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Category: Communication

The Art of Curiosity with Candace Carnahan

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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 Candace Carnahan. Candace is a relationship driven, solution oriented leader with a passion for putting strategy into action. As the President and CEO of the Grand Junction Area of Chamber of Commerce. She is committed to fostering a thriving business climate in western Colorado through advocacy innovation, innovative partnerships and forward thinking initiatives that benefit the local businesses. The chamber serves. Candace is a board member of W. A.C.E. and a graduate of the US Chamber of Commerce Business Leads Fellowship, which focuses on the critical connection between K through 12 education and workforce development. A Grand Junction native and graduate of Central High School, Candace is enjoys golfing, hiking with her dog, Harlow, and spending time with her husband of 20 years. Candace, 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.

Candace Carnahan 2:11
Yes. Brandon, thank you so much for having me. I think that it alluded to it a little bit in my bio there. But, you know, I think something that I a lot of people find interesting is that I’m able to act in this leadership role in a community that I was born and raised in, and so went out and and had my adventures growing up, but to come back and serve the community that my family continues to have deep roots in is such an honor, and, quite frankly, makes the work just that much more rewarding to know that this is a place that I’ve called home for a very long time.

Brandon Burton 2:50
You are like a poster child for workforce development, right? You grow up in the community, you leave, get your education, but you come back, right? That’s what we want them all to do. Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Grand Junction area Chamber, just to give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, absolutely.

Candace Carnahan 3:11
So our chamber is located, it’s about the last thing you hit between Denver and Utah. So we’re on that western edge of Colorado. We are honored to represent nearly 800 businesses here locally as investors in our chamber that represent almost 45,000 employees. But we also make sure to support the region in a number of different efforts, whether it’s workforce development and policy as well. So we currently have a full time team of six here at our chamber, and our budget is just over $800,000 annually.

Brandon Burton 3:49
All right, that’s perfect. That’s the stage for our discussion today, and I’m excited to dive into our discussion. It’s not the typical type of conversation that we have on the podcast, but it’s something that I think is important for every chamber staff to listen to and to really lean into, and that’s the art of curiosity. And we’ll dive in deeper on that. I’m curious to learn your approach on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 8:23
All right, Candace, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about the art of curiosity. And I understand you’ve presented on this before at W A C E, and granted, not everybody listening is a member of W A C E, and like I mentioned before, we hit record, to be honest, even going to conferences, we only really retain a percentage of whatever is presented. So it’ll be great to have this documented and have it be shareable for chamber leaders throughout the country and really anywhere they are. So I’m going to hand the mic over to you and let us, you know, give us an idea as you approach your work, how does curiosity come into it? Has it benefited you? What are some of those key things to think of and just, you know, start where you want to start from.

Candace Carnahan 9:09
Yeah, Brandon. You know, I think this is something that leaders in all industries could really lean on, especially with the climate that we find ourselves in as leaders these days, but as chamber executives, being curious is, in my mind, the only way to make sure that you are always focused on the right solutions and the right problems. It is so easy to get caught up in complex community issues, workforce challenges, policy debates, and if you aren’t crystal clear on the work that needs to be done and why it needs to be done, well it’s going to make our job that much harder, and it’s already hard enough. And so I actually got advice. Oh. Really early on in my role here as CEO, and it was always lead with curiosity. There should always be a question as your first thought, and oftentimes the first thing out of your mouth when you’re approaching things, because there’s typically are different layers than just the one that you’re seeing at face value. And so it’s so important as chambers and chamber executives, when we are faced with a never ending parade of challenges and issues and needs from those that we serve to make sure that we’re we’re staying as effective and intentional as possible.

Brandon Burton 10:41
It seems like just throughout the world that there’s a lot more tension than there used to be, whether it’s politically or just how one sees the world. So I think that’s so important to be curious and learn. You know, what makes somebody see the you know, from their perspective on whatever the topic is, and you can learn a lot, you know, by asking those questions. And I think there really is an art to it, because you can ask questions, and you know, the recipient of the questions might think, well, she’s kind of dense, you know, for not knowing that answer, or, you know, this person’s naive for asking this question. So how do you lean into the curiosity in that art form? What are some of those things that you’ve learned in leaning into the curiosity? I

Candace Carnahan 11:30
really love this question, and I first want to just clarify that I feel there, there’s internal curiosity and external curiosity, and it’s a careful balance of this. I want to make sure that we as chamber executives are internally being as curious as possible. When you think you’ve asked all the questions, ask yourself one more time. Okay, but what is the true issue here? Or what? What person is missing from this table? What is the true resource that would move the needle on this, and then, if I don’t have it, who is the best person to help leverage in this, in this question? So I think those are the internal things that you’re constantly trying to address. But when you externally, sometimes just the simple, can you help me better understand this, or what I’m hearing is can, is that correct? Just getting Clara clarity of things, because not only are we looking at a large volume of issues that we’re trying to face as chambers, but the speed is very quickly picking up as well. And so slowing down the conversations to take the time to get to the root of things is so critical, and I have found myself when I say what I’m hearing is, Can Is that correct? They’ll say, oh, that’s that’s not quite what I meant. But let me help clarify in your because just think of how many times we assume we understood what was said, or we think we know where this is going, and that can not be the case. So by taking just a little bit of time with your questions, to slow down the conversation and be really intentional with the information that alone is going to drive you in the right place. And you know, this is not asking questions for the sake of asking questions. I want to make sure that’s really clear. It’s using questions to help you dig a little deeper, right? And fine tune your efforts and initiatives. Is really, really the goal here.

Brandon Burton 13:38
Yeah, I think the key, like you started off with, is that internal curiosity that’s going to keep things authentic. If you’re really trying to get to the root of what’s causing, you know, a situation or an individual’s thinking or perspective or whatever, if you are internally curious, it’ll be authentic and getting to the right questions, getting to the root of what that that causes?

Candace Carnahan 14:01
Brandon, I can’t, I can’t emphasize that enough. I think that, you know, it’s so easy for us to take things at face value, or take the information that we’re being handed or read a newspaper headline or whatever it is, I think we have to take a moment to say, Okay, but what else? What else am I not seeing in this first contact here or this first interaction? What else should I be looking for or knowing or thinking about? Because as chamber executives, that’s that’s really critical we we represent such a diverse group, even within the business industry, and then you pepper and community dynamics, policy, it gets messy, really, really fast. And I love that you used the word authentic, because anytime you stop being curious, that is typically when you veer off your path of authenticity, and that’s usually when you become less effective and less. Impactful as a chamber of commerce and in the toughest of moments, and you can’t see the light, I think your curiosity is that beacon of, okay, what this is my little step forward. This is how I can continue to move forward in this situation. Because if you’re so far off that path by just being reactive and and not really getting to the root of things that not only are you less effective, I think you can be damaging within your organization and community, if you aren’t really clear on what it is you should be doing instead of what it is you are doing. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 15:36
I was thinking, you know, as as far as how somebody views the world, it’s interesting how people, just in general, will identify with certain things, whether it be, it could be something, you know, drastic, like political alignment. You know, I identify as this, and because of that, I’m going to make the stance no matter what, you know, hell or high water, I’m making the stance. It could be something as simple as even a diet structure, you know, somebody follows, and they believe this is the only way to do, to eat, you know, to be healthy, because this is what I do, and that’s their worldview. And to understand that there’s always multiple perspectives. There’s always reasonings for both sides of whatever it and sometimes there’s multiple sides. So being able to lean in authentically is huge. It’s

Candace Carnahan 16:29
huge. I mean, when you compare it to let’s compare building a community to building a house. If everybody showed up on the job site and they all had the same perspective as the plumbers, that was their that’s what they did. They agreed on great plumbing and what type of piping and what type of faucets, the plumbing is going to be outstanding. The rest of the house is going to be very questionable. And we as a community need to make sure that we are also realizing that we’re all coming together to a table to build something. And what we need to be doing is working together to create the best structure and outcome possible. You know, the painters and the plumbers are going to disagree sometimes, and timing might be a challenge, and there’s all these different things, but at the end of the day, they’ve worked together to create a really great product and a really great home. And I think we need to make sure as a community, to be able to step back and make sure that we’re having disagreements of tasks and not of relationships. And that comes to really asking the questions both of ourselves and of our partners. Of First of all, here’s a really important question I ask all the time, is, what is my role in this conversation, but also, I say, what is their role in the conversation? I can’t be holding them to an accountability level of the role of a role that’s not appropriate for their seat at the table. And it’s funny how often we will do that and say, well, we we’re disagreeing. You should think differently. Well, that’s their role. Is that perspective, and we have to honor it and move forward with it, and it does bring you to better solutions, or at least better understanding of where everyone lies in the conversation. So, yeah, it’s so important for us to take a step back and just really understand not just our own why, but everyone else’s why, because the motives in the conversation are really going to be where everyone is operating out

Brandon Burton 18:32
of yeah, that is huge. And that’s not something that I had considered before. Is understanding what their why. I think a lot of people will understand what’s my why, you know, why am I engaging in this conversation, or whatever it may be, but to understand the other person’s Why, what their point of view is, what, what’s bringing them to the table? And I don’t know, for me to make sense of it, I think of, you know, in a TV show, when you see a courtroom, right? You’ve got the prosecutor and you got the defense, and somewhere in the middle is the truth, right? And but both sides have their role that they’re they’re working towards, and it’s important to understand what that role is, so you can come to some sort of agreement

Candace Carnahan 19:12
Absolutely you you would not want to be in a position where they were expecting you to shift off of your mission, your why? Your unwavering advocacy for the business community. That’s not something that you would want them to ask of you, and oftentimes we shouldn’t be asking that of them. We have to recognize that, you know, we each have parts to play, and they’re very different sometimes and sometimes they’re not. But it’s really important to keep that in mind. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 19:39
I love the analogy you gave of building a house and you’ve got the different contractors building a house. It reminds I’d seen a reel a while back where this person is impersonating different tradesmen as they come to a construction site, and how they approach things, from the plumber to the electrician to the drywall guy and the painters and. Everything and and obviously it’s coming from a skewed perspective of, you know, a certain contractor not understanding the why for why the plumber is doing things the way they are, or the electrician doing things the way they are. And it’s kind of poking fun at them. But if you could get to the root of why they do what they do the way they do, it changes everything. And you could build a better house, or you could build a stronger community. It’s

Candace Carnahan 20:23
so important, and I find myself often saying, what, where? Where am I most living in the uncomfortable because that tends to be where I either haven’t been curious enough or haven’t gotten to know that area enough so there’s clearly unanswered questions. And what’s exciting is that gives me opportunity to say, You know what to be great at what I do. I need to go explore that perspective. I need to either go spend time with them. I need to go witness firsthand what it is they’re trying to communicate to me, I just need to have a better understanding and opportunity to ask questions outside of the heat of the moment, often outside of when we’re trying to hash out solutions. But just tell me more about your perspective, and that way, when we are in the next conversation, you are that Curiosity has led you to a more informed place. It it could reinforce where you’re at. It could shed light on where opportunities for collaboration are. It can also create opportunity for how you can leverage partnerships and work together. Because I now, I didn’t know you had that tool in your toolbox, and I have, you have the hammer, I have the nails. Hey, why are we not working together? And so it’s very rarely does anything bad come from being curious. I think that’s just i I’ve challenged when I, I thought about this conversation today, I was trying to say, Are there any pitfalls of being curious? And I’m sure there are, but it’s very few and far between. I would say, yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:10
I think the pitfall would be as if you’re not internally curious, if you’re not focusing on that, that would be the big pitfall when

Candace Carnahan 22:17
you aren’t that’s where it starts to get dicey. Yeah. So

Brandon Burton 22:21
I was thinking of it from the standpoint too, of as you have a new business member, investor in your organization, to be able to just be curious about what they offer. Like you said, they’ve got the hammer, you’ve got the nails. What connections can we make? So it doesn’t even have to come from a point of where there’s tension at all. It can just be, I want to learn more about what you have to offer. How can we help you? And again, knowing what their role is and what your role is, and trying to align those to, you know, build the perfect community, right? To build a stronger, better community and and make those connections. That’s what a chamber is all about.

Candace Carnahan 22:55
I love there’s no boundaries to how you can use this tool. That’s what’s exciting. You know, it’s, it’s a free tool. It’s, it’s something that you can create as an asset. And I keep saying, as a CEO or in chamber leaders, this should be something that you are including your whole team on in the journey. If your entire team is operating with this premise of being curiosity, to go back to your invest investor membership conversation, we regularly say that our those conversations are more about us getting to know them than it is about them getting to know us. And if we walk away without having any conversation about what tier levels or opportunities are, that’s okay, because what we’ve done is we’ve been curious about their business and shown them that they matter, and we want to know about how they fit into this really important piece within the business community. We’re already building a strong relationship with them, and that can be used on board, members, volunteers. If you are the more you get curious about what people what they need, what motivates them, you’re much better positioned to serve that person or support that person. If you are operating off of what you think they need or think motivates them, you have a really good shot of missing the mark. And so, yeah, this is something that can be used all the time community partners. There’s, you know, use your use your survey tools. That’s the one of the biggest things you can do by just It’s funny how often I hear people say, Huh, I wonder what our members would feel about this. Ask them five question flash bowl, hey, how do you feel about this? I think sometimes we just discount the ability to just ask,

Brandon Burton 24:52
yeah, I love that. So the idea of including your whole team, that just really resonates with. With me, it really doesn’t move the needle. If only the chamber executive is the one on board with curiosity. If your team’s not doing it again, it goes back to authenticity. Doesn’t seem real, and you’re not going to have all the touch points that the rest of your team has. How do we integrate that within staff, within the board, maybe even ambassadors? How do we integrate that curiosity and generate that movement? Is how I see it.

Candace Carnahan 25:26
I am so glad you asked that. I think first of all, you have to normalize it. There can be stigma about asking questions, and somehow it makes you seem like you’re not paying attention or not skilled enough to handle the situation. We really have created a culture around the fact that the problem only comes if you’re not asking questions. Are you asking for help? Are you asking how this connects with another teammates work? Are you asking how our members could be benefiting from this or who else might be interested in this resource, we try to ask ourselves, which is funny that I say that, but anytime we’re doing something it, we kind of say, Okay, but what else you think it’s you think it’s done or you think that you’ve explored it? Yes, but what else like if you could push just a little further into that curiosity zone, what? And then it’s funny, how often say, Oh, well, actually, you know, I could explore something a little bit differently. Or it’s amazing what just that little nudge over the edge will do. It also, by doing this as a team. I think it shows to our members in our board what our motives are, and it has created an atmosphere where they feel comfortable to come bring us information as well. So maybe we haven’t outwardly asked for it, but because of how we have integrated this as a culture, they know that we’re open to feedback and differing perspectives even when we’re not asking for it. So I think it’s it’s simply about incorporating it naturally into everything you do, and making sure that everyone understands that the only time there should be concerns is when we as a group stop asking questions. And if someone is not asking questions, we need to kind of turn to them and say, Is there something we could be doing to help support you in opening up this communication? Yeah, we always end and start and end every staff meeting with questions to each other as well. It’s not just me, you know, it’s, do you have any team? Do you have any questions for our marketing director team? Do you have any questions marketing director? Is there anything that the team could be helping or supporting you with instead of just waiting for it to happen? It’s, I’m opening the door, jump in and and it’s really exciting to see that take off, because they are and they they do it naturally, and it makes us all better, because our organizations are not just the CEO. I think that’s we know that, but it’s really easy to get into that mode. The organizations are every single person, volunteers, board members, your investors, and that’s got to be something that everyone does. Yeah, I love that.

Brandon Burton 28:22
What else are we missing out of the art of curiosity, I feel like there’s questions that I haven’t asked. What are what are the things that are on the top of your mind? You

Candace Carnahan 28:33
know, the only thing that comes to mind is that a question asked once is not necessarily a question answered, and so don’t be afraid to go back and ask again. And I’m just going to give this example our chamber. I’m very lucky to have inherited a chamber that is very strongly positioned. We had a CEO who was very well respected, and she was here for 35 years. And so I learned from one of the best in the industries. But being able to say, even though we know who we are as an organization and we really excel, who is it we do we want to be today? And that is actually something that at every strategic planning session, we say, okay, we know who we are now. Who do we want to be tomorrow? And I think that’s something that can also be brought into other conversations. We know this workforce development strategy is working now, but what is it that our businesses need tomorrow? And so as long as you’re continuing to evolve your questions and go back and just check in on them. I think that’s really important, because answers can get stagnant, and I that’s again, you have now as an organization, stopped being curious about how to be the best version of yourself, and we have to continue to do that.

Brandon Burton 29:53
So maybe a 2.0 episode would be the art of asking the question, right? So you can. You’re curious, but then there’s a way of asking the question to where you can get the answer instead of, you know, how are you doing? I’m good. You know, there’s a better question to be asked,

Candace Carnahan 30:08
right? Oh, yes, absolutely. I love that.

Brandon Burton 30:11
Well, Candace for a chamber listening who’s wanting to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item or piece of advice would you share with them and trying to accomplish this goal?

Candace Carnahan 30:28
I would say that you have to lean into the uncomfortable oftentimes, there can also be a fear about asking questions, because they’re like, oh, that means more work. Like, I don’t want to

Brandon Burton 30:40
know. I am not doing that, right?

Candace Carnahan 30:44
I would say this, you know, we’re not asking you to turn over all the rocks right right away. I’m just saying when that this is actually meant to be a tool to help lead you towards a more efficient level of effectiveness, right? So start small. Find a couple things that you can just get comfortable and see that Okay, two more questions actually didn’t make it worse. It actually streamlined my path to a productive solution. Or, holy moly, I was completely going down the wrong path. Or I had an answer that was actually in search of a problem. There really is no problem here. I can pivot and now divert resources. So start small. Find some things that you can just say, Hmm, what if I just thought one layer deeper, and go from there? Yeah, you’ll find it will start to integrate itself into your life. More and more

Brandon Burton 31:38
I like that. So I like asking everyone 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?

Candace Carnahan 31:50
Well, you know, it’s funny. I do tie it, actually, to this topic. I have felt, and I see it more and more and more about our role as being that convening agent in our communities being our most important role that we play, especially with how divided everything seems to have a hard line drawn, and people are picking sides. And what’s unfortunate about that is it, it really does keep us away from true solutions for many of the challenges that we’re facing as communities. And so I think it is important for us, if we are, if we’re not saying who’s missing from this conversation, or what is the true problem that we’re trying to tackle here, to make sure we’re all aligned. Because, gosh, if, if you think you’re solving this problem and I’m solving this problem and we actually are in the same table trying to solve the same problem, we’re not going to get very far. And so I think as chambers, we have to really, I would say, if you do nothing, do that be the person that’s able to come to the table, bring people to the table. And if you’re operating from that curiosity standpoint, you’re curious on how we as a group can get to the best solution, and that’s your motivating factor to be there, not to be the person that has a feather in their hat. Because I brought everyone to the table, it’s I’m curious on how we can bring our ability to get everyone at the table and truly walk away making an impact. I think that’s going to be something that we have to lean into, because there there are other resources for a lot of the other things that we’re doing. But if we’re not bringing people together to to solve and navigate the barriers and burdens facing our businesses, we’re not going to be effective. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:39
I like that. That’s a great tip in how we look and navigate into the future. Candice, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you. Maybe learn more about your approach to curiosity. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Candace Carnahan 33:59
I always welcome anyone to email me. It’s very easy to find me. It’s just candace@gjchamber.org We do have a great website as well where you can find me, which is GJChamber.org. But I’m always happy to talk to anyone. And you know, this is, this is hard work that we all do as chambers, and the more we can lean on each other and share information and opportunities, I think we’re better for it.

Brandon Burton 34:35
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you spending time with us today and letting us, you know, be a little curious about your approach and how you how you approach things there at the Grand Junction area, chamber and and just your work in general. I think it’s a great way, a great way, to have a perspective, to learn more, and to really allow you to serve your business community in a much better and elevated way. So. Thank you for sharing that with us today.

Candace Carnahan 35:02
I really appreciate the opportunity and and thank you for all that you do to to keep us all tapped in on the important things facing our industry.

Brandon Burton 35:10
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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 Houssem Touil. Houssem, for the past 10 years, has worked with chambers of commerce, business associations and employer organizations across the Mediterranean Africa and Eastern Europe, where he’s delivered projects which have impacted the private sector and civil society on both the local and regional scale. During that time, he wore many hats, such as employee, consultant, member, board member and chamber president, which gives him a new perspective on the private sector challenges and opportunities. By the age of 27 he co founded the Tunisia Estonian Chamber of Commerce, bilateral chamber between Estonia and Tunisia, his home country, where he serves as the president since 2019. He is now the founder of Chamberpad and newsletter for chambers of commerce, Houssem, I’m excited to have you back with us on chamber chat podcast. Sam was a guest back on Episode 120 for anyone who’s curious and wants to go back and check out that episode as well, but please take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little

Houssem Touil 2:25
better. Yeah, sure. First of all, thanks, Brandon, so it’s been three years and a half now I think I think you’re right. Yeah, yeah, three years and half, like Time flies. So thanks for having me, and thanks everyone for for tuning in. So my name is Houssem. I’m the founder of Chamberpad and also presidential comms, just like you mentioned it. So I had the privilege of working with Chambers of Commerce of several sizes and budgets, and had many hats, as you mentioned earlier, which has given me unique insight into how businesses and chambers can effectively collaborate. So this experience, coupled with conversations with industry peers, has really fueled my passion for launching chamber pad, and also have a background in media communication. So yeah, so we know that chamber pad aims to be at the forefront of those discussions. That’s

Brandon Burton 3:23
kind of a natural fit with the media and communications background, to do something in that field, right and blend it in with the Chamber world. Yes, and I definitely see it being relevant in today’s world, where the world just keeps getting smaller and smaller with technology and communication skills. And you know, for you and you know, for you and I to be able to be on the opposite sides of the planet right now and be able to talk over zoom as if we’re in the same room, and the world is very small, and a lot of the trends that we see happening globally are happening in our own backyard. So being able to know what’s going on and maybe getting that glimpse, you know, a step or two before it happens in our own community is crucial to staying relevant as a chamber. So I’m excited to have you on for that perspective. But maybe before we, before we go down that road of talking about chamber pad and what it is, it is kind of a unique situation with the Tunisia Estonia Chamber. So take a moment just to explain what that is for listeners, and how does that work at the bilateral chamber and and just give us that perspective.

Houssem Touil 4:31
Yeah, sure. So, so it’s not for profit. And so, so it’s so why is 21st so it’s 20. I mean, it’s like, this small country, and they have, like, 99% of their public services are digital. So basically, you do pretty much everything online with with the government, and also it’s, it’s very tech savvy. They have, like. You know, it’s, it’s startup country where they have, like, the most numbers of of startups per capita. And at the same time, you know, my country, we are small, but not that small in size, but I’ve seen that. There’s also a lot of similarities, and we can learn a lot from them, start by implementing, or at least learning from how they build, like digital savvy, digital side country. So basically, in Tunisia, we have also, like a lot of IT companies. So most of the time this is it focused more than everything else. So basically, we’re like a technology chamber, or at least technology focus chamber, where we help our local startups to expand via startup visa, for example, in Estonia, they can also this enable them to to get access to to European markets, to alleviate a lot of a lot of barriers, and reduce the cost of doing business. Sometimes it also offers them to other markets, not just the European market, also in Tunisia, every year, we have over 65,000 graduates, about 10,000 to 11,000 of them are engineers, or at least they work in the stem so, so basically they are trilingual, and most of the time they don’t just, like, find a job right away. Give me the perspective, like the local economy and so on. So it’s not that easy to find a job like right away when you graduate. So basically, most of them, they end up, like working as freelancer, or they leave the country to other places. And so here comes Estonia with a model called the residency. So basically you become like a virtual resident of the country. But it doesn’t give you, like additional rights, like additional civic rights. They just give you most of the time, like, let’s say, commercial rights to interact with the government, and you can stay wherever you are in the world. So you don’t relocate. You stay where you are. You can have access to the same opportunity just like, or at least almost like you would relocate over there. So, yeah. So this is another, another pain point that we have addressed, especially that we have, like, a massive brain drain. So we’re trying to keeping tasks local

Brandon Burton 7:33
well, and it’s another example of the world getting smaller and and you guys definitely can’t do things the way things have always been done as chambers, because it’s very technology focused and needing to stay on the forefront of all that. Out of curiosity, how do you measure membership and growth and that with with the chamber with this type of structure?

Houssem Touil 7:57
Yeah, so this also another way we looked at how we could operate at the chamber. So usually a chamber would just, you know, like, you set up the chamber. Let’s say, if you’re like, private, low chamber, you set it up as a nonprofit. You bring in some, like, industry, industry peers, and you say, Okay, we’re going to set up the chamber. And you start, like, drafting the roadmap, and start acquiring members to get to what you have planned, like do events, trade delegations and policy briefs and so on. But we have acted differently. Said, Okay, instead of focusing on having members, how many have renewed? How many are engaged or not or job that. So I said, Okay, we are going to act as a cluster. And so basically we said we are going to be like, not just like a local cluster, but on both sides. So we went to the clusters over there in Estonia, and we said, Okay, so here are the possibilities where we can collaborate in the short term, mid term and actually long term. And here are probably, like, some discussions that you could also take, take part of, like knowledge exchange, for example, and trade delegations or bid for tenders like Tunisia, spending like lot and working with multilateral stakeholders like World Bank and African Development Bank and so on to digitize the public services so and they have experience with that. So I say, okay, maybe let’s just like match sometimes we do on a case by case basis. So instead of bringing you like 500 companies from both sides together, or even 100 let’s just do it like on case by case basis. So we started operating first for startups, and we had like few startups getting there. They had that they. Startup visa. We also had a couple of startups from Australia coming here the startup shop. We have, like, a unique framework here for startups called the startup act. And they operating thanks to its thanks to its framework incentives. Then we had some IT companies bidding together as joint ventures. They are working not just Tunisia, but also in Africa, actually in the Middle East. So, yeah, we are seeing, like a lot of it’s actually new perspective. So it’s we find it, it’s a new, I’m not gonna say like it’s a new model or something, but we just like explored something that you wouldn’t just like think of when, when, when you draft your roadmap. So usually we think of events, trade delegation and so on. But I said, Okay, let’s just go with whatever opportunity we can see is, let’s just go with that. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 10:58
I like that. So Houssem is obviously an outside the box thinker, which is why we wanted to have him on the show. Today, we’re going to focus most of our conversation around Chamberpad. This is a new newsletter that hose him has founded and put out into the world. So we’re going to learn about what it is, what the purpose is, and everything about it. As soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Houssem, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we see the world getting smaller and smaller. There’s great value in getting perspective from people and other other parts, other regions of the world, just to see what’s going on there and see what we can apply in our own community. Tell us what is Chamberpad. We talked about it being a newsletter, but I know it’s new. I think you’re what four, four newsletters into it and, and I will say, from a content producer myself, sometimes our best stuff comes out early before we have a big following. So I’m going to urge everybody to start following Chamberpad right now so you can get all the good stuff. But it’ll, it’ll continue to be great, I’m sure. Yeah, tell tell us what it is and what it all it entails, and where the idea come from. Yeah,

Houssem Touil 14:06
like that. But you know, like when you start at the beginning, you’re like, you put yourself, yeah, you put

Brandon Burton 14:11
your best foot forward. You got great content, and you’ve got a small so you gotta, gotta grow it and get in front of more people.

Houssem Touil 14:19
Yeah? You can relate, yes, yeah, and so. So Chamberpad is, is a newsletter designed specifically for the chambers of commerce ecosystem. So the staff, the executives, the board members, the volunteers, the members also, and also the service providers, the policy makers and so on. So anyone who is like on the could be around, like the Chamber of Commerce ecosystem. So, like, I’ve seen, like a pattern I saw, like a gap in the market where chambers needed, like, easily digestible. Or centralized source of information. And so this comes as frustration as the chamber President myself, so I find, I mean, I know that, like, the perspective sometimes could be different, because it’s just like between two countries. So basically, you can have like, top two, three news outlets between two countries, where you could just, you know, see the news everything related to to the government or private sector or whatever. But this, also, I have another hat, which is working with chambers in from all sizes, different culture, different countries, different cultures. So basically, you are like, you know, sometimes you you find yourself in information overload, so or overload that you don’t know where to get your information exactly. You can see, can go through, you know, like your Twitter or x spread. You can go through your Facebook timeline and go through the LinkedIn news feed, and basically you wouldn’t be able to digest, like, all of it. So basically, we said, okay, let’s have like, one source of information. And I started thinking more into it to see, like, how relevant it is. So started like, let’s say, tracking how many news there are related to all of this, like, related to to the chambers, to the employee organizations, to Business Association and so on, versus like there is, on average, about 14,000 euros per month only related to to chambers and and, yeah, and this is actually just in English, so it’s not like, also like, try to imagine how many this could be in other languages, like in French or in Chinese or in Arabic and in Spanish or Portuguese. So I guess it’s going to be more like just in English, just like 14,000 and so say, okay, maybe we can do something and be so the first, first idea would be to become aggregator. But also that wouldn’t solve the problem, since there are actually 14,000 years. So I wouldn’t read 14,000 years per month, because the context is extremely different. So I said, Okay, so maybe do like a digest, like every week you spend the whole week, like hustling, doing whatever you do with requiring members, visiting your member, advocating on their behalf, you know, talking to the media, doing events or whatever said by the end of the week, or at least. So basically we release every Thursday. They said, by the end of the week, you’ll get the top news and the top events and the top publications, and now also the best latest Podcast, episode, chamber, chat podcast, yeah, that you can listen to. So it’s not just about reading it, but also listening and any I mean, I find that format better than actually doing an aggregator, some, something like Hacker News. I don’t know if you know what I can use. No, I’m not familiar with that. Yeah. So it’s like, you know, in circumvent there’s like, there’s like, hacking news. It’s a platform where, like, hundreds and hundreds of news drop every day, almost, about technology and so on. So I said, I mean, you gotta spend like, your day in front of hacking news to read in years. So basically, you went to the anywhere. So I said, Okay, this to just do the newsletter and take it from there. So we set up like a roadmap, and I said, okay, like our missions to provide actionable insights, trends, events, best practices to chambers across across the globe. So whether they are a local chamber in a small town or a large international network, they could be a continental chamber or State Chamber or whatever. So yeah, for now, we’re just newsletter but and we’re also have like subscribers from North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and also even from the Caribbean. So yeah, I mean very much this is like exciting times, and very much looking forward to where this is going to take us. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 19:32
no, I love the idea for it and and, like you said, to be able to try to curate these different articles and news outlets from, you know, worldwide, from the global scene. And it would be quite the undertaking to really dive in and do that all, but as you come across these things of interest, to kind of keep note of it and put it together. And what I like is it’s an easily digestible newsletter. So you’re not seeing just article after article, but you you have it broken down. Right at the top where it says, like, for example, this week there were six news articles that you referenced, three publications, one podcast episode, and four events you know around the world, yeah. And then you have it broken down by those categories, and like, bullet points and links to the full articles or registration for events and things like that. And I don’t know just kind of future casting this, I see you could become that source where people are coming to you with articles and information. You know, here’s something for the newsletter. You know, our Chamber’s doing this, or our, you know, National Association of chamber in certain countries doing this, or whatever it may be, just to put it out there in the newsletter. I think it’s a great platform. And glad to see somebody’s picking up the ball and running with it and doing doing this. So, yeah, kudos. Kudos to you the idea.

Houssem Touil 20:51
Yeah, thanks. Thanks. Yeah. I mean, we already started having some people reaching out, actually. So they reach out even by the email that they find at the bottom of the newsletter, or by link there, I’ll say, oh, you should actually put this. Or why not look at this? So, yeah, basically, so feel free to send, I mean, yeah, we’re happy to to include it,

Brandon Burton 21:15
yeah. And I think for a busy chamber executive or chamber staff to be able to to get this email every Thursday. Open it up, and you can scan right through it, see what what things are of interest to you and what’s relevant to you. Click on that. And I know, you know, lots of people get different emails from various organizations, maybe like Harvard Business Review. I know they do like a weekly email, and people really look forward to those because it has so much valuable content in it. And that’s how I see Chamberpad being, is that resource specific for chamber executives, chamber staff, to be able to see what’s going on in a lot of different markets all at once, and you can go back and reference it. It’s got all the links there. So you’re not needing to search worldwide to find these things, but it’s being curated and presented to you. So nice job. What else would you want to share about Chamberpad for listeners, just to get them into it, to get them to understand what it is and where it offers value for them. Is there anything else that you’d add?

Houssem Touil 22:24
Yeah, sure. So so far now we started as as a newsletter we read by chamber leaders from 29 countries so far, and and what we what we plan on doing, is actually to become one stop shop for all affiliations related to chambers. So this is just like the digest you get to just digest of 10 years. But eventually, we’re planning on starting doing our own webinars, for example, in the beginning, we have also started to initiate discussions with chamber industry events, where we are could become media partners for the events as well. We’re also working. We’re about to roll out our platform so it’s the same address, like chamberpa.com is the same for now, you can just go there and subscribe for the newsletter. We will keep the newsletter, of course, because we all need to keep the weekly digest over there. But also, we are going to start doing interviews and promoting. You know, most of the time we have to promote economy. So we just hear about the top economies most of the time, always doing what, but we often forget about all the others in all the great job that they are doing. Some subjects, for example, like the free trade agreements, like if your chamber, for example, you have members who export, let’s say, like, fruits and vegetables. You would want to know about another your chamber peer in another country which says, you say, hey, both are our country are actually have a free trade agreements, and fruits and vegetables are actually included in that. So we have either eliminated tariffs, or we have actually reduced the the tariff rates. So basically, you as a chamber, you would actually tell say, Okay, why don’t you just like, go to this country, listen to this webinar, lead to everything they have to tell you about how you could export to their countries, and thus you make more money, you hire more people, and also you stick with the chamber. So basically, it’s it’s sometimes I see that maybe can talk about it later. A place like future for chambers and so on. But sometimes you can just, like, do it all as as the chamber executive yourself, like, you know, you can just do everything, right? Sometimes someone has to do something for you resist

Brandon Burton 25:15
the temptation, right? Yeah,

Houssem Touil 25:20
yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean, it started, I mean, like, you know, I’ve been listening to your your podcast for three years and a half now, and every time, you know, I get, like, new perspectives from new people. Sometimes, you know, it’s sometimes it could be related to, to the place where they are operating from. Or sometimes it could be like subject. So yeah, like we can do, we can do, like webinars on specific subjects, but basically they’re going to be around countries. And we’re very thrilled to be like partners with chamber chat podcast. I mean, it’s like, really my favorite podcast, like every week goes into it. So basically, we have that you listen to Brandon every week, but also you read what her writes to you every week. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:08
goes hand in hand. I love it, yeah. So you’d mentioned earlier you have a marketing communications background. So how is that? Have you been able to lean into that as you’ve launched chamber pad?

Houssem Touil 26:26
Yes, very good question. So, so you need so when you look at for example. So I said earlier, would be like tracking the number of news that we find, like every week we also, let’s say, like since the opportunity and checked, let’s say the trainings related to related to chambers, what they are talking about and so on. I’ve seen that most of the time they’re still operating in the same way. And what do I mean by that? I mean from immediate perspective, like for now, when you go through all kinds of reports, you can go to reports just related to like certain sides of chambers, or in certain continent for chambers, you will see that many say that they have reduced engagement rate, while others say that they they have like, more members dropping than actually renewing. Others said that they were actually seeing like spike in membership. And we said, Okay, so maybe I should, like, you know, initiate some discussions with some people, and try to see why, like what’s going on. And sometimes what what you get is just you find that these people, they communicate with different generations at the same time. So they communicate with my generation, the millennials. They communicate also with the Gen Z. They communicate also with the boomers. And so I think that chambers, right now, should become a media machine. I mean, at certain time they become a network. Actually, they started as a network. And, you know, actually started about, like, over 400 years ago in the port of southern France, Marseille. They’re just, you know, they started, you know, like going to the port over there, and they had, like, issues with the pirates in the Mediterranean. And then they see the occasion, and they find out that traders, merchants are meeting with each other. So basically, they also see the occasion to start doing business together, and then later on. So So it started as a network, and then from the network key to move to a network as a powerhouse. And you know, you go, you become member your chamber is going to defend you. They’re going to, you know, voice your concern to the local, state, federal, nation, whatever authorities your concern and and now I think that they should become actually medial nation. And this is, this is not an option, because the world has changed a lot, and even with covid, like covid is actually despite, like, all the negative downsides of covid and so on. But I think that it has also, like, accelerated the future, and it has actually brought it to open doorstep. So I think, yes, chambers should become media machines.

Brandon Burton 29:46
I love that, and I’m going to take that as an endorsement. You know, recently launched the Bringing Local Back platform that was part of the vision is chambers being a media machine and establishing a platform that makes it easy. Easy to put your content out in your community, to really showcase your members, to really be that go to source for information in your community. So I love that testimonial of it, because that is the that’s the idea about that, that bringing local back campaign. So thank you for that. Sure. I like asking everyone I have on the show for any kind of tip or action item that you might have for listeners who are looking to take their chamber up to the next level. What would you suggest for them?

Houssem Touil 30:33
Oh, yeah, actually, there are quite a few. So first of all, maybe actually start to embrace AI like, you know, AI is not like chatgpt, it’s not clothing, it’s not perplexity, and it’s not Canva and like the magic writer of LinkedIn, or whatever it’s, it’s much more. I mean, it’s this, it’s part of this. It’s empowering, like content creation and all of that. But there are also other things that you should actually embrace in AI, for example, something like automations start to automate. And actually, I think that I’ve said this in the first episode with you, I think said automate. And actually, even three years later, I still talk to my peers, and most of the time they don’t automate, yeah, but actually automate. Automate often. Like, there’s so many things that you cannot automate for sure, but things which are repetitive make it automated, make it autopilot, like, save even like five hours per week or 10 hours per week, or even as low as two hours per week, like, just automate your workflow, like, try to gain some time, automated repetitive tasks and to get more space for creative work, for example, or to have more members, or to talk more to to your to our existing members, also at the same time, maybe you should actually shift more of their member engagement strategies online, for example, like, you know, we live like in digital era, and sometimes remember, expect real time expand real time updates, sometimes like some personal content. I know that it’s not that obvious to do it for certain types or sizes of chambers, but do as much as you can from where you understand, like, for example, I’ve seen some chambers they said, Okay, we are going to do like, virtual secretaria. So basically, don’t call us on the phone and tell us what, what you need and so on. Like just, there’s like, there’s like a chat bot in in the website, you can just talk to it, and if it is something that you know, like your interface, you chat with the interface. If it doesn’t give you the proper answers to what you want. This is actually when would be able to get access to a phone number and call us, but you can also send us an email. I mean, try to automate as much as possible, also with different engagement stores, I found that some chambers, for example, they do work with us consistently. I know that, for example, some chamber in in small town doesn’t mean I mean they probably they, they cannot do that because, you know, they can just like, do an event, like, every once in a while, and that’s enough. But if you’re like Metro Chamber, like very big city, you cannot, like, reach everyone at the same time and bring them together on site. So have something like, you know, give them real time date. I mean, they don’t need to get to wait for your monthly newsletter to tell them what you did for them, like, do it real time. Do it Real Time. I mean, they will feel that you actually care more about them, that you are more present than you actually wait for it. And do you know it’s just like another thing that you just another thing yet to check at the end of the month, and said, Okay, this news database, what we’ve been doing, like, No, do it real time.

Brandon Burton 34:31
Yeah, I like that. Doing it real time and also recording it, having a library of these real time, going back to being that media machine, right? If you can provide asynchronous information where somebody can digest it on their own time, instead of needing to be at the meeting or at the luncheon at a specific time in person, they they have the option to catch it virtually, or if they can’t see it today, but they can watch it tomorrow. Then that’s even better, because you’re getting more exposure to more people that way. Your your your thought about automation too, I think is spot on. I’ve seen it’ll free up time and the give give room for that creative work, like you mentioned. But it also makes your systems that much better when you can automate processes, because the input every the data that’s coming into, it’s going to be the same. And just a simple example, as I’ve seen with some chambers, is they input membership information, for example, the contact name, depending on who is entering the information in, they might include a prefix of Mr. Or Mrs. You know, Jones or whatever, and then the next person who’s entering in membership information just as first and last name. So then you have inconsistencies in your data all over the place. So having a system and automating it’s going to clean things up a ton and make it so much easier to process that data in a meaningful way. Well, Hussein, before we let you go, you alluded to it earlier, but as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Houssem Touil 36:22
Yeah, so, so, as I mentioned earlier, so chamber stars as network and then as advocacy powerhouse, and now they should become media machines. But actually, in order to become media machine, you should be able to I think that instead of like everyone doing their own thing, you know, aside, maybe you should have something that we have our own key message, the same key messages that we deliver like we harmonize all the benefits that you get from joining channel. But also, at the same time, we should also harmonize the key messages of what could not work in your favor if you don’t join as well. Because, for example, if you have some kind of issue, sometimes you just cannot solve it on your own. We we sometimes forget that channels of commerce also have mandates depending on the countries they’re operating from. So sometimes, if you want to deal with the government, for example, on a certain issue, you cannot do it on your own, only vi chamber. So you have, for example, you want to advocate to change some regulations, for example, which are harming you. Or maybe you said, Okay, I have suggestions for something new, which actually we could implement, which kind of bring us more dollars and hire more people, and especially keeping both local. So you can only do that with your chamber. When you look at the world’s biggest companies, actually, what they do is just, you see that everything is online, but no like, they have like public affairs team who actually or which actually work with chambers to actually negotiate with the governments and so on to implement new kind of regulations. So, yeah, I think that it’s like Bill Gates, or, I don’t know who said it before, like, if your business is on the internet, then it will be out of business. I think that should, like, harmonize the set of key messages which go like, if your business is not chamber member, then your business will go out of business. So, yeah, I think yeah, that’s it. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 38:57
No, that’s great. I appreciate that. I want to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect to learn more about what you’re doing, but probably most importantly, how to subscribe to chamber pads. They can get this news, this curated news, sent to them each week. What’s the best way? Where would you point them to do these things? Yeah,

Houssem Touil 39:21
sure. So you go to chamberpad.com so basically, you will, it’s a landing page. The first thing you’re gonna see is to actually just insert your email and subscribe, and later on, you can start reading, have access to all the archives. And every week, like every Thursday, you will you will have, like the weekly digest every week, every Thursday in your inbox. You will also find my contact information within the newsletter, so you can find my full name. We send 12. It’s the same on LinkedIn, and you can. Also find my email. It’s my initials, so ht@chamberpad.com,

Brandon Burton 40:07
that’s perfect, and as normal, we’ll get all this in our show notes for this episode to make it easy to find and subscribe and get people in contact with you. But Sam, this has been great having you back on chamber chat podcast, the partnership going forward with with chamber pad as well. And wish you best of luck going forward and and seeing it grow and see see where it goes from here. So thanks for being with us today.

Houssem Touil 40:33
Yeah, sure. Thank you for having me.

Brandon Burton 40:36
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Communication with a Personal Touch with Cindy Cobb

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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 Cindy Cobb. Cindy is the Executive Director of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina. Cindy is a lifelong resident of Rutherford County at product of the Rutherford County school system and a graduate of Western Piedmont Community College. She and her husband Andy had been married for nearly 37 years have three grown children and two grandchildren. Her professional career began as a dental assistant. After her children came along she was a full time mom and domestic engineer until they became school age. Her father had a well established independent insurance agency and after consulting with him, Cindy decided to become a licensed Life and Health Insurance agent. Prospecting and meeting new people was something she enjoyed many of these were business owners. Well in the insurance business. She was awarded the Rookie of the Year top agent in the region top agency in the region and was a member of the President’s Club. Cindy was asked to help visit current Chamber members and prospective members temporarily while the chamber looked for a new executive director. A month later, the board asked if she would accept the position of executive director. Cindy’s been in this role now for two years and is looking forward to many more. That Cindy, 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,

Cindy Cobb 2:45
good morning and hello to all of the chamber champions you all are, are just a fabulous bunch of people. And over the past two years I have met so many wonderful people. I have never enjoyed getting up and going to work more. An interesting thing about me is that I am not only a lifelong resident of Rutherford County. My family is lifelong residents of Rutherford County before our country was even a country we were still a British colony. We have been in Rutherford County since 1726. And so I use that to my advantage with van a history buff and love listening to the stories and tales that that my grandparents and parents have shared with me. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:41
no, I’m a history buff myself and to be able to know that history from your family is awesome to be able to hear some of the stories passed down and to feel like you’re part of it is something special. So that is a an interesting factor that you said thank you. It tell us a little bit about the Rutherford County Chamber just to give us some perspective. Before we open up our topic for discussion today. Give us an idea of size, your chamber the scope of work, you guys are involved with staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for us.

Cindy Cobb 4:17
Well, the Rutherford County Chamber as far as chambers go, is not sure if you call us an adolescent, or maybe a teenager we have only been in existence since September of 1992. Okay, before that, each little town kind of did their own little thing and had their so called chamber. And in that day, 92 after one of the chambers had some problems, they decided to merge and form the Rutherford County Chamber, which really just made more sense because we all know that working together and being unified is when you can really get things done it specially in a rural area of Lot, Rutherford County. While we have a large landmass, we are one of the largest counties in North Carolina as far as land size, but we’re, we’re all spread out. There’s plenty of room for us to grow our chamber. We have currently just under 400 members, and we have a budget of $200,000. And, you know, we’re a two person team. We’re located in Forest City. Rutherford Eaton is the county seat. And we were once there but just before I started, they moved to Forest City, Forest City has been more of the kind of the epicenter of activity and our counting. And so that felt like that was a good place for the chamber to be.

Brandon Burton 6:16
That makes sense. Your your comment about being an adolescent or teenager chamber. I see that as you guys were kind of trendsetters back in 1992, because we’re seeing a lot of chambers today that are going through mergers and acquisitions like that as especially through the pandemic and certainly, you know, chambers are stress members, businesses are stressed. And being able to combine efforts to be able to use staff in multiple ways really made a lot of sense for chambers today, you know, in recent, the recent past to to merge, and you guys did it back in 1992. So I would take that as being a trendsetter, so

Cindy Cobb 7:03
I love being a trendsetter.

Brandon Burton 7:07
So for our topic today, we’re going to spend time, the majority of our time today talking about how you go about adding a personal touch to your communication amongst Chamber members and throughout your community. And we will dive deeper into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Cindy, we are back. As I mentioned before the break we’re going to be talking about adding a personal touch to communication today. And full disclosure I did feel a little bit of guilt as we’re lining this up because of automation processes to line up guests and to send reminders and everything and maybe it takes away some of that personal touch but nonetheless it worked. We got you on the show. So and I will say it this came about because of a personal touch and communication from Chris need who introduced us and I believe the the introduction was that he wanted me to meet this firecracker from North Carolina. So No, Chris Mead has a way of adding a personal touch to his communication. But I’m excited to learn more about how you implement the personal touch and communication as we go through this today. But I guess first of all, you see you have this career in insurance, which I see a lot of correlations and building those relationships, and especially when it comes to that personal touch, you know, getting to know people’s names and family members. And you know, what’s important to them? How have you seen that in your previous career translate over into your chamber career. Now, as far as adding the personal touch goes

Cindy Cobb 10:40
on that. I don’t know if anyone has ever really been knocking at a door, looking to buy life insurance. That is something most people don’t get real excited about. And my dad was really old school, and he told me, you know, we don’t buy leads, you have to go out. And you like his term was shake a lot of bushes before you can catch the birds. And so I followed things back. Back during that time, which was quite a while ago, I’ve looked at the newspaper. followed that you started with small town papers, you had wedding announcements of land transfers were listed. Yeah, births. And so all of those things, along with this band were of a new business that would have been was the perfect lead for someone to need life insurance? Yeah, the health insurance would follow. That was something most people realize they needed. And so I had to be really kind of, at ease really comfortable going in and first few times is, you know, it was kind of nervous going in and meeting these people. I didn’t know where to pick up the phone and contact someone. Why should they listen to me? So it was a matter of making them feel comfortable? And not a hard pressure top sales job, really want to approach it? As you know, congratulations of saying you’ve had birth or congratulations on your marriage or new business? Have you thought about this with preparing your future? And so with that, it has really helped me and the, in the chamber world to approach things the same way. Um, these prospective members are the ones that that kind of took under my wing when I came into this that were already members to know that they could trust me, that I was someone they could feel comfortable picking up the phone and calling or emailing me with a request or if they had a question. And I think that was one of the biggest things little did I know, so long ago, that it would prepare me for this time and this, this calling that I have with the chamber? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:50
And I think a lot of people can relate with the nerves that you talked about, about approaching businesses, and who am I to kind of that impostor syndrome, as they call it today? And in my career, I’ve had been in sales most of my career, and as I train new salespeople, one of the things I have to remind them because they’re nervous doing the same thing approaching businesses, and what if I don’t know this? What if I don’t present it right? And it’s like, you know, what, this is the first time that they’re hearing about this opportunity. You know, this is the first time you’re the expert in this room. Right? So that helps to alleviate some of that pressure some of those nerves about who am I? Because when you put it in that kind of perspective, it’s like you’re right. So even as you’re approaching prospective Chamber members or current Chamber members, you’re the one that knows the offerings that your chamber has to offer. You’re the one that knows the ins and outs and you’re there to learn about them so you can better align what you have to offer to serve them better. And going with that perspective, I think helps alleviate some of those nerves. That

Cindy Cobb 14:57
and and believe it In your product, you know, whether it was for for me at that time, my the insurance I was offering and believing and knowing the benefits of it. And the same with the chamber. And having lived here my whole life, I do remember when the chamber was organized and the the challenges and the struggles that they went through, as well as the triumphs. And so I’ve really believed it. And before I agreed to go out and see members on which I thought was going to be a temporary thing. I really studied the chamber as study, not only our chamber, US study chambers in general, to know, what we what we’re all about, and the influence that we can have, and how we can advocate. You know, we’re there for them, and, and to bring unity. So that can make our, our area a better place to live. So with knowing the product, and really believing in it, the enthusiasm is genuine. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 16:25
So with our topic today about adding a personal touch to our communication efforts, I see it really is relationship building. And maybe you see it differently. I don’t know, I think when you sum it up, that’s what it comes down to is building relationships and showing that you care to these people, these members that you’re communicating with, what are some of the ways that you’ve learned and adapted to show your care and your interest in these individuals as you communicate with them?

Cindy Cobb 16:56
Well, if at all possible, if they have a social media page, follow it. And I interact with them on layer, that that helps them to know that we’re watching that we know what’s happening us if I see something interesting, some type of announcement, they don’t always contact the chamber about it. But I see it there. So I can repost that with some personalized comments. And I can also share that with my assistant. And let’s include this in our newsletter, this is big news, or if it’s something on accomplishment, forum, you know, we’d like to do that. People, people like to know that they’re being noticed. So there’s some things that I do.

Brandon Burton 17:59
So I’ve seen it, I don’t mean to cut you off or interrupt. I think this ties in well, I’ve seen some chambers where to make sure their members feel noticed is for those who maybe purchase an ad space in their chamber directory, or there’s their chamber map or the sponsors of certain events, to give them special shout outs on social media, and even resharing. Like if it’s an ad in your chamber directory, for example, to share that ad on social media and leverage that a little further add your personal touch on it, but it also drives people to the awareness of promoting the chamber in whatever publications or events that you’re promoting with that. So yes, I think it’s two birds with one stone.

Cindy Cobb 18:45
Yes, that that is really just the, I see it as the very least that we can do. If people are willing to be a sponsor. We, we always, always make sure that they are acknowledged in our newsletter, or any emails, our social media, always make sure I do that. And you know, it is is this something that is like they really feel like, Oh, why I’m getting the recognition, I am getting that exposure. One of the things that I’ve recently started doing is a local radio station has a community Morning Report. This is something you probably wouldn’t have in a larger city. But in our little area, they call around. They talk to different people and they give a report for each community. I watch them on Facebook Live so that way I can use the live chat and it’s a good right way to do plugs for the chamber. anything as far as, like a new member or ribbon cutting, I always mentioned that on layer. If we have something special coming up, like, for instance, we have our annual golf tournament and fundraiser that’s coming up soon. And the sponsors would that, always make sure to mention them that way? It’s free advertising for us. Yeah. But they’re getting advertising, too. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 20:34
It doesn’t cost the chamber really anything. But a few minutes to post it. event, it makes a huge impact for that business. So next time when they consider being a sponsor, or participating in whatever event, instead of saying what’s in it, for me, at least they know that tangible thing, the Chamber went that extra step to make sure that their business is being noticed. Yes. Adding that personal touch.

Cindy Cobb 20:59
Yes, that’s right. That’s right. You know, when you’re reaching a whole other audience, like with this with the radio station that may not have thought about following the chamber on Facebook, but I have found since I’ve been doing that, that our Facebook following has increased? Yeah, yeah, there’s, that’s a different group that listens at seven in the morning, to a community kind of round up and report with what’s going on with the union meals area. Nobody, but someone in Rutherford County knows. Union meals, where’s laps? Right,

Brandon Burton 21:51
right. Yeah, those are, they’re gonna tend to be people who care about the community and want to have more involvement possibly. So Right. That’s, that’s key. What are some of these other ways with personal, the personal adding the personal touch and the communication that you? Well,

Cindy Cobb 22:10
face to face? That, that is that definitely a personal touch, you can’t get much more personal. So when someone joins our chamber, or they renew their membership, and the certificates are printed out, you know, not only sign those and frame them, take them and deliver them, to them with their new little claim for their door to their business. And I just hand deliver it and, and thank them for renewing or becoming a part of the chamber, and inform them about the benefits membered member discounts, and I encourage you, you know, you need to, you need to try this. And this, you know, letting them know less, I have enough time to come out and see you now do Trump planet, to where when I know where I’m going for the day, I have those things with me that are going to be on my route of where I’m going. But it doesn’t take much time to drop that off. And just stop by and say hello and see how they’re doing. It really makes difference not have found. Everyone always has come for at least a brief chat. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:44
yeah. And even without an appointment, necessarily. I mean, you’re gonna run across it, where they’re in a meeting, and they can’t see you. But if they if they can, and you’re dropping something off for them, you’re going to show gratitude for the investment they’re making in the chamber. They’re gonna take two minutes to say hi, and and receive that. So yes, I love that. So I know. I mean, in today’s world, people are so busy, especially when you look at chamber executives are so busy, you know, there’s so much going on, that we’re looking for ways to maybe shortcuts or ways to systematize or be able to leverage our time in a in a more efficient way. So what would you say to those who are like I need to really hone down my time to encourage them to add the personal touch, what are you? What kind of return are you seeing on that investment of taking that time to add the personal touch and your communication? Well,

Cindy Cobb 24:46
I’m sure I’m not the only one that has their email account on their phone so they can check their emails because I have found if I’m just sitting in the office, really not doing my job. So I will. I’ll be checking emails when I wake up every morning. That’s one of the first signs that I do. And so I look at it, we just recently had a presentation, our professional women’s group called the chamber cheeks, by the way, now take that later what it means that the program was on time management. And so there was some good things have learned from that. So prioritizing the ones, go ahead and read them, go ahead and look at it. And then if it’s something where I can answer quickly, I try to go ahead and answer it quickly. If it’s something urgent, definitely try to try to answer that. And if not, if it’s an a male might be where they’re just wanting us to check on something. Yeah, I will, I will forward that to my sister, Lily, and then she’ll take care of it. So I’m not answering every one of the emails because any of these other chambers, they can tell you. And I’m sure they could share a lot more with me because their years of experience. A lot of the emails are kind of sale you set up then OR gate day, they said, those are the ones that kind of go into file 13. Right.

Brandon Burton 26:45
That makes sense. That makes sense. So I know, we’re gonna start wrapping things up here, but I wanted to give you an opportunity of to share any tip or action item for listeners who are looking to take their chamber to the next level, what kind of suggestion or tip or advice would you offer for that?

Cindy Cobb 27:08
I would say, first, listen to what your members are saying in a nice way, or I think the relationship part is important when they listen and observe what’s going on with their business men where their struggles are. And if at all possible, try to help them through that. Through that rough patch, whatever they may be dealing with. I’ve really feel like this important. Also, in our case, not just mentioned our women’s group. I saw a need and, and also, as I shared the idea of forming a professional women’s group that a lot of ladies were interested in that. So we’ve only had two meetings now. But each one is growing and spreading more people are talking about it. I’ve got spine this language checks. Yes,

Brandon Burton 28:19
I was gonna ask you you had mentioned that gave us that teaser. Tell us tell us what that’s about? Yes.

Cindy Cobb 28:25
So I can’t think of okay. You know, I’ve got to think of something where people can remember it. And I saw some of these were women on fire, fire or power up and all these really strong things. And I’m like, Oh, my gracious. I don’t I don’t know, I’m not sure what I don’t want to do. And I don’t want to mimic somebody. I want it to be something that’s original. I’m sure. The there’s been some other chamber cheeks, but ours is an acronym. Okay. Shakes stands for community health, influence, connection, knowledge and support. And I feel like that pretty much sums up what our group is about. We want to help our community, promote women’s health, the influence of the each of those women on hmm to know they’re vitally important to the to the success of that group, because their sphere of influence can make an impact. The connections, obviously, you know, if you’re a business woman, that those connections layer, you can Meet people that you may not you may not know about this is brought some out of the woodwork that were even some home based business women. One lady for instance, she she’s in like the cryptocurrency another one is a marketing firm that she’s just working from her home. And making those connections, the knowledge, like the, the program on time management, that was something I felt like every one of us could benefit from, and support so that we’re there for each other. There’s a variety of ages. So whether you’re a young woman starting off in the business world, you have these mentors that can help support you, and kind of carry you through whether it’s with your business or even in your personal life, those things. So that’s what Chix stands for.

Brandon Burton 31:07
Yeah, I love that I love that you were able to make an acronym out of it gives a little more meaning to it shows the intentionality behind the name. But another maybe tidbit when it comes to creating a name for a group like this or an event. And I did this when I started chamber chat podcast that was trying to figure out what would be a name that people would remember that they could tell us what it is without, you know, being too wordy. And if you can come up with the name that you like the most. And have some casual conversations with other people. Maybe it’s Chamber members and say, hey, you know, we’re thinking to do in this women’s networking group and maybe call it like chamber chicks or something like don’t have that be the focus of the conversation, but drop it in there. Right? And then like two weeks later, circle back with that person say, Hey, do you remember that conversation we had about this women’s group? Do you remember the name that I told you were considering? If they can repeat it back to you? You got a winner? Right? Yes. Whereas they’re like, I remember, I don’t remember what the name was. But you just casually drop it in there. And if it doesn’t resonate, go to the next name on your list and have those casual conversations with some other people until you get a winner.

Cindy Cobb 32:25
Yes, that’s that is something that that I have. I have been doing slug. I’ll say someone’s like, hey, we would love it. If you could join us. Would you like to get away at least once a month during lunch? Was mother ladies? And when I tell him the name, they always smile. Yeah, no. And they, you know, I’ve had some that, that haven’t even mentioned that too. And they’ll they’ll say something to me what? Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about you cheeks.

Brandon Burton 33:07
I love it. Well, 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? Oh,

Cindy Cobb 33:22
I think while it is a really an age old and tried and true resource for businesses is something where we have to continue to educate because there’s new generations that don’t realize what chamber is. But when take the time, and you share with them, and you let them know. They’re excited about it too. And they they do like that personal touch the interaction. Some meaning especially during COVID Everything was done remotely. And from you know, just behind a screen. And when people can be a part of a chamber and it’s like, oh, this is promote my business. It’s, it’s really a good value. Look what you get. And you get to meet all these other really great folks that have businesses and wow, this is really gonna help man I love this. It says stories when people connect and they do business with one another later. But I think it’s something where we can’t just sit back and leave people educated about what the Chamber’s about is a process that way or this having to repeat there’s this those foundations that we have to lay, but are really see that there’s a real name for it. Because in today’s economy, some of the things are not always pro business. And it’s making it tough for them. So knowing that they have someone an organization of backing, that’s their advocate, and keep them and touch with these grants are available or this go to this resource, this, this will be great, or even just some simple things slack. Up until just this past year, we did not offer a monthly dues, or it could be, you know, drafted. And I saw how some of the businesses were struggling. And so when we allow that, oh, Ma, they just they’re like, Oh, that’s great, because I really want to stay, I really want to retain my chamber membership. And that just, that just really lifts me up. Because then it’s like, well, they, you know, if they’re really, you know, they’re struggling, but they see and they really want to keep this ties with the chamber. I think that’s a great testimony as to the future of both chambers.

Brandon Burton 36:31
Right. But you’re doing a great example of keeping the community informed on what chambers do with your involvement in these Facebook groups and chiming in and saying, Well, this is what the chamber does. They’re given the plug where it makes sense, not hijacking the conversation at all, but just being there is that voice of voice for business? Right saying, chamber does? I think it’s a great example. And yes, with a membership dues, I think, in today’s world with the way software is structured now, with your invoicing, it’s so easy to set them up on a monthly dues schedule, if that’s what makes sense for him. Why would you eliminate somebody because they can’t do the one time payment or quarterly payments, just make it easy, make it fit for them, meet them where they’re at, and support their business, they tend to be the ones that need the most support from a chamber. So that’s

Cindy Cobb 37:22
right, those that have struggled, when you’re sticking with them, they tend to be the ones that are growing faith and whilst loyal to. And that’s something as I look back with my past career, when, you know, something tragic happened, and some I had to do a death client, and you deliver that or with, you know, they can use their cash value at their policy to go in and have a downpayment for a home, and it’s helping them to get established. They remember that, right? And so some of those from my past are now my Chamber members. Yeah, yeah,

Brandon Burton 38:14
that’s great. Well, Cindy, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and build a relationship or learn from from things that you’re doing what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Cindy Cobb 38:30
Well, they can always email and my email is cindycobb@rutherfordcoc.org. Can also if they would like to call the chamber 828-287-3090. That’s one way. We are on Facebook. Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. There is a Rutherford County, Tennessee. We occasionally will have those that are in Tennessee, that

Brandon Burton 39:09
are members in Tennessee, you know,

Cindy Cobb 39:12
believe it or not, we’ve had some where they start following our Facebook page. And they applied online to our chamber.

Brandon Burton 39:21
They just liked the work you’re doing. Yeah.

Cindy Cobb 39:25
Well pick up the phone and give him a call. It’s like Thank you. You may have applied to the Rome chamber.

Brandon Burton 39:32
That’s good. It’s funny. This has been great. It’s a so it’s a good conversation just to have these reminders of adding that personal touch building those genuine relationships, having those those touch points on a regular basis, not just when you’re asking for dues and renewing a membership or sponsorships. So building those relationships and keeping it genuine I think is key but say appreciate you being with us today here on chamber chat podcast sharing your insights and experience and the value that you brought to the show today. Well,

Cindy Cobb 40:08
thank you so much. It was quite an honor. And the Kismet that keep it simple, stupid, does some simple things can make a world of difference. That is correct.

Brandon Burton 40:23
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Tricks of the Trade with Travis Toliver

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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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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 Travis Toliver. Travis is the is currently in his 10th year serving as executive director for the Waverly Chamber of Commerce and the Waverly Main Street Program in Iowa. Travis continues to use his acquired skills to help better the Waverly business community the state of Iowa in the upper Midwest. He proudly serves on the board of directors for the Mid American Chamber executives Waverly Area Development Fund, and several other local organizations. Travis is past board member for the Iowa Association of Chamber of Commerce. During his two terms as board chair Travis helped to lead IACC through a management change a rebrand and name change, and a revamp of IAC ces conferences and education programs. Travis is a 2020 IOM graduate in 2021, Travis was appointed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds to help empower rural Iowa initiatives grow Task Force, which focuses on addressing the recruitment and retention of emerging leaders in rural communities. Travis, 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 share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Travis Toliver 3:20
Well, thanks Brandon for having me on the show. I really appreciate it a big fan of the podcast and just glad to be one of many amazing chamber directors out there that have been featured on your on your show. So thanks for having me.

Brandon Burton 3:33
Absolutely. We try to only get the best. So you fit that criteria.

Travis Toliver 3:39
That’s a high bar.

Brandon Burton 3:41
Well then tell us a little bit about your organization about the Waverly Chamber of Commerce and Main Street programming as a kind of group together with the two the two friends there but tell us about Scope of Work size a chamber staff just kind of set the stage for our discussion. Sure. Well, the

Travis Toliver 3:58
way really Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1937. And so we’re, we’re over 85 years old. And in 1989, we really became one of the first main streets communities in Iowa. About five years later, the two organizations decided to stop chasing the same money in town and merged together as the Waverly Chamber of Commerce and Main Street program. We have nearly 300 business members and investors in our organization. We’re in a town of the size of 10,000 people. We also the home to Wartburg College, which is a four year liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. And we’re also the home to an array of amazing businesses from big corporate entities such as TruStage GMT, a lot of manufacturers in town, Nestle, anything that’s powder base that Nestle makes is made right here in Waverly. So our town always smells great. Right on down to right on down to small businesses and mom and pop businesses that

We We really cherish and our community. And so we’re really located in northeast Iowa, just north of Waterloo and Cedar Falls, were a wonderful stop along the Avenue of the saints to 18. And just really enjoy in this community, our organization, we have four staff members, myself, and another director who does our tourism and special events, our full time. And then we have two part time, folks as well, who helped us with marketing, and another one with administrative responsibilities, our books and those kinds of things. We have an amazing board of directors, I’m always blessed every year to have great people serving on our board. And then probably another additional 80 volunteers that help us throughout different communities or sorry, committees or different community events that we host. And so it’s truly a volunteer led organization. And I’m serving in my 10th year now as executive director and really find myself in a great place and love love being here. That’s great. I love doing these shows, because every chamber is so different. So we get a little bit of perspective from different types of chambers and the different work that they’re involved with. So

Brandon Burton 6:13
I’m looking forward to the perspective that you bring to the show today. Thank you. Yeah, so as we discussed, you know, some back and forth ideas about what to cover on this episode. Today, we settled on the idea because you had a lot of good ideas. So we wanted to kind of hone it down a little bit to just some tips of some tricks of the trade rather. So some of the things that you’ve learned throughout your career as a chamber executive, and just some of these things that maybe somebody new in the industry can hopefully pick up and adopt earlier on. And maybe those who’ve been in the industry a while longer, who are kind of banging their head against the wall might feel to take some of these tips as well and be able to implement them into their life as well to hopefully make things a little easier. So we look forward to diving deeper into that topic and discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Travis, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break today we’re talking about some tricks of the trade when it comes to chamber work. And I imagine over the last 10 years, there’s been a few things that you’ve figured out maybe or I don’t want to say shortcuts because I think shortcuts kind of cheapens the idea of things but ways to be more efficient will say absolutely.

Travis Toliver 9:54
Absolutely. And you know it’s great to get on podcasts like this or or get on a webinars are conferences that talk about really big picture stuff. But sometimes I feel like when you just kind of narrow it down and like you said, drill it down to just the little nitty gritty tricks of the trades that helps you be more efficient. Certainly, as chamber directors, we know that our time is precious and valuable. And we don’t get a lot of time to do the things that we really need to be honing in and focusing on. So I thought I’d put a list together of things that would hopefully help others that I’ve learned, and certainly will, will keep improving upon. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 10:30
So I think it may be best just for us to kind of work our way through the list and tell us how you utilize these different tools, these different tricks? And yeah, absolutely expand on it from there. So yeah, the first one I know is we set up this appointment, I use Calendly as a tool to schedule and to book guests onto the show. And in your quick dimension, the E is Calendly as well. So talk to us a little bit how you use the scheduling tools like like Calendly, to help alleviate some of the pressures in your life?

Travis Toliver 11:07
Well, yeah, and a lot of these are, you know, anxiety based, right. They’re, they’re supposed to be anxiety relievers. And so Calendly came along, somebody mentioned it to me, and I looked into it, and found that I was just really frustrated with how long it took to go back and forth with somebody to set up a meeting. And then found Calendly Sure, there’s other scheduling apps out there just like it. But it really helps to eliminate a lot of the back and forth. And so when you’re trying to set up a meeting, sending a link to your calendar, to your calendar, that Calendly links to, and having the other person choose a time that works best for them, is really, really helpful. In addition, I would also say to that if you’re going to use Calendly, and you maybe don’t want all of your free time to be options on there, make sure to block off other times on your calendar for yourself as well. If you’re working on a project, or you know you’re going to be out for a meeting or something like that, just make sure that those those times are noted on their calendar so that they’re they don’t become options on Calendly as well. But yeah, it really eliminates the back and forth. And I was really excited when you sent me a link to your Calendly. I was like yes, another person that’s using it. Fantastic. Yeah, and

Brandon Burton 12:19
I’ll say I’ll add just a couple things that I’ve learned in using it is one there, like you’re saying, there’s a lot of features within Calendly, where you can set your available times you can say if you only want to meet with people on these three days of the week, because then you’ve got office time or you know, office hours the other time, you can set that. But right. I’ve also learned that I need to be more disciplined in adding things to my calendar, like for my personal life. So if if my kid has an awards thing at their school, I need to put that on my calendar such as an you know that time slots occupied on my calendar. So when someone goes to Calendly, it doesn’t double booked me. Yeah, right.

Travis Toliver 13:03
Right. And if you really want to drill down to Calendly has a feature where you can embed certain time marks on your email to a person. So if you have certain options that you only want to give somebody, you can embed those into an email, and then just give them those choices and nothing more. And that’s very helpful as well. I think there’s also a kind of a polling option, so that you can pull multiple people on an email for different times. It’s just got a got a lot of great features, and they keep enhancing it year over year. And so it does cost a little bit to be a part of, but I think it’s certainly worth the investment.

Brandon Burton 13:41
Yeah, and I want to say, I just got an email the other day saying that the I’m hoping it was Calendly and not a different platform I use, but they’re saying about a pricing increase, and it was gonna work out to be like, I don’t know, 87 cents a week or something increase and like totally worth it.

Travis Toliver 14:01
Totally worth 88 cents that my question about 87 Yeah, 87 we’re

Brandon Burton 14:07
in a good deal, right. So along the lines with scheduling and managing your calendar and protecting your time, but also being available to those that you need, how to utilize out of office to work into your calendar time.

Travis Toliver 14:25
Yeah, so you know, a lot of people only use their out of office when they’re actually going to be out of the office, right on vacation or maybe a conference or whatnot. But I have found that if I that you can also use out of office when you need to you have some time to yourself, again, some of those white spaces that we talked about with Calendly on your calendar. If you want to block off time to maybe do some research or do some reading or just you know, maybe just simply get through emails. You know, putting it out of office on just letting people know that To expect a delay in your response, I think it’s very helpful. It’s, I think, maybe borderline too transparent. But at the same time, it just lets people know that, you know, hey, you’re focusing on something right now, and you’ll get back to them when you can. I think so many times people get caught up in responding to emails so fast and being a part of conversations. And this is just kind of my trick to make sure that emails are maybe a secondary priority, during certain times of the day, so that I can focus on, on things that really do need to get done. And so just just letting people know simply that there’s just gonna be a delay in your response, if you can gauge it out even better, if you can say, hey, you know, I’m not going to get back on my emails until you know, 4pm, or something like that, or the next day, I think that’d be very helpful to to let people know that, you know, there’ll be expecting a response from you in a certain amount of time. But again, just trying to carve out that whitespace for yourself, and, and just letting people know that you’re, you’re, you’re not going to be responding so quickly. And I think that’s very helpful to them. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:03
when I think of all the responsibilities that are put on a chamber staff, you know, there’s, you’re getting pulled so many different directions. And if you utilize your out of office response to say, something to the effect of, you know, I check emails between 8am and 10am each day, and, you know, if it’s after 10am, expect a response tomorrow, or, you know, that sort of thing, whatever your parameters are, it sets an expectation because we have become a world where people expect that instant response, and even in an email, how often have you email to somebody and they email right back. And then like, you might as well be texting, right, because the back and forth that the emails Exactly. And in I’ve used a tool called Boomerang. So if you use a Gmail platform, Boomerang is an add on. So even if I see the email, and I can type it out the response, and then I can schedule kind of a delay in when it gets sent. So I can say, send it tomorrow morning. That way, the person on the other end doesn’t think that I’m sitting here doing a back and forth with them. But it gets off my list. And I don’t have to think about that email anymore.

Travis Toliver 17:14
That is a that is a great tool. And of course, Outlook has that ability as well to schedule emails to go out at a later time. And I think for night owls out there that don’t mind, you know, opening up their laptops on their couch at 10 o’clock at night and started going through emails, that’s a great way to respond, rather than shooting off emails at all hours of the night. Some people surprisingly enough, you know, looking at their emails if their phone lights up. And you know, I typically try to, you know, turn that feature off at a certain time of the night, but others don’t. And so if you don’t want to be that person that gets caught, you know, sending out emails that obscure hours of the night. That’s a great feature. Absolutely. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 17:52
I utilize that quite a bit. So all right, good. Let’s get to No, no, but I think it’s important to block your time, you know, to be able to protect certain time and know, I’m going to be out visiting members, or we’ve gotten these events going on, like, I’m not going to be in front of the computer to respond to emails or my phone to respond to emails. And if it’s urgent, people can always call, you know, right, they can still get a hold of you. But email doesn’t need to be the first option for those urgent things. Absolutely.

Travis Toliver 18:21
And I would also mention to to make sure you block off that time on your calendar as well. So it doesn’t show up on your Calendly. Yes,

Brandon Burton 18:28
good idea. So I think this is progressing. Well. So as we talk about calendaring, you know how that translates over into email and managing your calendar and your time and the whitespace. But you had mentioned using Outlook, and I know other email platforms have similar options. But how do you utilize your Outlook to kind of prioritize those emails as they come in to you?

Travis Toliver 18:57
Yeah, so this is what I struggled with for years. I think all of us get an obscene number of emails each and every day from really important information to advertisements and just junk. And I was getting frustrated with trying to find different organizational methods to really get my my emails in a priority list, right? And to try to triage them in some way. And a few years ago, I had an assistant that came up with the idea of using the rules tool on Outlook. I’m sure it’s something else on another platform, but using rules to identify certain senders that might be of more importance than others for their emails to go to a certain folder, and then try to triage that way. So the way I set my email up, and it’s good that we get a lot of emails, it means we’re doing a lot of things. We’re involved a lot of conversations people want us to be in the know and that’s great. But I found myself finding that I was just getting better Ready with emails, a lot of important emails are getting buried under non important emails. And so this was just a really great way to eliminate that. So I set up three different folders, folders, one, two, and three. And this takes about, Gosh, I think maybe one or two months to really get implemented. But every day, when you start out, you set up these folders in your inbox or your your your outlook. And every day you go into your inbox, and each person that sends you an email, you’ve got to really think about how important that sender is to you. And so if it’s a board chair or board member of staff member, the mayor, the city administrators, somebody from, you know, some key stakeholder, a CEO of a large investor or something like that, I find those people to be you know, people that I really probably need to get back to pretty quickly. And so I set up in roles that all their emails, go directly into folder number one. Folder number two is folks on the secondary level that you know, people that don’t necessarily need an immediate response or don’t usually send as important information as others. But you still want to get back to you in a timely manner. Those folks go into folder number two. And then honestly, folder number three just ends up being mostly the rest of the emails, which usually is newsletters from other chambers or other organizations that you’re involved in, in your community, different businesses that might be sending out periodical emails, those go into folder number three, and fold number three, honestly, it gets checked maybe once a week, maybe even twice a month, sometimes just depending on how much time you really have. And so I have found that triaging my emails in this fashion really helps me to prioritize my emails by the sender, and how important that that person is for me to get back to so then when I open up my laptop in the morning, I don’t go right to my Inbox folder, I go to my number one folder, and I work through all those emails first, then I go to number two, and then knowing that most of the E newsletters and advertisements Go to Folder number three, I will then actually after number two, go back to the Inbox folder. See if there’s anybody new that’s emailed me that needs to be assigned a folder. And then honestly, the rest of the emails that are in that initial Inbox folder, are just usually junk. And so I just go through a deleting spree, and then get back to the other folders to go through more emails, it has lessened the anxiety of having hundreds if not 1000s of emails sitting in my inbox, especially after you come back from a time off or a vacation or a conference. It’s just a really helpful tool to be able to manage your emails easily and, and, and even my board members and folks that I’ve put in the folder number one have mentioned Wow, it’s so great that you’re getting back to me in a in a better in a timely fashion. And, and that that made me very, very happy that I was that the process was working and and I’m able to to manage my emails better. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 23:10
So just maybe a personal question in that folder. Number three, yeah, those are ones maybe once a week, maybe twice a month you get to? What’s your thoughts on unsubscribing? From some lists?

Travis Toliver 23:27
Well, yeah, absolutely. If you’re if you if it’s information that you’re really not reading about or don’t need, certainly unsubscribe for sure. But I do enjoy sifting through just newsletters and updates from other organizations, other chambers that I’m on their email list for because we’re always looking to steal rip off or duplicate ideas, right? So but I tried to just, you know, kind of skim through those and get that information. And then and then delete. But yeah, I don’t unsubscribe too much, unless it’s something that I just absolutely will not use or will not read. And I don’t know how in the world I got on their email list. So just unsubscribe and tick them off. But, but honestly, you know, go through, and I really try to make it a point to have that folder empty by the end of the month. I’ll let it build up. But I do take off some certain times of the day or even at night. Just kind of sift through those emails, see if there’s any pertinent information, I need to gather some ideas or anything from other organizations. And then then let them go. Yeah, that’s good.

Brandon Burton 24:30
And I think we can have a whole nother discussion about how to get your chamber newsletter to end up in folder number one for people instead of folder number three, okay.

Travis Toliver 24:38
There’s a way to do that. That’s absolutely true. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 24:41
So are there any newsletters or things like that, that may be by default would be a folder number three type of folder, but you tend to put in a folder one or two because the value that’s provided? Yeah,

Travis Toliver 24:55
for sure. Are a lot of our state organization. As you mentioned earlier in my bio, the Iowa Association chambers of commerce, which I used to be a board member for, they have great information, great little tidbits or tips, kind of what we’re talking about right now tips of the trade. But also I need to know about, you know, different roundtables or conferences coming up that I should be aware of. So I think organizations that are a little bit closer to home, tend to fall into folder number two, certainly, that US Chamber of Congress, certainly, if you’re a member of that organization, a lot of great information, that’s a folder number two. And so and then certainly, if there’s any organizations that you’re you know, a board member for or related to in any way, you want to make sure that you’re staying up to date on those, those will get tossed in the folder number two, but I mean, really, it is a it is a small amount that gets sent to Folder number two, you really got to be diligent about that. Because, again, you want to value your time and make sure that it’s being used appropriately. And so I would say that if there’s an E newsletter out there from an organization that you find extremely helpful, and you love reading, and it’s just a must have in your inbox. Yeah, put that in folder number two, for sure. Or even maybe even folder number one, but I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t get on the kick of doing too many of them, or else all you’ll be doing is reading newsletters all day long. Right?

Brandon Burton 26:21
Right. So hypothetically, if you were to get an email Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review, which, which folder would that end up in for you,

Travis Toliver 26:33
that actually goes into folder number one, because I really enjoy reading those. And so yeah, that’s our next item on the list. If you’re a leader like me, that really enjoys learning more about just better management skills, HR skills, those kinds of things. Subscribe, please, please, please subscribe to the Harvard Business Review manager Tip of the day, it’s really easy, you get a you get a email, I think it’s like around five or six o’clock in the morning. And it’s like one of the first emails that I read. And it is just a fantastic little nugget each and every day of how to improve your management skills, your HR skills, just so many different scenarios that they put in front of you with great solutions, great ideas on how to combat different situations in our professional lives. And so as we continue to try to grow and foster good and better leaders, not only in our field, but in all areas of the business industry. I feel like if you’re not subscribed to the Harvard Business Review manager Tip of the day, then you’re really missing out on some really great free information. In fact, this is gonna sound like I’m a hoarder. But I really do keep all those emails, I drag them into another folder, just specifically for that, because if I get into a situation, and I’m looking for advice, or resources, that’s one of the first places I’ll go into, I’ll go into that folder. And I’ll type in maybe some keywords that will bring up emails that in the past that have addressed, maybe the issue that I’m confronting, and get some really great tip ideas. So it’s become kind of a little email storage of management and HR knowledge for me that I just keep right there in that folder.

Brandon Burton 28:13
Now, that’s a good exercise showing the value that you’re getting out of that, that email newsletter, right that absolutely. So being able to have that bank, that library to be able to go back to and topics arise. And like I know I read something about this and the Harvard Business Review email and you go search for it. And that’s great. Yeah, so great, great tip to share. What other kind of tips or tricks of the trade or we may be missing or, or didn’t touch on?

Travis Toliver 28:48
You know, I think one that I had on the list, I think it was the last one that we were going to talk about. This has nothing to do with our devices or anything like that. But during COVID I found I was looking for a way to gather some folks on zoom that could be kind of like an advisory council for me to bounce ideas off of you know how to better manage the crazy situation that we were all in. From a financial standpoint, marketing, from all different aspects. I didn’t want to bother my board because my board you know, we meet already once a month and they’re busy with their own their own lives. But I came up with the idea of reaching out to all my passport chairs that I could get in contact with and ask them if they would sit on an advisory council for me as the executive director and just meet so we can talk share ideas and and come up with some some some really great solutions. I found that these people are still highly invested in our organization even though they have not been directly so She had with it for a very long time, most of them are retired, most of them are, have a lot of free time on their hands. But at the same time, they still have a heart for our organization, you know, at one point they lead our organization. So they have to, obviously have an appreciation for for what we do. And so to reengage those, those individuals back into our organization, just by simply me asking them for their help, for their knowledge and their advice. And their experience has been extremely helpful. And so I would strongly suggest to any chamber director that if you are in need of a, of a little Council of people to just directly advise you, you know, reach out to your passport chairs and bring them together. And we have, you know, we don’t meet regularly, I’ve tossed this idea out to the other chamber directors who have then started meeting regularly with this group. But even if it’s as needed, just to reengage those folks and make sure that they’re involved in the organization that, obviously at one point they, they were a passionate leader for, I think is, is really special. And so I really covet my relation, in my relationships with with all those past board chairs. And then in turn, it gets them re involved again, and they get updated on what’s going on. And most of them have re signed up for our E newsletter to make sure that they’re getting into the to the organization, a lot of them are individual investors in our organization, they continue to be involved that way as well and supporting us. And so it’s been a really great tool to have, especially during that crazy time when we just were getting fed information like a fire hose and didn’t really know what to do or which way to turn. Those folks really helped me to stay grounded and push the the organization forward in uncertain times.

Brandon Burton 31:47
I love that idea. Because otherwise, what do you do with these past board chairs who have such a love for the community and the organization and everything else, they’ve been so involved, and then you’re just gonna let them go by the wayside? Like I mean, it makes a lot of sense to gather them together. And, and I like the way you approach it is having them be your advisory committee. So it doesn’t have to be a regular meeting. But when something comes up, you’re like, Oh, this is a tough situation. You can bounce it off them get some good sound advice. The one thing that comes to mind with this idea is, how would you I don’t know if it’s ever come up. But I can imagine maybe at some point, maybe the current Board Chair feels like, Hey, I’ve got a vision, I want to take this organization, you’re just listening to the voices of past board chairs. How would you address that? If that were to come up? Has that ever been a thought?

Travis Toliver 32:41
I’m actually it really hasn’t. But I do involve my current Board Chair in those meetings.

Brandon Burton 32:47
There you go. That’s a good way to overcome it. Yeah, absolutely.

Travis Toliver 32:51
And so you know, when it comes to the strategic planning, and those kinds of things, I think having that current board chair, you know, also talking with the past board chairs, not only get some, some gives some great information, but also gets some great feedback as well. And certainly an earful of what worked and didn’t work back in somebody else’s day. And it just, you know, I think tapping into those past experiences, really helps not only myself, but certainly our current board chair, in being able to shape their their thoughts about the future of our organization. And, again, I’ve been very blessed to have really great passionate leaders who have wanted nothing but great success, for the things that we do. And it’s been amazing. And I don’t know if I’d be interested to know if other board, other chamber directors feel this way. But I feel like with each board chair that I’ve had, over my tenure has brought their unique set of skills to the forefront, with whatever situation is going on with our organization, it just feels like the right timing, to have that person in that seat. On that year, when there has been an issue that has come up or some kind of obstacle in the way or project to be done. I’ve always had the right person in that chair to basically hone into one of their amazing skills to be able to see the organization through that. That situation, whatever it is. And so yeah, I just I think engaging past board chairs, along with our current board chair is a great thing. And then the current Board Chair knows they’re going to become a member of that group down the road not too far away. So it’s good for them to get involved as well. Oh, it’s

Brandon Burton 34:35
a great training ground and it’s a good way of being able to pass along culture to you better you’re not standing alone as that current Board Chair you’ve got to support as well. They’re in essence Advisory Council for the current board chair as well. So

Travis Toliver 34:49
absolutely. And I believe to that if we as directors move on to something else. The incumbent board, sorry chamber Director will find that very helpful and very useful. So I’m glad that we’re talking about this, because actually reminds me to reach out to those folks and maybe get another Zoom meeting set up and, and engage with those folks again, and again, you know, they can be, you know, anywhere we do it over zoom, you can have it in person, I guess, if they’re able to come. But, you know, we’ve found that a lot of our board chairs have have left the community or retired somewhere else. And so doing it over Zoom is just a fantastic way to just reengage those folks. So that’s awesome.

Brandon Burton 35:34
So I know, we’ve been talking about tips throughout the whole episode. But I always like to ask as we wrap up an episode for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, if you might have any tip or action items that they might consider implementing at their chamber to accomplish that goal of going up to the next level?

Travis Toliver 35:56
And that’s a that’s a great question and certainly falls in line with everything that we’ve talked about thus far. I would just say, from a personal standpoint, just be open to new ideas, be open to to constructive criticism of events of any programming that your chamber does solicit feedback, whether it’s good or bad, you know, we I think So oftentimes, we only want to hear the good stuff, or we don’t want to have people step on our toes or make our feelings feel bad. But I am just one of those folks that I really welcome change. And I want to make sure that we’re constantly improving on the things that we’re doing. And so if there’s other opinions out there about how we can do something better, I’m all for it. And I have a, I have a dear friend, who always reminds me to stay curious. And so I love to ask a lot of questions. And I tell upcoming leaders, whether it’s through mentoring or other things to, to listen louder than you speak. And so when I go into businesses, I say hi, or introduce myself, and just start asking questions, and I listen, and just really take note of what it is that our businesses or our members are saying, and so that we’re going back to the table with me and my staff, and we’re trying to figure out solutions or, or taking input on events or different things that we do and trying to make them better, so that we’re serving everybody the best way that we can. So listen louder than you speak, stay curious, ask questions, solicit feedback, all those things, I think really help us as as leaders, and certainly is a win win for our Chamber members as well. And that’s, that’s, that’s what it’s all about, right? It’s all about our members and growing our businesses and our communities. And that’s, I think one of the best ways we can do that. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 37:53
I love that listen louder than you speak. That’s a great leadership principle in general, because as a leader, once you start talking, everybody else kind of shuts down like he’s talking, what does he have to say, but if you can listen louder, let those ideas come in. It can help formulate your own thoughts and be able to help you know take the the ideas that other people are offering so they have more buy in to whatever it is that you end up deciding on because you have that extra buy in so great leadership tip there. I like asking everyone to have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Travis Toliver 38:33
I think with each passing year is it gets increasingly more difficult to show the value of our organizations because you know, we’re not selling really a tangible product, right? We’re, we’re selling, promoting and marketing and different events and those kinds of things, bridging people together. And so I think as long as it kind of bouncing off of what we were just talking about, if you can find ways to show more value in the things that we do as chambers for our businesses, for our communities, it can only help reinforce the necessity for for businesses and individuals to to be a part of this organization that is supposed to only really do good for our business community. Right. And so just showing the value, and then telling your story making sure you know, here in the Midwest, we get caught up a lot of times of really being humble and not wanting to toot our own horns. But in this day and age, you really have to tell your story or tell your organization’s story and make sure that your your your the name of your organization or your logo is right out there in front and saying hey, we are doing this for the community and we’re hoping that you find a value in it that you want to be a part of it as well through your investment. And so just continuing to find More and more ways to show value, I think is the the key for the future and the longevity of chambers of commerce.

Brandon Burton 40:08
I love that always, always been on the lookout of how to express and show that value. So absolutely key. Yeah. So Travis, this has been a fun conversation kind of a rapid fire these ideas and principles you’ve implemented and hopefully people are listening, taking notes, you know, hitting that back button a few times and re listening to some of these points. But I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect and learn a little bit more about some of these approaches that you take, what would be your best way for them to reach out and

Travis Toliver 40:42
absolutely, well, everybody’s free to reach out to me via email is travis@waverlychamber.com. We really wa VRLY Like behind me here chamber.com You’re also welcome to call our office at 319-352-4526. Or if you happen to be in northeast Iowa drop in and say hi, we’re downtown Waverly 118 East Bremer Avenue. And we would love to chat with you for a few minutes and show your community. But yeah, I’m always open to people emailing me and asking questions. And in turn, hopefully I can learn something from them as well. That’s

Brandon Burton 41:21
right, that email might end up in folder number three, but he’ll get back to you in the next couple of weeks. So there’s full transparency here. Right? Exactly. I love it. I love it. You got to stay on top of things and be able to take control of your time so you can be as effective as possible. So absolutely, absolutely. Well, I will get all that in our show notes for this episode make it easy for people to connect with you. But Travis, I want to thank you for spending time with us today here on chamber chat, podcast and for sharing all these tricks of the trade and things that you’ve learned through your experience. So thank you for being with us today.

Travis Toliver 41:56
Well, thank you for having me, Brandon. Appreciate it. And thank you for what you do for our industry. We appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 42:02
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Engaging Meetings with John Chen

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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.

Our title sponsor is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

When it comes to publishing a Chamber Map directory or Community Guide, Community Matters has a trusted experience to help your chamber accomplish your goals. With different advertising sales models and publication styles, Community Matters will help you create a non-dues revenue machine!

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
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

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Our guest for this episode is John Chen. John is the author of the number one Amazon hot new book release “Engaging Virtual Meetings”. He’s been meeting virtually for over 38 years isn’t could say he’s a pioneer. He has produced over 4000 virtual meetings, including an eight language meeting and the only 100% live virtual conference in the training industry. He’s a certified speaking professional by the National Speakers Association. Let’s welcome John Chen to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

John Chen 2:39
Thank you so much, Brandon, this is John Chen reporting live from Seattle, Washington. And well maybe we’ll have to incorporate this fact later into the show that I once walked across 40 feet of fire back to you, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 2:52
All right. That sounds intriguing. It sounds like maybe a Tony Robbins type of experience. Awesome. Well tell us a little bit about what you do in the speaker realm just to kind of set the stage for our conversation today and how it’s applicable to chambers who are listening to the show today.

John Chen 3:13
Yeah, thank you, Brandon. And I have been a member of Seattle’s Chamber of Commerce in the past. So I think I know the audience. This is my 38th year of being in business after spending 10 years Brandon at that little software company up here near Seattle for a while and I shipped him products and got two US patents and then I really decided I wanted to do something with that I had my three passions in it which is technology adventure to help create human change. So I created a company that did team building using geocaching. Now Brandon, do you know what geocaching is?

Brandon Burton 3:48
I have kids. So yes, I’m familiar with geocaching. Geocaching

John Chen 3:53
was invented in Seattle, it is a high tech scavenger hunt that uses billions of dollars of satellite known as our global positioning system. And to help you find containers hidden all around the world. And I converted it into a team and leadership event where I was actually able to do 160 events a year brand and teaching team and leadership skills using high tech scavenger hunts all around the world. And by the way, for those who are in chambers in cities, it’s actually a great promotional activity to get people to all the different locations and businesses in your city. So I did that, you know, for a good portion of time, Brandon,

Brandon Burton 4:31
I love it. That’s a great idea, especially localized within a city to really get to know the community and get out there and engage with people in the community as well as you’re doing the scavenger hunts. That’s awesome. Well, as we focused in on our our topic for conversation today, we wanted to focus on the idea of engaging especially as we, I guess if we’re a chamber there’s different levels of engagement. So there’s oftentimes engaging from the stage maybe it’s at a chamber luncheon or annual banquet, maybe it’s at a training of some sort maybe there’s new business law in your state and you’re trying to educate your your Chamber members about this new business law or maybe the engagement is in trying to express the value your your value proposition of membership. So all these different ways we hope to address and talk to today’s we have John on the show to talk about engaging on all these different levels so I’m excited to dive into this much deeper as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Alright, John, we’re back. Let’s dive into engagement. So I don’t know if before the break I talked about a couple different examples of how a chamber may be interested in in in leveling up their engagement with their membership and different events and things. Did any of those stand out that you would like to address first? Do you want to go from the stage scene?

John Chen 7:48
Yeah, let’s go for the person. Alright, so Brandon, let me know that a good majority of you chambers have back to the in person. And while I wrote a book called Engaging virtual meetings, here’s one of the secrets. The challenges of engaging on virtual are also the same challenges that you have in person. So one of the cool parts here is that I did earn this, just two weeks ago, I earned this certified speaking professional. And so then then the National Speakers Association gives away this designation. And it’s only given it away to 17% of their members. So that the CSP is supposed to designate you as one of the top speakers, I’d really like to share some onstage speaker tips. And I want to share two for chambers. The first one is so key, it’s the first five minutes of your chamber meeting are the most important. Let me say that again. The first five minutes of your chamber meeting are the most important. Now I’m gonna let Brandon guests a little bit like Brandon, why is this so important? Why do you think this is so important? You’re

Brandon Burton 8:55
setting the stage for what’s going to happen the rest of the event? Hopefully it’s a if there’s enough intentionality with it, maybe you can get people there in the room for the first five minutes. I think that’s huge to be able to have people there at the beginning. But I think overall, it sets the tone for what they’re going to expect. And

John Chen 9:17
now you have to think yourself, put yourself back in the seat as a new member. And I’m sitting in the chamber audience, and I don’t know anybody. Right? And in those first five minutes, I’m probably going to make a decision that will tell me and especially if I’m a guest, right, I haven’t even made the decision yet to join the chamber. Most of us in the first five minutes of the meeting will make the choice going, right. These are my people. Yeah, I belong here. Or they’re gonna make the other determination going. I’m out which ways I’ll give up my 45 bucks I registered with I got it. I’m out of the door now. All right, and so so that’s why those first five minutes are so important. So think about All the different ways so a lot of people in like some of the past chamber meetings that I’m imagining I’ve been to a lot of other different ones that kind of stat start out kind of lackluster. It’s like, you know, hey, we’re gonna start in three minutes, right? So just mergency exits are located here in here, right? He’s like you got on an airplane or something, as opposed to, right, you are going to love this meeting, right, coming up next is this speaker, he hosts the chamber chat podcast, and he’s got hundreds of people’s experience, and he’s gonna share at least three of them with you today. Let’s, we’re gonna welcome Brandon Burton, right. So something like that, how you open your meetings should really look for it. And I see this in virtual meetings. But I also see this in in person meetings. And in that first five minutes, you should really think about what are all the different ways that I can bring the meeting to order to bring to attention and saying, There’s something here for me today, like I need to pay attention, and, you know, get the return on the investment on my time and money for being in this chamber meeting. And doing that. So that’s the first one. Brandon, do you have any examples that you’ve seen of like, great ways that somebody opened a chamber meeting?

Brandon Burton 11:06
Um, I, I don’t know about great way. Like, I’m not the expert on it by any means. But what I have noticed at some, like chamber luncheons that I’ve been at is at the beginning, they will give a couple minutes for everyone at the table to introduce themselves to each other and get to know each other. Yeah,

John Chen 11:24
see, now that’s great, because you’re immediately actively talking to somebody else. You’re not listening to somebody talk and not talking. And you’re engaged because you’re meeting somebody else. And you most likely came to the Cambridge chamber to network. So I love that idea. I think that’s right on. I mean, another one, Brandon is invite one of your local musicians, who’s really good, and I have them open the first part for five minutes. And let me tell you, one, if they’re great musicians, people will pay attention to number two, it like changes the whole, you know, the whole mood of the meeting, especially if somebody’s inspiring, or uplifting, or fun, or something like that. So we’ve seen that happen. One of our conferences had the theme of the phoenix rising from the ashes. Okay, right. And so. So we actually had a singer come in, and she’s saying, Rise up from Andrea day. Yeah. And the whole place like everybody, like started, like looking at, like, you could hear a murmur in the back of the room going, This is so amazing, this is the best way to start a meeting. You know, this was like, right after the pandemic ended. And we’re like the first in person meeting. And so it added something to the meeting. Okay, so that’s the first tip, which is, is that the first five minutes are the most important. And the second one is that if you want engagement, Brendon engage, and so have a plan to engage every single attendee of your meeting before the end of the meeting. So one of them is Brandon, I think geniusly said, Let’s do a networking piece. So for the first time, welcome. I’m Brandon Wright, and I’m the host today, for the first five minutes, we want to immediately give you value. So take a moment and introduce yourself, make sure there’s enough time for everyone at the table, right? Take a minute or less, but introduce who you are, right, what you do, and what value do you bring to our community? Okay, go right. So, so now everyone’s talking. I mean, the other one is just walk out into the audience, Brandon, yeah. Or highlight your members might have two member highlights, ready to go and have them talk about their business, but also talk and have them talk about why they like coming, why they are a member of the chamber. Because if Brandon is like the executive director for the chamber, he’s always going to be saying, oh, you should join blah, blah. But when your members say it, it is so much stronger. So one of the things that I do Brown, and maybe this is not for all chamber meetings, but when I present, Brandon, I allocate up to 50% of the time for the audience to talk. Okay, and here’s the reason why. It is impossible for Brandon as an attendee to be checked out, right? checking his cell phone and checking his email. If I have a mic in his hand, and he’s talking in front of the group. Brandon has to be with me otherwise, he’s gonna like look like like, like the business chamber person. You don’t want to know who’s multitasking in the middle of a meeting, but

Brandon Burton 14:19
and you said, you know, walking out into the audience, and I know not to throw my wife under the bus at all. But if we’re at at an event and the speaker, somebody that performer comes out into the audience, her immediate reaction is Don’t come near me. Don’t come near me. Don’t don’t engage me. Don’t talk to me. Say and she will be petrified of the person but it keeps her engaged, right? She’s not looking at her phone. She’s watching the speaker, whatever to make sure

John Chen 14:45
she is she’s going like No, no, no, no, no. And so you know, even the negative engagement is engagement. It’s kind of like bad commercials, right? We would just watch the Superbowl right. Even the bad commercials will talk about going did you feel bad that was that was horrible. So I do believe That’s right. And then the second part as a speaker, there’s actually a good follow up to Brandon, right is that the psychological safety is the other thing you’re trying to build in your chamber meeting, which is that you feel safe. Taking a risk in front of your business peers. And so what you do is come up to as like, Brandon, What’s your wife’s name again? Brandon.

Brandon Burton 15:21
Sarah.

John Chen 15:22
Yeah. So Sarah said, Sarah, right? I see this terrified look in your face and said, Would you like to contribute something? Or would you like me to go to somebody else, and she’s gonna go to somebody else. But I’ll give her the choice. So because I don’t want her to be traumatized at my chamber meeting

Brandon Burton 15:37
right now.

John Chen 15:38
So you know, that’s the other part is to think about as like, I almost never call directly anybody in a chorus, but ox, I’m looking for volunteers. Yeah. But in a chamber meeting, too, especially if for the first time I’m doing this. I’m gonna work ahead, Brandon, and make sure there’s at least one or two people who are going to volunteer if nobody volunteers. There you go. And that way, we know it’s going to be a success.

Brandon Burton 16:01
Get your your plants out there, right. Yeah. So I’ve heard people that speak from stage talk about different levels of engagement. So maybe asking some questions at the beginning to get people to raise their hand or stand up or move to another table if you do this or that. So just getting them to do something as part of that engagement. Where Where would you see some value with having them actually do something rather than sitting there nodding, or? Yeah, so getting them to actually act. So

John Chen 16:38
Brandon, I come from the school of what’s known as experiential education, which is a big fancy way of saying, learning by doing Yeah. So if you were to hire me, as a speaker for your chamber, oh, my gosh, I have a great chamber story. Okay. So in one of the chamber stories, I have something and it’s so simple, right? It’s like a one foot of a screw rod. Right? And it has like, six wing nuts, or eight wing nuts on it. Okay. So the, the, it’s a, it’s a team building initiative, where every table is competing against other tables, okay. And I did this actually as a chamber speech. And so what we did with it is that you the rules are, you have to start with all of them off, then as a team, each person is responsible for putting their wingnut on, okay, and the wing that is like a task, right, and the screw, right is like a process. And then you it was a race to get all of them on and then off. And when you went off, that’s when the time expired for it. Okay? Okay. And I was trying to use it as a metaphor of like high performance business, like, if you can take a process in your business, and shorten the time to create that, then you can create more business, right? And so that you can produce more product or whatever. So anyways, this group does this. And, and the, the, so a bunch of people competed with this, and I think I was using it for customer service or something like that. And so what happened was is, so then I started talking about how to produce it. So one is that this team’s did it. And by the way, the high the energy gets really, really high when everyone is competing against each other, especially if you have like a fictitious or like even a low value prize, like a gift card. Okay. And then the funny part that came around is that when we started talking about customer service, and these groups are like, I kept talking about these, these tips about like great things that you can do for customer service, like try to protect your customers needs before they ask you. Okay, and there’s one group at this one table started laughing like a lot. And I finally had to go to the executive director going, what’s happening? Why are they laughing? Because it was kind of like weird and inappropriate. And she goes, finally, she leaned up to me and she goes, John, they’re morticians. Yeah. So I just told them this tip of like, like, you need to anticipate your client’s needs before they need them. And they’re dead. There’s like, use their first name, and they’re dead. And so it just became really, it was I was crying laughing from the stage, but everybody in the group was laughing and that was totally not planned. Brandon. Yeah. Yes, yeah, that was the stuff that people remembered. And then they actually did remember the tip. So anyways, I’m a big fan of, of if you are going to have speakers, yeah, make them do something, whether it’s a table exercise, talk to each other, you know, all these but there’s lots and lots of different ways that you can do that. And, and then use that, which is you debrief that activity and saying this is a metaphor for something in your business. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 19:42
So maybe we’ll shift gears just a little bit. So I know there’s a lot of carryover from speaking on stage to a virtual type of event. And I know chambers they all went digital during the pandemic. Most are back to in person so I’m still have a hybrid or maybe through the pandemic, they spin up a YouTube channel or regular webinar or things like that. So for those that are still engaged with the virtual type of meetings, is there anything that stands out on the virtual front? One thing in particular that I think of is kind of that waiting that awkward waiting room experience before the meeting starts? Like, they’re, they’re sitting there, they’re like, Am I really connected? When is the start? Like what? There’s an awkwardness? Right? So how do we overcome that and keep them engaged on that on the virtual front?

John Chen 20:40
Well, we created a new word for this right, Brandon, have you ever heard the word ZOC? Word?

Brandon Burton 20:46
No. Word. It’s,

John Chen 20:49
it’s a combination of zoom and awkward. It’s also like when you log into a meeting, and all the screens are black, and there’s no audio playing, and there’s no slide you’re like, Am I in the right room? Yeah. Did I just zoom bomb somebody by accident? But

Brandon Burton 21:04
and you get in a Zoom meeting now, never first thing anybody says? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Yeah, the same technology on your telephone us to say hello, but a zoom. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Okay? So let

John Chen 21:17
me give two things. So you know that awkward pauses really something that we do work on? And there’s a cool piece of technology that almost nobody knows about? So Brandon, did you know that you can put a video in your waiting room on Zoom? I did not know that. Now, for a chamber. This is what I suggest you do. You could create like the the slideshow or a video of you, the executive director. And you can highlight right? This is the, let’s say, my hometown of Stockton, this is the Stockton, California Chamber of Commerce, right? This is what we represent. And do this is our mission statement. Here’s our upcoming meeting. And you can flash that or you can have audio. And so you’re building your brand, even before somebody comes into your virtual meeting.

Brandon Burton 22:02
I love that. That is a great idea. Yeah.

John Chen 22:05
Now in this other awkward parts that you have, I mean, you know, you’re talking about podcasts and all these other things. The good news is, is that there’s editing. So you can solve a lot of that. But if you don’t have editing, even kind of think about how you went back and been watching a lot of like old TV shows, and like an old live TV shows. They used to have people come out and warm up the audience. Yeah. Because they need them to laugh, right? When the jokes come up on stage. So you should be the same way. Even if you’re not recording, and you do have an audience, talk to them saying, hey, that’s so thank you so much for being a guest on our podcast, blah, blah, blah, you know, there will or will not be chances for you to ask question, you know, you can chat questions, and the moderator can decide to pick them up. So you just kind of talk to them about the you know, what do you have interest? Or why did you choose to log in today for this program. And so that person that ahead of time, can sometimes find some things out, I find that the great podcast hosts will then use some of that content, because now they know it’s going to solve a need for their clients, right? For the for the audience. And

Brandon Burton 23:10
I can see for a chamber maybe hosting a candidate form, you know, for an upcoming election or something to be able to do that virtually to be able to get those questions, but then to be able to have content to speak to and address and inform voters going forward. So great.

John Chen 23:24
You’re gonna do for me, right? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 23:28
Love it. So chambers inherently are their membership organizations, right? So they’re constantly trying to express their their value to potential members to retain current members. What kind of tips or thoughts would you have around engaging on the membership level, to express that value and to keep those members coming and staying with your organization? So Brandon,

John Chen 23:56
I’m a 15 year member of meetings professional International, one of the largest meeting organizations in the world. And I served all the way up to VP of education and VP of membership. And then I’m President Elect now of our national speakers Association’s Northwest chapter. And so I’m familiar with these challenges that we all have as as membership organizations about number one, the attraction. And then number two, the retention. You know, the fact that I’m a 15 year member now in MPI, makes me a bit of a unicorn so I as the VP of membership once charted the memberships based upon the number of people and how many years they’ve been in, and most organizations brand and I think you’ll probably agree with me, right? The like, over half of the members are one to three year members. Right? There’s a churn at the bottom of people who are like I’m in I’m out I’m in and mount. And so I would first start, you know, in terms of that engagement, one is take care of your, you know, five If you’re and plus members, they’re the easiest people you’re ever going to get. Although, if you piss them off, right, they will do a lot of negative damage to you that don’t ever join that chamber. Right? Right. And so I think that’s, that’s one of the key pieces around there is that if you take care of your longer term members, often, everything else will take care of itself. Now the second part, in drawing new members, which sometimes is easier, it’s more exciting, alright, to draw on the new member, because you take somebody who like knows nothing about your organization and talk about the value, you know, you sold them on the value. So number one is you got to sell them on the value. And so you need to go look at your chamber, and say, What’s at least one core piece of value that is worth this yearly membership and more, you’re gonna get a return on investment, right? Because there again, most of them are business owners, or very high in the business. And so they the time is actually probably what’s the most precious thing. So they need to know that there’s this great investment on time. And, and so they think that that’s the part they need to get a new member. So for instance, in our NSA membership, we have a multiple benefits, but one of the benefits is what we call an E speaker’s profile, which is how meeting professionals find other speakers. And the cost of that basic membership is $179. And our yearly membership is only $149. So basically, you’re getting more than the value of the membership immediately. And now every other benefit from us is gravy. So hopefully that’s a good example, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 26:34
Yeah, that’s good. I like that being able to have that one key element that no matter what else, however else, anything else shakes out there, just that one piece is going to be worth the value. I also heard a recent tip, and I don’t remember where I heard it from, but when talking to somebody that you’re trying to, I’m gonna say sell, I’m trying to sell a membership to ask them. What do you know about the chamber? Have you heard of our XYZ chamber instead of just going and, you know, just vomiting everything all over them? Start starting the conversation with what what have you heard about it? So have you? Because then if they’ve if they’ve heard anything negative, let them get that out? Otherwise, you’re going to tell them all the perks, and they’re going to have the Yeah, but I heard this or that. And so let them get that out first, and then you can add whatever the value is and overcome those objections they might have.

John Chen 27:28
So Brandon, I actually want to add my my next top tip. Have you ever read Chris Matthews book called hardball? I have not. So Chris Matthews is, of course one of those political experts. And in hardball, he detailed some of the top political tactics and techniques that politicians have been using for decades. And one of them is called the ask. And you reminded me of the story because somebody came up to me about NSA and and talked about like, they came to a meeting, like four years ago. And they were really turned off because one of the speakers started selling from the stage. Right, which is a is a big no, no, he shouldn’t have done it. But something happened. I wasn’t at that meeting. But something happened. And she goes, I was so turned off like I just didn’t ever joined. And I said, Oh my gosh, right. So I said, I understand. I think I heard about that meeting, I wasn’t at that meeting, I can tell you that we do have some things around that. So what I’d love to do is personally invite you Why don’t you come check it out again. Alright, May 11 is our next live meeting, you can either come virtual, or you can come in person because we run hybrid, right? And I’d love for you to be my guest. If you come I will introduce you around. Two hours later, she came around back to me and she goes, John, you know what, I just want to let you know that I’m going to come to the May 11 meeting and I want to let you know that your personal ASTs made a huge difference to me. So think about that for all your chamber board members. That one of the most powerful things they can do is personally invite somebody even despite they had a negative, you know, experience like acknowledge like, Okay, you’re right, maybe it was bad back then. I’m here now. When you come check it out. And you determine for yourself and my hope is that that’s how we grew membership over 63% last year, Brandon Yeah. 63%

Brandon Burton 29:16
That’s awesome. And I love the idea of having it be a board member or maybe a chamber Ambassador somebody who’s doing that talking positively about the chamber rather than a staff member trying to do is say no, I promise things of change. Let let a member let someone who’s actively engaged with your chamber extend that invitation in person I’d love that agree. This is going to be a heavy question but what else are we missing on engagement that we need to cover? The all encompassing right?

John Chen 29:50
Well, this is good I love that your answers Brandon because you know I teach another class and engagement is called the seeds of facilitation right so at I’ll do as a team builder. And in facilitation, quite often the thing that people don’t talk about or that we think we have too much of maybe here in America is controversy. Yeah, although, you know, people love a good fight. So

Brandon Burton 30:16
it drives engagement on social media for sure. Right. So

John Chen 30:20
why don’t you invite that? And so there’s two things I would say. Number one, though, is again, go back and think about, are you creating psychological safety? Meaning that can a business owner come and talk about a challenging issue that they are having, without people, you know, giving them negative harm for that saying, all right, you know, Brandon’s businesses, losing employees, but where are you know, something like that saying, because in earnest, they want to talk about these problems. So somehow or another, you need to make your meeting safe enough around that and that they can get, they can talk about it. And maybe ideally, then get another real idea from another chamber member saying I’m having I used to have the high turnover, and I got it down to like 15%. And let me share one other two or two of the tips how we did it. And so I think that’s really what you’ll find out. This is what I got a chance to interview Miranda de Santos. She is a certified Association Executive. And she has worked with over 20 associations prior to becoming an and working for National Speakers Association. And she says that the community at the National Speakers Association is one of the best she has seen. And because the community is so supportive, and even though we’re all speakers, and sometimes we’re battling it out for the same speaker dollars, but the way it’s set up, they had called it the one of the founders was a guy named Dick Cabot, and they call it the spirit of Cavett says, there’s enough for everybody. And we should share what we learned. Because we’re speakers, there’s very few of us speakers, that if we share what we learn, that we could all be better speakers. And I think business owners are the same way 10 business owners or less than 10% of the community. But they have a really unique position, again, as a member of EO Entrepreneurs Organization, as a business owner. And I think if business owners can collaborate together, they can do more. Tennessee’s EO did a stat and they said out of all their members of the total of all the employees that they have, they are the 10th largest employer for that state, as an organization, and I think that’s something that chamber should think about, too.

Brandon Burton 32:28
Wow. Yeah, that’s awesome. So as we start to kind of wrap things up here, I wanted to ask about any maybe tip or action item for chambers that are out there listening who wants to take their chamber up to the next level? What would you encourage or advise him to do to try to meet that goal?

John Chen 32:50
Well, we talked about those senior members. And I can tell you one strategy, again, I’m president of, of NSA, is that one of my strategies is that I’m attempting to talk to every member but we’re not we have an organization that’s kind of the right size. And all the Copic is brand, and it’s not to sell them on another year. I just calling to say, introduce myself as the president and say, How’s your how’s your membership going? That’s it. And what you get from that? I’ll tell you, number one, is that 90 plus percent of the organizations that I’m a member of don’t do that. Yeah. And if you do, you’re gonna hear I think, two great things, right. One of them is people complaining, I was just thinking about ditching my membership, which is a gift by the way, you have a chance now to intervene you before you didn’t even know. Or you hear the other part going, I am loving my membership. What’s the part you love the most? And they’ll tell you X and you’re like, Great, let’s do more of that. Right. And sometimes you can even get them involved. Because I think the other part about membership. That works is when you like to going back to this ask not only asking them as a member like Brandon right now, right? We are President Elect had to step down because he couldn’t you know, he’s got a family emergency. Brandon, would you be our next president for our chamber? And you’re like, Wow, and so the asker when he said that, you know, Chris Matthew said this about the house. He goes, the Ask has value whether Brandon says yes or no, sure. Yeah. Because Because of Brandon says, No, at least he knows that out of all the membership I chose him to ask. And then if he says yes, I get a whole bunch of time out of them because he’s gonna run. So I can think that’s the best thing you can do is engage your membership. One of the other things I do is when I call these members, because I’ll find out do I have a role for them? Some of them immediately told me I don’t want to be on the board. Right? I don’t have the time. I’m like, okay, that’s fine. I said, What if I could find you a committee position that was like one to three hours right? Totally self contained, do something that but also showcases something that you do and your job. I’m in there. Yeah. So that’s what I would say is go through your membership and figure out, how can you engage them? Yeah. And if you do that, I think your membership will grow and thrive.

Brandon Burton 35:14
And I think you touched on a great point that for a lot of chambers, there’ll be a reminder, they can think back to when the pandemic first happened. Everybody’s businesses shut down. And pretty much every chamber I can think of, they were calling every business to check in on him. How are you guys doing? What do you need? What can we do to help? And the stories that came back the feedback, they got back the value that their members saw from their chamber by making that personal, you know, extension to see how they’re doing and how they’re, you know, weathering the storm was so instrumental that afterwards chamber saw a huge wave of businesses that wanted to get back because now they see what the chamber does. And to be able to remember that experience, and to incorporate that going forward. Because those members will have that memory to Oh, yeah, you call me when things were really hard. And now you’re calling just to see how things are going now, it’s gonna have a lot of good rapport going forward. So that’s a great reminder that you put out there. Yeah,

John Chen 36:17
you’ll love this to brand new, which is like, you’ll get a lot of a you don’t need a pandemic to have to do that. And one of my favorite quotes is goosebumps don’t lie. And so while Brandon was talking about that, like I had goosebumps on my side and saying that, that was such the right thing to do. And why don’t people do that, like all the time?

Brandon Burton 36:38
So? Yes, yeah, that’s good. I love that saying to goosebumps don’t lie. So I like asking everyone I have on the show, about how you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.

John Chen 36:55
Well, rounded, I told you at the beginning of this meeting, that I’m a team builder. And I can tell you this too, after 28 years in my career of team building, that the one thing I know is that America in general is getting worse at cross team collaboration worse. Like, it’s it hasn’t gotten better. It wasn’t, it didn’t stay the same, it actually got worse. And so what I mean by that chambers give the opportunity for two or more businesses to collaborate to create more business. And they should do more of that. And they don’t. And so that’s the one thing that chambers can do. And when they do it that I knew though some of them do it well, like a business fair like a you know, a hiring fair, like solving the members challenges. But doing it collectively as a group instead of one person doing it is where I think many businesses and many organizations like chambers can add the most value to their community.

Brandon Burton 37:59
I love that. So as we wrap things up, I wanted to give you an opportunity, John to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and engage with you like what they did there. Maybe maybe have you come in and speak at a state cup at a state conference or something like that, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

John Chen 38:23
I see what you did there, Brandon. Yeah, you can reach me on my website, engagingvirtualmeetings.com. Again, engagingvirtualmeetings.com. I do host a conference, Brandon, called The Engaging Conference on October 1, second, and third, it’s every October to every year if you’re listening to this later. And this year, it will be our first time that this conference will be running hybrid. And we’ll be showing the best engagement techniques, whether you’re in person or virtual or having it all at the same time. So if you run any kind of conference, Summit, masterclass, or meeting, you know, I invite you to come join us at the engaging conference and see the all the latest techniques around engagement. Thanks, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 39:10
You bet I could see somebody really nerding out at that conference and just taking notes of all the the tech and the approach to driving engagement on that virtual front. So I appreciate it. This has been a fun conversation, engaging conversation. I hope all the listeners found it to be valuable as well. And I appreciate you setting aside some time to join us today here on chamber chat podcast to share some of your experiences. I love the personal stories that you share. But most of all these tips and and action items that you shared for chambers to help take their organizations to the next level. So thank you for being with us today. John, I really appreciate it.

John Chen 39:48
Thank you, Brandon, and thank you to the chamber chat podcast.

Brandon Burton 39:52
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Overcoming the Vocal Minority with Janet Kenefsky

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Below is an auto-generated transcription. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

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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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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 Janet Kenefsky and Janet is the Vice President of Operations for the Greater Vancouver Chamber, overseeing the Chamber’s day to day and strategic programming and internal operations, creating structured processes for the organization to strengthen its core mission and becoming the inclusive and innovative provider of programming and resources. Janet brings over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and organizational strategic development, along with a strong background in government relations and international trade development. She is the business community representative for Clark County’s Law and Justice Council sits on the lodging and Tax Committee for the City of Vancouver and recently selected for and completed the US Chamber Foundation’s workforce fellowship. Her passion and volunteerism are focused on providing greater economic opportunities for businesses and employee growth in the workplace. Janet, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you better.

Janet Kenefsky 4:12
Well hello to everybody out there yet my Janet Kenefsky and I represent the Greater Vancouver chamber recently the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce and like many we drop the commerce but we’re still a b2b organization um, something about myself and I think maybe it goes into some of the interview today. When you look at personality wise, I am a strong Enneagram eight I’m Clifton Strengths I lead with strategic so a lot of the discussion we’ll have today falls within my my personality traits and I’ve tried to own up to him and so it might differ from from others that that I work with in the timber industry, but hopefully I’ll use that as a strength E and TJ You extrovert. Yeah, it helps. It helps guide a lot of what I do in the chamber world and be comfortable with how I lead. That’s

Brandon Burton 5:08
great. Well, it definitely will be a leadership focused episode here on the podcast today. So that lean into your strengths there for sure. Tell us a little bit about the Greater Vancouver Chamber. You mentioned you guys recently dropped the F commerce off the title. But tell us a little bit more about the chamber, Scope of Work size staff budget things you guys were involved with, just to kind of give us a little more perspective, as we get into our discussion today.

Janet Kenefsky 5:36
The Greater Vancouver Chamber so we’re located in southwest Washington, for those who who don’t know where Vancouver, Washington is. We represent a community. I’d say we’re about 415,000 that are in the Vancouver city. And then we represent around 511 512,000 that are in the county that we represent. We have approximately 1200 members, another 400 members that are part of programming, some entrepreneurship, training and nonprofit. We do have about 116 nonprofits as part of our membership. So it’s pretty large. We represent four legislative districts 12 policymakers that we work really closely with on the state level. And then we have various programs. We have nine full time staff and then an outside accounting firm that we work with. And we are a great team.

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Donna Novitsky 8:11
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Brandon Burton 9:06
Alright, Janet, we’re back. So before the break had mentioned that the topic being overcoming the vocal minority, so oftentimes, this minority, they tend to be the loudest in the community that and it may be easy to lean into the few voices that are really expressing their discontent with whatever’s going on. And think that that represents the greater whole of the business community. So I would love to hear in your time at the chambers, changes that either you guys have implemented or changes that you guys have removed. And maybe where some of the that opposition. It’s kind of surface its head from the vocal minority.

Janet Kenefsky 9:51
Yeah. So I think first of all, the vocal minority comes from passion. So we recognize that we can we can approach the vocal minority and get frustrated with them, try to push them out. But we recognize early, it is a good thing that they have such passion passion for the program passion for the chamber passion for their community. And sometimes it’s just not directed in the right way or, or they feel like they’re losing something. So we have, there was a I pulled it up here. So there was a quote that I saw on on Facebook, this was many months ago. And it just left me It says, cities that avoid change to keep a few people from being upset today. And sure that everyone will be upset tomorrow. And that’s that summed it up that that talks about, if you’re reluctant to change, because maybe it’s a couple of people on your board, maybe it’s a couple of people that are on your own, or maybe it’s your ambassador team, maybe it’s people that go to your morning networking and show up every, you know, week for free coffee and doughnuts and networking, and they don’t want to see it go. If you if you’re afraid to let those go, you’ll never be able to find programming that really benefits the wider community. So for our chamber in 2019, is when I joined. So I was able to give a fresh perspective to what was happening, what the programs I attended. And I noticed something right off the bat, there were the same people going to the events. And while to some people that might look good, like, wow, we have 2030, you know, 40 people going to this event every single month. This is amazing. But what I was recognizing was it was the same 20 3040 people going to events every single month. And mind you we’re in 500,000 people in our community, surely we can pull 2030 people, but to some you fill a room, a small room of 2030 people, it looks good. And that’s what success is. And your friends are there and everybody feels good. But remember, we’re part of economic development and opening up the tent for more. So. So I looked around at some of our events, and when new people were coming, and we were proud 20 new people registered for this event, then the next week, 20 new people 30 new companies signed up for this event. And then at the end of the month, Brandon who should be there, you should have hundreds of people there of all these new people. But what was happening was we were getting excited about the new people signing up. But the new people signing up weren’t coming back. Right. So you have to recognize that that some of the programming just wasn’t being adopted by a wider audience. And some reason they felt uncomfortable coming back or felt this is not for me. So what do we do? We cut programs, we look we ask people, we find out where are people meeting? Where are where are they doing their connections, if not at a chamber event. And so yeah, we we made a decision off the bat, to, to rebrand to just kind of reflect our community a little bit, or a lot better, and make sure that our programs shouldn’t have 2030 people, and then we should have 200 people in them. And that’s where we are today. And we can talk a little bit about that. That’s awesome.

Brandon Burton 13:09
That’s a great setup. And I wanted to circle back a little bit at the beginning and said something about these people, the vocal minority, they have a passion. And I love that that’s identified because you’d much rather than have a passion for the chamber and things you’re doing versus being disengaged. But as you come across these individuals with passion that don’t want to see these things change, how do you help redirect that passion, help them catch that vision of what you’re trying to build, it’s bigger and better. That has led to now having these events of 200 plus people in attendance. So

Janet Kenefsky 13:47
I’m going to be honest with you, and we recognize the passion, we provided an opportunity. And it wasn’t a surprise, they wanted nothing to do with it. So when we look at our our ambassador program, I’ll give an example. People in the community would say I don’t want to join the chamber. It’s a clique. It’s, you know, you hear the same words in the chamber industry. They don’t represent us too. Clicky. And maybe I didn’t know what they were talking about until I saw it firsthand. It was just it became a beast of themselves. And then when you looked at our social media, when you looked at the Chamber’s branding, over decades, that we had ambassadors that were bright red blazers that were front and center on every company on every picture, every posting on our website, it was everywhere it was read, read read, and then we started looking at some of these posts and it wasn’t about the company anymore. And the chambers we can fool ourselves by saying no, these are historic programs, the Chamber ambassador program, we can never get rid of that. Well it became a click and it became not about the companies that we were trying to promote. It became about those red coats trying to get front and center getting their picture you know taken and let isn’t less about those organizations that we were supposed to be celebrating? So when we took away that program, we and COVID helped. We offered an application process like many others, and and we had expectations out there and 100% of our maybe 2530. That ambassador said, Yeah, peace out. That’s not going to happen. We want nothing to do with it. Okay, that’s fine. And then we thought, Should we redesign this? We need to have one, right? We’re a chamber, we need to have a program. Maybe we just call it something different because the word Ambassador now in our region is not a great one, because it was cliquish. So how do you get revive an ambassador program with the same brand and the same, you know, connotation? So we thought maybe we’ll call it chamber champions, maybe we will call it something else. And then we, yeah, we have diplomats, chamber diplomats and whatnot. But then we thought, why do we need one? Yeah, why? Why do we even need one to begin with granted, we need volunteers, we know that. And that’s really the role that they serve. But as an extension of our organization, we’re very keen on ensuring that our branding our image, our messaging is exactly on point. And it’s difficult to do with ambassadors who are out there speaking for you. Right. So we have volunteer programs. And what we did is we just posted a volunteer signup page on our website, said, here are some really great programs, who wants to volunteer US Bank, Chase Bank, small businesses, we want you to show up and wear your logo on your shirt, bring your entire team. And guess what we have hundreds of people that say I want to come out for your lemonade day program, I my team wants to come out and volunteer for your golf tournament for your women’s golf tournament. So we have no shortage. And now we have passion. And now they can represent their own company while showing they’re giving back to the community. So it’s, it’s it’s a way that we’ve evolved. And I will tell you, I looked at and many chambers around here. And I would encourage you to do this. If you’re a chamber listening, we looked at the amount of administration that took part in trying to organize, get ambassadors to fill out forms and to go to locations and show their sign up and some have point systems and it took a full time staff person. And I think we had 890 email messages like in a two month period, just trying to coordinate our old Ambassador crew, to give you an example of just how intensive it is. We thought I could use that staff personnel their time and energy into something different and working on our programs and not managing people that had jobs that were now taking 110% of their time post COVID. Right. So these ambassadors remember, are part of your community and working full time jobs. So we needed to be very careful with the demands on our volunteers.

Brandon Burton 17:53
Yeah. So I love first of all, the idea of having the volunteers come and having them wear their T shirts that their logos and promote their business while they’re supporting whatever the event is that the chamber is sponsoring or putting on. I have to ask as far as the old ambassador program, it’s what kind of feedback did you get? Like you said 100% of them said, No, we don’t want to be a part of that. So was there something just that repulsive about it? Or just because it was so different? What was the what was the stark difference besides the red coat and being in front of, you know, front and center in the pictures? Yeah.

Janet Kenefsky 18:29
So. So our ambassadors liked to drink, they like to drink at events. So of course, the ambassador’s wanted to be recognized for all the hard work they did. So they wanted you to pay their membership and whatnot. But they, they were it was just very inclusive. And it turned out it wasn’t about the community again, they didn’t, it was about themselves, how could they get together? So they weren’t happy? I will tell you, they weren’t happy. They didn’t go quietly Yes, I said they pieced out but you know, they call the newspaper. One of them was on the newspaper in team so they call the newspaper a newspaper called the board and I told our staff who were very nervous because again a lot of the staff at that time didn’t like change and and they knew what the ambassador with the red coats meant to the community because they’re very visible for decades might do so not everybody knows the ins and outs of what what’s happening. So, so yeah, the the newspaper did an article on it, and it went away. So we started the year off with no ambassador program. It hit the newspaper, the announcements were made, and then nothing. No one cared brand and nobody cared. What happened. What happened was we started getting we started getting members coming out of the woodworks and when I say Woodworks, I made the Woodworks. We started getting professional organizations, accounting firms, engineering firms, legal teams, all starting to apply for chamber membership. We got a lot of emails and our team Got a lot of communication saying it’s about time. And we would never have known that. Again, they never told us that to our face, but they told us in their lack of membership. So when I say we weren’t representing the community in which we served, they were waiting for us to level up, they were waiting for us to get more inclusive, they were waiting for us to get more contemporary and represent them. And we were in a position where we had people applying to us where we used to have to go out and ask them, and they politely say, not for me. Not right now. So yeah, it it, it told us a big story. And it was a really great lesson for our staff who, who understood that you can make tough decisions. And really, you know, you can anger a few people, but the community is watching. They’re waiting for the chamber to step up and lead. And, and good things can happen from it. It’s not always bad. So you know, it’s it was a good lesson for everybody. We held our breath, for sure, trying to figure out what the community feedback was going to be. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 21:06
So I know a lot of times in the chamber world, we’ll talk about how important it is to listen to your members, which is super important. It’s important to you know, listen to data, collect data and listen to make data driven decisions. This example you gave with the ambassador program, your members weren’t telling you anything. I guess you could say data as far as participation levels, but they’re up right. Yeah, yeah, lack thereof. But what specific triggers, you’d mentioned looking at the photos of the different like ribbon cuttings and whatnot. But were there certain triggers that stood out to you guys as a chamber that says, hey, we need to address this, like, this is not working the way it’s intended? Or we’re not getting the results we’re looking for? What What was that trigger that made you guys go down that rabbit holes?

Janet Kenefsky 21:55
There were a couple of things. So I come from I have an HR background. So I look at things as are we going to get in trouble? Is this even legal? Should? Should they be drinking during during hours? What are they what are they actually providing to our other members in the community? So at the beginning, when we tried to say, Okay, listen, ambassadors, we’re going to use you to go out and talk about some of the legislative priorities, you don’t need to know about them. But just let it you know, companies know that there’s something out there and we, we got a big middle finger from that, like, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re here just to have fun, and we’re family. So there were a lot of things that told us one insurance was not if you talk to your insurance provider, and we had one on our board, who was very supportive of getting rid of this program, because they’re like, this is a huge liability. They your ambassadors as an extension of working on your behalf should not be drinking at your events, your staff should not be drinking at your events. No, you should not have a bar inside your chamber office to have drinks during board meetings. out on the golf course, we had, we had an ambassador that was drunk on a on a golf cart, taking advantage of the adult beverages that were on the course for the golfers. And that was a huge liability, because they’re getting in a car leaving. And so we’re very lucky that nothing happened. But when you start looking at the liability issues, if nothing else, the perception and the visibility of how they’re representing you. And this is your chosen group. I mean, that’s literally the word ambassador, they are you that that it just wasn’t a good look. So we needed to, we needed to put a stop to that. And that was something that was pretty black and white on on the legal aspect on the insurance aspect. And a lot of people say nothing’s happened so far. So as long as nothing happens, but it will, it will end and we just didn’t want to be around for that. So we

Brandon Burton 23:49
if it’s not broken, don’t fix it right out. There are some indicators. It’s like, no, we need to fix this before it does break. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you talked a little bit about these, like networking events where you would have the same 20 to 30 people and now you’re 200 and upward from you know, at these gatherings tell us what does that look like now besides you know, you need a bigger room. There’s more people what’s changed in the messaging and attracting more participants to those events.

Janet Kenefsky 24:20
I think it’s pretty holistic when you look at at the same time we did away with programs we rebranded we were very vocal about our programming. So whereas a lot of visibility comes from chambers, ribbon cuttings, right, we put that on our social media for our chamber now it’s like less than 5% of what we do 3% of what we do, but it looked like everything that we did, right so now we’re very intentional of showing different programming different types of people that are attending our programming. Our morning networking, the coffee connections, we always wondered if you look back. Okay, so there’s a roomful of sales, people and realtors Selling to each other, you know, with a couple like how did how does that work when then we realized it was a way for them to gather, they just wanted to gather there wasn’t like real work happening or networking because they’re all salespeople selling to each other, it doesn’t happen. So that’s why they weren’t growing because people weren’t finding a need for them. So we did away with that because less and less people other than those realtors and banks and whatnot, community liaisons. They didn’t, they didn’t network in the morning, the people that we wanted, there didn’t know work in the morning. So you have to go where they’re going. Happy hours, having our business after hours, was a really good one. So when we scrapped the morning networking, you know, those 20 people who went we heard from them for a couple of weeks. And then never again, we don’t have people pounding down our door saying, Hey, when are you bringing this back? But what we did do our business after hours did grow. But like many chambers, we had an opportunity to take a look and say, Okay, what is our business after hours now? Yeah, we had 60 7080 people attending, but now we decided, Okay, how are we going to get these business after hours, month after month that finding a location and finding a host was really difficult, Brandon, our staff was going out and asking people would you please host next month, and the nominal fee was like $400, to host a business after hours. And you bring food and beverage and we’ll bring the people. And then when this transition happened when our rebranding happened when we started reprogramming, and showing that we were an inclusive provider, we were a big tent, people started coming out in droves. Coming out in droves, I’ll say that several times, because we were really surprised at the number of people coming out. So then we started looking at our business after hours and saying, here’s the deal. This is we’re undervaluing our programs in a big way we’re bringing a lot of people, we have a lot of connections, people are looking to us now as leaders. So we’re going to hold our business after hours, once a month, we’re going to charge almost $2,000 to have a business after hours. And then we’re going to bring the people and the company will invest another 1000 2000 $3,000 in food and entertainment. And we are currently booked through 2025. So we’re taking host, we have down payments for every single business after hours, 2024 and 2025. And we have half of 2026 built, built out. So they are becoming the place to be we have probably a minimum of two 300 People at some of the locations that have limits, but we’re seeing this last one, we had about 350 people in attendance and the social media is going wild on it still and we’re we’re days about a week out from it. And yeah, it’s it’s, it’s something people want to attend the vibe is there. They’re meeting new people, we’re now seeing more executives than we ever have. And when I say executives, I mean those organizations that are 20 3040 people and above, not our smaller business executives, which are very important to us. And they’re certainly coming out as well. But our board is made up of executives. So we have a high level board at our chamber, we’re very specific and who we have on there. Typically we say they’re the ones that sign the front of the checks, right. So and and they’re coming out and they’re meeting people and they’re seeing the vibe in the community. Whereas before business after hours, and some of our programming doesn’t really resonate with with top C suite of organizations. But it does now. And from there, we’re able to parlay that into now we have CEO groups, we have an executive Women’s Council made up of 80 of the top women’s C suite in the region and policymakers in addition to that, so yeah, it’s there’s a whole new vibe, a whole new energy, and with a little discomfort, came a lot of growth in rewards. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 28:50
I like to have a little bit of discomfort comes to growth and rewards. And as you’re telling the story of that experience, what stands out to me is the investment. So you said going from about $400 to host an event like that to about 2000. Plus, they’re investing another couple 1000 into food and entertainment and drinks, whatever. But that really up levels, the quality of the event, where before if you just showed up and you got a coffee and donut, there’s not much to it, you don’t walk away saying wow, that was a great event. But if the host is they’ve got a lot more skin in the game. You can bet it’s going to be a high quality event, you know, probably nine out of 10 times that people will walk away from they’ll take pictures from they’ll share it with others. It’ll spread, right.

Janet Kenefsky 29:34
Yeah, there’s a lot of FOMO that’s happening out there. Absolutely. And now we have big developers that are coming building businesses building high rises and developments that are securing us for the location when they so that they can unveil it and and attract new tenants attract so it’s, it’s for for companies to be able to showcase but other companies can come and enjoy. So I think we offer In times and chambers, we undervalue everything, we apologize for everything. We are our own worst enemy in the industry. And just one of the things that I’m passionate is about is, is stopping this victim mentality. And I’m huge about that. And if I can go to the grave, you know, fighting that it’ll be stopping the victim mentality we have in this industry.

Brandon Burton 30:23
So I know you’re passionate about pet Share, share a little bit more, if you don’t mind about stopping the victim mentality, I think it’s so important, especially in relation to this topic. Yeah.

Janet Kenefsky 30:34
So here’s, I come at it this way. Um, again, I know it can be tough at times, and we I’m okay, making those tough decisions and, you know, pull up your bootstraps, but oftentimes, and you’ve said it in a chamber, chat podcast in the past, that sometimes we, we don’t always have the executive directors with experience, right. And with inexperience comes major mistakes, and a lot of a lot of undervaluing both yourself as a leader. And because this could be your first job, out of the gate, and and it’s going to be difficult for you. And we apologize a lot. And we, we look to our our board members and others that you know, for leadership, help and experience. And we wonder why we don’t get respect, and we don’t get people coming to us? Well, it goes hand in hand, you know, people respect an organization that has a leader that can stand up and, and really understand the industry and support. And I understand that small communities don’t invest in their chamber, and you get what you get, and I get that. But what happens is a lot of these chambers, they form communities where they complain, and I get it, we all need peers to complain. But what the others do is they go, you’re right, you know, you’re right. It does suck to be a chamber, we’re underrepresented. And we’re never thanked and this is a thankless job. And, and I cringe every time I hear that, and I want to ask every chamber out there, stop it. Stop it, stop it right now. Because this is the only industry I am aware of that talks like that about themselves. It’s the only industry I’m aware of that hires a 24 year old as an executive director, first of all, who doesn’t know what they’re doing. And granted, I understand why it would be sexy, I would take it to, but then we complain about it. And we support that person for their misery. And we say You know what, if you’re going to be a chamber executive, it’s going to get, it’s going to suck, you’re not going to get paid, you’re going to be overworked, and everybody starts cheering we’re in the same boat together. And I want to say stop it. Because we you should be acting like a business you should be setting the standard. Our staff is is well paid, we have great benefits, we have huge respect in the community. We love it, we get applications to join our chamber every single week that are unsolicited. Some stalkers, I want to be a part of it. But I you know, I go back, Brandon, stop it if we can stop that mentality. Because one of the things I’ll see and I’ll give you an example, when we inadvertently want to create community, even in our chamber, peers, that’s what we’re doing is we’re creating chamber community by misery, right. But it it tells the community that’s watching, this is not an industry you want to be a part of this is not something that’s sustainable are going to grow. And then companies like ours, organizations like mine, our chambers are going to end up taking over these smaller chambers, because they’re going to they’re going to create their what they’re manifesting, right, so we need them to stay around. We need chambers to be around forever. And it’s really important that we stop that. So yeah, I’m very passionate about that. We have an example. There was a chamber I heard talking about how their board of directors were talking about them in a side meeting without them. Well, yeah, that’s a problem. And that wouldn’t happen in most organizations. But there’s there’s lack of trust there. Right. And the chamber community came out and said, You should hire a lawyer. This is ridiculous, this discrimination, you should you know, you should quit and then you should sue them and blah, blah, blah. Well, what they didn’t know was that chamber executive who was complaining about this was being investigated for embezzlement, right, so So you have a chamber executive that were rallying behind saying, we poor you, you know, you, we get it and you don’t you don’t know what others are going through. So if we can keep it positive, if we can support him with education, support him with podcasts like this, support him with with real truth and not join the pity party. I think we’re gonna do much better for our industry.

Brandon Burton 34:43
I love that I wish there was a way I could take that snippet and just share it with every chamber board of directors out there. So the next time they’re going to hire an executive, they know what to look for and to kind of give that pep talk instead of falling into that victim mentality and it’s gonna stink and yeah, we can’t afford it. as much but you know, really build them up and help them recognize the true power that a Chamber of Commerce has, like chambers have a lot of power. They’re not elected, you know, but they wield a lot of power with the connections and being able to convene people together and have a seat at the table and bring people together. So, yeah,

Janet Kenefsky 35:19
I think if you’re a chamber and your comfort level, is creating a board with your friends, and the small businesses that you’re peers with, that you’re comfortable with, that’s never a good board, you need a board that is used to strategic planning, you need a board that is used to making tough decisions, you need a board, that’s going to give you the pros and the cons play devil’s advocate, that have financial savvy, that tells you know, that secures your next 10 and 20 years on this planet, you know, so we get ourselves into real huge issues by creating boards that tell us yes, that our friends and then wonder why they turn on us and vote to, you know, vote you off the island. And we shouldn’t be surprised at that. But that’s our comfort level sometimes. And we need to get outside our comfort level, and really build a mastermind people around us that will make sure that we can strengthen an organization not through drama, not through bad decisions, but real evidence based business decisions that will help bolster the chamber industry, both professionally and strategically in the future. That’s it’s imperative.

Brandon Burton 36:27
Yeah, I love that. Well, as we begin to wrap up here, I wanted to ask you, I got a couple questions I like asking everybody I have on the show. So one is as if you have any tips or action items, for listeners who are looking to take their chamber up to the next level, you just gave a great tip about overcoming the victim mentality. But is there something else you might want to offer to the listeners,

Janet Kenefsky 36:50
I would say surround yourself with, with people that can help you with that visionary. So I recognize that through the pandemic, for example, we thrived. We had chambers across the country closing their doors, we had chambers across the country that were, you know, slashing their their prices, because you couldn’t be in person and, and giving, you know sponsors a break on, on money, we doubled our prices, we doubled our prices, we didn’t apologize for it. But also, what we recognized was I came to the table as a visionary. And I adopt that role. And that’s one of the things that I do for our chamber is build programs and kind of figure out what that value is for the for the community. But a lot of people don’t have that. And so if you don’t have a visionary on your team, and if it’s not you surround yourself with it, whether it’s on the board or a confidant, you need to surround your team with people that are unlike you. So a lot of chambers may not have had a visionary at the helm. But they had a board executive member or something that was able to step up and help them with that. So leaders come in all shapes and sizes, leaders come with all different backgrounds. You don’t have to be a visionary to lead. But if you’re not comfortable with certain aspects, make sure you have that at your fingertips. So that for me is really important. And it could be an ambassador of yours, it could be anybody that you have access to. But if you don’t like change, that doesn’t mean don’t change, it means you’re gonna have to do it in order to get more relevant, but you need to have support and others in the community that can help you manage change. That’s why it’s a whole department Change management is is a is a degree in itself. Right? So yeah, surround yourself.

Brandon Burton 38:35
Like the same says, you know, get comfortable being uncomfortable. Right, right. So, but as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward? So

Janet Kenefsky 38:47
I see the chambers and the purpose going forward of being the place for business, you should be there first knock on the door, there is no wrong door, when it comes to trying to get services and area, but we want to be their first request, you should be the organization that if anybody has a question 10 out of 10 people say, Oh, go ask the chamber. That’s your business resource provider. So we’re going to be a really big presence, it might unfortunately mean that we’re going to be less of the small mom and pop chambers and more of the regional chambers, because, you know, we try and level up our friends around us and all communities. But we are going to be the the resource for business for connection for advocacy work and, and I see us as being the go to for all of our legislators, if they’re going to need the pulse of the community. They’re going to be they’re going to be our best friends in the fight going forward. So yeah, the one stop shop.

Brandon Burton 39:45
I love that be the place for business. I love it. But Jana, this has been fun having you on the show. I want to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing Anything that the Greater Vancouver chamber, how would you suggest that they reach out and connect with you?

Janet Kenefsky 40:04
We have VancouverUSA.com, our social media handles our greater Vancouver Chamber. We’re on Instagram, we’re on LinkedIn, something I highly recommend for all chambers to be on so that people can easily find you. And I’m on LinkedIn as well under Janet Kenefsky. So I invite anybody, and I watch our social media channels. That’s a good way to see what other people are doing. Go ahead and start following us and you’ll start seeing some of the things that we do that might differ and might give some inspiration. I know we checked other chambers out for that same inspiration.

Brandon Burton 40:42
Yeah, I love it. That’s a great tip as well follow other chambers. Oh, Janet, thank you for setting aside some time to be with us today on chamber chat podcast, you’ve presented a really great perspective and I love the approach you guys have taken the kind of the unapologetic way of overcoming that vocal minority but doing it in a way to really up level your chamber really giving more meaning to the rest of the membership and and really, as you’ve demonstrated through these different examples, boosting the engagement of your members, this has been fantastic. Thank you.
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Chambers Leveraging AI with Kaytee Lorentzen

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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.

Our title sponsor is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

When it comes to publishing a Chamber Map directory or Community Guide, Community Matters has a trusted experience to help your chamber accomplish your goals. With different advertising sales models and publication styles, Community Matters will help you create a non-dues revenue machine!

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 Kaytee Lorentzen. Kaytee is the Director of Communications and events at the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. She spearheads the Chamber’s multifaceted marketing communications initiative engaging with a diverse array of stakeholders including Chamber members, the public media board and staff members. Her role involves closely collaborating with every department to craft coherent and compelling communication and marketing materials that cater to their unique needs. Beyond communications, she meticulously organizes and oversees the myriad of events that the Chamber orchestrates ensuring that they align with the organization’s objectives and standards. Kaytee has been a part of the chamber team since May of 2021, initially as a marketing and communications coordinator before stepping into the role as marketing and communications manager in January 2023, and subsequently evolving into her current position in September 2023. Before joining the chamber as a staff member, she was a member of the chamber with her photography business for four years. Kaytee holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in photojournalism from Ball State University. She’s a graduate from the Indiana chamber Executives Association, who’s your chamber Academy in June 2022, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Purdue University. And Kaytee, I am very excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I would love to give you an opportunity 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.

Kaytee Lorentzen 3:37
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Brandon, for having me on. I’ve been listening to your podcast ever since I have been a chamber professional. So I was super excited to get this opportunity. You helped me grow into this position. So I appreciate that. And everyone that’s been on the podcast as well. Just a little something interesting about myself. That isn’t in my bio. If I had a you know, a separate universe life, then I probably would have been a detective. I love true crime stuff. It’s kind of weird. Much I Love it. But even growing up I was, you know, doing forensics, trying to figure out fingerprinting and putting clues together. So that is what, but I would be in a different life. That’s

Brandon Burton 4:21
That is interesting. And there’s something to that the thrill of solving a mystery. You know, my my wife, she works at our kids elementary school. She’s the front desk receptionist and every now and then she’ll come home from work and say, I should have a detective badge. Like my GED today, you know, usually it’s some you know, kid in the neighborhood that’s caused some mischief, and they get caught on a ring doorbell camera or something. So the police will bring it to the school and say Do you recognize this kid? So she solves the mysteries. But there’s there’s something to that at the thrill of solving a mystery for sure. Oh,

Kaytee Lorentzen 4:55
yeah, like watching it on television shows I’m all about okay, I wonder if this happens. Next. Right,

Brandon Burton 5:01
right. Well tell us a little bit more about the greater Bloomington chamber just to give us an idea of the size staff scope of work. The tight you know, what kind of work you guys are involved with just to kind of set the table for our discussion. Yeah,

Kaytee Lorentzen 5:14
absolutely. So the greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce is located in Bloomington, Indiana. We are the home of Indiana University. So go Hoosiers, which is very ironic considering I go to Purdue University for graduate education. We Are Rivals so that’s really fun to be a part of. But the greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, we have six full time staff members and one part time staff. And all ton of interns. Currently we have one high school intern to undergrad scholar intern. So they’ll be with us for all four of their undergrad years, and two grad fellows which are also going to be with us for their whole grad program. So that’s how many we have a ton of people here. And we have about 850 members currently, Bloomington itself, the size is about 80,000 people. And then Monroe County, which is the county that Bloomington resides in is about 140,000 we say we are the greater Bloomington So yes, we do have a lot of Bloomington businesses but also more Monroe County and surrounding.

Brandon Burton 6:25
Very good that that definitely helps to give some perspective and even going through your bio just in the marketing communications as you’ve had different roles, shows you guys are you’ve got to you’ve got a good amount of staff and get a good team there to work with. So that’s awesome. Well, our topic that we’ve settled on for today is very relevant and timely for all the buzz that’s going around right now around chat GPT and AI and generative AI and so we’re gonna dive in deeper in that discussion today. Katie has done some some great presentations on this at different conferences. So we’re going to kind of tap into her her wealth of knowledge to be able to share some of that, with all you chamber pros as we as we move forward in this conversation. We’ll dive into that as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 9:03
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Brandon Burton 9:57
All right, Kaytee, we are back And so I’m excited to learn how you’re using generative AI and just AI in general, as a chamber professional, where you see the use cases and where it’s helped to save you time make your job easier. And does it save you time at this point? You know, or is it just the learning and everything, but it ends up making your job easier. I’d love just to hear how you’re integrating this. And hopefully spark some ideas for listeners maybe want to explore some of these aspects of utilizing AI at their chamber.

Kaytee Lorentzen 10:32
Absolutely. So first and foremost, like artificial intelligence is just this plethora of things. So it pretty much all ultimately is intended to make computers do things that when done by people are described as having indicated intelligence. So I was very skeptical at first, I’m not one of those people who typically jump on bandwagons. So in November of last year, or sorry, to it would be November 2022. At that point, when it came out, I was like, I don’t know about this chat. GBT, it kind of seems a little not in my realm. Then I tried it. All I did was just asked a few questions. And I was like, wow, I just opened the door to something that’s going to make my life so much easier, just by asking it simple questions. And the more I’ve been using it, the more I have learned how to write the prompts that are necessary for it to generate the kind of answers that I’m meeting. So for example, the one thing I use it a lot for is just rewriting a lot of our website copy. It sounds very dated, and some of its not customer focused. And that’s more of what it needs to be. You want it to say, like I asked it, this is what we currently have on our website for our membership benefits. Can you rewrite this in more of a customer focused realm or point of view, and also give some examples of why it’s important for somebody to join the Chamber of Commerce. And they will give you a full list like, a lot of the time, if you ask it for list, it’ll give it to you. And now that I’ve used it so much, it thinks that I like list all the time. So it will continuously give me list until I say please stop putting into the list. I just need a paragraph. Yeah. And then it typically apologizes. It goes, Oh, I’m so sorry. Let me fix that for you. Right, right. The big thing that I’m doing right now is just rewriting a lot of our website copy. I’ve also used it for social media copy. I’ve even asked it to create social, like a social media plan. Small Business Week was something I was like, Okay, I want to do something different. I don’t just want to say, yeah, it’s Small Business Week, let’s celebrate small business. Let’s actually make some sort of content with it. And so it was able to give me five different days of social media content that all I had to do was just pretty much copy and paste and find some graphics and photos to go with it. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 12:59
So talk to us a little bit more about rewriting the website copy. Are you literally are you copy and pasting paragraphs from your website, login in chat? GPT? Are you able to give a link to the website and say, scan this page? And tell me how how does that interface work for those listening?

Kaytee Lorentzen 13:15
Yeah, it depends on what program you’re using, and what version of the program you’re using. I know, some websites will do that. But not all of them, like I primarily use to actually btw and chat GPT for. So I use the paid version. But I don’t put a link in there. I literally copy and paste the exact information so that way I like because a lot of our content is pretty long website page. So I just was like, No, I just want this section rewritten in this point of view, and then obviously, the main thing is, I always say, double check, it’s work. Because you never know what is gonna pop out and you want to edit it. I don’t ever think that you should copy and paste directly from whatever chat GBT or you know, whatever generative AI system you’re using, you need to go in and, like have oversight, it gets you 80% of the way there. But you need to go in and edit and finesse it and make it more your voice.

Brandon Burton 14:16
Yes, so you shared your experience in November of 20 I guess it’s 2022 right when chat GPT was made public and available for everybody to use. And I remember going to Thanksgiving dinner my brother in law was like Oh, you gotta check this out. And he’s he’s a very loud in your face kind of person anyway, so he’s shoving his phone everybody’s facing you ask it a question and just very excited about it and like, Okay, calm down. You know, so I asked him a few questions and and really the responses I got back because I was asking business related questions. You know, how can I create a social media posts from my podcast or tell me about a chamber of commerce, like what Chambers of Commerce do and just that feedback I was getting from it initially. You needed to verify, you know, the stuff it was kicking out. And granted, this is Chad GBT three. So it wasn’t it hadn’t scanned, you know nearly as much of the of the web and things like that. But an example of just this last week, I’ve got a daughter in fifth grade, she came home with a math problem in her homework that she wasn’t able to figure out. And my, I think it was my son who’s a senior single as chat GPT. And, like, first of all, it seems like cheating or, and then your homework to plug it in. But like, we worked through the problem, got the answer? And then I’m like, I’m gonna try this, you know. So I asked chat GBT exactly how the question was on the homework. And immediately it spit back an answer. And it wasn’t the right answer. So I gave it some clarifying, you know, prompts along with it, then it apologize, spit back and other answer, and it never came up with the right answer. And after verifying, like more and more of the criteria with it, it kept apologizing, but then we kept giving me the same answer over and over. And like, okay, and this is still catch up three GPT 3.5. So it wasn’t the paid version, maybe that would have gotten me better results, but goes to the point of you need to verify you can’t just trust everything that it puts out as being doctrine, like you got to, you got to really read it, you got to make sure it’s accurate. And some may say, Well, does that really save you time then? So how would you approach that with if you need to verify everything? How does that aspect work and time saving, or you know, the application into real world scenarios?

Kaytee Lorentzen 16:36
I think it varies on what you’re planning on using chat GPT for so if you’re using it for research, that can definitely still take you some more time, it hasn’t been able to scan everything, and it’s still learning, it’s still, you know, it’s still a child, and it’s learning new tech. Yeah, it’s still a baby, it’s still trying to figure out what it’s doing. But for me, I use it more for things that I know are fact based, like hard numbers type of thing. I use it more for like the colorful language. For an example, there was one way someone emailed us and I was trying to explain to them, I don’t think you understood what I was trying to say. But also saying it in a much better way. Because right, there are some times where your brain just you know, when that clicker icon just keeps going on a blink word screen. That’s how I felt with this. I was like, I don’t know how to say this. So I just asked chat GPT. And it gave me a much better way of writing it. That actually was exactly what I wanted to say. But I just didn’t have the words or the sound mind at that point. I think it was like 430 on a Friday or something. And it put it all together and flowed nicely. So that was something I more use it for is earliest for chatty BTW I use it more for that aspect. Even if you asked it to give you a source, sometimes it makes it up. So but at least if you can look up and see if that source even exists. And that sometimes works. I think I’ve only used it a few times with statistics. And then what I’ll do is I’ll just copy and paste this statistic that it gives me and look up where it is in Google. Yeah, just to verify, make sure that’s fine. But yeah, it varies, because I’ve also heard similar situations with homework, where someone it was I think it was NPR that I was listening to. And they were saying, Well, my daughter was doing homework. And they and I’m a history major. And it asked if this particular person in history was pro separation of church and state or against it, and it gave the wrong answer. And they were like, That’s not right. So I if you ever ask it fact, based information like that, then I would at least just copy and paste what it gave you and ask it as much question as you can to get where they got it from, quote unquote. And then you can find it on the internet pretty quickly. So

Brandon Burton 19:10
is there a value to giving it feedback to say that’s not a correct answer? Or yes, I’m gonna challenge the answer a little.

Kaytee Lorentzen 19:18
I think so because it’s learning based off of what you are giving it as well. So like if you there’s even after every single prompts that it gives you, was this, what you were looking for? Was this not and then there’s a thumbs up, thumbs down and you just put that in there it actually is teaching it. That’s another way that it’s learning on giving the correct answers. So if other people start asking similar questions or something like that, it’s it’s now learning based off of our responses, right, right.

Brandon Burton 19:49
And I think you know, although some of the information you get may not be totally accurate need to verify if you’re having some writer’s block going on or looking for ideas Just to be able to put a prompt in and receive, you know, a ton of ideas and, you know, pretty much instantaneously, things that will get those creative juices going in your mind, again, that I’ve heard it said that it’s not to replace your own thinking in your own mind, but it’s to supplement it’s to add to what you’re already doing. Yes. Yeah. I know, in an example that I had, there was a chamber professional that I mentioned, how much they enjoy the podcast, and you know, very nice email about what they have appreciated. So this is great. Would you mind putting this as a review on Apple podcasts? And they try it and try it couldn’t figure it out? Like, can you tell me how to leave a review? Like, let me ask Chet GPT. So I just did, how do you leave a review for by and just copy and paste it? And I could have typed the response and said, Here’s how you do it. But to look up each, you know, the website and give a link and here and there and back and forth? Just that plug it in chat? GPT it was all right, copy, paste, send and it was done. And it was easy. It was easy.

Kaytee Lorentzen 21:05
Yeah, as long as you just review it and be like, Yeah, that’s exactly how you do it, then you can just copy and paste, which is nice. And that’s kind of what I’ve done. Even for scripts for videos that we do. I’ve asked it to make it you can even ask it. Can you make this more of a TED Talk style, and it will completely read rewrite it? I did that actually the first time I presented this at the Indiana chamber Executives Association Conference. Hi, how do you write my intro? I didn’t like how it was like, have a we tried TED Talk style? Yeah, very different. It was, it almost felt like when you were reading it out loud, exactly how it starts. Right. Any TED Talk? So

Brandon Burton 21:50
maybe let’s talk about that a little bit about the prompts that we put into to any AI, generative AI assistant. What kind of things do we need to consider? Because I think we’re very much a lot of the public is very much still in the mindset of Google, right? You put in? What is this? He put in a question, get a response. So talk to us about a prompt, and maybe becoming a prompt engineer, so to speak.

Kaytee Lorentzen 22:17
Yes, yes. So that is something I’ve definitely been trying to hone my skills on, is learning how to create the best prompts. I always say, garbage in, garbage out. So whatever. If you give it like subpar information, it’s going to give you a subpar answer. So you want to make sure that it has as much information as you can possibly give it. Like if you’re trying to make a all do something pretty simple, like a social media post, if you tell it your audience exactly who it’s supposed to cater to, you can even tell it more of like your customer persona, it will give you a much better answer and a less generic answer, it’ll become more personalized. So that’s a lot of the time why I copy and paste a lot of our content when I’m asking it to rewrite it. So I say take this and move it to something more like this other thing. So that could be you know, saying it needs it needs to have more colorful language, can you make it sound more professional, this needs to be more towards small business owner, not necessarily the big business, so you can change up exactly what you’re wanting it to do. But the more specific the better it is.

Brandon Burton 23:37
Yeah. So as you’re given that response reminds me I had recently read a book called The AI whispers method. And it it’s a, it’s an AI generative fiction novel. So it takes the whole hero storyline and plugs it into to teach you how to use AI. And it talks a lot about generating prompts. And even asking, like, for example, with Chet GPT, to act as a math teacher or act as a math professor to give me an answer to this problem or act as a sports historian and tell me why, you know, this scenario is happening or so being able to get that context of act as if or act as a different, you know, expert in different fields, it’s able to tap into different resources and really understand what it is that you’re looking for. So as I played around with that there’s a lot of power in the act as prompt when you plug that into chat. GPT

Kaytee Lorentzen 24:45
Absolutely. That’s actually something I do for our customer journey type of thing. I said to chat GPT act as if you are a brand new business. You’ve never heard of the Chamber of Commerce. You We are interested in it because someone mentioned that it’s a great thing to join, why should they join? What are their pain points? What are their objectives? What are the rebuttals to those objectives? So you can really start tailoring your content to better address their pain points and why you’re the solution to their problems.

Brandon Burton 25:19
Right. I love that. So let’s, let’s maybe circle back a little bit more to the generative AI. Discussion. So you mentioned you, you’ve used it to rewrite website content, you use it for social media posts. What other applications are you seeing in the chamber world, specifically for using generative AI? That

Kaytee Lorentzen 25:40
is a fabulous question. So for me, I have been using it more obviously, for the marketing aspect of it. I’ve even asked it to write event descriptions. So what makes people come into the event more? What makes it more appealing, besides just saying, you know, come to this chamber event at this day, on this time at this place, we look forward to expanding your network hope to see you there. It sounds the exact same every single time. So how do I change it up and make it sound more exciting? What makes that chamber member have to be at that event. So I use that a lot for to change up the descriptions. I’ve also asked it to make correct like full social media campaigns, not just the captions itself. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the market research different emails to members. So like how, like, if you’re saying I want people to fill out this survey, what makes someone fill out this, if you ask to attribute it, right, this email, enticing people to fill out this survey that doesn’t. Obviously, we’re all nonprofits, we don’t have a whole lot of money to give out as an incentive. So without incentives, I’m creating different types of plans for customer journeys. The one that I’ve used the most often is writing up ours, we have a sponsorship book that we do all at one time, kind of like why GM does. And so I’ve asked it to rewrite our sponsorship book and why people should sponsor it and why it’s important to sponsor it. And then lately, I have noticed AI disclosures on your website, writing a disclaimer for your website, we actually didn’t have quite a few like the privacy policies, those things that you’re supposed to have on your website. And so I was like, I’m gonna see if Chad GPD can come up with something very like simple and then obviously run it by our lawyer, just to make sure everything sounds great. But it really helps take out a lot of the guesswork for us. We didn’t have to do you know, how many hours of research trying to make sure that what we had in there? Would it be? Sound for us to use, even if it’s just like a blanket one? I think ours is our AI disclaimer is probably two paragraphs, just saying, you know, we use AI, there are things that may be generated by AI that come out here, but there’s always human oversight, ultimately, is what it says but in some more legalese term. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 28:15
Like that. So I guess that brings up a good talk at a good point to talk about as well, where I know I’ve been at chamber conferences and breakout sessions you you lead some these breakout sessions, where we talk about AI? And the question always comes up as far as the legality, the copyright issues if you’re especially like image generation, right? So if you’re asking generative AI to produce an image for you, who owns the rights to that, is there copyright issues if you’re bringing in certain elements into that? So if you would speak a little bit to the legality and regulations around AI and what we need to kind of be aware of and kind of look out for as we kind of navigate through this new world of artificial intelligence?

Kaytee Lorentzen 29:03
Absolutely. This is definitely something we need. As chamber professionals. If you’re using AI just to keep up to date on there are quite a few websites that you can track legislation. And there’s a lot on AI. Currently, right now, as of August 30, of 2023, the US Copyright Office issued a notice of inquiry in the Federal Register on copyright. And AR pretty much just means they’re going to be studying it to see kind of whether legislation or regulatory steps are even warranted, and also just steps to advise Congress on any legislation that does come through. But anything right now made by something other than human is not protected by copyright. So if I like the API disclosure I was talking about I can’t if someone else wanted to copy and paste it and use it, they legally can. And I can’t cry that that’s copyright. So that’s it. One thing that we have to look at, right now a lot of people are getting frustrated with the image portion of it, I haven’t used that aspect too much, because I still feel like there is a lot of stock photo that I can use in that aspect. And I don’t need to just create an image that we don’t have. But other people are saying that it’s very unfair to the artists, which I do, as someone who’s a photographer, I get that completely. And it takes, you know, scanning my work to use someone else’s yet that’s not exactly something I’m a fan of. But I am interested to see where that’s going to be going and legislations and any what Congress is planning on doing on that. And I do think that they’re in a very interesting position right now. And I think they do need to take that whole issue very seriously, that AI is here, and it’s going to, it’s, you know, people are still scared of it. But it was very similar to like, when the internet happened, it, everyone was scared of it, it was this big thing that everyone’s like, this is going to change the world. It did. But now if we look back, if you don’t have a website, you’re not really relevant. Or you’re not considered trustworthy. So if that’s something similar what AI is gonna do, that’s, I’m just very interested to see where it’s gonna go, what regulations we’re gonna have. So just keeping up to date, making sure that we are using it legally, then that is something that we do need to do, and do our due diligence on it, as you know, people that are in the community seen as a trustworthy and leader.

Brandon Burton 31:42
Yeah, for sure. Now, it’s definitely important to keep that on the forefront with any legislation that comes out. But I think to your point with the internet, you know, if you didn’t adopt the internet and have a website, now, you’re kind of irrelevant. And I see a very similar course with AI. And just the AI technology has been adopted quicker than any other technology in the history of mankind. I don’t know, besides like the fire, maybe I don’t know. But. But as far as the technology goes, it’s been adopted very quickly. And I could easily see in five or 10 years maybe doesn’t even take that long, that there’s going to be two types of chambers, right? There’s going to be the ones that use AI and the ones that are no longer around, essentially, because they’re not relevant. And they’re not able to really leverage the power that comes from Ai, especially when you’re dealing with limited budgets, and being nonprofits and all that. There’s a lot of leverage. Yeah,

Kaytee Lorentzen 32:38
and I completely understand why it would seem intimidating or scary at first, because I was in that same exact boat. But as soon as I tried it, I was very surprised at the fact that I felt like it was something that anyone and everyone can use. Even if you’re just asking simple questions like, can you give me a recipe for a very simple meal like something, it’s something you can just play around with and have fun. And the more you use it, the more you find things that you can use it for? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:09
I’ve heard people will take, you know, just random ingredients they have in the refrigerator and say I’ve got these seven ingredients, give me a recipe of something, I can make it it’ll do it. So where would you suggest somebody gets started with a journey in AI and just kind of getting their mind wrapped around it? Yeah,

Kaytee Lorentzen 33:28
I would say just pick up like one or any of the generative AI tools that we have available. Google’s version is Bard. And then there’s chat GPT. There’s all just, obviously, Google, because Google or cert, go in your search engine, and ask it for a generative AI tool, and just start asking it questions. And the more you do it, the more you’ll get better at asking the I don’t want to write questions, but better questions, you refine the questions, you refine the questions to get the answers that you’re looking for. And then you start, that’s when your wheels start turning and figuring out where can I apply this in my professional life? Right.

Brandon Burton 34:10
So I didn’t give you a heads up that I was going to ask you this question. So if we need to edit it out, we can but I’m curious. What are you excited about on the forefront that you see coming with AI in the next weeks, months years?

Kaytee Lorentzen 34:24
I’m just excited to see the evolution of where it’s going. It just reminds me of like when the first iPhone came out, like and just seeing how it evolves and where it’s at now that it’s pretty much a part of our daily lives. If you’re an Apple user, obviously. It’s something that I am just excited to see where it’s gonna go. I’m excited to see how our legislation will take this and you hopefully use it for the good obviously, there’s always some bad actors, but I think Oh, For all this is going to be something that’s extremely well received in, in our world. Right?

Brandon Burton 35:07
I think there’s just a world of opportunity available. And quite honestly, I don’t know if legislation can keep up with the trends and the way things will develop. But we need to be plugged in and not be burying our head in the sand pretending like it’ll go away because it’s not going to go away. Well, Katie, as we look to the future, actually, let me back up before I ask that question for a chamber who’s listening who wants to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share for them to try to accomplish that goal?

Kaytee Lorentzen 35:42
I would say, the tip to use is embrace playing. I know that sounds so weird, but embrace that it’s something new embrace change, it will make a world of a difference. Because I can even tell you even in my office, as soon as people started embracing this tool, it was a game changer. Like our membership director, she now uses that a lot to help personalize each individual sales email, instead of just having like this copy and paste mentality of the same type of email, she can personalize it a lot more saying, this is the industry this person is in. And now she says that she really can’t go without it. Our operations manager uses it to help create some Excel documents, like it’s different things, the more you play with it, and embrace the change that it can bring, the better I think we’ll all be.

Brandon Burton 36:41
Absolutely, it reminds me. Last year, our church, we were putting together a fundraiser for our youth program at church. And I was trying to get the text together for the flyers that we’re gonna go out and promote on social media and everything. And I was just having the hardest time trying to make all the words fit on this flyer without being crowded and like telling what we’re trying to accomplish. And I told my wife, this Super Chat GPT will say I plug it in, give it the prompts, and it spit back and answer those beautiful, perfect, and we use that going forward. Like if I would have just done that from the beginning, it would have saved me so much time and headache and just beating my head against a wall trying to figure something out. That wasn’t coming to me. And it was it’s a great tool. So I would encourage everybody to embrace the play and embrace the change. Because I think initially, you and I both had this similar initial reactions I get I’ll know about this chat GPT steps, the more you get into it, you see more and more applications where it can assist you and make your life a little bit easier. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Kaytee Lorentzen 37:53
You know, it’s funny as I was like, you know, how do I answer? Because I knew this one was coming, right? Because I hear from everyone. So I asked chat GPT what they thought. And it gave me a gave me a list of nine different things. But I would like to kind of summarize what because a lot of it is things that I thought of but I was like how do I make this sound? Great. I do see a lot of the future of chambers using innovation and technology adaptation, obviously, for me using AI and GPT. I do see that. And I think with that we will become leaders in the business space in general. I think it will bring forward I’m trying to think of the correct word that I want to use. But it will bring forward this leadership of how the standard should be set on business and how they can embrace it as well. And I think that we’ll have a lot of Gosh, I’m trying to figure out

Brandon Burton 39:04
here, but you can plug it as chat GPT

Kaytee Lorentzen 39:09
Pretty much yeah, just focusing on the technological changes focusing on small business and it’s going to just help leverage that and just, you know, promote this business atmosphere that I think will be that will occur encourage all of that.

Brandon Burton 39:33
Yeah, I can definitely see that and we need to be embrace the innovation that comes with technology. Yes.

Kaytee Lorentzen 39:43
You pretty much said exactly what I was wanting to say. All

Brandon Burton 39:45
right, well, whether you know it or not, you said it at some point in there because I wrote it down and he said well, Katie, I want to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and learn more, maybe Do you see some of the slides or anything you’ve shared at different conferences or whatever you’re willing to share and help out with them? What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Kaytee Lorentzen 40:09
The best way is probably through either email or through LinkedIn. So my email is just klorentzen@chamberbloomington.org. And my LinkedIn, you can just find me, Katie Lorentzen, and I spell it differently. So I’ll spell it here for you guys. It is Kaytee and then my last name Lorentzen. And either a message on either of those are typically the best way to get a hold of me just because I am all over the place. And my phone is always on me. So those two apps right there for me.

Brandon Burton 40:45
That’s perfect. And we’ll get that in our show notes too. So people can pull that up and have easy access to reach out. But I appreciate all the value you offered to listeners today here on chamber tap podcast for sharing your experience of exploring and being innovative using generative AI and I just, you know, it’ll be fun to look back at this episode a year from now and be like, Wow, things have really advanced in the last year. So I know I’m excited. Yeah, but thank you for being with us today. This has been a fun and enlightening conversation. So thank you.

Kaytee Lorentzen 41:18
Thank you for having me.

Brandon Burton 41:19
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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.

Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host 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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Brandon Burton 1:00
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Our guest for this episode is Lindsey Griffin Boylan. Lindsay is the president and CEO of the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber in Pennsylvania. She’s a graduate of LaSalle University where she received her bachelor’s degree in business. Lindsay began her career at the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber as the events and program manager and has since worked her way into her current position as president CEO, and is the first woman and young professional to hold the position since the organization began in 1884. In her pre chamber life, she worked for Comcast spectator that Philadelphia 70 Sixers while cobia arena, Mohegan Sun and Pocono downs, and Genetti Hotel Conference Center. Hopefully I’m saying those right. Lindsay is passionate and engaged with the community and is a board member and committee member of several organizations in the Northeast Pennsylvania area, all working towards betterment of their community. She was born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania and currently resides in Harvey’s Lake, and is proud to be able to live work and play in the area she grew up in, and be able to make a difference each day. Lindsay, welcome to chamber chat Podcast. I’m excited to have you with us today, I’d love to give you an opportunity 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.

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 2:59
Yeah, thank you so much, Brandon, I’m very happy to be here. And I know my team and I are big fans of this because I think we’re all trying to really connect with in our chamber industry and, and really the past few years having all their challenges, can you learn new things and the ideas and I know something that we’re all really striving towards, as we’re all trying to help our community. So I’m really, really excited to be here today. And certainly share what I can and, you know, happy to happy to connect with everybody that’s listening. Something interesting about myself, I think, really, you kind of read my bio, and it’s a little bit, I think, a little different and unique as to how I got here. But you know, I think that I had always been really an event lover, I love bringing people together. I like to kind of seeing that collectiveness. And, yeah, I mean, I started out my chamber, really not knowing what a chamber was about seven years ago, now seven and half years ago, and really just saw what the role was in the community, and just really fell in love with all of it. So I think, really had just worked my way up into the current position that I have now. And I think it’s a really exciting time to be in industry. It’s a tiring time at the same time, but it’s a really cool way that we’re all sort of reinventing. So I was really in sports marketing. That’s what I kind of came out as, and that was really my first my first job essentially, when I and I left the area I originally was from NEPA. I left and said, Hey, I want to, you know, want to kind of get out of here and I moved to Philadelphia had some great experiences out there and realized really how incredible this area was. And when I came back, I knew I wanted to be part of making a change and making it so that you know and goal is our younger people. We end up retaining them they don’t want to leave they want to stay here and make this their home. So I think my Interesting thing is kind of how I’ve gotten here, but I’m very happy to be here at the same time.

Brandon Burton 4:48
Very good. Thank you for sharing that background. I can see you know, a lot of young people going through school sports marketing is very attractive. You know, it’s a it’s a glamorous type proposition and I can see where that attracts people chamber work not so much like you said, you came into it not really knowing what a chamber does. And I don’t think you’re too different than other people. And that way is to get, you know, being introduced to chamber work. But we’re glad you’re here. So thank you. Unless you tell us a little bit about the greater Wyoming Valley Chamber just to give us an idea of size, scope of work, staff budget, that sort of thing, just to give us some perspective, before we dive into our conversation,

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 5:28
sir, yes, so we are located right in the works bare sort of Scranton area in northeastern Pennsylvania, we were formerly known as the greater Wilkesboro Chamber of Commerce, and that we’ll talk about that in a little bit. I know. But we have rebranded to the greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce about two and a half years ago. And really, that was to be representative of a lot of our members to make sure that we were servicing, you know, everyone in our community in the best way possible, and really start to get that collectiveness that we know that regions that are doing, you know, the collective sort of way of working together, are seeing success. So we represent a little over 600 Members, we have a team of 10. So my incredible team who really has just been so amazing at pivoting, reinventing the wheel looking at new things. So, you know, we’re able to really focus on a few different areas that we’ll talk about today. But we also so we have our chamber of commerce division, we also have our chamber of business and industry, which is our 501 C three, and it’s our foundation, which is allowing us to do a lot of our workforce development, economic development, and what houses our entrepreneurial development, which is called books fair connect. And then we also, you know, have many different affiliates that will fall under that as far as our councils, our committees. So we are really covering, I’d say a wide variety of, you know, we have our government affairs, we have, you know, our women’s network, our Young Professionals Network, we have a nonprofit network, so many different, you know, items that are going to kind of umbrella underneath that. But my incredible team, really kind of each manages one of those aspects and collectively, we operate as the greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce. So

Brandon Burton 7:16
that definitely gives some good perspective and kind of teasing the topic a little bit as far as what we’ll be focusing our conversation on today around reinventing the chamber brand so you had mentioned about two and a half years ago, you guys really dove in into making that change. So we’ll we’ll dive in much deeper into why that what drove that and what that experience is like as soon as you get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 10:34
All right, Lindsay, we’re back. So I’m curious, you had mentioned as you were telling about your chamber, that you guys went about, I guess, the beginning of this rebrand about two and a half years ago. And, you know, curiously, I’m just wondering, does it have anything to do with COVID during that timeframe, and taking a deeper look at your organization, what you had to offer?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 10:57
Yeah, actually, interestingly, happened right before COVID. So we had, I think one of the big things that my team and I had really been very focused on was we have a lot of different, you know, in our area, and it’s a smaller territory, we had a lot of, we have many different chambers, covering different communities, we had many different economic development organizations. And what we noticed was that really, unless you were in our sphere, it was really hard to understand what was here, what resources were available. So if we did have a business, you know, moving into the area, or looking at our area, or a family that wanted to relocate here, there wasn’t really that one stop place to kind of, you know, collectively get those resources. We always say we’re never the ones that are doing every single piece of this work, you know, we never want to reinvent the wheel, we have a lot of amazing partners, but we wanted to make it easier for everyone else to find them. So with the rebrand, you know, I think we were representing members that were all throughout the Wyoming Valley. So we really wanted to reposition ourselves as our tagline is elevate the valley. So we use elevate symbol, which I really love, because elevate to us is really just kind of getting, you know, making sure that our residents or businesses are connected in the best way possible for success. And that goes beyond, you know, just obviously, we’re very focused on businesses and you know, recruiting retention, and ensuring the ones that are here are successful. But we also know that there has to be a lot of work done on, you know, our residents here and quality of life that we need to make this the best place to live, work and play. So with with the rebrand, we wanted to kind of not only sort of reinvent what our chamber was, our chamber has been around since 1884, we were heavily involved in real estate. So we, you know, had that was a very strong background of ours, a lot of our programs and initiatives sort of had taken a little bit of a backseat at that time, as that’s really what the organization’s focus was. So as we moved into the future, you know, and we got the team on board that we have now we noticed what the need was in our community. To have an organization like this, you know, not only do we change the name, but we changed the logo, we changed the way we operate, we changed the way that we did membership, as far as making sure that our door was open to anyone and everyone, especially to be a part a lot of those councils I talked about, you don’t have to be a chamber member to sit on diversity, equity and inclusion or women’s network or young professionals. We welcome anyone and everyone to the table, because we noticed and one of the things when I came on board was, you know, I noticed a lot of the people that were on our board and other boards and you know, different organizations were a lot of the same people. And we weren’t really seeing that. The diversification that we know what community needs, if you really want to help anyone and everyone, it’s having that representation, making those decisions and feeling like you know, they want to sit at that table. And they can and they can be a part of their area and moving their area forward. So we did a lot of work, not only, like I said, just on the outside of what our logo looks like, and what our website looked like, and what our membership guide looked like, but really who we are in the community and what our position was. And that’s been a lot of the work over the past few years, but really started with the rebrand.

Brandon Burton 14:05
Yeah, I think a name and a logo. Those are very much the surface things right? That’s it. Everybody sees that you think of the rebrand. But really, as I hear this, it’s an opportunity for you to look at what synergies there are, you know, as you have different volunteers working with different organizations, how can you bring things together, but also taking a look at maybe reevaluating and in the scope of work that you guys were involved with? And you You touched a little bit on that by being involved with real estate and as you went about the rebrand, what was that experience? Like looking at the work that you were involved with? And then really making a concerted focus on what the chamber needed to be focused on?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 14:39
Yeah, I mean, I think always right, and we’re doing this constantly as chamber professionals of what is our role, what is the need in the community, it’s going to change, you know, every few years and based on what happens and certainly pandemic was, I always say I think the pandemic was an acceleration for change that had been happening for a while I think chambers rarely had to look at themselves. And this was pre pandemic of how am I, you know, how will I be relevant? What is the value? How are we reinventing ourselves to keep up with this next generation, what businesses are now looking for? We know that younger people are participating differently with their communities with different organizations and memberships. So we started to look at that prior and I think that the pandemic completely accelerated that change where you had to look at Where’s where are the gaps in my community right now? What can I fell? And I always say, during the pandemic, I think we were a little bit of everything to everyone. I think that’s what we all did, right? We were trying to kind of help residents find, you know, medical information, we were trying to help businesses get funding and grants and understand the programs that were coming out from the state and federal level. But we were also just trying to push out anything we could to help our communities. And so I feel like now it’s at a place where we’re able to kind of hone in on really, what is our mission? Now. I mean, I think, who, while our mission hasn’t necessarily changed, the way we execute that has to be so I think, looking at our past is really interesting for me always, because our organization was very involved in essentially developing a lot of land now, that is booming in our community. So a lot of our industrial parks, and they’re full, we have, you know, world class businesses that are right here in northeastern Pennsylvania. And so that was a great place for us to be at at that time of making sure this area gets developed for the future and, and secure that, and that is what happens. And I think now is we’re able to say, where are we needed? Now? I think, you know, we just launched our 2023 2025 strategic plan. And I think it’s really great to be able to look at, you know, what is happening now that we’re kind of moving into this next period of, you know, post pandemic, and and where are the needs. And I think for us, it’s, you know, business and community advocacy is a big goal of ours, workforce development, workforce pipeline development, which we know is such a buzzword. And, you know, we have a lot of cool pilot programs, we’re really big on pilot programs and grants that we do to see how things work. And then, you know, work on partnerships that we can see those continued in the community. regional connectivity, like I said, I’m never a go it alone person either, as my team, I think there’s a lot of great organizations, I think we all have our heads down, and we’re working 100 miles a minute. But I know that when we can collectively put that into one package, that’s where we’re going to see a lot of that regional success. And we have so I think that’s a continued, it’s a pillar for us now, to continue those strong. The strong regional partnerships to solve the area’s most pressing issues. And quality of life, like I mentioned, is a huge focus of ours, I think that we know that without a healthy, you know, nonprofit community business community, giving our residents the resources that they need, we won’t have that workforce that we all want, right, we won’t have the continued continued success that we want to see happen in the area. So you’ll see us also do a lot of things on the quality of life side, I’ll be involved in community concerts, and a lot of young professional events, youth events, you know, getting out there and being a part of a lot of the different things that are making this area one that people enjoy and want to live in. So those are really the four things that we majorly focus on. And it’s interesting to kind of look at the plants from years ago as to where we are now, Mission still the same, we’re just doing it very differently to be relevant to what our community needs.

Brandon Burton 18:20
Right? I love how you mentioned that you guys are big on pilot programs, because it gives you a chance to kind of test the waters, see if it’s something that chamber wants to take on or find that community partner that you could, you know, hand things off to or partner with. Along the way with the rebrand or even leading up to it. What did you guys do as far as collecting data, maybe surveys or feedback to kind of course, the direction that the Chamber needed to go looking into the future?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 18:48
Yeah, I mean, we had, when we really started on a lot of this work, too, we had worked with Kyle Sexton, who really helped us look at our membership guide, and we looked at the tiered use model of really making sure that again, we were offering the most value we can so we really, we had we had, you know, pulled our membership, you know, asked about kind of what the relevant things were to them, what they were finding the most benefit from, that led us to our to dues transition which we underwent, which again, is still something that is very successful for us. And I think, you know, something that we’re definitely glad we did to see that retention, again, allowing members to participate in the way that is most beneficial to them. And also, it’s helped us out on you know, generate a little extra revenue in the membership department when we know, that’s just been a challenge, you know, nationally for years. So, we also kind of looked at all of our programs and we you know, talked with our boards, we talked to our members, and we you know sort of really asked what do you guys you know, what is still relevant here? What, what are we doing that we shouldn’t be doing? What are we doing that you want to see more of and what are we not doing at all that you really feel like we should be a part of, so we did a lot of that back work, you know, through mainly a lot of those conversations, but also through our Have some surveys that had been put out there to discuss, like what kind of programming would be relevant, and reaching out to new communities that, frankly, were never involved with us and never had anything to do with us really didn’t have that trust in a chamber to say, you know why? What could we do to really make sure you have a seat at the table and that you want to be involved and that you feel welcomed, and that we’re inclusive, and that this is something you want to be a part of. And that’s still a lot of work we do to this day, because it’s, you know, it’s something that we’re still very focused on. So a lot of back end work is done to get initially sort of the focus of where we were going to go with the rebrand and kind of the relaunch of all of our programs and initiatives. But that work continues to this day. It’s it’s an ever, ever flowing process of really, again, understanding the community’s needs and making sure that’s fitting into our mission.

Brandon Burton 20:47
That leads perfectly into my next thought I was thinking as a chamber goes to rebrand, like, I don’t think you can officially say, All right, we’re done. You know, the rebranding is complete. It’s never ending, right? It just keeps going. You keep evolving as a chamber as you continue to stay relevant to your community. But as you were going through this intensive process of a rebrand, were there any gaps that you noticed or surprises that came up as you were either gathering that data or trying to implement a new direction?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 21:17
I think that some of the feedback from the community was not surprising. I think some people, though, still really are challenged to understand what a chamber is what a chamber does, what specifically we were doing. I think the model of a lot of people still thinking that you had to be on a board or be certain level to participate and be part of conversations is still something that we work towards. I think that the general and not that it’s a negative, I think people had a sort of connotation of really what our sphere was. And, you know, I think that misunderstanding and really telling our story and having people understand who we are, what we do, and what the mission of the chamber is, is one that, you know, remains to be a challenge. I think it’s always something we all have to be clear on. And I know that as we’re all doing many different things. And a lot of organizations, like I said, you know, we have an economic development side and a chamber side and really having people understand truly what we do, I think was something that was eye opening during that process. But I think it also encouraged us to tell our story about our to make sure that we can be brought back chamber ambassadors to really help us get the mission out there and, and strengthen that, you know, making our social media clear. Again, making sure to have those one on one conversations with, you know, people that we wanted to have involved with us that represented different communities to sort of break down those barriers of sometimes I don’t want to say it was a negative connotation, but I think they had a very clear picture in their mind of what a chamber was, and really reintroducing what that means now for the community and who we are. So I think that was really one of the challenges that and then of course, when you change your name, right, I think that was a little bit of confusion for for a minute of how we how we got that transition, but honestly, I think just continuing to be very cohesive. And you know, we have an excellent marketing team here. But how we were putting that out there so that people really understood that change, but also that it was still, you know, our organization and making sure that all made a lot of sense when we put it out there and packaged up.

Brandon Burton 23:26
So I have to ask, did you guys crack the code on being able to communicate clearly what a chamber does to your community?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 23:34
I don’t think we’ve cracked the code, I think we’ve gotten a few of the digits on the code lockbox. But it’s something we always work towards. I mean, I think that we have certainly done and through through social media, through outreach, through our ambassadors, through all the many people, I think one of the coolest things that we did was, and I sort of mentioned this, but we opened up all of our councils to anyone, so they didn’t have to have an affiliation. And that’s helped us a lot, because now we have, you know, young professionals has over 500 500 of them that that are joining into that effort. Di we have, you know, now extremely great council that sort of leads that and, you know, there’s there’s a few 100 people that will be involved with that when we do those efforts, women’s network. So having all of them really, you know, cultivating those groups, and essentially having them understand your mission, who we are, who the team is, what we’re doing and getting that out, there has been a huge piece to us those, getting the community involved and having them sort of help us get that message out there and tell the story. I mean, we did start doing a lot of different mediums where obviously we use social and we show you know all the cool things the team is up to and what the community is doing. But we do a piece once a quarter, we’re still a big print area here in northeastern Pennsylvania in the paper that talks about all those councils and members and you know what’s happening in the community. So I think we’ve tried to reach people in many different ways. And and, you know, speaking in high school, speaking at colleges, all those different things to try to really get that message of who we are out there is a lot of the work that we’ve been doing, I still think we have a lot of work to do on that, especially because you know, this year, we’re sort of, again, putting a new strategic plan out, and you’re gonna see us in doing some different things. So I think that will always be, but we rely on our wonderful media partners in the area, we rely on our ambassadors. And, you know, it’s one of our actual goals, when we talk a little bit more about what our pillar that’s quality of life is telling our story better, but also telling the area story better. So when someone says, Hey, I want to move my business or my family to Northeastern PA, we have a really cool way that, you know, we’re putting those things together and with all of our partners, of course, to really clearly show how this area is that best place and that, you know, we can help link them. And that’s essentially what I think we are at the end of the day, we’re a convener of all these great things in this community. And we’re the ones that can bring all that together, and fill in the gaps where needed. But you know, convening those conversations, being the ones that kind of bring all those pieces into one place, and, and helping to create that change.

Brandon Burton 26:15
I like the idea of leading that community involvement. So then those community members can go out and tell the story of hey, this is what the Chamber’s involved with. I think that’s very smart. And to be able to get them involved in different levels, like you mentioned, the high schools and the colleges. I’d like to have you to maybe touch a little bit more on the social media outreach that you do, because I don’t imagine you guys are saying, Here’s the definition of what a chamber is, or here’s what our mission is necessarily, but how are you telling the story of your chamber through social media?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 26:46
Yeah, I mean, we, we really tried to, again, focus a lot on, you know, putting out the different programs, we have the different events, we have things like that, but telling it more. So from a perspective of, you know, if it was one of the pilot programs, we did an economic development to help kids with coding skills or something like that, telling the story about success. I’m telling the story of the businesses that are, you know, ribbon cuttings, and the different types of things that we have really connecting with those members, and telling those stories. So I think we really tried to make it less of an advertisement for the chamber, but more so showing through those types of really, you know, I think personalizing it in a way that’s really showing the different touch points that we have in the community. So I think that we use social as a tool of, you know, enjoying the team, when we’re when we’re out, having lunch somewhere and having fun, or we’re supporting heart month right now, which it is, you know, and helping our local hospitals and medical organizations really promoting that we’ve we’ve tried to really make it something that looks, you know, inviting and welcoming, and that we’re part of this community and, and showing that through all the different pieces that we have. Because I think when we’re highlighting, yes, we’re having, you know, we’re at an event or we’re having, you know, this this government affairs or, you know, we’re doing this, we’re launching a new workforce program. I think showing those in sort of more of a storytelling mode is the way that we’ve really started to capture a lot of people that are following us that are engaging with it. So I again, we have a great marketing team here that that has really focused on that and making sure that we’re telling that story in a good way. That’s that’s welcoming more people into that mix.

Brandon Burton 28:26
That’s fantastic. So I wanted to ask, just as a point of clarity, you mentioned at the beginning, when you were talking about your chamber kind of scope of work, and everything you had mentioned, you guys have a foundation was a foundation set up prior to the rebrand and I’m asking because for a chamber who may be considering a rebrand, should they consider introducing a foundation into their chamber as part of that rebrand?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 28:53
Yeah, so our foundation was set up prior. So we did have a C three prior to that rebrand. But you know, this, that entity, which essentially is what our economic development is run through, is, is one that had been also rebranded many years back. So so we really wanted to change the ways that we were operating that so we had developed a entrepreneurial program, which we call again, connect, who was called books fair connect still is, which is a free system for entrepreneurs, businesses to go through any stage of their life cycle to again, get connected with all the different partners that would help a business grow and succeed in NEPA. So literally, we just put all the partners in one place, a business could come in, and it flowed through there. So Kinect was really the launch of how we started really redoing our foundational side. So we started doing a lot of work on we have a really cool incubator that’s in the basement of the building I’m in now, which again, is for entrepreneurs, startups and gets them into our community and out into our business community. And we started developing programs underneath that. But then also, you know what it allows us to do do is essentially every year have what we call the chamber foundation pledge, which is a great campaign that is really aimed at fundraising, to be able to allow us to do the work that we’re doing. So when we talk about, you know, the pilots programs that we’re doing, including our workforce, or one that we’re now doing with 11th, and 12th, graders in schools, it’s really going to focus a lot on that foundational work we’re doing. So it’s allowed us to, essentially, you know, contribute, obviously, to the organization, financially, which is, which is a big piece, but it also allows us to give back. So through that foundation, you know, we’re able to give out grants, sometimes for small businesses to start operating, you know, we’re able to do a lot of great work, we’re allowed to apply for obviously, different grants and initiatives that the C three will allow us to that are very much focused on what our mission is. So the foundation was there, we’re definitely utilizing it in a different way now, which is great, because I think it has to be a big piece of how, if you’re, if an organization is able to how you’re able to continue growing? You know, I know, as things get challenging, but I think that a lot of our work now, you know, while I do think that, you know, we’re starting, we’re seeing, you know, growth and stabilization and membership and events. So obviously, as we’re coming out of the pandemic, you know, when you’re looking at how can we truly grow and continue to do you know, more work in the community. And what we want to do this, the C three in the foundational side is what’s really allowing me to continue growing my team and doing a lot of things that align with those missions.

Brandon Burton 31:31
I appreciate the testimony on foundations, I feel like every chamber needs to have one. And if you don’t have one, you know, start the conversation, see what you need to do to get started. But Lindsey, as we start to wrap up here, I wanted to ask you earlier, you had mentioned that your your goal, the slogans chambers to elevate the valley, I want to challenge you to help elevate the chamber of champions that are listening, for those that are listening that want to take their chamber up to the next level, elevate them What tip or action item might you have to help them accomplish that?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 32:05
I would say, you know, I and I definitely feel this because I know we all have felt it. It’s been a challenging for a few years. You know, I think that really it shook a lot up. I know that we were working all throughout the entire pandemic, I mean, harder, right, it was it was more difficult, we sometimes have less resources. But I would say that what what my my view on it has been in what my you know, I’ve definitely tried to instill in my team is that it’s also an incredible time to reinvent ourselves. And I think we’ve had a lot of energy and momentum around that. And I think we’ve kept that with us that we have now this opportunity to really be the ones that you know, I think they they always mentioned, you know, on a lot of the chamber, national efforts, and a lot of the things we talked about this chamber boom, I think people looked at us all during the pandemic and said, I don’t know where to go, there’s a ton of information. I’m getting a million emails, it’s, it’s confusing, you know, where should I turn, and a lot of them turn to us. And I think taking advantage of that right now and saying, you know, we are having this amazing opportunity of being in this position in our communities? And how do we really take advantage of that to make sure that that continues, and that we remain that leader that people continue to look to. And I think that’s something that while it was challenging, we looked at it as an incredible opportunity, and one that we were happy to take on and take that position in our area. And one that you know, I always say we feel very humbled and honored always have that people find that, you know, we’re a resource to come to, and you know, that they’re looking to us for that. So I think just remaining up to that challenge. And looking at it as a cool time to reinvent is is one of the tips that I would get, because I think right now, in all of our communities, which are all going to be different yet sort of the same. You know, all these different aspects of what we’re looking to do every day, I would say are ones that, again, I think we can be the conveners of I think we can show our strength, I think that we can show different ways that we can continue to grow and evolve as chambers. And just like, again, taking advantage of, you know, the community, really wanting to embrace us right now and how the best way to do that and embracing the community. Being inclusive, being open, inviting new people to your table, I think is one of the key things that we’ve really, that’s what we’ve really focused on.

Brandon Burton 34:20
I love how you stay on brand to with reinventing I mean, that’s just the theme through this whole episode. So the next question I like asking everyone I have on the podcast, and he may have already touched on the answer with that last reply. But as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 34:40
I think chambers will, as I kind of touched on a little bit, but I think chambers will continue to be that you know if they if they pivot and adapt to really what’s happening and really look at their communities and decide what gaps they’re going to fill. I think chambers will continue to make really great partnerships with their area that might be with others. chambers that might be with other organizations that are similar in their, in their scope, I think that the industry is going to have to continue to evolve. Like I said, I think this next generation coming up just doesn’t participate in the same way that paths have. So I think you’re going to have to find new ways to engage them, I always say I get very excited about this next generation, because they will be the most socially minded and entrepreneurial will have ever seen. So I’d say that you have to embrace that next generation coming in, and make sure that they are invited to sit at your table. If they are not, they will leave your area and go sit in a community, where are they are, because that’s the truth, they want to be involved with their area, they want to make change. And that’s, that’s a big fact of them. And it’s exciting to me, because we need a generation like that, that is going to really be the ones that that helped to make some positive change and be engaged. So I think that our industry is going to continue to make sure that diversity, equity and inclusion is a part of what how we’re operating now, I think we should all be looking at our boards or committees, our membership, making sure we’re representative, and we’re embracing the community we have and that we have resources for for everyone that, you know, are accessible. And I think that again, you’re gonna see a lot of chambers get into really cool, different stuff. I mean, I’m already seeing it with housing and transportation. And, you know, obviously, I know a lot of us are focused on workforce. But I think you’re going to see a lot of people come up with creative, you know, partnerships to be able to solve those issues and in turn stabilize their organizations, because I think it’s going to be a key for all of us to look at how do we stay in our communities? How do we stay relevant? How do we stay growing, and bring people on to do I know the massive amount of work all of us have, but you know, the work we’re excited to do and happy to do? So I think it’s going to be continuing to kind of adapt to those things, looking at your community and saying, Where are the gaps, what’s not being filled? Where we need it? And you know, how can we really fulfill that and get the right people on board with us, there’s never really a grab that you know, or program that we you’re going to see us do that as solo, I mean, we’re either working with a local economic health organization and other chamber, a different partner that may be involved. I think that that connectivity is also a huge piece that people need to embrace. No longer should we be in silos we should be working together, there’s too many problems to solve. Doing it together, I think is much more impactful. So I’d also say doing it as collaboration is something that I’m really hoping that that everyone else is also embracing.

Brandon Burton 37:33
I love that response. I especially like the the idea of looking to the future of this generation coming up being socially minded and entrepreneurial, and making sure that we invite them to have a seat at the table. And I think that plays well into the connectivity because these young professionals that are coming up. They may be working from home on a laptop individually in their own silo. But usually when we think of silos, we think, you know, different industries maybe or different areas of work. But I think those silos will look different as we go into the future and being able to help break those down and solve some of these bigger problems together. So thank you for that. I wanted to give you an opportunity Lindsey to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and connect with you and learn how you guys are doing things there at the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 38:25
Sure, thank you. So I can certainly be reached i Welcome to Talk to Anyone from the industry, I think it’s always one of the best things ever is to connect within our industry because I’ve learned so much every time and it’s just great to have others that are you know, kind of doing similar missions and getting new ideas. So I can be reached at my email, which is lindsay@wyomingvalleychamber.org. And that’s also can be found right on our website. I’m all of my team is accessible on there as well. So on our WyomingValleyChamber.org website, you’ll see my incredible team, what they focus in, you know, what their initiatives all are. So anything I talked to, I didn’t get to talk too much in detail today. But who manages you know, our di Council, our membership, all of our different networks, young professionals, all those types of things. The team is all on there and always happy to connect with anyone within the chamber world and ideas share.

Brandon Burton 39:19
That is perfect. I will get that in our show notes. And I appreciate the generosity and being able to connect with others and share ideas and help solve these problems together. I appreciate that Lindsey and thank you for spending time with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I feel like you’ve provided a lot of value for those listening for those who may be considering a rebrand of themselves or just that continual evolution and reinventing of the their chamber themselves. So thank you so much for that.

Lindsay Griffin-Boylan 39:46
Thank you so much.

Brandon Burton 31:03
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Doing Commerce in the Metaverse

Future of Chambers

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.

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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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