As we are starting a new year, we are still in the midst of this worldwide COVID pandemic. I thought it would be helpful to share some tips in the written form to help you shortcut the work at your Chamber by sharing some lessons learned over the past 3 years of producing the Chamber Chat Podcast.
What Have We Learned?
Many Chambers are operating with fewer staff at the moment. Many have shifted what their working environment looks like by allowing for more work from home opportunities. Depending on where you are located, there may still be restrictions on the number of people who can gather at events. Each of these challenges present unique obstacles but I believe they also provide opportunities for growth.
Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, states that “Inside every problem lies an opportunity”.
Chambers have had to take a strong look at their value propositions and mission statements. As Chambers have done this, they have found ways to prove and show their relevance more than ever.
I have now been working in the Chamber world for over 15 years in the Chamber publishing space and 3 years with Chamber Chat Podcast. Over this time, I have learned a lot about what Chambers do, how they operate, the impact Chambers have in their communities, and I have also learned that many people in any given community don’t even know that their local Chamber exists or have any clue as to what a Chamber of Commerce does. I am working on a new project that will address this, so stay tuned for more details to come on this front soon.
2019 Lesson Highlights
At the end of each year while producing Chamber Chat Podcast, I have recorded a summary episode that highlights some of the key lessons that I learned that year that relates to the Chamber industry.
In 2019, some of the key lessons were:
A Chamber can and should be much more than a networking business community.
The importance of great community partnerships.
The need for talent & workforce development.
The importance of staying true to your strategic plan.
The future is bright for Chambers that stay relevant.
In 2020, as the pandemic hit and Chambers were stressed in new and complicated ways. As a result, several new lessons rose up to the top. In fact, I covered 20 lessons learned in 2020 for that year’s summary episode. Some of those key lessons were:
Trim the fat by burning sacred cows.
Chambers need to be agile to make quick pivots.
Set aside reserves in your budget.
We learned how to go virtual and how to use new digital tools.
Many Chambers saw podcasting as a way to stay connected with their members and community.
Probably the number 1 lesson from 2020 was the need to be flexible!
Lessons from 2021
As the “new normal” sets in, additional lessons need to be applied, which should help to sustain Chambers moving forward. Because of the timely relevance to these lessons, I will expand more than just a few highlighted bullet points. You can also access my lessons from 2021 at chamberchatpodcast.com/episode153.
Finance & Membership Models
Many membership organizations have had to really evaluate their overall structure. Everything from finances to membership models to strategic partnerships were on the table for discussion to keep their organizations in operation and to provide the needed service and value to their members. Some organizations saw the value in merging with another similarly aligned organization, possibly a tourism or economic development organization. Some Chambers even came together to create more of a county-wide or regional organization. There is value and strength in coming together. However, going back to one of the lessons from 2019, a Chamber must stay true to their strategic plan.
Some Chambers did not see the need to merge with another organization but they saw the need to create a triage for their business community whether or not a business was currently a dues paying member of their Chamber. As recovery from the pandemic started to pick up steam, some Chambers saw value in creating a free membership offering. I like the idea of how these Chambers are setting up these freemium models, but I would personally like to see the data from this model being implemented at other Chambers before applying it to my own.
In my opinion, Chambers are all about advancing their communities. This is accomplished through advocacy, networking, and connecting the right individuals for a stronger business environment. Doing these things will help to strengthen all areas of their community.
Online Communities
So, when more people are less involved in their communities, how does a Chamber go about doing this great work?
Well, one answer might be through creating strong online communities as a starting point. Online communities might serve as an on ramp to get others involved which can then transition into more in-person relationships. In today’s world, a Chamber would be doing a disservice to themselves if they are not utilizing the power and leverage of an online community.
Keep in mind that with many generations living and working in your community, they each prefer different methods of communication. Some really like in person events. Some will never attend an event but they will engage and support the Chamber in big ways through their screens.
Online communities can be set up on platforms such as Facebook. My word of caution is that you create a strategic plan for your online community BEFORE you launch it. This will help you in creating community guidelines and will guide you in the creation and frequency of content. This strategic plan should also create a road map for the member experience.
Preparing for the Future
Futureproofing is the next lesson that I will address. When COVID first reared its head, almost everyone caught off guard. Consumers made panic purchases of obscene amounts of toilet paper, business owners who were solely brick and mortar didn’t know if or when they would be allowed to open their doors again. Chambers adapted quickly to keep their business community apprised of government mandates and regulations, but at the same time were needing to cancel most of their non-dues revenue generators. Chambers were not prepared for this major disruption.
Moving forward, I would encourage Chambers to think and to prepare for worst case scenarios. How will you continue to serve your members if you had to shut down again? How will you bring in revenue if you are unable to gather and if businesses don’t know where their next dollar will come from? This idea of futureproofing can be wrapped in with the previous point of creating a strong plan for an online community. This can allow for you to pivot quickly and to deliver content and information to the people who need it the most.
Your Role as an Influencer
Casey Steinbacher’s e-book “From Relevant to Essential” laid out a great argument that shows why Chambers need to understand their role as influencers in their communities. I would encourage everyone to read this book for the full effect, but in a nutshell, we live in a world that is very different than it was 20 or 30 years ago. The newer generations engage in different ways and they tune into different voices. One of the main points of her book is to urge Chambers to embrace their role as influencers.
We don’t normally think of Chambers as influencers, but why are Chambers so great at conveening people and organizations for a greater cause…because they are influencers. Why do businesses join their local Chamber and ask for input on staffing, marketing, accounting, etc…because they are influencers.
Most Chambers turn to social media to flex their influence muscle. I find that many people turn to social media to tune out and they are not usually in the mindset to engage with Chamber content as it comes across their feed. Podcasts however, offer a much more intimate way to share information, and establish or reinforce your influence in the community.
Strategic Partnerships
This year as I did the Chamber of the Year Finalist interviews, each Chamber talked about their response to the COVID pandemic. Almost every Chamber shared how they created a strategic partnership with either their local Small Business Association, local banks, or other similar organizations to help distribute financial resources and relief to the businesses in their communities.
Boost your Chamber’s efficiency & revenues with digital certification of origin and movement documents, powered by essCert – the leading choice for 400 Chambers & 50,000+ satisfied Chamber members.
These types of partnerships can open doors to new services and opportunities. These opportunities will help Chambers better serve their business community going forward.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We have seen people and organizations of all types recognize the need for more focus and attention on diversity, equity and inclusion. Unfortunately it took the murder of George Floyd for the many of the racial injustices to rise to a higher level of importance. On the positive side, this extra focus on racial equity also allowed for a greater focus on other areas of diversity. It opened our minds to new ideas on how to be more inclusive to people who have traditionally been left out of our organizations for a variety of reasons. We also realized the need to provide more equitable opportunities for everyone in our communities. I believe we still have a long way to go with diversity, equity and inclusion, but we are going in the right direction.
Horseshoes vs. Chess
Anyone who listens to the Chamber Chat Podcast on a regular basis will know how much I love Dave Adkisson’s book “Horseshoes vs. Chess”. This book is what I describe as the best portrayal of what a Chamber of Commerce is and should be as well as what a Chamber Exec is and should be.
We are often asked what Chambers of Commerce do. Horseshoes vs. Chess helps to answer that question in a way that ordinary (non-Chamber) people can understand.
In the book, Dave shares an analogy about Chamber work compared to the games of horseshoes and chess. Some people look at Chamber work the same way they look at a game of horseshoes at a picnic. You don’t have to know much about the game, you can just toss your horseshoes towards your stake and if you get close you get a point.
Dave shares how Chamber work is really much more like a game of chess. You have different pieces that can do different things and you need to understand the role of each piece. One piece may be education. Another piece might be workforce development, and another tourism, and another economic development, etc. The idea is that you must know what each piece is capable of doing while also understanding that you can’t move all of the pieces at the same time. I think this analogy is perfect and it should resonate with most Chamber professionals.
Make Pivots
The final lesson that I will share from 2021 is that I need to make some pivots. I am coming up on the third anniversary of Chamber Chat Podcast. While I still plan to continue with the podcast, I do have some other new and exciting opportunities and projects that I am working on that I hope to reveal very soon. Hopefully you and your Chamber have noticed areas where you can grow and improve as well. In the end, it is about providing the best value and the highest level of service possible.
I wish you all a very successful 2022. I am sure it will be full of new lessons that will help us move closer to our potential. Keep up the great work!
Please join our email list to receive new blog posts are they are released. You will stay in the loop with any announcements related to the podcast or the Chamber world in general.
Also, be sure you are subscribed to Chamber Chat Podcast in your favorite podcast app. Subscribers are the first to get episodes as new ones come out each week.
Below is an auto-generated transcription of the top 10 lessons I have learned in 2021. 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 would love to see chambers get behind the idea of encouraging overall healthy living beyond these unprecedented pandemic times. Here’s my dad, Brandon Burton.
Brandon Burton 0:25 Hello, Chamber Champions. I’m 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 for this episode is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Is your chamber struggling to drive the revenue it needs to support your initiatives? It’s a common problem and one that our new title Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions knows a lot about Doug and Bill Holman aren’t just sales consultants. They’re real life chamber guys with 20 plus years of chamber leadership experience. They know how to diagnose and solve member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else. And they’re ready to put that knowledge to work for you and your chamber. Call the Harmon Brothers today at 61985 to 1391. Or check them out at HolmanBros.com. That’s holmanbros.com.
Doug & Bill Holman know how to diagnose and solve member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and the want to put that knowledge to work for you and your chamber. Learn more at HolmanBros.com.
Topic
As we wrap up the year of 2021. I like to do this type of episode at the end of each year where I can I look back at the episodes that I’ve done throughout the year and take out some of the top lessons that I’ve learned and possibly some of the best lessons that can be learned and applied at chambers all over. So not to try to pick out the top 10 episodes by any means, but maybe some overall principles that stood out to me that are worth mentioning again. And in this episode, I decided to pick out the top 10 lessons that I’ve learned in 2021. And with that, I will also be referencing some of the past episodes that I’ve done in this last year. So if you missed any of them, you can always go back and check them out. But as usual, I’ll have all of the links to these past episodes. And anything mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com/episode 153. But with that kind of table being said, as far as what the format of this episode will be. I’m going to run down just really quickly what these top 10 lessons are, and then then we’ll get into them in more detail. So I have them numbered, but really it’s no particular order. But number
10 is how important partnerships and membership models are especially in this last year. And taking a look at those
9 is the importance of online communities.
Number 8 is future proofing chambers and small businesses.
Number 7 is the need to go for chambers to go from relevant to essential
Number 6 more chambers are getting into podcasting. So we’ll talk more about that.
Number 5 is the importance of strategic partnerships. You may have your own ideas, but again, I’ll dive in deeper with that.
The number 4 is touching on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Number 3 is the international exposure. So this one is maybe more of a lesson that I’ve learned. But the the need of the show internationally. So I’ll dive more into that.
Number 2, I wanted to highlight the horseshoes versus chess a little bit more. That’s Dave Atkinson’s book.
And then the number 1 lesson is the need that I have to make some pivots.
So with that, we will we’ll get into this. More More detail more depth on these top 10 lessons that I’ve learned this year since we get back from our quick break.
Are you looking for a year round affordable and timely shop local campaign for your chamber or CVB Look no further build a custom each shop play mobile app with App My Community by visiting appmycommunity.com/chamberchat. App My Community mobile apps are not just simple membership directory listings. They provide many more capabilities to engage with your community. Provide your residents with a robust events calendar partner with a local fare festival or Farmers Market provide a schedule map and other resources to promote the event. Run a Small Business Saturday campaign any time of the year using built in scavenger hunts allow your membership to communicate directly to their customers via push notifications. Your app my community mobile app will be a unique member benefit allow you to generate non dues revenue with sponsorship opportunities and best of all provide a valuable resource to your community please visit appmycommunity.com/chamberchat now to receive 10% off your first year of an App My Community mobile app.
App My Community creates mobile apps that allow you to engage directly with your community. Enhance chamber membership by providing a unique advertising and communication channel to residents and visitors. Not just a member directory, App My Community has the tools to be useful to residents on a daily basis. Learn more at appmycommunity.com/chamberchat.
Lesson #10
All right, we are back. So as I teased before the break, I went through quickly the top 10 lessons that I’ve learned this past year. And number 10, was the importance of partnerships and membership models. So as we’re all aware, we’ve been getting through the hopefully, in most places some of the recovery from the COVID pandemic, trying to put some of the pieces back together and try to get our communities up and running again. And as I was doing several of these interviews early on in 2021, the idea of partnerships and mergers between chambers, or economic development, partnerships, and tourism, coming together with Chambers was a big theme to kind of consolidate budgets and resources, and to really leverage what your community has to offer and kind of bring it all into one package. And kind of along those same lines. So before I move on from that Matt Pivarnik was on for Episode 102, which he talked a lot about that with that merging and bringing together the different entities economic development, tourism and chamber all under one roof for that partnership. But along with that, I would say is membership models as well. So through the pandemic, and and even some before there. So there’s been attention given to membership models, but especially through the pandemic and trying to figure out, you know, the best way to serve members. And the best way to show value and, and all of that, being able to take a step back and look at the offerings that are being put out there with a membership model. Tiffany Esposito, she spoke to that in episode 104. So again, any of these episodes that I referenced, you can always find them at the kind of the format to it is chamberchatpodcast.com/episode and then the number so like that one would be episode 104 for Tiffany episode about membership models.
Lesson #9
The number nine lesson that I learned this year was the importance of online communities. And April Bragg joined me for episode 118, where she talked about their beginnings of a Facebook group called Robins regional, that kind of spawned out of the pandemic, and how that Facebook group really gained a lot of traction brought their community together, and really shown some exposure to what the chamber can do for the community. So for a lot of people in their community that didn’t necessarily know what the chamber was, this was an opportunity for the chamber to be that hub, that convener to bring people together, and kind of be that information base of knowledge. So I love that episode, and that the examples that she gave around building an online community, it’s not for everyone, but
I decided to try to kick off an online community of my own to try to make these episodes here on the podcast a little bit more interactive. So I recently launched the Chamber Chat Champions Facebook group, which I know a lot of you are a part of already. So thank you for joining that if you’re listening and you’re not a member of that, please look it up on Facebook again, that’s Chamber Chat Champion’s Facebook group. And the idea there is to be able to take these episodes that are put out each week and to be able to have a little more discussion in depth, sharing resources, ideas, tips from other chamber professionals that listen and that are part of this community. So check that out and join my community.
Lesson #8
The number eight lesson that I learned this year was about around future proofing chambers and small businesses. And this is a it’s been something that’s been on my mind for a lot of the year now is the idea of so many things going digital Online, as far as retail shopping goes, a lot of people don’t go out to Main Street anymore. They hop on to Amazon or whatever’s convenient for them from the convenience of their home or office. So as a chamber, Boyd Stough talked about in episode 121, about how a Chamber of Commerce is the best small business resource in there in your individual community. And the need to be able to to grasp on to the idea of that, and believe that, and I really do believe that for small businesses that are trying to hang on trying to plan for a future, that is a chamber of commerce, that you all of us, we have that responsibility to help these small businesses be successful. And chamber commerce is that great resource. That kind of piggybacking on Boyd styles episode was Jason Leslie in Episode 125. Jason is at the Alberta Chambers of Commerce in Canada. And he had talked about how with a program that they were working on with Boyd, to roll out a program for all of the chambers in the province of Alberta, to bring them online to have the same type of membership offerings, and certain membership offerings, but same type of expectation. So when somebody joins the chamber, they can know what to expect from it. But also, they’ve set up what’s called chamber market. So every chamber in the province of Alberta is online with chamber market now, it’s just recently rolled out. And it is a online retail store for any of their Chamber members of any of the chambers in the province of Alberta. And I know they’re rolling it out in other provinces as well. But this is definitely one of those ways that the chambers there in Alberta are really being an advocate to help future proof these small businesses and chambers for that matter going forward. So great job there.
Lesson #7
The number seven lesson learned is from Casey Steinbacher book From Relevant to Essential. And I had her on the show in Episode 106, where she talked about the book, and it’s a great episode to listen to. But if you haven’t read the book, go download it. It’s a Kindle version or a digital, I think it’s on other platforms too. But I read it on a Kindle. It’s pretty inexpensive. I don’t remember exactly what how much it was. But it I read it all in a day. So it’s a very easy read. But it really talking about future proofing chambers, it’s really making sure that chambers are around in the future going from just being relevant to being an essential staple in your community. And she talks a lot about becoming an influencer in your community. So it’s just a little bit of a teaser into into her book there. And if he listened to last week’s episode, Episode 152, I went into more detail about that book and shared some of the quotes that she had in the book that really impacted me.
Lesson #6
The number six lesson that I learned this year is that more chambers are getting into podcasting. And I know when the pandemic initially kicked off that I had a lot of chambers reaching out to me about wanting to start a podcast not knowing where to start. And it’s been fun over this last year is is some of those have gone online. And they’ve they have their show up and running now to be able to get some of that feedback from these chambers saying hey, I listened to you, like I was inspired by or whatever it may be. And even if it had nothing to do with me, or Chamber Chat Podcast, it’s the idea that chambers are grasping that medium for being able to share their message. And a couple of those that that stood out to me was Michael Huber in Episode 140. And he talked about the podcast that he spun off that’s not necessarily the podcasts for his chamber for the indie chamber, but it’s one that he does under his own on his own power, I guess you could say, but he does it in a way where he’s really highlighting the people of Andy and and the stories that need to be covered there. One of the other ones is B Kyle. And that was episode number 139. But that was a neat story about how she came up with the name. It’s BS Table Talk and and how she came up with the name of Table Talk. So you’ll have to go back and listen to that episode 139 If you’d like to hear that story, but also, I had last week’s episode was the chamber podcasting presentation that I did for the Nebraska chamber executives. And that was really spawned because Justice Rhoden, she, she does a podcast at her chamber. She’s a listener of of Chamber Chat. And she had reached out to me and she’s obviously sees the value of podcasting at her chamber and wanted to help other chambers really get on board and see catch the vision of podcasting. So that’s episode 152. If you wanted to listen to that one.
Lesson #5
The number five lesson that I learned this year is the importance of strategic strategic partnerships. And I don’t have a specific episode to reference for this one, I will mention that this theme came up a lot as I did the chamber, the year finalist series this year, which if you were to go back, and look, that would be episodes 129 through Episode 142, I believe. So if you wanted to go check out some of the things that are talked about around strategic partnerships in more detail. But the couple of things that stood out to me was how some of these chamber the year finalists, they all had to highlight their response to COVID to the pandemic and how they stepped up for their business community. And several of them had partnered with local banks, or small business development associations to be able to offer loans actually loans through the chamber. Because they had these strategic partnerships in place. So there’s definitely a lot to be learned there. Not that you need to always be available to offer loans or anything like that. But to be able to know some of these things are available. So the next time there is a big need like that, that you can be quick to pivot and take action. So those are definitely worth taking a listen to.
Lesson #4
The number four lesson that I learned this year is something that a lot of us have been learning about this year. And that is around the idea of diversity, equity and inclusion. And I think a lot of our eyes have been opened to some of the things that have been ignored for a long time or under appreciated. And just recently in Episode 151 Leonardo McClarty came on and on the podcast and he talked about adding a little twist to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conversation. And he’s talking more specifically about you know, reaching beyond just race and gender but you know, to look at veterans or women owned businesses and things like that, to be able to look around your chamber events, your luncheons, your gatherings and really ask yourself who it is that’s missing, and how you can reach out to their, their group their if as a chamber, you’re supposed to represent the voice of business in your community, what businesses are not being represented, and see what you can do to reach out and include them. And I’m grouping this other episode under the same umbrella of diversity, equity and inclusion. And that’s episode 109 with Matt Morrow, and he talked about the lessons he learned from the book, The Wisdom of Crowds, and how as a group, a diverse group of people together are way more intelligent than in any one individual. And I think the more diversity we can bring into our groups, or whether it’s a board or a committee, at your, at your organization, being able to have diversity, and that is going to make the outcome that much wiser, that much smarter.
Lesson #3
The number three lesson that I learned this year is the need of you international exposure, specifically for chamber chat podcast. And I’ll have to admit, when I first started the podcast, that I was doing it with the small chamber in mind, you know, the Chamber who doesn’t have a huge budget, who maybe is not a member of ACCE or even their state, or regional associations, to be able to provide a way to share Best Practices and resources to help them be more successful to better serve their members and community, as I say at the beginning of each episode, and I’ll have to admit that my focus was largely on these smaller Chambers in the United States. I figured there’s a lot of Chambers in the US and I have no shortage really of, of opportunity there to present to these smaller Chambers. Well, that quickly grew to chambers of all sizes in the States. It grew to where I’ve had a couple of Canadian interviews on the podcast, I had Adam leg in Episode 123. He was the former president CEO at the Calgary chamber. They had Jason Leslie on who’s at the Alberta chamber and Episode 125, as I mentioned before, but I had a great introduction with a man named Houssem Touil, he’s at the Tunisia Estonia Chamber. I had who saw him on the podcast in Episode 120, because he just recently put together a global chamber index, where he took a look at it, he invited Chambers from all over the world to participate. And really to find out what the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic has meant to them, have they gained members lost members revenue, the whole nine yards, went in depth in the survey, and produced a really good report that really showed all the results from that survey, and made sense of it. And having that introduction with Houssem has opened up the doors for Chamber Chat Podcast is he is introduced me to others and the international scale introduced me to someone at the International Chamber of Commerce. And in fact, on episode 145 I had some representatives from the International Chamber on the podcast to talk about the World Chambers Congress that was going to be happening in Dubai over Thanksgiving break. So hopefully some of you are able to log in, at least virtually I know, a couple of you may have went even when in person there. But that has really opened the door to chamber chat podcasts on an international level, which is way beyond my wildest dreams when I started this, to think that within three years of starting the podcast that I’d have a an international audience as well. I know that’s not super relatable to you at your Chamber. But that is a lesson that I learned this year. So I thought I would share that.
Lesson #2
The number two lesson that I learned and really there was a lot of lessons in this one. But it was out of the out of Dave Atkinson’s book, Horseshoes vs Chess. And I’m going to do a shameless plug for his book. It is the the most well written book that I’ve that I’ve read at least, that explains the purpose of a chamber of commerce, what a chamber should be doing, what a chamber executive should be doing. I think we all have acquaintances and friends and maybe even family members who are not in they’re not involved with chamber work at all. And they know that you work at a chamber of commerce, but they’ll inevitably ask, so what is the chamber and I know oftentimes, I’ll see people kind of stumble and not really know how to respond to that. But Dave Atkinson’s book horses versus chess really does paint that picture in a beautiful way. Where he compares he shares the the analogy that was shared with him when he first got into the industry, about how some will like in chamber work to game horseshoes, where you all you have to do is show up and throw the horseshoe kind of close to the target and you get a point. And compared that or contrast horseshoes, rather to the game of chess, where you have to as a chamber professional as a chamber executive specifically, you need to know the different pieces you need to know what they’re capable of, and what kind of moves they can make any likens the chess pieces to being economic development and education and tourism and all the different aspects that a chamber can have influence in in your community, and realizing that you can’t move all of those pieces at the same time and they don’t all do the same thing. But being able to learn how to control the pieces and the board to better move your community forward to win the game ultimately. So I highly recommend everyone get your hands on that book, Horseshoes vs Chess if you haven’t already.
Lesson #1
And then Finally, the number one lesson that I learned this year is that it’s time for me to make some pivots and some adjustments to, I guess the offerings that I put out there. So this is coming up on my third year anniversary of doing Chamber Chat Podcast. And it’s a blast, I enjoy it I, I really love interviewing people for the show, and getting to expand my network, getting to know Chamber professionals across the country and globally now, as I mentioned.
But I’ve had an idea that’s been presented to me, I’ve been able to percolate it on it some time, and decided that it’s something that I need to act on. So I’m still going to be doing Chamber Chat Podcast, very similar to how I’ve been doing it. But I’m also early 2022, I plan on releasing a brand new podcast, and I don’t have the name yet to put out there. But it is something that is going to be relatable, something that you’ll be able to use as a resource for your membership. And something that fits in line with the the mission of Chamber Chat Podcast, to better help your serve your members and your community. So please stay tuned for that I will make more of an announcement as a get some of the things ironed out some of those details. But I’m excited to have a new podcast offering. And I’ve got some other things in the works as well as far as new offerings to put out there to better help you serve your members in your community. But I’m also open to some suggestions. So if there’s something that you would like to see from me a way that I can better serve you. Please reach out to me my email address is brandon@chamberchatpodcast.com. And I would love any feedback and ways that I can better serve you. So with that, I wish you all a great New Year, bright futures for 2022. And I hope that you’re able to kind of take inventory of some lessons that you’ve learned this last year, and be able to to move forward in a bright future a good direction for 2022. So thank you for listening, and I look forward to chatting with you again next week.
Brandon Burton 30:28 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.
Swypit can help you increase your non-dues revenue while also helping your members become more profitable by lowering their credit card processing fees. -P.S. Your members will love the savings you can offer them too!
Would you be interested in creating even more value from the processes that you’re already doing on a daily basis Swypit has been one of my sponsors for chamber chat from the beginning. Swypit provides credit card payment solutions that will save your chamber up to 40% on your processing fees and Swypit can integrate your credit card processing seamlessly into your existing membership software. Swypit that does not charge chambers to switch and they will make switching simple In addition to these savings Swypit that has an affinity program for chambers of commerce so you can earn more non dues revenue to support your budget. Learn more about Swypit by requesting your free cost savings analysis and become more profitable today by visiting chamberchatpodcast.com/cc as in credit card. Again, that’s chamberchatpodcast.com/cc and you can join many other Chambers as you begin swiping with Swypit.
Have you considered the many benefits of hosting a podcast for your Chamber? The options, leverage, and possibilities that a podcast offers are virtually endless. Download my FREE Chamber Podcasting Guide to learn how to start your own Chamber podcast!
