Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Rich Cantillon. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.
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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host he enjoys seeing “Let’s Go Brandon” signs because it feels like the world is cheering him on, he’s my dad Brandon Burton.
Brandon Burton 0:23
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.
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Brandon Burton 1:30
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Our guest for this episode is Rich Cantillon. Rich is a 1976 graduate of Ponca City High School and in 1981 graduate of northwestern Oklahoma State University and Albert Rich also attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman and completed his chamber Institute management certificate at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Rich owned and operated a photography studio and Blackwell for 14 years and worked for the Blackwell Chamber of Commerce for eight years. He’s been with the Ponca City Chamber since 2004. Rich has been married to his wife Pam for 40 years they have three grown children and a son in law and three granddaughters. Rich enjoys working with his church youth group at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which has been going to for over 35 years. He also enjoys teaching and working with other chambers on how to be successful, which is which he does on behalf of the state of Oklahoma, the State Chamber of Oklahoma, which currently serves on the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce executive board. This is a second time serving on the board and will be president in 2024. Also for the second time. He’s on the executive board for the Oklahoma tourism industry association and will be president in 2023. Rich serves on the pocket City Arts Council board and served as the secretary. He’s an active Rotarian, and has been president of both the Ponca City and Blackwell Rotary Clubs. Bridge currently serves on the US Chamber National Institute board based in Washington DC, which is Chair of the University Center Ponca City Board of Trustees appointed by the governor of Oklahoma. He also serves on other local boards and organizations to better Ponca City. Rich, I’m excited to have you with us on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better.
Rich Cantillon 4:11
Well, Brandon, first off, thank you very much for having me. I’ve been really looking forward to this. I’m excited to get to share some things that we do. And some things that I’ve done in my career that I think have helped me be successful. One of the things that I want to share is my wife and I love to travel. My wife was a travel agent before we had children. And we just talked about we’ve been to 45 of our United States. We have parts in New England that we want to go to and we’re going to Alaska next year, so that’ll take care of one of the five. Yeah, and we just got back from Italy, which was a dream of ours. We’ve been to Mexico and Canada but we’ve not ever gone to Italy and we’re both born and raised raised Catholic. And so that was always a big dream is a very emotional trip when we were at the Vatican, and we were standing in St. Peter’s Basilica. So that was really exciting. And that’s what I enjoyed doing. And then of course, we have three beautiful granddaughters that our daughter and son in law have given us. And they kind of rule our life. And we love every bit of that.
Brandon Burton 5:24
And that is awesome. It is nice having your wife as a travel agent, because you need to test the product, right? Make sure it’s good before she sells it to other people. So it’s a good good byproduct. A
Rich Cantillon 5:34
lot of fun. Yeah, have
Brandon Burton 5:35
it. Well, tell us a little bit about the pocket City Chamber just to give us an idea of the scope of work that you guys do size staff budget, just to kind of give us some perspective.
Rich Cantillon 5:47
You bet. Thank you. So pulka City, Oklahoma is located in northern Oklahoma. And we’re right off i 35. We’re 20 miles from the Kansas border. So we’re right up here in north central Oklahoma. We are home to six Native American tribes. And so we get to do a lot of tribal work, which we really enjoy. There’s a lot of issues in Oklahoma, we have 39 sovereign tribal countries. And so that’s been a real interesting part of my career. We have about 650 Members, we’re a town the size of 26,000. At one time, we were kind of a one horse community, we were home to Conoco and which now is Phillips 66, when we realized that we needed to diversify, we started really an effort to diversify who we were as a community. So we weren’t dependent on just one industry. And that’s something I’m really proud of. I’ve been here 20 years. And in that time period, we are now the number five city in the state of Oklahoma with manufacturing jobs. And our manufacturing base is wide range, and covers a lot of different products and that are shipped throughout the world. So we’ve done a great job in securing the future POC the city, we also were oil has had a massive impact on Oklahoma. And there’s been a lot of oil investment into mansions into architecture into attractions. And so one of the things that we have here is the Marlin mansion, which is one of America’s top five castles. It’s a 55 room mansion, built by ew Marland, you created Marlon oil, which became Conoco now, Phillips 66. And that attracts people from all over the world to pump the city. So we’re also a tourist destination, we have a lot of other things that I won’t go into, you can go to visit pop the city.com. And there’s a lot of things to see and do that are very unique. And a couple of things you can only see here. So that’s a big part of what our chamber does. We’re all about building our economy and making lb punk the city, a great place to work and live. But we also are a tourist destination for the great state of Oklahoma. And we put a lot of effort into that. And that really can affect our economy.
Brandon Burton 8:25
Yeah, I love that. So for our discussion today. So I the whole purpose of the podcast when I started this almost four years ago now I think the idea was to be able to present ideas and best practices to ideally smaller chambers, who may not have the resources to attend conferences or may not have the staff to get away and to learn and, and it’s kind of evolved from there. But our topic for today we’re going to be focusing on 10 lessons that Rich’s learned as a chamber exec throughout his career and I think this is valuable to some of those smaller chambers, even even somebody at a bigger chamber maybe they haven’t been in the industry for 20 or 30 years, but maybe they’re you know, five years in but some of these lessons can help shortcut some of that learning curve and and really get you up to speed a little bit quicker. So I’m excited to get into this discussion and these lessons that Rich has learned as soon as they get back from this quick break.
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All right, Rich, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about 10 lessons that you’ve learned as a chamber Exec. So I’d like to go through what these 10 lessons are, I’m sure I’ll have some follow up questions for you, and maybe some back and forth. And hopefully those listening are going to be able to take some good notes and be able to apply some of these lessons or see how these lessons may be applicable in their own community. So let’s, I guess start with number one, we’ll start at the top.
Rich Cantillon 12:10
Okay, so this will probably the most important thing to me, I’ll never forget, I had my photography business. And I was approached, I’d been a volunteer in the Blackboard chamber, I’d actually served as chair of the board, and I was approached about, hey, you would be so good at actually managing and operating our chamber. And I thought, wow, how exciting. And I said, I did that. Well, one of my really good friends said who was the bank president and Blackwell said, now you know, it’s very political. And you’re going to have to really watch everything you do. Because a lot of people get in trouble in the chamber world because of politics or not doing something correct. And I said, it’s not political, it is political. So you have to be careful about everything you say, you have to be inclusive of everybody. You have to look at where you shop, who you support, all of this stuff. And now, with social media, and people with cameras, and Facebook and Twitter and seeing everything you do how you live your life, it is critical that you put the best foot forward that you can, and that you truly represent your chamber and your community.
Brandon Burton 13:40
So it sounds like you’re given fair warning, when you came into the chamber that it is political. Did you were you able to just learn from that warning? Or did you have to learn through experience?
Rich Cantillon 13:50
Well, it was it’s really funny. We would we love to go to Oklahoma City and walk the mall. And that was one thing during the holidays, especially go down with lights. And that was one thing I learned quickly. I do not go out of town during the holiday season. Because I don’t want someone even though they may be there. I don’t want somebody to see me there. I need to set an example to we talk about shot punk at first, and so I need to be that person. So though that’s one of the things right off when I was young, I was like, I can’t be I ran into some people in Oklahoma City and I instantly felt guilty. And so that’s something I’m really mindful of making sure that I do what I say.
Brandon Burton 14:42
Yeah, that’s a good example. It’s something to be mindful of for sure. I mean, in still travel and do your tourism and stuff, but I think that example holiday time, when people are expecting you to be shopping and you go to a mall, which is inherent for shopping so
Rich Cantillon 14:58
it could exist in there. said difference when you, you know, you want to take vacation you want to travel, people do not have a problem with that a matter of fact, I’ve been inundated with friends and people in pop them loving our pictures we posted from Italy. So glad we got to go. And so there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But when you’re going to neighboring communities, if you’re shopping, promoting what they’re doing and not locally, that can get you in trouble.
Brandon Burton 15:32
Yeah, for sure. And like you said, in the world of social media, I could just see if you went to went to the mall in a neighboring community, and you’re taking pictures and how beautiful the lights are and everything. You’re setting yourself up for some trouble.
Rich Cantillon 15:48
Yes, I have to be very discreet. That’s right.
Brandon Burton 15:51
So let’s, let’s move on to the next lesson that you’ve learned one of the things
Rich Cantillon 15:56
a lot of people that come into the chamber industry, they really think, well, I’ve run a business or I’ve done this, I know how to operate a chamber know our chambers are 501 C six, we’re regulated by the IRS, we have certain things we can and cannot do. We have bylaws that we must follow. And so that’s one of the things that we’ve seen in Oklahoma that people take over a chamber, maybe they would like me, Blackwell, what volunteer and someone said, Oh, you’d be so good run in our chamber, and they think they know everything. No, you do not. And so one of the things that I really stress is that if you’re new to the chamber world that you reach out to your state organization, or it’s someone that’s been a longtime chamber person, and get educated on what the do’s and don’ts are of operating a chamber, and here in Oklahoma, our State Chamber and our organization, OCC E, they offer trainings on what it is to be in chamber management at all levels, CEO and staff. And then the US Chamber which I’m heavily involved in, has Institute, which is a certification of our industry. I’ll never forget the very first year that I went to institute, it was eye opening to how much more I could be doing for my community through my chamber. And I’ve sent my staff and they come back, they’re all fired up. They’ve learned so much. So education, on what it is to run a chamber is critical to being successful and long term.
Brandon Burton 17:41
Absolutely. And I would say if you are one of those small chambers, one staff or part time staff, maybe to staff, and your board is not giving you the funding to be able to go to conferences, or be member of these organizations play back this little clip that rich just shared about how valuable this is to be involved to be able to get those mentors to be able to understand how to run a chamber properly because it is different than running a business for sure.
Rich Cantillon 18:10
Well, I’m one other thing, Brandon that you mentioned, if you do work for a chamber and their board is like they’ve never done that. And they’re like, well, we’ve never seen anyone that conference or will then find someone to sponsor. I mean, there’s always a bank or a doctor or a business that believes in that and they’ll sponsor you to go. And then when you come back, you’ll have this information. I firmly every time I go to any kind of conference or any educational thing. I always come back and give a report to my board on what I’ve learned and how to be beneficial to our chamber. So that that can make a big difference.
Brandon Burton 18:50
I love that giving a report when you come back and they can understand how you’re working for them and what you’re getting out of these conferences. And the one
Rich Cantillon 18:57
thing I would not do like Mako is the Missouri Arkansas Kansas Oklahoma conference. It’s in Branson. I love brands and we go there all the time. I when I go to make out I’m not taking pictures of me out eating on the landing. I’m not taking pictures of me at big cedar at Table Rock Lake, which I do all that but what when I if I do anything Facebook, it’s in a session. It’s what I’ve learned. And our board does not mind us having fun. But that’s not what we put when we when we’re talking about our conference, not the fun. The educational
Brandon Burton 19:37
that that goes back to the first lesson that you talked about being political and being careful and gosh just put out there. Right. So let’s let’s roll along to lesson number three.
Rich Cantillon 19:50
So put your volunteers first. We are the hired help. It is amazing to me I’m I’m I get Get a lot of emails from a lot of my peers, you know, their emails that they send out to their members. It’s amazing to me when I see CEOs in the middle of a ribbon cutting, when I see CEOs in every picture, and they’re kind of front and center, it is not about us, it’s about the people we’re trying to build up. So when we do a ribbon cutting, we like we just had one this morning, when we do a ribbon cutting, it’s all about that business, their employees, not our staff, we’re promoting men. So make sure that you always put your volunteers first, make sure when you have an event, you don’t just hang out with your staff, or hanging out with your chamber chair, that your executive board or your little buddies, make sure when you have a chamber event, you are literally talking to all the people there, you’re working in the room, even at a ribbon cutting, you’re speaking to everyone, making them feel important. When you put people first, they’ll be very loyal, and they’ll do whatever you need. It’s when they’re ignored or don’t feel appreciated. You’re gonna have trouble.
Brandon Burton 21:14
Yeah. And I think a lot of chambers are good about that. Because I you know, connected with a lot of chamber professionals across the country. And as I see pictures of ribbon cuttings, like in that example, I’m often looking for the the executive that I know, and the pitcher. And it’s usually hard to find them if they’re in it. Yeah, usually they’re in the back. And they’re supporting the business, which is that’s where they belong in that photo. Or taking it or Yeah, exactly. So I think they’re, I think a lot of chambers are good on that. But there’s there’s probably some that that needed to hear that as well. So thank you. So your next lesson number
Rich Cantillon 21:53
four, we’ve already kind of talked about this, but you are the chamber I am the face of Papa city. And so everything I say and do, people are looking at. And so I have to be very positive. We had a right after I took my job here, we had a major merger and we lost some estimate three to 5000 jobs when that merger happened. But we’re pocket city, we have great leadership. And we knew that we would survive that and be even stronger after a while, which we are we’re stronger today than we were ever before the merger. And you have to so many people were so negative, so upset, you know, how could this happen to us. And I felt those feelings, but I never relayed them. Because I was the face of the chamber along with the mayor along with economic development, we had to put a good face forward and say positive things. And so you have to remember no matter what people are looking at you and they’re looking at what you say what you put in email, what you put in the paper. So always make Remember, you’re the face of the community, and you can guide whatever happens and the direction, right? Nothing was exciting. I love that.
Brandon Burton 23:20
Yeah, nothing will destroy a good community feeling quicker than a chamber President getting out there and saying, Oh, this really stinks for our community. You know, you got to keep that positive, optimistic point of view. And I think in today’s world, a lot of people are they talk about being authentic. And there’s a way of being authentic without laying all the cards on the table and saying, This is how I feel, and I’m distraught inside versus being authentic, but still optimistic that your community will rebound. And there’s bright things on the horizon. So
Rich Cantillon 23:54
when you lose a company, of course, you’re going to report that, you know, we’ve lost 200 jobs, but you can’t just, you know, how could they do this to us. And so it’s really important. Another thing kind of Brandon along those lines, we have to be the leaders in creating unity. We cannot have division in our community within our leadership. And this is something I see that is an issue across Oklahoma where there’s the chamber doesn’t like Main Street or the chamber cannot stand the city manager or vice versa. I mean, and we have to remember that we have to create a vision and a unity and a focus for our communities. And we have to get past personalities and be determined to make it work. And I just did this week earlier, I had a chamber per one of my friends call. They’re very upset with their city manager, and he’s really not doing a good job. I said you know what do not talk about that, they’ll see that, and he won’t be there long. So you take the high road always be positive. And I guarantee it, it’s not going to last for long. And so our city manager here in Ponca, city, our mayor, our main street, we’re all our economic development, we’re all together, and we enter in, something happens. And I’m not recognized. And maybe I was a big part of that. I don’t get all upset, that doesn’t matter, because I know what I did. So we have to really always take the high road and be that peacemaker, or your communities are not going to be successful.
Brandon Burton 25:41
Right? Yeah, that’s a that’s a bonus lesson right there. Number 11. Right there. So so number five, lesson learned,
Rich Cantillon 25:52
okay, you have to get out of your office, it doesn’t matter if you’re one person, Cooper, it doesn’t matter. You have to schedule every week, time to go see your manager, your members. So many people, you know, you I made it a passion of mine, that I don’t want someone to ever say, rich did not cross the door, my business. And I got marked out time every week, and I go out and I check them off that I and and if you shop local, if everything you do is love a lot of it and already gonna be doing that. But there may be a dentist, that’s a member that’s not your dentist, that I go by and say, Hey, let Doctor know that I came in. I really appreciate all you do. It is not time consuming. And I’ve had so many people say well, I’m just so you just don’t know, I’m just so busy. Know, if you mark it off and planned and then you it’s like a meeting committee meeting. So I really encourage that you get out a we have a 92% retention rate. And I firmly believe it’s because we’re touching our members. And they like that. So make the time to do that kind of stuff, and that you’ll be very successful.
Brandon Burton 27:17
Absolutely. And you’re right, the time management part, if you block it out. I mean, if you don’t block it out, yes, your schedule will fill up and you don’t have time, but you make it a priority to block it out and find a way to enjoy it. You know, it should be something you look forward to getting out. And that’s what the work is about. It’s about supporting these businesses and hearing them listening to them taking it back to the table, you know, different committees and helping to further and advance your own community. So Right, correct. So rolling along to the next lesson.
Rich Cantillon 27:48
Okay, so we already kind of talked about this to treating everyone equal. This is really critical. If you put emphasis on just your big donor members, and you’re at things and that you that you don’t really care about that little mom and pop business, they’re going to see that. And you have to make sure that you’re treating everyone equal, when you’re looking at your board makeup, that it represents your membership, that you have a mom and pop business, you have the head of this industry, you have a not for profit, you have all the aspects of your membership on your board. So I have always put a lot of emphasis and a lot of that was because Blackwell Black was a small town. It’s only 8000 people we had about 280 Members, I think we got up to 300 before I left. And so it was easy, you know, to touch all your members, when you’re a lot more members, you have to make sure you’re doing that at events. So that’s a good way and you got to make sure everyone knows that they’re welcome at the table, that it’s really important to treat everyone the same. When I first came to pop the city, I don’t want to criticize anyone before me, but our chamber had a reputation of being very cliquey that that cannot happen. So many people don’t like to go back to their class reunion, because they felt like they were cliques. And we you cannot have that in our adult world. Because that’s a terrible stigma. So we are not a clicky chamber. Everyone’s welcome. I enjoy everybody. And so really keep that in mind.
Brandon Burton 29:40
Yeah, well, and to your point, it’s easy to follow the money, you know, the bigger donors bigger, you know, higher level members and support them because you can’t lose them. But really, it’s those smaller businesses that are maybe scrapping together whatever they can to join the chamber or maybe it was a hard decision to make, whether or not to join that Amer and they need you more than some of these bigger companies or people that have been around a long time. So yes, treating everyone equal, but realizing that the need for some of these smaller businesses may be stronger than some of the bigger businesses.
Rich Cantillon 30:14
That’s exactly right.
Brandon Burton 30:17
So lesson number seven.
Rich Cantillon 30:19
So it is really important that we’re enthusiastic, that we like people at random, it’s crazy to me, there’s a lot of people in customer service, and they really don’t like people. Well, in Park City, we have manufacturing jobs where you can work on a line, and you don’t have to deal with people. But if you’re in the people business, you have to be enthusiastic, especially a chamber and you have to be passionate. So what that means is, every day, you have to come to work happy, fired up, my brand, my wife crazy, because on Monday mornings all go, here we go. It’s another week. And I mean, it, I’m excited, it’s going to be another week to do great things for Baca city. So you have to be the same every day. And it’s not just us, the CEO, your staff has to be that way. Because I could be the most outgoing, happy, passionate person. But if someone comes in my front door, and my front line person, not nice, grumpy, that that’s going to be our chamber. So it’s not only me, but making sure that the my team has that same attitude. And so that that’s something we have to work on every day. Now in my career, I’ve lost my parents, I’ve lost two siblings. And so I’ve had some real sad stuff. While I’ve been operating a chamber, people are really aware of when you have things in your life that are sad. But what what you can’t do, it can’t affect when you come to work. If it does, you just need to take a leave of absence, or take some sick days or whatever, you need to get over that emotional, whatever. But when you come to work, you have to put that smile on, you have to be passionate, enthusiastic, every day, eight hours a day, or however long you work. That’s critical.
Brandon Burton 32:31
Right. And that enthusiasm I would say is contagious. So your staff is going to follow your lead Yeah, as the leader of your organization, they’re going to look to you. And if you’re coming in with a bad attitude at the front desk person probably is not going to be the most welcoming that people come through the door. But if you can be, you know, brighten and optimistic and you know, happy and cheerful and that all it’s contagious. So it’ll it’ll flow through. So So lesson number eight.
Rich Cantillon 33:01
So we’ve kind of talked about this too, but I want to really re emphasize this. So you can never be in the mud. You can’t be like the pig wallowing in the mud. Talking about people talking when someone’s being rude to you, you know, we had a member the not too long ago come in, and they said yeah, we don’t see any value in what you do. And they were kind of yelling and and come to find out you know, they’re they declared bankruptcy. So the you know, sometimes people you know, they have a lot of pain and hurt and they don’t want to except, you know that he didn’t want to say I’m taking out bankrupt bankruptcy. So he just lashed out at me, you know? And and I took it, I mean, you, you have to always take the high road, you cannot talk I could not tell anyone about that incident. Because that just talking bad about him. I didn’t. Every now and then I’ll tell my chair, if there’s an incident because I feel like they need to be in. If someone’s upset with us. They need to know that. But I’m really careful that I never say anything negative about an issue, or anyone. So I’m going to give you this example. When I was taken in pocket came after me Blackwell that came they wanted me to come and run. I grew up here as well known they knew our success and Blackwell. They wanted they’d been having trouble. They fired like three or four chamber CEOs. They wanted me well at first I said no, I’m not coming while they hired a person he didn’t do well. Well, a year later they came back they said you can raise your kids and Blackwell when they graduate from high school then you can do what you want. We don’t care. So I took the job. I was really excited to come home to my Come down, which I love. Well, there was an individual that someone on the executive board had said, We’re gonna give it to you. Well, they gave it to me. Well, he was very distraught. So he was talking horrible about me, said that I might have been embezzled, and Blackwell, I ran that chamber in the ground, how could they hire me? I mean, some horrific step where you know, people love to tell you, so Oh, did you know he said, blah, blah, blah? Well, so they have this reception for us about a month and a half, after I started with a receiving line back in the day. And anyways, we were standing there, and here’s my wife. And here he comes with his wife. And I said, Oh, honey, this is Mr. Blah, blah, and his wife, and he put his hand down, and my wife wouldn’t shake his hands. She’s looked at him, and is very awkward. And he knew that we knew he’d been talking about him. I did not like that. And I realized Brandon, at that time, I would come home and tell my wife, all this stuff for my wife loves me. And how do I know my wife’s not telling her girlfriend? You can’t believe? And then here you go. So what I do now, and I really encourage this, if I want to get something off my chest, I call Matt provider, Nick, who rents the Topeka Kansas chamber, my best friend in our industry. And I tell Matt, Matt, could get done, no, anyone who talked about me could care less. But I can vent to Matt and I know, no one’s going to know. So I just would encourage you, if you got to get something off your chest, or you feel insulted, or someone’s been mean to you, and you want to share it. Pick someone in Alabama, you know, Montana, that, you know, in our industry, and vent to them don’t do it local.
Brandon Burton 37:06
Yeah, in big trouble. That is a great piece of advice. And you know, taking it home to your spouse, like one, they don’t need that burden, you know, that you share with them and to carry it and carry a secret sometimes, right? So just, yeah. Export that, uh, that unloading to somebody outside the area. I love that lesson. So you got two more here, lesson number nine.
Rich Cantillon 37:36
So this is really critical to you being successful. And it’s so weird, because I have a buddy in our chamber world that said, Hey, your Italy trip was great. We’re about to go on a trip. And I said, that’s fantastic. He said, Yeah, but I’ll still get inundated with emails and all I’ll be getting taxed. And I go seriously, I, I said no, I don’t do any of that. I when I am on vacation, I’m on vacation. When it’s five o’clock, I’ll be back the next day before eight. And I don’t do anything. The biggest issue in our chamber world is people feel like they’re on the clock 24/7 You’ll be burned out, you will get resentful. You’ll get sick of it. And there is no need for it. No one else works that way. So why should we work professional people in a professional industry, and we’re on the clock eight to five. And then when it’s five o’clock, I’m watching my grandkids. I’m watching my kids. I’m doing whatever, I’m enjoying life. And I don’t get back until I come to work. And people know that. And when it’s the weekend, it’s my weekend. I don’t ever look at email I don’t look at I won’t respond to texts. And after a while, like I don’t get those things because it’s that’s how we often Yeah, he feels odd. They know I’ll respond when I’m at work. And within a day, I mean, you text me and I’m at work, you’re gonna get a response. So work the eight to five, but disconnect and don’t make it 24/7 I promise you if you live that way, you’ll never be in the industry like me, almost 30 years you won’t, you’ll wet because you’re you’re just going to be worn out. So I was told that early on by another chamber person dich Rasch, who ran our State Chamber, he said, make sure you don’t work 24/7 That’s just unacceptable, and you’ll be successful. And I found that to be very true.
Brandon Burton 39:53
Right? And I’ve even seen some chamber execs have a an automated, you know, auto responder on their email. So after five o’clock, they’ll say Tony Felker in Frisco is a good example of this, if you email him at 515, you’re gonna get an automatic reply that says, It’s after five o’clock. And by experience, I’ve learned that if I go, if I pay attention to this, I’m going to miss some details or whatever. So I’ll respond to you tomorrow morning when I’m back in the office. And it’s a classy way of I think of addressing it and just saying, I got it. And I’ll get back to you, you know, when the time is appropriate. And email, I think people are totally fine with that for sure. So the final lesson number 10, that you have to share with us. But what do you have, don’t be
Rich Cantillon 40:39
overwhelmed. Don’t let the chamber consume, you don’t get stressed out. My predecessor here at the pump, the Chamber died of a massive heart attack. Because he was overwhelmed. We had another person that ran our chamber, when I was in high school, my dad was on the board. And he literally had a nervous breakdown, he was so overwhelmed. And that is really sad to me. So when whenever you have an event, or you have all of all of this stuff, don’t let it consume you. One of the things that I’ve learned that can help alleviate that is write down at the end of every day, I write down everything I need to accomplish the next day. And then as I go through the day, I literally mark it off as I’ve accomplished it. So here’s today. Yeah, and I’ve already marked off stuff that I’ve already done. I literally am that all my work, it has saved me all these years. And I’m not overwhelmed. Another thing, if you have events, if you do a lot of events, with each event, create a folder and literally write down everything you need to do. I have to before the event three months out, I do this, this this, and then a month out, I do this two weeks out. And so you’re not having to redo it every year. Oh, what do we do for the auction? Oh, my gosh, it’s all in a booklet. And it’s your to do list. So if you take anything away, that I’ve said today, to me, the most important is the last thing I’m sharing is don’t be overwhelmed, write down what you need to do. And as you do it, mark it off. At the end of the day, when I see everything marked off. I know it was a success. Now having said that every now and then there’s something I didn’t I literally did not get to, okay, I’ll add it to tomorrow’s list. And I’ll it’ll be the top priority. So don’t be overwhelmed. We have a fun job. I love being a chamber CEO, and I’m going to really miss it when I retire. I love making a difference. I love seeing something think, wow, we could add that to that park or Wow, we could do this start downtown. And I can do it. I can start that ball. I love that. So or helping recruit a doctor or an industry or whatever we need a pastor and showing them our community and, and be and getting them here. That’s so rewarding. So enjoy what we do and have fun with it.
Brandon Burton 43:47
I love that usually asked for a tip or action item at the end. And I think that is perfect. Just enjoy it.
Rich Cantillon 43:55
Enjoy. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 43:56
So Rich, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Rich Cantillon 44:04
We have to be relevant. So we have to be willing to change we have to be willing, you know, my focus here at our chamber in my 20 years here has really changed multiple times when the merger happened and we were focused on keeping our people growing our people. Now we’re focused on housing, which is a real need and pakka city. So it’s really it’s being relevant and always willing to readapt. So every year, we have a retreat and with our new board, our incoming board and with our existing board and we talked about what is going to be our focus in the next year. And we do that in November and that dictates what our business plan is going to be what your return on your investment to the chamber is going to be because you have to Joe, your members their return on their investment. And so that’s always exciting. And it’s always driven by what’s happening. So for example, 2022, we came out with the COVID. And we doing COVID, we were all about making sure our businesses survived, and really promoting what they were doing to to survive. And we were recognized by our State Chamber as a leader in that area in what we did some innovative ideas. But now, when we came out at COVID, for 2022, our world has become very angry, and mean, and people don’t mind yelling or cussing someone out in a store business, or it’s just crazy. So we’re doing a kindness campaign. And it’s been incredible. So we have 12 Marxists here. And we took a month, and like this month, it’s on our senior citizens. So how do you show kindness to senior citizens, and then we come up with action items. And that’s been really awesome. And I’ve really enjoyed doing that. So being relevant, looking at what your community is faced with? And how are you going to take care of it.
Brandon Burton 46:18
I like that, I like that a lot and be be relevant and be willing to change that.
Rich Cantillon 46:24
You asked about the future chambers. That’s how we’re going to succeed. If we’re not a player, if we’re not a leader, if we’re not relevant. If we’re not showing the return on our investment, we on their investment, we’re not going to be relevant, we’re not going to be able to sustain Chambers of Commerce. So keep that in mind.
Brandon Burton 46:45
You’re absolutely right. So Rich, as we wrap up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to put out any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about some of these lessons that you shared with us or in general, just how you guys are doing things there in pocket city, what would be the best way or ways for people to reach out and connect with you?
Rich Cantillon 47:05
So the best way would be through email and it’s rich@poncacitychamber.com. I love to text. So if you want to text me it’s 580-363-6665. And I’d love to hear from anyone and send our business plans and anything that we do that would help you we would love to do our we have we do tourism for the city of pumped city have a great relationship. So if they’re interested in partnering with their city, like could share how we do that anything they need. I’d love to share. So thank you so much.
Brandon Burton 47:54
Thank you This has been great. And I like I said at the beginning I hope some of these lessons will help a newer chamber exec be able to shortcut some of their learning curve and, and maybe take away some of those growing pains that happen when you’re new in the industry. But Rich, I appreciate you joining us today and sharing these lessons with us. I think this is terrific.
Rich Cantillon 48:16
Thank you, Brandon for all you do.
Brandon Burton 48:18
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