Category: Vision

Creating a Chamber of Impact with Matt Lofy

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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.

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Our guest for this episode is Matt low fee. Matt is the President, CEO of the Worthington area Chamber. And since joining the Worthington area Chamber in August 2021 he’s been driven by his vision, which is he wants their chamber to serve as a igniter of positive change, rather than merely serving as a resource to cope with change. Matt’s strategic focus on business advocacy, bridge building with key stakeholders and relentless pursuit of relevance has significantly strengthened the Chamber’s influence and engagement with local businesses, amplifying the voice of business, his initiatives led to a 20% increase in local business engagement within the his first year. This impact resulted in him being named as one of the chamber industry’s top emerging leaders, as a 40 under 40 honor honoree by ACCE and a 2023 chamber professional of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce executives of Ohio. Prior to this position at the Chamber, Matt served in numerous roles within the Westerville area Chamber, including executive director of leadership at Westerville he also taught morning spin classes for over a decade, and is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard. In addition to his professional success, Matt finds joy in his roles as a husband and father to his beautiful wife, Heather and their two young children, Tuckerman and Caroline. He’s also the founder and co host of the award winning Dadass Podcast, Matt, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Matt Lofy 2:51
Absolutely. Thank you so much Brandon for this opportunity, and thank you to all the chamber champions who are listening. You know a fun fact I like to share you had mentioned about my my podcast and from one podcast post to another, one of my fun facts is we actually used our podcast platform, not so much to grow beyond just a local podcast, but to actually advocate. So we’ve worked with our Columbus City Council the last two years to advocate to get we’ve now had over 300 changing tables put into men’s and gender neutral restrooms throughout businesses and nonprofits in the city of Columbus, and so as a way to marry my passion project And my chamber career, to really bridge build with a public private partnership. So we’ve been able to do that and advocate for easier access to changing tables. That’s

Brandon Burton 3:48
awesome. I’m convinced that chamber work is like a drug. You just get addicted to it, and then whatever you do in life, it’s going to tie back to the chamber somehow. So that’s proof and point right there.

Matt Lofy 3:58
So absolutely can’t get away from it. I drank the Kool Aid. That’s right,

Brandon Burton 4:02
that’s right. I need to find out where to go to get awards for podcast. I’ve yet to win an award. So congratulations to dadas podcast. That’s pretty cool.

Matt Lofy 4:11
There was a local one here. So really, I think we joke, but we’re pretty serious. It was our mom, my colleague, and my mom and all their older friends who are retired, just voting daily. That’s all it was. So don’t

Brandon Burton 4:24
awesome,

Matt Lofy 4:25
but now we can say winning.

Brandon Burton 4:26
We can edit that out. Nobody has to know. No,

Unknown Speaker 4:29
it’s our secret.

Brandon Burton 4:30
That’s right. But tell us a little bit about the Worthington area Chamber. Give us an idea of your chamber size, staff, budget, scope of work. You guys are involved with just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Matt Lofy 4:42
Yeah, for anyone who’s not familiar with Columbus, imagine a big circle around a major city. We are at the north, north central part of Central Ohio, and Columbus, which we actually get confused. Worthington, Minnesota. When I when I first started, I was told that half of the phone calls in Minnesota, in Worthington, Minnesota, are phone calls for Worthington, Ohio, but we’re a small chamber of commerce of roughly 550 member businesses, a modest budget in the mid 300,000 range, and a staff of two currently putting out roughly 65 to 70 events and organized meetings a year. So we were doing quite a bit for two people in terms of the scope. We went from a chamber that really wasn’t was kind of in a decline prior to COVID to not not being relevant or impacting our community or supporting our businesses during COVID. So really, we’ve done a lot as a two person team to bring back all networks. So from our Soho groups, small office, home office, which we call Small Business Roundtable, to our Women’s Business Network, yp, those all have been started from scratch within the last two to three years. So just to really show where we’ve been and how far we’ve come just in three years, and then we’re in a city that’s four and a half to five miles square, miles in size. Our school districts four times that, because we pulled from the city of Columbus, and so that’s really the taste of our community and our chamber in, you know, 90 seconds or less.

Brandon Burton 6:32
Yeah, no, that’s perfect. So you came into the chamber world at a very interesting time. So I think that’s going to play in well, your story with our topic today about creating a chamber of impact, because I’m sure you’re able to see all of the opportunity around you at that timing of when you came into the chamber here. But we’ll dive in much deeper in that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Matt, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking today about creating a chamber of impact. So how did coming into the Worthington area Chamber in August of 21 How did that timing affect your thinking going into creating a chamber of impact and the opportunity that you saw at that time frame?

Matt Lofy 9:07
That’s that’s a great question. We had our challenges, just as a lot of chambers did, because of the impact of COVID. What I had kind of up against me coming into this role is one I left another chamber in a neighboring community, but not in the president role that did everything, I think, right during COVID, coming to a chamber that hadn’t done much to impact the community or the businesses. So I had a different lens to look through, but at the same time, because of where we’re situated in in central Ohio, we pull from Columbus public health. So after my first week, we actually got put into a six month mask mandate. So there were just some extra layers that were added. But how I looked at it, it was because we hadn’t impacted our community and our businesses. I had a four. Whole deck of cards to play with, because no one was going to question and say, well, we didn’t do things this way. No one really remembered that. And so I jokingly say I came in like, I pulled a Miley Cyrus and came in like a record. Oh, yeah, I have to right. All I had to say is, I came in like Miley Cyrus, and you knew it, that’s right. But at that point, it was okay. We have a mask mandate, but we have to be seen. And so I started to really look at ways to how do we amplify the voice of business and our chamber without having events here in the first few days and not having the relationships? And so we use it as a way to completely flip our ineffective emails and getting squared away with three separate monthly email newsletters that went out and specifically targeting different areas of interest for our businesses. Instead of just showing and sending out future events and and things like that. We had to get better and more strategic with the way we reached out. One of the first things I did on social social media was I wanted to be seen and build a relationship when I couldn’t be in person and build relationships. And so with without knowing, at the time of your podcast, I kind of stole your name and created a chamber chat with Matt. Video, okay, bi weekly, where it was just me. I had my own theme music and introduction, and it was me sitting in my office, or even in my my basement office, giving key updates of what the business is doing. We might not be able to meet together right now, but this is what your investment in our chamber, in us is helping us do to impact you, your business and our community. So it really allowed us to take non existent social media and email and flip them upside down and more impactful, as well as start to strategize, you know, unfortunately, six months out what our impact would be when it comes to reigniting our network. So that was really what we did, you know, from day one to the first six months outside of cleaning out the organization and getting the house in order.

Brandon Burton 12:13
Yeah, now I can appreciate coming in and people don’t remember what the programs were before, but to be able to have kind of that almost a blank slate. I mean, you could do essentially what, what you wanted to, but to be able to be strategic about the emails going out. Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? You said, going from those ineffective emails, which I think everybody listening knows exactly what you’re talking about, and what are the what’s the strategy behind your three purposeful emails each month,

Matt Lofy 12:41
yeah, and let me, let me first go on the record, because I always want to say things first. I don’t have the magic formula. So I don’t want anyone to be like, oh, you know, or think that. I think that I have it all figured out. But I think from my previous role doing communications at another chamber to just emails I’ve gotten from other organizations. We get too fixated of we got to throw all this stuff into one email, and then we tend to sometimes get so bogged down about events that all we’re sending our event correspondence. Don’t look at my social media right now, because that’s all I’m doing. But I looked at, let’s get the events out of all of our emails, and let’s look at respecting people’s inboxes. And here’s how we’ve done it. And again, this is just one man one Chamber’s way to do it, but either the final days of a month or the first days of a month, depending on when, when that falls in the week, I send an events bulletin out that just has picture header, brief description and a CLICK HERE button, and we list out five events for the month with a corresponding social media post. We’ve we went from emails that we’re getting in the teens to the low 20s of open rates to mid 40s to low 60s. Open rates, click rates, I won’t talk about because I want to stay with the numbers that make me sound that’s right, that’s right, but open rate wise, and then what we’re seeing on registrations, in terms of revenue, we’re certainly seeing a huge amount of investment of revenue coming in per email specifically for our events bulletin, but then the second week of each month, that’s what I refer to as our member highlight cycle in our business connections email, where we’re putting out things in our Member Notes section, accolades about businesses, businesses who are hosting maybe an upcoming Lunch and Learn, or businesses we’re partnering with, as well as announcing our new businesses. And then somewhere in there a link to our events calendar, because again, I don’t want to bog down everything with give us more money come to more events. And then the third week, I try and put more advocacy efforts in there upcoming major events, but talking about what the takeaways would be at those events. You. So much about the event, and then any other major things that we’re doing impacting, you know, our city or regionally, and that’s been a really good winning formula for us. And hopefully anyone that you know wants to possibly use that, maybe it works for them. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 15:17
and I’d like how you said you still have your events in there, but you’re not drawing all the attention right to the events, but it’s in there. It’s like, oh yeah, I saw an email a week or two ago. It talked about an event. Oh, here it is, right here, and you can click on it, but you’re not focused on, give us money, give us money, right?

Matt Lofy 15:35
And that’s kind of the lens. And you’ve been in the industry for for a long time. I mean, sometimes we get a little too focused on events or revenue, you know, without respecting what we’re putting into people’s inboxes. And I think, you know, I’m a relationship builder. I’m a relational leader. And I think chamber leaders need to start thinking more relational than transactional. And that’s how I also try and view the emails, yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:00
and I think most chamber staff are probably guilty, at least at times where the next event’s coming up, and that’s all you can focus on, is the next event, and just getting bogged down with with that and nothing else, and forgetting that that one event is not the reason why 90 plus percent of your members joined right? Like it’s important for you in that time, because that’s what you’re focused on. But they all are members for so many other reasons, that as you reach out and communicate with them, you gotta be touching on those points as well,

Matt Lofy 16:31
well and and just in a what is the chamber done for me? Aspect, if, if we’re not putting that in the in the in the emails or in the newsletters to the membership they you know, I count that as retention, so, you know, we’re sharing out information, but also saying, Here’s what we’ve done since this last advocacy update, or here’s what we’re doing shortly. You know, there’s, there’s a lot of different things strategically, if we put it in the newsletter, that can go into recruiting new businesses, retaining businesses, beyond just getting butts in seats for another event, right?

Brandon Burton 17:08
Exactly. So the emails, that’s a great example of of making that shift to creating a chamber of impact. What are some other areas that you were able to attack as you came into the chamber there,

Matt Lofy 17:22
one of the things that we needed to do is our our community being as small as it is, like the city, not the school district, again, four and a half, five square miles, we’re so disconnected in a small community that we have a pro and not so pro business nonprofit that has started through the last decade in our community, not called the chamber, Okay, which one I thought was an issue, because we’re not relevant. We weren’t having an impact. That those groups had to start. We should have been convening both sides. But at the same time, if there’s those two groups, no one’s hitting that that 80% in the middle, the same center. So one of the things that I wanted to make sure that we did was get heard, and two of the things I did quickly was try and identify and make those relationships with key stakeholders. And I’m sure that’s not anything new that any chamber person that’s been in the industry for a while has heard, but I probably met with key stakeholders more than I did businesses, just to make sure that we built those bridges, and also we’re being heard of what’s to come from this new chamber and our pursuit of relevance and the impact we wanted, so no one was caught off guard or challenged. And that was the biggest piece, because a lot of what I was saying at that time was deemed political and well, the Chamber’s never done that before. That’s not going to go well. And I go, I assure you, I have surveys and countless of data points that our businesses want this, and chambers are doing this across the industry. This is only new here, and so I kept those voices, those stakeholders, close in that to ensure that they they knew what was coming from our chamber, and now they’ve been on board, even if they are challenging. And I think that really massaging those relationships and building those collaborations, especially with those that aren’t on board with what the chamber is doing, is key. And the other aspect is at the same time, we started a podcast called amplify Worthington that allowed me to use that as a platform to say it even louder to businesses, but also to the community, and then we did it in in a collaboration with our economic development director. So it’s a little bit, possibly a little bit different of approach for a chamber podcast, compared to some who highlight just primarily what the chamber is doing and what businesses are doing, and those. Us to were probably the best investment of time outside of of re kind of retooling our chamber.

Brandon Burton 20:06
I’m a huge fan of chambers having a podcast. I even have a little course. If anybody wants to explore having a podcast for your chamber, it’ll be in our show notes, but going back to your meetings with the key stakeholders you didn’t necessarily say these words, but this is how I heard it. So correct me, if I’m wrong or if there’s a different take, you weren’t going and asking for permission necessarily to say, these are the changes I want, but it was more just so they’re not surprised when they see the changes coming, that they can be on the right side of things and not be like, Whoa, who’s Matt. Think he is coming in here, changing everything, but just saying, Hey, here’s some things that can be impactful for our community. Wanted to bring you in the loop and let you know some things that are coming down the pipeline. Is that, is that kind of accurate, or did I get that off? Yeah, I

Matt Lofy 20:58
You probably even said it better than than what I said. That’s exactly it. I think, as chamber leaders, we also serve as community architects, and the best way to do things smoother is to ensure everyone knows what’s to come, but also to say change in our community at some point, some level, is coming. Let’s control that change and do what’s best for our community. And the only way we can do that is if you join the conversation. And so yeah, 100% I think that that is one of the things we should do, and not ask for that permission, like you said, but just include the voices so that they they feel heard through this transition,

Brandon Burton 21:40
right? I think the worst case is you can come in with a big change and surprise them, and then you’re going to meet, get met with the resistance all the way along, where, if they have a heads up of it, and they feel like they’re in the know, it’s going to go a lot smoother to push along something new. Yeah. So you mentioned, as you came in to the chamber, was kind of on a decline through COVID and everything. You guys have implemented some of these changes. How are you seeing the needle move at this point, now that you’re three years into it?

Matt Lofy 22:10
Yeah, I feel like we have an aircraft carrier moving full steam ahead in the ocean while also going forward on the course, it is altering the course at the same time. So I’m like, I’m just starting my fourth year, and it’s like I’m still having to clean this up. But I think what what we’ve seen greatly is we’ve had a steady flow of new members, and then having to really work extra hard on getting better contacts of those that we want to return retain, just because there’s so much turnover. So we’re still seeing those battles, which I’m sure there’s a lot of people nodding right now listening like, oh, in there. Brother, yeah. But one of the things that we’re seeing is we’re getting a lot more initiatives up and running, and a lot more businesses who have not been engaged are starting to get more engaged and start poking their head out at events or in my inbox. And that’s the most flattering, especially seeing people you know, with all due respect to those leaders before me that said, I haven’t been a part of the chamber in X amount of years, and I’d like to come back. And that’s that’s been a lot of what we’re hearing now. That’s

Brandon Burton 23:23
very rewarding to know that the work you’re doing is being noticed and really making an impact. To be able to not just retain but bring back some of those members that have dropped at some point along the way. So that’s, that’s awesome. I can imagine that those members that hung through COVID and everything too are like, wow, the chamber is like, revitalized, like, they’re really making an impact right now. So I would imagine that first year retention for those, aside from just financial strain through the pandemic, if they could see that impact, that they would hang on.

Matt Lofy 24:00
We’re getting there. I don’t have we didn’t have good enough numbers to know what that retainment level was at the beginning. But yeah, we are starting to hear that. You know what? One of the things to maybe, hopefully not getting too far off your point, one of the things we did with those that dropped and didn’t want to reinvest in our chamber. I still wanted to show value on investment in the chamber and respect and support our Chamber members first. But I worked a little extra hard, and maybe this is political and there’ll be a lot of hate emails or anything that comes through to you or me, I still busted my hump almost as much for non member businesses to see, to show them the value of a vibrant and strong chamber, and I got a lot of return on that. And I don’t mean that ignorantly. I think sometimes, as leaders, we. Too caught up of oh, you’re a non member, or you’re not in, you’re not involved with the Chamber anymore, and we forget them. I’ve tried to work really hard to say, You know what? If maybe it’s a no for them about being a part of the chamber. Let’s talk about how, because at the end of the day, if they come to one event and they find value in the chamber, they found value in me as their chamber President value in our mission, and at the end of the day, we’re chamber leaders, but we also have to think like civic entrepreneurs. We also got that revenue, and so we saw a lot in these first three years, and I’m still seeing now a lot of the networks, like our Women’s Business Network, half of the women coming to these luncheons are non members, but I can almost have enough data points to show this has been one of the best networks to bring in new members and new investors in our chamber by dropping the real significance of how we treat a member versus a non member. Again, wanting to show the value on investment for members, but that’s really been something through this transition to whether they were dropped or they just didn’t see the chamber as relevant, back, you know, a month ago or a couple years ago, that I think, has been one of the biggest things that have led to a success for us, not saying no to supporting them or being involved in the chamber, but asking ourselves as a two person team, How do we get them a part of the chamber or involved with the chamber? And that’s been a huge game changer for us, and we’ve actually gotten positive feedback. Hey, thanks for not being pushy and really wanting to help me first, and now it helped me see what the chamber really means.

Brandon Burton 26:36
Yeah, I think that’s an excellent point. And I think we forget as chambers, we think, you know membership, membership. You know everybody’s got to be a member. And we forget that each business has its own different walk of life, so to speak, where some businesses and maybe against their corporate policy to join a local chamber because they had a bad experience in another community, another state, whatever. So as a policy, they can’t join a chamber, but if you have an event that resonates with their mission, then they’ll sign up and they’ll be a sponsor. They’ll they’ll be there for it. So being able to be there for all the businesses in the community and to show value to the community at large, rather than just being hyper focused on membership, I think is a very smart approach,

Matt Lofy 27:25
yeah. And I know, you know, I can hear the comments and the emails coming in that disagree with that approach. And if not those emails coming to me, they’re coming to you, right? But I think in a day and age to you know, let’s, let’s see the reality. All membership organizations are seeing declines, right from veterans groups to other membership organizations are seeing declines in membership we as chambers, if we want to have a great impact, we need to also switch our mindset. But at the same time, I can think right off the top of my head, five different businesses who’ve come to our events paid a non member price. But if I tallied up how many times I’ve seen them at paid events this year, they’ve done more than their share of an investment in an annual membership and a one time or two time lunch that most of those who are members coming to one or two events have invested so, you know, getting away from mission and thinking about, you know, being a civic entrepreneur, in a sense, having that hat on. I still got that money, yeah, and they got to see the value in the chamber. So I think we got to shift that mindset too. Sorry if I got too far off.

Brandon Burton 28:34
No, it’s all about being community architects, as you said before. So, yeah, I love it. Love the thought process there. Matt, I wanted to ask for chambers listening that are wanting to take their chamber up to the next level. I’d argue that you’ve done that there at the Worthington area Chamber. What kind of tip or action item, what piece of advice might you share with with that chamber who’s looking to take their organization up to the next level.

Matt Lofy 29:07
You know, I think it’s kind of a, I have one answer, kind of a two part response to that. I think, in order to really continue to grow your chamber, and we’re still doing this ourselves, so I don’t want to sound like I have it all figured out, but we have to take chances in doing something that we’ve never done. And if you’re a chamber that is doing things differently than how they’ve been done, what’s that next thing for us to be doing and and to that end, for me right now is we’ve kind of gotten things back our way. I think for us, being here in central Ohio, which is a growing community, is I’m also having a mindset now that’s a little new for me. I want to think regionally to better impact locally. So I really challenge. A two part answer there. Think about what’s that next thing that your chamber needs to do? And just like I said earlier, Channel your inner Miley Cyrus and do it as a wreck, be a wrecking ball. And then secondly, let’s start thinking a little bit more regionally and bring that home locally for that change to really spark that positive change. Yeah, I

Brandon Burton 30:21
like that a lot. I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers, and how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Matt Lofy 30:34
You know, that is the million dollar question. If I had it figured out, I would be probably living on an island right now, and not in a two person office, but I think for chambers, we have to adapt to what’s to come. That’s why I’m excited about the horizon initiative being updated. I think chambers need to stop thinking so small in some ways, or at least for the smaller chambers, and start thinking a little bit more broadly in what our impact is. Where are we serving and where are we not serving? What chances and opportunities do we need to take? But on on top of that, I think the future of chambers lie in being that that connector for all voices to cut through the noise and be that trusted source that we need to be, and hopefully we’re all serving right now, so that we can hit that same center, that 80% that’s not in the know, or that is voiceless or just isn’t aware right now. And that’s that’s where I think the future lies, right there in the that, that same center. And we have to address that, and we need to address it yesterday, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 31:47
And if you knew all the answers, you could write the horizon 2.0 all by yourself. But this is right, yeah,

Matt Lofy 31:57
absolutely. And again, we don’t have it all figured out. I just want to say that one more time, but some of the risks we’ve taken and some of the initiatives we’ve done have definitely helped us do more than what I thought we could do possible in three years. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 32:12
absolutely. Well, Matt, before I let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the Worthington area Chamber. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect? Thank

Matt Lofy 32:29
you for that opportunity. I’d love to connect, especially on LinkedIn. I’m huge on LinkedIn. You can just find me at Matt. Matt low fee, l, o, F, y, on LinkedIn, or you can email me at mlofy@worthingtonchamber.org and you can just find more about us at WorthingtonChamber.org I’d love to connect in any way that’s perfect.

Brandon Burton 32:53
And we’ll get all that in our show notes for this episode as well, to make it easy to find you and connect with you. But Matt, this is this has been fun to to have you on Chamber Chat Podcast to share your story and the the impact that your chamber making now in the community, and kudos to you and in in your your two person team for being able to to do this. I know there’s others involved, there’s there’s volunteers, and there’s board and all that, but you guys are doing things right to be able to right the ship and turn in the right direction. So thanks for sharing that with us today.

Matt Lofy 33:29
Thank you, and thank you for this opportunity. I certainly appreciate it’s been an honor.

Brandon Burton 33:33
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. Our guest for this episode is Katy Brooks. She is the president and CEO of the Bend Chamber of Commerce in Oregon. Her vision for the chamber is to catalyze and environment where businesses and employees and the community thrive. The chamber supports a collaborative business environment and leads efforts to resolve tough issues like affordable housing and childcare shortage, assisting businesses with resources and advocating for businesses at the local and state level. Katy’s background and economic development coalition building and government relations enables her to understand public policies and issues in order to advocate for the businesses of band as well as forming partnerships and alliances that support a growing business community. Her career has included over 20 years working in public affairs and economic development for the ports of Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. She has been a public affairs and strategic planning consultant for public and private organizations in Oregon, Washington and Alaska and manage Community Relations for the Oregon Department of Tourism. Katy is a member of the Oregon State Early Learning Council and has served on numerous regional, state and city boards and committees. Prior to coming to bend, Katy served on the Public Affairs Committee for the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce, and the board of directors for the Washington State Business Association. Katy received her BS at Southern Oregon University with and graduate studies at Portland State University. She’s received extensive training and facilitating public issues and resolving conflict her and her family reside in Bend. But Katy, I am excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. And first of all, congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a 2024 chamber, the year finals. That’s a huge accomplishment. But please take a minute 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.

Katy Brooks 3:25
Well, thanks. I’m really, really honored to be here. It’s just so terrific. Being a finalist. And in this fabulous industry that we’re all in. I have been in the chamber world for about eight years since I moved from the coast and port world working for port authorities for a long, long time. And it’s been a great transition. I live here with my family, we do a lot of mountain biking enjoy a bit of a higher elevation than what I was previously at. And for those of you haven’t been to this part of the world is quite beautiful. And it’s full of great things to do outside, which is what we’re all about.

Brandon Burton 4:09
That’s right. It is a beautiful part of the country for sure. Well, please take a few moments and tell us a little bit about the Bend Chamber of Commerce. What makes you guys so special, what’s your your chamber look like the work you’re involved with? Size staff budget, that sort of thing to kind of give us some perspective as we get into our discussion?

Katy Brooks 4:33
Sure. Well, we’ve had quite a bit of population growth. So the business sector has grown as well. We are population of about 110,000. We are on the east side of the caste range. So we are a little bit removed from where most of the population of the state is. So bend is kind of a it’s a mountain community but it’s really a self sufficient ecosystem here. That’s really unique. And it’s something that we take into consideration. Anytime we put any of our strategies together. We have great networking programs. Here we have a really strong advocacy program because our state capitol is in the valley. And to lift up our voice from Central Oregon, we align with a lot of partners here. We build our leaders, we concentrate quite a bit on how we support a system of of leadership and workforce development that can sustain our growth, not just in population, but our business growth and several industry sectors that have taken off here. And we look for our niche initiatives, we look for ways to take on things that we see and our members see as obstacles and impediments or opportunities. And really try to capitalize those and bring up solutions. And I’ll get into that here in a little bit of what that actually looks like.

Brandon Burton 6:04
Yeah, well that’s the crux of the Chamber’s to solve those problems, right that face the community. So very good. Well, as we focus on these chamber, the year finalist episodes who really like to dive in, in more detail on the programs that were submitted on your chamber that your application, I think those are a really good indicator of the type of work you’re involved with and, and where you’re seeing those levels of importance to be able to make an impact in your community. So I’m excited to dive into what those programs are and all those details as soon as they get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

All right, Katy, we’re back. As we dive into the meat of this episode and talking about the programs that were submitted on your chamber, that your application, please share with us what what the first program was? And we’ll dive into that and save the good stuff on second program for for a few minutes.

Katy Brooks 8:52
Yeah, it’s always hard. I’m sure everybody else who submitted an application feels this way, it was hard to choose in some respect. Because we just do so much. And as with all chambers, we have changed so much over the last several years. So when you look at at our programs, it looks like like today rather than yesterday. And it looks like what the key issues are that we’re struggling with here, rather than some of the more traditional things you think about in chamber world. But I’ll I’ll talk a little bit about Ben 101. So Ben 101 was established in collaboration with a bunch of folks from the community from several industry sectors, who said essentially, you know, we are growing faster than any other city in our state we have the more more jobs per capita than any other city in our state and we’re losing touch with the culture we worked really hard to establish we’re very bootstrap kind of a community here. We were lumber mill industry, which declined dramatically in the 80s, we reinvented ourselves. Now we’re biotech, health care sciences, outdoor industry, product development, high tech, all sorts of things are happening here that frankly, didn’t exist 10 years ago. And what happens when you bring that many new people and new industries together, you kind of lose touch with everyone, you go from a small little town to, you’re actually a small city. And that’s got a different dynamic. So Bend 101 brings in key leaders from our community to tell the story of our history, tell the story of our culture, which is be nice, you’re invent, and we’re collaborative, we’re dolphins, we’re not sharks. And we have a lot of ways for people to plug in. So it’s like getting a turbo charge in everything you would want to know if you move to a new place. And not only do you get the information, but we match you up with people from the community in various industries, from the workforce. So it’s not like insta friend, but it’s close to it. It’s it’s hard introductions of folks that you might find really interesting and want to have coffee with later. And then we work with the human resources, folks to really make sure that we follow up. How do your folks feel about this? Did they meet somebody there that they didn’t get to connect with that they want to and really make those connections meaningful? So you have the background information, you know, where we’ve been where we’re going to, and you have access to the people who made it that way? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 11:45
So I think it’s interesting to to inform newcomers on the culture of Bend. And I imagine that’s a tough task to try to infuse culture. But what is it? What does it look like this with Bend 101? What’s the format? How do you? How do you structure I love the overall the, you know, the high level view of making those connections and welcoming those newcomers. But when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, what what is the structure of it look like? Well,

Katy Brooks 12:15
we use a lot of humor, because we have some idiosyncrasies and little things about them, like every community does that are pretty funny. And one of ours is our claim to fame is roundabouts. They’re everywhere. And anybody who’s new to bend goes what is going on. You can’t get anywhere without going in a circle. So we kind of poke fun at ourselves, we have a really great welcoming video, where we talk about how friendly we are and kind of help people navigate the why of things and kind of laugh at ourselves a little bit. But then we we give the overall here’s how the city operates. And here’s some information for about 1015 minutes. And then every time we hold a one on one, we do it three times a year we fish feature a different part of bend. For example, last time we did this, we featured our healthcare system, educating folks on what that looks like, how do you access it? Who are the leaders there? Who should you know, what should you know, this month, we are, in fact, this week, we’re holding one that features our park system. Our Park system is amazing. It’s very robust, very well funded. There’s mountain bike trails, literally hundreds of miles you can ride and it connects different communities in Central Oregon. So we’ll share all that information. And then talk a little bit about, hey, this is everybody’s chance right now to reach out to somebody you don’t know, unless make those connections happen. So it’s kind of infusing that cultural welcome as much as we can. It changes a little bit every time we hold the event, depending on the information we share, but the outcome is the same. Right?

Brandon Burton 13:57
So does anybody come to multiple sessions have been one on one? How does that like if you want to learn about the parks? And you didn’t get that in your session? How does that work? Oh,

Katy Brooks 14:07
totally. We have repeat offenders. And because it’s really fun. And we are beer town, we have 14 breweries. And so that’s some fun, people just enjoy showing up and interacting folks that have been here for a really long time. They like to show up. In fact, we reach out to them. We want them there. Because how else are newcomers going to meet the establishment? Right? And so you need some of those people to come multiple times. And really mix it up with the old the new the the in between. And if folks are new, and they think hey, that was great. I want to learn about a different sector because I’m thinking about getting involved, then that’s great.

Brandon Burton 14:49
Yeah, that is that’s fantastic. I love that. The idea of it. I love the execution of it and making all the connections and really welcoming people to a community that really sets them up to thrive from the beginning. And I’m sure there’s success stories that you can share with people that have come in and been able to make those connections and, and be able to get their feet on the ground much quicker so to speak. Absolutely. So as we, as we move along, let’s let’s shift gears into what the second program is it was submitted on your chamber the your application. Yeah,

Katy Brooks 15:26
our workforce housing initiative. So I’m co chairing the ACC II horizon initiative that Sheri Ann is, is heading up. And I was so intrigued by this, and I’ll tell you why it matters to the workforce housing issue, asking people about what is the most pressing issue and opportunity in front of you right now? And then saying, Alright, so in 10 years from now, what would that look like? And how do we get from point A to point B, I think is a really useful thing to do. And we’ve essentially been doing this for a few years. And every year, both in the front windshield and 10 years down the line, people are worried about housing, a little bit of background about bend, it’s, it’s quite lovely here, and I’m sure everybody’s community is. But we we experienced something in Cote COVID that a lot of us didn’t see coming. Obviously, nobody saw the pandemic coming. And that is a lot of folks who are professionals who could work from anywhere, say, why not live in Bend, and they came in during COVID, much of the housing stock has been occupied, and it drove prices up 75% In about two or three years, wow, it’s kind of ridiculous. And we looked around and said, Holy smokes, this is not, we knew it was bad. But now we’re 5000 units behind in a community of 100,000 110,000. That’s, that’s significant. So we hear this from our, our business partners and members all the time, we can’t hire biggest thing that’s deterring us is folks can’t afford to live here. So we started out about three years ago with research. And the research was alright, how do we assess how ready Ben dites are to address this population issue in this housing issue, and we ask questions around density. Because this is, everybody has a little yard and your little house and or it’s a cabin or whatever, and started that conversation about so we’re gonna have to go up, we’re gonna have to get more dense, people are going to be living closer together in certain parts of town. And we’ve tested that. We tested what made everybody accept it and feel better about it. And we use that information to form our platform. And one of the things that we ask that I think is really important is who should be leading this effort. And in that public poll, business sector came out at the top, as did the bend Chamber of Commerce, more than government and more than Housing Authority, nonprofits, etc. So we decided to take this on. So we developed several, several, I guess, strategies from they’re all based on research. And one strategy was alright, what we learned from the initial poll is, folks are hesitant to really talk about densification of a community that was an old mill town. But when we talk about what you get in exchange for that, they’re really willing to do it. So we launched a social media program called I Am bent, trying to educate folks on what this is, we’re not talking about everywhere, we’re talking about places in Bend, that are designed for people for community for Makerspace for art, and also here are the people we want to live in this. It’s a full range. And we would feature nurses and firefighters and massage therapists and artists and restaurant managers, the folks who could not afford to get a place here, rent or to own definitely not own. So we started that education process about two or three years ago, and it’s been going really well. So that’s one piece. The other piece was, what is the go fast button? And how In other words, how do you get more inventory out there as quickly as possible? accessory dwelling units. ADUs are one of those ways. If you have extra property, which a lot of people do here in Bend. If you put a small living unit back there, you can create some income for yourself and help solve the workforce housing issue. So we put together a website on how to build an adu. How do you finance it? How do you permit How do you manage it over time? And it’s just an easy step by step process and then we’ve partnered with the city of Bend to have pre approved plans. And we’re going to be starting to populate that here in the next couple of months of choose your style. And you go through a streamlining process streamlined process. So you’re permitted and ready to go much, much faster and much more less expensive. So the adu is another strategy. The other strategy really dovetailed with our advocacy program. How do we raise our voice as a region, the state level and at the federal level, on the need for affordable and attainable housing. So we met with the Tri County leaders in our area, it’s a pretty big area, and came up with one platform that we went to our legislature with, and it was very effective housing was top of mind with Governor Tina Kotek, this session, and a lot of great programs came out of that. And then finally, we brought in expertise from across the country to really take a look at our zoning, and look at our methodology of getting homes on the ground that are affordable and quickly, and use that person and those methods to inform policy at the local level too. So that was pretty successful. And during this time, we also wanted to do the thing, not just talk about it. And so we raised money, we raised a couple 100,000, and just did an initial investment in a nonprofit Land Trust, who was doing an experiment and the experiment was getting some subsidized housing and a cottage style. So for a lot that’s like 6000 feet by 3000 feet, which is typical city a lot you could put in maybe three to four cottage style homes in there. And so they built these, put it on deed restricted property, but lowered the price enough. So folks in in a below area median income could actually afford the downpayment and to purchase that house, and own the house, not the land, but the house. So we bought down that cost, those homes are net zero, they’re worth about, probably about 600,000. Here, we got it under 200,000. Wow. And all of those homes are now occupied by people who work invent. But the real unique thing about this was we decided we wanted to take a risk. And we wanted to demonstrate how employers can actually participate in solving this problem. So what happens is when you donate money for a certain amount per house, you get extra points preferential points in a lottery. And that lottery is alright, if I own Katy’s ice cream shop, and I give X amount of money to one of those houses, I know one of my employees is going to get that house as long as they qualify. And those qualifications included, you have to earn under 80, ami, you have to have had a job and bend for a year, you have preferential points if you’re a minority, and so on, and you have to be pre approved, you’ve got to be able to buy this house and pay pay the mortgage, that

Brandon Burton 23:13
I was gonna ask about that about the qualifications to purchase that house because I could see somebody say, Oh, what a great deal, like get a $600,000 house for 200,000. But the criteria and the application process for that. And I imagine so the the businesses that help pay into that fund, kind of get first dibs, so to speak as far as their employees being able to apply for that routing, is that correct?

Katy Brooks 23:37
That’s absolutely right. And it’s deed restricted for 99 years. So if the house ever sells the same restrictions apply to the next buyer. The great thing is that shit, that preferential chick comes back to you as an employer. So another one of your employees get a shot at qualifying to buy the house. So we bought down four houses. And instead of using it for my employees at the Chamber, we pushed it out to do a demonstration project with any business event. So if you agreed as a business at Brandon’s candy shop, if you said okay, I’m going to pay $2,500 down to help my employee with the closing costs. And here are my five employees that qualify, you would have had a shot and those employees would have had a shot and that’s what we did. And so, folks all throughout the city, radiology technicians, manager, Windows Store, folks who you think of when you think of middle class or or entry, you know, mid level that had access to this home these homes and it was so successful, that they built 50 more this year. They’re in the process of it, and almost all those 50 homes have been subsidized by employers. They built another 100 You In the adjacent neighborhood, to the west, and another 100 plus to the north of us in another community, and they’re doing the same methodology. So in one year, we went from let’s experiment with four houses and just put these these opportunities out as an employer subsidized formula, and proved a concept that is now over 200, or over 100, no 200 homes that will be occupied and subsidized by employers in the area for 99 years. That

Brandon Burton 25:32
is awesome. I can see it being a template, even that some of these bigger employers might might do their own system, right, where they do housing for their own employees, and almost like a military base used to see you know, military housing, but you could you could do something similar with some of these big

Katy Brooks 25:50
kids so that that people earn equity, the whole point to home ownership. Is that generational wealth, yeah. And so that has to be a part of this and doing it with a partner who’s a nonprofit on deed restricted property was the way to go. And we’re just now rolling out our next investment. We raised about a half a million so far, we’re trying to get over the million for a revolving loan to help nonprofits and builders just put more mid market product out there on deed restricted land. So we’re doing our next experiment. Yeah. Which is what chambers should do.

Brandon Burton 26:34
I love these creative solutions. I mean, starting with the the adu website and encouraging people to build the smaller dwellings on their existing land. I mean, that’s, I think any community would rather see that than a big high rise apartment complex or something, you know, it fits in the community a little better. And then, you know, this path with housing and being able to help people own it own a house is amazing. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and really taking ownership of this and finding a solution. I love this. It’s a it’s a great model that can be followed in other areas, as well. So yeah, as we begin to wrap things up here, these chamber the year finalist episodes, I think are special because you guys are top of the game at the moment, right? So for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what can a tip or or action item might you suggest for them to employ to try to accomplish that goal?

Katy Brooks 27:38
Be willing to take risks, have a have a board? That is you bring along, work with your board? And identify, ask the hard questions identify what the issues are, that’s preventing folks from growing or the opportunities that would help businesses grow, and go for the ones that are gnarly and tough to do that require convening. And a lot of work to bring partnerships online. That is what we are made to do. And get people on board, do your research and make it happen. Because I think there aren’t very many organizations like chambers, who are built for this. And that’s how we’ve all changed right over the many of us went through COVID. And that changed a lot. But I think it’s much, much bigger than that, over the last 10 plus 20 years, something like that. I think that as businesses change, we have to be the first ones to we have to see it, identify it, predict it and do it.

Brandon Burton 28:46
Yeah. On those gnarly goals. That’s what people can get behind. Right? If it’s just something that’s barely going to move the needle, it’s hard to get get their interest and getting behind it. But yeah, there’s big hairy audacious goals, right, that that’s what people can get behind and and get some ownership in. I love that. So I like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future. And I understand you’re working on the horizons report as well. So you might have some additional insight. But as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see their future and purpose going forward?

Katy Brooks 29:22
So I think chambers are the leading edge. I think that we have an intrinsic design of who we are, to convene, to go beyond partisanship, to ask the harder deeper questions and take things on that don’t have an apparent immediate answer. There aren’t any other types of organizations who can do that in the private sector is a huge responsibility and it’s super fun, by the way. And so I think that is our Our future is asking that what’s 10 year out? Question? If it’s 10 years out, what are the signs? Read it? If you don’t know, ask somebody. That’s the other thing that we do is ask a lot of folks with great expertise. We don’t have to have the answers. We just need to know who to ask. And we have to have the the fortitude to identify things that make sense for us to take on that really requires collective effort, and foresight, and a little bit of risk. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:32
I love that chambers being the leading edge and taking on those things that don’t have an apparent answer. And that is the the DNA of what a chamber is, though. And especially when you think of AI and advancements in technology, like there’s there needs to be that continuing purpose of a chamber. And that’s it right there. I love it. So Katy, you mentioned asking if you don’t know as somebody so I’d like to see for people listening who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn a little bit more about how you guys are doing things, doing things in band, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Katy Brooks 31:11
Well, anybody can give me a buzz but my email address is katy@bendchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 31:22
Easy, we will get that in our show notes for this episode as well to to make it easy to look up and connect with you. But Katy, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast and again, huge congratulations to you and your team being selected. As a finalist. It really is a indicator of the impact you guys are making in your community as as indicated through our discussion today. So you guys are are moving that needle and big. Congratulations to you guys.

Katy Brooks 31:49
Thanks so much. We’re so thrilled.

Brandon Burton 31:52
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Paducah Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Sandra Wilson

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Brandon Burton 0:00
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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 chamber of the year final the series and our guests for this episode is Sandra Wilson. Sandra is the president and CEO of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce. She joined the chamber in 2013 and before that she was a community volunteer she was the first woman to serve as Chairman of the Board for the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce in 1996 and later also as the first woman chair of the greater Paducah Economic Development Board. on a statewide level, she served as chairman of the Kentucky Manufacturers Association and on the board of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and leadership, Kentucky. She is a past board member of ACCE and serves on the local chamber advisory board for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and as chair of the board for the Carson center Performing Arts Center in Paducah. She is the ambassador for Kentucky for the Association of leadership programs. She’s a graduate of Murray State University and leadership Kentucky and leadership Paducah and 2017 that Paducah chamber was named as chamber the year and category two from ACC. They’re also a five star accredited chamber by the US Chamber of Commerce. Sandra holds IMF IOM certification from the US Chamber of Commerce that Sandra, it’s great to have you back with us on chamber chat podcast. It’s always good to get past guests back on the show. But first congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a chamber the year finalist again, what an accomplishment. wanted to give you a chance to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Oh

Sandra Wilson 2:53
my goodness, Brandon. Well, thank you so much for hosting us and inviting me to be on the show today. I consider it quite an honor. And we are thrilled to be a finalist in 2024 is chamber of the year in Category Two. And we know who the other chambers are. And we look forward to seeing them at the ACC conference and visiting with them we have in the past about sharing ideas. And I think that’s really what chambers are so good at is doing is sharing ideas of what’s working in each other’s community so we can all be the best that we can possibly be for our community.

Brandon Burton 3:29
Absolutely, yes, that category two really all the categories this year, great chambers, great programs, but I’m looking at category two specifically I know them as well. And it’s a good competition all around. So whoever whoever wins, this is going to earn it for sure.

Sandra Wilson 3:48
Not be in the category with with those other chambers. So we’re thrilled about it. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 3:54
Well tell us a little bit about the Paducah chamber Puducherry chamber and give us some perspective of the size of the chamber staff budget scope of work just to kind of prepare us for our discussion today.

Sandra Wilson 4:06
We are located in Paducah, Kentucky, and it’s in the western part of the state of Kentucky. So it’s kind of a rural area. But we’re located in the city of the rural part of Western Kentucky. And we’re the largest chamber in this area. We’re about 950 members always pushing to get to 1000 staying around that area. We have been at five staff members until the first of June, and the first of June we finally had the opportunity to hire a sixth employee. We during the last couple of years we raised money to launch a leadership center within our chamber of commerce. So we’ve hired a full time Executive Director for that will be staffing that portion of our chamber and he started June 1 So it’s been different having six here. You know you are so excited to be able to grow and add more staff. We are truly the chamber. We, our economic development involvement is we own our building we just bought our building within the last year and the greater paddock economic development is here with us are one of our tenants, we work very closely with them and helping to recruit economic development, but we’re the chamber and we work on behalf of our community, we lead the advocacy efforts for our region. We’re a hub for small business development programs. We’re the convener of people, and we love that part. You know, what we really want to do is just continually work to improve this community. So others that come here and visit it love it as much as we do. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 5:45
absolutely. What a great time to join the chamber though for the new staff member I mean, chamber the year year. Yeah. Great timing. So on these chamber, the or finalist episodes, I’d like to spend the majority of our time discussing the two programs of work that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application. I think there’s a lot there that other chambers listening can learn from and be able to scale and adapt and maybe apply something similar into their communities. So we’ll focus the majority of our time on those programs as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sandra, we are back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re going to focus on the two programs that are submitted on your chamber the your application. If you would please introduce the first program that you’d like to address this today on the show and we’ll we’ll dive into the details of that. As

Sandra Wilson 8:34
a chamber, I think it’s really important that you look at what is going on in your community and what is the most important program or something that you need to take on and tackle. And for us, it it’s been the Department of Energy site here in Paducah for many years. But it took a different perspective in the last year and a half that planet that they announced in 2013, that they were ceasing operations and they would go into in what’s called Legacy environmental management. It was for cleanup of the site, which meant that they were still going to be there for probably 30 to 40 years and the cleanup stage. But it’s it’s it’s different than when it was operating. And it was different for us is the way our community needed to embrace the Department of Energy. So we’ve been in that phase for over 10 years now. And it became apparent to us because we got very involved with the national trade association for communities that have a department of energy side that’s in this phase of cleaning up the energy communities Alliance. We started going to their meetings we started meeting you know, we’ve always been the advocacy organization asking for money, but we for the for the cleanup, but we started looking at what needs to be done out there for the future. We really didn’t have a plan for beyond the cleanup phase, where there’s all He’s an opportunity for development, economic development to continue. So we applied for a grant with the Department of Energy to lead the reindustrialization study for that site to really map out the future. Because there there could be a parallel path for this site, you can have it the cleanup going on that we’re working with. Now, again, on our advocacy side, for the chamber, we are fighting for funding, we have fight for long term contracts, those are the things that we’re representing there. On the second side of it, the parallel path would be looking at how we could get the land that has been dedicated and managed, owned by the department of energy transferred back to our community so that we can begin to do economic development project programs, and overall economic development of that site. So we developed a grant request, and we’re very successful to get that, and we’ll be we’re about a year into it now. And we’ll be, you know, continuing throughout the next six months to a year as well on it. So with that, I have grant request had some major pillars in it, of course, that we have to accomplish. And one of those is identifying and infrastructure needs for the land that would be transferred back to the community. And in step one of that also, you had to, we had to do the official formal request from our community, for the very first parcel of land to be transferred back to the community. So that has been accomplished. And so now we’re looking at what the infrastructures would would need water, roads, all of that, to make that successful economic development. And then we will continue with working on prospects for economic development. We’ve been to national conferences to meet with companies that are interested in locating and an economic in a on a Department of Energy site, a joint adjacent to it or nearby. We’re working on the workforce. And really, we’re looking on the workforce for now and for the future. So that’s part of our grant that is really overlapping from what’s happening now, and going into the future for the next few years. And so those were the main things, those were really a little bit unusual for our chamber, because we’re not the economic development organization for our community. But we work with economic development very closely. And we have worked with the Department of Energy for so many years that we know knew that they have a lot of trust in our chamber, that we have built a relationship with them for the year. So they knew that we would take this very seriously, and that we would make sure it’s done correctly.

Brandon Burton 12:50
So what kinds of things were maybe surprising as you went through the study of trying to revitalize this this land? Was there anything that came to light that you didn’t expect? That has kind of course the direction that you’re going going forward?

Sandra Wilson 13:07
I think that identifying the companies that might be interested to come here has been a very interesting prospect. I mean, that we can’t really, you know, we’ve just put in the land transfer request, that had to be step number one, and then we’ll begin to identify who would be interested in coming here. So there’s a lot of opportunity there. The Department of Energy has a lot of funding available for developing new companies. But there’s just a lot of things that will come to light as we begin to work through this process. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:43
All right. Is there any specific industry or type of business you feel like would be an ideal candidate for what’s on a former Department of Energy? Land?

Sandra Wilson 13:56
There are some that are, you know, Newt, mislaid, nuclear clean energy potential for small modular reactor. I mean, right now we’re identifying those and who would consider coming here, there are a lot of fuel fabrication, a lot of things that are really all new to us, as a as a chamber, that we’ve been able to work with the context that we built through the many years that we’ve been involved with the Department of Energy to know who they may be. Right.

Brandon Burton 14:24
Now, as I think of a chamber of the year finalists, we’re really looking at chambers that are making a big impact on their community. And what you guys are focused on here with this Department of Energy land, this can be a huge impact to the economy in the Paducah area and just a change of atmosphere, if you will, depending on how that goes forward. So that I see it being a huge impact in the community.

Sandra Wilson 14:51
Thank you. I would totally agree. The decisions we are making today and that we are identifying for the future really are Setting our community for the futures for the next 50 years and beyond. Because it’s so critical that we diversify our economy here, we’ve had this Department of Energy site for 60, year of 5060 years, it was a great employer of some of the best jobs in our community they employed, you know, way over 1000, they still do that. But it’s sometimes in the peaks, I’ve been up to 1800 to 2000. And so we became really reliant on that, because we had such a good base. But it’s important that we continue to diversify all of that economy, you know, community, our size is not a huge geographical large county. So that is available land that we need to focus on for economic development for the future. We have said before, when we’re meeting with the Department of Energy, we don’t want to be part of just their history, we want to be a part of their future. And they have a lot of programs available for working with companies that are looking at the future of energy projects. Our state, for example, we had in our advocacy efforts for 2024, with the state priorities was all quite a bit about nuclear energy. And our state has a set aside, established a new nuclear Working Group advisory board that will be run out of the University of Kentucky. And you know, there’s identifying criteria for making a community nuclear ready. Prior to that our community had already identified and adopted resolutions by our city government or county government, our chamber economic development, our community reuse organization, stating that we are a community that’s a nuclear ready. And by that we meant we’ve been in this arena for many years. We understand it, we know it, our workforce knows that we’re ready to go for the next step. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:59
that’s great. I love what you said about, you don’t want to just be a part of the their history but a part of the future as well. So I love being forward thinking like that.

Sandra Wilson 17:11
Girl is also I’ll just say what he’s really put me out in the and a national forefront. I was able to speak at a waste management symposium earlier this year, and was on a panel out there where there were I think 3000 People now wasn’t I didn’t speak to that hopeful 3000, I spoke to a panel on a panel specific about cleanup of the Department of Energy side. But it’s put me in a whole new arena, really talking about that. And I also believe that it is putting a chamber chambers of commerce across the country in a new arena where you can show that you adjust to what your community needs are. And we saw this as a really strong need, we embraced it, we were very intentional on how we would move forward with it. And we are going to deliver the best product that we can for the Ark communities path forward, we call it our roadmap for the community. So that whoever picks it up at the end, knows exactly the next steps for land transfer, who the economic development prospects are and has their contacts and knows what they would want for infrastructure needs, and knows what the workforce would need to be. So we’re preparing our future at the community now.

Brandon Burton 18:24
That’s great. I love it. Love it, love it. Let’s shift gears a little bit into the second program that was submitted on your chamber that your application if you introduce that to us and kind of the the origins and how that’s developed?

Sandra Wilson 18:40
Well, when I talk about economic development, let me just say we say it all the time, it happens one job at a time. It’s great when you have a new company come in and they’re announcing three to 400 500. But you have so many small businesses in Riyadh in reality Chamber of Commerce for us. In located where we are about three fourths of our members are considered small businesses. And they’re reliant on the big employers around them for the customers and the you know, the activity that comes in for them. But they are truly what we would call economic development at its finest. And we have a small business cohort that had we’ve graduated 40 from the program, and we see how they are hiring people. They’re expanding. They’re opening new locations, because of the programs that they have seen that can be successful, how they can develop it and make their own business more successful through what they’ve learned in our small business cohort. We have all kinds of seminars, we have a lot of programs that go on, we get calls every day that how do you do a business plan? How do you get this will central to that was our Small Business Development Center, that chamber How does it how’s that but we have a close relationship in partnership with the Small Business Development Center. The way it is structured in our state is that I have to raise it was it was restricted a little bit where they had to raise the funding locally to keep their program open. When you have somebody that’s supposed to be advising small business owners, I didn’t, we didn’t want them to have to spend their time or decided that the chamber. And we went out in the community and the chamber, first of all, and we went to our economic development, our city or county and our local organizations that benefit from having small business development center in our community. And we were able to raise the money that was needed to keep that program open, and that you’re continuing to be a close partner with us and everything that we do for our small businesses.

Brandon Burton 20:42
So I’m curious and how you went about raising the money? Was it about just getting the the awareness out about what the need was and making strategic assets? or was there some kind of event or fundraiser I had, what was the approach to raising those funds?

Sandra Wilson 20:57
First of all, our Small Business Development Center had a great track record, so they could show the businesses that they had helped, and what it involved with jobs and with economic development, so when you go and talk to a mayor, or a county judge, and you can show them the benefits and the success that they’ve been having, it really helps a lot. And we were able to do that. So it was strategic meetings, and some phone calls. But we did go to a lot of meetings in person. Most all of them were our members, primarily, we did work with an adjoining county that had some support as well. But we that adjoining county is a really close partner with our own county and with our chamber, they’ve been very involved with us through the years. So we had built those relationships. I think everyone that we asked knew that they could trust us as well, that we wouldn’t be behind it if we didn’t know that it was going to be a very successful program. And so that that’s what we did, we mostly, I would say, went one on one with meetings. But it wasn’t an impossible sale, where it was more of an education. And let’s face it, everything at the end comes down to making the ask closing the deal. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:11
So you didn’t do like a mass email and say we’re collecting funds, it was more strategic and gave some intention behind that. So

Sandra Wilson 22:22
we knew that their partners were, we knew who the small businesses that they were helping with we’re working with, we knew that overall, no one wanted to lose this resource that we had in our community. I think that was someone the number one thing that we all agreed on. It was just how do we make sure that we’re doing the steps that we need to and somebody has to take the lead on anything that you’re going to do somebody has to take the lead to make sure that it’s being done, it’s being done in a timely way it’s being reported, and that everything that needs to be done, when you’re looking at raising funds, it was going to the University of Kentucky, that everything that needed to be done was was completed the way it should be. So

Brandon Burton 23:09
the raising of the funds, is that something that needs to be done on an annual basis for the Small Business Development Center? Or is it what what kind of interval was that where they need to come up with the funds to justify staying open, we

Sandra Wilson 23:21
set it up on a two year program. So everyone committed for two years, I believe at the end of those two years, we will not have any trouble continuing with that, because he’s already met his goals for the year right now, you know, and halfway through the year, so he’s got the rest of the year to continue. You know, just to build up on that and expand, the one thing that he probably needed to do was be able to expand into other counties. A lot of his work was being done in our immediate area in Paducah and the immediate surrounding area. But there are other counties in our community that did step in our West Kentucky Regional Chamber Alliance stepped in and made a nice contribution to help with them. And they represent 14 counties in West Kentucky. So it was a really opportunity to allow that this service to be expanded as well. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:11
that’s fantastic. Guys came in as heroes.

Sandra Wilson 24:17
So I mean, in regionalism, and how important it is that if our county is successful, it’s overflowing into other counties. And if our county next door has businesses opening, more than likely, you know, we’re going to benefit from that in some way. And so, really show the strength I think of working together to support something in your region that you know, is vital and is very important. What was

Brandon Burton 24:43
key to me is how you mentioned it was it was all built upon the relationships that you guys have built over the years to be able to go make those asked to make those connections build lean upon the county next door and to be able to make this happen and it is it’s what chambers do is convening and building those relationships and That’s, uh, you guys executed well on that. So great job.

Sandra Wilson 25:06
It was really fun, because it actually put us out in the community back meeting with our own members. But you know, the underlying factor too is we knew we really couldn’t continue our own small business development programs that we have, if we didn’t have that resource. It was critical for us to have that. So it was a great investment. Right? And resources.

Brandon Burton 25:29
Yes, yeah. So I like asking, especially as we have you on as a chamber, the year finalist for chambers that are out there listening, what kind of tip or action item might you share for a listener who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level?

Sandra Wilson 25:46
There are a lot of resources out there that are very beneficial. And I think you have to look at your own region to see how what what’s needed the most. And then you can rely on for us, we rely on our State Chamber, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce a lot. I mean, we work very closely with them, we rely on the US Chamber of Commerce and rely on them. And as a chamber executive, we rely on the association of Chamber of Commerce executives, there are great resources available, that if you just will take the time, that and I’m just gonna say that’s probably some of the hardest thing. That’s the hardest that you have to find. Because as a chamber, executive, chamber staff person, you’re managing a lot of different tasks, no day is ever the same. No crisis is ever the same. No, celebration is ever the same. And so you have to really be always looking to see what someone else is doing. And then the chamber rolled, you know, I think we call it r&d, the RIP and duplicate, and you make it your own. And we do that, and we’re honored when another chamber does that from something that we’re doing, if they can, if we can help them to be more successful. That’s awesome. Because that’s helping more communities to be successful, more Chambers of Commerce. So identify what’s needed in your community, look around and see how you what would be the best organization for you to align yourself with on any particular issue. And it’s going to vary from issue to issue.

Brandon Burton 27:21
I love that fact, as I introduce what chamber chat podcast is all about to chamber professionals, I’ll use the tagline that it’s your weekly r&d resource, right? So every week, you get new ideas that you can rip off and duplicate. So I love that learning from others. As we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Sandra Wilson 27:47
I’m gonna go back to the fact that I think you have to identify what’s important in your community, because we’re all different. We all have different challenges and different opportunities, and identify what is going to help your community and I didn’t make a determination if that’s something your chamber should be the lead on, should maybe be the second play the second roll in and pushing, sometimes you just have to push, who maybe it’s a different organization, or maybe it’s the government that should be in the lead, and you’re the one pushing them to help them better understand that there are times that you’re going to need to be in the lead and look to others to help you with that. But you’re going to have to stay relevant in your own community.

Brandon Burton 28:32
I like that trying to figure out what your role should be and what your community needs. I think a lot of chambers just jumped to the conclusion oh, we need to be the lead. And like he said, oftentimes be in that second role and helping to push it along and explain why things are important is very helpful. You’re still leading but you don’t have to take that that main charge and carry that that weight that comes with it as well. So great, great piece of advice with that as well. Well, Sandra, before we let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who’d like to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there in Paducah, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you. Okay,

Sandra Wilson 29:11
that’s great. I always appreciate sharing information and I can tell you that I call others all the time to ask for their advice. So you can reach us at PaducahChamber.org And my direct email is swilson@paducahchamber.org. And let me spell Paducah, Pa d u c h Paducah. And wire info if you can’t remember as well send info@PaducahChamber.org. We’ll get you through to ours and we’ll answer you.

Brandon Burton 29:41
That’s perfect. And I’ll get it in our show notes for this episode as well. So somebody can pull that up and find your email and website and all that good stuff. But Sandra, this has been great to have you back on chamber chat podcast and again, big congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a finalist for the great work you guys are doing. Under the Paducah area, and I wish you and your team Best of luck as chamber the year. Thank

Sandra Wilson 30:05
you, Brandon. Thank you for all you do for the chamber profession. We really do appreciate it. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 30:10
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Newnan-Coweta Chamber-2024 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Candace Boothby

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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.

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You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2024 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series and our guests for this episode is Candace Boothby. Candace is the President and CEO of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber in Georgia. It’s a position she’s held for almost 21 years. She is a certified chamber executive, the top professional certification nationally and only one of two CCEs in Georgia. Candace is known for high energy and innovative approach to organizational management traits which assist her in developing many successful initiatives. Her ongoing commitment to excellence resulted in the Newnan-Coweta Chamber receiving the coveted Five Star accreditation from the US Chamber of Commerce and maintaining it for the past 16 years, placing it in the top 1% of chambers nationwide. In 2015. Through her leadership, the Newnan-Coweta Chamber was named the National Chamber of the Year the first chamber in Georgia to receive this designation. Professionally, Candace received her accreditation and public relations in 2002. Graduated from with her IOM in 2005 received her Georgia certified chamber executive recognition in 2007. And in 2013 obtained her CCE designation. She has served on numerous community and professional boards throughout her career including the chair of the Georgia Association Chamber of Commerce in 2013 to 2014 and two terms on the ACCE Board of Directors where she also has chaired the Chamber of the Year program and currently chairs and currently chairs the Fringe Benefits Inc board. In 2021. She was named the Legacy Award recipient by her Georgia peers.

A Texas native Candace. His career spans 37 years 35 of them in Georgia after graduating from Baylor in Waco, Texas. With her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism, she got her start in chamber work at the Greater Killeen Chamber in Texas. She brightened her background by working for a State Technical College at a Baptist Hospital, a large metro Atlantic public school system and community not for profit. Before coming to the Newnan-Coweta Chamber in September 2003, which became the third chamber she served.

Candace, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. Congratulations to you and your team for being selected as a Chamber of the Year Finalist again, this is very exciting, but wanted to give you a chance to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and to have you shared something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Candace Boothby 3:59
Well, it’s great to be here. Thank you and I were sharing earlier, this is my second time to visit with you. And I want to just give a shout out to everybody out there and chamber world. We all know how much we love what we do. And I think that reflection of that is when you do get moments in time opportunities like this. But like you said, I’ve been in my current community 21 years in September. I love what I do as much as I did the very first moment I started in the chamber industry. We all know there are ups and downs that it gets in your blood, and it just doesn’t go away. So we do have an organization we’re about 740 Plus members give or take whatever day of the week. It is our budgets a little over a million dollars. We are located about 25-30 minutes south of Hartsfield Jackson airport. So I like to say I’m, we’re close enough to the gravitational pull of Atlanta to take advantage of all their benefits. But we have a sense of place and a sense of community that’s uniquely ours. So I am proud to be where I am today talking with you. And something interesting. I think you said Brandon about me. Okay, so I’m native Texan San Antonio was my home. I have family in Waco and Macedonia has and variety of places and the only family member to have left. The one day I just happened to be I went down a rabbit hole, following a chamber member who was on a genealogy trip. And I thought, Well, why don’t I just click on My great grandmother whose name was gravestone, Spearman, and I knew that she had connections to Georgia. And she married a man from Louisiana, and they settled in East Texas, Pittsburgh, if anybody knows where that is. And so I did. I googled her. And I recognized my grandmother and all her brothers and sisters on that page was very detailed, was clearly my family. And so I thought, well, let me click on her mother. And I did and I discovered that my great great grandmother was born right here in 1845. And can’t wait Academy. Which What are the odds? Right, so then I clicked on her parents. And I discovered that her father is buried in our historical cemetery across the street from the chamber. That’s like my great, great, great grandfather. So here I am, native Texan, moved to Georgia, when I was 22 ended up in this community and the pleasure of being able to serve here for so many years, discovering that I’m from here, originally. So it’s kind of like one of those moments, I got all excited, because I’m like, what, how many generations is that, and, you know, you have a lot of communities depending on where they are in their lifecycle that might have a lot of history. And you have to be born here, or your grandfather has to be born here, you know, for you to be actually considered from that community. Right? Yeah. And so when I did my math, I called up one of my board members who I knew was one of the older families in town. I think he was eight, eight and a half generations, something like that. And I use 20 generations as my litmus. So I did my math. I called him up. And I said, Hey, Garnett, how many generations are you? And he told me and I said, Well, I told him what store and I said, well, guess what? I win.

Then I told my board chair at the time, and he said, Oh, you’re a homing pigeon. So I feel like that’s why I’ve always felt an affinity for Noonan and Kavita County. It’s been my blood. And they’re no joking, right? Literally.

Brandon Burton 8:01
Yeah, I’m assuming the chamber office as long as you’re there, it can never move because that gravitational pole to that historical cemetery across the street.

Candace Boothby 8:10
Thank you. Yes. There’s a lot of gravitational poles going on.

Brandon Burton 8:13
That’s right. That’s right. Now that’s awesome. How do you guys say, sounds like great chamber, obviously being selected as a chamber, the year finalist again, after winning back in 2015. And that speaks a lot to your chamber and to the the repetitive nature of being able to be selected and to be able to rise to the top of the ranks among chambers again, so great job to you guys. And I’m excited to dive into this episode with you and really spend time talking about the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the year application, and we’ll dive into those as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Candace, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’ll spend most of our time today talking about the two programs on your chamber, the your application, if you would like to introduce the first program to us, and we will dive into that and kind of the origins and how that became something of interest for you guys to take on. And we’ll explore that topic, but please introduce it.

Candace Boothby 11:05
Okay. So the first program is the Forward Coweta Summit. Originally, we were calling it the growth summit that, you know, that has different connotations, so we just called it the Forward Coweta Summit. The purpose of this program is really just to educate the citizens create civic engagement and conversation around key topics. So we are a very fast growing community. We’re fortunate in the sense that our governments have made really good decisions over the years. So our growth has not outpaced us. But we’re kind of at that tipping point. And so we also have such a younger generation, it’s important that we bring them into the dialogue in the conversation. So we have actually used the forward can we to summit as a platform to really strategically engage a younger audience. We’ve got several tools that we’ve put into place as a result of that. We started big picture the first year, which was last year. And it brought in some really cool speakers throughout the metropolitan Atlanta area, just to talk about what they’re doing in their community, how they managed growth, what they did in certain areas, how do you create the sustain of vision, this year, we’re actually narrowing it just a little bit. And we are going to focus a little bit more on talent retention and recruitment, in addition to quality of life. So we had great participation, we a lot of strategies on the front end, where we went out and did one on one conversations with each of our elected officials in Jena to personally invite them to be there that day, we had great success doing that. Then we sent out a calendar invite, gosh, probably five, six months in advance. And then as we got closer, we we actually had hired a company to do our marketing. And so we did a very aggressive marketing campaign. Leading up to that day, we had about 300 that participated. And it was the right people to be in the room, which was our, our goal, because we wanted all the key stakeholders in the community, you know, and again, when you do something new like this, people are thinking, what are they doing? Why are they doing it? What’s the purpose, but we have done an Inner Inner community visit right before COVID, which was our first and so kind of dipping our toe into putting that conversation table together, if you will, around future issues. So it’s all a part of a bigger strategy, because if you look at our mission, it’s all about championing economic prosperity. And so this, we don’t do anything that’s not aligned with our mission. And we certainly get asked a lot by different people to do a variety of things, as most chambers do. That this one is probably one of my favorite programs, because it does bring all the right people together to the table to hear the information that you want to want them to hear to start the dialogue. And so this year, we did put a group of young next gen leaders to help they introduced the speakers last year and and have been a part of the process just giving feedback. And so now when this year is over, we’re going to start putting some We haven’t decided what we’re going to call a bit probably a little I don’t know conversation groups to break down some of the topics. And probably one of our biggest goals, outcomes that we’re looking for long term is more private investments. So we have a lot of investment by our government. And it’s fantastic. But we know that in order to really, I guess implement a bigger greater vision, it’s going to require more private invest MIT. So that’s, that’s kind of where we’re headed with all the conversation.

Brandon Burton 15:06
I love that I love having those goals to work forward in the picture of what you want next year to look like. And the idea of being able to bake in some other key factors to how a chamber operates. Like you mentioned, how can the next gen leaders introduce speakers and getting them involved and feel like they have a place in the community and with the chamber? In particular, I love that. You mentioned having the marketing company kind of create the campaign and get 300 participants and being the right people and says you’re considering the stakeholders that you wanted to be there? What did that look like? Who all did you want in the room? And then how did the marketing go out? Or is it open to the community? And at at large? Or was it targeted towards certain demographics of some sort? Or how did how was that planned out and thought through. So

Candace Boothby 15:57
it was open to the community at large, although we didn’t target the community at large. It was certainly open. Our number one stakeholder was our county commission and our city council, starting with the mayor and the county commission, Chairperson, because that’s, that’s where the rubber meets the road. And those are our most important community partners. So that’s where we started. And then we sort of backed our way into meeting with several of the county commissioners, the city council members, and we sort of backed our way into less formally, making sure that we had representation from our school board, from some of our smaller municipalities. And then we turned our attention to some of the larger industries. So we have a lot of internal groups within the chamber. So of course, while we’re doing a lot of the personal outreach, all of our target groups within the chamber as well as our members at large, they were the recipient, the target groups received the calendar invite. And then the bigger broader audience received the Save the date postcard, which came out five months in advance, and then the targeted emails. And then I think our social media campaign kicked in the event was the end of August, though it kicked in. Gosh, I can’t remember I want to say it was the mid to latter part of July. So it’s the last Wednesday in October, so you weren’t planning for this year. And in looking at last year’s timing, we’ve readjusted this year schedule just a little bit. So the calendar invites went out earlier, the Save the date cards are actually going out today. And the social media campaign will kick in mid July, and we haven’t heavily started promoting that will kick in the week after July 4. And, and then from that moment forward, we’ll be having conversations with people. And there is another group that I failed to mention, we did a survey during the events and before the event and after the event. And there were 50 people that that indicated they would like to be involved in this process. So while we’ve communicated with them, we haven’t done anything formal. So when this timeframe rolls around two to three weeks prior to that we’re going to connect with that group, and give them an assignment during the conference or during the summit, to listen for certain things. So that afterwards, we can get them together and do a larger debriefing than what we did last year with just our smaller next gen group.

Brandon Burton 18:42
Wow, I really liked that idea of being able to. So how was that question phrased on the survey then to because they can see, you know, do you want to get involved that can mean a whole lot of different things about what involvement might look like in a summit like this,

Candace Boothby 18:57
that haven’t looked at it in a while. But if I remember, I think it was something like this more gauging their interest in the topic and the conversation and desire to be engaged in conversation moving forward about where we’re growing as a community. So it was rather broad. But the fact that we have that many people that actually said, Yes, I was a little surprised, because that’s your built in audience right there.

Brandon Burton 19:24
It is. I imagine if you if you needed somebody you could pull from that group for one of the conversation groups that you’re talking about doing or something that you have a pool of people that are willing and want to be more involved. So I love that idea.

Candace Boothby 19:38
Thank you.

Brandon Burton 19:39
Yeah. Well, let’s shift gears a little bit to the other program on your chamber. The your application was called go digital. That Correct? That’s it. Tell us what that’s about and kind of the origins and how that’s been developed?

Candace Boothby 19:54
said go digital. We were very fortunate. Our county administer Strader approached me, I lose track of time, sometime you’re in a year ago, you’re gonna have to go about the ARPA funds into the American rescue plan funds. And he said that they were going to earmark just shy of a million dollars for the chamber. But we had to submit the traditional grant, which we did. And then we received two grants. One was for a talent development program. And the other one was for good digital. And I think we had about 400,000 applied to the go digital program. So I love this program. Because what it’s done, we were able to identify, during COVID, there were a lot of our small businesses, because they did not have an online e commerce presence, they were not able to, to really be as successful as they could have been otherwise. So we targeted companies who needed help with their digital assets, specifically, but not exclusively, online, e commerce. So we have a fantastic volunteer, he used to be our board chair, he’s retired senior VP of Finance for Yamaha just does a lot of great stuff with us. So he has been the project leader since the beginning. And he put together a group of digital asset providers, so member companies, and actually, I guess they were all members, we get a little loose about that, like, for instance, on the grant side, you did not have to be a chamber member to receive a grant. And we want to help all companies. And if it’s an opportunity for us, then to expose the chamber to somebody maybe and then turn them into a member. That’s, that’s great, that he pulled together a group of probably eight providers that worked on, you know, developing websites, and social media campaigns and all the things video that you would consider part of the digital assets. So they created the criteria. And they created everything, all the requirements. So there were requirements were the company that applied had to go through training. They only got a percentage of the money on the front end. And they had to complete the project before they received the remaining money. And so we were able to help. And the grants ranged from 2500. To just shy of 20,000, I believe, we were able to help a little over 60 companies believe we’ve given up most of the money we saw, we were able to get just a little bit more transferred over from our other grants into digital aid. So we can do a bit more this year. One of our providers, I thought did something quite clever. So we do a total resource campaign in the fall. One of our products is called other chambers do this as well try it Tuesday, and where we Wednesday, where you go out and you film them. And you see you try that you film them with trying something or show us what you’re doing depending on which day you purchased. And then we put those videos out on social media, we have a page on our chamber website, we promote them to our members. So one of these providers used some of her grant money for her clients to purchase them. These videos, which helped us out I didn’t know she was doing it until much later on. I thought this is brilliant. So when you look at our schedule for the trial to see where we Wednesdays throughout the year, probably of the 24 I’m going to say that at least 12 Or her clients. Wow. And so it’s enabled them to be able to get video for their websites at a very, very well. They didn’t pay for it because it came with a grant. And then we partnered with one of our providers. And he does all of our video for us. So it gives it a little bit more of a professional look. That’s been a great program. It’s it’s, we did a cover story on the program in our Thrive publication back in March. And there’s this big photo of all lay they weren’t all there. But most of the grant recipients are sitting on the wall in front of the courthouse and standing and the courthouse is right there in the background. And they’re waving at the camera. And then on the inside was a wonderful story about some of the outcomes. Some of the companies who talked about just having access to this grant and implementing it how much it’s helped their company grow. So that’s the stories that we tell now is the success stories. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:51
I love that. And that gives you a ton of content to tell stories over and over and impact the Chamber’s making it

Candace Boothby 24:59
I have to tell you a sidebar though. Have you seen that cover that magazine?

Brandon Burton 25:03
I have not? No. It’s on our website. Yeah. So that’s me, and I’ll put it in our show notes for this episode too. So people, when

Candace Boothby 25:11
you look at it, it’s the most beautiful blue sky and the most beautiful cherry tree and full bloom. So when we took that photo, it was February. And the tree had no leaves, the grass was ground. And it was it was kind of a gray day. And so I sent it there is a company that we occasionally use in St. Simons called 365 degrees marketing, they do such an amazing work with photos. And they, they’re the ones that created our logo and brand 15 years ago. So I sent him this photo, and I said, this is gonna go on the cover of thrive, and I need it to have your colors featured. So they and I said, I just need a few leaves on the tree and, you know, give the sky you’re pretty blue. Will they sent it back. And the tree was it didn’t just have leaves, it was a cherry tree and full blue. And the sky was this beautiful shade of cobalt blue. And the court has got a lovely new roof. The grass was green, I stare at that cover and pay cash. That’s the prettiest picture ever.

Brandon Burton 26:19
That’s great. That’s a way to sell the community. Right? Your dress? Yeah, that’s awesome. No, it’s so important for businesses to be able to have their online presence to be able to have their ecommerce sites if they’re a retail store, you know, have products that they sell in a brick and mortar, to be able to sell them as out the back door, as we say. And I forget what the stats are. But the percentage of sales that go online versus brick and mortar is it can be, you know, double or triple within store sales are if they’re set up in the right way. And the community is

Candace Boothby 26:57
huge. Yeah, well, here’s one example. So downtown in the square, the Noonan square, there’s this chocolate shop, that it’s it’s let them eat toffee. And they had no website. So when COVID hit, give a love their chocolate, and so they were calling them, you know, and that’s a bit of a challenge. So they were one of the first ones to sign up to be a part of this program. And it has made a world of difference in their ability to expand their customer base.

Brandon Burton 27:28
I bet. So with how the funds from the grant were set up, was there anything that goes into training on how to make that conversion from vo to be able to sell online? Because that’s it’s different right than doing business, just bringing someone up at the cash register versus having the logistics to be able to pull the product and package and ship and assuming that’s the type of business that they are and where they’re shipping material. But how do those that you talked about the eight, the eight providers? Did they provide some of that training and get them up and going with that the grant

Candace Boothby 28:06
there? Yes, there was required training before they applied for the grant. Okay, so as far as drilling down that deeply into onto the E commerce side, I’d have to ask Phil, that question. But I know that there was a needs assessment that was done. And when specifically like the websites were created. So here’s a great example, there’s a travel agency that didn’t have a great online presence. And so when they were done, they had not just the online presence, but the tools to take it to the next level. So I think it was probably a case by case basis, once they went through the first training based on what their needs were.

Brandon Burton 28:53
Yeah, I can see that. That’s such a great idea to be able to, to kind of tag some of those ARPA funds for this type of work to be able to get businesses online and, and like I said before, it makes such a huge impact into the community and for those businesses and they have families and they’re earning a living and all these things just helps perpetuate that throughout your community.

Candace Boothby 29:18
I will tell you this, I think one of the things, least for me, and other people that I talked to, that they’ve enjoyed most about it is for the ones that now have the video that was filmed as a part of either try it Tuesday or Wednesday. That has been eye opening for me because it’s allowed me to be able to go form a different kind of relationship with some of these companies. So there’s a lady that has goats and she makes goat’s milk and she’s got a beautiful storefront in downtown soy. So you know being able to go visit and see her product and when I interviewed her I got to hold the nine day old goat by the name of Daphne A which was kind of cool. And I would never have known about like the dent guy or the junk sweepers. But then to actually be able to sit down with them and drill down, it’s given us another outlet to get to know our members, you know, just a little bit better at a different in a different way.

Brandon Burton 30:18
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think we could go down a whole rabbit rabbit hole of the trade Tuesdays Wednesdays and, and I’m sorry, we don’t have more time, because I know that people listening are like, tell us more about that. Tell us more. But as we start to wrap things up, I do like to ask, especially with you guys being a chamber, the year finalist again, you guys are doing something, right. So for the chambers out there who wants to take their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them and trying to accomplish that goal.

Candace Boothby 30:50
So I’m gonna have to go back to my roots. So I’m a big believer in systems and processes. And I think back to, I don’t know, when I first came in 2003, and we discussed, accreditation, and the board wasn’t convinced they really wanted to do it. And so what we decided we would do is we would look at those categories. And we would spend our time identifying gaps, and then closing the gaps. So we did that for about six years, until finally we decided, gosh, if we’re going to put this much work into it, and you also have programs, if you don’t do them within two years, you really shouldn’t use them with some great programs, we need to go ahead and just put this together. And if we’re going to do it, then we need to make sure that we have everything in place to create a five star because you want the five stars, right? So we did that. And so everything that we shored up and the the gaps that we closed and the work that we did, later, really strong foundation. So my advice, and I think had we not had that foundation, it would not have positioned us then to have the data and the numbers and the programs in place. That allowed us then to not just qualify through the numbers, but then to actually, you know, be able to submit the application and be then chosen as a finalist. We also have and have been blessed with a lot of great, not just board chairs, but board members. So I remember when we interviewed back in 2013, I took one of my former board chairs with me to do the interview. And he was as knowledgeable about the organization almost as knowledgeable as I was, and had been integrally involved in a lot of our initiatives, that speaks highly when you have volunteers who are that immersed in the culture of the organization, that they understand it at the same level. So I guess my advice would be if you have the the systems and the processes, the foundation and the infrastructure, it will sustain you. And you can have a year where you maybe your results aren’t what you typically would have, or you have a rogue board member or you have a toxic staff member or whatever it may be. All those things will happen throughout a career of you know, many years. But that infrastructure and that stability that you’ve built, and those systems that have seen you through that is what will create the sustainability and allow you to grow to the next level. So I can actually track that to 2007 when I changed our work environment to be a little more entrepreneurial, and less restrictive, more encouraging of working outside, in the outside of the office if you can be more productive, and then our systems and processes and that’s when we started seeing the results. And then from there, you know, like you’ve read with the bio, we’ve been able to achieve the five stars since that first application in 2013, and then be able to qualify and compete, and then win back in 2015. And then be a finalist this year. So that’s my advice. It’s not sexy, but it is foundational, and it’s systems and processes and keep your eye on the ball and alignment would be my other piece of advice. And then use your data to drive your decisions. All of that. You wrap it up in a pretty little ball and put a bow on it. Yeah, like

Brandon Burton 34:41
you say it’s not sexy. But you had also mentioned before you don’t do anything that’s outside of your mission, right so you can have your systems and processes surrounded by your mission. That’s going to put you in the right course.

Candace Boothby 34:53
But we do like the wow factor. So I years ago I had a board member say to me, we have the state ache but where’s the sizzle in the aroma? So we always want to have the sizzle in the room. And the other thing is always be open to change, embrace change, just because you’ve done it, don’t keep doing it. So every year when we start looking at our program of work for the next year, we always push back throughout the year, we’re pushing back, is this still where it needs to be? Do we still need to do it? There have been many programs we’ve sunsetted. And that we have to that we’re reimagining right now to bring back. But I think that keeps it fresh. And that keeps people like me who like a challenge and change and energy that keeps me motivated as well.

Brandon Burton 35:36
Right? Absolutely. Well, Candace, I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward.

Candace Boothby 35:49
So if there are chambers out there that have not read the horizon initiative, I would strongly encourage them to do that. ACC is in the midst of revamping them. But I think all nine of those initiatives are important, I think at the root of it, though, is leadership, there’s one called catalytic leadership. And you can have great communications good technology, you can, you know, be very much aware of what’s happening in the community and what the issues are. But if you don’t have a leadership, that’s going to understand how you embrace that, and how you package it, and how you move it forward, then the rest of this stuff doesn’t really matter. So I think, for chambers to be relevant in the future, there just needs to be a constant attention being paid to building leaders, and it’s harder in today’s world, because people don’t have as much time, the role of leaders in the community is shifting a bit. And, you know, so you have to sometimes redefine who the leaders are, that the leader at the Chamber is the one that has to help keep the eye on the ball and keep that out, or in the forefront. And making sure that new leaders are being identified and brought in and put at the table. And, you know, it can be exhausting. But without the catalytic leadership mindset, you’re not really going to be able to, you know, engage the public or, you know, be aware of what’s happening internationally and be able to be successful in aligning your chamber with that. It takes leaders with ideas, and motivation and courage to be able to do those kinds of things. So that’s my little advice for the future. Love

Brandon Burton 37:39
it, and so much wisdom in that. Candace, is there any contact information you’d like to share for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about what setting you guys apart as a chamber, the year finalist? Sure, and

Candace Boothby 37:54
I’m always happy to share. I’ll share whatever resources we have happy to talk. So you can reach me at the NewnanCowetaChamber.org and my email is very simple. It’s just candace@newnancowetachamber.org.

Brandon Burton 38:10
That’s perfect. We will get that in our show notes for this episode, as well as a picture of the cover of your beautiful magazine and downtown square and courthouse for everybody to pull up and check out but Candace this has been great having you back on Chamber Chat Podcast. I wish you and your team best of luck in Dallas as chamber the year.

Candace Boothby 38:30
Thank you. It’s always a delight to see you and I guess we’ll see you there. Right. Absolutely. Okay. Well, thanks very much for having me. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 38:39
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Strategic Planning Pitfalls with Carol Hamilton

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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.

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 Carol Hamilton. Carol is principal of grace social selector consulting, LLC, and host of mission impact podcast. Carol helps organizations and teams become more strategic and innovative or greater mission impact. She facilitates strategic planning, mapping an organization’s impact and organizational assessments for nonprofits and associations. Carol, 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 who are out there listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well,

Carol Hamilton 2:42
thank you, Brandon, thank you for having me on the podcast. It’s an honor. Yeah, I so my name is Carol Hamilton, gray social sector consulting. And I, I was trying to think about, you know, what, what interesting thing could I share, but I think one that informs the work that I do is that I am the younger sister of a person, my brother has significant disabilities, he’s autistic and profoundly deaf and developmentally disabled and growing up with him, you know, as as, as my older brother, I definitely saw the way in which the world was not built for someone like him. And so for me, when I’m doing my work, I’m always trying to contribute my small part, to really building a world where everyone can thrive where there really no exceptions to that. And so that’s that kind of what is what motivated me to, you know, come into the to the nonprofit sector and want to be part of movements and groups and organizations that are really trying to help build a world where everyone can thrive.

Brandon Burton 3:52
Yeah, I like that it’s nice to to have that that driver you know, behind you that that background that really motivates you to you know, for greater good. So, I think that I imagined that will come into our conversation today and inclusion aspects as a topic today. But based upon your work and the kind of the focus that we wanted to take our conversation today on the podcast is going to be focused around common strategic planning mistakes. So I’m sure you have some examples and things that you can share with us from your experience and meeting with different organizations and going about strategic planning and I’m excited to dive in deeper and learn from these experiences as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Carol, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about strategic planning mistakes. So for chambers that are tuning in, creating a strategic plan is a integral part of their organization being able to know their mission and purpose going forward. And as they go about creating strategic plans, what are some of these key things that you see that stand out that organizations maybe ought to be aware of? And some of these mistakes, etc, that maybe we can help these chambers avoid some of these pitfalls? By sharing some of your experiences? Yeah,

Carol Hamilton 7:13
yeah, I think pitfalls are probably is a good way to put it. Because certainly nobody goes into the process trying to, you know, have it not be productive and effective for the organization. But I think one of them, and I’ll be a little, I don’t know, whether controversial or contrarian here is that the common wisdom around boards and staff, and I’m sure that there are many of your listeners who are probably maybe on the volunteer side of local chambers, but where they do have staff, it’s been seen that the board, or traditionally been held that the board is the one who’s in charge of strategy. And I, you know, that’s certainly an important role for the board. But I like to take a whole organization approach where really every brain, every part of the brain, both that analytical side, and all the complexities that people bring, all of them are important to the organization’s future, and kind of opening up the conversation, to include more people into how you structure and frame up your vision and will really serve the organization well to help have people be motivated and more motivated to be behind. Whatever you ultimately as a group decide are your big, big goals, the big vision that you’re moving forward. So I would invite leaders to, you know, bring and bring more of a kind of big tent approach so that when a lot of people talk a lot about buy in, and then you know, if they do it with a small group, and then bring the plan to other people and wonder why they’re not excited about it. I would say get the people in the room with you, they’ll get excited about it. Because they’ve been they’ve had a hand in creating that vision. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 9:05
and I think that’s such an important part of creating a vision is getting buy in from as many people as possible and being able to feel like they had a voice and creating that plan. So as it’s unveiled and in you get rubber to the road, you get more people that are willing to participate and help move that mission forward. I like how you, you mentioned how typically, you might see how a board that might be a pitfall, right, where if it’s just the board sitting in a room creating a strategic plan. Maybe they’re missing insights from others in the community. So when you talk about getting more people involved, if you are looking at a chamber of commerce, what examples might you give of other types of people or organizations or what where would you look to to get more involvement in creating that strategic plan? And or chamber. Yeah,

Carol Hamilton 10:01
and I think when I say that it doesn’t mean that everybody is ultimately at, you know, the the planning session or the retreat, it’s that you’ve taken the time to get feedback from a variety of stakeholders, you’ve identified who those stakeholders are, who are important to, you know, moving the vision of your organization forward. You know, the people who are you’re very involved volunteers, your staff, your members, but then wider than that people in the community that you have partners with other other organizations that you have alliances with, the people that you serve, all of those folks will be important, they won’t necessarily all end up in the room making the decisions about the organization, but taking that time to talk to people and get feedback. And oftentimes, that’s where an external party consultant can help out because folks will be more willing to kind of share candidly, with someone who doesn’t have a stake in the outcome. You know, in terms of that, that feedback and input, and will also help to synthesize all that information, because it’s a, it’s a big lift to talk to a lot of people, and then you’ve got so much information, it can feel overwhelming, but how do you sift it down to some of the important nuggets, that then you as a as a smaller group of board, and staff can really chew on and say, Okay, this is what we’re hearing from people, this is what we’ve set ourselves about what we want. And this is a, this is what, you know, this, this is the significance that has for us in our future going forward. And oftentimes, I find that, again, that kind of fear of that big tent is that folks will be overwhelmed by the number of opinions, ideas, all the different things. And in terms of when I’m talking, when I’ve done this work with groups, I’ve actually found that they’ve been surprised by how much agreement there actually is. And pleasantly surprised. And it often will bring issues onto the table that maybe they were thinking and they talked to somebody in the hallway, but you know, after the board meeting, but they they weren’t weren’t willing to bring up in the in the formal session, and so that this process can give, make it safer to have those conversations about critical issues.

Brandon Burton 12:33
I like the point that you make about bringing in a consultant for that specific purpose, because I think there’s a lot of value in bringing in somebody from the outside. I’ve seen myself in that role it were a, I’ll joke about being the bartender, you know, we’re the members, the members of the organization, they’ll tell you all their gripes and all the things you know, that they see wrong with the organization, and the things that they like, and the things that they’re excited about. Sure, exactly. But things that they may not be as open to just telling the chamber directly or to get the face of the chamber executive and say, I disagree with this or that or so having a third party come in, there’s a lot of value to be able to flesh out that real, meaningful data, that information that you can get from people that you wouldn’t get just having your normal day to day conversations. And I think for a chamber staff to be able to try to collect all this feedback, on top of doing their day to day job, it’s a big lift to try to do that and make sense of all the information they’re bringing in. So having a consultant somebody who’s focused on that, and being able to go through with all that information means and present it in a way that makes sense. And you can look at a report and kind of go over and say, Okay, it’s good feedback. So in soliciting that feedback, you’d mentioned talking to individuals. So I imagine there can be an interview portion of soliciting feedback, talking to some of those key stakeholders, surveys, what what are some of the ideal ways you see in soliciting that feedback that have been effective from your experience?

Carol Hamilton 14:24
Yeah, so it’s going to depend on each organization and, and the scope and the scale and, you know, their capacity, the budget, all those things, but generally, it’s a combination of interviews, one on one interviews, focus groups with, you know, groups of people up to eight to 10, and then surveys, and so, some combination of those will will, you know, enable you to really get into what people perceive as the strengths, the challenges, the opportunities, and all the things that are important for the Future of the organization. And I think another mistake that organizations make is thinking that strategic planning is just about about having a retreat. And so for me that that date, that kind of listening tour that you can go on, is a really important fundamental piece to get that good snapshot of where are you at this moment? Where is the organization right now? You know, what are people are saying, across the board? Are challenges and things that are getting in the way? And then what are the strengths that everyone’s seeing and the opportunities? So really being grounded in that kind of what’s our current reality? Right.

Brandon Burton 15:39
And before that retreat happens, you need to have good accurate data to go off of exactly decisions. Right. Exactly. There’s the planning before the retreat that that takes place. Yeah. So

Carol Hamilton 15:51
that’s, that’s part of that data gathering process. Yeah. So

Brandon Burton 15:55
as I’m thinking of these interviews, I think my first thought goes to with the chamber to go to the members of the chamber to get feedback from them, I think it may be important to even solicit others in the business community who are not members to find out what what do they see the role of the chamber being? Why are they not members? You know, they have they been members in the past? What can we get from that experience? But also, committees, right? So there’s different committees within organizations and getting their feedback on their role? And how they see that being a part of the greater organization? And how can things maybe be more efficient? And I don’t know, I’m just trying to think of all the different sources to gather data from to be able to create a rock solid strategic plan. Are there other areas that you would think have to go to for to gather that information?

Carol Hamilton 16:57
Yeah, I mean, you know, usually, I’m working with the organization and a set of small, smaller set of folks from the organization, usually a combination of, you know, staff leadership and board, to really identify who all those important stakeholders are. So the organization will know, you know, who’s really important for us to talk to, and so we’ll work together to come up with that list of okay, who are we going to kind of reserve that one on one interaction with who are we going to invite to more of a group experience? Who are we going to reach out to via a survey? So really thinking through those those important points of you know, who, who most matters to the future of the organization? And also, what do we want to learn from them? You know, what are the big issues that we see that we’re curious about, that we also we kind of know, our perspective on, but how, you know, is that in alignment with how other people are seeing it? So kind of getting that cross check of, you know, is how we’re seeing the things aligning up with everybody else? And, and where’s their agreement? And where’s their, you know, some some divergence of opinion. I

Brandon Burton 18:07
like that. And you said, Something stood out to me, you said, what do we want to learn from them? And that should be the basis of all these interactions? Right? Right, what do we want right from them. And that takes me back to the thought of inclusion when you shared the tidbit about your brother and kind of that lens that it gives you in looking at your work? How do you go about inclusion, and specifically getting these opinions of voices that may not be heard, as regularly as they probably should be?

Carol Hamilton 18:42
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s important to think about, you know, as you’re making those decisions about who you’re going to prioritize, to interview and do focus groups, and surveys is really the power dynamics within organization of, are you only favoring people who already have the most power and already have the most voice and already have the most influence with the people that you you talk to one on one? Or are you doing more of a cross section or of the organization so that you get that rich feedback from a variety of people. So it’s it thinking about it in those terms that will help help define and really put inclusion at the at the center. As an organization, if you want to grow, you know, being able to see the wider net is going to be important. So,

Brandon Burton 19:39
yeah, so we’ve talked a lot about gathering that information, the data, and then the retreats is usually what people think about when you think of a strategic plan. So let’s focus a little bit more on the actual implementation of the plan. What how should that look? What are some of those pitfalls that you’ve seen that people need to be aware of to avoid as they go about implementing their strategic plan?

Carol Hamilton 20:07
So before we jump to the implementation, there’s one thing I wanted to say about the retreat, which I think is also another pitfall that people can fall into. And it’s kind of the, I think it’s the thing that leaders fear when they bring a lot of people in. So they fear a retreat that ends with just flip chart after flip chart, after flip chart, have nice ideas. And they haven’t taken the time to talk together. And I actually asked people to do this at the very beginning, before they start brainstorming ideas of how are we going to decide what we’re actually going to do, because you can never do it all. And you can’t do all the good ideas, you know, so you need a way to discern which ones are going to be the ones that you focus on. And so having that conversation upfront of how are we going to make some decisions, and then ensuring that somewhere in the process, you are making some decisions and discernment is so important. Because otherwise you end up with this laundry list plan that isn’t really a plan. It’s just a wish list. And so if you end up with a wish list plan that that gets in the way of implementation. But yeah, I think that’s that’s another key point that being clear with everybody all along the way that you’re going to have to focus on a couple things, you’re going to have to make some decisions. And if you can be clear with everybody, okay, these are the things that we’re looking for, you know, we’re looking for things that are going to grow revenue, we think we’re looking for things that are going to increase member satisfaction that are that are going to, you know, improve our reputation are going to, you know, contribute in some way to community health, whatever it might be. You’ve, you’ve agreed ahead of time, what those criteria are, that they it all aligns with our mission. So that then when you have that long list, you can go through and actually make some decisions.

Brandon Burton 22:12
Yeah, no, that makes that makes a lot of sense. I know. A lot of times, people and even other organizations will come to the chamber and say, here’s a great idea of something that you should do, right? And then it becomes that wish list of others. So I can see where you can have those turns ended up being a long wish list. Yeah, it’d be great if we could do this and that, but when it comes down to it, you need to have the resources to be able to execute and be able to do it well, right? You don’t want to just take something on and then have it be lackluster, and have it end up being a bad representation of your organization because you’re not doing it well. So yeah, moving beyond that wish list and having a solid plan is is huge. That’s important.

Carol Hamilton 23:03
Yeah, so and that list of criteria that you come up with can be great in that instance, of all the different people coming and saying, Well, you should do this. Well, we can run it through this kind of rubric decision making flowchart, if you will, and decide whether it actually fits, you know, fits our goals or not. But I think in terms of moving from, okay, we’ve got a plan, you know, it’s got three to five big goals, no more than that. We’ve identified, what are some of the action steps that we’re going to take, we’ve really gotten clear and gotten shared understanding about what does success look like for each of those. So oftentimes, I’ll see plans that have that big goal, have a couple action steps, but don’t necessarily go that next step of saying, Okay, if we take this action, what do we expect is going to happen? What do we think that’s going to look like that in the way so that we can know whether we’ve had the success. So this is where you get, you know, your your performance indicators, whether that’s some of them will be, you know, quantitative, but some of them may be qualitative, some of them may be, you know, we decided we’re going to take a new approach in membership. And we’re going to work with somebody to come up with a plan around that. And so, you know, the first success item is going to be we, we have a plan. So there’ll be a variety of different things. So with that, then thinking about okay, so this is a plan over three to five years. How do we actually what are we actually going to do in the next six months, just focus on that and not try to predict what you’re doing in year three, I see a lot of people getting caught up in wasting time, trying to nail down every detail over the five year three, three to five year period. And I say just take that for next six months, that next year. And that’s where you do your implementation plan of who’s going to do what by when? I

Brandon Burton 24:56
like that. It’s hard sometimes to Do you get caught up in the big vision, the big plan and you forget that it’s the day to day actions that execute on that five year plan. So as you talk about these performance indicators, it’s probably good to review what those performance indicators are in some sort of a regular interval. Do you have any suggestions on how how often to look bad like, because you can also get caught up on the data and continually look at it and not move the needle or feel like you’re moving the needle? So what’s a? And there’s probably not a straight answer for it. But what would be your guideline to being able to check those performance indicators and see, you know, how things are trending?

Carol Hamilton 25:42
Yeah, so so the two step for me of really making a plan, integrating it into your into how you do your work, is creating that that shorter term implementation plan, but then also coming to agreement about, okay, so we’re going to check in on this at this meeting. Every you know, quarter, or every six months or every year, whatever, you have an agreement again, ahead of time of how you’re going to do that. And then to remember that the strategic plan it you know, we talk about things being living documents all the time, but somehow, in people’s head, once the board has approved it, it becomes this, like, you know, written in stone, sacred document, and it’s not, it’s a plan, things will happen that you can’t anticipate strategic planning is not about predicting the future. It’s about setting your intentions about where you want to put your energy. So you’re going to have to readjust, you’re going to So it’s that kind of balance between, we have some goals, we have some strategy, we have some structure, and we’re going to be flexible. It’s not an either or it’s a both. And so having an agreement about how you’re going to do that, and who’s going to be able to make some updates is really important as well.

Brandon Burton 26:53
Yeah, I think that pandemic taught everybody that need to be able to be flexible. It’s a plan, but we need to be able to pivot and make adjustments where needed. Yep. Yep. So that’s a great point to make. Are there other things when it comes to strategic planning pitfalls that we haven’t addressed that come to mind that we want to make sure to touch on?

Carol Hamilton 27:17
Yeah, I think, um, you know, it’s, it’s when you’re actually doing that decision making about what are you going to focus on over the next three to five years, it’s balancing, you know, we want to stretch, we want to improve, we want to grow. And we don’t want to, again, it’s kind of a different version of that long laundry wishlist. But if the if the aspirations are so beyond where the organization is, it’s also going to fall flat because it just doesn’t match the capacity. So not to just say, Okay, this is this is all we can do, because that’s all we have right now. But being realistic about where you are, and what’s going to move you forward to actually, you know, so that you have the resources to do what you want to do. So having not having those two things be decoupled. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 28:08
reminds me and I’m terrible at attributing quotes, but I’ll say the quote, you can look up whoever said it, but something to the effect that individuals underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years, but overestimate what they can do in one year. So Oh, my God, or one week, right? Yeah, one way Yeah. You go out and you say, and this year, I’m going to do all these things. And really, it’s like, no, like, you got to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Right? Right, we’re in a 10, five, or even less strategic plan is three to five year plan. Because we see the quote unquote, failures on those smaller timelines, we don’t feel like we can shoot big because we’ve we’ve seen the smaller steps not come through, but we sell ourselves short in realizing what that cumulative effect of having those small effects has over that longer time horizon. So

Carol Hamilton 29:01
yeah, so it’s, it’s the tricky part of trying to find that Goldilocks spot of, you know, just enough stretch, and also, you know, tempered with some realism about, you know, what can we accomplish with what we have? Yeah. And then what do we need to get if we want to do you know, when we want to do more?

Brandon Burton 29:19
Absolutely. Well, Carol, as we start to wrap things up, I like asking for chambers who are listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you have to share with them as they try to accomplish that goal of raising her elevating their, the level of their chamber?

Carol Hamilton 29:40
Yeah, I mean, the the tagline that I use for my podcast is, you know, people who are in the non in the nonprofit sector, who wants to do good in the world without being a martyr to the cause. And so, I think the thing that I’ve been hearing a lot from people recently is when leaders get in their own way of having the organization be overly identified with one person, and to step back and realize that it’s a group effort where it’s always a collective effort. That’s why we have organizations. And so how can you take small steps you were talking about that eating the elephant, one bite at a time to start building leadership capacity throughout your organization. So, you know, asking a staff member to share and facilitate part of a board meeting, if you do the whole thing all the time? You know, just taking small steps, what’s one thing on your to do list somebody else could do? And they could learn from it. I know, it’s easy for you to probably you could probably do it faster. And it might take a little longer to give them all the context. But I think the more we’re building leadership capacity, the the we’re also contributing to the strength of the organization long term.

Brandon Burton 30:53
Absolutely. And I think that’s such a key point to not have the organization be about one person. So it’s about relying on your board and your organization’s your ambassadors are all the different committees and different things that are involved. And I don’t know who eats elephant anyway. But well, right.

Carol Hamilton 31:13
Doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate it. And it doesn’t sound very tasty.

Brandon Burton 31:17
That’s right. Sounds tough. But I also like asking, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how how would you view the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Carol Hamilton 31:29
Well, I guess, I would hope that chambers would join me in my, my goal of trying to contribute to a world that really thrives for that really is built so that everyone can thrive without an exception. So whatever businesses can do to to contribute to helping their community thrive. And have it be you know about about all of us, versus, you know, a few people I, I would love, I would love the chamber movement to be part of that.

Brandon Burton 32:03
Yeah, I think that’s great. Carol, for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about your offerings, and how you might be able to help their organizations, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect?

Carol Hamilton 32:17
So my website’s Grace social sector.com. You can find me on LinkedIn, although my name is pretty common. Carol Hamilton. So also check out mission impact. It’s on all the podcast platforms. You can find me there. So

Brandon Burton 32:35
that’s awesome. And everybody listening is listening to a podcast so they know how to find exactly so looking permission. Carol, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast. I appreciate you setting aside some time and being with us today and bringing the value and experience from your perspective and strategic planning and helping to give these chambers that are listening to an extra boost as they go about doing that and there are organizations that really appreciate thank

Carol Hamilton 33:03
you so much. Thanks for the opportunity.

Brandon Burton 33:05
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New CEO & Change Agent with Ali Rauch

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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.

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

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Our guest for this episode is Ali Rauch. Ali is the President and CEO of the Opelika Chamber of Commerce. While she’s celebrating just three and a half years in this role, she is not new to serving in the Opelika Chamber. She has served many years on the OPA like is 20 Under 40 leadership program board of directors as well as the Women’s Business Council and total resource campaign. In just three short years, she’s led her team to at best of the best five star accreditation to the US Chamber of Commerce raised two and a half million dollars for the Chamber’s forward Opelika good Strategic Community Economic Development Initiative and with the support from her team led a record breaking reach sponsorship campaign in 2022. She also spearheaded a comprehensive brand refresh. Additionally, she was selected to the US chambers business leads fellowship program, and is in the midst of her IOM certification all while changing the landscape and scope of services they open like a chamber offers to their community. Prior to her role at the Chamber, she worked in a wide array of industries including software manufacturing, higher education and most notably franchising and food services, where she served eight years as the director of marketing for Chicken Salad Chick vs had a hand in helping the brand grow from just three stores to 160. She brings a unique perspective to her leadership role at the chamber. Ali is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where she graduated summa cum laude, and earned a Bachelors of Science in speech communications. She also holds an associate’s degree in communications from Lakeland College. She followed loved hope like it were her future husband, Todd chose to attend Auburn University following his military career and they’ve called up like their home ever since an Ali, I’m super excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better. Well,

Ali Rauch 4:09
thank you so much, Brandon, it is an honor to join you today. My bio is quite comprehensive. So some of my little facts are certainly in there. But I think what I’ll do since I’m looking at your San Francisco helmet, my fun fact is going to be that I’m a shareholder for the Green Bay Packers and I am a massive fan grew up on grew up in the Midwest, actually in Illinois in the middle of bear country. But we were the one Packer family in our town. And so I’m a very, very passionate fan and very much looking forward to our opportunity to win and get into the playoffs this weekend. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 4:50
Yeah. And I’ve been I’ve been impressed with Jordan love and him stepping right into that role and they’ve done a great job. So yeah, awesome. Well tell us a little bit about the scope like a 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. Yeah,

Ali Rauch 5:12
you bet. So Opelika is in the Auburn Opelika MSA. And so what that means is, if you’re not familiar with Auburn, or Auburn, or Leica, it’s in the southeast in the kind of east central portion of Alabama. So Auburn is home to Auburn University, that college town, and we are that sister city, that has long since been the kind of hub for business in the area. They’re kind of the hub for education, and we’ve been the hub for business, we’ve got a community college in our town, we have a massive amount of industry. And over the past, you know, 20 years, our city has really focused they manage our economic development. So they have focused a lot on diversifying our industry. So we’ve just got a really healthy business community in our town, we have a population of about 33,000. But if you look at the overall surrounding community, we’re between 120 and 180, depending how far you go out in terms of total population, and our chamber, although 33,000 is our town, and if we were to just really cover that, I think we would be considered to be pretty large, we have a membership of just under 1000. In fact, we are looking forward to breaking that 1000 In the next couple of months, we’ve been very, very close. And we have an annual budget of just under a million dollars. And that has almost doubled since I took on took over about three and a half years ago. And so when we talk about kind of the the massive amount of change that we have undergone, that has been part of it. And let’s see, we’ve got a staff of eight, just became a staff of eight, we started as a staff of four, now staff of eight with our most recent hire, which is a business and Workforce Development Director, which we’ll get to when you talk about some of the projects we’ve worked on. And yeah, I think I think that about sums it up.

Brandon Burton 7:17
Very good. That is exciting kind of teaser, you know at that membership growth, and then just about doubling the budget. And so hopefully everyone’s ears are perking up about what what did these changes that you brought into the chamber. And we’ve we’ve titled this episode as new CEO and change agents. So as Ali’s come into this role as we went through her bio and everything, she’s brought a unique perspective to the chamber world, and taking what she knew and working with the chamber and being able to take what she heard knowledge from the outside chamber world and kind of marrying these two together has really been a great change agent. And I’m excited to get into what some of these changes are and how you’ve been able to introduce them and just the experience that you’ve had. But I also want to just put it out there for listeners that it always can feel maybe a little overwhelming when you hear about all the change or things that you need to be doing. And so for those listening, you don’t need to do at all, you know, just listen and see what makes sense for your community. And maybe none of it is things that you need to apply right now maybe you’re already doing a lot of these things. But as we know change is inevitable. So we need to always be looking for what changes and adjustments we do need to make within our organizations to continue staying relevant. So we’ll dive much deeper into this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Gina Rozier 10:45

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Donna Novitsky 11:13

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Brandon Burton 11:25
All right, Ali, we’re back. I’d love to just hand you the microphone. Tell us what are some of these changes, I’m sure you’ve got a long list there that you can just barely rattle off some of these changes that you’ve helped drive since you’ve come in this role as CEO. But what are some of those more notable changes, and what has been kind of the the impetus for that?

Ali Rauch 11:47
I think the biggest change that we have really undergone at the Opelika Chamber has been just the overall direction of who we are as an organization. The chamber has been around for 82 years. So it is long standing, it is trusted. It has been very well taken care of for many, many years. But it was very much in a state of complacency. Everything was fine. But it wasn’t exciting. It wasn’t I don’t know, it just it was just there, you know, and I loved it, I was involved. So it wasn’t bad. It was all good things. It just, I come in with a lot of energy. I don’t know if you can feel that for me. But I am a very energetic, very positive. And so one of the first things that I did was to dive in, of course, you got to look at your bylaws truly understand those. But the first thing that we did was we we changed our mission or vision or core values. I rewrote our personnel manual, a ton of policies about the overall direction is what was that first major thing. And honestly, the thing that forced my hand to do that was our accreditation was due with the US Chamber of Commerce. And so this was nine months into my first year as CEO, I’ve got all this paperwork to do. And I’ve done it in my life. And so I was able to take a look at the last 15 years worth of like you do accreditation every five years. And so I was able to look at the last three applications and really get an understanding of where we’ve been. And then I took that as an opportunity and gave myself a deadline and said, Well, you know, we need a new personnel manual, when we need new HR policies. We’ve got to make sure our branding is on point. All those things were kind of sparked by that accreditation change. And so I did not ever think we could possibly get to a five star accreditation and for us to have jumped in my first time to go from four to five star was just I celebrated a lot.

Brandon Burton 13:58
That is awesome. Yeah, it

Ali Rauch 14:00
was huge. But so kind of the core foundation was a big initial change. And we change our vision to be a leading catalyst for a better Opelika. So it really widened our umbrella of what we can do on behalf of our community. While our mission actually changed to be strengthening our community as the champion for business, because we really found that people have no idea what a chamber is literally no clue. Most of the time they think we just do business after hours or cocktail parties or ribbon cuttings. And we wanted our team, our board, our volunteers, everybody to be able to have a simple, singular line that says what is the chamber, we strengthen our community as the champion for business. And so changing that was was a big moment for us and making sure that business was the leading edge element of that. It’s very, very easy to try and serve everybody. But you have to remember, we’re here to serve the business community.

Brandon Burton 15:07
Yeah. I love that just that little tagline that slogan, you can say to we strengthen businesses a champion. We’re busy for our business community. Is that right? Is that how you said it

Ali Rauch 15:18
strengthen, strengthen our community as a champion for business? Yeah, yes,

Brandon Burton 15:22
yes, I had the essence there. So that’s something that every chamber can take, though, you know, do your R&D, you know, take that simplified phrase, that’s something that your board that your volunteers that your staff that new members should be able to understand as a part of your organization. This is what the chamber does. And then from there, obviously gets into mission and vision, things like that. But I love that just having that simple phrase of what is the chamber do, this is who we are, you got that simple response. It’s true.

Ali Rauch 15:53
And one thing that was really great about that, too, is not only did we update our mission to say that, but then our work reflected that. For me, I came from the private business sector, my whole career had been in business. And I also was a marketer. And so I had this unique perspective about what businesses want. And they they are joining the chamber most of the time, to help build awareness and to build relationships on behalf of their business. So because I had that marketing perspective, and understood what they are looking for, from an ROI perspective, we changed a lot of what we offered and what we focused on, so that we could deliver what the businesses need, you know, sometimes you gotta kill those sacred cows and do things they Oh, well, we’ve always done them. But is that what your business community needs? That’s a good question to ask. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:47
I was gonna ask you about that, with your marketing background coming into the chamber world, I know that there’s a there’s some overlap, but there’s also you come into it with eyes wide open of this is what businesses are looking for. And here’s an organization you’re coming into that has been doing, I’m guessing a lot of the same things for a long time, and maybe needed a refresh. So being able to take that, that vision that you’ve had that experience and being able to apply it to the chamber, or there may be some other areas where you’re able to apply your marketing background into creating the identity for your chamber and, and phrases like that, that you just shared? Where else have you seen that background and marketing come in handy in this role,

Ali Rauch 17:30
literally everywhere. So you mentioned in my bio, that we did a a brand refresh, that was huge, you know, I had had been a part of brand refreshes for two different years, I built a brand from the ground up at Chicken Salad Chick. So coming in, I knew we needed that fresh face. And I had high expectations and kind of I want I mean, it needs to be relevant and modern. And today. And so redoing all of our email newsletters, all of our communication, we launched a brand new website last year, we refreshed our magazine, and that one, an ACC e communication and excellence award last year ACC which was amazing. But I think one area that is probably out there that I’ve been able to use it that is unexpected is that we created a conference, it’s actually coming up in a couple of weeks. It’s called the All Things marketing conference. It is just literally a baby that I have created, that my team has come on board and helped and we have made it happen. And and so it’s a one day JAM PACKED conference that people can attend from all over, you’re welcome to if anybody wants to check it out, go to a black chamber.com. But so, you know, like, like a regular conference, you’re gonna pay a fee to attend and include your meals, but you’re gonna listen to a lineup of speakers. And for me, I was getting questions from businesses, especially restaurants, all the time asking for my marketing expertise. And I realized I can’t teach everybody one on one. What if we were to actually teach everybody at once and this became an annual thing. And so I, you know, grabbed grabbed a few of my members who I consider to be really great marketing experts for their specific fields, pulled them together, created a committee and said, This is what I want to do, what would it look like? And so the one we have coming up on January 19 has, we’ve got two keynote speakers, six different breakout sessions, plus a bonus section session, and we’re going to teach everything from traditional marketing to digital advertising to content creation. And numerous people are not only active chamber volunteers, but also former chamber employees like we get it and our keynote speaker is a lady named Lena Trivedi. And if you haven’t heard her story, I encourage you to go to Apple TV and watch the beat The bubble starring Elizabeth Banks. It is essentially the story of how Beanie Babies became what they were. And Lena was an employee at PTI at the time and was really a pioneer of E commerce. And so she’s going to come down and speak and share her story. And, but we created that from the ground up. And now, you know, that’s the opportunity for us to serve 200 to 220. Businesses, if not more, we’ve got the room to grow. But we have an opportunity to teach our business community what they need to know to be better marketers, which is, I would say, 75% of what the businesses need our help from is marketing, because they just most of the time, don’t know what they’re doing. And, and they are an entrepreneur, so they’re passionate about what they’re passionate about, but not necessarily marketing. And so my skill set has just really come in here to create this conference from the ground up. And it’s awesome. It was just this moment of pure, like, Joy. And like, I just, I couldn’t believe it. We did it last year. And now we’re on our second year, and it’s gonna be

Brandon Burton 21:06
awesome. That is awesome. And I think that, you know, strikes a resonance with, with businesses, small businesses, especially where we had talked before we hit record, that the reason that I started the podcast is really to help small businesses that ultimately, that’s what it comes down to my whole career. And chamber publishing has been about helping small businesses and, and there’s some chambers frankly, it becomes more of a membership organization that it kind of stops there and the help, it’s hard to see that connection of where that help and support is for small businesses. And the businesses recognize that I mean, just the honest truth, as I’ve met with Chamber members in a wide variety of different chambers over the years, a lot of them have a hard time making that connection. So having a conference like this, it really offers that direct support for marketing, which is it’s a tangible thing that they can take back to their business and see positive results, see an increase in sales, see that that needle move from efforts at the Chamber is putting out there and making available these opportunities for. I also know in my background with with chamber publishing, I’m talking to businesses about advertising. So I’m seeing what their strategy will call it. And or lack thereof, or lack thereof, most of them don’t have a strategy and any advertising they do. It’s more maybe branding, you know, they’re they’re putting a branding ad out there. But there’s no call to action, there’s no way to collect any information and remarket it like there’s so many different layers that you can put on to marketing and advertising that the small businesses either they don’t know, or they don’t have the bandwidth, or they don’t know the tools that are available. And I just love that you guys are doing this. This is a this is what chambers should be doing to help small businesses be successful. So kudos,

Ali Rauch 23:04
and meanwhile, thank you, I appreciate it. Meanwhile, it’s also an opportunity for us to feature a few of our businesses that will then gain clients as a result of this conference. We sell sponsorships for this conference through our annual reach or total resource campaign. And and then we have ticket sales. So like, this is also like a revenue generating opportunity. And it’s just bigger than what chambers have traditionally done in the past. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:32
yeah, for sure. So, as you have helped to introduce a lot of these changes the brand refresh this marketing campaign, that magazine, there’s been a lot of things. I’m sure there’s other things we haven’t even touched on yet. As you go to introduce these changes, do you find that you have some autonomy just within the organization, you and your staff, or our most of these things? Indeed get Board approval? Or where does that threshold come at your organization?

Ali Rauch 24:05
We, I am very blessed to have a board that trusts me. Pretty implicitly, it’s wonderful. So I have a very supportive board. Typically what will happen is that myself and my team, we do a lot of things together. So this is not like the, hey, Ally’s done all this now. I couldn’t do it without them. So we, we will come up with our ideas and we’ll say this is what we want to do. New programs, all things marketing, Summit, things like that. That was just us. We decided to do that no board approval or anything like that. But with you know, the mission and the vision and things like that. That was something that our staff decided on and the set and then presented it to our board for approval. And so that was certainly a big honestly, it was very easy discussion. It was a unanimous vote. So that made it because we’re being Very thoughtful and doing our homework in advance. They trust us and support those decisions. You know, one of the biggest things that we decided to do that was very involved for the board of directors was our forward over like a campaign, which was our strategic economic development initiative to raise money. Because we are, you can’t tell I’m I’m actually sitting in my office, which was a home that was built in 1895. And I’ve got, I have turned two closets into what we now call co offices, because you just got to make it work. And we’re at max capacity. And, and honestly, we also don’t have a space that our businesses can actually use the way they need it. And so what started out as a need for more meeting space or business space, but also kind of transformed into, hey, let’s start tackling bigger challenges in our community. And so our Florida Blanca initiative raised were actually 3.1 million right now. And that’s going to enable us to work on workforce development for our region, build out some more entrepreneurship training programs, and then also move into a renovated building that will host not only event space for us to be able to host most of our own events, but there will be a visitor center, a boardroom and a business incubator and other things. And so that was very much a, I hired a consultant, we worked with power 10 to do that. But all of that the board was very involved with because I needed them to actually execute it. Because you know, you think about a lot of your board members are going to invest in something like that. But they also have to be willing to put their name and face on it. To say, Yes, we support this. So that was one that was very, very high, highly involved from our board of directors.

Brandon Burton 26:55
Yeah. And it’s awesome to have such a supportive board of directors. And I know a lot of listeners out there do have very supportive boards. So hopefully those relationships are good and cohesive and allow for that autonomy that I’ve set. I was going to ask you about the capital campaigns that you kind of alluded to there, as well as your total resource campaign. So are both of those newer things implemented since you’ve taken the role of as CEO? Or is there have had those been part of the organization before? So

Ali Rauch 27:28
our total resource campaign had actually been a part of the organization for quite a long time, I think we were in year nine, when I started, and I was a volunteer for our total resource campaign for two years prior to joining the job or joining the chamber as the CEO. So that one was long standing. However, we learned, you know, I inherited a team that had had been there for quite a few, I mean, 1415 years, they they were tenured and experienced, and also a little bit tired. And and so when some of the changes that I made, encouraged the retirement or moving on other people, you know, I’m I’m young, I’m aggressive, energetic. So I just kind of changed things quickly. And that became uncomfortable for some some people. And so when they decided to move on to other things, that was the first one, I actually got on a conversation with Jason from YG, MCRC. And he just straight up told me he’s like, I don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s not what I recommend. And I was like, Oh,

Brandon Burton 28:42
I love that. Jason. Yeah.

Ali Rauch 28:45
Well, I have to be right there with it. But it was true. We we had just been, you know, Hey, turn on our website. And that was it. And there was not strategy, there was not thought and so we are conducting a capital campaign, which is brand new, very aggressive, we need to raise $3 million happening right over here. And we started asking for money in March of 2021. That year, September of 2021. We did a brand new refresh of our reach campaign. So first, wait, no, wait, I think we maybe it might have been a year apart. But either way, we had a total resource campaign going on and our capital campaign going on simultaneously, which was stressful. But it’s doable, because typically that money comes from different buckets, you know, a total resource campaign, those dollars are typically going to be coming from your business’s marketing budget, whereas a capital campaign those dollars are going to be coming from a higher level investment perspective and you’re talking to different people to sell those things. But the capital campaign was certainly new but that reach campaign we saw We now call it reach not a TRC. But thinking of all the branding changes that we do, but we did a brand refresh of our reach campaign, which means that we not only renamed it, but we took away every like week started as if we were brand new client with Jason. And YGM. Because we realized we needed to think more strategically about what we offer and what our price points were, what the benefits were. And so although it’s been around for 12 years now, it was new brand new two years ago, because of that refresh that we did. And that’s really where we went from averaging about $175,000 in sales for the last five to six years or so, to. Let’s see, I think we got up to Oh, 368,000 that’s where we ended. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:56
Yeah, that’s awesome. That is awesome. Wow. So you’ve touched on a lot of things here. I can see for for listener out there, maybe that the overwhelm sitting a little bit, but hopefully, they’re taking notes and just seeing some things that might they might want to revisit at their, their chamber. But I wanted to ask you, for those listening, who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, maybe give them a little bit of a refresh, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them to try to implement and try to maybe reinvigorate life in their organization?

Ali Rauch 31:36
I’m gonna make two recommendations. And the first one we talked about before we pressed record, read Horseshoes vs. Chess by Dave Adkisson. That was, I was a brand new CEO just a couple months into my job when that book came out. And I read it. And it made me think big. It may he outlines the future of chambers, which, you know, we’re not going to be those if we’re going to be doing what we should be doing for the future. We’re going to be working on meaningful things, not just ribbon cuttings and after hours, and so read his book, and process and think, What does your community need? So that would be recommendation number one. And then my second recommendation, I actually is firsthand advice that I was given by Jim Page, who was the longtime CEO of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce in Tuscaloosa. Because the first conference I went to, I just, I had so many pages of notes. And it was like drinking through a firehose, and I was like, I have so much work to do, what am I going to do? And he literally sat me down and he said, Pick 123 things. That’s it. 123 things that you want to try and work on. Nothing more, because you can, you know, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time, you got to you got to pace yourself? You’ve got to prioritize and tackle

Brandon Burton 33:01
three bytes at a time, right?

Ali Rauch 33:03
123? Yeah. No, that doesn’t help ask you to you know,

Brandon Burton 33:09
that’s right. That’s right. Now Jen has excellent, excellent mentor and to take advice from him that that’s very wise. And, and Dave’s book, Horseshoes vs. Chess. For those listening, you know, for a long time he was on an episode and 111 when the book first came out, kind of gave a synopsis of the book and how it came to be. But it really is that book, I think, is the definition of what a chamber is or should be. And as your role as a chamber CEO or Executive Director, whatever the title is, leading a chamber really gives a great definition for what your role should be what your work should look like, and what the future of chambers looks like. So that kind of leads right into the next question, actually, is I’d like to ask and everyone I have on the show that how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Ali Rauch 34:04
I think the future of the chamber is really about doing bigger, more meaningful work. You know, for us, we have never in a million years had the responsibility of making sure our businesses have the people resources that they need to be successful. And we just a few months ago, were, you know, given the reins to lead our region for workforce development. That’s a huge job. And that’s a big deal. But there’s also opportunity for funding that comes from both state and federal levels that can help grow our organization significantly, not just as an organization, but the impact that we’re making. So I think the future is just very doing more meaningful work and thinking about that meaningful work. I think that the Chamber of Commerce And I’ve learned in this role, we have a significant amount of influence and prominence in our community. You know, I have great relationships with the mayors in the area with our state representatives and our senators, you know, our, our kickoff for our Florida like a campaign after we had raised just over $2 million was Katie Britt, who at the time was the president of the Business Council of Alabama and running for Senate. And now she’s a state senator from the state of Alabama. And so we have great relationships from an advocacy perspective that we can contact and, and talk about those bigger challenges. So, advocacy is a key part of it. But I still think that although that might always be a part of what we do, doing the more meaningful work that achieves what your business community needs, which is going to vary for everyone. But that’s where I see the future of chambers.

Brandon Burton 35:59
Absolutely bigger and more meaningful work. I love that alley. This has been a fun conversation, energetic it’s full of life. I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and maybe learn more about some of these changes even from implemented and how you’ve gone about introducing them and getting buy in and all that good stuff that we didn’t get to touch on every aspect or in this conversation today. But what would be a good way for someone to reach out and connect with you?

Ali Rauch 36:31
Yeah, I I certainly welcome this was. This was almost like draining a firehose of all the things and so please don’t get overwhelmed by that I am I am here as a resource. I would love to either chat with you chat with your chamber, whatever whatever it is that I can help with. You can find me my email address is Ali a li at OpelikaChamber.com. You can find me on all the social social channel channels. You can find me on all the social channels at Ali Vice Rauch. So a li v ice ra uch. But really, I mean I’m an I’m an open book and give me a call shoot me a text my cell is 334-737-9354. And all of this can be found on my website or on our chamber website. OpelikaChamber.com. Very

Brandon Burton 37:24
good. And we’ll get all that in our show notes for this episode too. So we’ll make it easy for people to find you. But Ali, this has been great having you on the show. I appreciate you setting aside some time to be with us today on chamber chat podcast and wish you the best with the future chambers that future changes that you have to implement. They’re at your chamber and and going forward into the future. Thanks a lot.

Ali Rauch 37:46
Thanks, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 37:49
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Quality of Place Fundraising with Dan Culhane

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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.

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

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Our guest for this episode is Dan Culhane. Dan is the President and CEO of the Ames Chamber of Commerce in Iowa. In his current role, he’s led several initiatives including the modern modernization of the Ames Municipal Airport, the annexation of 13 of over 1300 acres for the creation of Prairie View industrial center, and the recruitment and expansion of over 75 companies to the Iowa State University Research Park and the Ames metropolitan statistical areas supporting the creation of 1000s of jobs. He is a 1993 graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Community and Regional Planning and a 1998 graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. He earned his CCD in 2000. And the chamber industry’s highest designation, its CCE in 2011. Dan has served on numerous boards and is currently a member of the Wi SS Foundation Board. He’s also served on the board of the United Way of storey County and chaired the 2017 campaign, which is the largest campaign in history and remains today. He co chaired Reggie sleep that out Reggie’s sleep out in aims to promote the needs of homeless youth as well. He’s served as chairman to several organizations over the years including the Iowa state university’s athletic letterwinners Club and the Iowa chamber Alliance, a coalition of Iowa’s largest community communities Chambers of Commerce, the professional developers of Iowa and the Mid America Economic Development Council multistate peer group from Iowa to the Dakotas. And Dan was honored in June of 2023, with the Iowa Association of Business and industries leadership for Iowa award given annually to deserving leader in Iowa, who’s an alumni of leadership, Iowa. Dan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Dan Culhane 4:09
Well, thank you, Brandon. It’s great to be here. I certainly appreciate the invitation. So I’ve been in the chamber in the economic development business for nearly 30 years. And I’ve seen it change a lot, but I still get up every day greatly enjoying the work that I get to do. Our chamber here in Ames, Iowa was about 750 members. We’ve got about a $3.6 million budget. I’ve got 17 people that do a lot of good work every day in to county area that encompasses the Ames MSA, which is about 125,000 people. You know, I’ve often heard and I’ve since repeated that if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. I think they’re all different. I think they reflect the needs of the board members and the communities in which they serve. And we’re certainly no different. Ames is a vibrant university community, home of Iowa State University with 32,000 students. And so that creates a level of dynamic that’s really powerful for chamber work and economic development work and community development. And so we do a lot of community development work along with the very traditional chamber work that most Chambers of Commerce to do that I’m pretty excited about. You know, in terms of something that unique or that most of you may not know about me is they often quipped that the reason I came to Ames, Iowa in the first place, was to play baseball at Iowa State and I got to stay and play baseball at Iowa State because I get hit a curveball. And so I played three years at Iowa State, they’re on their baseball team had a great experience, ripped up a knee pretty good my junior year, and then I was done. And but nonetheless, it was it was a rich experience. And it’s even a neater opportunity for me now to be back where I went to school, leaving the Chamber of Commerce and the economic development organization here in this region. I’m

Brandon Burton 6:01
sure you still get a few curveballs thrown your way, as a chamber exec

Dan Culhane 6:05
every day.

Brandon Burton 6:08
You’re the right guy for the job, you can hit those curveballs. So very good. Sam, thank you for for touching on that. The Ames chamber itself, just the the size, you mentioned the the number of members and your staff and what kind of scope of work as you mentioned, one, if you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. What areas are you guys involved with, as far as the work goes at the chamber?

Dan Culhane 6:32
You know, Brandon, it’s incredible. When I got here, there, there I was the I was there was five of us at that time. And so we’ve grown immensely. And we’ve grown as as a staff, as the work has, has come to come to our table. And so we do the most traditional of chamber programming, leadership development, public policy, a wide variety of events, we do over 100 events every year. So we’re in that’s in that from that standpoint, we’re a very traditional Chamber of Commerce. Beyond that, we’ve also got an economic development organization. We do a lot of workforce development, workforce programming, career fairs, things of that nature, internship programs. And so we’ve got our hands on a lot of things that maybe some traditional chambers may or may not do. But we’re also doing community development work in the smallest of communities in our two county area, where we’re helping communities of 700 people with infrastructure grants and other other grants and opportunities for new housing starts. And so we’re, we’re engaged in housing more today than we were probably two years ago. Housing is certainly a need across our country. We all know that, but it’s certainly needed in our region. We’re also engaged in childcare, in helping with childcare grants and a variety of programs to enhance the childcare slots that we have in our region, for our for our workforce, you know, workforce is such a big piece of of all that we do. We have to support childcare, housing, and things of that nature, to support people that are going to work in our companies.

Brandon Burton 8:18
So I’m hearing more and more chambers getting involved with paying attention to childcare and helping that out as far as the workforce needs go. And for those listening is you hear certain trends being repeated over and over, it might be worth looking into and seeing what your community needs in these areas of work, specifically in childcare and workforce. And then in education, I mean that it just snowballs right and all these different areas. But childcare specifically I’ve seen as more of a newer area of interest in the last couple of years of chambers get really getting involved. And my ears are kind of perking up every time I hear it now because I think more chambers are seeing the vision of the value that comes to their community by paying attention to childcare. So for our topic of conversation today, we’ve kind of narrowed down our options and things that could discuss today we could we could probably talk for hours and hours. But we’ll we’ll talk about fundraising for quality of place projects. And we’ll dive into that and much more detail since we get back from this quick break.

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Siobhan Kenney 11:32

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Donna Novitsky 12:03

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Brandon Burton 12:16
All right, Dan, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re we’re highlighting the fundraising for quality of place projects in your community. First of all, I think just to maybe the light level, the field for everybody listening, so to speak. In some communities, it may be the initial reaction is, well, maybe we’re not a quality of place, maybe we don’t have anything that draws people in or, you know, really attracts people. I think we need to maybe attack that thought or maybe that misnomer. First, before we go on with the rest of the discussion. What What would you have to say, with that initial thought that some people may perceive about their community?

Dan Culhane 12:58
You know, I think that no matter what size community you’re in, you’re always trying to do something to make your community better. And so I I don’t think we’re any different than anybody bigger than our community or smaller. There’s always those quality of place enhancement, those amenities, those livability amenities that are important, because you want to make yourself as a community as attractive as you can for that next company, that next employee that has come that’s going to work at your hospital or, or your next superintendent of schools, whatever it might be, you want to you want to check all those boxes, so people choose you. And so that’s where I think we focus in our region on those quality of life assets, and how do we help support communities in accomplishing those things. So that ultimately, we are more attractive to an external audience that’s contemplating either an investment or a life change, job change, by coming to our region.

Brandon Burton 14:01
I think that’s a good point. Because whoever it is, you’re trying to attract whether it’s a new superintendent for the schools or somebody at the hospital or whatever it may be. Your community may be exactly what they’re looking for. Maybe they don’t need the huge community or the super smaller, you know, whatever you feel like might be attractive to other people. Your community does have something to offer to the right person for what you’re trying to fill for. So keep that in mind and look at those assets that you have to promote. So I love that perspective. You said having those check boxes for people that choose you so love that. So when you think of aims, think of quality of place, what what sort of projects are you guys working on around the quality of place, and then we can get into the fundraising aspect here in just a moment.

Dan Culhane 14:50
You know, while Ames is a pretty vibrant university town we still have needs and the biggest project in most recent memory that that Our organizations worked on was an indoor Aquatic Center, a public indoor swimming pool, if you will. And the community had voted down a very, very large Wellness Center, I think it was called a healthy life center. Here in our community, it ended up being close to $50 million. It just blown up to everybody had something in it. And as a result that it just didn’t garner any attention when it came to the voters. And so when that failed, the the need for an indoor Aquatic Center and market this size, it didn’t change we didn’t have we never did better with that the high school and high school have been torn down, they built a new high school, they built the new a new facility, a new swing swing facility, the AIMS is that a lot of state state championship teams swimming, but that new pool was dedicated to the student population. Now there’s a number of indoor water basins in our community because of the university, but in terms of rank and file citizens in our community that they wouldn’t necessarily have access, they needed something. And so we went to the city and said, Hey, we’ve got to figure this out. And we broke it into really three pieces, there was a state program called the Iowa reinvestment district program that we applied for the city put in a percentage of the money. And then we promised to raise the other third. And you know, that was a awesome task, but we did it. And the fact of the matter is a lot of chamber professionals like myself may think, well, that’s not our role. But again, it goes back to what what the needs are of your community. And I saw that as a need for our community. And so we pushed hard to get that done. And they’re breaking ground next spring out of $32 million indoor aquatic facility near our downtown, which will also be catalytic for the downtown portion of our community as well. And so that’s certainly a community asset or an amenity that we identified as a real need, and at the same time, will also support other things in our community.

Brandon Burton 17:10
Absolutely. I love that and being able to attack it from you know, the three different arms, as you talked about with the state program, the city, and then the chamber picking up that, that remaining third. I’m always curious, you know, with whether it’s fundraising or messaging of any sort, as a chamber tries to push out messaging or attract donors in this case, what is the messaging look like as you go about the fundraising? Did you have kind of a list of people that you wanted to target? Or was it just kind of broadcast to everybody? Or how kind of the what’s the methods behind it about the approach? So good, great

Dan Culhane 17:48
question. So in this instance, what I really focused on was our companies making an investment in this facility, and talking about how this would be impactful for them, in retaining people, their workers, and attracting workers. You know, we routinely are one of the lowest MSA is in the country for unemployment, pre pandemic, we were at 1.2%. And usually number one in the country for unemployment, which that’s great, but because you got to be known for something. But at the end of the day, you still need to attract new industry. And so for a variety of reasons, we continue to do attract industry while our unemployment rate was that low. But Consequently, there was still a need for for more workers. And so that was the that was kind of the the angle I took with a lot of our funders was I said, this is an opportunity for one more arrow in your quiver to attract that next worker, that next engineer, that next software engineer, that programmer, or that production worker at 3am. That’s got a large facility in our community. And that resonated with people because they knew that they needed more assets and amenities outside of work to attract those people. And that worked really well for us in raising the dollars for this for the 1/3 of the project. I

Brandon Burton 19:12
like that and that kind of answers. My the next question that I had is going to be how did you help these employers catch that vision that this project, this aquatic center is going to help to attract and retain employees and really see it as a workforce issue rather than a, you know, a new amenity center or a new asset to the community but really, it became a workforce issue? Was it was a well received? Did you get any pushback on it? Did you learn anything along the way about maybe how to change the approach at the next business that that you guys talked to?

Dan Culhane 19:48
You know, I, I learned, I guess what this process did was reinforced, something I might have already known. And that is the big national or international companies that are in your community. Knee. They’re not as though they’re not always as quick to support things like this their processes harder. Our best supporters were locally owned companies, locally owned small businesses and large, that really understand greater good. One of our core values here at the US Chamber of Commerce is actually the term greater good. Because there’s so many things that come across my desk, where if you really looked at a very traditional chamber organization and say, well, that’s probably not our fundraising for a public project like this, in most places probably wouldn’t be there. I raised money with another person in our community, a business leader for our airport a number of years ago. And again, making sure the airport has adequate hangar storage and things like in a new new terminal, we’re gonna have partial service here, but a small terminal building that better represents the community. That was something else, we raised the money. And again, so it was a need for our community. And we said, well, if not us, then who? And so often, I think chambers are faced with that decision, if not us, then who. And so a lot of times chambers step up, it can be for the smallest of projects, new banners for the downtown, somebody putting on the Fourth of July parade, or raising $10 million to build a new aquatic center, it runs the whole gamut. And I think that’s, that’s why chambers are powerful and effective. And every community, it’s because they step up and say, well, we’ll take care of that we’ll help we’ll support that. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:36
I love that. And then the example the the airport as well. And I’m sure you’ve got other examples you can point to of really creating more of a quality of place their names. As you go through the process of evaluating because I know as a chamber, you know, all the projects cross your desk, right? And you kind of have to have a filter of, yes, this is worth our time. And this aligns with our mission and purpose as a chamber, versus those that other people just don’t want to do. And they push to the chambers think I know what the chamber should do this, right. So when you look at that, because I can see where some people would say, well, this doesn’t necessarily fit directly with our mission. But how do you apply that filter as to what what is worth the attention, especially when it comes to quality of place improvements in your community?

Dan Culhane 22:24
Well, that’s that’s a tough process, because almost everything can be applied to that makes our community better. And so that’s where a board of directors really comes in and can help someone like me helped make that decision. Because oftentimes, if you ask my staff that’s sitting outside my door right now, they, they would probably all say Dan says yes to everything. And I really don’t but we say yes to a lot of things. Because we again, understand greater good. We’ve got a nonprofit radio station here in our community. We’re a sponsor. I don’t listen to it very often. But I know people do and it creates community. And so we support that. There’s a thing called the Ames tuba Christmas that happened two weeks ago, it’s a professor of music at Iowa State who puts this thing on and they they fill a 17 seat 700 seat auditorium on the I was a campus for this three times over the course of a weekend. And we provide some dollars to that to support that, again, because it’s about greater good. And so that’s, that’s probably the litmus that I put on a lot of things is, does this does this enhance our communities as our make our community better and stronger? Certainly the volunteer, nonprofit radio station, there’s, there’s, there’s community there. And so anywhere, we can help build community or support building community, there’s a good chance we’re going to try and participate at some level. It’s like a lot of things in our community. We’ve done a diversity, equity and inclusion program here at the chamber. It’s not the biggest one of chambers. It’s certainly not the leading one in our community. We’ve got a very strong city, and a very powerful university. But we’re at the table too. And so I look at a lot of things like that, and others, where if if we’re not at the table, we’re conspicuously absent. And so we try to be participant be a participant in supportive of a wide variety of things in our community. Because as a chamber of commerce as the voice of the business community in our region, we should be able to Yeah, and

Brandon Burton 24:33
you don’t need to be the driver of all the things but being at the table is important. Yeah. So I’m curious on the fundraising aspect. Do you typically when you fundraise for these quality of place projects, are you doing it internally and just having staff dial for dollars and go out and meet with members? Are you using a third party or what how do you make the approach to these come On the capital campaign?

Dan Culhane 25:02
Well, in the in the instance of the aquatic center, you’re looking at the fundraiser right now, I raised the money for that. And I don’t like to say I, but that’s really what happened. It was, it was, I was probably the best equipped to do that, you know, I’ve also been in the community long enough now that I can I can get the appointment and, and maybe lean in a little bit on some of our business leaders to say, hey, this really is the right thing to do. You know, and so I think that my tenure here, made that probably an easier process than if I was brand new in the community. And I was knocking on doors, introducing myself as the new leader of the chamber. Oh, by the way, I’d like $100,000 for this aquatic center. So more often than not even even our even our capital campaigns for our organization. Usually, I do most of that. And now there’s a rule in the in the chamber and economic realm world that says, the staff should never be asking for money, because they’re asking for money for their salaries. And I understand that, but at the same time, I do think more often than not staff and the president and CEO of the organization, typically know the numbers better than anybody. And so they can articulate the best. And that’s why I won’t argue with anybody about what’s, what’s the right way, the wrong way. But I would just say that, in our instance, my senior leadership team and myself are probably best equipped to talk about the finances of the organization, far better than anybody on my board of directors. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 26:35
I would agree. And I think as you’re out making those asks and visiting with the businesses, they see the passion, they see your commitment to building the community. There’s no question about what does Dan do for us anyway, right, like you’re out there working it and, and building on those connections, and really seeing names grow and develop, and that, you know, match the vision that you would see and hope for?

Dan Culhane 26:58
Well, you know, as we were talking before we started the day, Brandon, you know, you can’t, you can’t fake it in any business really, right. You either you either are well set well suited and match to it, and have a passion and a really a real desire to see. In this case, a community to get better, or your business community get better. It just can’t fake it. And if you’re faking it, people will know right away. So passion is pretty important in any any job, but certainly in the chamber business.

Brandon Burton 27:27
I love that. Is there anything else is in regards to fundraising and quality of place projects that we might want to consider going forward? If I’m just picturing the Chamber’s listening that have projects kind of crossing their desk or maybe floating in their mind? What are some of those things to consider before moving forward or as you move forward with some of these projects?

Dan Culhane 27:52
Well, you know, you can, you can talk about raising a lot of money, like for an aquatic center, or you can talk about raising money for a new program and site or chamber. I think you’ve got to develop a plan. And you’ve got to articulate why it’s important, why your community needs a why your chamber needs it, why your chamber needs a Workforce Program, or why your chamber should do it in our city leadership, business, whatever it is, why you should add another employee, you have to be able to lay out a plan for how that will positively impact the chain your chamber, but also your your community, and your business community and your members. And so I think that that’s the key to doing anything related to trying something new, is Think it through a similar plan and doesn’t have doesn’t have to be a 20 page document. It can be I’m kind of an executive summary kind of person. It can be a one page that says here’s why this is important. And then really understanding what the what the what the the problem is you’re trying to solve, or the opportunity you’re trying to capture, and are being able to clearly articulate why that’s important, whether it’s to your board, or to local elected officials or the broader community. I think that’s the key to doing anything related to fundraising or starting new programs is being able to, frankly sell it in a manner that shows the true value of moving forward.

Brandon Burton 29:19
Yeah, I don’t know that I necessarily like this. This example, but when you think in politics, you know, there’s a new piece of legislation that’s being discussed or something’s being presented there. Politicians are really good at getting their talking points in order. And their staff talks about it’s almost word for word, you know, they’re just last step and barrel you know that exactly what they’re gonna say. And I see that being very similar to if you’ve got a program or initiative that you’re trying to raise funds for. Your whole staff needs to understand this is the why this is how it’s going to enhance our community. Here’s the main points about it. So if anyone if anyone gets a call And when they’re standing in the line at the coffee shop, or, you know, taking their kids to soccer practice and somebody asks him that it, boom, they’ve got the answers, they’ve got those talking points, you can go right to it, and being able to do it with a passion. So the pizza recipient hears that and thinks this really is something of importance, and then need to give some give some attention to this.

Dan Culhane 30:21
That’s exactly right. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:24
But I think that’s, you know, some great points, a lot of value there for listeners to, especially as they tried to level up the quality of place in their own communities and going about fundraising for it. As we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to see if you had any maybe tip or action item for listener who is looking to take their chamber up to the next level, what might you suggest for them?

Dan Culhane 30:52
I would suggest that people lean in lean, and other volunteers, and probably more importantly, lean in on your peers, you know, I, I still have people that I lean on, and say, Hey, I’m not sure if I should do this. And so I’ve gotten mentors out there even for being as in this business, as long as I’ve been in it, I’ve still got peers that are older than me, they’ve been in this business longer than me. And there’s value in that, you know, we want to put a smile on someone’s face, ask ask for their advice. And when someone want to appear, calls me whether I know them or not, I’ll always take that call. And because people have always taken like, and I think the chamber business can be a lonely place, you know, there, you don’t have three, three counterparts in your community, you can go talk to, you need to reach out across across the geography to be supported by others. And so I think that’s where I think I’ve been successful is I’ve never been afraid to ask for advice, or ask for help. And on the flip side, I’ve also been quick to help others, because I truly want people to be successful in this industry, because I kind of stumbled into it. And it’s a it’s a wonderful industry. And it’s it’s a lot of fun. My days are different. Always. And as we talked earlier that yes, there are curveballs. But you know, at the end of the day, then they’re not insurmountable. And I think business leaders, members, local elected officials and people like that, they understand the importance of the work that chambers do. And they want you to be successful too. And it’s a lot easier for, for them to understand what you’re doing if you’ve got an open line of communication. And you’re also, you’ve got a level of humility, where you say, we don’t really I don’t know about that today, but we’re gonna figure that out. And you call your peers.

Brandon Burton 32:59
And I love that. That’s a great piece of advice. And we’ll we’ll give you a chance here in just a moment to share your contact information. So people can call them put a smile on Dan’s face and kind of learn more about how he’s doing things, their names, but I wanted to ask is we look forward to the future of chambers? How do you see the future chambers and their purpose going forward?

Dan Culhane 33:24
So I think that chambers will continue to have to find new new sources of revenue. That’s probably the biggest, biggest key, we’ve certainly seen a bit of consolidation. We’ve we’ve picked up some smaller communities, economic development and chambers here in the last few years, primarily because there was a time where one person could do everything. And that’s just not, that’s just not practical now, you know, and so I think continuing to look for ways to partner regionally, but also continuing to diversify your revenue streams. And that’s going to be an ongoing challenge. Like in any business, and I think that’s what a lot of chambers don’t always think about is that they are a business just like your your local manufacturer, the shoe store down the street of the flower shop. We’re this is a business. And so how do we continue to diversify our revenue so that when one one source dries up, this new source takes care of that. And so I think chambers will always have a role because communities need leadership. And chambers are a great place for leaders to be born. You know, I, I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve actually seen my ability to help mentor my board chairs and my board members, who more often than not now are either my age or younger. And it’s might be their first our first entrance into a board leadership role. And so fostering that in In developing those leaders, it’s really important, not only for your chamber, but for your community. And so whether it’s diversifying your revenue, or building leaders in your community, I think chambers will always have a role. But we have to continue to evolve, just like our businesses do.

Brandon Burton 35:18
I love that. As you’re giving that vision of your future of chambers, we could have talked the whole episode about different revenue streams, for chambers and kind of ideas there could have talked about mentoring, you know, those future leaders in your community that’s so important, maybe a little uncomfortable, you know, the first couple times you do it, but as you catch the vision and see, and kind of, you know, help these people progress along their path to being a leader in your community. So important. You’d mentioned before there is a certain loneliness in leadership, but you help bring those along and help them kind of catch that vision you’ve got others to talk to, and then maybe they won’t be so lonely once they’re in your place down the road. I don’t know if I cut you off. It looks like you had something to say. Maybe, please. Okay. Okay. So, before I let you go, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and, and maybe learn from you as a mentor, just you know, learn more about how you guys are doing things, their names, what would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect, you

Dan Culhane 36:29
can connect me and connect with me in a variety of ways. Again, my email is dan@ameschamber.com. You can call my office at 515-232-2310. Or the best place to reach is my cell phone 515-290-0447. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, all those things. I’d love to talk to you. I might learn something, there’s a good chance I’ve learned something from you. And so this, this is a great business, I encourage people to engage. I’ve got a lot of young people that work for me, which is awesome. I’ve had four people leave after a few years of me and run from chambers of their own. And that’s really gratifying to because I think I’ve helped them see that this is a really good professional career path. And so please give me a call. I’d love to talk. And Brandon, I appreciate you and, and you give me the opportunity to be on your podcast today.

Brandon Burton 37:34
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Culture for Huge Results with Bryce Riggs

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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.

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

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Our guest for this episode is Bryce Riggs. Bryce currently serves as the executive director of the Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce and Destination Seneca County, the county’s Visitors Bureau. Since taking this position in July 2020. Both organizations have received a breath of fresh air and a surge of energy. The chamber has significantly grown their membership by making it the highest membership it’s ever seen. Historically, the chamber is on its way to becoming one of the strongest in Ohio. While destination Seneca County has become the one stop shop and trusted resource for the community and visitors of Seneca County. The Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce received the 2023 outstanding chamber of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce executives of Ohio, and destination Seneca County has received six statewide awards from Ohio Travel Association within the last two years. Bryce, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better. Perfect.

Bryce Riggs 3:07
Hello, all Chamber Chat Podcast listeners, as Brandon said, I am Bryce, I think interesting about me is I got a vast background in terms of I’ve worked in economic development, I’ve worked in development work with fundraising, and now the chamber and I think, you know, they always say there’s not one job that prepares you for the kind of role like this in the chamber. But I think I’ve been fortunate that I kind of see the business background side of things. And I’ve seen, you know, the kind of development as we all know, without fundraising and raising those dollars for our organization, we really can’t do that fun and transformational things that we want to do always. And so fun fact about me is that, you know, only 30 years old, but I’ve had some really unique experiences that have kind of helped me prove it prepare me for this role with the Chamber of Commerce. That’s

Brandon Burton 3:55
awesome. Yeah, there’s not the perfect resume per se to to become a chamber executive. But you know, certain things do tend to give you experience that you can definitely lean upon as you go about that as a career. So take a little bit of time to get a few minutes. Tell us a little bit more about the Seneca Regional Chamber size of the chamber scope of work you guys are involved with, obviously, you’ve got the tourism side as well. Staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for discussion. Yeah,

Bryce Riggs 4:26
we were unique as as a chamber because we do do the tourism side as well. We see especially in the state of Ohio flow a few of us left because I have to say there’s kind of two different missions and for both organizations in the chamber and destination, Seneca County, so it’s been a joy of keeping many folks happy across the board from our chamber partners as well as our tourism partners. Staff right now three and a half team members. We’ve historically been but three team members, majority of the time of the existence of the chamber We brought on a part time marketing specialist within this last year, and we’re pretty fortunate from a staff level wise. And we have one employee that’s been there for 20 years, who’s our voice of reason we call her and our seasoned vet. And obviously a lot of institutional knowledge we have, that’s Denmark, Toronto, we have Marissa Stevens, who’s the movie organization now, going almost three years, and then for me almost four years with with the organization, but three and a half years. But with that, and then also with the Chamber budget for 2024. I’m proud of the kingdom of outspending, but also the king of raising additional dollars. So $322,000 for the budget for the chamber, for 2024. And then for destination Seneca County, about $170,000. We have for the budget for destination Seneca County, really big thing with us is like the setting, you know, really, the value that we provide back to our membership is, you know, we’re big about listening and understanding their needs. We do a membership survey every year where we understand, hey, what’s important to you. And the big thing is just as things change, as times change, making sure that we have the information, we have the tools, we have the programming that makes sense. As an organization, we’re unique, where we put out all our events for the for the following year and our annual meeting in October, as we do our ama in October, we release a full slate. But you know, as things change, for example, the Damar Hamlin situation with the NFL last year with a cardiac arrest in the field, we were able to do a CPR, AED and first aid training within two weeks close with that scenario. And so we’ve continued to keep that as part of our plans. But we just I think, you know, like any other business partner we work with, we want them to be nimble and make decisions quickly. And I think that’s kind of what we’ve been good at is just, you know, being accurate, the community being very transparent and being, you know, engaged.

Brandon Burton 7:05
Yeah, I love that example. I like having the kind of that map for the year saying, here’s our main events and things that we’ve got scheduled but to be able to be nimble enough and not so rigid that when something of importance comes up, you can say yes, let’s fit that in and have some focus on that. And not have it derail the rest of your plan for the year as well. So I think that’s super important. So as we kind of settled on a topic for this this episode, we’re going to focus most of our conversation today around creating a culture for huge results. And we’ll get into you know why we came across that as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Howdy it’s me, Donna from Yiftee again. Today we get to hear from Christine in upstate New York about her Shop 716 Community card program. She was able to use sponsorship funds for a generous Buy One, Get One program that benefits her whole county.

Christine Langenfeld 9:44

Hi this is Christine Langenfeld with the Amherst Chamber of Commerce located in Buffalo, New York. We have partnered with Yiftee on our Shop 716 e-gift card program that has been incredibly, incredibly impactful for our small businesses. So happy to have incorporated this program in our shop local initiative here in Western New York. I highly recommend them and give them a chance to show what they can do.

Donna Novitsky 10:13

Thanks, Christine. So folks, check us out at yiftee.com and sign up for a demo or shoot us an email at sales@yiftee.com.

Brandon Burton 10:24
All right, Bryce, we’re back. I mentioned before the break, we’re recording to focus our conversation today about creating that culture for huge results. And sometimes it takes a different perspective, maybe an outsider’s point of view, to be able to see where there’s some gaps and opportunities within an organization. And I may be making some assumptions, but you guys have seen some significant growth in a variety of different ways. Since you’ve come on board there at the at the Seneca Regional Chamber. So I’d like to maybe have you highlight what some of those big growth areas are. And we can kind of dive into what has kind of fueled that growth and the culture being built there at the chamber.

Bryce Riggs 11:10
Probably the big thing is, I should have noted this early, earlier, but membership wise, about 540 members give or take. But you know, we’ve seen since I started in July 2020, we unfortunately, 65% increase in membership. And for me, it’s increasing membership is nice. You know, we have other chamber partners that, you know, do those membership drives, and they really get people out. And they’re really kind of one time, some folks or one time infusions of cash into an organization, which is nice to keep things afloat. But the big thing for us is the retention standpoint, you know, once we get them on, do a process. And we’ve kind of created a process within the last year and a half about the onboarding and making sure that you know, everyone kind of gets the same experience when they come on board. And that’s kind of help with our retention rate 94% retention rate that we’ve had consistently over the last few years. And, again, you know, influxes of cash are nice for the organization. But how do you keep those coming back and keep you know, our partners happy membership services are great. We’re, you know, we get a lot of responses on that, that allows them the opportunity to dialogue with us. You know, ours is all anonymous, so you can kind of dialogue and kind of put it all out there, my feelings don’t get hurt. Because we only grow as organization, we realize our shortfalls. And then really the big thing is T we’ve seen with a membership growth has been kind of non dues revenue has grown over 164%. Within the last, we moved to a new sponsorship model in the end of 2020 2021, where we asked our partners one time for sponsorships, when I started in July, with COVID pushing things back, it’d be like five events and basically five months and it was, you know, I was the guy who was calling and saying, hey, it’s Bryce. I’ve fortunate part of this community. So it wasn’t really much of an introduction, but it was, hey, we have this event, the golf out and you think you can make an investment to help support us? Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Okay, then, you know, the coffin takes place. And then the educators practice, hey, it’s Bryce again. Can you cut me another check. And so like, like anything in life, that asked me a better way. It’s we moved to a one time ask model in 2021. And that’s been super successful for us. We have 14 years platinum $3,000, gold 2000, Silver 1000, and then bronze 500. And we just package everything else we’ve done in the past. And we just said, Hey, this is the price tag of $3,000 are our largest donor, historically have given us 2250 On average, every year, and it’s okay, let’s bump up to $3,000. And we’ll do it one time mass model. And that’s been super successful for us. As an organization right now, we’re actually going through our our fundraising model kind of drive at the end of the year. And you know, last year, I’m gonna pull it up real quick. Last year, we raised $175,000. And literally one month this year, we’re still at $165,000 gotten to the end of the year. I’ve a few that will over will do. Oh, I’ll do what we did last year. were fun, obviously, with inflation and other factors muddies the water tight, but I think the biggest thing for us is the chamber. It’s more relationship relationship based, rather than the monetary aspect will me get through this. It’s basically Hey, Steve, this is Bryce with the chamber. You have a team and the golf outing. Just let me know who your four golfers are and then you know we’re looking forward to seeing you and then you know, the conversations over with and so when we call it’s no longer oh my gosh, the

Brandon Burton 14:47
Chamber if I may check the budget. Yeah. What

Bryce Riggs 14:50
do they want, you know, they want to call in again for the golf outing or con for this up it’s really allowed us to take our relationship with our members more to that, you know, prefer Hold to the more personal because they realize now that like my call, if I’m gonna ask me for anything is, I’m gonna ask them for money. It’s like asking them how we can help her, Hey, I saw you’re doing this about can we stop by and take a picture to help promote it? Hey, you’re doing this? How can we help you with that? And so it’s kind of allowed us to transform the organization a little more than we’ve done in the past. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 15:23
that’s great. So on the membership, and maybe I misunderstood, but how did you? How did you go about that big increase in membership? Did you guys do a membership drive? Or is that just built kind of grassroots? had had you guys approach that?

Bryce Riggs 15:40
The biggest thing is no membership drive is all grassroots. And I always said, when the chamber gets you energy gets new leadership, there’s always an opportunity to, you know, say that first year, and in my opinion, is the most important year, it’s, you know, sometimes you’ll take over a chamber that maybe in the past, it’s been stagnant, or very successful. And it’s like, okay, you have to pave your way on why you’re different. What’s your value proposition? And so for us, a lot of it was, you know, what, before, when we meet with a new member, our value articulation was not great. It was like, Hey, join the chamber, because it’s good for the community while when COVID hit, and things hit the fan. People love the community, I love the community, but real relook at our budgets. And it’s like, okay, this is good for the community. But this is also good. And this is good. And so now you’re kind of in a match with other great community organizations. But okay, my getting returned value back. And so we kind of lost our four point approach in my first month and said, Hey, look, this is the four reasons why you should join the chamber, where we had some kind of topics underneath each one of them. And the time, I’d say it was kind of crazy, because some of the stuff didn’t really make sense, because we didn’t build the plane yet. We just kind of like, found a bag of goods that we, you know, had yet done it yet. But it’s like, look, this is where we’re gonna go, we’ve lost trust in us. Again, I’m from the community. So for me, it was I’ve had a track record of doing things the right way. And so with us, it was just like, how do you articulate that value back to someone. And then I think it just became, you know, my first month, we had like, 15, new members, my next month, it was 15 new members and kind of like a forest fire. Once you create that spark, it’s like, Look, you have to take advantage of it. And our biggest thing is that we will not accept a new member of the Chamber of Commerce until we meet with you in person. And so it’s not just me. We have other chambers, it’s their membership director, or their membership coordinator meets with them, the CEO doesn’t. To me, I think it’s like the worst thing you could do. And so for me, I take my staff, my entire staff, just the three of us, the part time employee, this now that the three of us go out, and we go to their business, we meet with them on this morning, I was at a museum that was 45 minutes away. And we traveled there as a team, we came back as a team, because the day they knew who we all are, I think call the office and I’m not in and don’t answer the phone. They’ve met them before. Dan knows who they are, what’s important to them are the four points, how we can best assist them, if they run into Mrs. On the street, corner, residence, who they are, what their balance and organization. And so for us, it’s again, how do you take those relationships pass the professional, the personal side of things, I think is huge. And that for us? Again, it’s that it’s that wildfire that we’ve just continued to keep it going. And we just you know, for us, when someone goes to kind of check to the chamber at the end of the year, in July, it’s you know, I want them to look at us as a staff and saying, Hey, right, when I don’t cut this check to the chamber, it’s not at the chamber. I’m not gonna check the price to debt to Marissa. And I think it’s that personal touch, that kind of, you know, makes the ties a little bit stronger between the

Brandon Burton 19:03
organization’s for sure definitely helps with that, to have that 94% retention rate that you guys are seeing now. I mean, when you have that personal touch, you meet the members, you have that introduction, they get to know all the staff, you better understand their business. I love the example the the museum this morning, you gave this 45 minute drive there and back all together as staff. Imagine on the way back, there may be some discussion and ideas shared amongst staff about how to help this new member, you know, who can we connect them with? Or what would help make them successful? And there’s so much value in traveling together and doing that, you know, as a team. So

Bryce Riggs 19:47
I would say you know, there’s that I think we all are bought into it. And it for us it’s like look, you know we all where we see someone we know who they are what they do while they’re doing it and it’s the lie on to say that why this one is what makes the difference? So

Brandon Burton 20:02
I’m anticipating people listening are like four point approach. Okay, what are these four egg? Do you mind giving us the pitch real quick? What your what the four points are? If you’re granted, every chamber is different, you’re offering different things, potentially. But what? What are those four areas that you focus on when you are approaching a potential member?

Bryce Riggs 20:21
Yeah. So when we dive in, you know, we kind of enters we are first as a staff and home or the personal side of us again. And then without my destination said, I didn’t count because when I first started, the tourism bureau wasn’t very active, it was kind of the inactive arm of the chamber. But for us, we kind of explain who they are, what they do, why they’re important to the bigger picture. And then, you know, we flip over to the four point approach. And we talked with the membership survey, and we say, like, look, we don’t, we don’t determine what’s important to you, we listen to you, we understand, when we can talk more about their business, they can understand where their gaps are at and how we can help fill those gaps. And then we kind of go through the four points. And based on their story, we kind of dive into like, for example, the museum, they’re getting ready to go through their new location, there’s moves. And it’s what’s the promotional side of things, and we kind of dive in here, we’re an information source, we get a ton of phone calls, but we do a ton on social media, last this year actually will reach 2.6 million people on all our social platforms for our reach. And then for the visitors bureau, we have an additional 2.9 million will do as well. So we kind of talked about quantifying that the personal experience. And so when we talk about our members, we talk to them as people not as businesses, it’s kind of how it all connects to each other. And then we’ll step up you know, for them ribbon cuttings, bread and butter of a chamber, which we do things a little bit differently. We’ll do last year we did over 40 ribbon cuttings last year, we have a photographer, we invite elected officials, our ambassadors, which are super engaged our board, most were mechanics, we do our we have over 30 to 40 people attend each one. So there for us, it’s an it’s an energy opportunity. It’s the excitement people kind of bought in. And one thing I should know, too, we sent out a calendar invite for all our first contacts for every organization that’s, that’s a member, we send out a calendar invite with a description for all events we do, including ribbon cuttings, so even if you can’t go you at least understand new business, who owns it, where they offer, what are their hours, we said to our political officials, our media, and so those are always a good thing as well. And then we’ll jump to like relationships. So we have after five networking events, like most chambers do, which I won this last week, our golf outing, is wildly popular, we had 55 teams are out in last year, and then two flights sold out. And then we’ll talk about our Casino Night that we do as well. And then just different membership engagement opportunities to build relationships. We have flank. networking groups, like a digital Management Council we have. We’re both the Human Resources association. So kind of different people within the organization can be engaged as well. We have resources and savings is our third point usually talked about, and that’s obviously saving people money in which people appreciate. So we run a chamber cash program that looks just like a cheque. And a lot of people are moved to like 50. And there’s other things but we’ve been fortunate in the last last year, we sold over $110,000 in chamber cash, which keeps money locally infuse our community with a member a member benefit card that we do as well. It’s been really popular 55 different discounts different restaurants and businesses for the community and our big sales when I first started, we engage often with like the top tier management, so the CEO, CFO, CEO, but okay, how do we take the chamber message and bring it down to the employees. And so we now have the stack slammed, and it looks like gift cards. And we can all remember businesses, their employees inside joke, I’ll be at the local watering hole, and three people in front of me will plug the chamber card and get their 50% off at the at the restaurant. We’re there. And so it’s kind of nice to see, I joke, it’s kind of a call at that point, but I’ll take it. But it’s again, the Chamber messaging of this is the chamber and every time they scan it, it goes to our website. And so it’s that name ID not just with top tier, it’s through the whole organization. You Your energy programs, your you know, health insurance programs, as well thought of that. And then last is education, where we do power hours, which is the professional development from our members to our members. We’ve had to talk about like, you know, like AI is a topic for January, we have one with Canva and in March, we have a CrossFit crash course in June. We have a golf one on one event. So just some fun, professional personal opportunities. We Someone says, which is more than a personal. So it’s like the Myers Briggs test, you take it, we bring someone in, it kind of puts people in groups, you can talk about what the results mean. And then like leader, substantive accounting, which is our leadership group, and other educational opportunities we offer to our members throughout the year as well. So you’re really that’s kind of the four point approach. And then we kind of, you know, based on what they tell us, we say, hey, based on what you said, this is probably a good fit for you, we’ll get you connected, we’ll make sure you get the info. And then it’s like, again, as many as you can, how do you connect the chamber to the organization provide that values when they go to renew, when they decide they want to join, there’s enough value there that they’re like, hey, this makes sense. I have to I have to join. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:45
makes a lot of sense. I love that it’s condensed down enough to four points. So hopefully, any member of the staff can take that and kind of tell the story of the benefits that your chamber has to offer to these businesses that are considering joining. So that’s awesome. So let’s say maybe shift a little bit and talk about, you know, things that you guys do maybe organically there at the chamber to keep the passion for the staff on a high level to keep them engaged and, you know, involved with the community and really just loving what they do. Yeah, I

Bryce Riggs 26:20
think it’s the biggest thing is, that’s kind of our our sweet spot. That’s our secret sauce I tell people is that our staff here is fantastic. And I don’t live in a world we live in, it’s as a as a nonprofit organization, it’s hard to pay quarterly, it’s hard to make the opportunities available to our staff. But my biggest thing is like look itself from the top down as us and so my, my staff sees me out in the community, they see me community events, they see me out, you know, all these opportunities that exists. And, you know, the big thing with us is that we invest in our staff to go to these things. And so if I have done, I really don’t want to go to this event, and the chamber will pay for our staff to to go do continuing educational opportunities to go to community events. We’re fortunate with some of the non dues revenue increase that we’ve had over the years, that, you know, obviously, it pays to play to a lot of these events. And it’s tough, because it’s like not every chamber has the budget to be able to do this. But for us, it’s just like, we get along well, we communicate well. We keep things fun. And that’s for us. It’s it’s important. If it starts with the staff, if your staff is energetic engaged, it’s kind of hard to go sell, sell something that you don’t believe in my staff, we do gene Fridays we do you name it, right? I buy flexible hours, if you work in the evenings, which a lot of my staff does, you know, you can take some time off here and there throughout the throughout the week come in at 10. Like that. One thing is we do as well, three o’clock Fridays, and close the office every eight to five, Monday through Thursday. And then Friday, we do three o’clock, I kick you out. I don’t care how much work you have left to do. I don’t care how stressed you are. I kick you out. Because I think it’s like, Look, you gotta go live life. As is. It’s crucial. And so like for us, again, I’ll say it just starts with the staff. And you know, if you don’t pay your staff, you know, livable wage, that’s great to talk to my staff, and do we do yearly reviews. I do all my yearly reviews, in conjunction with the budget. So line rock conducted in November, I sit down the staff, I ask them questions, I send them a Google Word document, they type in their responses, and it’s a dialogue. I put their stuff and I put my comments and we meet for lunch. One on one and we discuss kind of like your thoughts, my thoughts. And then if Yannick I say looking, you know, next year, this is what we’re able to do based on your, you know, health insurances issue, okay, great. Based on that issue, we’re able to do this. And so my biggest thing is, if you unify consistent feedback, reviews aren’t supposed to be surprises. But for us, it’s important to say you got to show the nonprofit role you can pay them, you can allow them to grow as humans, you can model them have fun. But that’s the big thing is like, Look, you don’t take care of your own team. You’re not gonna go very far as an organization in the, you know, on the chambers or one, one man one woman shops, and so I you know, I fortunately have a board that allows me to do what I do. And so I just, you know, I, I told us that the board with a discussion this last year that said, Hey, how much you’re gonna give your staff increases? And I just said to him, Hey, I love you, but it’s, that’s not your role. My role is to determine based on what their performances, this is what I’m able to do and the performance bonuses every year, but I’d say give me the freedom and flexibility to pay my staff the way they should be compensated and we don’t, and I’ll ask, I’ve put in the budget and then you know, he gets approved as a overall bigger Make sure I

Brandon Burton 30:01
like that. I like being bold enough to say, yeah, let me invest in your business, right? Stay in our lanes, right?

Bryce Riggs 30:09
Correct. Yeah, the day the executive committee is responsible for my executive review and my salary, and let’s, let’s be talking about that within this framework. But just know that, you know, my job is to get my staff in a place where they’re making competitive wages, and their benefits are great. We just launched a simple IRA this year for 2024. Based on again, concerns and needs for for additional benefits. We’ve done, you know, again, I’m willing to invest my staff and they go to war for us every day. You know, my job is to go to work for them so that they can get what they need to be successful.

Brandon Burton 30:47
Yeah. I love it. Well, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if anyone listening what who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what maybe tip or action item might you have to offer them to elevate their chamber and kind of play it at that next level?

Bryce Riggs 31:09
So the biggest thing is, I always indicate, you know, be consistent, be persistent. When I started out, I was fortunate that I was kind of given the opportunity and said, hey, you know, you have, here’s the keys to car drive out you want. I’m not ignorant in the way that I understand it, is you have guidelines, and I have for a framework to do that within. But I would say like, Look, if you’re trying to be transformational, do things differently. It’s like, you got to be consistent with your approach, be persistent with our approach. Our big thing is community, community community. If you read our newsletter, you’ll know it’s from our community, you’ll know the people that are in it. If you see our social media, you’ll know it’s about the people. So everything is just like, look like push the pace. What do you get told now want to figure out how to get around it? You know, some sense knows, you know, doesn’t mean No, today, but might be like a maybe a later thing. Or maybe there’s another way to get to it. So you know, my first job, I was a telemarketer I was always taught you to do to rebuttal before you finally hung up the phone, and I very much live by that model. And so my thing is just people, you know, to make chambers that I’ll be honest, that we interact with, don’t push the pace, you know, our final status quo, which is great, but I think COVID kind of allowed folks to see kind of see through that. Our job is, you know, often the world that we live in the chamber world, the economic development agencies are here, and the chambers are here, or the community development is here. And chambers is always below it. And so my big thing is like, look, when we get talked about in the community, I want people to know that, like, look, we’re on the cutting edge, we’re doing things differently. And that, you know, we’re doing what’s best for the community. So people be persistent and be consistent and just have fun. That’s the big thing is, I’ve been here for three and a half years. And you know, early on, we’ll see I’ll Bryce you’re gonna burn out, you’re gonna do this. It’s like, yeah, there’s some days on central office. And I’m like, this sucks. But you know, I would say it’s not, it’s not hard work, it’s a lot of work, just power through. And if you set yourself up, put your bets out there. You know, like, look, I gotta do this, this, this, and this to get where I need to go. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:28
I’d love the honesty of some days. It just sucks. Yeah. Gotta move forward, you have a bigger picture of why you’re doing it. And I love the idea of consistent being consistent being persistent. And there’s so much value in that. And it leverages a lot of power if you’re consistent and persistent on pursuing those goals and, and the potential of your organization. So as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their potential or their purpose going forward?

Bryce Riggs 34:01
Yeah, I would say, you know, that really, the big thing is, again, that that personal touch. I think if you two things I find is that shortfalls with the Chamber World Industries, people run their nonprofit, like a nonprofit, I say I run my organization, like it’s a business because it’s a business and you got to invest in your people invest in your marketing, you have to invest in everything, right. I remember my first year I started and we didn’t have you know, anybody at all, but here I am, like, look, we’re ordering, you know, 5000 folders for new members because guess what, we’re gonna we’re gonna go out there, we’re going to spread the word and we’re going to tell people what we got going on. I think that’s the thing is don’t you know, you know, don’t the day you stop investing in marketing this day, you stop investing in your peoples that day that you know, things are on the decline. You need to keep doing that. And I say that really the big thing as well as getting into that personal touch. You know, You gotta stand out a lot of organizations are in need United Way’s you name it right that a lot of Salvation Army’s, they need money and you’re you know, to say that we’re on the same playing field as them but sometimes we are as chambers. And so we do things such as you know, every Christmas card we do holiday cards we send out, we send to all our members home addresses, because again, it’s you could send a Christmas card or holiday card to their their business. But it’s great, you know, it’s that the business relationship, we’re trying to get the next thing. So I just say, you know, if you’re consistent persistent with that personal touch and approach, that’s why the Chamber’s gone is that, you know, we got to stay competitive in the marketplace in terms of funding domestic competitive for, you know, even like the tourism side of things, right? We pick, we have that arm of us. And that makes us more competitive, because we can offer a different service than maybe another chamber couldn’t. So sometimes in communities, that tourism site opens up. And that, you know, huge opportunity to get those dollars, go out there, go put yourself out there and really go for it. You might have to hire another staff member to get those dollars. But the more things you can add, and the more things you can do to be a resource to the community, I think that’s where we’re going is that you’re going to find only a few organizations are going to do the key things in the community. And you got to be willing to change and adapt to it. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 36:25
I think that’s an interesting twist you had mentioned with the the Christmas cards to send them to their home address. So you’re obviously collecting that information when they join the chamber? Or do you ever get any pushback and somebody’s like, I don’t want to give a home address. And this is about business organization.

Bryce Riggs 36:42
This is why I tell you that I’m a little creepy. So three years ago, I started I started doing white pages. And I started an honors office and I started going through and finding things and I’ll be honest with you, if we don’t ask them for their home address. It’s you know, that’s available on the internet, you can do that. This last year. We just said December, was sent last Thursday, our cards went out and got people’s addresses on Saturday. Most of them did. But for us, it’s like look like I bought look at that information. It’s a nice surprise. People are like, Oh, I never gave them that address. But it’s together that touch. So

Brandon Burton 37:22
then are you putting it in your membership software with their accounts. So the next year, it’s got

Bryce Riggs 37:26
its color Christmas card address, it’s a separate one. So okay, it just moved to gross within the last year. So with that we’re making the adjustments and add ons, but I’ve spent many long hours doing that from finding information to some people might be, you know, meaningless. But I come in late at night, and I just kind of churn and burn until I get thrown. But it’s important because again, people come to us and say, Hey, I have your card in my house. That’s really nice. And we’re always first card. And it’s all we go to their house. So it’s always important and

Brandon Burton 38:00
awesome. I love that touch. Well, Bryce, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect about some of these approaches or how you guys are doing things there at the Seneca Regional Chamber, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Bryce Riggs 38:17
Yeah, go ahead and call my cell phones 419-889-3932 And that’s my cell phone. Just reach out to me. We weren’t happy to share information about you know what we have going on or you can reach out to me and briggs@Senecaregionalchamber.com and shoot me an email but I you know, there’s a lot of different folks that I’ve met along the way. I do a monthly zoom with people across the country, their chamber professionals because like, look, you know, the day you think you’ve figured it out, as you know, that uh, you run your nonprofit, like a nonprofit is the day to day, life becomes a lot more difficult for you.

Brandon Burton 39:00
Yeah, for sure. But we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode too. So people can can look it up and reach out and touch base with you and learn more. But I appreciate you spending some time with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I love hearing these stories of you know, you get a fresh approach and an organization and throw some fuel on the fire and watch it burn. You guys are doing an awesome job. So keep that momentum keep that consistency and persistence. And I think there’s going to be even bigger numbers. Yeah, a year from now or two years from now. So I appreciate you sharing these insights and experiences with us today.

Brandon Burton 39:25
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Positively Disrupt Your Chamber Community with Tony Rubleski

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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.

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

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 Tony Rubleski. Tony is currently the President of Mind Capture Group. His message is designed to help people capture more minds and profits. He’s an in demand speaker who’s given hundreds of presentations executive coach, best selling author and creator of the mind capture bootcamp. Now in its 13th year, he has over 25 years of experience in the personal development industry. His mind capture book series has spawned multiple best sellers in a variety of businesses and coaching categories with Amazon. The acclaimed series has received many endorsements from a wide range of leaders in marketing sales, psychology to academia and multiple New York Times bestselling authors. Book number eight in the series titled positive disruption Volume Two more quotes and questions to up shift your life, released globally in 2022. And book number nine will release in the fall of 2024. His work has been featured in various media outlets ranging from Toastmasters International magazine, the Detroit Free Press, the Fox TV network, ABC, NBC and CNN radio, NPR on an Entrepreneur Magazine, radio, and now on Chamber Chat Podcast. In addition, he’s also served as faculty member with the US Chamber of Commerce and CEO space International. But, Tony, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well, Brandon,

Tony Rubleski 3:35
Well, Brandon, thank you for bringing me on here and happy new year to all the chamber executives in the first thing I want to mention to all of them that are listening either now when they catch it live or time shift. Is that thank you for what you do. You know, we talked before we hit record here I’ve worked with hundreds of chambers the last 20 years and being the CEO, or even on staff at a chamber sometimes the loneliest job in the world, Brandon, you do a lot, you have a ton of spinning plates. Everywhere you go, people are watching you, and you have a vital leadership role in the community. So thank you for doing that. Because right now I’ll start out with a really hard hitting punch and a little bit of fun fact is leadership is in short supply right now, I believe the last three and a half years the post COVID World 2020 on it feels like we’ve been in an episode of The Twilight Zone. And people just look like they’re walking around kind of in a daze like an earthquake happen. And we’re still trying to recover I believe because we’re not going back to 2019 Brandon, and I think a lot of our chambers know it but again, I want to genuinely thank you because I think more than ever, here’s my opening salvo are shot across the bow chambers. If they position right we will grow at an even better rate. It won’t be easy. The chamber executives know this. But here’s why say that bold proclamation. Local businesses during the pandemic got hammered. Small Business still took it. You know many of them are still closing or trying to get back to where they’re at Brandon You can help them Ding ding ding. I got the cowbell here. Okay, I’m gonna ring and we’re gonna have fun is chambers of commerce. And I have a resource at the end of the podcast, I’m going to tease everybody. It’s an article seven reasons why every chamber, every business should join the Chamber of Commerce. So I’m going to tease the listeners here. I’m going to make that resource available at the end. But it really ties into the fact that you are the center of glue for many are small to midsize companies. I know you have your big board members, your power companies, your nonprofits, your hospital systems, you need them for sure. However, if we’re to revive small midsize business going forward now in 2024, I believe that chambers are well positioned massive credibility and a track record to attract those new businesses or those businesses. You know, we’re kind of struggling still. Okay, this is exactly why you need the Chamber of Commerce. So I’m sticking to it, Brandon, I’ve seen it. I was very active in Chambers of Commerce for many years before I started my own company. And to me, they are the essential glue, that sometimes even chamber executives forget they’re too close to it. They deal with all the you know, the firefights, and the committees and the board member that drives them nuts is again, huge thank you keep bleeding because it does matter. Yes,

Brandon Burton 6:15
I love that great. Shout out to all the chambers listening. So thank you for that for sure. Tell us a little bit more maybe about the mind capture group. I know I shared some in your bio, but tell us a little bit about the work that you do and kind of where your focus is. Well, I

Tony Rubleski 6:31
think the big thing is I came up with a new tagline with our team Kelsey Sanders and she’s my MacGyver on the mind capture team is really what I looked at as I helped companies and their employees get inspired to share ideas instead of staying disengaged and quitting. I’m gonna repeat this is like our, our leading charge next year, going into 24. As we go into chambers of commerce, for example, I do a session for their local membership in the whole goal. If they had the nonprofit community there. Some leaders and lots of small midsize companies that send their teams is I’m there to inspire them to possibly disrupt their mindset, which isn’t easy, Brandon, because the world is so doggone negative. We’re trained and conditioned to be drawn to negative news and headlines, I just came off and NBC affiliate this morning on live television, thanking them for bringing me on TV. Because most of the time, it’s about all the bad things in the world, or the good things far out nobody the negativity. So this is where the chambers to me shine. They bring in high quality events, they bring in training and workshops, sometimes they bring me in. But the whole goal, when I’m doing training with the Chamber coming in is to say look, I want the Chamber members that bring their teams to get inspired. Many times the chamber staff will sit in the back and I’m like, Oh my gosh, we need this to get re inspired to so that we can feel like we can share ideas that were actually being heard. So if your audience you know, if you’re listening right now, unless you’re driving, be careful, we’re at the gym on the treadmill is please write this down. People want to be heard random. Your Chamber members want to be heard like ham, small business on Main Street or ham, the, you know, the side hustle a working mom that has a full time job and has a little side hustle business on Amazon or Etsy. And they join maybe reluctantly, because money is tight. They want to know that their voice, their concerns are being heard. So the chamber can say, hey, we’re listening. And we have some new programs or we’re working on some programs that we’re going to roll out to members like you to serve you as well, not just the big players, not the old established companies or community. But the emerging companies that are new and in the startup phase or the side hustle as they grow, they’ll never forget that the chamber was there for him. So that’s a lot of what I do. I do a lot of training. As you might imagine. In for me, sometimes what I’ve seen last two years is chambers like, look, we used to come in and talk to our board about leadership. So a lot of times, they’ll say, Hey, we’ve got your book to do a program for our membership. We want you to come in the night before and talk to our board about leadership. So it’s been fun to see that reemerges last year to come out of COVID because the boy leadership, you couldn’t give it away in 20 and 21. Because everyone’s just trying to like figure out what’s just happened here globally, we’re all kind of been put into a timeout, the economy’s kind of in a long position. And I’m in Michigan, and our state got shut down for almost a year and a half Brandon. I’m not here to play politics, but it dramatically impacted a lot of the small midsize businesses to get back on their feet. And to me, that was where the Chamber’s really could shine by saying hey, this is why you need us more than ever had the group collective to have more of a voice versus just being alone on Main Street. Come join us to promote Chamber of what commerce commerce is business activity. So I hope that helps.

Brandon Burton 9:44
Yes, absolutely. And I like how you talked about kind of that mission that you go forth with positively disrupting mindset and that’s kind of our topic for today is how to positively disrupt your chamber community or and all of that starts with your mindset as a leader at your organization and we’ll dive in much deeper on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Visit ChamberNation.com to learn more.

Donna Novitsky 11:57

Gina Rozier 12:15

Donna Novitsky 12:44

Thanks, Gina. Wondering how you can have your own community card for free. Check out yiftee.com for next steps. Now back to the show.

Brandon Burton 12:56
All right, Tony, we’re back. So right before the break, we talked about the title of this episode, being positively disrupting your chamber community, but also your mindset. What does that mean for you as a leader? And I know there’s a difference between leadership and management. But maybe touch on some of that throughout our conversation today. But how do you inspire individuals to positively disrupt their mindset and in turn their their organizations?

Tony Rubleski 13:27
Well, I think for today, knowing the chamber, many executives or their staffs that may listen to this podcast is that I want to really hone in on what I call the three G’s make it really simple, the three G’s to start 2024. The first one is gratitude. The second is goals. And the third is get healthy, and I’ll go real quick through each one of those, Brandon. But what I mean by this is I want every chamber professional listening right now, to know that I designed a lot of the thought process when I reached out to you to come on, of how do we tune in recharge you the chamber professional, you get drained. I know this because I’ve had conversations many of you privately, or I do staff retreats sometimes where they’re like, Man, I just feel like why do I do this some days. So if you’re listening right now, I want to really give this tour you the chamber pro in really gratitude as the first gene is to sometimes sit back and go, Wow, we are making a difference. Boy, we had 20 events this year. And most of them were successful. That’s something to be grateful for, but strip it down what I do every day that I think might be a value. Actually handwrite in a journal with a pen and paper what I’m grateful for every single day. I know it’s old school. It’s not high tech, but it works and here’s the reason why I think it works. It reminds us as a daily habit that we have so many good things going on, that we can overpower that one or two nine problems that all humans have. It’s that one headache or that one issue that many times clogs our mental space like a virus of the mind. So Starting to deal with gratitude. It could be as something as simple as in the shower, you say, Hey, I’m grateful for another day. But I’m a big believer that when you write things down or you look at your gratitude list or your goals each day, it helps inspire you. When someone’s not there to give you a motivational talk, Brandon, and you’ve got to get yourself inspired. So gratitude to me, it also helps you get out of a funk really like me and I just feel like you know, this events driving us nuts here, the chamber, you go, Wait a minute, we’ve done successful events before, we will lead this event forward. It’s not going to be easy, but it gives you that extra momentum to keep pushing towards the touchdown or the goal line when you feel like quitting. Okay, the second genius goals we all know this Brandon, a lot of times chamber executives say a lot of your stuff is basic, but we forgot this. Really when I am in the remind he business of things we have forgotten that make us successful in our careers. Okay, goals to me. Simple thing again, just write them down, review them off and check off the goals you make. And Sarah there’s there’s momentum going on here. Like a domino, that tip she took one domino, the rest of the dominoes fall, but stop and go live, I put 10 major goals for the year, I already hit two or three of them. With that reminders, you’ve done this before, and you can do it again. And again, when you write your goals down, it becomes more of a reality versus a dream or an idea or a wish, or a written goal inspires you to go hey, what there’s some more clarity here. Okay? The third area, the third G is to get healthy. I mean body, mind and spirit. If you’re listening, the mindset to me is very, very important. That’s my realm of expertise. Okay, motivation, inspiration, positive disruption into me, the world is so doggone negative, that if you allow someone in a meeting or any event to rattle you, and you carry that over throughout the day, that negative energy does rub off on your staff, it rubs off on potential members, it rubs off on people walking into your office. So the best thing you can do is to remind yourself, hey, I have to like reset, almost like you do with your computer, like Ctrl Alt Delete to reboot. Let’s say look, I have to defend my mindset each day. That’s why I talk about gratitude, having your goals, reminding yourself with pictures of things you’ve done successfully at the chamber. On those tough days to go, Hey, we’ve been in tougher situations, we’ll get through this. Continue about getting healthy physical, this the physicality of our health, Brandon, I work out five or six times a week not to boast. I made a goal 12 years ago when I turned 40 that part of me being self employed is Tony, you have to stay in shape. If someone’s flying you across to timezones and you’re in front of 500 people, you have to look good, feel good and exude that you’re healthy. So, to me, we’re at the New Year here. Maybe it’s something as simple as taking a walk a mile a day, maybe it’s joining a gym today and walking on the treadmill. I’m drinking water as we record this with my coffee, okay, more water, watching what you eat, you know, the Chamber lunch and the Chamber breakfast, maybe cut back and you say instead of two plates, I’m only gonna have one plate. It’s simple little things that stack up and you get those little wins. That if you start to compound those little micro goals towards your health, all of a sudden, February, March, you’ve lost 10 pounds. Well, you were more intentional. You set some little small goals. You chipped away at it, and you started to stack little successes on it. So to me the mindset part of the goals is very important as far as getting healthy, the physicality and also the spiritual side. I’m not here to preach or talk religion. That’s not my lane. But I can tell you having a good spiritual grounding I’ve learned in many executives in the chamber space are more open to this gives you more of a deeper intentionality. So regardless of what faith walk you have, or belief in a higher power, I believe that gives you more focus to say, hey, you know what, there’s a bigger picture going on here. What is the legacy that you as a chamber executive want to hand off? A lot of times, that’s more of a spiritual quest of like, say, hey, next 10 or 15 years in the chamber space, I want to leave the community better. While typically with some spiritual grounding the body mind spirit part of the health component, Brandon, that gives you a deeper why a deeper reason to when you want to quit the chamber. Trust me, I bet half the listeners are going oh my god, he knows that he’s been in my office. No, it’s a demanding job. But here again, as the reminder, like I said, the onset right now, leadership is in short supply. This is the time again, for chambers and more importantly, each of you listening to shine as a chamber Pro, to step up and lead the community when they really really need you. So write this down. Most communities really, really need you more than ever, because we are still in a very funky timeline, where there’s a lot of confusion. What do we have coming up later this year, a presidential election. It’s gonna get nasty. I believe it’s gonna get very negative. I don’t like to say those words. But I’m also very pragmatic brand and I’m an adult, that it’s where chambers can be like, Hey, we know we got some politics going on. There’s a lot of name calling but we’re here to the matter of who wins the president election. We’re going to be here the next 10 years the next 20 Next 100 Switch he was the chamber leader steam Positive, when everyone’s going to be really bombarded with negativity during the campaign that I’m sorry, a lot of politicians thrive on dividing, we have a lot more in common. This is another hint for your marketing for chambers, we have more in common than we have that’s dividing us. I know that’s controversial. It doesn’t sell radio spots or television ads. But I’m here to tell you that if you can be a uniter, a great listener, a great leader, show the community what you’re doing to positively disrupt and keep moving the community forward. You’re going to shine, you’re going to get referrals and you’re going to retain a lot more members because they’re gonna go wow, you’re like a beacon of light. And all this negativity right now, especially with all the politicians really cranking up the negativity from about probably June, July on till November. So I want a little bit bigger, broad picture there, but those three G’s to me pick and choose if you’re listening to Hey, no, I’m doing a couple of those are hanging on I need to get my health better this year, and maybe this will be the inspiration to do it.

Brandon Burton 20:58
Ya know, just to maybe expand on that a little bit. The gratitude aspect, I think it really puts in focus your why why do we do what we do, and having the gratitude and, and seeing you know, all the good things you have in your life kind of keep that motivation going. The goals, just a little tip strategy that I that I was introduced to me a few years back is to picture yourself, you know, sitting at a an airport, right? And a good friend you haven’t seen for years comes up to you. It says five years in the future, they come up to you and say, Brandon, how’s it going? You know, how’s life and you say it’s great, but you really mean it? Like, what about life is so great? And like form your goals from there? What does that future life look like? What are those things that you accomplished five years from now or a year from now? Or whatever that timeline is? And kind of make that be your vision kind of makes it a reality? And then getting help? Go ahead?

Tony Rubleski 21:56
Oh, thank you for sharing continue. I love this. It’s future pacing. And it’s a lot of people don’t talk about this, but I love to hear your perspective. Because it’s awesome.

Brandon Burton 22:04
Yeah, well, and I was in touch on getting healthy. I think there’s there’s a few things that human beings are meant to do, right, like walking, eventually walking and drinking some of these basic things, right. And for some of us, walking gets harder, you know, as we age or, you know, get out of health. So simple things like like walking with some strength training, I’ve heard some indicators for you know, longevity, is being able to have good grip strength, you know, can you hang from a bar and just, you know, kind of have that be a measurement of how long can you hang from a bar as kind of a marker for for longevity. So it’s just interesting things, the ability to jump, you know, up onto a little box or jump rope or something. Another key for longevity. So, just little little to add

Tony Rubleski 22:51
to that. That’s awesome is to add to that. Yeah, our physicality does change as we age. I’m 51. And I started guitar lessons three months ago, I’ve always wanted to take guitar, I’m self taught. And without the second lesson, I almost quit. You think me like no, you don’t quit. You’re a goal setting guy. You’re in all that personal development stuff. But Vincent, my guitar instructor was so patient like look, I know that chords driving me crazy because my fingers wouldn’t move the way my other chords did on the guitar. I just said this is frustrated. Like a little kid. He goes now you’re not the first guitar player. And the thing is, it’s a fun challenge to start guitar lessons at 51 I feel like a seven year old with him sometimes he does a great job of keeping it simple, but he also pushes me because I know how to I have good speed on the guitar and I know someone how to play so I can tell you one other way to get healthy mentally is to try a new challenge go after an old goal. Maybe you take up dancing lessons maybe you try swimming at the local YMCA or you know a health club that of course is a chamber member and just keep pushing yourself and I don’t know random people get bored there’s so much good stuff from YouTube to podcasts. So much free knowledge out there there’s tons of I’m sure many of your listeners know there’s many of your Chamber members have really cool businesses they might have a cooking class at the local restaurant, take up cooking that’s one thing my partner Linda and I have done is we’re learning to cook a new meal every month in the wintertime. So instead of just you know getting food out or eating on our own we say let’s make the stuff mushrooms today let’s make some chili next week or two and it’s giving us something that we can both do together that’s fun she’s a better cook than me honestly. And I’m learning and it makes we sit down have that meal much more appreciative and grateful because we made it we spent time connecting so there’s tons of ways you can look at this doesn’t always have to be read like a self help book that that isn’t wrong with that practical thing is that when people ask me how do you know what your why is well go back to when you were a child what really engaged your head your interest, and maybe it was sports so maybe you join a you know, a part time rec league for softball or intramural softball. Maybe you said hey, I used to be really big into football, maybe join a fantasy football league I don’t know, there’s plenty of cool opportunities instead of staying in the same old status stuck, right? In as members are listening or your subscribers are in chamber world. This is a new year. So why not try something new? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:15
absolutely. So earlier in our conversation, you mentioned something stood out to me about leadership being in short supply. And and you also alluded to there’s a certain loneliness that comes in leadership to you get doing the work, and you’re often the only one in your community doing the work that you’re doing. Can you expand a little bit more on that about the leadership being in short supply, and there may be chamber leaders, not to damp anybody’s parade, there might be chamber, quote unquote, leaders that aren’t maybe leading, you know, maybe they’re doing more managing of the chamber, but not necessarily leading? So what do you mean there?

Tony Rubleski 25:53
Well, that’s a great question. I think the danger is you get into firefighting mode, so that many chamber executives go, I know exactly what that is. So you have to watch how much firefighting you’re doing versus actually implementing in successfully pulling off your agenda and adding a few new things into it. But let me give you a few resources. Again, I’m in reminding business, I think some chamber execs, no, some are like, I have not heard of that. Many of the state groups have state associations for chamber executives. That to me is a no brainer. If I’m in your realm, you join your state chapter. In addition, you have everything from ACC, which is more of an American Chamber of Commerce executives, the US Chamber Institute, I be remissed, I used to be faculty member there for many years in the Midwest. So you have ILM program, which allows you to network with other chamber and Association Executives so that you realize I’m not alone here. And here’s the big aha, you can exchange best practices all the time. And that is wonderful to have multiple minds helping you solve a problem. If you’re the chamber executive in Omaha summit in Savannah, Georgia might have already done an event or solve a certain board challenge. They go, Oh my gosh, here’s how I dealt with that, that could shaving years of worry off, save you a lot of time and frustration by just networking. So those are a few resources. And here’s the thing about being lonely. I’ve been self employed for almost 20 years, Brandon. And when you’re leading the company, with our team, or I’m out and about doing trainings and workshops, I can’t tell them about maybe my personal life issues, that I’m struggling sometimes, too. Here’s the big myth. People think that, you know, motivational speakers, or inspirational people like me, are always positive. We’re not always positive. You know, I’ve had issues with my kids before I have former partners, you know, I’ve, I’ve had business failures, too, I’ve had lots of success. But you don’t go over Facebook and social media and talk about your failures. That’s typically where you show your wins. So again, it’s very similar. If you’re the chamber CEO or vice president with with a for profit businesses CEO, many times that office, they cannot fully reveal the stress they’re going through. So to me, leverage. There’s nothing wrong with joining associations or groups that are there to support you so that you realize, Wow, I’m not the one that’s going through this. And more importantly, you can exchange ideas that work to help each other to be even more successful. So, again, leadership to me, you don’t just wake up and you’re born a leader, you learn to become a leader by doing the repetitions by doing the projects by getting work experience by failing a lot. John Maxwell calls it failing forward, the great leadership expert, you’re going to fail forward, you’re gonna have some events that fail and some that win, okay, we need to focus more on the winners, and then start to maybe get rid of a few events that are taking up too much of our staff too much bandwidth, we’re not making as much, you know, revenue off of it. That’s a constant adjustment of, if you’re like an airplane pilot, the stick that flies the airplane, you’re constantly making those mid course corrections, as you’re flying the plane is a leader because there’s turbulence, there’s change, there’s new passengers coming on the plane, you have to know how to land the plane, which to get the event done successfully, you know how to take the plane off, which is starting something new. So I don’t know where that aviation reference came from. But it seems to be a good parallel to what chamber life is like

Brandon Burton 29:04
it is and to go along with that the pilot has all this data, right, they’ve got all their dials and controls and altitude and everything that they can see kind of at their fingertips. And at your organization, if you don’t have the key data points to be able to make those decisions to be able to say, our revenues up or membership or attendance or whatever the things are that are important to you to measure at these events or at your organization in general with membership or programs or whatever it may be. Then how do you know what direction to go like you need to collect those key data points and revisit them often to see you know where you’re trending Are you going up or down? Is it positive momentum or negative and make those adjustments just like a pilot with Yeah,

Tony Rubleski 29:50
and the other thing too is for those members are listening is watch who in your chamber space locally that you’re listening to. I call it misery loves company, or Eagles hang out with Eagles misery loves company is the chamber that says, you know, all my other neighbor chamber executives around me and the surrounding committees are all complained about this watch out for that. It can bring you down. I’m not saying you ignore the obvious but you don’t spend as much time at the water cooler on a zoom call weinan Is there what do we do to solve it? And Eagles hang on Eagles is the other opposite side of the pendulum, model other successful chambers. It’s easy now in the point and click rule of either your cell phone or your laptop to find out what other chambers are doing online that successful pick up the phone and call chamber that’s two states away and say, Hey, I’m Executive here or vice president we want to try to do you have five or 10 minutes. It’s not being afraid to put yourself out there. And here’s the biggest mistake that most people make in business, including chambers. They don’t ask a SK, they don’t ask for an introduction to a potential member. They don’t ask a board member for some advice. They don’t ask another, you know, potential business. Hey, what do you guys struggling with? We assume that they’re going to tell us and we think well, I don’t want to bug them. I don’t want to be a problem. I know they’re busy. No, you don’t? If you hear the word no, it’s not going to kill you, Brandon. It’s not what you don’t get unless you ask it’s the old Wayne Gretzky quote from the hockey world, you’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Same with asking for help. There’s nothing wrong with it. If anything, it endears your peers to the fact that, hey, you’re just like me, you’re human. And you’re willing to listen to new ideas and even counter viewpoints to push you.

Brandon Burton 31:25
So hope that helps him as the younger crowd would say shoot your shot, right? So I wanted to ask for chambers listening who wants to take their organization up to the next level? Or you could say who want to positively disrupt their organization? What tip or action item might you have to share beyond what you’ve already shared with us that they could maybe implement in their organization?

Tony Rubleski 31:51
I think is we we aired this in the new year starting 2024 Is this is be thinking yourself, who can your best Chamber members take you to? That’s not a chamber member yet. Those not yet members. And here’s what I would give. If I was working with you in a in your boardroom, I’d look at your 1520 board members, for example, say, Hey, who are two or three businesses here in the community that need to be a part of this chamber? If I’m the executive, I grab the pen and paper I record and I write down. All right, Mike, were two or three companies that you do business with here in Omaha that are a part of the chamber, I’d like to reach out to them and talk about why they should consider joining the Omaha chamber. And you let your your current disciples, your true believers bring in more people via referral. I call it introductions. And matter of fact, I do an entire session on this for the last 20 years teaching referral marketing, specifically for Chambers as who can your top members introduce you to even if they used to be a chamber member brand. And here’s what I want to really convey everyone listening, don’t let the old biases of the history damper your ability to go back and say, Hey, that chambers keeps evolving. We’ve changed. We’ve got some new folks on we knew you remember 10 years ago, let me ask you has your business changed, our business has changed a lot the last 10 years, so has the chamber. That’s how you get rid of that old history. And you reopen the door because the only constant is change and grow forward. So that would be my big tip is your best members can bring it to other people that can join. If you ask them in, the more specific you get Brandon, if it’s one restaurant, you say who are two or three of the restaurants here in town that you network with a really respect to their good that haven’t heard of the chamber, the more specific on the Ask the much higher chance or probability they’re going to give you a referral because you’ve made it where they go, oh, yeah, I was just talking to my buddy Mike at the other law firm. For example, one lawyer talks to a lawyer, another banker might talk to another bank or credit union will talk to another credit union. So work vertical markets, ask intentionally and be very specific. So I just gave you a referral magic seminar in like two minutes.

Brandon Burton 33:56
For free to how about that? So I’m really like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future of chambers of commerce. I know you’ve got a long history working with chambers. How do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Tony Rubleski 34:14
I think it bodes well for the chambers that believe in themselves. And if you don’t get too mired up in the politics, not only that the national level, but the the regional and the local is This to me is where chambers can really thrive. I gave up several clues in the interview, that small midsize companies sometimes are never even approached about chamber membership. Many of them know that they’re battling. Let’s be very candid. The data doesn’t lie. A lot of the big businesses during the pandemic got huge PTP loans that were never repaid and have to pay them back in a lot of small midsize mainstream businesses, the numbers, how many went out of business? They’re having a tough go at it. So I’m not saying you pick on your big members or your anti corporate America, but that’s a good data point to notice that, hey, we understand that it was challenging last few years, we want to help you grow forward and introduced other people that can help your business, bring you training to help you retain more employees to attract more employees. And that is a very, very key hot button for a lot of small mid sized companies as the chamber can help introduce them to those opportunities. So I believe the chamber future if you have the right mindset, obviously, it’s very much you can grow now, when the economy is really good. Here’s the paradox. People are too busy for the chamber, usually, while we’re just so busy, because everything’s going well, when you have a challenge economy or a flat economy. That’s where if you’re proactive in your outreach chambers can really, really flourish. So flourish while the timing is right, which to me, there’s the next several years. And

Brandon Burton 35:48
absolutely, and it is a paradox, you know, for the individual businesses or the economy in general, you know that the times that the chamber is really called upon is when it’s the toughest time. So as we wrap up here, I wanted to give you an opportunity, Tony to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect. I know, you had also teased about an article that you wanted to share as well. Okay, good. Good recall,

Tony Rubleski 36:14
Brandon. So two things, the easiest way to find these, if you go to mind capture group.com, that’s my main web page, you’ll see my face there, and all the other goodies there. But MindCaptureGroup.com what I really want to issue as a special bonus here, for those that are listening, is I have an article on my blog, and you can try to find it, I’ll make it easy. Send me a direct email, or even a Facebook message. My email is simply Tony@MindCaptureGroup.com, I will send you a direct link, I’m not going to spam you, I’m not going to email you to the end of time. So please, no, I’m not going to do that. But the article is called “7 Reasons Every Business and Nonprofit Should be a Member of their Local Chamber of Commerce”. I can’t write a better headline than that. But the article on the blog post, feel free to share it, it’s copyright free. Share that with prospective members, share it with people that are getting ready to renew. But it’s a great article written from years of experience in the industry, of why more than ever, you should join the chamber. So it’s on my blog, but it’s a little tricky to find. So if you email me again, Tony at mind capture group.com put, you know the Chamber Chat Podcast, or you know the article seven reasons, I’ll make sure I send that to you right away. But again, I want to make sure we added a ton of value, because you’re only going to remember maybe a couple of key points from this interview. I know that because I listen to podcasts. And I want to make sure there’s some take home value that you can share with the organization that may not hear this podcast as well. Now,

Brandon Burton 37:36
and I appreciate that having that article that resource available to share. We will get your email and website in our show notes for this episode, too, to make it easy for people to reach out to you to get that article. But I hope as this episode comes to an end that everyone listening takes a few moments. And just hit pause, don’t let the next episode start playing. Just sit in some silence. Think about those three G’s, the gratitude goals and getting healthy. And what does that look like for you in 2024? And write down some notes about that, and maybe revisit it towards the end of the year and see, see what positive changes what positive disruption you’ve seen in your life. But Tony, it’s been a blast having you with us today. On the podcast, you have delivered a lot of value for us. If you have any, any parting words, before we let you go? I’ll let you share that. And then we’ll we’ll let you go.

Tony Rubleski 38:33
A couple things here. Thank you again, Brandon for bringing me on. I love it. I signed on scout in your chamber chat podcast for many months when I reached out to him, I love this. So thank you for what you’re doing. And I guess no happy new year. You know, if anything, know that what you do is extremely important. I’m getting ready to re up at one of my chambers here in Michigan, I’m going to call them up and say hey, I’m ready to join again. So I’m also an active, I don’t just preach about it, I actively work a couple of chambers in my home community. So thank you for what you do. And keep up the good work and know that especially now in the year of election, this to me is where the chamber really has a powerful chance to shine against that negative and say, Hey, we’re doing good things here locally. Come check us out. So thank you for that.

Brandon Burton 39:18
Absolutely. Thanks for being with us, Tony. This has been great.

Tony Rubleski 39:22
Thank you everybody.