This week, Cathi Hight from Hight Performance Group is our guest as she talks about what A Chamber Member’s Journey should look like. The four main points that Cathi dives into are:
Developing member personas
Member journey maps for joining
Onboarding of new members
Ongoing engagement of your members.
There were a couple books that Cathi mentioned in this episode. The links to these books are found below.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
Cathi is a wealth of knowledge and would love to work with your Chamber. Please reach out to Cathi by any of the methods below if you have any questions about what she discussed in this episode or if your Chamber has an interest in having Cathi work with you directly.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
I am a Superfan of the San Francisco 49ers. I grew up going to their practices, meeting the players, and getting their autographs.
I am also a fan of Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income Podcast. I have learned a lot from Pat, including how to match sponsors and advertiser with my audience. Community Matters, Inc. and Swypit are my two sponsors who specialize in working with Chambers of Commerce and they both support Chambers with a solid sources of non-dues revenue, one in Chamber publishing and the other through a credit card affinity program that pays Chambers very well.
In this episode, I do somewhat of a book review of Pat Flynn’s new book, Superfans but I apply the principles he teaches specifically to Chambers of Commerce. Pat breaks down the building up of Superfans into different areas of interest. First you have the casual audience who knows very little about you. The goal it to get this casual audience to become active with you and your community. Once they are active, you want to connect them to others in the community, and then finally you are able to get some of your biggest fans to convert into true Superfans! As I go through this episode I point out how these efforts can be applied at your Chamber to loyal members who will support, defend, and spread the message of the great things that your Chamber does for the community.
The book is broken up into segments and I cover the segments
in order in this episode. Part One covers taking the Casual Audience and
converting the to and Active Audience.
The titles of the chapters should help to remind you of what is discussed
in this episode. The chapter titles are:
Learn the Lyrics, Break the Ice, Create Quick Wins, Drive the DeLorean, and
Return Every Handshake.
Part Two covers the journey of taking your Active Audience
over to a Connected Community. The chapter
titles for this section are: Let Them Take a Shot, Let Them Decide, Create a Challenge,
Open the Factory Doors, Stage a Gig, Give Them a Name, Bring Them Together, and
Make Them Shine.
Part Three takes your Connected Community and makes
Superfans out of them! The chapter
titles for this section are: Remember the Lemons, Send Unexpected Messages, Get
Them Involved, and Offer Platinum Access.
You will have to read the book to dive into parts four and
five!
I would love to know if you have a name for your Chamber members. Please send me an email (brandon@chamberchatpodcast.com) to let me know if you have a name for your members or if this is something that you have considered doing.
You can purchase Superfans by Pat Flynn through my affiliate link here.
Eddie Brown serves as the President and CEO of the Sherman Chamber of Commerce. He climbed the ranks as a Chamber executive after a 40 year career at Coca Cola.
Sherman is located about an hour north of Dallas. The City of Sherman is currently
experiencing growth of about 1200 residents each year. The Chamber averages about 500 members
each year, but is steadily growing with the rise in population.
Brown discusses different areas of focus for professional
growth from providing opportunities for his members to develop leadership
skills, to board and staff training opportunities, and one of the most
important areas for growth, what we can learn from others.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
The Sherman Chamber began a Leadership Sherman program back
in 1980 and the program continues to grow and develop today. Leadership Sherman is as much about
exposing its participants to leaders in various fields to provide opportunities
and to ask questions of other industry leaders.
The program continues with an orientation class to bond the
group together. While meeting
together one day a month, and attend a trip to Austin the classes seem to
become friends and stay friends after the class is graduated. It fosters participants to become a
network of resources for one another.
Eddie emphasized the importance of continuing education
programs for Chamber executives as well as staff members to strengthen Chambers
and provide tools to help Chamber members.
He suggests budgeting for professional growth and
emphasizing to leadership the importance and purpose of the training. Eddie feels that the training is often
more important than some of the day to day tasks Chamber staff take care of and
should become a higher priority.
There is a benefit to having shared experiences with other Chamber
executives to foster networks and to learn from others.
If you’d like to contact Eddie Brown to further discuss any
of these topics please feel free to reach out to him.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
This episode is a compilation of some highlights from the past 12 episodes from our 2019 Chamber of the Year Finalist Series. In each episode, guests were asked for one action item that can help other Chamber professionals to bring their Chamber up to the next level. These highlights are the valuable answers that they provided. You can click on each name to listen to their entire interview.
Get to know the key trends from the Horizon Initiative.
Congratulations again to the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce, the Longview Chamber of Commerce, the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce & Greater Louisville Inc. on their recognition as 2019 ACCE Chamber of the Year and thank you again to all the finalists for sharing your tips and ideas that make your Chamber shine.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
Beth Bowman from the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber is our guest this week in our final episode of our special 2019 ACCE Chamber of Year Finalist Series.
The Irving-Las Colinas Chamber is located right in the heart of DFW Airport. With a 16 member team the Irving Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce serves 1900 member investors. They are structured as a public/private partnership working as the Economic Development Corporation and the Chamber of Commerce. The Irving-Las Colinas Chamber works to be apart of the solution for issues that arise for the business industry for economic development and public policy; small business services; work force issues; talent initiative; and transportation infrastructure.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
The Share Tank Initiative is one way the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber is standing out in the Chamber Industry. Through the collaborative effort of the city, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the art center, the entrepreneur center and other organizations, they work under the Chamber’s Community Development Foundation to match non-profits who are seeking funding with businesses who are looking to give back to the community. The Chamber is able to serve as a conduit to help educate the private businesses and allow the non-profits to pitch their needs to a panel of sharers looking to give. More information about the Chamber’s Share Tank Initiative can be found at their website: irvingsharetank.com.
Another area that the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber shines is their involvement in public policy. Their team is actively engaged in building strong relationships with local and state government officials. Beth shares some of their successes as they have taken an active role in promoting policies for the growth of the Irving-Las Colinas business industry and also educating businesses and advocating on their behalf in regards to public policies being debated.
The Irving-Las Colinas Chamber is strong and thriving. Beth stated, “You’re only as strong as your weakest link, and in Irving-Las Colinas we are very strong.” If you’d like to reach out to Beth Bowman to learn more about the programs at the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce please feel free to reach out to her.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
Norma Lansing from the Effingham Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week in our 2019 ACCE Chamber of Year Finalist Series.
The Effingham County Chamber is located in central Illinois
in the heart of the countries transportation network. The population during the work day swells
three times with all those coming to Effingham for employment.
The Effingham County Chamber’s Business Outreach Center is a
program facilitated by active business people, as well as retired business
people, looking to give back to the business community and promote the growth
of Effingham County. The Business
Outreach Center serves client needs from helping with business development,
finding manufacturers to help take ideas to the next step and connecting
businesses with mentors. The Chamber is
excited about the growth of the Effingham Regional Incubator Network and the
opportunity for individuals and businesses to find workspace at any of their
locations.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
The Effingham County Chamber promotes that when a business joins the Chamber, so do the employees. The Chamber has created a poster for employers to post to let employees know about member opportunities that are available to them through the businesses membership. One way the Chamber has leveraged this idea to get the employees active in the Chamber is to offer scholarship opportunities each year – only available to employees and their families.
The Effingham Regional Career Academy is a collaborative effort of the Chamber, the community college and six area high schools. They are focused on five career areas that meet the needs of their communities. They are looking forward to the construction of a 36,000 square foot facility for these students to come together and collaborate while learning about local employment opportunities.
One philosophy of the Effingham County Chamber is: We are stronger when we work together. If you’d like to connect with Norma Lansing to learn more about what’s been successful for the Effingham County Chamber please feel free to contact her.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
The Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce represents
about 600 members and roughly 10,000 employees in the far west corner of
Kentucky.
Over the past 5 years the Murray-Calloway County Chamber has worked to rebrand the Chamber in an effort to identify themselves as leaders, set high expectations for their events and to provide quality representation for their sponsors. To accomplish this, the Chamber partnered with a local graphic designer and utilized Canva, an affordable tool for small chambers, to provide a very professional brand to be seen throughout the community and on social media.
The Murray-Calloway County Chamber has seen success in utilizing the Go Local campaign to highlight the small businesses that make up roughly 65% of their membership.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
The Chamber has established themselves as problem solvers for
local businesses as they continually work with the city of Murray to provide
education and tools to those wanting to set up new businesses in the city. Through their efforts they’ve been able to
identify and overcome pain points seen when starting a business, thus reducing
the time and simplifying the effort of getting started. Building a relationship of trust with their
local government has allowed for some really awesome growth in the community.
The Murray-Calloway County Chamber has seen a benefit to
diversifying their Board to provide representation to a broad section of
business owners and across all segments of business. Michelle would suggest listening to the data
you have, be engaged with your members, and be willing to make changes. By focusing on the needs of the community
Chamber’s can bring people together to do great things.
Michelle and the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce are active on all social media platforms, via email, or phone to discuss any of the topics discussed in this episode.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
Derek Miller, President of the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce is our guest on this week’s episode in our ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series. Derek has been called “an architect of economic opportunity” and has been instrumental in developing Utah into one of the fastest growing economies in the United States.
The Salt Lake Chamber is a has the capitol city in its name, but is state wide in its reach, scope and mission. The Salt Lake Chamber celebrated its 130th anniversary last year and is one of only three organizations that pre-dates Utah’s statehood. The State of Utah is going on its 3rd year as the fastest growing economy in the United States and the fastest growing state population. The amazing quality of life that Utah offers its residents and businesses remain the focus of the Chamber.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
One way the Salt Lake Chamber has created value for their Chamber
was through the creation of Utah Community Builders, a foundation focused on
local social issues. Through the work of
the foundation the Salt Lake Chamber has been able to make a positive impact in
the community, as well as change the conversation with businesses regarding
their Chamber membership.
Intentional planning and hard work has made Utah into one of the fastest growing economies in America. Derek discusses how the Chamber’s partnership with local and federal government has contributed to the success as well as facing the challenges that come with a fast growing economy.
If you would like to connect with Derek Miller on any of the topics discussed, he can be reached by email or phone.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
Justin Starlin, President of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce in Ohio is our guest for this episode in our series of 2019 Chamber of the Year Finalists. Justin comes from a background in Economic and Community Development which is a great fit for the Wooster area. Wooster is a strong manufacturing community with national brands like Daisy, Gojo Industries, and Smuckers nearby.
Because of the strong manufacturing influence in the Wooster area, the Chamber promotes a Manufacturing Day each year to build awareness of the local manufacturing industry to high school students and the opportunity for employment. Last year (2018) this Manufacturing Day event brought out 700 students from 13 school districts to visit 18 manufacturing partners.
The Wooster Area Chamber takes pride in being unique in how they do things so they can stay fresh and show their value to the community. One way the Chamber does this is through a monthly newsletter. Many Chambers produce a newsletter, but the Wooster Chamber produces a 16-page newsletter each month and mails it out 23,000 copies to members and non-member businesses alike as well as to residents. Doing this helps to educate the community on the impact the Chamber has in the community, upcoming events, and it continues to build the Chamber’s brand. The Chamber also utilizes social media but they are cautious to not abuse that form of communication. Between the printed newsletter and the social media impressions, they are able to provide great value to for their sponsorships.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
In the vein of being unconventional, the Wooster Chamber has an annual dinner…with a twist. Last year, they utilized an iconic building in their community which was the former Rubbermaid headquarters to host their annual dinner. This facility is the new home to Gojo Industries (makers of Purell) so those who attended the dinner were able to see the facility. Wooster has a population of about 28,000 people and there were 960 people at this dinner!
The Wooster Chamber also hosts and Octoberfest which they call Woosterfest in their downtown area. In an effort to attract a younger crowd, they brought in new vendors with craft beers and they introduced Wiener Dog Races! You can see what this looks like below.
Please visit woosterchamber.com to connect with Justin Starlin or to learn more about the Wooster Area Chamber.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner 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.
