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Greater Phoenix Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Todd Sanders

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist Series. And our guest for this episode is Todd Sanders. Todd is the President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Chamber in Arizona, and was named that that role in 2009 before assuming his current role, Todd represented the interests of businesses and community at the Arizona State legislator and Phoenix City Hall as Vice President of Public Affairs. In that role, he enhanced the Chamber’s position as a statewide leader in immigration policy, initiative reform and pro business tax policy. Prior to joining the chamber, Todd acted as a Research and Policy Analyst for the Arizona House of Representatives, serving several standing committees in the areas of taxation, Environment, Energy, state trust, land, counties, municipalities and international trade. He also acted as a liaison to the Arizona Mexico commission on behalf of the house represent, House of Representatives, and currently serves as board president for the Arizona Mexico commission. Todd is a native of Bogota, Colombia. Holds a Bachelor of Science in political science from Northern Arizona University, and he and his wife have a son and live in Phoenix, Arizona, Todd, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. Want to start by saying congratulations to you and your team, what a honor and accomplishment, and want to allow you a chance to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better, you

Todd Sanders 2:45
bet. Well, thank you for that, for that introduction. I think if my mom were here, she would be certainly proud, but I certainly embarrassed by all of those. Although those details, thank you for taking the time. I can’t tell you how thrilled we are here in Phoenix to be in the running for a chamber of the year. It is, is a tremendous honor. And as soon as we were notified, the whole chamber was, was just overjoyed. So really appreciate the opportunity. In terms of about things about me, usually, I usually tell people Sure, I was born in Bogota, Colombia, kicked out for bad behavior, but, but the I will tell you something that I think probably 99% of people don’t know. So you mentioned that my name is Todd Sanders recently, well, I shouldn’t say recently. About three or four years ago, we were at a family reunion, and somehow our family tree came up, and we mentioned my brothers and I were saying, Well, we know that my mom’s side was from Scotland, and dad’s side was from Italy. And someone piped up and said, Italy, you know, what are you talking about? There’s no Italian blood here. And and we were just we were so confused that dad’s not with us anymore. And what we learned was, what actually happened is, generations ago, a we actually my our great, great grandfather migrated from, I believe, Mexico into the United States, settled in California and and at that time, decided that probably would be more advantageous to have a more Anglo Saxon sounding name. So he and some friends who sort of came up with this idea, put some names into a hat, and they drew, and my great, great grandfather drew the name Sanders previously. And I guess, I guess you could say, currently, our name had been Sepulveda. So actually, you’re talking to Todd Sepulveda, but by accident, or, I guess, because, of a set of circumstances, Todd Sanders, so something that most people don’t know about me and then, and of course, Todd Sepulveda doesn’t really roll off the tongue. That’s

Brandon Burton 4:47
right. I wonder if your first name would have been different if it’s

Todd Sanders 4:50
still I wonder, yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 4:54
Might be talking to a whole different person. But that’s that’s interesting. I like hearing the family history. And how names change. And my last name is currently Burton, b, u r t o n. But again, his family immigrated into the states. They came from France through Canada into Maine, and at the time it was b, e r t i n, and of course, everybody’s illiterate back then, so they said the name, it got written down, b, u, r, t, O, N, and here we are still today. So yeah, it’s, that’s the way it works. That’s right. Well, tell us about the greater Phoenix chamber. That’s what we’re here for. So tell us about your your organization, size, staff, budget, scope of work, just to set the stage for us. Well,

Todd Sanders 5:38
you bet Walt, thank you for that opportunity. So we have interesting history. Unlike most of the the folks that are listening to this, this podcast nationally, where states have been around for a while, Arizona is a relatively young state. We were formed in 1912 so, so, you know, we just had our our centennial chamber was formed in 1888 so prior to statehood, some some visionary business leaders at the time, formed the Phoenix chamber, and obviously through that time, it has evolved into the organization it is today. So as of, as of now, we have about 2400 members, ranging in all sizes. Our budget is is split between two entities. There’s the chamber side and the foundation side. And when you put those two together, it’s shy of about ten million with the foundation being slightly larger. The staff, our staff is currently close to 70 and and a lot of that serves some of the needs that we’re addressing through the foundation. Yeah, in terms of programs of work, as you mentioned, I come from a policy background, so I’m I can’t get away from that. We do a lot of the state legislature. We work a lot with our city, our city council, and more and more, especially with our friends at the US Chamber, we’re doing work at the at the federal level, there’s also an economic development component to the work we do now. Like, like most of us, we aren’t an attractor. We have a statewide attractor and a county attractor of businesses into the valley. But certainly, as as most chambers do when we get businesses come into town. How do we keep them here? How do we keep them growing? And then finally, as an outgrowth of that work, there’s a workforce component to it, and that’s really where the foundation comes into play,

Brandon Burton 7:30
yeah, but I’m glad to hear that you guys have a foundation. I know that’s kind of the trajectory that we see. Chambers are encouraging chambers to go to be able to really further the work that they have to do. But so typically, on these chamber the year finalist episodes, what I like to do is focus the majority of our time on the programs that were submitted on your chamber the year application, and dive into kind of the origins for those and and the impact that they’re making in your community. And we’ll, we’ll dive into those programs for the greater Phoenix chamber, as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right. Todd, we are back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll we’ll dive into the pro. Programs that were submitted on your chamber of the year application. I understand that the first kind of scope or program of work will say, covers several programs, kind of in one container, we’ll say, but please introduce that to us. Let us know what those programs are, and again, what the origins and the reason it kind of how this developed?

Todd Sanders 10:25
Well, thank you for that. You’re right. The first, the first set of programs, is sort of under one category. And I think about it as sort of this idea of belonging, my my philosophy, my leadership philosophy really revolves around an abundance model, which, of course, isn’t isn’t blind to the fact that we have to compete, but there’s also a lot of room for us to work together or to bring people in. And so one of those is really revolves around our strategy relating to helping small and mid sized business understand what the road to diversity and inclusion looks like for their companies. Large companies really don’t have a big challenge with implementing these kinds of programs within their within their organizations, but small and mid sized companies tend to have challenges with that. And this goes back eight years ago, July 7, by the way. July 7, 2016 was the day that this all started for me. I had a member of my board, Frank Reed, African American gentleman, who called me and said, Todd, I need to go to lunch. And can we, I need to get on your calendar today, which I thought was was interesting. But we did it. And he and our chair, we sat down and and he said, today in my hometown of Dallas, five police officers were shot for a race related reason, and we can’t let that happen in Phoenix and and part of that is because we’re not we’re not bringing people in, we’re not having conversations, and we’re not really thinking about belonging here. And he said, I need the chamber to engage and but that that lunch, we said, All right, we’re going to do that. And that was the start of something, I think, really impactful, which which began with this, this toolkit that, for instance, our for our friends in the Billings Montana chamber are using as well, where we’re giving small, midsize businesses a roadmap just to start to bring people in and have conversations about how we can all belong, and we built up a toolkit. One of the first things that that occurred was that we decided that staff’s not going to build this thing out. My members of my executive committee built this thing out with with help from us and more of logistical support. And the product, I think, was remarkable. Now it’s in the second iteration, and and and the discussion at that time was, well, what do we do with this? And we immediately decided we’re not monetizing it, we’re giving it away. And you can imagine my sales people. We’re thrilled with this idea, but we felt like it really important for us to learn from what happened in Dallas, and this is before, certainly George Floyd and all these other things. But how do we start bringing people in and just talk to each other, right? And so we decided we would give it away, whether you remember or not, we want to help people in, and we’ve we formed a committee that really what we do is we help businesses along the way when the way they have want to have conversations about, how do you include people? And how do we, how do we make that a part of what we do every day? That’s the toolkit that we use. So that’s one part of it. There were some existing programs that really got wrapped into this. We have an Athena program, which I’m sure a lot of people are familiar with, with the Athena international program, and that’s really how we look at women leaders in our community, that balance, obviously, leadership positions. They also are mentors, and they’re making change in their community. And we’ve had this for 38 years now. It’s a really important part of who we are. There’s also a bit a business, a Women’s Alliance, where we’re bringing women leaders together on a monthly basis, and we really promote what they’re doing. They They network with each other, they lift people up. And it’s a remarkable, remarkable program. Never leave one of these programs without feeling inspired and and really wondering how you didn’t know about this person in our community. And then finally, our Valley young professionals. We, when I became CEO, I really made it a goal to make this a program that was going to be worthwhile, not just something where we were checking the box. And so we really thought about, how do we make this impactful? And part of that, obviously, is giving people coming into their careers an opportunity to really understand what it’s like to serve on a board. What’s a nonprofit all about, what’s your role, what’s the what’s the role of the organization? And and it was working really well. We had really strong leaders, which I think is part of the key, right? But then I there was something was missing, because they there was always this idea that there’s the vyp board, value professional board, and then there’s sort of, quote, unquote big board. And I thought, why do we Why do we have that? And going back to this idea of abundance, I said. Let’s do this. I want to make the leadership so the Chair and the Vice Chair, I want to make them full fledged members of our board, and that means they’re voting members. They’re not junior members that are observed, but they’re full fledged members of the board. That really sort of changed the way young people were looking at this committee and engaging in this committee. Now, what’s interesting about it, you know, how you so you’re thinking about influencing and really bringing up a sort of a set of people as we started to incorporate them into the board, we started feeling significant benefits from having completely different point of view on the board, so much so that at our board retreats, we actually invite the the vyp board, the full board, onto our into our into our retreats, along with our foundation, because they’re adding so much to the conversation. So really, this, this whole idea, and all of these programs are, we’re all wrapped around this, this thought that there’s, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of abundance out there, and how do we start to share that, and how do we start to bring people up? And as a consequence, it’s made us stronger, it’s made us healthier, and it’s and I think in a lot of ways, it’s the reason why we’re here today, talking to you, because that’s the kind of thing that really starts to move a community forward. Right

Brandon Burton 16:21
now, when you think of inclusion and making sure people feel welcomed, I like to think if somebody walks into a room and they don’t feel like they belong there, whether it’s whatever group, you know, segmentation you want to, you know, put the focus on, if they don’t feel like they belong there, they’re out, you know, they’re not going to stay, they’re not going to come back, they’re not going to engage. They’re not going to go to the next level with engagement with your organization. So it’s so important to be able to really highlight these areas, to make sure that people from all different walks of life as they come in, that this is a place for everyone in your community to be involved.

Todd Sanders 17:04
You Ben

Brandon Burton 17:06
with a thought, do you, I know, unfortunately, dei gets kind of a political spin put on it. So how’s the approach that you guys have? Or have you gotten any you know, received any feedback from people on the outside saying, what’s the chamber doing getting involved with these things, and how do you address that with them?

Todd Sanders 17:26
You know, I haven’t gotten the the angry emails that I’ve that I’ve heard about, and I think part of that is because we really look at it from a practical standpoint. I’ll give you an example Frank. Frank read the gentleman that I talked about, you know, provided such an important example, and we’re seeing this, for instance, today in Phoenix, there are literally more jobs than people, so we’re having to do everything that we can to really fill these, these critical slots in our economy. One of the things that that this applies to is the workforce side, obviously, and his story was that they had a really high level position in a company that they were trying to fill. And they they brought they were thinking, Alright, we need more women leaders. They brought in these five. I mean, these were top notch, Ivy League type folks that any one of them would have been incredible for this position. And so they brought them in. They did these interviews. And you know how these, these things work, it’s not generally one person, it’s probably a panel of folks and and they all five women, declined the position in succession, and finally, Frank decided to call a couple of them, and what they said was, you know, it seems like a great company, a lot of opportunity there, but I don’t see myself represented there. There was just a bunch of bunch of men on this in this panel, and I didn’t think I belong there. And for him, it was a really interesting wake up call. And said in the sense that if you want to bring people on board, make sure that they feel like they have a place there. And I think when we talk to companies about how you’re going to look for this top talent, as we’re thinking about $40 billion worth of semiconductor dollars coming into Arizona, and what’s going to be needed in terms of top talent, you got to make sure that that people feel like they got a place at the table if you’re looking to fill these really critical roles. So I think for us, it’s been looking at this from a practical perspective. Same thing goes for the young professionals, the when I think about way back when, when we started this group, there was one particular person who who was their their chair at the time, and she was a complete standout, just amazing. Went through that process, left the vyp group because she’d sort of graduated out and was chair, and had done everything that could be done. Then she became a member of the board through her company, and two years ago, she was my chair. She was the chair of our board, and an incredibly catalytically or who brought so much to the table. So I think when people start to see this as not a political exercise, but this idea that all we’re doing is making sure. Sure that there’s room at the table for everybody. You tend to win.

Brandon Burton 20:03
Yeah, that goes back to your, your thought on abundance, right? There’s room for everybody, and let’s, let’s show them. I, I’ve heard it, and I think I’ve shared it before on the podcast, but when you walk into a room and you see people gathered together, they tend to be in in a circle, right, talking to each other. And that to be inclusive. Instead of a circle, create more of a horseshoe, right? Leave it open, let people in be able to let them feel welcome and like they belong there.

Todd Sanders 20:27
Well, it’s true. And I think, you know, part of that is came from this idea. You mentioned, I was from Colombia, and it’s odd, because when I’m in the States, I always feel like there’s a part of me that’s that doesn’t belong, because it’s true, right? I’m, you know, people you were born somewhere else, and when I’m in Colombia, people like automatic people like, automatically think I’m

Brandon Burton 20:45
American, because, yeah,

Todd Sanders 20:47
I don’t use the simple but a name down there, and so it’s an odd thing to it, so it gives you a sense for what that’s like. But, but, yeah, it’s been, it’s been really rewarding in terms of how far this has gone and the impact that it’s had, not only on the chamber, but in in organizations throughout the Valley and in people, yeah, oh,

Brandon Burton 21:07
that’s great. Let’s shift gears a bit into the other program that was submitted on your application. And if you could tell us what that is and what the origins and the purpose was behind that,

Todd Sanders 21:19
well, you mentioned the foundation, and I’m really glad you did. And I’m encouraging other other chambers to certainly look at foundations. And I will say that we call it the 10 year overnight success story. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:31
it takes most are right 100%

Todd Sanders 21:34
I’d love to say it was two years. But, you know, a lot of that work was was built on, you know, the things we had done in the past, and when I mentioned the the Retention and Expansion work that we did, what, what I assumed, when we started talking to businesses, that they would tell me, Todd, the big issues here in Arizona are, are taxes and regulation and and as we talked to business leaders, none of them said that, Which was really shocking to me, and this is before workforce was was cool. They all said we don’t have the qualified talent that we need today and and that was a big wake up call for us. Part of the part of that also was a visit we had with a what would be a fortune 200 company locally that was moving about 200 jobs that paid six figures outside of Arizona because they couldn’t find enough people who could pass the series seven exam. And okay, hold on. We’re the we’re the fifth largest city in the country. That doesn’t seem possible, right? So we figured out very quickly that there was a role for us there. We needed to do more in this space, and so that’s how we got into workforce. And as we as we had a few years under our belt with workforce, it became really clear that we there wasn’t a good method or a good pathway for kids in high schools looking to college and career either or right. I know it’s black and white, but it’s not, it’s college and or career, because they’re interchangeable in some ways. And so I’ll tell you the story real quick. We decided we really need to learn. And so there’s a really great program in Nashville, and kudos to to the Nashville chamber and all the work that they do out there a program in Nashville where they have these Academy an academy model. And so we took a group out to Nashville, and we said, we want to learn about this. And by happenstance, the Phoenix union board actually ended up there as well. We had no idea they were going to be there. We bumped into each other, and it was weird, because we didn’t know each other really well. It was a lot of distrust. Why is the chamber here? You know, what is this board doing here? And we started talking. Go figure, right? We started talking. And by the third day, we were kind of a unified group. And we left there saying, we don’t know this is our model, but, but if, maybe, if we decided to work together, maybe there’s something here for us. And so we did. We decided that we would start with one school, and what we would do is we would see how we could create pathway opportunities for kids in high schools, especially in Title One high schools. And so that was, that was a about four years ago. Three years ago, we started with our first school and and district, and that started to grow over time, and it is something that now has grown to 20 high schools in Arizona and 1000s of kids through that work. One of the things that we we found, among other things, was that a lot of these kids had the the skills, they had the ability, they certainly had the right to engage in some sort of dual enrollment opportunity, but they weren’t doing it, partially because they didn’t know it existed, and mostly because they didn’t have the funds to pay for the dual enrollment. So this is what I love about this sort of project, because it engaged the. Foundation that also engage the chamber. Remember, I told you, we do a lot of the at the legislature. So last year, we got together with some of our partners and and petitioned the legislature for an appropriation that would allow our our kids, our Title One kids, to get at least six credit hours, usually 12 credit hours of dual enrollment before they graduated. It was an interesting issue because it was, believe it or not, bipartisan. There was both sides. It was weird, right? This was a good idea. It was, it was odd, but it was a great, a great thing to sort of be curious about the this bill passed, and now there’s an opportunity for these kids to not have to worry about the financial barrier and think about what this will mean going into into college. You know, if, if they have these 12 credit hours, it means they’re probably going to continue on into the community college system, get a get a two year degree, or a four year degree in industries or in areas where there’s a huge demand in Arizona. So that first year we did it, we saw 40% increase in dual enrollment in 20 in 20 High School. So a significant number. This year we’re seeing a smaller increase. And we had to ask ourselves, what’s going on here? We obviously have a lot of kids out there that haven’t seen this opportunity. What we found was, and probably what we’re seeing in a lot of communities around our country, where we’re actually have a shortage of teachers who are certified in dual enrollment. So we were able to get funds together, and we’re actually providing incentives for teachers to get certified. They have to do that. They have to pay to get certified. So we’re helping them get certified. Our goal is to get get them certified through the system, and then next year, bring those numbers up again. But it’s an interesting sort of process, from where we started with us in Nashville, looking at how we can work together, to today, looking at very specific numbers and the families that we’re helping on a generational basis.

Brandon Burton 27:02
Yeah, well, that goes back to, you know, raising the tide, you know, raises all ships as well. So in both of these programs, I see examples of that. So with this one, you’re focused on the employers making sure they have the pipeline coming in, but in doing, in focusing on that, you’re enhancing the life of these young people going through high school and looking to the that next step in their their life, their, you know, work or college, or both and, or both, right?

Todd Sanders 27:28
I agree. And then the schools,

Brandon Burton 27:30
the schools are being elevated, and the teachers are being elevated. So all around it’s great. They

Todd Sanders 27:35
really are and, and I’ll tell you, you know, a big part of this was internships, right along with a dual enrollment opportunity. And you can imagine what the reaction is from a lot of businesses when you tell them we want to live and have some seniors come in and do an internship, especially in areas like healthcare or or advanced manufacturing, like Honeywell. And I’ll use Honeywell as the example. They were very polite, and they said no, and we finally convinced them, three years ago to take three of our kids. And they said, okay, they have to be over 18, so they’re in their spring semester. We’ll take three. Let us see what happens. They took three, and at the end of it, they said, You know what these kids are, they’re pretty good. We’re gonna hire them. Awesome. So they hired these kids last year. They took six, and they erased the 18, the 18 year old rule. Well, let me fast forward to today. How many do you think they’re taking?

Brandon Burton 28:32
I I’m gonna say at least 12, if you just keep doubling, right? Or is 24 How many years is this now? This will be the third year. Third years, I’m gonna, I’m gonna guess 1288,

Todd Sanders 28:45
we’re taking 88 of our kids now. Here’s the here’s the awesome. I’m gonna bring this all back to where I started, in terms of abundance. All right, so here’s, here’s the story. So earlier last month, we met with the representative money well, when he was telling us that they’re gonna increase to 88 and he said, I need to tell you what happened in that first cohort of kids, there was one kid who was on the bubble, looks like he wasn’t going to graduate. He wasn’t engaged. High School just wasn’t his thing. And the school and Honeywell decided, let’s let’s see what happens. Well, you know what happened, right? Honeywell hired him at the end because it really seemed to work. Well, guess what? Today? Well, not today. Last month, he brought his he bought a house for his family. Wow, yeah. I mean, think about that as a kid who’s on the bubble, probably not going to graduate all of a sudden, he’s got this incredible job of Honeywell. And today, I mean, my kid’s 20, he’s not buying a house for his family. This kid just bought a house for his family. That’s not political, that’s amazing. How do we start to create an abundance mentality in our community and really create opportunity for everybody, including Honeywell, by the way,

Brandon Burton 29:54
yes, wow. That just blows my mind. The 88 interns now that great story, great. Success, yeah,

Todd Sanders 30:01
a lot of those. Yeah, I

Brandon Burton 30:03
bet we can go on for a couple hours trying to some great stories. And I’d love

Todd Sanders 30:08
to say that, you know, kudos to the chamber, no, kudos to those companies. CVS just did 20. Yeah? So it’s great to, it’s great to see that impact, and it’s great to see companies stepping up like that, yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:19
well, and for those who do go the route of higher education after high school. It’s a huge help to have those dual credits going into college and university, and being able to kind of have that head start. And my son just graduated, and he got it, got out of high school with 30 college credits, like, that’s awesome going into as a sophomore, right? So it’s

Todd Sanders 30:41
you think about the financially for you. I mean, that’s yeah, you just saved

Brandon Burton 30:45
a year. Yeah? I recognize it, yes, yeah. Well, Todd, I like asking, especially as a chamber of the year finalist, for listeners who are tuning in, what kind of tip or action item might you have to share with them as they look to take their chamber up to the next level?

Todd Sanders 31:06
Well, I, you know, I’ll go back to the 10 years ago when we decided that we wanted to, we needed to raise some money to make this happen. I think our goal was, was, was about a million dollars and and that was, that’s a big number. It’s a big number today. And as we were talking to business leaders, I think there’s, there’s, there’s, there’s always a lot of skepticism about a new program, and you’re coming here to help. And we hear this all the time. And I think one of the things that we said that I think made a big difference when we when we made our pitch, I said, Look, something in what I’ve just talked about is going to go wrong. Something’s not going to work. I promise you that is going to happen. But I’m also going to promise you that we’re going to take that, we’re going to learn from it, and then we’re going to pivot, and we’re going to make sure it does work. And I think we’ve, we’ve gotten comfortable with being uncomfortable, and that’s in all parts of our chamber. I mean, it’s so easy to say, I don’t know, that’s kind of scary. Well, we maybe we tried that before, or that’s never going to work, or we’ve always done it this way. We do it too, but if you give yourself permission to fail, you’re going to succeed.

Brandon Burton 32:18
Yeah, I love that. If you give yourself permission to fail, you’re going to succeed. It’s that’s a t shirt. That’s a t shirt, right? Yeah, so,

Todd Sanders 32:26
but you fail a lot and and that that’s what makes us successful. It’s

Brandon Burton 32:31
right. That’s right. You learn, right? You bet. Well, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.

Todd Sanders 32:41
Well, you know, I really feel like chambers are in such a good place right now. I feel like, you know, we’re looking at ourselves in a way that is probably different than we had even 10 years ago. You mentioned foundations. I think there’s a renewed emphasis on how we are really the heart of our economies. And I think probably covid was terrible. We wouldn’t want to go through it again. But I think covid really gave us a moment to really understand the importance that chambers serve in our communities. We are at the heart of our economies and our communities. And that certainly was reinforced during that time, and I think it gave us a new sense of what we need to be and how we need to do things, and how we talk about ourselves. We are economic developers. That’s chambers are the original economic developers. I don’t care how you slice it, that’s how the community sees us now. I think that’s tremendous, but we’re also taking that a step further and looking at things that we hadn’t traditionally looked at, like, like education, like foundation work. And I gotta tell you, I love this industry and and I’m so proud to be a part of it.

Brandon Burton 33:53
I love that, yes, every chamber is an economic development. Doesn’t matter what the city contract says you are involved in developing the economy in your community. Well, Todd, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn how you guys are doing things there in Phoenix, and maybe dig in a little deeper. Where would you point them? Absolutely

Todd Sanders 34:17
Happy. Happy to help on that side as well. You can also, you can always go to our website, PhoenixChamber.com a lot of information there about all the programs we talked about, including a few others that I didn’t my email address is tsanders@phoenixchamber.com so feel free to reach out there as well. And then, certainly if you want to have a conversation, 602-495-6460, 495-6460,

Brandon Burton 34:43
that’s perfect. We will get that in our show notes for this episode too, to make it easy to reference and have people pull it up and find you there. But Todd, this has been great having you on Chamber Chat Podcast. I wish you and your team the best of luck in Dallas as Chamber of the Year, and keep up the great work. Work you guys are making a huge impact.

Todd Sanders 35:01
Well, thank you. We will look forward to seeing you

Brandon Burton 35:05
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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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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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North Central Massachusetts Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Roy Nascimento

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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
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Our guests for this episode is Roy Nascimento. Roy has been President and CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce since January 2015. Under his leadership, the North Central Massachusetts chamber has been recognized among the top chambers of commerce in the country for its impact and operations. Among many of its honors, the chamber was a 2017 and 2021 runner up for the prestigious National chamber the Year Award, the first chamber of Massachusetts and New England to have ever been recognized as a finalist. The chamber also achieved four star accreditation in 2018. As a 20 plus year veteran of the chamber profession Roy previously served as president and CEO of the New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce from 2006 until December 2014. Roy also previously led the Attleboro Area Chamber of Commerce and served as vice president at the Metro South Chamber of Commerce in Brockton. Roy is a leader within the Chamber of Commerce Industry. He is the past president of the board of the Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce executives and as past chair of the New England Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, and the MACCE council chambers. In recognition of his leadership and record of accomplishments, Roy was named New England chamber Executive of the Year in 2011. He’s an IOM graduate from Villanova and the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and has been designated as a CCE by ACC some of you may remember ROI from previous episode 99 episodes ago on episode 134. But, Roy, I’m excited to have you back on Chamber Chat Podcast again as a Chamber the Year Finalist. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and go ahead and share something interesting about yourself so you can all get to know you even better.

Roy Nascimento 4:17
So thank you, Brandon. It’s really an honor to be to be back and especially under the circumstances being a finalist again for for this very prestigious honor. So we’re hoping this is our third time being a finalist we’re hoping Third time’s the charm and that we get it this year but I’m I’m I’m not that interesting. I leave a lead a pretty boring life. So there’s not much I guess I’m gonna lean back on what I mentioned the last time you interviewed me that that’s kind of neat about me is that that I’m most of your listeners probably wouldn’t be aware of this but I’m actually a child of immigrants. My parents were were were from Europe, from Portugal. emigrated here for a better life. And I was born here. So I’m a US citizen. But actually a few years back, I ended up applying to get my Portuguese citizenship. I had a friend who had, who was of Irish descent. And he applied his grandmother was from from Ireland, and he applied and was successful in getting dual citizenship. And I thought that was pretty cool. So I said, let me let me try that. And so I applied and was able to get dual citizenship. So I’m a citizen. And I’m also a Portuguese citizen. And that’s something that I can in turn pass down to my kids, because they can apply for Portuguese citizenship, if they choose down the road. So and it’s just a nice way to kind of connect back with my heritage. And so that’s kind of the different something that your listeners probably unaware.

Brandon Burton 5:53
Yeah, no, I think that is fascinating. And when you share that last time, I thought that was really interesting and fascinating. And I know a lot of people have dual citizenships, but usually with the US and Canada, you know, to be able to have us and Portugal that that’s, that’s pretty neat. Well, tell us a little bit more about the North Central Massachusetts chamber just to kind of set the stage for our discussion, help us understand the type of chamber you are is size, staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of know where you’re coming from before we get into our conversation.

Roy Nascimento 6:30
Sure. So our chamber is based in the city of Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, it’s a city of about 42,000 people. And we are a Regional Chamber. So we cover city of Pittsburgh, to other cities that are in North Central Massachusetts of similar size. And altogether, we cover about 27 communities. And we’re basically, you know, as the name suggests, we’re in North Central Massachusetts. So we’re, we’re about an hour west of Boston. And our region is it’s a obviously I’m a little biased, but it’s a beautiful and really wonderful dynamic region. Here in New England. We are we offer so much, we have a very diverse economy, very, very focused on manufacturing and the largest concentration of manufacturing in the state. But we’re also we also have a good mix of rural communities. So we have a lot of farms and agricultural businesses, we have about 800 farms, orchards and other agricultural businesses, here in North Central Massachusetts, and in you know, we’re our claim to fame, one of our claims to fame is that were the home of and the birthplace of Johnny Appleseed from American folklore, he was actually born here. And lemons stir Massachusetts, which is our largest city in North Central Massachusetts. And so and we still have a lot of or orchards, apple orchards here and and in the region. And we really market the heck out of that as part of our tourism marketing efforts, kind of our agricultural history and in our connection to Johnny Appleseed and American history. In terms of the chamber size, we’re our budget is about a million and a half now. And we have about about 1617 staff that on the professional staff. And we’ve grown over the last few years, particularly around our work around economic development.

Brandon Burton 8:32
Good deal. Yeah, the the whole Johnny Appleseed aspect is, that’s interesting. You definitely have something to kind of plant a flag in and everybody in the country is familiar with Johnny Appleseed, and can really capitalize on that. So I think every community has their thing, right? Your thing just happens to be one that more more people can resonate with?

Roy Nascimento 8:53
Absolutely. And I know, we’re not the only state that has ownership of Johnny Appleseed, you know, he certainly helped pioneer many parts of our country and but it all started here. He was born here. And we really tried to capitalize on that. And we use as part of our marketing that were Johnny Appleseed country. So it’s a great place to for people coming from the city and from other parts of the mainland to come out and connect with their agricultural roots and come out here to some of our origins that have reinvented themselves, you know, and become destinations, really catering to visitors and tourists.

Brandon Burton 9:29
That’s great. It’s got me wondering what his real last name is. So I’m gonna have to do some research. Chapman, John Chapman, all right, save me some some study. Well, I’d like to just have you maybe hit the two programs that you guys submitted on your chamber through your application at a high level just to kind of give us an idea of what those two programs are about. And then we can circle back and dive in a little deeper on both I’m

Roy Nascimento 10:00
sure so so the first initiative that we had submitted as part of our application, as part of our synopsis, was around an initiative to engage with the Latin X population here in North Central Massachusetts. And this really was an outgrowth of the pandemic. We, we operate underneath the umbrella of the chamber A, A, our economic development arm, it’s called the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation. And it’s a 501 C three nonprofit organization. And it is, it’s our economic was formed by the chamber and it’s our economic development arm. And this, under this entity, we are considered we were certified by the US Treasury as a community development financial institution. We’re also an SBA lender, and we’re a community advantage lender under the SBA and EDA lender. So all that means that we are able to provide micro loans to businesses in the region to support economic development. And with that, we’ve also grown our technical assistance, we do a lot of hand holding, providing a lot of counseling and technical assistance. And in recent years, we’ve started providing grants as well, to support startup businesses and existing small businesses that a variety of reasons can’t get through traditional financing. So we will be able to provide them some some capital to help them get that business going with, with the caveat that it creates jobs and investment in our communities. And we’ve been doing this since the 1990s. And we’ve been growing in recent years. And we found during the pandemic that that Latino businesses, and again, Latinos are the largest minority population in the region, and are one of our largest communities that represents about 30% of the population. And if you look at the data, Latinos are starting businesses at three times the rate of the general population. So this was obviously a population that we wanted to engage in support. And during the pandemic, when we were doing so much to support businesses and help help them get through the pandemic, we saw that a lot of a lot of Latino businesses were not taking advantage of some of the resources that were out there to support businesses, they weren’t taking advantage of the PPP loans, they weren’t taking advantage of different grants that were offered by the scheme by our local communities. And so really, this was really an outgrowth of that. And so we, we really decided to focus on the Latin X pot population engaging them, we’re really looking to engage them more, we decided to hire a full time individual on our team that was multilingual, Maribel Cruz, and she’s a great addition, she speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English fluently. And we also developed some strong partnerships with other groups within the community that focus on the Latino population. So as a result, we were able to connect Latino business owners to this to our network of businesses to chamber but also to these different resources, including resources that we haven’t anything relevant about incorporation. And we we saw a really strong impact. Over the last two years. We did about a million dollars of micro loans to Latino businesses that represents now a third of our loans that we made over the two year period, we also provided 1000s of hours of technical assistance to to businesses, and we help connect them to other resources as well. And as a result, these Latino businesses were able to secure loans to other other banks and credit unions and get grants from from from the state as well. So we were able to kind of remember that. And I should also mention, we also evolved. We’ve been evolving over the years. So we’ve started providing grants, as well. So we were able to provide some grants as well to Latino businesses to help them get started or to overcome some some challenges as they were starting so and all that helped create jobs and help create investment within our community. So we’re really, really pleased with the outcome and the impacts from this. You know, these are small loans are micro loans, but they can have a tremendous impact in our communities, helping to start local restaurants and coffee shops and hair salons. And they’re attractive jobs and they create jobs in our community and creates investment in our communities.

Brandon Burton 14:45
Yeah. So as you are reaching out to these these Latin owned businesses, are these strictly Chamber members who are reaching out to is it Latin businesses in general throughout the community, or are you making that approach?

Roy Nascimento 15:00
So we are engaging Latino businesses, they do not have to be a member of the chamber to get a loan from our economic development arm and so. So you know, we were engaging Latinos broadly within North Central Massachusetts. And obviously we’d love to get them more engaged in the chamber. And so that was also something that we wanted to let them know that there’s this network of businesses, and we want them involved, because we think that’s an important part of being successful is networking, and being involved in your local community and, and want them to feel comfortable. So that was an important part of the project, really engaging them, engaging them in the community through some of the partners in the community that they’re already working with, as well as bringing on that staff capacity, bringing someone on that could could reach out to them in their own language, and could provide culturally competent technical assistance and advice to them and engage them. So that was an important objective as part of this project.

Brandon Burton 16:05
Yeah. So with this program, a lot of this is providing micro loans and grants, like you had mentioned. And I know, typically, loans and grants come with some sort of stipulations, you know, an application process and things like that. But being that being a chamber, the year finalist is all about the impact in your community. Because you have these stipulations around loans and grants, what sort of impact are you seeing on the follow up, you know, over time, as these new businesses or especially these Latin businesses are taking advantage of these resources you’re helping give access to,

Roy Nascimento 16:45
so we track the loans and and you’re absolutely right, these are loans, so they have to be repaid. But they’re pretty competitive rates, these are not rates that are not, we’re not a predatory lender, we’re not charging enormous rates, these are same rates you get through a bank. And we do have an underwriting process. So we do have to evaluate each loan. And so a lot of time is often spent with the clients helping them get ready just to secure the loan, because they’re not always prepared and do not have a business plan. So there’s a lot of pre and post loan counseling, getting them prepared to just submit their application, collecting all those documents, and we still do the underwriting. So not everyone gets approved applies to us. So this isn’t free money, you still have to apply and show that they have a plan in place, and that they have, you know, they have a fundamental understanding of their business and what they plan on doing and, and have the ability to repay and be successful long term. And then once they get the loan, we’re still following up with them. So we follow up on a regular basis, our team is meeting with our clients, finding out what are the pain points, where were they struggling? Typically, we see that they’re struggling on things like accounting systems, or marketing, and that’s across the board. That’s not just Platino businesses. And then and then we track the impact, you know, we keep an eye on the loans, we want to make sure that they get paid, as if they get repaid, and we can lend that money out again. So that’s one of the things I love is we continue to have this this impact. But we fundamentally track jobs. And through over the last two years, just just the loans to our our Latin X population that were made, they were about 57 new jobs that were created from that, from those loans that we made an average size loan was just like 25,000. So these are typically very small loans, typically working capital or buy some equipment, we go as high as 250,000. But again, the average is typically about 20,000. That is huge.

Brandon Burton 19:01
That I can I can see the impact that makes individually on each of those businesses. It is a benefactor of those micro loans, and, but also the community in general to be able to have those jobs and the families that are being affected and community and it just it bleeds out throughout the community.

Roy Nascimento 19:18
Absolutely. And And anecdotally, you know, a lot of these loans, you know, really have an impact in the community, we’re seeing loans that a lot of a lot of them tend to be riskier businesses that that that can’t find traditional financing because the industry tends to be very risky. So a lot of food related businesses, coffee shops, restaurants that look at the statistics have a high failure rate. So And typically, we don’t compete with our banks and credit unions. They’re our number one referral source and we partner quite quite a bit with them. So typically, they’re a big referral source for us. So a bank will All Community Bank will will not be able to make a loan to start a business because it’s too risky because they are a startup business. And because they’re looking to open up a restaurant and higher failure rates and, and so that the bank may not want to take that risk. So they’ll pass them along to us. We’ll take a different we’ll take another look at it. We tend to be a little bit more flexible in our lending approach. Again, we still do underwriting but we try to be a little bit more flexible because we have this we’re looking at it through this economic development lens. And as I mentioned, anecdotally, you know, it’s great to see these lawns you know, see these these restaurants start up as coffee shops, startup hair salons in some of our communities. And in some of our downtown’s like we have one community where we got we had one Latino business owner who’s a restaurant tour, who is taking the risk of opening up a restaurant and one of our downtown’s and one of our cities in the downtown is is, is a priority for the municipality, they’re trying to revitalize their downtown. And a lot of empty storefronts there. And so they prioritize bringing in more kind of destination businesses, and they want to see more restaurants in the downtown. So we were able to help them with help this entrepreneur, open up this this Latin restaurant, and that’s, that’s becoming a destination. It’s bringing more people into the downtown. And that’s encouraging more revitalization of the downtown and more businesses opening up in downtown. So it has that kind of ripple effect, beyond just the jobs that we track and the lending dollars that we track, and the job saved, but it’s also that kind of helping to revitalize parts of the community.

Brandon Burton 21:48
Yeah. So the question that comes to my mind is where the initial funding came from, I know you guys have been doing this sort of program for a while, but with the focus on the the Latin population right now. So did that initial funding come through a foundation or, I mean, it’s great as the loans get repaid, and you get some interest collected to be able to get it back out in the community. But for a chamber listening, where where would one get started doing a program like this? So

Roy Nascimento 22:13
that’s a great question. So this goes back, our original lending started back in the late 1990s. So we had a military base here called port Devon’s that was was closing. And so the, the chamber was able to secure a grant from the Economic Development Administration, and utilize that to capitalize our first loan fund. So that’s where it all started, we got this grant, we had to match it. So we have to match it. Think about 25% of the grant medic matched with private sector dollars, which we did at the time. And that capitalized our first revolving fund, which is still providing loans to this day. And so And since then, we’ve expanded, we now have, I think, six loan funds. And one of the loan funds is an SBA loan fund, which we use SBA money, we get a loan from the SBA, at a very favorable rate, and we lend that those dollars in the form of micro loans. And we have to have certain requirements, we have to have a loan loss reserve account setup, and it is a loan, so we have to repay the SBA back, so we’re on the hook for that. But that was that was very useful. A few years back when we needed, we were running out of capital and needed more capital. And since then, we’ve gone out and we’ve been successful and raising other funds, we’ve been able to secure other grants, federal grants, state grants, we’ve also secured private dollars. So we’ve been lucky enough that we’ve been successful, and that our local stakeholders, and our members have been supportive of the work that we’ve been doing. So we’ve been able to secure contributions from some some companies and local local members that have enabled us to capitalize and continue to provide loans. So So yeah, we’ve been successful, especially over the last few years. With the work that we’ve been doing around lending and being able to grow our impact on providing these micro loans. It’s a really nice tool in our in our toolbox to help support community development and economic development here in North Central Massachusetts. And I think it’s something that makes us a little unique, so I know some chambers do it, but not a lot. And so most chambers are not in the lending space. So I’m always happy to talk to any listeners that might be interested in getting involved and, and in providing loans and supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in their communities.

Brandon Burton 24:50
Yeah, and there could be a whole other deep dive on how to structure that and get set up so any listeners that would take Roy up on that offer to reach out and connect for them to learn more if that’s of interest and providing that resource at your chamber but right let’s say let’s shift gears we’ll we’ll change some focus on to the the other program that was submitted on your chamber the your application as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 27:38
Hi, I’m Raquel I work with Yiftee to help over 500 chambers cities and downtown’s across the US keep local dollars local and support their small businesses. Our CEO Donna Novitsky and I will be at the ACCE Conference in Salt Lake City from July 31 to August 3, and we would love to meet you swing by our booth to say hi and learn about our community gift card program, Community cards are custom branded for your community, and can only be used at your Chamber members businesses, plus the program is free. You can learn more by visiting yiftee.com. That’s yiftee.com or emailing us at sales@yiftee.com. See you at the ACCE Conference.

Brandon Burton 28:27
All right, right. We’re back. So tell us what was the second program that you guys submitted in your synopsis on your your chamber that your application?

Roy Nascimento 28:36
Yeah, so the second second project that we submitted was a project that we undertook last year to modernize and improve our visitor center. So we operate a visitor center, it’s called the Johnny Appleseed visitor center named Alfred. And we’ve we’ve operated the visitor center that the visitor center was a byproduct of our of our our regional economic development plan our original regional economic development plan back in the 90s. I mentioned the lending that we do that was also a product of that. So we underwent this kind of big regional economic development planning process when port Devins was closing had some major importers that were closing. So we kind of led this effort is before my time. But out of that came this whole kind of blueprint to really advance our economy here in the region. And and that included supporting startup businesses through micro loans and technical assistance growing our tourism economy because we we really didn’t have much of a tourism economy at the time. And but we’re a beautiful area that has a lot to offer visitors and groups. So out of that came our visitor center that was one of the recommendations so that chamber led this effort to get this visitor center opened in the operate the visitor center with operating successfully since the 1990s. This project really was to modernize and update it. So we operate the visitor center it’s on, it’s on our route to, which is a state highway. It’s actually owned by the state. But we operate it as a partnership with the state. And so we pay for all of expenses, we staff it, we cover all the expenses, I think they, they cover the electricity on the on the lights out in the parking lot, and they plow, but other than that, we cover most of the expenses. And so we really wanted to as part of our new economic development plan that launched in 2021, we wanted to grow our tourism economy. And uh, one of the recommendations was as an as a real action actionable step that we could take was modernizing the visitor center, and really trying to make it really trying to reimagine it and transform it from from a typical kind of visitor center and rest up to more of a unique and inclusive kind of anchor destination that really showcases North Central Massachusetts and really helps to advance our economy. So, so we took on this project, we were lucky enough to secure a small grant on the state of about 75,000 from our Office of Tourism, which we matched. And a total project was, I think, at the time about, but 170,000 altogether. And since then, we’ve made some additional improvements. So it’s probably over 200,000. But we were really looking at at improving Visitor Center and modernizing it adding some amenities that we knew visitors were looking for. Wanted to really tell the story of North Central Massachusetts there. So we wanted to include adding some new interpretive displays, or adding new signage for the collection of historical items that we have there. We have this really, over the years, we’ve built up this enormous collection of historical items that help tell the story of North Central Massachusetts, including a lot of Johnny Appleseed memorabilia, and so we wanted some, some better signage within a visitor center showcasing that collection to visitors. And then we had some added over the years some some interesting artwork, we have this, this, what we call the Big Apple at normal, and which is this big foot 10 foot Apple sculpture. That’s a nice, nice attraction there that people have take photos in front of and have this beautiful sculpture of them Johnny Appleseed there that’s also very popular. So we added some signage to those. And we included a lot a lot of local artwork. We also wanted to make the center safer. So we added more more video cameras on the grounds, we added one and make it more inclusive, so we added more. He added ADA compliant in cap doors, which we didn’t have there. He added shading over the over the picnic tables we added. We added a dog walking station there, which was something that visitors had requested. We added a water bottle bottle refilling station digital screens. And then we really improved the appearance there as well. So we added a new, a new sign. And inside we did a lot of cosmetic renovations to the visitor center, adding a lot of wood paneling to give it kind of that rustic look. And new floors and and we invested quite a bit in landscaping as well. The Visitor Center also has a lot of apple trees, including two apple trees that were from saplings that we received as a gift from Ohio, years back from the original from an original last remaining Johnny Appleseed tree. And planted it’s called a Rambo tree. That’s the variety of apples. And so we made some improvements to the apple trees in the landscaping and throughout the visitor center again, all of it with a goal of trying to improve the visitor experience and also to make it more inclusive. And to better tell the story of North Central Massachusetts. And again, this was so all aligned with our regional economic development plan that identified tourism as priority sector as a way we can grow that and as the as the visitor center as like a really key piece of that infrastructure in the supporting the tourism economy here in West Central Massachusetts that we could improve to help build up our economy here around tourism in the region.

Brandon Burton 34:46
And I like that you’d said the giant Apple, the photo op for tourism to come through there and take pictures and I think it’s a great idea to be able to provide something like that as a tour. Just attraction because it ends up getting shared out on social media, it gets amplified. Oftentimes they’ll tag where they are, you know, at the location they were at when they took the picture. Yeah,

Roy Nascimento 35:09
it’s great. Those types of those types of photo ops are really popular. And we take really great pride and Johnny Appleseed Visitor Center, it’s really a very unique, we like to say it’s not your typical highway rest stop, you know, there there. This started again, back in the 90s. And there were I think, 15, or 16, State Highway visitor centers that were operated on a similar model, there were partnerships with local chambers, or local tourism groups convention is bureaus that would operate the visitor centers in partnership with the state. And unfortunately, a lot of them have have gone out of business they closed. And there’s really no state funding per visitor center. So so the organization really has to operate it and funding, again, provide all the staffing, and most of the costs, most of the expenses are covered by our organization. And we’ve been able to, we’re successful on just being able to keep the doors open and run this visitors very successful Visitor Center, we’ve also again, been able to make it into a very new destination, we want to continue our vision is to be the best Visitor Center in Massachusetts and really tell that story. And it’s great that we’ve gotten some national attention. We were, we were there was a story in by the BBC, about our visitor center, there was a story on our local television is a Boston, Boston television station called WC TV, Channel Five. And they have this is very popular program called Chronicle, which is kind of a lifestyle and Tourism Program, they came out and did a story on the visitor center as a very unique destination. So so we’re not your typical restaurant up, we’re not your typical Visitor Center, we’re really trying to make it more of a destination. And by virtue of making a destination, we’re helping to showcase the region.

Brandon Burton 37:09
Yeah, I think you guys are on the right track with it for sure. I was curious, as far as the vision for the revitalization, and like the actual aesthetics in there, and the displays and the wood paneling, those sorts of things that you described. Did you have some consultant that offered suggestions on those those improvements? Or was it a committee within the chamber? Or how did that unfold? Yeah,

Roy Nascimento 37:35
a lot of it was, was it was combination. So a lot of it was staff driven. So we do have a full time visitor center manager, so she she knew what, you know, visitors were requesting, the amenities they were looking for. And she had a kind of a wish list of what you’d like to add there to help support, you know, give give these visitors great positive experience when they were coming to the visitor center. So but we also didn’t check in with with members over the years, we brought in some members of our board that specialize in retail, and we have a small gift shop there as well, that sells local items. And so we brought them in and had had some retail experts come in and how do we how do we improve this experience for visitors? And how do we how do we get them to to purchase more local products there, because that’s helping to tell the story of the region, and also, again, generate some income to help us support the visitor center. So a variety of different input from different stakeholders. We also had a member who is in, in in the construction and developing area. And so he volunteered his time and gave us a lot of pre pre work and kind of helping us figure out some initial costs and things of that nature. And then we do operate this again, we operate the visitor center, and it is on state property. And we have to get approval from our state highway department. And in our initial plans, we had to scale down because there were some things that they just weren’t comfortable with. And they didn’t want us wanted to expand, expand the visitor center, it’s opened down a wall give us more space. So we can have more displays, historical displays. They were very uncomfortable with any kind of construction. Or like if you start knocking down walls and we have this whole process you have to go through and we actually also wanted to add a small playground on the grounds and they were concerned about liability on kids using the playground. So we had a we had a kind of Nick’s that having a playground to the grounds of the visitor center. But you know, but they were still great partners. They were really they believed in our vision and were very supportive of the project and we were able to get it done and I’m really proud of the visitor center and the impact it’s having on region.

Brandon Burton 39:55
Yeah, sounds great. Well, Roy as we start to wrap things up Yuri, I wanted to ask you if, for listeners, if there was any tip or action items that you might suggest for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level.

Roy Nascimento 40:10
So I think I think I’m gonna give the same advice I gave last time two years ago, and that’s to be entrepreneurial. And really, it was the advice I was given by my predecessor. And it’s really looking at your, your community, your region, what are the needs there? What are the challenges? Now? How can the chamber help with those challenges for us here, I talked about lending, you know, that was, and that was something that was missing here, you know, and, and the Chamber was really able to fill that void and become kind of that alternative lender helping to provide startup businesses with that capital and that technical assistance they needed. And that has evolved over the years and but it’s been able to, to help us provide have an impact here in the region, and, and the tourism stuff, you know, we that was was a gap, you know, that was an opportunity. And we saw that, that’s a way we could diversify our economy. And so we stepped in and have been able to provide great leadership there, and helping to drive our economy and transform our economy here and in North Central Massachusetts. So, you know, be entrepreneurial, find out how you can best help your members, I’m always amazed when I listen to your podcast, you’re about chambers to all kinds of impactful things. And what might work in one community might not work in my community, but I’m always able to learn about it. And I’m always amazed at the ability of these chambers to be able to adapt, flexible, and be nimble and be entrepreneurial, to serve their members and to have an impact in their communities. And so I think that’s important.

Brandon Burton 41:50
Very good. So I like asking everyone as I have him on the show about the future of chamber. So I know I asked him a couple of years ago, but how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Roy Nascimento 42:02
So I think it goes back to our roots, you know, I think we’re, if you look back at chambers, chambers, we’re always those those we are by our very nature, we’re a big network of businesses in the community that come together, to have an impact and community to advance the community. That’s our mission statement is to advance in one central Massachusetts and, and so I think it’s going back to your roots just looking at I think a lot of chambers have become transactional, they focus on the networking and networking is important, we do a lot of networking, but don’t lose sight of your mission. And that’s really to promote the community. And that whether it be through advocacy, or economic development, through through events, you know, whatever it is, it’s don’t lose sight of that mission. And I think it’s getting, it’s providing that that leadership in the community. And that’s, that’s the future we’re seeing chambers continue to evolve. And it’s kind of going back to, to our roots being those organizations that provide a leadership in the community. And that really helped to drive the economy and, and helping their communities think about, about change and leadership and the future.

Brandon Burton 43:12
That’s awesome. Yeah, the mission is important and keeping you know, those roots close by so you remember why you’re there and, and let that chart your course. Well, Roy, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you maybe take up your offer on learning how to provide loans and in access to grants like you guys are doing, what would be the best way for for someone to reach out and connect?

Roy Nascimento 43:41
Sure. So first off, our website is NorthCentralMass.com. So all my contact information is on the website. Again, that’s NorthCentralMass.com. And I can also be reached the email at rnascimento@northcentralmass.com. Or by by phone call me anytime 978-353-7600 extension 225, it’s 978-353-7600, extension 225. And what I love about our industry is that we’re always wanting to help each other. And I’ve had a lot of chamber execs that have friends and mentors that I’ve always been able to have always been willing to take my phone call and and provide advice and support. So feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Brandon Burton 44:34
Awesome. So I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode as well. So listeners can look it up there and connect with you. But Roy, I’ve enjoyed having you back on chamber chat podcast and catching up with you and hearing more of the great things you guys are doing there in North Central Massachusetts. So thank you for for joining us and congratulations. Congratulations to you and your team again, being selected as chamber the year finalist, and I wish you guys the best of luck.

Roy Nascimento 45:03
Thank you, Brandon. It’s been it’s been great. And hopefully this was helpful and it’s really an honor thank you for the opportunity to be.

Brandon Burton 45:10
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Talent Attraction with Sarah Davasher-Wisdom

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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.

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 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 Sarah Davasher-Wisdom. Sarah has served as President and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc since January 2020. Sarah has been with goI since 2014. Rising from leading July’s government affairs activities as Vice President of Government Affairs, to now as president CEO. GeoEye was named National chamber of the year in 2019. Personally, Sarah’s also been the recipient of several notable awards at the local, regional and national levels. Sarah has held previous roles in government and public policy including manager of Government Affairs for Tennessee Valley Authority, Strategic Communications Officer for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Community Development Coordinator for Congressman Lewis. She serves on the boards of several local organizations as well as on the US chambers committee of 100. Sarah is the first woman and youngest person to serve as president and CEO of GLA. Sarah, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 3:13
Oh, hello, Brandon. I’m excited to be on the chamber podcast as well. Then looking forward to this conversation. I think that that bio certainly said a lot about me. So thank you for reading that so eloquently. But the real story goes beyond that. And you know, a lot of people will say what’s something that people don’t know about you or what something that tells more about you personally, and I always like to share that my husband and I are serious ballroom dancers. Between the two of us. We have 50 years of dance experience. And it’s how we met. So we’ve been dancing together for 10 years of which will actually 11 years we’ve been married for 10. And that’s something that not a lot of people do. And not a lot of people know. And it’s something that we’ve continued. Despite any sort of changes in career or relocations, or anything else that we have done, we’ve always remained committed to our dancing.

Brandon Burton 4:09
Awesome. That is, it’s great that you guys have been able to keep that up and have that common bond together. And that that interests. So thank you. I like learning these tidbits about people as we have them on the show and learn those facts that so I had mentioned to you before we started recording, but this is a first for me to have. Three, you’re the third person from Greater Louisville Inc. to be on Chamber Chat Podcast. First time, I’ve had three of any organization on the podcast, which speaks volumes to the great work and impact you guys are having that you keep rising to the top to have different members of the organization on the on the show. But for those that are Thank you, yeah, yeah, for sure. So Those who’ve been listening to the podcast since the beginning. may remember at Kent Oyler on back in 2019. When you guys were Chamber the Year finalists and won Chamber the Year and more recently had Jordan Clemons on talking about using LinkedIn to grow membership and they both are fantastic episodes so encourage anybody to go back and listen but I just I mentioned that because those longtime listeners may be a little bit familiar with with GLI, but for those who may not be just give us a little synopsis, I guess about what GLI is all about, you know size, the Chamber staff budget, scope of work, that sort of thing, just to set the table for our discussion.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 5:43
Sure, well, Greater Louisville Inc. We have a staff of about 30 people. And we serve about 1800 members. We are also the Regional Chamber and we are by state so we cover 15 counties, five in Indiana and 10 in Kentucky. We’ve got everything from Fortune 500 companies located here to small retailers and suppliers. We are the home of Humana, and UPS Airlines. And those are two of our biggest companies here. Our main goal was to grow the regional economy. And we do that in several ways through traditional economic development, talent attraction, advocacy and DNI. So our goal is to do all of those things in the best way possible to make our region the strongest for growth. So that’s a little bit about GLI we have a great team, our budget is 5.7 million.

Brandon Burton 6:38
Very good. So you touched on one of the things that we’ll focus our conversation on today. And as you mentioned, those focuses of your work, one being talent attraction. And I’m excited to dive in a little bit deeper and learn about how GLI goes about talent attraction. I know that’s a hot topic for chambers across the country. And you’re so kind to share some of the tips and strategies you guys are using there in Louisville. So we will dive into that conversation much deeper since we 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  9:21  

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  9:50  

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 10:01
All right, Sarah, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re focusing our discussion today about how you guys are focusing your work around talent attraction. And I know there’s different approaches, you know, chambers go about this work in different ways. But I’d like to learn a little bit more and have you share how how you guys are GLI are going about talent, attraction, and really making your economy there is something that’s really thriving. And I know you’ve mentioned the DE&I efforts as well. And it is a very diverse community as well. And I think that plays into talent attraction. So I anticipate that those two will overlap a little bit. But I don’t want to steal your thunder. So I’ll hand it over to you to to share how you guys are going about this work?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 10:47
Sure, well, I’m really excited about our talent attraction programming, because we’ve had a lot of cities come to learn more about it, because they want to replicate it. So it really has been one of those. One of those things that we are known for in Louisville, our program is called Live in Lou and we developed it in 2016, to really show what it was like to live work and play in the greater Louisville region. And the platform itself showcases all of the assets that really differentiate us as a community, we highlight the availability of good jobs and career opportunities, the quality of life and the sustainability, to raise a family and the suitability to raise a family I should say. And then the ability to make a difference. And the reason that we highlight those three things is because in 2016, we did a lot of data, a lot of research into why people want to live in our community. And those were the three reasons. So we target our marketing around those three reasons. And one of the places that people go to learn about a community is on social media. So we use our website and our social media channels to promote feel good stories about the community, new businesses, opening up favorite restaurants. Because we have a fantastic culinary scene here. It’s one of the things that people love to visit for. We also showcase restaurants and festivals. So those are some of the things we really try to highlight. We have also been doing private label campaigns for companies under our live in loop programming. And we basically will look at where there isn’t what jobs are needed for that company. And then where there is an area in the country or even internationally, where that skill set exists and may not be paid as well there as it is here in Louisville. And so then we can geofence and do some targeted marketing, highlighting those things I mentioned earlier, and really go out and connect the the job seeker or the potential low avillion to the job opportunity. And we can use the marketing from the company itself. So it’s a really innovative way for us to recruit individuals to move here to work for a specific company. So it helps our community because we’ve got residents moving in, and it also helps our companies. I love

Brandon Burton 13:10
that name that Lou avillion that just that flows. So well. I love it. Can you share with us some more about the geofencing? So how do you go about that and targeting the right people like the parameters you set on it? Certain radiuses maybe some people aren’t familiar with what geofencing is just give us a little bit of background on that.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 13:33
It’s really a technology that we pay for. So we identify what geography we would we would want to highlight usually by ZIP codes, and then the firm actually does the geofencing. But it’s basically a way that you can put information on phone like you’re capturing phone data so that then you can advertise. Because when people are moving in and out of that zip code, you’re capturing that data out that makes sense.

Brandon Burton 14:01
Yeah, it does. Are you guys identifying specifically people that don’t live in Louisville currently that based on the phone data, so when they come and visit or pass by or how does that? How does that

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 14:15
yes, we definitely are targeting out of town people so that we can get them to move here and and maybe because our goal was talent attraction, we don’t have enough people here in Louisville to fill the open jobs. And so that’s why we’re trying to really focus on talent attraction. We’ve grown the social media channels from 200 followers to 53,000 followers in five years. So there really is a lot of momentum to live in Lou. And then we also have a group of volunteers that we call city champs. It’s kind of a human Welcome Wagon to help people get connected to the interest that they have in the region. The volunteers are incredibly passionate. Excuse me, and If they really want to showcase the best parts of our community and make connections, so the new residents kind of have a friend immediately, when they when they move here. So we train the city champs on all of the things in the community, it’s about a four hour training. And then they identify what interests they have. So we can put on our website that this person is a trained city champ, and this person is interested in interested in parks or ballet, or whatever the situation may be, so that when we have prospective residents interested in those same, those same things, then we can make that connection. And there’s automatically an interest in sharing information so that the person is more likely to relocate to

Brandon Burton 15:42
a level like that it kind of creates a friend, right? They come into the community. And as they’re saying, this reminds me when I was in high school, I moved across the country. And it was a kind of a traumatic thing as a junior in high school, across the country. But the new high school I went to, they had a program at the school where they would match another student up with new students to kind of show you around, and it made all the difference. So I see these these community are the city champs, these volunteers, really being able to be that tour guide of the city, you know, sharing some common interests, really helping to help these new people feel at home, I see that as being a key attribute to being able to really attract and retain these these new people to the community. You had mentioned I mean, the social media following is great. I mean, 253,000 followers is in that short amount of time is amazing. You had mentioned a few examples of some of the things that you’re doing on social media to leverage that and tell the stories of the little bill. Are there some examples that have really taken off that you’re aware of that, you know, I guess you could say have gone viral that they got more traction than other things on your social media stories.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 17:03
I think the real life stories of people that have followed live in lieu and actually move to the city have been the most powerful. And that, you know, those are like, really kind of rare, but also that doesn’t negate the success of the platform, it’s just that we don’t always have somebody love it so much that they post about it, you know, I think people often will look at it. And I think, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. But they don’t necessarily write a big story about it, we actually had a couple write a big magazine article about it. And that was that was really a thing that went crazy on social media, particularly locally, people were talking about it. Another thing that has really gotten a lot of media interest on our live and live platform is our newly launched workforce ecosystem hub. And it’s a compilation of all of the workforce development resources. So we have our talent attraction, part of living, Lou, but we also are trying to get people that aren’t working now into the workforce, or people helping them to upskill. And since 2014, when I first moved here, I was hearing about all of these different workforce development programs in the community. And I kept saying, Where is the one stop shop, like work, and I read about all of these in one place, and that that resource just didn’t exist. So there were a lot of programs that were going on utilized and not not utilized to their maximum potential, I should say. So we, for two years, we work to compile all of those resources. And we launched this ecosystem hub on the live and lose site. It’s liveinlou.com/work. And it has 245 organizations and their programs listed. We’ve got a portal for job seekers and a portal for employers, the employers can go on the site and identify any sort of training programs, some of which are free, and funded by the state actually funding from the state available that you can apply for on the site. And that that funding and those training programs are for their employees. So we have a manufacturer, they may be able to get funding to do a certain certain upskilling initiative, and all of that is listed on the site. It also includes different organizations that are helping to remove barriers to work so the employer can help identify those for the employee. A lot of HR offices will use it if they have an employee that’s having difficulty with transportation and or childcare availability. I mean, it’s childcare, transportation, all sorts of barriers that exist out there. And we have all these organizations in our community that are working to overcome them. And now there is one place that you can go and access that on the job seeker platform, you can still you can still see the barriers to work resources and because a lot of job seekers are, you know, trying to figure out ways to manage that themselves, but they also can apply for jobs on there and see what financial assistance may be available to do certifications or apprenticeships or going back to to get a college degree even. So, we’ve really taken a collaborative approach to all of this and worked with the organizations to make sure that the right information is being shared. And we’ve had a lot of hits on it. And the media has been going crazy about it locally, they’re calling it Google’s version of LinkedIn. So we’re excited about it. That is

Brandon Burton 20:36
great. As you’re given that explanation about how live in lieu works, and the job seekers and employers portals, the thought hit me why why do communities, you know, outsource to these big job seeking websites, when they have a chamber of commerce, who’s connected with employers know the needs know that those barriers, they really can give a kind of a white glove service to help match future employees with employers. So I love that how you guys have set this up and strategically having those are calling out what some of those barriers are, and approaches of how you guys are working to overcome those things. And community partners to help overcome those things. As a going about the job seekers, the employers on there, I imagine that you have a wide range of different employment opportunities. It’s not any one type of industry, obviously, but what are what’s kind of the the range of employment opportunities that you see happening through the live in lieu website,

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 21:48
we’ve got everything from, you know, clerk position, to a nurse position, I mean, every sort of job imaginable is on there. We also with some of the jobs that we learn about some of the jobs that our employers post are also very skill specific, highly technical. And we do have a partnership where we can seek out those highly specific skills, because there are some jobs where you may only have a handful of people in the country that have the ability to do the job. And through a partnership with LinkedIn talent insights, we can seek out those individuals. And that’s more of a specific employer request. It’s not, I mean, they’re usually posted on live in lieu as well. But in those instances, it’s less likely that somebody with that skill set is going to be posting for a job, they probably they’re gonna wait for recruiters to call them. So we find them and call them.

Brandon Burton 22:45
Yeah, that was gonna be my next question. Because there’s those highly skilled labor that you need to kind of seek them out and, and maybe even try to take them from another company. And we won’t say that too loud. But that happens, right?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 23:02
Well, we don’t do that from local companies only when we’re trying to get people to move here.

Brandon Burton 23:07
That’s right. That’s right. Now just say this program, it seems like a real game changer, especially in the talent and workforce development space. Is there anything that we’re missing from the live in loop program that we haven’t touched on?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 23:23
Um, I would say that, you know, we do overcome objections to moving to Louisville sometimes. And this is where the DNI aspect of this comes in that you mentioned earlier. We in in 2020, we were the epicenter of the Breonna, Taylor, killing and the protests that followed that really showed us that we needed to expand our scope of work. So recruiting diverse talent has been a little bit more difficult. But since 2020, I have been saying all this time, this is also an opportunity for us to show that this time, it’s different and it should have been different every time before but we have to show that the business community is committed to creating an inclusive economy. So we have really expanded our work in the DNI space. And that helps our talent attraction initiatives. So some of the work that we do, and includes a minority business accelerator called power to prosper. We’re getting ready. We’re taking applications for our third cohort right now. And it provides small businesses with knowledge and resources and networks that will help their businesses scale. We also have during 2020 launch a racial equity pledge that identifies five different ways that companies can can make their business more inclusive. And that includes things like diversifying their vendor spend, creating a safe space for conversation ones that are about inclusion. It also includes hiring diverse talent. I mean, and we then with that pledge, we launched a toolkit. And I was, I was excited about the number of companies that signed the pledge, it was over 200 companies. But then I was also excited about the toolkit because the toolkit gave businesses, the tools, they needed to do that. So we didn’t just say, Hey, we’re signing this pledge, we also said, Now, here’s how you go and do these things that are in the pledge. And as our as an organization, we have diversified our own vendor spend in ways that we never thought possible, because we’ve been so intentional about it. And my hope is that every company that sign that pledge has been equally intentional, and that we’re seeing a lot more things have, or a lot of great things happen as a result. Another thing that we do, and then we started doing it 2020 is a procurement matchup event called power to prosper. I’m sorry, I’m forgetting the name of it. It’s not that’s the minority business accelerator. Progress through procurement is our procurement event. And we identify what needs companies have in our community. And then we bring in diverse vendors to and match them up. And then sometimes there’s still a contracting process involved, but it is helping both the employer that has this, this need for a vendor and then they they’ve been having trouble finding a diverse vendor. So then we’re connecting them to a diverse vendor, and hopefully good things come from that. So those are some of the things that we’ve done in the DNI space. And like I said, that also helps our talent attraction and helps our economy grow. And all of the things in a chamber seem to work together cohesively. And I like that about chamber work.

Brandon Burton 26:48
Absolutely. So one of the things that stood out to me is you mentioned that you guys are often involved with overcoming object objections. And occasionally certain objections will rise to prominence. But, and oftentimes, we don’t even hear about some of the objections. So how do you guys go about soliciting feedback of people that may be hesitant of moving to Louisville to understand what their objections might be? So you can address that and learn how to better maybe fine tune this program?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 27:18
Well, most of the time, the HR recruiters at our companies will tell us what the objections are. And that’s, that’s really our source of information. There are times that we’re talking with individuals directly, particularly when they’re those highly skilled individuals that we’re seeking out for employers. But most of the time, the HR managers will tell us what stories they’re hearing and a lot of it relates to Louisville, being in Kentucky, and people here, Kentucky and they think that we are not as sophisticated as a place they would like to live. And Louisville is actually very sophisticated. I mentioned earlier, we’ve got a great culinary scene. We’ve got all five types of art organizations. I mean, we really do have a fantastic city is a great place to live and not just a great place to raise a family. I mean, it certainly is that but I mean you can be single here and you can really have a fantastic life. It’s a fun place to be. So but Louisville often gets branded with Kentucky and the demographic and the psychographic of talent looking to relocate is looking for, you know, a city that’s fun and exciting. And Kentucky doesn’t have that brand nationally. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 28:33
Kentucky is a great state though. Okay, yeah. Is it beautiful? Yeah. Well, Sara, you’ve hit on some great points here. As far as talent attraction goes, and I’m sure people listening or are taking notes and seeing how they can make some tweaks to their own talent attraction programs. I’d like to ask if there maybe is any tip or action item that you’d like to share for listeners who are looking to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you suggest?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 29:05
Well, I would suggest getting your CCE I’m a big believer in the certified chamber executive program for several reasons. Number one, there is an application process that requires you to really get out there and give speeches and also sometimes like IOM counts. So that’s a training program where you’re networking with other chamber professionals. And through IOM and through CCE which came later for me, I’ve met so many incredibly smart people. And being able to reach out to those individuals being able to hear about their programming as I went through IOM and CCE really, really helped me to know different ideas and different ways to navigate community issues and different ways I could take Our chamber to the next level. And so as a result of my experience being so positive, I have said, anybody that goes through IOM has to commit to doing CCE as well. The CCE process, what I liked about that was beyond the application process that I just described with you, you get to meet so many people, you learn about their programs. There are there’s a body of literature that one has to read that really focuses on governance and finance and making sure the chamber is in good operational order. And I believe that’s incredibly important, because all of the programs that we talk about that are exciting. We can’t do if our chamber isn’t in good operational order. If we don’t have the money, we don’t have the right money in reserves for a catastrophe. I mean, there are all of these things that seem boring to a lot of chamber people, but they’re incredibly important to enabling that programmatic aspect that can be very exciting, and fun to be part of. So that would be the thing I would say, to take your chamber to the next level, because you’ll learn so much as you go through that process.

Brandon Burton 31:06
Absolutely. Anybody who’s been sitting on the fence debating whether or not to get over that hurdle, go go do it, go after your CCE apply, go through the process. And like Sarah said, there’s so much development that comes out of that to benefit your chamber, but also you professionally as you move on through your career. So Sarah, 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?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 31:37
Well, I see the purpose of Chambers as being incredibly important. And you know, I’ve heard speculation about this, but I believe in chambers very, very much. I think there is a role for chambers and the big community issues of the day. And we’re really starting to see that more and more. I mean, there is no other organization where you can go to and and say that they represent the voice of the business community chambers do that chambers, or that one stop shop you can go to and the people who enjoy being in the chamber world are just ready to help. And to say yes, attitude, and all of the big community issues that we’re so interested in. I mean, everybody wants to figure out how. And so I think that chambers are so so incredibly important. And I think that the people who work in chambers have a real passion for community growth. And it’s becoming a lifelong career for a lot of people. You see that more and more particularly at the CEO level of the chamber world. And I like to see that. I think that there are some incredibly smart chamber leaders out there and I enjoy talking to them frequently. I think chambers are really important to making sure community issues get solved.

Brandon Burton 32:55
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. And I I also agree with the scene, people who are making the chamber industry a profession, you know, it’s a career choice for people now, especially at the executive level. But we’re it’s not just a job in their community that gets filled because somebody needed a warm body, but it becomes something that they go after these trainings are IOM, they’re CCE and really develop and help take their community to the next level, which is what it’s all about. But Sarah wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about the living loop program and how you guys are doing things there at TLI. What would be the best way for people to reach out and connect with you?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 33:40
Sure, well, I’m happy to provide my email. It’s sdavasher@greaterlouisville.com. And my phone number is 502-625-0073 happy to talk with any chamber leaders about these programs or anything else bounce ideas off of each other. I’m always happy to connect.

Brandon Burton 34:02
Very good we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode as well so people can access that to connect with you. But Sarah, I want to thank you for spending time with us today here at chamber chat podcast provided a lot of value and some great things for listeners to think about and and see what how they can implement and take their chamber up to the next level and provide a new level of competition on the talent attraction front. I appreciate that.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 34:30
Happy to do it. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 34:32
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Business Growth through Belonging with John Brewer

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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 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 Diane Rogers, President and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for her.

Diann Rogers 0:39
As a medium sized chamber, we recognize that it’s absolutely critical to have a well qualified and well trained membership development person. Holman Brothers trained that person, recruited that person then they even trained me on how to manage that person. We’re grateful for the support we got.

Brandon Burton 0:54
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Our guest for this episode is John Brewer. John is the president and CEO at the Billings Chamber of Commerce in Montana, which is a five star credited chamber through the US Chamber of Commerce. The Billings chamber developed and manages the Billings tourism improvement district visit southeast Montana and the billings chamber foundation. John currently serves on the WAC board of directors. His past chair of the Montana association of Chamber of Commerce executives, serves on the ACCE board served as their emerging cities chair and serves in the US chambers committee at 100 advisors. Before moving to Billings, John was president and CEO of the Spokane regional convention and visitors bureau in Washington, of course, he has a BA in Communication Arts from the University of West Florida, and he and his wife Carrie have four children and two grandkids. But John, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so they can get to know you a little

John Brewer 2:10
better. Hey, Brandon, well, thank you. It’s, it’s good to see ya. It’s always the most difficult question I think is sharing something interesting about yourself, right? Because golf that I find interesting other than I do it a bore. But you know, my wife and I, I guess if I were to say one thing that we’re passionate about, and it’s been kind of unique is that for the 20, some years, 25 years, we’ve been together, we’ve been fostering dogs and my wife has a heart for people in need and animals in need. So we’ve had everything from 12 Puppies running around the house to a dog in a wheelchair to other special needs type dogs to try to help find them a home. So for us, it’s been fun as well as it’s been rewarding to to help connect the animals to their lifelong homes.

Brandon Burton 2:57
That’s awesome. So if you had to, if you had to guess over the last 25 years or so about how many dogs have been through your house, the Bowl number

John Brewer 3:08

  1. We were much more active when the kids were at a different age and things that now we kind of go one at a time, I think more more because of our age than any grant. But it’s great. He’s working with debt dog adoption agencies around the country. And when they need a home. He’s kind of opening the doors for him. So I love being part of that.

Brandon Burton 3:30
That is awesome. As dogs need that. Yeah. Well tell us a little bit about the Billings chamber just to give us some perspective. Before we get into our conversation. Obviously every chamber is different. But give us an idea of size staff budget scope of work that sort

John Brewer 3:47
of bragging about Yeah, first. Yeah. You mentioned your that five star credited chamber several years ago, we were chamber of the year through atpe. So we’re proud of the work that we’re doing. We’ve got an incredible board of directors that kind of let us be unchained to go and figure out what needs to be solved in our chambers really focused on being one of those kick butt chambers, if you will, and problem solver and as far as tackling big community issues, as well as those core things that most chambers are involved in. For us. It’s business growth, business advocacy, community development. And then we are also as you mentioned in the intro there, the managing organization for our tourism entities both visit Billings and visit southeast Montana 13 counties and two Indian Reservation within our region here. So, you know, having that balance of connecting business to the you know, millions of visitors that come through here on their way to Yellowstone National Park or Little Bighorn battlefield sight of customers last stand or along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Were in a great spot to not only be a business hub as the largest city in Montana, and A tourism area where people start their journey by flying in and got the largest airport and great internet interstate connectivity. But our chamber has right now just over 1100 members, they employ just under 15,000 people. And we are hovering around 90% retention and we love that number. It’s solid. And we’re just we’ve been on a growth cycle, both from a revenue perspective, as well as the membership perspective. So our staff has grown by four FTE in the last 12 month and we’re brought people on who are focused in in the finance world, we need to do some things you’d mentioned that we just launched our foundation at the chamber. And we’re also bringing people on to help take care of the workforce issue that every community I think in the country is facing.

Brandon Burton 5:54
Now that you guys definitely have your work cut out for you, that’s for sure. It’s curious, have you guys seen an influx in tourism since the TV show Yellowstone came out a couple years ago?

John Brewer 6:05
It’s funny how many times we’re asked that question, right? Yeah, we, you know, Yellowstone, in where that shot is probably about a four and a half, five hour drive from us. But you know, Yellowstone Park has seen a bump, we hear lots of people on their way and talking about it, the detrimental side to that is now the state legislature feels like we’re getting all this free advertising that we should just pull that we get about $2 million annually for tourism funding. So they’re like, we don’t really need that anymore. Let’s reinvest that in affordable housing and other needs in our communities like public safety. So we’re in the middle of our legislative session that meets every two years, and kind of all hands on deck for those battles. And they are they are plentiful. We’ve got 4000 bills that have been introduced. And so yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, it poses some challenges.

Brandon Burton 6:54
Right. Now. We were one of those families. Last summer, we were gonna go there and about I think two weeks before we went the, I think was the North Loop got closed down with the mudslides and stuff. And so we ended up kind of rerouting what our vacation was going to be because they were only letting in you know, every other day, depending on your your license plate numbers. They’re like, that’s a long hike.

John Brewer 7:19
And interestingly enough, our visitors director at the Chamber, her brother is the superintendent at Yellowstone Park. So when they were going through that kind of a lottery of license plates, you know, we were hearing about some of that, and that was an interesting process. But yeah, they were hit very hard, still not fully recovered, hit the egg industry in our region. But you know, that’s another thing that chambers are always geared up to, to try to do is, you know, be prepared to help whether it’s, you know, all the rains in California flooding hurricane. So another exciting role, though, per chamber and pillar solving those community problems that they hit.

Brandon Burton 7:54
That’s right. So getting back to, I guess the topic for our conversation today. As great as billings is, and you know, we want to get get honed in on a certain topic here. So, what we decided to cover today is, you know, every, every chamber, every community is vastly different. And as we get into the topic of diversity, equity inclusion over the last few years that looks different in each community. And as we talk with John today, we wanted to kind of focus on the why for Thayer Dei, what did they you know, hone in on and focusing on as they worked on diversity, equity inclusion, and we will dive into that much deeper as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, John, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break diving into what was the why for the your diversity equity inclusion efforts there the Billings chamber and how did things kind of evolve into what it is now.

John Brewer 11:43
And I think that word evolve and evolution is so important because I think so many of us in the chamber world and maybe as just citizens of the world, you know, we hear a lot about D E I and it strikes us all differently because words do matter. And as we were developing the name of the work even it was a lengthy discussion for many diversity, equity and inclusion or triggering words or they have a stigma to them. And and I think this evolution of white white chambers are involved in Dei. Now, is it an important context to understand I mean, for us, everything that we do these days is revolving around workforce, workforce development, workforce retention, Workforce Education. And this is one of those areas that I think we just push aside or think that we’re doing okay in and ignore. And I feel that chambers are masters, developing these type of networks, to include people so that they have a voice and to include opportunities for individuals to grow. You know, we convene people as chambers to solve problems, whether it’s public safety, or wetek. We talked about a minute ago, floods and community disasters, we bring people together for their expertise. But we also as chambers convene people to help educate them to help them grow. We have small business networks, which is a diverse individual group, we have young professionals and women’s networks and veterans groups. All of those address diversity by a DDI program just brings it all together. And understanding you know, because I think when I when I first got into this, and it’s only been a couple of years from the Billings chamber, so we’re in our infancy. But diversity doesn’t mean a person’s skin color alone. And I think that’s where we often go, you know, I’ve never personally been a female, I’ve never been in a wheelchair, I’ve never been a person of color. I’m not gay. I am, who I am. And I’ve got my political leanings and my religious beliefs. And we’re all so unique that for us and for our organization, what it means for us as the why and what we need to accomplish is to have a better understanding of others to meet them where they are, to help them feel a sense of belonging so people can bring their authentic and best selves to work. And so that companies can have the tool that they need to build a strong workforce. As I mentioned, your retention and recruitment is just so important. And I think many of the chambers that will be listening, but also the tourism economy. For us, we have about $625 million in visitor spending and direct visitor spending over 625 million. And over the last several years, our call center started getting questions in regards to I’m a person of color, am I safe? I’m a person in the LGBTQ plus community do I belong? And so between the visitor economy and just working with our members to help build that, that sense of belonging in a workforce so that the companies can, you know, tout themselves legitimately as being a Quality place to work and help employees grow?

Brandon Burton 15:03
Absolutely, I think that’s so important, it just creating that that place of belonging no matter what the diversity is of the population, and like you said, you’ve never been a woman. But yeah, that sometimes that gets overlooked, you know that, you know, there are different segments of the population, whether it is gender, or I think race is where a lot of people go to and you think the bet, are you a veteran? Are you disabled? Are you you know, what are the different things and and more and more, it feels like there’s new labels being put upon people or that are people that are associated with with new labels and and groups that they need special attention, they need to be considered, especially as they enter

John Brewer 15:50
the workforce. And I want you know, everybody who works, you know, bringing it down to the micro level people that work at the Chamber, I want them to feel that regardless of their backstory, where they come from, challenges that they’ve had in their life, that they feel that we are a place where they can grow, and they are important and their voices heard. And, again, whether it’s a person of color, and in Billings, we are about 88%, white, we have a strong Native American population, we’re close to the Crow Reservation, as well as the Northern Cheyenne. And you know, their workforce right now. They’re at about 50% unemployment there. And they’ve got workforce and a college and we want to find ways to be better in billing, to help bridge that workforce gap to help grow, but they have a unique culture that, you know, some from I think that the white heritage might just see the native culture and say, you know, what, they don’t show up on time, they’re don’t work as hard. The work ethic is different. And it’s these issues where it is just different. And once you learn how to address those, boy, we’re missing out on some big opportunities. If we don’t and, you know, for us, it was to better understand what we didn’t know at the time, we surveyed our membership a lot and asked a lot of questions to help even determine whether this was something that we should be getting into. And we had about 78% of our members say, we have needs and there’s nobody leading in this space in Billings in a space, I mean, connecting business to Dei, and 78% of our members said we need to do this. Billings is friendly, you know, we’re a great community, we’re welcoming, but we’re not diverse, and simply not knowing how to address diversity. And like we just talked about the breadth of diversity. I was surprised kind of how hungry some of our members were for tools that could help them grow. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:51
And, yeah, I feel like that’s one of the biggest challenges we have in our day is being able to be inclusive of all the diverse segments of the population and diversity, you know, division has that same root word of division, right? So in different segments of diversity, there comes a lot of strength, you know, as you can come together with, you know, whether it’s a women’s group or, you know, different races gather together, or its sexual orientations, there’s some strength coming together for that. But as society is as a whole, and as the workforce as a whole, it becomes very divisive, or it can be as we have all these different segments. So how do we incorporate everybody give them a place of belonging, make sure that they understand that it doesn’t matter, any of the subsets of the population you belong here, we want you to hear that. Yeah, say how have you have you guys approached that?

John Brewer 18:51
Well, we spent a lot of time again on the name when we talked about belonging, and we had all these nice acronyms and flowery words that we just decided that you know what we’re going to hit this head on, we’re going to have difficult conversations, and we’re going to be that place where people will feel comfortable coming with their tough questions, because like you say, dei and woke and all of these over politicized word, you know, it all boils down to, how are we helping our members and our employees feel like they belong. And we’ve developed a four part strategy for our dei work, and most recently launched a program called you belong and billing. With the end we launched at our annual meeting just a couple of months ago. The idea being that Montana and billing was ranked in the top three states and communities in the United States where people were moving to over the past couple of years. And we knew that brought a diversity of thought and diversity of political backgrounds, the diversity of color and so on. And we set out with this initiative to help an employer once they bring somebody in from another community, help them to onboard them to the community. So as an employer, we all have our onboarding programs, you hire somebody, you give them the one on one in the organization, they immerse in your culture at your organization. But we’ve found in our hearing, over time, so many of our large employers were losing people, because they couldn’t find their footing in our community. And for a variety of reasons. So as new people move here, we’ve got this community onboarding program, if you live at old Welcome Wagon feel you’ve just moved here? What should I see? And do where’s my theme, you know, where can I connect with things that interests me, whether it’s, you know, brew, trail walk, or arts and entertainment, the music scene. But more importantly, we felt it was a one on one human connection, so connecting them to other newbies that have just arrived in Billings, as well as community leader. So that this, you know, couple year ramp up time, I’m learning a new job and learning a lot of other stuff, buying a house, getting my cable connected all that stuff, we’re now going to deliberately help you find ways to get involved in the community getting involved in the chamber. And we think over time, we’re gonna be tracking that, and seeing what kind of retention rates employers are going to have, because there’ll be doing this onboarding, and then connecting to our leadership programs and connecting to elected official, and finding a way to get involved in our dei work if they choose. So that’s one very significant initiative that in its early phases, and we’re excited to see how it progresses.

Brandon Burton 21:34
Yeah. So and I like how you surveyed your members. And you said that you’re going about this, you know, when it boils down to what’s good for buildings, what’s good for your members. But really, there’s a huge outreach component of this to saying that you belong here, and you’re talking to people that are not Chamber members, that you’re talking to people that are not yet part of the community in some instances, but being inclusive and saying you belong, we have a place for you. But really focusing with your membership to create those places where they can belong and, and make them feel part of the community. So I’d like to, the focus is on billings in the members, they’re really that outreach component. I think this is so important.

John Brewer 22:17
In the outreach piece, one of our four core goals for dei mission was not only outreach so this one is relatively new, the outreach to outside of our borders. But within our membership, that continual dedication of space in our E News and other communications to dei content, celebrating Black History Month, and Martin Luther King Day, for example, and making sure that we’re able to provide kind of an upcoming calendar of here’s where we used to be set aside and set aside some dedicated time to to celebrate different populations. We launched a dei website, billing dei.com, and it has videos and to get books to read, and a downloadable toolkit that we actually partnered with it. Since they partnered we borrowed from the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, they developed this amazing resource. We worked with them to tweak a little bit to be billing centric, redeveloped it launched it and provided contacts and information on this website that helps businesses with their onroad or their onramp. You know, I want to start with I don’t know where to begin. What step one, I’m just in the early phases of wanting to introduce belonging into our organization, or we’ve been doing this for years, and what’s next for that company. And so some of our early adopters that really helped get the brand and part of a successful initiative, like takes funding. And some of our early adopters that stepped up, were some of the names you heard of, you know, corporate, large, major corporations such as Exxon and Keio International, based here and billing. A number of financial institution came to us with significant financial support to help us develop the structure, build a website, hire an individual to spearhead this work. And that’s meeting that goal for us. But making this sustainable, this could not be a fad. That, you know, it’s the talk of the day, let’s get behind this because it’s new, and then it disappears. It has to be sustained. So we built this into the fabric of our organization, found the funding and are really happy with with that continued growth and the continued support partnership from our members. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 24:36
So is the majority of the, I guess information and training for members? Is it digitally based on the Billings to ei.com? Or do you have any in person kind of stuff? I know you had mentioned the community, you know, the community onboarding has a personal touch that as far as getting the members position Well to be inclusive and welcoming for everybody. And what does that look like?

John Brewer 25:05
Yeah, so one of the very first things we did, this is out of my comfort zone. And we started. So we brought together a steering committee that has now evolved to an advisory board of 15 individuals that bring different perspective. And we decided early on, we needed to launch that personal touch. So for four sessions, now, we’ve had a diversity, equity inclusion, and an implementation dei class that’s consisted of four workshops. And those go over a four month period. And they’re followed by four community roundtable discussions, and then network opportunity. So after those four months, people will go through that they go through a graduation ceremony, we celebrate them. And then they become kind of part of our alumni email chain now of keeping them communicated with on a high level. But that step was big. And then once a company has graduated, so many people through that program, they’re then designated as a Workplace of Choice, and they get some language, we’re working on another piece to that that would be more of an identity for them. But they’re able to utilize those resources and promoting their organization as a quality place to work. So that has meant over the last two years for us 150 graduate full classes almost every time, those 140 50 graduates represent just over 30 businesses that employ 16,000 people. And that was our goal was to reach the major employees to begin with employers to begin with, knowing that they would cast their net out to their employees. And our goal, starting last April, and moving forward now is to engage many more small businesses. And part of the funding that’s come in, through our sponsors has been dedicated to scholarships for those that can’t afford it.

Brandon Burton 27:03
And it’s great. That was one of the questions that we’re going to have is there’s some kind of certification they get afterwards as a company, and you got into the depth of that with those workshops and the ability to kind of workshop together and around table and stay as part of that alumni group, and build that strength throughout the community. And then thinking with these major employers, 16,000 people being affected, they’re not all going to stay at the same player forever. So they’re going to move around that training is going to go with them as well. So casting that net, you know, wide within these major employers, I think is so key. And it’s such a smart move. I wanted to see as we start wrapping up here for I know a lot of chambers have some sort of a D and AI initiative, but it’s gonna see if you have any tips or action items for chambers listening, who want to take their organization up to the next level, what what would you suggest for them?

John Brewer 28:04
Yeah, that’s a great question. And you know, whether it’s dei specific or otherwise, one of the things that after our one of our first dei workshops, the presenter, who we’ve engaged as our contracts service provider to lead these workshops, gave me a bottle of wine, and encouraged me to enjoy it with somebody who I don’t know who doesn’t look like me, think like me is different. And I just that stuck with me. And I’ve got that here on my desk as a constant reminder of, you know, we’re engaged with a lot of people as chambers, we have strong networks, but there’s so many groups and individuals out there that we don’t know. So I’ve carried that on. And we do gift cards for staff and gift cards for others in the past, and have handed them out and said, You know what, here’s here’s a card for your favorite brewery or a card for a coffee shop. only caveat is you got to go find somebody to enjoy it with who you don’t know. And that really helped us as we were, again, evolving our advisory board and bringing those unique places around the table. Because we just have such a propensity to go back to that comfort zone and say, Hey, I’m gonna go grab this person and that person because I know they get stuff done. And I have a comfort there. That really helps, I think, just think differently and put you in that uncomfortable zone of of growth.

Brandon Burton 29:28
Yeah, yeah, I love that tip. That’s a hopefully everybody’s making a quick note of that. To get out of your comfort zone. Go enjoy time and conversation and a beverage or some food, you know, with somebody who’s different than you. And there’s a lot to be learned by doing that. John, I’d 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?

John Brewer 29:59
Yeah, I think there’s, you know, wide open plate for us to be successful and incredibly impactful in our community. But it boils down to leadership. It involves, you know, the makeup of our boards of directors and the professional staff that we have membership leadership and engagement. But there are there are some incredible roadmaps out there and somewhat crystal ball that we all need to be paying attention to and, and watching as they are updated. And, and, you know, I look often towards work that was done several years ago to ACCE and the horizons initiative gave us great perspective on emerging demographics and political polarization. WAC II is an incredible resource for their three C’s evolution of chambers becoming catalysts, and champions and conveners. And, you know, if we look to those roadmap, but he said at the very beginning, all chambers are different. But there’s a certain kind of structure a solid foundation that makes us unique, and I think will continue to provide value and make us relevant and not only relevant but essential as we go forward in such a digital age that we still have that ability to bring people together, that can really impact our communities in substantive ways.

Brandon Burton 31:23
I love that answer. And you know, how spot on was the horizons report? Right? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So I’m glad you brought that up. And in going from relevant to essential, I gotta upload Casey Steinbacher book, you know, that same title, great book, and any, any chamber pros out there, I haven’t read it. It’s a Kindle version. So you got to download it, but it’s a great read. John, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information. So anyone listening who’d like to learn more about how you guys are doing things there and billings, specifically about you know, creating a place of belonging with the your business growth there. What would be the best ways to reach out and connect with you

John Brewer 32:10
always best to reach me via email and that’s john@billingschamber.com. Again, just perusing our website with our BillingsDEI.com. There’s some great resources and a wider breadth of contact information and then then our website at Billingschamber.com as well.

Brandon Burton 32:30
Right? Well, we’ll get all of that in our show notes for this episode. So if anybody is driving and couldn’t get in, jot those down, just check out the show notes and scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll have all of John’s contact information there. But John, thank you for spending time with us today and sharing how you guys are creating that that place of belonging through business growth there and Billings and the example you guys are sending. I really appreciate it. Thank

John Brewer 32:55
you, Brandon means a lot. I appreciate that.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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Portland Business Alliance-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Andrew Hoan

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Andrew Hoan. 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.

Introduction

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

And now your host he is glad he attended the ACCE conference. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal 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 Jason Mock, President and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for his chamber.

Jason Mock 0:47
Two years ago, we brought in Holman Brothers to help our organization go to that next level. And in those two years, our team has transformed the way that we think about sponsorships and non dues revenue. And I would really encourage you if you’re looking to take your chamber to the next level to bring on the Holman Brothers.

Brandon Burton 1:04
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Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for another episode in our 2022 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. And for this episode, we have Andrew Hoan with us. Andrew is the president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, greater Portland’s Chamber of Commerce and joining the organization in 2018. With years of experience with successful business association executive leadership experience previously, Andrew served as the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, which was awarded the 2017 New York State Chamber of Commerce of the year. He’s a resident of Rose City with his wife and three children. Andrew, I’m excited to have you with me today on chamber chat podcast. Congratulations for being selected as a finalist. Why don’t you take a minute to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Andrew Hoan 2:39
Sure. Well, thank you, Brandon. And also thank you to all the chamber champions out there who are listening and tuning in. My name is Andrew Hone, and again President CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, which is greater Portland’s Chamber of Commerce and really happy to be here with all of you today, listening in and just to give you a little bit of background for myself, I will I will admit that I am born and raised Wisconsin native. So I am a cheesehead proudly owner of the of the franchise and moved to Brooklyn, New York. When I graduated college and set up residency there worked in both homeless services in national service through AmeriCorps VISTA and then moved into politics, working for the Brooklyn Borough President and then eventually into the chamber of commerce world. And then followed my wife’s career out here to Portland, Oregon, and settled in and we’ve had our three children here and just absolutely love life in the Rose City. And really, really proud to represent the business community here in the Pacific Northwest in the flagship city of Portland, Oregon. So that’s me, and it’s good to meet all of you.

Brandon Burton 3:48
Absolutely. That’s great. I know, Oregon is a wonderful place and lots of great activities. So I’m sure you guys are enjoying the lifestyle there in Oregon. So why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us more about the Portland Business Alliance kind of this scope of the chamber? Staff budget just overall. You know, those key key indicators, I guess chambered it give us an idea and perspective before we get into our topic?

About the Portland Business Alliance

Andrew Hoan 4:18
Sure, well, we are a little bit unique and so much as we’re a three in one organization. And so that is why we are called the Portland Business Alliance. And so I’ll give you a sense of what makes up that three in one and first and foremost we are the Greater Portland Chamber of Commerce where the leading voice of business in the region. We advocate for businesses at all levels of government to support commerce, community health and the region’s overall prosperity. And we do that like a lot of other chambers by offering a variety of networking events and professional development, opportunities to connect and foster growth in our region’s business community. And number two, we manage the 213 blog I have downtown Portland. That’s the enhanced service district that’s called Downtown Portland clean, safe. And then in addition to that, our number three is we are the fiscal conduit for an organization that we call partners in diversity. And this is an affiliate of our charitable Institute, and partners in diversity works to create competitive advantage in Oregon and southwest Washington to attract and retain and develop diversity influencers, and professionals of color. So three and one three corporate identities in one organization. And we add the chamber side, which is most relevant, I think, for folks listening in have over 2100 members. And just on the chamber side alone, we have over 15 staff. But you expanded out to the enhanced service district and of course, partners and diversity, we tip the scales of 25. The combined entities this year have a proposed budget of over $11 million. So we have a significant budget, much of that is dedicated to the direct services of cleaning and maintaining and security for our downtown core, which is our obligation and contract that we have to run, enhance service district. So that’s who we are. And this is our 100 and 52nd birthday. And so we’re an old chamber. And we’ve been a lot around a long time and taking a lot of different forms and shapes. But we’re very pleased that we’re on our third and final year of a strategic plan that we launched in 20. And it was our first time that we ever did that process ever had a strategic plan since the founding of the organization. So learning new things and doing our best to be our best.

Brandon Burton 6:41
Yeah, when you said three and one these are different things and what you normally see chambers that are three in one chambers, I appreciate you going into a little bit more depth with that. And it is very different with that a scope of work. So with these chamber, the year finalist episodes, what I like to focus on is the two programs that you submitted on your chamber that your application. So we’ll we’ll dive into those programs and get into some depth with them. But what makes them work as soon as we get back from this quick break?

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All right, Andrew, we’re back. So as we dive into the programs that were on your, your chamber of the year application, what are maybe just from a high level, what are the two programs and then we can circle around into a little bit more depth?

Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

Andrew Hoan 9:40
Sure. So by context, one of the most important things that we do here in the organization when we approach policy, and when we approach economic conditions is that we lean heavily on the data and the science and so each and every single year we ROI, public sentiment polling. And we commission, something that we call the regional state of the economy. So we lead with, where are the voters? And where is the economy, and that drives all of our decision making. It drives the consideration of the board. It asks the tough questions around where do we prioritize our time, and our influence. And something that’s important for listeners to be aware of that helps to contextualize the two things that we put forward is that Portland and Oregon, not not dissimilar to any other place in the nation has depth of disparity that is driven in large part by race, and also has an impact on geographic disparity with in our region. And the state of Oregon when it was admitted to the United States join on the side of the Union, but it built into its constitution, a complete exclusion of free blacks. And so oftentimes, the relationship with race and business and our region is extremely troubled because of our history, and because of the unique nature of the way that we enter the Union. And so the data pointed us in that direction. We have monumental differences in the income and the well being of black Portlanders. And that is exacerbated by region. And we are in what’s known as Multnomah County and within our county, the west side is the wealthiest part of the state. And the east side is the poorest part. And it also happens to be the most diverse. So two specific programs that we submitted for our application addressed those disparities. The disparity between East and West Multnomah County, and how we could support businesses in East County specifically, by working with our partners at the federal level, state level and county level during the darkest days of the pandemic, when the closures due to public health reasons were most significant to prop up businesses that were in desperate need of resources. And that was what we did to stand up our East County Cares Act initiative. The second was something that hearken back to the immediate days after the murder of George Floyd, which was the question our Blackboard members asked to all of us as a community, what are we doing as a business community support black prosperity in our region? And from that was born out our second proposal that we’ve included in our application, which is the black economic prosperity agenda, and the development of our public private and philanthropic effort to fund and support regional black economic prosperity for all those who live here in the region, but specifically, black Portlanders. So those are the two programs and that’s their genesis.

Brandon Burton 13:09
Wow, that it gives a good history lesson two that maybe a lot of the country is not aware of, as far as the forming of the state. And it really does cut the workout for you guys is the chamber to see that that disparity is dealt with and and to make things more equitable across the state for all the residents. So I don’t know if it makes sense to start on one of the programs to go into more depth first or not, but maybe maybe let’s start with the East County Cares Act. But I’m assuming that had to do with somewhat with the federal aid with the cares, or am I wrong thing?

Andrew Hoan 13:51
You’re absolutely right. You know, and a lot of states are given latitude around how they dispersed resources and who would be allocated what and oftentimes leaned on the private sector to be able to assist in making sure that the funds got to the right places to those most in need. And we received a call from the governor’s office and from the county asking us as the business community to stand up and deliver in under a two to three month period of time, in enormity of resources, specifically to each county, there are about four different cities that live within our county that are defined as East County municipalities. And so we were targeting these unique cities that oftentimes get left out from conversations around economic development, because they’re not quite as large as Portland, even though they’re in the same county. So we stood up and formed an incredible cross collaboration of intergovernmental agencies, philanthropy and and the business community to determine how we would disperse over a million dollars in resources to small businesses, but the focus on making sure that these were equitably distributed to prioritize businesses owned by individuals of color, and make sure that the resources were sent to Those businesses most impacted by closures, which should come as no surprise to people where restaurants and retail and healthcare establishments that face the biggest challenges from the pandemic. And if you don’t know this about the state of Oregon, we were one of the first into public health closures. And we were one of the last out of public health closures. So while we had a lot of differences in the way that states dealt with the pandemic, ours was the most aggressive from a public health standpoint. And at the end of the day, we all know that the more aggressive you were on the public health standpoint, the more damage that was wrought within the economy. Again, these were simple trade offs everyone had to make. But the reality was, we were able to save lives. But we did exceptional damage, especially to our leisure and hospitality scene. So the ability to stand up these kinds of Cares Act was a derivative of federal funds from the state. And we lead the way in establishing the criteria, the funding matrix and who would get what resources. And what I’m so proud about is that we delivered over 400 grants, ranging in size of $2,500 or more. And of those 400 grants to East County businesses, all of them were small, so very small mom and pop, typically retail brick and mortar, half of those businesses were owned by individuals of color. So this punches way above the weight of the demographics in the region. But we were able to deliver it in a three month stretch of time, in a way that was truly aboveboard, financially speaking, it was an outstandingly well propped up effort from a legal perspective. And we made sure that the resources got into the hands of those that needed it in really, what were their darkest hours. So that’s the East County Cares Act initiative.

Brandon Burton 16:50
So how did they did the county come to you and say, Andrew, we need help on dispersing this this money, or because I know, counties all over the country had federal aid given during during the pandemic, and especially with those shutdown periods to help relieve some of that burden put on the small businesses. But I don’t think every county reached out to the Chamber of Commerce to help disperse it. So how has that relationship developed? And how did that come about? Yeah,

Andrew Hoan 17:22
it was really, you know, our county has a obviously, just like a lot of other counties, their various commissioners are, the legislative side of the county government has representation by district and the representative from each county knew that there was a once in a generation opportunity to capture resources and deliver it to that part of the district or excuse me, that part of the county. So we were approached by the county to facilitate and manage the entire process because they wanted to make sure that this was done in a timely fashion. And that was done in a way that was it was communicated accessibly in multiple different languages, that was done with a level of financial acuity and sensibility that the business community brings alongside the accountability. So those were the ask to us is to make sure you lead with racial equity, but do this accountably and do this rapidly. And so to be able to stand up and get out the door, that amount of resources in such a brief amount of time, required the thing that we all love, which is public private partnership. And so that was the hallmark of the initiative, was bringing the resources and the guidance of government, pairing that with the expertise of business to get grants into the hands of businesses that would probably have had to go under, or turn off the lights if it weren’t for these resources.

Brandon Burton 18:46
Right. And I think, you know, none of us want another pandemic to happen. We don’t want to have to go through that whole mess again. But you know, if it did happen, it’s good to have those relationships in place, have those public private partnerships, have that good relationship, the seat at the table, having those conversations with your, your counties, their cities, with those in your jurisdictions to be able to be there as a support for the business community when the time when when you’re called upon? So that I think that alone is a good example of the positioning that you guys were in to be able to help execute that. Let’s, let’s shift gears over to the other programs, the black economic prosperity agenda. What did that look like? And how did you guys go about execute executing that?

Andrew Hoan 19:35
Yeah, I think yeah, I would really want to talk about how the inception. And I think like so many of us when we sat in our homes because of the pandemic and watched what was happening in Minneapolis and with the murder of George Floyd, we all we all knew that there was a time that this this felt different, right? I think it was because we were kids. Assuming news and information and the brutality of it was just so distinct, that it caused the reaction we saw around the country. And we are fortunate in our organization to have the leadership of a really thoughtful black business leaders, and from different types of companies and both as owners, and those that are multi generational family owned businesses to C suite executives at large companies. And we really turned to them and said, What, what, what what can we do? Because I think there was a lot of action immediately after across the country from the business community supporting racial justice, nonprofits and stepping into this space of supporting social justice programming. But there was a bigger question we want to answer, which is, what can the book book in the business community? What role do we have in this conversation? Not all of it, we can solve. Now, not all of it is in our lane, not all of it is in our expertise, right? Whether it’s criminal justice reform, or any of the other big issues that were brought out by the murder of George Floyd weren’t always things that are just natural areas of expertise. So what role do we play and it was decidedly presented and agreed upon to our board in collaboration with our Black Board members, that we would take a stand, and our stand would be economic, and it would be based in business. And so our board and our organization issued a statement called the invisible knee, which really harkens to the visuals that we all saw on the TV, of how George Floyd was killed. But representing that in the manner that we speak, which is akin to Adam Smith’s invisible hand and what moves the economy, and noting that for too long that the black community in this country has suffered under an invisible need that has prevented growth and shared prosperity for all of us, and specifically black Americans. And so from the invisible need came out a okay, it’s nice to say something, but what are you going to do about it? And just like any good Chamber of Commerce, we put together an action plan. And that action plan was very straightforward. It’s we need to get the data understand what are the disparities in our region between black individuals and the rest of us? And what is the strategic plan to address those disparities. And we need to resource this appropriately, and hire an individual to enact this agenda. And out of that bore a two year fundraising effort where our board of directors did for the first time ever, and all board give to be able to be the first in as an investment in establishing the resources necessary to bring that agenda to light. We then brought in city, county and state money, and philanthropic money all matched to be able to stand up this initiative, we recruited from a national search a leader to advance this agenda, who was hired just a few months ago, and is working on establishing the dashboard of economic data to help guide policy and inform policymakers about what actions they can take to close the wealth disparities between black Portlanders and the rest of the residents. And also to establish a strategic plan, actionable economic plan to close those disparities based on that data. And so that’s what that program represents. The thing that has been so rewarding about it is it was a leap of faith for our board to fund it to be the initial dollar in and that the government and philanthropic sectors matched us nearly dollar for dollar tells the story that durable change comes about in ways that are collaborative. And if it was just the business community going alone on this, it may not see a long life. But right now we have investors from all the sectors that matter to make change, both systemic and durable. And so we’re just in to the launch phase, we’re really thrilled with hiring of an executive director to lead this effort. And we know that we have the seed funds necessary to enact the agenda that our organization supported, and that has been backed by the government and philanthropic sectors. So

Brandon Burton 24:33
that imagery of the invisible knee I think is so powerful, and kind of equating it to the invisible hand like you had mentioned. Can you share maybe what a couple of those action items look like is as you go about to put this plan into action just to kind of give people an idea of how does the business community get involved with with rolling this out? Yeah, it’s

Andrew Hoan 24:57
really to look first and foremost about establishing A totally transparent open source dashboard around economic prosperity for black Portlanders. So it’s about the data first, just like every other thing, just like I had mentioned, around everything we do, is driven by data. And so right now there is a lack of understanding, from every level about what are the actual underlying data points that drive the differences. So oftentimes, you’ll see issues around racial economic disparities called out in different ways, but not in totality. So you might see out there’s a new analysis about how there are challenges amongst black communities in accessing capital, or around wage differentials or around health disparities. But there’s never a single place where all of those are aggregated into one published annually, and demonstrated around how we’re making progress in closing the disparities that exist. So the first action item is to establish this annual disparities dashboard that allows everybody to look at either the progress we are making or not making, and then knowing whether there’s a new policy or a new action that government can take, or the business community can take, what lever does it pull within that dashboard? Does it close the disparities? Or does it worsen them. And I think that part of an awareness focusing on black prosperity at the data points that underlie it, is the is the most important step we can take from awareness. Because a lot of times actions that we all take, whether we’re in policymaking roles, or government or business, we may have the intentions of closing those disparities. But if you don’t have the facts, data and science to back them up, then you don’t have really a proof point or a concept to prove that what you’re doing is the right thing. And that’s just an awareness piece. So the first action that’s been taken is to build out this dashboard. And then once you have this awareness and the underlying data, like any good business, when you’ve established what the problem is, then you develop a strategy to address it. And so born out of the dashboard, the next step will be to create a strategic plan for addressing the gaps. And they’re very simple things. But it’s what businesses do day in and day out, they identify where they they take that SWOT analysis of their own services, see where the pain points are, and they create an action plan to address them. So we’re just simply taking that good old fashioned business practice, about being driven by data being driven by the science and the economics, and then creating plans to ultimately address them. So those are the two major actions that we expect the executive director that we just resourced to be able to take.

Brandon Burton 27:51
I love how it’s all data focused data first, and to be able to see, you know, the actions you make, is it positively or negatively possibly affecting your goals and outcomes? And hopefully, you have a method of sharing and broadcasting what’s working for all those of us who who don’t have dashboards that are buttons, so that those things can start being adopted more nationwide. So I love that though. So Andrew, I wanted to ask as a chamber that you’re a finalist. I see you guys is kind of setting a benchmark of sorts. How do you view the role of your chamber within your community? I think you’ve been speaking to it on these topics. But it may be more generally, how do you how do you view your role?

Andrew Hoan 28:41
Yeah, you know, these two items we advance for application are really specific to the role of business and race. But what I think is really important, or the way that we view our role and this is more broadly is somewhat rooted in the the nature of Portland, and I’m sure it comes as no surprise a lot of people have heard about Portland more in the last two years than they probably have in their entire life. And not all of it for the right reasons. And

Brandon Burton 29:11
and I’m surprised you don’t have a head full of gray hair.

Andrew Hoan 29:15
Well, I used to, but now it’s all gone. Right? So the difference is that not a lot of people have heard from Portland. And what I think is important for listeners to understand is the political dynamic here is worlds different than anything I’ve experienced as someone who’s had the privilege of growing up in the Midwest living in the northeast and now settled here with a family and the Pacific Northwest. The receptivity to business and support of the business community in the Pacific Northwest is hard to come by the politics here are not just liberal in the way that we all would understand that word but progress Have is not even adequate to describe it. It is, you know, in a quite astonishing level of progressivism here, that just makes it challenging to work in government with government. And what is interesting from an advocacy standpoint isn’t necessarily that we’re fighting over, you know, tax breaks or incentives or a regulatory condition. It’s that the business community is here that our top priorities really tend to focus in on issues of livability. So the explosion of the unsheltered crisis that’s happened in the region, public safety, cleanliness, these things are not exactly what you would call core business issues. I mean, they’re important to everybody. So they’re not unimportant, but there’s simply not typical business issues. But what while that seems, sort of on the surface, a challenge is presented an opportunity to be collaborative with what I would call strange bedfellows for lack of a better word. So while we may look at traditional political divides as businesses over here, Labor’s over here, environments over there, in Portland, those divides don’t exist. Our partnerships, political partnerships are not just solely business community partnerships. They’re with labor, we stand side by side with the AFL CIO, we work with the environmental lobby. And the reason we do that is because the issues that we all face, are somewhat the same livability issues impact labor as they do business. And so it’s brought us together in a way that I never thought possible. And so when you ask the question, what do I view our organization’s role, it is the convener, and in the one that has done more outreach to our partners that have traditionally, or that most folks would would view as traditional opposition or opponents, or, you know, adversarial here, it’s collaborators, its partners, the individuals I rely on are, of course, my members and other business associations. But I’m really proud to stand with labor on issues. And we don’t always agree I’m not painting a rosy picture of just, everything’s perfect here. It certainly isn’t. We’ve had our challenges, but it’s also given us an opportunity as an organization to say, you know, let’s not just fit in a box, let’s take the box, throw it out and do a dance on it. And that’s what we’re doing here. And it’s pretty cool, because you learn that when you’re in crisis, you don’t always sit there and choose, you know, the issues, the times and the battles that you’d like. But it’s allowed us to really work with folks that we probably should have been working with better in the past. And we’re learning how to do it now. And I hope that it continues even when we pull out of this crisis, and we’ve recovered, and now we’re back on top of the national, you know, rankings of places to do business and where people are moving again. So that’s what I think our role is. It’s to be a convener and to really get rid of the box.

Brandon Burton 33:14
Yeah, I like that a lot. Especially I mean, you guys are in a unique situation to be in that convener and bringing everybody together for a common goal and, and driving the city forward. I wanted to ask you, if you might have any tip or action item for chamber champions listening who may want to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you offer for them?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Andrew Hoan 33:40
Yeah, he is the so I’ve had a great opportunity. When I was the head of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, we were a finalist. Back when the convention was in Savannah, I’ll never forget how hard it was. And now I’m lucky enough to lead an organization here in Portland that’s never been considered for this this award. And I didn’t win. We didn’t win the Brooklyn Chamber didn’t win back in the Savannah convention. But I can tell anyone that’s listening first app, just competing, is so much fun. Because filling out the application tells you a lot it tells you what do you want the world to know about you, it tells you Are you a champion for best practices, are you you know, breaking the ice on things that chambers have never done before and that you’re proud of and that you know, your boards proud of and your staff feels good about? And everybody has that and sometimes it’s just about asking the question, well, what is it? So for anyone listening and wants to ask the question, what do you do to get to the next level? I think it’s following The Ark of your strategic plan that has always paid dividends, and then picking something big and going in on it and not being afraid to fail. For every good idea we’ve had here in the organization, we’ve had a dozen total busts, we are well informed by failure. And that’s okay. And also allowing your staff to fail and feel supported as long as they’re trying, you know, chambers get to be innovators, because every one of the individuals and members we serve, are inherently innovative. That’s what business does and is. So innovate, be bold on at least one thing. Because if you can enjoy the work you’re doing, and frankly, whenever we do these big ideas, it’s stuff we want to do. It’s the stuff we like to do. It’s the stuff we feel calling to do. All the things I mentioned, our big programs. Everybody in the organization feels good about. It’s the good work that we do. And so have fun with it, and innovate and don’t be afraid to fail.

Brandon Burton 36:05
I think that’s great advice go big. How am I like asking everyone this question, but as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Andrew Hoan 36:19
You know, one thing that struck me this fascinating article that was published last year by the New York Times, or maybe could have been 2020. Now all the pandemic years seem like, right now she’s together.

Brandon Burton 36:31
Yeah.

Andrew Hoan 36:33
But it struck me that they identified that this one political year, I do believe it was November 2020, saw the largest turnover in municipal leadership that the country had ever seen. In other words, how many mayor’s have just simply declined to run again, for office or who had, you know, been defeated by a challenger? Because obviously, the world is not a fun place, right? There’s there was no good. No one had good choices to make. So you saw this leadership turnover at a municipal county level, I think across the nation, you just saw this incredible flux happening in government, and chambers sit at that intersection between government and business. And so when I think about what chambers present right now, is the fact that we are durable. We are not a new institution, businesses will always advocate for themselves. And so right now as society, in so many ways, phrase all around us, right, we’re seeing the common threads are the institutions that were irreproachable in the past democracy. Things are being called into question constantly. chambers are that pillar of stability. And I also think, reason and rational decision making that in this environment of inflammatory rhetoric of public discourse that has turned so toxic, and chambers can be the high road. And so if there’s a future and there’s a message we can convey, it’s the one of being back to that convener and collaborator role. While everything else falls around us. We’re still here, and we’re going to be here into the future, and we will help mend all these torn edges in society.

Brandon Burton 38:31
Right? I love that responsive chambers are durable, and that you always hear about chambers need to be relevant. But man, what can your chamber do to be durable? That is a huge takeaway for me. So I appreciate that. Andrew, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things. They’re in Portland, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Sure.

Connect with Andrew Hoan

Andrew Hoan 39:01
Everyone should give me an email. I’m Andrew Hoan. And my email address is really easy. It’s ahoan@portlandalliance.com. So a hoan at Portland alliance.com. I’d love to hear from you. I also not just want to hear about questions, but I want to hear about what you’re all doing that’s innovative and exciting. And that you’re leading the way on and just wish everybody well and hope all of you are feeling like the future is a little bit brighter right now, because it’s been a rough couple of years.

Brandon Burton 39:34
That’s right. I’ll get your email in our show notes for this episode. So anybody can look it up there and reach out and connect with you. But Andrew, I appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast guys are doing some great innovative and durable work. They’re in Portland. So I appreciate that. This has been a great conversation and best of luck to you guys is chamber the year.

Andrew Hoan 39:58
Thanks so much Brandon and take care everyone And

Brandon Burton 40:01
If you are a 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.

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Your audience is waiting to hear from you as a convener of leaders and influencers champion for business and catalyst for change within your community.

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. For a limited time as a launch promotion. This course is being offered at a 25% discount. Be sure to purchase the course today to lock in your savings before the price goes up., even if you’re not ready to start right away. Again, that’s chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot.

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Bowling Green Area Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Ron Bunch

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Ron Bunch. 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.

Introduction

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

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host he believes it is important for chambers to produce digital content. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:22
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 Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Matt Morrow President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber in Missouri to learn how the Holman Brothers provided value to his chamber.

Matt Morrow 0:46
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:08
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Doug & Bill Holman know how to diagnose and solve
member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and they want to put
that knowledge to work for you and your chamber. Learn more at HolmanBros.com.

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 catalyst for change within your community.

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. For a limited time as a launch promotion. This course is being offered at a 25% discount. Be sure to purchase the course today to lock in your savings before the price goes up., even if you’re not ready to start right away. Again, that’s chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot.

Get started with your own Chamber Podcast and shortcut your learning curve with the Chamber Podcast Course offered by Chamber Chat Podcast.

Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for our 2022 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. And our guest for this episode is Ron Bunch. Ron is here with us today representing the Bowling Green Area Chamber as their President and CEO in their bid for for chamber of the year. But Ron as he leads the Bowling Green Area Chamber they are a five star credited chamber, placing in the top 1% of all chambers in America. The Bowling Green Area Chamber has served the Bowling Green and Warren County area for more than 85 years. As the driving force for the business community in Bowling Green Warren County. The chamber also serves as the lead economic development organization for the region and is responsible for the South Central Kentucky Regional Economic Development Partnership. Since Ron joined the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, their community has announced over $6.1 billion in capital investment and more than 11,200 new jobs. Bowling Green has been ranked in the top six nationally by site selection magazine for the top 10 metros for new and expanding facilities for populations under 200,000 for nine consecutive years, including number one overall in 2018. The Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce has also won two consecutive Matt Conway awards from site selection magazine, which recognized the team as a top 20 economic development organization in the country for their performance in 2020 and 2021. Simultaneously, the Chamber has been invited to apply for chamber the year in the US by the by ACCE for five consecutive years and making it to the finalist stage for three of those years. Ron received the Kentucky Association for Economic Development’s 2014 James J. Coleman Community Economic professional of the year with nearly 30 years of professional economic development experience. Ron is a certified economic developer and his lead successful local and regional economic development efforts in Florida, Virginia and South Carolina before coming to Kentucky. Ron, welcome back to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m excited to have you with us today, especially under these conditions is at chamber the year finalist. Again, that is a great feat. But take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Ron Bunch 4:44
Well, I really appreciate you having me back on again. Let’s see something interesting about me. I went to West Point and one of the training opportunities I had while at West Point was to go to Northern warfare training in Alaska. So I got to do front spiking for bass rescue and all that other stuff while we lived on the glacier for a week as well, too. So it was a really great experience. So probably not many people know that.

Brandon Burton 5:11
That is pretty interesting and quite the experience to so

Ron Bunch 5:16
that was some of the best training I’ve ever done. And it was, it was really great.

Brandon Burton 5:20
Yeah, that’s awesome. So I’ll share it. A fun fact, too, is that Ron was a guest of ours back on Episode 24, which was the actually the very first chamber of the year finalist interview that I did on the podcast. So he, he helped pilot this series, originally back in 2019. So if anybody wants to go back and check that out, I think encourage you probably not to because I probably wasn’t as good then. And it wasn’t as well refined. But I’m excited that’s

Ron Bunch 5:51
still going on, considering I was the first guest.

Brandon Burton 5:56
That’s right, and we’re up to episode 182. Now on this one, so we’ve come a long ways from there. But Ron, take a minute and tell us about the bowling green area Chamber just to give us some perspective of size, staff budget, scope of work, that sort of thing to kind of give us

About the Bowling Green Area Chamber

Ron Bunch 6:12
some perspective. Sure, in our chambers, around 1300 partners or members, our annual budgets around 2.4 million. We’ve got a staff of approximately 16 full time, folks, we’re changing it up a little bit. Right now we do have some virtual employees that were contracted with reasonably we try that out. But probably the most unique part is that we run six different companies. So there’s five additional companies beyond the chamber, chamber houses, all the employees, but we have multiple development companies, foundations, so multiple pieces that we operate with one common management team.

Brandon Burton 6:50
Right. So those additional companies, are they primarily focused around economic development? And are the foundations, I guess, give us give us a little more sampling what that looks like. Yeah,

Ron Bunch 7:01
it’s sort of a balance. You know, two of them are development companies. So one of the public development company that owns and operates the trans Park was a private nonprofit development company that developed the south Industrial Park and own some buildings. And it’s been the tool that we use to build speculative building. Another entity is a public entity that we use to facilitate incentives and bond issues. We’ve got 2501 C threes. One is our foundation that we’ve used to raise money for what started out as Leader in Me that’s evolved into SC K launch, which is our K 12, comprehensive talent initiative, we’ve raised and invested about 2.6 million at this point. After that, we have another entity that’s a training Consortium. So we seek out and bid and deliver on Demand training for different groups of companies through it. And then there’s the chain province.

Brandon Burton 7:59
Yeah, you guys know how to stay busy and make it work. So

Ron Bunch 8:02
there’s no shortage of more money. So if anybody’s looking for a board meeting in DC, come on down here. We’ll set you up with one. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 8:09
But to put you in a room, right. Well, as I say, chamber, the year finalist series rolls out, what I like to do is focus primarily on the two programs that you guys submitted as your program synopsis on the chamber that your application. So I look forward to diving into what those programs are learning more about the impact you guys are making in your community. As soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

All right, Ron, we’re back. Why don’t you take us through what the two programs are that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application just first at a high level and then we’ll we’ll circle back and get into a little more

Ron Bunch 10:57
detail on each of them. Sure, the two different areas we highlight this time one is a follow on initiative in talent. So for the 11 plus years that I’ve been here, 10 plus of those 11 have been focused on talent. And what we build out with SDK launch our regional talent initiative that spans the K 12, system, city and county schools, as well as what we’ve done a public workforce. So one of those is minorities in engineering, and our goal there was to seek to engage more minorities in K 12, and help lead them to engineering occupations, and education through our university. And then the other initiative is in our role of managing, developing and growing the trans Park, which was a 900 acre business park when we got here. That initiative, we essentially added double the acreage in about a 24 month period. And then were able to win several different projects as a result of that, during the pandemic. So when not many people were investing in more product development, we were able to convince our city in Canada invest in that and it really produced a lot of dividend for

Brandon Burton 12:14
that is that is a pretty pretty large impact there on the growth of the transport Web. Say, let’s dive a little deeper into that one. How did you guys approach that? I know as we went into the pandemic, yeah, we all thought it was gonna be two weeks, right? A little longer, right?

Ron Bunch 12:35
In our programs, and

Brandon Burton 12:38
there’s a reflection there, right? So how did you guys go about kind of seeing through the mess of the pandemic and kind of seeing where the light is at the end of the tunnel and the need to continue building, especially in this trans Park area to be able to double the acreage and investment in that area? What was your selling points and to be able to have clarity through all that?

Ron Bunch 13:02
Now, let’s that’s awesome. The so obviously, we’ve been managing the trans park all along. And as you mentioned earlier, we’ve been very blessed to be nationally ranked and economic development for nine consecutive years now. And so we’ve built some success in the transport and developing that winning projects. In the even during the pandemic, we were able to win 20 different projects. And so we both saw an increase in activity and a reduction in available property. But we had been talking about growing the transport for some time. So what the the effects of the pandemic were that, you know, we saw more global companies. So when you look at global impact, we were talking with more global companies that were looking for available product so that they could change their supply chain. We also knew from a scarcity and abundance standpoint that those communities that had an abundant amount of property would be more successful, because we had a track record and working with companies successfully. And but we knew we had a scarcity both on utilities and property. And so when you look to the Horizon Report, I mean, those are two of the key factors in our analysis of the transport. So really a couple of things played into it, you know, one was attractive, we had a winning project. So we’ve had let’s see, prior to the recent wins about three of the top investments in Kentucky in a given year in the transparency and we have consistently performed so the Sydney county had confidence in us. And so we began a conversation with them about doubling their investment from around 25 million to 40 plus almost 50 million in the trans Park and they saw the wisdom in that during the pandemic. So they put together a bond issue issued $46 million in debt that allowed us to acquire almost 608 First, and that allowed us to win several projects. And then, as we were recording one of the major projects, we it turned out, we needed an additional 14 to 16 acres. So we went back to the city and the county, who went into reserves to then provide funds so that we could buy additional property this time about, I think it was close to 500 acres or so and all said and done in a 24 month period, we brought on 1100 acres, which is larger than the original trans Park. And we’ve now won several projects, including the Envision project, which is the state’s second largest investment in Kentucky history. So had we not had the advocacy and relationships with local government, have we not performed we would have never been able to make that case for them to invest in such a challenging time. And so like everybody, we were also dealing with the effects of the pandemic and reassuring business and clarifying things for business and evolving how we do business. But we felt it was very important to bring on this additional property. And we were very blessed that it turned out to be great, we were able to win a project with ball Corporation, which is a $300 million project. Tyson Foods, which was the largest job creation project up from that point. And then the Envision project is a $2 billion investment with 2000 jobs. It’ll build about 3 million square feet here for an easy project.

Brandon Burton 16:27
Wow. That is That is awesome. So did you already have some of this in motion before the pandemic hit kind of division that where you wanted to take the trans Park? Or did the pandemic really kind of accelerate the need to be able to move forward with this?

Ron Bunch 16:42
Yeah, we had some of the conversations already happening with the city in the county because the public entity we run has appointees from the city in the county, including the city manager and others. And so they were aware we needed to increase the size of transport, we hadn’t solidified how much. And so as we did that, and then as we began to court, some of the projects that started to respond, then we identify we need even more land than we originally thought. So just after the city, the county doubled their investment, which we they had not planned to do with the 46 million, we came back say oh, by the way, another 500 acres, but that acreage allowed us to win the Tyson project and Tyson announced with 455 employees, which at that time was our largest new job announcement ever in Warren County. So that was a very exciting project. But it was amazing. Because that additional property, we needed about 14 acres to make this light work, right. And we were able to secure another 500 or so acres, that if we had not had, we could not have even talked to the folks at Envision. And so we were very blessed to be able to work the Envision project. It was pretty unique and that that mega project, we ended up having to work directly with the legislature. So I met with the Senate and I met with the House leadership, they were under NDA. And between the governor and his team and the Cabinet for Economic Development and the legislature, we were able to put together a package that ultimately won the project. So I mean, tons of parties helped us to when we were just the quarterback on the team. But what a great project.

Brandon Burton 18:22
Yeah, and what a great investment for your community as well to be able to increase his number of jobs and increases the tax revenue base for the city and county to put the money in. It truly is an investment it’s going to pay back pretty quickly. It sounds like yeah, no,

Ron Bunch 18:37
I’m glad you share it like that. Because I mean, like like all of us experience. I mean, everyone that’s a chamber leader does all they can do to take care of their community. And that’s all we’ve ever done. And in this instance, you know, we had probably 3000 jobs already in the transit Park. So it was generating a really nice return on investment to the city and the county, very positive. We’ve had, you know, we’ve been very blessed with success annually for years. And this envision project with 2000 jobs, the economic impact of that is more than the cumulative transport before it. Wow. So it’s it’s really hard to wrap your head around some of the numbers that and so I really firmly believe that the city and the county having confidence in investing during the pandemic made a huge difference. But we’re also have really worked with our team on recruiting and in closing projects. We’ve been a leader in developing what we call a continuum of property so there’s always property in different stages ready for us to CT project. So there’s been a lot of foundation work that then allowed this investment by the Sydney can to pay such dividends so quickly and we also had a reputation with Site Location consultants. stuff of being on go to group, a group that delivers. And so all those things kind of came together. But

Brandon Burton 20:06
amazing. Yeah, that’s a great win. And I look forward to seeing that continued development and the stories that come out of that that investment. And we’ve got,

Ron Bunch 20:15
we’ve got about five other projects teed up in the next 60 days. So we’re pretty excited.

Brandon Burton 20:22
That’s awesome. No, no rest there at the chamber. No.

Ron Bunch 20:26
That’s the other thing that all my chamber peers know. I mean, the chase and the courtship and the announcement are all exciting. But that’s about 20% of the work. Now we’ve got the 80% of the work of, you know, building 60 $70 million worth of infrastructure, helping with permitting, helping with incentives, helping them find talent. So now the real work begins.

Brandon Burton 20:46
The work, right. I love that impact that you guys are having there with economic development. Let’s, let’s shift gears over to the first program that you talked about with around talent and the minorities in engineering and tell us more about how that program works. How you guys saw the need to focus there. And you know, who’s involved with that, that program to make it successful? Yeah,

Ron Bunch 21:12
thanks. So, um, maybe a little preamble again, just to tie it together. So, you know, for the last decade, here, we’ve focused on talent, and we built what’s called SDK launch. So SDK is a region. So it’s also the labor market, 10 County area. And a launch is learning about unique and new careers here. And so that facet, we run the demand projections every month, that then guides our work. It’s interesting, because the Envision project to tie those two things together is cited our investments and our relationships that were built in SCK launch. That’s one of the key reasons why they chose because talent is tight everywhere. They like the fact that we had a decade of investment, a decade of relationship building a decade of different tactics that built on that core framework. And so that was a big difference maker in our courtship with envision the $2 billion project, the 2000 jobs. But the minorities in engineering specifically, was an effort to get more minorities in our community, to the university and into career. And so in this instance, we had about 11 1200 engineers in occupations now in our economy. But as we ran that monthly projection, we could see that there were 900, plus engineering slots that were going to be available. And so we became aware that in schools, students really didn’t have visibility to the courses to take that lead to engineering. Nor was there really a poll to draw any students into engineering, but specifically minorities. And so one of the companies that we call on this here had two parents that were minority with a daughter that was in school, and they brought this topic to us. And you know, up until then, even though we’re so engaged, it’s because we didn’t realize that facet. And so we convened five different companies that were here who all excited to come to the table, we put together a cohort. And we’ve begun to align the pathways in the school that then both engage and set up a series of courses that one would take, that could lead in engineering, and then we took, I think, 60 or so students to the university had a variety of different speakers, I got to be there for a couple hours of it was pretty awesome, because you had successful engineers talking about the profession and talking about all the different places you can go with it. And you had these students engaging with everything from virtual reality to just seeing hands on equipment to do prototypes and stuff. But it was the students came away, just really very impressed with it. And so now our goal is to increase the number of students that can participate, and to really make much more transparent. The pathway, of course, as one would take in high school, and then work with a group of companies University and school leadership, develop the right marketing materials to engage parents and students to make sure they know about not just the careers and what they pay, but the companies that would employ them here because we are blessed to have you know about 18% manufacturing here. So quite a array of engineers needed and with the automation, robotics and AI that’s really taking place. There’s a higher demand for a very sophisticated engineering to support that.

Brandon Burton 24:41
I love you when you started telling about this program, kind of making that connection between the SC K long CK Central Kentucky Yeah. And how that ties in to specifically with envision and seeing, as you’re given that response, I’m thinking this is just, it’s not just a program that you guys do. But this is part of your chamber DNA to say, This is who we are, this is what we do. And it bleeds through here as you go about other projects. To see, the value is.

Ron Bunch 25:17
That’s great. I mean, because you know, we’re inside it. And so for you to see that is very honoring, very important. I appreciate that it is. So like, I had been an economic development leader in three states before this five other positions. And even when I got here, one of the things we discovered quickly was the need for talent. And so as we started running the data, we could see that there was going to be a shortfall in data in people through the data, the only thing that pandemic did was make a bad problem, much worse. And so the fact that we chose to invest strategically, you know, back to scarcity and abundance, we knew that talent was going to be scarce. But we also knew that because of that talent was going to be critically important to our companies growing. On top of everything else we’ve done, we spent quite a bit of time and money and so like, some of my peers would raise money for the operations. We raised money to invest in school that we’ve raised and invested 2.6, we’re getting ready to invest raising investment up to two and a half, that will help us build out actual operations and each of the schools so you can have like a hands on Academy. So right now we have a credit union school, we have two stores. So it is great. If you ever have a bad day, which happens from time to time, in shame world, we just go to the school and see the young people enjoying the fruits of our labor. And we’re like, Okay, this is what matters, what’s the deal, what, put our shoulder back to the grind on make it work.

Brandon Burton 26:51
That’s right. And I love how, whenever I hear of any chamber that’s showing what the opportunities are to the youth coming up in their community to say, there’s great jobs here. Here’s a sampling of what a career could look like, if you stay here in our community. So any anytime you can do that, and you guys are obviously focused on focusing on minorities, specifically in engineering, because there’s a need there, right. And so seeing where the need is and filling that void. So I think that’s a great focus, a great area focus.

Ron Bunch 27:25
And what’s interesting, I mean, you can see two, we built it for the right reason. And then even with that program, the Envision project we won, we had no idea the level of engineering they were going to require. And so it was great that we had already done that, because we could point to what we already done that what we might do what we couldn’t do, we could point to what we had done. And so they really love the overall program, because it is a k 12. But that wasn’t important to you, because there’s going to be quite a bit of engineering and technicians is a very highly automated process in 3 million square feet to produce electric batteries that they don’t produce.

Brandon Burton 28:05
That is That is awesome. I love seeing these intertwining of these these programs. Ron, I wanted to ask you as how do you see the role of the bowling green area Chamber in your community?

Ron Bunch 28:21
Yeah, the I hate to keep going back to Horizon Report. But really, we see our role under that catalytic leadership. I mean, it’s our job really to listen to the business community, and then advocate at whatever level with local government, state government, federal government, whoever we need to advocate with, or to bring groups together early to make sure our businesses have what they need, not just today, but going forward. And you know, I think you can see that what we’re doing with adding twice the acreage at the Trent Park, good thing. So for those not viewing lights just went up in the building. So sorry for the distraction, but you know, investing in the transport, doubling in size, investing, you know, millions of dollars in the K 12 talent development is that catalytic leadership. So we seek to fill roles of convening people and doing what the community is not just today but into the future.

Brandon Burton 29:20
I love that and it shows you know that it’s, as we look at these chamber, the year finalists, it’s those who’ve really embraced the Horizon Report and have kind of leaned into that as far as what the future is like in their community are the ones that are being recognized and, and staying ahead of the curve, as I would say it to see what those needs are in their community. So I couldn’t agree more. I like asking everyone I have on the show. If you might have a tip or an action item for chambers that are listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Ron Bunch 30:04
One would be to take risks. No, it’s easy to play it safe. It’s easy to stay within the bounds of what you think the board might be accepting, or volunteers might be accepting. But you if you find the right initiatives and take those on, it will work. And so take risks would be one thing I would say, especially now, because things are changing so quickly, you’re going to have to do things that maybe you hadn’t considered before done. So that would be one thing I would say, is to take risks.

Brandon Burton 30:38
Absolutely, I see a lot of chambers don’t want to be the first one to do something, right, you want to look around and see see what other colleagues have done, how’s it worked out, let’s test the waters. But to be able to be bold and take those risks, it takes some guts, but it can pay off big time.

Ron Bunch 30:54
Yeah, I’m gonna hate to keep going back to it. But I mean, had we not invested in building the relationships have we not invested in what we’ve done both in K 12, and public workforce, we would not have won the projects that we won over the last couple years, especially. Because in that time, everyone everywhere had talent constraints, even when we talked with international companies in Japan, they have the same talent constraints. And so companies that are looking now are finding the same thing everywhere, what has helped us is we could point to a decade of investments a decade of building. And so those things made a difference for us. But it was a risk at the time to to allocate that much of our organization and to fundraise, but that versus operation of the risk is paid off.

Brandon Burton 31:44
Right. In hindsight, it made sense to focus on the future, especially with, you know, the baby boomers that would be retiring and the need for talent, but then to have that exacerbated by a worldwide pandemic, and early retirements and layoffs and all these different things. Those who were looking ahead and preparing were much better positioned to be able to weather that storm. As we look to the future of chambers, speaking of future, how do you see the future of chambers and their role going forward?

Future of Chambers

Ron Bunch 32:18
Now, I think the other thing that we have thought we had sort of dabbled in and called different things solution based selling, we finally settled on spin that Neil Rackham put out and, you know, the wrong but short version of that is to truly have a heart for the person or the business. To ask the questions, you need to ask to truly understand what their needs are and what they value. And then to seek to meet those needs and values that they have. We don’t want to be a donation, we want to provide a return on investment. So looking forward, I think, whatever you call it, whatever sales methodology you look at, I would say chambers truly having that conversation, and we set a goal, to focus on spin as our methodology, and to have a conversation with every chamber investor at least once a year, to really understand in the coming year, have your value systems changed, what do you need from us. And I think that helps us to stay relevant to stay connected. And the partners see that we’re truly interested in them. We’re not selling at them, hey, we need money for this new program or event. It’s Hey, we’re doing this because we heard from many of you that this is in demand. And they it’s paid off for us and new partners joining without even talking to sales staff retention has increased, I think we’re tracking about 89% retention, which is higher than it has been in the past. I think, while the results are still fairly early, because I want to get you know, three to five years under our belt. I think it is paying off that spending compensation. I think that’s the kind of thing that would help chambers going forward not be what we think is the thing, but do what research and conversations have told us the thing that companies need in the area

Brandon Burton 34:14
like that it does show your relevancy it shows your interest in each of those investor businesses. I’d be curious how you and maybe it’s not an answer for now, but maybe in three to five years of as you gather that feedback and what their needs are and how they’ve changed. How you avoid trying to be everything to everyone. Yeah, because you can’t accommodate every need that’s presented to you, but how do you try to group them together to see the end goal of what their needs are?

Ron Bunch 34:45
Well, you know, those things have already happened. So I mean, you know, an example of that would be SC k one, South Central Kentucky, our region again, one and that was a network. It’s an umbrella delivery from the different entrepreneurship organizations. So as we heard from that was very confusing SBDC SBA accelerator, I mean, who does what? And who do I need to talk to? So we pulled them all together and created that new brand. And now you can go to any of them, and they’ll get you to the right resource. But we, because of conversations We’ve convened, and so we don’t try to be everything to everyone we do the things that we do well, we partner with others on those things that need to exist for our businesses and make referrals to those other resources. But then we have a conversation with them about the quality of delivery that we’re looking for. So there’s a consistent kind of quality and even chamber interaction or chamber affiliate interaction.

Brandon Burton 35:41
Right, that goes back to the connector and convener role of the chamber. So absolutely. Ron, this has been a great conversation that I’ve enjoyed having you back with me on the podcast, as I like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things and Bowling Green and maybe compete for some of these projects from you. The best way for them to reach out

Connect with Ron Bunch

Ron Bunch 36:06
well, my competitions. We just want a fair shot at it. All. Right. Yeah, so it’s Ron Bunch. So it’s ron@bgchamber.com is the email and our main lines p 270-781- 3200. So yeah, we would look for we posted multiple communities, we’ve had a lot of conversations, we love sharing things we’re doing because we want our whole country to be stronger. So anything we can do to be of assistance to our peers. We’re happy to do

Brandon Burton 36:36
absolutely. I’ll get that in the show notes for this episode. So anyone who’s walking the dog or driving the car can can look it up and reach out and connect that way but this has been a great discussion. I’m impressed with the work you guys are doing and truly making an impact there in the bowling green area. And wish you and your team best of luck with chamber the year.

Ron Bunch 36:56
Thank you sir appreciate appreciate what you’re doing to to share these best practices there, but I think it really helps get the word out for each chamber can be better for their community.

Brandon Burton 37:05
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Henry County Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Joe Henning

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Joe Henning. 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.

Introduction

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

And now your host He is disappointed that I identify as a Buffalo Bills fan. He’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, and it is 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 0:47
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.

Brandon Burton 1:28
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Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for another special episode in our 2022 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series, and for this episode, we have Joe Henning with us. Joe is the President and CEO of the Henry County Chamber in Georgia. Joe has served as president and CEO of Henry County Chamber since 2019. Prior to that, he served 14 years as president and CEO of the aurora Regional Chamber in Illinois. Joe is a 2009 IOM graduate. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and a master’s degree focusing on organizational development from Northern Illinois University, as well as a certificate and not for profit management from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He’s served as chair of the Midwest Board of Regents in 2012 and 2013. In 2017. He served as chair of the National Board of Trustees for the program and continues to serve as a faculty member. He’s taught on collaboration industry forecast, strong chambers for the future and marketing membership. In 2007. The Aurora chamber received its first accreditation through the US Chamber of Commerce with a four star distinction. In 2012 and 2017. Joe led the reaccreditation efforts and successfully achieved consecutive five star distinction. In 2015, the Chamber received chamber of the Year from the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce executives as well as the three star chamber of valor. In 2010, he received his accredited chamber executive credentials from the ice IACC II, and served as Chair of the board of directors in 2012 and 2012, he also successfully sat for and received his certified Association Executive designation from ASAE. In 2014, he was named chamber Executive of the Year by the Illinois Association of Chamber of Commerce executives. Joe completed the basic economic development course through Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2008. In 2013, he completed the economic development essential course through University of Oklahoma. He served on the advisory board for ACC EAS education and talent development division, and is a graduate of the US Chamber Foundation’s business leads fellowship program inaugural session. He served on workforce development boards Illinois and Georgia and was appointed by Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to serve on the Illinois 21st century Workforce Development Fund advisory committee in 2012. He supports and serves on the boards of a number of organizations that impact equity, inclusion, mental health, among others. His background includes business development, strategic planning and organizational development. If any of this sounds familiar to you, this is because we recently had Joe on chamber tap podcast back in episode 159, where we talked about some industry trends if you want to go back in the archives and check out that episode. It was a great one. But Joe, I’m excited to have you back with me on Chamber Chat Podcast, please say hello to all the Chamber Champions. And as usual, share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Joe Henning 4:51
Brandon, it’s great to be back. It seems like just a few months ago, but it’s a pleasure to come back and especially with this topic. You know, I think And the interesting thing is that I think my mother is the only one that appreciates that entire bio. So if anybody else made it through it, thank you. You had mentioned the whole strategy and organizational development. And that really is my passion. And we did a couple years ago, here at Henry, we did the Clifton Strengths. And for my top five strengths were all around strategy. So I felt validated through this, this this process for timber the year really, really hits home in that strategy and organizational development process. So it’s a great opportunity to be a part of it. Yes. And

Brandon Burton 5:41
congratulations, of course, being selected as a chamber. They are finalists, great, great honors just in that and being selected.

Joe Henning 5:48
Absolutely. When I look at those peers out there in that in that category we’re in it’s it’s, it’s a tough, it’s a tough group to be in. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 5:57
For sure. Well, tell us a little bit about the Henry County Chamber just to give us some idea, size and scope of work and staff budget, that sort of thing before we our discussion.

About the Henry County Chamber

Joe Henning 6:08
So we’re about a $1.5 million, maybe a little bit more than that. Budgets, we are comprised of both the Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau for Henry County. We’re located about a half hour south of Metro Atlanta, right along 75 So anybody traveling from the north down to Florida is going through Henry County. And we have for the chamber side we’re sitting at about 800 members and we have four full time employees on the chamber side and three full time employees on the CBD side

Brandon Burton 6:43
all right. That sounds good and that helps especially as we trying to release these episodes with the the appropriate categories and so consecutively so you fall right in line with with your your your companions in that in that category. But as we go through this discussion today the chamber the year finalist series what I like to do is really focus our discussion a lot on the the two programs synopsis you guys submitted on your chamber the your application, and we’ll dive into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

Alright, Joe, we’re back. So what I’d like for you to do is just at a high level, tell us what the two programs are that you guys submitted on your application. And then we’ll circle back into some more detail on each of them.

Joe Henning 10:16
Sure, thank you. Our first synopsis was on advocacy and issues. And so the first one, we successfully advocated and passed two different tax referendums one in the spring one in the fall in 2021. And then the second synopsis was continuing our dei process along and working with our hospitality partners, from from hotels and accommodations to restaurant and retail, and addressing customer service and dei components within that.

Brandon Burton 10:52
Very good. That’s alright, I think I’d like to start with that one with the

Joe Henning 10:58
doesn’t everybody wants. Nobody wants to talk about ballot measures.

Brandon Burton 11:04
You’ve got a fair point there. So if we can take all of the time talking?

Joe Henning 11:10
No, that’s fine. I think, you know, for us, you know, we’re proud of the advocacy side, but this this. So back in 2019, right after I started here, the board passed a dei and inclusivity statement. And so as we were rolling into 2020, our program of work, we were looking at how we could advance inclusivity conversations with the pandemic and and the civil strife of 2020. There was a lot happening in Henry County, there was a lot happening in Georgia, and there was a lot happening throughout the country. And so we began some community dialogues, as we were still virtual. And wherever we could meet, we’d meet virtually fast forward to 2001. And we knew that we still had to do something, either virtual or hybrid, because we were still in the in the midst of the pandemic in early 2001. But we knew we had to take it another step. And so the CVB group, with the with the partner, relations manager that we had hired just at the end of 2019, began talking with our hoteliers, and other hospitality partners. And they wanted information training on customer service. And, if possible, what we could do around the DEI conversation. And so we, we really dug deep into that really looked at the needs. And we came out with a six part series, the first one on customer service, and then the last five different segments of inclusivity.

Brandon Burton 12:50
So what caught my, my ear when you mentioned what this, this program is about is a while back, I interviewed Doug Griffiths, who’s the author of 13 ways to kill your community. Yes, I know a lot of chamber professionals are familiar with that book. But towards the end of the podcast interview, I asked him about a tip or strategy for chambers and, and he had mentioned for chambers to train the employers in their community on customer service. I thought what a difference that would make you know, as people, you know, their first interaction in your community will often be at a hotel or some tourist destination, right? So what what made you guys land on that focus with hospitality, and then tying in the diversity and equity inclusion part? There

Joe Henning 13:39
were a couple of different factors there, Brandon. Right before I started in 2019, they just completed a an audience study, a segment study on the different tourists that come through Henry County, both planned to come through I just happen to stop, as I said, we’re right on 75. A lot of times people want to get through Atlanta on their way to Florida, and they’ll stop here around Henry County. And so that that study showed some some great positive pieces, but there were also some segments of, I guess, comfort. Not necessarily I don’t want to say safety, because I don’t want it to sound, you know, so so far off. But a little discomfort on whether or not they would be accepted. Okay, in the community. And I think and I think for the most part, they’re the it’s a great issue throughout the country, you know, where you can go and feel comfortable. The second part was just were asked. So, Atlanta motor speedway is is is right here in Henry County. And so we’re fortunate the last few years that we get to NASCAR races each year so hundreds of 1000s of people are traveling through here for different reasons and stopping and so we want to make sure that But whereas as inclusive as we can possibly be. And so we also, you know, taking that into account for the customer service side, looking at some of the demographics of who, who were part of the study, as well as who make up residence of Henry County now, we looked at some of the different diversity issues and components that we could look at, and looked at the impact the economic impacts that each of those demographics has on Henry County. So that’s where we fell into this six part series.

Brandon Burton 15:36
So as you kind of go through the six part series, what does that look like? How does it roll out? How does how do you incorporate it? Well,

Joe Henning 15:45
they’re primarily available out there online, through registration, they’re free to all of our hospitality partners, if they’re in, you know, the hotels, restaurant, retail, or our attractions. And we’ve had a great deal of interest from non hospitality businesses. And so we’re trying to figure out, you know, how to scale it up, that will be our big piece for that. But the first section is culture of customer service. And it is led by one of our local coffee proprietors, coffee shop proprietors here in Henry County, and very outgoing personality, very wonderful to work with. And so I believe that’s about a 45 minute video. And then there is a 10 question test if they take it, if they’re taking it remotely. But we are also able to now offer it in person. So if, you know, the manager or owner wants to do all at once we can do a small group facilitation of the program and have conversation around that. That’s step one, the other five sections, they don’t have to be, they don’t have to follow the first one on customer service, they can flip flop depending on what they are comfortable with. But the fifth one is the five part series is very exciting. It includes looking at the target visitor audiences of African American customers, Asian customers, Latino, Hispanic customers, LGBTQ customers, and the one that’s often overlooked is those with different abilities. We’ve got some attractions that are wonderful attractions, but they might have gravel driveways, or they might not have, they might have stairs and not a ramp. And so we’re trying to help many of our attractions and even our businesses to be more accommodating to that demographic as well. So those are the those are the six segments within that series.

Brandon Burton 17:43
Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah. And then the different abilities is it, it’s a big one, there’s a family that I’m really close to, they have two sons that are they’re in their late 20s Now, but they’re both wheelchair bound, and, you know, they’re very limited on even a restaurant that they can go to, the parents have to go ahead of time and kind of scope it out and see if the wheelchairs can fit through. And it’s just, it’s a lot of effort for them to get out. And the more businesses that can be aware of that and be accommodating, really welcomes people to your community. You know,

Joe Henning 18:14
it’s a, it’s a great point, because, you know, they also have a great spending capacity. And if we’re limiting them to two restaurants, and maybe one or two attractions, that that discretionary, that’s going to that, that small pot, I mean, they’re making out well, but but we’re sitting here, you know, like I said, we’ve got, we’ve got some great agriculture tourism pieces around here. But based, you know, based on their nature, it’s very difficult for wheelchair bound individuals to navigate and even even, you know, even if you’re just on a crutch, we also have the beautiful Panola mountain trip bikes and trails and that and so, you know, the, the accessibility there is limited. And so I think the more we can raise awareness, you know, the more we can make the entire county accommodating. And, you know, it just reminds me that, you know, all of the difference, you know, areas of, of the diversity, this is the one that I might not be in today, but boy, tomorrow, I might fall into that diversity category of different abilities. And I can change overnight for any of us.

Brandon Burton 19:30
Very true. Yep. And I like the idea that you have these these courses, these trainings online. And ideally, I mean, I see a company adopting that as an onboarding process for new employees and, and get their existing employees up to speed as well. So I think that’s a great way as a chamber to be leading the way in that effort.

Joe Henning 19:52
Thank you. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 19:54
So let’s, let’s switch gears over to the really exciting topic. Right admin issues. And we say that

Joe Henning 20:04
we will now

Brandon Burton 20:06
can we both understand the importance of it right. And chambers need to take that lead. So talk to us about the the two tax reforms and how this came about and how you went about doing that.

Joe Henning 20:17
So in Georgia, it’s they’ve got they’ve got legislation that’s just over a decade old, I guess, a little bit more than that. But but it allows you to take referendum back to the county residents and increase a penny, or add a penny tax in there for special purposes. And so the county in 2019, the county successfully repast is a five year limitation. So after five years, you have to ask again, we successfully passed the I believe it was the sixth, fifth, fifth or sixth class blas special purple, special purpose local option sales tax. In addition, the school districts can also pass a request as floss and those are East floss education spots. And so that came up in March. And I believe this was their sixth, and to be used for accommodations in schools, expanding some of the schools due to the demographic growth and population growth that we’re seeing here and some additional school busing, things like that. You know, we all know it’s tough, it’s tough to pass tax referendum. You know, we, you do it, you do it, because you are looking out for your community. If you’re going to be a catalytic leader, sometimes you got to make those tough decisions. And those tough take on those tough roles, and advocate for something that may not be popular. And so we, we worked with the school districts committee to get that passed in the in the spring, it passed, I believe, the kind of two to one margin. And so we were happy with that. We’ve already begun the process of what some of those project lists were on the on the east blast side. Henry County, then fast forward to the fall, Henry County had never had a transportation SPLOST. And so they were looking to do that in the fall, we had agreements with the four municipalities in Henry County, so we can go for the full Penny, it would be a five year commitment. So we took the lead and partner collaborated with Georgia transportation Alliance and a few others to help get the word out and get that passed successfully. In the fall. It was a that was probably the most tough of the three referendum that I’ve that I’ve worked on at the chamber here. Because it was new, it was an additional party, the others were renewing of the penny. And so those were a lot of the conversations. But one of the biggest, what I when I first started here, back in 2019, one of the biggest problems that I noticed and when I asked around to business leaders and employees and just community members, you know, what is our biggest issue, it’s transportation, there’s, there’s a lot of difficulty, we’re fortunate that we have the visitors traveling through on 75 and stopping to, you know, stopping at gas stations and restaurants and hotels. And we’re fortunate that we have some great warehouse and advanced manufacturing members located here in Henry County, but that also adds to additional traffic congestion that we have. And so our, our conversation with with our voters was simply that, you know, we have to get this done, we have to fix the transportation problem, it’s not going to get better if we don’t, it’s only going to get worse with the more cars the more people that we have in the county, and the more businesses you know, it’s a win win. And, and so that we passed, I believe that might have been the two to one and I think education was three to one and passage. So we were very happy, very, very fortunate with that. And so we’ve begun looking at what those projects were listed, but now we’re looking at, you know, how we’re going to roll out the conversation around that. So yeah, that that was the excitement of 2021 For me it was getting to tax refering the past

Brandon Burton 24:29
and I can see when you’re uh, you know, a school district, for example, to be able to focus on that the education tax reform, right and push that messaging out, but as a chamber when you’re looking at, you know, three different tax reforms, you’re trying to approach and tackle and show the benefits and educate voters and, you know, encourage voters to get out and participate in the process. I mean, it’s a it’s a heavy lift to take on all three of those. Did you guys hold forums or how did you go about educating the public?

Joe Henning 24:57
We did online forums. We did some Direct Mail, we did a lot through social media, kind of rolling with, you know, people, we’re still very, very much focused on, on social media in that as we were writing it through the pandemic, and that so we really relied heavily on that. You know, you’re right bread, talking about the kids and talking about the future. And it’s kind of hard to say no to little kids face. But you know, when you’re asking everybody to add a penny to every dollar that they spend, it doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can add up. And I think part of our messaging for both, and this is this is one that we’ve we started in in 19. With the regular spouse was, we’re fortunate with the amount of visitors we have to Henry County, not just tourists, but you know, people working here in Henry County that live elsewhere, and will be stopping for gas or stopping for food on their way home. And so really, you know, we’re paying about, we estimate, somewhere around half of the collections will come from Henry County residents, the other half will come from visitors from outside of Henry County is kind of our projection. And so, you know, we’re really asking others to help us pay those bills. And so that was the communications bullet points that we kind of went with was, you know, if not, if we don’t do this, we might get stuck with, you know, Henry County residents alone being asked to pay for the burden. So all right,

Brandon Burton 26:29
and I see that, you know, where you have other people helping to pay the bill, as you said, and and having everybody have some skin in the game, rather than, you know, just an increase in property tax. But exactly, exactly. Yeah. So it could be a good good solution for absolutely needs, especially when you have the like you said, people coming in that don’t live there. And so I wanted to ask you as as the chamber, the year finalist, I kind of look to you guys to all these finalists as those that are kind of setting the benchmark for other chambers right. Now, how do you view the role of the Henry County Chamber there in your community?

Joe Henning 27:15
You don’t I think in looking at the two programs that we we submitted this year. And looking over the past three years, I would say, you know, we’re convener. We like any chamber, we know we have limited resources from staff to time to financial. And so we really want to convene those leaders that can help us get something done. And in the case of this floss, we worked together and collaborated with the government with the Board of Ed with other organizations that had messaging that they could use that we could, you know, kind of that win win win win. All around. And so what, you know, We’ve convened that group to get that done. In the case of the the diversity for hospitality sections, you know, we convene the hospitality groups together, the different entities that make that up and work with work with them in partnership to provide these services, these trainings that they’re looking for. And I think, you know, the key to both of those, you know, in any success that we’ve seen here in Henry County, it’s just really looking at that need. We can, we could have put together a program on customer service, or any number of the programs that we’ve done in the past year, but if we don’t engage the targeted audiences that we want to work with on that, we don’t know, you know, we think we think we know what they want, or what they need, but we don’t and I think that’s part of that conversation and bringing them together with us and, and finding out really what the details are of how we can support them. And so that’s kind of where I feel that we fit in the game. No, I

Brandon Burton 29:05
think that makes perfect sense. So I’d like asking the question, I know I asked you this question. Last time I had you on the show, and I’m not going to hold you to your previous answer at all, but I was gonna see if you have any tip or action item for Chamber Champions that are listening who’d like to take their chamber up to the next level, what might you offer to them?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Joe Henning 29:29
You know, I think both ACC II under their chamber of the year page and I believe the US Chamber is coming out with their their latest announcement of accredited chambers. Under their accreditation section, they have some best practices. You know, for people looking at where to begin with policies or or budgeting or even the advocacy side of it. You can find a lot of resources there. There’s There’s a huge wealthy library at ACC as well that you can just kind of search in there for topics that you might be looking for support. I think I think the key is, realize you’re not in this alone. You know, it’s I just got back from Madison last week and was teaching up there for the Midwest site for Institute for organization management. And there was, every and I love going back every year, there’s always that aha moment where you are the only chamber executive in your community. For the most part, I there’s, there might be some communities that have to but but for the most part, we’re sitting here alone, and it can feel lonely. But realize that you’ve got a great peer network of what nearly 7000 chambers of commerce around the United States and Canada, there are plenty of people out there that you can rely on. And so admit that you don’t have to do it alone, and that you’ve got people out there that want to help you succeed. And mate might have already gone through the the difficulty that you’re trying to fix, and help in your community. So there’s resources there. You know, I think that, you know, if they reached out to you, Brandon, I think any of us that have been been available, and you’ve so graciously allowed us to share our thoughts and our work. You know, I think if people reached out to us, we’d be willing to help, too. And so I think, just realize you’re not alone in this?

Brandon Burton 31:28
Absolutely. I think that’s a great piece of advice. And there is so much you can learn from others and not have to go through those growing pains yourself. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Joe Henning 31:45
You know, I think I think 2020 2021 taught a lot of us that there was a need for refresh. And it allowed us to make some of those changes that we thought we needed to make, you know, everybody, for the most part, everybody went virtual. And so I think that allowed time for redesigning some of the different things that we were working on. And so I think that that flexibility, that adaptability is going to be the strength for the successful chambers going forward. And to be able to make those changes as they need to as their community needs are changing. And that’s the other piece is that chamber, professionals need to be very engaged with their community, because, you know, things can change in a minute, and what the needs might be, and we’ve seen some great catalytic chambers, you know, in Bowling Green this last year in Edwardsville, Illinois this past year, where tornadoes have gone through, and they’ve stepped up, and they’ve been the leaders within their communities, to help facilitate both the employers and the residents. And so I think being responsive to the community is really where our success is going to lie.

Brandon Burton 33:19
Like that being responsive and flexible and adaptive. And I think there’s probably more changes, you know, oh, yeah, up here in the next year to the suspects. Yeah. So be ready for it, you know, be ready to be flexible. And and I would say I would urge you to be forward looking and see where those trends are going, see where those business trends are, and educate yourself on those things. So you’re not caught off guard when they can?

Joe Henning 33:48
Absolutely, you know, I think we all have resources from ACCE, and ASAE. But we all have our state or regional associations that can provide us additional training, insight and information. And, you know, I think, you know, I know sometimes some budget budgets might not allow for the national groups. If you can swing it, I definitely encourage that. But if nothing else, I, you know, I implore chamber professionals to have membership in their state associations, because that is a great deal of resourceful information that’s available to them, but it’s also a great network. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 34:31
But Joseph, we wrap up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for Chamber Champions who want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things that Henry County Chamber what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect.

Connect with Joe Henning

Joe Henning 34:45
I appreciate that, Brandon. Yeah, I think if anybody wants to connect with me or my team here to get more information on any of that or any other things we’re doing, HenryCounty.com is the website that includes all of our email information as well as our phone numbers. And otherwise, we’re also on Facebook and LinkedIn. And I don’t know, several other social media platforms that are just beyond me. But I know definitely Facebook, we respond to message direct messages there quickly. And then on LinkedIn.

Brandon Burton 35:19
That’s perfect. And I’ll I’ll put links to those in the show notes for this episode. But, Joe, this has been great having you back on Chamber Chat Podcast, I joked with you, before we got on the recording that it’s always reaffirming to me to have a past guest be selected as a finalist for chamber of the year. So

Joe Henning 35:39
it feels good to be back. It feels good to have the recognition. I think, you know, it really to me, it’s not so much the, you know, it’s not me, it’s my team. And it’s my leadership volunteers that, you know, guide us through this, with the governance in that but from, you know, you asked about the future of chambers, and I think if we’re if we’re not looking at opportunities to improve our organizations, that’s where we’re not going to see them in 10 years, there’s either going to be somebody else, they’re taking up their space, or, you know, worse.

Brandon Burton 36:10
So, yeah, absolutely. Well, Joe, this has been a fun conversation. And, again, grateful to have you back with me on the podcast here and wish you guys best of luck in this chamber the year.

Joe Henning 36:23
Thank you, Brandon. I hope to be back soon to see you again. We’ll figure out another reason for you to come back. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 36:28
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West Des Moines Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Katherine Harrington

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Katherine Harrington. 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.

Introduction

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

And now, your host, he can’t stand the sound of an art board being folded. Here’s my dad Brandon Burton. Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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

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

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

Click here for a FREE trial of Next Level Coaching from Holman Brothers.

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Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2022 ACC chamber the year finalist series and our guest for this episode is Katherine Harrington. Katherine is a ballerina turned executive as and as the President and CEO of the West Des Moines chamber in Iowa over the last two years in this role, she created an avid fan base and several new programs including the International black and brown Business Summit, the DEI Workplace Excellence Awards, Best of the West awards, Raccoon River rally, Fall Festival, W DM newsletter and more. Katherine has an extensive background in public speaking media sales, revenue stream creation, event development and leadership with organizations including US magazine and New York City, Crain’s Chicago Business San Diego Business Journal DSM magazine and the Des Moines business record. She also bootstrapped and ran her own glassy technology magazine events and digital news organization serving leaders in the booming tech and internet industries in San Diego called the tea sector at the Des Moines business record, she was Director of Innovation was the number one sales producer and started the lucrative innovation Iowa magazine, weekly news and a yearly awards event. Katherine has a passion for helping others and is on the board for several local organizations and foundations. Her early ballet career led to her Interlochen Arts Academy full time at the at 1415 Pacific Northwest Ballet School and Corniche Institute of Allied Arts and San Francisco Ballet School at 16 Tulsa Ballet Theatre at 17 and scholarship with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at 18 in New York City, it was in New York that Arthur Mitchell of Dance Theatre of Harlem said Katherine Harrington dances with her heart and you can see love coming out of her pores. Katherine received the W dem chamber MLK Jr. Community Organization Leadership Award as a winner of the great outdoor foundation and most valuable Philanthropist Award. finalist for the inspiring women of Iowa award was voted one of the most likeable by CityView magazine. Katherine has three successful children. Allie who’s a lawyer with Mayor Brown in Chicago. Nick is a real estate executive with compass and a real estate investor in Milwaukee. And Caitlin is a leader in supply chain at Target in Minneapolis. She’s married to Craig Walter, his biology and chemistry teacher at Valley High School. Katherine and her two daughters also started a widely claimed podcast in 2022 called what the fam you can listen to them on Apple podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. But Katherine, I’m excited to have you with me today on Chamber Chat Podcast. Congratulations for being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something else interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Katherine Harrington 4:59
Now Have allbranded I just first of all, thank you for doing this, thank you for hosting this really important venue to help share for others to grow and build their chambers and their communities. So this is great, what a great service you have just kudos to you for for ID ating. And doing this and putting it together and, and making it happen. Wow, you read my whole entire bio, so I’m a little embarrassed. So Wow. And it’s kind of fun to you know, it’s Gosh, I’ve done a lot in my years. I didn’t realize they’re gonna read the whole bio, but, but I don’t think I have any more thing.

Brandon Burton 5:37
I was gonna trim it up as I went through. There’s a lot of good stuff here.

Katherine Harrington 5:42
Embarrassed Oh, my gosh. But I don’t like to talk so much about me. I like to talk about others. So I’m a little blushing right here. But for that intro,

Brandon Burton 5:54
from? Well, why don’t you instead of focusing on yourself, tell us a little bit more about the West Des Moines chamber so we can get a better idea of the type of chamber you are the size, staff budget, the scope of work that you do, and that sort of thing to kind of set the tone for our discussion.

About the West Des Moines Chamber

Katherine Harrington 6:12
Yeah, well, that’s a topic I can talk all day and night on. So absolutely. I actually started this role on April Fool’s Day of 2020. So and I had had no prior chamber experience at all. So this is a new world for me. But I’m a big idea person, I love to build ideas. I can’t stop that idea brain. It is constantly going and growing.

Brandon Burton 6:40
Kind of a blessing and a curse at the same time isn’t

Katherine Harrington 6:43
exactly it. You’re right, Brandon, like if you love ideas, and if you love to see them grow and nurture and help others chamber life is for you. But you’re right. It’s a blessing and a curse, you have to understand what you can do, what capacity you and your team have, and what you can maybe scrap or or say, well, we’ll do that in five years. Right? So it’s just hard to say no to all the cool things that that we can do. But the chamber, West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, we will be 100 years old in 2024. So that’s pretty impressive. We’ve been around for a very long time. So it was certainly a I’m on the shoulder of giants, as they say when I joined a couple years ago. So it, it’s been a wonderful experience. The pandemic was right during that time as well. So I remember our former president training me and she said, Katherine, I think this pandemic is just going to last for about a week or so. And then I think we’re going to we’re gonna be through it at you know, and here we are, right. So I was I was, I loved her positivity. But you know, the facts bore out that it was much longer. But it was actually a really beautiful time to look at everything we were doing and understand, you know, how can we serve our community during this amazingly challenging time for humans and neighbors and our businesses? And, you know, what do they need. So, honestly, it was a gift to start during this really challenging time. Because we first of all, we had just one team member left, we have six team members, we’re hiring another team member, we’re growing. And we started with just one team member. So it was kind of nice, I could hire our own staff and build our own culture. We are huge culture advocates, we feel like that extends to not just the chamber, but to our city into our businesses. We’re trying to create the best culture in America, in our city. So it was really neat to onboard people that have the same loving acumen to help others. But we have 711 members and around almost 100 years. So now we’re gonna have seven team members and we really have a separate division which is our workforce division which is kind of unusual for some chambers so so that’s a little bit a little bit about

Brandon Burton 9:18
us. Yeah, that that will help as we get into our topic today is a chamber the year finalists but I what I like to do is focus the majority of our discussion on the the two programs you guys submitted on your chamber your application, and we’ll get into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

All right, Katherine, we’re back. So as I mentioned before, will will highlight the two programs synopsis on your chamber, the your application, if you would just talk to us a little bit at a high level what the two programs are, and then we’ll circle back into some more detail on each of them.

Katherine Harrington 12:01
Yeah, so one is we started a black and brown Business Summit. And this was really the motivation because of the murder of George Floyd and the uprising in our city as well as around the world. And we want our city to be the most welcoming city in the world. And how do we do that? So we are all about making big noise for our city, because it helps spotlight who we are, you know, we’re not, we’re not on a beach. We’re not on an ocean. We’re not on a mountain. So we have to think really unusual. And think big if we’re going to make some noise for our city. So we started through really a community saying how can we support black and brown businesses and see them grow and nurture and become billionaires? Not just, you know, 1000 air but a billionaire? So the Athene, it’s now called the Athene black and brown Business Summit, it is something that we’ve had 23 countries, people in 23 countries view we telecast it. So it’s it’s a hybrid event, but it’s extensive. So that’s, that’s number one. Okay, we love that event. And then our second program that we’re spotlighting is our 15th year, the Western Moines Leadership Academy, and it grows and builds every year, with leaders all ages, all companies that, that join that we have a pretty rigorous application process, but we have to narrowed it down which is hard to 33 people in the region. And it’s a little different than most leadership academies, but but those are our two that we highlighted in the application.

Brandon Burton 13:51
Very good. So let’s circle back to the first one, the Black and Brown Business Summit. As you launch that business summit, how did you structure it? How did you get the word out? How did you build up the hype for this? Building upon the the emotion really, that was going throughout the country?

Katherine Harrington 14:11
Yeah, it takes a team. It takes a community to support that. So our team, we started a dei committee, and that’s led by now our board chair Angela Jackson, and she’s an entrepreneur, small business owner, and she’s also in charge of the EI one of our largest employers here called a theme. And we created our dei Committee, which helped to start and grow that black and brown Business Summit. So that then spun into six different committees. So we have a lot of community members near 200 volunteers that help to support that event. Because that event is a is a two day conference, but within it are many smaller events all very meaningful To help build and grow and inspire the Black and Brown business community, so part of it is a pitch competition the first day, we have a pitch competition. First year, we gave out $10,000 to the winners. And this year, we gave out $42,000 to the winners, wow. So a lot of a lot of money, cash. And that’s all raised through sponsorship through sponsorships, and we do well with sponsorships, people want to be aligned with this brand, they want to be aligned, and they want to help these businesses grow. So it’s really a great forum to provide that connection for those sponsors. But so that’s day one, there’s lots of programming, education, learning, practicing your pitch, we bring in experts from around the world, to help these people, you know, figure out what is their pitch, and then on the main stage, they do their pitch on day one. And then day two is, oh, my gosh, lots and lots of sessions and breakouts with everything. You name it, like social media, how, you know, how do you run your social media marketing, branding, Bitcoin, you know, just different things. We’re trying to be on the cutting edge of knowledge for these folks to help them really achieve success. And then we have a keynote, we had Daymond John of ABC Shark Tank Shark Tank was our keynote this year. But it is a sincere pleasure. We also have a fundraising component to the summit and we fundraise for nonprofit organizations at the same time that support black and brown businesses. So so that’s pretty neat, too. And every year that that changes. So there’s a lot involved in all of this programming.

Brandon Burton 16:45
That is awesome. That is every follow up question I had for you, you are hitting right after

Katherine Harrington 16:52
I need to practice for the big interview, right?

Brandon Burton 16:54
That’s right, you’re covering all the great points. So I love the idea that pitch competition, and then having those breakout sessions and trainings really to how to be more effective and future thinking about your business. I think you’d mentioned Bitcoin. And I think that there’s, you know, in the crypto world and NF Ts and Bitcoin, like that’s going to be a big part of the future of business. And chambers and businesses alike need to get on board and realize what that impact can be. And you’re not holding back any punches with your keynote speakers either. John is awesome. Yeah,

Katherine Harrington 17:31
yeah. We, it’s neat. It’ll be fun to see where we go with our keynote this year. So yeah, yeah, fingers. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:39
Well, let’s, let’s shift gears, then over to the West Des Moines Leadership Academy, and talk to us about what that entails. And maybe what sets it apart from other leadership classes that other chambers might put on. Yeah,

Katherine Harrington 17:54
it’s really, really interesting what we do there some leadership academies, you learn more about the city, you might learn more about, like how the police is run, or how, you know, planning and zoning is run or city council, things like that. But we take the Leadership Academy, we kind of put it on its side a little bit. And we go deep into the humanity of you as a leader. What makes a good leader? And and that’s a complicated answer. And that’s multifaceted. So we have experts that come in are experts in their field, to really try to help those leaders know who they are, first of all, a lot of people we think we might be self aware, but only 10% of humans are really literally self aware. So you know, how self aware are you analyzing that understanding how you can become more self aware. And great leaders make great companies. So that’s what we want to train our great leaders so that they then as they’re leading their company, or soon to be leading their company, we’re trying to give them that incredible humanity, caring, loving, honest, open, transparent acumen that they can take to their companies. And, and it’s really, that they can also take to their personal lives, because we’re teaching them not only how to be a great leader, but a great human. So it’s, it is very intensive. And sometimes there’s crying in these, because you learn a lot about yourself that you did not see or you could not see or you didn’t want to see. So it is absolutely it’s like a therapy session. Right. So, so it’s it’s really neat, but another component of a Leadership Academy is nonprofit fundraising. We love to raise money for others in our town and most of our signature events have a component of nonprofit fundraising, based around sponsorship so so we the leadership can’t To me this year raised nearly $50,000, for the local community school district, for refugees that are coming into our city that don’t have the resources don’t have the means to find the housing, whatever that they’re looking for. So we raised $50,000, for a refugee program in our city, so impactful.

Brandon Burton 20:23
That is awesome. I know, just locally, I’m in the Dallas area. And my wife through our church was very involved with refugees, a couple of walls, I guess, was pre COVID. And they were allowed to, and some of the most humble people and great experiences working with them and hearing their stories and just life changing. So the fact that you guys are raising funds to help out those refugees, it changes lives. So that is a huge impact in your community.

Katherine Harrington 20:53
Is that need to be part of the chamber where you can change people’s lives. I mean, I’ve, I’ve worked for nonprofit organizations my whole life. And I should have started the chamber years ago for and I’ve only been involved for a little over two years. And I’m just like, Oh, I love it with all my heart. It’s amazing work.

Brandon Burton 21:10
Yes. So tell me a little bit more about the discovering the self awareness. So you mentioned now it’s like a therapy session. I as you’re talking about it, I’m picturing all the aha moments where people are like, oh, you know what, I’ve been living my whole life on somebody else’s agenda. You know, let me realize who I am and what I want. So is that kind of how you see things unfold? Or what are? What are some of the experiences that you’ve seen come out of that?

Katherine Harrington 21:38
Well, yeah, we literally have. So we have a number of expert speakers and book writers that are nationally published, that we do hire we pay, you have to audition to be one of our leadership academy trainers. And we do have a super high standard. So we built a great reputation for that. So there are a ha moments. I mean, I remember one woman in particular, you know, standing up saying, you’ve changed my life, this is life changing. And the fact that I know this now, you know, I can take this everywhere with me wherever I go, it was just something really personal. But that that is incredible. That’s so meaningful. So it’s just very fulfilling.

Brandon Burton 22:24
Yeah. And I mean, that’s the, for me, that’s the whole point of a chamber is to be able to, you know, improve your community. And to be able to start with changing individual lives, especially if those people are business owners, the refugees that are coming to the country and starting businesses starting a life here, all of it is going to play into a greater city, a greater community overall. So that kind of transitions into the next question I was going to ask you is, how do you view the role of the Western chamber? What what is your role in your community from your stance? Oh, goodness,

Katherine Harrington 23:02
well, we want to put Western Moines on the map worldwide, literally, and no idea is too, too big or too small to do that. And right now, our biggest need in our community is talent, attraction, workforce attraction. And so we are trying to do everything we can to bring more people to West Des Moines. Now, the way people choose their cities, and places they work is they choose the city first. And then they’ll choose where they want to work after they’ve mobilized and figure out what city do I want to live in. So we are trying along with our city of West Des Moines team, we work closely with them. We’re really trying to trying to create that best city in America to live work and play in every facet. But our job is to promote our city. Think of those big ideas that we can activate and make happen. Because we can we’ve got the means we’ve got the desire, we got the passion, and we can find the money, whatever it is. So we’ve got some really exciting ideas for the future. But we just published for instance, a magazine called 515 West and it is a talent attraction magazine. It is a showpiece. We are going to put it up for some awards, but it’s beautifully designed, captivating, you know, double page spreads that highlights our people or humanity or the beautiful parts of our city, or Parks and Recreation. And we’re gonna be advertising that magazine across the country and targeting key cities that may not have all of the great amenities like West Des Moines has, right? We have a safe, safe community. Our housing prices are low compared to some of your, you know, major cities, our traffic, we don’t have any traffic jams. It’s like 10 minutes to get everywhere. So that We have really, really, really friendly humans, like everybody here is for others. It’s not about me, it’s about how can I help you. And everybody has that acumen. And we’re continually trying to build that and model for others. So we’re huge model. And we’re modeling for the community, right? This is, how can I help you? So we are excited to advertise the 515, West magazine in LA, Denver, Boston, Hartford, Connecticut, because we are a financial and insurance center in the US. But we’re LA, Chicago. So cities like that where you know, it every thought of West Des Moines. style. Yeah, exactly. So we’re going to do a social media campaign in those cities promoting our city to hopefully cross our fingers build interest, awareness and attention and love for our city.

Brandon Burton 25:55
So hopefully, it doesn’t bring the traffic jams with it. Well,

Katherine Harrington 25:59
I know infrastructure is Uh huh. Our whole region has a march to a million theme, which, you know, we’re all we’re all trying to bring more people here to our beautiful city and more people from all over the world all over the country and world. So yeah, and you asked earlier, Brandon, our size of a chamber, we just reached a million dollars in revenue, which is we, that’s new for us. So a million dollar chamber, and even through the pandemic. So, we’ve, we’ve we’ve done really well with serving our community. So yeah, we’re strong chamber.

Brandon Burton 26:36
That is awesome. So as a chamber, the year finalists, I look at all the finalists as as they were kind of setting the benchmark in the chamber world, you guys are doing great things. And I’m curious to see if you have any tips or action items for chambers who are listening who might are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level? What suggestions would you have for them?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Katherine Harrington 27:00
I would say don’t be afraid to make bold decisions. Don’t compare yourselves to other chambers. Be unique. Be yourself. Go big. And, you know, I think that’s huge. And that’s just something that, that we challenge ourselves every day, how big can we think how big can we go. And then from a culture perspective, we live, eat and breathe positivity and loving others, and caring for others. So having that acumen I think will set you apart from other other organizations, other people, it is very, very important to keep that positive mindset and look at things on the positive side, chamber life is a lot as we all know, if you’re listening to this, you’re part of a chamber you know, you know, many people walk through your door every day, you get interesting phone calls you you know you have, you’re dealing with so many so many beautiful people in the world. But always see, the positive side always know it’s from comes from a place of good intent. Don’t you know, I’m just always about loving others, and you never know what somebody else is going through. So always give them love back, even if you might not be getting it right. Because sometimes people walk in the door, and they may not be happy about something, it rarely happens to us. But I’ve heard other chambers, you know, having difficulty and I’ve been reading the other blogs and the Facebook, you know, different pages and channels and stuff. But just charging through doing all you can to help others and love others and model for others I think is is just so important to us.

Brandon Burton 28:51
And that goodwill will come back to you as well. Even if they’re not in a mind frame of state of mind to return that love at some point, it always comes back around. So I like that advice. And I like the idea of being bold and going big. Because I think a lot of chambers might be a little scared to go too bold or too big because any fallout that may happen or risk that comes along with it. But you know, have those big dreams and it’s not so much for to make a risk. But to make a difference in your community. You have to dream big and and be bold. So I love that.

Katherine Harrington 29:33
It’s so true. And a lot of it too is imagining revenue streams that are new, unique, different that nobody else is maybe doing because to be a chamber you have to build revenue because you’ve got overhead. Of course you’ve got your staff, but thinking of new ways that you’ve never thought of before to monetize things. You know, we’re a business just like every other business. So treating it like a business is not like a nonprofit, but like a business. We partnered, for instance, our chamber has never done this before in the history of our chamber, we’re partnering with an organization, and we’re selling culture licenses. So we’re helping companies and humans understand what it means to create great culture at their organizations. And because culture is more than we’ve got a beanbag chair over here, and we, you know, we’ve got fabulous beer Fridays, and you get to get off at one o’clock, its culture is a lot more than that. It’s more than than a ping pong table that gets dusty in the middle of the, you know, break room, right? So. So there is a science behind it, there is a science around it. So we’re trying to help companies understand how they can create the best culture. And so we’re starting to launch a program called better culture brought to you by the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce, and it’s a neat online program self paced, and very, very valuable information. So we’re really excited about that. So, you know, so think of revenue streams that you can build. They know how that helps you grow as a chamber. So that’s, that’s one thing I would say to

Brandon Burton 31:16
like that. And I would, I could sit here and pick your brain for the next hour or two about different revenue stream ideas. But maybe we save that for another conversation. Yes, yeah. So no chambers all over always looking towards the future. And you gave great advice of looking for those revenue streams and staying relevant. But how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Katherine Harrington 31:41
Wow. You know, as chambers become larger, it’s interesting in our in our region, we have 24 chambers in our city, which your eyes Brandon’s eyes got big right now. And it’s like, there’s a lot of choices, right. But chambers are in a very unique position to think innovatively creatively, to work with their cities to do the same. I see Chambers as really the leader that helps cities grow and flourish and become the city of the future. And that all depends upon your team, your team has to have that acumen. Right. They have to be that innovative, passionate, hard working mindset in order to do that, but I really see chambers being this, the leaders to help drive those cities for the future thinking of placemaking opportunities, you know, like, what can we do? Mayor, you know, what can we do a mayor city of West Des Moines to create placemaking opportunities that we don’t have here that helps attract the best talent. Maybe we have an indoor, I don’t know, an indoor downhill ski resort. You know, again, we don’t have mountains or an ocean and palm trees. But think big, like, what are the things that we don’t have that will attract and draw, and I listened to a podcast this morning. I love podcasting. It’s so fun. And they talked about small cities being Guinness book world record holders at on various things. One is the largest ball of twine. Okay, but it’s, but it’s a city attraction mechanism. It is, you know, it’s like this draws this ball of twine draws people to the city. So you know, so I see the Chamber’s as as real innovative hub to help cities build the city of the future. And if cities work together like we do, we have a really strong relationship with our city. And we work closely together because they are just incredible. We all have common goals, right. But I see us as the real innovators, that’s going to propel a city forward.

Brandon Burton 33:52
I love that great, great answer. Great response. I live podcast too. So clearly. Katherine, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in West Des Moines. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Connect with Katherine Harrington

Katherine Harrington 34:13
Yeah, sure. My email katherine@wdmchamber.org. And you can see all of our contact information at wdmchamber.org. Our hashtag we’re using is #GoWestWDM and my cell phone number which never leaves my hip Much to my husband’s chagrin is 515-689-4447.

Brandon Burton 34:47
Right now, I’ll get that in the show notes for this episode as well. So anybody listening can go there to find that contact information. But Katherine, this has been great having you on the show. Great discussion, you guys. We’re making a huge impact in your city. And I wish you guys Best of luck as chamber the year.

Katherine Harrington 35:05
Thank you, Brandon. I just want to say, you know, I, I steer the ship, but I don’t you know, I don’t I don’t drive it. Well, I steer it but I don’t. I don’t I’m not the engine, right? Yeah engine of the ship as our team and they are incredible people. And they’re so smart, and they’re so intelligent, I learn something new from them every day. And our board. Our committees are, you know, I could go on and on and on hundreds of members, they’re just all in it together. And I love it so much. So it’s not about me, it’s about our village and our beautiful community and people that support it. So thank you to the chamber team.

Brandon Burton 35:47
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