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Category: Training

What Today’s Member Really Want with Barry Phillips

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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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Our guest for this episode is Barry Phillips. Barry owned his first software company at age 21 and learned to wear many hats, from head of sales to marketing to it. Plus he’s been a CEO a few times as well. The one constant in his career is that he loves to run teams and organizations, and was actually good at it. Ultimately, his real passion is helping others grow. He’s still doing that today, but he’s changed his focus from large companies like HP Ernst and Young and visa to small and mid sized businesses, and he does this exclusively by working with chambers of commerce across the country, Barry’s been able to help businesses make real rubber hits the road changes that make a positive difference in the organization and the lives of its leaders. Barry injects fun into his speaking, training and consulting. He loves instilling new ideas, and is all about changing process and behaviors to make real positive impact. But Barry, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat podcast. I wanted to give you a chance 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.

Barry Phillips 2:17
Okay. Well, thank you. I’m glad to be here Brandon. I like that the chamber, Chamber of champions. That’s quite the alliteration you got going. There something interesting about me, I think you mean in the personal sense. I guess stuff that’s unique is I own 17 dutch ovens. Do you even know what a Dutch oven is? I

Brandon Burton 2:39
do? Yes, I grew up in scouting and whatnot. So, oh yeah,

Barry Phillips 2:45
those cast iron pots you you picture the old wagon master with his thing hanging over a fire, and that’s kind of what it was in the 1800s still with look kind of the same with the cooking has advanced quite a bit, and I’ve done competition cooking with those things as well. So I do all sorts of cooking, but kind of getting known for the Dutch oven stuff, I guess, just because it’s a little bit more unique than other things. But that’s something unique about me anyway.

Brandon Burton 3:14
How does one amass a collection of 17 dutch ovens?

Barry Phillips 3:18
Well, you purchased them one of the time.

Brandon Burton 3:21
Is it on accident, or is it purpose?

Barry Phillips 3:24
My first one is I had a brother in law come up in California and bought a whole bunch of them to take back to to people in California. And he got there and counted them and realized that he had two more than he actually paid for. He said, would you take these back to the store for me? And I said, well, so I just called up the store and said, how much you want for these things? I don’t want things? I didn’t want to drive the store was about an hour away, and I didn’t want to do that, so I I just paid for them, and so, well, I’ve got a little might look like cooking with them, and just kind of went from there.

Brandon Burton 3:53
The rest is history, as they say, yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about your company. I know I shared some of that in your bio, but tell us what it is that you do your interest in chambers and the work that you do with them and and kind of help set the stage for a conversation today. Well,

Barry Phillips 4:10
my background is I’m a serial entrepreneur, and I have been doing that for years, running my own businesses a lot, and I’ve worked inside billion dollar corporations and things as well, but I’ve spent a lot of time in training and consulting. And as you said, your bio big companies like Hewlett Packard or Ernst and younger bees are 10 worth those kinds of companies, and had some good success. There really good success. But still, the organizations are so large it’s really hard to affect real change. And so kind of in the post covid world, obviously, there weren’t a lot of folks out there wanting to do in person training and going into corporations to help do things that way. People were pretty timid there for a while, and so I thought to myself, you know, I’ve always worked with small businesses as well. I like them the best, because you can affect real change and much faster. Yeah. And so I thought, well, where you go for that? Well, Chambers of Commerce seemed like a logical place. And so I started playing with some chambers and speaking and doing some training inside their organizations, and I found some interesting commonalities, and that is that most chambers didn’t have a lot of money. I didn’t, didn’t take a lot of research to figure that one out. It was kind of blatant there, but I found that the members really needed the training just as much as a big corporation of probably more people that own small to mid sized businesses. There’s a lot of stuff they need to do that they don’t normally know how to do when you start a business because you love what it is you do. If it’s a restaurant, you are a good cook, and so you thought you’d start a restaurant up, or you want a clothing boutique, you know, you liked fashion, or whatever. And all of a sudden, you find out, when you get into business, there’s these annoying things called people that you have to deal with all the time. And it’s a people business. I don’t care what your business is. I don’t care if you’re a plumber, you are in, still in a people business, because you have to go out and deal with customers. And customers are always human beings. No matter how much AI wants to affect our lives, you still will get money paid to you by another person. That’s how life works. And so my background is really in those areas of helping not I mean, I have done a lot of marketing. My first job was in an advertising agency as a graphic artist, and I’ve worked in and doing marketing and sales and all those things. I was top salesman worldwide. In fact, the people can’t see this, but I’m going to show you Brandon. You see the picture of me standing by that Corvette? I do. They won that Corvette for being top salesman in the world. And so got some background and those kinds of things as well. But that’s, again, a people skill, right? And so ultimately, started sharing that with other companies, and doing my own training and consulting, and have done that for a number of years as well, and just really trying to help people out and anything from that. I mean, they need to know about finance. They need to know about all sorts of things, but usually they have a primary skill set in one area and know a little bit about the other things, but they don’t know everything they need to know to really make their business go. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:26
I always think of the example of a dentist who goes to dental school. They spend a lot of time, lots of education, learning how to drill teeth and put in fillings and, you know, do work in your mouth, right? But how much do they get taught about how to hire and how to work with an office staff, and how to file taxes and how to do these different aspects that are important and necessary with running a business

Barry Phillips 7:50
well. And, you know, funny, because I’ve helped some desks, I’ve done, done some training with them, and I remember when Dennis coming to me and saying, Ah, you know, I’ve got all these assistants and all these. There’s all these women in this office, and I just don’t really know how to keep them on track, keep them doing the right things. And as I delve into it, the people in the office are saying, you know, he’s a good dentist, but he doesn’t really know how to work with people and how to motivate people, and and, and that’s the thing, when you are top level in a business, doesn’t matter what it is. You affect way more than you think you do. You just do. And it’s different for people, because they think, Well, you know, things are going well. Sometimes they think it’s all them, and that’s probably not completely true, but if it’s going bad, it’s definitely a big part of you, because most companies don’t die from competitors beating them. Most companies implode one way or the other. They make wrong choices, they don’t stay up with their markets. But all these things are are leadership issues. They’re not staying on top of the things they need to to make the business work. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 8:59
that makes a lot of sense, and that is actually a perfect segue to introduce what our topic for our conversation is today, which is, we’ll be focusing our conversation around what members really want and actually probably what they need, but we’ll, we’ll dive in much deeper into this conversation as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Barry, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking today about what it is that members really want. So as a chamber of commerce listening, they’ve got, you know, likely, hundreds, maybe over 1000 members. Possibly these are all different businesses. But what are some of these commonalities? What are these things that they really want and that they need, especially as it comes to their membership, and how the chamber can help affect change with these members?

Barry Phillips 11:38
Yeah, and that’s a pretty broad subject for you, for what they want, what they really, really want. I tried to get you to sing that with me, but yeah, no, go. Yeah, they wouldn’t like my singing either. But there are some things they that they know they want, and there’s a lot of things that they need and should want, and that’s where a chamber is really important because they’ve got a one prove the relevancy a chamber has to be something more than what people think of a chamber when they aren’t in one, right? They think a chamber is there to give me a little bit of networking opportunity, and maybe they do a ribbon cutting ceremony for me. And they kind of don’t know all the things that a chamber can do for them, but what the chamber can do for them is the things that they really want and they really need, one of which is training. I’ve obviously been in that world for years and and good training is expensive. I mean, guys like me, not, you know, I’m not saying I’m anything special that way, but people like me that go out and do this, they’re five to 15 to $20,000 a day, small companies aren’t going to touch that. They just can’t. There’s no way they can afford it. And that’s where I kind of came in with my what I’m doing with chambers, was trying to find a way to make that completely affordable for chambers to bring to their members and so but the things that they really want first and foremost, if they’re astute and they’re good leaders, trying to do the right things, is they understand their stuff they don’t know. And they need to understand things about leading people managing teams. How do you get these people to perform? How do you get them to stay How do you get them to be happy and productive? All those things, those are skills that can be learned. Not everybody’s a natural born leader that just walks in and and when they smile, the little twinkle happens on their tooth, and everybody loves them. That doesn’t typically happen. We learn this stuff, right? We get good at it because we’ve practiced it.

Brandon Burton 13:37
That’s so key, because so many people, I think, will try to wing it. You know, they where they it really, what it falls back to is what they’ve seen, right? Yeah, so the examples that they’ve seen in their life, maybe they worked for an employer that did something, you know, this way. So they see that as that’s the way things get done, and very well, and probably oftentimes, is that example that they are falling back on, is probably not the best example. And if you look at, you know, how well were they liked, how well did you know, what was their retention of their staff like? You know, all these different things, but that’s what you have to fall back on. Is what you’ve seen, you know, so as an example for you, and the

Barry Phillips 14:17
first step for them is to realize, well, I wrote a book on leadership. In fact, in the opening sentence is, it’s your fault, and then the second sentence is, what? What is your fault? Whatever it was that caused you to finally read a leadership book. But people have more influence and impact on their companies. Think about that. If you’re loyal to a company, you just love it there. Why is that? Is it because you like the logo, you’re just completely in love with the product, whatever it is, the answer is, you like the people you’ll work with and the people you work for. That’s what makes you love a company, because in the larger organizations, you can find people who love working there and people who hate working there. And the difference is they’re the people around them. And. Leaders set the tone of all that stuff, and so they just got to learn those skills of how to if communicate effectively. They’ve got to learn the basics of sales and marketing. There’s just so many things that they need to do to be able to do this job. And they do have to understand a bit about business. You have to set your business up correctly so that you are in the right tax you know, for you know, most people start off with it. They’re just a sole proprietor, or something simple like that. But as that grows, you know, as one of my companies grew, my accountant said you don’t change. You need to be a Sub S Corporation. You shouldn’t be that anymore. It’s killing you in taxes on yourself, and first year I flipped, I made $6,000 more just on the tax savings from the previous year. You just have to know those things. You don’t have to be an expert at it, but you have to know enough that you can read a P and L and a balance sheet. If you don’t know what those are, you better learn what those are. This is the stuff will make your business work or die, because if you don’t, if you’re just running it completely off a spreadsheet and just kind of winging it, that’s going to come back to bite you, yeah, especially if your company is successful.

Brandon Burton 16:09
Well, in that example, there’s, there’s a time where you need to bring in an expert, you know, your accountant, for example. But before you do that, you need to be able to look at your PNL and what your balance sheet looks like, and be able to see, Okay, that looks like, maybe something’s off here. Or I need to put more attention here. And then, then you can take it to the expert and say, help me out here, because you’ve been able to notice something. If you just, you know, outsource it all to the accountant. Very rarely are they going to come to you and say, you know, I’m noticing some things here. There’s, you’re just one in their list, and if you’re not paying attention for yourself, things will continue to get missed well,

Barry Phillips 16:46
and you hate to bring this up, but if, if a company ever gets embezzled, it’s just by the accountants, because he’s controlling all the money. And some business owner just said, I don’t want to know about that stuff. It stresses me. You handle it. You can’t just do that. You have to have your fingers in it enough to know what’s going on and to understand it. You never want to completely trust those critical things of your business, not that you’re the best one at doing them or the fastest of doing them, but you can do them, you can understand what’s going on. So that means financial is one of those places you start very first structure your company, right? And then understand finances. You need to understand what it really takes to grow your business. It’s amazing how many people don’t really know what their what their product, whatever it is costs. What is the real cost of that? You know, people out there at a restaurant selling food, and if they were to add up all their costs, they’re selling this plate for less than that, it actually cost them to make what are they doing? Isn’t that crazy? What? But you see it on, you know, reality TV shows or whatever. But it happens in real life all the time. If you don’t have a hold of your numbers, you’re nuts. I mean, you have to know that stuff.

Brandon Burton 17:56
Yeah. So you’ve touched on a few things here, from taxes and finances, to HR to I’ll even say the culture within the company, within the business. What are some of these other things that come top of mind to you? Of things you’ve come across people, let

Barry Phillips 18:12
me touch real quickly on the what one you just said? You just said, culture? Yeah, a good friend of mine started a business. He started several businesses, but when he started his last one, in particular, he was just all about culture. That’s all he cared about, was culture. Culture. Culture said, Dude, it’s just you and and your partner that you’re starting this with. What do you what do you mean? Culture? He said, Well, you have to understand culture is how we treat each other, and we have to figure that out, and we have to do it right. And now his company happens to be the largest company in the HR world, or mid to small sized businesses, and they’re in the top 10 in the world for having the best culture people want to be there. He can even pay them a little bit less if he wants to, because they love being there so much. He could probably get away with that. But part of his culture is treating his people well. He does things like, after 40 hours of work, you’re out of here, you do not take work home with you. You’ll be in trouble if you do. We insist that you don’t be here more than 40 hours a week. He gives them paid vacation. In fact, he pays for their vacation. Bring me back receipts, and I’ll pay $2,500 for airline tickets and hotel rooms and whatever He wants His people to have good lives. It’s a culture that’s phenomenal. So that’s one of the things. When you build the right culture, it attracts good people. The people want to stay, and all those things start to happen. So they need to understand that human side, probably more than anything.

Brandon Burton 19:44
Yeah, that’s a good example, a real good case study right there, as far as culture goes,

Barry Phillips 19:50
Yeah, I mean, now that he has 1000s of employees, it’s pretty tough to turn that wheel when you got 1000s of people to do it differently. Yeah, there are ways to do that. I. And then they need to understand what really matters to their people. I ask this to people all the time, what is more important to you, shareholders, employees or customers? Who do you focus on? And I get all three of those answers in a room whenever I ask it. So Brandon, what’s the answer?

Brandon Burton 20:20
Well, I think your employees need to be up there at the top, otherwise you can’t serve your shareholders or your customers, because you won’t have the employees to make things happen.

Barry Phillips 20:30
See, you should put a ghost star on your forehead. You got that exactly right, right? It is people, you see companies that are customer focused, customer focused, customer focused, and people hate working there. I mean, Amazon will now hire you off their website without even interviewing you if they’re so desperate for employees. And it’s part of the culture. Yes, they try to treat customers well, but if you don’t treat the people well, because guess what happens when you treat people well? They like their jobs. They’re happy with their jobs. That comes through to customers. Customers want to be associated with a business like that, they actually get more money coming in and more sales because of that, which then makes the shareholder happy. It’s the only way it works to get all three of them happy is to focus on your people. They actually matter most. Yeah, so you are dead on on that one awesome

Brandon Burton 21:16
I’ve pat myself on the back. Yeah, you should. So what are some of these other areas that stand out to you about what, what Chamber members really want, or what they need that they maybe they don’t know they want it because but they need it to be able to understand, to be able to operate their business. Well,

Barry Phillips 21:35
one of the things is, we got to talk about technology a little bit. They have to understand what’s going on in their online footprint. And you’ll hear some people saying, let’s try. We’ll have an online footprint. Oh yes, you do. If you don’t have one, it’s happening to you. There is conversation somewhere about you going online, and if you’re not controlling that, if you’re not involved in that, then you’re in trouble. Now that doesn’t mean you have to be an expert at social media and all that stuff and and necessarily be doing all those things. You can have somebody help you with that, set that stuff up, give you a great website, all those things. But you have to know what matters for your business. You have to know where the focus is. You know, I think it was John Paul Getty once said that half of all marketing is waste. Yeah, half of our marketing and advertising is wasted. We just don’t know which half. Well, that’s no longer true, because you can actually do testing online if you know what you’re doing and see, oh, that didn’t work. Oh, that does work. And all of a sudden you start to know which half is a waste, and you start focusing your marketing in the right places. If you’re in a tourist business, there are certain websites and things that matter to you. If you’re not in that business, then maybe you don’t want your TripAdvisor probably does not matter to you if you’re a clothing store, but it might if you’re selling things in a tourist town, it might still matter to you, but you have to know those kinds of things. And while somebody else may manage that, when people start to comment about you online, you’re the one that needs to answer. You need to look every single day whether you like it or not, and have people show you how to do it. You need to go and talk about and respond back to people’s positive comments and their negative comments and tell them what you’re doing to fix it and invite them back. And invite them back so they can you can show them the changes you’ve made. All that kind of stuff matters. You need to get your your things set up correctly with Google, so that you are controlling your brand and your name and that you’re on the map correctly, and all those things you can do. But you have to know how and it matters, no matter what your business is, there’s nobody, hardly anymore that go, that goes and does business without checking out a company first online. Yes, it’ll be partly your website, but it’ll be your social media footprint in whatever places that matter. Probably Google searches are big deals no matter who you are, yeah, like, a like Google or not, they still kind of own the world of people searching and looking for reviews and things like that.

Brandon Burton 24:07
Yeah, and I’ve mentioned it before on the podcast, but my background has been in advertising and media and chamber publishing and whatnot. And Chamber members all the time will talk to me about the ad that they’re placing with the chamber, and they’ll want to get into the details of you know, well, what bullet points should I put in the ad? What? What about the phone number? Should I have a unique phone number? And, like, really trying to overthink things, and to your point, nobody does business with anybody without checking them out online first. So you want to put that, that carrot out there that really draws the attention, take them to your website, have a unique call to action, and then there’s a process to be able to educate them about the rest of the things you do. But if you try to bombard with too much on the front end, they’re going to ignore you, and they’re going to go to your website anyways. If there’s any interest to learn more, you know,

Barry Phillips 24:59
and. Again, no matter what your business is, you need to learn what your pitch is. What do people think of you? What is, what is the image you have to others? I don’t care how much you know about what you do and how cool you think that is. Does that matter? Even with what I am now doing for chambers, it used to take me 40 minutes in a zoom call to explain it to you. I went to a couple live events, and that’s, in fact, where you and I met, at one of those, and I, by the end of that, I could do my entire pitch in about a minute and a half. Yeah, I had learned what people cared about, or what they didn’t, not what I cared about, but what they cared about, because that’s one of the key things, is you better be selling what people want, not what you have?

Brandon Burton 25:40
Yeah, they talk about they call it the elevator pitch, right? You got 60 seconds in front of somebody, and if you can’t explain what you do, then do you really know what you do? Do you know?

Barry Phillips 25:50
Because the point is, people are going to look at you, and if they don’t get you, they’re not going to give you 510, minutes to figure out what you are. They’re going to give you a few seconds. And if you can’t hone down what you are, even if you’re a restaurant or something like that, that ought to be obvious. Well, we sell food, yeah. But why should I come into yours versus the other five on the same block? Right? They need to get you very, very quickly. And you need to hone that down any business, even if, again, if you’re a pipe fitter, I don’t care what it is, they need to understand why you and what it is you do very, very quickly. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:24
great stuff. As we begin to wrap things up here, I like asking everyone I have on the show that for chambers listening who are trying to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with that chamber to help them accomplish that goal?

Barry Phillips 26:45
Well, for chambers, it’s interesting because some chambers are pretty aggressive about forward thinking, and some are just trying to hang on and trying to rebuild back from the pandemic and all those kinds of things. But they need to understand they’ve got to have unique offerings that give them something that others don’t have, that the chamber can provide, that they can’t get any other way. Networking is certainly that you need to have good networking opportunities for people to get to know people. But you know, if they’re still in the same room week after week or month after month, looking at the same people, that’s not as stimulated as needs to be. So you need to be growing and bringing new people in. And I know it sounds self serving, but you need a training component with what I’m doing for chambers, for example, you they can’t get any new way through the chamber. They couldn’t afford it. Couldn’t come close to affording it any other way. And so you need to have things like that that are things that chambers need to help with. Maybe you can bring on a a consultant once in a while, really good people that will help people understand how to do the financial parts of their business. They need to have HR experts. You need to be bringing them a stream of people that can give them what they need, so that they can have a reason to keep coming back to you. I mean, that’s, that’s the bottom line. Are you still relevant to me? Now I don’t need you to do a ribbon cutting ceremony anymore. What can you do for me now? Why should I come back this year? You gotta stay relevant. You gotta get them tangible stuff that matters.

Brandon Burton 28:15
And the good news for a chamber and staying relevant is there’s always new things. With how fast the economy moves these days, with how fast technology moves, there’s always a need to educate and to get more valuable information from your members who don’t have the time to do the research themselves and to put it all out there. But maybe it’s a lunch and learn kind of a format. You come for lunch. They’re going to eat lunch anyways. And can they take something away as they do that? Maybe it’s a podcast episode where you bring on an expert and they’re sharing these tips. Maybe it’s bringing in somebody like Barry who has his platform to be able to train and educate and bring your members to the next level. And

Barry Phillips 28:56
I will tell you, you’ve all been to one of those Lunch and Learns where you thought you’re going to get 45 minutes of education. What you got was a 45 minute sales pitch. Right? Make sure you’re not bringing somebody in that just wants to sell you on their insurance or on whatever you need. To get speakers that come and bring real content that people need without doing a pushy sales pitch on them. That’s what they need.

Brandon Burton 29:18
Yeah, because otherwise they won’t come back to the next lunch and learn, and they’ll think the chambers just, they just sell to me all the time, right? Yeah. So Well, Barry, I like asking everyone, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, I know you’re you’ve dove into the the chamber world, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Barry Phillips 29:43
Well, chambers do have a lot of purposes, some of which from the past still are relevant to the future. Right? Good. Chambers are even involved in what is best for small businesses from the Washington political front, and they’re making affiliations with the. Know the local town councils and mayors all the way up to their state senates and those kinds of things where they can have that impact. And that’s important. They’ve got to keep doing that. But they do need to be able to provide things online. They need to give people a reason to come back and think about the chamber. You’re an association. Most of them aren’t associated directly with with the local government. Some are, but why? Why are they doing that? What is it you’re bringing to them? Education is a big, big piece of that, but so is giving them the ability to meet other people, to have horizons open to them. You need to be going as a chamber to events where you can see what the next thing is, and you start bringing new things on board, and always bringing new ideas and new products and things to them that you know people will. Some people think, Oh, I can’t raise my rates on my people. Well, you can’t. If you don’t show value, if you show enough value you can and it will make a big difference. You just got to be willing to go out there and say, here’s where, what we give you that you can’t get any place else, to be able to list off the education, the the help with HR, the help with whatever it is that you think is relevant for your for your people, and how to do that, and you’ve got to make sure that you can again, for you, you gotta have a sales pitch that’s very quick. Here’s what the chamber can do for you. Here’s the unique things we offer. You can’t get any place else, and you get this all for this amount of money. That’s a steal. That’s

Brandon Burton 31:32
right. And I love that. Taking it back to the sales pitch of the chamber, everybody’s in a sales good.

Unknown Speaker 31:39
I mean, you just don’t having that line

Brandon Burton 31:40
of this is what we provide that you can’t get anywhere else. That is so key. So I love it. Barry, I want to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about the services you offer, or just more about what we discussed today in this podcast episode. Where would you point them? What would be the best way for them to connect with you?

Barry Phillips 32:04
Well, there’s a couple of things. I’ve created a special website just for the heads of chambers, and it’s called chamber offer.com pretty easy to remember. You go there and there’s like eight little videos, then they’re all partly me on there. Sorry about that, but you’ll, you’ll be able to go through and I’ll walk you through all the things that that I offer with my online what I offer as a way for chambers to bring an online resource that’s live, that’s engaging and has a permanent library of stuff to it as well, bringing great content of education to your people. And it’s such a way that chambers can actually make money off of it. And it’s something that your members just really, really need. And so if you go to my regular website, BarryKPhillips.com you’ll get a flavor of my background there that that particular websites probably more suited for the big companies that I’ve worked with over the years, but you’ll see who I am there. Chamberoffer.com will give you exactly what you need, but contact me directly. Just go to Barry at Barry K Phillips com and reach out. I’d love to talk with you. Um, the phone number is 801-358-5525.

Brandon Burton 33:16
very good, and we will get all that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy for everyone to click on chamber offer.com and and see exactly what it is that you offer in your your stance with what you can do to help chambers. But Barry, this has been a great conversation. Hopefully it’s got the wheels turning with those chambers that are listening and and thinking of ways to really stay relevant and to put their value out there within their business community and stay top of mind for those businesses in their community. So thank you for sharing all this with us today, and it’s been great to have you on the show.

Barry Phillips 33:47
Thanks for having me. Brandon, I really appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 33:51
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State Chamber as a Resource with Amy Cloud

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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 is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

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Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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 Amy Cloud. Amy currently serves as the Executive Director for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives. In this role, Amy maintains the level of professional development services that KCCE makes available to the local chamber executives and key volunteers. She activates statewide business advocacy and grassroots networks of local chambers and member companies. She plans and executes her annual conference and several smaller educational events each year. Amy also oversees the KCC e communications advises chamber executives and supports other local chambers in a variety of different ways. Amy has also previously served as executive director at the Jessamine County Chamber and at the Girard County Chamber. That Amy, 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 that are out there listening and if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Amy Cloud 3:03
Hey Brandon, thanks for inviting me on your show. This is wonderful. Like you mentioned before I have been in the chamber industry it’s been about 17 years I got my start on a fluke at a chamber in Middle Tennessee and beautiful McMinnville Warren County in Tennessee, so shout out to them. It’s makes me feel old and I’ve been in this industry so long. But anyway, a little bit about me. I’m a proud graduate of the University of Kentucky Go Cats, farm girl at hearts, got a farm with some sheep and cows and horses and my amazing Border Collies got a great partner in crime my husband of almost 30 years and two great kiddos, one’s a freshman in college, and one is a junior in college. So just a little bit about me chamber. Life is in my blood. And it’s great to find a job that you’re passionate about. I’ve been fortunate enough to not only work as a volunteer to chamber be a member of a chamber as a business owner, but also direct a couple three chambers and now work at the state level. So this is definitely my passion and definitely my career.

Brandon Burton 4:08
Yeah. So you mentioned you came into it as a fluke. I love hearing the origin story of how people came into chamber world if you don’t mind sharing what that Fluke was.

Amy Cloud 4:19
Well, sure. I got a great opportunity as a 20 something to join a large corporation in their marketing department and moved me from my home state of Kentucky to Middle Tennessee. It was in like I said the marketing department. Six months after I started they had a corporate restructuring. So our facility closed and moved to Mexico and the marketing department was reduced from seven to one which was my boss. So I lost my job in a new city in a new state with my first home. My husband was first time out of state as well. And I answered an ad in the local week. The paper for a public relations marketing professional, and that ended up being the Vice President of Operations for the McMinnville Warren County Chamber of Commerce. I don’t even know what a chamber was when I went to the interview. So it was a great experience. And I was hooked. I was hooked after that.

Brandon Burton 5:16
So you come from that perspective of not knowing what a chamber was, and now being over communications and being able to help relay what that story is, is very helpful. I’m sure. It is. It is it love it. Well, tell us a little bit about the KCC II just give us an idea of kind of everything that you’re involved with. I know I touched on a little bit of it with the bio, but there is a lot to it. So if you don’t mind helping to set the stage for listeners just to understand what what your role is, and, and what the organization is all about.

Amy Cloud 5:49
Absolutely. KCC E is a resource to local chambers. We offer professional development. For the staff, we offer board training for their volunteer board members, or their volunteer Ambassador group or committee chairs, whatever that looks like strategic planning services, networking opportunities, we are a resource, so they don’t feel like they’re alone. So many local chamber professionals feel like an island because no one else in the community does what they do. A Chamber of Commerce is the only organization in town that is solely dedicated to the prosperity of the business community. Other people have that as part of their plan, you know, banks, banks, or community colleges, or whatever that looks like. But the sole business of a chamber is the business community. And so I feel like we try to be that partner for them that champion for them. They can call on me for advice. A lot of them just say, Hey, this is what’s going on, what would you do, as opposed to, hey, we’re planning this new event, and we don’t want them to reinvent the wheel. So we gather up continually resources as people do new projects, new activities, new events, they rewrite their bylaws, they have new policies and procedure manuals. I mean, all that in the weeds kind of stuff. And we make sure that we don’t allow other people to reinvent the wheel, there’s no need for it. It’s a joke around our industry that plagiarism is Latin for Chamber of Commerce. It’s the highest form of compliment compliment for one chamber to steal another chambers idea. So we certainly encourage that. And we do a lot of r&d, which is ripoff and duplicate. A great thing in Kentucky is I’m a full time staff member at the State Chamber. So that makes a great relationship between our local chambers, and our State Chamber and that empowers them to be even bigger and better than ever.

Brandon Burton 7:52
Yeah, no, I love that. And that leads in well to what our topic for our conversation is today about using your State Chamber as a resource. So listeners across the country as they listen to this obviously will have their own State Chambers. So you don’t necessarily represent all of them. But hopefully this gives them ideas of how to utilize their State Chamber and to see the great power that can be there as having that advocate and that that resource to go to. So we will dive much deeper into this discussion as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Amy, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about utilizing your State Chamber as a resource. So from your vantage point, you’ve been on both sides of the desk, so to speak, where you were, you know, at the the local chamber level, and now as a State Chamber employee and and KCC II, how do you see the value or as a local chamber? What should they be looking to the State Chamber and organizations like yours to support them? Absolutely.

Amy Cloud 11:20
And I’ll speak coming from Kentucky, it’s a little bit different in every state the relationship that local chambers have with their State Chamber, as well as their state association. Not all state associations are in house with their State Chamber, that shouldn’t keep anyone from building relationship with both. A great advantage with being connected with your State Chamber is your grassroots advocacy. Your State Chamber is probably one of the largest, if not the largest lobbying efforts in your state at your state level of government. They know the players they know the constitutional officers like your governor and your Secretary of State. They have great relationships with the representatives and senators from across your state, not just yours at the local level. They understand what’s good for business across the state because they get input from folks across the state, the state chamber membership has members just like a local one, that varying from single owner businesses to the fortune 500. So by having a relationship with your State Chamber, you can get a lot of that information about bills and laws that are being passed or being defeated. At the state level without a lot of legwork on your part. You can also encourage your community to have a voice and to be an advocate. That’s why it’s grassroots advocacy. It’s from the root up. And the root is the local community. Having a voice holding your elected officials accountable, is what we all need to do as voters in our country is we need to exercise that right. And I believe chambers can do that without being a political entity. local chambers don’t need to be political entities supporting individual politicians, but they can certainly be a public policy entity where they educate the voter. Let the voter know what’s going on at the state capitol at the National Capitol. What’s happening in government, what’s good for business, what’s happening that’s good or bad for business and how they can be proactive about it. I can’t say it enough, how engaged our local chambers are in Kentucky because of the relationship they have with the Public Affairs Department at the State Chamber through KCC II.

Brandon Burton 13:47
As far as the grassroots efforts, part of it goes with the with the chamber. And by definition, I picture these topics, these pieces of legislation, maybe the need to get a little more traction are coming from a lot of the local chambers up to the State Chamber and then maybe you help disseminate it to other local chambers. Is that how you kind of see that model typically working? Or what’s that flow of information look like?

Amy Cloud 14:15
grassroots advocacy works both ways. We want to hear the pain points of our local communities, and we count on our local chambers to share that with us. That’s grassroots, you know, from the root up, we certainly want to hear things that we should focus on that will be beneficial to their business community. And we count on that relationship for that. Likewise, we also have information that we have researched that we have heard about that our councils at the state level have taken into account and helped with Bill writing and supportive bills that our legislators come up with. And we know it’s good for business community statewide. And so we share that to them downwards. So it works both ways. As we we have lobbyists that actively during session are at the Capitol and are talking to the legislators and pushing this agenda for the State Chamber. We have researchers that understand the bills, these bills can be 80 pages long, and nobody has time to sit around to understand that bill. But we have researchers that all put it into two or three paragraphs that we get to share with our local chamber. So they understand really what the bill means who it’s good for, who it’s not good for, if it’s something that they should be supporting, or something that they should be against. We offer that to them. So it’s almost like on their staff, they have researchers and on there, they have lobbyists, we certainly don’t encourage local chambers to be political as in supporting a political candidate, the State Chamber does that we have a political action committee, that that’s kind of what we do. We’re a lobbying organization, local chambers, we want them to be public policy, which is different than political, because public policy is educating your voter. And we all know what happens when you don’t have educated voters. So the more we can educate the public, the better. And we utilize our local chambers for that. We encourage them to come to the Capitol, we host our local chambers, all year long, to come to the Capitol to have meetings with our constitution officers to meet with their local legend. Legislators, excuse me, Senators and Representatives, we help facilitate that. We don’t want that conversation to be easy. We want them to hold their elected officials accountable. And a way to do that is just by keeping that relationship and that communication open. And the State Chamber is very good at doing that for our local chambers. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 16:44
So you had mentioned about the wanting to hear about the community pain points. And and I just had this vision in my head of there’s different ways that that gets translated and that information gets to you. And is there a more effective way of sharing community pain points with your State Chamber and state associations where it doesn’t come off as whining or complaining about whatever’s happening? But to be able to really go to you as an advocate and say, here’s what we’re seeing in our community? And does it ever come across that way? Where it’s just whining and complaining? Or?

Amy Cloud 17:18
Of course it does, and that’s okay. But I mentioned before, you know, relationships are the key to everything, you know, if if a local chamber has a good relationship with the State Chamber, whether it’s me, or someone on our public affairs team, work with our foundation, whatever that is, I think that it can be a an adult conversation with, Hey, this is what’s going on, hey, this is what’s happening. They can say to someone who is probably complaining to the local chamber about something, here’s a friend that I have at this State Chamber, give them a call we we virtually hand out our emails and our cell phone numbers. So that local chambers can be the convener, they don’t have to be the communicator, they don’t have to be the, you know, the one with all the knowledge. But they can be the convener and say, Hey, let me share this person with you. Let me share this list of priorities the State Chamber has with you. Let me share with you what this bill looks like broken down. Let me ask them about this bill. I’ve not heard of this bill, look chambers, or I might even say that, let’s find out. So it gives them that next step to be that all inclusive community organization that wants the business, you know, businesses grow. So it gives them that next step of saying, Hey, we don’t know the answer, but we know people who do and what a great organization to have locally that you get you understand your friends with you trust you see every day, as opposed to someone at the State Chamber or someone in the legislature that you don’t know at all, and would be afraid to ask the question do not even know how to ask the question to our local chambers or that information booth. And they can share with us and then we can share stuff back with him.

Brandon Burton 18:55
Yeah, no, that is great. The relationships are so key and being able to have that level of trust to where yeah, it might seem like you’re complaining, maybe like you said maybe to another local chamber, but they have those relationships and put you in touch with people that can help and, and all All in all, it’s a very supportive effort. So it

Amy Cloud 19:16
makes us look good. It makes us look good. You know, I mean, we can be superficial about stuff. If people are supporting the state chamber and supporting KCC II communities. We have 120 counties in Kentucky, every county across the state. The people then will recognize when we are talking when the State Chamber is talking. We know what we’re talking about. They trust what we’re saying, because they’ve heard in detail what we’re doing because our local chambers have given the testimonial to that. They believe in us because who they believe in believes in us. So it’s a whole relationship even if they don’t know me. They understand that a local chamber professional believes in me and knows that I’m Gotta give them good information. So they trust me, even if they don’t know me. That if that makes sense. It’s just it’s that relationship. It’s all about everybody understanding, we’re all on the same page. We’re all after the same results. And we’re at a higher level, because it’s not just local government you’re dealing with when you’re talking about advocacy, its state and national government where you feel like as a local community, you have true representation.

Brandon Burton 20:24
Yes. So as a state as a resource, state chambers for local chambers advocacy and supporting those grassroots efforts is so vital. But I know that’s just a percentage. So what are some of those other benefits that local chambers can turn to you for as as support?

Amy Cloud 20:45
Absolutely, yes, that is just a little bit. But it’s important. That’s why I wanted to make sure we talked about it. We do offer professional development opportunities. KCC II is a huge supporter of Institute of organization management. It’s a national program that the US Chamber puts on, we are a huge supporter of ACC and the national convention that happens every year with them, as well as different programming throughout the year. So our association and our State Chamber offers scholarship opportunities for these folks to be able to attend programs outside the state. That is, that only makes them a better version of themselves. So then the chamber is raised to a higher level, we offer networking opportunities for folks to get together and share, like I mentioned earlier, you know, you feel like you’re on island, when you run a local chamber in a local community. But understanding there’s people just like you and every community across our state, that might have some of the same pain points, or be champions for each other that they want to share in the winds. And they want to steal a great idea. And they want to do regional partnership, and they want to do stuff together. And they can’t wait to see each other and get caught back up again. And they you know, they utilize each other now for judging awards and for coming to different summits and different Angel dinners. And you’ve formed that relationship with people that get you, you know, people support you and a local community as a as a chamber director, but they don’t get what you do. They don’t sit behind that desk, even your board members don’t. But connecting with people who get you is rewarding. And it’s it’s a stress reliever, because you know that you can pick up your phone. And if you can’t talk to them, you can certainly talk to me, but you can say, oh my gosh, this is what happened with a board member today. How would you handle this member? What would you do if this event didn’t work? Or how do you? What do you do when this event is overwhelmingly successful? How do you capitalize on it, you’ve got people across the state from every size community, and the tiniest to the biggest that will talk to you and share with you and be your best friend and partner, when you’re trying to figure out next steps for your local chamber. Other than that, like I said, we have word resources, and a huge server at work full of information, whether it’s bylaws or evaluations or how to do a golf tournament. You know, do you have a copy of mission statements, whatever, you name it, we’ve got some sample from somewhere and I collect those from all over the country. So people can form their own, but they have a sample of what someone else has done before them. Let’s not reinvent the wheel, we don’t have time for that. I do strategic planning for chambers. It’s a it’s an additional fee. But it’s a four to five hour strategic planning session that I offer our local Chambers as well as board development training, to help get their board on board to help the volunteers understand what’s expected of them at the chamber. It’s not a nonprofits, it’s a it’s a not for profit, and what the difference means when you say that, but it is to be a 501 C three, as opposed to a 501 C six, you know, there’s the difference in those two things. Understanding you know, what your mission is and how you support your paid staff. And if you’re a volunteer chamber, how you step up as a board member, so there’s resources like that, that that people use constantly and I love it. I want them to people like oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m calling you on Saturday afternoon it’s like that’s what I’m here for. You know, I know most of their most of their issues and most of their stuff comes up after work hours you know they they deal with their day and then they need to know I mean that’s why to add such everybody my phone I’m like I got my cell phone with me all the time if I’m awake, and not on vacation because I don’t answer my phone a vacation. I will answer you text me call me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Just because I know what it’s like I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to go oh my gosh, what I do what I do, I’ve been a staff of one. I’ve had a staff around me as well. You know you there’s a lot of plates in the gear and you want just a group of people are someone to say am I doing this right? Is this okay? And at the same time I also constantly want to tell my chamber professionals you are rockstars I tried to be a chair linger for them, because I know what it’s like to not have cheerleaders, you know? So there’s a lot. That’s just kind of in a nutshell, I’m sure I’m missing a bunch of stuff. But oh, that’s,

Brandon Burton 25:08
that’s terrific. And all of it in the end is it’s helping to raise the bar of the local chambers and making them better be more successful represent their business community in a much better way. And that’s all based on resources that you guys are able to offer.

Amy Cloud 25:25
And, you know, we can brag a little bit they award at national chamber of the year, ACC. And the last statistic I had was that Kentucky has the most applicants, the most finalists. And I think we still might have the most winners since it started in 2007. Little mini all Kentucky. Yeah. So I mean, we want people to be proud, we want them to be proud of their chamber. We want them to utilize best practices, which you have to in order to apply for awards like that. We always have one or two people on the 40 under 40 list every year for executives in the chamber industry. We have at least two people enter IOM every year. So we have eight to 10 people in the institute program every year. We’re just proud of our chamber professionals, and we try to do everything we can to make them better, because then it makes their chamber the best version of itself if their leadership is the best version of itself, if that makes sense.

Brandon Burton 26:28
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Not only make us

Amy Cloud 26:30
look better, yeah, they only make us look better when they are achieving at top notch level. It makes us look good. And we count on them as a resource, you know, the better they are, the better we the better information we get.

Brandon Burton 26:41
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I’m glad you shared that that tidbit there. As a for chambers that are listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, you’ve offered a lot of great counsel, I’ll say resources using your State Chamber. But what other maybe tip or action item might you have for listeners who are looking to elevate their chamber to the next level?

Amy Cloud 27:08
Oh, goodness, I keep saying this word. But you know, build, build relationships. I don’t care what other people say about an elected official in town, or someone who runs a large company or a small business, you need to form your own relationship with them and make it work. You need to be proactive and say, what’s going to work for you? What do we need to do for you, you’re a service organization. So make sure you’re servicing your members, they invest in you, I’m encouraged chambers. So not say you have dues, but you have investments, what is your annual investment, because when people talk investments, then they also talk about return. So you want to be able to give a return on your investment and ROI to your members every year. And that’s a relationship that’s an asking and listening of what can we do for you. Let’s try it. We tried it, it didn’t work. We tried it, it did work. That’s a relationship. Gen Y and Gen Z are go getters, they just don’t understand why they have to pay to pay to be a part of an organization. That’s your next group of leaders, Gen Y and Gen Z are the ones that we’re gonna fix into be CEOs in the next five to 10 years. So for me, I think chambers needed to find a need and fill the need. What do they need? And how can you fill that need? Where do you offer expertise that isn’t common knowledge that they would be willing to in vast, the ROI invest in their local chamber? Where they wouldn’t be able to get that opportunity anywhere else? How can they help entrepreneurs? How can they help small businesses in a way that no other group can? And that you can’t do it by yourself? That’s a big thing for me is understanding that next generation of leaders and how the chamber can still be a relevant organization for that group of

Brandon Burton 29:01
people. Yeah. Which that that leads right into our next question. So you’ve seen in worked with chambers of all different sizes, and focuses of work, we’ll say. So as you look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Amy Cloud 29:21
There’s there’s room there’s room for chambers. I think the more that chambers become public policy chambers that people understand it’s a well rounded organization. Just as recent as 10 years ago, a lot of local chambers were considered the like the the Welcome Wagon. They did the Christmas parade and then they took, you know, welcome goodie baskets to a new business. They might have done ribbon cuttings, you know, it was kind of a Hospitality Group. And in the last 10 years or so, I think people have seen how it is changed into And truly, what can we do to make our businesses better? How can we help with economic development? How can we help with public policy? What needs to change at the local level to make our business community more successful? How do we need to help recruit businesses? How do we need to help keep people, you know, working with the school system, working with local government, working with transportation, housing, you know, you start you’re starting to see that local chambers are taking on more of that responsibility. But that’s good, because like I said earlier, they’re the only organization whose sole purpose is for the growth and prosperity of the business community. And that doesn’t just mean economic development. That means you have to support employees, and what they let what kind of environment they live in, is there good housing? Are there good schools? Are there good roads, so they’ve been able to expand their reach, because they are being asked to handle those situations. I think that if they continue to focus more and more on that, than they will be growing into that business organization, that people need them to be, as opposed to the hospitality organization that they are on the front end.

Brandon Burton 31:10
Yeah, I love that. And they even said that, we’re kind of refined it down to that sole purpose of fostering that growth and prosperity in their community. And I know every chamber should have their their mission statement. And hopefully, that’s embedded somewhere in their mission statement, and in one way or another. But Amy, I wanted to give you an opportunity for those listening, especially those in Kentucky that need to reach out and connect with you but but even others who are just curious about what you know what all you guys offer or tips direction, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect with you? Oh, goodness,

Amy Cloud 31:48
um, you can reach me on my phone. Emails really good. My email address is acloud@kychamber.com. You can find resources that we offer on the Kentucky Chamber, a website, KYChamber.com. You’ll see under local resources, there’s a KCCE website. Reach out to me, I’m happy to talk with anybody about what I do. And I would love to learn what other people are doing as well. I like to be a student as much as a teacher, and pride myself. I’m trying to learn something new every day. So if anybody wants to share some great ideas that Kentucky can be doing, I’m happy to hear that as well.

Brandon Burton 32:31
Yeah, let’s get the information going both ways. I love that. Absolutely. I appreciate you being with us today on chamber chat podcast has been a great conversation have provided a lot of insights and hopefully, maybe open the eyes to some local chambers about what resources they can tap into at their State Chamber organizations. So thank you for sharing all that with us today. And hope you guys continue doing great things and making a huge impact in Kentucky.

Amy Cloud 33:01
I appreciate it, Brandon. Thanks for having me.

Brandon Burton 33:03
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Workforce Training Center with Jeannie Hebert

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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.

Our title sponsor is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

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Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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 Jeannie Hiebert. Jeannie has been President and CEO the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce in Massachusetts for 15 years. Under her leadership that BVCC has grown and developed into a chamber that works hard for business and the economic vitality of the region. often dubbed the queen of collaboration. Jeannie sits on several business and community boards and meets regularly with local state and federal legislators to make sure the valley voice is heard, and funding is appropriated to support their economic development and small businesses. Since her reign, the BVCC has become known as the go to place and resource for business owners and entrepreneurs to find assistance and funding to grow and develop their business. She has been honored with several awards, including the central Massachusetts outstanding woman in business power 50 manufacturing champion and Central Massachusetts economic development leader. Through her guidance, the Chamber secured over $1 million in funding to build the Blackstone Valley hub for workforce development. A Workforce Training Center located in the Chamber’s Linwood mill building, offering classes focused on advanced manufacturing. These certificate courses are offered to students of all ages throughout Central Massachusetts to help close the work skills gap and provide skilled workers to the region’s employers. Jeannie, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jeannie Hebert 3:43
Here, Brandon, thank you. I’m excited to be here today. Hello to everyone, all of our chamber colleagues there. And I am also an animal rights activist and help with rescuing animals in need. I do have you know dogs of my own. But I did rescue for African elephants. And they lived with me for two years. And we were able to secure some good homes for them. One of them Willie my favorite. He was the largest working African elephant in North America. And we found him a great home at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. So I used to go visit Willie there. So they were wonderful animals. It was a once in a lifetime experience. And I’m happy that we were able to find good homes for them because they had a terrible beginning.

Brandon Burton 4:41
So I have to say this is a first year the first guest on the podcast who’s rescued an elephant let alone for so. That is amazing. And I’m sure the stories about these elephants could go on for days. Lots of a unique experience. As a fan, I’m sure

Jeannie Hebert 5:01
they’re a unique experience they very intelligent, fun animals. One fun fact is I used to, you know, we used to wash them in the morning. And I would spray them with the hose. Use that big, big brush that you use when you wash your car, then grab the leaf blower to dry them before they would roll in the dirt and get dirty again. And invariably when I put the hose down, another one of the elephants would pick it up in their trunk, and they would spray me I thought that was a funny thing.

Brandon Burton 5:35
They got a sense of humor.

Jeannie Hebert 5:38
sensitive when we interacted very well, they were they were like my kids. So I missed them terribly. But they they needed to be in places where people who were better to take care of that could happen. So they had good lives. Awesome.

Brandon Burton 5:54
Awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Blackstone Valley Chamber. Just give us an idea of the size of the chamber scope of work, you guys are involved with staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for our discussion today.

Jeannie Hebert 6:09
Sure. Our chamber we have about 500 members. We were very active, we mean business and we listened well. We we listened to the needs of our members. And we’re very proactive in meeting their needs. That’s how the hub came about. We our service area is 13 towns from Worcester, Massachusetts, which is the second largest city in New England, to the Rhode Island border, just to kind of give you an idea of where we are central mass is kind of cow. It’s the belt to the middle of Massachusetts. And we work with everyone in Massachusetts. We collaborate a lot, you know, Queen of collaboration. But there is a field gap across the state and I think across the nation, really. And we found that a lot of the covenants of vocational schools because of a program we have here called the MKS. That funding is attached to it. So why are the MCAT scores on the more funding the schools are getting? So vocational schools have unfortunately changed their covenant and they are accepting more epidemic with superior students over vocational and superior students and the public schools. You have an influx of students who really want vocational training, they’re looking to go to work, and they’re not able to get it at public school level. So when we found this out and working with many of our manufacturers, the Blackstone Valley is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, who Samuel Slater, who came here and started textile mills. And the mill is actually where we are, it’s a converted former textile mill of the whitened family. We’re in Waynesville named after that family, when we we would run the job fairs like everybody dies, and, you know, help them and it just wasn’t working. They weren’t getting skilled labor. And I was hearing, you know, I didn’t know this work, I have to turn it down. So when I found out that this was happening at the vocational level, I spoke with our legislators started doing some digging. And we were able to secure some funding from the Department of Education, and took on the legislation set the chamber, we take on the task to build a workforce training manager and said, yes, so long behold, we took over part of the middle, we didn’t build that out. And we have a design lab, we’ll hang on filling computers with CAD, and we have computer lab and we have a great fabrication laboratory. And it has 3d printers, augmented welding. We have mills and lane that start out with manual and it also has the coding, but the students learn how to use them manually. And they learn how to code. And we’ve recently just taken over the other end of the mill and put in a full electronics learn. And we’re building our robotics lab right now. So we’re meeting as the needs of our members change and evolve. We are meeting their needs well over now. million dollars in investment now.

Brandon Burton 10:02
And it’s typically for the hub,

Jeannie Hebert 10:04
specifically for the hub, but it helps us to grow our chamber. Because we’re training the workforce for many years, our members, and even those that are outside of our region support our chamber because of that constant with other chambers.

Brandon Burton 10:26
So I’m curious staff size, when you take on a project like this, just for all the chambers listening like this sounds great, but I’m sure she’s got like a huge staff to take this on. Right. So what is your staff size look like? The chamber

Jeannie Hebert 10:38
staff, there’s three of us. Okay, okay. And for a while. for probably a year when we were dealing with the billing, and so forth, there was no other staff. So I was doing two jobs, and it was exhausting. But it was very rewarding. But once the school was able to open, and we were ready to accept students, I hired an executive director, or the third Executive Director right now. She’s amazing. Um, I now have an operations director. He’s amazing. He’s, I’ve been tapping into retirement pool. He’s a retired engineer that worked in was head of Northeast for Thermo Fisher. So he’s got a wealth of information. And honestly, he can take anything from it to put a lock on a door for losing meeting diverged. In Bob ovens, our Executive Director, Ashley Bregman. She is a graduate of WPM, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. And she was also teaching robotics. She’s has an engineering degree, obviously, academic or teaching. So she’s perfect as an executive director. And we have several teachers, Instructor of some are retired vocational teachers. And some teach at night when we for the night courses, and they teach at the local vocational school. And one is an engineering teacher at one of our high schools. And we’re growing to the point where we’re building campuses in our high schools in the area, we’re up to 22 districts. So obviously, we’re working with high schools, but it’s not that we’re servicing. And we also teach incumbent workers. So some of the manufacturers who hire people with no skills, we listen to them, and we build a custom curriculum for them. And they will send their workers to us. And we do like a six or 12 week course for them. So when they go back, and they still work that you know, it’s worth studying. But when they finish their course and get their certifications, they’re more than an entry level here or mid level. Yeah, it really makes a big difference for them. So in the fall right now, because this year, Nast mass fire, who handles all the career, work with people who were looking for Jones, across the state awarded us the Youth Works grant, which means we’re now working with 16 to 23 year olds who are in a disadvantaged financial state, to their families. And we find them jobs and almost apprentice programs. We do have an apprentice program too. So we hired people to handle that under the umbrella. And we just received the connecting activities grant, which is K through 12. So now we’re working with elementary school students too. So we have at the hub 15 employees now running the hub, thank goodness, I would need to never ever sleep again. And we threes that work at the Chamber, but we interact all the time. So it’s, you know, it’s one big family, and we were growing so fast. At one point, someone would come in and like go Who is that? What is this name? What was this?

Brandon Burton 14:36
Do? Yeah, that’s great. Well, that definitely that helps to set the table for more of our discussion. I’ve got a lot of follow up questions for you about the hub and we’ll dive deeper into this in the whole topic of developing a workforce training center as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 16:40
Hi, everyone, Donna from Yiftee here with another fun fact about small businesses. Did you know that there are 77 million people working in small businesses in the US? That’s almost half of the entire civilian workforce. But I know that you already know the value of local businesses. That is why we created community cards. They bring revenue to your members’ businesses that today is leaving your community and going to national brands and e-commerce companies. In addition to consumers we see schools, hospitals, city governments and companies buying community cards in bulk instead of buying big box store and online gift cards. Community cards keep local dollars local. For more info come to a demo or email us at sales@yiftee.com. We look forward to meeting you back to you Brandon.

Brandon Burton 17:34
All right, we’re back. So let’s dive in deeper. I want to know more. So tell us your when did the idea get presented to you for developing the hub? How did things unfold to see the vision come to pass? Well,

Jeannie Hebert 17:52
we’ve been open and seeing students for five years now. But it took a good two years to get it going. Because we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. We knew there was a huge problem, especially in our area. For our you know, manufacturers just couldn’t find any employees and we’re in, as I said, job fairs were not working at all. It just wasn’t working. And I went to a skills America conference at the vocational school. And the superintendent, there was bragging that 90% of his students were going to college. And then I went what’s going on here? And I spoke with one of the students who was given who had a display on being electrician and I said, Oh, why are you going to be electrician? Because that week I want a grid. I like to have an electrician in my office crying because he’s done pretty good in Okay, location of school that he wanted to pass. And, you know, they were telling us they had a waitlist of six months students. And I talked to that student and I said, Oh, you’re gonna be an electrician. Oh, I’m going to Cornell. I’m going into sports medicine. Oh my god. You took up four years that that gentleman son could have had to become an electrician. So you know, a light bulb went off and said we need we need an we need somewhere where these students that the public school system parents that can go for training because the superintendents were telling me they didn’t know what to do with these students that will be coming discipline problems. They didn’t have the vocational training that the students wanted. The dropout rate was going up. So we aligned ourselves in office and I went to the legislators told them the problem. We have great legislators very approachable in our area. And we put together a plan And they connected me with our patients Department of Education. We applied for a work skills grant. And our first one skills Grant was half a million dollars. And we, you know, put together a plan to do the build out. It takes it does take a village, it really does. I mean, I can say, Oh, I built a school. I didn’t do it alone, and had a lot of help. And it was a process and even the middle owner. You know, our landlord was very understanding, very cooperative. And we all work together, and everyone was looking forward to it. They came together, I had some naysayers. I have one very prominent business person, say to me, you’re a dreamer. It’s never gonna happen. This is not going to work. So when, when I got last year, I got the manufacturing Champion award. I said, you know, I told that story. And I actually have a little locket that, like, my significant other gave me that people say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. And I said that to, to the audience, it was all out there. Most of the manufacturers told them a dream or been looking at, you know, I can see. Yeah, you know, span, so that really fit in perfectly. But, you know, that’s how it started. And we’re growing like crazy. And it’s wonderful to see these students, they come to us dejected, because they couldn’t get into the school they wanted to get into. And when they learn the skill, then amazing picture. They just have that vocation. And the brain is wired, for whatever it might be the body aches or electronics or CNC machining or, you know, developing coding, CAD, and we even have a shop where they we have businesses come to us that want merchandise, personalized, we’ve believed a quarter and upstream we have I hate to say it, but our biggest customers in the cannabis industry distilleries and breweries, they went through classes to action, the cannabis industry, they want human doors with their logo on it. So the kids do that. And then they buy from us and the money goes back into school and help to, you know, pay for another student. So it’s terrific.

Brandon Burton 22:31
Face the mill, you had mentioned it is a previous manufacturing mill, before you guys moved in with the hub, was it actively being used before then had it sat vacant for a while, like what was the the revitalization of the the space? How did that look?

Jeannie Hebert 22:51
That was very interesting, because that bill was that mill was slated to be demolished. So ironically, we were located in the same town but a few streets over in another building. And we worked with the our landlord, now the mill owner to connect him with an amazing grant writer. And they were able to get a grant and start renovating. It was a cartel. Everybody else fell away except for these two people bill and Patti gianopolous, who believed in the project. And they partnered with another organization for over 55 subsidized housing. So above us three floors above us is over 55 subsidized housing. And I have an interesting story. They are how we interact with them. But it’s it came together over a period of I think two and a half years that they were able to renovate the mill. It’s beautiful. It has great architectural elements for big, huge wooden beams that have all been sanded so that they’re natural. Now, you know, they they were painted that hospital clean beautiful granite and brick in the windows of huge and it’s just really, really lovely. So they’re above us were below and we said why don’t we move in the mill and we moved into the new in 2016. And then 2018 We started the school. So a lot of history and had the elements or pictures of what it was. And there’s several mills in the town that were in northbridge and throughout the valley, and a lot of them were owned by the whitened family. And so our area of North there just called whiteness fell. So it’s really beautiful. It has a tower or any house out which is It’s a cute little shop now. So it’s, it’s, it’s bustling. We have. We’re there. We at the school, we have a physical therapy, we have a gym, we have a barbershop that’s run by naturalized citizens, former immigrants, and we’ve just helped them with their expanding. We have Girls on the Run. We have we were named the National Park by President Obama. So we have our rangers are there that national heritage corridor and the National Park is located there. So the national park rangers have a brewery in one of the other buildings because there’s a number of buildings usually. So it’s a pretty busy place. Oh, and beautiful woman owned business. That is a crepe or a company is another modern day Helsinki. And it’s a great little restaurant that’s been restored and invest. You know, it looks industrial. But it’s so it’s a unique place. And it’s a wonderful gathering place for the community interaction. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:16
that sounds awesome. So as you’re talking about how it came to be, it sounds like in the collaboration, I see where you get the title mokwena collaboration, but to be able to have, you know, somebody who’s familiar with grant writing, to be able to help see a vision and help bring things together to to see these things come, you know, kind of unfold and come together. Two of the things I wanted to ask you about, you’ve mentioned them, but I wanted to dig in just a little bit more. So there’s these certificate programs that the students come through, I imagine that there are varying lengths depending on what their focus of work is. So if you could touch on that, and then also touch on how you work with the schools, you had mentioned the K through 12. Now with these districts, what does that look like with those relationships and, and interacting with them?

Jeannie Hebert 27:06
Sure, well, the certificate programs are varied, some are custom that we utilize for incumbent workers. And some are standardized. Like we have, as I said, the Miller augmented augmented welding, that’s six to 12 week course, depending upon the type of welding, but it’s industry accepted, we would not have purchased them if our manufacturers didn’t try them out and say, oh, yeah, this is just like real world. And they do after they get their certificate, we bring them to one of our couple of our partners yr fab and package steel systems, who make metal buildings, all for all over the world. And invariably, they will say to the students are so come see me, you know that so they have great skills. So that’s one certificate we have. We have an OSHA, obviously, we do OSHA 10, everybody gets an OSHA 10. Everyone, we have a reentry program as well with the sheriff’s department. So we start teaching OSHA in the jail before they’re released. And when they’re released, they come to the school, and they get hands on training, that everybody gets OSHA training, we have what’s called Mecalac, which is a Massachusetts certificate, and it’s through mas MEP, which is manufacturing extension partnership. So this brings you through all of the steps of what manufacturing needs, like would have shot now. It would teach measurements, believe it or not, we’re finding graduates of high school have no idea how to use tape or read a tape measure or ruler. And they cannot even tell turn on the clock unless it’s digital. If you say to them, it’s quarter. They’ll go and they don’t know what that is. We had one guidance counselor say they had a disqualifying when they were monitoring the number six certificate examinations, because he pulled out his phone and I said, take out your phone. He said I wanted to see what time it was. They said there’s a clock on the wall. He said I can’t read it. No one ever taught me how to read. Like when we went to school first grade, they had the clock remember you

Brandon Burton 29:37
missing the mark somewhere, right? Yeah, I remember. I remember doing worksheets like that. Yeah. Don’t

Jeannie Hebert 29:42
do that. More than he is on job no more curse if they can’t. I was talking to a business that we were helping out. yesterday. She it’s called hair jewelry. She’s an archaeologist and she had an intern from one of the quality If he didn’t know how they couldn’t read the report from the patient because they didn’t know how to read cursive, so we’re really missing the mark in our schools. So these are the things that we try to address. But back to the certifications, we have those certifications with custom certifications. And then at some of the campuses that thought like Brookdale campus, which is one of our close up spirit campus, which is another one of our towns, their certifications. outsprinting is focusing on carpentry. Newbury is also property Hopedale, a cyber security. So we get certifications for those types of industries where the students are learning we even started, we help them get and I always say this wrong. And in a Tom baton, table, virtual. It’s almost like mines, US operations,

Brandon Burton 30:59
operators. That’s how I was gonna guess when you said that? Yeah, it’s a real body,

Jeannie Hebert 31:03
but they have a human meaning male, human woman, dog, cat, rather, Frog, which I love, because now they might have dissected me animals. But it’s very realistic. Students were showing me their skills. And I said, I was getting woozy and you’re doing a great job, right? I gotta go to the next. It’s like, Oh, yeah. That table alone costs $100,000. So we were able to help the school right grant, so that they have that. So Arginine is we helped a lot of the schools get DNS. So maybe you go to help deal, but you want to take manufactory. So you have to close the hub, or maybe your middle bring you to market sure you want to do you know, introduction to some kind of medical research. And that’s it helped. So we do is we’ll move the kids around. So they will take these courses together. The one principal said to me, it was hilarious. He goes, Yeah, these kids are all working together in class. And then on the weekend, they beat the heck out of each other on the football field. Because that’s great. So we put classes together, not necessarily by school, but on a subject. So the students get to even try it out, we’ll do a trial. You know, they’ll come and say, Oh, I think I want to do this. And they might try it and so on. That’s not Well, maybe you want to try that? Oh, yeah, that’s a better fit for me. So we do that, too. So that’s so it’s some of the certifications that we offer, I’m sure there’s a lot more that escapes me right now. But the K through 12 that we had the smaller kids, I think a good example would be rewarded grant kind of nothing for the energies that it was for younger kids to learn about engineering. So we had camp over the summer. And kids would come in the morning, and they’ll have a little bite to eat. And then they would learn about engineering and mechatronics and robotics and make make something. Mr. Evans, our engineer ran this program. So they’d make something and they put it all together, they do it on the computer, and they’d make it. And he would say to them, did you have fun? You know, you did you know what that was? Well, they have engineering. And the robotics is we have these really cute little robot, these, this is very key in first, and second graders, paying them. And they were like, they know, control robots, but they had to program them to make them work. And they were able to do that. And we have these little robots that look a little Michael Jackson, they had a damn thing. They were dancing with each other. And they were doing tasks and picking things out, handing them to each other. But it’s a natural for these kids. They blow me away. And it’s amazing. And then some of the middle school kids, we had codons, which are cooperatives are going to occur in an industry. They do the stuff where people say, Oh, robots are gonna take my job. Well, did you really want to keep ticking boxes and putting them here? You know, you don’t want to do that. You want to be the one telling the robots to do that. Use your brain. So what these students were doing, I went in after they kind of let a they taught them how to work, how to program them. They could like Legos out so they could build make the robots build. And then I they had free time. So I went in and they began to have the robots and they can like be stitched in Your hands. And I go, What are you doing the courts very proud of their sword fighting.

So I mean, this is a concept thing, maybe learn through having fun, but it’s part of what they would do in a job situation, they would have to program the robots to do a task. And some of them have 345 robots interacting with each other and completing a task. And that’s pretty complicated. For like, an eighth grader, too. So I just like I said, they blow me away. One of the older kids, it was a birthday, what’s what was like three of them, they came in, and they gave me these beautiful stainless steel shakers that had an unusual shape, then you throw them on the machine. And they gave her to me, it’s a birthday gift. And they said, Missmiss look, we even put pain on the top. So you can tell which is which. program that and have the drill press drill, drill it, and then had Christmas was just from a piece of aluminum or stainless steel that they had. And they design them themselves and made those, then it was just amazing that they did pocket some of the kids from shoestring High School, which is my hometown, they were making Christmas ornaments out of brought up some of the metal and like drill guns, and they were beautiful. And then they made dreidels to the trails are gorgeous, they were intricate, they were terrific. So it was, you know, it’s a fun, fun thing to learn. But while they’re learning there, we say to them, you’re an engineer, you just love

Brandon Burton 36:55
that. I love it, they have these opportunities, and they get that confidence and explore these these future career opportunities. This is such a invaluable resource for your community. So applaud and Pat, pat on the back to you guys and your team for for executing this and integrating it into the schools as well.

Jeannie Hebert 37:14
Thank you. We have a great team. We really do. I’m really fortunate really blessed. Yeah, yeah.

Brandon Burton 37:19
So as we start to wrap up, I wanted to ask if, if you might have any tips or action items for chamber folks that are listening, who want to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you offer for them? Well,

Jeannie Hebert 37:34
I think you know, you need to listen to your members, which you know, most of my chamber colleagues do. Every region is different. What works for me might not work for you. But if you listen to what your members need, or what your municipalities are your region, we work very closely with all of our municipalities and our legislators in and listen and get advice on how to meet those needs. And then you know, collaborate with the great resources that you have in your region, we have wonderful educational institution, terrific educators, innovative people on and, you know, we’ve worked together and they’re not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work. So I think, you know, sometimes you look at a project and you think that’s really daunting. But when you you know, I hate this analogy, but how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Brandon Burton 38:37
Especially after your introduction today, no, no elephants on the table.

Jeannie Hebert 38:43
And your chamber will grow. We are gaining members inside and outside our region. Because of the services that we provide, and I’m not stealing numbers from anyone, what we do is, if I see that I’m getting a number of members, someone, you know, reaching out to me, I reach out to that chamber and say, You know what, I’ve got like five industry people that have come to me, why don’t we do a collaboration and we have an affiliation with like seven other chambers, and will offer a discount, but you have to be a member of the region’s chamber first. And then I’ll give you this note to join us. And we’ll provide everything but we do provide a lot of services without membership to and I know that I get criticized from some chambers for that, but it comes back, you know, comes around and it’s a pleasure for me to work with a number of people to help them and you know, it’s great to work together but no, just listen to your members or You read and see what the needs are and think about and seek out people with resources that I can drop in on how to develop focus to meet those who

Brandon Burton 40:11
have that so important. As we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jeannie Hebert 40:22
I think we’re going to have to really prove that we are a worthy organization. And you know, we’re going to, to be a good resource for your members. It’s not, as we all know, already, I’m preaching to the choir here. It’s not like the inundating myself, the fog of news best attitude where Jimmy Anderson would say, I’m going to the chamber dinner, you know, like everyone already knew how to join the Chamber of Commerce. There’s too many people into the new organizations billing for the that dues that dues revenue, and I don’t think that dues revenue is going to be our is already isn’t our main revenue stream, we have to find other revenue streams. And it’s going to be to run instances

Brandon Burton 41:21
of it. Good advice. Jeanne, I want to do give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and maybe learn a little bit more about the hub and how you guys went about this, this great big project, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Jeannie Hebert 41:44
Well, through email, which is jhebert@blackstonevalley.org. So that’s email. And if you want to learn about, you can go to our website, which is BlackstoneValley.org. And you can also check out The Hub at be thehub.org. And if you go to our website, there’s a tab and it’ll bring you right over to the hub. And I’m happy to share any information to help with anything, any resources and, you know, whatever we can do to help you with programs. And if you want to take on a project like this to go get them and we’ll help you every any way I can.

Brandon Burton 42:42
I love it. Thank you so much. So this has been great having you on the podcast today. I love getting these insights from chambers that have taken on a unique projects and have a neat approach to it. revitalizing a building that was set to be torn down and really changed the outlook of the community. I love it. But thank you for being with us today and sharing these experiences and insight and, and I’m hoping it gave you know a few people out there that drive to take on some of those big hairy audacious goals. Thank you for being with us today.

Jeannie Hebert 43:15
Thank you very much. Thanks Brandon for the opportunity we really appreciate you’ve ever thought my way I’d love to give me a tour.

Brandon Burton 43:22
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Fostering a Sense of Belonging with Velma Knowles

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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.

Our title sponsor is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

When it comes to publishing a Chamber Map directory or Community Guide, Community Matters has a trusted experience to help your chamber accomplish your goals. With different advertising sales models and publication styles, Community Matters will help you create a non-dues revenue machine!

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Velma Knowles, Velma is a Gallup strength certified coach, human behavioral expert and best selling author from helping to build the Conservation Legacy of the Bahamas to leading award winning membership growth for associations. Boundless passion is helping organizations build a value driven culture of belonging. Velma enjoys photographing birds riding bikes and pretending she likes to exercise, Velma and mix excited to have you with us today 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 bit better.

Velma Knowles 2:37
Well, Brandon, thank you so much for having me here today on your Chamber Chat Podcast. And thank you for the kind introduction. Something that listeners might not know about me, other than you’ve revealed my big secret, which is I’m from the islands of the Bahamas, now living here in the United States. But one of the things that they may not know is that I cut a demo recording at the age of 17 in the hopes of becoming a big country and western singer, which we know by the end of this episode, that did not happen.

Brandon Burton 3:18
That’s exciting, though. Not everybody can say that. And it’s kind of putting their their neck out there. So to speak, and and take a risk. So good job. So I’m curious where in the Bahamas are you from? Yeah,

Velma Knowles 3:31
so I was originally born on the island, the island of Nassau New Providence, like so officially now. And I have family throughout mostly in the Abacos and in Long Island.

Brandon Burton 3:43
Okay, well, hopefully you have a chance to get back there often.

Velma Knowles 3:47
So I do try to go several several times a year. Yeah, that’s

Brandon Burton 3:52
great. So I like giving all of the guests that I have on the show and opportunity just to tell a little bit about the work that you do. Kind of your business structure how you serve, especially when it comes specifically to Chambers of Commerce. How your your work aligns with chambers. Sure.

Velma Knowles 4:12
Yeah. Thank you again for that opportunity. For those that might not know me or a little bit about me, my career includes 20 Plus, and I always say plus because after 20 years to stop counting, but yeah, does 20 years working inside so I’m one that has been inside the not for not for profit space, especially in the association and world of providing services to members. And my span of expertise encompasses marketing, a membership engagement, retention and growth board, strategic planning and engagement and then of course, leadership development. And I want to just caveat that leaders To me are across the organization, they’re not those that are in higher positions. But I think everyone in the organization is a leader in one way or another. My last position was the vice president of member experience with a little brand that folks might have heard of called AAA. And so today, triple A services about 60 million members across the United States, and then Canada, Europe worldwide for the other arms of that Federation. In 2017, I had the opportunity to venture out on my own, and I felt called to serve more associations. And so today, I have my own business. It’s called leaders pathway where leaders go to grow. And that word leaders means you as the individual and your organization, I believe that your organization can only grow higher as you as the leader grows higher. And so it all starts inside, in order for it to grow outside. I work with chambers, not for profit, which could be donor based organizations, member based organ associations across the country. And my focus is really to help them create this culture of belonging where the members, the employees, and the board, which is that that ultimate leadership in there, they feel like they belong in that organization. And I know we’ll talk a little bit more about that as we go forward. But I truly believe that when you as an a leader of a member based organization, when you create that culture of belonging, you’re going to solve the challenges that you face around engagement, which I know is like top of the line and on everyone’s buying, retention, which we are we’re struggling with across the board, and then ultimately moving from stagnation or, you know, a declining growth to a sustainable model for growth. So I hope that level sets a little bit about me, I do executive coaching, I do strategic planning, I do public speaking for workshops, and conferences. And I also do employee retreats and membership planning. Very

Brandon Burton 7:18
good. Now, that definitely gives us a good snapshot of the work that you’re involved with. And I love the focus on leadership. And I think no matter what position you serve at at a chamber, that you are a leader, you’re helping to drive the vision for your community. And if you are the chamber executive, you should be thinking about training the next leader, right? So at some point, you will leave and you want to make sure you’re leaving the organization in a good position to continue growing and have that strength. And I love to you when in the context of leaders, you talked about kind of hitting the the potential and everything I think it’s John Maxwell talks about the lid, yes, the organization is only as as good as the leader right if the leader caps at a certain point and the organization caps so we want to be able to unleash that lid so that the organization can grow so well Velma and I’m excited to get into our conversation today. And we’ll be focusing our you know, the bulk of our conversation around the idea of fostering a sense of belonging as you alluded to, and specifically to impact membership growth. So we will dive deeper into this conversation as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Donna Novitsky 10:52
Hey there, Donna Novitsky, CEO of Yiftee here, and we are all about the shop local movement. We’re working with more than 500 communities like yours and 15,000 small businesses like your members. We’re big fans of Brandon and his Chamber Chat Podcast, so we’re helping to sponsor the show. But while I’ve got you here, what’s a Yiftee? You ask? It’s a digital gift card branded for your chamber that people spend only at the local shops that you authorize. In 2022 we drove 10’s of millions of dollars to small businesses in the US. The program is free for chambers and free for your local shops. You can sign up for a live zoom demo with me or one of my teammates yiftee.com/demo or email sales@yiftee.com. That’s why Yiftee.com. That’s it for now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 11:50
All right, Velma. We’re back. So as we talk about fostering a sense of belonging to impact membership growth, what does that look like? From your perspective? I know you had mentioned, you know, fostering a sense of belonging for members B, it also mentioned for the board. So how do these dynamics play together for the strength of the organization? Yeah,

Velma Knowles 12:12
sure. Well, if the if you haven’t heard me speak yet, you’ll you’ll hear this message over and over again. And that is that I believe that there are three things that everyone everyone wants in life, it doesn’t matter if you are the board member, the member of the organization, the staff and employees, there’s three things that everyone wants. And what they want is to be seen, to be heard, and to be valued. See, to me fostering a sense of belonging is you have to build a connection. And in order to do that, you need to be able to see people for who they are to hear them the voice and the things that are on their mind. And then to value them and their contribution. Engagement is not an activity. And when I when I look at what the you know, my my clients are doing what chambers and associations or member organizations in general, what they do is there like a heavy focus on engagement, and I totally my whole heart understand why. But engagement is is not an activity that you do, you don’t, you know, have this webinar or have this conference to get people engaged or recruit people into volunteer, it’s about a connection. And when people are connected to the mission, and when they’re connected to the individuals. That’s when you see this sense of belonging happening. I’ll give you a good example. Myself, okay, I was a member of an organization that shall remain anonymous, because we’re not promoting anyone. And then, you know, this worldwide pandemic, came into play some time in our life here. And in the end, all of a sudden, a lot of things kind of shut down. And so when it was time to renew my membership, I was like, Well, you know, I can’t I can’t go to the functions that can’t do things the normal way. And so I, I paused, I know, I paused my membership, or full disclosure, and I said, I’m not going to renew. And then you know, as things started to get back into what we would consider the next stage of this work, force, the next work environment that we’re in and, and moving on to the future. I said, you know, what, I miss my connections. I miss the people that I was so close to when I was there. And so literally, I really, you know, reinstated my my membership and they took me back. And the big idea whether it was a webinar, which is, you know, a service you provide, or whether it was the annual conference, or whether it was the mag Xen I got or whether it was, you know, a lunch and learn that they had or coffee club that you got to go to whatever the Chamber’s had available to us. It was an opportunity to connect with those people that I have a relationship with. And so I say that to say that when you create a sense of belonging, you’re really creating a place for people to connect. People need to feel like I’m seeing when I’m there, people recognize me, Hey, Brian, great to see you. I, you know, me, and you’re connecting with me, you hear me? If I tell you that I have this problem or this challenge in my business, you hear what I have to say. And it’s not just listening for the sake of listening, but it’s listening with a focus on how do you help me solve that? And if you can’t solve it specifically from the chamber, how can you connect me to a resource that you might have that can help you solve that? And then do you value me, and I don’t mean value in the sense of the dollars that I pay for my membership, I mean, value me in the sense that you appreciate what I can bring to the table, maybe there’s a specific strength that I have, or a specific expertise that you could tap into, that is a resource for someone else in my community here in my chamber, that that has a need. And so I just feel like personal connections, build engagement. And engagement is, is fortifies retention, and retention gives you results. But connections are not products. It’s a personal connection. It’s not a product, like a webinar, or conference, or any of the beautiful things that we use, those are just vehicles to help us create that connection.

Brandon Burton 16:59
So you’re really upsetting the paradigm they’re not an activity and personal connections are not a product. Right? So, man. I appreciate the three things you talked about. Everybody needs to be seen, heard and valued. And, and I think from a board perspective, as as a chamber executive working with the board, I think those three things are, they’re super important to implement. And I think you can be very strategic with how you do that. Because you’re, you’re dealing with a limited, you know, a finite amount of people, right, that you’re trying to have seen be seen, heard and valued. As you open that up to the membership in general, everybody tends to join the chamber for different reasons. They I mean, they all join probably to raise their bottom line, right to make a little more money, benefit their company, but the way they the vehicles to get there, they see different value with the chamber. Right. So as a chamber approaches individual members, how do you make those personal connections to help them be seen heard and valued? Sure.

Velma Knowles 18:15
Yeah. And I think it gets to how do you create those communities within the community. And and I say that because coming from, you know, working inside a very large Association, and then working voluntarily with some chambers offering support to help them in their membership growth. As a member of that chamber. What I’ve found is that, you know, all members are important. Get ready for this one, but all members are not equal. And so what that means is that if you as a an association, you have a very small staff, even if you’re a big chamber, you have a small staff, and you can’t be all things to all people. And so marketing segmentation, which is not anything new here, but really trying to understand that 8020 principle, but warming what is known as these micro communities, or a community or, you know, a special interest group is another way of labeling it, but it’s a community within the community. So you have a member base, and then you look at that member base, and you say, who’s really, you know, my, my big 8020? Right, the the members that are truly engaged, that are volunteering, that are sponsoring that are doing the things that elevate the whole chamber, and then you say what of those individuals what is the needs that they have and form groups so that other people can connect on a smaller scale to get their problem solved and see a greater value in In the return for the dollars that they’re investing in, so I think it begins with really understanding, you know, where it where are the chamber champions, we will use your word a coin here, which I love. Where are those champions, those chamber friends that are inside the association and organization? And how can you create those sub communities that allow others to come in and feel seen, heard and valued, because it’s a smaller group, where everyone can have a place? You know, when you when you when you look back, and you research the whole idea around? Why chambers exists? Why, why what is a chamber of commerce, a Chamber of Commerce is really a place to, we’ll use the word network, which is the kind of the old school hat, right? Because that kind of has a different connotation. What is networking, ooh, nobody likes to network, I want to bring that forward to today’s and I want to modernize it in the 21st century. And it’s connection, it is not networking here, here’s a business card like speed date, it’s truly connecting and being seen, heard and valued. And I think when we can put on that, that member, first that people first sense of, of a culture, we’re trying to build those connections in a genuine way. And I really want to say genuine, genuine rapport. That’s when you reap the benefits of greater engagement, retention and growth.

Brandon Burton 21:34
So great, great response, the thought that comes to my mind, is this unnamed organization that you are a member of and drop the membership for a short time and then miss the connections that you had. Was it the connections with the leadership of that organization? Or was it the connections with the other individual members of the organization?

Velma Knowles 21:57
Very good question. And so let me let me do this. First and foremost, it is the members first, and for to me, they were members in that association or organization that I couldn’t wait to hug again, I couldn’t wait to see to talk of old stories and to make new memories. But did I have a connection within the leadership, I would say that it was selected. And, and it’s because you know, when you when you have, when you have a staff, and I’ve been in those shoes, you’re working in a small organization where you got a lot of members, but you’ve got a job to do. And so you’re very focused on trying to get the job to do and, and sometimes you can miss the person, when you’re focused on getting that project. And this is in any organization, you know, we tend to focus on project project project, but then we missed the person. And I think for me, it’s been where certain individuals in the leadership of the organization has seen me, and they hear me and they value me, and they’re like, oh, yeah, great, you know, and there’s that connection. But then unfortunately, that doesn’t trickle down to the entire team, even if their entire team is five people. And so that’s why I go back full circle, that, to create that culture of belonging has to begin on the inside, you know, if your employees feel like they’re seen, heard and valued, you’re going to foster that type of behavior, that’s going to then trickle outside. And then any member in your organization any prospective or like, I like to call them future member, any future member is going to be like, I gotta belong, they have random makes me feel like I missing out on something, I gotta, I just want to be there. Because I want to be among that, you know, people like Brandon. And I think that’s where the opportunity, that’s why I’m heavily passionate about, you know, your, your leadership has to in leadership across the organization, they have to buy into this culture of belonging, and then live that out every day for your members to be able to experience that and then want to stay.

Brandon Burton 24:10
I thought that’s where your response might go. So like,

Velma Knowles 24:18
oh, my gosh, I feel like Okay, pass the test.

Brandon Burton 24:24
So, I love the line that you had said about how all members are important, but they’re not equal.

Velma Knowles 24:31
Yeah, I

Brandon Burton 24:32
just need to let it sink in. Right. Yeah. Usually

Velma Knowles 24:35
when I say that, when I’m at board, you know, when I’m with my clients, and I do a board strategic planning session and, and, you know, we were talking about membership member engagement, member experience, and then they’ll, you know, they kind of throw some things at me and I’ll say, Well, you know, just let this sit for a minute. Okay, I’m gonna let this just let this plane land here. And and I tell them, you know, members are important. And everybody’s like nodding their head. Absolutely. You know, because they’re all members, everyone on the board is a member, right? Yeah, in different levels of capacity representing their companies. And I said, but all members are not equal. And then I’m like, will they ever bring me back to work for them again, right? So you know, and then it kind of sinks in, and then one or two people will say, Well, can you expand on that a little bit. And so I think that it’s, it’s not to take anything away from the the value of each individual in a member, you know, organization or customer if for that matter, because, you know, I wrote the book, the valuable leader, that’s my shameful plug in. And so I, I truly believe everyone brings value, but you’re running a business, the chamber is a business, it’s not for profit. It’s not nonprofit, right? It’s a it’s a business. And so you have to apply some strategic business processes. And that that’s one of them. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:03
and I think oftentimes, those members that are of higher value and value, there’s different ways to assess value with a member, right. But you talked about an 8020 rule. So you may look at that 20%, that are really bringing in 80% of those key metrics. And that may be a good pool to look at, as you’re looking for future ambassadors there, people get what your chamber does, or people who can get on board with your vision, and help make those connections with other businesses in the community. So I love that you point that out, you draw attention to the 8020 principle, and, and lean into that. So there’s a lot there. So I feel like I have to ask you, you have a term called Tiger Teams, can you tell us a little bit of Tiger team is and

Velma Knowles 27:00
yeah, tiger team. So when I was working inside the association world, one of the things that I got tasked by the CEO to do was to turn around a membership deficit. Now, you know, this is a big number. But if you put everything in perspective, wherever you are in the world, if you are losing members, it is a big number. Okay? Because it’s a problem that you have a big challenge you have to face. And so we had a, we had a huge member deficit that needed to turn around. And I was in the marketing department. And if you work in any support area of a company, you know that you’re there to serve the operations teams. And so to be called on to lead such an important task. First and foremost, I had the considered it a career opportunity for a promotion, or a career limiting move. And, and so thankfully, it turned out that I had the opportunity to literally turn this deficit around. But I didn’t do it by myself. And I always say that whenever I engage or work with, you know, coaching for for clients, or if I’m a part of the board planning, I always say that I don’t, I don’t have all the answers. But all the answers are in this room. And so I had this idea creatively, to tap into the various what I would call experts in each department. And so no matter how small your organization is, it’s got individuals that have a different discipline, a different set of lenses, if you will, that they look at the business every day. And so they see things and have a perspective, that’s very different than yours, right? And sometimes, I know we can, we can have such a deep focus on what we’re doing that we end up with blind spots, I like to call them blind spots where we just can’t see what’s what’s outside of our vision, and someone coming from a different lens can see what maybe you can’t and so, the idea was to bring together this group of people and the marketer in me said, nobody wants another job to do especially in a small organization. How do I how do I, how do I motivate? Or how do I inspire? How do I, you know, just bring this group where they want to belong to this to this challenge that we have this task force and it was called the task force, the membership retention Task Force, and I was like, Ah, I think you know, that just painful, right? And so I decided that I was gonna rebrand it, and I came up with teen Tiger. And so the tiger was a inside marketing strategy, if you will. that I created. And so I came up with a new name. And the team Tiger consisted of those that were going to be very passionate about running after, you know, running after the members that we were losing in the hopes of bringing them back and setting the stage to really give a roar, if you will, around how important it is to belong, the value proposition that you would get and really shoring up some of the things that that we felt we were missing. And so team Tiger became known throughout the organization, I just started talking it up. And it was interesting, because within eight months to a year, after testing a lot of ideas, I had people volunteering, can I be on Team Tiger? And so I was like, Well, you know, we’re really right now we’re just trying to kind of manage, because we didn’t want it to be too big either. Because then it becomes, you know, it becomes a place where it’s harder to have everyone be seen, heard and valued, right, becomes too big. So we did, we did rotate folks off because of other responsibilities and to bring in new perspectives. But it worked. So well. And you know, that it, we not only turned around the deficit, but we exceeded our goal within the time of budget. And so it’s safe to say I was able to keep my job. But then after, after that time, in the in that organization, I got tapped by another CEO, because sometimes people think, well, that’s a one and done. And, you know, it was a silver bullet. And you guys had some tricks of the trade. And for a while there, I thought that to Brendan, but then I got tapped by another CEO. And he said, I heard about what you did in this organization leading this team Tiger. And I was like, wow, you know, news travels. And he said, I would like to, I’d like to talk to you about doing some consulting workforce. And I was like, Well, I don’t really consult but I coach, there’s a big difference, you know, because I think you’ve got the power and you’ve got the talent, they just need a different lens, a different perspective, right, someone to come in and kind of cheer them on champion them and their cause and their tie in and reenergize them. And, and so I had the opportunity to engage with them, it was three weeks of doing some preliminary roll, you know, just kind of getting the lay of the land. And then I was asked to go to present to the board. So they flew me up for a 20 minute presentation. And I couldn’t even go to the board meeting, this was so funny, because they flew me to did to go to the board. But I can only come in the board room at the time of my presentation, which was only going to be for 20 minutes. And so I was like, okay, so I went in, I really didn’t have anything to report on. I mean, it’s three weeks, so you can’t really get a good feel for Okay, here’s, here’s the solutions you need right now. But I, I did present a business case. And, and not only a case, but a pathway forward, if you will, I call it the pathway principle. And it’s just really four things for them to have to look at, you know, know your numbers. And so really getting into your your data, your member data, know your numbers, know your resources, you got to know resources. And when I talk about resources, I talk about who you have in the organization, and who you have outside your organization, resources, like staff, or like members that are a part of your organization in your chamber. And they have expertise, but but also your partners, and your vendors, right, or industry vendor partners, because they’re due or different. Sponsors may be different as well. But those expertise, so know your resources, number three is you have to know your value. So is the value that you bring to your member base, relevant, as my good friend, Mary buyers would say, is the relevance there today as it was when you first started. And I think you know, for all of us, we have to take a look at what our value is, as we go forward. And then the fourth step on that pathway principle is really to know your plan. And that sounds very simple. But it’s not easy. Because everybody’s got a day to day job. And so I just presented that pathway principle and the thesis that I had so far, and at the end of 20 minutes, my my time was over. And we met when we met at around six 630 for cocktails, and it was then in there that the CEO said I’d like To bring you on board 100% full time, we want you to work with our organization to turn around our membership, retention deficit. And I thought, Okay, I got a year. And three years later with Team Tiger inside another organization, we won the Federation growth award for the highest net growth. Year over year, every year, we exceeded budget. So it’s not me, I really, really really don’t want to, to shortchange anyone here it is the collective connection. I’ll go back to that, again, of having the right people on Team tiger with with a focus of creating that culture where they want to belong, and where people want to belong as members to

Brandon Burton 35:51
very good. And your right, team Tiger sounds way more sexy than membership retention task force. So for anyone out there who’s on a membership retention Task Force, maybe, you know, think about rebranding it. Yeah,

Velma Knowles 36:03
I tell you, it goes. It’s just built curiosity. And you know, curiosity sparks interests, and interests, then return gives you a return on your investment.

Brandon Burton 36:15
Right? Well, Velma, as we start to wrap things up here, I want to ask you for any chamber champions that are out there listening who wants to take their organization up to the next level? What kind of tip or action item might you share with them that they can implement it their organization?

Velma Knowles 36:33
Right? Oh, yeah. When I thought about this question, because in full disclosure, you gave me all these questions. And, and I thought, well, what would what would I want someone to say to me, and I could rattle off several different tactics that you can test. But I think they’re shortchanged. And I don’t think you have to know more about that chamber in order to really give them good direction there. So for me, I would say, if there’s one thing I would, would challenge, or even encourage my chamber champions to do is to, first and foremost, look at, look at your, your organization, your communication to your members, and to your future members. And ask yourself, Am I focused on communicating how I solve the problems that I know they have? Or am I focused on communicating the services that I offer? I think there’s a big difference between, you know, when you say, I’m going to communicate the problem, the solutions to the problems I solve, versus the services that I offer. Services are, you know, things that you get from membership. But everyone has those services, right? I mean, just about even even for profit organizations now have member based organizations, Facebook, and Amazon, and they have magazines, and, you know, they may not have conferences, but they’ve got a lot of different other benefits that that that are traditional in our membership model. So I think when you focus on selling the problem that you solve, giving them the solutions to the things that you can provide, I think that that over the service, because it services services, that is what I expect, solutions is what I need. Right?

Brandon Burton 38:27
I had heard a quote, it’s been a few years back now, but it went to the the effect of if you can define the problem better than your future customer or client member, whoever it is, they assume that you have the answer. So if you can get good at defining their problem, they will assume that you have the answer. So to your point with communication that is key. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Velma Knowles 39:00
Oh, you are going to be so surprised by this one. But I think the future of my chamber champions out there, and I would, I would invite all businesses, so if they they listen in anyone outside of this listens in, I think that your greatest future opportunity is focused on connection. You know, the Surgeon General of the United States here has reported in this timeframe that we’re in that one of the greatest health crisis is not it’s not heart disease, it’s not, you know, smoking or cancer or any of those other really, you know, detrimental health issues that that we face. It’s it’s loneliness. And the solution to that is connection, and it brings us full circle because the primary reason of the existence for our chambers is to connect people So I really, really believe that I’ll use the quote that, you know, if you want to be stronger. You know, if you if you want, how does it go, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go further go together. And I think partnerships through collaboration is a way that you’re going to be able to provide solutions to problems that don’t even exist today for your future members and existing members. And it’s going to allow you to be viewed as innovative, creative, and a leader in really bringing organizations together. And I think that is going to elevate your board leadership. It’s going to elevate your member engagement, increase your employee retention, and it’s going to give you a sustainable organization for the future.

Brandon Burton 40:56
Very good. I love it. Getting back to the basics back to the roots of what chambers are all about. Well, Velma, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information or places you’d like to point people to follow you or connect with you and learn more about the services you offer. Anything you touched on today. Where would you point them to? To connect with you?

Velma Knowles 41:19
Yeah, sure. Thank you. Thank you, again, so much, Brandon, for the opportunity to be on the Chamber Chat Podcast I and to be such a an easygoing post. So I appreciate that. No real tough, tough questions here. But thank you so much for helping me be well prepared for our listeners. It’s really truly my honor to serve today. And I’m very easy to find. i My website is my name Velma Knowles and so it’s VelmaKnowles.com. And if you go there, I have some resources that are just free that you know, anyone can tap into some of them are on membership, and some are on leadership blindspots communication things that can help your team inside the organization level up, if you will, and then help your help your organization from a growth retention engagement standpoint. So I would just suggest go to VelmaKnowles.com, of course, I’m on LinkedIn, under the same name, and, and so and social media channels as well. I’m in on YouTube, I have a small podcast, a YouTube podcast called Your Leadership Chat.

Brandon Burton 42:32
Very good love podcast. So I know you check out Velma there. And we’ll we’ll get all of that in our show notes to make it easy for people to click and follow yes and learn more about what you have to offer. But I appreciate you spending time with us today. Here on chamber tap podcast, you provided a lot of value, a lot of perspectives. I took a lot of notes, and a lot of good. I don’t want to just say one liners because I think that shortchanges them but those lines that make you think you know and make you kind of look internally a little bit more and a little deeper on the the comments he made today. So thank you for for coming on and sharing that and I really do think you’ve provided a ton of value for us today.

Velma Knowles 43:14
Thank you, and thank you to the listeners and for supporting the Chamber Chat Podcast.

Brandon Burton 43:21
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Next Level of Chamber with Donny Jones

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Below is an auto-generated transcription. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this 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.

Our title sponsor is Community Matters, Inc. With nearly 20 years in the chamber industry and over 100 media awards presented to their chamber partners, community matters provides the R&R that every chamber needs, revenue and recognition.

When it comes to publishing a Chamber Map directory or Community Guide, Community Matters has a trusted experience to help your chamber accomplish your goals. With different advertising sales models and publication styles, Community Matters will help you create a non-dues revenue machine!

Let’s hear from Becky Womble, President of the Bastrop Chamber to hear about her experience with Community Matters.

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
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

Learn how you can partner with Community Matters, Inc. to produce your next Chamber Directory, Community Guide or Map.

Our guest for this episode is Donny Jones. Donny is the Executive Vice President for The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama and the chief Workforce Development Officer for West Alabama Works. He’s responsible for the daily operations of the chamber including financial management and information technology and manages a contractual relationships with vendors and professional service providers. Donny is instrumental in ensuring that the regional workforce systems leverage federal state resources to develop and grow the necessary K through 12 and adult training pipelines to support the current and future workforce. He is a former appointed Member of the governor’s workforce Council, and is currently an appointed Member of the Alabama Workforce Board where he serves on the executive committee and Policy Committee and appointed Member of the governor’s Career Technical Education Task Force to enhance the CTE curriculum and appointed Officer the Alabama committee of credentialing and career pathways and appointed member of the committee for Grade Level Reading. The Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities awarded Donny the Public Service Award for West Alabama and 2019 and 2022. He received his accreditation as a CCE a distinction that less than 4% of leaders in the chamber profession hold. He serves on the board of directors for the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, Tuscaloosa Educational Foundation, ACC foundation board, as well as other committees and ACCE boards. He also worships and teaches at five points Baptist Church reserves as Deacon he’s most known as a husband of Clara is a 29 year educator and father to Carson and Carter, the dining Welcome to chamber tap Podcast. I’m excited to have you with us today on the show and love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself.

Donny Jones 3:53
Absolutely. Well, as you can see, I don’t do much but chamber work and work in the community. So but I am a one of the things that I tell people is very interested in the in the chamber world, I don’t play golf. And so I’m one of the only chamber execs you’ll ever made that has never played golf. But I do have four animals that are in the record books that I’ve killed with my bow across the country. So with that being said, most of my board members never mess with me. So anyway, a lot of really cool things are happening in our area. Of course, if you guys have seen the NFL another cool tidbit about our chamber is you probably saw the number one pick with the NFL last night. Jalen is actually right down the street from us or has been his career at the University of Alabama where our chamber is actually just right on the edge of the campus. So a couple of interesting things about us and myself.

Brandon Burton 4:56
That’s right and as we record this, that’s end of April 2020 Three. And then to add on to that this morning, my son is getting ready for school and he tells me yeah, this is the first time that an Alabama players been taken number one overall in the draft. And he’s a big history buff of any sort. So you know, little tidbits like that just really geek him out. So plastic? Well, why don’t you tell us a little bit more about the Alabama Regional Chamber and just kind of how you guys are structured scope of work, you guys are involved with size of the chamber staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage?

Donny Jones 5:33
Absolutely, we’re, uh, we’re sometimes a little cold, a little different as a chamber, we’re actually the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, we serve as nine counties on the western part of the state of Alabama around seven counties. So square foot mileage is about 7500 square miles, our chamber has around 1300 members, and those are all business members, we don’t do individual memberships, representing about 65,000 employees. One of the things that is a little different is we’re the Regional Chamber of Commerce. So today, you’re talking to the executive vice president. Also, we’re the regional workforce Council, Alabama has seven regional councils across the state of Alabama, which is really a sounding board for workforce for industry. We are housed within the chamber, there were the fiscal and managing agents for that. And we’re also the regional workforce board, if you’re familiar with WIOA, and the federal dollars, so and I’m the Executive Director for both of those organizations. So we really have two large boards that work together, our Workforce Board, which is called the West Alabama Works Board, and then our chamber of commerce board. And so simultaneously, we’re always working together and actually who we are, as an organization is one of the largest collaboratives, when it comes to meeting the needs of businesses through that our budget on the chamber side is roughly about two and a half million dollars. And then on the workforce side, which is in combination, it would be close to $4 million organization. So we’re at right now 24 employees, 15 of those employees actually are full time workforce specialists. So as you can see, workforce is the largest portion of our organization. And really, we focus on that as one of our primary objectives to deliver services to our business community, because as you know, workforce is the largest issue that a lot of our businesses are facing. So that’s a little bit about our chamber. And in our services, yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:48
that workforce is always important, but right now is definitely you know, cuts the workout for you with the workforce shortages and just, you know, shifting in the economy in that in that front. But as we focus in on our topic for our discussion today, we settled on the idea of talking about next level of chambers and and this topic intrigues me because chambers are constantly looking to see what’s the next thing that we need to do to be relevant, right? How do we as we look to the future, how are we being relevant? How are we making an impact in our communities, and I feel like we’re going to be touching a lot on that and our conversation today so we will dive in deep on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Siobhan Kenney  10:25  

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Brandon Burton 11:09
All right, Donny, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about next level of chamber. So tell me what does that mean for you guys there, West Alabama. And as you guys have looked at this scenario, as just, you know, staying relevant and and keeping the chamber in the forefront of the community there. What’s the approach that you guys are taking?

Donny Jones 11:30
Well, let me maybe the best way to tell you this is is the tail of an opportunity that I had this past week to have dinner with one of New York, New York Times bestselling author, Andy Andrews. I don’t know if you know that in traveller. Yeah, absolutely. And the butterfly effect and all that. So, so we were having dinner, he was speaking to a group and, and he said this, he said, you know, the difference, you know, and a lot of people are reading the book, Good to Great. And he said nothing against that book. But everybody is using that now as the Bible of you know, How to Win Friends and Influence People, as 20 years ago. And he said, you know, the problem is, is many of us are trying to go from good to great doing the things that we do, and have always done but doing better and doing better than our competitor. He said, What happens if an organization actually actually looked at doing things completely, in a different way, and looking at it a completely different way of doing business? And he said, That’s really where he’s coming from, as he was saying that I was like, wow, that is exactly what our chamber of commerce, and our focus has been, for so many years, you know, it was, you know, go to chamber Institute and learn more about what other chambers are doing and best practices. But if you really look at that 90% of the time is the best practices of the same things that you’re doing, just trying to find a better way of doing it. And so what we looked at is we said, you know, what, what is our number one key issue for our members out of our 1300? Members? What is the number one issue? And as I’m speaking to different groups across the country? That’s one of the things I asked that question. And I’ll be in a group and I’ll say, How many of you guys as chamber professionals, and your chamber? How many of you do a capital campaign? In a majority of, you know, middle, middle sized or larger chambers do some type of capital campaign, they’ll raise their hand? And then I’ll say, How many of you, in this room did a survey of your business community as you were doing a capital campaign? Well, everybody raises their hand, right? And then I asked the question, how many of you was workforce? One of the key components and an underlying issue that none of them could solve? And had an answer for? A No, everybody kind of look around, look at each other. And then, you know, you’d see hands go up really slow, but most of the hands came up. And then I asked the simple question. How many of you, if that is the number one issue in your community, or one of the top three, have the majority of your staff focused on meeting that need? Not one chamber, except our president that’s in the room, usually, when I’m speaking raises their hand. Because when we look at we’re talking all the time to our small businesses and our industries that we we help and we say, listen to what your customer says, and then meet that need. But yeah, as chambers, we try to get our members to do what we think they need to do as engaging into our organization instead of going out and doing what they need and actually being the voice of business. Now, I’ll be honest with you, Brandon, one of the things as I’m talking about that, it raises the hair on a lot of chamber execs Next, because they’re like, well, by God, what so that’s what we’ve always done. And that’s how we’re gonna do it. I’m like, That’s great. That’s why dinosaurs died. That’s right. So if you look at membership organizations, not just chambers, but when you look at, you know, trade organizations and everything, everyone is struggling with membership, and the digression, I guess, of membership. And then also, you know, we also have best practices don’t know if anybody’s been to their state organizations, or ACCE or US Chamber. And you know, they’ll have a session that says, best 30 ideas, and 30 seconds, or whatever it is. And so they’ll go in there. And there’ll be 100,000 ideas of how to do the same thing the same way, but just put a different makeup on a pig and make it look different. But it’s the same deliverable. And, you know, there are some ideas, and I don’t mean to cut that short, because you can get great ideas, I love those sessions. But at the end of the day, when you look at your structure of the chamber, you know, are you still doing the same things? And so as you see these national trends of of less sponsorship dollars, of being more innovated, how do you, you know, I had somebody one time, say, you know, what, if, if I could sponsor my toilet paper, I put a business’s logo on there, we’re just trying to find more ways that our golf tournaments at our chamber and sessions at this than the other to do those kinds of things. And what it’s doing is, you can only do so much with a product. And then what happens is you degrade it so much that people aren’t really wanting to buy, right. And so what we’re looking at, and what we have done is said, You know what, we’re gonna focus on the number one issue. And in our region, it was workforce development. And so we still do the bread and butter place, don’t get me wrong, we still block and tackle, we still do the networking events, we still do the chamber and sessions, we still do the directories, we do all those things. But our focus really is on helping our businesses grow. And one of their biggest issues in a community where our unemployment rate right now is 1.8%. You know, and our companies are growing, and they’re bleeding at the same time. And so we’re really focused on that. So 15 of our staff members, or really 17 of our staff members are focused every day waking up, meeting that one need. And education and workforce development is where we really focus on, right.

Brandon Burton 17:32
So as you’re explaining all this, to me, it makes perfect sense. And as I think of chambers across the country, I think sometimes they get a little constrained when they think everything we have to do has to be mission focused. And then they go back and look at their mission statement. And well, our mission statement doesn’t say anything about workforce necessarily, you know, so maybe they’ve pigeon holed themselves too much by defining their mission statement. Rather than being that voice of business, and constantly just looking to see what the, what the next thing is they need to do to help businesses be successful and to build a stronger community. So I guess it may be a word of warning, I guess, as you as you drafted your next mission statement to, to look at that what what’s going to leave you that flexibility to be able to pivot and to be able to listen to the needs of your members. And what’s their number one, number two, number three needs that they’re facing? And how can you as a voice of business, step in to help them solve those issues.

Donny Jones 18:32
That’s exactly right. And, you know, we just, we just finished our five year capital campaign, which is, we don’t do a yearly business plan. We have a five year strategy that we implement every day, and we wake up and that’s, that’s our focus. But this year, we did something different this this next five years. And so when you look at and I’m going to be around a while I’m gonna beat the dead horse right here. But I want to say this. When you look at most business plans, for chambers, you have your vision, you have your objectives, you have, you know, your strategies, and they do their SWOT analysis and everything. And, you know, what we’re doing is we’re changing our entire organization to be here’s our vision. And here’s the deliverables period. Because I’d say at most businesses don’t really care about your strategy. They want to know that you’re gonna get things done. And so people are so tired of plans that sit on the shelf and nobody visits them. And we’ve got a plan and we send it out to all of our members and nobody reads it. They put it in file 13 Because they know it’s the same Oh, say Mo. So what we did was we said we’re going to take and we’re going to create a vision of where we want to go for example, in this category is lead business driven workforce and talent development. The vision is specific. It’s two sentences, and then boom, the deliverables. How many people were going to put to work? How many how many outreach events, we’re going to do all those kinds of things. And when you look at a conversation that I don’t know about other chambers, but we have is that our patriarchs are dying out in our communities. And the new leaders that are coming on board are not Civic, rent minded. You know, it’s not, I’m going to invest, because it’s the right thing to do. They are business minded, and they want to know that they’re getting a return on their investment. And so many times chambers make the excuse, well, we’re not really a chamber that makes your cash register ring, we grow the pie for everybody. And, you know, you say things like, rising tide floats, all boats, and we have all this thing, and this new generation of business leaders are looking at you and saying, You’re full of crap. It’s just all smoke and mirrors, and you would sell blind man glasses. And so they, they think that way. And so what we’re doing as a chamber is we’re saying, look, here’s the deal, we’re hearing what you’re saying, and we’re going to focus on delivering those policies, we’re still going to be an advocacy organization in the voice of business. But here’s what we hear you saying, and and that’s what we’re going to work on. And quality of life is one of those things. So what does that mean? I mean, quality of life for every community is different. Does that mean? Well, that’s like saying, random world peace, we’re gonna solve world peace. And so chambers are out there. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re telling everybody, we’re solving world peace, and everybody’s going, whatever. And so what we’re doing there is saying, this is our vision for what quality of life looks like, for our community. And these are the specific things that we’re going to do for you, as a partner in our community. And so that’s where we’re going is really changing this and changing the topics, instead of trying to sell everybody something that they really don’t want. Because people I think respect chambers, I think people you know, intuitively know that they’re important. But when it comes to, am I gonna pay my employees $2 More than hours so that I can actually keep my employees and keep my lights on? Or am I going to pay a membership fee, because it’s the right thing to do. chambers are beginning to lose that battle. So we have to really become a chamber that is consultant driven information and knowledge based, and actually somebody that’s helping companies grow and meet their needs. And so our niche was workforce developmental now.

Brandon Burton 22:32
Yeah. And I think depending on the community, depending on the chamber, the niche may look different. Absolutely. Workforce definitely is a niche where you can have some, you know, absolute deliverables, and you can have data to back up the work that you’ve done to say, here’s the results of the efforts that we put forth on your behalf. And when you look at the your chamber in general, you guys really are larger on the workforce side, budget wise, staff wise, I mean, the attention is going to workforce, because that’s where you hit while I assume that’s where you have those key indicators, you can go back to to measure success, and where you can go back to investors and say, this is where you’re getting your return. So I’m curious as you as you put that focus on workforce. I know we can talk for hours on this, because it’s something passionate that you’re passionate about. But what are what are those areas and workforce? In your bio had mentioned the K through 12? Programs? You know, I’m sure retention, is there education with employee or with employers? What are those those key areas that you’re focusing on with regard to workforce? Sure,

Donny Jones 23:41
absolutely. I’ll give you a prime example. On the K 12 system. We do large regional events, for example, worlds of work that we do, it’s what we call Disney World, steroids for workforce development. So we bring, we shut one of our community colleges down for three days, we bring every ninth grader in the entire region, over 5,009th graders up and they experience all the different job opportunities that we have. And it’s all hands on. And it is a big event. People come from all over the country to actually look at the event and say, how do you all model this? And so we’re in our schools, we’re touching our kids, we’re really all the way down into pre K. We have an educated workforce Academy, where we train all of our superintendents and principals and key leaders in our 12 school systems. We’ve graduated over 470. And they spent an entire year with us learning workforce development in changing the landscape of how educators think about this big topic. Then we’re also involved in our adopted school program, getting industries involved, and ensuring up our education system which is not the best in the country. And so we’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s going to take the into Park community, particularly the business and industry, community to really help shore up our education system. And then another example is bringing those resources. For example, we have this past year, we put over a million dollars in the hands of our industries through our workforce board, and through one grant alone, and we trained over 1100 workers and upskill those workers just in our small region, through our community college system, and being able to fund those kinds of things. We place over 3000 individuals in jobs over the last year, just in one sector. That’s the automotive industry. And then a lot of things into Brandon, here’s another way, and I’m going to chase a rabbit real quick. But how many chambers talk about diversity, equity inclusion, right? Let me give you what real diversity, equity inclusion looks like the 3000 employees that we placed in the automotive industry, because we had Mercedes Benz here, 78% of them were African American, of the 78% 51% were male and 49% were female. So when you begin to talk about what we’re doing for communities, and how we’re trying to be an inclusive community, instead of just having events, which we had our development, diversity, equity inclusion event for the chamber last week, so we still do that. But now we’re having discussions about how we’re really impacting those communities that feel like they haven’t been included. And we’re saying, Look, we’re focusing on your entire community, we’re not talking about these topics, we’re doing something about these topics, we’re making a difference when you look at the difference we’re making on the disposable income and the average, you know, family income for our minority communities, that is growing because of our workforce side. So you know, at the end of the day, I think our society is changing. From a perspective of less, don’t just talk about things, let’s get something done. And it’s time to move the needle. And that’s what our organization is really focused on in our communication is focus on that side of it, you know, not just, hey, look what we’re doing. We’ve done 10 events, this this month, what we’re really focusing on is we’re changing lives every single day. You know, last week alone, we put 100, high school students ninth 10th 11th graders into summer jobs, they’ll actually start in in three weeks, with 20 different employers. And we’re, you know, we’re modeling that out when we’re talking about it. And people are saying, We’ve got people every day that’s calling us and saying, how do we get involved in the work of the chamber because of what you’re doing. So those are the kinds of topics that we’re really focused on.

Brandon Burton 27:56
I love that you can just off top your head, you have these numbers, right? He can tell, you can say, we’ve helped 3000 people and jobs in the automotive sector and then go on to the diversity equity inclusion side, you can say, you know, your percentages of, you know, different races and genders. And those are numbers you can point to and say, here’s how we’re moving the needle. versus you know, we had a networking event, and we had 50 people show up. What came of that I’m sure something good happened. But how do you measure that? Exactly.

Donny Jones 28:26
And that’s, that’s what people want to hear. And what we’ve seen as, like I said, we just finished our capital campaign, the majority of people who increased in some doubled their investment over the next five years in our organization, the majority of those said, we’re investing because of what you’re doing and workforce development because that is key. We’re a huge manufacturing area, even though we have the University of Alabama and a huge healthcare sector. Industry is our big, I guess you’d say employment sector. And so individuals know, you know, that if we don’t solve that problem, because Alabama doesn’t have the largest population. I mean, as I was telling you, 1.8% unemployment is almost like zero. Unemployment, right? So how do we get more people in the participation rate? So we’re doing outreach events every single week. In two weeks, we’ve got what we call our signing day. So all the students that we’ve heard in all these events, you know, our apprenticeship programs and everything is going to look catalogue. Now, it’s not going to have 100,000 People like it did last night on the NFL signing, but we’re going to have a huge signing day and make a big deal that work is valuable. And you know what that resonates with our our, our members or our membership and the businesses and they’re saying you know what the chamber is bringing value back to our community and that is essential, soft skills. It is work is valuable, and we need everybody to be a part of growing In our community. And so it really is, if any of you think about what we’re doing is we’re really doing exactly what everybody else is saying they’re doing, right. But it’s turning that value into, you know, something tangible. And it’s not, Hey, did we do 10 referrals from our website to your community or your business? That’s not what we do. We’re, you know, and so we’re all the time as chamber, folks, we’re like, we gotta tell people about the value of our organization, and we say all these things, but nobody really knows how to do it, besides, create a new flyer with great pictures and people at a networking event and somebody with a governor and a mayor and all this. And so the, it’s the same old, same old. And so that’s why I said, we’re really taking it to the next level. So I’ll give you a kind of a, an analogy of we do things in a real systematic way. So our first five year campaign was called working as one, because we wanted our community to learn that we’re never going to take it to the next level unless we begin to work as one. So guess what the title of our next capital campaign was working.

Brandon Burton 31:17
One’s got to be in there. So working

Donny Jones 31:18
this one. Now, this campaign was actually called all in, because once you get everybody at the table, once everybody is working this one, now everybody has got to be only in to move us to the next level. And so that is really what we’re seeing in our community as people are coming to our chamber and really saying, how do we engage? How do we involve Coulson, you are an organization that’s making a difference. And, you know, I had somebody come to me, actually yesterday and say, I was at church the other day, and I had this family member come, or this church member come to me and say that my kid went to our well 2.0, which it was for graduating seniors, which was four weeks ago, or three weeks ago. And we put 200 kids, and they had 600 job offers, or 200 kids at major industries. And so when you look at that, you know, they were talking about this change this kids laugh. And so now they’re like, how do I get involved? So we’re creating whole new opportunities, where people do engage at a whole different level, because now they’re passionate about what we’re doing. Not just that we’re the chamber. That’s

Brandon Burton 32:31
right. So that leads up very well into my next question, as we start to wrap things up here. I like asking as we frag is for chambers that are listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what tip or action item would you suggest for them to, to consider implementing at their organization?

Donny Jones 32:50
Well, I’m the worst person to say this. But one thing I’ve think that I would suggest, is like the old saying that my mother used to say this all the time to me, which as you can tell, I talk a lot and are very passionate. And sometimes I don’t stop and listen enough, because I think I have all the answers. You know, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason, son. And chambers forget that sometimes. And so what I would say is if you’re going to check your chamber to the next level, is listen with an open and honest mind and hear what they’re really saying. And see what what the real eco ecosystem around your community is. For us, the struggle was workforce. For some communities, it could be loss of population growth, for some, it could be a need for a new strategy and economic development. Whatever that is. I would say that you listen to that, and then look at how you can become the very best at that. So you become the source of that for your community. But then you look at how do I deliver that if it’s economic development? What am I going to do? What am I going to create? How am I going to sell it? And how am I going to let people know that we’re the ones who do it? We hear all the time chambers say this. And Brandon, I don’t know if you’ve had speakers on here that say we don’t toot our own horn enough. Well, the reason you don’t toot your horn enough is because you really probably aren’t doing anything that’s a really of subsequent, you know, need. We every week. We are on the news every week. And we have four stations and usually it’s at least two of those stations. And that’s one of our goals. But if you look at 90% of those newsfeeds, it’s because of what we’re doing in the lives of people because their interest stories, right? So, you know, focusing on making a key difference and what is ain’t going to do and looking at things totally different. Like I said, you’ve still got to do the bread and butter plays. But if you want to grow your organization, I can say this from, you know, what we’ve seen where we went from, you know, seven staff members to 24. And it was all focused on those deliverables. So every new position that we have hired at the Chamber has been to give outcomes and deliverables not to do programmatic work. And so really look at how do you change in that direction? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 35:30
I love a said that to not only listen more, we hear that sort of tip a lot. But the caveat there of listening with an open and honest mind, because it’s so easy as you hear the needs of of your members or the struggles that they have to become a little defensive, maybe we do that for you, and you try to explain and rather than just listening and realizing maybe we’re not doing it well enough, maybe they don’t know about these things, because we’re not executing in the way that we need to. And

Donny Jones 36:01
I have to confess I was that guy. That’s why I said a lot of times, there’s people that are probably hearing us discuss this today that are actually getting frustrated at hearing me say, because they are so sad. And this is how we’ve always done chamber work. And this is what we’ve been told. And it’s not that you’re wrong. It’s just, you can be good to great all day long. And I would encourage you if that’s what you want to be be that. But what we’re talking about today is going from good to the best. Yeah. And that’s a way of thinking about it.

Brandon Burton 36:36
Yeah, that’s great. So as we look to the future of chambers, we’ve been at it feel like we’ve been talking about this all all interview here, but how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Donny Jones 36:50
Wow, that’s a loaded question. For me, particularly when what we’re talking about is a seat chambers that are going to be successful. Um, you know, I think there’s a place for for every chamber, but I think you’re going to see more chambers becoming more like merchants associations, or actually becoming more like a Deloitte deliverable organization, where their staffs are more like consultants that are actually doing incredible things and working with industry to raise the bar. In those sectors, I think you’ll see a lot of chambers becoming more sector driven, where they’re, you know, what they’re doing for manufacturing might look different than what they’re doing for technology, what looks different than what they’re doing, or healthcare. And they’ll probably have specialists that that focus on those key areas. The other thing is, is, once again, I think you’ll see more of a contractual organization that’s doing real contractual top work. For example, like we’re doing in workforce development, where you know, millions of dollars of our organizations actually to deliver services for the state of Alabama, or for a particular entity or a county or a city. You’ll see more of that. And I think you’ll see chambers being more innovative when it comes to those traditional chamber programs, and have they delivered in different ways. But I think you are going to see the larger chambers actually turn into more of more of that focused. This is our sweet spot. And that’s what we’re going to do, because once you try to become all things to all people, amount one HD, is very difficult for for you to actually have a core focus of your organization.

Brandon Burton 38:44
Absolutely. So as we wrap that, wrap it up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and learn more. Hey, you guys are doing there at the West Alabama chamber, what’s the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Donny Jones 39:00
Yeah, absolutely. If you want to reach out to us, our number here is 205-758-7588 websites that I’ll give you is WestAlabamaChamber.com and WestAlabamaWorks.com. We have hosted, I think 20 or so in the last 18 months, communities that have come in and flown in and done benchmarking trails, particularly on our workforce side. So we’re always open to that because we always learn as much from other Chambers as they learned from us. So it’s a great time to exchange. So if you know chambers are interested in that. We have a staff member that actually focuses on working all the details out and helping chambers, create their benchmarking trips on workforce development and flying in and actually doing that. So appreciate all the time, Brandon, thank you for having us here too. But yes, love to talk to anybody that might have questions. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 39:56
that’s been fantastic having you on the show today. And I think the perspective you bring and the insights the the work you guys are doing is really going from good to best and that best looks different every community. So I hope everyone listening is taking notes on those, those action items they can do to really survey and listen and have that honest heart in mind as they listen to their members to see how you can become the best. So thank you, Donny, for being with us today. I really appreciate it

Thank you enjoyed it.

Brandon Burton
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Grow & Protect with Frank Mulcahy & Ernesto Verdugo

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Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Frank and Ernesto. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.

Feel free to join our Chamber Chat Champions Facebook Group to discuss this episode and to share your own experiences and tips with other Chamber Champions.

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.

Voiceover Talent 0:14
Now your host hangs blankets in his studio to reduce the echo, he’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:23
Hello Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Tony Felker, President and CEO of the Frisco Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for him.

Tony Felker 0:45
One of the key benefits that we’ve realized from Holman Brothers it’s actually happened many years after we started using them. We just completed our new strategic plan and understanding those subtle differences between transactional benefits and transformational benefits. The companies that knew what they expect has been a key part in our strategic plan. And we really want to thank Holman Brothers for that.

Brandon Burton 1:07
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

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For this episode, we have a two-for. We’ve got two great guests for the price of one. So we’ve got Frank Mulcahy and Ernesto Verdugo. Ernesto and Frank are both Change Catalyst through their thought leadership and effective public speaking that leads to results. Ernesto is the 240/7 most traveled person in the universe. They worked for Renaissance cruises and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines before becoming a full time speaker and trainer. He’s worked with people from over 120 nationalities and 57 countries. He’s a little league baseball coach, a private pilot, and a master juggler. He lives with his wife and two kids in The Woodlands Texas.

Frank has developed a series of workshops over the past 38 years exposing the devastating impact of data breaches and identity theft, Frank’s immersion and identity theft prevention and red flag training began in his mortgage banking career is has he’s honed his mastery in all facets of identity theft in the workplace and online, as he has spoken to and trained over 835,000 individuals from the stage webinars and in workplaces against the ongoing threats of identity theft and misusing social media. As I have them with us today, we’re going to be talking about a new app that they’ve come out with called grow and protect. But Frank and Ernesto, I’m excited to have you with me today here on chamber chat podcast and like to give you both an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little bit better, Franklin, start with you. Very good.

Frank Mulcahy 3:03
Thank you, Brandon. It’s a pleasure to be here today. And most importantly, it’s a pleasure to continue serving Chambers of Commerce because I believe that as an entrepreneur over the last almost 48 years, the chambers have probably been most instrumental to my growth. And I followed them from very, very small chambers all the way up to chamber galas. And it was as a result of my just everything that chambers gave to me that when we decided would grow and protect, it was time to get back to the chambers. And that’s what we’re going to share with the folks today is that we’re all in this together as one big happy family. And we’re all here to serve the small to medium sized business entrepreneur, on how they can grow and how they can protect their businesses in these chaotic times.

Brandon Burton 3:54
Very good Ernesto.

Ernesto Verdugo 3:56
Yeah, well, thank you, Brandon, for having us here. Your your introduction was very nice, very kind, very accurate. And all the stuff that you were saying one of the things that was not mentioned is that I am also the Vice President of Marketing of the US Mexico Chamber of Commerce. And it’s a little bit different than the other chambers of commerce that are around which are a little bit more local. This one is a by national Chamber of Commerce. And of course, I am delighted to be with your audience because we have a ton of stuff that we can help them with. So we will start we will start with our with our story. Basically everything started with the thoughts of my 13 year old daughter that basically taught me how to become a YouTuber. And then afterwards we started using YouTube as a tool of growth and we will tell you a little bit more on that story, but it is I am there I am delighted to be here.

Brandon Burton 5:00
That’s great. We can learn a lot from our children, can’t we? And oh my goodness, either directly or just seeing trends that are coming and how they’re interacting with technology. So what

Frank Mulcahy 5:11
what we, what, what we call that Brandon is actually reverse mentoring. Yes, we mentor them, they mentor us, and then we all collaborate and go forward.

Brandon Burton 5:21
That’s right. I love that. So tell us just a little bit about what your company grow and protect the app. What, what is it? And how long have you guys been doing this. And we’ll we’ll get much deeper into it. But let’s just give it an overview, just to kind of give some perspective as to why we’re having you guys on the show today to talk about this.

Frank Mulcahy 5:44
So grow, Grow and Protect is a chamber of resource library, Brandon, that we felt was necessary with the chaotic times that we were going into, and we’re going to talk in a little bit about how we started it way back in February of 2020. Before the lockdown, we knew times were going to change, what we didn’t realize is how devastating times would change. And so, Ernesto and I, we pivoted very quickly, we didn’t miss a beat. But we noticed that everybody else was falling behind. So the grown protect is meant to be a chamber resource library to actually put commerce back in Chamber of Commerce, to actually help the small business entrepreneur, to expand their business outside their local town, city, state, county, or even country by using the technology that Ernesto and I have been very, very blessed to have harnessed. And it was time to put it together in one spot with one module where apps where they can have it with them 24 By seven on all the devices and all this stuff, and everybody could grow, even the people that have technically challenged. Brandon, that’s the great thing about what we put together, one

Ernesto Verdugo 7:03
of the things that we noticed was that most of the chambers of commerce, they were offering a location, but the location, you know, it was, it was not the location that we thought it was exactly what was needed at that at that specific moment. And once again, as we were mentioning, for example, how they can use you to how they can start using them so that they can attract more, more business, how they can figure it out how to create a customer journey. And this is exactly what we started putting together and we put it we put it in very small bite size videos and lesson plans, so that they will not be struggling with you know, this is a full two hour course or anything that’s actually very, very easy for them to digest this information. And yeah, I mean, the people that take it seriously and then they you know, it’s we always say once more or less than that they will help you tremendously, so that you can start knowing how to go into the 21st century in my eyes. And this is one of the things that I always mentioned in my eyes. Unfortunately, many of the people which are actually doing business through it through chambers of commerce, they are a little bit behind in time. And we said well you know if this is what we need to do, we have to push all of this so that we can actually take people to the 21st century.

Brandon Burton 8:25
I like it so I’m excited to dive into deeper discussion about growing protect because I see great value in having a video resource library for chambers to point their members to to help them grow and protect their business and and get out of just the brick and mortar you know who’s in your local community. But let’s let’s broaden what that economy looks like. And I love how this is no cost to chambers so we’ll dive into that in much more depth as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Frank and Ernesto we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, I wanted to dive in deeper about grown protect. Frank, you alluded to kind of the beginnings of grown protect in February of 2020. Why don’t you tell us a story of how grown protect came to be and how the vision came and and how you guys enrolled this? Yeah, I’m

Frank Mulcahy 12:04
happy to do that. And we’re gonna go back to February of 2020, which was actually about three weeks before the great lockdown. And as international speakers, we were booked in Mumbai, India, at the world, HR 2020. Congress. And I remember that Ernesto myself, Dave crane, several of us that traveled together around the world. We were at the Taj Hotel, and we were talking about Wuhan, China like everybody else. The difference was because we’re only 1000 miles away, we started to realize that, yeah, they’re shutting down flights from China to the US. But what people didn’t realize is they were flying from China into India, India, into Europe, and then on to the states. And so we sat at the Taj Hotel, that second week in February, and we said, our whole world’s going to change, but we had no idea it would be two years plus, that businesses would still be suffering. And so we will wonder what we’re going to do. And Ernesto and he can tell you about it in a second. But he immediately once we got back to the states on March the 12th, when we had the great shutdown, he launched a web TV show, and never missed a beat had over 100 broadcasts had 1000s of people listening to it daily. And then I said, well, I need to, I need to become a YouTube influencer. And I need to take all my speaking virtual rather than public during the Great lockdown. And while my customers are not my customers, but while my competition, Brandon was wondering, What am I going to do now? There’s no public speaking, no access to people. I never missed a beat. And people were fascinated that at 69 years old, I became a YouTube influencer. But I took advantage of it because it’s relatively simple. And that’s how we started and we said, we have the skills. We did a survey, I met with Aaron Cox, who was the president of the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives. I went up to Austin had lunch with him. I said, I said, Aaron, this is what I’m looking to put together a library of two 300 videos of how people can actually protect their business grow their business, and they can do it even technically challenged. What do you think he said, we talked about this for five years at the Greater Texas Chamber of Commerce executives, but nobody knew where to start. I said, Well, my partner and I got it pretty much 50% bill. And we put together Boyd Brandon, with chamber executives that I’ve known over the last 40 plus years and asked for the curriculum, what would they think their businesses needed? And as a result, we have the growing protect dot app, which is as as you said, it’s free to chain Because of commerce to give back to the membership, so that they can grow their business. And the only cost is $1 to activate the mobile app.

Brandon Burton 15:11
So Ernesto, I think your daughter had a great spark of, I don’t know, Prophesy ingenuity, I don’t know what you want to call it. But she had some unique foresight to say you need to be a YouTuber, and make that shift. And I see how that’s paid off for you. And for Frank, and for the influence that you’ve had. How did you go from, I guess, taking the videos as a YouTuber, to organizing it into an app that has a training resource library, and specifically for Chamber members?

Ernesto Verdugo 15:46
Well, as Frank was mentioning, when we jumped into the web TV show, we knew that we had to go digital. So every I mean, in those days, some was not what it what it is right now. I mean, it suddenly started becoming a very important tool, we were actually not transmitting through through zoom, we were using other other software. And we were doing it through Facebook. And it was very interesting. That was the beginning of the lockdown. We went from having nobody watching the TV show to having for about 100 days in a row. We were having about 1000 1500 people watching the show every single day. And then we said, well, you know, this is it. This is the way to communicate in this time. And it was great. But then what happened was that after the after the lockdown, the initial lockdown started easing off, we started losing the audience. I mean, we suddenly were, you know, we were novelty during the time of the, of the lockdown, but then suddenly, I mean, we started losing the audience. And then that’s when my daughter told me Well, you know, the problem is, you have to go into YouTube, because YouTube is going to be the one of the platform, which is going to give you the most exposure. Now, the problem with YouTube is, it is the most effective tool, but it’s the most difficult to understand because you don’t have to think as a marketer, you don’t have to think as an influencer, you don’t have to think as somebody that wants to run social media or anything like that, you have to think like a real TV model. And then we started realizing, well, you know, this is basically if you have a channel, as they call it, you have to have some kind of programming. And this programming needs to be interesting. And you have to make sure that you have the enough retention for people to watch the content that you’re creating. And then we started experimenting. I mean, we started doing several shows Frank and I, some of the videos that we created were crap. I mean, we have to absolutely accept it. But then we started figuring out well, you know what, this is what works if we know exactly what kind of content and we make it fun, and we make it entertaining, and we make it you know, a way that people will be able to consume it, these little, these little 10 minute 15 minute videos are going to become very effective. And exactly what happened. I mean, we started having a lot of traction on those videos on YouTube. And then that’s when we said, Well, I think you know what, let’s also capitalize from all of this, and start putting it into a platform so that all the people in the chambers of commerce will be able to benefit from it. I love

Brandon Burton 18:29
that. And I like to you can own and admit that some of the videos are just crap. The best way to get better is just put in the reps, keep doing it. And the more practice you get at it, the better you get, and the more refined your process.

Frank Mulcahy 18:45
Aaron, let me add to that, Brandon, if I might. One of the ways that we’re able to get the quality of the videos increased, what we put, we actually put together an advisory board of chamber executives, people that had a minimum of 20 years as the leaders of chambers. And we asked them about the curriculum, we asked them about the lesson plans. And so although Ernesto, and I like to think that were the founders, there were a tremendous amount of chamber professionals that advised us to what they needed and what they wanted.

Brandon Burton 19:24
Awesome. So let’s dive into the content of it as the trainings what, as a chamber explores this is they look at an opportunity to be able to share this video resource library with their members. What kind of trainings would they expect to find in there that they could share with their members? Well,

Frank Mulcahy 19:43
we will go back and forth will each add on to this but I think I think the most important thing in the first lesson we start with is about mindset, the shift in the mindset as to how business and commerce is now conducted worldwide because most people Well, they’re still stuck at the best skills and attributes of five years ago, which are probably the excess baggage today. And so we have to make this fundamental shift that as time progresses, the way that we develop things, the way that we serve customers, the way we go to the marketplace, is constantly changing and evolving. And that’s where we work, first of all on the mindset, and the aspect that they can look for the future trends. And then from there, let’s do you want to give them a couple of the lesson plans that we did, and so from YouTube?

Ernesto Verdugo 20:36
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, for example, one of the one of the ones that I think it’s very powerful is the digital stagecraft. There’s a whole lesson on how to communicate, as we are doing it right now in zoom. Still, you see people after two years that they still do not really know how to use some properly, they look incredibly unprofessional. And right now we can show in absolutely everywhere in the world, and you have to look your best. So that is one of them. I mean, the other one would be on the customer journey, as we were mentioning, and it was very, it was very funny, because we actually went to IKEA in in Houston to record these so that people will understand that right now is not that you’re selling a product, you’re selling a whole whole journey of what your products are, and how you can actually make the most out of every customer that goes into your into your business, customer acquisition. Lead Generation, we’re having LinkedIn training we’re having how to how to get your brand, across all over the place how to become Omni omnipresent, which right now it’s the most important thing in the in the world, because what happens now is that, for example, doesn’t matter what it is, if you’re going to go on a date, or if you are going to ask for a job, or whatever it is, the first thing that people will do is they will Google you. And you are not who you say you are, you’re a Google who actually Google says who you are. And that is one of those things that most businesses do not really take seriously. So if you go and search and pictures there, people are not going to take your series, but the moment that they see that you’re absolutely everywhere and omnipresent, what’s going to happen is that they’re going to have instant respect. And one of the things that Frank and I really found was that when you when people can see your accomplishments without you having to talk about them, what’s going to happen is, you know, the the Speed of Trust is going to is going to be there they’re going to be people are going to trust you right away. I mean, and this is exactly what happens when people hear my name. They go and google me, and they see that I am absolutely everywhere. And there’s over a million results about me in Google. People don’t question me, if I go to speak, and I say well, my fees $10,000. I can justify it because of course, I’m pretty well known. So that’s the important thing. And most people are still on found double with with Google. And that’s another of the lessons that we’re talking about just just to name a few.

Brandon Burton 23:22
Even just when I started chamber chat podcast, as I initially was reaching out to people to be guests on the podcast. Initially, it was hard, because people didn’t know who I was, if they went to Google and search me or the podcast, there wasn’t a whole lot out there. So they were really trying to do the research. And, and now if somebody searches, you know, chamber chat, podcast or my name, it’s going to be all over the place. But it I see that being that having that influence that Omni presence everywhere really is valuable in creating that that digital footprint, but it translates from what you’re doing in your brick and mortar building, to the web.

Frank Mulcahy 24:04
So absolutely. And you know, there was a study that I saw in Forbes magazine, Brandon, and it said, 65% of millennials and this is just six months ago, 65% of millennials prefer not to talk to somebody in the transactional process of making a decision. They want to go online, they want to see video validation, they want to see your brand as a company. Who are you Where have you been? What have you accomplished? I mean, if we stop and think about it random, people go to Yelp to decide whether they’re going to go to a new hamburger or pizza or Chinese restaurant based on the reviews of others. So we certainly have to we have to accept the fact that they’re going to be looking at us IP were a survey company a real estate a construction roofing, contracting, educate It doesn’t matter what we are as Chamber members, people are going to research you. And based on what they find, they’re either going to keep delaying the process to business with you, or they’re going to accelerate it because as Ernesto said, they have the trust. And that’s probably one of the key things. As we as we do the grown protect, we also do monthly live collaboration calls for the for the users. And we’re able to go to these lesson plans. And when they understand that tremendous growth happens in their business, Brandon tremendous,

Brandon Burton 25:34
right? So it’s interesting how these things come together. You know, Frankie had mentioned 65% of Millennials don’t want to interact with the individual with another in person, you know, transaction. And we’re nesto talked about the customer journey experience filming an Ikea my customer journey at IKEA is very different. Yeah, I’ll go there, knowing what I want. And I’ll go right to the warehouse, get the boxes I want and check out I refuse to walk through the maze of the customer journey at IKEA. So you know, everybody has these different different ways to interact. But being able to, to know your customer being able to be omni present, have those reviews out there be able to get that good feedback. And it sounds like all these trainings, you have address these various different topics and, and really kind of stack on top of each other to build a strong business to grow and protect, right. So tell us how does grow and protect work for a chamber? If a chamber wanted to adopt grown protect for their organization for their members? What does that look like? for

Frank Mulcahy 26:43
that? Yeah, the first thing I urged them to do is to give me a call, let’s set up a 1015 minute discovery call. And they can go to speak to frank.com, speak to frank.com. And they can book on my calendar. But what I’m going to explain to them, Brandon is that there is no cost to the chamber at all. Everything we’re doing is going to be in the realm. If they look at our video grow and protect that app, they’ll see that the message to the Chamber members is that the chamber is bringing these resources to their members. And it’s so refreshing because now rather than the chambers asking him for another sponsorship or another donation more time, they’re actually giving something back to the Chamber members, which is a $297 value. But the chamber member gets it for $1 for $1 lifetime access to all of the lesson plans, plus the monthly collaboration calls that are nesto. And I do what we’re doing live trainings with guest sponsors. And we’re bringing in, we’re bringing in all of the lesson plans, as Ernesto said, digestible chunks, three minutes, five minutes, six minutes, and the but they can walk through it at their pace. And they can choose somebody might say, I want to do the LinkedIn, because I really want to learn how to get a refined marketing statement, one that causes people to raise their hand and say, Brandon, please tell me more about chamber chat, or the contract. Tell me more. That’s what we’re doing is we’re walking them through this. So for the chambers, you’re going to increase your membership, you’re going to increase your membership fees, you’re going to increase your sponsorships and you’re doing it at no capital expense. So the first thing they did book that 10 minute discovery call and let’s see whether or not this is good for your chamber and we’ll set them up at no charge.

Brandon Burton 28:44
So as we start wrapping up here, I wanted to ask what would be one maybe tip or action item for chamber champions listening who want to take their chamber up to the next level? I’m sure you both have a tip but maybe Ernesto we can start with you on that response.

Ernesto Verdugo 29:01
Well, obviously I will definitely recommend that you take us on this on a call. You know we are we we have done is we have taken the way that chambers have done business forever but now we have taken it into the digital world. I mean everybody asks, well, how’s it possible we spend a huge amount of time and money developing this, this problem and then everybody says well how could you give it away for free and this is what I think it’s very, very interesting and then I’ll tie it to a very good tip. Normally for example, if chambers are having events, they bring out speakers and they the speakers also benefit because of of the exposure that they get. Well this is exactly the same thing but digital. So if it is if it is free, if it is at no cost and it is absolutely for education so that you can you increase increase the value that you provide to your chamber. This is an absolute must for for every chamber to, to be using it because it’s going to make a big difference. What with the results that you’re that your Chamber members second we’ll be having?

Brandon Burton 30:20
Very good. Frank, do you have anything you’d like to add as far as a tip or action item for listeners? Yeah,

Frank Mulcahy 30:26
yeah, I want to continue on that same thought that Ernesto just had there. As he said, chambers. And I said it earlier that I grew my entire business, Brandon, from Chambers of Commerce. I started with rotaries, Lyons, Kiwanis, but I very quickly realized the business community is at the chamber. And so you know, most chambers, they bring in a speaker, but it’s complimentary. We really don’t get paid like we do when we get on the big stage. And so I realized that if I could, if I could put together virtually a library, which I think today and so we’ve got over 270 lesson plans within the growing protect app with about 50 more planned over the next quarter. Then what’s gonna happen, Brandon, is that the CEOs, the executives, the association’s, they’re going to, they’re going to stop and say, you know, this is great stuff, whether it’s pocket filmmaking, client acquisition, customer traction, digital optics, refined marketing statements, whatever it is, and they’re gonna ask us, can you come in, for instance, you introduce me in the bio, that I’m very, very big in the cyber awareness arena. But I’m also known worldwide for disruptive, abusive behavior in the workplace, which is devastating to the workplace. And it’s amazing how the chambers have grown my, my training companies, where I come in and solve workplace bullying situations for clients, like the city of Houston, the state of Texas, the National Nuclear Security Administration, I never would have had those contracts. Brandon, unless I had spoken at that chamber. At some point in time, we don’t know when we just know that the more we serve, the more we profit, the chain, a complimentary.

Brandon Burton 32:17
Very good, I liked those responses. So I’d 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? And we’ll give you both a shot at this as well. So Ernesto, if you want to take first stab at that, yeah,

Ernesto Verdugo 32:35
I think the the, you know, right now we have seen it. I mean, in my eyes, a lot of the chambers are little pockets, which are, you know, in everywhere, and right now, because we are going in a global way of thinking, I think, I think the future of the Chamber of Commerce, business is to be able to provide opportunities locally, but also globally. And, you know, it’s it’s one of those things that it’s inevitable. So I think that’s where I see the that’s, that’s why I’m very excited about, you know, working with with several chambers, because every time that we talk to them, and we tell them our vision of how things are going to be working. And they always say, Yeah, I definitely think that that’s the way to do it to actually grow locally, but also have a element of globalization to for our members.

Brandon Burton 33:32
Love that. Frank, what is your future, the Chamber vision look like?

Frank Mulcahy 33:37
It as I talk more and more with our advisory board every month, it’s about developing more avenues for commerce, Chamber members want to know, what are they getting for the return on investment? And what you know, how are you helping me to grow my business. And unfortunately, with these online courses, that that Constant Contact, that’s not cutting it, with Chamber members, from as far away as Sri Lanka, and Malta and London, and all across the United States, because in the last year, we’ve actually grown to almost 300 chambers that are now offering a growing protect app. And as more and more of the people are on the collaboration calls, Brandon, that creating that, that that connection that Ernesto just talked about, outside of Houston, or outside of Texas, or outside the southwest, but they actually can pick up additional clients and prospects all across North America and the world. And in the digital economy. We all have to we all have to accept this. That somewhere right now. There’s an 11 or 12 year old sitting in the bedroom with a cell phone and an Internet connectivity that is becoming our next competition. because they don’t need the back office, they don’t need the business plan, they don’t need the funding, all they need is a little bit of grasp of where the technology is going, and how they can use all these channels we talked about and grow and protect, we walk you through every single one of them, and then start to implement them a little bit here, a little bit there. And the next thing you know, your members are now picking up new product lines, new customers around the world, additional avenues of income, and they’re going to use the internet, rather than being used by the internet. And that’s the greatest value that we provide.

Brandon Burton 35:41
That’s great. Yeah, be it be a creator of content instead of a consumer only of content. So well, I want to give you both an opportunity to share any contact information for anyone listening who’d like to reach out and connect and, and learn how to work with growing protect, what would be the best way Frankie had mentioned, speak to frank.com? Are there other ways that you’d like people to reach out and connect?

Frank Mulcahy 36:08
Yeah, and you know, again, they can reach out just go to Google put in Frank Mulcahy. groan, protect, you know, but speak to frank.com is the best one, Brandon because they can actually go into my calendar, and book a collaboration call. It’s free. We’ll have an online cup of coffee and show you what we can do for your chamber, and make you part of the ground protect family where you actually can now serve your chambers. And a lot of the chambers, Brandon will actually come and do live presentations for them, depending on where they are geographically and where we are. But we can we can tailor any program for any chamber. Because we have Chambers from all around the world now and every nationality. And there’s never any selling. It’s all about serving and delivering value, no selling. And if people raise their hand and say Ernesto, Frank, Brandon, please tell me more. That’s what we’re looking for us that relations.

Brandon Burton 37:14
Right. That’s beautiful. Well, thank you both for joining me today on chamber chat podcasts and joining all the chamber champions listening, what you guys are doing is definitely creating a lot of value. It’s creating a opportunity for Chamber members for these local businesses to further develop their business and to become stronger to become more resilient going forward into the future. So appreciate the work you guys are doing, and especially focusing on on Chambers of Commerce. That definitely is our niche. So thank you for that. And thank you for joining us today.

Frank Mulcahy 37:55
It’s my pleasure. Thank you, Brandon.

Ernesto Verdugo 37:57
Thank you, Brandon.

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