Category: Podcast Episode

Jessica Welch, VP of Operations at the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to talk about a seldom addressed topic in the Chamber world of staff retention.

In this interview, Jessica shares some reasons why people leave their Chamber job, the importance of the culture in your office which starts with the CEO, and ways to retain and attract employees through both monetary and non-monetary perks.

If you would like to connect with Jessica about what she has shared in this episode or for more details about how she handles staff issues at her Chamber, she can be reached by email at jwelch@irvinechamber.com, phone 949-502-4115, or on social media on LinkedIn and Facebook.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

Jodie Perry, President and CEO of the Richland Area Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to talk about a very comprehensive community development project that her Chamber recently took on after a leadership visit to South by Southwest in Austin with 15 leaders in their community. The community development project is titled Mansfield Rising.

You can see the marketing material that was produced for Mansfield Rising which shows the scope and goals of the project by clicking here. You can also follow the hashtags #sxsw419 and #mansfieldrising to see how Jodie and her team are leveraging social media in this campaign.

If you would like to connect with Jodie about what she has shared in this episode or their Mansfield Rising project, you can reach out to her by email at jperry@richlandareachamber.com, phone 419-522-3211, Twitter @chamberjodie. You can also look up her presentation at ACCE in 2019.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

Matt McCormick, President and CEO of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce in Missouri is our guest this week to talk about his experiences with leadership visits, both as a guest and as a host. Matt shares some of the many benefits that come from these type of visits to communities that are similar to your own. Even if you think you know what all of the benefits are, it is worth a listen to see the perspective that Matt takes to leadership visits.

If you would like to connect with Matt about what he has shared in this episode or for more details about hosting of planning leadership visits, you can reach out to him by email at MMcCormick@columbiamochamber.com, phone at 573-874-1132, or you can visit their Chamber’s website at columbiamochamber.com.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

Rebecca Wildeboer, Hospitality and Events Coordinator at the Sparta Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to talk about some of the events that the Sparta Chamber hosts and how she goes about leveraging the value of sponsorship to the businesses who support these events.

Rebecca shares a great example of a Harry Potter Festival that they created and hosted for several years and dives into details in many areas from coming up with the idea to the execution of it and measuring it’s success.

If you would like to connect with Rebecca about what she has shared in this episode or for more details about her events and sponsorship ideas, you can reach out to her by email at events@spartami.org .

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

In this episode, I take a moment to reflect back on the top 10 take-aways that I have learned this year while hosting Chamber Chat Podcast. The top ten lessons are listed below with links to past episodes and other pages that explore these ideas on a deeper level.

1. The Chamber community is full of great people who are willing to help others be successful!
2. The importance of travel events/intercity trips to learn from other communities. The Chamber Chat Podcast can help with some of these benefits by learning how other Chambers/communities are doing things.
3. A Chamber can and should be much more than a networking business community. (see episode 44 with Libby Spears and episode 46 Roy Williams).
4. The importance of staying true to your strategic plan. (see episode 40 with Henry Florshiem).
5. Digital is important, but print is still very relevant. (see episode 31 with Justin Starlin and episode 15 with Layne Mullin). Community Matters, Inc. can help you with your Chamber publishing. Learn more at chamberchatpodcast.com/cmi.
6. The importance of great community partnerships. (see episode 18 with Jenna Armstrong and episode 3 with Becki Womble).
7. The importance of talent & workforce development. (see COY finalist series episodes 24-35).
8. There is no such thing as too much non-dues revenue. (see episode 17 with Kevin Hodes) Swypit has a great Chamber affiliate program to help with your non-dues revenue. You can learn more at chamberchatpodcast.com/cc.
9. The future is bright for Chambers that stay relevant tech/automation. (see episode 5 with Tony Felker, episode 16 with Frank Kenny, and episode 45 with Jonathan Packer)
10. Every Chamber should explore the option of producing their own podcast and several have already reached out to me about how to do this. If you would like to learn how to produce a podcast for your Chamber, please visit chamberchatpodcast.com/guide to receive a free how-to guide to get started with podcasting.

Take the Stairs, by Rory Vaden is a great book that highlights what successful people do to be successful. I love the title and the lesson that the title carries with it. We need to be willing to do the short-term hard things in order to see the long-term rewards.

In this episode, I share some of the points that resonated with me as I read the book. I was first introduced to this book when Rory Vaden spoke at TCCE about 5-6 years ago. The book is not directly written for Chamber professionals, but he obviously has a message that relates to those in the Chamber industry that want to be more successful.

You can find Take the Stairs on Amazon and I am sure at other book stores as well. I would encourage everyone to read this book and more importantly, apply the principles that are taught!

In this episode, I mentioned the work of a Dr. Daniel Amen about overcoming automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) in order to become more positive. You can find out more about his work here on his website.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.Image

Mirinda Rothrock, President of the Decatur Regional Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to talk about why it is so vital to align your programming with your advocacy efforts.

In this episode, Mirinda shares how you can show the value of your advocacy efforts to your members through your programming. She shares a great example from her community regarding a minimum wage increase and how the Chamber collected data, worked as the voice of business in opposition to the minimum wage increase, and how they are now focusing their programming on how they can help the business community adjust to the coming changes.

Through some job specific programming, the Chamber is able to reach other employees at a business beyond the primary rep or owner which allows that member business to better recognize the value that the Chamber provides for their business.

If you would like to connect with Mirinda about what she has shared in this episode or about how she aligns her programs with advocacy efforts, you can reach out to her by email at mirinda.rothrock@decaturchamber.com.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

Charlie Moore, President and CEO of the McLean County Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to discuss how your Chamber can implement TRACTION into your strategic plan.

In our discussion, Charlie addresses some resources to help with implementing TRACTION. These resources are:

If you would like to connect with Charlie about what he has shared in this episode or about integrating TRACTION at your Chamber, you can find him on the Chamber website at mcleancochamber.org. His email address is charlie@mcleancochamber.org.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.

Roy Williams, President and CEO of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to discuss a more broad topic that will be different for each community. Roy talks about some of the programs and initiatives that have been developed at the Oklahoma City Chamber that stemmed from asking the question “What needs to happen in our community?”

In our discussion, Roy covers: community initiative campaigns, their Forward Oklahoma City Fund, CVB, EDC, All Sports campaign, their PAC, Innovation District, Criminal Justice, and their MAPS project to touch on just a few.

If you would like to connect with Roy about what he has shared in this episode or how they went about implementing some of these programs at the Oklahoma City Chamber, you can find him on the Chamber website at okcchamber.com. His email address is rwilliams@okcchamber.com and phone number is 405-297-8939.

In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.Image