with this type of technology, but I wonder if we might be overlooking the potential negative side effects. I am a big fan of cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin (This is an affiliate link that will award both of us with free Bitcoin when used.) but I am concerned about other applications utilizing the blockchain without having a better understanding of the potential outcomes, positive or negative.
The Metaverse can be a place where the playing field is leveled. Certain biases can be left behind the screen as users on the inside don’t know much about your real identity. Disabilities can be overcome in this alternate world. Race, gender, age are all non-factors in the Metaverse. These can all be viewed as really positive selling points.
Directories, magazines, maps, and digital… Consider Community Matters, Inc. for your next chamber publication.
I would also argue that these identifying qualities are also what make us who we are. If we are constantly checking and putting aside our true identity, what does that do to our overall mental state? This question is probably better addressed by a mental health professional. I foresee this causing big problems in society.
Social Media
I hear many people say that if they could go back in time and do it over again, they never would have joined any social media. Social media was started or presented as a way to stay connected with others. Over time we have seen social media lead more to the division of people rather than a unifying force.
Social media has been attributed to a sharp increase in mental health issues, including depression. Comparing ourselves to others can lead to damaging self-esteem. Throughout human history, people have been limited to comparing themselves to others in their tribe or communities. As the Pandora’s box of social media has been opened wide, we are now pitted against others on a much larger scale. Social media influencers do a great job of making us feel less than what we should. Photo filters literally create the image of something that is not even real, yet we still compare ourselves to these artificial attributes of others!
Summary
The point of all of this is to say as a society, we need to be aware of the potential negative consequences of drastically changing our way of life. We should have discussions in our community, within our families about possible implications and go in eye wide open. As a chamber of commerce professional, you understand the value of community. You understand the power in numbers. Please lead these discussions in your communities. If nothing else, help others to be aware of what they are getting into before our cities and towns become ghost communities.
Please join our email list to receive new blog posts are they are released. You will stay in the loop with any announcements related to the podcast or the Chamber world in general.
Also, be sure you are subscribed to Chamber Chat Podcast in your favorite podcast app. Subscribers are the first to get episodes as new ones come out each week.
