Category: Podcast Episode

Sandy Barton is the President at the Greater Magnolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce.  In this episode, Sandy shares her experiences with us around building/rebuilding a Chamber.  Sandy joined the Greater Magnolia Parkway Chamber of Commerce in 2017, shortly after efforts were made to combine two existing Chambers in the Magnolia area into one Chamber.  This effort brought some challenges with some mindset and logistical changes as well as some opportunities to chart a new course while taking the best attributes from the previous two Chambers.  

One of the great programs that Sandy shares with us is their new member ambassador program.  This allows the Chamber ambassadors to pair up with new Chamber members as a mentor for the first year of the new businesses membership.  This allows the new member to learn about the many benefits that they receive as a Chamber member.  This program also gives the new member a friend to look for at Chamber events.  The ambassadors get to choose which businesses they would like to mentor and often times the two businesses will be complimentary to each other and support each other very well.

Sandy is going a great job to get the Chamber’s message out into the business community and to build the trust of the local businesses to know that the Chamber supports them and will be there for a long time to come.

For those of you who would like to get in contact with Sandy, she can be reached by email at sandyb@greatermagnoliaparkwaycc.org or on her cell phone at 936-520-6828.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

Tony Moline serves as the President & CEO of the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce.  In this episode, Tony shares how he has been able to effectively participate in the decision making processes with his City.  Tony shared a great example of where the City of Cedar Park wanted to introduce a “no waste” mandate for the residents and businesses in the City.  Tony and his Chamber recognized how a mandate could be a hindrance to local businesses and to future growth. 

In a response to this proposed mandate, the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce created and introduced a Green Business Initiative which encourages businesses to be green by creating a point system that contributes to different levels of how green a business is.  They also help businesses realize the green things that they are already doing such as LED lights and recycling that count towards the point total.  Tony mentioned that in these kinds of situations, you can either look for a problem, or you can help to be part of the solution.  

For more details or to connect with Tony Moline, you can reach him by email at tony@cedarparkchamber.org or by phone at 512-260-7800.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

Beth Z is well known in the speaking circuit for Chamber Conferences.  I first came across Beth at TCCE in Texas a few years ago.  Beth is an entertaining presenter and really is an expert in adding depth and interest to marketing efforts by using various tools to bring that extra “bling” to make your efforts get noticed.  Beth is also an author.  Three of her books can be found on Amazon through the affiliate links below

In this episode, Beth highlights a few tools that can be used to dress up your images and videos that you use in your social media posts. Below is each tool with a link to to the features and samples for you to review.

In her answer about the future of Chambers of Commerce, Beth mentioned a website called “Will Robots Take My Job” where you can type in different job titles and it will then tell you the likelihood of a robot taking your job.

For those of you who would like to get in contact with Beth to hire her for a speaking engagement or to ask her about what you heard on the Chamber Chat Podcast today, you can find her at yournerdybestfriend.com. Also, please consider joining Beth’s newsletter to stay informed with all of your nerdy, tech trends and tools. You can join her newsletter by texting Nerd to 66866.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

In this episode, Barbara Thomason from the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce shares some of the unique challenges that her Chamber faces as they cover an area with a population close to 700,000 without the benefit a city entity or city funding to support the community.  By default and by the can-do attitude that their community has, they have stepped up and are truly serving the community in ways that are beyond what “normal” chambers do.

One of the major projects that the Houston Northwest Chamber undertook was to raise over $500,000 in private funding to provide green medians to over 8.5 miles of expanded highway.

Barbara also mentioned a book titled “Blue Ocean Shift” which you can find below on Amazon.  (Note, this is an affiliate link and purchasing the book from here helps support Chamber Chat Podcast.)

If you have questions about this episode or if you want to reach out to Barbara Thomason about the unique challenges they face at the Houston Northwest Chamber, she can be reached at BThomason@houstonnwchamber.org or at 281-440-4160.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

Eddie McBride has been the President & CEO of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce since 1999. The Lubbock Chamber is unique in terms of location as they are very remote and are able to pull from some of the surrounding counties for their membership.

In this episode, Eddie shares some wisdom with us about 5 ways that the Lubbock Chamber is focusing to serve their Chamber members and their community as a whole. These 5 areas of focus are:

1. Association Health Plan. Serves the member businesses by allowing an offering for their employees to receive healthcare benefits. Also serves the Chamber as the participants have to be a member of the Chamber to qualify for the group rate healthcare plan.
2. Association Retirement Plan. Similar to the Healthcare plan. The details are still in the works and should be rolled out in the next 6-12 months (hopefully).
3. Diversity Summit-Better Business Through Diversity. The Lubbock Chamber is hosting their 2nd Diversity Summit to educate businesses on the wide variety of diversity in the workplace such as mental health, gender, age, multi-generational, race, and more… The goal is to share how to attract and work with these diverse segments of the population.
4. New Tiered Dues Membership Model for Better Service. By offering tiered dues allows for more Chamber members to be better aware of services that the Chamber offers and to be more engaged with the Chamber. (Click here for the episode we did
   with Page Michel about Membership Models).
5. Chamber’s Role in Advocacy. This role of the Chamber allows the member businesses to stay informed and to have support in matters that are important to them. (Click here for the episode we did with Tony Felker about Staying Relevant as a Chamber where he discusses Advocacy).

If you have questions about this episode or if you want to reach out to Eddie McBride about how things are being done at the Lubbock Chamber, he can be reached at Eddie.McBride@lubbockbiz.org or at 806-761-7007.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

In this solo episode, I dive into some thoughts that I have been kicking around in my head for some time about how we as people interact with vibrations, frequencies, and resonance. Throughout the discussion, we examine examples of how frequencies effect our daily life, how to “tune in” the the frequencies that we desire, and how to broadcast the frequencies that we want others to resonate with.

I extended an invitation to everyone to make a thorough list of the different messages that your Chamber tries to get out to your members throughout the year. Once you have that list of messages, make a note of the frequency of that message (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). From this list with the associated frequencies, picture yourself as one of your members who is not very engaged with the Chamber. Think about what messages or broadcast sources may need to be adjusted to allow this member to “tune in” and resonate with the Chamber.

I want to see your lists! Please visit the Chamber Chat Podcast Facebook page and leave a comment with your list, frequencies, and ideas for message changes. You can also leave these lists in the comment section of this post. It is my hope that we can continue to learn from each other and get ideas that we can implement to better serve your members and community.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

Tony Felker is the leader of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce as their President & CEO for the past 10 years. Frisco, TX is a very fast growing and cutting edge community. Because of the speed of change in Frisco, Tony and his team must always be looking into the future. In this episode, Tony shares some great points of view and examples of how a Chamber today can stay relevant and show their worth to their members and community. Some of the highlights are:

Move away from ribbon cuttings and mixers to more proactive and reactive advocacy. Move from a sales culture to a service culture.

“Be a thermostat, not a thermometer!”

Find ways to measure the engagement of your membership. He talks about a “green highlighter exercise” that allows you to pick out the members that may need some more attention to help them engage with the Chamber.

“Be a Chamber that solves problems” (K.A.P.S.).

Learn from other Chambers (R&D).

Tony is also a host on an internet radio program that the Frisco Chamber produces called Frisco On Top of the World.

“Don’t be your grandfathers Chamber, your fathers Chamber, or even today’s Chamber. You must look ahead to be tomorrow’s Chamber.”

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

Bruce Hillegeist is the energetic and very likable President and CEO of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce in the Northwest Houston area. In this episode of the Chamber Chat Podcast, Bruce shares his passion for Chamber leadership as he talks about various tips and strategies that have helped him to become the well respected and loved leader that he is.

Some of the main take aways from this episode are some phrases that Bruce firmly believes in.

“Chase the relationship, not the money.”

“We are better together.”

“See challenges as opportunity.”

“We (the Chamber) do what most people think just happens.”

“We will never know enough.”

Bruce has a genuine care for his staff, their Chamber members, and his community as a whole. As you listen, you will feel of his love and passion for the Greater Tomball Community.

If you would like to contact Bruce about anything that was shared in this episode, he can be reached by email at bruceh@tomballchamber.org or on his cell phone at 281-782-1408.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.

In this episode of the Chamber Chat Podcast, I visit with Becki Womble, President and CEO at the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce about building relationships with community partners. As you listen, you will notice the passion that Becki has for building strong relationships. She mentions how her job at the Chamber is to be the point of introduction for her members to these community partners. Doing so, helps to give their Chamber members a voice in the community. We also discussed how important it is for Chambers to be approachable by their members and how to be approachable.

One tip that Becki shared was a piece of advice that she was given to join the local Chamber of Commerce for cities that you visit, even if for just a one year membership. This idea has lead to her being able to see how other Chamber’s do things.

Becki shared a story of her spray painting graffiti on a billboard in Bastrop. You can see the YouTube video of this below.

I will also share a video that Becki referenced about how Bastrop was placed 2nd place in season 3 of the Small Business Revolution show.

If you would like to contact Becki about anything that was shared in this episode, she can be reached by email at bwomble@bastropchamber.com or on her cell phone at 512-925-5531.

If you have a need for a publisher for your next Chamber Directory or Map, please consider Community Matters, Inc. as a partner with their turnkey system, award winning quality, and great reputation.