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Category: Culture

Chamber Churn & Balance with Mike Throne

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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Our guest for this episode is Mike Throne. Mike is the President and CEO of the Chillicothe Ross Chamber in Ohio. Mike has always been a storyteller has a sixth grader near Sandusky, Ohio he arrived home from school one day proclaiming he wanted to be a journalist when he grew up. He wrote stories as a child and use scrap paper stapled together to produce his first official issue. A five pager including a recap of pickup baseball game he and his friends played earlier that day. Sales were not good. After graduating from Bowling Green State University. He began nearly 25 year career in newspapers starting as a rural reporter and becoming an editor of two newspapers picking up numerous local state and national awards for himself and his staff. But he found his passion in Chillicothe. He as a small town from southern Ohio, he yearned to become part of the renaissance of Ohio’s first capitol. In 2018, he became the president and CEO of the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce. And again, the story of the resurgence of the place he called Ohio’s best small town. In addition to his chamber duties, he co hosts the feels like home podcast, which furthers his efforts to tell his community stories. He also serves on several boards in the community, including chairing the Board of Trustees for the pumphouse Center for the Arts. Mike, I’m excited to have you with us today, you’re 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 that maybe wasn’t included in your bio. Well,

Mike Throne 2:52
Brandon, first of all, thank you for the invitation. And it’s an honor to be on the show. And I think it’s important to note that I’m so good of an editor that I edited out the two homeruns that I hit in that pickup baseball game. But, you know, I’m really excited to be here because I think the chamber life has been pretty transforming for me. And so I like to share parts of my experience. And I think it’s just one of those things where the more I can really my mom and many people that I’ve talked to have always said I should have been a teacher I should have because summers off really sounds like a great idea, but but I like the fact that we have forums like this and other forums where we can share our experiences and help chamber executives and their staffs really grow their knowledge and and again, as you said earlier, just serve their members better. Yes, I

Brandon Burton 3:51
appreciate that. And I I like platforms like this. I may be a little biased, but I think it energizes those that listen and participate. Because you get to hear what the other guy’s doing and be able to take things and scale it for your chamber and and hopefully make your life a little bit easier. That’s that’s kind of the goal. Absolutely. Well tell us a little bit more about the Chillicothe, the Ross chamber just give us an idea size staff budget scope of work, you guys are involved with that sort of thing just to kind of set the stage for our discussion.

Mike Throne 4:21
So the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce has been around since I guess, since since the 1880s when it was first formed as a Board of Trade. But in the early 1900s It became an official Chamber of Commerce, transferring its name to a chamber of commerce. So we’ve been around for 100 plus years. And we currently have about 775 members. We’re located in southern Ohio about midway between Huntington West Virginia or Kentucky depending how you look at the tri state area, and Columbus, Ohio. We’re only about 40 minutes south of Columbus, Ohio. And so we’ve kind of got a niche is sort of a Regional Chamber. We draw a lot of members from around around the surrounding county areas. But predominantly, we focus on the Ross County area, we have a staff of three, that’s myself on events and marketing person, and membership, person as well. We bring in about, on average, about $240,000 of dues revenue each year. And total income of probably right around 375,000. We just made a switch this year, we had three, we’ve always had three positions. But we have traditionally not had an events and marketing person split out, I had my membership and events all under one when I arrived in 20, late 2018. And so this year, we had an opportunity, somebody left. And so we thought, well, this is the opportunity that we have to make our membership person a true membership person and split off the events duties. So that’s been our biggest, our biggest change this year. And so in many ways, you know, it’s only we’re not even halfway through the year yet. So we’re still trying to navigate what that looks like. And but it’s been, it’s been really successful so far. That’s

Brandon Burton 6:25
good. Yeah, I can see where membership and events and marketing where there’s a lot of overlap, and where one person may feel like they kind of need the control over all of it. But there’s definitely enough work to spread it out to two or three people maybe even but being able to have that coordinated effort between them to make sure we’re all moving in the right direction, right? Yep.

Mike Throne 6:49
Yeah. And I just felt like there was a lot of stops and starts, every time we’d have a big event. It was sort of like okay, membership meeting, slow down or pause. And I just felt like, you know, the membership duties being segmented out. We could just focus on membership for 12 months a year. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:06
that’s smart. So for our topic for our conversation today, for this episode, we focus or we decided to focus on discussing the chamber turn that we’re seeing throughout the chamber world. And part of that some of the balance and some of the work life balance that we need to be mindful of to try to retain us as a chamber professionals and not get too burned out and be adding to that churn too quickly. So we will dive into this discussion much deeper as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Mike, we are back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking today about chamber churn, but also the work life balance aspect to try to help support those chamber champions that are out there. I know from my my vantage point, my point of view from especially since the pandemic, I think that was really an accelerator of seeing this churn of chamber executives and, and staff were, you know, it was everything 100%, you know, during the pandemic, and I think at least it led to a lot of burnout, it led to a on the other hand, a lot of satisfaction, because chambers were able to see the value, the community was able to recognize the value of the chamber, but I think the the balance got out of whack a bit there. But from your perspective, what have you seen and what what comes to mind, as you see think of chamber churn. But

Mike Throne 10:59
I think it hits really, really close to home to me, in fact, of the five or six county area around me, I have one county to my north, that is churn their leader three times since the end of 2020. Another chamber that’s churned its leader four times since the end of 2020. And another county near me that has turned it three times since 2020. And then if you look around, some of the folks that I got to know in my first year, they’re gone in their predecessor, or their their successor, are also gone. I’m part of the chamber executives of Chamber of Commerce, executives of Ohio CEO group, which is a group designed specifically for executives. And we haven’t really run the numbers fully yet. But I would say, venture a guess that half of the positions and there are, you know, a lot of chambers in Ohio that have churned leaders over that span. I think COVID was a part of it. I think COVID was a very big waking event for people, to let them see just how aggressive their schedule was, and how hard they’re working. And, you know, I come from this from from the perspective of spending 25 years in the journalism business where the last three years or two years, I was the editor over two papers, and I was strung out and really just stressed out, I get home and my young kids were already in bed, and I hadn’t seen them all day, and I just really needed, I needed a change, I didn’t enjoy my work anymore. And so, you know, I had applied for this job five years before it came open. Didn’t get it then. But when it came back open again, I was a little reluctant to do it. But the more that I’ve looked at it, the more I felt like this is a good a good change for me. And I have the opportunity to work with my board to set the realistic goals, boundaries and values that will allow me to have that work life balance. And so, you know, I guess from the chamber churn perspective, I look at, you know, Glenn Shepards, report every month and see all these people that are leaving, or going from one to the other. And I just even look at my IOM class from last year, I’m currently in my second year. And the number of people that have left from that class alone just gives me great concern about who we’re getting for leaders. And then I think, how we address that, you know, I’m five years into this job, I don’t really consider myself a veteran, like many of the other folks that do this job. But we’re going to need to invest in those leaders to make sure that they don’t fall into the same traps. And I think the other part of it, too, is to create for our own selves. The boundaries that we know will help sustain us to go deep into this career if we really want that.

Brandon Burton 14:07
Yeah. So you’ve quickly become one of the old timers as everybody around you. It’s kind of

Mike Throne 14:14
a joke. You go from rookie to veteran real quickly in this industry, right? That’s

Brandon Burton 14:20
right. And at the same time, there’s those veterans that have been around, you know, their majority of their career that have a ton of value to offer to those who are new to the industry and and hopefully having platforms like this and state conferences and associations and IOM you know, that it’s opportunities to be able to learn from those that that have good stuff to pass on. What really stood out to me he had mentioned a couple of times these boundaries and values that allow for you to hopefully try to strike a balance between your work and your life. What does that look like? I guess her something because he had mentioned personal boundaries, but also that your board has been amenable to accepting boundaries and values that that you have as well. Can you talk to that a little bit? Sure.

Mike Throne 15:12
So I read a book few years ago called sacred rest, and it’s by Dr. Sondra, Dalton Smith. And she and that book talks about. And it actually came at a really important time. For me, it was produced in 2017, this was at the height of when I was really burned out. Emotionally, I loved being a journalist, I loved being an editor, we did great work, we served our community well. But inside, I was just really, really tired. And mentally, I really was going through the motions every day. And I read this book, and I started really, I didn’t really have an opportunity to apply a lot of the things that were in the book, until I kind of left that career because it was just such high energy, always on always, you know, you’re always worried about the stories that you don’t miss, and so on. And so in the book, Dr. Dalton Smith talks about getting seven types of rest. And they include physical rest, mental rest, social rest, spiritual rest, sensory rest, emotional rest, and then creative rest. And I realized very quickly, that creative rest was not something that I did not do much of, I was always just going and always in a in a, you know, an office setting. And, and so even though the journalism business can be very creative, I never took time to get outside of the walls of the office and appreciate the community that I live in, or, you know, we have great trails and other things around us. Not none of that stuff was I doing? And so I had to figure out how to get the seven types of risks, and you’re not going to get them every day. But how can I work them into my week and work them into my mental schedule. So that way I can, I can tell, you know, that I’m, I’m getting too out of balance in one area. You know, sensory rest is very, very important. Taking a break from social media, I think we need to all do that quite a bit, turning off your notifications, one of the ways that I do it is at nine o’clock every night, my notifications shut off, they don’t come back on again until seven in the morning. Most of my good friends and my work my co workers and people on my board know, if something is really really urgent, you know, they can get to me somehow, usually through my wife, they’ll call but you know, that sort of thing is where we, we need to sort of set that boundary and create that situation where you know, and in all honesty, I think it’s limiting your video meetings as much as possible to because the more we’re in front of the screens, the more I feel like it’s a little bit more draining, you have to, you know, it’s a little bit more of a challenge to do some of those things. So I really started to look at what this book offered to me. And started taking it piece by piece for one week, I would just think about, okay, how do I get physical rest? You know, and I found that I was sleeping five to six hours in the night. Yeah. And you know, I’m 55. Now I’m not 25. And it’s just not working. So how do I get more rest. And part of that physical rest, too is I do stretching, you know, I try to get up and around and in those types of things. So I think those are the things that I have really locked into. And I think the number one thing is to make sure that you enjoy your work. I have talked, you know, we talked earlier about the fact that I was just not I loved the journalism business, but I was done with it. And it was done with me. So did I enjoy that work, I enjoyed the people that I worked with, and that’s what I miss, I miss the big story. But I don’t miss the day to day grind of it. And that’s why I had to leave, I didn’t enjoy it anymore. And so, you know, I think when we sit down and we look at our daily tasks as chamber leaders, it’s about making sure that you enjoy the work, knowing your values, knowing your boundaries, setting realistic goals for yourself. You know, if you if you’re a if you’re a new chamber director, you know, anywhere is up, right? So you might say to yourself, maybe you know, 200 new members in a year is a great goal. Is it realistic, and have conversations with your board about that? And then the last one that I’ll say is that you have to create a self care plan. You know, for some people, it might, it might look like taking a walk every day for other people it will be, you know, a massage or, you know, buying yourself an ergonomic chair or, or things like that, but what is your self care plan? So that way, you know, hey, I’m kind of stressed out, I need to take a step back and say, You know what I would really like, I’d like to go for a nice long hike today, or if you’re a runner, take a nice run. And part of that self care plan is getting, you know, sometimes back in the gym, you don’t have to lift weights and get buff, but, you know, take, take a little walk on the treadmill, or, you know, work out some of the stress of your life. And so I think those those types of things can help us as we go through the daily grind of the of the job. And look, there’s some times that it’s easier than others, right? If you got a big event coming up, it’s probably going to be a high intense, you know, very arduous time, you probably are going to be lacking in some of those things. But trying to figure out how after that event is over, or that big push that you have on his over to try to get yourself back in balance.

Brandon Burton 21:12
Yeah, yeah, there’s gonna be Sprint’s for sure. We’re, it’s all hands on deck, and you got to give it your all for, you know, maybe a few weeks there, leading up to a big event. But I think that the nature of chambers, and I don’t know that it has to be this way. But it tends to be what’s evolved, at least into what chambers are where, especially as a chamber executive, you’re out and about in the community, people see you, you see people, you need to say hi, and it make those connections, make sure you have good reports as business owners, so they don’t say, man that Mike is a jerk, you came in here and didn’t even say hi, and he probably doesn’t even know I’m a member, right. So you always have your chamber face on. And then inherently there’s, I don’t know, many chambers out there who don’t have a business after hours, right. And that gets into some of the boundaries where you know, or it’s the before hours, they are the breakfast mixers or things like that. And it’s good to have these opportunities for people to gather and network and, but you probably don’t need to be at every single one of them, right. So schedule a rotation with your staff or with board members or have a schedule to where you don’t have to be the face at every one of those events. And I think that that would play well into the balance. And I think to your point on the self care, we need an outlet, right, we need to be able to have a healthy way to let go of some of the stressors that that we carry. And unfortunately, a lot of people will turn to things like alcohol to be able to numb out and get through to the next day. And then that just compounds on the issues that they see day to day. So I think these are great points, as

Mike Throne 22:57
well. And there’s a great way to know that if you go to rest quiz.com r estquiz.com. You can take a quiz, and find out what type of rest you really lack, to live your best life. And that’s Dr. Dalton Smith website. And in all honesty, like taking that quiz was very eye opening. And I I always encourage people to take that quiz because you don’t know where you’re lacking. You think you do, but you don’t know where you’re lacking. And I want to touch on a point that you said as well, you were talking about, you know, the the member that thinks oh, they probably don’t even know if I’m a member. So my first couple of months into this job. The journalism job is a very, very head down, push forward, do your thing. And so when I came here, I had certain habits. And one of them was when I lock into a project or if I’m locked into learning something, I am always going to be head down plow forward. And I was in my office here one one morning and really not aware of what was going out on outside the lobby and I came out and went and walked past somebody as I walked by, and then did my thing came back in my office and just plowed forward again. Hours later, I got a call from my board chair and he said, Hey, I just got a call from the person that was standing outside. And she said that you were rude to her that you didn’t even acknowledge her and so on and so forth. And I was like, I don’t even recall there being you know, like an entity as I walked by. And long story short, she just lost her husband about a month earlier. Literally, I could probably reach out and touch the building that she works in next door. Never met her. And then I realized you know in that situation I had caused hurt her in pain right on top of the hurt and pain that she already felt from the loss that she had. So immediately, I went over and apologized to her. And I mean, we’ve had a great relationship ever since. But you know, those are the things that sometimes we get locked into, when we’re still trying to do all the things that we’ve got to do, we have to remember that this job is ultimately first about relationships, and about how we make people feel, I can tell you a million times that the chamber is here for you. But if I walk past you, right after you’ve lost your husband, and I don’t even acknowledge you, all of that goes out the window. And so, you know, I always have people around me, I’ve got a group of friends that I trust to say, you know, you probably need to spend more time with your family, you probably need to spend more time doing this or that. And I’m blessed with that I’m blessed with a great staff, as you mentioned earlier, to send to other to have a rotation that we can do things because honestly, it is it’s too much to do all by yourself.

Brandon Burton 26:08
Yeah. Back to the thought that comes to mind is to don’t be a busy chamber exec, you know, it, yes, you are going to be busy. But what I mean by that is don’t show the busyness as you interact with people, or have the stress on your face, you know, as you have those interactions that needs to be warm and genuine with those that you come in contact with. Because you don’t always know, you know, when they’re having that bad day, or when they really need the chamber. And just to be able to be that genuine face that really is there to support them is so valuable. So I think the boundary part, though, so as you’re out in the community, you know, if you and your wife go to dinner, this is a it should be quote unquote, you know, personal time, right? A date night, you know, but how do you set aside? Or do you have to go to dinner outside of the community? I don’t know. What do you do to be able to straddle that line of balance to where your wife feels like she’s getting what she needs, and then those in the community that you interact with, feel like they’re getting what they need.

Mike Throne 27:19
So just in case my wife listens to this, I’m gonna, I’m gonna have to be honest. So my father in law, owns a business in town, he’s on school boards, and is a well known figure in our community. So if we go to dinner with them, My in laws, and my wife, my, my wife, and my mother in law, know, to just go to the table. And we’ll work our way to where they always hope that we get seated fairly close to the entrance. Because if not, we’re going to see a million people that we know, and we’re going to chat for a little bit. So I’m not great at that. However, you know, if somebody engages me with a bigger issue that I know is going to take time, I will always say, hey, look, let me give you my cell phone number, call me tomorrow morning. Why don’t I send you a text and we can connect and have coffee or lunch or breakfast? Something like that. Now, if it’s something that’s super urgent, I’ll go back to the table and say, hey, look, this person really needs to talk that maybe might have happened twice in the last five years. Yeah. But they were pretty important issues. And, you know, people are really I think we we, we always think that people aren’t going to be as respectful as they are. I think people understand sometimes. And we don’t think they do. And so if you say to them, man, I want to be fully engaged in this conversation. Because that’s what you’re telling them when you say, we can’t work through this whole thing right now. But let’s do it tomorrow, or the next day or something like that. They want your full attention. And so we just got to remember that they’re asking us because one they know we can help. And two, they want your attention. And three, they think that you’re going to help them with possible solutions. So why wouldn’t they want you to be engaged? So you know, I’m always glad handing and you know, kissing babies. It’s almost like being a politician, right? Like, you know, I’m always doing that. But at the same time, if it’s really urgent, we’ll take the time and then if it’s not, let’s let’s catch up. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 29:27
I think that’s that’s good advice. And I think it all plays back into the chamber churn. I mean, if you’re constantly being stretched in all these different ways, and your family’s not getting what they need out of you, you’re not getting the rest, that you need to be able to be rejuvenated and to give your best self. It’s all going to lead to burnout and the you know, looking for that escape hatch to be able to get out and move on. So I think these are important things to consider. And as we begin to wrap up, I wanted to ask if there’s any A tip or action item that you might share for a chamber who is really interested in taking their organization up to the next level? What would you suggest for them?

Mike Throne 30:08
Yeah, you know, I think it’s, it’s the same. I always tell people, like, don’t be afraid of nothing that you don’t know something. And always be learning. You know, I learned from your podcast from listening to other people, I’ve learned a ton by going to our state conferences, I go to, you know, if you can’t afford to go to ACC, I really do. You know, encourage people to go to that conference as well find ways to connect with your fellow chamber executives, or let your staffs network with their their similar positions near you. Because that is less intensive, it might just cost a lunch or coffee or breakfast or something like that. But I mean, I have learned so much from the folks that I just picked up the phone and said, hey, you know, I’m new to this job, or I’m new to this problem. But I hear that you’ve gone through it, or that you can be helpful. You know, and since I’ve, you know, again, jokingly, we said that I’m now a veteran, but like I’m getting those calls now. And you know, when you when you look at those, those folks calling, you can’t see it as an annoyance. Again, if it’s a boundary issue, then I think it’s really important to say, I can’t give this the attention that it needs to have today. So let’s catch up tomorrow or at our first opportunity to do so. But reach out to those that are maybe they’re brand new, like you and say, let’s tackle this together. Or, you know, there’s strength in numbers. That’s the number. That’s the number one thing I can tell people, I could not have done this, and achieved what I’ve achieved so far. If I just tried to do it all on my own, I would probably still be with my head down, making all my members mad. And, you know, and not not achieving anything. Although I don’t think the folks out in that. Office would let me do that for very long, I guess. But, you know, I just think it’s really important. You don’t know what you don’t know, that was advice that was given to me in my journalism career, probably 20 years ago. So don’t act like you don’t like you do know it, reach out and get the help that you need to start to whittle away at the the issues that you see in your community, and be a help.

Brandon Burton 32:29
Yeah, I love that. I like asking everyone to 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?

Mike Throne 32:41
Well, I’m excited about you know, I think we have changes and challenges that we’re going to have to meet right, but I’m excited that this business provides for us an opportunity to help every help people every day. And I think that’s not going to change. Now we’re gonna have to change with the things that are, you know, that are changing along with it, AI is going to be a huge challenge. You know, membership dues and the way they get they get computed and, and paid are a challenge. And so the purpose of chambers has always been to convene and connect. And that’s not going to change. But the way that we convene and connect, is probably going to have to change, one of the things that we have been doing quite a bit of in the last year is instead of blanket, throwing out an event to folks targeting the folks that we think need to be in the room. Because it used to be you could just throw a BA B and tell everybody to come, you could, you know, have a chamber educational session on any myriad of topics and 20 people would show up, and it was no problem. It’s less of that now, people are busier, they’re still dealing with the after effects of COVID, and workforce issues and childcare issues and transportation. And so you’ve really got to figure out should this you know, if you’re going to do an educational event, should it be hybrid or virtual or in person? How long should it be? If it’s going to be in person? How long should it be if it’s going to be zoom? And just have really smart conversations with your folks about what events look like in 2024 and beyond. Because we want to connect as many people as we can, and we want to convene as many people as we can. But we don’t want to bore people to death. And you know, my former profession did a bad job of that. We still did the same stories about the same things and didn’t change for a long time. We didn’t buy into electronics and we didn’t buy into technology. And by the time we decided to react all that stuff, it was far too late. We Can’t let the chamber profession do that. And it’s my hope that folks will start asking better and smarter questions about all aspects of what they do. Because it’s the best way for them to really, and and again, you know, you’re going to have to ask that of your members, don’t sit in an office with three people in a room and say, Hey, what do you think we should change, because we think we’re great. But other people might have great input to offer there. And so find ways to engage those folks in your membership that will help, you know, provide the best way to fulfill your purpose moving forward.

Brandon Burton 35:36
Right, I love that. And they, to your point about connecting and convening those in your community and your members. There was a book I read a while ago called you’re invited. And it’s all about the the art of extending the invitation. And so that blanket email to all the membership to really handpick and say if we’re going to do some kind of a summit on real estate, you know, let’s have all of our Realtors and our lenders and title companies and really handpick who’s coming if we’re going to do something on, you know, a certain aspect of employment, you know, let’s make sure we’ve got a restaurant sector and connect those people together so they can talk about what are the struggles that they’re seeing what’s working for them, and to realize that they can all be there to help and support and, you know, the the networking part, if we go to a networking event, and everyone’s there trying to sell us insurance, that doesn’t really do much for everybody else there. But if you can really connect and network those people that support each other’s businesses, that’s where the magic happens. Yeah, so absolutely. So Mike, I’d before I let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you as a, as a mentor. Just learn about how you guys are doing things there at the chilla coffee Ross chamber.

Mike Throne 36:58
I appreciate it again. Thanks for the invitation. This was great. So yeah, we’re the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce in Chillicothe, Ohio, our website is ChillicotheOhio.com that’s C H I L L I C O T h e ohio.com. I know only five communities in the whole country have a Chillicothe, so you may not know how to spell it. My email is just my first initial and last name. It’s mthrone@chillicotheohio.com. I’m also on LinkedIn, on Facebook. The Chamber itself is on Facebook and LinkedIn. And you can reach out to any through our channels there as well. I also you mentioned the podcast earlier in the in the broadcast. But yeah, it ‘Feels Like Home’ has been we’re in our fourth season right now. It’s basically we just want to spotlight the great stories that are going on our community, people that have started businesses, people that are making an impact in the community through service or things like that. So you can find us on pretty much anywhere you get podcasts, Spotify, Apple podcasts, we use Buzzsprout as our feed. So you can find this on Buzzsprout as well. But we would love for folks to take a listen. When I went to the ACC conference a couple years ago, I was talking with someone from Texas, and they said, Hey, I heard you on a podcast. What what is it? And I said what it was? And they said, Oh my gosh, I listened to that podcast, and it blew me away. I felt like a quasi celebrity for a little while. So that’s right. Listen, please give us a review and send us an email. We’d love to hear from you. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 38:48
So that’s awesome. We will get all that in our show notes for this episode. And I’m a huge fan of chambers doing podcasts. I think it’s a great way to storytel Tell the story of your community interview those businesses as influencers in your community. And for those who haven’t seen it, I do have a chamber podcasting guide. It’s a free resource for you to learn how to get a podcast started. It’ll be linked in the show notes as well. But feel free to check that out.

Mike Throne 39:17
I did a session at CCO a couple years ago on podcasting and I used your your podcast as an example and pointed folks to your guide. So awesome. Thank you. I learned a lot from that guide. So I appreciate you. Awesome,

Brandon Burton 39:30
appreciate that. But Mike, this has been fun having you on chamber chat podcast with us today. I appreciate you coming on and being candid with the experiences that you’ve seen and and these lessons you’ve learned to find that balance in your life and to be able to find that that meaningful rest. I really appreciate you.

Mike Throne 39:48
Thank you Brandon.

Brandon Burton 39:51
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Engaging the Younger Generation with Sarah Sladek

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Sarah Sladek. Sarah has been referred to as a social equity expert and recognized as both a global leader in strategy and talent economy influencer, organizations worldwide have relied on her insights to plan their futures foster cultures of relevance and belonging and realize growth. Sarah studies belonging through the lens of social change and generational influence alongside trends and shifts in organizational cultures, workforce development, consumerism and economics. She refers to this comprehensive approach as next gen intelligence. Using this approach, Sarah has successfully turned organizations around bringing them to a place of increased relationship building and revenue generation. She is a founder and CEO of XYZ University, a training and consulting firm advising organizations worldwide. She is an author of six books as well. In addition, Sarah is a web show host podcaster, one of my own heart member of Forbes, Business Council, and contributing writer for boardroom magazine. She was recently named to the Global list of women who advanced associations, and she’s prominently featured in the jobs of tomorrow Docu series, currently streaming on Tubi. Her expertise has been prominently featured in international media, and she’s keynoted events throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. We’re excited to have Sarah with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Sarah Sladek 3:46
Oh, fantastic. It’s an honor to be here, Brandon, and hello, Chamber Champions. I like that little saying, because if you work for a chamber, you have to be a champion. I’m saying that because something about me. I started out my career, one of my first jobs was working for a chamber. It was a hot mess. And that kind of set me on the trajectory that I’m on now in terms of my career. And then one other interesting thing I will share about myself is just a few weeks ago, I was invited to the White House for an inaugural Business Leaders Summit. So that was kind of cool.

Brandon Burton 4:26
Nice. That is exciting. That is really cool. So I’m curious and I’m sure listeners are curious. What what kind of role did you have when you started in your career at at a chamber? What were you doing?

Sarah Sladek 4:38
Yes, I was the Director of Media and Communications. And, and this was in I’m gonna date myself just a little bit here. But this was in bridging late 1990s, early 2000s. So it was kind of a crazy time anyway, you know, we We’re seeing at that time, a lot of people were saying, Oh, are these Gen Xers, they are not joiners, they’re very difficult. We were seeing technology really start to take off, I went to a couple of ACCE conferences, and one of them they talked about, oh my gosh, we’re gonna have this fandangled new thing and a couple of years, you’re gonna have a computer in the palm of your hand. And everyone went, Oh, my gosh, what, you know, crazy like no way. That’s a joke, like people thought that’s not real.

Brandon Burton 5:33
shapers are saying take it back. Take it

Sarah Sladek 5:37
back. Exactly, exactly. So it’s just a time of transition, there was less staff turnover, and it was just, it was just a time of change. Really,

Brandon Burton 5:46
that is a lot of change going on at that time. So I’m trying to put myself in your shoes, that timeframe. And in that role director, media communications, that’s a lot crossing your plate at that time that’s new, and trying to digest and understand, which probably set you up well, for the career path you’re in now with being able to see things through that lens. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you do with XYZ University? And just kind of a little bit of your background? Maybe we didn’t touch in the bio, just to help set the stage for our conversation today.

Sarah Sladek 6:20
Sure, absolutely. So yes, I can really harken back to that experience at a chamber. Because I had a light bulb moment while I was working for the chamber where I kind of thought to myself, Okay, wait a second, where are all the young professionals? Why are we struggling to get younger members involved? Everyone on our board is over the age of 50. And I just had this moment where it was like, Wait a second, if we are really intentional about succession planning, what’s that mean for the future of our organization. And where we were also at that time, there was a lot of buzz around our member companies saying, Gosh, we’re having a hard time engaging in talent. And so that seemed like a big problem that the chamber at that time should be helping to solve. But in any case, I kind of had the proverbial pat on the head that Oh, sir, it’s very interesting thinking about succession planning and the next generation, but we don’t really have to worry about those things. And I was convinced we didn’t need to worry. So fast forward, I started my own business called XYZ University XYZ standing for generations, X, Y, and Z University, meaning we do a lot of research training on this topic of what organizations and communities need to do to engage the next generation. And that, of course, has burgeoned into a real challenge for a lot of organizations. And so that’s what I do.

Brandon Burton 8:02
Yeah, absolutely. That’s awesome. So one thing that you really touched on that kind of struck a chord with me is when you talk about that, as a chamber, say we’re really struggling to engage the younger generation or even as a board wipe, you were noticing they’re all over 50. And I think chambers, for the most part, I think, have taken a hard look at the board and trying to especially through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion, they’re trying to make sure that the board represents the greater business community. I think I’ve seen a lot of chambers making adjustments to have younger board members on there. But as far as the overall membership, that still tends to be a little bit of a struggle in trying to resonate, what’s your the value proposition is that their chamber to this younger generation, who, maybe they’re starting off without a lot of funds, maybe they’re trying that they’re an entrepreneur trying to do it all on their own? Maybe they don’t realize that they need a team yet. Maybe it’s the language that’s being communicated to them it could be a whole slew of different things that are missing the mark with this younger generation. This I’m excited to dive in deeper on this topic with you today as we dig in on engaging the younger generation going forward. So we will dive into this as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sarah. So I I teased it before the before the break there that we’re talking today about engaging the younger generation. So from the chamber lens, from the experience, you’ve seen from the things that you’ve gathered throughout your career with with XYZ University? What are some of those ways that a chamber can really focus in on that younger generation? And? And is it the language they’re using is the way they’re communicating? Is it the value proposition? What what are those things that they need to be mindful of when trying to attract and speak to the younger generations?

Sarah Sladek 12:18
So it’s all of the above. And we could spend probably hours talking about this, but I’m going to try to boil it down to just a couple of things. One is, I think chambers, membership organizations overall, just need to be very intentional about making room for young people. So I’ll give you an example. Um, well, we have one person under 30 that sits on our board. It’s, but that’s not enough, right? It’s like, we think we can just check a box and be done. But no, what we have realized over time, is that radical change is needed in order to create room for younger generations and actually succeed at engaging them. So what I find in a lot of organizations, is it number one, there’s a lot of guessing, and a lot of stereotyping. Well, we have a young person in our firm, so I think all young people want this, I have a kid this age, and they’re so into this. And so this is what we should do. And so they you know, rather than put the time in to organize a focus group, I think tank, do interviews, do surveys, do the actual research, to find out what young people want. There’s just like guessing, and often when we’re just guessing or not making the right choices. So that’s one thing, you know, knowing for sure what young people want, being intentional about outreach should be the second thing, and actually creating room for them. And that means making sure that young people actually have a voice and the seat at the table. And that, you know, it’s not limited to one or two people who are younger, but actually being intentional about what’s our outreach, what’s our strategy, to begin to engage new people, new voices. So

Brandon Burton 14:18
I think that’s important. And one thing, a question that came to mind, because you talked about a lot of guessing and stereotyping that goes into addressing the younger generations. And instantly, I thought, you know, what I observed with some younger generations, I thought Hold on a second. What is the difference between observing the younger generation and stereotyping the younger generation? I think there’s a difference there. But I think it’s a fine line for sure, where you take the one experience or a couple experiences of observation and apply it across the board. One of the things that I have observed is it seems that the younger generations There’s a lot more things for them to be interested in, there’s a lot more things vying for their attention and their time. And to be able to try to grasp a little bit of that attention when there’s so much going on, I think is some of the struggle. Is that something that you’ve observed? Or am I am I applying a stereotype? I don’t know. No,

Sarah Sladek 15:24
no, no, no, it’s so true. We’ve moved into an era where time Our time is our greatest commodity, it’s one of the only things we can actually control, who we spend our time with how we spend our time, whether it’s a valuable use of our time, according to our opinions and experiences. And that, you know, we we started to covet our time and really try to manage it. When things when more technology took hold, and no society started to feel like it was spinning out of control, we had more awareness of what was going on in the world because of access to more information and technology than ever before. And so we started to see, and especially during COVID, as well, this, you know, I’m going to covet my time and hold it dear and precious. And absolutely, there is more competition than ever before, it is easier than ever, for someone to start their own networking group or their own, you know, business support group, or what what have you community building group? And so chambers are experiencing more competition, which is why it’s more important than ever to be really in touch with your members and constantly asking, what is it that you need want and expect? Something I remind organizations all the time that I think they sometimes forget, is that really the primary reason people join and get involved with an organization, research has repeatedly shown, the primary reason is because they believe you can help them solve a problem. So and problems shift and change according to Career Stage, according to whatever is happening in society, you know. So it’s on the chamber leaders, it’s it’s their responsibility to know, what challenges are our members currently facing? And are we doing a good job at responding to those and attempting to solve those challenges? All

Brandon Burton 17:31
right, well, that sets the stage for the next questions. How do we, how do we engage with them, and in a way where we can gain some of that feedback, to be able to speak to them in the right language and to address what their problems are? And help craft solutions to those problems? Yeah.

Sarah Sladek 17:49
You know, it’s interesting to think about, but we are really not in the practice of asking for feedback. Yes, we serve a but I’ve I often hear from organizational leaders, whether it’s chambers or other membership types of organizations, well, we can’t do too many surveys, we can’t ask for too much feedback. You know, there’s like, there’s a fear of what will people say? What will they think if we’re asking their opinions? Is it too much? You know, so on and so forth. And I think, you know, we’re living through this era of tremendous and very rapid change, which means, again, the needs and interests of our members are changing, and business is changing. And so if we aren’t really attentive, and really in conversation and dialogue all the time, with our, you know, consumers, members, leaders, volunteers, whatever you want to call them, our audience. If we’re not in communication, things change, and then our organization’s already behind. So we have to be anticipating change. So your question was, what are some of the ways we can do that? Well, there are so many ways, it can be quick polls, it can be longer surveys, it can be a monthly sit down with the Chamber CEO and bringing in 10 new members each time 10 People get chosen to come in have coffee with the CEO, and share their feedback or ideas. It can be you know, focus groups think tanks, there’s just so so many opportunities to actually engage in dialogue. It’s just simply we’re not in the habit of doing it. But we need to get in the habit.

Brandon Burton 19:38
Yeah, I guess. And I liked that idea of bringing in 10 new members with the Chamber CEO and have that cup of coffee and just have a conversation. Just listen. I guess when I’m thinking of the membership at general, if we’re noticing that there’s not a lot of that younger generation in the membership How do we reach them? How do we how do we engage with those ones that are not part of the organization already? And I guess part of it is you’re getting feedback from hopefully their peers in that our members to be able to see what we can apply, you know, to the greater business community, that younger generation, but I think that seems to be the trick of how do we reach those people that we’re not currently reaching? And being able to attract them to the all these great offerings that our chamber has to provide? Yeah.

Sarah Sladek 20:32
So I think a lot of times organizations make the mistake of thinking it’s all about social media. And it is certainly not, um, we find in our research with younger generations, they’re actually craving those relationships with individuals, not just social media, yes, a check social media, but that’s not really what’s forging those emotional connections and those engagement practices. So reaching young people really is most effective when you’re involving them directly, as I just mentioned, you know, doing those feedback circles and outreach efforts. But also when peers are reaching out to one another, and it’s grassroots. And then third, I would say it’s being intentional about mixing people up, at least for a time being here until we get really used to having inclusive cultures. So an example I shared earlier, well, we have one young person on the board, which isn’t enough, you know, and yes, we’re making strides in these areas. But it needs to be really, really intentional and strategic, and really a commitment. So a best practice I often share is an organization that changed their bylaws, and said, from here on out, at least 30% of any decision making group, whether that’s a council, a committee, a board, whatever the case may be 30% need to be comprised of individuals that fit into that young, professional category for this organization. It was we want people within their first five years of a career. But it could be a little longer than that. It just depends on your chamber, and what is the right fit. But by changing those bylaws, you’re putting a stake in the ground, and you’re saying, this is important, this is a priority. Community Building is important. And then you’re bringing people together in there, you know, you have experienced leaders, learning from very new leaders, you’re getting that diversity of thought going, you’re learning and teaching from one another, you’re creating empathy for one another, building relationships with one another. But also, we find that the more diverse cognitively, which includes age diversity, and more diverse groups in leadership roles are considerably more innovative. And when you have all these voices represented, you’re able to really truly represent the best interests of the chamber going forward and innovate, to some of the challenges that face the organization together. So good stuff, good stuff, and we but we just need to make the effort to say no, this is important. And we’re actually going to take the extra step of revamping some of our methodologies and practices to make room for young people.

Brandon Burton 23:44
I like the example of changing the bylaws and having a clear definition of what this these younger leaders, the younger generation are, because the question coming to my mind was, okay, if you’re 65 As a board member, and you’re like, we need some more young blood, and you get the 45 year old, because that’s younger than 65, right? It’s missing the mark on the 25 year old who’s there that’s got great ideas. So having these different segments, but I like the idea of saying somebody within the first five years of their career, I think is a great way of framing that. Instead of saying we need so many under 30 That may not be the right marker, and depending on the community, depending on who the person is. So there’s different ways you can frame that. I think I always, always give that little disclaimer with when it comes to changing bylaws, make sure it’s something that’s sustainable, right? Because this is the way that your organization runs. So think through that clearly that if you say a certain age demographic to make up your board or these decision making groups, make sure it’s sustainable going forward.

Sarah Sladek 24:54
And I don’t think it’s a bad idea to also Bringing outside perspectives. Not everyone on the board has to be a quote unquote member, it’s also good to get some new ideas or if you’re uncomfortable with having them on the board, then bring in some guests occasionally, whether they’re guest presenters or guest observers, or having a ancillary focus group that meets with report whatever, they, you know, get creative. But whenever we’re literally in an echo chamber, just continually hearing the same ideas tossed around, we can get in these ruts, you know, and we get overly comfortable doing more of this thing. So anything that and young people will push you out of that comfort zone, hopefully, but also outside perspectives. You know, and I, obviously, in chamber world, it’s a great practice when boards go to other cities, and they’re learning from other but you know, and some of those inner city leadership visits, so cool. But you can do something similar within your own community, too. And then you’re also fostering those relationships outside of your network and getting insights about why people haven’t joined and forging those relationships. And now all of a sudden, people are rethinking that decision not to be involved.

Brandon Burton 26:23
Yeah, I like the idea of bringing in guests to a board meeting. And the thought that I had is maybe it’s a committee of young professionals, that you bring in on a maybe it’s a quarterly basis, maybe it’s twice a year, once a month, whatever the interval is, make it a regular thing to bring them in and say, what are some of the things that you’re saying now, what are the things we need to be aware of try to draw on that experience, and let them feel valued that they’re bringing, you’re bringing them in, they’ve got a seat at the table, hopefully, there’s other people in their same age demographic that are on the board as well. But to be able to bring in that combat committee of sort, to be able to have those different perspectives, I think, is invaluable. That’s a great idea.

Sarah Sladek 27:10
And you know, as long as we’re talking about it, I think it’s also key to actually, this might sound really basic, to actually ask your board members for feedback. I have recently joined a board of directors, and I’m just kind of, it’s it’s intriguing, because every board, every organization has their own culture, right. And it’s just been intriguing to me to kind of watch this unfold, especially given my background, um, that every board meetings really present information, present information. It’s almost like a lecture or a teaching, you know, you’re in a classroom. And the board’s asked to vote on certain things, but actual conversation, and dialog is really limited. It’s kinda like we come there for for a class. And then do you agree with this content? Yeah, you know, sure. Okay. Great. See you next meeting. There’s never these, you know, and I feel like, Man, this is a missed opportunity. You just brought all these people together with their various experiences and

Brandon Burton 28:27
schedules. Yeah, yes. And

Sarah Sladek 28:29
tap into that. And not only, you know, because some people might not be comfortable giving actual information, you know, blurting out I hate what you’re doing here. But also, you know, ask for feedback, but also, I think, occasionally, anonymously survey the people on your board. What do you aligned with? What do you not because people will speak up in those private formats as well. And, man, it’s a missed opportunity not to be asking for feedback.

Brandon Burton 29:00
I think if you’re well organized, going into a board meeting, you can do a lot of that presenting ahead of time. Now this goes back to take a step back into your board selection and and how you’re, you’re comprising your board, you want to make sure that they’re engaged members. But if you can do some of that informing before the meeting happens, whether it’s sending the report the financials, or whatever, it may be ahead of time, getting the time to look it over, they might send you an email back, but the feedback or look at this and let me know what you think about this. And then the time and the meeting can really be used to drive something forward to have some conversation that goes forward.

Sarah Sladek 29:42
I and I Okay, one more thing. I will just, I needed a soapbox for this. One more thing I will say is that at that board meeting, in my initial board meeting, I received a board binder that was no joke like eight inches thick like just It’s

Brandon Burton 30:00
huge and wait to read it right? Oh, man, Paper,

Sarah Sladek 30:03
paper Paper, right? Everything printed out. And I nearly had a heart attack partly because it’s so huge. And there’s the expectation or tradition of disseminating this, but every board member got one. And it’s like, okay, that’s the first thing a young person’s going to say is why are you printing all this paper? It is not environmentally friendly. It is not technology friendly. It is not how we do things. Now. It’s a sign that they have really become disconnected from a younger audience as so. Great

Brandon Burton 30:45
point. Yeah. I think if that could be on a web platform where you’ve got topics that could expand, you could do a search for what you’re looking for. Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Sladek 30:55
Ellie’s something, yeah. Not Oh, my gosh, all the trees, all the trees.

Brandon Burton 31:05
So, with with you being the expert on generations, I’m curious what things are standing out to you that are important to the younger generations right now. You mentioned the trees, all the paper. So yeah, are there other things like that, that might strike a nerve that, that you’re seeing and being careful not to stereotype, but from data and feedback that you’re getting? What are some of those things that are important to the younger generations right

Sarah Sladek 31:30
now. So what we’re seeing is a strong, strong, I’m gonna say among Gen Z, especially strong desire, they’re holding as their organizations accountable. And they want the organizations to stand for something. So, you know, when you think about like, Gen Z, I’ll give you just a little perspective here. But Gen Z is the first generation be raised with social media. So when you literally think about brain development, social development, they’ve always been able to use their voice for change. Through social media, they’re more likely to protest. And we’re seeing that Gen Z’s are really they’re coming into membership organizations. And they’re asking, What are your values? What do you stand for? What are you doing to make this a better place, but they and they really will see through any BS, they are like demanding, you know, things like dashboards. And again, this harkens back to how Gen Z was raised. They were raised when you have social media, yes. But they were also raised with technology in the classroom, like they could go into a little app and see their grades, you know, 24 hours a day. So they learn to kind of dashboard progress. And we’re seeing them bring this into workplaces and membership organizations, and they’re saying, Well, wait a second, how are you performing? Are you successful? How do you know you’re successful? If I come in, and I’m part of your organization? How do I know? You know, all the various ways to get involved and how I will be successful? So who, right? That’s gonna change things, but this, this desire to see and know how well you’re doing kind of thing, and holding organizations accountable is really, really big. Speaking of environmental, I’ve also heard from several now several membership organization executives, who’ve had young people come in to interview for jobs, and ask, what is your stance on climate change? And what are you doing to save the planet? And each of these executives said they were completely caught off guard by that question. And you know, said, Well, that’s not really what we do here. Like, we were a chamber or, you know, we were a healthcare organization, we’re about membership. And literally, in each of these situations, the young person said, then this isn’t the job for me and got up and walked out. So where’s we’re going to see that accountability factor, really, really raised. And being able to not just say we were successful this year through an annual report, that’s not going to be enough anymore. Yeah. So that’s something important

Brandon Burton 34:36
and I don’t know that they need to be huge changes, but as a company as an organization, just to be mindful of what are the things that are important to them? And then like you mentioned, the dashboard, call it the wanting to be able to track progress well to be able to do that you need to collect data along the way. So why not start trying to collect some data on things that are kind of those key into caters. And then you have something to build something from as you need to or as as things evolve. But without without something to begin with, you’re left with your your hands up in the air not knowing what to do. Oh,

Sarah Sladek 35:12
gosh, yeah. So things like value, you know. And along those lines, we’ve seen increasing intolerance to intolerance, right? So obviously, equity, inclusion, diversity, all those things are absolutes for younger people, and they will leave. But also we’re seeing more and more age diversity come to the forefront. So once again, when you look at their upbringing, shifts in parenting shifts in technology, education, all of that, you know, Gen Z was raised having a voice and a seat at the table, they were there, we it started with the millennials, but really in the 1990s, late 90s, we shifted to become a child centric society. So like it or not, we raised children to have opinions and express those opinions and to ask a lot of questions. So when they join, and what’s interesting is we’ve seen the cycle to engagement actually shift. So it used to be you join an organization, or you go to your chamber event or whatever. And if he were below a certain age, you were kind of expected to sit and observe, like, just learn about the organization, you can actually lead anything. Yeah, you watch any observe. And now we’ve seen that flipped on its head, and young people are saying, If I’m choosing to show up, if I want to get involved, I’m making a real, I’ve already thought about it, I’ve already researched it, and I’m making like this. It’s like an extension of my personal brand. Like, I believe in this and I’m so I’m affiliating my name with it. And I expect to immediately have the opportunity to get involved and to do something of substance. So they, they want a voice, they want a seat at the table, they want the opportunity to do things like produce content. That’s something a lot of people don’t know about Gen Z, Gen Z creates and consumes more content than any other generation. So they like the idea of being able to come in and help with content generation, you know, and they want to learn, they want to lead, they want to make a difference, and they do not see age as a barrier. So if your chamber still has kind of those hierarchical systems in place, that you have to wait your turn, you need to be rethinking that. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 37:53
that’s interesting. I was enjoying just sitting back and hearing you, yeah. You all these, uh, good insights that you’ve learned about these younger generations. As we begin to wrap things up, I wanted to ask, for chambers that are listening, what tip or action item might you share with them as they look to take their chamber up to the next level?

Sarah Sladek 38:18
Oh, man. Remember, remember two things, I’ll leave you two things. Number one, you your organization was founded, to represent a community, right. And I think in recent years, we, you know, chambers, membership organizations, as a whole began to lose sight of that. And began to just introduce, you know, really kind of hold steadfast to things like tradition. And we’ve always done it this way. And we need to let some of those things go to be able to evolve, stay relevant, and literally be by the members for the members. And that doesn’t mean just a few select members. That means everyone in your membership community, including younger generations, which would be the second thing I will note, I think it’s really, really important. If you want to create something sustainable and relevant for the future, you got to live in the future. So that means, you know, being mindful of trends that are on the horizon. I’m talking to business leaders about What trends are you seeing what what changes? are you observing what what’s likely to come down the pike and impact your business? Not just in the next year, but in the next five years? What are you worried about what’s keeping you awake at night, but also talking to those young linger individuals about some of the same things, and really bringing in and paying attention to not just why college students are doing. But high school students, middle school students. And the reason I say that is because everything in society has a trickle up effect. So we most of the trends that we have today, they didn’t just blindside us and pop out of nowhere. We saw younger generations, because those are usually the ones that introduce and influence trends, using certain things like let’s just say tick tock, for example. And then eventually it trickles up and influences all of us. So if we can be ahead of the curve, in anticipating trends, we’re not at risk of falling behind. And, and I think those two things are really, really intertwined. If you’re holding steadfast to tradition, if you’re not really, really talking to members, not only your current members, but your future members, you’re at risk of falling behind. And one of my favorite quotes that I’ll just leave you with is from Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs used to always tell his employees at Apple, you know, he used to challenge them. And he’s, he’d say, is the decision we’re making right now? Is this going to position our company, a generation ahead, or a generation behind? Because I want to be a generation ahead. But that’s a very, very different mindset. And it requires totally different, you know, processes and practices, it’s entirely doable. But you’re gonna have to rethink how you’re spending your time and who you’re spending your time with.

Brandon Burton 41:46
Yeah, I love the idea of living in the future. So you can anticipate those trends, see what those things are that are coming and doing that will attract those younger people? It’ll they’ll see, okay, you you’re with the times you understand what’s going on. I love that. So sir, I like asking everyone I have on the show about how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Sarah Sladek 42:12
Well, I think that I see the future of Chambers as being incubators. And I’ll explain what I mean by that. There. There’s a in New York, there is a incubator company, that they’re a design company. And basically, they they evolved out of the needs, they started to recognize that people within this fashion design world had no place to like go and grow their businesses get guidance, also hands on training, share best practices. And so basically, they created this big warehouse space, which you can be a member of, and you go there, and you literally get to roll up your sleeves and work in community, with other people who are trying to grow their business, but at the same time, swap ideas, swap leads. And I just think, Man, that’s a great idea. Like, I think I love what chambers do, obviously, and I worked for a chamber. And I think there’s some unmet needs within chambers and some opportunities for real creativity and innovation. And chambers are one of the most powerful organizations our country has, because they’re really uniquely suited to bring together business leaders, community leaders, government leaders, education leaders. And I don’t think I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say, I think chambers have become completely mired in detail. I think I can get away with saying that because I work for a chamber mired in detail with, you know, when are we having our annual conference or annual golf outing and things like that. And we’ve lost sight of some of the really amazing opportunities to bring all these leaders to gather, to collectively problem solve, and to be a literal space where businesses can come together and actually innovate and CO create. So that’s what I’d like to see for the future of chambers to get, you know, rediscover their roots and adapt for what the current marketplace needs.

Brandon Burton 44:34
I love it. It’s a trend live in the future. Right. VA incubator. Yeah, I love it. Well, Sara, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for those who are listening that might want to reach out and connect to learn more about you your offerings, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect Yeah, you

Sarah Sladek 44:54
can find me at XYZUniversity.com. You can also reach out to me directly by sending an email to Hello@SarahSladek.com. That’s Sarah with an H S L A dk.com.

Brandon Burton 45:12
That’s perfect. And we’ll get it in our show notes as well so people can look it up there and and say hello. Thank you for being with us today setting aside some time to be with us here on Chamber Chat Podcast and sharing your insights and the things that you’ve learned about younger generations and to help the chambers listening to live in the future and attract those, those younger members, employees, board members, everything across the board. It’s been a great conversation and glad to have you on the show. Thank you.

Sarah Sladek 45:45
Thank you, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 45:47
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Overcoming the Vocal Minority with Janet Kenefsky

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

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Janet Kenefsky and Janet is the Vice President of Operations for the Greater Vancouver Chamber, overseeing the Chamber’s day to day and strategic programming and internal operations, creating structured processes for the organization to strengthen its core mission and becoming the inclusive and innovative provider of programming and resources. Janet brings over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and organizational strategic development, along with a strong background in government relations and international trade development. She is the business community representative for Clark County’s Law and Justice Council sits on the lodging and Tax Committee for the City of Vancouver and recently selected for and completed the US Chamber Foundation’s workforce fellowship. Her passion and volunteerism are focused on providing greater economic opportunities for businesses and employee growth in the workplace. Janet, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Ali Rauch. Ali is the President and CEO of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. While she’s celebrating just three and a half years in this role, she is not new to serving in the Opelika Chamber. She has served many years on the OPA like is 20 Under 40 leadership program board of directors as well as the Women’s Business Council and total resource campaign. In just three short years, she’s led her team to at best of the best five star accreditation to the US Chamber of Commerce raised two and a half million dollars for the Chamber’s forward Opelika good Strategic Community Economic Development Initiative and with the support from her team led a record breaking reach sponsorship campaign in 2022. She also spearheaded a comprehensive brand refresh. Additionally, she was selected to the US chambers business leads fellowship program, and is in the midst of her IOM certification all while changing the landscape and scope of services they open like a chamber offers to their community. Prior to her role at the Chamber, she worked in a wide array of industries including software manufacturing, higher education and most notably franchising and food services, where she served eight years as the director of marketing for Chicken Salad Chick vs had a hand in helping the brand grow from just three stores to 160. She brings a unique perspective to her leadership role at the chamber. Ali is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and earned a Bachelors of Science in speech communications. She also holds an associate’s degree in communications from Lakeland College. She followed loved hope like it were her future husband, Todd chose to attend Auburn University following his military career and they’ve called up like their home ever since an Ali, I’m super excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better. Well,

Ali Rauch 4:09
thank you so much, Brandon, it is an honor to join you today. My bio is quite comprehensive. So some of my little facts are certainly in there. But I think what I’ll do since I’m looking at your San Francisco helmet, my fun fact is going to be that I’m a shareholder for the Green Bay Packers and I am a massive fan grew up on grew up in the Midwest, actually in Illinois in the middle of bear country. But we were the one Packer family in our town. And so I’m a very, very passionate fan and very much looking forward to our opportunity to win and get into the playoffs this weekend. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 4:50
Yeah. And I’ve been I’ve been impressed with Jordan love and him stepping right into that role and they’ve done a great job. So yeah, awesome. Well tell us a little bit about the scope like a chamber, just give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work. You guys are involved with staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for our discussion today. Yeah,

Ali Rauch 5:12
you bet. So Opelika is in the Auburn Opelika MSA. And so what that means is, if you’re not familiar with Auburn, or Auburn, or Leica, it’s in the southeast in the kind of east central portion of Alabama. So Auburn is home to Auburn University, that college town, and we are that sister city, that has long since been the kind of hub for business in the area. They’re kind of the hub for education, and we’ve been the hub for business, we’ve got a community college in our town, we have a massive amount of industry. And over the past, you know, 20 years, our city has really focused they manage our economic development. So they have focused a lot on diversifying our industry. So we’ve just got a really healthy business community in our town, we have a population of about 33,000. But if you look at the overall surrounding community, we’re between 120 and 180, depending how far you go out in terms of total population, and our chamber, although 33,000 is our town, and if we were to just really cover that, I think we would be considered to be pretty large, we have a membership of just under 1000. In fact, we are looking forward to breaking that 1000 In the next couple of months, we’ve been very, very close. And we have an annual budget of just under a million dollars. And that has almost doubled since I took on took over about three and a half years ago. And so when we talk about kind of the the massive amount of change that we have undergone, that has been part of it. And let’s see, we’ve got a staff of eight, just became a staff of eight, we started as a staff of four, now staff of eight with our most recent hire, which is a business and Workforce Development Director, which we’ll get to when you talk about some of the projects we’ve worked on. And yeah, I think I think that about sums it up.

Brandon Burton 7:17
Very good. That is exciting kind of teaser, you know at that membership growth, and then just about doubling the budget. And so hopefully everyone’s ears are perking up about what what did these changes that you brought into the chamber. And we’ve we’ve titled this episode as new CEO and change agents. So as Ali’s come into this role as we went through her bio and everything, she’s brought a unique perspective to the chamber world, and taking what she knew and working with the chamber and being able to take what she heard knowledge from the outside chamber world and kind of marrying these two together has really been a great change agent. And I’m excited to get into what some of these changes are and how you’ve been able to introduce them and just the experience that you’ve had. But I also want to just put it out there for listeners that it always can feel maybe a little overwhelming when you hear about all the change or things that you need to be doing. And so for those listening, you don’t need to do at all, you know, just listen and see what makes sense for your community. And maybe none of it is things that you need to apply right now maybe you’re already doing a lot of these things. But as we know change is inevitable. So we need to always be looking for what changes and adjustments we do need to make within our organizations to continue staying relevant. So we’ll dive much deeper into this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Hey everybody, Donna from Yiftee here today, just like Brandon, we’re bringing you a guest speaker. First up is Gina from Durham, North Carolina. We’ve sold more than 3300 community cards in Durham, that are being spent at 51 different merchants. There’s something for everyone.

Gina Rozier  10:45  

I’m Gina Rozier, Director of Marketing, Communication and Peacekeeping for Downtown Durham Incorporated. And I’m a very happy Yiftee customer.  We’re the Bull City, and we created our spendable community card with Yiftee years ago. Our participating businesses love it and we had our best ever sales figures last year. Yiftee is great to work with. They help with marketing the program and it is truly turnkey for us in our businesses. Choosing Yiftee has been a great decision for downtown Durham.

Donna Novitsky  11:13  

Thanks, Gina. Wondering how you can have your own community card for free. Check out yiftee.com for next steps. Now back to the show. 

Brandon Burton 11:25
All right, Ali, we’re back. I’d love to just hand you the microphone. Tell us what are some of these changes, I’m sure you’ve got a long list there that you can just barely rattle off some of these changes that you’ve helped drive since you’ve come in this role as CEO. But what are some of those more notable changes, and what has been kind of the the impetus for that?

Ali Rauch 11:47
I think the biggest change that we have really undergone at the Opelika Chamber has been just the overall direction of who we are as an organization. The chamber has been around for 82 years. So it is long standing, it is trusted. It has been very well taken care of for many, many years. But it was very much in a state of complacency. Everything was fine. But it wasn’t exciting. It wasn’t I don’t know, it just it was just there, you know, and I loved it, I was involved. So it wasn’t bad. It was all good things. It just, I come in with a lot of energy. I don’t know if you can feel that for me. But I am a very energetic, very positive. And so one of the first things that I did was to dive in, of course, you got to look at your bylaws truly understand those. But the first thing that we did was we we changed our mission or vision or core values. I rewrote our personnel manual, a ton of policies about the overall direction is what was that first major thing. And honestly, the thing that forced my hand to do that was our accreditation was due with the US Chamber of Commerce. And so this was nine months into my first year as CEO, I’ve got all this paperwork to do. And I’ve done it in my life. And so I was able to take a look at the last 15 years worth of like you do accreditation every five years. And so I was able to look at the last three applications and really get an understanding of where we’ve been. And then I took that as an opportunity and gave myself a deadline and said, Well, you know, we need a new personnel manual, when we need new HR policies. We’ve got to make sure our branding is on point. All those things were kind of sparked by that accreditation change. And so I did not ever think we could possibly get to a five star accreditation and for us to have jumped in my first time to go from four to five star was just I celebrated a lot.

Brandon Burton 13:58
That is awesome. Yeah, it

Ali Rauch 14:00
was huge. But so kind of the core foundation was a big initial change. And we change our vision to be a leading catalyst for a better Opelika. So it really widened our umbrella of what we can do on behalf of our community. While our mission actually changed to be strengthening our community as the champion for business, because we really found that people have no idea what a chamber is literally no clue. Most of the time they think we just do business after hours or cocktail parties or ribbon cuttings. And we wanted our team, our board, our volunteers, everybody to be able to have a simple, singular line that says what is the chamber, we strengthen our community as the champion for business. And so changing that was was a big moment for us and making sure that business was the leading edge element of that. It’s very, very easy to try and serve everybody. But you have to remember, we’re here to serve the business community.

Brandon Burton 15:07
Yeah. I love that just that little tagline that slogan, you can say to we strengthen businesses a champion. We’re busy for our business community. Is that right? Is that how you said it

Ali Rauch 15:18
strengthen, strengthen our community as a champion for business? Yeah, yes,

Brandon Burton 15:22
yes, I had the essence there. So that’s something that every chamber can take, though, you know, do your R&D, you know, take that simplified phrase, that’s something that your board that your volunteers that your staff that new members should be able to understand as a part of your organization. This is what the chamber does. And then from there, obviously gets into mission and vision, things like that. But I love that just having that simple phrase of what is the chamber do, this is who we are, you got that simple response. It’s true.

Ali Rauch 15:53
And one thing that was really great about that, too, is not only did we update our mission to say that, but then our work reflected that. For me, I came from the private business sector, my whole career had been in business. And I also was a marketer. And so I had this unique perspective about what businesses want. And they they are joining the chamber most of the time, to help build awareness and to build relationships on behalf of their business. So because I had that marketing perspective, and understood what they are looking for, from an ROI perspective, we changed a lot of what we offered and what we focused on, so that we could deliver what the businesses need, you know, sometimes you gotta kill those sacred cows and do things they Oh, well, we’ve always done them. But is that what your business community needs? That’s a good question to ask. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:47
I was gonna ask you about that, with your marketing background coming into the chamber world, I know that there’s a there’s some overlap, but there’s also you come into it with eyes wide open of this is what businesses are looking for. And here’s an organization you’re coming into that has been doing, I’m guessing a lot of the same things for a long time, and maybe needed a refresh. So being able to take that, that vision that you’ve had that experience and being able to apply it to the chamber, or there may be some other areas where you’re able to apply your marketing background into creating the identity for your chamber and, and phrases like that, that you just shared? Where else have you seen that background and marketing come in handy in this role,

Ali Rauch 17:30
literally everywhere. So you mentioned in my bio, that we did a a brand refresh, that was huge, you know, I had had been a part of brand refreshes for two different years, I built a brand from the ground up at Chicken Salad Chick. So coming in, I knew we needed that fresh face. And I had high expectations and kind of I want I mean, it needs to be relevant and modern. And today. And so redoing all of our email newsletters, all of our communication, we launched a brand new website last year, we refreshed our magazine, and that one, an ACC e communication and excellence award last year ACC which was amazing. But I think one area that is probably out there that I’ve been able to use it that is unexpected is that we created a conference, it’s actually coming up in a couple of weeks. It’s called the All Things marketing conference. It is just literally a baby that I have created, that my team has come on board and helped and we have made it happen. And and so it’s a one day JAM PACKED conference that people can attend from all over, you’re welcome to if anybody wants to check it out, go to a black chamber.com. But so, you know, like, like a regular conference, you’re gonna pay a fee to attend and include your meals, but you’re gonna listen to a lineup of speakers. And for me, I was getting questions from businesses, especially restaurants, all the time asking for my marketing expertise. And I realized I can’t teach everybody one on one. What if we were to actually teach everybody at once and this became an annual thing. And so I, you know, grabbed grabbed a few of my members who I consider to be really great marketing experts for their specific fields, pulled them together, created a committee and said, This is what I want to do, what would it look like? And so the one we have coming up on January 19 has, we’ve got two keynote speakers, six different breakout sessions, plus a bonus section session, and we’re going to teach everything from traditional marketing to digital advertising to content creation. And numerous people are not only active chamber volunteers, but also former chamber employees like we get it and our keynote speaker is a lady named Lena Trivedi. And if you haven’t heard her story, I encourage you to go to Apple TV and watch the beat The bubble starring Elizabeth Banks. It is essentially the story of how Beanie Babies became what they were. And Lena was an employee at PTI at the time and was really a pioneer of E commerce. And so she’s going to come down and speak and share her story. And, but we created that from the ground up. And now, you know, that’s the opportunity for us to serve 200 to 220. Businesses, if not more, we’ve got the room to grow. But we have an opportunity to teach our business community what they need to know to be better marketers, which is, I would say, 75% of what the businesses need our help from is marketing, because they just most of the time, don’t know what they’re doing. And, and they are an entrepreneur, so they’re passionate about what they’re passionate about, but not necessarily marketing. And so my skill set has just really come in here to create this conference from the ground up. And it’s awesome. It was just this moment of pure, like, Joy. And like, I just, I couldn’t believe it. We did it last year. And now we’re on our second year, and it’s gonna be

Brandon Burton 21:06
awesome. That is awesome. And I think that, you know, strikes a resonance with, with businesses, small businesses, especially where we had talked before we hit record, that the reason that I started the podcast is really to help small businesses that ultimately, that’s what it comes down to my whole career. And chamber publishing has been about helping small businesses and, and there’s some chambers frankly, it becomes more of a membership organization that it kind of stops there and the help, it’s hard to see that connection of where that help and support is for small businesses. And the businesses recognize that I mean, just the honest truth, as I’ve met with Chamber members in a wide variety of different chambers over the years, a lot of them have a hard time making that connection. So having a conference like this, it really offers that direct support for marketing, which is it’s a tangible thing that they can take back to their business and see positive results, see an increase in sales, see that that needle move from efforts at the Chamber is putting out there and making available these opportunities for. I also know in my background with with chamber publishing, I’m talking to businesses about advertising. So I’m seeing what their strategy will call it. And or lack thereof, or lack thereof, most of them don’t have a strategy and any advertising they do. It’s more maybe branding, you know, they’re they’re putting a branding ad out there. But there’s no call to action, there’s no way to collect any information and remarket it like there’s so many different layers that you can put on to marketing and advertising that the small businesses either they don’t know, or they don’t have the bandwidth, or they don’t know the tools that are available. And I just love that you guys are doing this. This is a this is what chambers should be doing to help small businesses be successful. So kudos,

Ali Rauch 23:04
and meanwhile, thank you, I appreciate it. Meanwhile, it’s also an opportunity for us to feature a few of our businesses that will then gain clients as a result of this conference. We sell sponsorships for this conference through our annual reach or total resource campaign. And and then we have ticket sales. So like, this is also like a revenue generating opportunity. And it’s just bigger than what chambers have traditionally done in the past. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:32
yeah, for sure. So, as you have helped to introduce a lot of these changes the brand refresh this marketing campaign, that magazine, there’s been a lot of things. I’m sure there’s other things we haven’t even touched on yet. As you go to introduce these changes, do you find that you have some autonomy just within the organization, you and your staff, or our most of these things? Indeed get Board approval? Or where does that threshold come at your organization?

Ali Rauch 24:05
We, I am very blessed to have a board that trusts me. Pretty implicitly, it’s wonderful. So I have a very supportive board. Typically what will happen is that myself and my team, we do a lot of things together. So this is not like the, hey, Ally’s done all this now. I couldn’t do it without them. So we, we will come up with our ideas and we’ll say this is what we want to do. New programs, all things marketing, Summit, things like that. That was just us. We decided to do that no board approval or anything like that. But with you know, the mission and the vision and things like that. That was something that our staff decided on and the set and then presented it to our board for approval. And so that was certainly a big honestly, it was very easy discussion. It was a unanimous vote. So that made it because we’re being Very thoughtful and doing our homework in advance. They trust us and support those decisions. You know, one of the biggest things that we decided to do that was very involved for the board of directors was our forward over like a campaign, which was our strategic economic development initiative to raise money. Because we are, you can’t tell I’m I’m actually sitting in my office, which was a home that was built in 1895. And I’ve got, I have turned two closets into what we now call co offices, because you just got to make it work. And we’re at max capacity. And, and honestly, we also don’t have a space that our businesses can actually use the way they need it. And so what started out as a need for more meeting space or business space, but also kind of transformed into, hey, let’s start tackling bigger challenges in our community. And so our Florida Blanca initiative raised were actually 3.1 million right now. And that’s going to enable us to work on workforce development for our region, build out some more entrepreneurship training programs, and then also move into a renovated building that will host not only event space for us to be able to host most of our own events, but there will be a visitor center, a boardroom and a business incubator and other things. And so that was very much a, I hired a consultant, we worked with power 10 to do that. But all of that the board was very involved with because I needed them to actually execute it. Because you know, you think about a lot of your board members are going to invest in something like that. But they also have to be willing to put their name and face on it. To say, Yes, we support this. So that was one that was very, very high, highly involved from our board of directors.

Brandon Burton 26:55
Yeah. And it’s awesome to have such a supportive board of directors. And I know a lot of listeners out there do have very supportive boards. So hopefully those relationships are good and cohesive and allow for that autonomy that I’ve set. I was going to ask you about the capital campaigns that you kind of alluded to there, as well as your total resource campaign. So are both of those newer things implemented since you’ve taken the role of as CEO? Or is there have had those been part of the organization before? So

Ali Rauch 27:28
our total resource campaign had actually been a part of the organization for quite a long time, I think we were in year nine, when I started, and I was a volunteer for our total resource campaign for two years prior to joining the job or joining the chamber as the CEO. So that one was long standing. However, we learned, you know, I inherited a team that had had been there for quite a few, I mean, 1415 years, they they were tenured and experienced, and also a little bit tired. And and so when some of the changes that I made, encouraged the retirement or moving on other people, you know, I’m I’m young, I’m aggressive, energetic. So I just kind of changed things quickly. And that became uncomfortable for some some people. And so when they decided to move on to other things, that was the first one, I actually got on a conversation with Jason from YG, MCRC. And he just straight up told me he’s like, I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s not what I recommend. And I was like, Oh,

Brandon Burton 28:42
I love that. Jason. Yeah.

Ali Rauch 28:45
Well, I have to be right there with it. But it was true. We we had just been, you know, Hey, turn on our website. And that was it. And there was not strategy, there was not thought and so we are conducting a capital campaign, which is brand new, very aggressive, we need to raise $3 million happening right over here. And we started asking for money in March of 2021. That year, September of 2021. We did a brand new refresh of our reach campaign. So first, wait, no, wait, I think we maybe it might have been a year apart. But either way, we had a total resource campaign going on and our capital campaign going on simultaneously, which was stressful. But it’s doable, because typically that money comes from different buckets, you know, a total resource campaign, those dollars are typically going to be coming from your business’s marketing budget, whereas a capital campaign those dollars are going to be coming from a higher level investment perspective and you’re talking to different people to sell those things. But the capital campaign was certainly new but that reach campaign we saw We now call it reach not a TRC. But thinking of all the branding changes that we do, but we did a brand refresh of our reach campaign, which means that we not only renamed it, but we took away every like week started as if we were brand new client with Jason. And YGM. Because we realized we needed to think more strategically about what we offer and what our price points were, what the benefits were. And so although it’s been around for 12 years now, it was new brand new two years ago, because of that refresh that we did. And that’s really where we went from averaging about $175,000 in sales for the last five to six years or so, to. Let’s see, I think we got up to Oh, 368,000 that’s where we ended. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:56
Yeah, that’s awesome. That is awesome. Wow. So you’ve touched on a lot of things here. I can see for for listener out there, maybe that the overwhelm sitting a little bit, but hopefully, they’re taking notes and just seeing some things that might they might want to revisit at their, their chamber. But I wanted to ask you, for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, maybe give them a little bit of a refresh, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them to try to implement and try to maybe reinvigorate life in their organization?

Ali Rauch 31:36
I’m gonna make two recommendations. And the first one we talked about before we pressed record, read Horseshoes vs. Chess by Dave Adkisson. That was, I was a brand new CEO just a couple months into my job when that book came out. And I read it. And it made me think big. It may he outlines the future of chambers, which, you know, we’re not going to be those if we’re going to be doing what we should be doing for the future. We’re going to be working on meaningful things, not just ribbon cuttings and after hours, and so read his book, and process and think, What does your community need? So that would be recommendation number one. And then my second recommendation, I actually is firsthand advice that I was given by Jim Page, who was the longtime CEO of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce in Tuscaloosa. Because the first conference I went to, I just, I had so many pages of notes. And it was like drinking through a firehose, and I was like, I have so much work to do, what am I going to do? And he literally sat me down and he said, Pick 123 things. That’s it. 123 things that you want to try and work on. Nothing more, because you can, you know, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time, you got to you got to pace yourself? You’ve got to prioritize and tackle

Brandon Burton 33:01
three bytes at a time, right?

Ali Rauch 33:03
123? Yeah. No, that doesn’t help ask you to you know,

Brandon Burton 33:09
that’s right. That’s right. Now Jen has excellent, excellent mentor and to take advice from him that that’s very wise. And, and Dave’s book, Horseshoes vs. Chess. For those listening, you know, for a long time he was on an episode and 111 when the book first came out, kind of gave a synopsis of the book and how it came to be. But it really is that book, I think, is the definition of what a chamber is or should be. And as your role as a chamber CEO or Executive Director, whatever the title is, leading a chamber really gives a great definition for what your role should be what your work should look like, and what the future of chambers looks like. So that kind of leads right into the next question, actually, is I’d like to ask and everyone I have on the show that how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ali Rauch 34:04
I think the future of the chamber is really about doing bigger, more meaningful work. You know, for us, we have never in a million years had the responsibility of making sure our businesses have the people resources that they need to be successful. And we just a few months ago, were, you know, given the reins to lead our region for workforce development. That’s a huge job. And that’s a big deal. But there’s also opportunity for funding that comes from both state and federal levels that can help grow our organization significantly, not just as an organization, but the impact that we’re making. So I think the future is just very doing more meaningful work and thinking about that meaningful work. I think that the Chamber of Commerce And I’ve learned in this role, we have a significant amount of influence and prominence in our community. You know, I have great relationships with the mayors in the area with our state representatives and our senators, you know, our, our kickoff for our Florida like a campaign after we had raised just over $2 million was Katie Britt, who at the time was the president of the Business Council of Alabama and running for Senate. And now she’s a state senator from the state of Alabama. And so we have great relationships from an advocacy perspective that we can contact and, and talk about those bigger challenges. So, advocacy is a key part of it. But I still think that although that might always be a part of what we do, doing the more meaningful work that achieves what your business community needs, which is going to vary for everyone. But that’s where I see the future of chambers.

Brandon Burton 35:59
Absolutely bigger and more meaningful work. I love that alley. This has been a fun conversation, energetic it’s full of life. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and maybe learn more about some of these changes even from implemented and how you’ve gone about introducing them and getting buy in and all that good stuff that we didn’t get to touch on every aspect or in this conversation today. But what would be a good way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Ali Rauch 36:31
Yeah, I I certainly welcome this was. This was almost like draining a firehose of all the things and so please don’t get overwhelmed by that I am I am here as a resource. I would love to either chat with you chat with your chamber, whatever whatever it is that I can help with. You can find me my email address is Ali a li at OpelikaChamber.com. You can find me on all the social social channel channels. You can find me on all the social channels at Ali Vice Rauch. So a li v ice ra uch. But really, I mean I’m an I’m an open book and give me a call shoot me a text my cell is 334-737-9354. And all of this can be found on my website or on our chamber website. OpelikaChamber.com. Very

Brandon Burton 37:24
good. And we’ll get all that in our show notes for this episode too. So we’ll make it easy for people to find you. But Ali, this has been great having you on the show. I appreciate you setting aside some time to be with us today on chamber chat podcast and wish you the best with the future chambers that future changes that you have to implement. They’re at your chamber and and going forward into the future. Thanks a lot.

Ali Rauch 37:46
Thanks, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 37:49
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Culture for Huge Results with Bryce Riggs

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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.

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

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Our guest for this episode is Bryce Riggs. Bryce currently serves as the executive director of the Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce and Destination Seneca County, the county’s Visitors Bureau. Since taking this position in July 2020. Both organizations have received a breath of fresh air and a surge of energy. The chamber has significantly grown their membership by making it the highest membership it’s ever seen. Historically, the chamber is on its way to becoming one of the strongest in Ohio. While destination Seneca County has become the one stop shop and trusted resource for the community and visitors of Seneca County. The Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce received the 2023 outstanding chamber of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce executives of Ohio, and destination Seneca County has received six statewide awards from Ohio Travel Association within the last two years. Bryce, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better. Perfect.

Bryce Riggs 3:07
Hello, all Chamber Chat Podcast listeners, as Brandon said, I am Bryce, I think interesting about me is I got a vast background in terms of I’ve worked in economic development, I’ve worked in development work with fundraising, and now the chamber and I think, you know, they always say there’s not one job that prepares you for the kind of role like this in the chamber. But I think I’ve been fortunate that I kind of see the business background side of things. And I’ve seen, you know, the kind of development as we all know, without fundraising and raising those dollars for our organization, we really can’t do that fun and transformational things that we want to do always. And so fun fact about me is that, you know, only 30 years old, but I’ve had some really unique experiences that have kind of helped me prove it prepare me for this role with the Chamber of Commerce. That’s

Brandon Burton 3:55
awesome. Yeah, there’s not the perfect resume per se to to become a chamber executive. But you know, certain things do tend to give you experience that you can definitely lean upon as you go about that as a career. So take a little bit of time to get a few minutes. Tell us a little bit more about the Seneca Regional Chamber size of the chamber scope of work you guys are involved with, obviously, you’ve got the tourism side as well. Staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for discussion. Yeah,

Bryce Riggs 4:26
we were unique as as a chamber because we do do the tourism side as well. We see especially in the state of Ohio flow a few of us left because I have to say there’s kind of two different missions and for both organizations in the chamber and destination, Seneca County, so it’s been a joy of keeping many folks happy across the board from our chamber partners as well as our tourism partners. Staff right now three and a half team members. We’ve historically been but three team members, majority of the time of the existence of the chamber We brought on a part time marketing specialist within this last year, and we’re pretty fortunate from a staff level wise. And we have one employee that’s been there for 20 years, who’s our voice of reason we call her and our seasoned vet. And obviously a lot of institutional knowledge we have, that’s Denmark, Toronto, we have Marissa Stevens, who’s the movie organization now, going almost three years, and then for me almost four years with with the organization, but three and a half years. But with that, and then also with the Chamber budget for 2024. I’m proud of the kingdom of outspending, but also the king of raising additional dollars. So $322,000 for the budget for the chamber, for 2024. And then for destination Seneca County, about $170,000. We have for the budget for destination Seneca County, really big thing with us is like the setting, you know, really, the value that we provide back to our membership is, you know, we’re big about listening and understanding their needs. We do a membership survey every year where we understand, hey, what’s important to you. And the big thing is just as things change, as times change, making sure that we have the information, we have the tools, we have the programming that makes sense. As an organization, we’re unique, where we put out all our events for the for the following year and our annual meeting in October, as we do our ama in October, we release a full slate. But you know, as things change, for example, the Damar Hamlin situation with the NFL last year with a cardiac arrest in the field, we were able to do a CPR, AED and first aid training within two weeks close with that scenario. And so we’ve continued to keep that as part of our plans. But we just I think, you know, like any other business partner we work with, we want them to be nimble and make decisions quickly. And I think that’s kind of what we’ve been good at is just, you know, being accurate, the community being very transparent and being, you know, engaged.

Brandon Burton 7:05
Yeah, I love that example. I like having the kind of that map for the year saying, here’s our main events and things that we’ve got scheduled but to be able to be nimble enough and not so rigid that when something of importance comes up, you can say yes, let’s fit that in and have some focus on that. And not have it derail the rest of your plan for the year as well. So I think that’s super important. So as we kind of settled on a topic for this this episode, we’re going to focus most of our conversation today around creating a culture for huge results. And we’ll get into you know why we came across that as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Howdy it’s me, Donna from Yiftee again. Today we get to hear from Christine in upstate New York about her Shop 716 Community card program. She was able to use sponsorship funds for a generous Buy One, Get One program that benefits her whole county.

Christine Langenfeld  9:44  

Hi this is Christine Langenfeld with the Amherst Chamber of Commerce located in Buffalo, New York. We have partnered with Yiftee on our Shop 716 e-gift card program that has been incredibly, incredibly impactful for our small businesses. So happy to have incorporated this program in our shop local initiative here in Western New York. I highly recommend them and give them a chance to show what they can do.

Donna Novitsky  10:13  

Thanks, Christine. So folks, check us out at yiftee.com and sign up for a demo or shoot us an email at sales@yiftee.com

Brandon Burton 10:24
All right, Bryce, we’re back. I mentioned before the break, we’re recording to focus our conversation today about creating that culture for huge results. And sometimes it takes a different perspective, maybe an outsider’s point of view, to be able to see where there’s some gaps and opportunities within an organization. And I may be making some assumptions, but you guys have seen some significant growth in a variety of different ways. Since you’ve come on board there at the at the Seneca Regional Chamber. So I’d like to maybe have you highlight what some of those big growth areas are. And we can kind of dive into what has kind of fueled that growth and the culture being built there at the chamber.

Bryce Riggs 11:10
Probably the big thing is, I should have noted this early, earlier, but membership wise, about 540 members give or take. But you know, we’ve seen since I started in July 2020, we unfortunately, 65% increase in membership. And for me, it’s increasing membership is nice. You know, we have other chamber partners that, you know, do those membership drives, and they really get people out. And they’re really kind of one time, some folks or one time infusions of cash into an organization, which is nice to keep things afloat. But the big thing for us is the retention standpoint, you know, once we get them on, do a process. And we’ve kind of created a process within the last year and a half about the onboarding and making sure that you know, everyone kind of gets the same experience when they come on board. And that’s kind of help with our retention rate 94% retention rate that we’ve had consistently over the last few years. And, again, you know, influxes of cash are nice for the organization. But how do you keep those coming back and keep you know, our partners happy membership services are great. We’re, you know, we get a lot of responses on that, that allows them the opportunity to dialogue with us. You know, ours is all anonymous, so you can kind of dialogue and kind of put it all out there, my feelings don’t get hurt. Because we only grow as organization, we realize our shortfalls. And then really the big thing is T we’ve seen with a membership growth has been kind of non dues revenue has grown over 164%. Within the last, we moved to a new sponsorship model in the end of 2020 2021, where we asked our partners one time for sponsorships, when I started in July, with COVID pushing things back, it’d be like five events and basically five months and it was, you know, I was the guy who was calling and saying, hey, it’s Bryce. I’ve fortunate part of this community. So it wasn’t really much of an introduction, but it was, hey, we have this event, the golf out and you think you can make an investment to help support us? Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Okay, then, you know, the coffin takes place. And then the educators practice, hey, it’s Bryce again. Can you cut me another check. And so like, like anything in life, that asked me a better way. It’s we moved to a one time ask model in 2021. And that’s been super successful for us. We have 14 years platinum $3,000, gold 2000, Silver 1000, and then bronze 500. And we just package everything else we’ve done in the past. And we just said, Hey, this is the price tag of $3,000 are our largest donor, historically have given us 2250 On average, every year, and it’s okay, let’s bump up to $3,000. And we’ll do it one time mass model. And that’s been super successful for us. As an organization right now, we’re actually going through our our fundraising model kind of drive at the end of the year. And you know, last year, I’m gonna pull it up real quick. Last year, we raised $175,000. And literally one month this year, we’re still at $165,000 gotten to the end of the year. I’ve a few that will over will do. Oh, I’ll do what we did last year. were fun, obviously, with inflation and other factors muddies the water tight, but I think the biggest thing for us is the chamber. It’s more relationship relationship based, rather than the monetary aspect will me get through this. It’s basically Hey, Steve, this is Bryce with the chamber. You have a team and the golf outing. Just let me know who your four golfers are and then you know we’re looking forward to seeing you and then you know, the conversations over with and so when we call it’s no longer oh my gosh, the

Brandon Burton 14:47
Chamber if I may check the budget. Yeah. What

Bryce Riggs 14:50
do they want, you know, they want to call in again for the golf outing or con for this up it’s really allowed us to take our relationship with our members more to that, you know, prefer Hold to the more personal because they realize now that like my call, if I’m gonna ask me for anything is, I’m gonna ask them for money. It’s like asking them how we can help her, Hey, I saw you’re doing this about can we stop by and take a picture to help promote it? Hey, you’re doing this? How can we help you with that? And so it’s kind of allowed us to transform the organization a little more than we’ve done in the past. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 15:23
that’s great. So on the membership, and maybe I misunderstood, but how did you? How did you go about that big increase in membership? Did you guys do a membership drive? Or is that just built kind of grassroots? had had you guys approach that?

Bryce Riggs 15:40
The biggest thing is no membership drive is all grassroots. And I always said, when the chamber gets you energy gets new leadership, there’s always an opportunity to, you know, say that first year, and in my opinion, is the most important year, it’s, you know, sometimes you’ll take over a chamber that maybe in the past, it’s been stagnant, or very successful. And it’s like, okay, you have to pave your way on why you’re different. What’s your value proposition? And so for us, a lot of it was, you know, what, before, when we meet with a new member, our value articulation was not great. It was like, Hey, join the chamber, because it’s good for the community while when COVID hit, and things hit the fan. People love the community, I love the community, but real relook at our budgets. And it’s like, okay, this is good for the community. But this is also good. And this is good. And so now you’re kind of in a match with other great community organizations. But okay, my getting returned value back. And so we kind of lost our four point approach in my first month and said, Hey, look, this is the four reasons why you should join the chamber, where we had some kind of topics underneath each one of them. And the time, I’d say it was kind of crazy, because some of the stuff didn’t really make sense, because we didn’t build the plane yet. We just kind of like, found a bag of goods that we, you know, had yet done it yet. But it’s like, look, this is where we’re gonna go, we’ve lost trust in us. Again, I’m from the community. So for me, it was I’ve had a track record of doing things the right way. And so with us, it was just like, how do you articulate that value back to someone. And then I think it just became, you know, my first month, we had like, 15, new members, my next month, it was 15 new members and kind of like a forest fire. Once you create that spark, it’s like, Look, you have to take advantage of it. And our biggest thing is that we will not accept a new member of the Chamber of Commerce until we meet with you in person. And so it’s not just me. We have other chambers, it’s their membership director, or their membership coordinator meets with them, the CEO doesn’t. To me, I think it’s like the worst thing you could do. And so for me, I take my staff, my entire staff, just the three of us, the part time employee, this now that the three of us go out, and we go to their business, we meet with them on this morning, I was at a museum that was 45 minutes away. And we traveled there as a team, we came back as a team, because the day they knew who we all are, I think call the office and I’m not in and don’t answer the phone. They’ve met them before. Dan knows who they are, what’s important to them are the four points, how we can best assist them, if they run into Mrs. On the street, corner, residence, who they are, what their balance and organization. And so for us, it’s again, how do you take those relationships pass the professional, the personal side of things, I think is huge. And that for us? Again, it’s that it’s that wildfire that we’ve just continued to keep it going. And we just you know, for us, when someone goes to kind of check to the chamber at the end of the year, in July, it’s you know, I want them to look at us as a staff and saying, Hey, right, when I don’t cut this check to the chamber, it’s not at the chamber. I’m not gonna check the price to debt to Marissa. And I think it’s that personal touch, that kind of, you know, makes the ties a little bit stronger between the

Brandon Burton 19:03
organization’s for sure definitely helps with that, to have that 94% retention rate that you guys are seeing now. I mean, when you have that personal touch, you meet the members, you have that introduction, they get to know all the staff, you better understand their business. I love the example the the museum this morning, you gave this 45 minute drive there and back all together as staff. Imagine on the way back, there may be some discussion and ideas shared amongst staff about how to help this new member, you know, who can we connect them with? Or what would help make them successful? And there’s so much value in traveling together and doing that, you know, as a team. So

Bryce Riggs 19:47
I would say you know, there’s that I think we all are bought into it. And it for us it’s like look, you know we all where we see someone we know who they are what they do while they’re doing it and it’s the lie on to say that why this one is what makes the difference? So

Brandon Burton 20:02
I’m anticipating people listening are like four point approach. Okay, what are these four egg? Do you mind giving us the pitch real quick? What your what the four points are? If you’re granted, every chamber is different, you’re offering different things, potentially. But what? What are those four areas that you focus on when you are approaching a potential member?

Bryce Riggs 20:21
Yeah. So when we dive in, you know, we kind of enters we are first as a staff and home or the personal side of us again. And then without my destination said, I didn’t count because when I first started, the tourism bureau wasn’t very active, it was kind of the inactive arm of the chamber. But for us, we kind of explain who they are, what they do, why they’re important to the bigger picture. And then, you know, we flip over to the four point approach. And we talked with the membership survey, and we say, like, look, we don’t, we don’t determine what’s important to you, we listen to you, we understand, when we can talk more about their business, they can understand where their gaps are at and how we can help fill those gaps. And then we kind of go through the four points. And based on their story, we kind of dive into like, for example, the museum, they’re getting ready to go through their new location, there’s moves. And it’s what’s the promotional side of things, and we kind of dive in here, we’re an information source, we get a ton of phone calls, but we do a ton on social media, last this year actually will reach 2.6 million people on all our social platforms for our reach. And then for the visitors bureau, we have an additional 2.9 million will do as well. So we kind of talked about quantifying that the personal experience. And so when we talk about our members, we talk to them as people not as businesses, it’s kind of how it all connects to each other. And then we’ll step up you know, for them ribbon cuttings, bread and butter of a chamber, which we do things a little bit differently. We’ll do last year we did over 40 ribbon cuttings last year, we have a photographer, we invite elected officials, our ambassadors, which are super engaged our board, most were mechanics, we do our we have over 30 to 40 people attend each one. So there for us, it’s an it’s an energy opportunity. It’s the excitement people kind of bought in. And one thing I should know, too, we sent out a calendar invite for all our first contacts for every organization that’s, that’s a member, we send out a calendar invite with a description for all events we do, including ribbon cuttings, so even if you can’t go you at least understand new business, who owns it, where they offer, what are their hours, we said to our political officials, our media, and so those are always a good thing as well. And then we’ll jump to like relationships. So we have after five networking events, like most chambers do, which I won this last week, our golf outing, is wildly popular, we had 55 teams are out in last year, and then two flights sold out. And then we’ll talk about our Casino Night that we do as well. And then just different membership engagement opportunities to build relationships. We have flank. networking groups, like a digital Management Council we have. We’re both the Human Resources association. So kind of different people within the organization can be engaged as well. We have resources and savings is our third point usually talked about, and that’s obviously saving people money in which people appreciate. So we run a chamber cash program that looks just like a cheque. And a lot of people are moved to like 50. And there’s other things but we’ve been fortunate in the last last year, we sold over $110,000 in chamber cash, which keeps money locally infuse our community with a member a member benefit card that we do as well. It’s been really popular 55 different discounts different restaurants and businesses for the community and our big sales when I first started, we engage often with like the top tier management, so the CEO, CFO, CEO, but okay, how do we take the chamber message and bring it down to the employees. And so we now have the stack slammed, and it looks like gift cards. And we can all remember businesses, their employees inside joke, I’ll be at the local watering hole, and three people in front of me will plug the chamber card and get their 50% off at the at the restaurant. We’re there. And so it’s kind of nice to see, I joke, it’s kind of a call at that point, but I’ll take it. But it’s again, the Chamber messaging of this is the chamber and every time they scan it, it goes to our website. And so it’s that name ID not just with top tier, it’s through the whole organization. You Your energy programs, your you know, health insurance programs, as well thought of that. And then last is education, where we do power hours, which is the professional development from our members to our members. We’ve had to talk about like, you know, like AI is a topic for January, we have one with Canva and in March, we have a CrossFit crash course in June. We have a golf one on one event. So just some fun, professional personal opportunities. We Someone says, which is more than a personal. So it’s like the Myers Briggs test, you take it, we bring someone in, it kind of puts people in groups, you can talk about what the results mean. And then like leader, substantive accounting, which is our leadership group, and other educational opportunities we offer to our members throughout the year as well. So you’re really that’s kind of the four point approach. And then we kind of, you know, based on what they tell us, we say, hey, based on what you said, this is probably a good fit for you, we’ll get you connected, we’ll make sure you get the info. And then it’s like, again, as many as you can, how do you connect the chamber to the organization provide that values when they go to renew, when they decide they want to join, there’s enough value there that they’re like, hey, this makes sense. I have to I have to join. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:45
makes a lot of sense. I love that it’s condensed down enough to four points. So hopefully, any member of the staff can take that and kind of tell the story of the benefits that your chamber has to offer to these businesses that are considering joining. So that’s awesome. So let’s say maybe shift a little bit and talk about, you know, things that you guys do maybe organically there at the chamber to keep the passion for the staff on a high level to keep them engaged and, you know, involved with the community and really just loving what they do. Yeah, I

Bryce Riggs 26:20
think it’s the biggest thing is, that’s kind of our our sweet spot. That’s our secret sauce I tell people is that our staff here is fantastic. And I don’t live in a world we live in, it’s as a as a nonprofit organization, it’s hard to pay quarterly, it’s hard to make the opportunities available to our staff. But my biggest thing is like look itself from the top down as us and so my, my staff sees me out in the community, they see me community events, they see me out, you know, all these opportunities that exists. And, you know, the big thing with us is that we invest in our staff to go to these things. And so if I have done, I really don’t want to go to this event, and the chamber will pay for our staff to to go do continuing educational opportunities to go to community events. We’re fortunate with some of the non dues revenue increase that we’ve had over the years, that, you know, obviously, it pays to play to a lot of these events. And it’s tough, because it’s like not every chamber has the budget to be able to do this. But for us, it’s just like, we get along well, we communicate well. We keep things fun. And that’s for us. It’s it’s important. If it starts with the staff, if your staff is energetic engaged, it’s kind of hard to go sell, sell something that you don’t believe in my staff, we do gene Fridays we do you name it, right? I buy flexible hours, if you work in the evenings, which a lot of my staff does, you know, you can take some time off here and there throughout the throughout the week come in at 10. Like that. One thing is we do as well, three o’clock Fridays, and close the office every eight to five, Monday through Thursday. And then Friday, we do three o’clock, I kick you out. I don’t care how much work you have left to do. I don’t care how stressed you are. I kick you out. Because I think it’s like, Look, you gotta go live life. As is. It’s crucial. And so like for us, again, I’ll say it just starts with the staff. And you know, if you don’t pay your staff, you know, livable wage, that’s great to talk to my staff, and do we do yearly reviews. I do all my yearly reviews, in conjunction with the budget. So line rock conducted in November, I sit down the staff, I ask them questions, I send them a Google Word document, they type in their responses, and it’s a dialogue. I put their stuff and I put my comments and we meet for lunch. One on one and we discuss kind of like your thoughts, my thoughts. And then if Yannick I say looking, you know, next year, this is what we’re able to do based on your, you know, health insurances issue, okay, great. Based on that issue, we’re able to do this. And so my biggest thing is, if you unify consistent feedback, reviews aren’t supposed to be surprises. But for us, it’s important to say you got to show the nonprofit role you can pay them, you can allow them to grow as humans, you can model them have fun. But that’s the big thing is like, Look, you don’t take care of your own team. You’re not gonna go very far as an organization in the, you know, on the chambers or one, one man one woman shops, and so I you know, I fortunately have a board that allows me to do what I do. And so I just, you know, I, I told us that the board with a discussion this last year that said, Hey, how much you’re gonna give your staff increases? And I just said to him, Hey, I love you, but it’s, that’s not your role. My role is to determine based on what their performances, this is what I’m able to do and the performance bonuses every year, but I’d say give me the freedom and flexibility to pay my staff the way they should be compensated and we don’t, and I’ll ask, I’ve put in the budget and then you know, he gets approved as a overall bigger Make sure I

Brandon Burton 30:01
like that. I like being bold enough to say, yeah, let me invest in your business, right? Stay in our lanes, right?

Bryce Riggs 30:09
Correct. Yeah, the day the executive committee is responsible for my executive review and my salary, and let’s, let’s be talking about that within this framework. But just know that, you know, my job is to get my staff in a place where they’re making competitive wages, and their benefits are great. We just launched a simple IRA this year for 2024. Based on again, concerns and needs for for additional benefits. We’ve done, you know, again, I’m willing to invest my staff and they go to war for us every day. You know, my job is to go to work for them so that they can get what they need to be successful.

Brandon Burton 30:47
Yeah. I love it. Well, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if anyone listening what who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what maybe tip or action item might you have to offer them to elevate their chamber and kind of play it at that next level?

Bryce Riggs 31:09
So the biggest thing is, I always indicate, you know, be consistent, be persistent. When I started out, I was fortunate that I was kind of given the opportunity and said, hey, you know, you have, here’s the keys to car drive out you want. I’m not ignorant in the way that I understand it, is you have guidelines, and I have for a framework to do that within. But I would say like, Look, if you’re trying to be transformational, do things differently. It’s like, you got to be consistent with your approach, be persistent with our approach. Our big thing is community, community community. If you read our newsletter, you’ll know it’s from our community, you’ll know the people that are in it. If you see our social media, you’ll know it’s about the people. So everything is just like, look like push the pace. What do you get told now want to figure out how to get around it? You know, some sense knows, you know, doesn’t mean No, today, but might be like a maybe a later thing. Or maybe there’s another way to get to it. So you know, my first job, I was a telemarketer I was always taught you to do to rebuttal before you finally hung up the phone, and I very much live by that model. And so my thing is just people, you know, to make chambers that I’ll be honest, that we interact with, don’t push the pace, you know, our final status quo, which is great, but I think COVID kind of allowed folks to see kind of see through that. Our job is, you know, often the world that we live in the chamber world, the economic development agencies are here, and the chambers are here, or the community development is here. And chambers is always below it. And so my big thing is like, look, when we get talked about in the community, I want people to know that, like, look, we’re on the cutting edge, we’re doing things differently. And that, you know, we’re doing what’s best for the community. So people be persistent and be consistent and just have fun. That’s the big thing is, I’ve been here for three and a half years. And you know, early on, we’ll see I’ll Bryce you’re gonna burn out, you’re gonna do this. It’s like, yeah, there’s some days on central office. And I’m like, this sucks. But you know, I would say it’s not, it’s not hard work, it’s a lot of work, just power through. And if you set yourself up, put your bets out there. You know, like, look, I gotta do this, this, this, and this to get where I need to go. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:28
I’d love the honesty of some days. It just sucks. Yeah. Gotta move forward, you have a bigger picture of why you’re doing it. And I love the idea of consistent being consistent being persistent. And there’s so much value in that. And it leverages a lot of power if you’re consistent and persistent on pursuing those goals and, and the potential of your organization. So as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their potential or their purpose going forward?

Bryce Riggs 34:01
Yeah, I would say, you know, that really, the big thing is, again, that that personal touch. I think if you two things I find is that shortfalls with the Chamber World Industries, people run their nonprofit, like a nonprofit, I say I run my organization, like it’s a business because it’s a business and you got to invest in your people invest in your marketing, you have to invest in everything, right. I remember my first year I started and we didn’t have you know, anybody at all, but here I am, like, look, we’re ordering, you know, 5000 folders for new members because guess what, we’re gonna we’re gonna go out there, we’re going to spread the word and we’re going to tell people what we got going on. I think that’s the thing is don’t you know, you know, don’t the day you stop investing in marketing this day, you stop investing in your peoples that day that you know, things are on the decline. You need to keep doing that. And I say that really the big thing as well as getting into that personal touch. You know, You gotta stand out a lot of organizations are in need United Way’s you name it right that a lot of Salvation Army’s, they need money and you’re you know, to say that we’re on the same playing field as them but sometimes we are as chambers. And so we do things such as you know, every Christmas card we do holiday cards we send out, we send to all our members home addresses, because again, it’s you could send a Christmas card or holiday card to their their business. But it’s great, you know, it’s that the business relationship, we’re trying to get the next thing. So I just say, you know, if you’re consistent persistent with that personal touch and approach, that’s why the Chamber’s gone is that, you know, we got to stay competitive in the marketplace in terms of funding domestic competitive for, you know, even like the tourism side of things, right? We pick, we have that arm of us. And that makes us more competitive, because we can offer a different service than maybe another chamber couldn’t. So sometimes in communities, that tourism site opens up. And that, you know, huge opportunity to get those dollars, go out there, go put yourself out there and really go for it. You might have to hire another staff member to get those dollars. But the more things you can add, and the more things you can do to be a resource to the community, I think that’s where we’re going is that you’re going to find only a few organizations are going to do the key things in the community. And you got to be willing to change and adapt to it. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 36:25
I think that’s an interesting twist you had mentioned with the the Christmas cards to send them to their home address. So you’re obviously collecting that information when they join the chamber? Or do you ever get any pushback and somebody’s like, I don’t want to give a home address. And this is about business organization.

Bryce Riggs 36:42
This is why I tell you that I’m a little creepy. So three years ago, I started I started doing white pages. And I started an honors office and I started going through and finding things and I’ll be honest with you, if we don’t ask them for their home address. It’s you know, that’s available on the internet, you can do that. This last year. We just said December, was sent last Thursday, our cards went out and got people’s addresses on Saturday. Most of them did. But for us, it’s like look like I bought look at that information. It’s a nice surprise. People are like, Oh, I never gave them that address. But it’s together that touch. So

Brandon Burton 37:22
then are you putting it in your membership software with their accounts. So the next year, it’s got

Bryce Riggs 37:26
its color Christmas card address, it’s a separate one. So okay, it just moved to gross within the last year. So with that we’re making the adjustments and add ons, but I’ve spent many long hours doing that from finding information to some people might be, you know, meaningless. But I come in late at night, and I just kind of churn and burn until I get thrown. But it’s important because again, people come to us and say, Hey, I have your card in my house. That’s really nice. And we’re always first card. And it’s all we go to their house. So it’s always important and

Brandon Burton 38:00
awesome. I love that touch. Well, Bryce, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect about some of these approaches or how you guys are doing things there at the Seneca Regional Chamber, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Bryce Riggs 38:17
Yeah, go ahead and call my cell phones 419-889-3932 And that’s my cell phone. Just reach out to me. We weren’t happy to share information about you know what we have going on or you can reach out to me and briggs@Senecaregionalchamber.com and shoot me an email but I you know, there’s a lot of different folks that I’ve met along the way. I do a monthly zoom with people across the country, their chamber professionals because like, look, you know, the day you think you’ve figured it out, as you know, that uh, you run your nonprofit, like a nonprofit is the day to day, life becomes a lot more difficult for you.

Brandon Burton 39:00
Yeah, for sure. But we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode too. So people can can look it up and reach out and touch base with you and learn more. But I appreciate you spending some time with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I love hearing these stories of you know, you get a fresh approach and an organization and throw some fuel on the fire and watch it burn. You guys are doing an awesome job. So keep that momentum keep that consistency and persistence. And I think there’s going to be even bigger numbers. Yeah, a year from now or two years from now. So I appreciate you sharing these insights and experiences with us today.

Brandon Burton 39:25
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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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Becki Womble 1:03
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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Amanda Lea Kaiser. Amanda is a keynote speaker and author of Elevating Engagement: Uncommon Strategies for Creating a Thriving Member Community. Through her research, Amanda is at the forefront of exploring how member and attendee engagement is rapidly changing when within professional communities. I’ll have to say as a side note, as I read through her book, I very much was able to visualize all of you as listeners, both attending your state and national chamber conferences and engaging on those levels, but also taking some of these lessons learned to your local chamber organization. So as we go through our conversation today, I hope you can see some of those parallels as well. But Amanda, I wanted to welcome you to the show give you a chance to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and if you wouldn’t mind sharing something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 2:58
All right. Hey, Brandon, thank you so much for having me here on your podcast and hello Chamber Champions. It’s it’s great to be here. Okay, something interesting about myself. So I got my start at Crayola and I rose up the ranks and marketing so I’ve got a classic marketing background. And and now I’m the keynote speaker but maybe even more interesting than that. I’ve got a two kittens adopted me during COVID I don’t know if if you’re a cat dad, but they adopt us I don’t think we adopt them. And and I named them after Muppets. So I love the Muppets, Kermit and all of those guys. So so my cat’s names are Robin in between. And you might see them running in and out because that’s what they do. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 3:44
Yeah, I did notice the Kermit quote in the book as well. So that carries through. I’m not a cat, dad. But I understand what you mean. It doesn’t matter how much you like the cat they have to like you to adopt. Right? Well, I am excited to get into our topic of conversation today. I think chambers across the country, even globally, are constantly thinking about the ways to elevate the engagement of their membership or their investors or those who participate in their organization at at any level. I often will out I’ll hear chambers talk about doing the yellow highlighter exercise where they will print out their membership list and then with a yellow highlighter, go through and mark any chamber member who’s participated or actively engaged with the Chamber in any way. And that may be the main sponsor of their annual banquet. It may be the sponsor of their board room, or maybe just somebody who’s constantly liking their Facebook posts. So literally any level of engagement and as they do this yellow highlighter exercise, oftentimes there’s not a whole lot of Yeah, low on that sheet once it’s marked up. So I think we’ll, we’ll be in for a treat today with a lot of these tips and ideas around how to elevate engagement with our memberships. So we will dive into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 8:31
All right, Amanda, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re, we’re talking about elevating engagement, you’ve got a book all about it. Some could say maybe you’re an expert on it. And I’m a little bit hesitant at all really setting the stage that way. I think I told you before we got on the recording. It’s like introducing a comedian and telling everybody how funny that comedian is and then your your setup to deliver. So you know, no pressure at all, but I’m looking forward to an engaging conversation. Good. So maybe let’s just start with why did you write the book like what what was it about your background and maybe personal history that led up to this moment where you’re like, there needs to be a book about elevating engagement of these membership organizations? Yeah,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 9:21
so Okay, so let me give you just a kind of quick, sober, quick, speedy history to get us to this point. So like I said, I started at Crayola. And then I had a couple of jobs in my career where I worked at an advertising agency and then I landed in a NAT at a national association. So I worked I worked in for a higher ed Association. Super cool. It was the first time that I even realized that associations and chambers and they were even a thing I just didn’t know until that point until I started working for them and I was director of marketing there. And and it just completely We opened my eyes. And I was so delighted by how collegial these professional groups are. They’re, they’re really fantastic. So I decided to open up my own business. And I was a qualitative researcher, my, my marketing focus has always been on research. And I decided to pursue the qualitative research side of things. And during my time, as a qualitative researcher, I worked with 33 different associations and got a chance to personally talk to 477 members from all different walks of life. And the conversations with them did two things, one, I would ask them about their industry or their profession. And the second thing that I asked them about was, what is it like to be a member? What is it like to attend? You know, what is engagement like, and all of that, and as I was conducting these interviews, one thing that I found is there’s this gap between members, and attendees and, and leadership, right. And so, so that’s why I wrote the book, I wanted to close that gap. And just to give you a sense of the gap is, is, you know, members, our members are having an experience there, whenever they engage with us, they’re having an experience, and very often when we’re on the inside, and I can say this, for sure, as the as being a staff person on an association, a lot of what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to provide value, we’re trying to do the administrative stuff very right. And we’re not, we’re not focused on the experience. And so, so that’s what this book is all about. The book is all about closing the gap. And and I’m also doing a ton of keynoting. Right now. And so I start out every time by saying we’re here to close that gap between you and your members.

Brandon Burton 11:52
Yeah, I like that. I think that’s a good summary. And that does kind of set the stage a little bit here. So my background is in chamber publishing. And often I’ll even joke with some of the different advertisers Chamber members that were selling ads to that. I often will hear a chamber member say that they want to advertise and whatever the chamber publication is, because there’s almost a sense of guilt, that they join the chamber at some point. And they see all the emails from the chamber about the networking mixer, the after hours, the Chamber luncheon, annual banquet, you know, there’s always something that golf tournament. And there’s a sense of guilt that they can’t be at all of the things, you know, they work during the day, so they can’t go to the luncheon or they’ve got family life after work. So they can’t go to the after hours. So they see doing some sort of advertising with the chamber as a way to engage. So how would you look at engagement? How do you define engagement? As you look at a membership organization, I guess what counts when it comes to? To engagement? Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 13:04
So So advertising counts and attending accounts. So so let me let me kind of step back, though, because what I tend to do is I tend to define engagement, the way a member would defined engagement and the way members define engagement is almost solely around emotions. And I actually, I asked when I when I keynote, I asked my audience this, I’ll ask them what is what does engagement feel like when you’re really engaged? What does that feel like? And I’ll ask them to, to recount a professional or personal community that they’re very, very engaged in, you know, what, when that makes their heart very happy. And so this is some of what they’ll say they’ll they’ll say, I feel valued. I feel welcomed, I feel belonging, connected, excited, inspired, it’s energizing, I feel included. I feel focused, I feel peaceful, I feel worthy. I feel like I’m being seen. That’s just some of the words this is I got 139 responses. But those are some of the key words that came up over and over again, so. So engagement is all about emotions. And when you’re when your members or our members are making decisions to engage, they’re making very emotional decisions. That what they’re what they’re what they’re trying to work out and might not be even conscious. But unconsciously they’re trying to say is this community for people like me, do people like me join a chamber like this? You know, do people like me go to events like this? Do Am I gonna find my people here? Am I gonna be long am I you know, all of those things. That’s, that’s the kind of what’s going on in the back of their minds. And so, I, I love to define engagement all around how members see engagement, because you’re right when we when we on the business side, talk about engagement. We’re talking about joins and when rules and registrations and opens and reads and click throughs and all of that. So we’re talking about the metrics of engagement. But I love to think about engagement as that, that very emotional emotions and feelings that drive those decisions to engage. And so that’s that’s typically where I’m coming from. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 15:26
What you said almost sound like a Seth Godin quote, right? People like us do things like this. Yeah. And it’ll often talked about enrollment, right? So the engagement level kind of at Next stage is yes, I want to engage. And now I’m going to enroll I am all in, I’m going to fully participate. And I know that’s a few steps down from where how you kind of break down that, that member journey, or that the experience journey. So maybe touch on that a little bit, because I think so much of that, the beginning of that membership journey is where that emotion really is probably at its peak. There’s some reason why they’re choosing to attend the conference or choosing to join the chamber. And I’ll say everybody does it for slightly different reasons. But understanding what that emotion what that driver is, I think, is so key to being able to help them have a successful journey going forward with the chamber. Yeah, can outline that for

Amanda Lea Kaiser 16:28
us? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I’m so glad that you started touching on well, you know, what, what happens at the beginning, because So, for most professional communities, what they find is new members are the most fragile members. And, and so, you know, people, if you look at your metrics, you might see people join, and then they never engage. And then it’s not a surprise when they don’t renew, right, and, and so, so they’re very, very fragile. And, and so what we need to do is start appealing to their emotions, one of the one of the things that I often will say, when people are asking for, like, what is the definition of engagement, I’ll say, there’s two parts, there’s, there’s value, so we got to provide value. And the other part is positive experiences. So you want to provide good value and positive experiences. And when you do that, members will engage. And I would wager to bet that your chambers provide lots of amazing value, you know, people, all of you chamber pros, you’re doing all of these events, you’re publishing, you’re emailing, you’re providing all kinds of really amazing things and lots and lots of value. And it’s, it’s frustrating when people aren’t joining, and or it’s or renewing or engaging in, in some way. And so the, the piece that’s often missing is the experience part, the the part that triggers all of the emotions, and, and so this is very salient for new members, you know, new members join, they often don’t understand how to really engage, there is the old the emails are coming in there is I’ve heard that, Brandon, that guilt factor that you were talking about in so from so many different types of members, you know, they’re, they’re sending me emails, I feel like I and what they will say is, I’m not engaging, and it’s, it’s my fault. It’s not them, they’re, they’re making every effort, it’s me, right? And, and I can see that there’s a lot of benefits, I can see that there’s a lot of events and in what they would normally tell me is I feel like I’ve got to start going to these events, which I can never do, because the timing doesn’t work out. Or I’ve got to spend a lot of time on their website, understanding what they do. And I just don’t I don’t have the time yet. And, and so I think what we need to figure out is how to connect a lot quicker with them, you know, how to have how to provide a teeny bit of value so that they understand that taking that leap to come to your events makes a lot of sense. And also connecting on that emotional level. And you do that with experiences. So are there phone calls? Are there? Is there kind of a special quick Fitbit fun email that you could write to them, you know, what are all of the experiences that you can provide to new members that will get them saying this is not only going to be worth my time, but I think that this is going to be a really fun group. There’s a lot of energy. I’m super excited.

Brandon Burton 19:35
Yeah. And as you’re saying that it reminds me in the chamber industry, there’s a lot of focus on with the engagement of members to try to make the shift from being a transactional relationship to be more of a transformational relationship and that way, hopefully, if that’s communicated and modeled in correct ways, the guilt factor hopefully isn’t there. as much because they’re not in it, they didn’t join to say what’s in it for me, but they’re they joined to be part of something bigger, that’s making a positive impact in their community. I see some chambers that have the option to join their chamber right on their website, we can enter your name, credit card information, and click Submit. And you’re done. You’re a member. And I’m sure there’s the onboarding emails that come in. But that chamber doesn’t know anything about that member, why they joined, they didn’t really share their mission, their vision, any of that. And oftentimes, those are coming from another member as a referral. So you know, you need to be a part of the chamber, right? So I think right from the beginning, there tends to be a little bit of a disconnect. And I love in the book, you talked about doing a listening tour. And I think that could probably come in and in a couple different stages along the member journey. But to really tap into that emotion and their why you want to maybe expand a little bit on the listening tour, and how that can kind of pull on that emotion. Yeah,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 21:08
absolutely. So let me let me give you a couple of tangible stories that I heard dirt while I was while I was interviewing members. So. So there’s a couple of associations that were doing a really good job, and I got a chance to figure out what they were doing from their member saying I was on I was the recipient of the listening tour. And so there’s one, one association that did a very interesting thing. Now they had not very many members joining. It wasn’t like they were having hundreds of members join every week, they might have been having 10s of members join every week. And and so the the director of marketing of that particular organization, would schedule a call, it was about a 20 minute call with every single new member. And during that call, she would ask them a series of questions, you know, hey, tell me about yourself. And when did you start working at this company? Or when did you you know, when did you start the company? She would, she would ask them questions about projects, they were working on what their goals were, what their mission was, what if they’re having any challenges, she might even ask them, you know, what, tell me about some trends. And she would, she would take careful notes, and she listen intently. And at the end of the call, probably with maybe, I don’t know, three, four minutes to go, she would say this has been so interesting. And there’s a couple of things that I heard you talk about, that we might be able to help out with, there’s you talked about this really interesting project that you’re working on. And not many of our members are working on a project like this, but I know that Sue is. And I would love to introduce you, it’d be okay, if I introduced you to Sue, I think she’s a couple of steps ahead of you. And, but you know, I can introduce you via email in and then she will, she would also say and I also heard you talk about this system, that we’ve got some data from some of our research, or we’ve got an event coming up where we’re going to be talking about this topic, we’d love to have you I’m going to follow up with some emails. And so you know, she get off the phone and immediately send some emails, one introducing that new member to sue a longtime member and tell in telling Sue and you know, reminding this this person while why she was introducing them, and then she would follow up with a separate email saying, hey, you know, as we were talking, I told you, I was going to send you this research report and this invite to this event and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that that’s very time consuming very hands on for this organization that works. Because they don’t have a lot of members. Other organizations, there is the listening tour where you get into your car, you know, or your your get your staff into a van, and you book breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or you go to people’s offices or places of work or factories and and you spend 15 or 20 minutes with them doing the same kind of thing, asking them questions, touring, just being there letting them be seen. And it’s such a pleasure because now when they come to an event, they already know a friendly face. So there’s there’s that part. The other thing is if you are with a chamber that’s maybe spans a large geographic area, there’s a virtual orientation events. Now the virtual orientation events are not orientation webinars, there are much more responsive than that. So so people come you know, your new members come into a Zoom meeting. And then you ask them the same kind of questions, you know, where, where do you work what what kind of organization is your company? Tell us a little bit about it. What are some of your goals? What are some of the projects that you’re working on? And then as everybody’s feeding information to you, you the host can do some pattern matching for the biggest things that people are They’re struggling with and then make that link for them between their problem back to the to what the chamber provides in terms of, of benefits or upcoming meetings or something like that. So. So I love that you were talking about, you know, these these member listening tours, because there’s so many ways that they actually work, Brandon. And that’s really the key to it all. When when you know your members and you hear them talking over and over about their goals, then then we serve them a lot better. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:30
there was one chamber executive I talked to one time and he talked about how he’ll do three breakfasts each day, they’ll go meet with different members there. The first one maybe is just having a coffee is the second breakfast, awesome makes the third one, maybe a phase three. So he’s breaking it up. But he’s getting to three different member businesses to have these breakfasts. And he’s meeting with other members there. So like the levels of engagement with the organization with the members is on multiple levels, and able to gather a lot of that very important information to be able to better serve the member. And I love that. So it does kind of seem like though in today with everything digital, and we’ve got in person events, we got virtual events, we get emails, get social media, we’ve got podcasts, we’ve got YouTube, we’ve got all these different ways to get our messaging out there. Does that make it harder or easier to engage members? Like how it I think I can see both sides of the coin, but I’d love to hear your approach and maybe how chambers might want to look at this. Yeah,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 26:41
what I’m hearing across the board is, is engagement is getting harder, it’s harder to engage attendees most virtually and in person, it’s harder, harder to engage members, it’s harder to get those opens and reads. It’s just I think it’s harder. And some people are saying, you know, this is not uniform. There’s some associations and some chambers that are seeing these bright spots, like, hey, we went back into person. And and, and we’ve got some of our in person events are doing amazing. And we’re still doing virtual, and some of those are doing amazing. So this is not, engagement isn’t universally going down the tubes. But I think it is getting harder. And one of the reasons why it’s getting harder is is really time and attention. You just hit on it, Brandon, there’s so many ways that we’re trying to reach members. But there’s so many ways that they’re getting content and they’re connecting. And they’re you know that it’s just sort of, we all have a very frantic pace of life these days. And so we’ve got to do something different to engage members than what we did before. And I’m so glad that you asked that question about communications, because this is sort of a really great time to talk about how you not only provide value, but you also provide the experience so so every time we communicate, there’s two things that we’re trying to do. The first is the what we say. And that’s the value, it’s the message we’re trying to get across. The second thing we’re trying to do is is or the second thing we communicate is how we say it. And this is the tone, it’s the voice. And and this might be something that you’ve talked about a lot in publishing is the tone or the voice. And so I love to think about tone on a continuum. And so on one side of the continuum, there’s the very institutional tone, the very professional polished tone, it’s a lot of big words, it’s when we’ve got our business hat on, that’s the tone we tend to fall into is the institutional tone. On the other end of the continuum, I have a what I call the best friend forever tone, sometimes we’ll also call it the happy dog tone. So if you go into your personal email, and you read, you just quickly, like scan your personal email of all of the brands and companies and products you really love. They’re talking to you and the happy dog tone, there’s emoji, there’s hashtags, it’s casual, they’re talking to you like they’re your best friend. But for some reason, when we’re doing business to business, and we put our business hats on, we talk very, we tend to talk very institutional. And so I just like to remind everybody, that tone is on a continuum, and you can pick anywhere you want to be, and especially with your new members, they’re they’re looking for all of those cues on whether to belong, you know, is this the place for people like me, they’re looking for those belonging cues. And when you can warm up your tone in your emails or warm up your tone and your phone calls, you know, or any of the information you’re sending out to new members. They the sense that they sense that this is going to be a happy, warm, lovely place for them to meet other people and connect.

Brandon Burton 29:54
Yeah. So when I think of, maybe an in person or even a virtual event I think to on an event stage, it’s a maybe a little easier to gauge the engagement. You can see if people are looking down at their phone or distracted or getting up to get a drink or, you know, just the distraction, where as we try to with these communication channels, I’d love that you brought the the tone and the voice into the happy dog messaging. Besides maybe some of these metrics that we look at the open rates and social engagement tools, are there other ways that we can see if our message is landing, right? If we’re how do we get that kind of feedback when we’re not in a room or a Zoom Room even to be able to get that that instant? Hopefully, positive feedback. Yeah,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 30:47
yeah. So people are always asking me how, how do you measure engagement and and there are, you know, I think when your members are doing the yellow highlighter exercise, they’re measuring engagement, looking at your renewals, it’s a measured metric and a measure of engagement. And so as you’re engaging members and attendees differently, you’re going to see that metric go up some some organizations use Net Promoter Score, some of them do things as sophisticated as Engagement scoring. And so again, over time, if you’re, if you’re focused on those experiences, you’re gonna see those those metrics go up. But, but it’s engagement is a tough one. Because it’s very hard to make one change, it’s very hard to say, Okay, we’re gonna make this one event more experiential, and we’re gonna see renewals fly off the chart, that’s not the way it works, right? There’s, there’s, there’s not a lot of like one to one direct comparisons, you just sort of see a general lift over time. So So I think sometimes we have to measure engagement, again, with our own emotions, which is, you know, is there what’s the energy like? Okay, so we’re making it we’re making some improvements to try to be more engaging and say this one event? Was the energy better? Did people walk out smiling, you know, for virtual, one of the things that I think is a really good predictor of a virtual meeting is what’s going on with the chat. Now, you can do a lot of things to have a really robust chat and as a, as a very often speaker, I love the robust chat. I love when I’m talking. And people are busy in the chat and they’re talking to each other. And they’re asking each other questions and they’re tuning in to listen to me and they’re plussing up what I say and then plussing up what everybody else says. And that’s for me that schools because because they’re sure they might be listening to me and engaging with me, but they’re in if they’re engaging with each other. That’s lovely, too. So, so if you’re doing lots of virtual events have chat ambassadors in there. And that can be a micro volunteering opportunity for one of your members. Or it could be a staff, you know, job, but have those chat ambassadors in there that are, you know, they’re plussing up what other people say? And they’re asking questions, and they’re, they’re kind of saying, Oh, this, you know, the speaker said this, what do you think about this, everybody and, and really try to foster that excitement and get it going. And that’s, that’s You’ll sense the energy, you’ll, you’ll sense it, whether you’re virtual or in person, and that that’s almost I think, is Valley or it is as valid as some of those tangible metrics.

Brandon Burton 33:26
Yeah. So I hope this doesn’t feel like we’re taking a step back. But I was thinking about the emotion as people engage with an organization that emotion is, you’re able to maybe give them some small wins along the way. So in the book, you talk about, like speaking from stage, there’s little engagement questions or things you can do to warm up the room, right. So they’re engaging on a very minimal risk or risk free environment where they have nothing to lose if they just participate and engage. And as a member joins an organization. And there’s other little quick wins, I’ll say that you can do to kind of trigger that emotion or positively reinforced that emotion of yes, you’re here for a good reason. We’re here to listen to like, all of those things. Are there any strategies or tips that you want to share around maybe those small quick wins to warm up the audience or the new member, to help encourage them to give them that confidence to be able to engage at higher levels as they progress through their their membership journey?

Amanda Lea Kaiser 34:38
Yeah, let me let me tell you about a totally unexpected story that I heard when I was doing those interviews and it’s a it’s a story that I heard over and over and over in different ways with different words. But what I would hear people say is I went to my very first event for this organization. And while I was waiting in the registration Mine welcomer I didn’t know it at the time, but people were circulating, and they were talking to all of us in the line. And in somebody stopped and talked to me, and it was maybe just two sentences. And it was it, it made me feel like this community is super open and warm and welcoming. And it and I felt like I had to step out of my shell and I am going to, to just talk to other people, I’m going to introduce myself to other people and just see how it goes. And so, so it’s like, new members come in, and we have to give them the teeniest little nudge or a teeny little bit of permission, so that they can go and make their experience great for themselves. And so whenever we can do that, it’s great. So So let’s see, how do you do that you can do that with welcomers that in person events, you know, kind of warming up the crowd for in person or virtual events. Think about your icebreaker, you know, what is what is a an icebreaker question or an activity that is super safe and super easy. And so I’ll give you just an example, when I’m getting together a group and I want to get them to be really creative, I want to I want the group bubbling up lots of ideas, I want them collaborating with each other. And the topic is not is not very serious, you know, it’s we’re working on, we’re just going to work together on this problem. And we’re gonna have a really great time doing it. One of the questions that I love to ask is, would you like to be a dragon? Or have a dragon and why? And in the why is the key, you know, you can pick either one, but I love to ask why. And so you can ask that, you know, in person, with a smaller group, you can ask it on, you know, virtual meeting and get people responding in the chat. But that, you know, again, you’re you’re popping them out of the expected stuff. And in the their professional world, and you’re bringing them into sort of a different surprising experience where they can have a little bit of fun with it. They tap in their answer, and now they’ve started participating, which is half the battle, because once once you start once, then you’ll you’ll form that habit and you’ll keep participating. That’s

Brandon Burton 37:12
awesome. Having read the book, I knew that was the question you’re gonna you’re gonna bring up it’s I was waiting for the dragon question. So I’m glad you glad you brought it out. As we begin to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask usually I’ll ask for maybe a tip or action item for listeners who want to take their organization up to the next level. And what you would offer I think I may want to read phrase that too, for an organization that a chamber listening who would like to level up the engagement of their members to the next level? Where should they start? Yeah,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 37:50
yeah, absolutely. Oh, let me backtrack and tell you one other one. So if you’re looking for more icebreakers, or energizers the other one that is surprisingly, super fun, and people get you know, they have this very fun argument about it is, is a hot dog a sandwich. So what do you think Brandon? Is the hot dog sandwich? Or is it not a sandwich?

Brandon Burton 38:13
I’m gonna go yes. Is it the same way a cheesesteak is the sandwich.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 38:17
Oh, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. So so interesting. Usually, usually groups completely divide. And there’s some squabbling around if a hotdog is a sandwich and to my knowledge, there’s no real answer, you know, just like, Alright, are you know, is white chocolate, chocolate, you know, again, you get the you know, those are those are fun cup questions to ask.

Brandon Burton 38:40
In cornbread, and you have a corndog. Now, that’s a whole nother topic. I don’t agree with that. Yes,

Amanda Lea Kaiser 38:47
yeah. Yeah, that feels not sandwich like to me, but yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so. So what, you know, what can they do to take things to the next level, what, what I would suggest is go and start identifying all of your transactions anytime you have a transaction. So joining as a transaction renewing as a transaction, opening an email is transaction registering as a transaction registration at your events as a transaction. And in so think about and so like, anytime the staff has a job to do, you’re doing administrative stuff for that transaction. So think about how you can seamlessly keep doing the administrative part of it, and then layer the expensive experience on top of it. So that’s, that’s how you close that gap is to keep doing what you’re doing in terms of the transaction and the administrative stuff, but now figure out how to layer the positive experience on top. It’s easier than you think it is. So like, let’s say you’re, you’re you’re doing registration at one of your events, and you’ve got you know, 100 people coming through the door, and you need to give them all badges within 10 minutes or something like that, you know, people are coming at you, and you’ve got to log them. And you got to give them all their badges, even even in those moments where you’re so busy and so frantic, just smile, like just keep giving them a genuine smile. And now you’ve layered on that positive experience. I

Brandon Burton 40:22
love that. And I was thinking, I don’t know, man, I don’t know if this holds true all the way through or not. But if, in talking about those micro wins, as you know, micro positive experiences and micro engagements. Hopefully, if they’re engaging on that small risk free level, a way of maybe measuring that as if they’re engaging again, like if they’re taking another step, you know, on that journey. And if they’re, if they’re stalling out, if you make that initial engagement, and they stall out, maybe the communication needs to be refined, maybe you need to get more information. But they hopefully should be making another step and other engagement along the way. Would you agree with that? Or is that just totally my own thought? totally

Amanda Lea Kaiser 41:13
right. So I have identified it fine. I’ve identified six stages of engagement, and is exactly what you’re talking about that that at each stage, there’s generally speaking, a barrier for people to take that next step into the next stage of engagement. And so to the extent that we can be aware of all of those six, six stages, and just constantly helping people have those micro wins, and in sort of taking that next step, if they want to, one, one thing that happens is you know, sometimes like, boards will get burnt out and a new member, a new face will come to an event for the first time and a board member will rush up and say, We’re so happy you’re here. Have you ever thought about being on the board and the new members panicking and saying, oh my gosh, I don’t even know who you people are yet. And so you can’t rush people up the six stages of engagement, but what you can do is make the opportunity available if they want to. So if you you know, the book is elevating engagement, and right there in the beginning, I detail all of the six stages, and each chapter is devoted to one of those stages. And I talk about the the kind of go no go decisions that members are making at every single one of those stage stages. And then I just try to give you hundreds of ideas for helping them move from one stage to the next. Again, if they want to work, we don’t rush them, we just make those opportunities all available to them. And, and yeah, I think I love I was taking notes while you were talking Brandon, because this idea of micro wins or micro engagements. I just I love that terminology. And I hadn’t thought about it or articulated it that way. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to steal that from you. Because I think it’s cool.

Brandon Burton 43:04
Yeah, just reference me twice. And then you can own it after that. So a real life example that, that I was reminded of and reading the book, you you mentioned that the board members, you know, maybe seeking a replacement for their seat during the board recruitment. So my, my wife was the volleyball Commissioner for our local youth volleyball organization. And our two youngest, well, all of our girls played volleyball through it. So we felt invested. And she was giving back to the community and doing her thing and just ended up with a lot of things on her plate. And she was completely overwhelmed. It was draining all of her energy. So she would talk to the other volleyball moms, she would say, this is wiping me out. Do you want to take it from me? Do you want to do you want to do this? And everyone kept saying, No, it was like, You need to change your approach. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It doesn’t have to be a negative experience. You don’t need to lie to them, but just share what it entails, share what the upsides are, and let them make a decision. But if you sell it as you know, this is so time consuming and is totally drained me. I think the example he gave in the book is a board member saying you know, I’ve I’ve been affected finite, you know, negatively financially, you know, in serving on the board. Nobody’s gonna want to take your spot, right. So you don’t want to scare people away with being over engaged, maybe? Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 44:35
And then then a staff members, we can also get a handle on that as well. You know, if, if we feel like it’s hard for volunteers to volunteer, we can look at their roles. We can look at the time commitment, we can look at dividing things up we can but just like it just like we were talking about with new members, you know, we want to take new members and give them that little nudge to help them keep progressing along their membership journey, you can do the same thing with volunteers. I love thinking about the volunteer journey as well. And, you know, start the volunteer journey with a micro volunteering opportunity and then slowly build. And I think a lot of time as a staff people, we tend to think about volunteer roles is very specific things if you’re on a board, if you’re on a committee, those are volunteer roles, but to members welcoming as a volunteer role speaking is volunteer role hosting as volunteer role, right, and, and so, so think about all of those non traditional things that we want to do to engage members like like being a chat ambassador, and have that be a volunteer role. And, and so, you know, maybe people are spending three minutes volunteering, or 10 minutes volunteering, or 30 minutes volunteering, but now you’ve just flex their muscles so that if there’s a chance to do another volunteer role, they might take you up on it. Right.

Brandon Burton 45:59
I love that. So I like asking everyone that I have on the show this question that as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, and I’ll broaden that and say, just associations in general, how do you see the future of chambers and associations going forward?

Amanda Lea Kaiser 46:17
Yeah, I see it really bright. There’s, there’s such a need, you know, when, whenever there’s a need in the community, there’s the business propositions, I think the future is really bright. And it’s just about how to engage differently. And I, from the research, I see that the answer is in the experiential side of things. And again, I think I said this a little bit earlier that I would wager to bet a lot of your chambers are offering a ton of value. And if you offer even more value, that’s great. But it might not get you to engagement, what you got to start doing is focusing on those positive experiences. And so a really quick way to think about that in this is something that you can play with you with your staff or talk to your board about or your committees about is just start saying, you know, the any, anytime somebody starts asking what do our members need, you know, what do our website visitors need? What are our attendees need? What do people need? Start laying or layering on that question, which is how do we want them to feel? And so? So when you ask, how do we want them to feel? And this is an easy thing that we that you could try even tomorrow, right? The next time you’re writing an email, think, how do I want the reader to feel and you kind of lock in that emotion in your brain that you want them to feel happy or joyful or hopeful or something like that. And when you type your message will actually totally change in quality? In in, that’s a really great experience. So just always, always keep asking, How do I want people to feel? How do I want them to feel when they come to our website? How do I want them to feel when they walk in the door of our event? How do I want them to feel when they’re advertising or hosting or sponsoring or any of those things. And that that’ll that’ll get you to the experiences part. I

Brandon Burton 48:11
love that that’s a good gauge right there just to kind of make sure that what we’re doing is the right thing and getting people to to engage and feel good and hit on those emotions that brought them there in the first place. So Amanda, I enjoyed this conversation and having you on the podcast, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect or share where they can find your book or anything like that, that you’d like to share with the audience feel free.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 48:42
Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me at amandaleakaiser.com. It’s Amanda, Lea, and then Kaiser like the role.com. There’s information about the book there. It’s there’s information about speaking, there’s a newsletter all about engagement that I put out once once a week that you can sign up for if you’d like or you can type elevating engagement into Amazon or any online bookseller and you’ll find my book there.

Brandon Burton 49:09
I love it. Well get that in our show notes for this episode. But like I said, this has been an engaging conversation and I hope the listeners feel so as well. And that it may prompt them to make some micro wins to put themselves out there a little bit to touch on those emotions understand why their members are there and what can you do to make them feel the way that you’d want them to feel. So Amanda, thanks again for being with us today and for sharing your your insights and for for sharing this book as well.

Amanda Lea Kaiser 49:41
Thank you so much, Brandon, this has been delightful.

Brandon Burton 49:45
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Empowering Volunteers with Nick Kieffer

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Nick Keefer. Nick joined the Goshen Chamber in 2007. As Vice President for Business Development, Nick became the president and CEO of the Goshen chamber in July 2017. He graduated the US chambers IOM program in 2011. Nick joined the Board of Regents for the winter Institute site for the IOM program in 2012. In 2013, he received the designation from the Indiana chamber executive Association as certified professional in the chamber industry. And October 2019, Nick was named to the National Board of Trustees for the US Chamber Foundation’s Institute for organization management. Nick is a past board president for the Indiana chamber executive Association. In 2022. He received his accreditation his accredited executive distinction from the Indiana chamber executive Association. Prior to working at the Goshen chamber, Nick ran a construction company with his father in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He received his bachelor’s degree in business from Indiana University and a master’s degree in communications from Purdue University. When he’s not working, he enjoys spending time with his his wife Molly and son Maxwell and daughter Caroline and and that they enjoy spending time outside and stay active chasing their kids around the family farm. But Nick, I’m excited to have you with us today on the podcast I’d love for you to take a moment 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

Nick Kieffer 3:43
them better in this Brandon Thank you for having me. I think what you do for the chamber industry is great anytime we can hear from from other people and you being that source just greatly appreciate what you do something interesting about me oh my goodness.

I have two food trucks that I do on the side so with our family farm we have a couple food trucks we do around so when I’m not at chamber work I’m doing some food truck work all right, so tell me more what type of food are you serving? Yes. So so we we make apple cider mini doughnuts so my my wife’s family has an apple orchard here in Goshen and so we have what we call the cider shack. So we do cups of cider and mini donuts. And in our new latest food truck will be a sweet corn roaster so we’ll be roasted sweet corn with some different toppings and stuff like that. So keeps me busy. My wife doesn’t like me sitting sitting around home. Nice.

Brandon Burton 4:43
Now that sounds fun. The Cider donut sounds good. Yeah,

Nick Kieffer 4:49
I learned. I believe one every time I work I check the first one for quality. And then I stay away from them. But

Brandon Burton 4:56
yeah, I have to right. Yeah, like any good dealer knows you don’t use the product, right? Yeah. No, that’s great. Well, tell us a little bit about the Goshen chamber just give us an idea of you know size of the chamber staff budget scope of work just to kind of set the table for our discussion.

Nick Kieffer 5:15
Sure. Goshen is the county seat of Elkhart County, we are the RV capital of the world. So any PRVC going down the street, there’s a good chance that was made in my neck of the woods. The Goshen chamber, been around since 1954. We represent 448 businesses, and about 20,000 employees in the Goshen area. Goodness, I have a staff of I say two and a half. He’s really a full time third person but we two full time staff and a part time staff here at the chamber. And we’re on a budget of about 400,000 a year been pretty consistent in that room for the last couple of years.

Brandon Burton 5:59
Good deal. So I like getting that perspective. So as we go into the whatever topic we’re covering on an individual podcast episode, it really helps listeners be able to see how to scale Yeah, compared to their chamber. And you know, if if Nick and that Goshen chamber are able to do these things that three staff or two and a half staff, and a budget of 400,000. See what you can do is your chamber, whether it’s bigger or smaller, and just, you know, scale it, scale it to your size. But I appreciate you sharing that. And as we get into our topic for our conversation today we’ll focus the majority of our conversation around empowering volunteers. And I know chambers across the country utilize their volunteers a little differently and have different types of relationships with them. So I’m excited to dive into this conversation with you as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 9:13
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Brandon Burton 10:01
All right, Nick, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll focus our conversation today around what we can do to empower volunteers. And to know, volunteers are key to the success of pretty much any chamber. We need those people that understand the vision and mission of the chamber and who are on board and are really great community champions. So they’re in Goshen? How do you guys go about working with your volunteers? And I guess we’ll start there just in what aspects are utilizing the volunteers?

Nick Kieffer 10:36
Sure. So, you know, like I mentioned, a staff of three, we couldn’t do what we do without help, right? That’s, that’s the most important part. So you know, relying on our board and our ambassador group to really be the extra eyes and ears out in the community to really help us with what we do is imperative to how we operate. So, you know, we can utilize our ambassador group for, you know, retention for membership growth, or kind of that first year, handholding with a member of, you know, really engaging them and bringing them into the chamber. So a lot of different ways there to try to do that. But you hit the nail on the head with cultivating that volunteer aspect and how we do that it’s just, it’s so important to I think, for any chamber, no matter the size, to really have a group or a core group that you can rely on.

Brandon Burton 11:37
Absolutely. That reliability is key. So volunteers, they could take the the attitude of, I’m not getting paid for this, I’m not taking this serious, right. So getting those right people and we often talk about getting the right people on the bus in the right seats. And, and it’s, it’s true with volunteers to make sure that

Nick Kieffer 12:00
the time, yeah, it takes time to to do that you really have to, you know, it’s not something where, hey, next month, I’m going to have you know, a group of 20 people that I can go out and do this, this is something where you have to constantly work on it work on the relationships, get to know people find out who’s, you know, kind of invested in what they want from the chamber, right? So it’s that give and take of what we have to offer what we can help them with? And then how, how can you use that in a volunteer capacity?

Brandon Burton 12:26
That’s right. You know, it’s often said, you get out of the chamber, what you put into it? And yeah, that there’s a level of truth to that. Especially if you get involved with the committee or volunteering or different things like that. But what are what are some ways that you guys go about in, you know, empowering your volunteers, so giving them some control? And some, some say in everything, right,

Nick Kieffer 12:54
you’re right, you’re, you’re you’re trying to lead the organization and grow it, but but at the same time, you have to be okay with the fact that there’s a group that’s doing some work that you’re not, you know, you might not be able to make it so I can’t make every committee or group meeting that we have, it’s just not possible. And so finding, like you said, again, the key point, finding those right people that you can say, hey, I need notes, you know, where the chamber stands on these things, or, you know, kind of what to expect from the chamber as far as how we operate. And so our meeting should go this way, we try to get staff or myself at different ones, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Our young professional groups, probably my best example of, I’m not there all the time. And they really have kind of taken on that leadership role, and from a volunteer side that has really helped grow our wipey group.

Brandon Burton 13:49
And that’s great. So maybe just pulling the thread a little bit on the young professional group, what is it about that with, it’s really helped drive the leadership and that that group forward, as far as the volunteer base goes,

Nick Kieffer 14:05
I think, again, it gets back to that you have to, you know, give them give them room to feel that it’s their, their meeting their, their group, their identity. So, you know, they formed their kind of executive committee for the group. And, you know, I kind of gave an overall hey, here’s what the chamber kind of wants or expects, and how do you, how do you get there and then just kind of taken a step back and let them work through the process. And I was in the room on those early meetings and, you know, chime in when I’d be like, Okay, maybe not this way, we need to kind of shift over here, but not not to be too micromanaging of what they wanted out of the group. So they really bought into the overall idea of what we were doing because they were the ones driving it and so it just kind of stemmed from They’re, you know, they nicknamed me, they call me the DC the dream Crusher. So every time they come with an idea that is out of my budget, I say no. Or, hey, let’s figure out a different way we might be able to do it. But, you know, so just allowing that process it, allowing them to really take the reins and feel like, hey, you know, Nick’s not sitting over top of us, you know, telling us what to do, it’s really our group, that’s that they kind of elevated that program and really taken it on. So they like

Brandon Burton 15:34
it when when the dream crusher is not there, right. Now, so I mean, joking aside, I see, you know, a good feeling that comes out of it, when you can see the different committees, different organizations are able to continue on, even if you are a staff member is not there to help guide or, or even micromanage the whole outcome, but being able to see that they have a good trajectory and moving in the right direction, even without that, you know, staff involvement and every step of the way.

Nick Kieffer 16:11
Yeah, again, it gets to, you know, kind of recruiting those volunteers that understand chamber, the kind of the chamber talk and what we’re here for, and how we can, you know, really make an impact or a difference in what’s going on. And so you cultivate them, and then they you put them in positions to succeed. And then it’s, it just kind of perpetuates through through a program.

Brandon Burton 16:34
So I’m always curious to hear how people go about recruiting volunteer, whether it’s a volunteer for a different organization, a different committee or board member? How do you see, you know, the process of going about recruiting volunteers? Yeah, it’s,

Nick Kieffer 16:54
it’s listening right? There, there are so many conversations we have in chamber work, where somebody will slip it in or talk about, you know, I’m looking for an opportunity, or I need a connection to or I’m looking to connect with and so when you hear those, those things, you know, somebody’s wanting to put themselves out there and really get involved. And so when you, when I hear that, right, and then it’s like, okay, then you got to gauge how much and in their, their own personal traits, right, so you kind of have to do a little, you know, reading on their, how, in how much they want to be out in front of something, or if they just want to be kind of behind the scenes. But it’s really listening to, you know, at our after hours, or at our some of our programs, as you get introduced to more of the membership and, and who they bring from their organizations to kind of see, okay, hey, we can play somebody here, or where would this interest you, we have this program, you said you wanted, you know, more information on this in the community, I have a great program over here, and then you kind of start building it from from there. So it’s just throughout the year staff, my staff and I, you know, we kind of keep a little list of, hey, you know, have you talked to Joe Smith, or to Jane or whoever it may be, and then just kind of work them in. So it’s an ongoing process for us.

Brandon Burton 18:24
Yeah. And I’ve seen, it’s often a good idea to have those people that are engaged in the community to hopefully be in stepping up as volunteers and being engaged in a different level of the chamber.

Nick Kieffer 18:36
Right. And if you’re, you know, for us, we run our own leadership academy. And so, you know, we try to cultivate leadership and employees from organizations that want to be connected to so that’s a great pipeline for us. Our ambassador group, again, is a great pipeline for us. You know, so look around your community, there’s different pockets, and there’s different nonprofits that you can be like, Oh, hey, you know, they’re super involved in this this might be a really good fit for them over here and then you kind of start connecting the dots with with volunteers.

Brandon Burton 19:06
Absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense it you know, I was joke about you don’t you want busy people? Busy people know how to get things done, right. You don’t want the person who’s sitting at home looking for something to do Oh, certainly.

Nick Kieffer 19:23
I mean, from from my my perspective, that is probably one of the most things for for volunteerism at all don’t waste their time, right? Like they, they have a lot of things to do. They’re not like they’re not my employees, right? It’s not their full time job to help the chamber out. So if, if you don’t have enough for a meeting, canceling, give them their time back because they will work harder for you knowing that, hey, they’re not going to waste our time. I mean, even even on a board level, right? If you’re if you’re, if your agenda for your board meeting isn’t jam packed or you don’t have a whole lot of things If you can afford to say, hey, you know what, this month we’re okay. And your exec team is okay with it, man, give those volunteers that time back. And it just, it makes a difference as you you’re building your relationship with your volunteers. Right.

Brandon Burton 20:12
And, and I think there’s ways of communicating that to where it is still keeps the weight of the importance of it. Without, you know, taking off that pressure of No, we’re not doing this. Like, it’s not important. Like, it’s still as important, but we also value your time. So we’re trying to prioritize things. And then given the circumstances right now that take Enjoy your evening,

Nick Kieffer 20:37
you know, I just had that situation where, you know, I took a took a vacation was gone, right. And I was gone during a week where you have your typical committee monthly meetings, and I told, you know, the three of them the bigger meetings and like, Look, I’m not going to be here, you know, it’s okay, we can move it back, or we can, you know, pick it up next month. And every one of them said, No, we got it, we got, you know, just give us a couple things that that we need, we’ll we’ll have the meeting, I’ll get your notes. And so that’s when you sit back and you’re like, Ah, I got a good group, right. This is your, you know, good group of volunteers that really see the long term, you know, mission to the chamber and really help out in that way. Right.

Brandon Burton 21:15
That’s one of the best feelings is to know that the organization doesn’t sink without you there,

Nick Kieffer 21:20
right? Like, from an ego thing, like, you know, that’s not true. But that’s, it’s just to be like, Okay, I don’t have to be there as an executive, you can kind of take that breath of like, it’s still gonna go on,

Brandon Burton 21:30
right? Yeah, I think sometimes we, we make ourselves feel more important than we already. Know, that’s good. So I’d like to try to get maybe, you know, for those who are listening, any kind of tip or action item as they are looking to take their chambers up to the next level? What would you suggest for them may have to do with volunteers, maybe something totally different. But what what comes to mind for you?

Nick Kieffer 22:00
I, I can’t. Huh, listening, I think I mentioned that a couple times, but just listen to your membership, they will tell you, the good, the bad, the ugly, everything in between, in a lot of different ways. But if you’re in your staff are listening to what’s going on, it’ll help cultivate your membership, it’ll help cultivate your volunteers, and it’ll strengthen your chamber. You know, it’s been, it’s been a roller coaster, last couple of years of volunteerism coming back out of it is kind of up and down, where things out, but it’s just, if you understand the needs of of your members and those that are looking to be involved, it’s easy to make decisions to help them and that’s, that’s our ultimate goal, I think as a chamber is to be a resource for the business community. And so anyway, you can do that that’s a you know, to me, that’s that else that’ll strengthen your chamber in the future. You know, as far as you know, growing yourself or, or getting more information. I’m a huge proponent of the IOM program and be involved in ACC. I think those are two phenomenal organizations that chambers, and chamber execs can pull a lot of information out, you know, whether it’s going through IOM or attending ACC, those are great. Listen to your podcast more, I think, you know, the more you talk with people, like we’ve all been through it, no matter the size of the chamber, you’re running, we’ve all been through it. And so there’s, there’s things you can learn from from anybody and, and, you know, just, I was just at a function where, who was the chamber directors third day on the job? Oh, you know, right. So just all excited about it. And she was telling me a couple of things. And I was like, Man, I didn’t think about it like that, like just three days on the job. But it was a nugget that I could take back and bring back to my chamber. So always be open to listen and to learn from from everybody. I love

Brandon Burton 23:56
that perspective that people bring from different experience, whether it’s, you know, three days on the job, so they’ve got a very green, you know, perspective

Nick Kieffer 24:05
to the 17 years where you’re, you know, you’ve kind of been through a lot of different different scenarios.

Brandon Burton 24:11
17 years or even prior prior employment before Yeah, whatever your career path was before the chamber brings a perspective to so absolutely being able to learn from others and just listening and in, like I said, at the beginning of Episode scaling, so you can’t necessarily do everything the same as other chambers and you shouldn’t content, yes, get the concepts, listen to the needs of your community, and then scale it to the size that makes the most sense. But Nick, 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?

Nick Kieffer 24:55
I’m my kind of mantra here is a resource center is That means you adapt and change. You know, technology’s going to throw wrinkles into our business world and business community and, and so being that constant resource that people can rely on and businesses can rely on for solid good information, I think is so important for chambers to to be at the forefront moving forward.

Brandon Burton 25:24
Absolutely. As you say that I’m thinking, we are recording this in March of 2023. And right now, all of the buzz is Chat GPT and artificial intelligence and all these different ways that it’s going to change workforce and change content and change our workforce and chamber work absolutely, exactly. So as a Chamber of Commerce to be able to be on the forefront of that, learning about the technology, helping to distill this down to the members that say, here’s what it means for you. Here’s how you can apply some of these technologies to better your business. And here are some pitfalls to look out for and to be aware of. And again,

Nick Kieffer 26:05
when you when you look back over the many years of what chambers have done that’s that’s the root of it. That’s the it’s the always saying okay, hey businesses, here’s what’s next here’s the next thing and so being at the the forefront of that and you know, kind of helping businesses navigate through it is is where I think we we need to focus on absolutely,

Brandon Burton 26:27
I couldn’t agree more. I appreciate that.Nick, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you learn more about how you go about approaching volunteer working with volunteers in your chamber, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Nick Kieffer 26:46
Yeah, goshen.org would have my contact information, email address, and keefer@goshen.org is my email. But I’m more than happy to help. Like I said, I’ve been in chamber work almost 17 years now. And it’s it’s fun. It’s fun work, but it’s more rewarding when when we’re sharing with each other. And I’m learning from from you and and hopefully I have a nugget or two that you find valuable as well.

Brandon Burton 27:14
Absolutely. And we’ll, we’ll get your contact info and that should be in the show notes for this episode so people can find you there. But I appreciate you setting aside some time to be with us today on chamber chat podcast and sharing your experience and insights is working with volunteers and really creating a culture that that helps them want to work towards the success of your chamber.

Nick Kieffer 27:39
Brandon, thank you again for all you do and having me on your show.

Brandon Burton 27:43
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Leadership Programs with Debra Orner

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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.

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

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 Debra Orner. Debra is the Vice President the Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce in Pennsylvania. She began her career with the Cambria Regional Chamber in 1998. She’s responsible for the Chamber’s external operations including events and programs. And among these is her professional pride and joy the John V Gunter Community Leadership Initiative. Prior to coming to the chamber, Deborah worked in public relations at St. Francis University and on the staff of the late Congressman John P. Murtha. Debra is past chair of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce professionals, and has served on his board of directors since 2012. She was the first non CEO to be elected to this position. She has served as chair at the PACP professionals and leadership conference since 2013, and is also a member of the communications committee. Debra is also an IOM graduate. Locally, Debra is at the vice president of the Johnstown United neighbourhoods, which began as a community project of the leadership program. She also serves on the board of directors of several other local organizations. Debra, we’re excited to have you with us today here in timber tap podcast. I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better.

Debra Orner 3:25
Thank you, Brandon. As mentioned in my bio, this is my 25th year in chamber work. Never thought I’d have a job that long. But once I started, it was just it was just Kismet. And I love doing it. I can’t imagine doing anything else. And my chamber friends actually like to joke that I knew what I wanted to do when I was eight years old because that in the summer of 1977, our city suffered the third devastating flood in our history. And one of the things that came out of that was an advertising campaign that was put together by some local businessman. And some of it was funny like they were they will put up billboards that say were wet but not washed out. But the one that stuck with me was one that says we will rebuild together. And I’m not saying that I knew that Chamber of Commerce was a job you could have when I was eight years old, but I knew I was I wanted to do what those men did. So it just made a huge impression on me. And the other thing that came out of that was our congressman at the time had only been in office probably about two or three years. And where I lived during the flood was across the street from an elementary school that had a very large playground. And that’s where National Guard helicopters would land and that sort of thing. And I was able to witness our congressman landing at our at that playground and getting out and kind of directing things and starting the process and helping to shovel mud and that sort of thing. And that was Congressman John Murtha. So at eight years old, I was looking at this man like he was some sort of John Wayne and he was just one of my first heroes and then I ended up working for him. So it was kind of that was a pivotal event in my I live to kind of had an effect on my later years that I never could have predicted at the time. But so that’s why they like to joke that I knew what I wanted to do when I was eight.

Brandon Burton 5:09
Wow. So I hear a lot of stories about how people get into chamber work. But that is a unique one. So I appreciate you sharing that. And not everybody has that kind of experience when they’re a young child and being able to have those impressions stick with them into adulthood. So thank you for sharing that. Well, tell us a little bit about the Cambria Regional Chamber just to kind of set the table for our discussion give us an idea of the size of chamber scope of work staff budget, that sort of thing, just to prepare us for our conversation.

Debra Orner 5:44
We’re located in Johnstown, which is in Cambria County in Pennsylvania. And that’s about as the crow flies 60 miles east of Pittsburgh. We have about 650 members at the moment and our budgets around $650,000. And we have four full time staff people. And we do a lot with those four people, we have probably 10 major events per year. And a lot of programs in between, like most chambers, we have a governmental action program, we have a women’s issues program. And of course, the thing that’s my favorite is our leadership program. But we also have branched out into kind of becoming a digital media company, we have a pretty strong social media program. We are we do a lot with promoting our members via social media. We do a lot with video. So that’s something that we’ve been getting into the last four years when our new president Amy Bradley came on with her background in news broadcasting. So that’s something that’s been kind of new for us. But we’ve been we’ve been doing pretty well with that, in addition to the other traditional things that the Chamber of Commerce does.

Brandon Burton 6:52
Yeah, that could be a whole conversation within itself right there under the digital media. And

Debra Orner 6:57
absolutely,

Brandon Burton 6:58
you guys are taking there. As we in thank you for sharing the background there on the chamber and what you guys are involved with in the staff. And as we move forward with our discussion today, we’ll be focusing on with what we’ve alluded to a couple of times already through your bio and what you shared with your pride and joy of being in the leadership program. You guys have there at the Canberra Regional Chamber. But we will dive deeper into discussion about that and how you guys approach your leadership program that says to get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 9:16
Hey, this is Donna. Yiftee community cards are free for you, free for your members and they bring lots of new sales and foot traffic into your local shops and restaurants. But don’t take it from me. Here’s Siobhan from Truckee, California to tell you about her program.

Siobhan Kenney 9:32
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Donna Novitsky 10:03
Thanks Siobhan. If you’d like to join Truckee in supporting the shop local movement, check us out yiftee.com or send an email to sales@yiftee.com. 

Brandon Burton 10:16
All right, Deborah, we’re back. So I’m curious to learn about the leadership program, it’s not often that you hear chamber professionals say that leadership programs are pride and joy. So I can tell this means a lot to you, it’s close to your heart. And I’m sure it’s because there’s been some big impact that’s come out of it. So share with us the approach you guys take and why it means so much to you.

Debra Orner 10:41
Well, I always joke with with my boss and my board of directors that I do leadership for free, and they have to, it’s everything else they have to pay me for, because I love the program that much. I actually took the program over, within two weeks of starting my job back in 1998. And back then, the program was only in its current format, about four years old. They had done a program in the early 80s. Back when corporate dollars for training were more easily had, they would bring in people like Lee Iacocca and Steven Covey, and it was more of an of a really higher level executive training. And it wasn’t a cohort group. The way it is now, back in about 1994 is when it when they started to form it into a cohort group where a group of about 18 to 24, people would go through a series of lectures throughout a nine month period. So then, when I took over in 1998, they also said, Well, a good way for you to learn how to run this program would be to go through it yourself. So my first year with the program, I was actually participating in the program, plus I was learning how to run it. And that was really unique. And I don’t recommend it to anybody because it was it was very confusing for everyone. For my classmates who didn’t understand that I was part of the class plus I was I was running the program and for me trying to be part of the class yet organizing everything. So that wasn’t probably the best way to go about it. But the following year, we instituted an overnight team bonding session. And that’s really where things took off. Because that really cemented the bonds the class would have with each other. And we had two amazing facilitators that I was lucky to have for almost my entire career here that really took the program to another level. And our program is a little different from other programs in that we meet twice a month. And we are skills based rather than the programs that typically have like a healthcare day or a Law Day where they go on basically like field trips to hospitals, and in court systems and that sort of thing. So our program is based around skills like project management, and we’ll do a session on soft skills, and we do emotional intelligence. And we do disk training, which a lot of other programs do as well, but we pair it with other sessions that basically benefit the person through professional development. So we’ll do honorable leadership and, and things like that. So we’re a little bit different from other programs. And we also do, the people that are in the program are required to work on a community project while they’re in the program. So we’ll we divide them up into groups of four, six people, they can choose to work on whatever they want to work on, we use a multi voting process for them to figure out what they want to work on. We give them some project management training at the end of the year. And from there, they run with it. And we’ve had some amazing projects over the years that have just touched 10s of 1000s of lives with the impact that they’ve had. And the the people that are in the program, sometimes the project means so much to them, we do a session at the end of the year where they have to do, they have to present their project to our board of directors. And they’ll do a session where they present to their classmates and their sponsors. And we’ve had grown men in the in the front of the class crying because the project meant so much to them. So it’s not just something we do to keep them busy. It’s something that really means a lot to them, and it ends up being something very meaningful to the community. This year, for instance, we have one group that’s working on building a pavilion at one of the trailheads here in town for one of our one of our hiking and biking trails. And we have another project that’s raising money for a project called the needy children’s shopping tour, which takes disadvantaged children and take they get to go shopping at Christmas time and they get to buy new things and it’s just it’s a really cool experience for everybody involved. And then we have another group that is raising money for an organization called wings for Warriors which is an organization that serves disabled veterans With all terrain wheelchair so they can still get out into the woods and do the activities that they enjoy before they were injured. And so that’s another project that’s that’s happening this year. And then we have a final project that is going to bring together some resources for first responders who we kind of tend to forget about them a little bit that they need some help, too, sometimes. So those are the just 404 examples of projects that our program does. And they will work on those throughout the nine months. And they don’t have to be finished with those by the end of the program. Usually they are. And sometimes the products are one and done. And sometimes the people continue to work on them past when they graduate from the program, which I think really says a lot for how much the project that they choose means to them. So that’s what I kind of think sets our program apart a little bit with some of the things that we do,

Brandon Burton 15:51
ya know, you you’ve covered a lot of things there is, as you talked about how the program’s laid out, but so if I understand, right, it’s a nine month program, you meet twice a month, so 18 times total throughout that that period.

Debra Orner 16:06
Yes, we meet we meet twice a month for half a day.

Brandon Burton 16:09
Okay. And tell us a little bit more about this overnight team building opportunity is that you guys set go somewhere off site, is it somewhere? Just how do you how do you come about that

Debra Orner 16:22
we did and actually the pandemic turned it from an overnight into just a two day session. But it’s still it’s still the same basic setup, it’s just, we don’t stay overnight anymore after after the pandemic happen. But we spend the first day basically with just team building activities and with them getting to know each other and kind of breaking down barriers, and really getting to know each other a lot more and what they what they have in common what they might want to work on for the next nine months. So it helps them to form their project teams. And then the second day is really when we spend putting the project teams together. So they’ll spend like the entire second day just discussing things like what does our area not have that if it did would make it a better place to live? Or, you know, what would you work on, if you knew you couldn’t fail those sorts of things. So we, we lead them through discussion like that, and then they they break down into areas of interest. And then from there, it’s all up to them, like what project they pick. So they might know that when they walk out on the second day, they might know for sure what they want to do. Some people come to the program with an idea that they want to do, and they just recruit people to help them. So and some people show up, and they have absolutely no idea what they want to do. And they’re they’re looking to be sold on something. So we have kind of all different methods happening there. But those two days are just so important because it really helps them bonded as a group. And a lot of times even sometimes we’ll have people from the same company that participate in the program in the same year. And people from the same company won’t know each other before they get to our program. So really, for the most part, these are 20 strangers who don’t know anything about each other. So we really take the time on those two days to help them get to know each other. And really, they walk out of those two days and their friends.

Brandon Burton 18:09
Very good. So that was my next question. So this is happening at the beginning of the leadership program to build those bonds, kind of build your teams select your products at a tone for the whole nine months.

Debra Orner 18:22
Yeah, we do that at the beginning. And then at the end of the year, we go back to the same site. And we do what we call a year on reflection. And that’s really their opportunity to kind of get their emotions out about what they’ve been through that year. And like the things that made an impact on them and just kind of talk it out and just really have a have a nice day, like a little Capstone session with with their classmates that they become so close to throughout the course of the program.

Brandon Burton 18:49
Nice. So you had mentioned that you’ve been blessed with a great facilitator, as you go about trying to figure out who facilitates a leadership program like this? What sort of traits are you looking for what what would make for a good facilitator for other chambers that are listening and considering building a similar program?

Debra Orner 19:10
Really, they just think it helps tremendously if they have a passion for the area, because that’s really what most leadership programs are trying to do is create something good for their community. And it also helps if if they like helping people develop, because that’s a huge part of what we do. So you really just have to have a passion for developing people and you have to really care about the community and the area and you have to want to see it get better. And we as Chambers of Commerce don’t often have large budgets and sometimes our facil facilitators most of our facilitators actually are volunteers with the exception of one person, everybody in my program is a volunteer. So we really have to be Find people and cultivate relationships with people who just genuinely just care. And that’s really, that’s really as simple as it is. Obviously, they need to have some proficiency in the thing you’re asking them to present on. But really, they just have to care. And they have to want to do it. And they have to have that volunteer capacity capacity themselves.

Brandon Burton 20:20
So I think that’s those are great things to consider. And like the passion for the community. And it made me wonder through this leadership program, it sounds like a lot of the skills like the skills based training, those sort of things that you’re going through, are I guess you can you can take it from one position to another, from one community to another, you’re developing leadership skills that are transferable. Are there other aspects, besides the project may be that are community based that are unique to your community? And maybe not, but I’m just I’m curious.

Debra Orner 21:02
Well, one thing that that I’m pretty proud of that we do with our program is we give them the opportunity to meet a lot of community leaders, because that’s who most of my facilitators are. They’re people who are business owners or leaders in some other way. And we also do a session on local government where they get to meet all of our county commissioners, and our city manager and our the community community and economic development director for the city will have the Director of Emergency Services for the county comm. So they get to meet people like that. And these are, again, community leaders who are giving back through this program by it. And that’s one of the sessions where I kind of call it the, it’s your opportunity to ask the why doesn’t someone or why don’t they questions, because a lot of times people just don’t understand why things are the way they are. And this is really just an opportunity for them to sit down and meet with oftentimes people who are elected leaders, and it just gives them a chance to form a relationship, and just to meet them and to see what their role can be in moving our region forward.

Brandon Burton 22:07
Yeah, I love that, like building those strong community ties. So the the year end reflection, that I can imagine that being kind of a high point, really to this whole program to be able to see the development to be able to look back at, especially going back to the same location that it all started right, then able to reflect back on that those beginnings, the relationships built the impact of their projects. You had mentioned grown men crying at the end, because they’re their program, what are some of those more impactful reflections that have kind of hit you over the years, as you’ve seen these people reflect on their their time in the program?

Debra Orner 22:53
Well, I always say that the people in the program, we’re going to learn more from each other than they will from almost any, any of us or any of the facilitators, because you get to meet the people who are doing the work in the community. And there’s just a lot of eye opening moments that you wouldn’t know about if you didn’t get to meet these people. And for me, just seeing the relationships that formed from people who didn’t, who wouldn’t know each other, except for this program, and who accomplish amazing things because they have met in this program. To me, that is just the most gratifying thing. And I think that’s what they get out of it as well is that people that they didn’t know, prior to be in the program, and they’ve accomplished these great things with. And a lot of times with the, with the, with the educational part, sometimes people will even tell me that it doesn’t apply to them right now. But years later, they went back to that training, and they used it. So it is something that stays with you forever. And that’s really why ours is more of a professional development kind of program. Because no matter who you work for, or where you go in your life, whatever community you’re a part of, this is yours forever. So it’s not just that it’s specific to our city or our county. We believe that you improve region by developing its people and by developing its leaders. And so that’s what we really try to do every single year in our program. Right?

Brandon Burton 24:21
I love that. So the question came to my mind is this is kind of your your baby your kind of pet project, right? There’s the leadership program. How do you I guess put the dividing line between what you do as an organizer and, and putting together this program versus the facilitator and their responsibilities and to where you’re not stepping on each other’s toes and identifying what your your respective roles are. How does that structure look with your organization?

Debra Orner 24:56
Really, I am just so fortunate with the people Will that are part of my program, honestly, we all just work so well together. And they know that I would do it for free. So that that helps to that they know what how much I love it, and how much how much of myself I put into it. But I basically recruit all of our all of our facilitators, which can be 18 per year, depending on on how many sessions we do. And, honestly, I just let them run with it, because they’re the experts in their field. So during the session, I don’t interfere with that, that’s up to them what they want to put it in their curriculum. Sometimes I helped facilitate that session in class, depending on on where the conversations going on try to help lead the conversation a little bit. But for the most part, our facilitators are just such professionals and they just care so much, there’s really no need for me to, to get involved in that part of it. And they let me handle all of the admin and that sort of thing and all of the communication and it just, it works really well together. And it’s just it’s it’s nothing but 25 years of cultivated relationships, that people know what we’re trying to do with this program, and they have just gone all in on it. And, you know, they have other things to do, they have other things they could be doing other than spending half a day with me. But they just, that’s just what great people they are. And so they take time away from their own businesses and at their own expense to come and share their expertise with our class every year. And I have facilitators that have been with me for really the entire 25 years. And I just think that’s a remarkable thing.

Brandon Burton 26:34
That’s fantastic. So as you go about recruiting facilitators, and I’m asking this for somebody who’s looking to build a leadership program at their organization, where are you looking in the community to everywhere from

Debra Orner 26:49
everywhere, and one of my favorite things to do is if there’s a graduate of the program that can teach something, I love to bring them back. And sometimes I have a list of people that I want to bring into the program, because I respect them as a person, and I want people to meet them and to learn from them. And sometimes I have a topic that I just really want somebody to teach, but I haven’t met that person yet. And really one of my favorite stories, I have one of money, one of my first friends that I ever made when I worked at the Chamber, he’s just a really good presenter. And you know, I’ve called on him in the past to present things. And the one year, I just had a really, things don’t always go smoothly. And I lost like three facilitators for you know, due to various reasons health and that sort of thing. And so I needed him to present a topic on or to present a session on public speaking for me, which was okay, and public speaking is kind of, that’s not really something that’s that unique, and you can get a lot of people, different people to do that. But the following year was the only the second year that we were going to present emotional intelligence. And back then that wasn’t something that was very common. And it wasn’t something that a lot of people, you know, were doing at the time. So I lost my facilitator for that session, probably 10 days before the session, and I just sat there, and I think I’m gonna have to cancel the session, because who am I going to get to present emotional intelligence is like, there’s like two people in the world that even know what it is, at this point.

Brandon Burton 28:18
tested your own emotional intelligence. Right?

Unknown Speaker 28:21
Exactly.

Debra Orner 28:22
So so this friend called me almost like 10 minutes later, and he said, Deborah was looking online at your at your syllabus for your leadership program. And I saw that you have emotional intelligence, and who teaches that for you? And I said, Oh, my God, why are you asking? He had just gotten certified in that like, I think two weeks prior. And I said, Oh, do I have an opportunity for you. So that was just somebody that I knew that it was just an existing relationship that I had that that I could peg into that slot. And another time I had, I had really wanted to include servant leadership in the program for some time, but just had not met somebody who could teach it. And so as you mentioned, I worked at St. Francis University, prior to coming to the chamber, and I still have some friends that work there. And so I was talking to one of them the one day, and I don’t know how the topic of servant leadership came up, but it did. And I had said how much I wanted to make that part of our program, but I just, I hadn’t found anybody to teach it yet. And she said, Well, you know, who could teach that for you? And I said, Who? And she mentioned, one of my alums, and I said, Oh, my God is so to see there, put them on the phone. And he wasn’t there at the time, but he did call me back. So he’s been teaching that session for me ever since. So it’s really just keeping your eyes open and seeing who’s around you and paying attention to what they do. If you’re friends with them on Facebook, or if you’re connected with them on LinkedIn, what do they post about? What do they seem to know about what do they seem to be an expert in? Or even just what are their interests because a lot of times people’s job isn’t necessarily their passion either. They can they can teach about something that’s not Not necessarily what they do for a living. So I’ve had that that happened as well. So it’s really it’s just a matter of using your own connections, and just just letting people know what you’re looking for what you want to do, what your goals are, and the people will help you get there.

Brandon Burton 30:16
That’s great advice. Deborah, is we start wrapping up here, you’ve, you’ve touched on some fantastic points as far as creating and building and nurturing a leadership program, it’s your chamber. What tip or action item might you have for listener who is interested in taking their chamber up to the next level?

Debra Orner 30:38
The best advice that I can give anyone is if you have a state association, and you probably do join it immediately and get involved if you’re not already, because nothing in my career has been more valuable to me than the Pennsylvania Association for chamber professionals. I learned more about this kind of work just sitting around with my colleagues over lunch and dinner, and possibly one or two late nights than I ever did in any classroom. Chamber professionals tend to be just the most generous giving people and they want you to succeed, and they will share with you and they will help you and they will cheer you on the whole time.

Brandon Burton 31:16
Absolutely. And, and that’s the only reason this podcast is a success is because the chamber professionals are so willing to share and, and share some of those best practices and tips and programs and things like you’re doing today. So thank you for that salutely. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Debra Orner 31:43
Well, I think one thing that the past few years has shown us is that and especially extremely epidemic, evident during the pandemic is despite their traditional nature, Chambers of Commerce adapt extremely well to serve our members. We have extensive extensive reach in our communities. And we tend to be extremely good listeners. And some of the hardest days we worked was when everything was shut down, because we were putting in so many hours trying to take care of our members. So we tend to be very good at adapting. And I think we will continue to do that to adapt to our members evolving needs. And the other thing that has been extremely evident the past few years is the importance of human connection. And that is something that chambers have always done exceptionally well. So I think as long as there are humans in business Chambers of Commerce will continue to be the conveners. And how we do that might change with the times, sometimes it might be virtual instead of in person. But I think that’s we’re going to continue to be the connectors.

Brandon Burton 32:44
Absolutely great points. And I would have to agree with the future chamber. So thank you for that. Deborah, I like to give you an opportunity, or really for the listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you learn more about the leadership program that you put on, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect and learn more? Sure,

Debra Orner 33:07
they can email me at debra@crchamber.com. And you can reach me directly through our website, which is crchamber.com. Or they can reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I love to talk to anybody about leadership. So if anybody out there is has a program that they want to maybe adapt or if you’re looking to start a program I would love to help. I’ve helped several of my colleagues start programs that are going extremely well right now. So

Brandon Burton 33:35
very good. We will, we’ll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode so people can can look you up and we’ll have your LinkedIn profile LinkedIn in there as well. But I really appreciate you sharing these insights and lessons learned and your approach to leadership program. They’re at the Canberra Regional Chamber. And thank you for being with us today. Really appreciate it.

Debra Orner 34:00
Thank you, Brandon. I really enjoyed it.

Brandon Burton 34:02

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Culture with Miles Burdine

Miles Burdine Chamber Chat Podcast promo image.

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

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.

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 here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Kris Johnson, President and CEO of the Association of Washington Business in Washington State to learn how Holman Brothers has provided value for him. 

Kris Johnson 0:41
Well, Doug and Bill at the Holman Brothers have been a key ally in growth for my professional career working at three different chambers, a local chamber, a regional chamber, now a statewide chamber. And they’ve been the ideal solution, whether it’s a comprehensive training program, whether it’s working on individual sales growth, quarterly check-ins with the team, the ability to grow members has meaning more assets for the organization, more assets means we can do more things to serve our members. They’ve really been the perfect solution for us, a trusted resource partner and a growth partner for us all along the way. So hats off to Doug and Bill for their great success. They’ll be a great partner for you as they are for us.

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Our guest for this episode is Mile Burdine. Miles is a native of Kingsport, Tennessee, and he’s been with the Kingsport Tennessee Area Chamber since 1994 and was promoted to his present position of president and CEO in 1999 Miles other career was with the United States Marine Corps. After graduating from University of Tennessee with a degree in business administration, he served on active duty for seven years before resigning and his commission and joining the Marine Reserves after having served 30 years and now retired at the rank of colonel Miles has extensive training and experience in war fighting tactics, terrorism, security, civil affairs, and the challenges faced in the Middle East. Three of his deployments have been to combat environments in Beirut, Lebanon and 1883, Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia and 91. And Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq in 2005. And 2006. Miles and his wife, Denise have three daughters and three granddaughters. Myles, thank you for your service, first of all, and welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. We’re excited to have you with us today. And we’d love for you to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Miles Burdine 2:51
Well, I’m Brandon, thanks for the opportunity first and yes, good morning to all the chamber staffers out there and chamber world and has really don’t really have much interesting about me, except perhaps of all three of my daughters named Laura and I’ve got two tattoos and locations that only people I want to see them can see them.

That’s about the only interesting thing about me. I’m not sure that’s even interesting.

Brandon Burton 3:17
Yeah, that’s good. That’s good. Well, tell us a little bit about the Kingsport area Chamber just to give us some perspective, maybe the size of the chamber type of work, you’re involved with staff budget, that sort of thing. Just to give some perspective, before we get into our conference.

Miles Burdine 3:34
We’re we’re relatively small community, there’s only about 55,000 in our community, but you go outside the city limits, of course, it grows significantly, but our chamber represents probably around 900 Different businesses or organizations. We’ve got a staff of 30 budget of 4.7 million and but I’ll add to that there’s about 31 million that actually managed by our, our accounting department, when you had other programs and projects and things that were involved in it within the community. And our list of programs, projects, events, things going on this building is quite long. We’re involved in the typical things that you might expect to chamber be involved in membership, of course, workforce development, government relations, or visit Kingsport program, small business development, sustainability, a healthy Kingscourt program list goes on and on and on. Things that go on inside the walls of this, this building.

Brandon Burton 4:41
Yeah, you’ve got your work cut out for you, you and your staff.

Miles Burdine 4:46
Pretty much. But you know, I look forward to coming to work every day. 28 years, I still look forward to coming in every day. Good.

Brandon Burton 4:53
And I think a lot of that will have to do with our topic for discussion today around the culture that you guys have built They’re at the Kingsport area Chamber and we’ll we’ll dive into that discussion a little bit deeper since we get back from this quick break.

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So Miles we’re back. And as we get into our topic for discussion today, culture is it’s an important thing at any company and especially at a chamber where maybe we don’t always have the you know, all the resources to be you know, super competitive on pay or, you know, things like that. So getting a little bit creative with the with how the office works, how the culture, the teamwork, how that all fits in and being able to attract and keep the right talent in your organization. We’d love to learn more about what you guys are doing there in Kingsport to develop the culture at your chamber.

Miles Burdine 8:33
Well, very well said, Brandon, we’re very proud of the culture we’ve created here. No, it’s been said the culture culture, Trump’s strategy, but part of our strategy is our culture. And I went back and look to see how many employees we’ve had. We have our 30 employees. About a third of them have been here over 15 years. Wow. I’m very proud of that. Now, along with that, however, some of the younger ones that we hire, we know that in fact, this morning, I did an exit interview for 28 year old, it’s found a better opportunity where he can make a lot more money and he has met not that he need my blessing, but he has my blessing. So I’m excited for him. But you know that the younger ones we are unable to keep as long as we’d like. And that’s just simply because We can’t pay them as much as they can make out in the private sector. But they they always come to me Xander view and we talked about why they’re leaving. And they’re always very, very favorable comments about working here. And that goes back when when we get ready to hire someone. They’ve already already been through an interview process with whoever is going to be their supervisor, but by the time they get to me they’ve already learned the things I’m I’m gonna tell you right now and that is you get a free job interview every day and this is this business because you’re around volunteers that can possibly offer you a better option. Anybody and encourage them to seek those opportunities to. And if you decide to pursue them, I’ll help you find another job a better paying job. But our culture is one of when I’m when I meet with them, and they’ve already learned this, but I’m looking for someone who they are I know they already have the skills, but I’m looking for someone who has the attitude. As someone who doesn’t step over piece by piece of trash, they pick up the piece of trash, and they show up to meetings early. So they can help set up and then they leave the meeting later so they can help put the room back to where it was. I’m looking for positive attitudes, as my father used to say, I’m an optimist, because I choose to be. And I tell them, what’s your dash to make a difference? Have you ever read the book the dash? Yeah, so you know exactly what to study. Right. Exactly. Right. So

Brandon Burton 10:54
and they usually don’t know birth and death for those listening, right?

Miles Burdine 10:58
Yeah, that’s correct. That’s correct. Yeah. And so but the dash is what’s most important part of its of your tombstone, if you will. And I’ll always give them the military analogy is the Marine Corps approach was and approach still here is, I want you to take that hill. And we’ll give you all the weapons ammunition and Chow you need in order to do so to get halfway up and you run out of bullets, let me know I’ll bring them to you. But I’ll leave you alone when you get to the top of the hill, holler. And we’ll drink a bill beer and celebrate. So giving them what they need in order to be successful, but holding them accountable to being successful as well. Okay, thank you. And, you know, a couple of the things that I’m really proud of our titles here. We always believe that people don’t follow titles, they follow courage. In fact, that’s my, my challenge coin those very words. But we don’t use administrative assistants, we only have the word assistants and they have our titles we use ministry professionals, the lady at the front desk is not a receptionist, she’s director of first impressions. We’d like to say we work with we don’t work for we all work for each other. And we don’t care who gets the credit. We do expect supervisors to take the blame for things that go wrong. And our our motto here is never above you, never below you always beside you. And it’s worked well. For us. It’s worked well for us. We’ve also got some staff committees that are set up and they’re led, usually by a younger staff members give them opportunity to lead when called fluff and puff. And that’s all they do is put on parties, gatherings, showers and puff I like lots of puff, I don’t know who came up with that. It’s certainly not something I came up with. But, you know, things that we can do that to get the staff together to have fun fact our Christmas party was supposed to be today, we had to postpone it to next week, because we’ve got so many people out sick this week that we have professional development committee and various other internal committees that give opportunities for everybody to participate in leading this organization. We encourage everybody to volunteer, I mean, we expect our volunteers to be here to volunteer for us. So we expect our staff to volunteer as well. And they, they certainly enjoy it. We have a policy here called Bring Your Baby to Work. We actually had some research done on it. And obviously it was done by someone who was about to have a baby, right? And came back and said, Here’s how we can do this. So we allow new mothers to bring the baby into work. And we’ve even got a room set up where they can breastfeed it, the only problem we ever have is people arguing about who gets to hold the baby. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:59
They can become distractions at times but good team building too. So that’s good.

Miles Burdine 14:04
We’ve also got a policy here called leave loudly. My My office is actually in the back corner next to the employee interests. And so we encourage employees not to try to sneak off to go to a soccer match or go watch a Christmas show or whatever with the kids. So they’ll stand outside my door here holler. I’m leaving, because I’m gonna go watch my son, practice basketball. And we celebrate love it. I know they’ll get the job done and I don’t care when they get the job done. So, yeah.

Brandon Burton 14:40
So you’re hitting on a ton of great points here. And yeah, I think some of these are definitely worth circling back to so one of the the thoughts that came to me as you were talking about as you hire people, that, you know, how do you hire culture versus developing culture? Then any thoughts on that?

Miles Burdine 15:03
Hiring culture. You know, finding the right people is finding people with the skills is not difficult. But finding people who match your culture sometimes can do. But typically, we as a as an organization, and me individually, I keep a list of people I see out in our community, whether it’s a server, who’s done a great job has, in fact, we hired a server like that one time and one of our community, our staff parties, and I just liked the way that person handled themselves and how hard they worked and ended up eventually calling them in and gave him an interview and hired. Um, so I guess the moral to that is you just never know who’s watching. That’s right. And who, you know, one of the things we like to be proud of here, too, is like to tell her what to do you know what the custodians name is? And they wonder what I vote yes, that is the colder you are no unimportant people. No unimportant task. In fact, I give a leadership presentation. It’s called scrubbing toilets with enthusiasm. It’s, it’s about learning how to follow from people you’re supposed to be leading and speak about. Daughter, I’m supposed to be leading her. But she taught me some great lessons in life and Lance Corporal in the Marine Corps, third Lord, third, lowest rank in the Marine Corps, my dog, people you’re supposed to be leading, influencing and teaching and so they do the same to you. And often, I get asked, you know, what did you learn in the Marine Corps, and it’s helped you in your job, and it certainly wasn’t learning how to say an Arabic Stop, or I’ll shoot that hasn’t helped me at all. But you know, the Marine Corps taught me some very, very valuable lessons most one of which is learning how to follow before you learn how to lead that first one, and first one out. Last one to eat, you don’t get to eat if there’s not enough, and probably the most important that wasn’t absolutely successful. And this is bringing everyone home safe. But all of those things are important lessons to be learned that have helped me in my career as Kingsport chamber.

Brandon Burton 17:27
Now, those are, again, you’ve got, you’ve got a lot of these great one liners that you can really dive deep on and it really digest more meaning in that so you know, the idea of having no one important people, I’d love to learn to follow before leading and never above or below, but always beside you. So these are are things that are obviously are being taught there at your chamber. So through the onboarding, are you introducing some of this culture? Is it just being engrossed with the the nature there in the office? Or how are you helping to teach and develop the culture?

Miles Burdine 18:11
It’s a little bit of both, but typically, it’s someone who’s already aware of us. And they want to be a part of us. Not always, but often. And so they they know our culture, and they know what they’re getting into when they get here. And so they know what the expectations are. And, frankly, they want to be a part of it. So we don’t have to actually make them do it. I mean, it’s, it’s kind of, you know, just like in the Marine Corps here. If I tell someone to do it, they’re gonna do it. But I don’t want them to do it, because they want to do it. Because I told him to do it. And there’s a big difference.

Brandon Burton 18:49
So you know, the idea of like, the the titles and never having a job that’s above or below you, always beside it. Have you ever had as a staff member, that you had to have a conversation with a heart to heart, so to speak and say, Look, we’re all one team together, and we all have an important role to play, but you’re no important, no more important than anyone else. And

Miles Burdine 19:13
I need to step we know that yes. And actually did not follow my own advice, one particular occasion and that was when someone came to me and said, Why did not get why did I not get that promotion? And I said, I owe you an apology. And the reaction was, oh, yeah, you do owe me an apology. But I said, I’m not gonna apologize to you for not giving you the job, not apologize to you for not telling you what you need to do get to get the job. And it was one of those things I’d avoided and did not pull the person aside and tell them what they were doing wrong. Tell them to adjust their attitude. Tell them to quit being an eight to five or tell them to quit using all their sick days when I knew they weren’t sick. Tell them to help pick up trash. Tell them to show up from eight meetings early. I didn’t do any of that. And so therefore, all those things I just said they were doing. And so I apologize them for not leading them not teaching them what they needed to do is my fault. And I didn’t do it until they came to talk to me now to that person’s credit. They’re still in our community. And when I see them, they always come up and say, hey, yeah, I got to the meeting 10 minutes earlier today, or help pick up trash or I know the custodians name, whatever. So they learned, yeah, just unfortunately, that had not led them before.

Brandon Burton 20:37
So it’s never too late to learn those lessons, I guess. But I also I think the way that you went about owning that and saying I owe you the apology, and, and really reinforcing what that culture is, the things that you’re looking for, that are important to growing and developing, or developing a team that has that cohesiveness and ability to work well together. Thank you a great example. So I like to think of the the chambers out there who were, you know, wanting to take their chamber up to the next level, what maybe tips or action items might you have for them that are maybe looking to instill more culture or more of a defined culture into their organization?

Miles Burdine 21:27
I thought a lot about that when he asked me earlier, and really the only thing I could come up with is very simple. Put your employees first makes you looking at a book saying okay, this pile of books, some have read some, some I haven’t it’s the title is put your employees first, your employees or work harder for you. There’ll be more loyal. They’ll do things you want them to do if you put them first. And really rather simple. And the other thing I thought about sometimes we as chamber, employees, chamber execs, especially wonder whether or not we’re making a difference, whether or not we’re in the right industry, whether or not we’re improving our community, providing better live better lives for our citizens or developing our businesses. And, you know, I’ve had that feeling before too. And what I will usually do is go find someone who’s recently moved to our community, and asked him, Why did you move here. And boy, it just makes me feel so good. Because they tell you the things that we’ve all taken for granted. While this is a wonderful place to live, and it’s there in every community, so I feel better once I talk to them.

Brandon Burton 22:38
And that’s a yeah, you can feel better, especially if they mentioned things that you’ve been working on focusing on to further develop your community. But I think that also gives you some great material to go forward with whether, you know, I’ve heard that some of the best marketing material for a company or say, even for a chamber to help spread the message of what the work that you’re doing, is to use the language of the people that you’re trying to serve. So as you go to those new people and ask them what made you move to our community, and you can take that language, you know, what is it that that drove them to come to Kingsport and then to be able to repurpose that put that back out in the community. So you’re you’re speaking that same language to other people who may be looking for that fit to you know, in a future move or whatnot. So

Miles Burdine 23:30
well said we actually, you know, one of our networking breakfast called fourth Friday breakfast, which we copied off the Bristol chamber, which is the first Friday breakfast. Okay, we’re good at stealing from each other anyway. We started a part of the the event, it’s a networking event, but we also have a presentation that will have little segments and we have one on there called fresh set of eyes. And it’s a newcomer to the community who stands up and talks for three minutes why they chose to live in Kingsport, Tennessee. And you can see the people in the audience who’ve been here forever. Look it up going, Man, I forgot about that. I feel good about where I live.

Brandon Burton 24:12
That is awesome, fresh set of eyes. So it’s anyone listening doing your r&d right now? That’s a good one right there a fresh set of eyes, you know, it’s at a luncheon or whatever it may be set aside a few minutes and have a newcomer to the community share what they love about the community went through them there. That is a that is awesome. I love that one.

Miles Burdine 24:34
I guess Brandon, the only other thing I might suggest is, you know, no community is perfect. We certainly are not. But one of our attitudes here is we we seek the problems to help solve them. We may not be leading the solution, but we’ll always be at the table. You know that old saying around chamber world if you’re not at the table, you might be on the menu. There’s a lot of truth to that. We’d like to be at the table because we feel like that chamber, that chamber brand helps us to get people around the table who can solve community problems. And we want to be at the table, we may not be the only solution, but we can certainly help to solve community problems. So don’t run from them seek them out.

Brandon Burton 25:22
Absolutely. In the chamber world is one of the few examples I can think of seek out problems to solve. So that’s awesome. Well, Miles as we look to the future, how do you see the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?

Miles Burdine 25:42
I think it depends on the community, but our brand, that word Chamber of those words Chamber of Commerce, it carries a lot of weight, cares, a lot of Worcester, last is Arabic for influence. So it’s up to us to as chamber execs to just how much influence we can have. And that’s dependent depends on the individuals who are within the organization itself. You know, volunteers come and go. And we obviously we need to support them and promote them and give them all the credit. But the important work most important works done by the staff. And it’s up to us to, to keep carrying that water forward. I think our brand is one that that gives us the opportunity to help improve the lives of others and businesses and community in general.

Brandon Burton 26:43
I love that. And when you talk about influence, I thought of a Casey Steinbacher is ebook from relevant to essential and she talks all about the importance of chambers, understanding their role in their community to be influencers. Then she talks about the you know, the 16 year old with the cell phone in their bedroom that has a social media following of millions of people and making a very healthy income by being an influencer. And she really talks about that that’s, that’s what Chambers of Commerce needs to be as a force for influence within the community. Identifying those needs, solving those problems and, and being influential. And I thought I had an idea when you were talking about that, talking about fresh set of eyes, this would be a great idea for a chamber to do a podcast, where they focus and you can call it fresh set of eyes and bring on those those newcomers to the community and tell why they came in and can be a short three to five minutes segment. And boom, you’ve got a way to influence your community and share those stories

Miles Burdine 27:51
is a great idea. I’m gonna go talk to Vanessa Bennett. She runs our leadership programs. And she does a podcast every week. But it’s usually focused on just people in general, talking about the things that they’re working on. But I hadn’t thought about doing what you just described, is a great idea.

Brandon Burton 28:09
Yeah. When she puts it out there, I’ll help share. So. Yeah. So Miles, this has been a fantastic conversation. I think it’s so important for chambers to be mindful and be intentional about the culture that they’re creating in their organization to be able to attract the right people as they hire, but also to retain those people. You know, like, as he said, about a third of them, would you say a third of your staff had been there? 15 years? Is that right? Yes. Yeah, that is awesome. I mean, you just don’t see that in companies anymore, let alone in the chamber world. So

Miles Burdine 28:47
no one’s been here. 36 years. Another one just retired this past summer, after 34 years.

Brandon Burton 28:54
That’s awesome. Yeah. And of course, you know, there’s going to be those times that makes sense where a staff member finds it another opportunity that helps to develop their career and you celebrate those and you hate to see him leave, you know, for selfish reasons. But you are glad to see them move on and continue to develop especially as they are able to serve others in the community hopefully, so

Miles Burdine 29:16
Well, the way I look at it, too is they had a favorable experience here. They’re out in the out wherever they are, and they’re one of our advocates now. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 29:24
Yeah. And oftentimes they end up being members to whatever business they go to. So well, Miles. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you’re establishing culture at the Kingsport area Chamber what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Miles Burdine 29:45
Yes, sir. My direct line at work is 423-392-8807. My cell phone is 423-956-1988 everybody in Kingsports got it so you’re welcome to it as well. My email address is mburdine@kingsportchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 30:12
Very good and I’ll get all that in our show notes for this episode so people can click on click through those and scroll to the bottom of the shownotes for Miles contact information to reach out and maybe learn more about what what they’re doing there in Kingsport to be intentional about building a good strong culture but Miles is you’ve delivered a lot of great value today. I know this is going to be very helpful for a lot of chambers out there listening. So thank you for that. Thank you for sharing some time with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast and wish you the best as you continue to develop your team and establish that culture there in Kingsport.

Miles Burdine 30:51
Thanks for the opportunity Brandon.

Brandon Burton 30:53
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I just launched a Chamber Podcast Course with the goal to get your very own podcast started within 30 days. Visit chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot. To learn more and to enroll in the chamber podcast course today.

If you are chamber professional, please subscribe to chamber chat podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to chamber chat podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share chamber chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.

Have you ever thought about creating a podcast for your chamber we always hear about how chambers need to be storytellers. What better way is there to tell the stories of your members and the work of your chamber than through a podcast? Your audience is waiting to hear from you as a convener of leaders and influencers champion for business and catalysts for change within your community. I just launched a chamber podcasts course with the goal to get your very own podcast started within 30 days. Visit chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot to learn more and to enroll in the chamber podcast course today.

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