Category: Community

Destination Master Plan with Cheryl Kilday

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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. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Cheryl Kilday. And Cheryl is the President and CEO of Destination North Myrtle Beach, formerly known as in North Myrtle Beach Chamber. Cheryl is an expert in destination marketing and management and has spent nearly her entire career working with membership based organizations pursuing economic development. Prior to joining the team in North Myrtle Beach, Cheryl has worked in a similar capacity at organizations in Oregon, Vermont and Washington State. Cheryl has earned the prestigious credential of certified destination management executive and has led three of the organization she has worked with to earn certifications as Destination Management accredited. In North Myrtle Beach they are in the accreditation with distinction. Destination North Myrtle Beach also successfully maintained their five star accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce. Cheryl and her husband Tim are enjoying living in North Myrtle Beach and adjusting to being empty nesters. But Cheryl, 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 out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Cheryl Kilday 3:06
Yeah, thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s funny, when I saw that you were going to ask me to tell you something interesting about myself. I don’t think I’m very interesting. Nobody does. Say it was funny because my husband and I have zigzag the country twice. So we started in the northwest and went to Virginia. And then we went back to the northwest. And now we’re here in South Carolina. And one of the things that all four of the communities that I’ve worked in, in the destination work that we’ve done, they’re all very different, but they all have something in common. And that is they all have wine. And we were in the Willamette Valley before Oregon Pinot was really known for, you know, had the reputation it has today. So we started collecting wine many years ago now. And my coworker Aaron said, tell them that that’s where you rest your me. So I have we have a little wine collection. And that’s where I rest my me. Nice.

Brandon Burton 4:09
You may need to tell us a little bit more about that about your me. You know,

Cheryl Kilday 4:14
I guess it’s been a while but we we worked in Northern Virginia and Loudoun County and we put together a series of heritage videos. And they aired on television. It was the first year that tourism related videos was something that the Emmys include in any category, but we were up against PBS stations and all sorts of other you know, really great opportunities and we actually won an Emmy for our series of, of heritage videos that we did.

Brandon Burton 4:46
That is awesome. So that is something interesting.

Cheryl Kilday 4:52
Like right, is it still relevant?

Brandon Burton 4:54
Right, right. Well tell us a little bit about destination North Myrtle Beach just to give us some An idea of the scope of work the size, your organization, budget staff, that sort of thing to kind of set the table for our discussion.

Cheryl Kilday 5:07
So it really starts with our community. You know, we have 22,000 households in North Myrtle Beach, and less than 10,000 of those are permanent residents. So we are absolutely a tourism destination on any given day, visitors outnumber our residents, probably two to one on this load time is of the year and really, significantly over the peak season on Memorial Day to Labor Day. So we are both the tourism organization as well as the Chamber of Commerce. And in South Carolina. That’s a pretty common model. We have seven full time employees and one part time. And we have a contract with our city for the majority of our funding, which is tourism promotion. And then we have about 650 members that our dues paying and we have a budget overall of about 3.2 to 3.5 million All right, he described ourselves as small and mighty.

Brandon Burton 6:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah cuz you guys that you see a lot of traffic there’s through North Myrtle Beach and then with the team this size, and you guys are doing a lot of work carrying a big load so well, for our topic for today, we’ve settled around the idea of talking about destination master plans. So we’ll we’ll get into that conversation what that means how you guys are approaching that work and everything as soon as you get back from this quick break.

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Christine Langenfeld

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Brandon Burton 9:17
All right, Cheryl, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re talking today about destination master plans. So talk to us about what is what do you see is it a destination master planned and kind of the melding between a destination organization and chamber organization how that fits together?

Cheryl Kilday 9:36
You know, destination master plans are becoming more common. And it really is the combination of looking at how all the different organizations in a community can intersect and share a purpose and vision for a long term plan for the community. So you know it’s different from a marketing plan or a strategic plan. is different from a comprehensive plan that community municipality may be required to have, but they do leverage off of each other. And so what we’ve been working to do is really concentrate with four guiding principles, and to look at what we wanted to do as a community. And we’ve used a quote from Warren Buffett quite a bit, where he talks about how somebody is sitting in the shade today, because somebody a long time ago, planted the tree. And, and so we use that as part of the starting point, because we weren’t really focused on aligning what the residents care about and what they see, for long term. We’ve been a rapidly growing community over the last few years. And there’s some pushback on that. What does the business community need? How do we make sure that we’ve got a thriving and sustainable economy? What are we doing to help the environment and the place that we live as things are changing, and then looking at the visitor experience, because we are built on a tourism economy, so we have to also look at that part of our community. So using those guiding principles, we’ve come up with some areas where we really feel like we can connect, and align all of those interested organizations and individuals to share in how to make a destination Master Plan come to fruition, right.

Brandon Burton 11:23
So you had mentioned how it’s different than a strategic plan or a community vision. And I see destination master plan can be a component of those things, as you have a greater community vision, or as a chamber, if you’ve got tourism responsibilities, having that be part of that strategic plan, that having that specific focus on on the destination and, and being able to align some of those resources and see where that crossover is to really, you know, make it a win win all across the community.

Cheryl Kilday 11:55
And part of that is defining roles, right? Because, you know, you’ve got to chambers in many communities, the there might be a Sports Commission and a tourism and see that separate, you’ve got regional governments, you’ve got local governments, you’ve got so many different places to intersect. And I think it’s really helps when you have a destination master plan, because it does, it defines who leads, and what the role of our organization is, because sometimes we’re an advocate, sometimes we’re a partner, sometimes where support, and sometimes we’re the leader. And so the destination Master Plan and the implementation strategy, we’re putting together a workforce to really look at that and make sure that we’re defining and an and have agreement on who are those leaders conveners, you know, advocates, that sort of thing, so that we aren’t stepping on each other. But we’re also, you know, agreeing that yes, this is in our wheelhouse, and we’ll take the lead on this. So. So that’s one of the first steps. We just got our master plan, literally last week, oh, consulting team. So we’re just in that good timing of looking at that implementation strategy and how to make it work. All right.

Brandon Burton 13:05
So I think that’s an important aspect to consider is the defining of roles. And as you mentioned, sometimes there’s, you know, individuals at the city level or within the chamber, or maybe the tourism is different than the chamber. whose role is it to divine the roles? And how do you say, this is what we’ll do? This is what you do. And I’m sure it’s a convening of mines and being able to hash through some of that, but how did it work for you guys?

Cheryl Kilday 13:33
Right, we had a very inclusive process and developing our master plan. We did twelves subject matter expert groups up there, like focus groups, where they met with the consulting team, we had 25 community leaders, both elected officials, public officials, and business leaders, with an resident HOA type leaders as well. So it’s we had 25 interviews, we had a community town halls twice, we had a resident survey, and we ran that twice. And for a community with, you know, less than 20,000 permanent residents. We had about 4000 people respond to our residents survey. And our consulting team gave us a comparison that when la did a similar study, they had 1000 and thought it was a great response. So I mean, we really had overwhelming participation throughout our development. And because it was so inclusive, we really feel like we we’ve got a good sense of the pulse of where the enthusiasm that concerns the shared opportunities are.

Brandon Burton 14:43
Right. So I’m always curious when I hear a chamber organization talking about reaching out to residents and citizens. First of all, a lot of the common people in in a community have no idea what a Chamber of Commerce does. So how do you go about soliciting? Those, those surveys and responses in a way that that warranted such a great outcome such a great return. Well, we

Cheryl Kilday 15:08
we literally talked about that we were going to do this destination master plan every chance we got. And we have reached out to the HOAs to try to get them involved. And we actually had a steering committee that still exists and one of the bigger HOAs is involved in it, which then also gives her access to work the network of HOA leaders. So that was, I think that was really valuable. I also we use social media and there are a lot of a lot of Facebook groups that I you know, I love Cherry Grove, I love Ocean Drive, you know, we’ve got four different very distinct features here. And so those, you know, each one has a group and there’s a lot of different Face Face Book opportunities. So we use boosted posts to really advertise the, the idea of this, we actually did some billboards, and we did radio and TV, and just really trying to let people know that we were doing it and that we cared about their, that their opinions, we really share those guiding principles and the importance of aligning with residents, because resident quality of life is really important to us. And, you know, we’re doing it in our community is becoming overrun with visitors that doesn’t help the visitor experience or the resident experience. And so to be honest about that, and invite that as part of the conversation, I think matter. Right?

Brandon Burton 16:29
So the for this next question, I’m not going to pretend that you’re the expert on the topic, necessarily. I’d love to get your perspective, although not an expert, you do have an Emmy. So I think it carries some weight. But as chambers listening, what would from your perspective, having gone through this, you know, creating a destination master plan, when would be the right time for a community to consider or to really explore the idea of creating a specific destination master plan. For us, we actually

Cheryl Kilday 17:01
started exploring the idea of doing it. In our last strategic plan, Eddie, Eddie merged, and we’re about a year behind on working on it because of COVID. So I know a lot of communities use COVID to sort of regroup and think about what they wanted to do. And so for some of them as they’re emerging from COVID, that might be a really good time. For us. It was we were crazy busy during COVID, and really didn’t have the same experience as all other communities. Because people wanted to go to the beach, we have so many second homeowners, if you’re going to be shut down, would you rather be shut down in a condo in an urban setting or at the beach? So we actually saw really busy COVID period which had a whole different set of issues, but I think every community has to kind of think about when is this opportunity right for us? How do we gain that trust and access to the residents to be to be really thoughtful about the inclusive factions and and how to bring them together to build trust. So we worked on, we worked on a resident campaign during COVID, because they were really upset with how busy we were. And so we really worked on saying, you know, we understand, we hear you, we are being accountable to you. And this is what we are doing because we were not advertising to for people to come during COVID, we were actually advertising on how to travel safely, because we wanted them to know we cared about people bringing things here and creating other issues. So we actually worked really closely with our residents and use that timeframe to help build trust, and that they knew that we heard them and felt the same way that we were not just about a bottom line, and we’re about people. And and so then the timing worked for us to go ahead and and develop the destination master plan after that. And but I think if we had tried to do it during when that was originally the timeframe, and because we were open we could have but it was the wrong time. So I think that if you look around and say, okay, is this the right time? What else is our community addressing? Is that supported by the development of a master plan? Or is it better to to wait and do it at another time? Another factor for us is that our city is required in South Carolina to do a comprehensive planning are so many years and every five years, they have to refresh it. And 2023 is the year they have to refresh it. And so our master plan becomes a tool for them because they’ve been very involved in this. And so it actually has an opportunity to utilize some of that and have fewer surveys or their own public meetings. It’s kind of shorten some of the things that they need to do that are already addressed in a destination master plan.

Brandon Burton 19:58
Right? I didn’t even think Got that with North Myrtle Beach being a drivable destination for a lot of people during COVID, when it was a little sketchy to get on an airplane or to do certain types of travel that they could hop in their car and still have that vacation experience and be at the beach and everything and outdoors and be safe. That really is a key for being able to drive, you know, success through co essay success in terms of, you know, high traffic with visitors

Cheryl Kilday 20:28
with the Wall Street Journal journal. Journalism, ask us, so, you know, aren’t you worried everybody’s, you know, coming to the beach? And I said, okay, so have you been to our beach, because we have nine miles and wide open beaches. So even if we have 100,000 people here, they’re not all going to be crowded up together, and they’re not all going to be at the beach at the same time. They were living here working remotely their students, you know, in their households were learning remotely. And they were being careful. I mean, we really, we really, as a community didn’t have, you know, these some of the crisis that some communities had, but we were able because, you know, golf and the beach, or to the big outdoor activities here, people, we’re able to do that safely. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 21:16
So I’m curious as far as so now you have this destination master plan together? What do the action items look at it? Or how do you go about executing on the this master plan?

Cheryl Kilday 21:29
Yeah, that’s now we’re at that stage of wow, we’ve got this plan. So you know, our goals identified in the plan, there’s four key areas, and then those guiding principles that sustainably sustainability, quality of of life, the visitor experience, and all of that those are all in each of these goals, like one of them, I’m just going to take one is to improve accessibility and connectivity. So that’s trails that’s, you know, becoming an autism friendly community and making sure that our hospitality and public amenities have been trained on what that means and are ready for that, that were accessible to all types of travelers, we’ve got some great adaptive surfing here that does that. But what else? You know, what’s, what’s consumer facing? And how can we make sure that that not just for visitors, but for residents is connected and accessible? And all the things that that looks like? So now we’re looking at that implementation plan and looking at what are those specific projects? And what short term midterm and long term because we’re really, this is a 10 year plan. It’s not something we have to knock off in three years. Otherwise, it would be very overwhelming. But we’re really just putting that workforce that cross functional work group together to to address the timing of those are the is as realistic as this, how are we going to fund it? How does the queue work? What’s ready? What’s the most ready? You know, I think it’s great when you receive a plan from a consulting team, they don’t live here. And they, you know, they can go home. But now we live here. And we’re like, Okay, what do we do? And I think there’s a certain value of adding in sort of a readiness model is, what are these that are the most ready? And are they the right ones at the at the right time? And if we queue things up, so we’re not competing against ourselves to try to get things done. How does that work? So at our executive committee meeting yesterday, we agreed that we’re going to reorganize that implementation plan that they gave us and give us some different colors and add in a couple of columns about some of those kinds of likelihood types of things is funding available. And I mean, that’s really important, because it may be aspirational, to have some of those things shorter term that they might be more appropriate mid term, if there’s some funding mechanisms that need to be secured first.

Brandon Burton 23:51
Right. So I think it’s important to mention that or to reiterate maybe that you’d said this is a 10 year plan. So it’s not like things are happening overnight. Like it gives you time and runway to get some of these things done. But along that tenure timeline, how often do you guys reconvene? And kind of, you know, check the pulse on the progress. And it may be correct course where needed and to be able to keep you on that target?

Cheryl Kilday 24:17
Well, I think that we’re planning to keep it top of mind in our organization with a separate budget item, as well as a reporting mechanism. So we’ve got a communications plan that we’re putting together to be accountable for being the shepherds of this plan, so to speak. And, and we will actually include some community campaigning going along as we go and make sure that they stay engaged with this. And so having said that, we are just like I said, we just got this plan last week and implementation strategy. We’re going to start meeting I believe, shortly with the city and our cross functional group. And then I anticipate that at the beginning, they’ll meet monthly and then probably get to a quarterly. And then we’ll probably have a separate reporting out every year. So that there’s a shared annual report on what we, we’ve the collective of who’s got specific roles in the plan, have some sort of shared output, that would be on our website, and ideally, the city would find a place to put on their website and some of the other partners as well. Right.

Brandon Burton 25:27
That’s, that’s good. So before we start wrapping up here, I wanted to see is there anything that we’re missing as far as going through the process of creating a destination marketing plan that should be considered that maybe we haven’t touched on yet in our conversation?

Cheryl Kilday 25:43
Yeah, I think I mean, one of the things that I know that we’re dealing with, since you’ve seen this implementation strategies, really making sure that you’re, that we’re all positioned for success, right? Because there are some things that we’re going to be able to knock off pretty easily and making sure that those are the things that are in the short term part of your plan. But you have to make sure that you have a dose of realism. And so funding is one of the first things that we’re going to be talking about, is making sure that we’ve got the right kind of funding mechanism, our dollars are very restricted for the tourism use. And there’s things that we need to do that we can’t do with the existing funding mechanism. And so how do we tackle that? And so, and I would say that for all of us, it’s not about money. It’s about programming and results that we want. And when you define what that is, then you figure out how the how the funding supports it. But if you start by saying I need x number of dollars, then people are like, well, what are you going to do with those dollars? So if you start by answering that question, first, we think that that will help that funding conversation, not be about, oh, we need money. It’s like we need to figure out how to make these things possible. Right.

Brandon Burton 26:54
I think that’s a really good point. So as we do start wrapping up here, I wanted to ask if you have any tip or action item that you’d like to share for any chamber champions listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level? What would you offer them?

Cheryl Kilday 27:11
Yeah, I think whether it’s a destination master plan, or just making sure that you’re really well versed in what the comprehensive plan is, and what organizations are out there that have a plan, and have you ever sat down and just kind of asked everybody where you can find that way of supporting one another. You know, I worked in another community where we didn’t do a destination master plan, but we worked on a shared community vision. And we sat down with all the different organizations and understood each other and that helped prevent program creep. But it also helped them be advocates for us, and we can advocate for them. And so there’s certainly ways to accomplish some of the things that destination masterplan does with just having some of those really great opportunities for working together. And years ago, a gentleman that we worked with use the term we all need to be readily available with our coalition’s and alliances, and you develop those relationships when there’s no threat. And you build trust and awareness and appreciation so that when you need somebody, you can call on them. You don’t wait until you need something to try to develop a relationship.

Brandon Burton 28:21
I heard a quote before, and I can’t remember who said it, but I’m going to claim it as mine now, but it’s you dig your well before you’re thirsty, right? So you got to do put in the hard work ahead of time before you actually need something. So building those relationships, understanding what people you know, other organizations do. And then you know, as you need something from each other, you know where to go. And you have that trusted relationship that’s been built over time. And it’s not just coming with the need in the moment, saying I’m thirsty, you know, help me Yeah, like, I don’t know you. So that’s a that’s a great tip. So 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 chamber their chambers and their purpose going forward?

Cheryl Kilday 29:07
I think that alignment with residents is changing in our country. I think people expect to be heard and that the balance of business need and resident needs. So I know we’ve worked to personify business, instead of making it seem like we just cared about bottom care about bottom lines, that those are people. We learned that during COVID that the residents were feeling like the the city was only concerned about keeping business open and they didn’t care about the residents. And so we talked about who those businesses are not what they are, but who they are. And you know that that bartender or that accountants or whoever that person is, and the community has a face and so we really tried to give businesses a face. And I think that that is going to continue I think people found their voice residents found their Voice during some of those, you look at whether it’s civil unrest or violence or COVID, there’s been a lot of ways where people have found a voice in our country. And I think we’ve had, as chambers have to hear that, and find those areas where we can reach out and make sure that we’re building alliances with that residence so that we can align and have a successful community.

Brandon Burton 30:23
Yeah. And I think in the world today, with all the social media platforms that are out there, it makes it a lot easier to put a face on these businesses, right, instead of just looking at a list of business names that are members of your organization, you can, you know, be friends with them on Facebook, or Instagram or Tiktok, or whatever they’re on, and really get to know who they are what’s important to them, you know, what’s their family life look like? What are they doing when they’re not, you know, at, you know, styling hair or serving you dinner or whatever it may be. So, I think that’s a great way of looking to the future and really making sure that that we’re listening to the peep the the residents and the business owners in the communities. That’s right. Well, Cheryl, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who are listening who want to maybe reach out to you and learn more about creating a destination master plan or just more how you guys are doing things here in North Myrtle Beach, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you,

Cheryl Kilday 31:25
thank you emails always the best way to reach me and that’s ckilday@destinationnmb.com.

Brandon Burton 31:38
All right, and I will get that in our show notes for this episode as well. So people can pull that up and and reach out and connect with you. But I really appreciate you coming on the show. And I know this is a new thing for you guys that are in North Myrtle Beach, but to be able to be a little bit vulnerable in the process and how you guys set it up and and how you’re looking forward on executing on this this new destination master plan. So thank you for for sharing this experience and insights with us today on chamber chat podcast.

Cheryl Kilday 32:08
Thank you very much.

Brandon Burton 32:10
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3P vs. 3C Chamber Debate with Jill Lagan

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

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

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Our guest for this episode is Jill Rowland-Lagan. Jill is the native of Boulder City, Nevada, and she is an experienced entrepreneur and community leader and has been the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce CEO for over 20 years. Driven by the need to see others succeed. She takes pride in providing each chamber investor with their time and consideration so that they are empowered to surround themselves with success as well as the CEO. Her goals include building the business community to be economically strong, and setting the chamber at the forefront of that by being a bright light in Boulder City that provides excellent and community service to visitors and to those doing business in Boulder City. Jill, I’m happy 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 who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jill Lagan 2:54
Well, thank you so much for inviting me to be a part I am truly honored. And I have an interesting tidbit that I’m very, very proud of and honored to say that my daughter is an Olympian, she is an Olympic shooter. She shoots air pistol standard 22 as a wonderful female athlete for the United States. And so she was able to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. We were unable to be there. So it was a little little disappointing. So we’re kind of excited that she is again in the running for the Paris Olympics. So Summer Olympics next summer. And that’s one of my all time favorite things to share.

Brandon Burton 3:35
That is fantastic. I wonder. So last summer, our family took a trip to through Colorado and Utah. And we stopped at the Olympic Museum, the new and Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs. And they have a table set up where you get to meet an Olympian and there was a Olympian doing the same event that your daughter is somewhere has your daughter been there manning the set the booth there at the at the Olympic museum. I wonder if

Jill Lagan 4:04
she trains at the Olympic training center there. I don’t know if you went to just the museum where if you actually went to the Olympic Training Center itself, and she does work in both of those different locations and has the honor of being able to sit there at the table and get to visit with people and take them on their tour. And so yes, so she lives in Colorado Springs and has been doing some great things for our for the United States. I’m very proud of her.

Brandon Burton 4:31
That is awesome. Well, thank you for sharing that tidbit. You gotta be a proud moment. But why don’t you take a few moments and tell us a little bit about the Boulder City Chamber just to give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work staff budget, just to kind of give us some perspective before we get into our topic of discussion today.

Jill Lagan 4:53
So here in Boulder City, we’re just on the outside of the Las Vegas Valley and we are considered a rural community we have just over 14,006 33. And so that was the last demographic count that we had, that we participated in. And in this great community, we actually are pretty phenomenal in our space because we are over 204 square miles. And the idea then of having such a small population, but be able to protect our resources, and that’s something that this community it feels very strongly on. We have a control growth ordinance here in our community, we also have no gaming, we are the only municipality without gaming in the state of Nevada, which makes us a little bit different in the fact that we don’t have those casino, the tax revenue coming in and flowing into our community. So we work pretty hard at being unique, and then making sure that we take care of each of our businesses, because they respect that factor. And it provides such a great quality of life for our residents as well. It’s also a wonderful way for tourists to be able to have the nightlife and the fun of the Vegas valley and then have a little bit more of that outdoor recreation experience here in Boulder City. So we spend a lot of time promoting that our chamber itself has 438/39 members right around that. And we’re really honored that each and every one of them gets a lot of our attention. We pay attention to making sure that they feel like they are heard and that their voice matters. And so we’re grateful for that word, just just over 250,000 on an annual basis as our budget. And we spend a lot of time doing a little bit of everything. So we also operate the economic vitality Commission. It is a nonprofit that we’ve formed because our city does not have an economic development division. And so we operate as that for the city. We also have the Tourism Commission. Like I said, we operate the Nevada State Welcome Center here in Southern Nevada. And so as people are coming across the new bridge, that is the right there at Hoover Dam, as they come from Arizona into the state of Nevada, we are kind of that first stopping point. And so we are grateful that we are able to introduce them to Nevada and encourage them to travel all throughout the state. And so it’s I have one staff member, she is an amazing office manager. And we’re really grateful for her. And then we wouldn’t be able to operate without our 25 plus volunteers. And they are the ones that help us man the phones and operate the in the lobby at the reception desk. And then of course, also for all the different special events, I have a board of nine, and they’re all very active. And I’m grateful for them. And I’m also grateful that we have people who are kind of on a waiting list to be able to be on our board to be able to participate. That’s always that’s been a big deal for me. And so I’m grateful that they see the relevance and the importance of the chamber in Boulder City. All

Brandon Burton 8:02
right, well, that definitely helps to paint the picture and you guys are very involved for you and one other staff person. So like you said heavily relying on those volunteers who step up and help out and, and you guys are managing it well. It seems to be able to keep all those things afloat.

Jill Lagan 8:19
We’re trying we’re doing the best we can. And like I said, our volunteers are heavily recognized, we always want to make sure that they realize how important they are. And I think they even see that. Without them. We would not be operational. And I know that they’re very proud of the work that they do because we do great work here. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 8:39
So the topic that we decided to settle on for our conversation today. The the title of this episode might seem a little contrarian. So we’re talking about a three P versus a three C chamber debate. And for those who have been in chamber role a little bit know the difference between a three P chamber and a three C chamber. And we’re going to get into a discussion about why we may not want to just totally neglect the three P’s as we move forward with chambers but we’ll get in deeper in this conversation as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 12:12
All right, Jill, we’re back as a tease before the break there, we’re going to be talking about three P chambers versus three C chambers and maybe the debate that comes up with that, but specifically, from the perspective of a smaller chamber. I think for some of these really big, maybe reasonable regional chambers or larger cities, it’s easy to get on board with the argument of a three C chamber and it makes a lot of sense. But for a smaller chamber, I think there’s and I think we both agree there’s still some value in some of those those three keys and being you know, involved there more locally and and doing some of those traditional things chambers have done. You mind sharing some of your thoughts from your perspective as a chamber of you plus one other staff? I would put you in the smaller chamber category. But how do you see that debate with the three P versus three C?

Jill Lagan 13:08
You know, I am a huge advocate of three C’s and I always will be having been a former board member with the W the Western Association of chamber executives. And still currently on the foundation there, I absolutely believe in the work that is being done and in the idea that many chambers need to relook at what it is that they do their performance. And whether they’re doing the parades, pageants and pancake breakfast, for the right reasons. Because I believe that you can still be a three C chamber, you can still be that champion that convener, you can still do those great things. But I think that in some of our rural communities, especially the the person that leads or the the entity that leads that organization and that community with those pancake breakfasts, those grades, those pageants, those things that make that community special, that might drive the tourism to that area that might create that quality of life. I think in those communities, it’s very valuable and still very relevant for chambers to be a part of that. I will say that I truly do believe that that collaboration is what makes it important for chambers to understand, what are they good at? You can’t be good at everything. You can’t do everything 110%. So what can you do that you do really, really well. And I do believe that in some of our smaller areas and smaller communities that they still need to do the peas and the C’s. And it means that for smaller staff, we kind of have to be on top of a lot more than some of the larger metro chambers. They have such they play such a key role and I I feel strongly about what it is that they do as well. But we see that in many of those communities. They’re really taking a larger role in the political side of things and Government Affairs and For me here in my region, I am so grateful that we have the Metro Chamber, the Vegas chamber, the Henderson chamber, because I don’t have the time to stay on top of some of those things. So I, I kind of have to glean from them some of that information. I’m grateful for that. And so I see where their relevance level lies. Here in my community. However, if we weren’t doing the Christmas parade, there will not be activities that are happening in centering around that time. And that’s where we bring people into the community to stay a little bit later to shop in those shops to provide those retailers some of that opportunity as well. And so I see relevance in both locations, large, small, but I also see the importance for each chamber to determine what it is they do best and what it is they can do to remain relevant in my particular community. I have to do PS MCs.

Brandon Burton 15:51
That’s right. So it’s not a it’s not a matchup necessarily of the peas versus the C’s. But it’s the peas and the C’s. I was going to ask you about how you work with your regional chambers and Metro chambers to especially on those areas of advocacies and public policy and things like that. How are those relationships fostered? How do you develop those and, and really, I’m asking this because I know there are a lot of newcomers into the chamber world who typically will start at a smaller chamber. And they need to know how to build some of those relationships. And to really lean into that advocacy side, even though you may not have the staff and the bandwidth to take it all on yourself.

Jill Lagan 16:35
Well, because I don’t have the staff and the bandwidth, I am really a champion for making sure that you utilize your your key partners. And for me here in Southern Nevada, that means Vegas chamber Henderson chamber, they are really my go twos, as well as our ethnic chambers, I don’t have the ability to formulate an entire Hispanic Chamber, Asian chamber or urban chamber, but I have got some really great friends and other CEOs that do that really well. Why would I want to reinvent the wheel or even attempt to do it in a halfway manner, I very much want to lean on those people and collaborate. And it makes us stronger when we are partnering with those other chambers and see them as a in the collaboration sense versus in some kind of a competitive sense, because I really do think that we’re all stronger as we’re as we bridge together and our voices stronger. When we’re all together. We really noticed that here in Southern Nevada with our different legislative sessions. And when it when it stated that the chambers have this opinion, that speaks volumes to those elected officials and those policymakers who are worrying about what does that do to the business community? And how does, how is that impacting some of the residents that are a part of those communities. So I truly believe that those partnerships and collaboration are key and essential. And I’m very grateful that we’ve always had a great relationship with our partners in the Vegas valley. And I know that in some communities, there’s an you know, we’re we’re getting to the point where a lot of the the chambers and who they represent and the communities they represent are all merged, right. And so in some of those areas, we have to think of, it may not be that a small chamber is small because of the rural area. But small because they’re the people that they represent are in a small geographic section, even though they represent a small, larger community. And so not all small chambers are that because of the population, it also has to do with the region that they represent. And it’s even key for them to be able to be a part of what the other chambers are doing, and making sure that we have a stronger voice together.

Brandon Burton 18:54
Absolutely. And I would even argue that the sense of community and in what communities are has changed, as the world has gotten smaller. It used to be that you lived in a community because you worked in the community and you went to church and that community and your kids went to school in that community and and now this community can mean county wide, it could mean you know neighboring communities that you commute into and whatnot. So being able to collaborate with those neighboring communities, if you will, that to use that term a little more loosely, I guess. It’s just being open minded to being able to see where those opportunities are to make a stronger overall community. So I think there’s a lot of advantages, though, to for a smaller chamber where you had mentioned the Christmas parade really draws people to your community and allows for more shopping and businesses stay open later and really being an economic driver at that time of year. What are some of those other advantages that you see as a small chamber and maybe some of those is a piece that you hang on to.

Jill Lagan 20:02
So I in going back to that specific example, not only are we able to allow for that impact that comes in from the financial side, but we also take that time to recognize some of the special people in our community and to highlight great businesses, the businesses of the Business of the Year to talk about and spotlight some of those different businesses that are doing great things, maybe spotlight the nonprofit that has done something phenomenal. And so it gives us an opportunity also to highlight those key individuals in our communities that are doing good things and are doing the things for all the right reasons. And so also to recognize and acknowledge elected officials who are paying attention to the business community. So we we kind of balanced the idea of making sure we safe thank you and recognize those things that are taking place, at the same time as obviously creating that economic boon for that that short period of time, we see especially here in our community with the fact that we have a control growth ordinance. We need those many population explosions on the weekends when we’re doing special events. And I realized events are very, you know, they they take up so much time, they’re time consuming. Within staff, they’re time consuming in my thought process. So I’m not able to think through, you know, maybe something else a new program, but they also are very valuable for us to bring people into this community. And so I know that for us, it’s important for us not only to recognize the things that are going on here, to spotlight that with the different media that are paying attention because of special events. But also for us to acknowledge the good that the citizens here are doing. And whether we recognize them at a special event, or we’re providing them with a little bit of additional media attention. Those types of activities are secondary, but they are still very valuable. And I think that that’s one of the reasons that we’ve been so successful in having those events, bringing those people together and staying informed on who and what and the things that are going on in the community. I know that it takes time to have those planning meetings. But in those planning meetings, a lot of activity are going on, I might be able to find out a little bit more about what their needs are. They’ve got volunteer needs, they’ve got, you know, they’ve got money for a scholarship, but they’re not getting any kids to participate, that gives us the opportunity to reach out to the schools, let them know that some of these different programs that are available and making those connections. And so we can’t get to that C word of connectivity and convenience those people with we’re not if we’re not doing those things in our smaller communities.

Brandon Burton 22:46
That’s right. And I love that was you are getting together to plan a big activity, parade or whatever it may be, to, you know, keep your eyes and ears open, because you’re going to learn so much as you deal with those volunteers and businesses that are being a part of this, that then you can build upon and continue that momentum of your chamber, just by being aware and paying attention and not being so hyper focused on that one event that you’re working on. Because it does take a lot of bandwidth. So you may have to be, you know, very intentional about paying attention to those other signals, as you see them, call them signals.

Jill Lagan 23:24
And you know, we’re we want to Chamber’s always want to be part of the solution, right? We we pride ourselves on finding those solutions in our communities and for our business owners. And so you would not know that you would not know what we’re the the need is if you weren’t connected if you weren’t involved if you weren’t engaged. And so I think that that’s one opportunity. You know, sometimes I don’t have the solutions, but I have the ability to bring the two people together that need to create that conversation, that dialog to get to that solution. And so I see us as being really that, that conduit, and we would not have that opportunity if we weren’t involved and engaged in what’s going on in some of the different organizations and I find that to be many rural communities, many small communities, that’s where they excel and that’s the that’s what they do so well that creates that relevance for that community to have the chamber.

Brandon Burton 24:18
Absolutely. So I’d like to ask it for Jack column chamber champions listeners to the podcasts that are out there who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level. What tip or strategy or action item might you offer them to be able to accomplish that?

Jill Lagan 24:37
I know that had I not had a wonderful mentor Kara Kelly was with the Las Vegas chamber at the time, had she not introduced me to Western Association of chamber executives. I would not be where I am today. Having the ability to get together with your peers and understand best practices have that professional development time. You know right down to it. Just thinking about your own your own mental health, and having that dialogue with others as they, during the pandemic, I don’t know what I would have done without having those connections to those other chamber CEOs, and membership. You know, managers and all of those people who we come together, we exchange great ideas, you also have the opportunity, I learned even more with ACC E and some of the other Association organizations meeting together with them, it has been probably the biggest thing that has excelled my career and has helped us make this chamber better had I not had those relationships, if I had not had those peers to go to, to bounce ideas off of even just simply finding out about some of the different vendors that they use that they have vetted out and know that you know, this is a great credit card processing company, or this is a great insurance program. So having some of those things and meeting up with them. And being a part of those different organizations, I 100%, highly recommend, I truly believe that they are what has made my job a lot easier. Yes,

Brandon Burton 26:08
it’s much easier to learn from others who have gone through and gain some of those bumps and bruises themselves. So you don’t have to do that yourself.

Jill Lagan 26:18
But you know, when you get back to your board, and you’re reporting to your board, it is so valuable to be able to say my peers in these six communities or, you know, in the western region or the eastern areas, it, it creates a quite a bit of stability, continuity, and it gives you the ability to share with your board and other people that other people are doing this. And it has been proven.

Brandon Burton 26:42
And I would say one of the big reasons why I started this podcast was I would work with chambers who I saw were really struggling, I saw some that obviously were doing very well, but some that were really struggling. And the more I learned about it, they were not members of their state association or the regional Sesay or their IT WAC E or ACCE they weren’t learning from their peers. Maybe they had a neighboring chamber that they were connected with. But that was about the extent of it so that that the podcast could share some tips and strategies and best practices, and really be able to get people like Jill on to encourage you to be a part of these Peer Associations. So you can learn and build those relationships, and learn from your peers to really accelerate your growth in the chamber industry. So thank you for sharing that as a tip and action item.

Jill Lagan 27:36
You know, it takes a lot of pressure off of us when I don’t have to have all the good ideas. And I know that I don’t and I love being able to give credit to another chamber for some of the great things that they’re doing that I can say, hey, let’s give this a try. take some pressure off of me. Right, exactly.

Brandon Burton 27:53
So I’d like asking everyone I have on this show this question. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers in their purpose going forward?

Jill Lagan 28:06
I have always had a huge passion for chamber work. And the fact that we represent the business community, those voices need to be heard, especially in that small business realm. Obviously, they are going to be the lifeblood of this country from now until whenever. And so I really want to make sure that chambers are relevant in small communities. And I feel like the the best way that they can do that going into the future is putting aside any ill will or bad feelings that might have happened through lack of collaboration. Maybe they had an economic vitality, or an economic development entity come into town and they didn’t get a seat at the table, go ask for that seat at the table. Make sure that you’re opening those doors be a part of some of those different activities that are taking place in your community that makes it so important for you to be at that table. Make sure that when the city council creates new new programs and new scope of work that they know that they need to reach out to the Chamber of Commerce to ask those questions, how that fits how they fit into that picture and how they feel they feel that that’s going to be impactful to the business community. I really believe that being part of those regional organizations, whether it’s economic development, whether it’s, you know, some of the different programs that are happening statewide with your legislative issues, government affairs type activities, I feel like if if we are more engaged and involved and part of some of those bigger pictures, that’s how we fit in so that they can see that when the chamber speaks. It means something when the chamber is engaged or asked to be a part of something or ask their opinion. I feel like if we’re not part of all of that, and we’re not making sure that we have a seat at the each of those tables that we will get left behind and I know that that for me is something that I’m always paying attention to. I want to make sure that without burning us out, obviously, you only have so much time but making sure that you have made a splash in your community so that people are calling to the chamber to make sure that they know that that the Chamber’s opinion is high, and that they have the ability to make a difference in that community. So that doesn’t happen without that collaboration. And in some communities, it may not be especially new people, if you’ve got a new chamber, exactly. It’s just trying to get in and trying to make a difference in that community, the best thing they can do is go meet up with their elected officials, the leaders of the economic development organizations, the leaders of the tourism organizations, and make sure that they realize that they want to make be a part and be a part of the solution for that community.

Brandon Burton 30:42
Absolutely. Well, I wanted to give you an opportunity jail for anyone out there listening who’d like to reach out and connect from you and continue this conversation or maybe learn more from from your example and connect with you what would be the best way for someone to reach out and, and make that connection? Well,

Jill Lagan 31:03
thank you for that opportunity. And I’m going to do a shameless plug for The Best Damn Podcast, which we also host and we’re very excited that we have that chance. And obviously, podcasting is probably something else that people need to look at for the future. We know how important that has become, and what a great tool and a resource for our communities. And not only that outside of our communities for us to be able to reach a broader audience, much like chamber chat does. And so I very much want to introduce that to everybody. But my website is BoulderCityChamber.com. And anyone’s welcome to give me a call or an email, our phone number is 702-293-2034. And my email is jill@bouldercitychamber.com. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 31:50
And I will get all of that in our show notes for this episode, including a link to the best day in podcast. And, and I couldn’t agree with you more the value that a podcast brings for a chamber, but just getting your message out there telling the work you’re done, you’re doing telling the stories of your members and just you know, bringing in those outsiders who maybe are coming for a visit or looking to relocate to the area, just give them a sample of what your community is about. And I will do a shameless plug for my podcasting guide and course that I have four chambers to get up and go on with the podcast. And you can find that at chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot. So there’s a free guide to get started, and then a link for the podcasting course as well. But, Joe, this has been great having you on the podcast, you brought a lot of value and great perspective that I think some people may be a little hesitant to say out loud. So I’m glad we had this discussion and and hopefully some of the smaller chambers out there listening can say yes, that’s what I feel, you know, and they can resonate with that and, and really lean into that work that matters. So thank you for being with us today. And then enjoyed having you with us on the podcast. Thank

Jill Lagan 33:03
you. Thank you for this great opportunity and thank you for your great work.

Brandon Burton 33:07
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Economic Mobility with Beth Rhinehart

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

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

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Our guest for this episode is Beth Rhinehart. Beth is the president and CEO of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce serving both Bristol Virginia and Bristol Tennessee. The Bristol Tennessee and Virginia Chamber is a five star accredited organization and has been a leader in economic advocacy since 1909. Prior to joining the chamber in 2015, Beth spent the previous 10 years as Director of Government Relations for wellmont health systems, building key relationships and oversight overseeing Virginia legislative processes as they applied to hospitals and health care. Beth currently serves on the boards for several or local organizations, also including the Virginia Association Chamber of Commerce executives. Beth is a native of Bristol, Virginia, and earned her BS degree from Mary Washington College Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Masters of Arts in Teaching and Masters of Science in Counseling degrees from John Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and an MBA from King’s College in Bristol, Tennessee. She’s a 2010 graduate of the Sorenson Institute political leadership program and earned her IOM certification in 2018. She is currently a fellow of the ACCE foundation economic mobility cohort. She completed a fellowship in the ACCE education and talent development division in 2019. And recently completed a business leads fellowship with the US Chamber of Commerce in 2022. She’s a member of the US Chamber of Commerce distinguished committee of 100. And she recently earned her CCE being one of only 172 nationwide out of over 7000 chambers of commerce. Beth, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast, I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Beth Rhinehart 3:53
Good morning, Brandon, and thank you for the opportunity to be here with you today. The chamber world is an amazing world to work in and to find so many collaborative partners to work alongside. So it’s always an honor anytime we can work together. And this is a great platform to be able to do that.

Probably some that would say probably of most interest would be that have no background and what people would most often think of as a chamber leader. I don’t think any of us wake up or grow up thinking I’m gonna be president of a chamber one day, it’s not one of those sought after careers that most people even don’t always know what a chamber does. So it’s one of those evolution careers in my opinion, where I think the toolkit that you develop and the skills and relationships you build throughout your life lead you along this path and I encourage anybody who’s not a chamber employee to always consider that the the opportunities The exposure, the growth that you experience, because of all the places you touch, as a chamber organization, I highly encourage anybody to consider that.

Brandon Burton 5:09
Yeah, absolutely. So I know, you know, there’s some chamber leaders out there where you can look at him and say, Man, they were really born to be a chamber leader, you know, chamber executive or CEO. And I, and that may be the case, but usually it isn’t evolution and you kind of grow into it. So you might have been born for it, but you still have to grow into it. So good point well taken. Why don’t you share with us a little bit about the Bristol chamber. In your bio, we shared the uniqueness of you covering Bristol, Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia. So kind of having that literal border through your community. But um, tell us more about the chamber size staff budget scope of work, just to kind of give us an idea before we get into our discussion.

Beth Rhinehart 5:53
Absolutely. So we are 114 years old this year, we were established in May of 1909. We our five star credited chamber, which we’re extremely proud of. If anyone’s gone through an accreditation process, you know how challenging and grueling that can be, but it’s certainly worth every minute of time you put into it. We’re the oldest accredited chamber in Tennessee and the second oldest in Virginia, we we serve to one community, we say it’s one Bristol, but across two state lines. So our downtown historic Main Street, which is called State Street, the yellow lines that run down the center of our community, that’s the actual state line. So businesses on one side, you can be eating in a restaurant on State Street looking at folks in our restaurant or bar on the other side of the street, and they’re in a different state. So pretty unique opportunity that has its challenges for sure. You can imagine we have two local governments to fire departments, to school systems, to police stations, all of the above. So as a chamber, we often become that convener and facilitator for issues that impact the entire community, whether it’s the community at large or our business members. But we you know, that convening role, and the collaborative nature that we bring is critically important, I think, for all chambers, but especially for a community like ours. We have our budgets around one and a quarter million if you include our foundation side. So we have our chamber side of the house, we also have a foundation that owns our facility, but also houses, our leadership and education programs to name just a few. We have seven full time staff and have about 525. Members. All

Brandon Burton 7:49
right. So I’m I’m curious, I don’t know if you’ve ever looked into it to see how many cities there are across the country where there’s literally have the state line going through the middle of the city? Have you ever looked into that? Or is Bristol one of a kind? And I think

Beth Rhinehart 8:04
we’re I think we are one of a kind in the respect that our our remain thoroughfare and our historic downtown that those center lines are the state line. I know there. Are there plenty of border communities and, for example, St. Louis and others that, you know, you you have on both sides of a state line. But I think for us that downtown uniqueness is unique to us.

Brandon Burton 8:32
Yeah, absolutely. It is very unique and intriguing. Just to see how that works with like you said, having to local governments and to fire departments and police it, it just is very interesting to say the least. I would

Beth Rhinehart 8:47
if I could add one quick thing. You know, talking about how times we’re doing COVID, which I hate going back to again, but I think it speaks to the uniqueness here. We had two governors, one in Virginia, one in Tennessee, who approached those safety measures and closures very differently. And so for our downtown and our business community that was very disruptive. And so we played a large role in in helping make sure that everyone could continue to be successful and thrive. When you’re looking out your window at somebody else who’s open till two in the morning and serving customers and their cash registers are ringing when you’re shut down. So it brings about some interesting dynamics.

Brandon Burton 9:33
Yeah, well, it puts you in a tough spot as a chamber leader to at trying to advocate for those businesses with two different governors and two different approaches, but definitely some choppy waters to navigate. So as we get ready to kind of dive into our topic for conversation today, we decided to focus our discussion around economic mobility And I know you guys were recently awarded a grant from ACCE to focus work around economic mobility. And I’m excited to dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 12:05
The holidays are closer than you think. And now is the time to get ready. Hi, I’m Raquel from Yiftee. Yiftee offers custom branded gift cards that can only be redeemed at your local businesses. And in December, we see six months of card sales in just one month! This means that by launching your community card, you’ll help generate 1000s of dollars for your local businesses this holiday season. Yiftee’s community card program is free for you and your participating businesses. Join over 500 chambers, main streets, cities and downtown associations that are using community cards to keep local dollars local. Email sales@yiftee.com to learn more, that’s sales@yiftee.com.

Brandon Burton 12:53
All right, Beth, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re focusing our discussion today around economic mobility. And maybe before we get too deep into the conversation, I know there’s a lot of newcomers into the chamber world and specifically chamber staff who are listening. When we talk about economic mobility, what does that mean to you? What what is that covering in that scope of work before we go down that path and the discussion

Beth Rhinehart 13:21
started laying and my you know, very high level definition of that would be it’s allowing and supporting and finding ways to promote folks to greater, greater sustainability but personally, professionally for, you know, life stability, it’s it’s, for example, if you have low income workers who by by their own situational background and current situation, need to find a better way to sustain themselves and their families. economic mobility means that you’re supporting them moving from what I’ll call, not necessarily instability, but maybe a point that’s not sustainable to a point of greater grounding and funding and sense of self to where they’re able to live in a manner that that’s the quality of life for them and their families. Right.

Brandon Burton 14:26
So maybe tell us a little bit about the the application process for this grant that I mentioned, you guys were awarded from ACCE and kind of what went into that and know the the work is specifically around low income earners in the community. But what went into that application process and ultimately qualifying you for the grant.

Beth Rhinehart 14:48
Certainly. So a lot of the work that went into this was talking about what we do here from the chamber and in partnership with some Any new work in this field, because as we know, we don’t do this alone. We are a collaborator and a convener. And so we look to really partnering with a lot of folks, especially being that we serve two different states through the bristal lens. So I think it’s really working to find the data that’s available. So we had to do a lot of data mining to find, you know, what’s the average and median salaries, what programs are currently in existence? What are we doing as a chamber to really help folks find the skills they need to maybe to build that pipeline, find opportunities for people to upskill or rescale, and move to different jobs, what jobs are currently available in your community where the skills gaps needed to be supported? So a lot of the work was research and collaboration and finding who those best partners would be to help us throughout this grant process. So writing the grant, of course, describing all the demographics of our community in our greater region, and then goal setting for, you know, are we going to get be able to get people across that finish line and how we’re going to do that? So

Brandon Burton 16:14
you had mentioned goal setting? How do you set goals around this objective of economic mobility? What are some of those key indicators and and benchmarks to show that you’re succeeding in this work?

Beth Rhinehart 16:27
Force? And you’re asking the toughest questions? That is, the toughest question to answer really is, how do you put a number on how many people you’re actually going to get across that finish line? And what defines whether you have been successful? Maybe you don’t fully cross the finish line? If that’s a benchmark, or, you know, how do you get people moving in the right direction. And I think a lot of those, those those key performance indicators for us, included, you know, how many students are we able to fully engage, and I’ll call it graduate from some cohort programs, for example, our manufacturers Excellence Program, which is a boot camp for high school students to go through in partnership with all of our manufacturers, where they end up with at the end of that program, exposure to the manufacturing jobs in this community. And also to have a toolkit of things, they might need to start on the job once they graduate, for example, steel toed shoes, protective eyewear, and ear protection, things like that. So I think that’s one of the ways we look at it and successfully completing programs, how many students have done that, for us, you know, the, the cohort that I ended up in the grant itself is broken into several subgroups, the subgroup that I am in is actually creating a community wide strategy for how our community collectively and collaboratively finds a solution and a path forward. And that was really important, I was really pleased to be able to end up in that group, because for us across that state line, that collaborative necessity, is really at the top of what we need to be working on. So

Brandon Burton 18:18
let’s talk strategy. You had mentioned working with students and exposing them to some of those manufacturing jobs. And I know that would play a part into that strategy. And you’ve mentioned these partnerships and collaboration. But as you approach this work, I mean, are you identifying the individuals that you’re going after to try to help improve quality of life? Or are you presenting the program that hopefully attracts them and draws them into it? How do you approach it? And what does it look like?

Beth Rhinehart 18:50
And great question. And, you know, if we if we go back to the foundation of the group that I’m in, it’s really to create the strategy. So we’re rather than creating specific programs, the identification of programs, and the implementation of those programs is part of this. But the most important goal of the committee or the cohort that I’m in, is truly creating a strategy for how we as a greater community and region define the pathways for folks to move through economic mobility. So the really the goal of the work we will be doing is identifying what programs currently exist. Where are the skills gaps, or the the gaps in the programming for example, for those who are all the players that need to be to the table? As I mentioned earlier, we don’t necessarily do all the work. We are often the facilitator and collaborator for those who do the frontline work, for example, community colleges and four year higher education institutions. As our K 12, our workforce investment boards, our economic developers, all the folks that that have an impact on the population that we’re trying to serve, I think our goal is to create a strategy that has a defined pathway from beginning to success.

Brandon Burton 20:19
So, at what point did you guys jump in with both feet, so to speak, in this work of economic mobility? Is it a newer venture is that something that’s been on your mind, and then you’ve got more gas to throw on the fire? How’s that developed?

Beth Rhinehart 20:38
It’s a little bit of both of those. And I will say that this grant and fellowship application, it was, it was the sweet sauce we’ve been looking for, because it really gives us a focused approach to doing that with the funding attached. And, you know, all of us are resource limited to some degree, you know, we know what work gets done is the work that’s funded. So to have this opportunity of funding by ascending through a CCS Foundation, was really, it couldn’t have come at a better time, we’ve been focusing for a long time in our community on looking at generational poverty that exists. And for our youth, you know, if you have a lot of, of youth in your community, who are third and fourth generation, poverty, situational, they may grow up in a family where they’ve never seen an adult get up and go to work during the day versus living on public assistance. So the key to that mentorship and showing students that pathway, showing our youth that there is a different way, and the value of that and then how to achieve that is critically important. So that’s one piece of it. The other piece, we work very closely with our United Way here, and and they’re very focused, as I know, United Way’s across the country, if you partner with them, they talk a lot about Alice, families, which are asset limited income constrained, employed. And that breaks down to a lot of families who are living at or below the poverty line, are in that ballpark anyway. And very often they are working two to three part time jobs, to try to pay their bills. And the stress that that creates on families, the the inability to afford childcare, that’s quality childcare, you know, access to a lot of the things health care insurance. When you live in that Alice population, there are many challenges to overcome. And the choices that those families have to make are not choices any of us would want to have to make. So that that population of folks who have a lot of those struggles are also a target for folks that we want to try to move to that at average or above salary, which for our community, means you’re able to sustain your family. So there are going to be a lot of different approaches we look at. And I have to you know, give a little disclaimer too. We just started this. So we’re literally fresh on the heels, we just got our award letter. And the last month we’ve had our first kickoff meeting, as a cohort, there’s 11 of us from around the country who were selected for this project. And so it was beautiful to be able to receive that letter and to know that we get to participate in this. So it is very fresh on the front lines of this. So we have a lot of work to do. And I don’t have a lot of the details of what this will look like at the end. But I can tell you that we’re committed and excited to get to work.

Brandon Burton 23:53
Yeah. Now I’d love the idea of helping to create a vision, especially with these youth that don’t have that example to look to of what their real potential can be in what they can do is you know, career and to be able to support a family instead of you know, living off of assistance, like you mentioned, but I see it right now in my own son, you know, he’s finishing his junior year right now, as is looking to college and everything and, and just some of the limiting factors in a vision that an individual youth has for themselves. There’s so you know, bias really on what they’ve seen. And they they’ve lived a short life up to that point. And if they haven’t been exposed to different opportunities or know that some of these opportunities exist, they’re going to be in that same rut as as some of their predecessors. It still blows me away. Sometimes when you hear somebody being a first generation college graduate and their family. I mean, it makes me smile every time I hear it, but it blows me away that you still hear it as often as you do, and helping to grow Right, that vision, I think is, is instrumental in helping people realize their potential and moving forward. So hopefully you guys have some innovative ways that you can roll that out as the program develops. I’d like to give you an opportunity for anybody out there listening who is interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what tip or strategy might you offer for them?

Beth Rhinehart 25:27
I think you know, for us here, I can speak to my experiences here. One is, make sure that you have an extremely engaged and supportive board. I am so blessed here to have that opportunity. You know, we have that doesn’t mean we always agree 100% on everything we’re working on. But I think having your board engaged to where they understand what you’re trying to do, they can provide that fiscal oversight and that strategic vision to help you move your organization forward. So you’re creating the greatest benefit and value to those members. I think that’s a really key part. And that there’s a lot of intentionality around that it’s there’s intentionality around having diversity around the board table. There’s intentionality around how you as a director of your organization, how you engage them. And I think building a very strong trusting relationship is critically important. I over tell if there is such a thing, I always make sure that my board members know more than they need to know really, if there is such a thing, so that they’re never blindsided, but that they know the good, the bad and the ugly, because that’s how we all get better in what we’re doing. And when you feel like you have to hide something, it never leads to a good place. So I would just encourage you, if you have challenging things you’re working on, bring your board and let them help you. Right,

Brandon Burton 26:56
you’d never want your board to be surprised by anything you’re doing. Yes. Well, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Beth Rhinehart 27:12
I would say and it’s something we’ve worked really hard on, moving from the traditional membership model into a tiered investment model, I think is critical. And the reason it’s critical, it’s not just about those investment dollars, it’s really being very mission focused, and how you are delivering benefit and value to your members. So I encourage you, if you haven’t looked at that, please do. So there are so many folks in the chamber world who have gone through it or working on it. There are consultants that are great partners, to chambers, who can help you navigate that, but also lean on each other. There are a lot of people, as I say, who who are happy to share and really help all of us become better at the end of the day. I think that’s important. But I think, you know, another important piece is advocacy. I firmly believe that government relations, advocacy as a business leader, focused community is also one of the greatest values you can provide to your members into the larger community and region. I think folks need to know how to do that. They need to know what the pressing issues are, how to resolve those, and they need that connectivity to the elected members at your local state and federal levels to help you so I encourage you to look to those areas is really your greatest resources and I think value to membership. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 28:40
I think those are two great. Oh, I’m gonna say tips. But it’s part of that vision of the future of chambers is to if you haven’t already explored the idea of going over to a tiered use model for your membership. There’s, there’s a lot of businesses out there who are willing to pay more than what they are being asked to with the traditional membership model, because they see the work that you’re doing in areas such as advocacy, and they see the value that you provide to the business community and really just community building in general and they want to be a part of it. So I would agree with that part of the vision and and really having a focus there. But that as we wrap up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who would like to reach out and connect with you and learn more about things you’re doing in Bristol or about the discussion that we covered today with economic mobility, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Beth Rhinehart 29:34
Of course and I welcome any outreach and hope that whatever we do here if it can be a value to anyone, my door is always open my phone is always available to be answered. So I’ve been blessed with a lot of people who have done that for me so my email is, brhinehart@bristolchamber.org and and my phone number is 423-989-4850 and our mailing address is 20 Volunteer Parkway, Bristol, Tennessee 37620. And more importantly, come and visit us we are door’s always open. We would love to have anyone if you’re ever traveling through our area please stop and say hello.

Brandon Burton 30:23
Absolutely and I will get that in our show notes for this episode so listeners can go and check it out and connect with you. But I appreciate you being with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast and putting out there your experience so far around economic mobility and and the the work you’re venturing into with it. I think it is such an important topic and for every community to really see those areas to really uplift and bring everybody to a higher level in their community as far as their living standards and economic status goes. So thank you for for sharing that with us and being with us on the podcast today.

Beth Rhinehart 30:59
Thank you for the opportunity. Love what you’re doing.

Brandon Burton 31:04

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Keeping Local Dollars Local with Donna Novitsky

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

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

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Donovan ski Donna is the co founder of Yiftee Donna has combined her interests in local community building and her interests in high tech to co found nifty to bring profitable business to local shops and restaurants. Yiftee has grown to more than 500 communities now 15,500 merchants and helped to keep $45 million local to help small businesses just the last three years. Prior to giftee. Donna has led several startup companies and worked with top tier venture capital firm. She teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University and frequently speaks on topics related to entrepreneurship and women in business. Donna holds a BS and industrial engineering with distinction from Stanford University and a Harvard MBA. And Donna, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Donna Novitsky 3:05
Thanks, Brandon. And hello chamber champions. It is such a pleasure to be here. I’ve really enjoyed meeting many of you at the ACCE show and on zoom over the year, last few years. But let’s see something interesting about me. Well, I guess depending on how you count them, as As Brandon mentioned, I’ve been in tech. So Yiftee is my third or my 19th. Startup. out right. So I guess you could say I’m an entrepreneur at heart. My dad taught me that word when I was 12. And it kind of stuck. So I love starting new things and helping others do so too. So I end up doing a lot of coaching and mentoring of young people, which is super fun, because they’re always challenging me to learn new things.

Brandon Burton 3:58
Right now that is that is interesting. I like getting these little facts about people. And I’m sure we could dig in deeper on on how you count those businesses that you’re part of starting. Well, before we dive into our topic for today, why don’t you take a few minutes and just tell us a little bit about Yiftee what Yiftee is kind of the purpose the vision with it. And then we can dive in a little bit deeper on on how it all works.

Donna Novitsky 4:24
Okay, great. So we launched Yiftee over 10 years ago, and for the first five or six years, the business went through the typical startup rollercoaster. In 2018. We did the first what we now call community cards. And I’ll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But then the pandemic hit in 2020. And many chambers were worried about losing all their small businesses and they were looking for ways to help their members and we happen to have a solution for that. So calm cards as We call them took off. And as bright as Brandon mentioned, were in more than 500 communities and 15,000 local businesses. So I guess you could say we got here with hard work, a lot of stubbornness and even more luck, because who would have predicted a pandemic? We’re a small team. We are 100% remote and our headquarters in the Bay Area. And we have teammates in California, Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Florida and Puerto Rico. So we’re all over the place just like you guys.

Brandon Burton 5:35
Awesome. Now that definitely gives a good introduction to what Yiftee is, and I’m excited to get in a little deeper on it as we settled on our topic for this discussion. Today we are going to talk about keeping local dollars local. And as I mentioned in your bio, you guys have helped keep over $45 million local for small businesses and communities across the country. So I’m excited to dive in deeper on this learn how the program works and help tell chambers how they can help keep dollars local in their community as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 8:28
What if you could keep holiday shopping local this year? Launch a community card with Yiftee. And you can. Hi, I’m Raquel from Yiftee. Yiftee works with over 500 chambers, main streets, cities and downtown associations providing custom branded electronic gift cards that can only be redeemed at your local businesses. This program is free for you and your participating businesses. And if you sign up now, you’ll watch your local businesses thrive this holiday season. Email sales@yiftee.com to learn more, that’s sales@yiftee.com.

Brandon Burton 9:08
All right, Donna, we’re back. So tell us what with Yiftee How does it work? You’d mentioned these comm cards. So what is a comm card and how does it work and how does it lead to keeping dollars local?

Donna Novitsky 9:23
Okay, a comm card or community card. It’s a digital gift card and it is branded for a city town or neighborhood and can be redeemed exclusively at the local shops and restaurants in that area. So shout out to Spartanburg South Carolina chamber who was our very first chamber customer back in 2018. Followed by Lake Zurich, Illinois, Niles, Illinois and DeWitt, Iowa. If you’re out there thank you guys. Chambers often make the program a member benefit because they Control specifically which merchants can participate in it. It’s kind of like next generation chamber checks. But we do all the sales, customer service technology and financial management. And our chamber partner in each community promotes the program and recruits the merchants. So it’s a real partnership with the chambers.

Brandon Burton 10:23
So what does the recruitment look like as the chamber goes out to recruit businesses to participate in it? Is their marketing material that’s provided as their scripts is their coaching that goes along with it? What does that look like?

Donna Novitsky 10:36
Oh, that stuff. So in terms of getting the program up and running, we all they have to, there’s no cost. First of all, for the program, the chambers don’t have to pay anything. And the merchants don’t have to pay anything to participate. And it’s backed by MasterCard. So any merchant that takes MasterCard can participate in the program, and there’s no special equipment or integration with their POs that they need. So all they have to do is sign the agreement. And then we’ll have their portal set up within 24 hours. And we start sending lots of materials, there’s a four week launch program with lots of materials. So we’ll give you the copy to recruit an email to send an email message out to your members to invite them to the program. And then when you’re ready, we send what we call an activation card to the merchants, which is a 10 cent prepaid MasterCard, they process that they get the dime. And that registers their POS with us. And that’s how we limit the cards to be used exclusively at your members businesses. So we’re providing a lot of information along the way. Honest, to be honest, the long pole in the tent in terms of getting the program running is, is recruiting the merchants because they are just super busy. And you got to get their attention. So

Brandon Burton 12:05
Right. So in your experience over the years of launching these community card programs, is there an ideal time of year? Or does it depend on the community? Or how did how do you see the most successful timing maybe as far as rolling out a community card?

Donna Novitsky 12:22
Well, as you guys might know, gift cards are the number one requested holiday gift. So that means that your merchants are probably paying more attention to gift card programs at the holidays. So the ideal time to launch it takes about four weeks to launch in general, you can do it faster, but would be probably around September, October, because that’s when your merchants are starting to think about gift card programs. And you’ll it’ll be easier to get their attention. So we do six months worth of business in the month of December. So Oh, wow. By far the high point of the year for for the gift card business.

Brandon Burton 13:15
Yeah. So can you talk to us a little bit more about the digital gift, gift card aspect of it. So it’s a digital gift card in nature. So how does that work? Does it go on their phone? How do they do the transactions? How do they make the purchase? How does that? How’s that all of that structured?

Donna Novitsky 13:32
Right, so this is an all digital program. That’s how we can do it without any cost to the chambers or the merchants. So there’s no little plastic cards. The way that it works is people you’ll have a website where that we host for you, but it’s branded for your community, so you don’t even see it on that website. It’s all about your local community. And people you put a link on your chamber page, a button that says buy our community gift card, and go there to buy the gift card. And it’s just a really simple process that they go through to buy that card online. They can either send it to whoever they want to send it to through email, or they can print them out. So if they want it put it in somebody’s holiday stocking, they just print it out and put it in the in their holiday stocking. Then the recipient will get that either on a piece of paper or through email. And they take it into the shop. When it’s by eat if it’s on paper, they can also save it to their phone with a QR code. And they take it into the shop or the restaurant and show their phone to the say one of your merchants who is participating in the program. They will process that MasterCard, it’s a MasterCard so that merchants gonna process it like a like a phone order. So they would enter that the code from the MasterCard, MasterCard immediately validates that transaction And they know they’re gonna get paid in their normal nightly settlement with all the other credit card transactions from that day. And then the balance on the phone will change. So if you had a $25 card and you bought a cup of coffee, now your phone’s gonna say you have a gift card for $21. And I could go next door to the next shop and get my nails done or buy something in a boutique. So it’s multi use card, just like a MasterCard gift card, but it only works at your members stores.

Brandon Burton 15:31
Yeah. So I see, you know, similarly, I’ve got kids in high school, and every year that football team does their little, they do a fundraiser where they’re selling coupons to local businesses, and, and this year, they went digital with it. So it’s on your phone, you got to go show, if you go to the restaurant, it’s not nearly as high tech, you’re literally showing them the screen. And then they go manually enter it and it’s done. But I see this as being much more valuable in the fact of you have $1 amount that’s fixed with this gift card with this community gift card. And then you have your list of vendors that you can go spend it on whatever you want with any of these vendors, right, like you’re not limited to redeeming, you know, $5 off after a $25 purchase or anything like that. It’s not a confined it’s an actual cash on a card,

Donna Novitsky 16:23
right to build just like any other gift card, but it works at multiple different stores. And you know, until the money runs out on the card.

Brandon Burton 16:31
And then is all the list of vendors is that just kept up to date on the website, or is that within? How do the users of the gift card keep up to date on who’s participating? Yeah, we

Donna Novitsky 16:43
maintain that. So if a merchant if a new merchant joins your chamber and they and you want to add them to the program, they will automatically show up on the website once they run their activation card. And the all the people with cards out there in your community can just click on the card itself, scroll down and see all the participating merchants so it’s automatically updated.

Brandon Burton 17:07
Okay, so as a chamber rolls out a community card program, who are the typical people who are buying the gift cards and why?

Donna Novitsky 17:18
Well, that actually we had some surprises on that. So of course, when you think gift cards, do you think consumers so there’s a healthy chunk of consumer business of the people who buy cards, but also where a lot of our business comes from is bulk purchases. So again, if you have chamber checks, you know you sell a lot at the holidays from local businesses who buy them for their employees so they can keep their money in the community. Well, that has happened in spades with this program so schools will buy them for all the teachers in the school. Kent State University bought 10s of 1000s of dollars for their faculty of the Kent Ohio card. We’ve had Spartanburg had their local hospital buy cards. Frankfort, Kentucky and Riverdale Park Maryland have government programs for low income families where the government funds cards for these families and all the money stays in the community. Realtors and developers in Mountain View California give them as welcome gifts to new tenants and homebuyers. A nonprofit in Bullock, Arizona buys them for their volunteers, employers in Detroit and lots of other cities buy them for employee reward programs. And of course, there are huge corporate orders or holiday gifts. So that was we didn’t understand when we started this company that things you learned that about a third of the 180 $9 billion US gift card market is corporate purchases. Before this program, all that money was going to the big box stores and E commerce like Amazon and Starbucks, right? So now those organizations have a way to keep their dollars in the community. And that has been a great opportunity for us

Brandon Burton 19:23
that really turn the light on in my head going through that explanation because especially at the holiday time, a lot of these major employers, a lot of them are going to be big supporters of the chamber financially, you know, maybe some of the major investors, but they also have a lot of employees in the community. And around the holiday time it’s a normal thing to see whether it’s bonuses or some kind of a gift or maybe they give you know Amazon gift cards or Starbucks gift cards like you’re saying and if they can make that shift and say here’s a community gift card that you can use it any one of these men ders, that’s listed in the community. And instead of sending all of this, you know, purchasing power to Amazon, let’s keep it in our community and have it keep turning over, you know, time and time again. That’s very powerful. So I’m curious it with an individual chamber running their community card program, are they able to keep track? Or is there like a running total of how much money they’re keeping in their community?

Donna Novitsky 20:26
Yeah, there is. So we give them they can run reports anytime they want. As I mentioned earlier, they have a portal and you can log into your portal and run a report and see everybody that has purchased cards, and their how much the dollar value of the card and how much remains on the balance of that card. And they actually have marketing rights to that information. So if you have a chamber newsletter, you could add them to your newsletter or something, you know, contribute to building your community. But my favorite report is the gifts redeemed report. Because in that report, you can see every single transaction that was spent at each merchant in the program, so I could see that $4.27 was spent for a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, I could see that someone went to a boutique and spent $92. So I can’t we don’t tell you who had the coffee or went to the boutique, that’s a privacy issue. So we don’t share that information. But for your members, you have reports of exactly how much business you have walked into the door in their stores. So yeah, program, you can really show the value added.

Brandon Burton 21:42
Yeah. And there’s really there’s no cost or no downfall really for business to participate to if you’re that local coffee shop or retailer. There’s, there’s no downside to it, it just gets access to more people coming in and to be able to get a report from the chamber saying we’d sent X number of dollars to your business over the last year, whatever the timeframe is, that can be pretty powerful, and and create that stickiness factor with your members with your with your chamber. Yeah, so I can imagine, you know, over the 500 communities that you’re working with, and over the years, that there’s probably been some pitfalls in rolling out a program. What are what are some of these things that you see that maybe get overlooked? Or maybe assume maybe something’s too easy? What are some of these pitfalls rolling out? The community card program?

Donna Novitsky 22:38
Yeah, life happens, right? Go. So honestly, the hardest thing about the program where the snags can happen is on the merchant recruiting side, you know, you think it makes so much sense, because it’s all upside for them, it doesn’t cost him anything, and we’re going to drive business in the door, but they are busy. And this is something new, and it needs to be explained. So sometimes that takes more time than the chamber anticipated. And it just doesn’t happen. Or it doesn’t happen as quickly as they wanted. So that’s one thing to be prepared for. And we’re always upfront about that. The cool thing is, as we and then I guess I would say the other thing is, you guys in chambers wear so many different hats, right? So the program will get launched. But then you’re off to planning, you know, the labor day parade or the Halloween festival or whatever is happening next, because there’s never a dull moment in the chamber. So the focus on marketing the program locally in the community wanes, and then the community forgets about it. So what we’re doing is, since we’ve been able to grow, I’m beginning to have started hiring some people on the 50 end, to help out our chamber partners and help them recruit some of those bulk purchasers or do some local marketing for them, or even help recruit those merchants. So as we grow, we will continue to be able to put more resources into ongoing sales of the cards and training and recruiting of merchants.

Brandon Burton 24:16
Yeah. So the thought just came to me as I say, for example, a chamber says we want to do a community card program. What is the onboarding process? Like? Do you try to get a certain number of vendors on board with it? So there’s some value as you start selling the cards or where’s that balance where that trade off is like Okay, now it’s time to turn this on and start selling the cards.

Donna Novitsky 24:39
Yeah, it’s a chicken and egg thing, isn’t it? Right? You need merchants you need card buyers. So we always say for the merchants. The best way to recruit is every community has two or three trendsetter merchants, you know the ones who are out there ahead of the pack and the other merchants really respect them generally So you start with those guys. And then they can help you recruit the next wave, we’d like to say we’d like to see around 15 to 20 merchants on the program at launch. And that’s plenty. And then it just grows from there. So they can get added in over time as as they figure out what’s going on in want to jump on board.

Brandon Burton 25:21
So that definitely makes sense. And there are those trendsetters and those individuals in the community that have some influence that that can bring others along with them. So great strategy. As we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask, I’d like asking if there’s any tip or an action item you might have for chambers who are listening, who want to take their chamber up to the next level, what what piece of advice might you have to offer?

Becki Womble 25:50
Let’s see. Well, there’s

Donna Novitsky 25:53
one more aspect to the program that I wanted to make sure and cover, which is which was also I mentioned at the beginning that we got here through a lot of luck. This is another part of the luck piece. So since 2021, when the US federal government issued $350 billion to the cities all across the country, 19,000 cities, and in the American rescue plan act, some of that money is still floating around out there. It doesn’t have to be spent until it doesn’t have to be allocated until 2024, or spent until 2026. And a lot of those dollars have found their way to this program. As a bonus program. So for instance, buy $100 card, get a free $50 card. And that is a win all the way around. Because to the merchants, they’re going to see it’s going to triple the grant money, right? To the consumer, they’re getting free money. And also to the merchants, it’s driving foot traffic into their stores, which is what they really need long term is the community shopping there and developing those new shopping habits. So I just want to throw that out there. Because I probably should have mentioned it when you asked about who buys the cards, because that has driven a lot of purchases lately.

Brandon Burton 27:22
Yeah. We also want to circle back to that.

Donna Novitsky 27:25
Yeah, we also have seen some programs sponsored by banks or realtors will sponsor bonus programs. So while it while that’s still that money is still available, it might be worth speaking with your City Office of Economic Development to see what might still be out there on allocated.

Unknown Speaker 27:48
That’s good. Yeah.

Donna Novitsky 27:50
So back to your other question of what to think about now? Well, you know, of course, I would love to, we’d love to chat with you and see if this kind of a program would be a good fit for your community. So that would be the next step, I guess.

Brandon Burton 28:05
Yeah. Well, and as many of you know, EFT is one of the sponsors of chamber chat podcast and the shows only here because of the sponsors that keep it going. So love for you to reach out and check out EFT and see if it’s a good fit for your community. But Donna, 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?

Donna Novitsky 28:34
So like, as I mentioned, we attend various chamber events like the ACCE and some of the regional ones. And it’s clear to us that chambers are really community builders. They bring residents, merchants, employers and city government together for the betterment of the community from a business point of view. And this program is something that we think is that is truly actionable and provides measurable results to the Chamber’s members, both for the employers who purchased the cards and the merchants who redeemed them. So I just see chambers can continuing to do what they do, which is, you know, build their communities from a business point of view. And hopefully, we can be a tool that helps them do that.

Brandon Burton 29:25
Awesome. So why don’t you share with everyone how they can reach out and connect. If you have any other questions about how the community card programs work, and how to get in contact with your team and get things started in their community. What would be the good next step or where would you point them to?

Donna Novitsky 29:42
Sure Yiftee.com and you can sign up there for a demo. We do them three days a week. And usually there’ll be a couple other chambers or sometimes main streets or downtown’s on the demo, which is super fun. It’s like little zoom party we have. And everyone gets to hear each other’s questions. And I love the collaborative nature of this community of chambers. It’s such a joy to work with people. And from there, you’ll get plugged into me or probably you’ll meet Raquel or Tyson on my team. And they’ll be doing a live demo. So you can ask all your questions. And we go from there. We’re happy also to do webinars or demos for your board of directors or whatever helps you.

Brandon Burton 30:33
Yeah. So another question I thought of Do you ever see a chamber and a Downtown Association, Merton to come together in a program like this to really leverage the the impact they both have all the time? Awesome, good deal? Well, I’d encourage everybody to reach out and and check out the demos they offer the FDA offers and just you know, explore it, see if this is a way that you can help keep local dollars local in your community and make a bigger impact as you and your chamber continue to build your community. Donna, I appreciate you coming on with us and spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast and, and I hope a lot of people take you up on the offer to check out what you guys have to offer in their communities.

Donna Novitsky 31:22
Thank you so much. And thanks to all the Chamber Champions out there for what you do. It’s amazing.

Brandon Burton 31:27
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Impact of Community Teamwork with Kyle Spurgeon

Impact of Community Teamwork with Kyle Spurgeon

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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 the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Kyle Spurgeon. Kyle is President and CEO of the Jackson chamber in Jackson, Tennessee. Before joining the chamber, Kyle was vice president Corporate Relations for Jackson Energy Authority. He has also served as marketing director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. He’s helped facilitate project locations representing more than $2.5 billion in capital investment. He holds a BS and public relations marketing from Murray State University. He is past president of the Tennessee Economic Development Council, past president of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce executives, past board member of the south of the Southern Economic Development Council, and past president of the Tennessee economic partnership is also a board member of several other local community organizations. Kyle is a 2017 graduate of leadership Tennessee. He was recently named the 2019, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce Executive of the Year. Powell is married to Melissa together they have five children and one very happily spoiled dog. Enjoy running and traveling the tile. I’m happy to have you with us today here on Super Chat podcast. I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Kyle Spurgeon 3:18
I didn’t realize you’re gonna read that entire bio,

Brandon Burton 3:21
we got to get the good stuff, you know.

Kyle Spurgeon 3:25
Melissa and the dog go smiled when you get to the very end. So Leila was wagging her tail? Good. Yes, something interesting. I guess it’s not in that and maybe the reason I enjoy doing these kind of podcast is in high school and college. I was at a radio disc jockey records, and I was a sportscaster and read the news. And so that, you know, as we started getting into the podcast area, that something that just not I’m not gonna say was natural, but it’s something I really enjoyed. So I look back on my days working in radio in Paris, Tennessee, that’s probably where this comes from.

Brandon Burton 3:59
Yeah, that sounds great. It’s your you’ve kind of got that natural comfort with that, I would say so. Well, I hope so. Yeah. So before we just jump into our topic, I’d like you to get some more background on the Jackson chamber. Just give us an idea of size, your chamber staff scope of work, budget, things you’re involved with, just to kind of set the table for our discussion. Yeah, so our

Kyle Spurgeon 4:23
chamber we have are running at 1050 members and budget of 1.6 $1.7 million, a team of seven and that word team is all capitalized because we all work together extremely well. And I look at our chamber and over, particularly the last four decades, we’ve been recognized as a chamber that’s very, very effective at recruiting new jobs in industry, to Jackson in West Tennessee. What has changed really over the last decade is we’ve maintained that standing and that influence in the community and that’s the SAS but were looked upon more, for addition to that term, our leadership programs our assistance to small business, in really since the announcement of Blue Oval city working with our city and county and others, in making sure we lead community development efforts with them, either we lead those were on the team, because that’s becoming an extremely big part of what we do. Our chamber was founded in 1905, we’re accredited by the US Chamber, we’ve got a four star designation now we’re going to be pursuing that five star designation, I think, later this year, or in 24. And as you know, when you’re accredited, by the US Chamber you one of the top 3% of chambers in the country. And that’s something we are extremely proud of. I’ll conclude this by saying just about a decade ago, our chairman at the time, told him he was talking to a group of people about the chamber and he said, one of the things I’m most proud of, is this organization has a seat at every major discussion that goes on in our community. That’s something that we don’t take for granted.

Brandon Burton 6:08
Right. And I think that’s going to lead in well to our topic for our discussion today as we focus on the impact of community teamwork. So having a seat at all those major discussions, being you know, right there, the driver of economic development and community development. I think we’ll have a fantastic discussion around that today. As soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 8:37
Howdy. It’s Donna Novitsky here, CEO of Yiftee. Fun fact about local businesses, did you know that small businesses employ 57% of the US is non government workforce. Many of these small businesses are your Chamber members, we are here to help you help them. As you heard last week, we do digital gift cards for 500 plus communities and we call them community cards. Our chamber partners get a custom gift card branded for you that works exclusively in your member stores. The program is free for you and free for your members. We even give you reports so you can tell them how much business you brought them. Sign up for a live Zoom demo with me or one of my teammates yiftee.com/demo or email sales@yiftee.com. That’s why yiftee.com. That’s it for now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 9:34
All right, Kyle, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break we’re focusing on the impact of community teamwork. So when you were talking about the chamber you brought up blue oval city. I’m familiar with it. I’ve heard you heard some great things about this set this huge economic development win. But if you would just fill the listeners in on what what is blue oval city and they maybe a little bit of background about how that came to be. And I think that’ll lead well into our discussion today.

Kyle Spurgeon 10:06
Sure. So blue oval City is a 17 year overnight success story as it took a while. And I’ll give you some background on that in a second. But it’s a $5.6 billion investment of Ford and SK Innovation to build the world’s most advanced assembly automotive assembly plant in battery plant. 3500 acres between Memphis and Jackson. So we sit right on Interstate 40. We are an hour from a Shelby County and two hours from Davidson County, which is which is Nashville. So Jackson is ideally situated. That project started back in the early 2000s. When Governor Phil Bredesen and the commissioner of economic and community development, Matt kispert, worked with the Tennessee Valley Authority and identified a site that would be great, what they would call a mega site because TVA had started that program. Two years earlier, local folks in Haywood County, the chamber, President CEO at the time, Paul tour was part of that effort. And those were the early people. You know, in our business, a lot of times when you make the announcement, the folks who were there at that time get all the credit. Well, if it wasn’t for the folks early that identified that property and caused it to be purchased project would have never happened. And what is happening now a blue oval cities under construction, Ford plans to be rolling their new electric vehicle off the assembly line and 25, which is crazy to think about it. That’s two years from now. And you’ll start seeing supplier announcements this year, the project announced again 5800 jobs $55.6 billion in capital investment. That’s really just the beginning. We’re starting to see those supplier locations, the tier one and tier two folks looking at Jackson and other parts of West Tennessee plus the projects that will need to be situated on site. But every piece of that project happened because of teamwork. Mark Herbison is President and CEO of HTL advantage. So that’s Haywood, Tipton Lauderdale counties. Haywood County is actually where the Megasite is it spans Haywood County and Fayette County, Mark led that effort. I tell folks, he has created more jobs, personally per capita for a staff than anyone probably in the world and economic development because he he led that project with two people. Our team, it’s a Jackson chamber in the Memphis chamber, were part of the negotiation process and helping to close the deal. But Mark was the guy day to day. And so when you take what Mark did what we were able to do with the Memphis and Jackson chamber and TVA in the state, in no one caring who got credit, you know, we were able to close that deal. And it turned out to be, you know, obviously one of the largest economic development projects in Tennessee’s history and one of the largest in the country.

Brandon Burton 13:14
That is fantastic. So as you’re, as you’re talking about this, the development of the site just yesterday. So I’m in Texas, but yesterday, I actually drove past the news Tesla facility that’s being rolled right now. So in my mind, I kind of I can kind of picture what this is looking like just a massive space, massive building, the technology that goes into it, and as you mentioned that the discussions of this started in the early 2000s. So almost 25 years from when the first cars will roll off the assembly line. But the evolution that’s happened in that amount of time, from having the focus on batteries now versus just what cars were in the 2000s. If you see an early model in 2000, f150 versus what’s going to roll off and 2025 They’ll be vastly different for sure. Being able to keep up with that, that evolution, that involvement. But let’s let’s focus more on this the community teamwork effort. So you’d mentioned that the teamwork part from an economic development standpoint, working with different counties, different cities, be able to pull together as a team. What are what are some other examples how things have have worked together as maybe you guys have been the convener of some of these, you know, throughout the community to drive some of these wins throughout the Jackson area. You

Kyle Spurgeon 14:43
use that great chamber award convener, and you know, we all successful chambers do that extremely well. The reason and focus it on the economic development piece first. The reason this community has been successful for 40 years doing economic development and recruiting Companies like Delta Faucet, Toyota, Stanley, Black and Decker. Kellogg’s is here, all the Pringles in North America are made in Jackson, we’ve always had that stance, no matter who was in an elected position as one of the mayors, or who ran Jackson Energy Authority, which was our utility, who read who ran the hospital here, we never care about who gets credit. And whoever is Mayor allows the chamber to be the quarterback for all economic development activities. And we everything we do is built around that team concept. But we also don’t have to pick up the phone and call a mayor’s office or a chairman’s office to, you know, direct every single move that we make, because we’ve got enough brand equity in the success that we’ve had. And that’s something we we protect, you know, if you’ve ever were to see a member of our team try to step out and make it all about themselves, instead of the community, that team member is going to get called back and pulled back and probably not gonna be on the team anymore. And so again, I think we’ve used that success model. And as we’ve had to expand our reach, I guess, and the different projects we’re working on and in different communities, we just make sure again, that it’s just all about pain.

Brandon Burton 16:21
Yeah, I like that. And I see the importance of that, I wonder if there maybe is some tactics or ways that you go about whether it’s dealing with your team internally there at the chamber or broader throughout the community to help build a sense of team. And and you’ve touched on a little bit there. But what what some of that mindset and maybe tactics around building that team mentality.

Kyle Spurgeon 16:45
Yeah, one of the ways is making sure particularly your elected officials are not surprised, in that they give us a lot of leeway to work on projects, again, because not just the team we’ve got in place now. But we’ve always been successful doing that. So just Just imagine if you had a mayor in office, and all of a sudden you’re about to announce a project and he knew nothing about it, that’d be a surprise. But for us to be able to do that our elected officials and everyone on the team has to understand the confidentially the confidentiality involved in those projects. Excuse me. And so by bringing them in early, and us respecting the fact that they understand that confidentiality allows us to do that. And then when we have a new chairman, coming into the role within our organization, again, bringing them in early, helping them understand how projects occur, because if you’re not an economic developer or been involved in projects, you probably have some misconceived notions about it. And so it’s education and making sure people don’t get surprised. So

Brandon Burton 17:55
I’m curious, as far as not having these elected officials be surprised. Is that something that you had to learn through experience? Or like, ooh, we should have plugged them in a little more along the way? Or is it just something that it kind of made sense to you from the beginning? So you just a good practice to follow all along?

Kyle Spurgeon 18:13
Yeah. When you said, Did I learn that from experience in a roundabout way? Yes. You mentioned I worked at Jackson Energy Authority. And I remember firing someone without our CEO knowing it. And John made it very clear to me that his name was John Williams at the time, that he needed to know that because he went to church with the guy’s mother, that we had just fired. And so you learn real quick, and he came back the next day sick out, you and your team did the right thing. God needed to go. But I can’t be surprised. So I’ve always taken that with me in terms of you know, when you announce a project, or you’re doing some community initiative, and it’s successful, you will get your elected officials and your investors up there announcing that project? Again, you don’t want them hearing about it a day before or a week before without having any Yeah,

Brandon Burton 19:13
or worse as things are even more developed or the read in the paper social media. Yeah, so yeah, I think it’s neat how some of those lessons kind of stick with you and with whether it’s something professionally or personal lesson that carries over, and it’s something that is important to you, that brings a lot of value to others that are listening to and you can provide that experiences. So I appreciate you being willing to share that. I know it’s not always easy to to share from past experiences like that, but

Kyle Spurgeon 19:43
it’s that thing about everyone makes mistakes. And as long as you learn from that mistake, not gonna say it’s not bad, but it’s a heck of a lot better if you learn from it.

Brandon Burton 19:53
That’s right, and learn from the first time hopefully. So I Want to know if there’s maybe tips or action items for those listening who maybe want to build a better community or teamwork effort throughout their their community and take their chamber up to the next level? What might you suggest for them to try to implement and to sharpen that focus,

Kyle Spurgeon 20:20
like an easy thing to do is sit back. First of all, you have to have a strategic plan. And any organization is trying to build a to build their brand and build on success or initiate some success, you have to have a strategic plan. And then once you get that, identify a group of people that you know, like and trust that you can work with, and then slowly help them find their way onto your board or your executive committee. And then look at that group as your core team folks that you can pick up the phone and call and know that they’re all pointing in the right direction. And can you know, they can alert you so that you’re not surprised? on things that might be going on in the community, either business wise, or political wise, but I think it’s that first step, you know, every chamber CEO, if they’re moving, taking a job somewhere else, my belief is, the first thing you need to do is look at that strategic plan. If the community doesn’t have one, make sure that’s one of your first action items. Because if you don’t do that, then everyone’s going off in different directions. You’ve got to have a North Star, something everyone can focus on. And so you can build that team effort that way.

Brandon Burton 21:36
Right? Well, I’m glad you went that direction. With that with those, we’ve seen a lot of change in the chamber industry right now with leadership and everything. So for those who are new to community, I think that’s key advice and make sure that there is a strategic plan. And if not, do focus on getting one ASAP. But you had mentioned finding those people in your community that you can know, like and trust. So when you’re new to a community, any tips on how to find those people, because there’s certain people that want to be found, right? For good, for better or worse, they want to be able to filter out Who are those ones that you should know, like and trust?

Kyle Spurgeon 22:12
Well, I’ve been lucky, I haven’t had to go through a search process in 13 years, but just think about it. So if I’m in Jax, and if I was moving somewhere out west, or wherever it was going to interview with the search committee, you’re not going to take the job unless you have confidence in the organization in that search committee. So that’s probably the best place to start. Those are the people that because they’ve accepted that position on the search committee are obviously vested in the community, and the folks in the community or organization, trust them to make the right decision, identify one or two members of that, or the entire committee, and just tell them that who are the folks that I need to understand can best influence our success moving forward.

Brandon Burton 23:01
I love that piece of advice. So yeah, I have that that deeper conversation with that search committee once you get that job and seek their their counsel. And I’m sure it’ll be valuable. I’d like to ask everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future changers and their purpose going forward?

Kyle Spurgeon 23:24
But maybe your toughest question that you

Brandon Burton 23:27
bring out your crystal ball and see what it looks like I

Kyle Spurgeon 23:31
think we’ve seen it in I can only speak to our organization, something that has changed, you know, early, particularly I say early, three to four decades ago, and we’re all the way up into the 2000s, early 2000s. We could have encouraged someone to join the chamber, just because we were successful, creating new jobs and capital investment, they just want to be a part of that. Now, they’ve got to experience something. And so Chambers of Commerce, the our events, you know, our social media presence, it’s networking, and it’s an experiential type, membership. And people will no longer write you a check just because the chamber is great in your community, your your membership sales team has to build relationships with them. You have to support your existing industries, you have to run leadership programs. So you really have to be in tune with the folks in your communities and the business leaders. So I think moving forward chambers, just like you know, something that you look at, it’s a negative look around the country at the civic organizations and how their membership has declined. Well, it’s those civic clubs that have changed a bit who have been able to stabilize their membership and in any chamber organization. If you look at the average age of the men First, they may be skewing upward. Well, you’ve got to make sure you’re running young leaders programs, under 40 type programs, because those are the folks that are going to sustain your organization moving forward.

Brandon Burton 25:14
I like that I think I just had my own little aha moment because he gave that response. And so when you when you mentioned that, you know, today, people have that need to experience something. And it makes me think of just the connectivity that we have the the instant gratification, the, especially as you look at the younger generations coming up right now, if they can’t get Amazon to deliver whatever it is, you know, next day, or today would be even better, then it’s not good enough, right. So to experience something, you can’t just talk about doing something you can’t just, you know, have a good organization, they need to experience something they need to kind of need that dopamine hit right to be able to want to come back and have more. And if you’re able to provide some small wins along the way where they can see, okay, I’m seeing the value here, okay, I’m seeing where this is helping the community, I see how this impacts my business, leading up to those big wins is big economic development, contracts, things like that. I think it’s important for every chamber to be thinking about those small, small wins along the way to give that feedback loop of the what you’re doing is important, and they feel involved. So

Kyle Spurgeon 26:31
you know, one thing to do is make sure not only celebrate the successes that your chamber has in the community, but just think about ribbon cuttings, those in another, you’re celebrating the success of a small business or big business. So being a part of the success without taking credit for it of other organizations to where you attach your brand, to their brand. Because everyone loves attention. And if you’re a small business, we’re doing a ribbon cutting for you. They love seeing their faces and their names on our social media feeds, on the traditional media, news stories, and so attaching yourself and supporting other folks success without taking credit for it. And that’s a big help.

Brandon Burton 27:16
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve heard some chambers getting away from ribbon cutting somewhat, but I think there’s still a great value there with giving that that positive feedback loop so well, Kyle, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for those who are listening that want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Jackson, or learn more about Blue Oval city and how they can, you know, bring somebody else to their community because they’re not going to get forward right. What would be what would be the best way for them to to reach out and connect with you?

Kyle Spurgeon 27:56
Yeah, my favorite way actually is through LinkedIn. Really, all social media is not great all the time. But our team finds LinkedIn to be a fantastic source to connect and share information. Other than that, my email address love to give that out. It’s kspurgeon@jacksontn.com. And you know what our business you learn from other folks, we’ve, in the last several years, we’ve been to Wichita, Kansas, Greenville, South Carolina and Monroe, Louisiana, Franklin, Tennessee a few years ago, just learning what those communities were doing in their chamber and economic development teams. And yeah, we’re stealing ideas and bringing those back, we just are going to hopefully be able to announce a $34 million training center that our governor has put in his budget. The idea from that training center, pain from a visit to Wichita, Kansas.

Brandon Burton 28:56
That’s awesome. Yeah, those leadership visits as you know, inner city visits are, they’re very valuable. So by learning from each other, you know, those listening, reach out, talk to Kyle, you know, learn learn from him, and, and even take it to the next step and schedule a visit to another city and see how things are being done there. So that’s a whole other topic we can dive into right. Yeah. But Kyle, I appreciate you spending some time with us today, here on chamber chat podcast, I think you’ve provided some great value for those listening to really maybe just take another look at how they are building a sense of teamwork throughout their community to lead to some of these big wins. So I appreciate you sharing your experience and what’s going on there and Jackson, thank you.

Kyle Spurgeon 29:43
Thank you Brandon. Great questions and appreciate having the opportunity to be a part of it.

Brandon Burton 29:48
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From Membership Organization to Community Economic Driver with Mark Field

From Membership Organization to Community Economic Driver with Mark Field

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

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

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Our guest for this episode is Mark field mark is the Senior Vice President and membership at the Knoxville chamber and has been since 2004. Mark oversees investor development and relations events and programming, Marketing and Communications. He previously was the vice president development for the initial group and East Tennessee provider owned Managed Health Care Network. He has over 35 years of experience in sales and marketing. And he’s been very involved with several boards throughout the community as he’s an active member of his community. He is a 2011 graduate of leadership Knoxville he graduated southeast Institute in 2009, past chair of the US Chamber southeast Institute Board of Regents member of the Board of Trustees for the US Chamber Institute. And Mark is married to Vicki he has two step children and seven grandchildren. But Mark 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 out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so they can get to know you a little better.

Mark Field 3:09
Yeah, hello everyone. It’s great to be on the podcast. Brandon, thank you so much for the opportunity and I hope everyone’s having a great day. Something entered interesting about me so a lot of people might not know that for about seven years. I was on the competition barbecue circuit. And so I still love to cook barbecue obviously, because of that it got a little bit more time consuming than I had originally anticipated and a little bit more cost prohibitive than I’ve anticipated as as barbecue became more popular and but anyway that’s that’s something that I used to do a little bit of and still like to cook so that’s that’s something that a lot of people don’t know about me.

Brandon Burton 3:55
All right, so I have to ask I’m in Texas now. I spent some time in South Carolina I grew up in California barbecue is different everywhere. What is barbecue like in Tennessee?

Mark Field 4:06
You know our barbecue really kind of takes a lien from from both Kentucky and from Georgia and Memphis you know, we Knoxville Tennessee, you know kind of sits in the middle. A lot of people like the Memphis dry rub for ribs and a lot of people like the more Georgia sweet and tangy style for their pull pork sauces, so and then of course the great vinegar by sauce from Kentucky and and North Carolina are at you know, have a big influence here as well. So we’re a little bit of a melting pot on what kind of barbecue people lack in this region.

Brandon Burton 4:39
Yeah, you get the best of all of it. I didn’t hear any brisket in there, but you know, you get the best of

Mark Field 4:44
you know, it’s kind of funny. Granted, the very first brisket I cooked was a cross between what I would say a hockey puck and a conveyor belt. But But I learned I learned and so now it’s pretty good and I don’t I really don’t like any sauce on my bread. Should I really dislike my brisket? I’m a purist on that. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 5:05
we may need to talk offline. I’ve got a good Brianna rub. So well tell us a little bit more about the Knoxville chamber just to give us an idea of size, staff budget scope of work, things you’re involved with, just to kind of give us an idea of if to set the table for our discussion.

Mark Field 5:20
Yeah, gosh, the Knoxville chamber has been around since 1869. We’re old organization, old established organization, our community started as an actual board of trade. You know, and, and I would say just like any chamber, we’ve we’ve been through a lot of evolution. You know, do very well in our community have about 1900 investors. You know, our penetration rate, I’m gonna say somewhere around 10 to 15% of the businesses in our marketplace, with so for a large community that’s about standard for the industry, I think. We have 27 employees, some interns and some fellows, as well. So around 30 folks in the office, on and off, we do economic development, as well as Investor Services, investor relations. And we also have the downtown Knoxville Association. And we have the US Department of Commerce and our Tennessee small businesses wellness center all in one office. So there’s about 50 of us in the office. But chamber wise, we’re at about 30. associates.

Brandon Burton 6:28
All right. Well, there’s plenty of work there to keep those 30 Associates busy. So there really

Mark Field 6:34
are our budgets around $5 million. All in so that that’ll give you an idea.

Brandon Burton 6:39
Yeah, no, that’s great. So as we settled in on a topic for our discussion today, we wanted to focus on how the Knoxville chamber went from being more of a membership organization to more of a driver of community economics. So we will dive in much deeper into this conversation and the how that happened and what things look like now as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 10:06
All right, Mark, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking today about how the Knoxville chamber went from being a more of a traditional membership organization, to more of a driver of community economics. So tell us kind of what that evolution looked like, obviously, we know what a kind of a traditional chamber looks like and see them all over the country. But what was that signal that said, if we need to get involved with more important work than just membership and business structures?

Mark Field 10:37
Well, I will tell you, Brandon, three years ago, we got a new CEO, our CEO, retired, and they did a national search. And they landed on Mike Odom, from the Round Rock chamber in Texas who had that previous year had one chamber of the year in their category. And Mike was a bright young chamber professional that was really the guy for the job, no, no question about it. Mike came in and took about six months and went around, met with about 200 stakeholders in our community and, and asked for real candid feedback from them about, you know, what does the chamber do in our community? You know, what should we be doing? What kind of value do we really deliver to you as an organization that invests with us or considers itself a member and you know, where’s Knoxville, in their opinion, in its evolution of growth and success from an economic perspective, and came back and set our senior leadership team down. And I gotta tell you, the notes weren’t pretty. There were a lot of folks that were confused about our purpose. They were confused about exactly what they got from their investment with us. There were a lot of people that said, you know, we think you’re a good organization, you have a good staff, we know you’re doing some good things, but we can’t really put our finger our mind on exactly what it is that drives the economy going forward, and what you do specifically for our business, now, we did have a lot of small businesses that said they enjoyed our networking events and our our education oriented Vance, those kinds of things, but, but the the folks that drive the community, the larger stakeholders, the banks, the health systems, those kinds of folks were, were really confused about our mission, and purpose going forward. So we sat in the room for several hours and talked about that, what were we gonna do, Mike made a statement that I think kind of shocked all of us. And that was that he believed everybody in the Knoxville region deserved an equitable opportunity to be prosperous. And that basically means get a job, have a job available, if you want, why, and it’s really driven around that. Get an education, put your kids through school, have a have an affordable place to live, be able to get from place to place to do what it is you need to do. All those quality of life issues. Now we know that people are all people aren’t going to take advantage of that. But But certainly, it should be available to them. And they may ask the question that really catalyzed to get to your point, what what changed us as an organization? And he said, can anybody tell me what that has to do with membership. And when he said that, you know, I’ve been doing this for 20 years now. And for 16, or 17 of those years, it was all about membership. For me, I was a membership guy, I was all about features and benefits, I was all about the events, all about trying to figure out how to drive more features and benefits to our members. But when he said that it resonated with all of us. And I gotta tell you, it was a real catalystic moment for all of us to realize that if you’re a small business in our community, it really doesn’t matter if you’re a minority business, or are you just have one employee or two employees or whatever else it may be can’t afford and or don’t feel comfortable being a part of a big membership organization like ours, you still deserve to have the support you need to be successful in our community. And so it’s really not about membership. And so we transitioned at that point over time, over about a 18 month period of time, away from being a membership organization, to an investment oriented oriented organization that really deliver service to any business in our community that needs it. So whether it’s a small minority business, or whether it’s a large business, we don’t ask you to invest with us to help you. We say what do you need us to do? What are issues that you’re dealing with? Let us weigh into them, think about them that figure out what we can do about them if it is something we need to be involved in. And then we rely on people in our community and our businesses in our community to invest in that work. And so that’s been the transition And that we’ve made very successfully over the last three years into being more of an economic driver and economic development oriented organization, our community versus a membership organization.

Brandon Burton 15:14
That is a bold step, right? I mean, as you look at the structure of a chamber, so much of the financing is based on your membership, and if you say, let’s step away from membership, and the structure can kind of be similar, going from membership to investors, but just that approach of what’s in it for me as the member, you know, versus you guys going and saying, Let us help you what are the things you need, and then asking them to invest back in the community to be able to help others to be able to find that that equal opportunity to be prosperous,

Mark Field 15:45
I would be lying to you, Brandon, if I didn’t say I was the one person that in this organization that had been here the longest in on the membership side, obviously, that was not really excited about it, to be honest with you, I mean, it, it scared me it it, I was fearful that it might not be received, and that the communication of it would not be received as well as we had hoped it would. But I couldn’t have been farther from the truth. In that fear, in that our community did realize that there were things in our community that needed work that we weren’t focusing on as a chamber. And frankly, no one else in the community was we’re talking about attracting the right kind of talent to our region, keeping the college graduates in our community, affordable housing. Skilled let you know, making sure our high schools and our community colleges were turning out the right kind of skilled labor to meet the needs of the businesses in our community. broadband access. During the pandemic, we found out that there were 6000 households that had children in them in Knoxville, that did not have broad but had no access to broadband access. And so that’s unacceptable, you know, reading and, and lesson planning and doing the coursework they needed to do in the hybrid environment, our school system went to, it’s unacceptable. So those are not things that the Chamber historically were ever involved in. And all of those things are front and center with us.

Brandon Burton 17:23
Right. So I think for a lot of businesses, like you mentioned, they would maybe appreciate the chambers, they are a good organization do good work, couldn’t put a finger on it. But they might think of the chamber as networking, ribbon cuttings, you know, that forward facing work that you see chambers do all the time. So talk to us more about the messaging of how you went from changing from that traditional view of what a chamber is, to more of this more important kind of mission driven work?

Mark Field 17:53
Well, I, you know, I think the thing that that I was most fearful of is, you know, how will that messaging be accepted? And, you know, are we doing it in the right way. And there was no better way during the pandemic, as we were making this transition, then to get on the Zoom, and have conversations with people. And that’s what Mike had done. You know, he went out and met with those two other stakeholders. And so the pandemic offered us this really great opportunity for people to take a few minutes out of their day and get on Zoom. And us have those conversations with them about transitioning away from this event oriented features and benefits oriented chamber, to an organization focused on things that prac practically no one in our community was, was thinking enough about, and to talk with them through it. So not really just push message down to them, which which in the past was our, our more of our model, right sentiment, email sentiment newsletter. But this was more of that one on one. Hey, don’t you think everybody in our community deserves an equitable opportunity to be prosperous? Will you admit it’s hard to find employees where you admit your employees are having trouble finding affordable housing? Will you admit that there are the economics in our community are not growing at the rate it should, we need more high wage talent, we need more entrepreneurial activity. We need more of our bigger businesses doing business with the vendors that are currently in our marketplace. All of those things as we talked about them and had a conversation, you know, resume. And so what I was fearful of is that that that one way communication that we were so accustomed to, would not be effective. But what we found out was is we didn’t have to worry about that because we decided to have conversations with people. And in those conversations, the message resonated.

Brandon Burton 19:58
Right. Yeah, we Those one way conversations often don’t even get opened or read.

Mark Field 20:05
Our open rates are in the 30% range. Right? So 30% of the people are hearing the message on average. So

Brandon Burton 20:12
so as you do have those one on one conversations with with your members or investors now, do you get some of the feedback that they want some of that traditional chamber stuff, still some of the networking some of the events that you guys traditionally involved with? Did you totally cut them out? Are there things that you still maintain?

Mark Field 20:30
Yeah, you know, I think they would like to have both. You know, and we talk a lot about the the, the difficulty of being able to manage a staff that needs to do research work and needs to be boots on the ground on these affordable housing issues, and these tax issues and these talent issues, versus having three or four people inside an organization, the size of hours working on the bands. And so we just have to have just as a business, you know, I’ve had this conversation 1000 times, as a business owner, you have to decide what are we going to focus on. And we just don’t feel comfortable right now doing both. Now, in the future, may we do a little more events than we’re currently doing. And we still do events, they’re just around, the educational type events are around those ecosystem issues. Now, we’re talking about affordable housing, we’re talking about talent attraction, trying to give employees help in regard to how to attract employees, and how to retire. But the traditional things, the networking type events, we just don’t do anymore. We we don’t do any morning coffees, we don’t do any business after hours. We hope that people will network around these educational issues when we bring them together. But yeah, I mean that we had some negative folks that felt like, you know, this is just not what I want, for my best mentor from our membership. And, and we have certainly lost some of those smaller businesses. But what we have done is we have offset that investment, by great measure with those organizations that historically were never members. And I did that in quotes, air quotes, members of the organization in the past against small manufacturing facilities, you know, research and development companies, those kinds of companies don’t have the time and never came to chamber events and therefore weren’t members, those kinds of companies are investing in our organization heavily. And when I say heavily, it’s not unusual. And not Not to brag to be very factual, it’s not unusual for us to go meet with a small manufacturing facility just did that two days ago, who had never been a member of the chamber, and never saw the value of that features and benefits model who gave us $5,000, as an investor, toward the work we’re trying to accomplish, because it affects his business in a great way. So that’s, so I have less $500 members, which is our lowest tier, and I have more members, and I always say hi, and but I would say have more small or less than 50 employed businesses that historically weren’t Chamber members now invested in the organization.

Brandon Burton 23:26
I love that that answers that question I was going to have as far as the funding goes, because he’s step away from that traditional stuff. And a lot of those are moneymakers as non dues revenue generators. So stepping away from, you know, having a bunch of the $500 members to more of those mission focused members that really are investing in the work that you’re doing is is a big part of it. What other I guess from the budget finance side, how else are you guys funding the work that you’re doing? And beyond the membership?

Mark Field 23:59
Again, the majority of that funding is coming now from, you know, from targeted funding. So we, you know, for instance, we have had some folks come to us and say, Look, I’m investing x with you is what I consider my membership dues, my investments, right? And we don’t we call them investments. Now, as I said, not semantically, it’s it, they really are investing in our work not being a member, because, you know, that’s just not our model. But we’ve had a lot of them come and say, you know, my company has a foundation, or are I’m really interested in this certain project that you guys are involved in. And I want to give you some additional funding toward that targeted project. We didn’t do that before. You know, we didn’t we normally you know, we would do sponsorships, right. But but we didn’t have companies come to us and say, Hey, I really feel strongly about this project you’re doing to increase digital literacy in our menorah A community and help them get broadband access and give them access to Chromebooks so that they can find a job and help their kids with their lessons. I really liked that. So I know I’m giving you $5,000 As my investment. But here’s another $5,000 to put into that project. We, that’s a new happening for us, right? It’s it. We didn’t used to have a lot of people come in our office or call us and say, Hey, I’d like to give you more money. Yeah, it just didn’t happen. But because of the mission work, and because of the projects that we’re involved in, that that is happening. And it’s refreshing. I mean, it’s people want to spend the dollars that they’ve made in their business, that have leadership capacity in their organizations, they want to see the community get, and they want to see those economic issues resolved. And so it’s it’s been, it’s been good to see that that kind of, and we still, we still do some signature events, we still do our our annual awards for the best businesses in our community. We call them the pinnacle Business Awards, we still do endeavor, which is our young professional Summit, where we bring them together to understand what’s going on in the community, and how, what what an important role they play. We stood up still do peel and eaten and politic in, which is our shrimp boil political advocacy event. So we still do those big we have for signature events that we did. And we still have sponsorships. But now our sponsorship model is an umbrella sponsorship over one of these ecosystem issues. So we have hired issues that that they can sponsor and they sponsor, anything that happens in that if we release a white paper, their names on it, if we do a an event, their names on it, if we have a speaker, their names on. So we have those five ecosystem umbrella sponsors now. And so that that has, again offset some of that business after hours, morning coffees, education, small education, small business education stuff,

Brandon Burton 27:14
right now. That’s great. So this work that you guys are involved with now, it’s big work, it’s important work that needs to be addressed. And it was being ignored largely. And you guys have stepped in and really taken ownership on that. So that’s a big responsibility. Because if things don’t happen, now, the fingers pointing back to you, right, as an organization. So my question is, what, what sort of touch points are you having with your investors throughout the year so they can see the work you’re involved with? A lot of times these advocacy type topics are kind of hard to see that, you know, movement happening, because it doesn’t happen overnight. Right. It’s a lot of the research and, and things like that, like you had mentioned. So how do you keep your investors apprised as to the progress of the work?

Mark Field 28:02
A couple of ways. And again, this was new for me. So I’d been at the Chamber 1617 years before my came along. And so we have issued six white papers. In the last three years, we had never issued a white paper before, we had never taken a solid stance on an issue in our community. Even politically, we always tried to ride the fence like a good chamber work, right. And so we’ve issued white papers around some of these economic issues, the most recent being transitioning the Knoxville economy into the innovation and digital age, which talks about things like high wage talent, more entrepreneurialism, more, more and better civic furniture, you know, more things for to attract young professionals to our region, and high growth companies research and development, life sciences, biosciences, those kind of things. So anyway, so we issued those white papers. And we, you know, obviously, a lot of people don’t want to read white papers, but so usually when we will, on our touchpoints, with with our investors, whether it’s through our newsletter, or just our emails or whatever else, we usually will mention, have you read? Do you know, maybe a lot of Do you know, kind of stuff? Did you realize that in our region, we only retained in the last 10 years 4% of people in the 25 to 54 H group and Do you realize what kind of effect that has on our economy? So a lot of that kind of, I guess what I would call attention getting statements about Were you aware that these things are happening in the community that again, you know, a lot of people you talk to in our community or so what’s your I would not Knoxville is a great community. We got a great college. We’re actually winning in football. Now, you know what’s wrong when Doc’s? Well, the reality is, is we’re not growing at the pace of some of our peers, and we don’t have the the economics that we should have for a community our size and with the assets we have. So we’re looking at Raleigh and we’re looking at Greenville, South Carolina we’re looking at at Tulsa, we’re looking at places like that, who has had that high wage talent and, and high growth companies located there. So So those to answer your question, I mean, we, we ask provocative questions that, that make them look at some of that information we provide to them. We do a lot more roundtable discussions now than we ever did. It’s where we’re bringing in different parts of the community together to I guess, you could say debate, those issues middle, we have become more of a convener where we shine the bright bot spotlight on an issue and and then bring people in that affect it, and collaborate and partner with them. Brandon, in this new world we live in the hardest part of our jobs, is figuring out, do we lead on an issue? Do we follow on an issue? Do we collaborate? Do we get out of the way? On someone that’s doing it well, and just promote them? That that’s a new role for us. But you know, I think Mick talked about this in the horizon initiative with ACCE, you know, chambers really can and shouldn’t be the conveners. With all the social political fragmentation in communities, certainly we have our share of that. And so we now can become that place. And that organization that says, we should be thinking about this, now we can figure it out together. But the fact of the matter is, this is an issue, and we’ve got to deal with

Brandon Burton 31:56
it. Right. Now that addresses it. Well, and as you talk about how you have those touch points was brought to questions as thought provoking questions, I guess, I see, you can leverage that in several different ways, right through through newsletter, through an email through a video posts through a social media posts, you’re able to, those are great. I hate using the word teaser, but it gets people interested, right, it provokes their interests where they want to learn more, they want to dive in a little deeper. So I appreciate you sharing some of those examples of how you’re helping to stimulate that discussion further. I wanted to ask you, if for those listening, what kind of tip or action item might you have for those listening who want to take their chamber up to the next level?

Mark Field 32:44
You know, the greatest lesson learned, you know, we were doing well as a chamber financially. Prior to this, this shift. You know, I think our community is better now, for us having made the shift in a big way. But that was all catalyzed around listening to our stakeholders. And and you can’t really survey him. You know, we do surveys, I’m not saying that you don’t survey, but you can’t use like a, what I would call the old traditional memberships are by what do you want? What should we do more? What should we not do any, because I don’t think people can have that candid conversation with you about what the real issues that they’re dealing with are. And people are not going to sit down and take 30 or 45 minutes on a survey and get the entire essay top paragraphs for you. I would just say a really strong tip to any SAS chain, whether you’re making the shift or not, is to go on a listening tour. And sit down and have open candid conversations with their stakeholders. And be willing to accept that feedback and make decisions based on that, as opposed to sitting in the office in the ivory tower, so to speak, and make decisions based on what you think your knowledge base or your experience tell you. I will tell you I couldn’t be I couldn’t have been further wrong. In my perception of what we were delivering to the community and the value of it, then what we heard and call it fall on the sword or whatever else you want to call it. I’m glad that we heard the news we heard because I think our community’s better now, having realized that we probably weren’t as effective in our community as we should.

Brandon Burton 34:52
Yeah, that’s big to admit that to that.

Mark Field 34:57
It was tough. Yeah, yeah, I can imagine A lot of what I call weeping and gnashing of teeth are

several months, right? What do you mean? We’re not doing it? Right? What do you mean? I don’t like it? What do you mean that appreciate it. But again, I mean, you know, your customers, you know, a lot of really great organizations, Apple being probably the lead that we all recognize, listen to their customers and give their customers what they want.

Brandon Burton 35:23
And I’ll say the surveys, you don’t need to scrap them all together. That might be the big one initiates that listening tour, it gives you that focus on who to go listen to first. And maybe it’s those people that aren’t responding to the surveys. Maybe they’re the ones who need to go listen to first.

Mark Field 35:38
Yeah, I think the people that we have been the most surprised by are people that were never engaged with us, that that have given us really good ideas, given us investment, have been more engaged in this new model that we have. That that’s been a really pleasant surprise is to see plant managers and owners of small manufacturing businesses weigh in and become more a part of what we’re trying to

Brandon Burton 36:07
accomplish. Right. Now. That’s great. So I like asking everyone I have on the show about how do you see the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?

Mark Field 36:19
Well, you know, I think, again, the horizon initiative that came out several years ago that MC was instrumental in in, you know, getting together, and that Sheri Ann has, has certainly continued to press on all of us that it’s important to look at what the future looks like. I would simply say there are a lot of ways that people can engage with chambers and membership organizations, and receive the kind of benefits that that we have driven to them in the past, whether it’s, again, small business education, or whether it’s networking events, and things like that. Those can be duplicated by other organizations. What can’t be duplicated, is finding out what the real core economic issues in your community are, and doing research and trying to figure out how to convene the people that can fix those that is unique for every community, what’s a problem in Knoxville may not be a problem in Chattanooga. And there, they may intersect. And if they do, then you have collaborative opportunities to learn. But I would just simply say the future for us is chambers, and I’m on the backside of it. Surely, the future for us as chambers is to listen, and to understand our marketplaces better, and affect them in a real way. As opposed to just throwing some features and benefits and services at a and calling that a day.

Brandon Burton 37:49
Yeah, gone are the days to be in a cookie cutter organization where what you’re doing is good for everybody. You need to listen and customize and, and really be willing to pivot you know, if your work isn’t resonating any more with the needs in your community, take a look at where you do need to be involved. Thank you for for that insight. So as we finish up here, Mark, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for those listening who might want to reach out and learn more about how the Knoxville chamber went through this transition, and especially those who may have a little cold feet, it would be the best way for them to reach out and connect.

Mark Field 38:28
Yeah, and I would say you know, for us, it was about a two year process so it wasn’t quick. So I would just encourage you to go to Knoxville chamber.com There’s a lot of information about what we’re doing there. And those white papers exists there. And you can see how we’re trying to drive information and, and resources for our businesses on our website. I certainly am happy to have this conversation in more depth or around specific issues and so you can reach me obviously at mfield@knoxvillechamber.com. And I’m happy to you know, again send you any kind of printed material that we may have or or give you any conversation opportunities that you might need to help clarify and look forward to hearing from folks.

Brandon Burton 39:18
That’s great. And now I’ll get your your email and the Chamber website in our show notes for this episode so people can check that out and reach out and connect with you. But Mark I really appreciate you spending some time with us today here on chamber tap podcast. And in really this transition you guys have made is really something that chambers all over should be looking at. I’m not going to say they shall do it because every community is a little different. But they should be taking a look at what is the the important work you’re involved with and are you still being relevant. And this is a great example of that. So thank you for for sharing that with us today. I really appreciate it.

Mark Field 39:55
Right and I appreciate that appreciate your your podcast. You know we learn from each other That’s the best way for us to learn is to learn. We don’t there’s no sense of us all having to make the same mistakes over and over again and, and certainly I’ve learned from so many great chamber professionals and your podcast is another great way to learn from Greg chamber professionals operation.

Brandon Burton 40:15
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Looking 25 Years into the Future with Bryan Derreberry

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Bryan Derreberry. 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.

Feel free to join our Chamber Chat Champions Facebook Group to discuss this episode and to share your own experiences and tips with other Chamber Champions.

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Introduction

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.

And now your host, he enjoys smoked meat from his Traeger, he’s my dad Brandon Burton.

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Jason Mock, President and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for his chamber.

Jason Mock 0:45
Two years ago, we brought in Holman Brothers to help our organization go to that next level. And in those two years, our team has transformed the way that we think about sponsorships and non dues revenue. And I would really encourage you if you’re looking to take your chamber to the next level to bring on the Holman Brothers.

Brandon Burton 1:02
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

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Our guest for this episode is Bryan Derreberry. As President and CEO of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce for 11 years, Bryan leads one of South Carolina’s largest chambers in its regional advancement work. Bryan has an established executive management track record, featuring more than 30 years in chamber leadership and advocacy roles. Prior to joining the Charleston Metro Chamber. Bryan was president and CEO of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce in Wichita, Kansas, where he directed the state’s largest Metro Chamber for seven and a half years. He also served as president and CEO of the Catawba County, North Carolina and Middleton Ohio Chambers of Commerce respectively. Bryan began his chamber career as a state lobbyist for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, of course in Ohio. He holds holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in political science from Wittenberg University and is and has completed graduate coursework towards a combined MA and PhD in American politics, and international relations from the American University. Bryan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. And I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a

Bryan Derreberry 2:31
little bit better. Well, Brandon, thank you for the opportunity. You know, it’s I love when you say chamber champions, because I I think about all my colleagues across the country and the amazingly important work they do and strengthening their business communities and advancing their regions. And I think one of the interesting parts of my background is my intention, when I started my career, was to go into lobbying full time, and had that chance with the Greater Cincinnati chamber. And at that time, that was the fourth largest chamber in America and represented that business community in Columbus, Ohio, four days a week and really treasured the opportunity. And somebody said to me, do you miss your lobbying days? And I think one of the things that people can learn about chamber executives, is that I said, I lobby as much now as I did when I did it full time, right? This looks different. I said it different audiences, different opportunities. A lot of times, it could be anything from a neighborhood association, embracing a new piece of infrastructure, or a group that’s not familiar with our chamber, we launched a major DNI effort three years ago. So we’re, we’re speaking out in numerous communities in our metro area, and sharing with them about the chamber for the first time. So it’s powerful to think about how every chamber exec in the country and many of their teammates day in and day out need great lobbying skills. So those degrees and that initial experience have really served me well.

Brandon Burton 4:15
Absolutely, yes. And I firmly believe that anyone listening to this it’s involved with the chamber, they are champions for their community and and when I tried thinking of a name for the audience, you know, that that seemed to fit well, so kind of rolls off your tongue but it has great meaning to so thanks for for recognizing that and you take a moment and tell us a little bit more about the the Charleston Metro Chamber to kind of the type of chamber Scope of Work size, staff budget, that sort of thing. Just to give us some perspective before we dive into our conversation.

Bryan Derreberry 4:52
You bet. We have 1600 members. A budget that said six and a half have million 30 full time staff members. And we have four primary platforms that we deliver our work through. Number one, like every chamber, a significant membership platform. Number two, a important government relations platform. We have three full time lobbyists on our team, one up in the state house in Colombia, and then two that work locally with our three counties and 30 municipalities. I think that’s a distinctive flavor for our organization, with regard to how important it is to get alignment, in all those communities, and I’ll talk a little bit later about, we use a partner ethos to lobby versus the bloody nose ethos that seems to be typical for the rest of our United States today. And that serves us very well. We have a large community advancement platform. And within that platform, we do diversity, equity and inclusion work. We do significant professional development programming work for our members. And also we do workforce and talent development. And then our marketing and communications platform is the fourth platform with regard to making sure not only that membership, can actively get engaged in what we do, but also the 830,000 people. And 165,000 employees represented by our membership, have an appreciation for what goes on within the chamber. So a very gifted group of folks, board of directors of 68, Executive Committee of 26. So very actively involving all the sectors in our metro area, and the volunteer leadership of our chamber. And I know one thing that chamber champions understand out there is that a lot of times we have to explain to people that we are a volunteer, directed organization. And they’ll come to us and say, Oh, you need to take a position on this issue. Well, we’ll go through our committee structure, and determine whether we take a position on the issue or not, it’s not my decision, or our government relations team, or our workforce development team to make a policy decision. It’s the responsibility of our volunteers. And I think after a number of years here, people now appreciate that, and they value that. So I think that’s another dynamic of our chamber is we very much want to put our members and key leadership roles in directing the chamber, we see ourselves as a regional advancement organization. So we look at that three county metro area and we look at big Rakesh used to work on already mentioned diversity, equity, inclusion, housing, attainability, mobility solutions, overall quality of business environment. So significant work that will advance our region over the next 25 to 50 years.

Brandon Burton 8:09
Right. I love that the fact that you pointed out you know, if the issue gets presented to the chamber, you take it to your committees, your board. A while back, I had Matt Morrow from the Springfield, Missouri chamber on the podcast, and he talked a lot about the wisdom of crowds. And when especially when you have a board of that size, 68 and different committees and whatnot, as you bring a different different topics in there. They all come in from their different backgrounds and experience and be able to know what the vision is the direction the Chamber’s trying to go. And then from there, combined experience and wisdom, they’re gonna land on the best possible outcome and direction to take up on different issues and policies even so glad you pointed that out.

Bryan Derreberry 8:57
You know, Brandon, I would strongly agree with your assessment. I am. This is my 36th year in the profession and I, overall, those board meetings, executive committee meetings, government relations committee meetings, I’ve seen the wisdom of our leaders proven out time and again. And I think another thing that every chamber champion listening recognizes is that they may come up with a position that’s contrary to what I personally believe, on a policy issue, maybe even what our team believes. And at the end of the day, we step forward and implement that decision, because it is their organization. So I think if you’re young and you’re chamber champion development, it’s important to realize that and of course, we want passionate people in our profession. And we want people that are highly skilled and able to craft how an issue needs to be examined. But then you have to be responsible to the degree See that it may end up somewhere that you didn’t imagine it would go. In over all those years, I’ve never seen it a selection of an outcome or a policy position that wasn’t best for the business community. So my encouragement would be to trust, that leadership, trust working with them to find the right pathway forward for your community. And there’s an old saying, you and I both heard of Brandon, you know, if they write it, they’ll underwrite it. And they, if they develop it and fill, it’s their own, they will get up and give public testimony, they’ll provide funding for lobbying efforts. So that’s part of the beauty of this profession is that, you know, we do lead heterogeneous organizations. This is not the American Dental Association or the American Medical Association. So we’ll have everything from a sole proprietor to somebody leading Joint Base Charleston here with 26,000 employees, and all across that spectrum, people will bring input an interest, and that’ll craft a composite position, or a composite direction. That’s really powerful. Right? Takes a lot of patients.

Brandon Burton 11:16
That’s right, it does. It takes a lot of patients. So our topic for discussion today, I’m a big fan of helping people and even chambers to understand the potential the power within them to become something greater. And for our discussion today, we’re focusing on looking 25 years into the future, which I think is very important in that aspect as far as realizing what the potential is of your organization, to be able to see what direction you can go and what needs to happen. You know, those those baby steps so to speak between here and there, and we’ll dive into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Bryan, we’re back. And as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about looking 25 years into the future as a chamber organization looking into the future. What at the end of this conversation, I’ll ask you how you see the future of chambers going forward. But in the meantime, before we get to that future and How do you see from here moving forward over the next 25 years,

Bryan Derreberry 15:04
Brandon and we do something that we feel is particularly powerful. About mid year we’ll begin a process called annual partnership calls. So we will go to somewhere between 180 to 250 of our members. And we sit down. And we ask a couple of questions that influence what that runway looks like over the next 25 years. The first question is, talk about the next three to five years of your company, and identify where you think there are excellent opportunities for your competitive growth, and then identify things that are impediments, speed bumps, and then we just, were quiet. And I think anytime you ask somebody about their company, and how they’re doing, where they’re going, what’s working, what’s challenging, you get really good, really good input. And the other the other question that really registers with them is that if there were one to two things in our metro area that you could change for the better, what would they be? So I’d love to tell you, we come back with a lot of disparate information and no agreement, we come back with a real clear picture as to what are the most significant opportunities, and what are the most pressing challenges. And when we look at those in combination, a lot of what we described on how we’re designed as an organization is influenced by the annual partnership calls in our area housing attainability is the number one regional issue. It will be a 25 year fix. To get the proper stock, the proper pricing, we’re in a real challenge with regard to our supply versus our demand. We’re growing by 33 net people a day, and we’re just having a hard time providing workforce housing that’s affordable. So we have a huge coalition working on that all three counties, public sector partners, private sector leaders, citizens, different associations. And we know right now we’re at 6000 houses behind for attainable housing in our metro market. That’s a couple of decades. So another one is mobility solutions, we’re getting ready in 2026 to undertake high speed bus lanes. So major mass transit project 21 Miles 2020 stops along the way. And for our metro, you know, if you’re in a, we were just in Boston for Metro leadership visit, they’ve been hopping on the tee for a while now. For us, that’s an important first step, there will be other lines to follow. But removing, even if we can remove eight to 10% of the traffic from our highways, that extends their longevity, it cuts down on congestion. So those are the kinds of issues that emerge. And it’s not us sitting in some room at the Chamber, figuring out where we go the next 25 years. It’s the people that want to be the employers, the citizens, the electeds, that continue to help our region thrive, identify where we’re going. And in that mix, there are many of our elected bodies, there are stakeholder partners. So we’re getting a really great level of input that’s formulating where we go. The other thing we just completed, we did an 18 month study. It’s called one region roadmap and used SP Friedman out of Chicago, Illinois to undertake our effort. And what it does, as a lot of communities don’t know what those big rock issues are, doesn’t take very long to figure those out. But this is going to be a 10 year plan, where every year we’ll identify five to seven priorities for the region to work on collectively. And there will be we’re using a local governing network,

which my political science professors from long ago would have really liked hearing. But what that is it means there’ll be a lead agent, we’re going to be the lead agent for housing attainability will involve other stakeholders throughout the community. And then we’ll begin to work on gaining annual metric identified success and creating more attainable housing. So equitable did Dual accesses another one, entrepreneurial development is another one. But this gives us a roadmap as a region for a decade. And at the heart of the one reaching roadmap is equitable access for all of our citizens to living, learning and earning opportunities. So I think you have to have a foundational piece that engages everyone. And that’s the piece, we want everybody to be able to have those attributes as we move through the decades ahead. So listen, well build a strategic plan that has lead agents that will be responsible for the work that’s being undertaken. And they get after it year in and year out, we have a large steering committee that will evaluate each of the lead agents on an annual basis to make sure they’re performing. So you know, it’s the classic thing brand. And if you if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and we’re just really dedicated to that kind of work. And I would encourage chamber champions across the country that are listening, there’s a couple of key learnings in there. Number one, you want to bring as many people along as possible. So get out and talk to your members, talk to your elected officials, talk to the people that you’re going to need to do this with. We never say the chamber is going to do this work. We say along with our partners, we’re gonna tackle these annual priorities. The other thing is to make them concrete. That’s hard for a lot of communities. I’ve been in other communities that love to study and talk. But when you say annually, we’re going to achieve x, y, we’re gonna accomplish why. And then you report on it, then you have credibility, then it’s not a study that goes and sits on the shelf and collect stuff. So listen, well, engage others be concrete, and produce results. So we’re, we’re excited about one region roadmap, we kick it off in October. So when you and I talk this time next year, yeah, I’ll be able to, I’ll be able to tell you more about getting divorced in one region roadmap.

Brandon Burton 22:18
Yeah. So I know leading up to this discussion, you had shared with me, some of these topics that you guys are looking on. Maybe areas of focus, as you look to the future of Charleston, and and you talked about some of these, like the attainable housing and the you know, the infrastructure and mobility and things like that, as you have these different. We’ll call them topics areas of focus. How do you go about focusing on each one? I assume there’s some sort of a committee for each area of focus? Is that right? Have you said it’s one thing to create division, and we need to expand and put some focus and, and work over in these areas? But then how do you go from that, that vision to actually rolling it out to? Let’s take some action on these different steps? What does that look like there in Charleston?

Bryan Derreberry 23:12
You know, it’s interesting, and I think inherent in your in your question is a couple of things for chamber champions number one, regardless of the size of your chamber, and I have a deep passion for chambers that have staff under the number of 10. I think they work harder than any other chamber in the country, you’re going to need to hire some experts. We’ve been very intentional over the past 11 years, that we add people to our team that have significant expertise. So while they won’t do it on their own, they have a career track record in the areas whether it’s workforce development, government relations, diversity, equity and inclusion, attainable housing. They’re an expert. Because I think that you’ll be pleased as a chamber when you make that investment. And when you’re smaller, and maybe one or two major issues. So we’ve been very intentional about in that group of 30. Hiring people that have that level of expertise. The other thing that we’ve done is built a very strong committee structure. So however, those issues are moving through our organization, there are one or two or more committees that will be touching them. And we’ll be following through on what we commit to do organizationally to achieve results. The final thing is a talk a little bit about that local governing network and if anybody would like information on that we’re happy to share. You have to engage the whole region. So you look at something like the high speed bus lanes. Our Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments is working with all the governments along that set of high speed bus lane routes. We’re working through our regional policy committee, which handles all of our local regional work. But there also is going to be a lead agent in that area that will pull together, how many ever stakeholders are required to implement. So a lot of it’s leveraging what I call critical mass. So you got some key folks at the top that have expertise, and then they’re bringing partners together to, in this instance, transportation, overlays for development on those 20 bus stops. So you know, there’s some sophistication that’s required when you do that kind of work. So, you know, my encouragement would get experts on your team, make sure the region understands the top issues, bring stakeholders together, that can move the issue. And then, again, metrics that make sure over 510 1520 years, you’re making progress, because in that timeframe, Brandon, you and I both know, you’re gonna have different mayors, you’re going to have different city councils, you’re going to have different county councils, you’re going to have a different state legislative delegation. So you have to be you chamber, and top stakeholders that are in it for the long run, you have to keep the plumb line very clear, and keep coming back to the issues. Because a lot of times public and private sector partners can get easily distracted. So that’s the other thing is that we look at all of our work as forever work. Okay, you’re forever doing housing affordability, you’re forever improving infrastructure. You’re forever maintaining your business climate. For us as a coastal community, you’re forever looking at resiliency. So part of that is developing a drumbeat internally to be in it for the long game. Yeah, every year, as you said, you want to have annual achievements. But you have to have those long game goals, talented team, great partners, focus and metrics to be able to move to we call them big rock issues. Because they don’t go away. You know, somebody said, you know, we have funding, we have something called Accelerate greater Charleston that funds. A lot of the professional staff that the technical professional staff is somebody said, Well, when are we going to stop doing accelerate greater Charleston? And we just smile, and we say never,

Brandon Burton 27:50
whenever you give up, you know, like,

Bryan Derreberry 27:53
you want to quit? Yeah, you know, and last one out, cut off the lights. And what I think what helps private sector companies, especially if they’re developing products, have said, you have an r&d arm, don’t you? And they Oh, yeah, we have research and development. Well, for chambers, your research and development is positioning the region for the future and putting the building blocks in place. I said, if your r&d went away, you’d be selling the same product over and over, you’re always looking to improve. And that begins to help people wrap their brains around. Okay, this is forever work. This is a long game. And the other beauty I just shared earlier, we went to Boston with 100 leaders, is get your leaders out to other metro markets that have like opportunities and challenges. So they can see the kind of work they’ve done. And then we come home and people say, hey, we saw how they did that in Boston, we can do that. Or they come home and say, wow, they had a big miss, we can really learn from that. So when we tackle a like issue, we don’t make the same mistakes. The other beauty of that trip is that you think all the leaders in your community know each other and kind of have a comparable set of aspirations. They don’t know. So when you get 100 people together that are having lunch and dinner and some staying up till college late hours, getting to know each other better. They come home aligned. You know, a lot of this is about not only what you’re tackling, but its alignment, and persistence. So that annual trip kind of says, Okay, we’ve gotten to x with high speed bus lanes. So we’re gonna go look at somebody that’s either built them all the way out, or maybe they have light rail. So again, it’s I call it staying 20% dissatisfied. Yeah, never, never 100% satisfied. that you have to continually prod the region to achieve at a higher level. Part of the challenge to Brandon is that, you know, I’ve been in places that are BB plus communities, it’s hard to get a BB plus to an A, it’s really easier to take a C or a D and pop it up to an A, because people feel the threat. They feel the need for collaboration and alignment. You know, when you’re a B plus, you’re kind of fat and happy. Right? Do we really need to be in a

Brandon Burton 30:33
you’re too comfortable? Any adjustments? Yeah.

Bryan Derreberry 30:37
And that’s when we say there are 396 other mshs in this nation, that one our employers and they want our talent. So yes, we need to be in a

Brandon Burton 30:45
Yeah, that’s I love that point. And that being the 20% just satisfied it. Yes. Always, always looking for that room to improve. I love that. salutely. So and I’m sure this answer will vary. But as there are different committees and whatnot on these different topics. You had mentioned doing these leadership visits to other cities, which I think is awesome. It’s a great way to look at a certain topic and how a city that you may aspire to be like and in certain aspects that I see great value in that. As far as the nitty gritty, the day to day. How often do some of these committees meet as a monthly? Is it weekly? Is it quarterly? Are they all different? Depending on what it is? How do you? How do you say that in your community?

Bryan Derreberry 31:32
There, at least monthly, if not twice a month. And we’re big believers, our board this year will have had 10 board meetings and 10 executive committee meetings. You know, I hear people say, Oh, we you know, chamber champions. I apologize if I’m stepping on toes. Oh, we do a quarterly. Okay, these kinds of issues. If you do a quarterly and somebody misses a quarterly meeting, they miss half a year. Yeah. Okay. We call that creating a drumbeat. Whether it’s committees that are working on policy, or programs or initiatives, or executive committee and board. If you lose the drumbeat within your organization on key issues, you’re not going to be able to move fast enough to make a difference. Well, they’re all busy people. And I’m gonna give you a great example. Brandon, we tried to go to every other month when I was in Wichita, and the board rebelled. That’s a cool message. Yeah, one I’m meet monthly. So I think sometimes, yeah, it’s a lot of work. We have an amazing executive ops team. And it’s a lot of work to do 20 meetings a year with, you know, large lead volunteer bodies. And it’s the work we signed up for.

Brandon Burton 32:58
Absolutely. And it’s that forever work as it’s that forever work.

Bryan Derreberry 33:03
And, you know, the the thing we talk about is, and I just met with our exec ops team yesterday, and they’re incredible. And we said, our goal is to create an experience for every volunteer that has never been met or matched in our metro area, from knowing about their family, their names, their interest, and taking care of them. So when it comes time for one of them to be an officer, or to lead a committee or to get more of their people engaged Hekia I’m going to deal with the Charleston Metro Chamber. And so that that kind of intentional focus. And that’s why we sold out that trip to Boston in record time. And we don’t want to take 200 people, you know, we’re kind of like 100 Yeah, you know, if you get over 100, you start to have a three ring circus, and they don’t bond the same way. Yeah. But that that internal clock for us? It’s kind of like a metronome. How are we honoring them and engaging them. So they think I’ve never had a volunteer experience like this. Because let’s face it, we are battling for their time, talent and treasure, there are 4600 non enough for profits, and just the greater Charleston area. You know, as your communities get bigger, that’s probably 15,000 20,000 25,000. So it’s pretty rarefied air to get top leaders. The other thing we do a little bit different because we are really committed to the ENI is that we don’t have to have the the gal or the guy in the corner office. A lot of organizations just say, Oh, I only want the CEO or the president. Right. Well, we’ll say is give me number three, or number four, that will be that CEO and president in 10 to 15 years Yeah, so we can have the level of gender ethnic, racial diversity on our board that reflects our community. It also makes us a lot more healthy from an organizational standpoint,

Brandon Burton 35:13
and possibly more time to give to the purpose and the cause that you’re working on to always go for the number one, they’re going to be some of the busiest people. Not that the number three or four is not busy, but they’re able to work it in a little bit more and build that future along with you. So you’ve hit on some really awesome points in our discussion here. If you were to try to condense down to maybe a tip or an action item for chamber champions listening that want to take their chamber up to the next level, what would you put out there and suggest for them to consider

Bryan Derreberry 35:53
my greatest tip would be pick one to three things in become an expert. And that that’s going to weave right back into what we’ve been talking about Brandon, you’ve got to be committed to do it long term. So let’s say you pick developing a pipeline from your high schools and middle schools for your top two or three business sectors just know front side that that’s going to be 15 to 25 years. Think what we learned during the pandemic, because it was probably a sharing experience for every chamber and business member Association in our nation is that it was the meaningful work that maintained our most significant investors. It wasn’t the business after hours, it wasn’t the networking events. It was they could look at the chamber. And the chamber in our metro area got together with the council of governments and other stakeholders. And we created a whole reopening strategy for our metro marketplace. We met every day at four o’clock, Monday through Thursday for almost six months to get the region opened again. I felt like I had a whole new family. And sometimes it got irritating. But I wouldn’t have traded that we build bonds between organizations and governments that we never had before. So that would be my tip be be substantive, be relevant. And we use a term I think it’s the you know, if you were to ask me the the Chamber’s magic power, our secret sauce, we use a term called seine center, sa N E. Your chamber, chamber champions can be the same center on these issues, you can bring parties together. And whether it’s workforce development, whether it’s diversity, equity, inclusion, whether it’s housing attainability, whether it’s infrastructure solutions, whether it’s recruitment and retention of either businesses or employees, you can be the organization that brings all the parties together, that need to be aligned to do the work. That to me is what a chamber really is. Our mission statement is initiate advocate and empower the region to produce a prosperous business environment. And it’s a little different than a lot of chambers. Because they flip business environment in a region, we know that our region has to have the ingredients that are aligned to make employers, employees and citizens successful. So look at the region as your laboratory, look at your county as your laboratory. If you’re a City Chamber, look at your city as a laboratory, and find those one to three things that really need to be worked on. That would be my greatest encouragement. And and when you do it, you’re gonna get real popular real fast. So you’re gonna have to learn how to say no, yeah. That’s right, because let’s say this camera does such a good job on developing those middle and high school talent pipelines for industry. We wanted to do this now. We wanted to do that. So I think the other thing is to when you do those annual partnership calls, as I mentioned to you, we didn’t come back with 50 Things came back with probably five to seven things that every employer is focused on. So you know, stick to those critical realities, and and go deep and do a great job. And then when it comes renewal time and recruitment time, somebody will say, Oh, yeah, that chamber. They really have the best interest of the business. Unity in our region in mind, they’re worth investing in. So that would be my do stuff that matters and do it. Well.

Brandon Burton 40:09
I love that. So the question that I mentioned at the very beginning that that we would circle back to towards the end is how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Bryan Derreberry 40:21
I’m bullish, I think about what’s occurred over the window is what we’re in pandemic endemic, the past two, three quarters of a year, and I know for our chamber just to bring it home to right here, we look totally different than when we entered. We have a set of members, a set of stakeholders, a set of raving fans in the community, because of how we opened up our organization, for allowing us to assist anybody that needed help. And that that runs a little counter to the the typical Oh, we only help members. Well, when when your community is facing what we’ve all faced. During the pandemic, you help everybody you can help. And you make again, choices. So we look very different today, we look more open to diverse partners, diverse audiences. And we’re working on stuff a lot of chambers, you know, 20 years ago, maybe if you were in a major metro community, you were doing DNI, but I think chambers are going to be leaders for their regions, excuse me. And the years ahead, unlike any other time, I think that the credibility of the chamber when they tackle those issues, even if they’re not successful, and they’re going to be successful in the vast majority of instances. I think there’s a caring tone and tenor and a level of respect by leaders saying, Yeah, we need a rallying point. And I think I think it’s changed. And if your your chambers worth its salt, it’ll step into that opportunity and, and really make a big difference. SOT I’m very excited for the future. However, I do believe one of the things we continually learn is that it can’t, it can’t be all about the fun stuff. Right. And I mean, there are, somebody said to me, how many organizations in your community do networking events, somewhat goods? Probably all 46 months? not for profits? Yeah. So yes, do we have strong programming? We do. We do. But we’re probably one of the communities leaders for providing professional development programming. We have the six different leadership types of offerings. So we know right now, as you well know, in your market, Brandon, attracting and retaining talent is the number one business issue. So again, always making sure your chamber is plugged into what’s relevant, and then providing it with the highest level of expertise you can undertake. And if you’re small, don’t let that slow you down. You’ve got people in your membership. You’ve got volunteers and members that can come alongside of you, and build out the type of programming that you need. That’s one of the powers of small communities is that they can really rally that type of asset set and make it work. So I’m excited. I’m, you know, I think that chambers have always been amazingly relevant. We celebrate a little birthday next year. Yeah. Yeah. We’re gonna be 250 years old. Wow. That we’re the we’re the oldest continuing operating chamber in America. So founded three years before our nation became a country. I’d say we’re in it for the long game.

Brandon Burton 44:13
Yeah, doing that forever work. I love it. So I’d love for you to be able to share some, any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn sure but as you’re doing there in Charleston,

Bryan Derreberry 44:27
it’s it’s a really easy, bderreberry@charlestonchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 44:43
That is perfect. And I’ll get that in our show notes for this episode, too. So if somebody always,

Bryan Derreberry 44:48
always happy to talk this profession, and you know, I think your question Brandon on the future is that many chambers are at an inflection point. Mm. But there were ways that they used to do things and things that used to matter. And the inflection point is some of those still have value. The greater value though is marshaling the the leaders and assets of your community and aligning them and doing significant work. So we’re at that neat juncture, so many chambers have already crossed over. And if anybody wants to talk about the both the rewards and the pitfalls, because it’s hard when you enter into a new area of work. And also there are ways to enter in that you can have some immediate victories and set yourself up for long term success.

Brandon Burton 45:47
Yeah, I think that’s important to be able to have that encouragement going along that, that you are going in the right direction. So I love that. Bryan, I appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast, providing, you know, great vision and insight for chamber champions listening. I’m sure everyone got a lot of value out of this. But thank you for being a part of the program today. I appreciate it.

Bryan Derreberry 46:13
Well, I love you championing our industry. I believe so greatly in the work that I see peer organizations and colleagues do across the country and America is great because of great chambers. So thank you for being an advocate.

Brandon Burton 44:58
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Regional Coalitions with Glenn Morris

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Glenn Morris. 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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Introduction

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.

And now, your host, he likes to explore new automation tools. Here’s my dad Brandon Burton.

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Diane Rogers, President and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for her.

Diann Rogers 0:45
As a medium sized chamber, we recognize that it’s absolutely critical to have a well qualified and well trained membership development person. Holman Brothers trained that person, recruited that person then they even trained me on how to manage that person. We’re grateful for the support we got.

Brandon Burton 0:59
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Glenn Morris. Glenn leads the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce in California and developed in delivering on its mission to be a catalyst for business growth convenient for leaders and influencers and champion for a stronger Santa Maria Valley. The chamber is the leading business support Economic Development and Tourism Promotion Agency in Northern Santa Barbara County. Prior to joining the Santa Maria Valley Chamber, Glenn served as president and CEO for the Visalia Chamber of Commerce, which is also in California leading the chamber through a complete update of its programs, while establishing the organization as an influential voice and local policy decision making. In addition to his work with chambers, Glenn has professional experience in economic development, tourism and business advocacy. He brings nearly three decades of experience and leadership to bear on his passions of community organizational excellence, and the power of collaboration to achieve goals. His experience includes leading nonprofit organizations in Utah, California and Nevada. As a community leader, Glenn has been involved in a number of local and national organizations working on issues ranging from access to the arts, improvement of local schools and youth leadership development. Glenn has also been part of a number of community based political campaigns. Professionally, Glenn has served on a wide range of local, regional and national boards focused on business advocacy, economic development, workforce issues and youth career preparation. Glenn has served in numerous leadership and training positions for His church, community and professional organizations. He finds great joy in being a husband to Shana and as a father and a grandfather. Glenn, I’m excited to have you with me on Chamber Chat Podcast today, I’d love for you to just take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Glenn Morris 3:06
Well, Brandon, good morning, and thank you for this invitation. And the chance to chat about chambers, I think. I think chambers are just critical organizations and communities. And I was fortunate that kind of midpoint in my career to find myself in the chamber business and found my real home professionally. So I love that, that that you have this opportunity to bring chamber people together and help us all learn and, and grow together. So that’s wonderful. You know, something else about myself, I you know, I do a lot of work. But But I love all of it. But you know, I think the thing that makes it all worthwhile. At the end of the day, you mentioned the grandkids and that and that’s just you know, that’s the payoff in life, right? When you when you get those opportunities to see your family growing and thriving, and we’re really blessed in that way.

Brandon Burton 4:05
That’s right. I always like to say that’s how, you know you got your priorities right. You know, you can get at work and and all your responsibilities to be able to reflect on that. That’s where that that’s what matters. Yeah, indeed.

Glenn Morris 4:19
Very good.

Brandon Burton 4:20
Well, tell us a little bit about the Santa Maria Valley Chamber just to give us some perspective, midsize budget staff, that sort of thing is we get your discussion

Glenn Morris 4:29
today. Yeah, so Santa Maria Valley Chamber. We are the chamber for the city of Santa Maria and the surrounding. There’s a fairly large unincorporated community in our neighborhood. There’s a smaller city just down the street. So we kind of covered that regional area. We’re in Northern Santa Barbara County, so that three and a half hours north of LA for something south of San Francisco, right on the Central Coast. We, we think of it as God’s country. And you know, the we I joke with folks that I live in the land of the eternal 70s is that it’s really just a beautiful place to live and work. We have a wine country here that that’s a big draw for our tourism side. But there’s a significant amount of manufacturing in this area, as well. And so it’s a very diversified economy communities about 100. And, oh, if you take the all of the neighboring areas that we serve, it’s probably 150 to 160,000 people, kind of one of the last, growing communities along the central coast with with still some opportunity for new new development and new growth. Our chamber is a we think of ourselves as the one stop shop for all business needs. In addition to the traditional chamber functions, we are the tourism marketing organization for the community. And we are the economic development organization for the community. So we work with our city and the county in our area to lead in all of those areas. So we really are kind of a one stop shop I have a team of depending on the day 10 to 12 folks that lead those three functions. We have about 850 members of the chamber and our budget all in is gonna probably be in that two and a quarter million this next year. All right.

Brandon Burton 6:43
Well, that does help to give some of that perspective especially as we get into what our topic for our discussions today around regional coalition’s. We’ll get into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Regional Coalitions

All right, Glenn, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break we’ll focus our conversation around regional coalition’s and your responsibility or your chamber there, like you mentioned, as you kind of gave that background about the chamber is your typical chamber work you’ve got the tourism arm as well as economic development responsibilities, so you guys stay busy. But also that gives you the need really to reach out and, and work with others in your community and the region. So I’m always curious to hear how different chambers go about reaching out and working with other organizations because it can be, you know, competitive on some levels, but also, you know, rising tide raises all ships as they say. So, I’d love to kind of hear your philosophy and strategy as to how you approach that.

Glenn Morris 11:06
So this is a this is an issue that I’m really passionate has been kind of my, my new to the topic I’ve been evangelizing on in our community for since I got here. So good, let me give you a quick story, because it’ll set some context for how we came to this this approach, I joined the Santa Maria Valley Chamber, just over just right at eight years ago, came from another community in California, and moved over here, Santa Maria is the largest community in our region. But it’s not the county seat, right. So it’s not the political center of the county, that would be Santa Barbara. And San Luis Obispo, which is about 40 minutes to the north of us is the home to the regional university. And so you know, as you can imagine, I’m sure that this will ring true for many communities, when you’re the kind of the second community that you know, there can be a chip on the shoulder, right, we don’t get our fair share, some disapprove. Yeah, and so when I moved to the community that that perception was really clear that, that this community had felt for a long time, like it was a little isolated from resources and decision making power, and all of those kinds of things. I joke with people that when I moved to town that, you know, community leaders would discuss, you know, would say, Well, you know, the community is bounded by, you know, the Rio Grande and the Grand Canyon, there’s a riverbed on the north end of town, and there’s a kind of a choke point Canyon, you have to go through to get from us to Santa Barbara. And it was their way of kind of describing this sense of a little bit of isolation, right? Not being from the community and carrying some of that emotional baggage, I decided to my role was going to be you know, I would tell my board, you know, if there’s a moat around the community, my job is to build bridges across and, and to go out and create relationships that would benefit our community. But also knowing that we could bring value to the greater region where the where the workforce home, so many people in our community can move out to neighboring communities for work during the day, where the retail center, so people that live in those outer communities on either side of us come here to shop, and, you know, so that we add value to bring, but we also needed, you know, the health of the region. And then as we really got into that we really, you know, came to the what’s probably an obvious right realization, but but, you know, took us a while as a community to acknowledge that, that we’re, you know, business doesn’t care about political lines, right? The economy doesn’t stop at a city boundary or a county line, or probably even a state guide, right? That, that people’s lives flow across that right, you may live in one community, but work in another right and your business may be in one. But your customers are coming from, you know, three or four others, you certainly are going to have suppliers that are in other communities, you’re going to have, you know, all of that economic activity flows back and forth in really natural ways that have nothing to do with the way we organize for governments. Right. And so we’ve worked we’ve been working for that eight years to really create those relationships with those economic institutions. So initially, it was probably the universities that are one university 40 minutes to the north and another 170 miles to the south. But as we got into that, what we really found worked best was when we reached out to the other chamber Vers, in those communities that said, let’s stop competing and start working together, particularly on the things that matter, like, head of household jobs, and, you know, infrastructure, and you know, all of the housing, job bows, all of those kinds of things, right, we can fight over where the next, you know, cool retail store goes, but but when we come to, you know, where are the head of household jobs, we can work together to land those.

Brandon Burton 15:31
Yeah. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I, the thought that comes to my mind as he explained that because I mean, to me, it makes it like I said, it makes a lot of sense to work together to build a stronger region, because, like you said, the politics don’t stop, you know, certain lines, economies don’t stop at, you know, city boundaries. And even having a university, you know, in the community next door, doesn’t meet. Yeah, so there’s a lot of this crossover. But the question that comes to my mind is, how does one defined community these days when the world seems to be shrinking, and we have so much crossover into in these different areas and elements, that it makes sense to work together with other communities? But what defines a community anymore?

Glenn Morris 16:25
You know, that’s a good question. And I think it’s changing, right. And I hope that that, in my belief is that it’s expanding. Right. So, you know, I think you can define community by the neighborhood that you live in, I think you can define it by the city that you’re engaged in civically. And I think you can define it in that region that you live you that you really live your life and right, and where you do, you’re recreating, and you’re working, and all of those other kinds of pieces. And I think when you really think of it as kind of that Patchwork, right, with different pieces, it really adds a richness, and you know, a lot of value, right? You know, the you may not have every kind of thing you’re looking for in one in one of those boxes. But if you can pull that lens back just a little bit, you probably find, you know, what you’re looking for, right? And, you know, we would, we would have conversations about, you know, well, we don’t have this type of housing in our community, but you know, what, the guy five miles down the road does. And so, you know, if I’m selling, you know, if that’s what the, if that’s what somebody’s looking for, we can point them to it. Right. So, yeah, that, you know, the set the idea of community, I think, is really evolving, and, and hopefully growing. Right,

Brandon Burton 17:51
yeah. I like how you brought up the richness and the value that comes as we expand community and be more inclusive of others in those, you know, traditionally, bordering communities. And, you know, when, like the example you gave of certain housing, you know, you got to play with how the fields striped at the moment. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t help to redefine where the stripes go right over time.

Glenn Morris 18:17
Yeah, and, you know, we really, so Well, you know, a big part of our role in the community is economic development. Right. So we’re all we’re engaged in business attraction. And, you know, often we would get ourselves into these conversations with prospective businesses about, you know, well, we need we need more of this particular type. We need engineers, and, you know, in your city data, we don’t see enough engineers. Right. But But again, I pulled that lens out 40 miles, and I one of the top engineering schools in the country, right, just just across the river. Right. And, you know, so it’s like, the real, we got him, right. You may not see him as you walk down Main Street, but we got him. Right. And, and, you know, that held true for, you know, housing, it might hold true for available land, right, maybe they want to put a factory in, and, you know, my neighboring communities having that conversation, and they don’t have the 10 acres the guy needs, but I do right, but in so you do that. And I think this kind of an approach is critical on business retention. I’ll give you one quick story right before I moved to the community, we had a business that that moved 20 miles away. And people in the community when I moved into town, they were just really still upset about this, right. It had probably been about two years. And they were really still ticked off about it. Right because we lost the business. And as I thought about it, I thought, you know, okay, they you know, they’re fizzle. cool facility is 20 miles down the road. But all of the people that live in our community that work for that business are still in our community, they have a little longer commute. Right. But they’re still here, their kids are still playing on our kids soccer teams, they’re still volunteering on our local nonprofits. Right. And they’re still, you know, in, in our, you know, in our churches. So, did we lose? You know, I don’t know. You know, if, if people are your greatest asset, I’m not sure we lost, right. And, you know, maybe the city lost a little property tax, I don’t know, you know, but, but in the grand scheme of it, I think, because we were able to stay in the region. You know, I don’t think I don’t know that I would chalk it up as a loss.

Brandon Burton 20:50
And say, especially with that example, keeping them in the region, just 20 miles down the road, there is a facility that’s available now, for somebody that move into so yeah, the perceived loss is also a gain on another side, as well, bringing new people new resources, new, you know, everything else.

Glenn Morris 21:10
And, you know, the reason that they had moved was they needed to grow, and Mike tanned at that moment didn’t have a building they could grow into. Right, and, and I think without a regional kind of an approach, when the next one of those comes to me and says, you know, I need another 10,000 square feet, and we just don’t have it in the market. You know, I think without a regional approach, the risk is that they start looking at other states, right? Or completely different markets, where my neighbors who work for them are either going to have to make a choice to relocate, or find new employment. Right. And so, you know, do I want them to stand my town? Yes, I do. Right. But if I can’t make that work, and I can put them in the town next door, that’s a better outcome than, you know, letting them, you know, load a truck up and go someplace far away.

Brandon Burton 22:05
Exactly. So and those are tough decisions to make, too. And they need to do that. But maybe let’s talk a little bit more tactical. So as you started reaching out to some of these neighboring chambers, and saying, Let’s collaborate together, let’s work together, let’s not compete anymore, let’s, you know, level or let’s let’s raise the bar, I would say, How was that received? How did you approach it? And is there anything formal that’s come out of it as far as like a regional round table or something like?

Glenn Morris 22:37
So? So I think it starts with relationships, right? It starts with chamber CEOs, you know, having lunch with other chamber CEOs in the area, and building that relationship that you can get some trust, right, that, that if I need that business, I need to find that business that 10 1000s extra square feet, I can call you, and and we’re going to work that out together. But you’re not going to use that as an excuse to come poach to others or Mike. Right. Right. There’s that trust that you have to build there. And that’s really one on one. And then we found that, that one of the areas that we could, that was easy to collaborate on early in that process was around legislative advocacy, right? Because now we’re all fighting the State Capitol. And that’s, you know, a common, you know, foe maybe or, you know, and so it wasn’t about, you know, balancing between us, it was us all together, yeah, against an external thing. And so that got us started working together, taking common positions, collaborating around advocacy, kinds of discussions. And then from there, we’ve been able to move to more of the Economic Development kinds of things. But it’s also, you know, spun off into we do some joint staff development things and you know, all of those kinds of things, once you start working together, you can find lots of opportunities. But we do now have probably three formal Regional Chamber, you know, elaborate so we have one that’s around this advocacy piece, that actually is about 30 chambers in a three county region that come together for that. We have a another chamber group that is more more on MRI on local kinds of issues. That is what eight chambers in in one particular end of that region. And then we’re, we have a two County Economic Development, collaboration that started as the chambers and as actually now, we’ve actually stood up a new organization to really lead regional economic big development initiatives. So, you know, that was probably the one that became the most formal as it really just kind of became a new entity. Right?

Brandon Burton 25:12
Now, I love those examples and being able to put some numbers to that about what that looks like at the regional advocacy, you know, 30 chambers come in together, I mean, the power that comes with those kinds of numbers, and you go to the state capitol and say, Look, you know, 30 chambers representing I don’t know how many 1000s of business owners we believe strongly in this, you know,

Glenn Morris 25:34
it gets, you know, in my town, I have one member of the assembly, right, and I have one, Senator. But if I bring that Tri County group together, it’s like eight members of the assembly and three or four state senators, right. So all of a sudden, we have more people we can talk to. And so you know, that that gives us a different kind of a voice.

Brandon Burton 26:00
Right? So as far as the approach with with your membership, I know, there’s always going to be somebody that will find a problem with whatever the Chamber’s doing, you’re going to hear those voices. But hopefully, there’s more that are seeing the bigger picture of how you’re working with neighboring communities. What type of feedback are you getting of a note and a lot of times, so maybe preface that a lot of times members don’t see the work that’s happening behind the scenes. But with that in mind, what what type of feedback do you get from your members with taking a more regional and collaborative? Yeah,

Glenn Morris 26:40
so yes, you’re right, most of them probably don’t know what we’re doing. Right? Because because they’re focused on on much more transactional business and their day to day and that’s great, right. That’s what they should be doing. And we try to support them in doing that. But, you know, the most of our community leader level folks, you know, appreciate the, what we’re trying to do. And they see the bigger picture. You know, occasionally when, you know, we’re, we’re celebrating what they to them looks like a neighbor’s win. Right. You know, they can kind of go explain this to me one more time. Right. And so we have to be really good about telling the bigger story. Right. And so, you know, particularly with local elected, right, city council members who, by definition, should be passionate about their, their little spot in the world, right? Yeah. And, you know, so it’s important for us, if, if we’re celebrating a business location in a neighboring community, that we’re highlighting the jobs that are going to be, you know, filled by residents of our community, or, you know, the supplier relationships that our small businesses will not be able to have. And, you know, so you do need to localize the the impact and the benefits, you know, for folks so that they see themselves in, you know, what, on the surface can feel like someone else’s when, right, yeah,

Brandon Burton 28:12
help help them see where the insane fall, I usually fall out to negative connotation. But yeah, a positive fallout. The windfalls that come from a neighboring win? Yeah, yeah.

Glenn Morris 28:25
There’s a we have a nuclear power plant 30 miles north of us that is slated for closure. And, you know, when that was announced a couple of years ago, you know, people started ringing alarm bells, right, because it’s a significant economic driver, 1200 highly paid jobs, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And we jumped in and said, you know, this is a problem, and we need to help figure out what we do next. Right, what, how do we respond to that issue? And we got folks that were like, that’s, that’s their problem, right? We don’t, you know, city, folks, were saying, we don’t get any taxes off for that, right, that the taxes all go to the other county. And we them, yeah, but we have, you know, three or 400 people in our community that work there. We have, you know, a dozen businesses that are in the, you know, local supply chain that provide services and products to that facility. You know, so you just started have to figure out and, and just constantly be repeating that local impact of monies being

Brandon Burton 29:34
spent in your community from those jobs and mine, like how much of your communities receiving their power from that right plan? Yeah,

Glenn Morris 29:43
you know, so there’s those macro issues, but, but there are going to be local issues in regional impacts,

Brandon Burton 29:50
right. That’s a great example. So I wanted to to ask if you might have any tips or strategies that you could offer for a chamber champion, listening they can do to help take their chamber up to the next level?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Glenn Morris 30:04
Well, you know, and I recognize that, that I’m in a little bit of a unique position, I, you know, we started this with kind of the, the DNA of our Channel by chamber, right. And I shared that I have a team of 10 to 12, you know, full time employees who helped me do the day to day work. That’s a blessing for me, because it frees up some of my time to go and do these other kinds of things like building relationships with regional partners, and some of that, and I, I’m fully aware, that’s not every chambers, reality. Right, right. But I do think that there are ways that, you know, we have chambers in our regional coalition’s that have, you know, a CEO and one staffer, and, you know, maybe a part time, you know, kind of helper, right, so we have some very small chambers that are part of this as well. And they they add value, they add, they add really important context to our discussions. And so, you know, I would say, Don’t worry about your size, if you can have a conversation with people, you can begin to become part of a regional coalition. The, the pandemic is awful, never want to do it again, there were definitely some benefits that came out of it. And one of them for us, was it really took what was it these fledgling kind of regional issues, you know, partnerships, and made them essential, right. So from the very beginning, we all started to go, you know, you can remember two years ago, we were immediately the kings and queens of webinars, right? We have information and our members need it, and we get it to him, and there’s no way to put them in a room. So we all learn how to do webinars on Zoom really fast. And we really quickly went, you know, they’re eight chambers right here in a 30 minute radius, we don’t all need to do the same webinar. Right, I can do the one on Tuesday, and you can do the one on Wednesday, we can both promote them to all of our members. And so we were able to share workload, right and, and provide consistent information. The reality is our businesses are members of multiple chambers. And if they’re getting different messages, that’s confusing, right? And in a crisis, confusing is not helpful. And if you’re not helpful, they don’t need you. Right, they’re going somewhere. And so I think we helped all of our chambers be more essential by doing it together, right. And so, you know, and it didn’t cost us anything fact, if anything, it probably saved us all, you know, some resources because we could share. So, you know, if you’re, if somebody’s really looking to start this kind of a journey, you know, I start with

Brandon Burton 33:15
all right, not sure what happened there.

Glenn Morris 33:18
The beauty of zoom, all of a sudden, you just stop moving,

Brandon Burton 33:22
as you’re talking it up about how great it is for these webinars and everything and just boom, it’s gone. Yeah, no,

Glenn Morris 33:29
you know, the point I would make is, you know, during the pandemic, it became you sent, it became really important that we all were doing consistent messaging, sharing resources quickly. And it became, you know, to try and do that all by ourselves, it was overwhelming. But if we could share the load, chamber, one takes Monday, we take Wednesday, somebody else does Friday, all of a sudden, we all looked better, and we’re more valuable to our members. Absolutely. And so, you know, if somebody’s really thinking, you know, I really should work more closely with the chambers and or other economic development, tourism or whatever, in your region, you know, I’d say, pick one issue, right, pick something that you have in common. And, you know, figure out how you can do it together, and then you know, it’ll grow from there.

Brandon Burton 34:30
Yeah, I think that’s a good tip. And you know, you started that answer by talking about not everybody has the luxury of you know, going and meeting but as you brought in the zoom, you know, there is the ashes you get to know these people, you don’t need to have the commute time just hop on a zoom call with the neighboring, you know, three or four chambers around you and talk about the latest stuff.

Glenn Morris 34:52
You know, when I when we started that the legislative advocacy group, we met in person, right and So the days of those meetings, you know, depending on where that was a, you know, hour and a half meeting became a half day commitment. Right. Now it’s back down to the hour and a half. Because we can do it on Zoom. Right. And that just creates a lot more opportunities.

Brandon Burton 35:17
Absolutely. So Glenn, I like to ask everyone, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Glenn Morris 35:27
Well, I think chambers are currently essential, and I think they’re going to be more so in the future. But I do think that there are some, there’s some risks out there, I think, if chambers aren’t becoming really focused on what matters in their community. And, you know, I think for me, that really is all about economic vitality. It’s about jobs. It’s about wealth creation, it’s about quality of life. If we’re not doing those kinds of things, businesses can find a lot of the other things that we used to be, you know, their provider for right, networking will always be part of our DNA. But there’s other ways to get networking, you know, general information about business, there’s a lot of resources out there. What chambers can do uniquely is be a convener to bring your leaders together, set economic and community priorities and then rally, you know, as a catalyst really bring the resources together and focus on that economic growth. Right. So I think, I think the future for chambers is really strong. If we’re really focused on what is, you know, essential to our businesses and the, you know, the people they employ.

Brandon Burton 36:49
I love that response. It’s a very well concise and good summary about the importance of being the convener of leaders, and then becoming that catalyst for those actions throughout the community. Glenn, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information, if anybody listening wanted to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you’re doing things at the Santa Maria Valley Chamber, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Connect with Glenn Morris

Glenn Morris 37:16
Yeah, absolutely. So our website is just SantaMaria.com. One of my predecessors early in their life, grabbed the best URL possible in our town for the chamber. So just simply Santamaria.com get a good price for that these

Brandon Burton 37:34
days, I’m sure. Yeah, exactly.

Glenn Morris 37:35
I think my city manager probably was like, how do we. And in the spirit of keeping it simple, our email, my email is glenn@santamaria.com. Right.

Brandon Burton 37:50
That’s perfect. And I will get that in our show notes for this episode. But Glenn, I appreciate you joining me today on Chamber Chat Podcast, this has been a great discussion. And hopefully some of these things just, you know, remind some of these Chamber Champions listening of, yes, I need to reach out and connect with, you know, one of those neighboring communities, or we need to form some kind of a more regional coalition together. So hopefully, this is a catalyst for them to move forward and do some of those things. I

Glenn Morris 38:19
I think what you’ll find if you as you do that, and you start to tell your businesses, particularly your, your primary, you know, Head of Household job businesses that you’re doing it, they’re gonna go it’s about time.

Brandon Burton 38:33
For sure. Yeah, I totally agree. I appreciate it, Glenn. This has been a great discussion. And again, appreciate your time with us today on the podcast.

Glenn Morris 38:43
It’s been my pleasure, I’ve enjoyed it.

Brandon Burton 38:45
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Dallas Regional Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Dale Petroskey

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Dale Petroskey. 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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Introduction

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.

Now your host during hot Texas summers he is always grateful for air conditioning. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I am your host Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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Matt Morrow 0:47
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:09
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Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for another one of our special episodes in our 2022 ACCE chamber the year finalist series, and our guests for this episode is Dale Petroskey. Dale is the president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber. Dale has more than 35 years of leadership experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. In April 2014, he became president and CEO of the Dallas Regional Chamber, one of the largest and most established business organizations in the state of Texas. The Dallas Regional Chamber works to strengthen the business community by attracting companies and talented workers from around the world. improving education, advocating for pro growth public policies, and enhancing the quality of life for all in the Dallas region. Dale’s career also includes service as assistant White House press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, Senior Vice President for mission programs at the National at National Geographic and president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Dale is a member of numerous boards, including the alfalfa Club of Washington DC SMU is Lyle School of Engineering and Dallas medical resources, educate Dallas Clayton Kershaw’s challenge, the Dallas Mavericks Advisory Council and the Texas Rangers baseball foundation. Dale and his wife, Ann both graduated from Michigan State University and live in Dallas, they have three married children. Dale, I’m excited to have you with me today on chamber tap podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions. And if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well, Brandon,

Dale Petroskey 3:00
thank you for having me. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the Dallas Regional Chamber. And and it’s just going to be fun. One thing you should know about me is that I’m one of nine children. And you don’t run across a lot of folks these days who have eight siblings, but I do. And they’re all from the same parents. And I’m the second oldest, I’m the oldest son and the second oldest of those nine children. All right, yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:29
you’re right. You don’t come across that very often these days. So that is interesting. So why don’t you Well, first of all, congratulations, being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. It’s a great accomplishment. And I know you’re in great company with others in your category as well.

Dale Petroskey 3:47
Appreciate that. We’re very excited. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 3:51
Why don’t you take a moment and tell us a little bit about the Dallas Regional Chamber just to give us some perspective as to the scope of work, the size of the chamber staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for our discussion.

About the Dallas Regional Chamber

Dale Petroskey 4:04
It sounds great. Thank you. First of all, there are Dallas is a big market. Dallas, Fort Worth is a big market. 7.8 million people here. It’s the fourth largest market in the United States. And there are 175 chambers in Dallas Fort Worth, believe it or not, we’re the largest. And number two is half our size. And all those 173 are below number two. So we’re twice as large as number two. We have 55 full time staffers. Our budget is $12 million a year. And we have our own research team, which very few chambers do. But we have a very sophisticated research team, you know, staffed by professional researchers, which really helps our work. And why we’re very different than a lot of chambers is that we don’t take a dime from any public entity. We don’t take a dime from the city. We don’t take a dime from the county. We don’t take a dime from it. anybody except our member companies. And that gives us independence. And it allows us to do what we do. So we are the Regional Chamber. So all we care about is that companies and jobs come to this region. And they that there’s the best fit for them when they do come here. So when we go to California, and talk to companies who are thinking about moving to the Dallas area, we’re the ones they talk to, and they say, we’d like to go up and we’d like to have a campus. So we take them up to Plano and Frisco and introduce some of the folks up there where most of the campuses are in this area. That we want to be in the research area. So we take him to Richardson, where a lot of the research is done, we want to be near the airport, we take him to Irving and hand them off to Irving. Whatever the need is, whatever their wishes are, we want the best fit for them. We’re like a point guard and basketball, who’s dishing off to the guys who can score. And so as a result of that, we’ve been very successful since 2012 200 headquarters have moved to the Dallas Fort Worth region 200 In the last 12 years, and 1.3 million new jobs in the Dallas Fort Worth area in the last 12 years. Those are crazy numbers, those there no other market is even close to those numbers. And I think one of the reasons we’ve been so successful is that we have this model of sort of the artists broker, us making sure that these companies get the best fit. And they go up and work with these economic development organizations in all these great areas in the Dallas Fort Worth region, who can make them feel right at home in their areas. So that’s our reason for being is economic development. But for that to happen, we need to do three other things very well, one talent. So we do a lot of work in education, and workforce making sure that every youngster has a chance for a good education. So they can have a good job and a good life. We also attract talent from the outside, talking about the virtues of Dallas as a place to start your career, continue your career move up. Because we have so many companies we have 23 fortune 500 companies 43, fortune 1000 companies, lots of opportunities here. So we’re always looking to attract talent here as well. So number one is talent. Number two is public policy. And that means having a business climate that is strong and welcoming, low taxes, low rate, low regulations, and welcoming, welcoming for everybody. And then our third leg of the stool for supporting economic development is diversity, equity and inclusion, because we’re not going to reach our full promise as a community until everyone can participate in the prosperity that’s going on here. And we have in some ways, some areas where people don’t have those opportunities. They don’t have the educational opportunities, they don’t have the job opportunities. So we work really hard in that area as well. So that’s a little bit about the scope of our work. Yeah. Hey,

Brandon Burton 8:17
I appreciate that. And, on a personal note, I appreciate the work you guys are doing here in the Dallas region since I I’m a part of that here in the Dallas region, I get to benefit from a lot of that work you do.

Dale Petroskey 8:28
Appreciate that. I’ll pass that along to our great staff.

Brandon Burton 8:31
Yes, please do. So as they do these chamber, the year finalist interviews what I like to spend a good majority of the discussion on is around the two topics that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application. And what I’m thinking we’ll do is we’ll just we’ll touch on what those two programs are just at a high level. And then we’ll circle back and go into a little bit more detail on each of those problems. Each of those programs not problems. As soon as I get back from this quick break.

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All right, Dale, we’re back. Do you would share with us what the two programs are that you submitted on the chamber? The your application?

Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

Dale Petroskey 11:59
Yeah, happy to do that. Brandon. The first one was a vaccination program for communities of color during the middle of the pandemic. Okay, the second one is something called P TECH, which is our businesses actually being embedded in our schools, to work with students to tell them about their industries, their companies, give them internships, give them opportunities to get a leg up in the work world. So those are the two basic programs.

Brandon Burton 12:30
All right, let’s say let’s start with the vaccinations for people of color. And that’s a that’s a program that I haven’t heard of other chambers tackling. So I’m interested to hear kind of what brought that to the forefront and how you guys approach that.

Dale Petroskey 12:47
You know, early last year, we were sort of in the middle of the vaccinations in a big way. And you know, the pandemic had started the previous March, and people were getting sick. But there were no vaccines available. And finally vaccines became available. And yet, they were not reaching everybody that they should have reached either folks didn’t want to take them, or people didn’t know how to get them or didn’t know enough about what the rules were around, signing up for them, registering for them going to get them and so forth. And we thought, what can we do most at this moment in time, to help our community and help our business community. And we realized that communities of color, were dying at higher rates than anybody else. They were going to the hospital at higher rates than anybody else. They were losing their jobs at higher rates than anybody else and losing their businesses at higher rates than anybody else. And so we started to look into this. And we realize that a lot of folks in those communities either didn’t have any information about how to get vaccinated, or they were getting wrong information about vaccinations. And so nobody asked us to do this. Our board didn’t even ask us to do this. We just believe it was the right thing to do. So we embarked on a campaign that had sort of two prongs one was public service announcements, aimed at communities of color that were on there were messages on billboards, on television, and radio, in doctor’s waiting offices, and in pharmacies, about the vaccinations and if you chose to get them how it would protect you and your family and your jobs, basically. And so we worked with we put out an RFP request for proposal to a bunch of marketing agencies, and we chose one so that was one piece of it. The second piece of it was the ground game. So we worked with another organization marketing organization that works very closely with communities of color here, in order to micro target those areas and get that get them the information they need, and set up clinics on site. So if people chose that they wanted to get a vaccine, they can go right there and get their vaccine. Okay, we set a goal of getting 600,000 More people vaccinated between June and September last year, basically the summer. And by September, we had 660,000 More vaccinations in the Dallas area, most of them in communities of color. And the our budget for this was close to a million dollars. Again, nobody asked us to do this. But we thought it was the right thing to do. And we because we are very careful with our money. And we’re very good about keeping reserves, and in our, every year putting some money into our reserves, we actually had the money to do this when it was needed most. So we’re very proud of that program. And it was a great community service to our to our, to our folks and to our business community. I’ll mention one other thing, Brandon, we enlisted the help of a lot of our member companies or businesses, to get the word out to their employees, and to share information with their employees about how they could get vaccinated because there was a lot of misinformation, or people just weren’t paying attention. It was complicated. You remember the messages that were going out. And so we tried to simplify it, get it out. And our businesses are very appreciative of the educational role that we played in all of that.

Brandon Burton 16:52
That’s great. I love hearing how, you know, partnering with other organizations that service these demographic of people of color and being able to really, you didn’t mention it directly, but it’s data driven, you know, when you’re looking at who are the people most affected right now, with the pandemic? How can we make the largest impact? And the data was pointing to this program, and you guys listened and responded. So

Dale Petroskey 17:18
I think that’s what we try to do. We try to listen, we try to decide and then we try to act. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:25
So let’s shift gears. And tell us about the you say it was called P TECH getting the businesses in the schools. Is that primarily with high schools? Or is it different levels, it’s always about that.

Dale Petroskey 17:37
It’s high schools. And, and, you know, several years ago, the Dallas ISD, Dallas, Independent School District, you know, was struggling, and like a lot of urban school districts. And we have a very innovative superintendent here, Dr. Michael Hanna HOSA, actually just retired. And, but he was always wanting to partner with with everybody he could, okay to get things going in the right direction for Dallas, Independent School District. And he came to us and we came up with the idea of reaching out to our big companies mostly, and getting them to work, to adopt a school and to work in that schools. So for example, AT and T, you know, they adopt a school, they go, they send him plays into that school every day. That’s their job to work with those kids on technology, and what it might be like to work at at&t, maybe not in a technology role, but an accounting role, an HR role, showing young people, the future, showing them that what a job looks like, what working inside a company looks like. And then at&t provides internships for a lot of those students, and ultimately jobs for those twos. Okay. But we have companies like Frito, lay, Boeing, you know, gosh, Texas Instruments, all the big companies of Dallas are involved in this. In fact, 90 companies send people into these schools every day to work with these youngsters to provide internships, job opportunities to teach them skills. And as a result of that, more companies work in Dallas ISD schools than any other school district in America. And literally what it is if you think about it, you know, most of us were in high school, we don’t know what we want to do. We only know what our parents did. And so so often what happens is people go into jobs into the the industries that their parents are in because they don’t know anything else that’s out there. This gives them a chance to really see See some other things, test some other things and be exposed to other companies, other industries and know more about what, what the possibilities are on the job market, and what they might be going to college to study for. So that when they come out, they’re a little bit more targeted.

Brandon Burton 20:19
I like that. So when you talk about these businesses being on the campus every day, is it the same employee going to the campus every day? Do they have multiple Pete is that their full time job is to be the campus representative?

Dale Petroskey 20:33
Yeah, most of the time? Yeah. It’s varies a little bit. But yes, that’s their job to be a math

Brandon Burton 20:39
school. And then they get worked into the curriculum for the different classes to

Dale Petroskey 20:44
kind of show. Yeah, they were the counselors, work them in teachers work them in, so forth.

Brandon Burton 20:52
That’s fantastic. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, very innovative,

Dale Petroskey 20:55
very innovative. And, and as far as I know, one of a kind, at least at this scale.

Brandon Burton 21:02
Yeah. Whenever I hear these programs of chambers, getting involved with education and showing these job opportunities, I’m always a little jealous that I didn’t have that when I was growing up to be able to, you know, see what the world has to offer.

Dale Petroskey 21:16
No question, you know, what I, when I was growing up, I grew up in the Detroit area. And, you know, I didn’t know what was out there at all, really, and my wife says, she said, I think you could have been a great architect. Because you know, you’ve got a good sense of space. You aren’t you are good with pen and paper, you can draw, you know, I’m not a trained artist in any way. But it comes easily to me to draw and sketch things out. And she says, You would have been a great architect. When I was growing up, I had never met an architect, I didn’t know there was a job, such as architect, right. Or when I went to Washington, and I started working, you know, in the White House and on Capitol Hill, and, and I would see people who are in the Foreign Service, you know, who are diplomats or working in an embassy, I never knew that those jobs existed in high school. But I might have loved to have done that. So the more we can expose kids to various things that maybe fit their capabilities and their interests, the better off we’re all going to be,

Brandon Burton 22:24
right? Absolutely. And it sounds like both of these programs make a huge impact in the Dallas region. I’d like to ask as a chamber, the year finalist, and you kind of alluded to this earlier with your your metaphor of being the point guard, you know, getting those assists. But how do you see your role with the Dallas Regional Chamber within your community?

Dale Petroskey 22:48
Yeah, I think Dallas Regional Chamber is viewed in our community, as a go to organization. When when when things need to get done, people tend to go to us, because they know that we have relationships all throughout this region, with other chambers, with economic development organizations, with political leaders, with business leaders, and we are a great convener, to bring a lot of people together. And other folks, in many ways don’t have that scale or that that perspective, to bring all those folks or those relationships to bring all those folks together. So I think that’s, that’s one way that we are seeing, I think the other way we’re seeing as an organization that steps up, and something needs to get done. We’ll take it on, just like the vaccine program. Nobody asked us to do it. Nobody expected us to do it. If we didn’t do it, nobody would say why are you not doing that, but we just knew it was the right thing to do. So we did. And so you know, it’s a great, we feel like we’re in a great position. And I’ll say this, it’s, it’s building your reputation and your brand every single day in order to be in that position, that it was you have to be trusted. So you have to you have to do good work. You have to work with people, you have to they have to know your hearts in the right place. Right. So that you are trusted and and can have that kind of oh, I don’t know. Brand in order for people to want to go to you or to say they’re the they’re the natural organization to go to on this.

Brandon Burton 24:38
Yeah. And I think that’s so important is that the showing up every day and being an impact in the community. So when a real crunch time comes or real crisis, people know who to turn to for answers.

Dale Petroskey 24:50
I’ll say this to Brandon. You know, my we have a staff of 55 and everyone here is taught and believes say that we are here to be of service. We are a service organization, we are here to help people. And so whatever needs to be done to help them. That’s what we’re here to do. Okay. And and that’s, uh, and you know, that’s the way you’ve got to look at it to be so public servants.

Brandon Burton 25:20
Yeah, absolutely. So I look at all the chamber the year finalists as kind of being organizations that are, you know, doing great things right now, making a huge impact. And I like to see if you might have any tips or advice action items for listeners that might want to take their chamber up to the next level, what

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Dale Petroskey 25:44
would you suggest? Yeah, I would say, you know, it’s so hard to give advice to others, because so many people are doing so many good things, right? I would say, to be very, to be very good with your finances, you know, so you, you’ve got members, you want to serve those members in the best possible way. But make sure that you are paying attention to the bottom line, so that you can put money in the bank every year, so that when times get tough, or a crisis happens, you have something to draw on. So for example, during the, during the early days of COVID, I was scared to death, I thought we were you know, we were gonna face $2 million losses in our budget, and we’re gonna have to lay people off and, you know, all these kinds of things. And in the end, and I went to the board and proposed that, okay, we’ll take salary cuts for, you know, as long as it takes. And we, you know, I took the most and it went down by, you know, great, and so forth. But in the end, we didn’t have to do that, because we were able to manage our way through it, okay. But the fact is that we had money in the bank, so we had a cushion, to get through this. And that’s from years and years and years of paying attention to the finances and being good with your finances. So I think that is a an important piece of this. Because, you know, having money in the bank gives you a lot of flexibility and gives you a cushion, when you need it, or gives you the money to do things like a vaccine campaign, when when the time comes. So that’s, that’s number one, I would say number two is just really try to get to know as many people as you can in your community, and build trusted relationships with them, provide programs that will want them to join your membership. So that you’ve got a great base of support among your membership, that allows you to do a lot of things, if you have relationships with a wide array of companies across the spectrum, you know, and try to think about what you offer, that maybe they need, right, the various people in various sectors of the economy need, so that you can build this broad base of support among a lot of folks, you know, and then I would say, third, from a staffing standpoint, is just hire the best possible staff, you can treat them really well. You know, make it fun to work here. Remind them every day. This is a privilege. It’s a privilege to work for a public service or focused organization, and that they’re doing really important work, I often will relate to them. My favorite quote is by Teddy Roosevelt, who said, the greatest prize life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. And I remind them often that we work hard at work worth doing. And that not everybody out there comes to work every day, able to work hard at work worth doing. They are working off and at things that need to be done. But we actually get to work hard to make this a better community and to to really move the needle during our time here.

Brandon Burton 29:26
I love that. And I think all three of those tips that you suggested they really they position an organization well to be able to serve their community in the best ways. You know, when you’ve got those connections in the community, you’ve got the great staff you’ve kept track your finances and prepared for the rainy day. It makes you available to make clear decisions that are not fogged up with some of those other things that could get in the way and distract you.

Dale Petroskey 29:52
Yeah, well said Brad. I love that.

Brandon Burton 29:55
So I like asking everyone that I have on the podcast about the future of chamber. So how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Dale Petroskey 30:05
Yeah, I think, again, as some people have a notion of a chamber as sort of a dusty old place that’s for the past, we feel just the opposite of that, you know, we believe that chambers really are the central point, it shouldn’t be the central point in a community that people go to, and for resources or to for help to get things done. And so that’s the sort of the incoming, the other piece of that is for chambers to be always having your ear to the ground with their community, and saying, what needs to be done? How can we best help? So there’s a little bit of defense, like, we’re here to help. And there’s a little bit of offense, which is, here’s what needs to be done. Let’s go out and do it. And I think if you keep in mind those two things, you’re going to be a very relevant and very important organization in your community.

Brandon Burton 31:08
I love it. Great advice. So I’d like to give you an opportunity for anybody listening who maybe got intrigued about any of these programs, or the way the Dallas Regional Chamber is doing things, what might be the best way to reach out and connect or to learn more, what would you suggest that? What’s the best way to reach out and connect with you? Yeah,

Connect with Dale Petroskey

Dale Petroskey 31:29
I think probably the easiest thing just send me an email at dpetroskey@dallaschamber.org. And I will you know, I’ll be initially answer it but I’ll get it to the right person, my organization who can help them the most.

Brandon Burton 31:50
That’s perfect and we’ll we’ll get your email in the show notes for this episode as well. So people can look that up and and connect with you and learn more if there’s something they they need to dive in deeper with. But, Dale, I really appreciate you spending time with us today here on chamber chat podcast. Again, personally, thank you for what you guys are doing to the Dallas region. I wish you guys Best of luck to you and your team as chamber the year and I look forward to seeing you in Indy. Well,

Dale Petroskey 32:21
it’s been great fun. Thank you, Brandon and appreciate your what you do, and love the questions you ask.

Brandon Burton 32:29
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