Category: Podcast Episode

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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. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Heather Valudes. Heather became the President and CEO of the Lancaster Chamber in Pennsylvania in June of 2022. Having previously been the Vice President. She joined the chamber in 2011 as the advocacy director with a focus on government affairs and community impact since that time, she has continued to advance that work, while also leading events and programs strategies, and engaging the overall operations and strategic direction of the organization. Prior to joining the chamber, Heather was the Government Affairs Coordinator at the Building Industry Association where she represented them before all government bodies on issues related to the Association’s mission. Heather graduated from West Chester University in 2007 with a degree in political science and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from Westchester University. She earned her CCE designation and 2021 She was named a 40, under 40 by the Central Penn Business Journal and by ACCE and as a 2010, graduate of leadership Lancaster that Heather, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I want to say congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber of the year finalist. And I wanted to give you an 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 bit better.

Heather Valudes 3:38
Sure. Well, thanks for having me on Brandon, I appreciate the opportunity to share about our work happening here in Lancaster and have an opportunity to share that with some of our other chamber friends across the country. So I always share this fact about myself because I think people find it interesting particularly because of our location. So I am half Scottish, and then half Amish. My mom was born in Scotland born and raised there and moved here when she was 14. And my dad’s father, so my grandfather was born and raised Amish. And so those are kind of the two roots of my history that bring together this kind of deep rooted history in Lancaster and then also an immigrant story as well. So it’s always a fun little tidbit. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:30
that is very interesting. So whenever you’re asked about an interesting fact, keep that in your pocket, you gotta get one. Well, for those who may be longtime listeners to the podcast, they may be a little bit familiar with the Lancaster Chamber and we had your predecessor Tom Baldrige on the show a couple of times. And as the format of the show, I always like to have the guests tell a little bit about their chamber just to kind of give some perspective for listeners. So if you Don’t mind just tell us about the size of the chamber staff budget scope of work, just so we know the type of chamber you are. Before we get into our discussion today.

Heather Valudes 5:09
Yeah, sure. So we are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So we represent a county wide chamber. We have a population here of about 550,000 people. From our chamber perspective, we have just over 1400 members, so a strong membership component there, those members represent over half of Lancaster County’s total workforce size here. So good representation and depth within our member community and our business community as well. Chamber staff team is 16 people. So you know, a mix of full time and part time there, but 16 In total, and then our budget is about $2.3 million dollars.

Brandon Burton 5:53
All right. So that definitely does help kind of set the stage for our discussion today. And typically, the way that I like to structure these chamber, the year finalist interviews is to focus much of our attention on the two programs, these submitted in your synopsis on your application for chamber the year. So maybe just at a real high level, tell us what the two programs are. And then we’ll circle back and get in a little more detail on on each of those.

Heather Valudes 6:21
Yeah, so are two programs that we submitted this year. The first one was your history is our history, celebrating 150 years of business. For the chamber, we celebrated our 100 and 50th anniversary in 2022. And we really focused the whole year on celebrating the history of business and industry in our community as well. And then our second one was on our discovering paths mentoring program. And we look at that as investing in the next generation. And so it’s a program we’ve had for many years but we’ve been doing some updates and intentional look forward with that program. So we submitted that as our second one. Very good.

Brandon Burton 7:02
Well, I’m excited to dive in deeper and learn more about both of those programs as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton 10:16
All right, Heather, we are back. So as you mentioned before the break your the two programs submitted is the Your history is art history and discovering paths and mentoring program. Let’s, let’s dive in first on the on the celebration, the 150 100 and 50th year and anniversary celebration and the Your history is our history. We’ll say a campaign that you guys put on. So tell us about that and how you got the business community and community at large involved in telling stories and what all that encompassed.

Heather Valudes 10:53
Yeah, so the way we looked at it, obviously, you know, when your 100 and 50th anniversary is coming. And so we had a planning group who really helped us give thought to what did we want to do within that 100 and 50th year, because as much as it is about the chamber, reaching that milestone, that milestone wasn’t possible without the support of the business community that’s here and the leadership that came from that. And so we came up with a framework that focused on inform, entertain, and inspire. And so those were our three themes throughout the year, with inform, we wanted to share stories and information about the journey of local businesses over the past 250 years, with entertain, we wanted to create moments that really allowed people to celebrate our business community in a monumental way. And then with inspire, we wanted people to take a look at how are we reimagining business, we move forward. And so we had monthly spotlights, we had monthly kind of themes around industry, it was just, you know, a year of really lifting up those stories, with the intention to not create a whole bunch of new events around it, too. So we took what we do, and we incorporated it into everything we do, instead of creating a whole bunch of new stuff with it.

Brandon Burton 12:19
Yeah, that’s important, because I can see where it could easily become out of control where it’s like, you know, you only turn 150 years once, right? So you gotta gotta really take advantage of it. But to be able to bake it into those things you’re already doing and really put those emphasis on those areas. You talked about, inform, entertain, and inspire. How did that look like with the informing? Maybe let’s go through each aspect of that, and what that looks like as it rolled out?

Heather Valudes 12:47
Yeah. So within forming prior to the start of 2022, we created an entire historical timeline. And so on that timeline, which was it lived on our website, we gave the history of the chamber and organizations that kind of, you know, spun out from the chamber. So our leadership program, our EDC, different our tourism bureau, all of those things had once been housed at the chamber. So we told that history. But we also highlighted on that timeline 76 other businesses in our community and when they started, and so we took that from, you know, the year of our inception to 2022, and kind of highlighted these businesses along the way. We also have a quarterly magazine that comes out called thriving. So we use that to tell the stories of local businesses, almost the whole edition was it was a commemorative edition. And so we had people sharing their perspective on business history, and where they see their business going. We did a ton of stuff on social media, we that was probably like one of the main ways that we continually highlighted it was just continually lifting up those stories and sharing perspective from businesses. And then we did do some email content that was specific to the 1/50 and kind of highlighting, you know, what were we trying to celebrate within our community, and it was really about the businesses that have supported us and supported our community over the years. So did some emails around that as well. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 14:23
So I can see like the magazine is something you would have done already, but like you said, making it a commemorative issue and with a slightly different focus to highlight the celebration of 150 years and that direction. And chambers are good at doing social media posts. So it sounds like you just kind of shifted maybe more the attention went with the or the focus on those social media posts. So I can see where the intentionality came to keep doing what you’re doing, but doing it with a hyper focus on that purpose. How did that look as the entertainment part If it goes the entertain.

Heather Valudes 15:01
Yeah. So like I said, we were trying to be really intentional to not create that extra programming. I am going to highlight two that we did. And they were kind of already built in. So the first one, actually, I guess it’ll be I’m gonna highlight three that we did, that we’re already kind of built into our schedules in some ways. So the first one is our annual dinner, we hold an annual dinner every year, we’ve actually been doing that for 150 years. So we were able to celebrate our 150th annual dinner. And we had about 2400 people attend that, I would say normally, that’s between 18 102,000 So slightly elevated with that. And it was I mean, it was just a spectacular event to celebrate history in our community. At the same time, our my predecessor Tom Baldrige was retiring and I had been selected to be the president. So we got to do a transition moment for that, too, which was very fun. And so, you know, overall, we use that 150 to kind of celebrate this looking back moving forward kind of moment in history for the chamber. We then did one event that we wouldn’t normally have planned, and that was a Founders Day event that was on our actual date that our charter was made, which was July 22. So on July 22, we had an event in our building, we had an artist showcase, we asked artists to do art specific to business, we had a band, you know, we had music, all the stuff that you could do, and then some remarks from people kind of giving that historical look back and look forward as well. So our 150 If that was the only event that wasn’t already in our schedule. We also with that released a bourbon. So we made a commemorative bourbon people could purchase. And actually all of that was one donation. And when they donated to it, when they donated, they got a bottle of bourbon. But it also helped to support our Legacy Fund, which helps to provide underrepresented businesses with an opportunity for chamber membership. So a nice tie in there. And then our third one, which is already in our schedule, but we do mixer that was a bit elevated, that was held at our historical society, and we launched an edition of their quarterly magazine as well. So you know, those were the three kind of entertaining events, but we tried to work them in as much to our normal schedule as we could.

Brandon Burton 17:30
Okay, so the bourbon like, that’s one that I didn’t expect, like that’s a, that’s a unique approach, for sure. But I imagine there’s a local partnership that happened there to make that happen.

Heather Valudes 17:43
There is we have a local distillery, and so we worked with them. To create the bourbon and bottle, the bourbon, we actually got to have our team go in when they were bottling bourbon, the day that that was happening. And then we had a special label created by a local marketing firm, to go on every bottle of bourbon as well. So it was a really, it was really unique and really fun. And we got to use it in so many ways. I mean, we were able to give it out to sponsors and members, and we still have a few bottles. So from time to time, we’re still handing them out to people. But we did about 500 bottles of bourbon. So there was a lot to kind of get out the door. That

Brandon Burton 18:19
is fun and unique. So like that. And now how about that third aspect of Inspire? What are some of the examples there on how you were intentional about that? Yeah, so

Heather Valudes 18:29
our inspire element was really about that look forward. So, you know, we really focused on as we got toward the end of the year, we started talking about the next 150 and kind of what comes next. And so we wanted throughout this business leaders to feel inspired by the stories that they heard by these historical milestones, we had highlighted 114 historical milestones and spotlights throughout the year. And so we really wanted people to feel inspired by this history in our community, but then put a lens to so where are we? Where do we go with this? So we had articles that were focused on that like trends of what’s coming in different industry sectors, as we got into like, October, November, December, it was kind of this look forward. And really just, you know, it’s inspirational to think about how much business brings to a community and how much that contributes to our economy. And so how do we as business leaders, organizations, staff, people really give thought to kind of what’s next? And how does business and business leaders contribute to that? So that’s where we focus that inspire energy.

Brandon Burton 19:37
So did you have a committee that kind of drove this and did the research on the historical facts and the business history and everything to be able to present that or how did how did that organize?

Heather Valudes 19:50
So it came together in a few different ways. We did have a, an advisory group that got together and really planned theme and gave a lot of ideas around how do we deliver on time intent and get that out there. We did hire an intern in late 2021, to do a very deep dive into our newspaper archives in Lancaster County. She had a background in history and was very interested in this project. So she did a deep dive for us of just highlights not only for the chamber, but of major business milestones over the past 150 years. So we had all of that content pulled together. And then our team, led by our director of special events and partnerships, she really gave a lot of thought to okay, what are the themes we’re going to have on each month in terms of industry? And then it was really on all of us to kind of give thought to what do we know about that industry? Who do we know in that industry who might lend a unique or interesting voice, all of that type of thing. So it was guided by that advisory group, and they gave input a few different times throughout the year. And then, you know, some intern support and staff support and all of those different spaces.

Brandon Burton 21:00
Yeah, that’s great. So let’s shift gears a little bit. And we’ll we’ll change focus on on to the other program that was submitted on your application, discovering paths mentoring program. So maybe just a little bit of history with that. And you know, what, what stands out about it? And maybe some of the successes that have come out of that program? Yeah, so

Heather Valudes 21:24
our discovering pads program has actually been around for 15 years. So in some ways, it’s like, well, why was that the one that you put onto an application because you’ve had it for a long time. But what’s really been interesting about discovering pas is that we, it kind of was the same for many years, and then COVID happened, and we had to totally rethink how it was positioned moving forward. We couldn’t execute it in the same way we could pre COVID, certainly in 2020 2021, and even parts of the school year that were in the early part of 2022. And so we had to think about what does that look like, because the program’s intention is to bring together 150 juniors in high school and match them in a one to one pairing with a mentor in the community. Up until the close of this year’s program, the program has been broken by young men, and then young women. And so one of the things that we were hearing from feedback pretty routinely was that it felt limiting and that the boys were getting different experiences than the girls. It felt like we there were more students who were interested than we could actually have into capacity. So we used the 2020 to 2023 school year as a real test of some concept and thinking through how do we move this program forward. And we looked at piloting in an individual school setting. So allowing one school to have an entire grade level do the program. It looks a little different than our traditional mentoring program had where we had that one to one relationship, we went to one mentor to three students. But we really piloted a lot to think about how do we evolve this program into the future. And so discovering pas, though just give students such a great opportunity to learn about the careers that are available in our community, and gives them exposure to that over the course of nine different sessions that they do with their mentor and mentee. So we’re gonna keep the foundation’s but evolvement moving forward.

Brandon Burton 23:32
Yeah. So with this being the first year that I guess, evolved platform of integrating the boys and girls together and the different ratio of interns of students, what kind of feedback are you seeing through it? And any, any lessons learned? Any, anything that really stands out to you through that process?

Heather Valudes 23:55
Yeah, I mean, it’s been interesting, I think one of the things that we found is that at the core of the program, what students love is one of the programs focuses on them completing a DISC profile, and a values index. And so the students love that ability to explore themselves, you know, typically, these are tools that we’re using, once you’re further into adulthood and career. And so for the, for the students to have the opportunity to to really dive into a session where an expert on those tools is talking with them about what that tells them about themselves and where their interest areas are. That’s always a highlight for the students and that’s regardless of, you know, program and gender and that type of thing. That’s a really, they really enjoy that program. The other piece that we really focus on is ensuring that every student has access to to Job shadowing. And so that’s another area that’s been consistent across both programs is they they do need to complete to job shadows as a part of the experience. What we found is You know, and I think this is just kind of traditional mindset of it was we used to take the young men to like the College of Technology where they would see carpentry and plumbing and those types of skills. And the young women would go to the college health sciences, for nursing and those types of things. And now we’re saying, No, the young women are going to go to the trade programs, and they’re going to see those careers, and they’re going to see those skills. And we’re really intentional to think about who are the speakers that are there so that we ensure that they’re hearing from women that have done this before them, and that the men are hearing from women that are in these fields about what their experience feels like, and vice versa? So, you know, there’s a lot of intentionality to kind of who who do we pick even to speak at them to talk about those dynamics, and why some of those dynamics have changed, and that there’s a lot of good feedback around the idea that, you know, we’re going to have this as incorporated and that there’s not going to feel like there’s this barrier point of access to a type of career that might have traditionally been in place.

Brandon Burton 26:05
So what is the involvement look like from the students from those those high school students? Are they is there an excitement to get involved with it? Are some coming along reluctantly, because they have to? Or how do you, how do you build that excitement and make it be a good experience for them all.

Heather Valudes 26:23
So our best recruiting tool is always the other students, when we have students who go through the program and go back and tell their friends at school, like, Oh, I got to do this program, or I got to have this really cool experience. That’s, that’s a huge part of the recruitment. What’s interesting is we do try to save the schools that this program is going to be more geared at the student who maybe is not as defined on what their career choices. So oftentimes, you have students in high school who really are like, I know what I want to do, I want to go be an accountant. And so if you’re that defined, this program may not be as interesting or of service to that student, because it’s really about kind of what’s out there in this community. Or, I’m really interested in finance, and I don’t know how I want to put that into place, this program could be good for that, because you’re gonna get to see so many different industries over the course of time, and give thought to Oh, yeah, you’re right, like that manufacturing shop does have somebody who’s doing their accounting in house or whatever it may be. So if somebody’s really defined, it’s probably less valuable for that student. But we create a lot of excitement, particularly for the students who are maybe not as defined. We work with school facilitators to do that. And then we also do info sessions with students.

Brandon Burton 27:43
Okay. Although I would, I would say you gave that example of accounting, if somebody knows they want to be an accountant, that the job shadowing is so important to be able to do that and say, you know, this either bores me out of my mind, or yes, this is exactly what I want to do. So it gives that confirmation and really helps them kind of weed out that process before you have too many sunk costs. Yeah, went through schooling and everything. So I see your way.

Heather Valudes 28:10
Yeah, cuz I mentored a few years ago. And that exact scenario actually happened to my mentee, she was dead set that she wanted to be a police officer. And then went through the program. And you know, I was very supportive of that she noble career, all that type of thing. But when she actually job shadowed, she job shadowed with a probation and parole officer, and then also with a police officer. And by the end of it, she was like, I don’t want to actually be a police officer anymore. I want to go more to that side of probation, parole, social service element side of things. So it was an interesting, like transition, even for her of, you know, everybody has a pretty clearly defined picture of what being a police officer is, yeah, doing it, seeing the job. And then seeing what’s like adjacent to it really changed how she thought about where she wanted to go with it. So it’s always really helpful for the students.

Brandon Burton 29:08
So I actually have a 17 year old right now. So he just finished his junior year going into senior year. And it’s that age where they know everything, right? So they may know what they want to do as a career and without that experience to open their eyes and realize, okay, maybe I don’t know everything. And there’s other opportunities out there. I think there’s a ton of value to that program. Well, Heather, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if they’re for a chamber listening who would like to take their organization up to the next level? What tip or advice might you share with them to help them accomplish that?

Heather Valudes 29:47
Yeah, so you know, I thought a little bit about this one before Brandon, because I think there’s so many kinds of tips for how you achieve that. I would say I have two that come to mind. So the first one is real. really utilizing the feedback that you receive, I mean that that’s been so critical to us as we think about things like our mentoring program, like even our 100 and 50th. You know, it, sometimes the feedback can sting a little bit, and it can feel a little bit like, Oh, that wasn’t our intention there. But really using that as an impetus to start to question like, is this the way we want to do it? Is this the way we want to think about it, you know, I think it’s critical to use the feedback that you receive, that’s constructive. And, and then start to bounce that with groups, like people who are willing to engage in that discussion around really moving something forward. For our discovering pads program, even we had had volunteers that were with it for a long time, and they really struggled with what change was going to look like. And so for some of them, we had to say that it might be time to step away, because we need to really think into a different space. And, you know, we hope you can come with us on that journey. But getting that feedback, and then finding the right people who want to build it with you, I think are, you know, kind of two of those key pieces for me. The other one is, you know, I’m a big supporter and proponent of ACC, I think I get so many good ideas, my team gets so many ideas, I have so many people on our staff that are really engaged with it. And through that the ability to hear about other ideas happening in other communities are just critical. I mean, you know, it is that kind of rip off and duplicate and figure out what works for you and what works for your community. But we are a community that shares a lot of ideas, because there’s often not a ton of overlap in our geographical areas. So I’m always a big proponent of like, talk to the other people with the ideas in the unique.

Brandon Burton 31:42
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s very true. It’s always great to learn from each other. And that’s, that’s why this podcast exists. So we can all learn from each other and make each other better, better. But Heather, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Heather Valudes 32:04
So I think you’ve probably heard me say it a little bit, even in just kind of how our chamber is touching where we’re at. So chambers have such a rich and steep history of what we do and how we’re of service to the community and how our businesses work with us. And, you know, rely on chambers and, and there’s activities that I think chambers will always be engaged in that we’re uniquely positioned to do that advocacy space, thinking about that larger economy, thinking about the role that business plays. And I think chambers have such a unique position. Because we do get to be seen center, we get to, like, we get to hear more, and actually use that in a way that I think is oftentimes constructive for our communities. But as we look forward, I do think there’s kind of, you know, just changing dynamics. And so for the ability for chambers to be agile and receptive to what their community wants them to do and what they’re hearing from their community, that ability to say we’ve had something for a long time, can we look at it differently? Can we think about it differently? What impact does that have for us, I think that’s how we’re going to advance that. That ability to really say, let’s take a look at our own practices, let’s take a look at our own efforts, even if they’ve been around for a long time and start to change them in a constructive way for our community that, you know, invites people into the table and really looks forward. Our theme this year was boldly moving forward. And so you know you come off of your history as our history and then go into this boldly moving forward concept. And as much as chambers, I think can live into that space. That’s a space we get to own for our for our organizations, but for our broader business communities. And I think businesses are looking for that every day.

Brandon Burton 33:56
Right? Goes back to the utilizing the feedback that you receive, right to be agile and make those pivots where you need to. Yep. Well, Heather, I’ve enjoyed having you with us on the podcast. today. 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 how you guys are doing things say are in Lancaster, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Heather Valudes 34:23
Yeah, so my direct line at the office is 717-696-6255 And then my email address is hvaludes@lancasterchamber.com.

Brandon Burton 34:44
That’s perfect and we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode so people can look that up and reach out and connect with you. But I appreciate you sharing your in these insights and that these areas of focus on your guys’s work is you are standing out above the crowd is a chamber of the year were finalists and and as we talked before we got on the on the air for the second time in three years, so that’s something to be proud of as well. So congratulations and wish you guys the best of luck is chamber the year.

Heather Valudes 35:14
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed the opportunity Brandon.

Brandon Burton 35:18
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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. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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Becki Womble 1:03
I’ve been using Community Matters for probably six or seven years now. And in a previous life, I sold commercial printing so I can highly recommend Community Matters because it’s a complete turnkey job for any busy chamber exec and it’s a wonderful, beautiful printed product whenever you’re finished. And I just I’m very sold on Community Matters. And with a printing background I just big endorsement from me.

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Jody Perry. Jody has led the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development in Mansfield, Ohio since July 2014 and 2017. She also took over leadership for the Richland Community Development Group. In this combined role she’s responsible for leading the county wide economic community and workforce development efforts. Prior to this position, she led the grease New York and Van Wert Ohio area chambers of commerce and also served on the staff of the Ashland Ohio area Chamber of Commerce. Jody received her Bachelors of Arts in political science and religion from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. Jody earned her IOM designation in 2008. In 2018, she received her distinction as a CCE the highest certification in the industry. Jody received the 2019 Athena award for Richland County, the important the importance of business was instilled at her at a young age she grew up in a family of entrepreneurs in Rochester, New York. Another interesting fact is Jody was a prior guest on the on the chamber chat podcast back in episode 53, as she talked about community development projects, but Jodi, I’m thrilled to have you back with us on chamber chat podcast. I’d love for you to say hello to all the chamber champions that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jodie Perry 3:34
Awesome. Well, thanks, Brandon. I appreciate being back on and great to chat with my fellow chamber. peers across the country. So something interesting about myself Well, I’m a proud dog mom, to a rambunctious, adopted mutt named Elizabeth Bennett, Lizzie Bennet. I’m a big Pride and Prejudice fan. So so she keeps me busy most days and I love being an aunt to several nieces and nephews as well.

Brandon Burton 4:05
That’s awesome. Well tell us a little bit about the Richland Area Chamber. You guys are obviously doing some great things to get noticed as a chamber, the year finalist. So tell us a little bit about the size of your chamber staff size, budget scope of work just to kind of give us an idea before we get into our discussion. Sure.

Jodie Perry 4:25
So we represent Richland County, Ohio, our largest city, as you noted earlier was in Mansfield, Ohio. That’s a lot of people would know us for that. Fun fact we were where the Shawshank Redemption movie was filmed 25 plus years ago now so yes, so the old prison still brings in hundreds of 1000s of people actually a year to see that. So just kind of fun here. We have a little over 1000 members here. Were a staff of 11 nine full time to part time and Our budgets about $1.2 million. And in my bio, you noted, we are a combined entity. So we have the chamber, we have a chamber Foundation, a 501, C three, as well as another 501 C three, which does our economic development, workforce development and community development. So the staff kind of serves across all those three areas.

Brandon Burton 5:24
Awesome. Now that having two foundations that’ll that’ll help keep you busy and well funded to hopefully so that’s good. So on these chamber, the your finalist episodes, what I like to do is focus the majority of our time on the the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the year application. And what I’d like to do is just have you tell us at a high level what those two programs are, and then we can circle back and go a little more in depth with each of them?

Jodie Perry 5:52
Great. Well, the first one that we submitted was called Richland works. And it was a program that was a fusion of communication efforts and workforce development. We joined with our local job and Family Services Office and that our local area 10 Workforce Development Board, they actually funded this project, which was a unique, we’ve done a lot with our government entities around workforce. So they’ve been able to use some of the federal dollars coming in, which I think is important for other chambers to know, if you’re if you’re not working with them or not regularly reaching out, I would highly encourage that. We’ve done that for many years. In fact, they helped fund our workforce development position too. But this project was called Richland works, the budget was just a little over $100,000. And we filmed 35, about three minutes videos featuring local employers, they kind of went through all the types of employers that we have. We’re a strong manufacturing community. So we did a lot of types of manufacturing, health care, nonprofit arts and entertainment. And the goal is really twofold, I would say first was, you know, these were all businesses that were actively hiring. So in the short term, we wanted to help connect them through this digital marketing campaign to potential employees. And then secondly, and kind of the more long term effect is to be able to use these in the schools, teaching students about the job opportunities that are locally happening. So in addition to filming the videos, we had a promoted social media campaign for each one. They have really done huge numbers on our social media. They’re all hosted also on our website, so we can see the traffic that has been driven to that landing page. We actually also just finished a community wide brands here. So we were able to work the brand into the, to this project as well. So it was kind of a really good fusion of all of those things. And you know, just kind of early return. So we’re still finishing up a couple of the last ones that are being promoted, the all the videos are done. But you know, we’ve had employers say, Yep, we’ve made, you know, direct hires off of this, when when your videos were promoted, we could see the traffic on our sites increase. So we knew it was working. And it’s been good. The other thing that was a part of this was a podcast that we called the workforce pulse. So we talked about workforce development, and interviewed everyone from our lieutenant governor in the state of Ohio, who kind of Heads Up statewide workforce efforts to some of our more local partners, and just really trying to help people put words to a word that we all use a lot, which is workforce development, but I think the average person doesn’t really understand what that means.

Brandon Burton 8:54
Yeah, workforce development has such a wide scope. So for the Layperson in the community to try to figure out what you’re talking about. might need a little bit more context, but I love you guys do a podcast always a big fan when I hear chambers doing podcasts a great job. Are you still doing the podcast? Or was that a series that you did for a limited time sort of a thing?

Jodie Perry 9:16
So far, it’s been limited. We did kind of two seasons of it. And we have talked about continuing it and maybe using it to focus more on people that have moved here. So kind of talent attraction. A little bit more specifically, but we haven’t moved ahead with that. Yeah, so we’re still kind of kicking around. What do we do with it? But But yeah, it was successful and well received. So we were they kind of got our brains thinking around what we could do elsewise,

Brandon Burton 9:47
right, so I know I had asked for the two programs high level but now I’m getting into the details on this. So we’ll we’ll roll with that. And you had mentioned that with these 35 three minute videos that you’re promoting them on Social media. But you had also mentioned that the increase in traffic to that landing page where you’re hosting the videos. Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? Because I know a lot of times social media is going to perform best if you upload the video directly. But how are you still driving people to your website on that front?

Jodie Perry 10:18
Sure. So. So we began, the video started being filmed in early 2022, the social kind of promotion sites started in the middle of last year. And we’ve, you know, dripped, obviously, with 35 of them, we didn’t want them all to hit at once, because that would diminish the returns there. So we’ve been dripping them every week to two weeks, since that point. So since then, to up to the time that we submitted the application, early May, we had over 170,000 views combined on all those videos. So, you know, Facebook being the, by far the leader there, but we have linked to this in with our own Google ads campaign, as well as YouTube and in the other channels that you would expect. Our website, which we, we did have a landing page created for that that has had over 15,000 unique visitors over that time. So certainly a lot less than the views, but a lot more than our normal website hits. So we can see, you know, on the backside with some of the analytics, where those leads are coming from. And the other thing that we did on that page was create a form that people can fill out. So you know, if they’re potentially looking to move here, or they’re looking for more assistance, you know, we have a way of kind of a call to action for them to reach out to us, so that we can help connect them in.

Brandon Burton 11:49
Okay, so you’ve dropped another great nugget in there about how you integrated your Google ads and those sorts of things. So how are you retargeting and addressing these, you know, that your the traffic that you’re getting in here? How are you taking advantage of that going forward?

Jodie Perry 12:07
So Google has so this is where I think having a 501 C three partner with your chamber really can pay dividends. So they have a a Google for Nonprofits campaign, that once you’re qualified for, they will give you up to $10,000 per month for Google ads. So again, that is attached to our kind of economic and workforce development side of the house. So we’re not using our Google ads for the more traditional chamber events and things that you might think we’re using it for, you know, locate your business here, we’ve kind of promoted our industrial properties. And then particularly during the last six months to a year, we’ve had a secondary campaign, running parallel around workforce development. And so, you know, this has been something we’ve been really excited about. And I think it’s it’s been good timing of the, you know, some of the challenges that we had before was we didn’t have the assets to promote things. So you know, we could talk about the community, but we didn’t have good video, we didn’t have good still photography. That was a piece of this campaign, too. And now we have this really huge wealth of assets, combined with that community brand I mentioned earlier, which has given us some really good verbiage and things that we need to describe the community. And it’s all able to come together around the the Google ads campaign, as well as some of the things that are happening on social and so I just it, I’d love to say, Oh, well, we timed that all very strategically to come together at the same time. We didn’t. But it’s, you know, happenstance was it all did come together at the same time. And so I think that we’ve been able to leverage that a lot more fully than we would have two to three years ago, even

Brandon Burton 14:01
Yeah, so much of it is just recognizing the opportunities that you have. And so you have this specific program, which then works but then to be able to add on top, you know, the tie in with the Google ads and the retargeting and everything. And so not that you necessarily plan it with your new branding and everything, but you leverage you see where things would align, and you take advantage of that. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit more about the education side so and workforce development has a lot of different angles to it. So in the school systems, how are you getting it in front of students? How are you helping to educate them about jobs, and I know it’s at least what I’ve seen in the past, you have a great idea. And when it comes to other people helping to implement it, it may be hard sometimes to execute and have a fulfill. So how are you working through that end of the education side?

Jodie Perry 14:55
Sure. So we’ve been, you know, building relationships with our schools for yours at this point. And so I think that helps us when we been able to go to them, they’ve worked with us on different projects over the years, we have done a very successful student job fair, the last, I think, three to four years. Two years ago, we changed it up to make it a reverse job fair. So the students are setting up the booths, and the employers are walking around. And that has been a really cool inversion. And we’re trying to get more students there, we would love to see better participation from the student side, the employers are all over it, no surprise. But that’s kind of, you know, one of the direct ways that we’re working with them. And then, you know, over the summer, just recently, we’ve done tours, with our superintendents, with teachers, we’ve been a part of all of that, you know, so we have a good ecosystem here, kind of working around the workforce area. So some of the things we lead some of the things we just help connect on. But we have been sending these videos out to the superintendents and the teachers and saying, you know, we want you to think about using them. And we knew we had success, when we, one of the superintendents copied us on what he had pushed out to his entire district, which was the link to the page, and basically said, you’re gonna use these next year in school. And I’d like to see how that happens. And so, you know, we were really excited to just see that pickup happening. And we think that will continue to happen, because really, the videos, I think, you know, they have a fairly long lifespan in terms of the education, you know, obviously, their their hiring needs will vary a little bit, but but they don’t talk specifically about their immediate hiring needs. It’s more about just what is the culture as an employer at that agency?

Brandon Burton 16:52
Right. Now? I’d love that it when you went about that, the idea of having the videos and sharing it with the schools, was it to share it in the classroom or guidance counselor’s sharing it or through social media pages through the school system? What was the vision? And is it is it aligning with what the vision was?

Jodie Perry 17:12
Yeah, I would say probably our primary thought at the time was through classrooms. So really, you know, we have a lot of technology. We’re technology schools here. So those are kind of low hanging fruit. They already do things like this. So we wanted to give them some fresh material for that, and particularly local materials. So you know, don’t just use stock manufacturing footage. Let’s show you the headquarters of Gorman, Rob, can you know manufacturing looks a lot different these days than it used to. But yes, long term, we want guidance counselor’s. We also have a locally funded program not through the chamber, but we provide assistance to them, which puts career coaches in each of our school systems and so they’re working with students every day, they’re not full time teachers or anything, they’re just a lot of them are retired teachers doing it part time but so we’re encouraging them to use these videos to as they’re working with students to try to just help them figure out you know, again, what exists locally, but but just also what exists on a larger scale for them.

Brandon Burton 18:22
Yeah, that’s awesome. So I love the idea of the reverse job fair. And that could be a whole nother podcast episode. I would love to dive deep and just learn all the ins and outs of that yeah, so let’s let’s look at shifting gears and and focusing a little bit more on the other program that was submitted on your chamber the your application as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 21:24
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Brandon Burton 22:12
All right, Jodi, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re going to shift over to the second program that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application, can you tell us what that was and kind of what it’s all about?

Jodie Perry 22:26
Sure. So we did a program at the beginning of 2022. This is a long name, but it was called the Richland County COVID-19 Food and Beverage entertainment venue and lodging and tourism grant program. Long name to say we provided grants to small businesses in those targeted areas. We partnered with our Richland County Commissioners as well as the city of Mansfield who funded the grants through their ARPA dollars, the allocations that they received locally. And actually, we had already done a successful version of this program, a little wider scope, back in 2020, where we gave, at that time, over $2.7 million, almost 500 local businesses right in the heart of COVID. And so like many chambers, I think, you know, we found ourselves right at the center of the action during COVID, in really being a key resource and helping our businesses stay active. But as things went on, and in, you know, the initial impact in the 2020 had kind of faded, but we saw just like everyone else, you know, hotel revenues continued to be down a little bit. Food and Beverage, particularly it was still taking time in 2021, we are still having those bigger waves. And, you know, entertainment venues, you know, they things just weren’t back to normal. And so when the ARPA dollars were passed, both the government agencies said, Hey, we did this successfully last time, we’d like to partner with you again. But this time, let’s focus in on the businesses that are particularly still lagging. But let’s give them also slightly larger grants. So we gave grants up to $30,000. And in this program, we gave away over 56 grants, and it was just a little over a million dollars to local businesses. So a lot of work, but definitely things that were much needed, and kept, quite frankly, kept some of those places afloat, particularly some of the smaller nonprofits that fit in that area.

Brandon Burton 24:39
Yeah. So anticipate you I mean, through your your membership database, right. You can sort through these kinds of tourism type businesses and food and beverage and hotels and so forth to target to inform. I’m sure you sent some sort of an invitation to fill out an application what was the process like for them to apply? And to to gain access to these grant funds,

Jodie Perry 25:03
you’re. So actually you didn’t have to be a member. Of course, we did have a lot of members that received grants, but we worked hard to get the word out that you didn’t have to be a member to receive this. You didn’t have to be located in Richland County, you had to be able to show that you had loss of revenue. So there was some members and businesses that just didn’t qualify because they didn’t lose enough revenue, which is ultimately a good thing did make for some interesting conversations. Sometimes when I had to tell them, Well, I’m sorry, you just didn’t lose enough money, which is good. But we did a whole marketing campaign around that we held some online, Zoom informational sessions, and then did a lot of social media marketing to really get the word out there. So then, you know, when it came time to open the grants, which was just after the first of the year and 2022. You know, everyone knew in advance what the questions were, we did operate this one a little differently than our previous iteration. So we looked at the the applications as they came in, even though both government agencies gave us a limited amount of money, they both kind of indicated, look, if you have a, you know, a run on these, and it’s truly businesses in need, we will allocate more funds. So we felt comfortable that, you know, we needed to make sure we went through a really rigorous process to make sure they met all of the qualifications, but that we felt pretty comfortable, we could help everyone who really was going to qualify, so. So it took us probably beginning to end, it was about a five month process of kind of the planning, you know, about a month and a half of the application window. And then, you know, businesses had to provide a lot of documentation, because as you can imagine, with government dollars, there’s a lot of auditing that goes on on the back side, and we have mine that the first time around, so we had to get a lot of information and, and worked through it. But in the end, it was really well received. And like I said, definitely made a difference with some of those businesses.

Brandon Burton 27:13
Yeah. So chamber was very involved in not only just from the communication and and broadcasting the information out there, but actually filtering through the applications and seeing who qualifies and to be able to kind of sort through I can imagine a lot of work. Let alone the the audits and everything afterwards, right. Yes, yeah. So is there any, you know, an example or two that stand out of businesses that that really had a big impact on or, like, I know the industry in general, the tourism industry, but usually there’s there’s a couple that really stand out? It’s like they needed these funds? Are there any examples that you can share with us?

Jodie Perry 27:57
Yeah, a good one would be right in the heart of downtown Mansfield, we have a carousel, a wooden carousel, called Richmond carousel Park. And as you can imagine, they were closed. They’re a nonprofit, and, you know, run mostly by volunteers, and they had not qualified for some of the other grants that were coming out through the state. PPP for them wasn’t as impactful, because they don’t have a lot of employees, they have a lot of volunteers. So, you know, when we reached out, I noticed they hadn’t applied. And so I gave them a call. And I was, you know, just like, hey, I just want to make sure you saw we had this and, and she kind of had already assumed that they wouldn’t qualify. But for us, we weren’t necessarily looking at payroll, that was one way you could get the the reimbursement. But there were other things you can claim, you had to have at least a 10% loss to qualify for it, theirs was was much larger. So they ended up qualifying for the full $30,000. And I thought the director was going to start crying when I called to tell her that it was just, you know, it really made a big impact on you know, them being able to get back in and going again, at more of a full pace. And there was another one too, it was a small local bakery, similar situation where they you know, I think they had received some PPP money, but it was relatively small and just because of their size, and so actually they qualified for $20,000 which was huge to them and they were teetering on closing just because you know, the cash flow wasn’t there. They were still on the newer side and, and that has kept them going. So you know, some really good uplifting stories. It made all of the work and the spreadsheets and all of the things that we had to do to make it work. Definitely very worthwhile.

Brandon Burton 29:59
That’s all Awesome, I love hearing stories like that, for sure, you guys are definitely making an impact in the community. So that that is evident. As we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if for those listening, if you might have any tip or action item for chambers who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level,

Jodie Perry 30:21
you know, honestly, my best suggestion is to, to apply for this award, even if you don’t think you’re ready for it. So we, I’ve applied for this four times twice at a previous chamber. And then this is the second time that we’ve applied here, the other one was back in 2019. And it was probably about the time I was on here the first time. And, you know, when I was working through the application with our team this year, I really was so excited to see our progress in that time, between 2019 to 2023. You know, I think a lot of times as chamber leaders, you know, we’re busy, and so we don’t often slow down to really appreciate that progress. And it’s definitely an area we’ve grown in, in in that time, you know, we’ve added some staff, we’ve really been beefed up our communications, which has made a huge difference. In in both of the programs that you just heard about, you know, we’re producing annual reports regularly, just things like that. And it really, you know, my my best thing is always to aim high. And then, you know, it gives you an idea of what you need to work towards, even if you don’t ultimately hit it the first time. And, you know, I don’t know if I shared this last time around. But same with your CCE, you know, I I had to go through that program twice, I always joke I was the reject. But you know, the first time it was a really, it was a great process, I just didn’t have a project that was strong enough. That’s kind of where it was, it was also different being interviewed by your peers versus, you know, interviewed by the board. But I came back the next year got it. And you know, in both instances, I I’m super proud of the fact that I can see the growth both in myself and then here at the chamber by kind of, you know, being told no the first time, and I think that just makes you stronger as a leader by not giving up.

Brandon Burton 32:26
But and I appreciate you being transparent and open about that too. And the idea that that there are people that are turned away the first time and it really shows what that distinction means, you know, really means that you’re, you’re you’re taking the profession seriously your professional development and everything that goes with that. Yeah. So Jody, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jodie Perry 32:53
I think the chambers are at the heart of our community. And actually, I think COVID cemented that even more. For us locally, it certainly did. You know, that was obviously a unique and a unique time for all of us full of turmoil. But I would say, you know, those two years of when we’re really in the heart of it, I have never felt like we were more in our mission statement zone than during that time. You know, there was just a lot of things that, you know, you kind of strip away some of the clutter and the things that get in the way. And I will say that, you know, for us now, you know, we have built and cemented a lot of relationships locally that came out of that time that, you know, quite frankly, the chamber is at the heart of almost every major project that’s happening in our community doesn’t mean I’m not trying to take credit for them. But but we’re always at the table. We’re always a player. And I think that, you know, chambers should be playing that role in their community. And, you know, sometimes we have ceded that to other organizations, or other entities and I think, you know, the power of convening, the power of influence that that we have in this role should not be taken lightly. And I think it’s it’s unique. What we do is unique from what government does or from what other you know, the foundation or the philanthropic world does. In we were kind of a good touch point for all of those different entities.

Brandon Burton 34:37
Absolutely. Well, God This has been a blast to have you back on the podcast. It’s always very reassuring to me to see somebody I’ve had on the podcast, you know, it seems like long ago, the selected as a chamber, the year finalist, so congratulations to you and your team. I’d love to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and can To you and learn more maybe about these programs that you guys are are promoting within your community.

Jodie Perry 35:05
There are so definitely first I’ll start with our website which is just RichlandAreaChamber.com. You could Google Richland Works, that should bring up the landing page for that program as well. My email address is just jperry@richlandareachamber.com. And our phone number is 419-522-3211. And I would be remiss if I didn’t give a huge shout out to my team because while I’m the spokesperson on a couple of these, you know, they very much are at the heart of all of this work and super, super proud and it feels special to be going through this with them.

Brandon Burton 35:48
Absolutely. Yeah. Can’t do it without the team so you’re sure got a good one around you. Absolutely. Oh god, thank you for spending time with us today and sharing these insights of these impactful programs you guys are doing there and the Richmond area Chamber. And I wish you and your team Best of luck as chamber the year.

Jodie Perry 36:07
Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 36:08
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