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Category: Innovation

Eliminate the Question of What Your Chamber Does with Chris Russell

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Chris Russell. 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.

Unknown Speaker 0:14
And now your host, the rich of his podcast has far exceeded what he ever imagined.

Voiceover Talent 0:20
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 Diane Rogers, President and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for her.

Diann Rogers 0:46
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 1:00
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

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Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Chris Russell. Chris joined the Nixa Chamber as the president and CEO and that’s Nixa, Missouri. He joined as the president CEO in March of 2018. Prior to his role, he spent several years in the real estate world with Keller Williams as a trainer, business coach and Team Leader of local ever local office. Chris also spent six years serving on Nixa city council, in addition to his many years volunteering at various capacities in his community, including 25 years as a high school football announcer. Currently, he not only serves the chamber, he serves on many other boards in the next area, the next chamber was a struggling chamber that really needed a boost. When he took over they had around 325 members and now have over 550 members and I’ve increased the annual budget by over $200,000. The Nixa chamber hosts on average about 110 various events from ribbon cuttings, groundbreaking ceremonies and luncheons are actually shows her thinks that luncheons are boring networking events, and they took over the town’s annual festival, that in 2018 was on the brink of being cancelled to now an averaging over 25,000 people in 2019, and even more in 2021. They also hold an annual business expo called Nick’s bow, which brought close to 4000 in just last month, and last year, they brought back the town’s firework show that had been gone for nearly 10 years. His latest thing he’s working on now is to bring the chamber world into the VR world, which sounds very interesting. Chris, welcome to Chamber Champions is share something interesting,

Chris Russell 2:51
Right and thank you so much. Well, here’s an interesting fact talking about Nixa. We’re the only Nixa in the entire world. Located right here to southwest Missouri. So if you know where Branson Missouri is, or Springfield, Missouri, we’re actually about 10 minutes south of Springfield and about 20 minutes nor I actually probably 3035 minutes north of Branson, but there’s parts of Brandon and get to pretty quick. So we sit right here in the center of the Southwest Missouri hub and glad to be here on the show with you today. Brandon only mix in the world. And another fun fact, we’re the home of Jason Bourne actually in high school. His name was David Webb. So if you ever watched the Bourne Supremacy, movies, all that kind of stuff, they say, Jason, whenever your front name was David Webb, you’re from Nixon, Missouri, so Yeah, fun fact.

Brandon Burton 3:29
I didn’t know that. Yeah, that’s

Chris Russell 3:31
yeah. The movie theater, watch the movies. He goes, You’re from Nixa, Missouri. When I went. I was like, What the heck? You know, that’s kind of crazy. I

Brandon Burton 3:38
know where that is. Well, tell us a little bit about the Nixa chamber. Yeah, besides being the only Nixon in the world, maybe sighs. You mentioned budget staff.

About the Nixa Chamber

Chris Russell 3:50
Yeah. So I have a staff of for two full timers and one part timer. We have a retired person. She’s also serves on the city council, but she comes in and covers lunches. So we can go do various events and activities and those kinds of things. And then I have an Events Coordinator, which she’s frantically preparing our big, huge Secretary music arts and crafts festival coming up in two weeks. And then we have our operations and membership director, which is at Christiana, and she course takes care of all membership related stuff, making sure our sponsors get taken care of those kinds of things. And then of course, my job is to kind of be that logistics guy, the big thinker guy, I’m in all the economic development meetings, planning meetings, of course, I’ll step in and meet with members and kind of puff them up a little bit. And then, you know, really, I love to sit down with our businesses and have one on one discussions. I had a new business startup come in here yesterday, we did a coaching session for about an hour about all the things that she needs to be doing to get prepared. So that’s kind of my role and kind of kept keep keep the ship moving forward, if that makes sense. Yeah, we have right at 557 Members, I think is what it was last week at our board meeting. We’re growing. We’ve actually continued to grow through the last two years, I think in the year of COVID we to 2020 122 new members As, and we have about a 91% attrition rate or mean, retention, retention rate, I don’t want to do

Brandon Burton 5:06
anything, you don’t want to brag about what you

Chris Russell 5:08
were there. And you know why? And here’s the thing, right? And it’s not me. I mean, yeah, we have some energy. And I bring a lot of fun ideas. But, man, I tell you what, I’m just really proud of the way that our community rallies upon around our chamber. And it’s all of our great board members are ambassadors, and we work with them, we do fun things for them, we encourage them and, and that is something that I’ve found that is really the lifeblood of our chambers growth is creating those great big fans out there and giving them a chance to be leaders to be seen to be to to listen to them to take their ideas and implement them and and make it one big family because that’s that’s where chambers really grow is when you have great support from the members and the community.

Brandon Burton 5:51
Absolutely. And I think that is a perfect segue into what our topic for today is, which is, chambers all over get asked the question whether to their face or behind their back of what is the chamber do? So the point of our discussion today, you guys are very active with events and activities. So the topic that we settled on is eliminating the question of what is your chamber do so we’ll get into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Chris, we’re back. So as I teased with the topic for this discussion, eliminating the question of what is your chamber do? When was the last time you were asked? What is the next chamber? Do?

Topic-Eliminate the Question of “What does Your Chamber Do?”

Chris Russell 8:34
You know we still get it? Um, the lady who came in yesterday just to pop in she wanted to know what a chamber does, right? I mean, but they she was new, and she was new to entrepreneur, one wants to open up a juice bar here in town and really wanted to know what the next chamber was. The funny thing was, is that her food supplier, which is like us foods or something, they told her that she needed to come to the next chamber. And so I thought, well, that’s the first time that’s happened. You know, not a lot of times we get referrals from other Chamber members, but from a national distributor saying you really need to go in and I hear great things about the next chamber. And that that made me smile that made me happy. So So we still get that question, but we tried to eliminate that, you know, one of the things that I think we were already moving in this direction of really being not only business to business, that’s a big part of what chambers do, right? We create those networking opportunities. We create those training opportunities, we create those you know, the luncheons or whatever and those type of events, ribbon cuttings, of course, and that’s a lot of that business to business and we need to still do that. That’s that’s good old fashioned chamber one on one right there. What I noticed is that especially in a town like Nixa so we’re our population here in the city limits about 25,000 people. We look in the zip code, we’re about 32,000. But we’re tucked right up next to Springfield, which is 180,000 people and their chambers about 1300 people members and we’re we’re about 550 and what we noticed is that when you’re when you’re in a town this size, and we’re really in that suburb of Springfield, we have a lot of that service sector businesses we don’t have that many businesses that that actually attract people from around the area to come in here we have a handful, right? What I mean is that I’m not passing this franchise in Springfield to come to the franchise and Nixa. Does that make sense? Yeah. I’m not passing that dentist in Springfield to come to the dentist in Nixa. We do have a few Nick’s of hardware, it’s kind of renowned that they’re they track regionally, a lot of people that come in. So we started taking on this idea that if we’re going to help our small businesses grow, then we need to create an avenue or a platform that also connects to our community. So if I’m, so if I’m a small business, and I’m a, my, my primary customers or clients are coming from the next a proper, I don’t I can’t afford to go spend on advertising on radio or TV that you’re paying to hit a reasonable reach. Does that make sense? So I’m paying a lot of money, but I’m also going to be reaching out to a 60 or 70 or 80 mile radius. I don’t need that my customers are coming from right here Nixa. So that’s where, when we decided to take over the town festival, when we decided to take over the printing of our directory, our printed directory right here in our chambers of outsourcing it. When we added the firework show when we decided to take our business expo to a new level that was so that we’re creating a way that our businesses have a resource right here we become the media for them to reach the clients or reach our citizens. And that that really was a game changer for me. And we saw our revenues go up because they saw that as a valid resource. I think that’s one way that we’ve kind of answered that question on what are the Chamber’s do well, we create them a platform, through our events through our activities through our new experience Nick’s app, which is this a city wide garage so we can an extent we’ve been utilizing the app to do scavenger hunts with that for people, we made this big, long list, Brandon, of all these crazy things you might find at a garage sale, and find it was actually kind of fun making the list. But oh, yeah, I remember those. And they The goal is for people to go out with a garage selling to take a picture of it, upload it to the app, and then they’ll have a chance to win some prizes on Monday. Well, that’s another

Brandon Burton 12:06
word chambers providing the prizes to engage families in the

Chris Russell 12:10
that’s people shopping out there. Right. So. So that’s one of the ways that we’ve done that. And I know that a lot of times you see, what’s that? What’s that comment parades, or whatever, you know, it’s which one do the

Brandon Burton 12:23
three P chambers and pancakes and parades and pancakes, right?

Chris Russell 12:26
And here’s the thing is that, I think, especially in our community, when we’re so close to a major metropolitan area well, and Springfield is not even that big when compared to like St. Louis, Kansas City or Tulsa. But it’s still that in our scale of things, that’s that’s how we look at it, we have got to be that resource that is also giving our citizens and a chance to connect with our businesses. And that has been the game changer, which means a little bit more work. But honestly, it’s it’s fun. I mean, yeah, it’s a lot of work to do a town festival, it’s a lot of extra work to do an app and, and to create those resources for our businesses to connect to our community. But man, they appreciate it so much.

Brandon Burton 13:04
Yeah, that’s the end, you got to know your community. So I mean, it doesn’t work necessarily for every community, but understand your community. I think the example you gave the proximity of where you are to Springfield, and what’s going to draw people into your community, you need to have those events, those things that draw people in, and then once they’re there, you’re engaging with them, you’re providing great, whether it’s entertainment, like a show or a luncheon type show or so share with us maybe some of these things that you’re doing. You mentioned the app, which I think is fantastic. And and I imagine you can get creative with that too, with even plugging in some member restaurants or something, you know, find these things and scavenger hunt and eat lunch or whatever. And but what are some of these other activities or events that you guys put

Chris Russell 13:51
on? So let’s look at let’s look at this get back to the basis of a chamber right so a couple of things that we do. One of them is you know, the Chamber luncheon, right? Everybody has a lot of people have a chamber luncheon as well. luncheons to me are boring. I mean, you listen, let’s just let’s just play this out. And I’m not saying anything about about those who had the traditional luncheon because they they are normally very informative. But they’re very, they’re very scripted, if you will. So you walk in the network for about 20 minutes, and they sit down. And then you already have your cheesecake or the chocolate cake there and you get your salad plate there. And somebody stands up and they say thank you for coming. Thank you to our sponsors. Hey, we’re back in about 20 minutes with a guest speaker today. Enjoy your meal. You sit there with your table, eat for a little bit. And then finally here comes a speaker and let’s pray together good, right? And then you’re there for 45 minutes listening to them talk about a topic that you may or may not be interested in. And then you get up and as fast as possible. Can you leave that’s that’s the typical lunch. That’s the format that we’re all used to. Well, I like it and there’s there’s a time in place for that. Absolutely. But we decided that and of course a little bits of all my personality. You heard my bio that I’ve been doing, you know football games for 25 years. I mean when you when you’re a high school football announcer any kind of an announcer MC, there’s an element of a show that goes into that. So I decided that let’s let’s change this, let’s engage as many people as we possibly can at a luncheon and let’s do it in a talk show format. So I literally if you watch like the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon or any of those late shows, you know, What’s he do? He comes on? He has his opening monologue. Well, those are jokes. We call it. Good news Nixa. So I have a segment in there sponsored actually by expose marketing here Nixa, they sponsor that segment. And I tell about good news stories, I might play a video I might tell something that happened at city council meeting, I just was at a meeting went yesterday, one of our nonprofits kind of $35,000 grant from Delta Dental to help provide additional dental services to at risk kids. So that’s a good news story. So we’ll tell that for about 10 or 15 minutes. So that’s the opening monologue. And then we usually have our sponsor break, you gotta have a spotlight sponsor. But even then, unless that person’s a rockstar speaker, I will do q&a with them with a few slides, and I engage in them. And I’ll ask questions, and I’ll talk to them and have a conversation. And they see that so much more relevant than just getting up there and having to sit there make sure that they have their seven minute time, walked out perfectly with all these slides. And that has been more powerful. And that’s why those sellout each and every year, because they feel less pressure to have to do a presentation when it’s more about me doing an interview. And then of course, we get into some other segments where will we always have a transitional video. So when we go from one element to the next, I play video, because our school system is really good about making school videos, I will go grab one of their videos and we’ll play it right there like something that’s that happened at Nexus schools or something the city of Nixa did, or I’ll make a recap video of a chamber luncheon that we did a ribbon cutting that we did, and we do all of our ribbon cuttings on Facebook Live. And so it gives us a lot of content. And then after that we get into the sponsors, then finally, we’ll get into the actual meat of the subject. You know whether it’s last month it was I had, we did some grants for one of our Community Foundation. Well, that was fun. We were giving out free money at the Chamber luncheon. The month before we did an update with what the county’s master plan is for the next five years. Well, again, me and the county commissioner doing a q&a talking about it talking about the impact that is more of a show than it is a luncheon. And it involves so many people that they feel like they’re engaged, and we sell out each and every month. That’s just one of the things that we do differently.

Brandon Burton 17:18
That’s awesome. And that sounds a lot like a podcast to me. Now the way you do the interviews. Yeah, transitions. Yeah. I mean, you’ve got the all the elements that you’re selling tickets to you’re filling a room and you’re creating a great experience.

Chris Russell 17:31
And when you walk in, we’ve got it we got pumped up music plan we’ve got normally when you walk in, it’s not that hard to make videos, you know, these days to throw a bunch of pictures of your last month, until a little loop video. And we’re walking in there’s there’s energetic music, it’s fun, they’re dancing, we actually have somebody who announces the names and when they walk in. So my main sponsor of the annual sponsor, the lunches is GenCon, CPA and Kailyn. She’ll go And now ladies and gentlemen, welcome from the chamber podcast. It’s Brianna. And then we have our ambassadors are there with pom poms, and they’re cheering them on. There’s applause when everybody walks in, it’s like you’re walking up to bat at a major league baseball game. That’s awesome element that’s different. And it’s exciting. And it brings energy and people love it.

Brandon Burton 18:18
And it breaks down some of those, you know, resistances and barriers that people might have at a typical networking type function where you’re just sitting at the table trying to small talk with the people there, like you’re having a common experience and building upon it. So I love that. You

Chris Russell 18:32
know how a lot of a lot of chambers will do like raffle drawings at a chamber event. And they usually wait to the very end, they do the raffle drawings and nobody leaves. No, we do it. First. We want to get people excited right off the bat plus, it’s a nice transition to get everybody into their seats. And as you start the raffle drawing, so that was an element that we changed as well. And that was kind of a cool thing. So there I have an ambassador comes up, she gives out the raffles. And that kind of gets everybody ready. And then all of a sudden here come to the show and bring energy and it’s just a different way of doing it. But however, I see it working Brandon and people like to be there. Our chamber luncheon next week is I told Christiane, our operations that you might want to send a reminder email and she goes, Well, we’re almost full. Are you sure we need to? So we’re selling these things out? Well in advance and people and we do season passes, too. But so that’s that’s the excitement that we bring with that event, because we do have so many cool announcements that goes on during that chamber show, not the luncheon.

Brandon Burton 19:26
spend just a minute talking about the the annual pass. I think that’s yeah,

Chris Russell 19:30
no. So yeah, yeah, it’s really been a Well, I think we had 60 Some of them sold so you can buy your annual passes. Now, the way that we do our funding, Brandon, is that we do the total resource campaign model. And that was another big game changer for us. I know a lot of chambers use that. They also use like different campaign styles. By us having 30 to 40 volunteers go out each and every year and sell our inventory for us on non dues revenue. Those are 30 to 40 Cheerleaders that are out there talking about the Nixa chamber and saying here Here’s why you as a business need to be engaged. Well, we introduced with that the season passes so that they can buy an annual pass. Businesses don’t want to have to worry about logging in each and every week or month, I’m sorry, and making sure they have their ticket for the monthly luncheon or chamber show. And so they they’re more than happy to spend a couple 100 bucks and just buy that season pass at the beginning of the year. And then that way, they know they have a ticket each and every month. We do that with our working women and Nixa, our networking group, and then also our chamber show, and I think we’ve got, I think it’s 60 or 70, I’d have to go ask my operations, exactly how many we sold last year, but we have a guaranteed built in base each and every month because they just buy them. And if they can’t make it, they’re able to take their QR code and give it to one of their colleagues in our office.

Brandon Burton 20:43
Okay, that’s all right. Great idea. So you had mentioned at the beginning about the 91% retention rate, which is great feedback, you guys are providing value, your members see the value, they understand what you do, what are their feedback, so you get back from these returning members as they renew where they see in the most value from your chamber.

Chris Russell 21:03
You know, my favorite chamber member is not necessarily the one that we see all the time. My favorite chamber member that tells you as a chamber that you’re doing a good job is that company or corporation that you hardly ever see, because they see the value, but you never see them. So they know they want they read the emails, they see the Facebook posts, maybe they check the website, occasionally, maybe they’ve downloaded the experience next app, or they’re seeing the activities that we’re doing. And each and every year, they continue to write that check for six or $700 for them to be a member of the chamber, depending on their level, our lowest is 225. And our highest I think is 700. We do that we do that Fair, fair market value model with a mix of tears. So it’s kind of a combo. It’s a hybrid model. And that that that right there tells me that your chambers healthy when they’re not worried about what they get out of the chamber. And that’s a compliment. And I love to see those windows. I love to see the renewals of those who are engaged as well. Don’t get me wrong, there’s there’s value to that too. And as new members come in, and they get engaged in the chamber, that that’s new energy, it’s new blood is new volunteers. It’s new ambassadors. But again, when you have those members who say, hey, Nixa chamber, we see what you’re doing. Thank you so much. Here’s your annual check, no questions asked. That to me tells you that you’re doing something right. Does that make sense? Brandon?

Brandon Burton 22:16
Yeah, that’s another form of feedback that speaks volumes for sure.

Chris Russell 22:21
It does. And occasionally, you’ll see them show up to something big that we’re having, which is great. We had a groundbreaking for a $4 million new business coming into downtown Nixa a few weeks ago. And that brings out people that you don’t normally see. So that was fun. But that that to me, tells us that we’re doing the right things. You know, I think I think most people know that in my community that that I’m pretty engaged. I mean, I have I grew up here, Brandon, I went to high school. If you can’t see it, we’re on video here. But we’re not on video on the podcast. But right behind me. That’s my football helmet, you know, football helmets right back there. I played quarterback for the Knicks eagles. I’ve announced the games. My dad was a fire chief in town. For many, many years. I served on city council, I volunteer a lot and a lot of areas. So this is this is my bread and butter. There’s no doubt about it. However, you still have to maintain that this doesn’t mean you get a free pass, you still have to go out there and earn the respect. And they see that I’m at the city council meetings, they see that I’m I’m in these these these committees like the Nixon Community Foundation, the downtown revitalization group, they see me emceeing events promoting our community. And I think there’s a lot of that said that, that that’s another reason they want to get behind what the Chamber’s doing, not necessarily because of me, but because they see the overall efforts. And then I see how I engage and bring people up to be leaders. And that’s that’s what’s really been powerful for us is that finding those ambassadors, finding those board members that we are highlighting and showcasing and showing the community that it’s not just about the chamber, that we’re actually giving opportunities for other people in our community, to be seen and to have the spotlight and to take ownership of whatever they’re doing. You know, I mean, like our secretary music arts and crafts festival, we have 13 different nonprofits that we work with for that event. I have organizations running the dog show for the love of canines. I got the local FFA. That’s one of the the petting zoo. I’ve got the Arts Council that’s running the art show. I mean, so we engage a lot of different groups that they get ownership of that and therefore they get the highlight and the spotlight and it makes them feel good. And then they want to be a part of our chamber.

Brandon Burton 24:23
Yeah. So you’ve mentioned soccer days a few times for those people that are not from Nixa was a soccer days is. Yeah, it’s

Chris Russell 24:31
funny is that back in the 1950s. I mean, literally the entire town. I got to there’s a poster over here my wall that shows that it’s our history panel we used on our kiosks. But anyway, it talks about how the towns close going fishing or something like that. And the 1950s I mean, they would all go down to the river and sucker fish is a native, well, they’re sacrificial all across the world, but it’s one of those Ozarks traditions that they spawn in the fall or the spring and the town will go down and try to catch a bunch of sucker fish and they would actually A camp and celebrated the river. Well, in 1957, they brought the tradition back to Nixon started an annual fish fry. And with an annual fish fry, it kind of grew from there. And in 2018, the event was ran by the traditional good ol boys group that that held the festival. And it really had taken a turn where just wasn’t, it wasn’t very good. And people actually made fun of it. And they were they were going to shut it down. And I was at a breakfast with me and the committee and the mayor. And I was like, Guys, just let me think on this, just hold on. I grew up the Saturdays, this is my hometown. And I went back to my board of directors and said, I’m going to take over Saturdays I said, we as a chamber, I said, they went wack in at that time, I was fairly new. So I joined in March 2018. Sucker days in 2018, was May, I made the decision in June, so March, April, May, June, three months into the role and I’m going we’re taking it over. And the board was like, Are you sure I said, guys, I said I got a model. And I think we can do this. And it’s going to create an opportunity for more of our businesses to be exposed to our community. And it’s actually been pretty powerful and it’s really wonderful. It’s a wonderful event in a bring 25 to 30,000 people in downtown Nixa for three days and it’s a little downtown block. It’s not even that big and it’s just fun and it’s like a Hallmark Channel event. Like a Hallmark Channel movie right and so we have the Little Miss Main Street pageant. We have the Secretary King and Queen and we do all these fun things. We’ve been doing a new thing this year, the sucker day dog king and queen we got these cute little crowns today. So you know it’s just really really engages our community and my goal was to create as many opportunities for exposure for Nixa and we have several high school groups that are engaged. We have the marching band, we have the theater department, we have the art club, we have the FFA we talked about we have the JROTC so we have all these different groups of the high school kids that are getting engaged, and to be a part of it. So it’s really, it’s really become a cool thing. It is a lot more work. And we have to dedicate a lot of time to it. We do have a great committee, but in the end, it comes down to what happens here behind the scenes to make it happen. But it’ll generate 50 to 75. Probably I think I looked at the p&l the other day, I think we’re up to depending on weather, of course, right? We know whether an outdoor festivals, if we have a great weekend and we do a lot of ride tickets, then we should generate somewhere around 70 to $75,000 in revenue.

Brandon Burton 27:21
That’s great. Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s big.

Chris Russell 27:24
So it’s a big no. Our next, our next boat generated our business expo generate about 40,000 revenue this year. And that was 108 booths for six hours and our high school that we did our business expo. And I think the the it was 38,000. And something I had the p&l here the other

Brandon Burton 27:40
day, 36 hours. That’s yeah, pretty good. Good bang.

Chris Russell 27:44
We were sold out event. And again, the traffic was just unbelievable. That day, it was just nonstop traffic all day. And our businesses really liked that event. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 27:53
Well, I wanted to ask you is if you have any tip or action item for listeners to Yeah, they can do to make sure that they stay relevant. Make sure their members know what their chamber does. What would you suggest?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Chris Russell 28:06
I’ll give you a couple of things here. First of all, unlimited thinking. I see as I talk to a lot of chambers at conferences and on some of the panels especially, you know, 2000 22,021 as we’re all kind of figuring out what was next I unlimited possibility unlimited thinking, you know, one of the very first things that we did when we found out that the city of Nixa was going to more than likely locked down the town like all of us went through, the very first thing that I did was I pulled in my staff and we re re rebuilt our master plan. We went straight to the drawing board and said, Okay, this is going to happen. How do we become more relevant? Now? The good news is, is that the next chamber I’m kind of techie, and that’s an advantage. I don’t disagree. I really am. We were already in the video world at a high level, doing Facebook Live videos with graphic overlays. And that was kind of fun things. And but we decided that it was time to take that to the next level that we weren’t going to let a lock down to slow us down. And we got creative on certain ways that we did things drive in chamber luncheons, right. I mean, we literally had everybody drive into a parking lot. And we had everybody even the cars were six feet apart. I mean, come on. But you know, the funny thing was, that was June of 2020. The funny thing was because we’re in the Midwest and southwest Missouri, and it’s a little little different than other parts of the country. So I respect that. I remember we were parking all these cars six feet apart. We had people out there with poles, making sure the cars were six feet apart. And we had our volunteers and we had box lunches were in basically hazmat suits to hand them out in June of 2020. And then what happened was as soon as they got there, you know what they did? They jumped out of the car and went jumped in with their friends. I mean, it is what it is. But it’s always thinking outside the box. What can we be doing different, right? And that’s like, you know, you and I were talking off camera before the podcast about Andre from Bentonville. And I hope you do get him on here. I look forward to that podcast. The guy was at it. We were at Mako conference and he brought up the VR headset. And I’m like, dude, I got to talk to you because I’m already there horizon worlds and meta is spinning billions upon billions of dollars creating this metaverse. And if we as chambers, don’t figure out how to grasp on or get ahead of that and get there now before everybody else does. We have local churches in southwest Missouri that have already built, already built their Metaverse church. And in addition to that, Wendy’s just spent like tons of money to build the first virtual reality world, Wendy’s, and there’s other companies that are following suit. And I’ve actually been talking to some other industry leaders don’t Hey, how do we capitalize on that I actually built within and learn how to build the world because it’s all user created content. I built one of our local parks and after Saturday’s, we’re having a virtual reality world meet up for all those who have headsets in the community. Then see the Facebook post and the invites to come in and check it out. Because we find that you can actually connect with the community easier in the VR world, you’re you have less boundaries, and how can we create that next step to connect with with Nixa. So that’s something that we’re doing. But the other thing too is, is that my other big tip is what’s been a game changer for us too, is what I call a video on the go live video on the go with graphic overlays good audio, I have taught this class to chambers all across the country, I’ve done one on one conversations, I’ve been on webinars done on the conferences, if you need help really, truly learning how to make professional looking videos, within 20 minutes when rolling up and a live ribbon cutting, I highly encourage you to reach out to me, I’d be happy to show you what we do. You go and check out Nick’s at chambers Facebook page, go to our video section, you’ll see what I’m talking about. We’re talking about rolling into a mower shop the other day, getting some quick B roll and then making a professional looking video within about 20 minutes. And so that’s something that I really think can be a game changer for your community is figuring out how to capitalize on Facebook Live video and not just a just holding up a camera and hitting record. That that has been a big game changer for us as well.

Brandon Burton 31:51
That’s awesome. So I asked everyone I have on the podcast this question and you’ve kind of been addressing it already throughout this interview. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Chris Russell 32:04
Well, that’s a weighted question. You know, I think you know, you’ve been talked about that a little bit of Mako and I know I had that conversation. Again, what’s that common saying that you hear when you see in one chamber, you’ve seen one? Right? I think the biggest thing is understanding your position in your community. I think that’s step number one. I’m I also know that a chamber of commerce needs to have solid relationships with all entities in your community. And I’ve talked to so many chambers who don’t have a great relationship with their city or their school system, you need to fix that you got to fix that that’s, that has to be cured that there has to be something that you focus on and making sure that those relationships are solid. But the other one is you you know we have in our mission statement to be the premier business organization and it goes on and on, will be the premier business organization. If that means you need to have events for your community than have them. And that means you need to have networking events that have them. That means that you need to be techie. And you need to be the leading edge when it comes to showcasing because you are the example that a small business who moves into your town or start does a start up in your town. They’re looking at the chamber and how they function. And if we’re not functioning that that way, then how are they expected to function that way? I have the same conversation with businesses each and every month. I say, when I’m doing coaching, I say do you close out your your books each month? And they’re like No, I said, well guess what chambers? Do we have to close out our books each month and give our p&l statements right or our current budget statements to our board for review? Well, why businesses don’t operate like that? Well, if you’re not operating like that, and you’re not doing it at a high level, then how can you expect a business to do that? So I think the future of chambers understanding where you’re at in your town, and then being the most premier business that you can, and being techie, I think you’ve got to be techie. And you got to be innovative and figure out a way to connect with your audience. All right, that makes sense. That was a lot, dude, I just don’t, that was a big break.

Brandon Burton 33:52
It’s a podcast that can hit that backup, 30 seconds button a couple times this

Chris Russell 33:56
slow down button to you know, on the podcast, you can either speed it up, you don’t need to speed up my podcast, I

Brandon Burton 34:01
was thinking, you know, I usually stick to about 30 minutes on these podcasts. But these people, their listeners are getting about 60 minutes worth of value as they listen to you.

Chris Russell 34:11
I love helping I love I love what I do. And I looked and I love to help other chambers and I think that we only get stronger. I mean, I’ve had powerful conversations with like April Bragg and Georgia and some of these other chamber pros and when I go to these conferences, I’m there to learn. And when I find people are doing things at a high level like Bentonville, Arkansas, man I become a I become a sponge. I mean he he gave us some of those tech tips. We’ve already implemented three of them, right we’re slack, there’s slack in the right now I mean there it is right there I just got another message sitting here we’re already implementing other things that we can learn from each other. If we can help each other grow with our through leadership that was another thing great about Mako was a lot of leadership portions. We all go to these these these conferences and economic development Workforce Development what to do about childcare. I don’t take care of your members. No, we need more leadership opportunities to grow as people. That’s, that’s my, that’s what I love to do is help people grow. And that’s that’s and we do it for our businesses and we should be doing it internally as well.

Brandon Burton 35:12
Absolutely. So Chris, I wanted to give you a chance to put any contact information out there for anyone that wants to reach out and connect and ask him more questions about how you’re doing things. Absolutely.

Connect with Chris Russell

Chris Russell 35:20
I’m on MySpace. MySpace is my favorite place to go to MySpace. Yeah, we’re still there. No, I’m kidding. Literally, find me on Facebook. Look up. Chris Russell Nixa, Missouri. Of course, my phone number you want to text me Call me? 417-773-7678? I’d love to talk to you. Of course, we can do. email chrisrussell@nixachamber.com, actually, probably not on the email me email sucks. I hate that platform. It’s terrible. It really is. I mean, we’ve got to figure out a way to get past email. I mean, it really is becoming a burden. I think for all of us. Would you not agree, Brandon? memb. Yeah, me emailed me the other day about the bio and I didn’t even see it. And it took you a reminder email for me to go in and type the bio out. Yeah, yeah. It’s just not a great connect. So call me or text me, that’s probably the best thing.

Brandon Burton 36:07
Okay. I’ll get that in the show notes for this episode. So people can check that out and connect with Chris and he’s got lots of ideas, lots of energy, and he loves to share these ideas too. So do reach out and connect with him. Learn from him, let him learn from you. And, you know, make everybody better.

Chris Russell 36:25
I want to learn from you too, man. I want to find out what you’re doing. That’s, that’s the main thing. You just never know what you’re gonna learn. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 36:31
Well, Chris, this has been great, great discussion. I appreciate you being with me today on Chamber Chat Podcast and provided a ton of value. Appreciate it.

Chris Russell 36:40
Oh, thank you for having me, Brian. Appreciate it. Great job on your show too. It’s awesome.

Brandon Burton 36:43
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Industry Innovation with Betty Capastany

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Betty Capestany. 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 recently started blogging about chamber stuff on regular basis. He’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello, Chamber Champions. Thank you for joining us for Chamber Chat Podcast. I am your host, Brandon Burton, and it is 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 Diane Rogers, President and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for her.

Diann Rogers  0:48  

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  1:02  

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Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Betty Capestany. Betty serves as the Director of Economic Development for Pierce County. Her department focuses on retaining growing and bringing new jobs to Pierce County. Last year they delivered $46.5 million of cares funding to small businesses in Pierce County. Currently she’s overseeing $40 million dollars of American rescue plan economic stabilization and recovery funds to help Pierce County businesses receive resources during the pandemic. One of those programs includes a Pierce County accelerator. The accelerator is an entrepreneurial program that is focused on bipoc startups and micro businesses that his career has focused on building communities with the knowledge that successful supported businesses help the community thrive. But his work has been dedicated to having a deep understanding of how each community functions, its synergies, its quirks, its strengths and leveraging those to the advantage of the businesses she serves. That he thrives on pushing the envelope being the first to try out a new technology brings her joy and has her quick thinking ways it could be applied to the advancement of business. Prior to coming to Pierce County that is Betty served as CEO of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce for 17 years and prior to that, the city of Renton economic development director, Brendan Chamber of Commerce CEO and Assistant Director for the Kent Chamber of Commerce, Betty and her husband, George have a blended family of four boys to lovable labs and to BlackBerry eating coats. For fun. Betty runs marathons. She’s done all the world majors except Tokyo, she loves to travel, read entertain family and friends. Her civic involvement includes 30 plus years as Rotarian and Paul Harris fellow, she serves on the executive committee for Washington Economic Development Association. And as a past chair of ACC.

Betty, I’m excited to have you with me today on chamber tap podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are listening and share something else interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little bit better.

Betty Capestany 3:54
Well, hello to all my favorite people across the country. The chamber industry is amazing and has amazing leaders. And it really is the heart and soul. And I’m just delighted to be able to share some conversations and I look forward to seeing everyone in person, hopefully sometime soon, like maybe an ACC II conference. So maybe something exciting about me. We all stumbled into the chamber world in unique ways. And my unique way was I was filling out a college application. And I didn’t know what to say, I was gonna do. I was trying to get a scholarship. And my grandmother said, Put down that you want to work for a chamber of commerce, because you love people and I don’t want you to be a social worker because it’s going to kill you and your grandpa’s a member of a chamber so just put it down. Well, I put it down, didn’t think anything about it. And fast forwarded after graduation. I was working at a CPA office and the chairman of the chamber happened to come by and said we’re looking for someone for the Chamber of Commerce and then that’s kind of the rest of the story. So it’s kind of a unique way to get there. But I truly love the industry.

About Pierce County Economic Development

Brandon Burton 5:07
Wow, that is a neat story. I’m sure there’s more details to it that you could expand on. But that’s that is awesome. So I shared some of your background in the chamber industry as I went through your bio, but you’re now working in economic development with Pierce County. But take a moment to maybe expand a little bit on your background. What I mean by that, is that the chambers he served with your current situation with economic development, what is the scope, and maybe like the size of the chambers he worked with, just to kind of give everybody perspective as we get into our discussion?

Betty Capestany 5:45
Sure, I’ve worked with chambers of all different sizes, and I’ve always figured it doesn’t really matter how large or small you are. But if you figure out from your current state, how do you make it better. So obviously, the written chamber was a lot smaller. It was a one and a half person job to start with, and a lot of parent involvement helping do things. And then it grew to the Bellevue chamber that had nine staff members. So I think, budgets you, but just show the reflection of how well you’ve done a job in the community, because you can grow those income streams and people accordingly, at Pierce County, actually, I’m an economic development director, and I have the pleasure to work for a county executive that is a third generation business person. And top of being a county executive. And also for our county council. Our department is a smallest department in the county, we don’t even have a tab in the budget book. So before care’s and the rescue plan, before the pandemic, I might have had three, four or $500,000 of discretionary money every year to invest in different programs and resources. And most of our work was done leveraging through Chambers of Commerce for advocacy, economic development boards for recruitment, retention of businesses, larger companies. And so I really didn’t have a lot of dollars, but it was always about connecting people to solve solutions. And then the pandemic changed all that. And I have a really big budget. And I kind of chuckled during cares, because at the Chamber, I would stay up late at night trying to figure out how I was going to make my budget and, and how, you know, how do I hold my paycheck and all those things that you worry about as a business person, and then all of a sudden to have all this money to give away? Oh, my gosh, I thought I just got into heaven. Even though it was a very stressful process, but it was it’s just the other end of the spectrum, I guess you’d say?

Brandon Burton 7:57
Yeah, no, that really does help set the table and give that perspective. background that you have, you know, coming into our discussion, I really love what you had said about the reflection of budget at a chamber, you’ve been a reflection of the the value that you’re providing to the community, I think that is a great perspective to to look at that. And not that if you have a smaller budget, it’s not dollar for dollar, you know, reflection, but it’s the size of your community and everything like that, that factors into it. But I thought that was a good way of looking at it. And if you can grow your budget, grow those revenue streams, then you can see the impact you’re making in your community. So our topic for discussion today is going to be around industry innovation, which I know it’s kind of a broad topic, but that’s something that as chambers are always trying to remain relevant and move forward. It’s it’s something that I think it’ll pick up the ears of a lot of listeners. But we’ll get into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Becky, we’re back. So as we talk about industry innovation, you’ve had some experience in the chamber world, as we’ve talked about leading up to this. What are some of those innovations that are top of mind for you? I know, you’re specifically from your economic development role. There’s some some unique nuances. I guess we can call those. But just from your career in the chamber to Now what kind of innovations have you seen, and then we can talk about kind of right now going forward?

Topic-Chamber Innovations

Betty Capestany 11:48
Well, it’s a topic I love so so thank you very much for that. And I truly feel like the Chamber’s of the future, needs to make sure they’re innovative. And so just a couple of bookends as we work into the conversation, part of that innovation is to surround yourself with amazing people in your kitchen cabinets, and your kitchen cabinets sometimes maybe should be people from across the country. I mean, my kitchen cabinet has chamber people across the country. And when I was told, at three o’clock in the afternoon that I had until the next morning to come up with how would I spend that that time $30 million of cares funds, and I had to come up with a plan. I sent it out to 10 of my best chamber pals across the country. And they so when I send it out eight o’clock at night, my time, many of them, that’s 11 o’clock their time, they all responded, I put the proposal together, we actually delivered all those and even more programs, but was based on that network. So I always think you don’t have to have all of the answers. But if you use good people around you, and that could be your board leaders and focusing on what what are they doing to be successful, because whatever got you to your current state won’t get you to the future state. And I also strongly believe in you have to focus on solutions, not the problem, because everybody wants to talk about the problem. And our communities, I would say probably all of us have really big community problems. So chambers moving from a transactional Chamber of which many times that’s how we started. And we’ve kind of that space has been taken by others. It may be Google, it may be Amazon, it may be other people that are serving a lot of that transactional pieces. And if we move to more being transformational, how can we innovate and bring unique people together to solve those really big problems? And your really big problem could be infrastructure, it could be workforce upscaling rescaling. It could be how do you serve underserved populations? Could be broadband, homelessness, housing, I mean, the list goes on and on. But how do you do it differently? And that’s a piece that I always challenged people to dare to be different. And not everyone. I mean, if you if you stumble, you just get back up and you do it again, also use a lot of trends. So we had a ACC A while back, Robert towbar, and he talks about future trends and he talks about key industries. I always use that to figure out is that a is there a cluster that’s growing that we don’t know about that we can we have the talent that we can bring to our community or the 3d printing tiny homes can we do that for homelessness is so trying to figure out how you take applications that others have and put that into your community to to really make it beneficial.

Brandon Burton 14:56
Yes, I love that so much good stuff to unpack there. So at that the idea of focusing on solutions and not the problems. And I had heard of a company, I’m sure several companies have a similar policy where you can’t just go to the boss and say, we got a problem. You got to come and say, here’s a solution to this problem. Or here’s a possible way we can address this problem, instead of just dropping the problem on your boss’s desk, like you got to be part of the solution. And I think chambers can approach that same kind of perspective of, okay, yeah, there is a problem. But let’s not focus on the problem, let’s look at some possible solutions, because there’s always a way, right, right. And I also like the idea of looking at going from the transactional to transformational type of work, you would come to me as a reference from Casey Steinbacher. And we know we’ve got she’s got her great book from relevant to essential. And she talks about chambers becoming more of an influencer in their communities. And I think that comes along with creating that transformation, doing things in a better way, having the community look to you, as that influencer of change as that influencer of positive movement of the community going forward. So I think that it’s kind of a broad scope for a chamber to look at, but to get away from the transactional stuff, and become more of that, you know, solution, problem solver. And influencer in the community. So great, great perspective. So let’s, let’s look at things now. I know you’re, you’re tasked with the American rescue plan funds to dispersing and congratulations, I understand you guys just won an award. Maybe pat yourself on the back and tell a little bit about what that is, but then how that how you’re planning on dispersing some of those funds, and how that can relate back to to Chambers as well.

Betty Capestany 17:00
Sure, actually, a lot of it relates back to chambers. But let me just do a tiny step back on the Cares Act. So we for that $46.5 million, it went across eight different programs, and all of those programs, and we did cradle to grave of pretty much from our department here. And we had to break all sorts of systems inside the county to make them happened because there was a real tight timeframe to do that. But part of those we did in partnership with the chamber, so So I think that’s the piece of from chambers, making sure you’re looking at other entities that may have resources and how you may be the best person to actually do that. So the government per se doesn’t have to go breaks some of those elements. So on the rescue plan, our focus has been on how can we lead the world differently? And how can we make it because the cares was more trying to patch things together and keep us all going and Washington State was pretty much locked down. So we had a lot of bumps on that piece. So how to change it differently. During cares. We also our department looked at 5000 balance sheets and profit and loss statements for businesses in the process. And we saw many times people couldn’t fill them out. So we had to help them do that. But we also saw there were a lot of people that were left out, or there was a big difference between the haves and have nots. And while our cares resources over 40% went to diverse populations, and 70% went to women owned businesses, we knew we could do better. So with a rescue plan, the focus was on how can we make big changes. And the changes really we wanted to be was in that bipoc Arena. So which is black, brown, indigenous people of color veteran and women owned businesses and focusing on the really small businesses, or entrepreneurship since startups were kind of left out of any kind of funding in that process also. So we actually worked with I guess you could say through the cares process, we develop great relationships with like our Korean Women’s Association, our Asia Pacific Cultural Center, the black collective, the Urban League, the NAACP, me centro, so just a wide network, because we learned if you go to those networks, then they can go to their networks were trusted sources. The thing we also learned was most of those networks never focused on business. Because all the resources they got were actually around, usually a social service kind of program or resources, because in our state government never gave money to businesses. So that was an anomaly. This whole academic resources have been an anomaly to what we’ve normally done. So with that, we’re able to actually do a navigator program through our community. So we’re hiring Business Outreach Specialist. Each of these entities will be hiring them. And they have a dashed line to us. And we’re going to teach them how to network with their business community. And then when we find out what resources we need, we’ll plug them into things. So like professional services, there’s a lot of different innovation grants that we have things that we can help them grow their business. The project, we actually won Innovation Award for the state was our Pierce County business accelerator. And this is one that we’ve leveraged with our chamber of commerce as our administrator of the program. And this program, there’s probably lots of business accelerators around this program is focused, most specifically on bipoc veteran and women on businesses, they have to be really small. So under 325,000, gross revenue in 2019, or a startup business, and just having them go through the training is huge. But the training is on people that look like them, training them. So they’re see those groups and heavy peer groups. So the chamber does that. And in addition to that, we’ve actually hired in Kiva, I’m not sure if people have heard of the Kiva platform. It’s kind of one step above a GoFundMe. But it’s a platform that people all over the world can give resources to just have businesses for startups, and they help fund up to $15,000 for a business. But we basically have that platform available for the whole community. And we also have specialists that help people get ready for that platform. And these are all housed to the chamber. And then in addition to that, once someone raises $10,000 of capital that’s gone through the accelerator program, the county will match that capital. So that way, we’re truly helping them take their company to the next level, we also have paid for

about $5,000 of professional services. So if someone needs bookkeeping help, that could be 50 or 60 hours of bookkeeping help if they need legal help, but maybe 20 hours of legal help. So trying to make sure how do we remove those obstacles, and then the most important one, that the Chamber does a fabulous job at his mentorship. So matching them with a mentor for over a year. And then the last kind of cool piece is we do a rent reimbursement, up to $500 a month for a year. So trying to really take all those things that businesses have challenges and struggles with, and most particularly our bipoc businesses have challenges and struggles with and really help them figure out how to help grow wealth, so they can then pass that on to the next generation. Wow. Sorry, I get so excited.

Brandon Burton 23:02
No, so Okay, so the business outreach specialist, so I want to circle back to that it sounds like each of these kind of partner organizations. Is that person that’s being hired? Is that being? Or are they being paid through these funds? Is that how that’s working?

Betty Capestany 23:20
So we’re gonna reimburse them. So the Korean Women’s Association will hire the first. And they’re, they’re a big association for our state. They started small, they’re big. And they’re focused in Pierce County, but they will have a person on their staff that we help train that connects in with Us Weekly for all the data. And the goal is we’re going to go out to 3500 to 5000 additional businesses in our underrepresented communities. So we just make sure we touch base, let them know, figure out and connect them to resources. So it’s a reimbursement. So it’s a two year program, and we help with the job interview. Just getting them on board, because that’s that’s teaching them that skill set.

Brandon Burton 24:06
Yeah. So for somebody listening, chamber champion, listening, if they’re sitting there in their hometown, there’s their local chamber and think, gee, I wish our county or economic development had a program like this how, like you’re sitting at economic development, helping to figure out where these funds go, if you’re on the other end of it. How would you encourage that? I mean, some of the funds may be already spent right in some of these communities. How would you encourage them to kind of navigate these waters to try to adopt some of these programs that you’re talking about?

Betty Capestany 24:43
But they can always call me. But the thing is, and I’ve worked with many different communities, trying to help them do the same thing. The rescue plans, probably they’re there. They’re easier to access because there’s a little longer time for deployment. So So I think coming up with the story addigy Have what they’re trying to solve and that rescue plan. So whether it’s broadband, whether it’s something like this, which I think ties perfectly to value add so so this contract for just the navigate on the accelerator program is a $5 million contract from the county. And then we have one of our cities that added more money to it, because they saw it was very successful. For us to implement the chamber, it gets about 2.2 million to put that program together. The other monies go to the capital and the rent reimbursement and the professional services. So So I think there’s a way to leverage what chambers do really well. And I’d be glad to talk to any of them. And they may come up with different ways to make it even better. And I think it’s also making sure chambers connect into the fabric. So whether it’s tribal partners, whether whether it’s their diverse populations, just bringing different people to the table as part of the solution, and trying to figure out how you tailor it because it’s not one stop, fits all. It’s we have to meet people where they’re at. So are Korean, Vietnamese and Cambodian, a cohort, they wanted to be at eight o’clock in the morning. And they wanted to be connected to a government. They want everybody to know they were existing. And we actually did that it was translated every class into Korean and Vietnamese, now are a black population, they did not want to meet in government. They want a night time. And they didn’t want anyone that looked like me, which I’m a white lady to be in the room, because they just wanted to work amongst themselves. So but now we’re starting to have the next cohort be more blended. And so I think it’s just trying to understand what’s important to them. And now they realize, oh, I can’t, you know, have you showcased me? Or before they weren’t comfortable with that. So it’s just understanding chambers to understand those populations and bring them in because they want to help partner on these programs.

Brandon Burton 27:18
Yeah, for sure. So the thought that comes to me is we I mean, this is a lot of money that we’re talking about, you know, that the federal government’s put out a ton of money into the the economy. And I think on the surface, it’s easy for the average person to look at and be like, this is going to, you know, throw inflation through the roof, which we are seeing some inflation from it. But I think, on a local level to be able to help, you know, combat some of that inflation is where are those underserved people in the community, these bipoc business owners, because if we’re able to help them to get started, get their business, you know, to be more profitable to be more successful, employing more people that money’s being put to work. And I’m not an economist, but I think that would help keep inflation lower. It’s not a pie where the money’s just gone, you know, it’s going to generate more value and continue to move your community forward. The problem is when the money just gets spent and disappears and goes away, and you don’t have anything to show for it. That’s where we see the real damage of inflation. But if we can put that money to work, like you’re talking about, I think it can help combat inflation to some degree. And I think

Betty Capestany 28:33
along that line, maybe to pieces because I do agree with everything that you just said. I think sometimes that the groups that we’re trying to serve and reach, they don’t use a traditional chamber network. So trying to also connect them to the network. But we recently had the when they the undercover billionaire, Monique islet bat dropped into our community, and she didn’t go to the chamber, she went to a church. And because her mother had passed her, she went to a downtown urban church, and she’s a black lady. So she went, That’s where she went. And she went to the Urban League, she went, she went to different paths to and she’s established her business within that period of time without using those resources. So I think trying to bring those non traditional resources into the chamber fabric, because it’s just changing how you operate as being more transformational for your community.

Brandon Burton 29:35
Yeah, that that’s interesting. She was able to do that and goes a different a different avenue. And

Betty Capestany 29:43
she didn’t even think about chamber commerce. She just never and she’s, you know, relatively young. Very, I mean, a real live very connected lady and a very sharp business lady, but she’s done all that through her real life, that she wouldn’t Ever, she didn’t even, you know, move that into this opportunity.

Brandon Burton 30:04
So it shows the power in those other networks as well. And if you can connect them and leverage, you know, the the connections, it’s just going to make for a better community all together. So I wanted to ask that you’ve covered a ton of great information in our discussion here, I wanted to see if you might have one tip or action item for listeners to, to help take their chamber up to the next level to help elevate their community, what would what would you suggest for them?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Betty Capestany 30:32
I would suggest them, I think what we started with the focus on a solution that they want to work on, so but work on that solution and to think differently, to expand their kitchen cabinet, if that’s what you want to call it, to people that might not be connected the chamber to figure out how to make things happen in their community.

Brandon Burton 31:00
So I love that response. Just hearing you say kitchen cabinet, again, I have to ask you to expand on that. How did that term come up? What do you what do you mean by that, just as listeners can can relate.

Betty Capestany 31:12
So what I mean by that, I know Casey calls it her tribe, I’ve always called it my kitchen cabinet. So I have people throughout my whole career that I used to benchmark things by so I have people across the chamber industry, I have a few past chairs from from different. You know, my, throughout my career, I have just successful business people that may or may not have been connected to the chamber that I just used to benchmark things by because I know I can’t solve everything by myself, I’m not smart enough. But if I use looking through their lenses, I could come up with solutions that that may work at this this period of time. And so that’s what I think has helped us as a county be innovative. I think it’s helped me throughout my whole career, just having those cabinet of people. And they’re all ages, all ranges, everything diverse everything. And I love it. And I just I love people. And that’s that’s what helps me be more visionary.

Brandon Burton 32:19
I think the term kitchen cabinet is awesome, too. So I just wanted to hear more about that.

Betty Capestany 32:24
I still have a dining room table sounds smart. It’s probably this food to table stuff. I should I should say my kitchen table there,

Brandon Burton 32:30
though. No, I like the kitchen I think of because it’s got that dual meaning right, your people you talk to while you’re in your kitchen, you got cabinets in your kitchen, but like a presidential cabinet, you got your people that support you and give you that feedback and insight. So I love it. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Betty Capestany 32:53
I think this is a fabulous time to be in the chamber industry. And I think they’re the future is very bright. Because of these these huge issues going on to communities and the chambers are the ones that can really make a difference and bring people together. And it just making making chambers essential. Yeah, very relevant.

Brandon Burton 33:18
I love the answer. I love it. Well, you had mentioned as you’re giving responses, and telling how you guys are helping to disburse funds and helping to solidify some of these networks and resources for chambers, that people could reach out and connect with you what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you and figure out what’s the best way to apply some of these strategies in their community.

Connect with Betty Capestany

Betty Capestany 33:42
Probably the best way would be via email. And I don’t know if you want to just put that up on the screen at the end. Since my name is a hard one to fill.

Brandon Burton 33:52
Put it in the show notes for this episode. Yeah. So

Betty Capestany 33:55
that’s probably the best way to reach out via email (betty.capestany@piercecountywa.gov). And glad to connect in I will be an ACCE this summer. So that’s also another way to connect in. And I just appreciate everything that chamber industry does. I love the industry. They’re amazing people and they’re doing amazing things.

Brandon Burton 34:15
You and I both totally agree on that. But they thank you so much for joining us today on Chamber Chat, challenge Chamber Chat Podcast, gonna be able to say the name mount show, right. This is great. I’ve enjoyed the discussion and it’s got me pumped up to see the opportunities that are further leveraging resources and communities and beyond the money though to those connections with other organizations. And I think you’ve provided a ton of value for Chamber Champions today. Thank you for that.

Thank you.

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