Category: Podcast Episode

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Stéphanie Vieilledent and Léa Puteaux from the International Chamber of Commerce. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

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. Now your host enjoys learning by innovation coming from Chambers of Commerce is my dad Brandon Burton. Hello chamber champions. Welcome to chamber chat podcast. 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.

Guest Introduction

I’m excited for this episode today as it is one of those episodes where you will be introduced to some people and ideas that can definitely bring a lot of value to to your chamber and to your community. Today we have Stéphanie Vieilledent and Léa Puteaux , with us from the International Chamber of Commerce, and I am sure that I butchered both of their names, but I can let them correct me as well as we get through this, this recording here. But Stéphanie is the Head of Chamber Relations at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) headquartered in Paris, has been with ICC since 2006. First an assistant in the Events Department, she rose quickly through the ranks and has now spearheaded the organization of the past 6 editions of the World Chambers of Congress – which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Mexico, Doha, Torino, Sydney and most recently Rio de Janeiro. When she began her career, working as an Assistant for the Cannes Film Festival, she never quite thought she would end up working for what is commonly known as “the world’s largest business organization”, but she soon found that she greatly enjoyed the work of bringing people together in an atmosphere conducive to cooperation and problem solving. As if she didn’t already have enough to do, Ms. Vieilledent is also a wife, mother of three young children, and an accredited Yogi teacher.

Léa is the World Chambers Congress Project Manager at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the world’s business organization. She is charged with managing ICC’s largest global event from A to Z, which includes building intellectual content for the program, selecting speakers, communications and marketing and more. Lea is also responsible for organizing the World Chambers Competition, which run in conjunction of the Congress, and liaises with transnational chambers. She has been working on organizing the World Chambers Congress for last three years. Before joining ICC, Lea had the opportunity to work at the French-Peruvian Chamber of Commerce in Lima, Peru, as well as at the commercial bureau of the French Embassy in Colombia, and  Brazil. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and is a Latin dance lover, specifically salsa and bachata. For those of you who can’t see her on the Zoom, she just did a little dance move for us. But out I’d like to have you both say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourselves. I’d love to get to know you both a little bit better. Léa, why don’t we start with you?

Something Interesting About Léa and Stéphanie

Léa Puteaux  4:07 

Okay, well, I not only dance, but I also dive because I’m a scuba diver. And I could dive up to 40 meters. So I have visited a shipwreck at the bottom of the sea. And just so you know, my middle name is Oceana, which is a reference to the ocean.

Brandon Burton  4:25 

Very nice. I I’d love to dive too. So maybe offline. I’ll have to find out where your favorite dive spot is. In France. Stephanie, how about yourself?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  4:38 

Yeah, thank you, Brandon, and hello to all of the Chamber Champions. Well, as you you rightly mentioned, yes. I’m also a yoga teacher. And what I want to share actually with you today is I don’t really separate you know, my work at ACC and what I do as a yogi, I try to actually put my yoga practice into action every day at work, working with colleagues working with members, and working with partners as well. And I think that way, I really find the right balance, I think between, you know, this personal aspect of myself and also the professional side of myself. So yeah, that’s why I wanted to share with you,

Brandon Burton  5:24 

I think that is neat to be able to inject the balance, like he said, and kind of bring in that proper flow into the workspace. So I think that’s great. Stephanie, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about the International Chamber of Commerce, I’m thinking specifically for a chamber listener who is not involved with the International Chamber, just to give them an idea of the kind of the size and scope and what you guys are all about. And then if you miss anything, Léa can kind of fill in some gaps.

About the International Chamber of Commerce

Yes, sure, Brandon. So actually, so we’re called the International Chamber of Commerce. But we are not a chamber of commerce per se. So that’s very important, because this is a usually sometimes they people think we are. So ICC is, in fact, a well, business organization. And we are here to enable business to secure peace, prosperity and opportunity for all. We are a nonprofit institution, with observer status at the United Nations. Just a little bit of history, because it’s really interesting how actually ICC, you know, was born. So ICC was funded in the aftermath of the First World War in Paris, when actually no world system or rules govern trade, investment, finance, or commercial relations. So without waiting for governments to fill the gap, ISIS is funders acted on their conviction that the private sector is best qualified to set global standards for business. And they call themselves the merchants of peace. So now, we are an institutional representative of more than 45 million companies in over 100 countries with a mission to make business work for everyone everyday everywhere. So through a unique mix of advocacy solutions and standard setting will promote international trade, responsible business conduct and a global approach to regulation. In addition to providing market leading dispute resolution services, our members include many of the world’s leading companies, but also SMEs, business associations, and of course, local chambers of commerce as well. So today, we’re still based in Paris. Our headquarters are located next to the Eiffel Tower. Actually, I can see the Eiffel Tower of my desk. And we are around 200 staff. And we also have offices in Geneva, in Brussels in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and New York. And we also have a representations in 90 plus countries, we call them our national committees.

Stéphanie Vieilledent  5:58 

Brandon Burton  8:25 

That is very impressive, a great background and really give some perspective to kind of the founding and the work that you do. And Léa, do you have anything you’d like to add to what Stephanie shared? Yes, absolutely.

Léa Puteaux  8:38 

So just before that, I wanted to share a fun fact, because I’m sure that some people of your audience, they might not know it, but the oldest Chamber of Commerce in the world is French. And that’s where we had our first world chambers Congress 22 years ago. And I think, Stephanie, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that the chamber is fine. over 400 years old, something like that.

Stéphanie Vieilledent  9:02 

Yeah, that’s right. More than 400 years old.

Léa Puteaux  9:04 

Yeah. Yeah. And what I wanted to share with you also, Brandon, is that we have within ICC body which is called the world chambers Federation. So it’s nice to see body dedicated to chambers worldwide. And really, it’s a unique formulating the network of local, regional, national, bilateral and transnational chambers and their business community. When I said transnational chambers, I mean, for example, ACC, but also a sham Junior Chamber International, or the Confederation of Asia Pacific Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Mediterranean Chamber of Commerce and Industry, really all those big transnational chambers, and our members. They really come from all continents sell all sizes, and include both public and private law chambers. We work very closely with Chambers from across the world from Colombia to Australia. Germany it Nigeria, really all of the countries. And so really the way we see it is that the washroom is Federation is the backbone of the worldwide gender community. And we provide a platform for German leaders to communicate and collaborate with each other. And so it’s also key to ICC in connecting SMEs sorry, IC to SMEs worldwide and promoting the important role SMEs play in the global economy.

Brandon Burton  10:27 

Very good. That adds a lot more context. I appreciate that. So just a little side note, I recently had listened to a podcast that was talking about the history of the Olympics. And when the modern day Olympics were started, and kind of comparing that to when ICC was formed around the time of World War One, it wasn’t too far off that the modern day Olympics were formed as well. And just the, the struggles or the the hurdles, I guess, of trying to communicate on a global scale. And you think, you know, now we’ve got email and video calls and things like this, that really make things much easier telephones, and at the time, they were writing letters and sending them, you know, through the post and on ships, and it would take several months to get information and find out who could participate. So it’s amazing to see traditions like this that have been around for so long institutions that can be founded in time like that and carry on through today. So that’s very impressive. But our topic for our discussion today is going to be based on the world chambers Congress. And we’re going to take a quick break but as soon as we get back we’ll we’ll have you to dive into to tell us what the world chambers Congress is all about. And how that relates to the world that chambers Federation as well. But we’ll we’ll get into that as soon as we get back from this 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.

Topic-World Chambers Congress

All right we are back. As I teased before the break, We’re going to be talking about the World Chambers Congress which I know this year is going to be happening in Dubai. Léa, I know this is kind of right up in your field house of what you focus on. Let me hand the mic over to you. And have you share with us what the what the world chambers Congress is all about. And that connection with the world chamber Federation? Sure.

Léa Puteaux  13:41 

So the world chambers Congress is ICC flagship events, ICC WTF flagship event, actually. So it’s the no BNL events, a three day event that brings together chamber and business heads as well as a representative for international organization and governments. And each year, we have a different co organizer. So this your co organizer is Dubai chamber. And the key features of the conference include the interactive and knowledge tech section, an area of networking opportunities, exciting social events. And last but not least, the world chambers competition. And this year, we are super excited to introduce a new feature called the work scenes, which we’re excited to share that with our delegates, that maybe Stephanie can say a few more words about the history of the Congress.

Brandon Burton  14:31 

Yeah,

Stéphanie Vieilledent  14:32 

yes, sure. It seems that I’m the one oh is talking about history. So yes, well, you know, the Congress starting in 1999. And it started in my say Eisley, I mentioned earlier with, you know, the oldest chamber in the world. And at that time, you know, we were I think, not a lot of people I think was around maybe 200 300 delegates, but somehow, you know that the magic, you know, happened. We were all there, I wasn’t there. Actually, I say we because I feel I was there actually. But people were really, really interested into networking into talking, you know, to each other. Because, well, even if you’re a private CIMR, or a public low chamber, even if you come from the US or Nigeria, or you know, Asia, at the end of the day, you still have, you know, common interests, common topic and things you need to share with your peers. So during that moment, in my fade, people got really excited. And in my say, we already received a bid to co organize the next editions of the Congress. So after my smile, say well to seal and then Quebec City, Durban, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Mexico, Doha to Reno, Sydney, Rio, and now Dubai. So, yeah, it was a very successful event. And each every two years, we’re getting more and more delegates, people also returning to the Congress. So while in a way, I think they really appreciate it. And the first reason for them to still attend event is the networking opportunity.

Brandon Burton  16:33 

Very good. I yeah, I can see where the networking would really come into play, especially as you have Chambers from all different backgrounds throughout the world coming together and being able to learn from each other and see how things are done in different parts of the world. And it gets kind of the base of this, this podcast is to learn how other chambers do things and take those things that make sense, or that you want to try out and implement them at your own chamber to try to improve the quality of your own community. So it’s neat to see the history. So and it is it’s every two years, correct that, that you come together for the Congress? Yes, yes. Very good.

Léa Puteaux  17:14 

Actually, Brendan, what you just said, many wants to say a few more words about the world from this competition, because really the world’s strongest competition, it’s like the awards, or the Oscars, for chambers worldwide. And it’s about people sharing their ideas, presenting them and then adding more people inspired by what they will present on stage. And it’s really about inspiring your peers. And maybe it’s not maybe but it for sure, some people that presented interesting initiative during the wall chambers competition in the audience, other chambers that were so interested by what they shared that they replicate the replicated the project within their own countries. So really, it’s not only talks, but it’s also really concrete action, and things to take back home, in your own country.

Brandon Burton  18:06 

So I would love for you to share more with us about the competition. What’s involved with that? What kind of entries or winners have you seen in the in past Congresses? I’m very intrigued by by the competition, maybe I’ve got a little bit of a competitive nature in myself. But I like seeing the innovation that comes out of things like this. So Leo, why don’t you share with us some of these things that you’ve seen come out of the competition?

Léa Puteaux  18:33 

Sure. So well, basically, for each work chambers competition, we have around three to four categories. So this year, they are the best climate action projects, best resilience projects, best unconventional projects, and best digital projects. So Chambers from all around the world are invited to submit projects within one of those four categories. And then the project are being reviewed by a panel of international, an international panel of chambers of commerce executive, which vote for their favorite projects, and that for their favorite projects. And the finalists are traveling to Dubai to pitch their project live in front of the audience in plenary session. So it’s really a something that is extremely excited because people are really rooting for the chambers for their favorite projects. It’s creating a lot of excitement. And we have seen some amazing projects for each of the World Service competition. And one that I would like to mention is from rijo Actually, we had the CEO of Afghan sorry, Afghanistan woman of chamber Chamber of Commerce, and she shared the project of her chamber which was actually to create a chamber dedicated to women in Afghanistan to encourage local entrepreneurship from women because in some countries is access to entrepreneurship and to? Well, the business field is a little bit more complicated than in others. And so she created this Chamber of Commerce for a woman in Afghanistan to support her community. And she won a prize in Rio. And I think that the speech she gave was so emotional, it was so inspiring. And it’s really resonates. To me, especially getting what’s happening in the recent days in Afghanistan. So it is it’s one of the projects that has been key, but we have so many interesting projects that I could spend hours talking about them.

Brandon Burton  20:34 

But you could. Stephanie, do you have anything to add on the as far as the competition goes? And maybe a project or entry that stood out to you over the years?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  20:45 

Yes, sure. Well, first of all, these are always very happy to actually see more projects than we had two years ago. And we were not sure about that. Because we know that chambers have been, you know, experiencing a very difficult time recently, and so we were not sure about, you know, how much time they will be able to, you know, give to these competitions. So that’s first thing I want to highlight. And thank all of these chambers again, and when which are always in my mind is one project, which was actually about disaster preparedness toolkit. And that project actually, has been replicated, I mean, other chambers around the world, they took it, and they actually transform it for their own country. Unfortunately, you know, disasters are still happening. And, but that toolkit was very useful. So again, something very concrete, very useful for all the chambers. And this is when we actually like to see in the competition,

Brandon Burton  21:59 

and say that those are the kinds of things that I like to see is, is actionable tools, you can as a chamber, you can sit back and say, Wow, that is really impressive how they’ve implemented that at their chamber, let me try it out of my chamber, or if nothing else, to connect with whoever that presenter is, and with their organization, and to learn more about what went into that specific project and things to consider if you were to try to implement it at your own organization. So this year, obviously COVID-19 has kind of thrown a wrench in the whole world. Right? So I’m curious, Have you shared this year with this happening in Dubai, the Congress been in Dubai this year? Is this say something? Obviously, having a physical location there? Are people coming to attend? In person? Is there is that the only way to attend? Are there virtual options? How if somebody listening wanted to participate and be a part of this, what’s the best way for them to, to get connected with that?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  23:05 

Well, so actually, this year, we are organizing a hybrid event. Yes. So for the first time, actually, will have, of course, the in person format, in Dubai, but we’ll also provide a digital platform for people who are not able to travel to Dubai. So we’re very happy about that. Because, you know, that way, they everyone has a chance, you know, to participate, and to join us. So it’s actually, you know, very new for us. So, in a way, I’m also curious to see how it’s how it’s gonna be. But look, come in, we have a fantastic organizer. We’ve seen, of course, the digital platform, and really what we wanted to create is actually a real virtual experience and not just okay. And behind my screen a night login, no really wanted to have an experience also for virtual delegates. So we look forward to seeing all of that acts actually taking place.

Brandon Burton  24:17 

That is great. I like the idea of being able to have it be a hybrid layer where you have

Léa Puteaux  24:22 

to add, yeah, and we are also very excited to share that we have as of today, 80 countries registered to our in person events so far. So at this stage of the organization of the events, because all delegates usually register very less minutes. For COVID. It was always the case. But now we are super proud to have those 80 countries that have registered, and really we were not sure we we were not sure so happy to see that people are really getting excited about getting together and people are writing to us all the time. Right. It’s funny that like I can’t wait to be in Dubai. I can’t wait to meet match them up as again. And we really feel that chambers are dying to get together again. So we can’t wait to be there.

Brandon Burton  25:08 

I’m glad to hear that that’s a worldwide phenomenon about chambers waiting and procrastinating until the last minute, because I see that for sure in the United States, that chambers will wait till the very last minute. So that’s a trend worldwide, for sure, for sure. Well, I wanted to see your what else would you two want to share about whether it’s the the world chambers Congress or International Chamber world chambers Federation, just in general, for listeners to know more about or to get involved? Stephanie, let me hand it over to you to respond to that.

Stéphanie Vieilledent  25:52 

Yes, sure. Thank you Brendon. One last thing I wanted to share about the Congress, I smell Léa just mentioned the number of countries we have registered to date. And I’d like to earn the line, also. A special program that I’ve been made available by the Dubai chamber, which is a program who is actually sponsoring some chambers, from the least developed countries. And this year, this program has been extremely successful. We have 32 registered Chambers from these developed countries. And it’s actually the first time we have so many. They are a total of 46 LDCs in the world. So 32 is a very good number. And I’d like also to use this occasion to thank one of our partners, CPC caf, they are an assembly for Francophone African chambers, and they helped us a lot securing this chamber to the Congress. And you know, I think this is very important, actually twice and twice as easy to be inclusive to really have as many countries as possible and make this Congress available to all type of chambers. So that’s something I wanted to highlight as well in this podcast.

Brandon Burton  27:21 

That’s very good. Léa, what would you like to add that we haven’t covered that you think would be relevant to this conversation?

Léa Puteaux  27:28 

Well, I would like to say that this year, we have been really innovative in the way we shape our program, we have worked with specialized design thinking, even designer for to help us to read those innovation and release this format. The format that we’re going to have for this edition of the Congress is going to be much more interactive than it was before. So we have very exciting format that we really can’t wait to have people experience because really, we are super proud about them. And also I wanted to share that we are going to tell a story to delegates during the three days of the events. So basically on the first day, we are going to welcome them and to discuss about all this your theme which is janisch generation next chamber 4.0. We are going to talk a lot about digitalization of chambers. Chamber business model innovation. So chamber model innovation. Also that chamber 4.0 in the further details, and then the day two is going to focus more on resilience on the future on sustainability. And finally, the last day is going to be on concrete actions and on building action plans for chambers to take back home in their respective countries. So it’s not only attending attending 20 events listening to it. But it’s also really processing some contents exchanging with your federal champion participant, timber delegates, and then working together to produce concrete action plans. And really, people are going to have a real book while a real booklet where they’re going to write to work together to be together on table of six persons. And at the end, they are going to have to produce something. So this way, if someone is being asked, What have you done at the Congress, where you just enjoying or going to the amazing social events that are going to take place? No, people are going to work and are going to think and it’s not even tourists. So really something I wanted to share.

Brandon Burton  29:31 

It’s not just a social event, but you’re going to come out of this with some high quality value that you can take back to Yeah,

Léa Puteaux  29:37 

people people are going to work a lot but they’re going to have a lot of fun also because we have nice social events and one of them is taking place at the Armani hotel at Busch Khalifa which is if I’m not mistaken, the biggest the highest store in the world. And we are going to have a very nice cocktail with the traditional American in here it souk with the interactive booths and magic different activities. And also we are going to facilitate the access to delegates to Expo 2020, which is the first World Expo taking place in the MENA region. So a lot of exciting elements in the Congress and outside and really, we can’t wait to be there.

Brandon Burton  30:18 

Yes, absolutely. So for everybody listening, what is the date for the world chambers Congress.

Stéphanie Vieilledent  30:28 

So the dates are from the third to the 25th of November. So, okay, I have to mention that we know it’s during Thanksgiving, as us. And so we were a bit of for tonight with dates. Initially, the Congress was to take place in February this year, we had to postpone and many times. So here are the dates. But as we mentioned, it’s a hybrid event. We would love to welcome a Chambers from the US virtually because we know Thanksgiving is very important. Families are important. Can say the contrary, as you heard our family, three kids, but we yeah, we, we really would like to also have Chambers from the US at this event as well. We do have speakers actually from the US, and some of them have decided to actually spend Thanksgiving with us. Which Yeah, if this is a possibility for your chamber champions, or Brendan will welcome them, of course, virtually to the event.

Brandon Burton  31:41 

Can you give a teaser for some of these speakers are for people listening? Are you allowed to do that?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  31:49 

Yeah, it’s not secret layout. You want to say a few names? Yeah, it’s

Léa Puteaux  31:54 

not secret. Everything is available on our website. But we have the head of retail at Google. We’re expecting also some stickers from Facebook, from Microsoft from PWC. And we also have international organizations such as the WTO. And the International Trade Center. And of course, we have chamber leaders from all around the world.

Brandon Burton  32:20 

Very good. Stephanie would look like you have something else to add. Yeah, yeah, no, it’s just to add that

Stéphanie Vieilledent  32:26 

takes hooter actually had a retail at Google easel, so part of the Chicagoland chamber, so a chamber from the US.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Brandon Burton  32:36 

Very good. That is awesome. So as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask both of you, I’d like to get input from both of you have one tip or action item that a listener could do to help elevate their chamber up step to the next level? Léa, why don’t we start with you?

Léa Puteaux  33:00 

Well, my tip is to join us at the Congress in Dubai auditorally, I think it will really be the perfect opportunity to everything about chamber for Portal and chamber model innovation, and to learn from your peers from all around the world.

Brandon Burton  33:20 

Very good. Stephanie, what would your tip or piece of advice be?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  33:25 

Well, it’s a nice layer. But if I’m able to add one thing, we have a community platform called chambers connect. So I think that will help, you know, chamber executive chamber leaders a lot. It’s basically a platform, for chambers. It’s 100%, dedicated to chambers. And that way, you know, you don’t have to wait for the Congress actually to meet network and learn. And, you know, take up to the next level, you can do that already. Thanks to the platform, connect with your peers from all around the world. So I’ll be happy to invite all of your chamber champions to chambers connect our community platform.

Brandon Burton  34:12 

Yeah. So how do where’s that? Is that through your website? Or how do you? How do you find that platform?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  34:20 

So actually, just email us because we’ll need to send a chamber executives and leaders in invitation and the link to register as it’s a closed community. Okay. You need to register so just email us.

Future of Chambers

Brandon Burton  34:39 

And we’ll we’ll get your contact information in our show notes as well. But I like to ask everyone that I have on the show. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you both see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward? Stephanie, would you like to take a stab at that first?

Stéphanie Vieilledent  35:00 

Yes, sure. Well, I think chambers for us, you know, are really the a trusted entity. And we’ve seen that even more during this difficult time we all had with COVID. And I’m sure that in the future chambers will still be this trusted partner, you know, businesses are going to. At the same time, I think chambers will still have to adapt, you know, their services, what they do how they do, to make sure they’re still relevant for the members. So this is how I see chambers, you know, in the near future, and, and of course, as ICC and the world chambers Federation, will be with them to to actually continue their work and remain relevant to their members. We will usually widly very often with Léa, we say that we see them as lighthouses to make business work for people and planet. So for us, chambers are here to lead, connect and inspire.

Brandon Burton  36:23 

Love that lead, connect and inspire. Léa, what what is your what is your crystal ball say about the future of chambers?

Léa Puteaux  36:32 

Well, I think that chambers need to talk to each other to better connect to exchange to network, because sometimes we just don’t need to reinvent the wheel and someone is doing something that is amazing and working very well. And that we just should learn from the experience of the others. But if I should, if I if I had to mention some long term changes that chambers have to to implement, I would say that really, companies need to accelerate their digital transformation. So that’s why this your theme for the Congress is Generation X number 4.2. We think that this is key, that timber go through this process of digital transformation and in the right way and without suffering too much. And we also think that chamber should have the access to CT to to international business opportunity. Well, that’s why well, the International Chamber of Commerce, I guess, and also to integrate sustainable business development into business models. So again, something that we are going to cover during the wealth chambers Congress. So join us.

Brandon Burton  37:40 

Yeah, so I think that digital transformation piece is very important. And there’s a lot of Chamber members who may be the older generation who might resist a little bit to technology transformation. But then there’s the whole new, you know, younger generation that’s getting into the workforce and business ownership, that that’s absolutely what they want. So for a while, I think chambers will have a kind of a hybrid type of a situation where to be able to address the needs of both type of demographics. I think that is a key part of the of chambers moving forward. But I wanted to give you both an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who would like to reach out and connect or to join chambers connect or to get registered for the world chambers Congress, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Leo, why don’t we have you go first, and then we’ll get Stephanie’s contact information?

Connect with Léa and Stéphanie

Léa Puteaux  38:40 

Well, I’m not sure everyone will understand my contact details. But I’m Lea.puteaux@iccwbo.org. And our website is worldchamberscongress.org. So well. If you need more information about the Congress, please feel free to email me or visit our websites.

Brandon Burton  39:02 

All right, and Stephanie, I bet yours.

Stéphanie Vieilledent  39:07 

Yes. Luckily, I have a short version of my email address without my last name. So I’m going to use that one. So it’s stephanie.vieilledent@iccwbo.org.

Brandon Burton  39:24 

That is perfect. And I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. So really, hopefully the spelling and everything won’t be an issue because people can just go to chamberchatpodcast.com/episode145 and click on your email there or click on the website to learn more about the world chambers congress and to get involved there and to reach out and email you both to be able to get involved with chambers connect. I think that’s a great resource as well. But I appreciate you both spending time with me today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I think you guys are doing great work there at the ICC. And, and I look forward to hearing specifically about these competitions this year and see what those outcomes are. So thank you for being with me today.

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Robert Goltz. 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.

Introduction

Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the chamber chat podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community. And now your host he enjoys spending time with good friends. He’s my dad Brandon Burton. Hello chamber champions. Welcome to chamber chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it is my goal 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.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Robert Goltz, who’s the executive vice president at the Key West Chamber of Commerce in Florida. For the past 21 years, Robert has proven to be an energetic force in the chamber of commerce and nonprofit industries, approaching challenges with transformative thinking, candidly delivering solutions and a big dose of humor that puts all of it into perspective. This style has served the organizations he’s led as a senior executive well with the accomplishments that range from increasing active membership counts by over 100% to obtaining four star accreditation by the US Chamber of Commerce and stabilizing organization finances into the black, creating a cash flow positive status. gratifying as these nuts and bolts accomplishments are. Robert has always focused on the bigger picture, bringing people together to create thriving communities of involvement and inclusion. He believes that when chambers approach the ever changing business landscape with forward thinking measures and smart risk taking, they advanced the entire industry focused on being a force for good within the Chamber of Commerce community. Robert is a fun and engaging public speaker that uses his contagious enthusiasm to not only inform but to create connections that are beneficial to all. He is so driven about being a part of this growth that he likens his work to a marriage saying I then get quote, I’ve been on the longest honeymoon and it’s been with my career close quote. Robert holds a BA from Central Michigan University and is a graduate from the Chamber of Commerce Institute of organizational management, and has continued to expand his knowledge with various industry relevant certifications that include becoming a disk certified trainer. He is currently the executive vice president of the greater keywest Chamber of Commerce. Should you ever stop by for a friendly Hello, you’ll be intrigued by the display of tasteful and artistic skulls displayed in his office. When not working Robert enjoys visiting other chambers. That may seem like just more work, but when you love your job the way he does, you never work a day in your life. He brings a big sense of humor and larger than life personality with him wherever he goes. And along with his wife, Melissa enjoys watching their two daughters Lily and Jessica grow with a bit of mischievious nature. He enjoys rocking the boat in life and on whitewater rafting vacations. Robert thank you for joining me today here on chamber tap podcast if you will take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself that we might not have learned about you and your bio.

Something Interesting About Robert

Robert Goltz 4:04
Yeah, thank you, Brandon for having me on today. You know, I know a lot of my colleagues are out there and they are sometimes sometimes very amused by what I bring to the table, what I do and how I do it. So it’s exciting always to speak it’s always exciting to share and be able to get more information from a great providers like this podcast of information to help our industry and I want to thank you on behalf of the industry for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be able to do these podcasts for us as we go on. Something that we didn’t mention a bio we you know, we mentioned so much I’ve got a look at that bio. It’s very long. Um, you know, I guess the biggest thing is, is that I just want to have fun, and some people in the industry over the years have called me, the chamber guy and I’ve kind of embraced that before. It was That chamber guy, I think it was derogatory. But I’ve kind of embraced that I’ve got my own logo with it and kind of excited about it. Because I do things a little bit different at times than others in the industry. And I’m proud of that. And, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to share that information.

Brandon Burton 5:18
That’s right. It is a good transition to go from that chamber guy to the chamber guy that that means you’re you’re making some some statements there.

Robert Goltz 5:28
Yeah, I’m hoping one day, I’ll get to the right now, just that that

About the Key West Chamber

Brandon Burton 5:32
that. Well, to share with us a little bit about your chamber, just so we can get some idea on perspective that you’re bringing to this conversation kind of size and budget and so forth. Yes. So

Robert Goltz 5:44
we are located in beautiful Key West Florida, the southern most chamber of the United States, I have been here only six months, I just moved down here during COVID. We have just over 500 members serving the community we work in not only as a chamber, but also in the do work in the tourism industry, welcoming, welcoming visitors to our area. With a budget of about a half a million dollars.

Brandon Burton 6:15
I can imagine the tourism side is is busy there in the Key West area, at least in traditional times. And being in Florida, maybe hopefully it is picked up again. Yeah,

Robert Goltz 6:25
even today, we are busy seeing visitors come and enjoy our beautiful community. So it’s been a pleasure since I’ve been down here in that aspect that we have been very lucky and blessed in the aspect of having people come down here to the southern Caribbean island of the United States.

Brandon Burton 6:46
Yeah, that’s awesome. So our topic for discussion today is going to be focused around and you just mentioned if you’ve been in your new role there in the US Chamber for six months. So you’ve you’ve had a few different chamber jobs throughout your career. So we’ll focus our conversation today around changing chamber, chamber jobs, and some other risky moves. I understand you’re one in the industry who doesn’t only rock the boat on the whitewater, but you’d like to rock the boat a little bit in life as well.

Robert Goltz 7:20
So true. So yes, you know, I’ve been This is my fourth main chamber that I’ve worked for over the last 20 to 23 years. And even with that I have done consulting and assisting in about three or four other chambers in that process. And one thing you know, in our chamber industry, Brandon, you’ve heard this said to our members, when you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. And I will also say that is very true for chamber execs, when they look at different chambers and go to different chambers. They are very different in their shape, their format, how they operate. Each one in each community I’ve gone to has been a new endeavor, with me having to put on new, a new view of how a board of directors works and operates.

Brandon Burton 8:12
Very good. But I’m excited to get into this discussion with you. And we’re going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor and we’ll be right back.

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.

Topic-Changing Chamber Jobs and Other Risky Moves

All right, Robert, we are back. And as we we teased a little bit before this break. We’ll be talking a bit about your chamber job. So you’ve your with your fourth chamber about 23 years, as you just mentioned and consulting with the several others along the way as well. Talk to us a little bit about some of those differences that you see from one chamber to the next and how can it chamber professionals, specifically, maybe an executive kind of prepare for some of those moves.

Robert Goltz 10:05
You know, I think in the preparation is probably the first place I’d like to start. And that’s conversation because I think preparation and changing chamber jobs is essential, especially now during COVID. And everything going on, you know, there’s been articles out there about how the chamber industry is losing a lot of its key players, people that have been in the industry for years, or going to the private sector, or deciding finally to retire. And there’s a lot of opportunities out there in our in our industry today, find the next job that you’re really looking for. But a lot of that really comes down to how you look at yourself, and really analyzing yourself first, what types of personality do you bring to the table? What skill set, and what are you willing to do or not do for, for the next organization you work for. And I think those are really the first major steps one has to take because again, for many of us, it’s about uprooting our family. And making sure that we understand that communities are different, the job just doesn’t, you know, there are some core things that we all bring, and have learned through the institute program, ACC or state conventions and stuff like that, that are very transferable. But sometimes when you’re looking at communities, it’s best about knowing yourself, so you know, you’re a good fit for that community that you’re going into. Otherwise, I’ve seen over the past three to five years. A good, a good, I would say 10% of the people that I’ve seen switch jobs, and losing their jobs or crashing and burning at those chambers that they’ve gone to now not any fault of their own. But mostly the fault that they were not the right match for that chamber. And so that’s that’s the hard thing to look at. Sometimes, when you see these great opportunities that you believe are out there, and you don’t, one know yourself. And two, you don’t know the community and the board, you’re going to go work for.

Brandon Burton 12:19
Absolutely, and I know I mean, these boards do the hiring, they do a lot of due diligence to make sure they’ve got the right person. And as a potential candidate, hopefully you’re doing that due diligence on your end to make sure you’re going to be a good fit for that community.

Robert Goltz 12:34
And I’ve had that situation where I have gone in I have taken over the executive position at a chamber of commerce. And three months into it after that first 90 days, I’m automatically going to my chair person, and I told them, I think you hired the wrong person. There’s things that you said you wanted, but really you were not ready for. And that’s something that we have to look at, when we’re going into that that next job. Because I’ve gone to Assam chambers, I’m not going to mention anything specifically, but some chambers that have hired me, and has said, I want you to be to do the successes that you’ve done in the past, we’re going to give you an hand over the keys to this organization to climb a mountain. And when you start doing it, all of a sudden you do things as you’ve done in the past, and you get your hand slapped the first time. And then the next time and after each time they go, Oh no, we want you to make change. And you’re like going every time I’m making a change or doing things that I’ve done that were successful before. It doesn’t fit this community, right.

Brandon Burton 13:48
Yeah, I need a condition to pull back. Yeah,

Robert Goltz 13:52
exactly. You start holding back. And sometimes it’s about educating. And sometimes it is that that community wasn’t the right community for you. And I’ve seen I have a good friend who just switched over, ended up taking a job. I thought it was going to be the ideal job, great pay, great. Community went into COVID hit as he as he started, he worked hard. Got them through most of COVID. You know, and just as things started getting back to normal, the board said, You know what, I don’t think you fit here. Wow. Oh my gosh, now I got to find another job. And you don’t really want to be in that situation. You really want to know who you’re going to work with and for ahead of time, and really do a little bit more of a deeper dive of, hey, it’s just another job. We as chamber execs are not transferable. like normal people in a community. Yeah, if I was working in the hospital, hospitality industry, could I move back and forth to different jobs. Absolutely. But you got to, folks, we have to remember, we are one special person, typically in a community, we’re the only one that holds that job in our city or county, usually. That’s right. So we have to, we have to bring our skills and know our skills, because it is definitely a different game to go out there.

Brandon Burton 15:20
So you’d mentioned that the opportunities that are out there, and I see you know, quite often, especially in the last year or so, you know, chamber folks that are leaving the industry that like you mentioned, private sector or retiring. And whenever I see that a little part of me hurts a little bit to see good people leave the chamber industry and then a little part of me, you know, when they’re retiring, and they’re they’ve served a great career, I think good for you job well done. But the the opportunities are there. And I wanted to maybe have you touch a little bit more you talked about when you’re looking at a new community for a possible move, to consider what you’re willing to do. I think that’s there’s probably a lot packed into that if you can kind of dive into that a little bit more, you know,

Robert Goltz 16:07
for each for each person, it’s a little different. I’ve gone to some of the chambers that I’ve worked for, I have a set plan of action of work that I do in my first 90 days, but are you willing to give up some of your family life, you know, and for me to move to another chamber, I tell my family right off the bat, 90 days, you may not see me, children wife, you may not see me in those 90 days, I go into a deep dive when I come into the community, I want to know people I want to be involved, I want to go places, and watch so I can see if I where I need to go and who are the movers and shakers in that community. I don’t trust board members to do that for me.

Brandon Burton 16:53
So especially when you’re brand new there,

Robert Goltz 16:56
especially when I’m brand new, you just don’t know. And then especially if you’re moving right now during COVID know, in some communities, no one wants to go out and see and meet someone. They’re doing everything via zoom, and online. And so there is no personal connection there for for some of that interaction that you need to know your community. So that is one of the biggest points for me is, you know, What, are you good? Are you willing to give up time with your family? Because people want your time at that beginning portion? The other aspect is, where do they sit financially? Are you an individual like me, now I like going in to an organization that’s broken, or has a mass of potential. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for when I’m in my when I’m going through an interview. The words I like to hear and this works for me is we want change, we want to take it to go to the next level, we want to be accredited things of that nature, when people start talking about those things, or talking about, hey, we need to get out of out of our financial red tape to be in the black and grow. Those are the things I strive for. I know what what kinds of chambers I’m looking for. And so that makes a big difference. I don’t want to go to a chamber that’s already well established. And doing and the board is saying, Hey, we just want to keep on going. That’s not me. In fact, when I when I go through the interview process, they asked me typically always tell us a little bit about your personality. And I go well here, I’m going to send you my disc profile first. And I’m very high off the chart D. And by the way, I’m a bull in the china shop, if you don’t want people calling and giving controvert verschil viewpoints of me, I’m not the guy you want to hire because someone’s going to complain about me, it’s gonna happen quick. It’s not gonna it’s not gonna wait for a long time, it’s gonna happen quick. And you just need to be ready for that. And I am going to tell you exactly how I think of things. And give you my honest opinion, whether you like it or not, I work for you. At the end of the day, when you make a vote, I’m going to follow what your vote is. But I’m going to be honest with you ahead of time to say, you know what, that I don’t think that’s in the best interest of the organization. And sometimes we don’t want to do that, as executives, we want to, you know, be that employee. You’re not an employee in my in my world, as the chief executive officer of a chamber of commerce, you are the person who needs to stand and make decisions and be able to stand behind those decisions that you and your board make. And so, you know, you’re the one who has the target.

Brandon Burton 19:57
Absolutely. So I know sometimes is you whether you’re just trying to climb up the the transitional ladder within the same organization or looking to switch organizations, it can be pretty vulnerable. And some would say risky to kind of put your cards on the table and say, here’s what I want to do. And there’s a time and a place and an order for doing that. Would you mind just kind of addressing that and kind of when the right time is and how to go about initiating that change.

Robert Goltz 20:28
So I would say, and I’ll use my last chamber, Miramar Pembroke Pines as a pure example for this one, when I went there, they were going, this community was changing, growing, the chamber was starting to grow also. And we were looking at certain things. And over the last probably, let’s say, eight to 10 years, our industry has really, I believe, our industry is changing. Again, it’s kind of swinging back to an advocacy model being a little bit more into that government affairs aspect. And so as I see things, I bring him up in my board meeting, so it was probably two years in maybe three years. And at Miramar, I brought up that we needed to have a path. And you would have thought that again. What are you talking about Robert? And I said, This is what we need to do. And I think our largest corporations were telling me, why would they join the chamber when I get all the benefits that you have through our corporate structure? Yeah. You know, what are you doing for me? Well, we they, and they were very honest, we’re looking for somebody to fight for us. So in our community and the local, state and federal level, can you be that guy? Yeah. And your organization be an organization that has our voice? And so I said, Sure we can. So I brought it up to the board. And I originally it was so funny, we had the meeting, I couldn’t visualize it. The retreat right now. People stopped today, the board member asked me the question, I told them the answer. And oh, no, we can’t do that. That’s going to ruffle feathers with our the cities that we serve. And next thing I know, they said, You know what, we understand what you’re saying. And you know, we’ll have an issues pack only. Okay, it’s gonna take me probably a year to figure out what we’re doing in that and getting our agenda ready and stuff like that. And so we started going into that process. When the process probably about six months in, we had a commissioner from one of our communities, not like the chamber, and start fighting against the chamber. And actually went on a war attack towards me. wanted me fire. And my board says, look at the metrics, and I’m a metrics person. Yeah, you know what you keep me because I’m bringing in more money. I’m bringing in more members, I’m taking you to different areas. I don’t care if you like my personality or not. I’m a business guy. And business is designed by metrics. And so if I’m bringing the metrics, that’s what I’m that’s my job to do. And in the process, they started fighting for me, but just before we launched the pack, they said, You know what? We have to add in that we’re going to endorse candidates, because we want good candidates that are pro business, see, and all the sudden, whole different door opened up. Yeah, we started endorsing candidates. Some candidates really enjoyed that. Others got a little bit leery. But again, you have to look what works for your community. There’s other communities that I’ve been in that I would have never thought about starting a packet. Yeah, just wasn’t needed for that community at that time. That’s what was a necessity from what the business community said. And from what we were experiencing. From the elected officials.

Brandon Burton 24:11
Yeah. In fact, the the previous episode on the podcast, I had Brad hits on and it was talking all about ag advocacy, and specifically getting pro business people elected. And that’s one of the best ways that you can fight for your business community is to have pro business candidates in office. And again, it all goes back to your community and some communities of work some communities, maybe not so much, but you got to be willing to take the risk. Exactly. And I

Robert Goltz 24:45
left I left when these come these conversations come up, because most of our chambers across the country only get a minimum membership from their city or county, right? They’re not flooding in dollars. What do you lose? We’re losing anything, folks. And so those are the things that you you have to look at. And the thing is, at the end of the day, what are we really? Are we? what’s considered that three p chamber parties pageants? Or are you looking at making a change in your community? Are you a three c chamber convener or catalyst? And champion of your community? Make up your mind which way you want to go? Yeah. And and what works? And for some teamster, chambers, it doesn’t always work. And again, each one of my chambers was very different. in that aspect,

Brandon Burton 25:36
yeah. So that’s a good example, setting up a pack could be very risky, you became the target, in many ways. Share with us, what are what are some of these other risks that you’ve taken in the chamber world?

Robert Goltz 25:51
So I look at the chambers of business. I mean, I’ve mentioned that already. So we’ve done a lot of things in the chamber industry that I just don’t agree with. And it’s, I don’t agree with, and you know what, for each one of your chambers, it’s different. Your personality is different than mine. So over the years, some of the things that I that I’ve been criticized for some of my chambers, I announced to our members, if a chamber member drops, I announced and I put it in the newsletter, that, hey, these businesses drop, please stop all chamber discounts to these individuals, and I will put them listed by name. Yeah, for some of you, you’re going oh, my gosh, it’s gonna hurt you. I will tell you that I’ve typically got a 10 to 15% return of members from that. And what do I owe on non members? They’re not paying my salary. Yep. I don’t know him anything, folks. And if they’re not going to be a customer, they’re not going to be a customer. I’m not bashing them that they’re a bad business. I’m just saying, the fact of the matter is, they’re not a chamber member, because this is what happens in our chambers. And what I found out, it takes usually three years for someone to realize that a business is no longer a chamber member. Yeah, that’s true. I’m doing business with you as a thinking that you’re a member all these years. And I made a decision that I was only going to do business with chamber members, because I’m loyal to the organization that builds the community. And then I find out that, Oh, my gosh, you haven’t been a member for years. So we have it my chambers. I have seen members watch for the who’s dropping, and it will go if I don’t send it out every month, they’ll go, I need to know. So I want to check before this. I had a board, two boards now, at two different chambers that made it a made it a mandatory aspect that they would only do business with chamber members. Why would they said on the board? It wasn’t a requirement. This is what you’re going to do. Unless we don’t have a business. It doesn’t. This is the way it is yeah. Membership group. And it wasn’t me that said that it was them in the boards that I worked with, with some of these ideas of giving back to the back to the organization and stepping it up a level in commitment to that organization have I’ve been very lucky to have much stronger boards that worked for the organization.

Brandon Burton 28:28
So with the membership, how did that translate as you started announcing drop numbers. Did you see less businesses dropping their membership? Did you see any any difference on retention?

Robert Goltz 28:39
We saw it We definitely saw a different difference on retention. Retention went up. No one wanted to have their name out there. I will tell you at first people were shocked. And I my one board would go I can’t believe you did this. I said watch what happens. We did a couple more months and then I said hey, this Oh, this person rejoined. Yeah. shamed him into coming back.

Brandon Burton 29:05
Yeah, absolutely. So

Robert Goltz 29:09
and you know what, this can’t comes back from when I started in the chamber industry. I had a great boss and often I’ll put a shout out there to Michelle Dougan. I was a membership salesperson, and she would go Robert, I want you to go out and collect membership plaques and scrape window sticker. And guess what? I’m gonna give you money for those that you get. Wow. And so on a Friday if it was a slow Friday afternoon and I needed a little extra cash in my pocket. who dropped her membership in the last two years that I’m going to be driving around by and I go and I go Hey, how’s it going scrape. Okay, got that one. Let me pull up. Can I have your plaque and we put notices on the plaque after that saying this. The plaque is the property of the chamber DataView, where we give it to you to show that you are a member, but when you drop your membership, we want our plaque back. Yeah. And and you know what, for some people, it’s more important that they have that plaque in their window or on their wall. And I had many people when I would go into grab their plaque, we would rejoin the chamber. Yeah, it was always it was always, I didn’t realize we dropped our membership. Right? Right. Okay, well, if you want, we can get you joined up right now. And I’m not gonna say happen every time. But 10 to 15%, maybe 20% of the time, that was what was going on? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:40
As you’re sharing this, it reminds me of a story. So my background is in chamber publishing. And I was working with the chamber and of this going around, you know, selling advertising on these publications. And there was a glass company who’d advertised with this for years, and, and I went in to renew their ad. And he’s like, yep, I’m always going to renew. And he tells me the story of the several years earlier, there was there’s a big truck manufacturer in this town. And the one of the executives at this trucking company, was a board member the chamber, and they sent out renewal notices, and this glass company, they were just really slow on sending in their, their renewal. And so this board member gave him a call and said, you know, we use your glass and all of our trucks, and I’d hate to have to look for a different vendor for a glass. He’s like, I forgot to do yeah, it’s in the mail today, you know, the same kind of thing. And it’s, uh, I know, some people will be uncomfortable doing that. But the reality of it is, I mean, there’s benefits to membership and, and, and things that the chamber does for members and discounts and connections and all sorts of stuff.

Robert Goltz 31:58
The thing that most people have to think about, if you were a private business, would you allow the things that happen at your chamber to occur? Would you give up, if you were running a restaurant, would you give free food to people every day, for 90 days, or a year, if they hadn’t paid for the meal ahead of time, you wouldn’t get crazy. But yet, we all provide services. And and, and I can’t say that all chambers provide services, because each one of us is very different. But if you’re good tell the chamber you’re providing information and in a wealth of opportunities to business on a regular basis. And that’s what they pay for. And it’s for what, two bucks, three bucks a day is that membership fee. And yet you’re feeding people on and on. And I’ve seen chambers where, you know, a year later, when I typically when I go into a chamber, it’s cleaning house, my they’ll say oh, we have 450 500 members, and I’ll go walking, I’ll go, you have members that haven’t paid for over a year. And it drops down to 300 or something like that. Yeah. And then we’re starting to do the cleanup. And the big thing is always he’s a major pillar in the community. Robert, we can’t drop that membership. He’s a major pillar in the community but hasn’t paid his dues in years. What does that say about the chamber? Yeah, it says that we call who to cower down to people power, we should be the power in our community, we should be able to have the credibility to stand behind what we do. And so I’m very big in that aspect.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Brandon Burton 33:48
Absolutely. I think that is a great takeaway. Robert, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you what might be one tip or action item that another chamber champion out there could could hear from you and take to elevate their organization up to the next level?

Robert Goltz 34:04
You know, I think the the key is to have a great foundation. And so if you are a current in a current chamber position, not going anywhere, or you’re looking at a new chamber, look and see and do two things. There’s, I’m gonna give a shameless plug out there. There’s a gentleman out there that most of us know by the name of Bob Harris, and he has a book out there that is an association audit book. And it tells you step by step, what you should be looking for, for in your organization, the paperwork and everything of that nature. I go through that with every chamber, I walk into making sure that I have all the paperwork, legal paperwork, things set. Then he taught me one other piece that there’s some certain books I have to have in my arsenal to run a chamber properly. One is a board policy manual. An employee handbook, a style guide for the chamber. Most chambers don’t have that. And you’ll know who you are, if you start looking around, and you have five different fonts with your chamber name on it, yeah, those are the top three and a disaster book. And that disaster book tells me everything and keeps I keep that with my car at all times. It has our insurance papers and all of my important information, that if something were to happen to this building, or to my community, that I know how to be up and running within 24 hours, those are the things that I think are the main foundation for every chamber, you get that down, and then put your personality and let you let your personality shine. That’s the other thing that a board needs to look at when they’re hiring is what’s the personality of the chamber. That’s the type of person they should be hiring, because I will tell you, every chamber I’ve been to, the personality who’s at the head of the organization, will flood the rest of the organization with how they are. And they can change very quickly in two to three years from what it was to that because of who you are, and what you bring to the table. And you need to realize that and be able to let that board know, this is the movement we’re going into.

Future of Chambers

Brandon Burton 36:26
That’s right, get advice like 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?

Robert Goltz 36:37
I think we’re already in the move on the advocacy issue that we already talked about. But I had, you know, a gentleman that I think has his thumb on on the game, Mark Wilson from the state, Florida chamber, state, Florida Chamber of Commerce, said at a convention just a couple of weeks ago, I think we’re going into the communication aspect. That we are that a chamber can be that voice of reason, and sharing information that’s factual, not opinionated, to our community, specifically, our business community. And I made a mention of that at the convention, and it’s something that I was already working on. But now I’m kind of looking going well, I need to really work on this. So that I’m not considered the News, the news media of the day. And then people will come and just say, Hey, give me the facts of what this reads like. Without your opinion, I can give you that if you want my opinion, I have an opinion. But these are the facts that are in legislation. These are the facts that we’re seeing in our research. These are the facts that make our community right now, as I say, keep it by facts, I think we’re going to that for me for this chamber, it’s going to be solid for us.

Brandon Burton 38:01
I like that, you know, the other day is somewhat related, I was watching a college football game, and during the commercials that it came up with a PSA for getting the vaccination, you know, the COVID shot. And I know chambers across the country have been big advocates for you know, wearing masks to keep businesses open, take the vaccine to keep businesses open all in the effort of keeping businesses open. And yet it still seems to be something that’s very controversial throughout the country. And I thought, you know, there’s a lot of money behind these PSAs. And, you know, pharmaceutical companies putting these out there, there’s money behind it. Nobody’s out there advocating for the sun, you know, and just saying, Have you gone for a 30 minute walk today and enjoyed some sunshine? Have you eaten something green today, you know, to improve your overall health and have better chances against COVID. So I think sharing information, sharing some facts is very important. And there’s some things that just totally get looked over because of where money is,

Robert Goltz 39:06
in COVID is a prime example. You know, for me, it’s about giving information, not telling my business community or the community at large that you have to wear a mask or not, that’s not my decision to make. I will tell you our facts, the facts say this. And, you know, we live in the United States and we have so many contradictions of information and and some people want to you know, some people for whatever reasons they have may not want to take vaccination, get the vaccination. What am I to tell them that they are right or wrong? You know what in these past 18 months, the story has shifted many times. All I know right now is that I am vaccinated and I feel a little bit better being vaccinated and sometimes I will mask sometimes I don’t Yeah, it depends on how I feel but I’m not gonna fight I’m not fighting with people and something that I think some of the world has lost right now is it sometimes we just have to be considerate of other people. So if I go to a place and I see everybody wearing a mask I throw on my mask now because I want to not because I have to, but because it makes everybody else in the room feel comfortable enough to be with me. Yeah. And so I’m trying to keep us together instead of splitting us apart everywhere.

Connect with Robert Goltz

Email: Robert@KeyWestChamber.com

Cell: 908-343-1717

Brandon Burton
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.

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.

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Brad Hicks. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but I thought it could still be useful to search text within this podcast episode.

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
Now your host, his favorite chewy candies are Swedish Fish. Here’s my dad Brandon Burton

Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to 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 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.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Brad Hicks. Brad is the newly retired or rewired president and CEO of the Chamber of Medford Jackson County in Oregon, a position he held since the end of 1999. Brad began his career at the chamber in 1993. He has been called and with good reason Southern Oregon’s business leader. Under his direction, the chamber has embraced a new era of business leadership that blends the best of traditional chamber with today’s necessity for top notch and powerful business advocacy. During his tenure at the helm, the chamber has grown into one of Oregon’s largest and longest standing statewide business associations. Brad is often sought out for his perspective on business and political issues, and has been featured on the CBS Early Show, Fox News, the Los Angeles Times San Francisco Chronicle, fortune, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and he can now add the chamber chat podcast to this impressive list. Today as a result of Brad’s leadership, the chamber continues to support pro business policies that will provide enduring benefits for the state economy and as a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. He is widely regarded as one of the top influencers in the Oregon political landscape and the chamber industry in the United States. Brad recently completed a successful term as chairman of the board for WACE Brad enjoys travel and investing his time in Southern Oregon. He and his wife Kimberly have one son Jonathan. Well Brad I’m excited to have you with me today on the chamber chat podcast you’ve come highly recommended by a couple different people but I would take take a few moments to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you.

Something Interesting about Brad

Brad Hicks 3:28
Something interesting well Brandon, first thank you and and you’re gonna have to pick better friends if they’re recommending me for your podcast. Some poor judgment out there apparently. And Happy, Happy Constitution Day. Not a lot of people think about that or celebrate that. But you know, what was it 234 years ago today? A few few folks got together and signed I think now the longest lasting constitution in human history. So it’s, it’s being ignored, but it’s still standing. So happy times. today. Um, maybe that’s something interesting. Well, I don’t know if that’s interesting or not gonna say maybe that’s something interesting about myself as I’m, I’m kind of a junkie on board. political history, but, um, let’s see, what would what would be a thing. Well, you can see some of the stuff behind me one of the things just out of view for you. Brandon is a really old, tattered baseball. And it’s a homerun ball that I hit at a Pittsburgh Pirates mini camp or try out off of their number one draft

Brandon Burton 4:50
pick. Nice. That is pretty cool.

Brad Hicks 4:53
Yeah, that was that was my 15 seconds of fame. I guess.

Brandon Burton 4:59
You must Have some kind of a background in baseball? I would assume.

Brad Hicks 5:04
No, I picked the wrong parking lot. And I just walked out there and grabbed a bat. And No, I’m kidding. Yeah, baseball was, was one of my early interests and spent spent a lot of time on and around baseball diamonds. And and I hope to I hope to get to do some more of that in the future.

Brandon Burton 5:26
Watching. They’re watching and well, at this point, I’d like for you to share a little bit about the chamber that you just recently retired from, I understand you’re still doing quite a bit of close work with. And I’d like to just get some perspective as to the type of size staff, that sort of thing. And we’ll go to that point.

About The Chamber of Medford/Jackson County

Brad Hicks 5:52
Yeah, well, some of this, you know, might be repeat for a lot of my friends after 30 years in the industry, I’ve got a lot of friends in the chamber biz around the country, but so many of them know, but I suppose Many don’t. My background before coming to the chamber was in the legislative arena. I had run a house office and two senate offices in the state legislature and then worked for one of our members of Congress, and was pretty active in the campaign. On the campaign circuit, I always say everything from dog catcher to President of the United States. I’ve been on or run campaigns and a lot of levels. But I wanted to move home to Southern Oregon, my mother was in poor health, and I wanted to be closer to my family. And, and I thought, well, I’ll go home and see what somebody my age and limited experience can do in Southern Oregon. So I drove around, I was joking, I drove around looking for buildings with domes on them, because that’s all I’d ever worked in. And I couldn’t find once I dropped, dropped a resume off at the chamber. And the rest is history I I was familiar with our specific chamber, because I was the staff person on the other end of the line setting up legislative hotlines for chamber member or for our legislative members with this chamber. And so I knew that there was a high degree of interest in issue advocacy at our chamber, and I thought well, maybe, you know, maybe that’s someplace I could play my trade. And you know, here we are almost 30 years later, just putting a period or maybe an exclamation point on the end of it.

Brandon Burton 7:58
You’ve been doing since retiring, but what do you been up to?

Brad Hicks 8:05
Well, I remember my dad making a statement, and I thought it was the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. But after he retired to continue to care for my mother. He said, I don’t know how I ever had time to work. And I’m finding I’m finding that he was right. There seems to be so much to do. In fact, sometimes I kind of wish I had to go to the office. Because there seems to be so many things to do that I was previously unaware of, that are now on my calendar and my to do list. But you know, you mentioned this at the top of the show. I am I set up a consultancy called RBI I had to get a baseball reference in there. That’s right. Because we all know business and in politics, if you don’t score runs, you don’t win. And so I chose RBI because I think, you know RBI is runs batted in are one of the under some statistics and baseball people like to talk about diving catches and Grand Slam home runs. But again, you’ve got to you’ve got to knock some runs across the plate to win. But RBI also stands for representing business issues. And you know, that was something that years ago came out of the WAC tool, toolkit work that we did. And it was, it was one of the most important things that chamber members said they want their chambers to do for them represent business issues, through lobbying, issue advocacy, and political action. Candidate work, right recruiting, financing and electing pro business candidates and I hope we get to talk a little bit more about Because that’s the real passion. And and if I could just quickly circling back, you asked me to kind of recap my time at the history, what I didn’t say was, when I started at the chamber, we had just about 1000 members. And we mean, that had been a number that we have maintained for a pretty long period of time, we had been just under just over 1000 members for a long time. And even through my first, you know, six or seven years as a staff person at the chamber, we were a basically 1000 member chamber. I knew if we were going to gain clout in the political arena, from my days working in the legislature, you know, is typically the 800 pound gorillas that that get the most attention. So you’ve either got to be really big or have a lot of money, I knew we wouldn’t have a lot of money. So I set out to make our chamber larger. And over about a six year period of time, we went from about 1000 members to over 1700 members, which made us one of the eight largest chambers on the west coast. And certainly the largest chamber in the state of Oregon, even larger than our state association at the time. So suddenly, when you pick up the phone, and you call the governor’s office, or you know, some representatives office, if they’re paying attention to how many folks you represent, they take the call they take the meeting.

Brandon Burton 11:34
Yeah, there’s a lot more clout for sure. Yep. And talk about runs batted in. 1000 to 1700 members, those are a lot of runs coming in,

Brad Hicks 11:45
that we pushed a lot of runs across the plate over that period of time. And and that was a real, it was a real fun time to be part of our chambers history. Because not only were we growing, but we were really getting a lot of things done. And and then of course, nobody needs to be reminded that, you know, then we went headlong into a great recession, lifted our heads up for a little bit and then went, you know, headlong into a global pandemic and in our region, catastrophic wildfires. So there, there have been a lot of things beyond our control that you know, that have torn, torn down a lot of the work, a lot of things that we built, have been knocked over, but I’m confident in our community and our members and our chamber and the people that are on the team now that they’ll be able to rebuild that in time.

Brandon Burton 12:48
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.

Topic-Running into the Fires of Advocacy

So you happen to mention the the wildfires there in Oregon and throughout the West Coast really and we’ll kind of use that to segue into our topic for running into the fire of advocacy in our band for all you had mentioned to me that during this time especially that you’re running away from the opportunity that they have to really shine yeah I and and a few that are running into the fire so tell us what you mean. Yeah,

Brad Hicks 14:37
yeah, well, you know, you talk to you live in the Pacific Northwest, you talk to a lot of firefighters and BLM folks and forestry folks over the course of a career and and you know, there’s this this idea of, you know, those who run away from the fire and those who run into the fire and and I was thinking about that as a metaphor for chambers and Their approach to Well, sometimes even issue advocate advocacy, but certainly the area of political action, recruiting candidates, pro business candidates who are going to do well, or they’re going to do good by our members as opposed to doing harm. You know, in our industry, we are regularly pulled, what’s the most important issue in your community? What do you think’s the most important member of issue to your members? Who knows? I mean, at the end of the day, who knows, here’s what I do know, there’s nothing more important than who decides on those issues. I mean, at the end of the day, those issues are those issues, and they’re going to confront our, our communities. Whether we like it or not, issues of land use and issues of wildfire and issues of homelessness and issues of, of poverty and, and education or lack thereof. You know, we’re all tackling really difficult issues. And our individual chambers are not always going to be the lead voice on those issues. In fact, quite often, not the lead voice, just a contributor in the choir, to that overall voice. But where we can make a big difference is helping choose who gets to decide who decides in your, on your city council, who decides your Board of Commissioners in your state legislature, what the best thing is on those, you know, the best direction on those policy issues. So we took this approach, I remember the day we actually got our board to approve because the first time I proposed it, it failed. And that was the formation of our political action committee. But I think when I said this in the second go around, I think it resonated with people, if you want to change the policy, you’ve got to change the people. And and the point that I made that I think resonated with our own board was this for 100 years prior to the time I made that statement and pitched a pack to our organization. Our organization had a long and successful record of issue advocacy. I mean, I found records going back 100 years where we were arguing about wildfire, you know, forest management issues and transportation. And so we have this long, rich history of being pretty good on the issue advocacy side, but never played on the candidate side of the ledger. And, and I, you know, finally occurred to me, all of our best issue advocacy efforts are being frustrated by the wrong people getting elected.

Brandon Burton 18:14
Yeah, so that really stood out to me when you want to change the policy need to change the people. I’m thinking I can’t pinpoint many, many times where I’ve seen a politician have. If you need the policy to change, you need to change the people. Right? I’m curious, right? I’m curious in your area, I mean, you guys worked hard to become big to become a chamber that has impact to be heard by some of these people in government on the some of these issues. And with that, so you’ve got a lot of power is a responsibility, right to represent those businesses as business issues as RBI is? In today’s world, things have obviously become very polar, divisive when it comes to politics. So as a chamber, as a chamber, how do you try to balance that, by I know, some would have a fear of maybe losing membership losing some support, when overall you can see the path? And yeah, it may have some collateral damage. I mean, what has how do you go about that in your mind?

Brad Hicks 19:28
Well, I grew up in a family, a small business family, my parents were small town grocers, and I watched them go bankrupt in the recession of the early 80s. And a lot of that fueled my passion and my heart for small business people in the issues that they face. And I think that’s ultimately how I wound up at the chamber and why I had so much passion and energy for the issues that help businesses succeed and and the issues that They kill business and thwart business and thwart free enterprise. So I always you know, when I walked in the door I my attitude was I am never going to apologize for defending our members and for defending free enterprise I’m just not going to do it there’s there’s a lot of negotiables but I’m not going to apologize for standing up for the issues that make our members successful. The you know, any of my friends that are listening to this know that I’m kind of a keeper of quotes. And I particularly love Winston Churchill and and he said there’s no greater thrill than being shot at to no effect. So, so what you have to know is, this is this is who I am, this is who my organization is, this is the mission of the organization unapologetically. This is the mission of my organization. And we are going to go out and we’re going to say and do things that benefit the people that pay the freight. Whether other people like it or not, and it isn’t that you go out and, and endeavor or purpose to make enemies. If you can do that in a collaborative and a friendly way. Great. But you’re exactly right. It’s it is a road full of bumps and potholes. You know, what’s the other quote john wayne said courage is being afraid but saddling up anyway. Yeah, you know, organizationally, we spent sometimes weeks talking about whether or not we were even the right organization to carry a message. like is this Are we going to marginalize this message because it’s got the Chamber’s name attached to it? Or you know, here we are in the middle of a membership or a fundraising development campaign and we’re going to take an issue on our position on the most controversial issue in our whole state do we or don’t we and I’m so proud of our you know, board over the last 30 years and our staff and to say you know, whenever we were faced with those situations every time without fail we walked into the fire

Brandon Burton 22:30
I love that and I think this is one of those topics that a chamber can really if they’re listening they can really get some value out of to really what is best for their businesses for their members to really see like you said having those pro business candidates elected support them. Yeah, make a stance and see how your members support you. I mean, for those for those chambers that hear members say I don’t know what my chamber for something that’s going to support these businesses that are your members, they’ll remember that when the time comes around.

Brad Hicks 23:09
Well Brandon, you are exactly right. And you know, to put it in different terms, instead of walking into a running away from the fire art stuff. I could probably just simplify it by say by saying it’s easy to look at things from our own perspective in defense of your chamber safety, what’s easier, what’s harder, and all those sorts of our members want us to be proactive? Right? And silence equals indifference. So you might be sitting at your chamber saying there is no way we’re going to endorse candidates because it’s risky it’s scary What if the wrong person gets elected and they hate me and they kill our budget? Are they take away our contract? Or you know, and what I don’t hear people asking when we have these conversations you know, what if what if I lost my contract with the city but 500 businesses in my community join the chamber as a result of of actually finally meaning something to them? What if I didn’t need that contract anymore? Or what if what if standing up for you know a principle that got you in a fight over your contract and you win it or you lose it you know, I think chambers have to remember that it’s probably more important to be respected than to be liked when it comes to these types of issues and and doing the right thing is you know, it’s gonna get you’re gonna at least get you’re respected.

Brandon Burton 24:52
So it takes a lot of courage, a lot of faith, I would say to step up Something anything to have that integrity? How would you suggest a chamber? And I don’t know how you just grow integrity like that. But how do you step up to that challenge against the, you know, the headwinds that come atcha?

Brad Hicks 25:19
Well, I think you’re right. And I want to be careful not to sound like I’m patting myself on the back, I would just, I think, to try to objectively answer your question, I, I don’t know that you gain that on the job, I think you bring it with you. Right? So it’s probably up to boards to make sure they’re hiring people who have courage, who have integrity, who aren’t afraid to, you know, run into the fire, and then turn them loose and let them do the right thing. So I’d like to think that in my case, those were traits or characteristics that I brought with me, you know, it wasn’t like one day I just said, Hey, this integrity thing seems I you know, I listen to john wooden and this integrity thing seems pretty cool. I gotta get me one of those. It just, you know, for me, defending business. And, and helping people like my folks, but not go bankrupt, was kind of a true north for me. And, and I guess I didn’t waver. And I’m proud of that. So, and I’m proud of our organization, because you have to, you’ve got to have a staff and you got to have a board who are all in. And so, you know, I don’t know, you know, you asked about how you how you get the integrity to do that. You know, that those, those are characteristics people have to bring to the table, what you really need first, to get started as guts. And you have to know you’re, you’re going to get punched in the teeth every once in a while and be willing to take it. What it might usually quote Mike Tyson, but you know, what, if you say everybody’s got a fight plan to get punched in the mouth or something, right? You know, and so your board and your staff has to say, we’re going to go into the ring, we’re going to, we’re going to throw a few and we’re going to take a few and when we take one, we can’t go in the corner and curl up and suck our thumb, we got to go back out and answer the bell.

Brandon Burton 27:50
That’s right. You know, I had heard a quote one time that said, If you want to change policy, you got to, personally that that might have to apply to chambers, too. So if you don’t have that integrity, if you can’t summon up those guts, and watch out, you know,

Brad Hicks 28:05
oh, you know, this is something that good friends of mine, like the late Mike McLaren and, and Dave Kilby, who is still living. And I have been saying for years, and it’s really a page we store up stole out of good degrade. And that is you got to have the right butts in the seats. Right? So you think about this bus, and people are on the bus, and people are off the bus. And people ought to get off the bus, you know, that are on it, and cetera, et cetera. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to have you know, if you have a board, for example, that’s made up of, you know, half your board is made up of bureaucrats and city officials or county officials. And then suddenly, you want to be bold and take on the city and the county, it’s going to be tough. And if you’re the CEO, you might actually be the, the victim of, of that newfound boldness. So you got to make sure that you’ve got so you got to be bold, but you’ve got to you’ve got to get the right players on the team or in the clubhouse or on the bus, however you want to put it.

Brandon Burton 29:24
Absolutely. So I know we’re we’re starting to get a little bit short on time, but I wanted to ask a couple of these questions that I like to ask everyone that I have on the show. What would be maybe one tip or action item based on our discussion today, that edge chamber champion could do to help elevate their organization up to the next level.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Brad Hicks 29:52
You know, we have a tendency I think in the chamber of business to think if we’re not planting a flag on the moon, we didn’t do something big Right, I hear it a lot. And you know, we weren’t always a big chamber, maybe we were a medium sized chamber. But I have always had such great admiration for the small chambers in our country. And I tell my friends that run small chambers, I appreciate them, and sometimes envied them. Especially once we became a large chamber, because they do it all right, they have to, they have to do it all they play every role that wherever we have, they’ve got to be much more creative sometimes than those of us that have a little bit more in the way of resources or people. But, you know, if you think about what Tip O’Neill said, all politics is local. So you’re asking me like, what’s the thing? What’s some thing that that a chamber could do to make a difference? Don’t think that you have to be like the Medford, Jackson County Chamber or the Sacramento chamber or the Seattle chamber, the Vegas chamber, cetera, et cetera. Maybe you have a great city council and a bad mayor. And the chamber says, You know what, we’re, we’re going to go out and recruit one of our past chairs, to run for mayor, we’re going to help her win, we’re going to raise the money, and we’re going to create a team. And we’re going to get a good mayor who actually cares about the business people. That one thing could be the biggest thing that happens in a particular community. And they didn’t have to elect somebody, President of the United States or to Congress or land somebody on the moon. They simply changed one of the most important positions in their community. And quite frankly, on a relative scale that might be more important than some of the work we do.

Brandon Burton 31:56
Right? Yeah, absolutely. We’re,

Brad Hicks 31:58
we’re, you know, historically, we’re usually in 10, or 12. legislative races, every election cycle. And we have probably, I’m trying to be conservative here, but I bet our success rate, it’s, it’s 95% Plus, it might be 97, or 98. I’m just gonna say 95. To be conservative. You know, we always seem to lose one. Every, every cycle. And that’s because we’ve got a couple of districts that just don’t don’t benefit pro business candidates. But we give them hell in those do, right? We we don’t stop we don’t let that stop us from recruiting candidates and, and raising money. In fact, I know we’re running out of time, but I want to share this because it’s an example I use almost every time some other you know, fellow chamber exec asked me what what happens when you lose longtime incumbent senator, not a friend of the chambers, not a friend of local business, but continue to get elected and one of these districts I referred to, so we recruited somebody, and we raised over 100,000 bucks, and we lost by about 280 votes, 260 bucks, something like that. And everybody said, Oh, man, grab, you know, grab your grab your hats and hang on because it’s, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. We never had a better relationship with that, Senator. Until we did that, because he knew we had the we had the the guts, and the capacity to almost take them out for change. Yeah, for change. And if he continued to be that bad, we were going to continue to take another stab at and we did. I mean, we got friendlier and friendlier, but we still try to take him out every time. But the point is, the relationship got better, not worse. Yeah. He he had, he had, I guess you could say, maybe a little bit of a healthy fear of of the chamber and it made him think about his policy decisions more than he ever had prior to that.

The Future of Chambers

Brandon Burton 34:26
That’s good. That’s a really good example. All right, yeah. So as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their their purpose going forward?

Brad Hicks 34:39
Well, you know, I think you actually said this at the beginning of the show, and it was some It was kind of a mantra for me with our staff and our board. At the beginning of this pandemic. I truly believe that was and still is a time for chambers to shine. There is so much the new And and a lot of people are standing around looking for for someone to do it right? Which way do we go and fingers are pointing and you know 15 different directions What a great time. I don’t like the confusion. I don’t like the uncertainty I know business markets don’t like uncertainty, but what a great time for chambers chamber boards chamber CEOs to step in and provide the kind of leadership that people are looking for not just chamber members of business, businesses in general and communities in general. We we established a policy during the pandemic we were not going to turn anybody away we’re a membership organization we do things for members historically, during the pandemic I told our team you know don’t don’t play the you’re not a member game. Somebody comes to us in the middle of the night who needs help and they’re ready to close our businesses help them and we we probably got more complimentary phone calls emails and text messages from non members when you know when things started to subside and ease up a little bit we had so many small business people say I would not have made it had it not been for the information the chamber shared about getting my PPP money or you know where to go for this resource or how to find FEMA during the wildfires etc. And that was a real rewarding feeling so you know do the right thing and and I suppose Good, good things will follow.

Brandon Burton 36:44
Like I do the right thing that’s kind of been a bowl episode, right? Yeah. Yeah. So portunity for anybody listening that wanted to reach out and connect with you learn a little bit more from you what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Connect with Brad Hicks

Brad Hicks 37:03
Well as a as I mentioned, my new companies name is RBI or representing business issues. My website still under development, but I can be reached at Brad@representingbusinessissues.com or at 541-210-3334. And always, always have happy to help a fellow chamber exact I obviously this industry is coursing through my veins and I’ll always be a part of it in some capacity and would welcome any any of those phone calls or emails.

Brandon Burton 37:49
Awesome. Well, I will get that in our show notes. But Brad, I’ve enjoyed this conversation with you. I appreciate your integrity and the guts that you’ve shown throughout your career and the family shares he’s shared with us today. And just thank you so much for joining us.

Brad Hicks 38:08
Well thanks for your thanks for what you’re doing to this is it’s fun and I’ve enjoyed watching you interview friends of mine and and was was glad for it to finally be my turn in the barrel.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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.

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.

Alex Sonifrank, Affinity & Partnership Manager of the American World Trade Chamber of Commerce joins me for this episode to share how the AWTCC can help local Chambers process certificates of origin.

The AWTCC is a special interest Chamber with satellite offices across the country.

Alex shares why it is so important for local Chambers to have the ability to process certificates of origin to support their local manufacturing and export businesses. He explains how Chambers are uniquely qualified to create certificates of origin. Alex tells how the AWTCC can help certify local Chambers to do this on their own or a Chamber can partner with the AWTCC as an affiliate and actually earn non-dues revenue.

The affinity payments made by the AWTCC to partner Chambers has grown from $30,000 to $300,000.

Alex shares some of the pros and cons of doing this type of work in-house vs. utilizing a partnership like the AWTCC.

If you would like to connect with Alex about anything he discussed in this episode you can see his contact information below:

• 202-844-2641
• asonifrank@awtcc.org

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.

Derek Miller, President & CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber joins us for this episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.

Derek is a return guest. He joined us on the podcast two years ago for episode 32 as a Chamber of the Year Finalist in 2019.

In our discussion, Derek shares details about the two program synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application.

The first program that Derek shared was their Stay Safe to Stay Open campaign. They created in partnership with the Utah Department of Health, 7 guidelines for employees and staff to inject confidence with their protocols through the COVID pandemic. They ended up with over 10,000 businesses talking a pledge to stay safe to stay open. This program was promoted via social media as well as earned media as the program gained momentum.

The second program that Derek discussed was Workforce Resilience which is part of their foundation. This program focuses on mental fitness. It brings awareness for employers and employees to understand available resources to address mental health, some of which are covered through their existing healthcare plans. The program also aimed to remove the stigma that often clouds mental health concerns.

Derek encourages listeners to learn from others in the Chamber industry. Find out what is working for others.

If you would like to connect with Derek about anything he discussed in this episode you can see his contact information below:

• slchamber.com
• dmiller@slchamber.com

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.

Michael Huber, President & CEO of the Indy Chamber joins us for this episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.

As this episode goes live, the Chamber of the Year winners have been announced and the Indy Chamber was named the Category 4 ACCE Chamber of the Year Winner!

Michael was also a previous guest on the podcast as he joined us for episode 99 when we discussed Your Chamber as a Unifying Force.

In our discussion, Michael shares details about the two program synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application.

The first program that Michael shared was about their Rapid Response Hub. At the onset of COVID in mid-March 2020, they made a bet that small businesses would be effected the most with hospitality being hit first. They moved fast to train all of their employees on small business service. The Rapid Response Hub was established to share resources. They raised $10 million for relief funds from donors. Through this program, they also partnered with local lending organizations to facilitate $21.5 million in small business relief compared to less than $1 million from 2019.

The second program that Michael shared was their Inclusive Economic Development Incentives. He was clear that you don’t need a specific economic development responsibility to lead a program like this at your organization. Michael noticed that both the left and the right side of this discussion both wanted more which is usually a good sign when you are able to meet in the middle.

Michael encourages listeners to be inclusive with your economic growth strategies. Also, don’t limit yourself to the current tools within your organization. Look at partnerships as an extension of your Chamber.

If you would like to connect with Michael about anything he discussed in this episode you can see his contact information below:

• mhuber@indychamber.com
• Michael Loves Indy Podcast

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.

B Kyle, President & CEO of the St. Paul Area Chamber joins us for this episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.

In our discussion, B shares details about the two program synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application.

The first program that B shared was their Strategic Communication Plan that was spurred by the COVID shutdowns.

The second program that B discussed was their Equity Leadership Continuum. The goal of this program is to train leaders around diversity, equity, and inclusion. She talked about the need to create connections that count. One of my key take-aways from B was the idea that words create reality so it is important to be intentional.

B encourages listeners to figure out what your organization can do better than anyone else and monetize it.

If you would like to connect with B about anything she discussed in this episode you can see her contact information below:

• stpaulchamber.com
• Twitter
• B’s Table Talk Podcast

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.

John Urbahns, President & CEO of Greater Fort Wayne, Inc. joins us for this episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.

John is a return guest as he was on the podcast last year in episode 79 as a Chamber of the Year Finalist which makes this 2 years in a row for GFW, Inc.!

In our discussion, John shares details about the two program synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application.

The first program that John shared is about was GFW, Inc.’s response to the COVID pandemic. They introduced what was coined a Roadmap to Healthy Re-Open. This program included 17 industry specific webinars geared towards ideas and protocols for businesses to reopen safely.

The second program that John discussed was their Bridge Program. This program is a 5 year commitment from corporations who sponsor an entrepreneur in their community. These corporations sponsor the entrepreneur’s membership and programming and offer mentorship. They had over 40 entrepreneurs apply to be paired with the 25 corporate sponsors. All but 1 of the corporate sponsors got their first choice of their entrepreneur. For their next round, they are adding 10 more corporate sponsors and entrepreneurs with a focus on minority entrepreneurs.

John suggests that a Chamber needs to have a vision for their community. He believes that a Chamber needs to understand their lane (leadership vs. support). This past year has also confirmed John’s belief that a Chamber needs to be adaptable and nimble.

If you would like to connect with John about anything he discussed in this episode you can see his contact information below:

• jurbahns@greaterfortwayneinc.com
• gfwinc.com

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.

Tom Baldrige, President & CEO of the Lancaster Chamber joins us for this episode in our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series.

Tom was a past guest on Chamber Chat back in episode 98 as he talked about adjusting business models.

In our discussion, Tom shares details about the two program synopsis that were submitted with their Chamber of the Year application.

The first program that Tom shared is about is called Recovery Lancaster. The Lancaster Chamber played a key role in helping businesses get what they needed to get through the COVID shutdowns. The Chamber helped to distribute over $45 million in grant money with the average grant amount being around $23,000. They distributed 8,500 PPE kits to allow businesses to remain operational. Together with the EDC, the County, and the Chamber, business based information was gathered and distributed. None of the benefits from Recovery Lancaster were exclusive to Chamber members. They went about serving all businesses in their community.

The second program that Tom discussed was called Words that Activate Change. This program is focused around the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that the Lancaster Chamber values. This was a collection of personal and opinion based columns that told the stories. These columns were published in the Chamber’s Thriving Magazine and were also shared through social media.

Tom encourages listeners to not wait for permission before acting on a mission based idea.

If you would like to connect with Tom about anything he discussed in this episode you can see his contact information below:

• tbaldrige@lancasterchamber.com

FREE resources to help you better serve your Chamber members and your community.

As you focus on your Chamber’s mission and purpose, you will find that your publications say a lot about your organization. Community Matters, Inc. is an award-winning Chamber publisher that would like to help your Chamber with your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters has a turn-key program that is very simple. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking printed & digital publication that will represent your Chamber very well while providing a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to learn more.