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Category: Podcast Episode

2025 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Paducah Area Chamber with Sandra Wilson

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2025 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalists Series. And our guest for this episode is Sandra Wilson, the President and CEO of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, representing them as a Chamber of the Year Finalists. But Sandra, she joined the Paducah Area Chamber as the President & CEO in 2013 after a 26 year tenure at New Page paper mill as a public affairs manager with a strong background in community relations, government affairs and employee relations. She has served on various local and statewide boards, including as the first woman to chair both the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce and the greater Paducah Economic Development Board. Sandra has also contributed to the Kentucky Manufacturers Association and leadership Kentucky, among others, Under her leadership, the Paducah chamber was named chamber of the year in 2017 by ACCE, and was a finalist in 2024 as well. They also hold a five star accreditation from the US Chamber of Commerce. She’s an IOM Certified Professional and continues to advocate for leadership programs in Kentucky. Sandra, I wanted to first congratulate you and your team is being selected as a Chamber of the Year Finalist. Again. What an accomplishment. But I wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well,

Sandra Wilson 2:38
great. Thank you, Brandon, I appreciate this opportunity to be on the show, and thank you for what you do for chamber professionals by hosting this podcast I am where our chamber is very excited to be a finalist for Chamber of the Year, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Philadelphia, as far as me, I’ve been in The Chamber world for 12 years now with the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, but it’s really been in my blood for a very long time. And did a very the very beginning of my career. I did a short stint at the Chamber in an administrative type role, and then left for a different position in the community and came back to it eventually. But I’ve always been involved with the with the Chamber, the Paducah chamber, very much. So before I was chairman of the board, I served in many Vice Chair roles. And so then when this position came open in 2013 it was just like, Oh my goodness. This is perfect timing, I could see a difference in the way the paper industry was doing. Even though I loved where I was and with the company, I just thought this was a great opportunity. So I’ve loved what a chamber does for many, many years.

Brandon Burton 3:55
Yeah, that’s great. And I think we may have talked about it before, but my background is in chamber publishing, so with paper and and you see those trends kind of moving. But I think unless you have a very specific niche, paper industry is very tough these days. It is. Well, tell us a little bit about the Paducah area Chamber to set the stage for our discussion as a chamber of the year finalist. You know, of course, we want to know about the size of the chamber, staff, budget, scope of work you’re involved with to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Sandra Wilson 4:28
Okay, great. Well, the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce has been around, I think we’re approaching about 80 years. We have a membership about 950 right now. We’ll have a membership campaign in August and push back up to 1000 but right now we’re around 950 we have six employees. We added a six employee last year to be the executive director of our leadership center. So that is one of the synopsis that we’ll be talking about, I guess, later in the show. But we. We are also mostly known for our advocacy efforts for the region. We we are a Regional Chamber, but we are very local as well. You know, I guess I’d say that by being known as the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, we focus on a lot of what traditional chambers focus on, small business, workforce development pressing issues in the community. We established our leadership center a few years ago and then really amped it up last year to hire the full time Executive Director and rebrand a lot of our programs and begin working with workforce and training. So that is has been a big focus for us. The other big focus for us this year has in the last year and a half has been a grant that we received from the Department of Energy to lead the study of the RE industrialization of our closed now Department of Energy site, the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant. So it really has been very time consuming for both of those programs, but very exciting for new opportunities. Our small business focus has really increased in the last couple of years, when we started a small business cohort and a small business focus at our big chamber breakfast every month, and we have one every month. But in May, we always do small business. So we just this year, I have to share this story, because it’s really very touching. We have a youth lead program, which is for high school juniors. So this year we focused one of our youth lead graduates from he’s about, that’s about three or four years ago. He’s now in college. He had started a business. When he started his business, one of the first things he did, because we had a close relationship with him, and he was in our youth program, is he joined the chamber, yes, and we focused him his business, and him in a panel with three other small business owners of all ages. And I will tell you at the end of that program, people were lined up to talk to him about his business and find out more about it. So, you know, we always talk about with the Chamber, the importance of connecting the dots, so that people that aren’t in the trenches with you every day know the importance and the reason why they should be supporting the Paducah chamber, or a chamber in general. And boy, when you can get someone that’s a high school junior to see the value of the chamber, and he pretend he continues that through his first business, and he has plenty of plans for second, you know, second and third businesses, it just makes it so worthwhile. So those are some examples of the Padilla chamber. We are five star credited by the US Chamber. We have been a chamber of the year, winner and a finalist. And just really look forward to being back in Philadelphia and seeing everyone this fall, that

Brandon Burton 7:55
is mid July. What a great story with the high school student comes back as a college student with the business, and hopefully you guys can capture some shorts, short, short form video, you know, that you can push out there and and really promote that program and tell the story just my mind, my mind’s going as you, you know, shared the snippet of that story, of how that can really be leveraged for that program in the future. But that’s, you know, helping to connect the dots. But what a great story. So we’ll spend the majority of our conversation on today’s episode talking about the two programs synopsis that were submitted on your chamber of the year application. You mentioned the Innovate West Kentucky, which is a kind of the revamping of this, this power plant, and also the Leadership Center, but we’ll dive in deeper on both of these two programs as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 11:38
All right, Sandra, we’re back. So before the break, we’d mentioned that we’re focusing on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber of the year application. Do you have a preference on which program you want to cover first?

Sandra Wilson 11:52
Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’d be happy to talk about both of them. They’re both exciting. So I’m gonna, let’s start with the leadership center. That’s perfect. So we saw the need, because we were doing a lot of different programs in leadership training, our lead, our leadership. Paducah, we just graduated class 38 and selected class 39 and they have an active alumni association. We, you know, haven’t had a lot of programs that we were that were connected to some way to leadership with our youth lead, as I mentioned, we administer leadership West Kentucky, which is a regional leadership program. We do educator externships for our teachers intern programs, and have a really active Paducah young professional program. So we wanted to bring all of those under one Brandon, but we also were seeing the need in our community for additional training opportunities, and we are now partnering with our community college, but we have a lot on our own that we’re offering to all of our companies. So we hired an executive director for the Leadership Center last May, and he has been really out working with local companies to find out what type of program that they need. His two most popular ones right now are supervisory excellence to help people that are just going into a supervisor position. Maybe you know you’re a great in one doing your job, so you get promoted to be over everyone doing the same kind of job, but you’ve never had any training in how to be a supervisor. That’s one of his most popular programs, as well as communications excellence, just bringing teams together to help better understand communication skills and communication styles, and that how those really make a difference in being a successful team, which ultimately helps you to be a successful business. So those are his two most popular ones, but we have a whole listing of training programs, and he will said with our community college to work with them on some of the training programs that they have. We hope and really feel like we’re getting close to the point where we’re going to need to either have some contract employees working with him, or possibly even bring in some other maybe another employee. That would be our goal would be to grow it where we would have even more employees. But for now, you know, we’re looking at how we can hire contract employees to assist with him.

Unknown Speaker 14:27
So at

Sandra Wilson 14:28
the scale of all of our leader all of our current programs that are under the branding of the Leadership Center, we really wanted to just see how they need to be improved. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 14:38
I love that kind of the the full scope of everything you know, leadership that’s under that umbrella. I love these programs that the supervisor excellent, saying the communications excellence. So is there, is there an application process for employees be accepted in this? Is it ongoing all the time? Is it do? It, who facilitates it? These are all questions that are coming to my mind. So what’s that format look like?

Sandra Wilson 15:05
It’s really a mixture. So we have some of the training programs here at our building. We have a large meeting room that we can do that we actually have three different size meeting rooms that we can facilitate that training in. So those are open to anyone, if they’re held here, anyone that the company will help support them to attend. He also goes to the companies and does training there. So that’s been, you know, we really want to do more of that, even if we can, so that, because that helps a team at a company to know better what they’re all learning at the same time. If two employees are coming to one and you know here, and I will tell you that is our best word of mouth training is if two employee one or two employees come from a company here, participate in the training, then we get emails from them about how they’ve gone back and they’ve told their HR professionals about the training and how awesome it was and how they see It would work for their company. Then Frank reaches out to them and has begun scheduling training at those companies. So it’s a mixture of both at on site, at the company and here, open to anyone.

Brandon Burton 16:12
Okay, what about the curriculum for these training programs? Is that something you guys are creating in house at the Chamber, is that something you’re sourcing from somewhere? How does, how does one for those listening, they’re like, hey, we need to do something like this at our chamber. How do you come up with that curriculum that you’re training upon?

Sandra Wilson 16:28
It’s a mixture, really. One thing that made Frank, Frank Bennett, is executive director of our leadership center, such a good fit for that position, is he had a lot of certifications. He had written a book on leadership. It was in the process of writing his second book on leadership. He’s written a lot of articles. He had been the director of a non profit organization here, our National Quilt Museum for many years. So we had all he had all of those credentials if they need something created. He has the resources to reach out, to find more information, to help create that whatever they might need.

Brandon Burton 17:04
Yeah, I love that. It’s great when you’ve got somebody in the community that has all those strengths that you can pull from and and really leverage. You know what the chamber has to offer? Is there anything else around the Leadership Center, the the programs that are offered there that you want to make sure we highlight before we move to the other program,

Sandra Wilson 17:23
I would just say one of the reasons why, also that we formed the Leadership Center, it was based on a study that had been conducted by a professor at a local university about our community was lacking in this area. And so after we started looking at that and reading their research and studying it, it just became really apparent that this was something that was needed in our community, and why wouldn’t we be the ones to be the leader in it? We had the established programs that were already very, very successful, and we were already doing leadership. Paducah already leading leadership, West Kentucky already had our established Youth League program. So those were things that helped us to really build to the next level. Because we had the reputation of delivering great results, we needed to take it to the next level, to expand that to companies that, you know, we leadership. Paduka, for example, you’re probably gonna a company’s gonna send one person every year. This is a much more accelerated type program to help them to get to where they want

Brandon Burton 18:33
to be. Yeah, and I, I would imagine that the companies that participate and send employees for these trainings, if there were a way to extract metrics from it, I would imagine that you would see higher employee satisfaction and even retention over time. By having these people in management trained in how to manage and how to communicate and how to do these things, it would eliminate a lot of the frustration that people have in the workforce,

Sandra Wilson 19:04
and we actually we use it to our advantage with our economic development organization, greater particular economic development we hope that they do that these programs are available, that you locate your company in our community. These are some great programs that can help you to train your employees to be more successful.

Brandon Burton 19:21
Yeah, I love that. Well, let’s shift gears over to innovate West Kentucky. Tell us what that program is all about, where the impetus, where that started, and how it’s progressed to where it is today.

Sandra Wilson 19:34
Well, if you’re in the chamber world, you can appreciate this the week before I started in this position, our largest employer, the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant, which had been here for about 6070, years, announced that they were ceasing production. Now they weren’t leaving the community, because they have this huge department of energy side. It was about 3600 acres, and they. They had been enriching uranium for, you know, all those years, but at that point, the country was making some, you know, decisions, and they were no longer going to be in production. So we had to shift our thinking on how that that would be. So that was, you know, at the very beginning of when this was all happening, they stayed in operation for another year, and then in 2014 changed from being full time production to and part of the Department of Energy Environmental Management, so it was just based on cleanup. So we had to adjust our thinking. And we, you know, started working with the Department of Energy to build a very close relationship. Our role at that time was simply with advocacy. We were going to the Department of Energy, working for more funding for longer term contracts. We got very involved in a national organization called energy communities Alliance. So then we started seeing what other doe sites who had already ceased operation, were doing, and they were re industrialized, having re industrialization at their sides with bringing in new companies and new operations. We weren’t to that point, so we applied for a grant from the Department of Energy to lead the RE industrialization study. It was probably, you know, pretty unique in a way, because we had, we weren’t, we’re not the economic development organization, full time, we have that we’re in the same building and share a lot of the same resources with them and have a great partnership. However, we knew our community was needing that study, and we also knew, based on a University of Kentucky study, that re industrialization is what people in our community wanted. So we took that, we made an application to the Department of Energy, and we were awarded a grant. And so that was in late 2023 and we were able to hire a local firm who partnered with another company out of Knoxville, Tennessee, who had been doing re industrialization studies at the other Department of Energy sites. So we were awarded that grant. We came up with our, you know, well, we had the whole plan what we were going to do. We were going to study, well, first of all, we were going to request land that’s at the site to be transferred back to the ownership of the community so that we could do more economic development with it. It would be like a new economic development park for us around the outside of the active cleanup process going on at the DOE site. And then we needed to determine what the infrastructure needs would be for companies that might want to come here. We’ve looked at the workforce the and that was the one part of our grant that was for now and for the future. We wanted to look at what the workforce needs are at that site, because it is one of our very top three to four employers in our community, and what their workforce needs are going to be, how many employees they’re going to be needing over the years. And then finally, the biggest part was we’ll start strategy. And then finally, economic development. So we’ve been working with our economic development organization. We’re working on them, with them on their website, to add a whole new portion about all of this land that’s available. We are working very closely with the Department of Energy on companies that would be interested in coming to Paducah, and we have a lot of interest, I will tell you, in the last three months, things have really changed at our site. It’s the need for energy in the country now is definitely at the top of mind for everyone, because we’re going to run out of energy if we don’t do something to create more through you know, through new companies that can be located. Artificial Intelligence is another big topic. Department of Energy put out an RFI proposal for AI companies that would be interested in locating in one of the six or locating at a Department of Energy site. We were one of 16 listed in that so all of this has really come together. It’s been exciting. It’s changed since when we started our study to where we are today. And you know, if you’re in the chamber world, you know, you got to pivot all the time. And boy, we have done some big time pivoting in the last couple of months, and it’s just really exciting, and I know it’s going to provide a great future for our community. So that’s the part I think that for us that is so exciting that we know we’re going to be delivering results for our community that’s going to be producing new jobs, new career opportunities, new companies that are coming here. And I firmly believe if we had not started the RE industrialization study, we our community, would not be top of mind for the Department of Energy to help promote I’ve had the opportunity to speak at several national conferences about it and about Paducah. And when you’re sitting there in the audience and you hear the Department of Energy talking. About the growth of Paducah and the focus on Paducah, Kentucky site, you’re like, yes, thank you so much. We are getting our word out that we’re open for business and just have a really exciting future ahead of us. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 25:14
So what are some of the timelines look like? You had mentioned the cleanup phases. I know that the land transfer would be kind of outside of the area that needs to be cleaned up, but that, I think that’s still kind of a factor going on in the community. So what does that timeline look like? And then what would the timeline look like to when you could realistically have, you know, businesses relocating and opening up on this land?

Sandra Wilson 25:37
Well, we already have one global laser enrichment. They have been actually studying the site for many years, but that one was not part of our study, but we have, I guess, connected with them a lot and are helping them now as much as we can to with all the work that they have to do to get ready for locating here, they’ve already bought purchased land and have done some announcement of their intent to locate in Paducah. There are multiple other companies right now, looking at the site, I would love, I hope one announces before we’re in Philadelphia in July. I don’t know that that will happen, because every a lot of this, the work that we’ve done, is very confidential, and if you work in the economic development world, you know that it’s super confidential until the very end and when you make the big final announcement. But things are moving so quickly now in the world, and with energy needs, with AI needs, with all of that that you know there, it’s moving at a fast pace, much quicker than we thought it

Brandon Burton 26:42
would be, which is great to see things coming together and to be ahead of schedule, so to speak. But I can imagine that the acceleration just adds that much more work. And you’d mentioned the pivoting right, the constant pivoting to make sure things are ready and make sure that you’re able to welcome these new businesses to the community so but how exciting, yeah, it is.

Sandra Wilson 27:07
And you know, ACC is horizon initiative 2035, catalytic leader was one of them, and being an instigator of change, and that’s why we really base this on we saw the need, and it wasn’t necessarily something that we knew we had the expertise in, but we had the knowledge to find the right people to help us. And so we really feel like we have been a super instigator of change and the way of the mindset, of our facility here,

Brandon Burton 27:41
yeah, way to take the lead. It’s awesome. Be a chamber being what a chamber is meant to be. I love it. Oh, Sandra, I wanted to ask for those listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them towards accomplishing that goal,

Sandra Wilson 28:03
I would say, for the a chamber, the chamber as an organization, really look at the horizon, 2035, initiatives. They can inspire you. And if you just look at those, look at how that they could apply to you and your organization, and beyond that, look around what the needs are in your community, because we all have unique needs, right? We don’t all have the same we have some of the same. I would say we probably all need housing. We probably all need more child care. They’re probably, you know, we’re all gonna need more energy. Those are things that we’re all gonna have. But what is something that’s unique to your community that you feel like you can be passionate about? I had never would have dreamed I’d be speaking about energy. I kind of compare it to I don’t really want to need to know how my car operates. I just want to make sure when I get in it, it starts. And it’s the same with this. I don’t really need to. I don’t have to know how you enrich uranium or how you would do this, but I do know that we have land that’s available that we should be capitalizing on and utilizing it, and we weren’t, and it was time for us to open our doors in our community, for that to be a really active park. And so look for that, and personally, for chamber professionals, you know, it’s really important to find a mentor, and if it may be someone in your own state that’s a chain has a chamber about your size that you can compare notes with, or one that’s larger that you can scale to your own chamber. And you know, you know the saying about ripping R and D for chambers. You know, it’s it’s great. I feel very honored if someone does a program that we’ve done, and we look at what other chambers are doing and scale them to us. So find a mentor that when you’re having a really bad day, that you can call and look to. For support and talk to them about your opportunities and challenges, and then on days that you want to celebrate, you can call them and they know what. They know why you want to celebrate that. And it’s just really important to have those relationships and those mentoring mentoring relationships,

Brandon Burton 30:18
yeah, and that’s why the show exists for that rip off and duplicate R and D research, but also building those relationships. So hopefully somebody’s listening now that’s hearing what Sandra is saying, and says, Yeah, I need to share some struggles with her and some wins, you know, in the future, as those things come together, or anybody else that’s on the show for that matter. So you made an interesting point about not necessarily feeling like you need to know how your car works, right? Do you just get in you want it to work, but understanding what your community can offer. And the kind of a real life example is, as I was thinking, kind of relate, trying to relate, what you were saying, like, I have no idea how the energy grid works, but in just, you know, getting a little exposure to, you know, more and more with, like, you talked about the AI, you know, computer or warehouses, you know, that process all this energy, you know, they’re going through so much energy. You got Bitcoin miners. You’ve got electric cars that are plugging into the grid overnight and and what I found out is it’s these transformers that are meant to, you know, up upscale the energy in a community. They were designed a long time ago, and they were designed to be able to cool at night when energy usage is much less well. Now our energy uses don’t really go down. They might even go up at night when you’re turning on TVs, computers, plugging in the electric cars, you know, all the different things. So there’s things like that that will be reinvented and as chambers can make those connections with businesses and opportunities and land in their communities to connect the dots, that’s where real answers happen, and chambers are perfectly positioned to drive that change

Sandra Wilson 32:09
we should be. I mean, look around. You know, when you turn your lights on, you expect them to work right? And you know when you’re trying, your community is trying to locate new companies there. You want to make sure the power is going to be there for them that they’re going to need. And so it’s just important that you look overall to what’s needed in your community and to address that. And a rural community, community, rural communities are very different from large urban communities, and so I just think it’s an exciting time for chambers, and that it’s important that we do connect those dots so that a local small business owner that owns a retail shop when they get their dues, just like our young gentleman, who’s that our youth league graduate, that’s owned and has his own business, now that he knows that we are making this community the great place to live and work and play, and it takes someone doing that, and your chamber of commerce is where to do that. So thank you for shows like this. Thank you to ACCE for bringing us all together. I can’t wait to be in Philadelphia, because I’m sure I’m going to come back with a lot of information. I always do. I always think, oh, we need to start that. And, you know, one of the ideas that we came back with last year was right before, like a bit, our big membership and total resource campaign. And we, you know, had some rooms in our building that we hadn’t, really didn’t have a sponsor for so we had a couple of sponsors, but we thought, well, let’s see if we can get that. And we did. We found new sponsorships for our building. And so you know, you’re always going to find tidbits of information that will help you, and just look at how you can make it work for your community and for your size chamber.

Brandon Burton 33:59
That’s right, I love it. So hopefully you didn’t already spoil this answer, but I was going to ask the next question is to how do you see the future of chambers going forward?

Sandra Wilson 34:10
I think we have a great future ahead of us. I think you have to be ready to pivot. I mean, you’re going to hear that. I would guess you’re going to hear that. In Philadelphia, every chamber is so different, because every community is so different. We have some of the basic programs that we all do, but just for even housing, it’s going to be different on how we would approach that here than what some other communities would so I think chambers will be more important than ever. But you got to be out there, and you got to be selling your relevance, and you’ve got to be selling the need all the time. You know you can’t. I think as chambers we we’re probably more humble than sometimes we should be, because we throw the credit to everyone else when we’re in the background leading that. And granted, I understand. And. Hear that, you know, it doesn’t matter who gets a credit, as long as their

Brandon Burton 35:04
success. Rising Tide, you know, raises all ships, right? And that’s so

Sandra Wilson 35:08
true if you’re not focusing on it however, you don’t want the chamber to be left out. You know that you were in a row, and a key role in that, in delivering it. And I think there are ways that you can make sure that people and businesses and your government leaders all see that and know that, and a lot of it is just really keeping those important relationships and helping to spark those programs in your community. Yeah, I love that. So

Brandon Burton 35:36
Sandra, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn more about either these programs or how you guys are doing things in Paducah overall. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Sandra Wilson 35:52
Really, there are two ways they can reach out to me at swilson@paducahchamber.org, or if you forget that, you can just send it to info@paducahchamber.org and it will get to me as well.

Brandon Burton 36:03
That’s perfect. We’ll get it in the show notes too, so it’ll make it easy for people to find it. But Sandra, I appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast and really diving into these two programs on your application. You guys are making big, impactful change and movement in the Paducah area, region, we’ll say. But I wish you and your team Best of luck this year as chamber of the year. Thank you.

Sandra Wilson 36:28
We appreciate it. Look forward to seeing everyone.

Brandon Burton 36:32
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.

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2025 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Rowan County Chamber with Elaine Spalding

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2025 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series. Our guest for this episode is Elaine Spalding. Elaine has served as the President of the Rowan Chamber of Commerce in Salisbury, North Carolina, since May 2013 with over 30 years of chamber management experience across several locations, she’s been instrumental in the Rowan chambers national recognition, earning the title of 2020 chamber Executive of the Year from the Carolina chamber Executives Association. Elaine holds certificate certifications as a CCE or certified chamber executive, and also has her IOM designation. She’s deeply involved in the community leadership, serving on multiple boards, including the Carolina Chamber of Commerce executives and the Salisbury Rotary Club, and is a graduate of leadership Rowan and the Charlotte regional American Leadership Forum program. Elaine holds a Bachelor’s of Science in journalism and speech from Murray State University and and enjoys kayaking, hiking and spending time with her husband, Keith, I believe is how you pronounce it, and their dogs. But Elaine, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. It seems like we just had you on the show, but love to give you the chance to say hello to everyone listening, and congratulations being selected as a chamber of the year finalist, but I couldn’t say hello. And if you would share something interesting so we can all get to know you even better.

Elaine Spalding 2:40
Sure. Thank you, Brandon, I really appreciate you inviting me back. I always enjoy your podcast, and I’m honored to be on here again. And we are so excited to have been named a finalist in our population size category for the ACCE chamber of the year. This is very exciting coming up. And in addition to what you covered in my chamber background and my personal life, fun fact to know is I have 101st

cousins. Wow, that’s quite the family, and I know them all. Yeah, wow.

Brandon Burton 3:24
So we just my wife, and I just had a new nephew born last week. Oh, so we’re, we’re adding up. You know, how many nieces and nephews, so cousins for our kids? And yes, we’re at, we’re at 13 for them, so nowhere near the 100 mark. But that’s, that’s impressive.

Elaine Spalding 3:39
Big Families, big, big farm families, and it’s great. I still keep in touch regularly with a lot of my cousins, and just love that extended family.

Brandon Burton 3:51
That’s awesome. Well, we had you on not too long ago, back in episode 327, but for those who are regular listeners, this next little bit might be a little bit of a recap, but I think it’s important for those who tune in, especially for these chamber of the year episodes, to be able to know a little more context about the Rowan County Chamber. So if you can just give us an idea of size of the chamber, staff, budget, scope of work you guys are involved with that’ll kind of set the stage for our discussion.

Elaine Spalding 4:20
Sure, this year, the Rowan chamber is celebrating our 100th anniversary, and that’s been a fun project to work on. We are lifting up our long term businesses all year long. We have 824 members as of right now, and growing, and we have a staff of four. It’s a very active business community. We have the headquarters for food line in our community. And if you’re from the southern part of the United States, you will know Cheerwine, very popular soda. So food line and Cheerwine are headquartered here in Salisbury, North. Carillon,

Brandon Burton 5:00
that’s right. And if you spend any time in the south, you know Food Lion, so, yeah, very good. Well, on these chamber of the year finalist episodes, what I like to spend the majority of our time discussing is the two programs you submitted on the chamber of the year application. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna take a quick break, and when we get back, we’ll dive in deeper on those two programs.

Joe Duemig
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Rose, and we’re the founders of App My Community, a mobile app that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your chamber of commerce.

Rose Duemig
When we started App My Community, we envisioned a tool that would help communities thrive by simplifying communication and enhancing engagement, Chambers of Commerce face unique challenges, and we’re here to help you tackle them.

Joe Duemig
App My Community helps the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce to create an app that keeps tourists informed, even when their office is closed, they provide 24/7 access to local business information, which helps support the local economy and community engagement.

Rose Duemig
In Rocky Mountain House, we helped Rocky Chamber create an app with dynamic itineraries and digital resources for tourists, increasing local business engagement. The app has become an essential tool for the community, promoting events and boosting visibility for local merchants.

Joe Duemig
Today, we empower more than 200 Chambers of Commerce campgrounds and RV resorts to streamline communication, informing members about events, sharing business updates and providing a digital hub for the community all in one convenient

Rose Duemig
app. When you partner with App My Community, our team works closely with you to create an app that meets your Chamber’s unique needs. As your community grows, our app evolves with you. We are here to ensure you engage effectively with your members and streamline your operations.

Joe Duemig
Schedule a demo today AppMyCommunity.com. We can’t wait to meet you.

App My Community creates mobile apps that allow you to engage directly with your community. Enhance chamber membership by providing a unique advertising and communication channel to residents and visitors. Not just a member directory, App My Community has the tools to be useful to residents on a daily basis. Learn more at appmycommunity.com/chamberchat.

Clint Nessmith
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Brandon Burton 8:11
All right, Elaine, we’re back, as I mentioned before the break, we’re we’re diving into the two programs on your chamber of the year application. I don’t know if you have a specific order of which one you want to address first, but I will. I’ll let you decide which, uh, which of the two programs you want to highlight first.

Elaine Spalding 8:29
Well, of course, they. They are two of our very, very favorite ones that we profiled in the synopsis for the ACCE chamber of the Year award. And the first one is our Dragon Boat Festival. We celebrated our 10th Anniversary of the Dragon Boat Festival in 2024 and really thanked all of the businesses that have been with us for all 10 years. We put big number 10 blow up balloons on every one of the corporate tents, so the people who’d been with us for the entire time and thanked all of our long term volunteers and really celebrated all of those businesses that have helped make this event be so successful.

Brandon Burton 9:15
Okay, so I have to ask dragon boats, what is that? Tell us what that is. And just to make sure people are hearing you right, Dragon Boat what? What is

Elaine Spalding 9:24
it? If you have not participated in a dragon boat race, it’s basically a long canoe. It’s an ancient Chinese water sport. So you have 20 people in a very long canoe, all paddling together, and it is the best team building exercise, because everybody has to be in sync to get the boat to just glide along the water. Our major corporations love it. They tell us after every event that it’s the best opportunity to just hang out on the lake and really enjoy the day. With your coworkers. You’ve got the plant managers there and the frontline workers and everybody working together and just enjoying themselves. So it’s a wonderful community event. It would be kind of like what a lot of chambers have a golf event in the summer. This is our golf event. Okay?

Brandon Burton 10:17
So are these companies fielding their own team. I say Fielding? Are they filling their own boats?

Elaine Spalding 10:25
Yes, yes. We there there, as they’re about four or five vendors that do these Dragon Boat Races actually all over the world, and it’s gotten to be very popular in the southeastern part of the United States. In fact, it’s the fastest growing water sport. And of course, here in North Carolina, everybody loves races. We have NASCAR. And so we thought this is just a great way to highlight we have the second largest lake in North Carolina, right in our community, High Rock Lake. So it was a fantastic way to highlight that part of our community and just have a fun day on the lake and make some money for the chamber and make some new friends.

Brandon Burton 11:06
Yeah, I love that they can, you know, fill their own boat and come out, but it is a great team building exercise. I’m sure there’s practices that have to go into this, like, you can’t just show up and try to compete, right? Yes,

Elaine Spalding 11:18
yes. And there are some club teams in and around the area, groups of people that get together just for fun, and they’ll pick out four or five races they’re going to do in this part of the country and participate with us. So that’s a nice added benefit as well.

Brandon Burton 11:34
So where does somebody acquire a dragon boat? Are there? Is there local manufacturers? Are they importing from China? With being a Chinese tradition, what is the Where does one get

Elaine Spalding 11:45
them out anymore? Okay, we actually have a company out of Tampa that makes the dragon boats here in the United States. And they will bring them up on big, long boat trailers, and they bring all the personnel, the steers, people, the coaches, the race officials. I mean, it’s all very sophisticated, and they run the race. The chamber’s responsibility is to run the festival part. So we get the food trucks and our local breweries all participate, and it’s just a fun, fun day on the

Brandon Burton 12:14
lake. So they’re bringing the boats with them when they come up. So these businesses are not storing their own dragon boats in their workshop, or whatever they’re they’re just using them for the event.

Elaine Spalding 12:24
Yes, we bring everything they need. We tell all of our teams they just need to bring the people power.

Brandon Burton 12:30
Okay, all right. So what other things I mean, most chambers, I think, are pretty well familiar with running a festival. But is there anything unique with the dragon boat races, it needs to be considered where it maybe takes the festival, you know, to a different angle or a different approach,

Elaine Spalding 12:48
right? Well, one of the things that we really wanted to focus on was improving the health in our community, so we thought this kind of a fun outdoor activity would enable us to do that. And one of our top sponsors of the event is our local hospital, and so in conjunction with Novant Health, we award a workplace wellness award every year at the Dragon Boat Festival, and that’s based on companies that encourage their employees to stay active and stay healthy, and, you know, not have any injuries in the workplace, and that has really gotten to be so popular, we have a traveling trophy that goes around, and many of our companies are all vying to say, look, we started this new workplace wellness program. Please recognize our company. So it’s a great added benefit to the program.

Brandon Burton 13:38
Yeah, I love that. There’s so many layers you can just, you know, dive into when it comes to an event like this. So how do the bragging rights look? So whatever team wins the dragon boat races? Is there a trophy with that? Is there, I’m sure social media posts. What’s a recognition like? Is

Elaine Spalding 13:56
it we have the Olympic style medals, and so there are gold, silver and bronze teams, and all, all of the teams are so excited about getting those Olympic style medals at the end of the race. And Team pictures are lots of fun. And the the Bragg and rights every year, it’s like the there’s one bank and the hospital and a couple of others that are very, very competitive. There’s a couple of teams that just come to have a fun day on the lake. They’re not quite so competitive, but it always, always is just a great opportunity for the top business leaders and our entry level employees to really feel appreciated by the business community, and that’s what we want to see happen. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 14:46
I love it. It’s such a unique event. I’ve never I have not heard of any other chambers doing Dragon Boat Races, so I think that’s a neat thing to be able to hone on, hone in on something that’s unique and kind of special to your community. 30. I love what you guys did with the the 10 years and the balloons, recognizing those people that have sponsored it for the duration. I mean, that that goes a long ways of saying, Hey, we recognize that you’re doing this. And it creates a little bit of a stickiness, I would imagine, for next year they’re going to want to continue that sponsorship.

Elaine Spalding 15:19
Yes, as Chambers of Commerce. You know, we all have to really think about thanking and appreciating those businesses who’ve been with us through thick and thin, all the businesses that stayed with us through the pandemic and have helped us out since then, really get all of the Small Business Programs and Services back out there for our business communities, and so we want to continue to highlight and thank those very, very loyal

Brandon Burton 15:47
businesses. Yeah, very good. Well, let’s shift gears a bit into your second program, which I understand is around your small business grant program. Yeah, tell us about that. What’s what’s involved there, and what role does the chamber have with that? Yes.

Elaine Spalding 16:05
So as you know, there were lots and lots of federal grant and loan opportunities that carried small businesses through the pandemic. But since the pandemic, some of our small businesses had continued to struggle, and I had been lobbying with our city of Salisbury government to continue a small business grant program, and last year, we were finally able to convince them to start a pilot program. So we started with $30,000 to award two small businesses that were within the city of Salisbury, and our chamber serves a county region, but this one was specifically targeted for those within the city, because that’s where the funding was coming from. And so we got a committee of volunteers from our minority business council and put out all of the grant criteria they had to have a business plan, they had to have all their proper documentation. And we had volunteers that developed a rubric, and we went through all of the grant applications and were able to award six small businesses with $5,000 each. And oh my gosh. When we sent out the information about the grant recipients, we received so many positive comments. One email from a small business. She said, I just am sitting here crying because I was struggling to try to figure out my next plan. And she said, this has given me the energy to get everything back on my plan and get going again. So it just was so gratifying to see these small businesses that really have been struggling feel like the local business community and their city government supports them and wants to see them continue to invest in their business. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 18:04
I’m sure there’s a wealth of data that you collect too from these applications as you go through it. And you see these small businesses that sure really need these loans to be able to survive. They can give you a ton of content for future programming and things like that. But like this example you share to this, this lady, that it just meant the world. It was it allowed the business to keep going. And I think as small business owners, there’s so many instances where you’re just getting beat up left and right, and to get that little win, that encouragement that says, keep going, you got this sometimes that’s all they need to be able to get over that hump that they’re they’re currently facing. So, yeah, I love that. I love hearing the success stories.

Elaine Spalding 18:47
Yeah, yes, me too. And we’ve related all those back to our friends at the city, and we’re able to have the second phase of the small business grant, and got some additional funds, and we, we the chamber actually has a 501, c3, organization devoted to entrepreneurial development, so there’s some additional funds that came through that. And just lifting up our locally owned, locally grown small businesses is so important and continuing to encourage other people to go ahead and launch that entrepreneurial venture?

Brandon Burton 19:27
Yeah, absolutely, so. Is this something that you would anticipate with continued success, continuing to have funding coming from it, or is there a timeframe where you see this ending with the grant programs, or what the

Elaine Spalding 19:45
second phase we’ve already awarded for this year too, and has had $10,000 more so total of 20,000 to give this second year. And I really hope that it continues to grow, because there are so many of those small businesses. That are struggling, I think, particularly in our current climate, lots of uncertainties about new federal policies and so everything that we can do as a local Chamber of Commerce to really try and encourage those who have a good business plan, they’ve got the skill set to get that business off and running, they just need a little bit of support. Our grant program was focused on something, a piece of machinery that they might need for their business, you know? I mean, it had to be something that, then was a really good return on the investment that they would be able to continue to grow their business.

Brandon Burton 20:43
That makes a lot of sense. So just out of curiosity, did you already have the foundation in place, the 501, c3 as you receive these grants in order to be able to apply for them, or is it a newer thing having the foundation?

Elaine Spalding 20:56
Yes, we’ve had the c3 within our organization for the last six

Brandon Burton 21:03
years. Okay, so I know that’s more and more on the the minds of chambers to how can we access, you know, more funds and be eligible for grants and things like this and and having that foundation or that 501, c3, is, is very helpful to be able to attract some of those, those funds. And, of course, having the the purpose for it, right? Like you said, it’s developed for the entrepreneurial development so,

Elaine Spalding 21:29
right, right. And just all of the news about that has brought more members to the chamber. You know, we did not take a grant administration fee for doing this program with the city, and really felt strongly that we wanted all of the funds to go to the small businesses. And as a result of that, I think that has elevated the role of the chamber in the community. And just today, I got another email from a business that wanted to know when’s the next round of small business grant funding. So now we’re able to give them a time frame in the year that they need to get all of their paperwork together. This this particular business was still in the process of getting all of their state and local approvals, and so then they’ve got something to look forward to when they get all of that documentation together. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 22:23
and I love the idea that the criteria is that it needs to go towards a piece of equipment or something. It’s not just, you know, bringing in some part time help for a little bit, but it’s something that’s going to be a game changer for this business. So I love that pouring gas on the fire, as they say,

Elaine Spalding 22:42
it’s been great. And you know, those partnerships that we can do with our local governments, with our local education partners, I mean, those are the things that I see, you know, making the pie bigger for everybody in our communities.

Brandon Burton 22:55
Yeah, absolutely. So I like asking everybody. I asked you when you’re on the show before, I always like having a tip or action item for listeners who want to take their chamber up to the next level. I think, especially as a chamber of the year finalist, very appropriate to ask what you would suggest for chambers trying to accomplish that goal. What would come to mind for you

Elaine Spalding 23:19
Well being a CCE finalist of the year, I would encourage everyone to attend the ACCE conference. I pick up so many great ideas at every one of the conferences, and just sitting down at lunch or maybe over a beer at the end of the day, you can really help your chamber if you’ve got something you’ve been struggling with, but you haven’t exactly known who to go to, you know, just shout it out in one of those meetings, and you’ll get four or five people that have been there and they have been through the Battle and can tell you how to work your way through any issue or problem that you’ve got going

Brandon Burton 24:06
on. Absolutely I would echo that. I mean, the ACCE conference is great because these are the chambers that really value, you know, those peer connections and the continual education to be able to run a very good chamber and state associations are great too. Regional associations do all those. But there’s something special about the ACCE conference, where you’ve got some of the best of the best chambers that are there, and if you can connect and and make friends, you know, with with other peers that are there in those rooms, that’s where the magic happens. So

Elaine Spalding 24:38
yes, I appreciate that. Brandon, I encourage people to listen to your podcast and to take advantage of all of those professional development opportunities that you can, because you can always pick up at least one good idea from any time that you devote for your own professional development.

Brandon Burton 24:57
Absolutely So the other question. Question I like asking everyone I have on the show is, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Elaine Spalding 25:08
Well, and again, plugging acces horizon initiative, if you read that document, I mean, that is the future of our chambers of commerce all over the world and for chamber execs to be nimble and to be able to deal with whatever issue is going on globally, nationally, locally, you know, we are dealing with housing issues and daycare issues that I never thought our local chambers would be involved in strategies around that for our communities. I mean, we used to be so focused on it’s a business issue. It’s got to do with something that’s going to help the business community. But all Yes, yes, all of these growth issues, particularly in the Carolinas, we’re seeing such growth. We need to help our communities deal with the issues that are also impact impacting our employers, housing issues, daycare issues. I mean, it is huge for our

Brandon Burton 26:10
employers. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been great having you back on the show. I wanted to give you an opportunity to plug any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about these programs or how you guys are approaching things at the Rowan County Chamber. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with

Elaine Spalding 26:31
you? Always happy to help my fellow chamber buddies. It’s Elaine Spaulding. The telephone number at the Rowan chamber is 704-633-4221, or you can email me at espalding@rowanchamber.com,

Brandon Burton 26:47
that’s perfect. We’ll get that in our show notes to make it nice and easy. Bet Elaine, thank you for coming back on the show and sharing the highlights of these two programs. I’m so excited for you guys, and wish you and your team Best of luck, not only with the dragon race festival, but also this chamber of the year.

Elaine Spalding 27:05
Thank you. Thank you, Brandon. I really appreciate you inviting me to be on again.

Brandon Burton 27:10
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2025 Chamber of the Year Finalist-Chino Valley Chamber with Zeb Welborn

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2025 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist Series. And our guest for this episode is Zeb Welborn. Zeb is the President of the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce in California, and also the founder of well born social media. He’s passionate about empowering local businesses and driving community development through initiatives like upskill Chino Valley, named the 2023 Executive of the Year by W, A, C, E. Zeb brings award winning leadership and strong focus on connection, innovation and service to the chamber world. The Chino Valley Chamber was also a 2024, Chamber of the Year Finalist. So we’re excited to have Zeb back with us today here on chamber chat podcast. But Zeb, I wanted to give you a chance to say hello to everyone listening, and, as usual, share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little

Zeb Welborn 2:03
better. Yeah, hi everybody. My name is Zeb Welborn. I am President and CEO the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce. So thank you for the great introduction. Something interesting about myself recently, because we did this last time. I don’t remember what I said last time, but let’s see. I do play soccer every Sunday, so I play adult League Soccer, so I’m playing against 18 year olds upwards, every Sunday. I do a lot of golfing. So I wrote a book about, it’s called the Social golf course, about how to do social media marketing for golf courses. And I do get a chance to play golf at least once a month or so.

Brandon Burton 2:37
That’s cool. The book is that’s something new, for sure. And even the soccer, it takes a lot to keep up physically, you know, as you get on with with years past that 18 year mark, I mean, you’re only like 21 so, you know, it’s only been a couple of years. So, yeah, yeah. But anyway, first of all, congratulations to you and your team being selected as a chamber of the year finalist again, definitely showing you guys are making an impact in the community. Tell us a little bit about the Chino Valley Chamber, just to give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget, just to set the stage for our conversation.

Zeb Welborn 3:16
Yeah, we have about 400 members here at the Chino Valley Chamber of Commerce. So we are a population of about 200,000 so we cover two cities. We cover Chino and Chino Hills, located in Southern California. Our budget is about 1.2 million. We have eight staff members. When I started, our budget was significantly less than that, and we had about, we had three part time people. I was also part time. So we’ve grown a lot. I took over. It’s coming. I’m coming up on my seven year anniversary, so I took up about seven years ago. And yeah, so we’ve grown a lot. It’s been a lot of fun, very rewarding, and we’ve made it a good impact for our local businesses here in the Chino Valley.

Brandon Burton 4:00
Yeah, sounds like it sounds like a lot of growth, going from three part time to eight staff now, and growth in the budget as well. So hopefully we can hear about how some of that happened as we touch on the programs today in our in our discussion. So typically, with these chamber of the year episodes, what I like to do is focus on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber of the year application, and, you know, do a deep dive into the details of them and share with us you know what’s been working for you guys there at the Chino Valley Chamber. And we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Joe Duemig
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Rose, and we’re the founders of App My Community, a mobile app that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your chamber of commerce.

Rose Duemig
When we started App My Community, we envisioned a tool that would help communities thrive by simplifying communication and enhancing engagement, Chambers of Commerce face unique challenges, and we’re here to help you tackle them.

Joe Duemig
App My Community helps the Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce to create an app that keeps tourists informed, even when their office is closed, they provide 24/7 access to local business information, which helps support the local economy and community engagement.

Rose Duemig
In Rocky Mountain House, we helped Rocky Chamber create an app with dynamic itineraries and digital resources for tourists, increasing local business engagement. The app has become an essential tool for the community, promoting events and boosting visibility for local merchants.

Joe Duemig
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Brandon Burton 8:16
All right, then we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna we’re gonna dive into the two programs you guys submitted on your chamber of the year application. As I understand I mentioned in the bio, too upscale Chino Valley is one of those programs. Do you want to spend a few minutes telling us what that’s about? You know what the program is, the impact, the need that you guys are feeling in the community, and just kind of go from there. Yeah,

Zeb Welborn 8:44
absolutely. So we’re sorry I cut out for a second there. You’re talking about upskill Chino Valley. Yes, correct, yeah, yeah. So that is one that we did also submit last year. It came about out of COVID. So during COVID, obviously we did a lot to support our local businesses that was kind of recognized by a lot of different folks. And so when COVID hit, and shortly thereafter, what we started to realize was there is help wanted signs everywhere in our community. So every single building had a help wanted sign, and we’re trying to help solve that issue for our local businesses. So we implemented this thing that we called up skilled Chino Valley, which is kind of four different things. So it’s leadership development, it’s entrepreneurship development, it’s economic development, it’s workforce development. So we created an idea these different programs that we would implement in those four categories that would help move the needle for our businesses to try to help solve that workforce shortage, because at the same time that that was going on, where we’re identifying that there’s those issues, we were also attending US Chamber led courses that were just kind of talking about the challenges that workforce would be, that our businesses would be facing when it comes to their workforce for the foreseeable future. And so our thought was, well, let’s try to solve that for our region, and that’s the way. In collaboration with my board members, that we came up with those four different things that we identified, and each one of those four things we identified programs that fit into those categories that we could execute on as a chamber, as long as we had the resources to do so. So that’s what we pitched. We presented it to a bunch of our legislators, our county supervisor Curt Hagman, gave us some funds to help support that effort, and then our state legislators also gave us some funds to help support that effort. And so that really allowed us to start pursuing this work. So we’ve been doing it for about three years now, going on year four of our coming into our end of the three year term. So we’re going into our fourth and we’re we’ve done a lot of really positive things. We’ve checked out the economic impact of like, the work that this has done, and it’s substantial. So it’s something that we’re really excited about and proud of, that we were able to implement here in Chino and Chino Hills.

Brandon Burton 10:52
So is upscale Chino Valley? Is it a program that people apply to be a part of? Or do you guys address a need in the community and you go targeted? Or how does that has the format set up?

Zeb Welborn 11:03
Yeah, so it’s those four things. So really it was like capacity building, right? So we wanted to do a leadership program. Our community never had a leadership program, so we developed and implemented a leadership program. We developed and implemented what we call a round table program. So we were doing two round tables a month. So we’re bringing in businesses from different sectors or different challenges and discussing those needs of those businesses. We were doing entrepreneurial training, so we’re doing at least one a week. So we’re doing an entrepreneurial workshop at least once every other week. And then then the workforce front, we’ve been we’ve placed over 500 people in local jobs over the last couple of years. So that’s and we do that in a variety of different ways, but I’ll say that it’s mostly through job fairs, but there’s a whole bunch of other things that we do on that front, like one on one placements and stuff like that. So that was kind of the gist of what our upscale Chino Valley program was, or is, there? Is

Brandon Burton 12:01
Yeah, yeah. And as Have you seen it evolve at all from when you first started, as you address more of the needs that are, you know, pertinent to the community, obviously, coming out of COVID, things looked a little different than they do today. There’s a lot of similarities, still, but, but it is a different landscape. What? What have you seen as far as where you needed to make some adjustments and evolve the program.

Zeb Welborn 12:24
Yeah, I think when we started, we’re really ambitious about the scope and scale of all of the work that we’re doing. So we were, you know, like I mentioned, one a week for the entrepreneurship stuff, once a month for the round tables, the job fairs we do once every other month. We’d have a lot of different programs and a bunch of different areas. So that created a lot of logistical challenges to execute, also like the amount of time our members or their committee was willing to vote towards those kind of efforts. So we’ve kind of from the start to finish. I guess the thing is, is, how do we pair some of those things together so that we’re not doing more programmatic content than what is needed. So that’s probably the one learning curve, or a thing that’s changed since we first started, is making sure that we’re kind of putting those programs together so that it has more impact for the people that we’re serving.

Brandon Burton 13:13
Yeah. So I’m curious with these leadership roundtables and the entrepreneurship trainings, are these being done in person? Are they virtually? Are they a hybrid of sorts? Or what have you learned as you do these trainings around tables? Yeah,

Zeb Welborn 13:27
we’re kind of flexible on how we operate, because essentially what we’ve been what we’ve been doing, is you’re partnering with different entities and organizations. So a lot of the times it is in person, a lot of times it’s virtual, and a lot of times it’s hybrid. So we do a good, healthy mix of all of those things, we’re just trying to make sure that it’s as accessible as possible for the people that need it. And sometimes you want to have those intimate discussions where they’re kind of private and together here on site, at a chamber, at a different location. And sometimes it’s, it’s, it makes more sense to do it virtually, to actually execute on that work. So it’s a variety of different ways that we go about doing it.

Brandon Burton 14:02
Yeah, I can see people attending, you know, when it’s maybe they prefer in person, or maybe their schedule only allows for the virtual just maybe where they’re located or what their schedule looks like. So being able to have that flexibility, I think, is, is great. It’s great that you guys offer that. Is there anything else about upscale Chino Valley that is worth mentioning or that we need to know about before we move on to your other program?

Zeb Welborn 14:27
Well, I’ll just share that we put together an economic or an impact report every year, so we kind of analyze it. We keep all the data. We keep all the information about all the stuff that we’ve accomplished for it. And so, you know, we basically got a little bit over a million dollars of funds to start and execute these programs, and the economic impact that we provided is substantially larger when you factor in the, you know, the more than 500 people that have gotten jobs with local businesses here locally, the growth of the businesses that we’ve been able to facilitate some of the resources and programs we’ve directly, I. Given or connected our businesses with has been substantial, and so that’s kind of the thing that I like to harp on is, is this was a vision as a plan. We didn’t know exactly where it’s going to go, but as we’ve executed on it, it’s paid off way more than what was invested in us in the first place. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 15:19
So is that funding long term? Is there? Do you redress it each year to go back for the funding? Or how’s that?

Zeb Welborn 15:28
No, it’s kind of a one year allocation. So, I mean, I shouldn’t say that it was, it was given to us with a three year window, actually, when he wrote the proposal, because I had never done this before. We wrote for seven years. So it was supposed to be for seven years, is what we planned it out. And then once we, like, went through the whole process, and I was under the impression that this was, like, good to go and ready, but that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until we actually got the the check in the bank account and stuff so and then went to the they’d give us that contract. They said, Oh, it’s not seven years, it’s three years. So we had to expend all of those things in three years. And so that’s what we’ve been working on and doing it, and our goal is to kind of create these sustainable programs. All of the stuff that we’re doing is getting invested by our community or businesses or community leaders to help make these things happen. So that’s what we were that’s what we’re counting on, and I think that that’s we’re well on our way to make that happen.

Brandon Burton 16:21
Awesome. Sounds great. So the other program that you guys submitted, CVCC future ready is, first of all, I’m guessing CV stands for Chino Valley, but tell us what it is and what the whole program is about,

Zeb Welborn 16:36
yeah. So we’re calling this CVCC future ready as a result of that upskilled Chino Valley program. You know, one of our goals is to create sustainability with this. And so we’ve developed lots of partnerships along the way, and one of those partnerships with Chaffey College, so they’re our local community college, but also with our local school districts, some of our private schools that are here locally, and so essentially, these are youth programs, so very similar to the upskilled Chino Valley work, in that we’re connecting local students with businesses and real world opportunities. So the way that this kind of lays out is is we’re doing it with internships. We’re doing it with career days. We’re partnering with Chaffey College to develop round tables so that they have access to experts like business insiders and experts to at their community college. And so basically, I’m kind of relating as anything that we do. A couple other things we do on that front is we do an entrepreneurship fair for junior high and under so these are elementary and junior high school students. We do it twice a year, and we have about 300 kids that participate in this thing. They set up their kids booths. They sell their products and services in our downtown area. Another thing we do is a pitch competition. So we do a high school like Shark Tank like petition for high school students. So they pitch their entrepreneur ideas, and we give out some funds for them to either, you know, pursue college or pursue their idea. And that’s the kind of a culmination of everything they’re doing. So the the short answer is we’re CVCC future ready is connecting our local students with real world opportunities in our business community.

Brandon Burton 18:22
I love that starting early with elementary and middle school, with these entrepreneur affairs, in the creativity that these kids will have with things, you know, to solve problems. I remember when my son was was little, his elementary school age, and he had this vision for creating this cancer curing pill. You know that had robots like Nano robots, that would go and it’s like, it seems far fetched as a kid, and now you see the development of technologies like, man, he wasn’t too far off. So how do you guys get in there with the schools and make this happen with elementary middle school, to get them on board, create the vision is there? How’s that communicated, how’s that developed at the schools?

Zeb Welborn 19:05
So it’s different for each one, and we have different relationships with each one, so it’s kind of like a culmination of relationships. One of the ladies that we brought on board, her name is Nicole Tabitha by so she’s kind of our youth program director, so she does facilitate a lot of those relationships, and that was a challenge when I started. I have a lot of high school students who would come to the chamber say, Hey, I’m looking for an internship, or I’m looking for a thing. And I was like, that’s great. I’m happy to help you. And I was excited about helping them, and I’d connect them with our local businesses. And then what would happen is, is that cycle would kind of get buried every single time there’s a new semester, we’d kind of have to start all over from scratch, and so by having somebody on staff that manages that relationship and making sure that there’s a steady cycle of of interns, but also opportunities connecting businesses with others, that’s kind of what I feel like is needed for. Yeah, especially today, where the world is changing at such a fast pace, with AI and social media and the ability to communicate with each other so quickly, and the world and the world of work is going to change so much more quickly that there needs to be a much stronger tie between businesses and our educational institutions. But the challenge is, our businesses are way too busy as our educational institutions, and so there’s no way, I think the way that the current structure looks, what I’m looking at from the outside in, is that they’re trying to do it on their own, where the educational institutions are like begging the businesses to participate into it, versus coming to us, who can play that kind of middle row and saying, We can speak on behalf of business number one. But we can also connect you with businesses, because we’re trying to solve their issues holistically and not just in that one, one case. So that’s one of the things I’m trying to get more awareness for, I guess, in our chamber industry, building that relationship between education and and local businesses. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 20:58
and I, I’ve often seen that communication going the other way too, from the businesses you know, trying to get the attention of the educators, saying, We need employees that have these skill sets. Please teach them to this. And to your point, with the changing workforce environment, things are developing very quickly with things like AI and when you’ve got a school and education system that has curriculum that has to get approved. And, you know, there’s all these steps for things to happen, and things are moving so quickly that if we can get some of these kids into the workforce as an intern to learn firsthand and see, you know, is this something that I enjoy doing, and then dive in deeper to learn about that profession, I think is the key to be that matchmaker. And sounds like you guys are doing that. Well, is there anything else, as far as the internships, or even just in general, with the CVCC, Future Ready highlights or things that have stood out to you, maybe from the career fairs or or the round tables you guys do,

Zeb Welborn 22:02
well, I think probably the most. We have lots of really good success stories. So you know, hearing from kids about how they gotta sell out of their products at those career fairs when we do those round tables like I think typically when they so, so the colleges or the community colleges will have to do these roundtables in order to approve their curriculum, or to say that they’re taking his advisory advice from these councils. And normally they’ll get a handful of people that were participating, if that so when we ever, whenever we do a roundtable, we have a healthy group of people that are showing up to those roundtables, depending on the industry. So we, we did a manufacturing roundtable not that long ago, where maybe they would get a couple of people that would show up. We had like 30 manufacturers that were present for that. So that’s a success story. We have a lot of the interns that have participated in it that are just talking about how that experience has set them up for their future careers. So that’s been exciting. We had, oh, the last thing is we, because of the work that we’re doing at Chaffey College, and also with the US Chamber, we’ve gone through the talent pipeline management program, through the US Chamber. So I’ve been trying to, like, pitch that to our community, and it hasn’t made it slowly gaining traction, but it’s one of those things you have to do a lot of seed planting and chat with different folks over time. So I think we’re going to get started implementing that this year. So that’s a whole nother level that we’re going to try to take our programming to here at the cheetah Valley Chamber.

Brandon Burton 23:28
Very cool. So I have to ask, with these entrepreneur fairs and the pitch competitions you have, what are maybe a couple of the most creative ideas that you’ve seen these kids present or sell.

Zeb Welborn 23:42
So I’ll just tell you, I mean, so a lot of kids are doing like the printing, yeah, so there’s a lot of 3d printing products and stuff that they’ll share. I did buy, I don’t think I have it anymore, but I did buy like, artwork, you know. So like, a little fourth grader was putting together artwork, and she was displaying all of her artwork, and it was adorable. So I know I’ve got it somewhere, and I used to be right here, but it’s not there anymore. And then what else I think what I see a lot of other folks like, they’re, they’re kind of taking a product that they that they were like, reselling products, basically. But that still requires a lot of ingenuity, just to be able to identify those, to bring them to the space and do it. There was one my son took a video to hold a snake. So they were selling holding onto a snake at the fair, okay, and to have a snake around his neck. And there’s, Oh, there’s one kid who I think has built a pretty successful business already. He sells candles, like homemade candles, so he’s been doing that since the first one that we started, and he’s gotten some recognition here locally. And so I think he’s done really pretty well for himself so far from what I added,

Brandon Burton 24:59
yeah. That’s cool. I love hearing those stories and and even those that are reselling products. I mean, hopefully these kids are learning how to do the market research and see what products sell and what’s worth investing into to resell. And there’s, there’s a lot of value in doing that. That’s really cool, absolutely. So I like to ask, especially as a chamber of the year finalist for listeners who are wanting to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item would you share for those listening to try to accomplish that goal?

Zeb Welborn 25:35
I think one of the things just so I’m on the Western Association, Western Association of chamber executives board. So I’ve been doing that for a couple years, and just prior to serving on the board, you know, just like being involved in the industry in general, and I get the sense that there’s a lot of people that I always treat this like as a business, but not just a business, but like the leaders of our business or business community. So So when, when you say that, it means, like, being compensated that way. It means growing in that way. It means thinking in that way. And I think when I have some chats with like, we’re providing a service for a value, and we should receive that value for the services that we’re providing. And I think a lot of chamber executives are uncomfortable doing that, I think, and I don’t know if it’s just kind of like we’re just, we all want to be of service and help support and just do good things for people, but I think treating it like a business is, is the number one thing, and then number two is, is, I feel like setting goals for your organization that kind of hit on those metrics where you’re trying to grow revenue and grow your organization and grow your business. So when I started, I implemented, you know, this goal setting program that I think has worked really well for a chamber to help it move in a positive direction. So if there’s a book called measure what matters, which is the guys at Google how they did their goal setting for their organization, and so I’ve implemented that every year, and we’ve kind of gone through that flow. And it’s, it’s a it’s our chamber has grown every single year since I started, and I, I don’t anticipate it slowing down anytime soon.

Brandon Burton 27:17
Yeah. So aside from winning the title of chamber of the year, what are, what are? What’s a big goal that the Chino Valley Chamber is working towards right now?

Zeb Welborn 27:28
Well, right now we, we got some funding approved by our Congresswoman to build an entrepreneurship center in our community. That was, it was federally funded, so it was going through the whole process. It was good. So when the change of administration happened, that kind of got put on hold. So we’re not sure if that’s coming through or not. We think it will, but we’re still not positive. We had to resubmit everything. So everything’s been resubmitted. It’s going through the process again. They seem likely that it’ll go through, but that is something that we’re working on, is we’re operating out of a space. It’s like an old school house building. So we have eight people in this open air space. There isn’t any room for meetings or that kind of thing on site, anyways, and so that would really be something that I think would level up our chamber, is having the ability to have spaces, space for our team, but then also space to bring in our members in the community to promote their business and promote entrepreneurship and grow our business community. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 28:27
so I like asking, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Zeb Welborn 28:36
Well, I do really like reading like that horizons report, I think is very insightful. I think when, when we went through the process last year and kind of applying, and that was kind of when I was exposed to it for the first time, and it was 10 years it was made 10 years ago for the time that we had last year. And I mean, it was pretty spot on. And I get the sense that it’s pretty spot on. I think the one thing is, is going to be huge for every industry, not just chamber industry. So I would imagine encourage folks to get acclimated and adopted the AI, just because it makes everything so much more efficient and you can accomplish things so much more quickly. But it has a variety of other uses to it, so that’s going to change the world for every industry, I think, in in the chamber space, I do see a lot of opportunities connecting our educational institutions with our businesses, and being the mediator between those two. I think our businesses are so busy, our educational institutions don’t have the resources to do it, and so there needs to be some way to fill that void between the two. And like when, whenever we are asked to do that outreach to business, and we can bring a whole bunch of people, and it’s not it’s because we’re not just serving them for one thing. We’re serving them for everything. And then I think our educational. Institutions or government, or some ways, is being able to support that effort, because it’s going to be critical as we move forward in our in our professional careers.

Brandon Burton 30:14
Yeah, I would agree. I like that, and especially the the focus with with AI, and just recognizing it will affect every industry, and I think as chamber leaders being able to understand some of the applications and know how you can best help the businesses in your community to adapt, to adopt AI and to really lean into it, to help with some of those workforce shortages and to make things more efficient and cost efficient, and you know, all the things that you touched on, but that is a the Chamber’s role, to be that connector with the the education and the employers, to bridge those gaps and be that convener. So I appreciate that. Well, Zeb, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn how you guys are doing things there in Chino Valley, or even learn more about the programs you guys submitted. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Zeb Welborn 31:21
Yeah. So my name is really easy to find. I’m on all the socials at Zeb Welborn, so Z, E, B, it’s my first name. Well born is my last name, W, E, L, B, O, R, N. I am on all the social channels. So you can feel free to reach out to me in one of those spots, if you want to reach out via email. It my chamber email is zwelborn@chinovalleychamber.com and then our website is ChinoValleyChamber.com and you can follow us there and on all of our socials.

Brandon Burton 31:50
All right, I’ll, I’ll get that in our show notes and with your socials. I’ll, at least, you know, tag your your LinkedIn in there, so make it easy to find and connect with you, but Zeb, this has been great having you back on the show and and highlighting these programs you guys submitted, and looks like you guys are making a real difference there in the Chino Valley community. And I wish you and your team best of luck. Is 2025

Zeb Welborn 32:17
chamber of the year. Awesome. Thank you so much. Brandon appreciate

Brandon Burton 32:21
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The Psychology & Science Behind Events with Cally D’Angelo

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Today’s topic explores an often overlooked lens. It’s the psychology and science behind events. Emotion. It’s more than just a feeling. It drives action. In this conversation, we’ll reflect on the emotion and memory, how emotion and memory work together to shape the event, experience that truly sticks. We’ll touch on the softer side, this isn’t about sentimentality. It’s about using psychology and science to design chamber events that leave a lasting impression. Our guest for this episode, to help us cover this topic is Cally D’Angelo. Cally is founder and principal of Collective Cdge LLC. And prior to evolving into an entrepreneur, she spent nearly 20 years in the nonprofit organization management industry, working directly for chambers of commerce, a change agent influenced by innovation, she has launched initiatives from solopreneur to C suite that have enhanced engagement and increased revenue by more than 500% she’s a seasoned executive, skilled in professional development, sales and service member recruitment and retention, Benefits and onboarding, coaching and consulting international travel and volunteer engagement. Cally is driven by impact, and being a business owner enables her to pursue passion projects while utilizing her expertise. Her chamber roots run deep long before launching her own business, and just as strongly after deeply engaged in the chamber industry, she has served as the chair of events division board and ambassador for ACCE. She also is a past member of the Georgia chambers diversity and inclusion Council, a proud graduate of the US chambers Institute for organization management. She’s contributed as class advisor Board of Regent and faculty. She was nationally recognized in ACCE’s 40, under 40, and as a business owner, she continues to serve and support chambers across the country, frequently tapped as a speaker and instructor for state and national associations, including the Florida Association of chamber professionals, Indiana chamber executive Association and Tennessee chamber of commerce, industry and more. But Cally, we are excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and often I’ll ask for a unique or interesting fact about you, but today I want to ask you about an experience, whether big or small, that’s helped shape how you show up professionally,

Cally D’Angelo 3:48
Awesome. Thank you so much Brandon for having me. I’m very excited to be featured on today’s Chamber Chat Podcast. And hello chamber champions. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you, I hope that you find this session today valuable, and if there’s anything I can do for you, please feel free to reach out. Look forward to spending some time with everyone today to answer Brandon’s question. You know, I don’t know that I’m super interesting. So we pivoted from that slightly, because I always struggle with telling me something interesting about you, and I don’t find myself very interesting. Frank,

Brandon Burton 4:23
nobody does, but everybody else finds you interesting. So

Cally D’Angelo 4:28
that’s to be determined. We’ll see after the session today, right? But, but I think back on my chamber career, you know, one experience, big or small, that’s, you know, shaped how I show up professionally. There really has been a common theme of women supporting women. When I first started as an intern at the Statesboro chamber and then an executive assistant, it was ran by a full women team, and they really took me under their wing and helped develop me professionally, because I was super young in the space, right? So that was very helpful. You know, their guidance. And then when I went to the Tourism Council on Toby Island, I had a great group of women that got me plugged in. Then I got another opportunity from a professional woman that connected me with the savannah chamber. And then when I was with the Gwinnett chamber, I first was in their programs department, where I learned a lot about executive presence and leadership from Alicia Crow, who is still their SVP of programs and executive engagement. And the organization is also ran by Nick Massino, the president CEO, who is a champion for advancing women in the workplace. And then during my time at the Gwinnett chamber, you know, I was fortunate to be surrounded by female board members and leading ladies who are always so supportive. You know, I started in the chamber industry so young, and a comment, though throughout my career, has been encouraged and supported by women professionals. They instill both knowledge and confidence in me, and their kindness and insights are still things that I carry with me today.

Brandon Burton 5:59
That’s awesome. Yeah, you must have started young. I mean, to be in it nearly 20 years, you probably started when you’re like, nine, right? Well, tell us about collective edge. I think it’ll help to kind of set the stage for our conversation today about what it is that you do and who you serve. Okay,

Cally D’Angelo 6:21
awesome. Thank you. Brandon, so collective edge. We connect to collaboration and creativity and provide innovative approaches that advance organizations. We specifically serve chambers of commerce, associations and nonprofit organizations nationally. So what does that mean? Exactly, here are just some, you know, top four examples. So employee engagement, we empower your internal employees with custom coaching, cultivating a culture where passion, purpose and performance propel progress. We also delve into initiative implementation. This is probably the one that I get the most excited about, because I enjoy getting in the weeds with our chambers of commerce and helping them identify issues and advance initiatives that will combat those issues. So what we do is we essentially blend both consulting and contract work, because what we notice is there’s a gap in the space, bandwidth and capacity is always, you know, an issue for chambers and nonprofits in general. So if a consultant comes in the likeliness of whatever they’re consulting on being implemented or developed and implemented, you know, usually it doesn’t get off the ground 100% so that’s what we do. We blend both of those things. So we’ll help consult you, identify the issue, and then we’ll also do the development implementation of whatever the initiative is. Working in tandem with your team, we also provide staffing support, so we offer on demand services and seamlessly step in to expand your team’s capacity exactly when and where it matters most. So think about it. Let’s say you have your events lead, and perhaps she’s gone on maternity leave, and you have a whole, full season of events, right? And you can always that’s when it would happen, right? And you can’t absorb them staff wise, or maybe you shouldn’t, because you might have other people leave because they’re beyond capacity already, we can seamlessly step in and kind of pick up the ball during those transitionary times. So whether it be you know, more of kind of an events director role or an interim president and CEO, we can help you handle those transitions, especially when you’re hiring, so you can make sure you hire right, not just try to hire quick, okay? We also do organizational audits and assessments through systems and structures and develop the foundational framework that fosters alignment and activates action for your organization.

Brandon Burton 8:47
Very good. That’s a you said the top four, but it’s the kind of full scope of what you do. I know you can go much more granular on it, but it does help give us perspective from kind of where you’re coming from, between your bio and the background on what collective edge does to really set the stage for our conversation today. So I mentioned, kind of, in the intro that today we’re talking about the psychology and science behind events, and we’re going to dive in deep on this. I know you’ve done a lot of research on it. I’m excited to learn what you found out as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Cally, we’re back, as I mentioned before the break, our topic today is the psychology and science behind events. So this is a very unique lens. Obviously, chambers of all sizes are doing events all the time, but to really hone in on the psychology and science behind it, and really giving purpose to the events is what intrigues me with this. But what sparked your interest in exploring this topic? Yeah,

Cally D’Angelo 13:04
so Brandon, you know, I was approached by ACCE in 2023 to present at their events and marketing conference, and they asked that I speak to event experience. So I kind of went down a rabbit hole, because I didn’t want to talk about florals and tablecloths, although that is a part of event experience, right? But, you know, I’m like, What does really dictate event experience, and that’s memory making. So then that sent me down another rabbit hole of, how do you create memorable event experiences? So, you know, I’m a bit of a nerd. I love data and research, so I began connecting the dots and uncovering synergies between science and psychology and events, and no one had done a white paper or a TED talk on this. So here we are,

Brandon Burton 13:51
created your own TED Talk. So here it is, rolling it out. So why? Why does the overall event experience matters so much for chambers.

Cally D’Angelo 14:05
Yeah, I always like to start with, why is this even important to help people relate it and understand how and why they should implement these tactics, or, if not specifically, these tactics, at least think intentionally about your events. And the event experience matters so much for chambers, for a few reasons. For one, you know, I think we all know that events are the number one sided benefit of membership with your chamber, so it can be used as a strategic recruitment tool, right? Also, I like to say engagement equals retention. So you can get members plugged in, specifically through events in a variety of ways, and that increase, increase, I’m sorry, increases can’t talk here the likeliness of your member staying engaged and you retaining them also through revenue generation. So you can utilize events as a tool to generate revenue through your specific event. Budget, but also looking through the lens, through recruitment and retention. So even if an event doesn’t highly produce financially within its event scope, if it engages new members, it expands your reach and it helps you, you know, engage a number and variety of members across your membership base, then it’s increasing your membership revenue through recruitment and retention as well. And then lastly, to influence initiatives. You know, when you think back on important moments, whether that be in life or through your chamber, you know a lot of those are activated through gatherings and events, right? So you can use events as a tool to influence initiatives. So a couple of examples of that are, if you’re involved in public policy, then maybe you need to pass some sort of vote. Maybe it’s an education referendum or a splash vote, or transportation you can use events as a tool to do that and activate your community towards those goals. You can also bring the community together to champion and solve a common issue or cause. You can even use events to advance, you know, exposure for small businesses at the end of the day, it depends on what the strategy is for your organization and your chamber specifically, but you definitely can use events as a tool to accomplish your goals

Brandon Burton 16:16
Absolutely. And I can see, I really like how you said engagement equals retention. It leads to retention. And as you’re able to engage and make these events memorable, it kind of eliminates that question of, what does the chamber do? You know, good when they go to write the check next time that retention stays high, because they have these memories, these feelings, of what the chamber did for them. So just a side note of my own perspective of what I’ve seen. But as far as perspectives go, from the attendees perspective, what makes an event truly memorable, and why is that important to have a memorable event?

Cally D’Angelo 16:58
Well, you definitely want to have a memorable event, because memory leads to action and and we all have, you know, different types of action we want our prospective members or members to take, and we kind of unpack that further along. But, you know, I did a social media poll and posed the question, what makes an event memorable to you? Didn’t include any contacts, just general statement out there, and got a lot of responses back, but really the top kind of three were bucketed, and they were all centered around kind of connection and feeling. So the top one was connection, which is a feeling, and they said connection to the event and the people at the event, so that’s what makes it memorable to them, right? So how are you getting the right people in the room. How are you facilitating those connections? Are you doing social engineering when you do your seating assignments and being thoughtful about that, such as connection at the event? The second one was how the event made them feel, and we’ll unpack that further along, about how you can help members feel a specific way through event elements, and then also just tactical elements, you know, the experience? Is it well lit? Can they find parking? You know, all those good kind of logistical types of things that’s very important as well. And you know, I would say, even if it’s an object, right, everything speaks and everything has the ability to influence your event experience?

Brandon Burton 18:22
Yeah, I feel like the creating a memorable event really leverages what you’re doing as a chamber too. So you’re not oftentimes, we will rinse and repeat events over time. But if you’re able to create an event that your members attend and they remember, man, you’re getting a whole lot more leverage out of that one experience. So it’s worth putting in the extra attention from from what I can gather. Can you walk us through the concept of emotional memory and how it relates to events? Yeah, sure.

Cally D’Angelo 18:55
So let’s start connecting the dots here. I know everyone’s heard of flight or fight instinct, right? That is how far emotional memory goes back. So the activity of emotionally enhanced memory retention can be linked to human evolution. So during early development, responsive behavior to environmental events would have progressed as a process of trial and error and survival depended on it at that time. And then numerous studies have shown that the most vivid memories are of emotional events or occurrences which are likely to be recalled more and with more clarity than just neutral events.

Brandon Burton 19:34
Okay, so as we make the connection, how does it the impact of memory affect retention from from the event.

Cally D’Angelo 19:45
Yeah. So findings show that emotions play a role at various specific stages of remembering, and those stages are encoding, consolidating and recall. So the first stage of encoding refers to the process of interpret. Incoming stimuli, and combining the processed information so emotionally arousing stimuli results in enhanced memory. So in this context, dimensions of arousal range from soothing to exciting or agitating. So both positive and negative experiences can be formed into your memory bank from your chamber events

Brandon Burton 20:21
for sure. Yeah, people remember how that chicken was right?

Cally D’Angelo 20:26
The chamber chicken, it’s so funny. You mentioned that because I actually have a sticker that I give out as swag that says I love chamber chicken to chicken professionals, because if you know, you know that’s right, but yeah, you’re absolutely right. I mean, you want people to have a good experience, but if they have a bad experience, they remember that too. So it’s very important you know that people aren’t frustrated by the time they find you that if you have award recipients that are announced, that you’re taking the time to make sure you write out the phonetics of the pronunciations of the name on stage, right? Let’s say someone brings their whole family because they’re up for an award, and then you butcher their last name, so that’s not a good memory to store, okay, so we have to be intentional on the front end to create these positive experiences. So yeah, and then after encoding, we dive into emotional arousal. Increases the likelihood of memory consolidation during the retention and storage stage of memory, which is the process of creating the actual permit record of the encoded information. Okay? And then your third stage is recall, which is the process of being able to retrieve that information from your memory bank. And as we know from what we’ve covered so far, recall is dictated by your emotional state. So if you can increase and provide a positive experience at your events, then people are going to recall that feeling and that experience more.

Brandon Burton 21:50
Yeah, I have definitely seen that now, when we speak to the word emotion, people might assume that, in a professional sense, that there’s that emotion doesn’t really have a place. But from what I understand, it’s not just about being emotional, right? There’s a difference between emotion and emotional. But can you share some types of emotion that chambers might want to intentionally evoke through their events? Yeah,

Cally D’Angelo 22:17
absolutely. And you’re you’re correct about that Brandon. You know, I think people, when you hear the word emotional, or someone is labeled as emotional, there’s a negative connotation with that, right?

Brandon Burton 22:27
Makes me think of a league of their own where he’s like, there’s no crying in baseball, right? Yes,

Cally D’Angelo 22:32
but I want you to cry at my events. But I do want you to be moved, okay, depending on what the event is. So it’s not just about crying. You know you want people to feel embraced or welcome. That’s a feeling, right? You want your chamber feel like a place of belonging for the business community. You know you may want your members to feel excited, because you want them champion your membership campaign and sell some memberships on your behalf. You know there are situations where you may want your members to feel contemplative, you know, and considering the impact of an issue that you are discussing. You know you might want to ignite support around a cause, and you would want your event attendees to feel motivated you. You know you may be having an award ceremony, and you want your members and your event attendees to feel seen. So I would say, you know, at the bottom of this, I would just try to understand what the goal of your event is, and what emotions you can tap into to advance whatever that goal is for your event.

Brandon Burton 23:33
Yeah, so let’s, let’s talk about the tactics. What are the practical ways to evoke emotion during an event. So

Cally D’Angelo 23:41
I would just think through your pre event, your during event, and your post event, so all the actions that you are doing at all of those stages, okay, you know, pre event, when you’re promoting it, you can tap into emotion just simply through the language that you’re choosing for your events promotional copy. You know, we are a chamber, but we don’t have to be so buttoned up. And there’s a way, if you have a strong event Brandon, if you have a strong chamber brand, that you can be a little bit more intentional in the copy that you’re creating, in the language in which you’re using to promote your events, you can, you know, implement some emotion through video content and who you’re interviewing and the questions that you’re asking them and how you’re staging that you can, you know, evoke emotion through thoughtful speaker selection. Okay, so someone that is telling a story through the photos that you use to promote your event, you know they don’t have to be clip artist or super buttoned up, they could be more relatable to whoever you’re trying to reach right more interactive, smiling networking you can use, you know, you can evoke emotion through your walk up music at your award ceremony. You know, it doesn’t all have to be the same kind of walk up music with no work. You can, you know, be specific and tailor the walk up music based on the award that you’re giving. So like, for example, if it’s an entrepreneurial award, you know, maybe it’s a I will survive song, you can be specific about and intentional about how you’re doing this. And then through lighting, you know, some of those theatrical elements. So, like, if you have an award ceremony, we’ll go back to that example you have, you know, your walk up music and the lights are kind of going in tandem with your walk up music, right? So it’s just kind of that build up and that experience that you’re giving someone. And then lastly, through storytelling. I mean, there’s a mile long list that we could go through, but I would just say the things that you’re doing already just be more intentional about it, right?

Brandon Burton 25:48
Yeah, absolutely. And when I think of these practical ways, just one small example, I had done a presentation at a chamber conference, and I wanted the attendees to feel welcome. So I got to the room. It was a breakout session, so I got to the room well before anybody else did, but I made sure I was saying hello and introducing myself to everybody that came in the room, and then by the time the presentation started, they all felt welcome. It kind of broke the ice, and it got engagement going a lot quicker. So there are a lot of ways to evoke that emotion, but that’s just an example that I’ve used. But I know storytelling, you mentioned, storytelling can be such a powerful tool for chambers, but why? Why is storytelling so powerful to use in an event setting?

Cally D’Angelo 26:40
Yeah, so when we listen to a good story that is rich in detail and full of metaphor and expressive, we tend to imagine ourselves in that same situation, right? So when I started with the question of kind of we asked of what has been most impactful, or what have I carried with me on my professional journey. I mean, that’s a good example of storytelling, so I’m sure that there are other professionals that can kind of relate to that. Hopefully they’ll remember that and also implement it as well as we, you know, we’re looking to embrace the next generation of female leaders. But that’s just an example. You know, on average and emotion only lasts about 90 seconds. It’s not the emotion that lingers, but the story that you attach to it in your mind. Okay, we keep feeding, you know, these memories, our thoughts, these stories, and we were playing them in our minds, and reinforce that feeling. So that’s one of the reasons why storytelling is so impactful, because we can imagine ourselves in someone else’s shoes. We can relate.

Brandon Burton 27:41
Yeah, so I know you’ve studied the topic, but can you break down for us the science behind storytelling? You kind of alluded to it with, you know, put putting their emotion into that story as they try to picture themselves in that story. But what’s the science behind it?

Cally D’Angelo 27:58
Yes, I basically had to become a scientist to uncover this, just so y’all know, totally kidding, but you know, scientists are discovering that chemicals like cortisol, dopamine and oxytocin are released in the brain when we’re told a story. So those are kind of the chemicals and mechanics behind it. So for example, if you’re trying to make a point stick, cortisol assists with formulating of memories and dopamine, which helps regulate our emotional responses, helps keep us engaged, and then when it comes to creating deeper connections with others, oxytocin is associated with infinite empathy, which is an important element in building and maintaining good relationships. So those are just some of the chemicals that are activated in our minds when we are listening to a story?

Brandon Burton 28:44
Yeah? So I’m trying to see, in a practical sense, at an event, how can a chamber incorporate storytelling into their events?

Cally D’Angelo 28:53
Yeah? So there’s a variety of different ways, but let’s say, let’s go back to the Small Business Award Ceremony example. Because you know, most chambers, about 90% of their members are small businesses with 50 employees or less. So I feel like this example will kind of resonate with the masses. But let’s say you’re hosting an award ceremony for a small business, for small businesses, and you can actually promote a small business success story via a video interview to tee up and promote on the front end your award ceremony. You can also host a fireside chat. So your event format can help through storytelling, where it literally the focus of the event is hearing someone’s story. So maybe it’s someone’s entrepreneurial journey that’s always impactful, yeah. So for the chamber itself, you can also tell your story as well through your events. At the end of the day, it should be driven by your strategic plan and your communications plan, and then interwoven into all your chamber elements such as events, but chambers can really humanize their mission, elevate their members and create emotionally engaging events that drive deeper connection. Time through storytelling. So let’s say we talked about, you know, the stats surrounding 90% of Chamber members having 50 employees or less. You can tie in the support of your small businesses and to your events, if that’s something that you’re championing through your strategic plan, through your MC remarks, through highlighting members entrepreneurial journeys. If you’re able, let’s say you’ve got a grant for a small business through some connection at the Chamber, then you could not, you know, let’s not just self promote the chamber for doing that, but you can do a story on what that will mean for that small business. Okay, just really kind of connecting those dots and storing those emotional responses. You can do things like a why I joined, or why I stayed campaign so utilizing your members to tell the chamber story for you. You can also do this through like legacy moments, so like milestone anniversary highlights. You could do this through a social media campaign where you talk about my chamber, my story on social. And you can also do future focused storytelling. I know a lot of us have state of events, right? State of the County, state of the city, state of space. So this is, you know, those are really updates on where we are, but where we’re going as well. So you can use those as a tool for future focused storytelling as well.

Brandon Burton 31:21
That makes a lot of sense. There’s no, no limit to when and how to incorporate stories into events, and I would even say regular communications through different channels like podcasts and YouTube and your newsletters, and, you know, all the different things. But before we wrap up, I wanted to ask you for maybe a tip or an action item that a chamber professional can take today to elevate their next event.

Cally D’Angelo 31:49
Yes. So if anyone’s heard me speak before, it really always comes down to be intentional. That’s typically my top takeaway. So I would ask you, what kind of story do you want your chamber to tell? What do you want to be known for? What is your chambers legacy? And then, how can you leverage events as a platform to tell that story? So I would say, intentionality and cohesion across your organization and make sure everyone is working towards a common goal, so we’re not siloed in events and siloed in membership, right? Yeah, really operating off of that strategic plan and who you want your chamber to be, and then, you know, evoking emotion through events, through storytelling, and all the different elements we discussed today.

Brandon Burton 32:36
Yeah, it’s important to have all the staff to have the same vision, so they’re all telling the same story, right? Sounds bad. It sounds bad to say, you know, get all of our stories aligned, because that’s usually, you know, Incorporated to, like, making up a story, but, you know, getting in line with, here’s what our vision is, and getting all the staff on board with, yes, this is a vision, and everything we do helps support that story. I think is, is a great piece of advice. So I always like asking guests on the podcast how they see the future of chambers going forward, but I wanted to specifically ask you about how do you see the future of chambers evolving, and what role will events play in that?

Cally D’Angelo 33:18
Yeah. So you know, I think we all wish we had a crystal ball. But what I will say is I see, in my opinion Chambers as continuing to evolve as and serve as a catalyst for their communities. But I think that, you know, we’re going to have to probably be more intentional or specific on kind of the causes we champion and the things that we support and how we do that, I think, also too, you know, we’re going to continue to be that trusted resource in the future, but we also need to modify our approach and our communications to reach the younger professionals. You know, currently, right now, millennials are the largest segment of our workforce, and they hold the largest spending power and the United States right? So as a chamber, we have to continue to evolve and modify our approach so we can be a chamber of the future. Not to sound campy, but we do have to have some intentionality, you know, behind that, as far as how we can use events to, you know, expand upon that. I mean, you can use events as as a tool to reach and support, you know, the younger professionals market. You can be specific and how you’re creating these events. You can, you know, create events surrounding whatever your objective is and whatever action you want to implement within your community. You know, I know sometimes there’s talk around how I say this, don’t be a parade chamber, or a negative connotation with events, don’t just be an events mill organization, right? But I think that might come from a lens of not understanding that specific chambers. Different communities. They’re not all the same. It’s not a one size fits all. And events are a, you know, strategic tool to advance whatever your objectives are. And for you know, some of our smaller chambers, some of their strategic plans may be community engagement. So parade would be fitting. So I would just say, as we hear, you know people speak to things in different events and so forth. They very much are still important. Are and are going to be the way that you engage your community, that you recruit, retain your members. So keep up the good fight with your events.

Brandon Burton 35:35
I love what you said about events being a strategic tool to advance your objectives. I think a lot of chambers, you know, leaders staff, they come into a chamber and there’s already a menu of events that they’ve been doing for a long time, you know, the 50th annual whatever, whatever you know. And they kind of get into this trap of doing events for the sake of doing the event, instead of identifying the how are we, how are we being strategic, and how is this event helping to further advance our objectives? And when it comes becomes more about just we have to do XYZ event because, you know, it’s that time of year. Well, is that really the purpose behind it? So I love that. I’m glad you really glad that you pointed that out. So you mentioned in your in your introduction, and about collective edge, kind of what you do, but do you also speak and instruct with chambers and associations? I know you do with you know, from what we shared in your bio, but in what ways are you available to support chambers, and what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you if they were to try to bring you on board to help their their chamber with any of the things that you’ve talked about?

Cally D’Angelo 36:56
Yeah, thanks, Brandon for that tee up. Yes, I do regularly speak or instruct at different chamber conferences, whether that’s you know, nationally or statewide, or I can even you know, come speak to your members for your chamber. So recently, did something on innovation, and was actually presenting to the chambers Chamber members. So we can do that a variety of different ways. I like to say, I take a tactical approach, so you kind of walk away with, you know, some applicable things that you can implement, and not kind of super high level. So that’s the approach. So if that would be helpful to anybody you know, certainly reach out. You know, I started this organization to expand my impact and making a difference, I know a lot of that will resonate with our audience, because chamber professionals typically are purpose driven and mission minded. So if I can help you advance your mission, whether that be through coaching or teaching, please keep me in mind and you can get in touch with me in a variety of ways. My email is super long, but it is cally@collectiveedgeagency.com my website is collectiveedgeagency.com and then my cell phone feel free to call or text. Is 912-412-5109,

Brandon Burton 38:22
that that’s perfect, and we will get that in our show notes to make it nice and easy for people to find. But I know Cally, you speak and present on a variety of different topics, so not everything is all about psychology and science behind events, but I think this is one of those topics that kind of bleeds over into so many things that chambers are involved with and and I’d argue even that you’re involved with to be able to make sure that the experience for your clients is something that’s memorable, that’ll evoke that emotion and stay with them for a long time. So I appreciate you spending time with us today, here on chamber chat podcast and and really digging into the science and psychology behind events. This is fantastic. I appreciate

Cally D’Angelo 39:07
it. Yeah, it’s been my pleasure. Thank you so much for having

Brandon Burton 39:12
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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Clint Nesmith. Clint is the CEO of Resource Development Group and brings over 20 years of fundraising expertise to the table. Throughout his career, he has led successful funding campaigns and advise chambers and economic development organizations of all sizes across the country. Clint’s background also includes leadership roles in University Advancement and with the Metro Atlanta Chambers forward Atlanta campaign. Under his leadership, RDG continues to serve as the only firm in the US solely focused on generating revenue for chambers and economic development groups. Clint lives in Statesboro, Georgia with his wife and four children, but Clint, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you the opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Thank you, Brandon. It’s a pleasure to be here today.

Clint Nessmith 2:10
Thank you for the invite, absolutely. Well, so yeah, I would say the the the most interesting thing that is happening in my life right now is I’m now a grandfather. For the first time,

Brandon Burton 2:21
I thought you had an extra big smile. So yeah, and she’s

Clint Nessmith 2:25
a cutie, my overachieving daughter, who has always done everything early in her life, from graduating from high school early to graduating from college in three years to do you know, getting married at 21 has they wasted no time, and we are. We now have a about a two week old granddaughter, so we’re super excited.

Brandon Burton 2:50
That’s very exciting. Very cool, awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about resource development group for those who may not be familiar, just give us a little bit of background about what it is you guys do, who you serve, kind of your areas of expertise, if you will,

Clint Nessmith 3:06
perfect happy to so resource development group, as you highlighted earlier, we’re very niched, and we’re really a boutique firm. We only work with chambers of commerce and economic development organizations to help them raise the money to fund their various programs. We this is actually our 30th year of operating. I’ve been with the company for 22 years, and took over a CEO a little, little over three years ago, and it’s been a, been a great transition. We are continuing to carry forth the service offerings that that we always have, and we’ve added a few new ones, as well, around investor relations support and also turning our campaign management software that we own and built, providing it with a with the capabilities to also be used for Investor Relations tracking, which is something that no CRM does well. And we kept hearing folks talk about that over and over again, and we said, we think we can probably do something along those lines. So we’re we’re excited that that we’ve been able to add that too. But what’s interesting about company, and some of the conversations I have with other chamber executives, is we frequently get the question, hey, we don’t do economic development. Like, do you guys ever work with chambers that don’t do economic development? And resoundingly, yes, we do. And what’s funny is, we code a lot of that as economic development within our own company, even if chambers aren’t specifically thinking of it that way, but we have, over the years, certainly supported chambers in raising money for advocacy, livability, talent development, and more and more housing and homelessness are working their way into the strategies that we. Uh, are working with, yeah.

Brandon Burton 5:01
So do you just, do you do kind of a one on one with these chambers and figure out what their needs are, what it is that they need to raise the funds for, or is there some survey that goes out? Or how do you assess the needs of each community?

Clint Nessmith 5:15
Yeah. So we always start off basically saying, Do you have a plan? Do you have a strategy? Many of our clients will have just gone through a strategic planning process, whether that be internal or using a strategic planning firm like an EY or or an Amy Holloway. And if they don’t have that in hand, then we have to work with them to really develop what their strategic pillars are highlighting, what are we going to be able to do that we can’t do today as we move continue to build on the momentum within the marketplace, and so we will sit down through our feasibility study process with them, work out, what are we going to do, and then who are we going to go and test this in front of? We usually will interview somewhere between 30 and 40 leaders from around the county or the region or the state, depending on the area that our clients cover, and we’ll actually take that, that draft strategy out and test it on and as we test it, we’re not only getting feedback on the strategy, but we’re getting feedback on the organization and their recent their recent successes, and how well they feel engaged in the work. And of course, we’re also getting feedback on a proposed needs based budget, and then that to fully fund that strategy. And then within that budget conversation, we’re testing individual investment amounts, which ultimately allows us to come back and provide a very data driven feasibility report that covers a lot of ground. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:04
that’s great. It sounds like you guys are problem solvers. You figure out what those problems are in the community based on their strategic plan, and then see what they’re not able to currently do with the current setup, the current funding, and then find the solutions to overcome that hurdle. So I think that, uh, that transitions really well into our topic for today, where we’re we’re talking about the importance of being proactive here in 2025 and once you have that strategic plan, as you’re looking forward, what kind of things do you need to do to keep that momentum going? So we’ll dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break,

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Brandon Burton
Chamber leaders, I know each of you works daily to boost your local economy and take your Chamber of Commerce to the next level. But let’s face it… it takes funding, and lots of it! 

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All right, Clint, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about being proactive, especially here in 2025 from your perspective, as you work with chambers and economic development organizations, what does that mean to you to help them be proactive and and forward thinking as they manage their organization?

Clint Nessmith 11:18
It’s, it’s, it’s always important to be proactive. Clearly, and the reason the business community and public sector and foundation community tend to sort of gravitate to chambers and economic development organizations is they do tend to be proactive. They do tend to get things done in a very in a way that can be measured. So you always have to be proactive. But whenever there are economic challenges, you have to that, that that the importance of being proactive really becomes even more of a priority for chambers and Ed is I’ve, you know, you highlighted earlier. I’ve been doing this over 20 years. I have lived through a number of in my career where there was economic uncertainty, whether that be post September 11, whether that be 2008 and the great recession. We all, most of us, I would imagine most of your listeners have lived through COVID and worked through COVID, every one of those economic shock that that led to economic uncertainty, much like what we’re seeing in 2005 with the tariff talks and the changes and the potential impacts that that’s having some positive some negative on our in perspective communities, and able to be what we’ve seen is being able to be really proactive, be seen as a resource anytime you’re in the sort of economic uncertainty that’s that’s incredibly important, because All of your members, all of your investors are looking to someone to sort of help them work through the challenge, someone that can provide them with the most up to date information, someone that can assist them when they have questions. So yes, being proactive is always important, but when there is economic uncertainty, that’s really where Chamber of EDOs can really shine. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:25
So it can be really hard to predict when the next, you know, COVID, you know, shutdowns would be, or the next big terrorist attack, or major economic disruptor, right? But as I see it, as a as a chamber leader, as economic development organization leader, you’re, you’re kind of that Captain guiding the ship, right? You need to be able to to look ahead, have some foresight, and be able to see what are those potential threats to our community. How can we be prepared? And maybe, you know, we hear about rainy day funds and things like that, to be able to prepare for the future, for those unexpected things. So what does being proactive? How does that translate into these organizations, chambers and EDOs, to be able to sure, take those action action steps?

Clint Nessmith 14:13
Yeah, so I’ve had this conversation a lot lately. I think everybody knows that there is a lot of uncertainty for the first half of the year that we’ve been here in 2025 I can, I can assure you that every as you look back in those those previous sort of economic shock events, that if a chamber or Edo is proactive and seen as a resource, anytime you’re in a situation like this, you are ultimately going to be rewarded. You need to it’s important to not sort of hide from the challenges. That your members are are facing the we need to we need to acknowledge that there are stresses and that there is uncertainty. I’ve, I’ve had conversations with clients that were trying not to talk about the potential impact of tear up tariffs in their community, which I think is a mistake. I think your members are dealing with that every single day and are trying to work through it. And so acknowledging it is is important, and you can do that without being political. I mean, some folks are concerned that, you know, they sort of weigh in on this. It’s going to be seen as political. It doesn’t have to be viewed that way. You can simply talk about, here’s what, here’s what the impact is going to be on our local employers, and based off the information that we have right now, here’s the research that we have, here’s what we are doing to try to be proactive, to assist you all. And as we go through this, through this process, and and, you know, I kind of, I like to say, you know, pull that COVID playbook back out. It’s very relevant today. Over communicate. Invite the media to reach out to you for comment. Find opportunities to pull your members and investors together to give those updates. Create a create a toolkit. We’ve got a call. We’ve got clients that have created tariff toolkits that is really just loaded with information about the latest and greatest. You know, whatever is coming out of DC, here’s what we know. Supply chain assistance. There’s a lot of companies trying to figure out. Maybe you know new supply chains, what can you do, from a research standpoint, to help your your members figure that out? So you know, there’s a lot there that be valuable. And as I said before, chambers and EDOs that are able to be great partners in times like this are going to be rewarded.

Brandon Burton 17:16
Yeah, as you talk about the current situation with tariffs and like, Man, this really does rhyme with the whole COVID problems, with the supply chains and all the disruption. And how many people remember the whole Suez Canal incident, you know, that disrupted supply chains and being able to figure out these, these solutions. But also what stood out to me in that explanation was being able to look for potential obstacles that can stand in the way of your community, you know, progress in your community and the business progress, and also the possible solutions, and be proactive in moving forward, in having those solutions and not scrambling once those obstacles, you know, rear their ugly heads. But I already have a plan in place of, yep, we prepared for this. Let’s move forward and and those communities are going to be much more healthier. On the other end of whatever that challenge is, are you seeing some examples, as you’d mentioned, the the tariff toolkits? It’d be kind of neat to see what’s all included in a tariff toolkit. But what are, what are some other examples you’ve seen of of organizations that are being proactive?

Clint Nessmith 18:28
Yeah, it’s, you know, we’re, it’s funny. We are currently working with the Detroit Regional Chamber and their mission auto initiative. And mission is really an association for the automotive mobility industry. We actually did our feasibility study back in the fall. Before you know the all the tariff conversation really got got going, but we’ve been raising money to fund elevated program, programs for Michelle around advocacy and workforce development for the industry throughout this entire year. And, you know, there, we kind of gut check ourselves all along to say, you know, let’s make sure that we’re we’re still doing the right thing, and we’re being appropriately, appropriately, appropriately acknowledging the challenges that the industry is going through right now, and the industry adjacent folks you know, to the to the to the mobility industry, but where we’ve really consistently leaned in on is we’re able To show how Miss Auto is going to bat for the automotive mobility industry, how they’re playing offense and defense, and we’re having meetings with folks that in some cases, they’ve laid off employees, they’ve closed plants in response to. Uh, some, some tariff, but some just continued automotive sort of realignment. But who will also say we’re going to elevate our funding support provision because we see it as such an ally the automotive industry that we’re operating in that without them being there, we know we would not, as an industry, be as well off as we are today. And you look at great it’s been a slower campaign because of the impact that the tariffs are having, particularly on the automotive mobility space, but for the commitments that have come in the door. Worse, we’ve seen a 33% increase in funding. Think about all of your listeners out there, what they would do with 33% more revenue? Excitement, yeah,

Brandon Burton 20:55
yeah.

Clint Nessmith 20:58
And but it just goes to show that even in a challenging time or an uncertain time, you can be successful in raising money if you’re seen as a solution. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 21:10
And I think it’s important to mention just whatever every community is so different, whatever industries are in the community, the layout of the community. And when you think of these potential obstacles that can affect the businesses within your business community as a chamber and Edo, some of those, maybe those global type things, like tariffs that we’re talking about, or a worldwide, you know, virus and other things can be very localized. You know, maybe your community is in a flood zone, and, you know, you just it rains hard and it really hurts businesses. So what can you do to be proactive in these different scenarios that affect you, either on a very localized and a much more wider scene, and I don’t know if there’s, you know, the best exercises or approach to really flesh out what those potential threats might be. What have you seen to as chambers and EDOs take that step to be proactive? How do they assess what those possible threats might be? Yeah,

Clint Nessmith 22:14
well, it’s, it’s, you’re doing a strategic plan every three to five years. There should always be. There should always want

Brandon Burton 22:22
analysis, and, yeah, always

Clint Nessmith 22:26
and, and if it if possible, you know, setting aside dollars to either proactively address what you think that challenge is going to be, or setting aside dollars in a special sometimes they’re called opportunity fund that is kind of there waiting to be pulled upon if something unplanned happens. I live in I live in Statesboro, Georgia. We were hit really hard by Hurricane last year like nothing I’ve ever lived through before, as many in the south work and and those you know, you think you know, kind of thinking ahead of, okay, this is, this may not be a one off thing, even if we weren’t playing planning for for some sort of response before for something like that. Let’s make sure that, as we think ahead, that we were our plan is taking into into consideration having to maybe live through something like that again. And what would we do mean? You look back at, I’m going to go way back, remember the unfortunate bombing in Oklahoma City. Yeah, we worked with the greater Oklahoma City Chamber for a very long time. And Roy Williams, who, of course, is retired now, can tell you how the chamber responded after that bombing. And they, you know, there, there’s definitely playbooks out there. I mean, they’ll, he’ll tell you that they immediately turned the chamber, into a place where the media could gather and report from and were welcoming questions and talking about, well, here’s what our local community is doing to work through this, this unplanned for unprecedented challenge that we’re now facing. And what’s interesting is, you know, Oklahoma City was really struggling kind of in the early, kind of late 80s, early 90s. And while that was a horrific event, the Chamber figured out a way to use that to actually be one of the things that sort of elevated that community over the next 25 years, and and and so need to be proactive. You need to be thinking for the future. I will always love Opportunity Fund, our client, the greater Wichita partnership, right now is setting up an opportunity. Opportunity Fund, that’s an economic development organization in Wichita, that’s the 10 county region, and they’re doing it for different reasons. They’re doing it because they’re one of the fastest growing communities in the country. Right now. Their economy is on fire, and they are tired of having to take an unplanned the have the first step be we’ve got to go raise money so we can address this, which, of course, just slows down your response time. So instead, they’re going to set up an opportunity fund so they can immediately take action. Because we all know, in this world, the quicker you can respond, the more likely it is you’re going to end up with a successful conclusion, yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:42
I love that. The whole idea of the Opportunity Fund, I mean, any any household, it’s good to have that, that savings, you know, for So, right? Why don’t we do that as a business, as an organization? Why don’t we have that opportunity fund and and teach it and practice it and have it be a normal thing,

Clint Nessmith 26:00
right? You got it. And

Brandon Burton 26:03
I think there’s even opportunities within the opportunity fund where you can invest, you can do other things with it, where you can you can see it grow, and doesn’t just sit there. But when that opportunity really comes, you really are

Clint Nessmith 26:15
prepared exactly, you know, I know many of our chambers do have sort of that rainy day fund, or, you know, just the reserves that they’ve built up. You know, you look at the Greater Philadelphia chamber, which is another client of ours, and they had some real, you know, Philadelphia had some real challenges over the last couple of years. Well, they used some of their rainy day fund to really beef up their their local advocacy work. And if they hadn’t had that available, it would have been really hard to do what they did. And ultimately, it was a heavy lift, but they were able to do it. And they they’ve had theirs knowing that, you know they were going to need it at some point. And

Brandon Burton 27:01
yeah, it’s great to see. I mean, you hate to have to tap into it and use it, but it’s great to see a real example where they had it. They were prepared. They’re able to put it to work and and solve problems. So that’s what it’s all about. Well, Clint, I wanted to ask you, for those listening who would like to take their organization up to the next level? What kind of tip or action item might you suggest for them and trying to accomplish that goal?

Clint Nessmith 27:30
Great question. It’s, it’s, I’m going to repeat myself at first, if we move as I answer this, it’s important to have a strategy, even if even if it’s an internal strategy, you have to have a strategy, and you need to, you need to make sure that it is a it has been, it’s refreshed every three to five years, and in every single one of those strategies, it shouldn’t be, how do we keep doing what we’re doing one of it should be, how do we do what We’re doing better? And how do we the new opportunities and challenges that we think we’re going to be facing over the next three to five years, you’ve got to be constantly looking to get better and and then ultimately, that allows you to go out to your funders, community governments, foundations, to make a case for increased funding support, or to join your organization, potentially for the first time, and support you financially, but but the key is to communicate. Here’s what we’re going to do. We need to do that we can’t do today. And oh, by the way, we’re the only ones doing it in our service area. I we frequently will do organizational roles charts to very clearly map out what key organizations are doing within an ecosystem, because it gets noisy and your funders get confused and but being able to show here’s what we are doing uniquely, but also here’s how that dovetails into what other key organizations are doing, so that we aren’t working in silos. Both of those are incredibly important. But my, my, my number one sort of caution this year is if you are thinking about raising revenue, get on it, because what we’ve seen the first half of this year is fundraising across the board has become more challenging. A lot of across not not not just in economic development space, but just any nonprofit, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of grants that were out there that have been paused, and a lot of folks are kind of taking it on the chin. Well, I mentioned earlier about a six to nine month sort of delay whenever you have an economic shock before everybody kind of really gets moving again. Well, this. Fall and in the summer, we are seeing and predicting everybody that has ever needed to raise money being raised raising money in a very aggressive way, because they’re trying to make up for what they didn’t pick up in the first half of the year. So thinking about raising money and take the steps now to try to get out in front of that wave, stake your claim, your unique value, and begin making some of those, those major ask, even if, even if they’re not official, you need to at least see them with those funders that have the likelihood of giving you the most money. And you know, that’s, that’s what I would suggest.

Brandon Burton 30:44
And to your point, with the when these challenging times come, we’re, we’re in the middle of one right now with the tariffs, certain organizations may feel hesitant to go and ask people to invest, ask for for more money, but these are the times where they really see the value of what your organization does. It’s really time to be able to showcase and say, here’s how we support your business, to help you grow and help you thrive. Help our community be strong. Now this is what we need from you, right? And as they can see that happening, yes, it may be a strain, it might it might be hard to have some of those conversations, but if you don’t capitalize on that opportunity of showing what you’re doing in your community, you’re missing a huge opportunity. And it’s your point earlier, when you talked about at the beginning of our recording, some chambers listening might think, well, I don’t do economic development. Yes, you do, and like Clint said, they would code, you know, certain programs of work that you do as economic development. Just because you don’t have that economic development contract formally, doesn’t mean that you’re not involved with economic development and own that sector of it, as Clint talked about, having that, you know, that diagram showing the areas of responsibility, show what you own, and go after the funding for it,

Clint Nessmith 32:07
you know. And you made it something you just said there keyed off another thought, if you are worried that you’re going to and somebody by asking them to do more than they’re doing now with your organization because of perceived challenges that they may be facing. We always like to remove as many barriers as possible to getting to yes, and one of those is, listen, we’ve got this great we’ve got this great we’ve got the strategy. We’re being very proactive. Our goal is to see you this level within the next couple of years. You know, we recognize you may not be able to do anything else beyond what you’re doing this calendar year, but let’s map out a stair step plan to get you there in one to two years. And you know, you start to get people thinking about, okay, how am I going to do that? That’s a great way, though, to grow revenue. And of course, you want to tie it back to that strategy, but it’s a great, great way to recognize, we know you may be facing challenges, but here’s a way that you can still support us in an elevated way, and people will appreciate that,

Brandon Burton 33:27
and it builds ownership for these companies within the community. Does That’s awesome? Well, Clinton, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, I always like to ask all the guests I have on the show, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Clint Nessmith 33:44
I That’s a that’s that’s a great question. You think about how chambers have evolved just since I’ve been in this industry over 2223 years, chambers today are not what chambers were in 1999 when I worked or 2000 I guess when I worked for the Metro Atlanta chamber, there are so many more areas that we’re having to get involved in as an industry. I mentioned homelessness and housing. Earlier chambers used to never be involved in homeless, child

Brandon Burton 34:23
care, too.

Clint Nessmith 34:24
Child care, talent development. I mean, you know, there’s a lot, there’s a lot there, and we’re just going to continue to see that. And the reason is, is that when leaders of your community see these challenges, they’re looking for a partner that has proven themselves to get results in the past, and usually where they point back to is a chamber of commerce or an economic development organization. And so that’s what’s really driving this constant change. And. I, you know, you think about sea of chambers in the in the future, I think they’re going to continue to be just as relevant as they are today, as long as we are helping to solve community problems. You know, unless you’re, I think you’re all of your listeners would recognize that the value of networking, just for networking sake, is getting weaker and weaker. You have to be part of the solution for driving your community forward, and as long as you’re doing that, you’re going to be relevant.

Brandon Burton 35:36
I agree. Amen. Preach on. So I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you. Talk more about how they can be proactive. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect

Clint Nessmith 35:53
right? Yeah. Our website is RDGFundraising.com and my email address is clint@rdgfundraising.com, feel free to reach out.

Brandon Burton 36:09
That’s perfect. We’ll get it in our show notes and make it nice and easy for people to reach out and connect with the Clint. But I appreciate you joining us today, here on chamber chat podcast, sharing your perspective. These are things that, if chambers aren’t already thinking about, they should be. I think a lot of them are, but they need that, that motivate of talk, to be able to get them back in gear, get them focused, get them, you know, driving towards that destination. So I appreciate you, you know, coming and stirring the pot a little bit and making them think worthwhile conversation. Yeah,

Clint Nessmith 36:43
thank you. Really appreciate it. Brandon,

Brandon Burton 36:46
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Chamber Burnout with Jamie Beasley

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Jamie Beasley. Jamie is a passionate rural revitalization leader and innovative economic developer. Jamie serves as the Executive Director of the Pike County Chamber & Economic Development Corporation in Illinois, where she leads efforts around small business support, tourism, and strategic growth. She’s also the founder of Econ Dev Ops, a virtual assistant agency designed specifically for small chambers and economic development organizations.

Jamie brings a unique perspective as the first Economic Development Center Executive Director in the U.S. to become a Crowdfund Better® Certified Advisor, helping local businesses access capital through crowdfunding. With a master’s in Economic Development and continued training through the OU EDI program, Jamie is all about practical solutions and impactful results for rural communities. Jamie, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jamie Beasley 2:16
Well. Thank you very much. Brandon, I’m excited to be on here something interesting about me is that my my journey through the chamber slash economic development world has been bumpy because the first two. This is my third position in this industry, and my first two were both cut short after less than six months due to a lack of funding. So I like and I moved for these positions. So, like, I’ve been all around the country just trying to work in this industry.

Speaker 1 2:57
Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:00
you kind of been burned twice, but you still believe in it. You still absolutely

Jamie Beasley 3:04
forward, yeah, absolutely. I believe in what we’re trying to do. It’s just figuring out the funding that can be an issue, as we know now very well,

Brandon Burton 3:16
yeah, exactly, well, and I’m sure that becomes somewhat of a driver for you, too, at this point in your career to make sure things work and make sure the funding is coming in to make that program of work continue.

Jamie Beasley 3:30
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So hopefully, fingers crossed that we’re good here. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:38
well, tell us a little bit about the Pike County Chamber and EDC, just give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Jamie Beasley 3:51
So we are a like we are both a chamber and Economic Development Corporation with two different kind of membership groups. But between both, we have around 175 members. We have a revenue or a budget. I have around 100,000 a little over that, the Economic Development Corporation, absorbed the chamber last year into its fold. So in that process, there’s been confusion and a rebuilding. So we’ve kind of, I mean, we have members that came over, of course, from the chamber, but we lost some, and now we’ve got to show them that we’re still offering, you know, great services, and we’re great assets to the business and the community. So we’re kind of in a rebuilding mode, yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:53
yeah. It sounds like it an opportunity, I guess, for making sure that Brandon. Is hitting right in the community and getting the messaging across about what it is you guys do and what you provide and the impact they make in the community. So were they? Were they two separate organizations, the chamber and EDC, before the EDC absorbed the chamber,

Jamie Beasley 5:16
they were i, so I’m not the chamber has been around for, you know, a long time. The EDC has been around for about 25 years. I don’t know what caused the chamber to decide we don’t want to do this on our own anymore. Um, but they did, and I have heard since I stepped into this role, and I know started doing monthly networking because that had dropped off in monthly newsletters, because that had dropped off and just Facebook and stuff like that. I have heard numerous times how happy people are to be seeing activity and engagement. So I don’t know what had happened before, but it’s, I think, proof positive that people really like to see the chamber active and engaged in the community like it does matter, right, right?

Brandon Burton 6:13
So our topic for our discussion today is is going to be one that I think a lot of chamber leaders can resonate with a lot of chamber staff can resonate with when it comes to the idea of chamber burnout, I think we all come across it from time to time. Sometimes it hits a little harder than other times, but I think it’s important to have a strategy in place, to have a way to be able to face the burnout as it comes, because it will come if it hasn’t yet, and if it has come, you know exactly what we’re talking about, but we’ll dive in much deeper into this conversation as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Jamie, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about chamber burnout. So it’s, it may be best just to hear from your experience what’s been, what’s been that, how’s that looked in your career, that that burnout? How’s that you have reared its ugly head, and what kind of solutions have you figured out for it?

Jamie Beasley 10:27
Well, in my my journey through this industry, I have noted that in all my positions, and I’m have heard other directors say similar things, that they’re doing it all. You know, we’re all doing it all, like, maybe, if you’re lucky, you have, like, a part time assistant or something to help you. But a lot of us are, you know, we’re the director, we’re the administrative assistant, we’re the membership driver. You know, we’re doing all the things we’re and we’re planning events, we’re working on tourism, we’re, it’s a lot and, I mean, and that’s certainly the case for me as well. I mean, I’m in charge of tourism and the chamber and Economic Development Corporation, and I am the administrative assistant as well. So it can definitely be overwhelming. And there are certainly days where you just want to throw up your hands and be like, No more. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 11:36
I know when there’s a there’s times on my computer I’ve got way too many tabs open and trying to focus on what it is that I’m doing at that moment, I’m like, Hold on, I gotta close out some tabs, because this is completely overwhelming. And as a chamber leader, as a chamber staff, even, you know, sometimes those tabs, you just can’t close them. They’re just always open. And how have you found to be effective to try to to manage all these open tabs and distractions that can come your way at any moment that they take you off course of what the the main purpose is, or the main thing at hand that you’re you’re focused on.

Jamie Beasley 12:14
Well, I mean, for me, the key has really been to bring in help. I mean, it started with a couple of interns just working a few hours a week to help with social media, and even something simple, like, like social media and, you know, asking them to, hey, here’s a post. Please. Schedule this. Put it together and schedule it. Just that takes a load off of your mind, and it just gives you a little chance to breathe and and I know, I mean, I’ve heard plenty of of chamber directors, you know, talk about the same thing, the overload, the doing everything and experiencing the just even the little bit of pressure that took off. Having these two interns to help with social media, it kind of led me to the idea of because I have worked as a virtual assistant, and it, it just left me like we need virtual assistants. I mean, most of us, I mean the smaller chambers, we can’t afford a full time administrative assistant, you know, and the benefits and all of the things, but maybe we can afford somebody part time. So I I started building that. I started looking for contractors who could do the things that I need done. And I figure if I needed them done, other chamber, like event planning, social media, general admin. So that’s been how i That’s how I dealt with, yeah, bringing in help bring I mean, that’s really, I don’t know any other way to just get it all done.

Brandon Burton 14:14
I think that’s great. I think you know so often you’re wearing so many different hats, right? And for the example, social media. Yes, that’s on the to do list. Yes, we all understand social media is important. You need to have the presence out there. But when you’re being pulled 18 different ways, and that social media thing just keeps pinging you, like, hey, you need to do this. You need to do this. Well, the time that it would take you to do it, and the expertise not not knock docking anybody’s, you know, capabilities of social media, but if it’s somebody’s wheelhouse where that’s what they do day in and day out of social media, they can knock it out and move on to the next thing and check it off the list for you. So it’s not hovering in your mind and thinking, Oh, I got to get to this thing and and. You know, maybe four times as long to do the thing that it would to have this intern do it, or the the assistant, or whatever it may be, and, and I think that’s true. You know, with a lot of these different aspects you you mentioned, like event planning and things like that, where, when you’re wearing all the different hats, it’s very hard to get in that zone of planning an event, because then the phone rings and you’re off to, you know, put out this fire and that fire, and it’s really hard to get the traction and get things moving. So, yeah, I can definitely see the value in bringing in help. So you had mentioned, you know, bringing in interns. You mentioned virtual assistants. One thought that comes to mind is, you know, maybe at a chamber, they’ve got an ambassador program and some ambassadors who will raise their hand and take on, you know, some of these tasks and help lighten the load. Maybe it’s a board member who who aligns well with with some of these things that can help. I don’t know. Are there other other ideas or approaches or things you’ve seen to be successful? Sure.

Jamie Beasley 16:06
I mean, a lot of a lot of chambers use volunteers. I mean, obviously your board is volunteer. And you know, if you volunteers are a great source of help. If you can get their time. They’re just, you know, they’re volunteers, so you can’t be demanding on. You must do this at this time and be here and whatever you know, or you risk driving them away. Now they can be great. I mean, they can be great no matter what, but especially if you’re like, working on a project, that’s something they really care about. Oh, yeah. I mean, I have a volunteer right now who he moved away from town, and then he came back, and now he just wants to see that his town to be as great as it can be. And so he’s coming in with all these ideas that he gathered from his, you know, life journey, and he’s so we’re working together. And, I mean, he is a breath of fresh air, and I am so grateful for just that level of enthusiasm, and, you know, willingness to do whatever needs to be done to make the thing that we’re working on happen. So, I mean, volunteers are definitely something to take advantage of if you have access to them.

Brandon Burton 17:34
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And I think, to your point of if it’s something that strikes a chord with that volunteer that is in their wheelhouse, so they can get get excited about, for example, if you’ve got that Ambassador that is at every ribbon cutting, and they’re excited about it and they want to support the new business, maybe they would help by posting that on on social media, you know, some pictures and some captions, and put it on social Media, because that’s in their wheelhouse. That’s what they enjoy. Kind of touts being there and all that. So I think looking for those opportunities where you can lean upon those people, where they are excited about that task that maybe you’re not as excited about anymore, right? And

Jamie Beasley 18:17
I think that’s really the importance, is sometimes we like, we try to find volunteers to do like, maybe, I don’t know, fill certain hours or whatever. And what we really need to be focusing on is finding volunteers who are passionate about a thing and okay, you want to work like, it doesn’t have to be just one volunteer that comes in four hours a week or whatever. I mean, that’s great, if you can find it, but it could just, yeah, be one person who really wants to do social media, or one person who loves planning events, or one one person who you know you kind of have to because they’re volunteers like fit into their life in the best way, because we have a tendency to be like, well, the volunteer needs to fit into our organization, our schedule and the way we do things, but they’re the volunteer, so you need to make sure it’s a benefit to them and something that they enjoy doing, or you’re not going to have a volunteer for very long.

Brandon Burton 19:18
Yeah, it’s definitely a different approach than what you did with the staff or a paid, paid helper, right, right?

Jamie Beasley 19:25
Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean,

Speaker 1 19:29
sorry, go ahead.

Jamie Beasley 19:30
Some places like there are people who, you know, maybe they want somebody in there to answer the phone from like, eight to noon, and there are people who might agree to do that. I’m not saying you can never do that. I’m just saying make sure that you take your volunteers interest into consideration.

Brandon Burton 19:49
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you’ve definitely have seen this as a pain point in your career, which, which has led to, as I mentioned in. Bio being the founder of econ DevOps, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what econ DevOps is and how it helps to overcome some of this chamber burnout that so many of us face.

Jamie Beasley 20:13
Absolutely So econ DevOps is a virtual assistant agency specifically focused on chambers and economic development organizations. So you know, we’re we are there to help with social media, event planning, newsletters, chasing invoices, just any and everything that chamber directors try to do. I mean, as long as we can do it on the computer, we can help with it. And it’s just, I felt like, I mean, virtual assistants have been around for years. And for some reason, it felt like chambers and EDOs, like small videos. Didn’t think about that they can use virtual assistants to like, the connection had just never been made. So all I really did was make that connection, because I have worked as a virtual assistant and as a chamber director. So I know I would love to have somebody do social media. I would love to have somebody do event planning, and so I created that because I also think at least this is what has been my experience. I have a certain skill set, like I am friendly. I love going out and talking to people and brainstorming and all these things. I am really not as detail oriented as some of these responsibilities need. So it takes me longer, and I procrastinate because I don’t want to do it, because I don’t enjoy it. And so having somebody that can come in and like, likes doing that thing and is detail oriented makes a world of difference. I mean, I hired one of my VAs to help me to with econ DevOps, because I was like, I know these are not the things I’m strong at, and so please help me do those things so that I can focus on the things that I am strong at, right? And I think that is as much a part of burnout as doing all the things, is doing things that you’re not good at and you don’t enjoy, and then you procrastinate on doing them, and so then that’s like hanging over your head and you’re stressing about that, and you know, you finally get it done. But you know, it’s just, it’s so much. It is so much. Directors do so much. I mean, not just directors, all of the chamber staff, because they’re all doing one thing, right? You know? I mean, it kind of all the directors, the face the director is the one that has to talk to the board, and it’s a lot, and it really can just be incredibly overwhelming. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:05
so I’ve, I’ve done this exercise before with, if I remember it right, you take, like, a piece of paper and fold it into quadrants, so you got four sections to it, and then in one section, you write down, you know, all the things with your job that you enjoy, you know that you enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you’re writing down all the things that you really don’t enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you write all the things that you personally have to do, like because of your title, your responsibilities, the role, whatever it is you have to do these things. And then another, that final square, all those things that you do that you don’t have to be the one doing it. And I think going through that sort of an exercise can help to see okay, if I can offload some of this in all the variety of different ways that you mentioned, that leaves more bandwidth for me to do the things that I enjoy doing, and the things that I have to do in a much better and efficient manner. And just it just opens that bandwidth and frees the brain space and all of that. So, yeah,

Jamie Beasley 24:12
that’s a great, a great exercise from figuring out what you should not be doing. I mean, I just would tell people make a list of all the things, but I like your idea better.

Brandon Burton 24:27
Well, give me credit the first two times, then it’s yours to own for however you want to use it to do so. So you’d mentioned virtual assistants, and in the past, as I’ve heard of virtual assistants. I’ve always pictured them being overseas, you know, in the Philippines or so, right? Yeah. So for a chamber that can be a US based chamber that can be a difficult hurdle to think, well, let me bring on this VA, who’s in the Philippines, who may not, maybe not, everything translates the same way when. Got a chamber member who’s calling about something on Main Street, and maybe it just doesn’t resonate the same way, or then they find out, hey, I hired somebody overseas, and we’re the Chamber of Commerce. We should be. It just has a negative connotation to it. So I like the idea of presenting yourself as a virtual assistant, but specialized with chambers of commerce and EDOs and being able to understand the language and be not just English, but the language the chamber and Edo language,

Jamie Beasley 25:31
right? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, and that’s part of our deal is we only hire us based virtual assistants, you know, partially for the language and differences, you know, because translation can cause problems, but also just for the security issues. Like, I mean, not that there’s, you know, a big security threat in the Philippines, but like, it’s just you know you never know. You never know. You never know exactly you never know. So all, yeah, all of our VAs are US based and we also, what I really, I like about our process is that we try to match a client with a VA like, personality wise and work style wise, not just like, Okay, well, here’s somebody best, a lot to you. But you know, like talking to the client, talking to the VA, then having them talk, make sure they get along and like each other and can work, you know, feel like they’re going to work well together and and so I feel like it makes it, it’s, I mean, it’s kind of like hiring an employee, only they’re not an employee. But, you know, you get to know, if, like, because if you sit down and talk to somebody for five minutes and you’re like, I cannot work with them, well, let’s, yeah, let’s move on to somebody else. So, I mean, it’s like a whole process, because we want to make sure that your assistant is not another source of stress for you, right? Because we don’t need any more sources of stress. We have plenty,

Brandon Burton 27:14
right? I like that. So essentially, you’re a matchmaker. That’s what you have, yes, essentially,

Jamie Beasley 27:19
essentially. I mean, we all heard of, like, head hunters for, you know, C suite executives. That’s just common. I mean, I’m not that. I’m, you know, a headhunter for admin, but I am a, you know, like, I can find you a good virtual assistant, and then you don’t have to worry about, you know, benefits, or workers comp, or any of those things. And so because that was one of the things we ran into with the interns that I didn’t think about, was workers comp and the State Revenue Office, like all those things that I hadn’t thought about, and and it made it more expensive than we were expecting. And if, when you hire a contractor, you don’t have to do that.

Speaker 1 28:06
So, yeah, those are good, good points.

Brandon Burton 28:10
Yeah, again, it’s offloading headaches, right? Offloading

Jamie Beasley 28:15
headaches, that is what we want to be doing. Offloading headaches. That’s right, there’s just so many other things that we get we can focus on, right?

Brandon Burton 28:26
So this, this next question is, it may be right in your wheelhouse, but for chambers listening who want to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you share with them to try to accomplish that goal.

Jamie Beasley 28:44
Well, I mean, I really feel like not trying to do it all yourself is one of the biggest things you can do. And it can be a virtual assistant, it can be a volunteer, it can be an intern, it can be a combination of all three. We’re so used to doing so much with so little, and I mean, directors burn out, and that’s not good for our organization. I mean, obviously it’s not good for us. It’s not good for our organization. It makes the chamber look bad when you’re having to hire a new director every two years. Yeah, you know. So just Yeah, regardless of how you go about it, find somebody to help you, volunteer intern, hiring whatever. Just stop trying to do it all by yourself because you can’t. And yeah, y’all are going to burn out.

Brandon Burton 29:46
And that’s a great plug right there for anyone listening, to share with their board is it really has a negative impact when you see the chamber executive that you know turning over every couple years, when you’re thinking, How do. Get these members to renew their membership year after year, but yet the leader of the organization can’t stick around for more than two years. What does that say about the organization? So being able to bring in help is huge, to be able to have that longevity, and it trickles down into membership and sponsorships and everything else, because it shows the health of the organization. So 100% Yeah, absolutely. Great tip. I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jamie Beasley 30:37
I think that chambers could have a huge role in our communities. Moving forward, I feel like in the past, not the chambers weren’t important, but especially smaller chambers were like parades, and I don’t know stuff and things like

Brandon Burton 30:58
parties, pageants and parades, right? Yes, thank you.

Jamie Beasley 31:02
And I feel like now, with the way everything is changing so fast that chambers really could help business like help walk businesses through these changes, guide businesses through these changes. I mean, whether it’s finding an AI expert to do a workshop for your businesses, or, you know, finding something to teach people how to make graphics on Canva, or, you know, do social media or reels or Tiktok. I mean, I feel like chambers really do have a future if they embrace their role as leader and educator and advocate, of course, rather than parties, parades and pageants, yeah,

Brandon Burton 31:51
yeah, all those things that you mentioned are things that will help move the needle for a business. Absolutely, you know, having a parade and that community involvement. It’s nice. It can serve a purpose. And depending on the community, maybe you do that. But those things that move the needle and really help a business move forward, especially with the speed that we see in the economy these days, with AI and everything else, it’s so important to be, you know, forward thinking, and be able to be that educator and that convener of ideas and leaders as well. So absolutely. Yeah, well, Jamie, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about your approach, or econ DevOps, or anything that you’ve covered today. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect. Well,

Jamie Beasley 32:43
you can either connect with me on LinkedIn, that’s a great way, or our website is econdevops.com and our email address is Hello@econdevops.com. So any one of those will get you straight to me. So I would love to talk to anybody, whether it’s about Econ Dev Ops or they just want to be like, Yeah, I’m burnt out too, and I get it and, you know, yeah, exactly

Brandon Burton 33:17
good with whatever, yeah, yeah. Chamber, chamber folks need support. You know, that’s for

Jamie Beasley 33:22
sure, absolutely

Brandon Burton 33:25
well, I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, so it’ll make it easy for listeners to find that and connect with you. But Jamie, I want to thank you for spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast and and thank you for the work you’re doing to help overcome the burnout throughout the industry. I appreciate it

Jamie Beasley 33:46
My pleasure. Thank you for having me on it’s been great.

Brandon Burton 33:51
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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Candace Carnahan. Candace is a relationship driven, solution oriented leader with a passion for putting strategy into action. As the President and CEO of the Grand Junction Area of Chamber of Commerce. She is committed to fostering a thriving business climate in western Colorado through advocacy innovation, innovative partnerships and forward thinking initiatives that benefit the local businesses. The chamber serves. Candace is a board member of W. A.C.E. and a graduate of the US Chamber of Commerce Business Leads Fellowship, which focuses on the critical connection between K through 12 education and workforce development. A Grand Junction native and graduate of Central High School, Candace is enjoys golfing, hiking with her dog, Harlow, and spending time with her husband of 20 years. Candace, I’m excited to have you with us today, here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Candace Carnahan 2:11
Yes. Brandon, thank you so much for having me. I think that it alluded to it a little bit in my bio there. But, you know, I think something that I a lot of people find interesting is that I’m able to act in this leadership role in a community that I was born and raised in, and so went out and and had my adventures growing up, but to come back and serve the community that my family continues to have deep roots in is such an honor, and, quite frankly, makes the work just that much more rewarding to know that this is a place that I’ve called home for a very long time.

Brandon Burton 2:50
You are like a poster child for workforce development, right? You grow up in the community, you leave, get your education, but you come back, right? That’s what we want them all to do. Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Grand Junction area Chamber, just to give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, absolutely.

Candace Carnahan 3:11
So our chamber is located, it’s about the last thing you hit between Denver and Utah. So we’re on that western edge of Colorado. We are honored to represent nearly 800 businesses here locally as investors in our chamber that represent almost 45,000 employees. But we also make sure to support the region in a number of different efforts, whether it’s workforce development and policy as well. So we currently have a full time team of six here at our chamber, and our budget is just over $800,000 annually.

Brandon Burton 3:49
All right, that’s perfect. That’s the stage for our discussion today, and I’m excited to dive into our discussion. It’s not the typical type of conversation that we have on the podcast, but it’s something that I think is important for every chamber staff to listen to and to really lean into, and that’s the art of curiosity. And we’ll dive in deeper on that. I’m curious to learn your approach on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 8:23
All right, Candace, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about the art of curiosity. And I understand you’ve presented on this before at W A C E, and granted, not everybody listening is a member of W A C E, and like I mentioned before, we hit record, to be honest, even going to conferences, we only really retain a percentage of whatever is presented. So it’ll be great to have this documented and have it be shareable for chamber leaders throughout the country and really anywhere they are. So I’m going to hand the mic over to you and let us, you know, give us an idea as you approach your work, how does curiosity come into it? Has it benefited you? What are some of those key things to think of and just, you know, start where you want to start from.

Candace Carnahan 9:09
Yeah, Brandon. You know, I think this is something that leaders in all industries could really lean on, especially with the climate that we find ourselves in as leaders these days, but as chamber executives, being curious is, in my mind, the only way to make sure that you are always focused on the right solutions and the right problems. It is so easy to get caught up in complex community issues, workforce challenges, policy debates, and if you aren’t crystal clear on the work that needs to be done and why it needs to be done, well it’s going to make our job that much harder, and it’s already hard enough. And so I actually got advice. Oh. Really early on in my role here as CEO, and it was always lead with curiosity. There should always be a question as your first thought, and oftentimes the first thing out of your mouth when you’re approaching things, because there’s typically are different layers than just the one that you’re seeing at face value. And so it’s so important as chambers and chamber executives, when we are faced with a never ending parade of challenges and issues and needs from those that we serve to make sure that we’re we’re staying as effective and intentional as possible.

Brandon Burton 10:41
It seems like just throughout the world that there’s a lot more tension than there used to be, whether it’s politically or just how one sees the world. So I think that’s so important to be curious and learn. You know, what makes somebody see the you know, from their perspective on whatever the topic is, and you can learn a lot, you know, by asking those questions. And I think there really is an art to it, because you can ask questions, and you know, the recipient of the questions might think, well, she’s kind of dense, you know, for not knowing that answer, or, you know, this person’s naive for asking this question. So how do you lean into the curiosity in that art form? What are some of those things that you’ve learned in leaning into the curiosity? I

Candace Carnahan 11:30
really love this question, and I first want to just clarify that I feel there, there’s internal curiosity and external curiosity, and it’s a careful balance of this. I want to make sure that we as chamber executives are internally being as curious as possible. When you think you’ve asked all the questions, ask yourself one more time. Okay, but what is the true issue here? Or what? What person is missing from this table? What is the true resource that would move the needle on this, and then, if I don’t have it, who is the best person to help leverage in this, in this question? So I think those are the internal things that you’re constantly trying to address. But when you externally, sometimes just the simple, can you help me better understand this, or what I’m hearing is can, is that correct? Just getting Clara clarity of things, because not only are we looking at a large volume of issues that we’re trying to face as chambers, but the speed is very quickly picking up as well. And so slowing down the conversations to take the time to get to the root of things is so critical, and I have found myself when I say what I’m hearing is, Can Is that correct? They’ll say, oh, that’s that’s not quite what I meant. But let me help clarify in your because just think of how many times we assume we understood what was said, or we think we know where this is going, and that can not be the case. So by taking just a little bit of time with your questions, to slow down the conversation and be really intentional with the information that alone is going to drive you in the right place. And you know, this is not asking questions for the sake of asking questions. I want to make sure that’s really clear. It’s using questions to help you dig a little deeper, right? And fine tune your efforts and initiatives. Is really, really the goal here.

Brandon Burton 13:38
Yeah, I think the key, like you started off with, is that internal curiosity that’s going to keep things authentic. If you’re really trying to get to the root of what’s causing, you know, a situation or an individual’s thinking or perspective or whatever, if you are internally curious, it’ll be authentic and getting to the right questions, getting to the root of what that that causes?

Candace Carnahan 14:01
Brandon, I can’t, I can’t emphasize that enough. I think that, you know, it’s so easy for us to take things at face value, or take the information that we’re being handed or read a newspaper headline or whatever it is, I think we have to take a moment to say, Okay, but what else? What else am I not seeing in this first contact here or this first interaction? What else should I be looking for or knowing or thinking about? Because as chamber executives, that’s that’s really critical we we represent such a diverse group, even within the business industry, and then you pepper and community dynamics, policy, it gets messy, really, really fast. And I love that you used the word authentic, because anytime you stop being curious, that is typically when you veer off your path of authenticity, and that’s usually when you become less effective and less. Impactful as a chamber of commerce and in the toughest of moments, and you can’t see the light, I think your curiosity is that beacon of, okay, what this is my little step forward. This is how I can continue to move forward in this situation. Because if you’re so far off that path by just being reactive and and not really getting to the root of things that not only are you less effective, I think you can be damaging within your organization and community, if you aren’t really clear on what it is you should be doing instead of what it is you are doing. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 15:36
I was thinking, you know, as as far as how somebody views the world, it’s interesting how people, just in general, will identify with certain things, whether it be, it could be something, you know, drastic, like political alignment. You know, I identify as this, and because of that, I’m going to make the stance no matter what, you know, hell or high water, I’m making the stance. It could be something as simple as even a diet structure, you know, somebody follows, and they believe this is the only way to do, to eat, you know, to be healthy, because this is what I do, and that’s their worldview. And to understand that there’s always multiple perspectives. There’s always reasonings for both sides of whatever it and sometimes there’s multiple sides. So being able to lean in authentically is huge. It’s

Candace Carnahan 16:29
huge. I mean, when you compare it to let’s compare building a community to building a house. If everybody showed up on the job site and they all had the same perspective as the plumbers, that was their that’s what they did. They agreed on great plumbing and what type of piping and what type of faucets, the plumbing is going to be outstanding. The rest of the house is going to be very questionable. And we as a community need to make sure that we are also realizing that we’re all coming together to a table to build something. And what we need to be doing is working together to create the best structure and outcome possible. You know, the painters and the plumbers are going to disagree sometimes, and timing might be a challenge, and there’s all these different things, but at the end of the day, they’ve worked together to create a really great product and a really great home. And I think we need to make sure as a community, to be able to step back and make sure that we’re having disagreements of tasks and not of relationships. And that comes to really asking the questions both of ourselves and of our partners. Of First of all, here’s a really important question I ask all the time, is, what is my role in this conversation, but also, I say, what is their role in the conversation? I can’t be holding them to an accountability level of the role of a role that’s not appropriate for their seat at the table. And it’s funny how often we will do that and say, well, we we’re disagreeing. You should think differently. Well, that’s their role. Is that perspective, and we have to honor it and move forward with it, and it does bring you to better solutions, or at least better understanding of where everyone lies in the conversation. So, yeah, it’s so important for us to take a step back and just really understand not just our own why, but everyone else’s why, because the motives in the conversation are really going to be where everyone is operating out

Brandon Burton 18:32
of yeah, that is huge. And that’s not something that I had considered before. Is understanding what their why. I think a lot of people will understand what’s my why, you know, why am I engaging in this conversation, or whatever it may be, but to understand the other person’s Why, what their point of view is, what, what’s bringing them to the table? And I don’t know, for me to make sense of it, I think of, you know, in a TV show, when you see a courtroom, right? You’ve got the prosecutor and you got the defense, and somewhere in the middle is the truth, right? And but both sides have their role that they’re they’re working towards, and it’s important to understand what that role is, so you can come to some sort of agreement

Candace Carnahan 19:12
Absolutely you you would not want to be in a position where they were expecting you to shift off of your mission, your why? Your unwavering advocacy for the business community. That’s not something that you would want them to ask of you, and oftentimes we shouldn’t be asking that of them. We have to recognize that, you know, we each have parts to play, and they’re very different sometimes and sometimes they’re not. But it’s really important to keep that in mind. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 19:39
I love the analogy you gave of building a house and you’ve got the different contractors building a house. It reminds I’d seen a reel a while back where this person is impersonating different tradesmen as they come to a construction site, and how they approach things, from the plumber to the electrician to the drywall guy and the painters and. Everything and and obviously it’s coming from a skewed perspective of, you know, a certain contractor not understanding the why for why the plumber is doing things the way they are, or the electrician doing things the way they are. And it’s kind of poking fun at them. But if you could get to the root of why they do what they do the way they do, it changes everything. And you could build a better house, or you could build a stronger community. It’s

Candace Carnahan 20:23
so important, and I find myself often saying, what, where? Where am I most living in the uncomfortable because that tends to be where I either haven’t been curious enough or haven’t gotten to know that area enough so there’s clearly unanswered questions. And what’s exciting is that gives me opportunity to say, You know what to be great at what I do. I need to go explore that perspective. I need to either go spend time with them. I need to go witness firsthand what it is they’re trying to communicate to me, I just need to have a better understanding and opportunity to ask questions outside of the heat of the moment, often outside of when we’re trying to hash out solutions. But just tell me more about your perspective, and that way, when we are in the next conversation, you are that Curiosity has led you to a more informed place. It it could reinforce where you’re at. It could shed light on where opportunities for collaboration are. It can also create opportunity for how you can leverage partnerships and work together. Because I now, I didn’t know you had that tool in your toolbox, and I have, you have the hammer, I have the nails. Hey, why are we not working together? And so it’s very rarely does anything bad come from being curious. I think that’s just i I’ve challenged when I, I thought about this conversation today, I was trying to say, Are there any pitfalls of being curious? And I’m sure there are, but it’s very few and far between. I would say, yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:10
I think the pitfall would be as if you’re not internally curious, if you’re not focusing on that, that would be the big pitfall when

Candace Carnahan 22:17
you aren’t that’s where it starts to get dicey. Yeah. So

Brandon Burton 22:21
I was thinking of it from the standpoint too, of as you have a new business member, investor in your organization, to be able to just be curious about what they offer. Like you said, they’ve got the hammer, you’ve got the nails. What connections can we make? So it doesn’t even have to come from a point of where there’s tension at all. It can just be, I want to learn more about what you have to offer. How can we help you? And again, knowing what their role is and what your role is, and trying to align those to, you know, build the perfect community, right? To build a stronger, better community and and make those connections. That’s what a chamber is all about.

Candace Carnahan 22:55
I love there’s no boundaries to how you can use this tool. That’s what’s exciting. You know, it’s, it’s a free tool. It’s, it’s something that you can create as an asset. And I keep saying, as a CEO or in chamber leaders, this should be something that you are including your whole team on in the journey. If your entire team is operating with this premise of being curiosity, to go back to your invest investor membership conversation, we regularly say that our those conversations are more about us getting to know them than it is about them getting to know us. And if we walk away without having any conversation about what tier levels or opportunities are, that’s okay, because what we’ve done is we’ve been curious about their business and shown them that they matter, and we want to know about how they fit into this really important piece within the business community. We’re already building a strong relationship with them, and that can be used on board, members, volunteers. If you are the more you get curious about what people what they need, what motivates them, you’re much better positioned to serve that person or support that person. If you are operating off of what you think they need or think motivates them, you have a really good shot of missing the mark. And so, yeah, this is something that can be used all the time community partners. There’s, you know, use your use your survey tools. That’s the one of the biggest things you can do by just It’s funny how often I hear people say, Huh, I wonder what our members would feel about this. Ask them five question flash bowl, hey, how do you feel about this? I think sometimes we just discount the ability to just ask,

Brandon Burton 24:52
yeah, I love that. So the idea of including your whole team, that just really resonates with. With me, it really doesn’t move the needle. If only the chamber executive is the one on board with curiosity. If your team’s not doing it again, it goes back to authenticity. Doesn’t seem real, and you’re not going to have all the touch points that the rest of your team has. How do we integrate that within staff, within the board, maybe even ambassadors? How do we integrate that curiosity and generate that movement? Is how I see it.

Candace Carnahan 25:26
I am so glad you asked that. I think first of all, you have to normalize it. There can be stigma about asking questions, and somehow it makes you seem like you’re not paying attention or not skilled enough to handle the situation. We really have created a culture around the fact that the problem only comes if you’re not asking questions. Are you asking for help? Are you asking how this connects with another teammates work? Are you asking how our members could be benefiting from this or who else might be interested in this resource, we try to ask ourselves, which is funny that I say that, but anytime we’re doing something it, we kind of say, Okay, but what else you think it’s you think it’s done or you think that you’ve explored it? Yes, but what else like if you could push just a little further into that curiosity zone, what? And then it’s funny, how often say, Oh, well, actually, you know, I could explore something a little bit differently. Or it’s amazing what just that little nudge over the edge will do. It also, by doing this as a team. I think it shows to our members in our board what our motives are, and it has created an atmosphere where they feel comfortable to come bring us information as well. So maybe we haven’t outwardly asked for it, but because of how we have integrated this as a culture, they know that we’re open to feedback and differing perspectives even when we’re not asking for it. So I think it’s it’s simply about incorporating it naturally into everything you do, and making sure that everyone understands that the only time there should be concerns is when we as a group stop asking questions. And if someone is not asking questions, we need to kind of turn to them and say, Is there something we could be doing to help support you in opening up this communication? Yeah, we always end and start and end every staff meeting with questions to each other as well. It’s not just me, you know, it’s, do you have any team? Do you have any questions for our marketing director team? Do you have any questions marketing director? Is there anything that the team could be helping or supporting you with instead of just waiting for it to happen? It’s, I’m opening the door, jump in and and it’s really exciting to see that take off, because they are and they they do it naturally, and it makes us all better, because our organizations are not just the CEO. I think that’s we know that, but it’s really easy to get into that mode. The organizations are every single person, volunteers, board members, your investors, and that’s got to be something that everyone does. Yeah, I love that.

Brandon Burton 28:22
What else are we missing out of the art of curiosity, I feel like there’s questions that I haven’t asked. What are what are the things that are on the top of your mind? You

Candace Carnahan 28:33
know, the only thing that comes to mind is that a question asked once is not necessarily a question answered, and so don’t be afraid to go back and ask again. And I’m just going to give this example our chamber. I’m very lucky to have inherited a chamber that is very strongly positioned. We had a CEO who was very well respected, and she was here for 35 years. And so I learned from one of the best in the industries. But being able to say, even though we know who we are as an organization and we really excel, who is it we do we want to be today? And that is actually something that at every strategic planning session, we say, okay, we know who we are now. Who do we want to be tomorrow? And I think that’s something that can also be brought into other conversations. We know this workforce development strategy is working now, but what is it that our businesses need tomorrow? And so as long as you’re continuing to evolve your questions and go back and just check in on them. I think that’s really important, because answers can get stagnant, and I that’s again, you have now as an organization, stopped being curious about how to be the best version of yourself, and we have to continue to do that.

Brandon Burton 29:53
So maybe a 2.0 episode would be the art of asking the question, right? So you can. You’re curious, but then there’s a way of asking the question to where you can get the answer instead of, you know, how are you doing? I’m good. You know, there’s a better question to be asked,

Candace Carnahan 30:08
right? Oh, yes, absolutely. I love that.

Brandon Burton 30:11
Well, Candace for a chamber listening who’s wanting to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item or piece of advice would you share with them and trying to accomplish this goal?

Candace Carnahan 30:28
I would say that you have to lean into the uncomfortable oftentimes, there can also be a fear about asking questions, because they’re like, oh, that means more work. Like, I don’t want to

Brandon Burton 30:40
know. I am not doing that, right?

Candace Carnahan 30:44
I would say this, you know, we’re not asking you to turn over all the rocks right right away. I’m just saying when that this is actually meant to be a tool to help lead you towards a more efficient level of effectiveness, right? So start small. Find a couple things that you can just get comfortable and see that Okay, two more questions actually didn’t make it worse. It actually streamlined my path to a productive solution. Or, holy moly, I was completely going down the wrong path. Or I had an answer that was actually in search of a problem. There really is no problem here. I can pivot and now divert resources. So start small. Find some things that you can just say, Hmm, what if I just thought one layer deeper, and go from there? Yeah, you’ll find it will start to integrate itself into your life. More and more

Brandon Burton 31:38
I like that. So I like asking everyone I have on the podcast, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Candace Carnahan 31:50
Well, you know, it’s funny. I do tie it, actually, to this topic. I have felt, and I see it more and more and more about our role as being that convening agent in our communities being our most important role that we play, especially with how divided everything seems to have a hard line drawn, and people are picking sides. And what’s unfortunate about that is it, it really does keep us away from true solutions for many of the challenges that we’re facing as communities. And so I think it is important for us, if we are, if we’re not saying who’s missing from this conversation, or what is the true problem that we’re trying to tackle here, to make sure we’re all aligned. Because, gosh, if, if you think you’re solving this problem and I’m solving this problem and we actually are in the same table trying to solve the same problem, we’re not going to get very far. And so I think as chambers, we have to really, I would say, if you do nothing, do that be the person that’s able to come to the table, bring people to the table. And if you’re operating from that curiosity standpoint, you’re curious on how we as a group can get to the best solution, and that’s your motivating factor to be there, not to be the person that has a feather in their hat. Because I brought everyone to the table, it’s I’m curious on how we can bring our ability to get everyone at the table and truly walk away making an impact. I think that’s going to be something that we have to lean into, because there there are other resources for a lot of the other things that we’re doing. But if we’re not bringing people together to to solve and navigate the barriers and burdens facing our businesses, we’re not going to be effective. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:39
I like that. That’s a great tip in how we look and navigate into the future. Candice, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you. Maybe learn more about your approach to curiosity. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Candace Carnahan 33:59
I always welcome anyone to email me. It’s very easy to find me. It’s just candace@gjchamber.org We do have a great website as well where you can find me, which is GJChamber.org. But I’m always happy to talk to anyone. And you know, this is, this is hard work that we all do as chambers, and the more we can lean on each other and share information and opportunities, I think we’re better for it.

Brandon Burton 34:35
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you spending time with us today and letting us, you know, be a little curious about your approach and how you how you approach things there at the Grand Junction area, chamber and and just your work in general. I think it’s a great way, a great way, to have a perspective, to learn more, and to really allow you to serve your business community in a much better and elevated way. So. Thank you for sharing that with us today.

Candace Carnahan 35:02
I really appreciate the opportunity and and thank you for all that you do to to keep us all tapped in on the important things facing our industry.

Brandon Burton 35:10
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Community Strategy with Jason Mock

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Jason Mock. Jason is a dynamic and visionary leader committed to fostering strong connections between businesses and communities. As President and CEO of The Greater Dalton Chamber, he works to drive economic growth, advocate for businesses and create a thriving future for the region. His leadership extends beyond Georgia. With a proven track record in chamber and community development before leading the greater Dalton chamber, Jason served as president and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce in Texas, and as the director of Small Business Services for the foresight Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. Jason is deeply engaged in regional and state leadership. He serves on the board of Thrive regional partnership and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the hub chamber Council, a key policy group of Metropolitan Chamber leaders across Georgia, and serves on the ALI Alumni Advisory Committee for the Appalachian Regional chain, Regional Commission. His career began in politics, studying political science at the University of West Georgia and working with former congressman Lynn Westmoreland, and later served as political director at former Georgia Secretary of State, Karen Handel, and played a role in the 2008 Republican National Convention and John McCain’s presidential campaign. Committed to professional excellence. Jason earned his IOM certificate in non profit management from the US Chamber of Commerce Institute in 2016 Jason, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jason Mock 2:53
Brandon, thank you so much for having me today. You know, I don’t know what’s most interesting about me, but I will say that at one time, I got to drive around Lee Greenwood at an event. And for those that may not recognize Lee Greenwood, you know, God bless America, very powerful guy that loves to sing about our country, but got to drive him and his son around back in the day for some political events when I was working for on the presidential campaign for McCain. So, so,

Brandon Burton 3:26
which is pretty cool. Yeah, he’s still on the circuit too. It seems like I just saw him, you know, a few months ago on stage. So that’s that’s great, very interesting. I like asking that question because we learn these, these fun tidbits about people, but tell us a little bit about the Greater Dalton Chamber. Give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with and budget just kind of set that perspective.

Jason Mock 3:52
Greater Dalton Chamber. For those that may not be familiar, we’re up in northwest Georgia. We’re home to a lot of people know us as the carpet capital of the world. Now we like to say we’re the flooring capital of the world, just because we’re carpet and hard services, as well as astro turf. In fact, if you watch the national championship football game that was hosted in Atlanta, Georgia this year, that turf was made right here in Dalton, Georgia. So kind of unique and special about that. But our community is a, you know, manufacturing community, but it is one of entrepreneurs. Our chamber is about 800 members. Our staff is about we have 10 folks on staff, and we always are looking to grow and and find different ways. But you know, we’re engaged in a lot of different things, mainly in the connecting side of things that networking most chambers are, but developing talent, workforce development is key for us, as well as the advocacy standpoint. So those three. Standpoint, or our focus as an organization. And I know today we’ll talk a little bit about more about the community side of things that we’re working on. We really dive into making sure that, you know, not only with the voice of our business community, but we’re also looking at how we’re growing greater Dalton community as a whole, for for families, residents, and anybody that’s coming to visit our community as a throughout the time,

Brandon Burton 5:27
That’s great. That gives a great snapshot and and a great you know item to pinpoint, you know, the manufacturing to the national championship. So yeah, that turf, and that turf is becoming more and more popular everywhere.

Jason Mock 5:42
It seems like you see it, not just at the National you know, in sports from a major league to the NFL, but you’re seeing it down to the Parks and Rec and in fact, Shaw sports turf, that’s the one that made the national championship. They’re making it where they’re putting these coconut shells in them, and it’s supposed to keep the temperature really cool on the ground and during the turf. So for those that are in the the South, in the summer times that you know that that turf can get a little hot, and they’re finding ways to keep it safe from a temperature standpoint, as well as a safety on the knees and the ankle. So it was kind of cool.

Brandon Burton 6:22
Yeah, one of our neighbors just put it in their backyard turf, and got me envious. And I’m like, shoot, how much does that cost? Gotta figure this out. He told that lawn mower very quickly. That’s right, that’s right. Well, you had mentioned it a minute ago that our focus for our conversation today will be around the strategy you guys have for building community there in the Dalton area. And look forward to diving in deeper on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Jason, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking your community strategy today. Chambers across the country, throughout the world, need to have some kind of strategy right to build their community and and I always like getting the perspective from different chambers to see what is it that’s working for you guys, what? Where’s your areas of focus? And maybe it lights a spark for somebody listening to see ideas that they can maybe implement in their community. But tell us what I believe. It’s called, Believe Greater Dalton.

Jason Mock 10:40
Believe Greater Dalton is our community strategy led by the Chamber of Commerce. It was something my predecessor and board chair at the time had many conversations about, because we were constantly doing a strategy, year in and year out, and some were working and some were were not. Some of our community leaders were feeling like that. Those strategies were being in silos, and the only people that can make a decision with those that were at the table versus being a community strategy for for the greater good. And so over time, believe greater Dalton came to life in 2018 and it is a it became a five year strategy to look at our community, and we really dove deep into what our community needs, what our community is needs to focus on for the for the future. We brought in a consultant to help us with this process. We interviewed community leaders, chamber businesses, elected officials, we held focus groups, we did surveys, we did it all to kind of figure out what are the top issues that are facing our community. And we came up with six areas of focus that we wanted to focus on in those first five years. And then we went out and raised those dollars once we knew those focus points. First year, we raised a little over a million dollars in that process to focus on six areas like I talked about. And those areas were education, housing, downtown, entrepreneurship, community, pride and economic development. And each of those had we broke them down into more of like objectives inside the education model. A lot of folks right now across the country are talking about third grade reading, and from a business community standpoint, it is very important that we look at third grade reading. And so from a chamber, I know a lot of folks, colleagues around will be like and listening to this going well, is the chamber out there in the school system teaching third grade reading? No, we’re not. We’re but we are working with our our educators. We’re working with our school districts to figure out ways that we can improve third grade reading so that that our third graders are reading at, you know, at grade level throughout the year, and so really, the focus of that is, how do we solve some of these problems? You know, when it comes to housing, you know, we’re not out there building housing, but we knew and know that housing is an issue for our community in I’ll back us up a little bit. No eight, no nine. When the housing crisis took place, it really hit greater Dalton because of our industry, we were pretty much a one horse town at the time, and so developers backed away. And so we really knew that we needed to have a focus to look at housing, at all aspects, from the workforce housing all the way up to the executive housing. And so when we launched this in 2018 we we did a housing study, which we produced with with a group. But that housing study allowed for developers in our community to have almost a road map that they could go to business or go to the banks, they could go to developers and go to investors and find a pathway to build housing. And we’ve started to see our housing stock to change in the sense of, we started to see additional workforce housing. We started to see more mid level executive housing. We’re we haven’t solved the problem, but we are working to fill those gaps, and we’ll continue to do that. So really, the true focus was how first six years, we’re flying the plane and building the plane at the same time. And so a lot of studies were done, a lot of looks at how we can improve our community. And so we were putting dollars into those areas that we felt would move the needle. And then fast forward, we said, You know what? This is something that we really, truly need for generations to come. We don’t need this to be a one year plan. And so believe greater Dalton 2.0 came about. And so we have additional five years where we went out and did the same process again. And but came up with some new strategies to look at.

Brandon Burton 15:03
So after that, the five years, what, what kind of strategies did you see in the second evolution of it?

Jason Mock 15:11
Yeah, some were the same. Housing still stayed at the top. I mean, when we talked to our investors, when we talked to community leaders, they still talked about, hey, we’re making progress, but we still haven’t. You know, we still are not at the finish line from a housing standpoint, so housing and education stayed at the top of the of those two lists. But what changed a little bit was we weren’t focusing on just on downtown. We said we gotta focus on our community as a whole. We got to focus on revitalization as a as a whole, greater Dalton ecosystem. And so we started to tackle different projects and different things, and a lot of this is public, private partnerships. I’ll give you example of one where the city came to us and they wanted to do, and this was in the first year, but they wanted to do some downtown improvements, of some streetscapes. They were able to get a grant to help with this, but they needed some additional dollars to cover the streetscapes, and so they came to us, and they asked for some for some funding. And so between the city, the grant, believe, greater Dalton, as well as our downtown development authority, we all chipped in some money into this to allow for this project to happen. It’s being constructed right now. It’s a little bit of a mess, but we know it by by the end of this year, that streetscape is going to be tied in to allow those businesses along that that corridor to be more successful, to have better parking for their interest, to have better walkability for their customers. At the end of the day, it’s going to be a game changer for that area, but it’s going to be a game changer for our community, because hopefully it’s attracting more businesses to that corridor so that more can grow and more can be successful, right?

Brandon Burton 17:01
So as you talked about education, housing, still stayed on that list, or still, you guys are moving the needle, but the problem’s not solved yet. And makes me picture, you know, a world where all the community problems are solved, and then what purpose does the chamber have, right? That’s right. You gotta have some job security there, right?

Jason Mock 17:19
Hopefully. So I’ll say we, we got a lot of work. I mean, we’re blessed to live in a great community. We got a great industries that call greater Dalton home. But, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of things that we want to improve on. We’re always trying to cross that finish line. I always say that the in our world, the finish line is always moving. That goal post is always is always moving. When we think we’ve accomplished and got a good product, we go, ooh, we need to tweak it here, or something else comes about. So there’s always job security and making sure that our communities are successful Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:59
And that was my point, that goal line keeps moving, and there’s always going to be, you know, things to focus on, and some of the things will stay on that list for some time, until you can really find a positive solution. But seeing that these are issues in almost every community, it seems like I don’t think anybody’s found that silver bullet just yet, but they’re all working towards good things and innovative ideas that’ll come out of it too. Yeah,

Jason Mock 18:26
and one thing I’ll say that has made this successful for us, and it may not make it successful for another community, but what’s made it successful for us is the folks that we’re engaging with. We have a big tent kind of philosophy, everybody’s invited to the room, everybody’s opinion is listened to and allowed to give comment about what’s going on. So we meet regularly with community leaders that are not businesses. They may not even be a chamber member. We’re meeting with folks to make sure that they understand the value of believe greater Dalton and what’s going on, but we’re also there to listen to what they they their input. Because we know this is a community strategy. It’s led by the chamber, but it’s a community strategy that we want our community to buy into. And so if it’s, you know, somebody that is retired and but lives in our community, is invested in our community. We want to hear from them. It’s a single mom trying to raise two kids. We want to hear from them. If it’s that business owner that has two employees, or that business owner that may have, you know, 1000s of employees, we want to hear from them, because this is their community just as much as it’s our community.

Brandon Burton 19:38
Yeah. So that leads right into the next question I had for you. So you had mentioned, with the in 2018 when the strategy was first being built out, there was a lot of surveys and things going on. How has that evolved? You mentioned you wanted to hear from all these people. I imagine surveys are going out to members the community at large. How is that being communicated? How are you gathered? Bring that information. We

Jason Mock 20:01
actually do a survey every year to our community. It goes out we we blast it out as best we can. We get it on social media. We make videos about it. You know, I’ll say this, our community, our city limits, is about inside city limits of Dalton, 52 53% are Hispanic. So we we put the survey in English and in Spanish. We have our marketing materials in both English and Spanish. We have folks that are speaking about it at different events and Rotary Clubs and civic groups. So we’re out there, you know, pounding the pavement for about three to four weeks the surveys out there, and the main thing we’re looking at is a net promoter score. Many chambers are starting to look at net promoter scores for their their their membership, from their events. We look at it from our community as well. And so we’re trying to improve our net promoter score throughout the years we’ve we’ve climbed a little bit on some things. We’ve dropped a little bit on some things, so we’re constantly working on that. The other thing we do with our survey is we poll and survey our high school students, our juniors and seniors. Get this survey. We want to hear from them. So we work very closely with our school districts, our superintendents, our principals, to make sure that this survey is getting in the hands of our students so that they can give us feedback. One thing we want to do is, you know, talking about the brain drain, we don’t want that those folks to leave our community. We’re blessed that we have Dalton College, Dalton State College, here in in our community. We have a technical college here in our community. But we also want folks to know, students, to know that there are great jobs in our community. So we want to hear from our students what they think about greater Dalton, because we know that they’re the future of our community.

Brandon Burton 21:56
That idea just alone in asking those high school juniors and seniors for their feedback shows that, hey, the community cares about me, right? There’s a place for me if I want to build a career here, if I want to, you know, grow my family here, there’s a place for me, and I don’t need to look somewhere else necessarily. And

Jason Mock 22:14
what’s amazing about this is going back to that net promoter score, usually, the net promoter scores of our students is higher than our net promoters of our adults, of the community. So that’s a great thing. I mean, I mean, when you look at it, the future is bright for us, but the that they really believe in the place they live, they love the place they live. And that’s, that’s cool.

Brandon Burton 22:33
Yeah, that is cool. I’ve got a a son that graduated last year, and a daughter, it’s a junior this year, and I’m thinking, would she, would she specifically fill out a survey? And I hope she would, yeah, I hope that would give that, that boost of confidence of, you know, the community cares about me, and they want me to they want my feedback. You know what? My opinion matters, especially as they get into that voting age, and they get more involved civically, like we want them, knowing that their voice matters and

Jason Mock 23:01
going still with that same survey, we also we carve it out a little bit. We ask you if you are a mother or father or parent or guardian with a student in our school system that has been in their school system currently or in the last five years. They then fill out a different or same survey, but they’re filling out some additional questions about how they rank our schools. What is it that they like about our schools? What is it they may not like about our schools? We take that data, we meet with our superintendents, we meet with our school board representatives, and we talk to them about the information that they have. Some of the data at the last year, survey came back that are we have two school system. We have a city and a county district that our County school system, their career and technical education was being called something in house. Parents were calling it something else, or didn’t recognize that. So that the that change right there had a negative on what they were offering. But what the school says is, we’re calling it a, they’re thinking it’s B. So we gotta work on our language. We gotta look at work on our communications. Fast forward to this year. Those numbers were drastically improved because of the way that they changed how they communicated that with their with their parents, so just little things like that making a bigger difference for how, you know, we can solve problems around here. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:29
some minor adjustments that are easy to make and it, you know, it’s night and day difference. Yeah, that’s great. Have there been other examples like that? If the feedback that you get from the surveys, just, I like those, those minor adjustments. Because sometimes you see the feedback, you’re like, Oh, this is gonna be big undertaking. This is another five to 10 years to move this ship, you know. And others are like, we can do that next month, you know? Yeah,

Jason Mock 24:54
most of them, those little ones, are great, like you talked about. A lot of the stuff we get are. Those bigger picture you know, ooh, this part of our community needs to be improved. I would love to see us have this type of retail store or this or that, but that right there just gives us feedback, and really and truly, it gives us our elected officials political cover. A lot of times, elected officials across the country are hesitant to make a decision, hesitant to make a move when it comes to growth or spending some dollars, but when you can come to them and say, the community as a whole has voted, has given their opinion that they want to see this improve, that’s political cover that they can go back at a county commission meeting and a city council meeting and say we’ve heard through our chamber, through this survey that’s given out to the community, that this is an important issue to us, and therefore we’re going to step into that arena and help solve that, because now they have that political cover to do that.

Brandon Burton 26:03
Yeah, having data means everything, right? That’s right. Having that information, I love it. Well. Jason for chamber listening, who’s wanting to take their organization, even argue their community up to the next level? What kind of tips or action plans, maybe you offer them to try to accomplish that goal.

Jason Mock 26:24
First of all, I would say, get a group of leaders together to have that conversation. And this is where you’re going to think big picture. What are the issues we’re facing today, what are the issues we may be facing tomorrow, and then, what are those issues that we may be we’re not sure of that are 20 years, 30 years down the road, if you can get that, if you can get that group together and have that kind of conversation as first but two, you gotta be willing to talk about, I hate to say it this way, the ugly in the room or the ugly in the community, what needs to be improved On. You can’t be as scared to lay it out on the table to say, you know, we are not successful in this area. We need to improve our school systems in this way. We need to improve our streetscapes in this way, or our look in this way. But it’s going to take a lot of push. I’ll say the first time that believe greater Dalton got introduced to the Board of Directors for the chamber. It was not well received. The board did not want to get into this arena. It took some more conversation. It took some more time with business leaders to convince the chamber board, at the time to invest in this project, once we had that investment from the board, we then had to go out and get the investment from our elected officials. We knew we needed both parties. We knew we needed the business leaders and we needed the the elected official side of things invested in it. So we had those two sides. And then we went and found key leaders. And I would suggest you go find key leaders that may not be at the table, may not be at your may not be a board member, may not even be a chamber member, and this is a good way to get them to become a chamber member, but you may have to have those conversations with with key leaders in the community that you may not talk to on a regular basis, and if they can get their buy in, and then I’ll say, dream big, but Start slow. You want to have that big picture of one day our community can look like this. Our community is going to have XYZ, but know that that doesn’t take place overnight, that it takes time. We the first year. You know, lot of people go what you did the first year. We did a lot of studies. We paid for a lot of information, but that data helped us to be ready for year two, or for the believe 2.0 the next five years, where we’ve put some more data. I’ve had invested more data, but at the end of the day, we’re working on more projects than we’re working on on studies this year, and so that will just grow. So just know it takes time. It takes leadership, it takes vision. And you know, Rome wouldn’t see, you know what built in in a day,

Brandon Burton 29:06
right? Yeah. And as you’re giving that explanation, I’m reminded the book 13 ways to kill your community. And you talk about, you know, pointing out the ugly. And you know, people don’t want to live in a community that, whether it’s visibly ugly or just, you know, things are not welcoming, or whatever those those stinky parts are, you know, your community got to recognize it and fix it, that’s right,

Jason Mock 29:29
and just have those open conversations. I think chambers that chamber CEOs and leadership that don’t have those tough conversations with their boards or with their community, or doing a disservice to their Chamber members, because our members are talking about it. Our business community is talking about it at the water cooler, or at the ball games with their with their kids, or, you know, at church, you know, they’re talking about, Oh, would you see the potholes that we came in on throughout, you know, the. This afternoon, or whatever it may be. So we have to be open minded to know that if they’re talking about it, then we should be talking about it. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:06
absolutely. Well, Jason, I’d like to ask everybody I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jason Mock 30:18
They’re changing every day. You know, I think the chamber of the past and the past is last, is yesterday. Chambers are always evolving and always having to think of things. I think if this kind of project, believe greater Dalton community strategy for a greater community would not have been something that would have looked at 2030 years ago, I think chambers would have just said, That’s not our lane. We don’t need to get in it. I think more and more we’re seeing chambers having to get in lanes that we may not have been in last year or 20 years ago. We have to be thinking about how we’re truly growing a community as a whole. We’re helping our members, but we’re helping the bigger ecosystem of our community. And at the end of the day, we may not be serving and helping some members through this process. They may be elevating themselves because we have a better community. That’s okay. That’s okay because we want businesses to succeed, and at the same time, we want to show value what we’re doing. And hopefully they see that value, and we can show that, hey, look, we’re we’re working on your behalf, even though you may not know of us, you may not see us, but there’s a role that we love for you to play within our community, within our chamber. So I think chambers have to think big picture, be very broad in the way that they operate, and not pigeonhole themselves and just those events and networking side, but really look at the whole ecosystem of the community that they they represent.

Brandon Burton 31:47
Yeah, great explanation. Absolutely need to to get outside of just the the networking and so forth. That’s a means to an end. It’s not that. It’s not the main focus. So, right? But I

Jason Mock 31:59
think in the end, you know, we’re going to have to look at, you know, I don’t know this answer, and I know you’ve, you’ve tackled it a little bit on your calls, and love to learn more about it. But the membership side, I mean, that is always changing, and it’s a dynamic stuff. And, you know, I was telling somebody, and you’ve heard this, and our audience has heard this, you know, people were joining the chamber because my grandfather was a chamber member. My daddy was a chamber member, you know? And now it’s getting to a point where the new business owners are going, I don’t, I don’t know that, and there’s really showing value of what that value is and and everybody’s value is different. Everybody’s Chamber’s value is different. Everybody’s community value is different. So you have to find that value that fits for your community and your organization. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 32:41
Well, Jason, this has been fun to have you on the podcast. I appreciate you taking time to be with us today and sharing some of your experiences examples you know, going through the your community strategy there in Dalton, wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you? Yeah,

Jason Mock 33:00
I’m happy to my email address is mock@daltonchamber.org, and I’ll be brave enough, I’ll throw my cell phone out there. If anybody wants to call me, please do 770-241-3629, I’m happy to meet with you, talk to you, and help any way I can. I think we’re all in this industry together, all in the boat together, and whatever we can do, I can be learning from you, and hopefully you can learn a little bit from us. That’s perfect,

Brandon Burton 33:27
and we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy to find. But again, Jason, it’s been great having you on the show and and appreciate you sharing these examples and and really, you know, shining a spotlight on what what a community can do to really have a strategy and move the needle going forward.

Appreciate it.

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Long-Term Vision with Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer

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Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast 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 Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer. Johnna is the President and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC. She has a distinguished background in leadership roles, including serving as president and CEO of the Regional Economic Development Institute Cincinnati, and holding leadership positions at Duke Energy Citigroup, United Way of Greater Cincinnati in Ohio and Kentucky, the O’Bannon County Chamber of Commerce and the Jackson Downtown Development Corporation in Tennessee. John is a proud graduate of the University of Memphis for her Bachelor’s in communications. Thomas Moore University for MBA, and she attended the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute where she earned a certificate in economic development from the International Economic Development Council as the inaugural President and CEO of the Regional Economic Development Institute in Cincinnati. Johnna led a 15 County, three state regional economic development organization. Under her leadership, the R, E, D I, Cincinnati achieved 175 project wins, created 25,000 jobs and secured $1.4 billion in capital investment within four years in 2022 she became the president and CEO of the Colorado Springs chamber and EDC, Southern Colorado’s largest Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Organization. Since then, she’s led major initiatives in aerospace and defense, develop, Defense Development, legislative advocacy, and has successfully overseen the securing of 29 economic development projects, creating over 5000 jobs and attracting over 1.1 point $8 billion in capital investment. Johnna, I’m excited to have you with us today, here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself, so we can all get to know you a little better.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 3:02
Oh, well, thank you so much. I’m honored to be with you. And want to say hello to all my colleagues out there. And really want to say, just, just keep doing what you’re doing. Some days I feel like these are thankless jobs, and we’re carrying the weight of our communities and trying to make big things happen. But just know you’re never alone. I’ve been doing this a long time, and you are making a difference

Brandon Burton 3:26
Absolutely.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 3:29
So if I, if I think about something interesting, let’s see I’m I was born and raised in Tennessee and lived in Ohio for over 20 years, and after the the pandemic, I said, I’m going to do like a millennial and and I’m not a millennial, if you’re, if you’re looking at me right now, and said, you know, where do I want to live versus where do I have to live? Our children were grown, and I had had a lot of success at ready Cincinnati, and said, Do I Do I really need or have to stay in the Midwest? And my husband and I said, Let’s go to a beautiful place that’s fast growing, and let’s see if we can make a difference there. And so I came to Colorado Springs, and have not looked back. It’s been fantastic, but very unusual for someone that’s almost in their 50s to do that, versus someone that maybe were in their 20s. So very unique path that that I’ve taken,

Brandon Burton 4:27
yeah, you could have fooled me. I thought you were a millennial. So flat

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 4:31
flattery works on me. You think

Brandon Burton 4:34
my friend? So you guys did what a lot of people did and took off to Colorado. It’s beautiful country there and and lots of good reasons to be there, but tell us a little bit more about the Colorado Springs chamber and EDC to kind of set the stage for our discussion. Help us get an idea of the size staff, scope of work. You guys are involved with budget to kind of set the stage,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 4:56
sure. So we’re the second largest chamber. The state of Colorado, behind the Metro Denver chamber, we’re the second largest city in the state of Colorado. It’s about three quarters of a million people in our metropolitan statistical area. It’s a community that’s made up of five military installations, which is really unusual. It’s a huge part of our economy, which has really led to that large aerospace and defense sector here, our chamber and EDC has over 1000 members. I have a six and a half million dollar budget. We host not only typical chamber functions such as government affairs and Small Business Services and membership services, but we also have the economic development arm of our organization. Our community is the size that it works well for it to be joined together as one organization. We also host a group called the Pikes Peak Housing Network, where you’re in a faster growing state like we’re in in a fast growing region, affordable and attainable housing are a real issue, and so this organization works constantly to try to try to help solve, how do we have more housing in our in our region? And then we also host the Small Business Development Center in our region to a very important piece to to work for small business and entrepreneurs, just as we work for primary employers, primary sector, and trying to recruit and retain them. So some traditional goals and some non traditional roles, that’s

Brandon Burton 6:28
great. It’s enough to keep you busy, for sure, and it’s a neat dynamic, having the military, you know, involved there as well, and having that focus. Yeah, it

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 6:37
is. This is my first community to have such a military presence. But when you have, when you have one army installation and four aerospace I’m sorry, when you have four bases that are around the space and the Air Force, it’s, it’s a huge part of your economy, and it really adds to the fabric of our community,

Brandon Burton 7:01
absolutely so for our discussion today, we’re going to, we’ve titled this episode long term vision. I like being able to talk vision with chambers so other chambers can hear and maybe get some ideas and maybe broaden their minds as to, you know, what’s happening in Colorado Springs. Maybe it can be scaled to, you know, wherever they’re at in the country, so we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Johnna, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re going to focus our discussion around long term vision for Colorado Springs. But first, we’ve alluded to it a couple times already. The tremendous growth there in Colorado Springs, what’s drawing so many businesses to want to choose to invest into to grow in Colorado Springs in that region.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 11:04
Well, I think it’s a variety of things. I think number one, Colorado has so much natural beauty and such an outdoor lifestyle, I can literally walk out my office door Brandon and be on three trails. So we have about 600 hiking biking trails in our region. You can be in the mountains and minutes. It’s a really, it’s a lifestyle state. And what I mean is we all talk about that we want balance in our life and harmony in our life. Well, people have moved to this state because they’re living it. So where talent comes then follows business. We know the importance of, after you have a good site for an economic development prospect, you have to show can you get the talent. So Colorado has was a was a net benefactor during during COVID, and continues to grow as a state. Colorado Springs has really taking off because you have big city amenities, but you have a small town atmosphere. We are not a ski town, but you can be to in, you can be skiing in an hour and a half away from us. But then you had, we’re not a mountain town. So we, we have lots of we have lots of amenities because of the aerospace and defense culture here, even in in in down times, in an economy, quite often for national security reasons, our economy bounces back quickly and and and goes down less severe than what some other communities might face that are so dependent on other sectors. I think it’s it’s also that during the pandemic, a lot of young people realized that they didn’t have to live in the super high priced cities, and could move to more mid tier cities, mid size, and have a lot of the same amenities. We have the arts, we have sports here, we have universities, and so they could have all those amenities, but maybe not the big city prices or, unfortunately, some of the the other things that that go along with, with, with the large cities, the the taxes and homelessness and crime and and things such as that. So this city’s really done well because of that. And then I will give my team some credit. I think it’s important when you’re the chamber and the EDC that you’re on the forefront of selling your community, telling your story, or it’s told for you, and you may not, but what is told, if you’re not getting in front of that, and this is a community that, I would say is the best kept secret in Colorado, in a lot of respects, it’s fast changing, and so we’re out there working on those national news stories, I would think Any Chamber of Commerce would want to be going out and telling their story. We work very closely with our Convention and Visitors Bureau to try to recruit tourism to this area, so that while we have tourist is one part of our economy, we also have primary sector employers, and we’re doing that in aerospace and defense, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing are our three areas of focus, and the chamber in EDC where we lead that charge, I like to say we’re the quarterback of the team, and then we have a whole lot of great folks on our offensive line, our city, our county, our utilities, our state organization and such. So I think that’s contributed to our success.

Brandon Burton 14:21
That’s great. I’m glad you got to the point of bragging on your team and telling the story of the work you guys are doing and what Colorado Springs has to offer to create that narrative so it’s not being created for you. I’m a big believer in being an agent of action like that. So how do you guys there at the Chamber in EDC? How do you go about advocating for for sound and a sound environment for business to be conducted?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 14:47
Well, I’m a I’m a big proponent of the Entrepreneurial Operating System that Gina Wickman has has coined, and it’s in the book traction. I’ve used this in several organizations that I’ve. And we adopted that when I first moved here, little over three years ago now. And so just what you said, we do not measure activity here at the Chamber in EDC. We measure outcomes. And that could be really hard for chambers of commerce, because you have a lot of competing priorities. You have a lot of legacy programs that people have done for years and years and and it can be chambers are famous for adding things on. We’re not very good for taking things away. So this chamber, we really have evaluated all of our programming, all of our events, all of all of our initiatives that we’re focusing on, from government affairs to economic development and in between, and if we don’t have measurable outcomes, it’s hard for us to sell to our constituents, to our membership, why we’re doing it. So we do this crazy thing, we stop, we stop doing it if it is not working. And so I would just encourage your listeners that as they’re leading their chamber organizations and trying to decide and help shape the future of their community. Measurable outcomes can make all the difference, and I believe in the smart principle of specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time based. So put those together so you agree with your board on what success actually is, and then you can all celebrate together. But if, if you as staff, have a different mindset of what that is than your board, you’re not going to see success for your community, and frankly, you might be out of a job. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:35
I love how you said that you there at the chamber. You guys don’t measure activity. You measure you measure outcomes, and that’s really where the rubber meets the road, and you can really see the needle move in your community. Is by by measuring those outcomes. And that is, I think, the definition of success that you’re talking about is seeing those outcomes that are measurable. So it

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 16:55
is, and that doesn’t mean, you know, did we? Did we have 250 events this year. Oh, my goodness gracious. That exhausts me to even hear that, right? And you know, real outcomes. This is hard work. We’re working on things like housing affordability and attainability, child care in our community, retaining our military installations, ensuring that we’re having good policy at our state and local level, for for business and low regulation. We’re working on Union bills right now. We’re we’re working on a K through 12 program to ensure that we can have homegrown talent, not just imported talent to the state of Colorado. These are not easy topics, and they don’t happen overnight. But if it’s not the chamber doing it, who is

Brandon Burton 17:42
That’s right? So that’s a good transition. I wanted to ask you about workforce, and if workforce is a struggle throughout the country, but what initiatives you kind of touched on them a little bit there. But what initiatives are you guys doing there in Colorado Springs to address it the workforce challenges that so many communities are seeing? Yeah,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 18:00
you know, we’re fortunate because we’re the second most educated state in the Union, but when you peel back that onion, it’s because of so many people that move into the pop move into the state of Colorado. It is not necessarily that it’s our homegrown talent. So when you really look at our test scores and graduation rates and such. And this is, this is the same all over the country, but we’re actually going deep and looking at this on how do we solve it? Because I don’t believe in the long term the United States, you know, we’re short on population for jobs of the future, so not all communities are going to succeed. And we want to be sure that we’re seen as a mega region, with both our partners, all the way to Denver to all the way down to Pueblo Colorado, as a mega region of Front Range talent, the Front Range, or the front range of mountains here in Colorado. So we’re going deep with our 17 school districts in our metropolitan area to evaluate those test scores, to evaluate the why. And we’ve created an initiative called innovate Pikes Peak, and we’re partnering with education experts, a group called Peak education, because I’m not an education expert, we’re business people and but we’re trying to solve an issue that will produce talent for us in the future. Again, homegrown talent. Because I’ll remind everyone Brandon that while business and chambers sometimes shy away from getting involved in education, we should remember that while maybe your children have choices in life, not all children do, and if they’re not graduating with a great start and maybe certification, certificates, some some college, two plus two programs, they’re going to live in your community. They’re not going anywhere. So they can either live in your community or they can live on your community. So we believe that the chamber and. See has a role to play in ensuring that those young people graduate with a great start. So this innovate pipes peak is all about evaluating career pathing and whether that be a college track or that be a technical track. We think that the two blend together. So we’re working with our higher education and our K through 12 right now in the business community is really leading on defining those paths and where we need to be involved for the future, because the duplication of resources and the teacher pay and all of this does not add to success for our children long term. So we’re stepping in, we’re leaning in on that. We’ve got those measurable outcomes, and this is a big, hairy, audacious goal that we’re working on, but by the end of the year, we’ll have a pathway, a roadmap for our business community to follow

Brandon Burton 20:51
Absolutely and you know, I haven’t seen any formal surveys on this, or anything. Maybe you have, but it seems like youth, as they graduate high school, they feel like their future, either they stay in their community and don’t go anywhere, or they have to leave the community to go to school and get a job and and in very select communities, you see the sense of pride where a student graduates. And like I live in Colorado Springs, I want to raise my family here. I want to have build a career here. So there’s something to that, building that sense of pride within the community, where they don’t have to feel like the grass is greener, you know, five states away, to go to school and get a start their career somewhere else. But have that be the desire even. And maybe they do go somewhere for school, but they come back because they see the opportunities and that pride within the community.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 21:43
I think I’ve heard the quote before that the grass is not always greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it. So I think it’s the chamber and EDCs role to water that grass. How are we ensuring that there are opportunities for young people? How are we ensuring that they can afford to live in our community, to buy a home. You know, the most likely to move are an 18 to 34 year old. And so if we can make sure that the Colorado Springs metropolitan area is on their radar, even if they go away to school, we want them to think, wow, it was pretty cool where I lived, and I want to go back. So we like that boomerang effect too, because then they’re bringing back fresh ideas and perspectives too when they have lived somewhere else. But we’re working hard to build on that population, and I think any chamber needs to be focused on that. If you’re lucky enough that people just show up in your community, good for you, but I don’t think that’s the case for most communities anymore.

Brandon Burton 22:44
Yeah, I think it helps for like you’re saying that boomerang effect, to be able to see a contrast of another community and say, You know what the grass is really green back where I grew up. So let me go back there. Yeah,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 22:54
that’s things like nightlife and outdoor activities and things that young people want and desire are are different than where I am in at this point in my life and career, but I think that’s why we have to ask the right questions and young professional organizations being active in your area. We started a we started a program called Find your calls, and we use cos and everything, because it’s Colorado Springs, but find your calls the play on words. And it’s a, it’s a suite of talent initiatives to recruit, engage and connect young professionals, young people. One of those programs is called Hello cos so, and it’s about, it’s a, it’s a summer intern program. So when interns come to our region to to work in the summer, housing was a big issue for three months to find somewhere to live. I mean, are you going to find it on Craigslist in somebody’s basement? That’s just scary. So, you know, we we worked with Colorado College, and we have a safe environment for those young people to live in the summer, and then the chamber and EDC does all the fun wrap around programming. So while they’re out of work, we we hike up Pikes Peak with them. We go to a switchback soccer game. We introduce them to speed dating with military generals in the region, where they can have interaction with people that are in charge of our national security, in our in our country, we think that chambers in EDC should be doing things to help our business community recruit that talent and then help that, help that young person fall in love with the region. Maybe they fall in love with the job too, but if they have a great experience in your community, they’re going to want to come back.

Brandon Burton 24:43
Yeah, well, and inevitably, other jobs will come, and people that are already employed are going to go to the new job, and so you got to backfill all the time. And you know, what I’m hearing is it’s not so much intent, you know, just to focus on the K through 12 and helping create, create a career. Path, but it’s really place making within the community. So they have a desire to be there. They want to be there. They love being there. So I think that’s just as important. Yeah, so I think you’ve touched on it in different aspects. But the next question I wanted to ask is, how do you see what is, what is your long term vision for Colorado, for the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 25:24
Well, for us, I would say that for you know, so goes the community. So goes the Chamber in EDC. And we are, we are a community that has growing pains. And I’ll and I’ll say this so things that, the things that we’re having to work on are a how do you maintain a low tax, low tax environment, but at the same time you have big needs, such as road improvements and high quality schools, maintaining our military bases. We talked about housing, we talked about child care for young families. This is a really big deal, and something that the pandemic just exacerbated the problem, particularly for women and people of color needing to get back to work full time, working on all these issues. I call them growing pains, because we’re fortunate that we have these growing pains. If we weren’t a fast growing community, this wouldn’t be the issue. But with that the Chamber and EDC, we’ve tried to set those goals, set those measurements, and then where we focus, where we measure, is where we will succeed. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. You announced, you talked about some of our economic development announcements when, when you in the introduction, we weren’t, we weren’t seeing that until three years ago, and now we’re one of the top locations in the state for new announcements. It’s where we focused. We said we’ve got to get more of a diversity of primary employers in our region, and that’s where we focused. We’re now trying to solve those big issues Brandon that will make it where it’s the right environment for business to be able to thrive in place, expand or locate to our region. So I’ve given you several of those examples, and that’s where we’re spending our day. And I would just tell my colleagues out there that it’s not about party planning, it’s not about business after hours, it’s it’s, it’s not about having the best gala in the community. Those things are a means to the ends. Those are a networking opportunity. I think the future of chambers and economic development Corps are solving big issues for the community, coming alongside government where government cannot, cannot solve the issue because, either because they’re a public entity, or they just don’t have the dollars. And how are we being the conduit between business and private, the private sector of business, community officials and government officials? I think that’s the role for a chamber to play,

Brandon Burton 27:58
Absolutely and I love that, that vision that you have, where you focus is what’s going to grow, right? You got to keep watering those areas, make that grass green? Yes. So I like asking, as I have guests on the show, as for chambers that are out there listening, what kind of tip or action item might you share with the Chamber who’s trying to take their organization up to the next level. I feel like you’ve shared some good tips. But is there anything else that you want to expose and share with those listening?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 28:29
Well, I think that I would just say, I know that many of our chambers, you know, I have 2528 people on on our team. So we’re, we’re a large organization for a nonprofit, especially for our size, but we’re doing a lot of things. I think number one, what I’ve learned through my career, and it sounds a little cliche, but it’s so true, is you can get a lot more done when you surround yourself with the right people, and when you don’t care who gets the credit. So we work really hard on our internal culture. We have a we have a culture of excellence and accountability. It is. These are lifestyle jobs. We don’t work. We don’t work eight to five here. We work when the clients need us. We do a lot of evening events and weekend things going on. But, but I would say that putting the right people around you as a leader in the chamber world or the economic development world will allow you to do more, and it will free you up as a leader to be more visionary and forward thinking and making sure that you’re helping drive results for the future, but you need people on your team that are also integrators of the mission, that are going deep and working hard to to close projects and to find wins in the community and work on big, big goals. So surround yourself with the right people, and then our philosophy here is, as long as we get the win, we don’t care who gets the credit. So quite. Often we may be carrying a heavy load on a project or an initiative, but we make sure that all of our partners are equally thanked and appreciated. Then there are other times, our partners are taking the lead and and we’re serving as a resource to them, and I just think you can get a lot more done when that’s your philosophy and that’s the way that you’re pushing forward? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:21
working as a team, right? So we’ve talked about the long term vision for Colorado Springs. The next question I have for you is, as we look to the future of the chamber industry, Chambers of Commerce in general, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 30:40
Well, I think it’s an interesting time for our industry and profession. I’ve been in and around this work for almost 30 years now, and seen it in four different states. I would say that all chambers, if you’re not constantly thinking about how you’re reinventing yourself and how you’re adding value for your membership, you’re going to lose membership. You’re going to be left behind. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, because our economy is changing so fast, and because the access to resources and artificial intelligence now and being able to reach people across the web, I don’t think businesses feel the need to be a member of a chamber of commerce, as they did maybe 50 years ago, 30 years ago, even longer. I liken it to years ago, our parents, our fathers. Usually it was typical, were members of the Rotary Club, and Rotary Club was the place to go so you could meet other businessmen or and at that time, it was man, but business people now and and do business and find ways to network. People have so many choices now as as businesses on how they connect with their customers and how they connect with other business people, that unless you’re constantly thinking about your value add as a chamber I think it’s going to be hard to make the case of Why be a member of the Chamber of Commerce when businesses are having to make choices about payroll and and health insurance and other things, or do they pay their chamber membership? We may get put at the bottom of the barrel. So I would recommend finding non dues, revenue sources. What are programs you can offer that are at a fee that add value, not add what are data sources you have that not everyone in your community has? Are there? Are there? Is there information or programming or something that you can do that’s a value add that I constantly say we need non dues revenue. Non dues revenue because just depending on a membership model for the future, I’m not so sold on that’s going to work long term, maybe, maybe in my career length. But those of you that are starting in chamber world in your 20s and 30s, now, I think we’re going to live in a very different society in 10 to 20 years, and you if, if you’re not at the table, you might find yourself on the menu. So get to that table and make sure you’re adding value that others others don’t have, and you’re differentiating yourself as an association. Yeah, and

Brandon Burton 33:17
I think it’s important to not just look at your chamber as a membership association, but as a business, operate it as a business and find those income generating. You know, you’re calling them non dues revenue, but in the end, it’s income generating, and that’s the only way to thrive and stay healthy as a business. So yeah, constantly

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 33:36
people will will say to me, Well, Well, John, you know, the chamber is here to just do good community work. And I said, and that’s a business unto itself. If I can’t make payroll, I can’t have our organization doing this work you’re asking us to do. I’m a business too. I have a profit and loss statement like every other business, and I think you hit that on the head. It’s important for us to be seen and think of our business in that way as chamber leaders.

Brandon Burton 34:05
Yeah, well, Johnna, this has been great having you on the show and sharing your insights and some of the exciting things that are happening in Colorado Springs, the impact your organization is having in the community. I’d love to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and maybe learn some of the strategies you guys are are working on, maybe without giving away all the secrets. But how would you have them reach out and connect with you?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 34:30
Well, number one, I do believe that there are no new ideas. You just need to borrow ideas from our partners. So go out there and meet with other chambers and find those find those leads. You know, we have a national organization association that we can all tap into, but if they’d like to speak with me, I’d be flattered and more than happy to help in any way. You can find me on LinkedIn under Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, you can find me on our website is ColoradoSpringsChamberEDC.com, and my phone number 719-500-9485, or my email is jreederkleymeyer@cscedc.com. I’d be happy to speak with anyone and be be flattered to get a call perfect.

Brandon Burton 35:26
We’ll make sure all that is in our show notes for this episode make it easy to find and connect with you. And I just want to thank you again for setting aside some time to be with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, sharing some of your experiences and tips that you’ve learned from and being willing to share them with the Chamber community, we appreciate it.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 35:44
It’s my pleasure. Good luck to everyone out there. Keep making big things happen in your community.

Brandon Burton 35:49
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