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Category: workforce development

Richland Area Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Jodie Perry

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

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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Becki Womble 1:03
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Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Jody Perry. Jody has led the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development in Mansfield, Ohio since July 2014 and 2017. She also took over leadership for the Richland Community Development Group. In this combined role she’s responsible for leading the county wide economic community and workforce development efforts. Prior to this position, she led the grease New York and Van Wert Ohio area chambers of commerce and also served on the staff of the Ashland Ohio area Chamber of Commerce. Jody received her Bachelors of Arts in political science and religion from Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio. Jody earned her IOM designation in 2008. In 2018, she received her distinction as a CCE the highest certification in the industry. Jody received the 2019 Athena award for Richland County, the important the importance of business was instilled at her at a young age she grew up in a family of entrepreneurs in Rochester, New York. Another interesting fact is Jody was a prior guest on the on the chamber chat podcast back in episode 53, as she talked about community development projects, but Jodi, I’m thrilled to have you back with us on chamber chat podcast. I’d love for you to say hello to all the chamber champions that are listening and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jodie Perry 36:07
Thanks so much, Brandon.

Brandon Burton 36:08
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North Central Massachusetts Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Roy Nascimento

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

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guests for this episode is Roy Nascimento. Roy has been President and CEO of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce since January 2015. Under his leadership, the North Central Massachusetts chamber has been recognized among the top chambers of commerce in the country for its impact and operations. Among many of its honors, the chamber was a 2017 and 2021 runner up for the prestigious National chamber the Year Award, the first chamber of Massachusetts and New England to have ever been recognized as a finalist. The chamber also achieved four star accreditation in 2018. As a 20 plus year veteran of the chamber profession Roy previously served as president and CEO of the New Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce from 2006 until December 2014. Roy also previously led the Attleboro Area Chamber of Commerce and served as vice president at the Metro South Chamber of Commerce in Brockton. Roy is a leader within the Chamber of Commerce Industry. He is the past president of the board of the Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce executives and as past chair of the New England Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, and the MACCE council chambers. In recognition of his leadership and record of accomplishments, Roy was named New England chamber Executive of the Year in 2011. He’s an IOM graduate from Villanova and the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and has been designated as a CCE by ACC some of you may remember ROI from previous episode 99 episodes ago on episode 134. But, Roy, I’m excited to have you back on Chamber Chat Podcast again as a Chamber the Year Finalist. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and go ahead and share something interesting about yourself so you can all get to know you even better.

Roy Nascimento 4:17
So thank you, Brandon. It’s really an honor to be to be back and especially under the circumstances being a finalist again for for this very prestigious honor. So we’re hoping this is our third time being a finalist we’re hoping Third time’s the charm and that we get it this year but I’m I’m I’m not that interesting. I leave a lead a pretty boring life. So there’s not much I guess I’m gonna lean back on what I mentioned the last time you interviewed me that that’s kind of neat about me is that that I’m most of your listeners probably wouldn’t be aware of this but I’m actually a child of immigrants. My parents were were were from Europe, from Portugal. emigrated here for a better life. And I was born here. So I’m a US citizen. But actually a few years back, I ended up applying to get my Portuguese citizenship. I had a friend who had, who was of Irish descent. And he applied his grandmother was from from Ireland, and he applied and was successful in getting dual citizenship. And I thought that was pretty cool. So I said, let me let me try that. And so I applied and was able to get dual citizenship. So I’m a citizen. And I’m also a Portuguese citizen. And that’s something that I can in turn pass down to my kids, because they can apply for Portuguese citizenship, if they choose down the road. So and it’s just a nice way to kind of connect back with my heritage. And so that’s kind of the different something that your listeners probably unaware.

Brandon Burton 5:53
Yeah, no, I think that is fascinating. And when you share that last time, I thought that was really interesting and fascinating. And I know a lot of people have dual citizenships, but usually with the US and Canada, you know, to be able to have us and Portugal that that’s, that’s pretty neat. Well, tell us a little bit more about the North Central Massachusetts chamber just to kind of set the stage for our discussion, help us understand the type of chamber you are is size, staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of know where you’re coming from before we get into our conversation.

Roy Nascimento 6:30
Sure. So our chamber is based in the city of Pittsburgh, Massachusetts, it’s a city of about 42,000 people. And we are a Regional Chamber. So we cover city of Pittsburgh, to other cities that are in North Central Massachusetts of similar size. And altogether, we cover about 27 communities. And we’re basically, you know, as the name suggests, we’re in North Central Massachusetts. So we’re, we’re about an hour west of Boston. And our region is it’s a obviously I’m a little biased, but it’s a beautiful and really wonderful dynamic region. Here in New England. We are we offer so much, we have a very diverse economy, very, very focused on manufacturing and the largest concentration of manufacturing in the state. But we’re also we also have a good mix of rural communities. So we have a lot of farms and agricultural businesses, we have about 800 farms, orchards and other agricultural businesses, here in North Central Massachusetts, and in you know, we’re our claim to fame, one of our claims to fame is that were the home of and the birthplace of Johnny Appleseed from American folklore, he was actually born here. And lemons stir Massachusetts, which is our largest city in North Central Massachusetts. And so and we still have a lot of or orchards, apple orchards here and and in the region. And we really market the heck out of that as part of our tourism marketing efforts, kind of our agricultural history and in our connection to Johnny Appleseed and American history. In terms of the chamber size, we’re our budget is about a million and a half now. And we have about about 1617 staff that on the professional staff. And we’ve grown over the last few years, particularly around our work around economic development.

Brandon Burton 8:32
Good deal. Yeah, the the whole Johnny Appleseed aspect is, that’s interesting. You definitely have something to kind of plant a flag in and everybody in the country is familiar with Johnny Appleseed, and can really capitalize on that. So I think every community has their thing, right? Your thing just happens to be one that more more people can resonate with?

Roy Nascimento 8:53
Absolutely. And I know, we’re not the only state that has ownership of Johnny Appleseed, you know, he certainly helped pioneer many parts of our country and but it all started here. He was born here. And we really tried to capitalize on that. And we use as part of our marketing that were Johnny Appleseed country. So it’s a great place to for people coming from the city and from other parts of the mainland to come out and connect with their agricultural roots and come out here to some of our origins that have reinvented themselves, you know, and become destinations, really catering to visitors and tourists.

Brandon Burton 9:29
That’s great. It’s got me wondering what his real last name is. So I’m gonna have to do some research. Chapman, John Chapman, all right, save me some some study. Well, I’d like to just have you maybe hit the two programs that you guys submitted on your chamber through your application at a high level just to kind of give us an idea of what those two programs are about. And then we can circle back and dive in a little deeper on both I’m

Roy Nascimento 10:00
sure so so the first initiative that we had submitted as part of our application, as part of our synopsis, was around an initiative to engage with the Latin X population here in North Central Massachusetts. And this really was an outgrowth of the pandemic. We, we operate underneath the umbrella of the chamber A, A, our economic development arm, it’s called the North Central Massachusetts Development Corporation. And it’s a 501 C three nonprofit organization. And it is, it’s our economic was formed by the chamber and it’s our economic development arm. And this, under this entity, we are considered we were certified by the US Treasury as a community development financial institution. We’re also an SBA lender, and we’re a community advantage lender under the SBA and EDA lender. So all that means that we are able to provide micro loans to businesses in the region to support economic development. And with that, we’ve also grown our technical assistance, we do a lot of hand holding, providing a lot of counseling and technical assistance. And in recent years, we’ve started providing grants as well, to support startup businesses and existing small businesses that a variety of reasons can’t get through traditional financing. So we will be able to provide them some some capital to help them get that business going with, with the caveat that it creates jobs and investment in our communities. And we’ve been doing this since the 1990s. And we’ve been growing in recent years. And we found during the pandemic that that Latino businesses, and again, Latinos are the largest minority population in the region, and are one of our largest communities that represents about 30% of the population. And if you look at the data, Latinos are starting businesses at three times the rate of the general population. So this was obviously a population that we wanted to engage in support. And during the pandemic, when we were doing so much to support businesses and help help them get through the pandemic, we saw that a lot of a lot of Latino businesses were not taking advantage of some of the resources that were out there to support businesses, they weren’t taking advantage of the PPP loans, they weren’t taking advantage of different grants that were offered by the scheme by our local communities. And so really, this was really an outgrowth of that. And so we, we really decided to focus on the Latin X pot population engaging them, we’re really looking to engage them more, we decided to hire a full time individual on our team that was multilingual, Maribel Cruz, and she’s a great addition, she speaks Spanish, Portuguese and English fluently. And we also developed some strong partnerships with other groups within the community that focus on the Latino population. So as a result, we were able to connect Latino business owners to this to our network of businesses to chamber but also to these different resources, including resources that we haven’t anything relevant about incorporation. And we we saw a really strong impact. Over the last two years. We did about a million dollars of micro loans to Latino businesses that represents now a third of our loans that we made over the two year period, we also provided 1000s of hours of technical assistance to to businesses, and we help connect them to other resources as well. And as a result, these Latino businesses were able to secure loans to other other banks and credit unions and get grants from from from the state as well. So we were able to kind of remember that. And I should also mention, we also evolved. We’ve been evolving over the years. So we’ve started providing grants, as well. So we were able to provide some grants as well to Latino businesses to help them get started or to overcome some some challenges as they were starting so and all that helped create jobs and help create investment within our community. So we’re really, really pleased with the outcome and the impacts from this. You know, these are small loans are micro loans, but they can have a tremendous impact in our communities, helping to start local restaurants and coffee shops and hair salons. And they’re attractive jobs and they create jobs in our community and creates investment in our communities.

Brandon Burton 14:45
Yeah. So as you are reaching out to these these Latin owned businesses, are these strictly Chamber members who are reaching out to is it Latin businesses in general throughout the community, or are you making that approach?

Roy Nascimento 15:00
So we are engaging Latino businesses, they do not have to be a member of the chamber to get a loan from our economic development arm and so. So you know, we were engaging Latinos broadly within North Central Massachusetts. And obviously we’d love to get them more engaged in the chamber. And so that was also something that we wanted to let them know that there’s this network of businesses, and we want them involved, because we think that’s an important part of being successful is networking, and being involved in your local community and, and want them to feel comfortable. So that was an important part of the project, really engaging them, engaging them in the community through some of the partners in the community that they’re already working with, as well as bringing on that staff capacity, bringing someone on that could could reach out to them in their own language, and could provide culturally competent technical assistance and advice to them and engage them. So that was an important objective as part of this project.

Brandon Burton 16:05
Yeah. So with this program, a lot of this is providing micro loans and grants, like you had mentioned. And I know, typically, loans and grants come with some sort of stipulations, you know, an application process and things like that. But being that being a chamber, the year finalist is all about the impact in your community. Because you have these stipulations around loans and grants, what sort of impact are you seeing on the follow up, you know, over time, as these new businesses or especially these Latin businesses are taking advantage of these resources you’re helping give access to,

Roy Nascimento 16:45
so we track the loans and and you’re absolutely right, these are loans, so they have to be repaid. But they’re pretty competitive rates, these are not rates that are not, we’re not a predatory lender, we’re not charging enormous rates, these are same rates you get through a bank. And we do have an underwriting process. So we do have to evaluate each loan. And so a lot of time is often spent with the clients helping them get ready just to secure the loan, because they’re not always prepared and do not have a business plan. So there’s a lot of pre and post loan counseling, getting them prepared to just submit their application, collecting all those documents, and we still do the underwriting. So not everyone gets approved applies to us. So this isn’t free money, you still have to apply and show that they have a plan in place, and that they have, you know, they have a fundamental understanding of their business and what they plan on doing and, and have the ability to repay and be successful long term. And then once they get the loan, we’re still following up with them. So we follow up on a regular basis, our team is meeting with our clients, finding out what are the pain points, where were they struggling? Typically, we see that they’re struggling on things like accounting systems, or marketing, and that’s across the board. That’s not just Platino businesses. And then and then we track the impact, you know, we keep an eye on the loans, we want to make sure that they get paid, as if they get repaid, and we can lend that money out again. So that’s one of the things I love is we continue to have this this impact. But we fundamentally track jobs. And through over the last two years, just just the loans to our our Latin X population that were made, they were about 57 new jobs that were created from that, from those loans that we made an average size loan was just like 25,000. So these are typically very small loans, typically working capital or buy some equipment, we go as high as 250,000. But again, the average is typically about 20,000. That is huge.

Brandon Burton 19:01
That I can I can see the impact that makes individually on each of those businesses. It is a benefactor of those micro loans, and, but also the community in general to be able to have those jobs and the families that are being affected and community and it just it bleeds out throughout the community.

Roy Nascimento 19:18
Absolutely. And And anecdotally, you know, a lot of these loans, you know, really have an impact in the community, we’re seeing loans that a lot of a lot of them tend to be riskier businesses that that that can’t find traditional financing because the industry tends to be very risky. So a lot of food related businesses, coffee shops, restaurants that look at the statistics have a high failure rate. So And typically, we don’t compete with our banks and credit unions. They’re our number one referral source and we partner quite quite a bit with them. So typically, they’re a big referral source for us. So a bank will All Community Bank will will not be able to make a loan to start a business because it’s too risky because they are a startup business. And because they’re looking to open up a restaurant and higher failure rates and, and so that the bank may not want to take that risk. So they’ll pass them along to us. We’ll take a different we’ll take another look at it. We tend to be a little bit more flexible in our lending approach. Again, we still do underwriting but we try to be a little bit more flexible because we have this we’re looking at it through this economic development lens. And as I mentioned, anecdotally, you know, it’s great to see these lawns you know, see these these restaurants start up as coffee shops, startup hair salons in some of our communities. And in some of our downtown’s like we have one community where we got we had one Latino business owner who’s a restaurant tour, who is taking the risk of opening up a restaurant and one of our downtown’s and one of our cities in the downtown is is, is a priority for the municipality, they’re trying to revitalize their downtown. And a lot of empty storefronts there. And so they prioritize bringing in more kind of destination businesses, and they want to see more restaurants in the downtown. So we were able to help them with help this entrepreneur, open up this this Latin restaurant, and that’s, that’s becoming a destination. It’s bringing more people into the downtown. And that’s encouraging more revitalization of the downtown and more businesses opening up in downtown. So it has that kind of ripple effect, beyond just the jobs that we track and the lending dollars that we track, and the job saved, but it’s also that kind of helping to revitalize parts of the community.

Brandon Burton 21:48
Yeah. So the question that comes to my mind is where the initial funding came from, I know you guys have been doing this sort of program for a while, but with the focus on the the Latin population right now. So did that initial funding come through a foundation or, I mean, it’s great as the loans get repaid, and you get some interest collected to be able to get it back out in the community. But for a chamber listening, where where would one get started doing a program like this? So

Roy Nascimento 22:13
that’s a great question. So this goes back, our original lending started back in the late 1990s. So we had a military base here called port Devon’s that was was closing. And so the, the chamber was able to secure a grant from the Economic Development Administration, and utilize that to capitalize our first loan fund. So that’s where it all started, we got this grant, we had to match it. So we have to match it. Think about 25% of the grant medic matched with private sector dollars, which we did at the time. And that capitalized our first revolving fund, which is still providing loans to this day. And so And since then, we’ve expanded, we now have, I think, six loan funds. And one of the loan funds is an SBA loan fund, which we use SBA money, we get a loan from the SBA, at a very favorable rate, and we lend that those dollars in the form of micro loans. And we have to have certain requirements, we have to have a loan loss reserve account setup, and it is a loan, so we have to repay the SBA back, so we’re on the hook for that. But that was that was very useful. A few years back when we needed, we were running out of capital and needed more capital. And since then, we’ve gone out and we’ve been successful and raising other funds, we’ve been able to secure other grants, federal grants, state grants, we’ve also secured private dollars. So we’ve been lucky enough that we’ve been successful, and that our local stakeholders, and our members have been supportive of the work that we’ve been doing. So we’ve been able to secure contributions from some some companies and local local members that have enabled us to capitalize and continue to provide loans. So So yeah, we’ve been successful, especially over the last few years. With the work that we’ve been doing around lending and being able to grow our impact on providing these micro loans. It’s a really nice tool in our in our toolbox to help support community development and economic development here in North Central Massachusetts. And I think it’s something that makes us a little unique, so I know some chambers do it, but not a lot. And so most chambers are not in the lending space. So I’m always happy to talk to any listeners that might be interested in getting involved and, and in providing loans and supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem in their communities.

Brandon Burton 24:50
Yeah, and there could be a whole other deep dive on how to structure that and get set up so any listeners that would take Roy up on that offer to reach out and connect for them to learn more if that’s of interest and providing that resource at your chamber but right let’s say let’s shift gears we’ll we’ll change some focus on to the the other program that was submitted on your chamber the your application as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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Raquel Borges 27:38
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Brandon Burton 28:27
All right, right. We’re back. So tell us what was the second program that you guys submitted in your synopsis on your your chamber that your application?

Roy Nascimento 28:36
Yeah, so the second second project that we submitted was a project that we undertook last year to modernize and improve our visitor center. So we operate a visitor center, it’s called the Johnny Appleseed visitor center named Alfred. And we’ve we’ve operated the visitor center that the visitor center was a byproduct of our of our our regional economic development plan our original regional economic development plan back in the 90s. I mentioned the lending that we do that was also a product of that. So we underwent this kind of big regional economic development planning process when port Devins was closing had some major importers that were closing. So we kind of led this effort is before my time. But out of that came this whole kind of blueprint to really advance our economy here in the region. And and that included supporting startup businesses through micro loans and technical assistance growing our tourism economy because we we really didn’t have much of a tourism economy at the time. And but we’re a beautiful area that has a lot to offer visitors and groups. So out of that came our visitor center that was one of the recommendations so that chamber led this effort to get this visitor center opened in the operate the visitor center with operating successfully since the 1990s. This project really was to modernize and update it. So we operate the visitor center it’s on, it’s on our route to, which is a state highway. It’s actually owned by the state. But we operate it as a partnership with the state. And so we pay for all of expenses, we staff it, we cover all the expenses, I think they, they cover the electricity on the on the lights out in the parking lot, and they plow, but other than that, we cover most of the expenses. And so we really wanted to as part of our new economic development plan that launched in 2021, we wanted to grow our tourism economy. And uh, one of the recommendations was as an as a real action actionable step that we could take was modernizing the visitor center, and really trying to make it really trying to reimagine it and transform it from from a typical kind of visitor center and rest up to more of a unique and inclusive kind of anchor destination that really showcases North Central Massachusetts and really helps to advance our economy. So, so we took on this project, we were lucky enough to secure a small grant on the state of about 75,000 from our Office of Tourism, which we matched. And a total project was, I think, at the time about, but 170,000 altogether. And since then, we’ve made some additional improvements. So it’s probably over 200,000. But we were really looking at at improving Visitor Center and modernizing it adding some amenities that we knew visitors were looking for. Wanted to really tell the story of North Central Massachusetts there. So we wanted to include adding some new interpretive displays, or adding new signage for the collection of historical items that we have there. We have this really, over the years, we’ve built up this enormous collection of historical items that help tell the story of North Central Massachusetts, including a lot of Johnny Appleseed memorabilia, and so we wanted some, some better signage within a visitor center showcasing that collection to visitors. And then we had some added over the years some some interesting artwork, we have this, this, what we call the Big Apple at normal, and which is this big foot 10 foot Apple sculpture. That’s a nice, nice attraction there that people have take photos in front of and have this beautiful sculpture of them Johnny Appleseed there that’s also very popular. So we added some signage to those. And we included a lot a lot of local artwork. We also wanted to make the center safer. So we added more more video cameras on the grounds, we added one and make it more inclusive, so we added more. He added ADA compliant in cap doors, which we didn’t have there. He added shading over the over the picnic tables we added. We added a dog walking station there, which was something that visitors had requested. We added a water bottle bottle refilling station digital screens. And then we really improved the appearance there as well. So we added a new, a new sign. And inside we did a lot of cosmetic renovations to the visitor center, adding a lot of wood paneling to give it kind of that rustic look. And new floors and and we invested quite a bit in landscaping as well. The Visitor Center also has a lot of apple trees, including two apple trees that were from saplings that we received as a gift from Ohio, years back from the original from an original last remaining Johnny Appleseed tree. And planted it’s called a Rambo tree. That’s the variety of apples. And so we made some improvements to the apple trees in the landscaping and throughout the visitor center again, all of it with a goal of trying to improve the visitor experience and also to make it more inclusive. And to better tell the story of North Central Massachusetts. And again, this was so all aligned with our regional economic development plan that identified tourism as priority sector as a way we can grow that and as the as the visitor center as like a really key piece of that infrastructure in the supporting the tourism economy here in West Central Massachusetts that we could improve to help build up our economy here around tourism in the region.

Brandon Burton 34:46
And I like that you’d said the giant Apple, the photo op for tourism to come through there and take pictures and I think it’s a great idea to be able to provide something like that as a tour. Just attraction because it ends up getting shared out on social media, it gets amplified. Oftentimes they’ll tag where they are, you know, at the location they were at when they took the picture. Yeah,

Roy Nascimento 35:09
it’s great. Those types of those types of photo ops are really popular. And we take really great pride and Johnny Appleseed Visitor Center, it’s really a very unique, we like to say it’s not your typical highway rest stop, you know, there there. This started again, back in the 90s. And there were I think, 15, or 16, State Highway visitor centers that were operated on a similar model, there were partnerships with local chambers, or local tourism groups convention is bureaus that would operate the visitor centers in partnership with the state. And unfortunately, a lot of them have have gone out of business they closed. And there’s really no state funding per visitor center. So so the organization really has to operate it and funding, again, provide all the staffing, and most of the costs, most of the expenses are covered by our organization. And we’ve been able to, we’re successful on just being able to keep the doors open and run this visitors very successful Visitor Center, we’ve also again, been able to make it into a very new destination, we want to continue our vision is to be the best Visitor Center in Massachusetts and really tell that story. And it’s great that we’ve gotten some national attention. We were, we were there was a story in by the BBC, about our visitor center, there was a story on our local television is a Boston, Boston television station called WC TV, Channel Five. And they have this is very popular program called Chronicle, which is kind of a lifestyle and Tourism Program, they came out and did a story on the visitor center as a very unique destination. So so we’re not your typical restaurant up, we’re not your typical Visitor Center, we’re really trying to make it more of a destination. And by virtue of making a destination, we’re helping to showcase the region.

Brandon Burton 37:09
Yeah, I think you guys are on the right track with it for sure. I was curious, as far as the vision for the revitalization, and like the actual aesthetics in there, and the displays and the wood paneling, those sorts of things that you described. Did you have some consultant that offered suggestions on those those improvements? Or was it a committee within the chamber? Or how did that unfold? Yeah,

Roy Nascimento 37:35
a lot of it was, was it was combination. So a lot of it was staff driven. So we do have a full time visitor center manager, so she she knew what, you know, visitors were requesting, the amenities they were looking for. And she had a kind of a wish list of what you’d like to add there to help support, you know, give give these visitors great positive experience when they were coming to the visitor center. So but we also didn’t check in with with members over the years, we brought in some members of our board that specialize in retail, and we have a small gift shop there as well, that sells local items. And so we brought them in and had had some retail experts come in and how do we how do we improve this experience for visitors? And how do we how do we get them to to purchase more local products there, because that’s helping to tell the story of the region, and also, again, generate some income to help us support the visitor center. So a variety of different input from different stakeholders. We also had a member who is in, in in the construction and developing area. And so he volunteered his time and gave us a lot of pre pre work and kind of helping us figure out some initial costs and things of that nature. And then we do operate this again, we operate the visitor center, and it is on state property. And we have to get approval from our state highway department. And in our initial plans, we had to scale down because there were some things that they just weren’t comfortable with. And they didn’t want us wanted to expand, expand the visitor center, it’s opened down a wall give us more space. So we can have more displays, historical displays. They were very uncomfortable with any kind of construction. Or like if you start knocking down walls and we have this whole process you have to go through and we actually also wanted to add a small playground on the grounds and they were concerned about liability on kids using the playground. So we had a we had a kind of Nick’s that having a playground to the grounds of the visitor center. But you know, but they were still great partners. They were really they believed in our vision and were very supportive of the project and we were able to get it done and I’m really proud of the visitor center and the impact it’s having on region.

Brandon Burton 39:55
Yeah, sounds great. Well, Roy as we start to wrap things up Yuri, I wanted to ask you if, for listeners, if there was any tip or action items that you might suggest for listeners who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level.

Roy Nascimento 40:10
So I think I think I’m gonna give the same advice I gave last time two years ago, and that’s to be entrepreneurial. And really, it was the advice I was given by my predecessor. And it’s really looking at your, your community, your region, what are the needs there? What are the challenges? Now? How can the chamber help with those challenges for us here, I talked about lending, you know, that was, and that was something that was missing here, you know, and, and the Chamber was really able to fill that void and become kind of that alternative lender helping to provide startup businesses with that capital and that technical assistance they needed. And that has evolved over the years and but it’s been able to, to help us provide have an impact here in the region, and, and the tourism stuff, you know, we that was was a gap, you know, that was an opportunity. And we saw that, that’s a way we could diversify our economy. And so we stepped in and have been able to provide great leadership there, and helping to drive our economy and transform our economy here and in North Central Massachusetts. So, you know, be entrepreneurial, find out how you can best help your members, I’m always amazed when I listen to your podcast, you’re about chambers to all kinds of impactful things. And what might work in one community might not work in my community, but I’m always able to learn about it. And I’m always amazed at the ability of these chambers to be able to adapt, flexible, and be nimble and be entrepreneurial, to serve their members and to have an impact in their communities. And so I think that’s important.

Brandon Burton 41:50
Very good. So I like asking everyone as I have him on the show about the future of chamber. So I know I asked him a couple of years ago, but how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Roy Nascimento 42:02
So I think it goes back to our roots, you know, I think we’re, if you look back at chambers, chambers, we’re always those those we are by our very nature, we’re a big network of businesses in the community that come together, to have an impact and community to advance the community. That’s our mission statement is to advance in one central Massachusetts and, and so I think it’s going back to your roots just looking at I think a lot of chambers have become transactional, they focus on the networking and networking is important, we do a lot of networking, but don’t lose sight of your mission. And that’s really to promote the community. And that whether it be through advocacy, or economic development, through through events, you know, whatever it is, it’s don’t lose sight of that mission. And I think it’s getting, it’s providing that that leadership in the community. And that’s, that’s the future we’re seeing chambers continue to evolve. And it’s kind of going back to, to our roots being those organizations that provide a leadership in the community. And that really helped to drive the economy and, and helping their communities think about, about change and leadership and the future.

Brandon Burton 43:12
That’s awesome. Yeah, the mission is important and keeping you know, those roots close by so you remember why you’re there and, and let that chart your course. Well, Roy, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who want to reach out and connect with you maybe take up your offer on learning how to provide loans and in access to grants like you guys are doing, what would be the best way for for someone to reach out and connect?

Roy Nascimento 43:41
Sure. So first off, our website is NorthCentralMass.com. So all my contact information is on the website. Again, that’s NorthCentralMass.com. And I can also be reached the email at rnascimento@northcentralmass.com. Or by by phone call me anytime 978-353-7600 extension 225, it’s 978-353-7600, extension 225. And what I love about our industry is that we’re always wanting to help each other. And I’ve had a lot of chamber execs that have friends and mentors that I’ve always been able to have always been willing to take my phone call and and provide advice and support. So feel free to reach out to me anytime.

Brandon Burton 44:34
Awesome. So I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode as well. So listeners can look it up there and connect with you. But Roy, I’ve enjoyed having you back on chamber chat podcast and catching up with you and hearing more of the great things you guys are doing there in North Central Massachusetts. So thank you for for joining us and congratulations. Congratulations to you and your team again, being selected as chamber the year finalist, and I wish you guys the best of luck.

Roy Nascimento 45:03
Thank you, Brandon. It’s been it’s been great. And hopefully this was helpful and it’s really an honor thank you for the opportunity to be.

Brandon Burton 45:10
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Pearland Chamber-2023 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Jim Johnson

Miles Burdine Chamber Chat Podcast promo image.

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

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

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts Brandon Burton. And it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
To learn how Community Matters can support your chamber with your next publication. Please visit communitymattersinc.com/podcast To request your free media kit and request a proposal to find out what kind of non-dues revenue you can generate.

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

Our guest for this episode is Jim Johnson. Jim has worked in the chamber industry for over 12 years and is currently the President CEO of the Pearland Chamber of Commerce in Texas. In his role, he oversees the daily operations, strategic planning and partnerships with multiple community organizations. Jay Jim came from Georgetown, Texas, where he was president and CEO of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce. Prior to Georgetown, he was the president and CEO for the Lufkin Angelina County Chamber of Commerce and the Lufkin Angelina Economic Development Partnership. He started his chamber career as the Vice President with the Pearland chamber. He currently serves as faculty for the US Chamber of Commerce Institute organizational management program, and as the Chair for the Texas Chamber of Commerce executives. He previously served on the board of directors for WACE and for the Texas Association of Business. He holds a bachelors of arts and history and a minor in Political Science from Texas State University. Jim is a CCE from ACCE and IOM designation as well from the US Chamber of Commerce. He was recognized as a 40 under 40 in 2021 by ACCE and Jim is married to his wife, Jasmine and they have one son, but Jim, I’m excited to have you back on the podcast before we hit record, we realized that you were you were on the podcast way back in episode 22. And as this releases we’re on 232 now so it’s been a minute but wow. Yeah.

Jim Johnson 3:48
That’s so congratulations to you, Brandon. I mean, that’s, you know, we’re, you know, still going strong and still great resource out there for the chamber profession.

Brandon Burton 3:55
Well, that was the hope that was the hope when it started and it’s still going so love to give you an opportunity, Jim to to say hello to everybody listening and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.

Jim Johnson 4:09
Yeah, that’s great. I glad to be here. Glad to be back here on the chamber chat podcast. Something interesting always is a US palsy go what is something interesting? I will say I’m in Pearland Texas, it’s interesting to me is that it though it’s a town about a fruit. I was thinking today I can’t think of a single place in town where there is a pear tree even though we are parallel and so maybe it’s not interesting about me but interesting about the town I’m in right now. So we’ll go with that.

Brandon Burton 4:43
Yeah, that’s good. Sounds like a project for the chamber.

Jim Johnson 4:46
Yeah, right. You know, I thought about and I’d like to do pear trees even grow in parallel and so to be determined for for Chamber Chat Podcast when I come back and another 100 or so

Brandon Burton 4:57
that’s right. That’s right. Well, we’ll get an appt and see how big those trees are then. Yeah. Well tell us a little bit about that parallel Chamber of Commerce, the size staff Scope of Work budget, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Jim Johnson 5:12
Wonderful. The Pearland Chamber of Commerce is a town located directly south of Houston, Texas, our northern border is the South border of Houston, Texas. We are a have been a fast growing community that times rated one of the fastest growing in the United States, and continues to be a growing in our business in our population. Our chamber has a annual budget of over $700,000 a membership that this year eclipsed the 700 mark. And I have a great team with me. And we have including, myself six full time staff members.

Brandon Burton 5:57
All right, that definitely helps kind of prepare us for our conversation. I like to think, you know, these programs that we’ll talk about as a chamber of the year finalists should be able to be scaled up or down depending on the size of the chamber and the community. And, of course, the relevancy for your community as well. So thank you for for sharing all that. The way I like to structure these chamber, the year finalist episodes is to really spend the majority of our time focused in on the two programs that were submitted on your chamber the year application. So what I like to do is just at a high level, have you explain what the two programs are? And then we can circle back and dig a little deeper into both of them. Wonderful.

Jim Johnson 6:40
Yeah. It’s always a great process going through the ACCE chamber the year because when you get that notification that you’re a finalist, you pause and think what are the two projects that we really want to focus on in showcase and for us to really stood at the front. The first one was a local opportunity to engage with the public sector and our local city council on a proposed fee proposed storm water fee that was designed to help solve our drainage issues. But during the discovery, and I know we’re talking about this more we uncovered, businesses weren’t aware of the fee. They weren’t engaged in the process. So over a period of time, we engage with our local public City Council, to educate them on the impact of the fee on the businesses to remove that fee from consideration and to move them towards a bond study. That was a bond study and a bond to really have a true solution to drainage, and our community. And our second one focused on workforce related to the large amount of people being a suburb of Houston, that leave Portland every day for work. And with unemployment under 4%. In our community, we recognize that one of the best ways to fill jobs in parallel in was to showcase the jobs to local residents, and created a comprehensive resource board of career opportunities in our community. That wasn’t your traditional hey, here’s a job posting allowing folks to interact with companies allow them to search jobs. And on the flip in, allow the employers to tap into and see the job, the applicants in our community as well.

Brandon Burton 8:40
Awesome. Now two very worthwhile programs and interested to learn more about both of them. First of all, we’ll take a quick break and then we’ll come back and dig in deeper on both of those.

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Raquel Borges 11:30
Hi, I’m Raquel I work with Yiftee to help over 500 chambers cities and downtown’s across the US keep local dollars local and support their small businesses. Our CEO Donna Novitsky and I will be at the ACCE Conference in Salt Lake City from July 31 to August 3, and we would love to meet you swing by our booth to say hi and learn about our community gift card program, Community cards are custom branded for your community, and can only be used at your Chamber members businesses, plus the program is free. You can learn more by visiting yiftee.com. That’s yiftee.com or emailing us at sales@yiftee.com. See you at the ACCE Conference.

Brandon Burton 12:19
All right, Jim, we’re back. So you kind of piqued my interest when you said a storm water fee. Like we’re who comes up with ideas to charge people for storm water? Like, how does this come to be? And then to pick a fight with the Chamber of add it right?

Jim Johnson 12:36
Yeah, um, you know, Pearland is a, we’re a coastal community. And after Hurricane Harvey, in 2017. It, our community recognized that we needed to be more proactive with drainage. And throughout this local elected officials uncovered a way to do a storm water fee. And what that was, was a charge on impervious coverage in our community, a monthly ongoing fee per 1000 square feet of impervious coverage. And that doesn’t sound like a large amount. And so it was just kind of dripped to us in conversation, and it perked our ears that council had taken action to place this. This was in August of the year that it was gonna be placed on the ballot for voter approval the next May. So about 10 months down. And over time, we learned this is a no clue. And that that small fee of $1.79 per 1000 square foot adds up over a period of time for the average business that had 10,000 square feet is gonna be a little over $200 a year. But as we dug deeper into this and started talking to businesses and started pulling our members and gaining and listening to them about the impact. It wasn’t just $200 for some companies, it was $10,000 For some it was $100,000 a year. For some it was over $400,000 a year, every year forever. Right. And we listened and that was shocking and alarming to us in our businesses.

Brandon Burton 14:13
Yeah, and so often once a fee like that is in place like you say it never will go away and and oftentimes it may even increase over time. It’s like you’re already getting some let’s go back to the well and get some more like all these water analogies that the information is drip to you going back to the well, storm.

Jim Johnson 14:34
You’re absolutely right. And that was we realized that that was a concern. And we wanted a true solution to drainage in our country. We don’t want our residential and our businesses to flood and in the event of natural disasters. So it started a true education process and information gathering for the chamber. As we looked at the overall impact this would have On our businesses, and then the challenge of trying to educate counsel on the impact would have businesses, it was a five two vote in favor to place this on the May ballot in August of that year. And I’m proud to port Brandon by over a course of time. In February of that year, we’ve we changed that to a seven Oh, vote against the storm water fee being placed on the May ballot, and to move towards a bond study, which would lead to a community wide bond, which would be a more comprehensive solution to drainage in our community.

Brandon Burton 15:38
Yeah, that’s, that’s two big wins right there. Because just by having it ended up on the ballot, you know, to be able to have, you know, propose for businesses to pay for this. If you’re not a business owner, and you’re like, yeah, let them pay for it, you know, it’s off my plate, if I could see it very easily passing that way. But to be able to shift it as a bond, where everybody has buy in, in the community, really is much more equitable way of approaching it anyway. So as far as the bond process goes, did you guys go about educating the community about it? Because it was a big win with Ryan? So what was that process? Like?

Jim Johnson 16:17
Absolutely. So you know, we we over that that first initial period are asked to council was to postpone the storm water fee, and to do a bond study. The bond study, what was nice about us being proactive in this public engagement, is that the chamber it was a close committee of a roughly 11 individuals, and two of those people on that bond scope committee, were appointed by the Chamber of Commerce. So we had a seat at the table allowed us to share the impact on it. And over that that bond study group came back with a little over $100 million storm water bond, our largest bond package related to drainage projects in our community, the Chamber came out fully supported that package, because bonds, those tax rate increases was smaller than the original storm water fee, and over a period of time would be paid off, and would not be forever. And then on May 9 of this year, that bond related to drainage pass with 65% voter approval in our community. So it was a great win in a lot allowed us to truly work with our public sector. And, and live up to what we say we want to our tagline is, we’re the voice of business. But we have to speak up for business. And we it’s comforting to know that when we were at Council multiple times talking to about this, the room was packed, and it was business leaders in there. Some of them don’t have a vote in our committee because their businesses here, but they live in another community. And that was humbling, but spoke volume for our credibility as a convener of individuals throughout parallel.

Brandon Burton 18:00
Yeah, no, that is awesome. That visual of having a roomful of business owners saying, hey, this, this matters to us. That’s absolutely Oh, that’s awesome. But let’s, let’s shift gears a little bit into the other program that you guys submitted work in parallel. And you kind of gave a little bit of background on that. But maybe go back to some of that origin of you see people, you know, leaving and going into Houston to work and things of that nature. How did how did that evolve to be the program that it is today?

Jim Johnson 18:33
Absolutely. So our chamber in partnership with our economic development corporation or higher ed partners or workforce issues, did a comprehensive Workforce Strategy. During this input about what our workers were doing what was taking place, a stat stood out to the chamber. And it was that 38,942 workers commute outside of our community every single day. So we’re losing roughly 40,000 people. At the same time, we recognize our unemployment was less than 4%. So we have low unemployment, but mass exodus of people going into the fourth largest city of the United States for work. And so we wanted to showcase careers and opportunities in our community. And it actually started with a business trying to convince the chamber to buy a massive billboard on a major highway. They say stop driving on your road work in parallel. And it sparked interest in our staff and our board and our leaders to say how can we show folks to work in parallel and so we started researching different platforms for job postings spraying and you know, I mean, you can turn on the radio or anything. There are lots and lots of companies out there that focus on job postings, and we wanted to find a way that we could do it differently in our community to be hyper focused on jobs in parallel. And so that was the creation of work in parallel, which is a free standing standalone website. That is comprehensive job board, an employer Resource Center. So what we mean by that is you can go there and see over 200 job postings at any given moment. But also, if you’re an employer going there, we want you to come to this site, because we can highlight resources that are beneficial to you grants, training opportunities, childcare for your employees, so they can know were going on. But even better, you can look at all the applicants that are on the site, all those job seekers that are on there, and you can engage with them. This is 24/7 Metaverse, ability to interact schedule interviews, chat, share information, all through a virtual platform, all focused on pair land, and all absolutely free to businesses in our community. Because if we can move that needle and fill jobs, we can truly make an impact and see that large, almost 40,000 People start to work here locally.

Brandon Burton 21:09
That’s right. I like that. And it’s a two sided part with the website. So you get the job seekers, you know, with the job boards, and they can put, you know, fill out applications and whatnot. But to be able to track the employers there with these things, like you said, the grants and resources and everything for them. And then while they’re in there, they’re just kind of that stickiness factor of let’s see what else is in here, you know, resource wise, including, you know, workers, you know, staff. So I think that the billboard idea that that is interesting with that, you know, the origin there, it’s like, yeah, that that can be impressive. Like, you don’t need to convince anybody that a commute is terrible, right.

Jim Johnson 21:50
And that’s what’s great, Brian, I mean, you’re so this the platform, we chose what I remember, when we were researching platforms, this one you go to, and it’s it reminds you of a virtual trade show. I mean, that’s what we created an ongoing 24/7 virtual trade show. But what’s great is when you log into the site, the first thing you see is the exterior of the country, the virtual Convention Center. And there are billboards all over the place. And we’re like, that is our platform that we’re choosing for this site. And he talked about commuting, and part of the conversation that we uncovered during our research is that the average commuter spends 45 minutes one way in their car. And so we dug into that if you work locally, it’s about 15 minutes. So that’s 30 minutes, both ways. If you commute twice a day, we uncover that that leads to about 240 hours a year that you spend commuting, and I can do math, but 30 divided by eight, that’s 30 days, or 240 divided by eight, that’s 30 days, you get back, or 10 full days, so 30 working days, or 10 full days, you get back by working and living in the same community. And and that’s part of our message to folks is like, yes, you might want to spend time in your car, I don’t, I want you working in parallel at these great companies. And that’s what it does. It’s ongoing showcase of these great career opportunities for talented people.

Brandon Burton 23:17
Ya know, I love it when people are in cars listening to this podcast. But other than that, it’s a it’s not a fun thing to have to commute a long commute like that. And so with the work imperiling website and I’m intrigued, just because you said like, there’s a lot of companies out there that focus on, you know, hiring needs, right and matching employees with employers. So to be able to make this different and unique and targeted for parallel? And what are some of those things that are really driving traffic to it that are getting that attention that are making it stand up and above what other sites might be out there? And because I imagine some of these job seekers are probably on, you know, some of these other sites as well, in addition to work in parallel and but what makes it stand out in your opinion?

Jim Johnson 24:08
Yeah, a couple different things. Your absolute we’re competing with major companies in recruiting, we’re trying to showcase a job board when companies out there spending millions of dollars in marketing. What was the for our screen, this is the first time that we’ve gotten into Google advertisements in targeted that so we’re trying to be very proactive, like our businesses are in place ads, but actually what makes this stand out is we’re getting community wide buy in, in this process, or school districts or cities or elected officials are out there utilizing this message of work in parallel and.com And because by getting their involvement and recognizing to make it success, we need our major employers and our major stakeholders to show it out. That’s how it stands out. And We are seeing every month that this man has established astonishing growth. Like I mentioned earlier, over 200 jobs posted on the site at any given time, nearly 1000 applicants are already on the site looking for jobs interacting. It’s, it’s, it’s exciting. It’s, it’s our first, we’ve always had a job board. And I think that’s you what chambers can do, you’ve always had a job board, it’s been known as a member benefit, you can post your jobs on your website, we flipped that narrative and said, This is a community benefit. This isn’t just for you to post your jobs. This is a community wide benefit to know that if you’re looking for a career in our town, all the major companies are on it, all the major stakeholders, you go to one place and find all of their jobs. But the second fold, is it always the booths, the interactive side of it, you can learn about these companies. So you might not find a job with XYZ company right now. But you can learn about their culture, their benefits, their resources, and guess what, if you can interact with them, say, Hey, I’m in your community. Now, when there’s an opening that fits my skill set, I’d love to chat with you about more.

Brandon Burton 26:08
Yeah, and I just pulled up work in Portland website while you’re talking and, and I see you’ve got some of the major employers in your community that are sponsors of the website, and what a great way for them to get in front of these people who are job seekers to sponsor the website, be their front, you know, front and center, and help make some of those connections.

Jim Johnson 26:31
And, you know, the Chamber Leadership, our board through this process is we live our mission to serve business, promote growth and empower our community recognize that this is, it is it is non dues revenue for us, it is that we do have sponsors, as you mentioned, but we believe this is the lane we need to being going forward, we need to be the hub of information, we need to share this data that we have of careers, and send that back out to our community because the success of this is yes, we’re interacting with our businesses, we’re gonna fill their jobs. But the majority of our audiences, the community at large, an area that chambers traditionally don’t get into, unless it was a festival, this is our lane to say, This is why we exist. And we’re here to help our businesses by showcasing those shops.

Brandon Burton 27:17
Right. I love it. So you had mentioned kind of at the beginning of that part of the discussion that the in parallel, you had like a 4% unemployment rate. It makes it too early now to be able to see the change. Like I know, this is all pretty new. But yeah, it’d be interesting to follow that and see, you know, gee, bring it down to 1%. Or yeah, how does it right, and

Jim Johnson 27:38
that’s the greatest. Yeah, that’s the greatest thing about this, this this site is the we’re able to use metrics, we want to see that percentage of unemployment continue to go down, we want to see the next time we do a comprehensive study on commuting patterns that we want to see less folks commuting outside our thing. We want our companies to continue to see applicants come from our local area, we want to see continue to see people hired through our site and current or awareness of jobs in here. That’s that’s the approach is we have great companies, we’re a large community in the Houston area, and we need to showcase those jobs and get those individuals to live and work here so that ultimately their quality of life goes up to.

Brandon Burton 28:21
That’s right. I love it. It’s a great vision, and you guys are executing very well. So great job. As we start to wrap things up here, I like to see, you know, for those listeners who are out there, who are really interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what tips or action items might you have to offer to help them in accomplishing that goal?

Jim Johnson 28:45
Yeah, I, I, this whole journey for us, was very strategic. And I think too often people look at strategic planning data. As a, as something that is scary or not what they should be doing it, I wouldn’t encourage and say it should be required that if you don’t have a strategic plan and a roadmap, not staff, that is truly as a not staff driven staff should be driven on driving it. But that’s, that has community wide support that has your stakeholders in your community and your board involved. That will allow you to continue to be a catalyst in your community. And if we hadn’t had a goal of two years ago to get 75 job postings on our website, and to recognize then that it was working but it wasn’t meeting that need to modify that to look at third party sites. We wouldn’t be having this conversation today Brandon about work in parallel. And so get a get a strategic plan and get a roadmap so that you can see truly be a a chamber that is moving in the right direction?

Brandon Burton 30:04
Yeah, no, I think that that’s so important. You need to know where you’re going right? You need to have goals need to be able to have that clear mission and vision. As we look forward to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jim Johnson 30:20
I think chambers, I think engaging with the public sector is so important of the future. And it’s not always advocacy, I think, as you engage and truly work with the public, the community, in your community, is that we have to recognize that we have to be involved with more than just what we do. And if we do that, you’re going to uncover more opportunities for your chamber to be a problem solver. Because they’re gonna look at us for those those issues, and ask us to step up, and if it aligns with what our community needs, what our chamber needs. That that’s the future, we’re gonna we saw that during the pandemic, you’ve had many podcasts talking about, chamber stepping up. In that area, during the pandemic, we build on that momentum, continue to be the person continue to be the trusted resource for information, truly, truly the trusted problem solver and community. And we want to say we do that. But you got to engage with the public sector, your elected officials, your community partners, your stakeholders to really make that happen.

Brandon Burton 31:37
Absolutely. That’s a great vision. And I like the idea of aligning your organization with those needs in your community. And I think that goes right along with your idea of having that strategic plan and, and that that needs to be part of it is being in alignment going forward. Well, Jim, I’d like to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners out there who might want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are doing things, or maybe to do a little R&D with working in Pearland, and what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Jim Johnson 32:14
Sure. I’d always encourage people to go to their website, PearlandChamber.org, because you’ll find under our staff section, my email, and my LinkedIn profile link either ways to connect, but because we’re on a podcast, and people can pause and make sure they write it down appropriately. It’s jim.johnson@pearlandchamber.org. And Brandon, I always think you at the beginning because you knew this a Pearland and not pearl. And that those that would I know, it’s the sales call, because they think we’re the land of pearls. But like I said, we’re the land of pears. asterik not really

Brandon Burton 32:48
fruitless pears, right.

Jim Johnson 32:51
There are a lot of those fruitless pear trees here that, but I don’t think that was your original idea with the message.

Brandon Burton 32:56
That’s right. That’s right. So I’ll get all that in our show notes for this episode makes it even easier to find you and reach out and connect. But I want to wish you and your team have first congratulations but wish you guys Best of luck as chamber the year and I look forward to seeing the results in about a month from now in Salt Lake.

Jim Johnson 33:18
Yes, sir. Thank you, Brandon for hosting me again. Thanks for bringing me back on and let’s make sure it’s not 210 episodes before the next time we do this together.

Brandon Burton 33:26
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Talent Attraction with Sarah Davasher-Wisdom

Miles Burdine Chamber Chat Podcast promo image.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Sarah Davasher-Wisdom. Sarah has served as President and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc since January 2020. Sarah has been with goI since 2014. Rising from leading July’s government affairs activities as Vice President of Government Affairs, to now as president CEO. GeoEye was named National chamber of the year in 2019. Personally, Sarah’s also been the recipient of several notable awards at the local, regional and national levels. Sarah has held previous roles in government and public policy including manager of Government Affairs for Tennessee Valley Authority, Strategic Communications Officer for the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Community Development Coordinator for Congressman Lewis. She serves on the boards of several local organizations as well as on the US chambers committee of 100. Sarah is the first woman and youngest person to serve as president and CEO of GLA. Sarah, I’m excited to have you with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 3:13
Oh, hello, Brandon. I’m excited to be on the chamber podcast as well. Then looking forward to this conversation. I think that that bio certainly said a lot about me. So thank you for reading that so eloquently. But the real story goes beyond that. And you know, a lot of people will say what’s something that people don’t know about you or what something that tells more about you personally, and I always like to share that my husband and I are serious ballroom dancers. Between the two of us. We have 50 years of dance experience. And it’s how we met. So we’ve been dancing together for 10 years of which will actually 11 years we’ve been married for 10. And that’s something that not a lot of people do. And not a lot of people know. And it’s something that we’ve continued. Despite any sort of changes in career or relocations, or anything else that we have done, we’ve always remained committed to our dancing.

Brandon Burton 4:09
Awesome. That is, it’s great that you guys have been able to keep that up and have that common bond together. And that that interests. So thank you. I like learning these tidbits about people as we have them on the show and learn those facts that so I had mentioned to you before we started recording, but this is a first for me to have. Three, you’re the third person from Greater Louisville Inc. to be on Chamber Chat Podcast. First time, I’ve had three of any organization on the podcast, which speaks volumes to the great work and impact you guys are having that you keep rising to the top to have different members of the organization on the on the show. But for those that are Thank you, yeah, yeah, for sure. So Those who’ve been listening to the podcast since the beginning. may remember at Kent Oyler on back in 2019. When you guys were Chamber the Year finalists and won Chamber the Year and more recently had Jordan Clemons on talking about using LinkedIn to grow membership and they both are fantastic episodes so encourage anybody to go back and listen but I just I mentioned that because those longtime listeners may be a little bit familiar with with GLI, but for those who may not be just give us a little synopsis, I guess about what GLI is all about, you know size, the Chamber staff budget, scope of work, that sort of thing, just to set the table for our discussion.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 5:43
Sure, well, Greater Louisville Inc. We have a staff of about 30 people. And we serve about 1800 members. We are also the Regional Chamber and we are by state so we cover 15 counties, five in Indiana and 10 in Kentucky. We’ve got everything from Fortune 500 companies located here to small retailers and suppliers. We are the home of Humana, and UPS Airlines. And those are two of our biggest companies here. Our main goal was to grow the regional economy. And we do that in several ways through traditional economic development, talent attraction, advocacy and DNI. So our goal is to do all of those things in the best way possible to make our region the strongest for growth. So that’s a little bit about GLI we have a great team, our budget is 5.7 million.

Brandon Burton 6:38
Very good. So you touched on one of the things that we’ll focus our conversation on today. And as you mentioned, those focuses of your work, one being talent attraction. And I’m excited to dive in a little bit deeper and learn about how GLI goes about talent attraction. I know that’s a hot topic for chambers across the country. And you’re so kind to share some of the tips and strategies you guys are using there in Louisville. So we will dive into that conversation much deeper since we 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  9:21  

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  9:50  

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 10:01
All right, Sarah, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re focusing our discussion today about how you guys are focusing your work around talent attraction. And I know there’s different approaches, you know, chambers go about this work in different ways. But I’d like to learn a little bit more and have you share how how you guys are GLI are going about talent, attraction, and really making your economy there is something that’s really thriving. And I know you’ve mentioned the DE&I efforts as well. And it is a very diverse community as well. And I think that plays into talent attraction. So I anticipate that those two will overlap a little bit. But I don’t want to steal your thunder. So I’ll hand it over to you to to share how you guys are going about this work?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 10:47
Sure, well, I’m really excited about our talent attraction programming, because we’ve had a lot of cities come to learn more about it, because they want to replicate it. So it really has been one of those. One of those things that we are known for in Louisville, our program is called Live in Lou and we developed it in 2016, to really show what it was like to live work and play in the greater Louisville region. And the platform itself showcases all of the assets that really differentiate us as a community, we highlight the availability of good jobs and career opportunities, the quality of life and the sustainability, to raise a family and the suitability to raise a family I should say. And then the ability to make a difference. And the reason that we highlight those three things is because in 2016, we did a lot of data, a lot of research into why people want to live in our community. And those were the three reasons. So we target our marketing around those three reasons. And one of the places that people go to learn about a community is on social media. So we use our website and our social media channels to promote feel good stories about the community, new businesses, opening up favorite restaurants. Because we have a fantastic culinary scene here. It’s one of the things that people love to visit for. We also showcase restaurants and festivals. So those are some of the things we really try to highlight. We have also been doing private label campaigns for companies under our live in loop programming. And we basically will look at where there isn’t what jobs are needed for that company. And then where there is an area in the country or even internationally, where that skill set exists and may not be paid as well there as it is here in Louisville. And so then we can geofence and do some targeted marketing, highlighting those things I mentioned earlier, and really go out and connect the the job seeker or the potential low avillion to the job opportunity. And we can use the marketing from the company itself. So it’s a really innovative way for us to recruit individuals to move here to work for a specific company. So it helps our community because we’ve got residents moving in, and it also helps our companies. I love

Brandon Burton 13:10
that name that Lou avillion that just that flows. So well. I love it. Can you share with us some more about the geofencing? So how do you go about that and targeting the right people like the parameters you set on it? Certain radiuses maybe some people aren’t familiar with what geofencing is just give us a little bit of background on that.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 13:33
It’s really a technology that we pay for. So we identify what geography we would we would want to highlight usually by ZIP codes, and then the firm actually does the geofencing. But it’s basically a way that you can put information on phone like you’re capturing phone data so that then you can advertise. Because when people are moving in and out of that zip code, you’re capturing that data out that makes sense.

Brandon Burton 14:01
Yeah, it does. Are you guys identifying specifically people that don’t live in Louisville currently that based on the phone data, so when they come and visit or pass by or how does that? How does that

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 14:15
yes, we definitely are targeting out of town people so that we can get them to move here and and maybe because our goal was talent attraction, we don’t have enough people here in Louisville to fill the open jobs. And so that’s why we’re trying to really focus on talent attraction. We’ve grown the social media channels from 200 followers to 53,000 followers in five years. So there really is a lot of momentum to live in Lou. And then we also have a group of volunteers that we call city champs. It’s kind of a human Welcome Wagon to help people get connected to the interest that they have in the region. The volunteers are incredibly passionate. Excuse me, and If they really want to showcase the best parts of our community and make connections, so the new residents kind of have a friend immediately, when they when they move here. So we train the city champs on all of the things in the community, it’s about a four hour training. And then they identify what interests they have. So we can put on our website that this person is a trained city champ, and this person is interested in interested in parks or ballet, or whatever the situation may be, so that when we have prospective residents interested in those same, those same things, then we can make that connection. And there’s automatically an interest in sharing information so that the person is more likely to relocate to

Brandon Burton 15:42
a level like that it kind of creates a friend, right? They come into the community. And as they’re saying, this reminds me when I was in high school, I moved across the country. And it was a kind of a traumatic thing as a junior in high school, across the country. But the new high school I went to, they had a program at the school where they would match another student up with new students to kind of show you around, and it made all the difference. So I see these these community are the city champs, these volunteers, really being able to be that tour guide of the city, you know, sharing some common interests, really helping to help these new people feel at home, I see that as being a key attribute to being able to really attract and retain these these new people to the community. You had mentioned I mean, the social media following is great. I mean, 253,000 followers is in that short amount of time is amazing. You had mentioned a few examples of some of the things that you’re doing on social media to leverage that and tell the stories of the little bill. Are there some examples that have really taken off that you’re aware of that, you know, I guess you could say have gone viral that they got more traction than other things on your social media stories.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 17:03
I think the real life stories of people that have followed live in lieu and actually move to the city have been the most powerful. And that, you know, those are like, really kind of rare, but also that doesn’t negate the success of the platform, it’s just that we don’t always have somebody love it so much that they post about it, you know, I think people often will look at it. And I think, oh, my gosh, this is amazing. But they don’t necessarily write a big story about it, we actually had a couple write a big magazine article about it. And that was that was really a thing that went crazy on social media, particularly locally, people were talking about it. Another thing that has really gotten a lot of media interest on our live and live platform is our newly launched workforce ecosystem hub. And it’s a compilation of all of the workforce development resources. So we have our talent attraction, part of living, Lou, but we also are trying to get people that aren’t working now into the workforce, or people helping them to upskill. And since 2014, when I first moved here, I was hearing about all of these different workforce development programs in the community. And I kept saying, Where is the one stop shop, like work, and I read about all of these in one place, and that that resource just didn’t exist. So there were a lot of programs that were going on utilized and not not utilized to their maximum potential, I should say. So we, for two years, we work to compile all of those resources. And we launched this ecosystem hub on the live and lose site. It’s liveinlou.com/work. And it has 245 organizations and their programs listed. We’ve got a portal for job seekers and a portal for employers, the employers can go on the site and identify any sort of training programs, some of which are free, and funded by the state actually funding from the state available that you can apply for on the site. And that that funding and those training programs are for their employees. So we have a manufacturer, they may be able to get funding to do a certain certain upskilling initiative, and all of that is listed on the site. It also includes different organizations that are helping to remove barriers to work so the employer can help identify those for the employee. A lot of HR offices will use it if they have an employee that’s having difficulty with transportation and or childcare availability. I mean, it’s childcare, transportation, all sorts of barriers that exist out there. And we have all these organizations in our community that are working to overcome them. And now there is one place that you can go and access that on the job seeker platform, you can still you can still see the barriers to work resources and because a lot of job seekers are, you know, trying to figure out ways to manage that themselves, but they also can apply for jobs on there and see what financial assistance may be available to do certifications or apprenticeships or going back to to get a college degree even. So, we’ve really taken a collaborative approach to all of this and worked with the organizations to make sure that the right information is being shared. And we’ve had a lot of hits on it. And the media has been going crazy about it locally, they’re calling it Google’s version of LinkedIn. So we’re excited about it. That is

Brandon Burton 20:36
great. As you’re given that explanation about how live in lieu works, and the job seekers and employers portals, the thought hit me why why do communities, you know, outsource to these big job seeking websites, when they have a chamber of commerce, who’s connected with employers know the needs know that those barriers, they really can give a kind of a white glove service to help match future employees with employers. So I love that how you guys have set this up and strategically having those are calling out what some of those barriers are, and approaches of how you guys are working to overcome those things. And community partners to help overcome those things. As a going about the job seekers, the employers on there, I imagine that you have a wide range of different employment opportunities. It’s not any one type of industry, obviously, but what are what’s kind of the the range of employment opportunities that you see happening through the live in lieu website,

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 21:48
we’ve got everything from, you know, clerk position, to a nurse position, I mean, every sort of job imaginable is on there. We also with some of the jobs that we learn about some of the jobs that our employers post are also very skill specific, highly technical. And we do have a partnership where we can seek out those highly specific skills, because there are some jobs where you may only have a handful of people in the country that have the ability to do the job. And through a partnership with LinkedIn talent insights, we can seek out those individuals. And that’s more of a specific employer request. It’s not, I mean, they’re usually posted on live in lieu as well. But in those instances, it’s less likely that somebody with that skill set is going to be posting for a job, they probably they’re gonna wait for recruiters to call them. So we find them and call them.

Brandon Burton 22:45
Yeah, that was gonna be my next question. Because there’s those highly skilled labor that you need to kind of seek them out and, and maybe even try to take them from another company. And we won’t say that too loud. But that happens, right?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 23:02
Well, we don’t do that from local companies only when we’re trying to get people to move here.

Brandon Burton 23:07
That’s right. That’s right. Now just say this program, it seems like a real game changer, especially in the talent and workforce development space. Is there anything that we’re missing from the live in loop program that we haven’t touched on?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 23:23
Um, I would say that, you know, we do overcome objections to moving to Louisville sometimes. And this is where the DNI aspect of this comes in that you mentioned earlier. We in in 2020, we were the epicenter of the Breonna, Taylor, killing and the protests that followed that really showed us that we needed to expand our scope of work. So recruiting diverse talent has been a little bit more difficult. But since 2020, I have been saying all this time, this is also an opportunity for us to show that this time, it’s different and it should have been different every time before but we have to show that the business community is committed to creating an inclusive economy. So we have really expanded our work in the DNI space. And that helps our talent attraction initiatives. So some of the work that we do, and includes a minority business accelerator called power to prosper. We’re getting ready. We’re taking applications for our third cohort right now. And it provides small businesses with knowledge and resources and networks that will help their businesses scale. We also have during 2020 launch a racial equity pledge that identifies five different ways that companies can can make their business more inclusive. And that includes things like diversifying their vendor spend, creating a safe space for conversation ones that are about inclusion. It also includes hiring diverse talent. I mean, and we then with that pledge, we launched a toolkit. And I was, I was excited about the number of companies that signed the pledge, it was over 200 companies. But then I was also excited about the toolkit because the toolkit gave businesses, the tools, they needed to do that. So we didn’t just say, Hey, we’re signing this pledge, we also said, Now, here’s how you go and do these things that are in the pledge. And as our as an organization, we have diversified our own vendor spend in ways that we never thought possible, because we’ve been so intentional about it. And my hope is that every company that sign that pledge has been equally intentional, and that we’re seeing a lot more things have, or a lot of great things happen as a result. Another thing that we do, and then we started doing it 2020 is a procurement matchup event called power to prosper. I’m sorry, I’m forgetting the name of it. It’s not that’s the minority business accelerator. Progress through procurement is our procurement event. And we identify what needs companies have in our community. And then we bring in diverse vendors to and match them up. And then sometimes there’s still a contracting process involved, but it is helping both the employer that has this, this need for a vendor and then they they’ve been having trouble finding a diverse vendor. So then we’re connecting them to a diverse vendor, and hopefully good things come from that. So those are some of the things that we’ve done in the DNI space. And like I said, that also helps our talent attraction and helps our economy grow. And all of the things in a chamber seem to work together cohesively. And I like that about chamber work.

Brandon Burton 26:48
Absolutely. So one of the things that stood out to me is you mentioned that you guys are often involved with overcoming object objections. And occasionally certain objections will rise to prominence. But, and oftentimes, we don’t even hear about some of the objections. So how do you guys go about soliciting feedback of people that may be hesitant of moving to Louisville to understand what their objections might be? So you can address that and learn how to better maybe fine tune this program?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 27:18
Well, most of the time, the HR recruiters at our companies will tell us what the objections are. And that’s, that’s really our source of information. There are times that we’re talking with individuals directly, particularly when they’re those highly skilled individuals that we’re seeking out for employers. But most of the time, the HR managers will tell us what stories they’re hearing and a lot of it relates to Louisville, being in Kentucky, and people here, Kentucky and they think that we are not as sophisticated as a place they would like to live. And Louisville is actually very sophisticated. I mentioned earlier, we’ve got a great culinary scene. We’ve got all five types of art organizations. I mean, we really do have a fantastic city is a great place to live and not just a great place to raise a family. I mean, it certainly is that but I mean you can be single here and you can really have a fantastic life. It’s a fun place to be. So but Louisville often gets branded with Kentucky and the demographic and the psychographic of talent looking to relocate is looking for, you know, a city that’s fun and exciting. And Kentucky doesn’t have that brand nationally. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 28:33
Kentucky is a great state though. Okay, yeah. Is it beautiful? Yeah. Well, Sara, you’ve hit on some great points here. As far as talent attraction goes, and I’m sure people listening or are taking notes and seeing how they can make some tweaks to their own talent attraction programs. I’d like to ask if there maybe is any tip or action item that you’d like to share for listeners who are looking to take their chamber up to the next level? What might you suggest?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 29:05
Well, I would suggest getting your CCE I’m a big believer in the certified chamber executive program for several reasons. Number one, there is an application process that requires you to really get out there and give speeches and also sometimes like IOM counts. So that’s a training program where you’re networking with other chamber professionals. And through IOM and through CCE which came later for me, I’ve met so many incredibly smart people. And being able to reach out to those individuals being able to hear about their programming as I went through IOM and CCE really, really helped me to know different ideas and different ways to navigate community issues and different ways I could take Our chamber to the next level. And so as a result of my experience being so positive, I have said, anybody that goes through IOM has to commit to doing CCE as well. The CCE process, what I liked about that was beyond the application process that I just described with you, you get to meet so many people, you learn about their programs. There are there’s a body of literature that one has to read that really focuses on governance and finance and making sure the chamber is in good operational order. And I believe that’s incredibly important, because all of the programs that we talk about that are exciting. We can’t do if our chamber isn’t in good operational order. If we don’t have the money, we don’t have the right money in reserves for a catastrophe. I mean, there are all of these things that seem boring to a lot of chamber people, but they’re incredibly important to enabling that programmatic aspect that can be very exciting, and fun to be part of. So that would be the thing I would say, to take your chamber to the next level, because you’ll learn so much as you go through that process.

Brandon Burton 31:06
Absolutely. Anybody who’s been sitting on the fence debating whether or not to get over that hurdle, go go do it, go after your CCE apply, go through the process. And like Sarah said, there’s so much development that comes out of that to benefit your chamber, but also you professionally as you move on through your career. So Sarah, 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?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 31:37
Well, I see the purpose of Chambers as being incredibly important. And you know, I’ve heard speculation about this, but I believe in chambers very, very much. I think there is a role for chambers and the big community issues of the day. And we’re really starting to see that more and more. I mean, there is no other organization where you can go to and and say that they represent the voice of the business community chambers do that chambers, or that one stop shop you can go to and the people who enjoy being in the chamber world are just ready to help. And to say yes, attitude, and all of the big community issues that we’re so interested in. I mean, everybody wants to figure out how. And so I think that chambers are so so incredibly important. And I think that the people who work in chambers have a real passion for community growth. And it’s becoming a lifelong career for a lot of people. You see that more and more particularly at the CEO level of the chamber world. And I like to see that. I think that there are some incredibly smart chamber leaders out there and I enjoy talking to them frequently. I think chambers are really important to making sure community issues get solved.

Brandon Burton 32:55
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. And I I also agree with the scene, people who are making the chamber industry a profession, you know, it’s a career choice for people now, especially at the executive level. But we’re it’s not just a job in their community that gets filled because somebody needed a warm body, but it becomes something that they go after these trainings are IOM, they’re CCE and really develop and help take their community to the next level, which is what it’s all about. But Sarah wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about the living loop program and how you guys are doing things there at TLI. What would be the best way for people to reach out and connect with you?

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 33:40
Sure, well, I’m happy to provide my email. It’s sdavasher@greaterlouisville.com. And my phone number is 502-625-0073 happy to talk with any chamber leaders about these programs or anything else bounce ideas off of each other. I’m always happy to connect.

Brandon Burton 34:02
Very good we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode as well so people can access that to connect with you. But Sarah, I want to thank you for spending time with us today here at chamber chat podcast provided a lot of value and some great things for listeners to think about and and see what how they can implement and take their chamber up to the next level and provide a new level of competition on the talent attraction front. I appreciate that.

Sarah Davasher-Wisdom 34:30
Happy to do it. Thank you.

Brandon Burton 34:32
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Addressing Childcare Needs with Kami Welch

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Jason Mock, President and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for his chamber.

Jason Mock 0:40
Two years ago, we brought in Holman Brothers to help our organization go to that next level. And in those two years, our team has transformed the way that we think about sponsorships and non dues revenue. And I would really encourage you if you’re looking to take your chamber to the next level to bring on the Holman Brothers.

Brandon Burton 0:57
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Our guest for this episode is Kami Welch. Cami is the president of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce at a 12 year chamber veteran. Kami has earned a reputation for developing strategic innovative opportunities for businesses and community growth. Cami is a US Chamber of Commerce talent pipeline fellow and a board member for WAC and the Association of Colorado Chambers of Commerce where she is past Chair camming also sits on the community boards for nonprofit organizations that focus on children education, homelessness, and domestic violence including family tree where she is a chair. Kami loves living in Colorado with her husband of 14 years and two young children where they enjoy hiking, skiing and exploring. Kami, we’re 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 chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Kami Welch 2:02
Awesome. Thanks, Brandon. It’s an honor to be on with you. today. I’m excited to talk about a really important topic with everybody. I always struggle with this question about what’s interesting about me, I actually pulled my team to ask what is something that they thought was interesting about me. And we all agreed the the most interesting piece of my background is actually grew up ice skating, which doesn’t seem relevant to my current career, but it is because that was required early morning for a start time. After school. It was all about the conditioning, training and ballet and the cross training to be a good ice skater I actually had the same coach because I grew up in Oregon as Tonya Harding. So shared ice with her, which is interesting, but it’s hard. That was as a kiddo. I’ve appreciated the grit that that gave me that I’ve been able to carry through being a chamber leader.

Brandon Burton 2:51
Yeah, no, I liked that. I liked that you pulled your office suit, because it’s hard to come up with our own. Yeah, interesting facts about ourselves that that’s something they knew about you and it is unique. I don’t think we’ve had other ice skaters or do that have mentioned that on the podcast. So you’re one of a kind. So tell us about the Arvada Chamber of Commerce. Just to give us some perspective. Before we get into our discussion. Give us an idea of the size staff budget scope of work, that sort of thing, just to help set the table.

Kami Welch 3:21
Absolutely. So Arvada is located just west of Denver, so everybody knows where Denver is. We’re 10 minutes west of Denver, we actually share a border with Denver metro, our community size is about 120,000 people. We have about 3000 businesses in Arvada, we have about 500 Plus members of the chamber, which has been really exciting to see that our current team is six, but we’re growing to eight this year, we’ve had some awesome opportunities to increase revenue and grow our team alongside that which has been really an incredible opportunity to deliver on more work for our community. Our annual budget has doubled in the past year, which is crazy and exciting. So we historically were about a 500 to 550 $550,000 budget. This year, we’ll be coming in at about 1.2 million. And again, that’s because we’ve been able to identify ways to grow capital to do the work that’s so critical for our businesses.

Brandon Burton 4:17
Okay, so maybe we chose the wrong topic to focus on today. Let me just ask the question, what are you doing to increase revenue to double it like that?

Kami Welch 4:25
Yeah. So the reason that we did that is because our mission as an organization is to solve the most critical business challenges. And what we realized is that with a traditional business model, we didn’t have the capacity as an organization to take those challenges on. So our board looked at various options and decided to go forward with a five year strategic initiative capital campaign. So we actually worked with a company out of Atlanta called Power 10. And we did a feasibility study to really assess the need in our community, and if our businesses were willing to invest in solving their most critical challenges, so we ended up with a five year switch He took initiative that took on talents, housing, childcare, and to the business environment. And so we’re able to raise $2.5 million for the next five years to ensure that we can do the work that is required to actually have outcomes in these areas.

Brandon Burton 5:16
That is fantastic. Yeah. So that answers a question, at least on the surface level of everybody’s like, what are you doing to double your revenue? That’s awesome. So our our topic for conversation today is going to be around addressing childcare needs. As we look at the the economy in general, we see the workforce shortages and really just the economy in general has been rocked, you know, through the COVID pandemic and trying to come out of it. And one of those key questions to be able to help fix and stabilize the economy is addressing the childcare needs. So I’m excited to dive into that discussion with you and what you guys are doing there in about as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Kami, we’re back. So before the break, I had mentioned that the topic for today being around addressing childcare needs. What were some of those maybe key indicators or data that you guys saw that showed that this was a need to for you to chamber? It’s not typical chamber work? So how did how did that come to be that you guys saw? This is an area of focus?

Kami Welch 9:07
That’s a great question. And certainly one with a long history of feedback and engagement of our community and our businesses. But one of the things we do is on a quarterly basis, we run a business pulse survey and we asked similar questions. And then we sometimes throw in something or questions to make sure that we’re really understanding what’s happening with our businesses. And so every single time we’ve done that over the past seven years, talent is the number one issue always. And as we started to unpack our talent system and really understand all the moving parts and pieces, we understand that there’s not skill alignment, that there’s the lack of demand. But we had to dig deeper and ask why about 27 more times to really understand that there’s these other barriers that are happening in our community that are causing that talent shortage. What we uncovered and the reason why in our bold initiative that we mentioned earlier that we took on childcare and housing is because we recognize As as two of our biggest barriers to achieving the talent system that we really need, there is some crazy data that we’ve come across as we’ve dug into childcare. And to be honest, before we started taking this on in a meaningful way, I didn’t even realize what a huge issue this was. And I’ll rattle a little bit of data here, because I think it’s important. And I know you have listeners all over the country that are like, Oh, I wonder what that is for my state. So I’m gonna cite Colorado data. But it’s interesting to think about what other states are dealing with, and if it’s at the same degree, but one of the things that we thought was really interesting is that there was a Pew Research study, and they surveyed all sorts of people that were leaving jobs. And it was the number four reason in that study was childcare. So interesting, right? People are saying, I have to leave my job because I have nowhere for my kids to go. Colorado has the eighth highest cost of childcare in the country. So we know that that is a huge barrier for people that maybe aren’t making, you know, $100,000 a year, they can’t afford to put their kiddos in childcare. We know that in Colorado, 45,000, Colorado, parents are making career sacrifices due to child care. And 20% of our workforce needs childcare. So we’re starting to get a sense of Whoa, that’s a lot of people that are impacted by this issue in our community. What it really got alarming for us is when we started thinking about the supply of childcare facilities in that business model, which when you think through an economic development lens, that’s interesting, right? That’s like, Okay, this business model is struggling. So we know that we have what’s called the childcare desert. So in Colorado, we have one childcare spot for every three kids that need it. That’s wild. And there’s only one county in all of Colorado, where there’s enough spots for the kids that need it. And it’s not in the metro area, it’s probably very rural. Yeah, very, very rural. So really interesting data, my community alone needs well over 2000 additional spots to meet the demand. So taking a step back, and again, looking through that chamber economic development lens is saying, Okay, what’s going on here. So there’s some serious business model challenges, right, the cost of running a childcare facility is high, you think about the liability, the cost of real estate, the staffing that’s needed, there is a really difficult breakdown, these businesses are trying to achieve, they can’t pay their employees what they need to pay them. So they’re losing employees left and right, because they’re paying a minimum wage. But when you look at the business model, that’s all they can afford to pay them because they can’t have parents paying more than what they’re able to pay. So it’s a really interesting issue. And we’re recognizing more and more, that it’s going to take some really innovative solutions to overcome these challenges. But just looking at that data, it became crystal clear to us that there’s a huge issue. And there are ways we can influence making this system better.

Brandon Burton 12:59
Right? What really stands out to me is 45,000 career sacrifices are going on just in Colorado, because parents will look at you know, here’s the income that I would bring in, here’s what we would pay out and child care if you can get a spot, and they just see it as a wash are really just not worth you know, the extra headache of getting up early and doing everything for maybe to net, you know, a couple $1,000 It just doesn’t make sense.

Kami Welch 13:25
Yeah, I’ve countless examples in my personal and professional life of people that are making those choices every day, because of the cost. And as you said that sacrifice is just it’s horrible.

Brandon Burton 13:35
Right? So as you cite these different stats and the research that you’ve you’ve seen and and I like Like he said, looking through it through an economic development lens as this, you know, addressing the business models of childcare. It definitely is, I would say it’s a strong argument for Chamber of Commerce to be involved with this. So how do you see your role there about a chamber? Getting into the work? How does that look? How do you you can’t just go into business and say, Here’s your new business model. So how are you approaching this, this work of addressing childcare?

Kami Welch 14:10
Yeah, it’s a really, really great question. As an organization we’ve prescribed to the three C’s, many people know that it’s come out of the Western Association of chamber executives have been a convener, catalyst and champion. And so we often think through that lens, as we’re deciding how we support an issue. I think the biggest thing that we can do as organizations is really been that convener role. We have really strong partnerships across our region. And we often will say, we will join existing tables and we will lead where needed and so doing kind of that audit landscape of what great work is happening and joining in like, we don’t always have to start from ground zero. But there’s this moment of step back and say, who’s doing this work and doing it? Well. I will give a shout out to Epic Colorado, which is where much of that data I just shared came from there and incred have a partner in this work, but they’re doing amazing things and engage in industry and businesses in the Child Care conversation. So we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. But we need to get the right people in our community in our region around the same table. Because I often note that great work is happening. But so often, I think everybody can attest to this. It happens in silos, right? That people are like I’m doing the things, I’m solving the problems. But when you don’t tell anybody that you’re doing that, it can be really difficult. So I believe the key role of chambers is to bring together people to help them understand what work is happening, and how everybody can work more with more continuity as a group. And so we’ve launched what we call caps councils. And that stands for, I hope, this is okay to say if you can edit this out, kick ass problem solvers. So we have a tendency to want to make sure we’re driving actions. So we don’t have committees and councils and things like that we have action driven naming of what we do. So when people show up, they know they’re there to work. This is about rolling up your sleeves and getting towards solutions. We also like to set targets, right? Like, we know that our goal and taking on childcare is to increase the number of spots we have in our community. So who are the people that need to come around one table to help achieve that, but having a universal target that we’ve set at the Chamber helps to make sure there’s clarity and purpose when you get those people together. So that, to me is the biggest piece of this. The second thing that I think is really critical role of chambers, is to educate. So many people don’t understand all that data I just shared. And they’re making decisions based on their own personal experiences, which is fine, we are all creatures of our own perception is reality, right? But at the end of the day, there’s a lot to this. And so we have a unique role to certainly educate our businesses in our community, but also thinking about what role we play in educating the community at large about these issues that are impacting So playing a role, and really that awareness building, education, hosting forums. So people start to get that these are issues. It’s amazing to me when we’ve done that how quickly these issues start bubbling and becoming topics that everybody’s talking about the amount of organizations now that are telling me like I’m taking on childcare? And how do you know, I’m like, great, you know, like, we had to start those conversations, which has been really interesting

Brandon Burton 17:31
that so I guess the question that comes up for me, because you cited a lot of great data, and you mentioned epic Colorado that you were able to get that data from, for people in other states, where where would you point them to to try to find some of that data to be able to start that conversation about why their chambers should be involved with solving this problem as well?

Kami Welch 17:54
Yeah, that’s a really, really great question. And I know every state is going to be structured differently. One of the great sources of data we’ve had is actually our community college system. And so looking for a place where people that are going into this childcare profession are getting trained, typically, they understand kind of the lay of the land, they have really good data that they’re trying to utilize to get people into the program and help them think about where they open that childcare facility. So that’s a really good place to start. The other place would be school districts typically have a pretty solid sense of that early childhood education, and where it’s happening. And so talking with them about the landscape where there’s gaps, because we often talk about childcare, not just through the lens of quantity, but also quality. Like it’s not just about having somebody keeping eyes on your children during the day, but they need to be kindergarten ready, because all the data shows if you’re not kindergarten ready, then you lag all the way through school. And it’s hard to catch up on that. And so those quality metrics are important to our school district. And so they track a lot of the early childhood stuff as well. And then I will look at the state level and see what government departments exist that oversee child care, and really source out from there.

Brandon Burton 19:09
That’s good. Hopefully, people are jotting down some notes so they can do their research and see what the what the problem looks like. Because I’m going to assume it’s a problem in every state, and just see how big of a problem that is. And if it’s something that rises to the attention level that the domain deserve in some states, more so than others.

Kami Welch 19:28
I will also throw out on that the US Chamber Foundation has done a lot of work in this space and have an awesome toolkit on their website around childcare, that has many opportunities for businesses to get involved and resources that exist in that space. And so that’s a really good place to kind of dig in and start building knowledge around the childcare issue and opportunities.

Brandon Burton 19:49
Yeah. So about how long have you guys been involved with the child care work and had that be, you know, a big attention getter for you guys

Kami Welch 20:00
So about a year now. So not only that, I have to show great outcomes, which I’m excited in three or four years to be able to say we’ve added X amount of spots to childcare in our community, we’re still very much in the information gathering stage of this. But what has been exciting for us is how quickly we’ve been able to get to alignment of what is the goal? And what can we do about it. And so I talked a lot about the convenient and building community support, we also really worked in the policy space. And so recognizing that there’s like this whole advocacy play that comes along with moving child care system. So we have crafted a policy agenda. And that’s a big piece of our focus for this first part of the year is our legislators are down at the Capitol to really push on things like how do we expand cost effective preschool in early childhood? How do we give incentives to businesses that are willing to open childcare? So that we have the demand we need? So we’re really looking through initially that lens that what are those barriers of obstacle? And how do we remove some of them to be able to have better outcomes for our goals?

Brandon Burton 21:02
Yeah, no, it’s a, it’s a sticky problem. I mean, all these different I start thinking of a solution. And then I see reasons why, you know, it may not work, but it conflicts with it. So it’s not a simple solution. I mean, it’s going to require rolling up your sleeves and doing some hard work. So the big question, I know everybody’s thinking is, how are you pulling it off? How are you funding this work? Because yeah, Kenny, this is a great idea. Every chamber should be involved at this. But how do you do it?

Kami Welch 21:35
Yeah, as I started on the front end of the podcast, obviously, we were lucky enough to pull together the resources to do that five year strategic initiative. I know not everybody is in that position to do that. But what I will take away is kind of key messages and learnings as childcare is something that people decide they want to take on, I’m always happy to talk to them about our journey. But messaging is a really big piece of that, getting clear on the data and what the issue is and the community and putting together on paper, a clear understanding of what you’re going to do to solve it. So that people understand that there’s neat to this, that this is work that needs to happen. Also talking about the economic impact, like we know, in Jefferson County alone, where I’m located, that there’s a $200 million annual economic impact because of childcare. So continuing to tie the messaging back to economic development, makes it a lot easier to go out and seek those funds. But there’s got to be strategy behind this. And so again, we did it through a five year strategic initiative, I highly recommend that I mean, I’m so glad to know that we set funding for the next five years, and I don’t constantly have to be working through that. And that’s could be a whole podcast on its own of how that campaign process, but really putting strategy behind your work for today, tomorrow and long term. So people see that I think you have to ask, you have to find those people that have the heart for community that want to make sure that their business community drives and ask them to invest, help them see that you are the organization that can do this work? Well, it has to happen in order to solve those big critical challenges. The other thing I’ll say is there’s a lot of federal and state money floating around right now. And so if you’re not plugged into grant opportunities, I would highly encourage you to look into how you access those at your state level, Colorado uses a bid that at every state is probably different in the systems that they use. But we’ve been able to apply for a variety of different grants that support this work. Some are still pending, and we’re crossing our fingers that we get. But we did get one to hire a person directly supporting talent, which as I’ve said many times talent in child care hand in hand, right? We cannot solve workforce if we don’t fix our childcare system. That’s it. So looking at grants, thinking strategically about how you ask for those dollars, is really, really critical. And I know there’s no like magic bullet situation, unfortunately. But there are ways to get dollars for sure.

Brandon Burton 24:05
Right. So how much did you say the economic impact 200

Kami Welch 24:10
million for just Jefferson County alone,

Brandon Burton 24:12
man. So I mean, when you figure the people that are making those career sacrifices, the the impact of if you had the additional childcare centers? I mean, that’s a big economic impact there. I mean, it I think there’s a number to it, you can’t even put, you know, at number two some of this, just because there’s a lot of unknowns that potentially could be much more than that 200 million. So when you talk about economic development, that is a huge factor right there. Is there anything that we’re missing from this, this conversation that we haven’t touched on yet?

Kami Welch 24:54
So I’ll add a fun thing to this kind of a lighter opportunity. So one of the things we saw over the pandemic was Women primarily we’re the ones leaving the workforce to move into a caregiver role. And so one of the things that we’ve loved doing as an organization that started a couple of years ago during the pandemic is every March during Women’s History Month, we highlight the badass women of Arvada, and celebrate women who are leading in our community and really crushing it. And it’s a really fun opportunity for us to talk about women in the workplace, and highlight how important and critical that is for our community. So we’ve worked to find certainly those very tactical and strategic things. But it’s also really fun to think about how you highlight and celebrate the people in your community. That’s the work of chambers is right to bring people together and lift and do the things that help people feel connected to their communities. So we’ve found that to be a really fun way to kind of bring our community together and educate around this issue without it feeling too starchy.

Brandon Burton 25:55
Like that, that is fun. And it draws some positive attention to these women who are who are really making a difference, right. I love that. So I like to see, you know, for chamber champions that are listening, if you might have any tips or action items that they might take, if they’re looking to take their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest?

Kami Welch 26:18
Do you want a broad answer or to connect it to childcare?

Brandon Burton 26:22
Either way, whatever you feel is would be most relevant. Or if you want to do both, as a bonus, I’m open to whatever.

Kami Welch 26:31
Bye, far as the childcare conversation goes, I think the best thing to start and take action, if you haven’t already, is get the data, there is such a story behind that. And it will inspire you, it will inspire your leaders to take action. And so the first step related to child care, is that data piece of advice. As far as kind of industry and what that looks like, I will tell you that one of the best things I’ve done in my career is get involved, be involved at the state level, the local level, the national level, build those relationships so that you have a network of peers, of friends, sometimes we all need a little chamber therapy. I have my people that are in the speed dial that I call, I’m like, Have you ever dealt with this, this is wild, have you not network matters, it makes the career pathway of being in a chamber world so much more meaningful, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from my peers through this process. So get involved, join associations, make chamber friends, it matters and your chamber, you personally will be way better for it. So do it.

Brandon Burton 27:37
I love it. So 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?

Kami Welch 27:49
I love this question. Because I think it’s been such a journey for so many of us and Canada, kind of the historic role of chambers and be known for festivals and ribbon cutting than really that celebratory stuff in communities, which is still important, and it’s fun, and it brings people together. But I believe that chambers are more critical today than they’ve ever, ever, ever been. And the issues that our businesses are facing are getting bigger and more complicated. And I often will say if not us, then who we are uniquely positioned as chambers to solve really critical challenges. We have the resources, the leadership, and we can bring together government, nonprofit education, business, all to one table and solve issues. There aren’t many others who can do that with the same level of credibility. So I believe we have an opportunity right now, to optimize on that coming out of the pandemic, where many of us stepped into a new capacity. people’s trust in our ability is high. And we need to optimize that and take action today to ensure long term success.

Brandon Burton 28:53
I love that response. Love it. Well, Cami this has been a very insightful and productive conversation. I think it’s been provided a lot of value for chambers to kind of look at themselves, look at their community, get that data, see if you know if this rises to needing that that level of importance in your community to address childcare needs. I’m gonna guess it probably is up there and probably the top five needs that you need to address in your community. But if anyone listening wanted to reach out and connect with you maybe learn a little bit more more detail about how you guys are approaching this work. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Kami Welch 29:35
Yeah, absolutely. I would love to talk to anybody. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do is to connect with my peers so please don’t hesitate to reach out. Email is the easiest way to reach me which is kami@arvadachamber.org If you’re just looking for more information and want to r&d, rip off and duplicate our website at arvadachamber.org And feel free to take information from there. I am a huge proponent of supporting each other and so no need to tell me you’re taking it. It’s just if it’s helpful to you, and you can use some of it. Please do I believe a rising tide lifts all boats so happy to help anyone in the industry kind of figure out where they need to go next.

Brandon Burton 30:11
Awesome. Well get your email and the website in our show notes for this episode, so anyone can check that out and maybe just send you a thank you for that r&d. But thank you Kami for spending time with us today for sharing the work that you guys are doing around child care. This is a topic we have not covered on the podcast yet, so it’s an important one. And I have a feeling we’ll be talking about it even more coming into the future. So thank you for that.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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Business Growth through Belonging with John Brewer

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Diane Rogers, President and CEO of the Rancho Cordova Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for her.

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As a medium sized chamber, we recognize that it’s absolutely critical to have a well qualified and well trained membership development person. Holman Brothers trained that person, recruited that person then they even trained me on how to manage that person. We’re grateful for the support we got.

Brandon Burton 0:54
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Our guest for this episode is John Brewer. John is the president and CEO at the Billings Chamber of Commerce in Montana, which is a five star credited chamber through the US Chamber of Commerce. The Billings chamber developed and manages the Billings tourism improvement district visit southeast Montana and the billings chamber foundation. John currently serves on the WAC board of directors. His past chair of the Montana association of Chamber of Commerce executives, serves on the ACCE board served as their emerging cities chair and serves in the US chambers committee at 100 advisors. Before moving to Billings, John was president and CEO of the Spokane regional convention and visitors bureau in Washington, of course, he has a BA in Communication Arts from the University of West Florida, and he and his wife Carrie have four children and two grandkids. But John, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so they can get to know you a little

John Brewer 2:10
better. Hey, Brandon, well, thank you. It’s, it’s good to see ya. It’s always the most difficult question I think is sharing something interesting about yourself, right? Because golf that I find interesting other than I do it a bore. But you know, my wife and I, I guess if I were to say one thing that we’re passionate about, and it’s been kind of unique is that for the 20, some years, 25 years, we’ve been together, we’ve been fostering dogs and my wife has a heart for people in need and animals in need. So we’ve had everything from 12 Puppies running around the house to a dog in a wheelchair to other special needs type dogs to try to help find them a home. So for us, it’s been fun as well as it’s been rewarding to to help connect the animals to their lifelong homes.

Brandon Burton 2:57
That’s awesome. So if you had to, if you had to guess over the last 25 years or so about how many dogs have been through your house, the Bowl number

John Brewer 3:08

  1. We were much more active when the kids were at a different age and things that now we kind of go one at a time, I think more more because of our age than any grant. But it’s great. He’s working with debt dog adoption agencies around the country. And when they need a home. He’s kind of opening the doors for him. So I love being part of that.

Brandon Burton 3:30
That is awesome. As dogs need that. Yeah. Well tell us a little bit about the Billings chamber just to give us some perspective. Before we get into our conversation. Obviously every chamber is different. But give us an idea of size staff budget scope of work that sort

John Brewer 3:47
of bragging about Yeah, first. Yeah. You mentioned your that five star credited chamber several years ago, we were chamber of the year through atpe. So we’re proud of the work that we’re doing. We’ve got an incredible board of directors that kind of let us be unchained to go and figure out what needs to be solved in our chambers really focused on being one of those kick butt chambers, if you will, and problem solver and as far as tackling big community issues, as well as those core things that most chambers are involved in. For us. It’s business growth, business advocacy, community development. And then we are also as you mentioned in the intro there, the managing organization for our tourism entities both visit Billings and visit southeast Montana 13 counties and two Indian Reservation within our region here. So, you know, having that balance of connecting business to the you know, millions of visitors that come through here on their way to Yellowstone National Park or Little Bighorn battlefield sight of customers last stand or along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Were in a great spot to not only be a business hub as the largest city in Montana, and A tourism area where people start their journey by flying in and got the largest airport and great internet interstate connectivity. But our chamber has right now just over 1100 members, they employ just under 15,000 people. And we are hovering around 90% retention and we love that number. It’s solid. And we’re just we’ve been on a growth cycle, both from a revenue perspective, as well as the membership perspective. So our staff has grown by four FTE in the last 12 month and we’re brought people on who are focused in in the finance world, we need to do some things you’d mentioned that we just launched our foundation at the chamber. And we’re also bringing people on to help take care of the workforce issue that every community I think in the country is facing.

Brandon Burton 5:54
Now that you guys definitely have your work cut out for you, that’s for sure. It’s curious, have you guys seen an influx in tourism since the TV show Yellowstone came out a couple years ago?

John Brewer 6:05
It’s funny how many times we’re asked that question, right? Yeah, we, you know, Yellowstone, in where that shot is probably about a four and a half, five hour drive from us. But you know, Yellowstone Park has seen a bump, we hear lots of people on their way and talking about it, the detrimental side to that is now the state legislature feels like we’re getting all this free advertising that we should just pull that we get about $2 million annually for tourism funding. So they’re like, we don’t really need that anymore. Let’s reinvest that in affordable housing and other needs in our communities like public safety. So we’re in the middle of our legislative session that meets every two years, and kind of all hands on deck for those battles. And they are they are plentiful. We’ve got 4000 bills that have been introduced. And so yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, it poses some challenges.

Brandon Burton 6:54
Right. Now. We were one of those families. Last summer, we were gonna go there and about I think two weeks before we went the, I think was the North Loop got closed down with the mudslides and stuff. And so we ended up kind of rerouting what our vacation was going to be because they were only letting in you know, every other day, depending on your your license plate numbers. They’re like, that’s a long hike.

John Brewer 7:19
And interestingly enough, our visitors director at the Chamber, her brother is the superintendent at Yellowstone Park. So when they were going through that kind of a lottery of license plates, you know, we were hearing about some of that, and that was an interesting process. But yeah, they were hit very hard, still not fully recovered, hit the egg industry in our region. But you know, that’s another thing that chambers are always geared up to, to try to do is, you know, be prepared to help whether it’s, you know, all the rains in California flooding hurricane. So another exciting role, though, per chamber and pillar solving those community problems that they hit.

Brandon Burton 7:54
That’s right. So getting back to, I guess the topic for our conversation today. As great as billings is, and you know, we want to get get honed in on a certain topic here. So, what we decided to cover today is, you know, every, every chamber, every community is vastly different. And as we get into the topic of diversity, equity inclusion over the last few years that looks different in each community. And as we talk with John today, we wanted to kind of focus on the why for Thayer Dei, what did they you know, hone in on and focusing on as they worked on diversity, equity inclusion, and we will dive into that much deeper as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, John, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break diving into what was the why for the your diversity equity inclusion efforts there the Billings chamber and how did things kind of evolve into what it is now.

John Brewer 11:43
And I think that word evolve and evolution is so important because I think so many of us in the chamber world and maybe as just citizens of the world, you know, we hear a lot about D E I and it strikes us all differently because words do matter. And as we were developing the name of the work even it was a lengthy discussion for many diversity, equity and inclusion or triggering words or they have a stigma to them. And and I think this evolution of white white chambers are involved in Dei. Now, is it an important context to understand I mean, for us, everything that we do these days is revolving around workforce, workforce development, workforce retention, Workforce Education. And this is one of those areas that I think we just push aside or think that we’re doing okay in and ignore. And I feel that chambers are masters, developing these type of networks, to include people so that they have a voice and to include opportunities for individuals to grow. You know, we convene people as chambers to solve problems, whether it’s public safety, or wetek. We talked about a minute ago, floods and community disasters, we bring people together for their expertise. But we also as chambers convene people to help educate them to help them grow. We have small business networks, which is a diverse individual group, we have young professionals and women’s networks and veterans groups. All of those address diversity by a DDI program just brings it all together. And understanding you know, because I think when I when I first got into this, and it’s only been a couple of years from the Billings chamber, so we’re in our infancy. But diversity doesn’t mean a person’s skin color alone. And I think that’s where we often go, you know, I’ve never personally been a female, I’ve never been in a wheelchair, I’ve never been a person of color. I’m not gay. I am, who I am. And I’ve got my political leanings and my religious beliefs. And we’re all so unique that for us and for our organization, what it means for us as the why and what we need to accomplish is to have a better understanding of others to meet them where they are, to help them feel a sense of belonging so people can bring their authentic and best selves to work. And so that companies can have the tool that they need to build a strong workforce. As I mentioned, your retention and recruitment is just so important. And I think many of the chambers that will be listening, but also the tourism economy. For us, we have about $625 million in visitor spending and direct visitor spending over 625 million. And over the last several years, our call center started getting questions in regards to I’m a person of color, am I safe? I’m a person in the LGBTQ plus community do I belong? And so between the visitor economy and just working with our members to help build that, that sense of belonging in a workforce so that the companies can, you know, tout themselves legitimately as being a Quality place to work and help employees grow?

Brandon Burton 15:03
Absolutely, I think that’s so important, it just creating that that place of belonging no matter what the diversity is of the population, and like you said, you’ve never been a woman. But yeah, that sometimes that gets overlooked, you know that, you know, there are different segments of the population, whether it is gender, or I think race is where a lot of people go to and you think the bet, are you a veteran? Are you disabled? Are you you know, what are the different things and and more and more, it feels like there’s new labels being put upon people or that are people that are associated with with new labels and and groups that they need special attention, they need to be considered, especially as they enter

John Brewer 15:50
the workforce. And I want you know, everybody who works, you know, bringing it down to the micro level people that work at the Chamber, I want them to feel that regardless of their backstory, where they come from, challenges that they’ve had in their life, that they feel that we are a place where they can grow, and they are important and their voices heard. And, again, whether it’s a person of color, and in Billings, we are about 88%, white, we have a strong Native American population, we’re close to the Crow Reservation, as well as the Northern Cheyenne. And you know, their workforce right now. They’re at about 50% unemployment there. And they’ve got workforce and a college and we want to find ways to be better in billing, to help bridge that workforce gap to help grow, but they have a unique culture that, you know, some from I think that the white heritage might just see the native culture and say, you know, what, they don’t show up on time, they’re don’t work as hard. The work ethic is different. And it’s these issues where it is just different. And once you learn how to address those, boy, we’re missing out on some big opportunities. If we don’t and, you know, for us, it was to better understand what we didn’t know at the time, we surveyed our membership a lot and asked a lot of questions to help even determine whether this was something that we should be getting into. And we had about 78% of our members say, we have needs and there’s nobody leading in this space in Billings in a space, I mean, connecting business to Dei, and 78% of our members said we need to do this. Billings is friendly, you know, we’re a great community, we’re welcoming, but we’re not diverse, and simply not knowing how to address diversity. And like we just talked about the breadth of diversity. I was surprised kind of how hungry some of our members were for tools that could help them grow. Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:51
And, yeah, I feel like that’s one of the biggest challenges we have in our day is being able to be inclusive of all the diverse segments of the population and diversity, you know, division has that same root word of division, right? So in different segments of diversity, there comes a lot of strength, you know, as you can come together with, you know, whether it’s a women’s group or, you know, different races gather together, or its sexual orientations, there’s some strength coming together for that. But as society is as a whole, and as the workforce as a whole, it becomes very divisive, or it can be as we have all these different segments. So how do we incorporate everybody give them a place of belonging, make sure that they understand that it doesn’t matter, any of the subsets of the population you belong here, we want you to hear that. Yeah, say how have you have you guys approached that?

John Brewer 18:51
Well, we spent a lot of time again on the name when we talked about belonging, and we had all these nice acronyms and flowery words that we just decided that you know what we’re going to hit this head on, we’re going to have difficult conversations, and we’re going to be that place where people will feel comfortable coming with their tough questions, because like you say, dei and woke and all of these over politicized word, you know, it all boils down to, how are we helping our members and our employees feel like they belong. And we’ve developed a four part strategy for our dei work, and most recently launched a program called you belong and billing. With the end we launched at our annual meeting just a couple of months ago. The idea being that Montana and billing was ranked in the top three states and communities in the United States where people were moving to over the past couple of years. And we knew that brought a diversity of thought and diversity of political backgrounds, the diversity of color and so on. And we set out with this initiative to help an employer once they bring somebody in from another community, help them to onboard them to the community. So as an employer, we all have our onboarding programs, you hire somebody, you give them the one on one in the organization, they immerse in your culture at your organization. But we’ve found in our hearing, over time, so many of our large employers were losing people, because they couldn’t find their footing in our community. And for a variety of reasons. So as new people move here, we’ve got this community onboarding program, if you live at old Welcome Wagon feel you’ve just moved here? What should I see? And do where’s my theme, you know, where can I connect with things that interests me, whether it’s, you know, brew, trail walk, or arts and entertainment, the music scene. But more importantly, we felt it was a one on one human connection, so connecting them to other newbies that have just arrived in Billings, as well as community leader. So that this, you know, couple year ramp up time, I’m learning a new job and learning a lot of other stuff, buying a house, getting my cable connected all that stuff, we’re now going to deliberately help you find ways to get involved in the community getting involved in the chamber. And we think over time, we’re gonna be tracking that, and seeing what kind of retention rates employers are going to have, because there’ll be doing this onboarding, and then connecting to our leadership programs and connecting to elected official, and finding a way to get involved in our dei work if they choose. So that’s one very significant initiative that in its early phases, and we’re excited to see how it progresses.

Brandon Burton 21:34
Yeah. So and I like how you surveyed your members. And you said that you’re going about this, you know, when it boils down to what’s good for buildings, what’s good for your members. But really, there’s a huge outreach component of this to saying that you belong here, and you’re talking to people that are not Chamber members, that you’re talking to people that are not yet part of the community in some instances, but being inclusive and saying you belong, we have a place for you. But really focusing with your membership to create those places where they can belong and, and make them feel part of the community. So I’d like to, the focus is on billings in the members, they’re really that outreach component. I think this is so important.

John Brewer 22:17
In the outreach piece, one of our four core goals for dei mission was not only outreach so this one is relatively new, the outreach to outside of our borders. But within our membership, that continual dedication of space in our E News and other communications to dei content, celebrating Black History Month, and Martin Luther King Day, for example, and making sure that we’re able to provide kind of an upcoming calendar of here’s where we used to be set aside and set aside some dedicated time to to celebrate different populations. We launched a dei website, billing dei.com, and it has videos and to get books to read, and a downloadable toolkit that we actually partnered with it. Since they partnered we borrowed from the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, they developed this amazing resource. We worked with them to tweak a little bit to be billing centric, redeveloped it launched it and provided contacts and information on this website that helps businesses with their onroad or their onramp. You know, I want to start with I don’t know where to begin. What step one, I’m just in the early phases of wanting to introduce belonging into our organization, or we’ve been doing this for years, and what’s next for that company. And so some of our early adopters that really helped get the brand and part of a successful initiative, like takes funding. And some of our early adopters that stepped up, were some of the names you heard of, you know, corporate, large, major corporations such as Exxon and Keio International, based here and billing. A number of financial institution came to us with significant financial support to help us develop the structure, build a website, hire an individual to spearhead this work. And that’s meeting that goal for us. But making this sustainable, this could not be a fad. That, you know, it’s the talk of the day, let’s get behind this because it’s new, and then it disappears. It has to be sustained. So we built this into the fabric of our organization, found the funding and are really happy with with that continued growth and the continued support partnership from our members. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 24:36
So is the majority of the, I guess information and training for members? Is it digitally based on the Billings to ei.com? Or do you have any in person kind of stuff? I know you had mentioned the community, you know, the community onboarding has a personal touch that as far as getting the members position Well to be inclusive and welcoming for everybody. And what does that look like?

John Brewer 25:05
Yeah, so one of the very first things we did, this is out of my comfort zone. And we started. So we brought together a steering committee that has now evolved to an advisory board of 15 individuals that bring different perspective. And we decided early on, we needed to launch that personal touch. So for four sessions, now, we’ve had a diversity, equity inclusion, and an implementation dei class that’s consisted of four workshops. And those go over a four month period. And they’re followed by four community roundtable discussions, and then network opportunity. So after those four months, people will go through that they go through a graduation ceremony, we celebrate them. And then they become kind of part of our alumni email chain now of keeping them communicated with on a high level. But that step was big. And then once a company has graduated, so many people through that program, they’re then designated as a Workplace of Choice, and they get some language, we’re working on another piece to that that would be more of an identity for them. But they’re able to utilize those resources and promoting their organization as a quality place to work. So that has meant over the last two years for us 150 graduate full classes almost every time, those 140 50 graduates represent just over 30 businesses that employ 16,000 people. And that was our goal was to reach the major employees to begin with employers to begin with, knowing that they would cast their net out to their employees. And our goal, starting last April, and moving forward now is to engage many more small businesses. And part of the funding that’s come in, through our sponsors has been dedicated to scholarships for those that can’t afford it.

Brandon Burton 27:03
And it’s great. That was one of the questions that we’re going to have is there’s some kind of certification they get afterwards as a company, and you got into the depth of that with those workshops and the ability to kind of workshop together and around table and stay as part of that alumni group, and build that strength throughout the community. And then thinking with these major employers, 16,000 people being affected, they’re not all going to stay at the same player forever. So they’re going to move around that training is going to go with them as well. So casting that net, you know, wide within these major employers, I think is so key. And it’s such a smart move. I wanted to see as we start wrapping up here for I know a lot of chambers have some sort of a D and AI initiative, but it’s gonna see if you have any tips or action items for chambers listening, who want to take their organization up to the next level, what what would you suggest for them?

John Brewer 28:04
Yeah, that’s a great question. And you know, whether it’s dei specific or otherwise, one of the things that after our one of our first dei workshops, the presenter, who we’ve engaged as our contracts service provider to lead these workshops, gave me a bottle of wine, and encouraged me to enjoy it with somebody who I don’t know who doesn’t look like me, think like me is different. And I just that stuck with me. And I’ve got that here on my desk as a constant reminder of, you know, we’re engaged with a lot of people as chambers, we have strong networks, but there’s so many groups and individuals out there that we don’t know. So I’ve carried that on. And we do gift cards for staff and gift cards for others in the past, and have handed them out and said, You know what, here’s here’s a card for your favorite brewery or a card for a coffee shop. only caveat is you got to go find somebody to enjoy it with who you don’t know. And that really helped us as we were, again, evolving our advisory board and bringing those unique places around the table. Because we just have such a propensity to go back to that comfort zone and say, Hey, I’m gonna go grab this person and that person because I know they get stuff done. And I have a comfort there. That really helps, I think, just think differently and put you in that uncomfortable zone of of growth.

Brandon Burton 29:28
Yeah, yeah, I love that tip. That’s a hopefully everybody’s making a quick note of that. To get out of your comfort zone. Go enjoy time and conversation and a beverage or some food, you know, with somebody who’s different than you. And there’s a lot to be learned by doing that. John, I’d like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

John Brewer 29:59
Yeah, I think there’s, you know, wide open plate for us to be successful and incredibly impactful in our community. But it boils down to leadership. It involves, you know, the makeup of our boards of directors and the professional staff that we have membership leadership and engagement. But there are there are some incredible roadmaps out there and somewhat crystal ball that we all need to be paying attention to and, and watching as they are updated. And, and, you know, I look often towards work that was done several years ago to ACCE and the horizons initiative gave us great perspective on emerging demographics and political polarization. WAC II is an incredible resource for their three C’s evolution of chambers becoming catalysts, and champions and conveners. And, you know, if we look to those roadmap, but he said at the very beginning, all chambers are different. But there’s a certain kind of structure a solid foundation that makes us unique, and I think will continue to provide value and make us relevant and not only relevant but essential as we go forward in such a digital age that we still have that ability to bring people together, that can really impact our communities in substantive ways.

Brandon Burton 31:23
I love that answer. And you know, how spot on was the horizons report? Right? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. So I’m glad you brought that up. And in going from relevant to essential, I gotta upload Casey Steinbacher book, you know, that same title, great book, and any, any chamber pros out there, I haven’t read it. It’s a Kindle version. So you got to download it, but it’s a great read. John, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information. So anyone listening who’d like to learn more about how you guys are doing things there and billings, specifically about you know, creating a place of belonging with the your business growth there. What would be the best ways to reach out and connect with you

John Brewer 32:10
always best to reach me via email and that’s john@billingschamber.com. Again, just perusing our website with our BillingsDEI.com. There’s some great resources and a wider breadth of contact information and then then our website at Billingschamber.com as well.

Brandon Burton 32:30
Right? Well, we’ll get all of that in our show notes for this episode. So if anybody is driving and couldn’t get in, jot those down, just check out the show notes and scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll have all of John’s contact information there. But John, thank you for spending time with us today and sharing how you guys are creating that that place of belonging through business growth there and Billings and the example you guys are sending. I really appreciate it. Thank

John Brewer 32:55
you, Brandon means a lot. I appreciate that.

Brandon Burton 38:24
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Looking 25 Years into the Future with Bryan Derreberry

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

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

Introduction

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.

And now your host, he enjoys smoked meat from his Traeger, he’s my dad Brandon Burton.

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Jason Mock, President and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber to learn how the Holman Brothers have provided value for his chamber.

Jason Mock 0:45
Two years ago, we brought in Holman Brothers to help our organization go to that next level. And in those two years, our team has transformed the way that we think about sponsorships and non dues revenue. And I would really encourage you if you’re looking to take your chamber to the next level to bring on the Holman Brothers.

Brandon Burton 1:02
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

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Our guest for this episode is Bryan Derreberry. As President and CEO of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce for 11 years, Bryan leads one of South Carolina’s largest chambers in its regional advancement work. Bryan has an established executive management track record, featuring more than 30 years in chamber leadership and advocacy roles. Prior to joining the Charleston Metro Chamber. Bryan was president and CEO of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce in Wichita, Kansas, where he directed the state’s largest Metro Chamber for seven and a half years. He also served as president and CEO of the Catawba County, North Carolina and Middleton Ohio Chambers of Commerce respectively. Bryan began his chamber career as a state lobbyist for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, of course in Ohio. He holds holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in political science from Wittenberg University and is and has completed graduate coursework towards a combined MA and PhD in American politics, and international relations from the American University. Bryan, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. And I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a

Bryan Derreberry 2:31
little bit better. Well, Brandon, thank you for the opportunity. You know, it’s I love when you say chamber champions, because I I think about all my colleagues across the country and the amazingly important work they do and strengthening their business communities and advancing their regions. And I think one of the interesting parts of my background is my intention, when I started my career, was to go into lobbying full time, and had that chance with the Greater Cincinnati chamber. And at that time, that was the fourth largest chamber in America and represented that business community in Columbus, Ohio, four days a week and really treasured the opportunity. And somebody said to me, do you miss your lobbying days? And I think one of the things that people can learn about chamber executives, is that I said, I lobby as much now as I did when I did it full time, right? This looks different. I said it different audiences, different opportunities. A lot of times, it could be anything from a neighborhood association, embracing a new piece of infrastructure, or a group that’s not familiar with our chamber, we launched a major DNI effort three years ago. So we’re, we’re speaking out in numerous communities in our metro area, and sharing with them about the chamber for the first time. So it’s powerful to think about how every chamber exec in the country and many of their teammates day in and day out need great lobbying skills. So those degrees and that initial experience have really served me well.

Brandon Burton 4:15
Absolutely, yes. And I firmly believe that anyone listening to this it’s involved with the chamber, they are champions for their community and and when I tried thinking of a name for the audience, you know, that that seemed to fit well, so kind of rolls off your tongue but it has great meaning to so thanks for for recognizing that and you take a moment and tell us a little bit more about the the Charleston Metro Chamber to kind of the type of chamber Scope of Work size, staff budget, that sort of thing. Just to give us some perspective before we dive into our conversation.

Bryan Derreberry 4:52
You bet. We have 1600 members. A budget that said six and a half have million 30 full time staff members. And we have four primary platforms that we deliver our work through. Number one, like every chamber, a significant membership platform. Number two, a important government relations platform. We have three full time lobbyists on our team, one up in the state house in Colombia, and then two that work locally with our three counties and 30 municipalities. I think that’s a distinctive flavor for our organization, with regard to how important it is to get alignment, in all those communities, and I’ll talk a little bit later about, we use a partner ethos to lobby versus the bloody nose ethos that seems to be typical for the rest of our United States today. And that serves us very well. We have a large community advancement platform. And within that platform, we do diversity, equity and inclusion work. We do significant professional development programming work for our members. And also we do workforce and talent development. And then our marketing and communications platform is the fourth platform with regard to making sure not only that membership, can actively get engaged in what we do, but also the 830,000 people. And 165,000 employees represented by our membership, have an appreciation for what goes on within the chamber. So a very gifted group of folks, board of directors of 68, Executive Committee of 26. So very actively involving all the sectors in our metro area, and the volunteer leadership of our chamber. And I know one thing that chamber champions understand out there is that a lot of times we have to explain to people that we are a volunteer, directed organization. And they’ll come to us and say, Oh, you need to take a position on this issue. Well, we’ll go through our committee structure, and determine whether we take a position on the issue or not, it’s not my decision, or our government relations team, or our workforce development team to make a policy decision. It’s the responsibility of our volunteers. And I think after a number of years here, people now appreciate that, and they value that. So I think that’s another dynamic of our chamber is we very much want to put our members and key leadership roles in directing the chamber, we see ourselves as a regional advancement organization. So we look at that three county metro area and we look at big Rakesh used to work on already mentioned diversity, equity, inclusion, housing, attainability, mobility solutions, overall quality of business environment. So significant work that will advance our region over the next 25 to 50 years.

Brandon Burton 8:09
Right. I love that the fact that you pointed out you know, if the issue gets presented to the chamber, you take it to your committees, your board. A while back, I had Matt Morrow from the Springfield, Missouri chamber on the podcast, and he talked a lot about the wisdom of crowds. And when especially when you have a board of that size, 68 and different committees and whatnot, as you bring a different different topics in there. They all come in from their different backgrounds and experience and be able to know what the vision is the direction the Chamber’s trying to go. And then from there, combined experience and wisdom, they’re gonna land on the best possible outcome and direction to take up on different issues and policies even so glad you pointed that out.

Bryan Derreberry 8:57
You know, Brandon, I would strongly agree with your assessment. I am. This is my 36th year in the profession and I, overall, those board meetings, executive committee meetings, government relations committee meetings, I’ve seen the wisdom of our leaders proven out time and again. And I think another thing that every chamber champion listening recognizes is that they may come up with a position that’s contrary to what I personally believe, on a policy issue, maybe even what our team believes. And at the end of the day, we step forward and implement that decision, because it is their organization. So I think if you’re young and you’re chamber champion development, it’s important to realize that and of course, we want passionate people in our profession. And we want people that are highly skilled and able to craft how an issue needs to be examined. But then you have to be responsible to the degree See that it may end up somewhere that you didn’t imagine it would go. In over all those years, I’ve never seen it a selection of an outcome or a policy position that wasn’t best for the business community. So my encouragement would be to trust, that leadership, trust working with them to find the right pathway forward for your community. And there’s an old saying, you and I both heard of Brandon, you know, if they write it, they’ll underwrite it. And they, if they develop it and fill, it’s their own, they will get up and give public testimony, they’ll provide funding for lobbying efforts. So that’s part of the beauty of this profession is that, you know, we do lead heterogeneous organizations. This is not the American Dental Association or the American Medical Association. So we’ll have everything from a sole proprietor to somebody leading Joint Base Charleston here with 26,000 employees, and all across that spectrum, people will bring input an interest, and that’ll craft a composite position, or a composite direction. That’s really powerful. Right? Takes a lot of patients.

Brandon Burton 11:16
That’s right, it does. It takes a lot of patients. So our topic for discussion today, I’m a big fan of helping people and even chambers to understand the potential the power within them to become something greater. And for our discussion today, we’re focusing on looking 25 years into the future, which I think is very important in that aspect as far as realizing what the potential is of your organization, to be able to see what direction you can go and what needs to happen. You know, those those baby steps so to speak between here and there, and we’ll dive into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Bryan, we’re back. And as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about looking 25 years into the future as a chamber organization looking into the future. What at the end of this conversation, I’ll ask you how you see the future of chambers going forward. But in the meantime, before we get to that future and How do you see from here moving forward over the next 25 years,

Bryan Derreberry 15:04
Brandon and we do something that we feel is particularly powerful. About mid year we’ll begin a process called annual partnership calls. So we will go to somewhere between 180 to 250 of our members. And we sit down. And we ask a couple of questions that influence what that runway looks like over the next 25 years. The first question is, talk about the next three to five years of your company, and identify where you think there are excellent opportunities for your competitive growth, and then identify things that are impediments, speed bumps, and then we just, were quiet. And I think anytime you ask somebody about their company, and how they’re doing, where they’re going, what’s working, what’s challenging, you get really good, really good input. And the other the other question that really registers with them is that if there were one to two things in our metro area that you could change for the better, what would they be? So I’d love to tell you, we come back with a lot of disparate information and no agreement, we come back with a real clear picture as to what are the most significant opportunities, and what are the most pressing challenges. And when we look at those in combination, a lot of what we described on how we’re designed as an organization is influenced by the annual partnership calls in our area housing attainability is the number one regional issue. It will be a 25 year fix. To get the proper stock, the proper pricing, we’re in a real challenge with regard to our supply versus our demand. We’re growing by 33 net people a day, and we’re just having a hard time providing workforce housing that’s affordable. So we have a huge coalition working on that all three counties, public sector partners, private sector leaders, citizens, different associations. And we know right now we’re at 6000 houses behind for attainable housing in our metro market. That’s a couple of decades. So another one is mobility solutions, we’re getting ready in 2026 to undertake high speed bus lanes. So major mass transit project 21 Miles 2020 stops along the way. And for our metro, you know, if you’re in a, we were just in Boston for Metro leadership visit, they’ve been hopping on the tee for a while now. For us, that’s an important first step, there will be other lines to follow. But removing, even if we can remove eight to 10% of the traffic from our highways, that extends their longevity, it cuts down on congestion. So those are the kinds of issues that emerge. And it’s not us sitting in some room at the Chamber, figuring out where we go the next 25 years. It’s the people that want to be the employers, the citizens, the electeds, that continue to help our region thrive, identify where we’re going. And in that mix, there are many of our elected bodies, there are stakeholder partners. So we’re getting a really great level of input that’s formulating where we go. The other thing we just completed, we did an 18 month study. It’s called one region roadmap and used SP Friedman out of Chicago, Illinois to undertake our effort. And what it does, as a lot of communities don’t know what those big rock issues are, doesn’t take very long to figure those out. But this is going to be a 10 year plan, where every year we’ll identify five to seven priorities for the region to work on collectively. And there will be we’re using a local governing network,

which my political science professors from long ago would have really liked hearing. But what that is it means there’ll be a lead agent, we’re going to be the lead agent for housing attainability will involve other stakeholders throughout the community. And then we’ll begin to work on gaining annual metric identified success and creating more attainable housing. So equitable did Dual accesses another one, entrepreneurial development is another one. But this gives us a roadmap as a region for a decade. And at the heart of the one reaching roadmap is equitable access for all of our citizens to living, learning and earning opportunities. So I think you have to have a foundational piece that engages everyone. And that’s the piece, we want everybody to be able to have those attributes as we move through the decades ahead. So listen, well build a strategic plan that has lead agents that will be responsible for the work that’s being undertaken. And they get after it year in and year out, we have a large steering committee that will evaluate each of the lead agents on an annual basis to make sure they’re performing. So you know, it’s the classic thing brand. And if you if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, and we’re just really dedicated to that kind of work. And I would encourage chamber champions across the country that are listening, there’s a couple of key learnings in there. Number one, you want to bring as many people along as possible. So get out and talk to your members, talk to your elected officials, talk to the people that you’re going to need to do this with. We never say the chamber is going to do this work. We say along with our partners, we’re gonna tackle these annual priorities. The other thing is to make them concrete. That’s hard for a lot of communities. I’ve been in other communities that love to study and talk. But when you say annually, we’re going to achieve x, y, we’re gonna accomplish why. And then you report on it, then you have credibility, then it’s not a study that goes and sits on the shelf and collect stuff. So listen, well, engage others be concrete, and produce results. So we’re, we’re excited about one region roadmap, we kick it off in October. So when you and I talk this time next year, yeah, I’ll be able to, I’ll be able to tell you more about getting divorced in one region roadmap.

Brandon Burton 22:18
Yeah. So I know leading up to this discussion, you had shared with me, some of these topics that you guys are looking on. Maybe areas of focus, as you look to the future of Charleston, and and you talked about some of these, like the attainable housing and the you know, the infrastructure and mobility and things like that, as you have these different. We’ll call them topics areas of focus. How do you go about focusing on each one? I assume there’s some sort of a committee for each area of focus? Is that right? Have you said it’s one thing to create division, and we need to expand and put some focus and, and work over in these areas? But then how do you go from that, that vision to actually rolling it out to? Let’s take some action on these different steps? What does that look like there in Charleston?

Bryan Derreberry 23:12
You know, it’s interesting, and I think inherent in your in your question is a couple of things for chamber champions number one, regardless of the size of your chamber, and I have a deep passion for chambers that have staff under the number of 10. I think they work harder than any other chamber in the country, you’re going to need to hire some experts. We’ve been very intentional over the past 11 years, that we add people to our team that have significant expertise. So while they won’t do it on their own, they have a career track record in the areas whether it’s workforce development, government relations, diversity, equity and inclusion, attainable housing. They’re an expert. Because I think that you’ll be pleased as a chamber when you make that investment. And when you’re smaller, and maybe one or two major issues. So we’ve been very intentional about in that group of 30. Hiring people that have that level of expertise. The other thing that we’ve done is built a very strong committee structure. So however, those issues are moving through our organization, there are one or two or more committees that will be touching them. And we’ll be following through on what we commit to do organizationally to achieve results. The final thing is a talk a little bit about that local governing network and if anybody would like information on that we’re happy to share. You have to engage the whole region. So you look at something like the high speed bus lanes. Our Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Council of Governments is working with all the governments along that set of high speed bus lane routes. We’re working through our regional policy committee, which handles all of our local regional work. But there also is going to be a lead agent in that area that will pull together, how many ever stakeholders are required to implement. So a lot of it’s leveraging what I call critical mass. So you got some key folks at the top that have expertise, and then they’re bringing partners together to, in this instance, transportation, overlays for development on those 20 bus stops. So you know, there’s some sophistication that’s required when you do that kind of work. So, you know, my encouragement would get experts on your team, make sure the region understands the top issues, bring stakeholders together, that can move the issue. And then, again, metrics that make sure over 510 1520 years, you’re making progress, because in that timeframe, Brandon, you and I both know, you’re gonna have different mayors, you’re going to have different city councils, you’re going to have different county councils, you’re going to have a different state legislative delegation. So you have to be you chamber, and top stakeholders that are in it for the long run, you have to keep the plumb line very clear, and keep coming back to the issues. Because a lot of times public and private sector partners can get easily distracted. So that’s the other thing is that we look at all of our work as forever work. Okay, you’re forever doing housing affordability, you’re forever improving infrastructure. You’re forever maintaining your business climate. For us as a coastal community, you’re forever looking at resiliency. So part of that is developing a drumbeat internally to be in it for the long game. Yeah, every year, as you said, you want to have annual achievements. But you have to have those long game goals, talented team, great partners, focus and metrics to be able to move to we call them big rock issues. Because they don’t go away. You know, somebody said, you know, we have funding, we have something called Accelerate greater Charleston that funds. A lot of the professional staff that the technical professional staff is somebody said, Well, when are we going to stop doing accelerate greater Charleston? And we just smile, and we say never,

Brandon Burton 27:50
whenever you give up, you know, like,

Bryan Derreberry 27:53
you want to quit? Yeah, you know, and last one out, cut off the lights. And what I think what helps private sector companies, especially if they’re developing products, have said, you have an r&d arm, don’t you? And they Oh, yeah, we have research and development. Well, for chambers, your research and development is positioning the region for the future and putting the building blocks in place. I said, if your r&d went away, you’d be selling the same product over and over, you’re always looking to improve. And that begins to help people wrap their brains around. Okay, this is forever work. This is a long game. And the other beauty I just shared earlier, we went to Boston with 100 leaders, is get your leaders out to other metro markets that have like opportunities and challenges. So they can see the kind of work they’ve done. And then we come home and people say, hey, we saw how they did that in Boston, we can do that. Or they come home and say, wow, they had a big miss, we can really learn from that. So when we tackle a like issue, we don’t make the same mistakes. The other beauty of that trip is that you think all the leaders in your community know each other and kind of have a comparable set of aspirations. They don’t know. So when you get 100 people together that are having lunch and dinner and some staying up till college late hours, getting to know each other better. They come home aligned. You know, a lot of this is about not only what you’re tackling, but its alignment, and persistence. So that annual trip kind of says, Okay, we’ve gotten to x with high speed bus lanes. So we’re gonna go look at somebody that’s either built them all the way out, or maybe they have light rail. So again, it’s I call it staying 20% dissatisfied. Yeah, never, never 100% satisfied. that you have to continually prod the region to achieve at a higher level. Part of the challenge to Brandon is that, you know, I’ve been in places that are BB plus communities, it’s hard to get a BB plus to an A, it’s really easier to take a C or a D and pop it up to an A, because people feel the threat. They feel the need for collaboration and alignment. You know, when you’re a B plus, you’re kind of fat and happy. Right? Do we really need to be in a

Brandon Burton 30:33
you’re too comfortable? Any adjustments? Yeah.

Bryan Derreberry 30:37
And that’s when we say there are 396 other mshs in this nation, that one our employers and they want our talent. So yes, we need to be in a

Brandon Burton 30:45
Yeah, that’s I love that point. And that being the 20% just satisfied it. Yes. Always, always looking for that room to improve. I love that. salutely. So and I’m sure this answer will vary. But as there are different committees and whatnot on these different topics. You had mentioned doing these leadership visits to other cities, which I think is awesome. It’s a great way to look at a certain topic and how a city that you may aspire to be like and in certain aspects that I see great value in that. As far as the nitty gritty, the day to day. How often do some of these committees meet as a monthly? Is it weekly? Is it quarterly? Are they all different? Depending on what it is? How do you? How do you say that in your community?

Bryan Derreberry 31:32
There, at least monthly, if not twice a month. And we’re big believers, our board this year will have had 10 board meetings and 10 executive committee meetings. You know, I hear people say, Oh, we you know, chamber champions. I apologize if I’m stepping on toes. Oh, we do a quarterly. Okay, these kinds of issues. If you do a quarterly and somebody misses a quarterly meeting, they miss half a year. Yeah. Okay. We call that creating a drumbeat. Whether it’s committees that are working on policy, or programs or initiatives, or executive committee and board. If you lose the drumbeat within your organization on key issues, you’re not going to be able to move fast enough to make a difference. Well, they’re all busy people. And I’m gonna give you a great example. Brandon, we tried to go to every other month when I was in Wichita, and the board rebelled. That’s a cool message. Yeah, one I’m meet monthly. So I think sometimes, yeah, it’s a lot of work. We have an amazing executive ops team. And it’s a lot of work to do 20 meetings a year with, you know, large lead volunteer bodies. And it’s the work we signed up for.

Brandon Burton 32:58
Absolutely. And it’s that forever work as it’s that forever work.

Bryan Derreberry 33:03
And, you know, the the thing we talk about is, and I just met with our exec ops team yesterday, and they’re incredible. And we said, our goal is to create an experience for every volunteer that has never been met or matched in our metro area, from knowing about their family, their names, their interest, and taking care of them. So when it comes time for one of them to be an officer, or to lead a committee or to get more of their people engaged Hekia I’m going to deal with the Charleston Metro Chamber. And so that that kind of intentional focus. And that’s why we sold out that trip to Boston in record time. And we don’t want to take 200 people, you know, we’re kind of like 100 Yeah, you know, if you get over 100, you start to have a three ring circus, and they don’t bond the same way. Yeah. But that that internal clock for us? It’s kind of like a metronome. How are we honoring them and engaging them. So they think I’ve never had a volunteer experience like this. Because let’s face it, we are battling for their time, talent and treasure, there are 4600 non enough for profits, and just the greater Charleston area. You know, as your communities get bigger, that’s probably 15,000 20,000 25,000. So it’s pretty rarefied air to get top leaders. The other thing we do a little bit different because we are really committed to the ENI is that we don’t have to have the the gal or the guy in the corner office. A lot of organizations just say, Oh, I only want the CEO or the president. Right. Well, we’ll say is give me number three, or number four, that will be that CEO and president in 10 to 15 years Yeah, so we can have the level of gender ethnic, racial diversity on our board that reflects our community. It also makes us a lot more healthy from an organizational standpoint,

Brandon Burton 35:13
and possibly more time to give to the purpose and the cause that you’re working on to always go for the number one, they’re going to be some of the busiest people. Not that the number three or four is not busy, but they’re able to work it in a little bit more and build that future along with you. So you’ve hit on some really awesome points in our discussion here. If you were to try to condense down to maybe a tip or an action item for chamber champions listening that want to take their chamber up to the next level, what would you put out there and suggest for them to consider

Bryan Derreberry 35:53
my greatest tip would be pick one to three things in become an expert. And that that’s going to weave right back into what we’ve been talking about Brandon, you’ve got to be committed to do it long term. So let’s say you pick developing a pipeline from your high schools and middle schools for your top two or three business sectors just know front side that that’s going to be 15 to 25 years. Think what we learned during the pandemic, because it was probably a sharing experience for every chamber and business member Association in our nation is that it was the meaningful work that maintained our most significant investors. It wasn’t the business after hours, it wasn’t the networking events. It was they could look at the chamber. And the chamber in our metro area got together with the council of governments and other stakeholders. And we created a whole reopening strategy for our metro marketplace. We met every day at four o’clock, Monday through Thursday for almost six months to get the region opened again. I felt like I had a whole new family. And sometimes it got irritating. But I wouldn’t have traded that we build bonds between organizations and governments that we never had before. So that would be my tip be be substantive, be relevant. And we use a term I think it’s the you know, if you were to ask me the the Chamber’s magic power, our secret sauce, we use a term called seine center, sa N E. Your chamber, chamber champions can be the same center on these issues, you can bring parties together. And whether it’s workforce development, whether it’s diversity, equity, inclusion, whether it’s housing attainability, whether it’s infrastructure solutions, whether it’s recruitment and retention of either businesses or employees, you can be the organization that brings all the parties together, that need to be aligned to do the work. That to me is what a chamber really is. Our mission statement is initiate advocate and empower the region to produce a prosperous business environment. And it’s a little different than a lot of chambers. Because they flip business environment in a region, we know that our region has to have the ingredients that are aligned to make employers, employees and citizens successful. So look at the region as your laboratory, look at your county as your laboratory. If you’re a City Chamber, look at your city as a laboratory, and find those one to three things that really need to be worked on. That would be my greatest encouragement. And and when you do it, you’re gonna get real popular real fast. So you’re gonna have to learn how to say no, yeah. That’s right, because let’s say this camera does such a good job on developing those middle and high school talent pipelines for industry. We wanted to do this now. We wanted to do that. So I think the other thing is to when you do those annual partnership calls, as I mentioned to you, we didn’t come back with 50 Things came back with probably five to seven things that every employer is focused on. So you know, stick to those critical realities, and and go deep and do a great job. And then when it comes renewal time and recruitment time, somebody will say, Oh, yeah, that chamber. They really have the best interest of the business. Unity in our region in mind, they’re worth investing in. So that would be my do stuff that matters and do it. Well.

Brandon Burton 40:09
I love that. So the question that I mentioned at the very beginning that that we would circle back to towards the end is how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Bryan Derreberry 40:21
I’m bullish, I think about what’s occurred over the window is what we’re in pandemic endemic, the past two, three quarters of a year, and I know for our chamber just to bring it home to right here, we look totally different than when we entered. We have a set of members, a set of stakeholders, a set of raving fans in the community, because of how we opened up our organization, for allowing us to assist anybody that needed help. And that that runs a little counter to the the typical Oh, we only help members. Well, when when your community is facing what we’ve all faced. During the pandemic, you help everybody you can help. And you make again, choices. So we look very different today, we look more open to diverse partners, diverse audiences. And we’re working on stuff a lot of chambers, you know, 20 years ago, maybe if you were in a major metro community, you were doing DNI, but I think chambers are going to be leaders for their regions, excuse me. And the years ahead, unlike any other time, I think that the credibility of the chamber when they tackle those issues, even if they’re not successful, and they’re going to be successful in the vast majority of instances. I think there’s a caring tone and tenor and a level of respect by leaders saying, Yeah, we need a rallying point. And I think I think it’s changed. And if your your chambers worth its salt, it’ll step into that opportunity and, and really make a big difference. SOT I’m very excited for the future. However, I do believe one of the things we continually learn is that it can’t, it can’t be all about the fun stuff. Right. And I mean, there are, somebody said to me, how many organizations in your community do networking events, somewhat goods? Probably all 46 months? not for profits? Yeah. So yes, do we have strong programming? We do. We do. But we’re probably one of the communities leaders for providing professional development programming. We have the six different leadership types of offerings. So we know right now, as you well know, in your market, Brandon, attracting and retaining talent is the number one business issue. So again, always making sure your chamber is plugged into what’s relevant, and then providing it with the highest level of expertise you can undertake. And if you’re small, don’t let that slow you down. You’ve got people in your membership. You’ve got volunteers and members that can come alongside of you, and build out the type of programming that you need. That’s one of the powers of small communities is that they can really rally that type of asset set and make it work. So I’m excited. I’m, you know, I think that chambers have always been amazingly relevant. We celebrate a little birthday next year. Yeah. Yeah. We’re gonna be 250 years old. Wow. That we’re the we’re the oldest continuing operating chamber in America. So founded three years before our nation became a country. I’d say we’re in it for the long game.

Brandon Burton 44:13
Yeah, doing that forever work. I love it. So I’d love for you to be able to share some, any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn sure but as you’re doing there in Charleston,

Bryan Derreberry 44:27
it’s it’s a really easy, bderreberry@charlestonchamber.org.

Brandon Burton 44:43
That is perfect. And I’ll get that in our show notes for this episode, too. So if somebody always,

Bryan Derreberry 44:48
always happy to talk this profession, and you know, I think your question Brandon on the future is that many chambers are at an inflection point. Mm. But there were ways that they used to do things and things that used to matter. And the inflection point is some of those still have value. The greater value though is marshaling the the leaders and assets of your community and aligning them and doing significant work. So we’re at that neat juncture, so many chambers have already crossed over. And if anybody wants to talk about the both the rewards and the pitfalls, because it’s hard when you enter into a new area of work. And also there are ways to enter in that you can have some immediate victories and set yourself up for long term success.

Brandon Burton 45:47
Yeah, I think that’s important to be able to have that encouragement going along that, that you are going in the right direction. So I love that. Bryan, I appreciate you spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast, providing, you know, great vision and insight for chamber champions listening. I’m sure everyone got a lot of value out of this. But thank you for being a part of the program today. I appreciate it.

Bryan Derreberry 46:13
Well, I love you championing our industry. I believe so greatly in the work that I see peer organizations and colleagues do across the country and America is great because of great chambers. So thank you for being an advocate.

Brandon Burton 44:58
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Presenting Employment Opportunities to the Classroom with Bret Schanzenbach

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

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

Introduction

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.

And now, your host. He worked for staples. Well in high school, he’s my dad Brandon Burton.

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

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Kris Johnson, President and CEO of the Association of Washington Business in Washington State to learn how Holman Brothers has provided value for him. 

Kris Johnson  

Well, Doug and Bill at the Holman Brothers have been a key ally in growth for my professional career working at three different chambers, a local chamber, a regional chamber, now a statewide chamber. And they’ve been the ideal solution, whether it’s a comprehensive training program, whether it’s working on individual sales growth, quarterly check-ins with the team, the ability to grow members has meaning more assets for the organization, more assets means we can do more things to serve our members. They’ve really been the perfect solution for us, a trusted resource partner and a growth partner for us all along the way. So hats off to Doug and Bill for their great success. They’ll be a great partner for you as they are for us.

Brandon Burton  2:03  

You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Doug & Bill Holman know how to diagnose and solve
member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and they want to put
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Guest Introduction

You’re joining us today for episode 191 of Chamber Chat Podcast. We are getting up there in the episode numbers. But for this episode, we have Brett Johnson back with us and Brett is he’s served as the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce in California since January 2019. Brett is a native Californian and resident of San Diego’s North County since 1971. He came to the Carlsbad position from the VISTA Chamber of Commerce where he served as CEO for nine years is corporate background before the chamber was in residential real estate and the software industry. In 1992. He helped start the technical difference Inc, a human resource software company. before venturing into the corporate world. Brett spent seven years as a youth minister, Brett graduated from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Steubenville, Ohio, earning a BA in psychology and a BA in theology. He earned his master’s in theological studies from the University of Dallas in 2001. He and his wife Jolene reside in Vista, California, and they’ve been blessed with six children and two grandchildren so far. Brett, I’m looking forward to having you with me on the podcast today. And and I want to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Bret Schanzenbach 3:07
Morning, Brandon, thank you so much for having me as a guest today. I’m excited to be here and have conversation. Something interesting. I mean, you read my bio, so that stole most of the stuff that’s actually interesting about me, I guess I would say one thing that’s interesting is, you know, like a lot of people like backed into the chamber career, I don’t know if anybody truly like goes to college and thinks, oh, I want to be a chamber executive when I grow up, you know, so, and the way I backed into my chamber career was through the real estate industry, I did real estate for eight years and found out that I hated it. And, you know, as you mentioned, my wife and I have six kids and you know, real estate, you have to obviously work on your client’s terms. And so they usually are available on nights, weekends, holidays, you know, things like that. And after a while, I just really did not enjoy that industry. And, but that’s the industry that got me super engaged with my local chamber. When I was a realtor, I had joined my chamber, joined a committee got invited to the board of directors and because of all that, you know, it’s how I got really familiar with the impact chambers could have in a in a community. And when the guy who was the executive of my local board there that I was part of, he decided to move back to the Midwest with his wife. You know, I’m like, Oh, this is great opportunity to get out of this because I’m so done with real estate and I didn’t really know exactly what I was getting into but you know, I so but I backed in. I had I remember having a conversation with him one day when we were talking about him leaving and me possibly applying for the job. And I said Um, I don’t actually know what you do on a day to day basis. What do you

Brandon Burton 5:07
board member? Yeah, what you do?

Bret Schanzenbach 5:10
So, but I threw my hat in the ring. And now I’ve been in the industry for 14 and a half years, I think it is or, or I’m in my 14th year, however that works and love it.

Brandon Burton 5:24
As I say, hopefully it’s going better for you than real estate. So yeah, I really do love it. And maybe that needs to be the question I ask people is how did you find your way into the chamber world? Because everybody has a unique story about how they are? Yeah,

Bret Schanzenbach 5:38
that is so true. You know, one of my neighboring chamber execs. He is one of those guys that came right out of college and got a job at his local chamber and moved his way up and all that jazz. But that is so rare. It’s mostly people who have come from all kinds of different. You do find a lot of people who served at a chamber before they became an exec. But the stories are so different.

Brandon Burton 6:02
Right? Yeah, I always find it fascinating. So thank you for sharing your journey. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the Carlsbad chamber just to give us an idea of size staff budget, kind of scope of work to give us an idea of what you guys do there.

Bret Schanzenbach 6:20
Sure. So we are located as you mentioned, in North San Diego County. We’re about 3530 35 miles from the city of San Diego itself. And we our community itself, is about 115,000 people in in our suburb here. But for our part of San Diego County, we’re kind of the economic hub. We have a robust tourism industry, but we also have robust industry in general, which is a nice combination, and at least in San Diego County is pretty rare besides the city of San Diego. We are we’re the number two generator and tourism dollars in our county behind the city of San Diego itself. And and I think we have the third largest industrial park in San Diego County. So both we have this great mix of both, you know, like biotech and high tech and that kind of stuff. And then the tourism side. So that’s great. Our chamber itself, we have right around 1000 members, little over 1000 members. San Diego County has 43 chambers of commerce, and we’re the second largest with the city of San Diego, the Regional Chamber in San Diego being the largest. So we’re the second largest chamber in the county, we have about a $1.3 million budget staff of nine. We do not our community has we have separate visitor Bureau, we have a separate Downtown Association. Our city has its own economic development department. So we don’t have any of those other add ons that some chambers do. But we obviously we work very closely with all of those entities matter of fact, we meet regularly have a great rapport with them. But but we don’t fulfill those, you know, those specific roles, like getting funding to be say a visitor center or a manage the downtown or any of those things. So So yeah, that’s a little bit about us. I have a very large board of directors. That was kind of the biggest, one of the biggest changes coming from my previous chamber where we we had what I thought was a big board at the time, like of 17. And, you know, I have 35 voting members and, you know, for other like, advisory members and then other emeritus members, we have a large board here.

Brandon Burton 8:56
Yeah, they work for a lot of people. That definitely helps paint the picture for sure kind of where you guys sit and the type of work I’m involved with.

Bret Schanzenbach 9:06
I do work for a lot of people. It’s very true.

Brandon Burton 9:11
Well, I’m excited to get into our topic for our discussion. Today we’re we’re going to be focusing our discussion around presenting employment opportunities to youth in the classroom. And we’ll dive more into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Bret, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about presenting employment opportunities to the classroom today. I know our our scheduling of recording this is being worked around both you and I both volunteering at at church youth camps and so forth. So I know for me, and I may be speaking for you as well, that the rising generation is important to me. And and I think for chambers in general to look at that future employment pipeline and creating a vibrant economy in your community. So I’m excited to have you tell us what the Carlsbad chamber has been doing to introduce these these students, these youth to what a future can look like in your community through the various employment opportunities.

Topic-Presenting Employment Opportunities to the Classroom

Bret Schanzenbach 13:05
Yeah, thank you for that lead in it is a very important topic for all chambers. And I feel like as we go to our conferences, and you know, you attend webinars, and you see this topic comes up more and more and more, because it’s a it’s not just a local issue. It’s a nationwide issue. And if I could, before I explain what we’re currently at, I want to paint a little bit of a picture of what we used to do. That led up to our current initiative and our chamber, like probably many others who are listening in, we’re very engaged at one point or another in trying to bring together the world of work and the classroom, you know, to bring those together as you as you alluded to, and what we had been doing before, we had this program called talent, cities, and we brought eighth graders out on field trips to actual businesses, like different manufacturing type businesses, et cetera, et cetera. And instead of just doing like a tour of the business, we specifically crafted a tour where they would stop strategically at different places at the company that they were visiting, and they would get a little interview with somebody. So a couple of those stops would be like, on a shop floor, for instance. And then a couple of stops would be more like in research and development and marketing and sales, things like that. So there’s always this mix, kind of a, the blue collar, the white collar type things, but we at each stop, they would hear from a staff member and employee who would talk about who they were, what they did, what they liked about it, what was challenging about it, and how they got to this point in their career. And our goal with that bringing those kids out on site was to just broaden their perspective. Have a little bit because what mostly we found is that most students know what their mom and their dad do if they have both parents. And sometimes they don’t even know what their parents do. Because sometimes what their parents do, they just, they just have no way of actually knowing what they do. But beyond that, they just know the big hero jobs like teacher, firefighter, policeman, military, you know, stuff like that. So our goal was to try to broaden their perspectives just a little on what kinds of jobs and career opportunities could be available to them. And when we started that program that we called Talent cities, it was we felt that was successful, like we would actually pull the kids before they would go through with this kind of a tour, field trip, etc. And then we would survey them again, after and we got some great comments, like one that really stuck out in my mind, one of the kids said, you know, I never thought I could use my love of art in, you know, a work setting or a job or a career or whatever. So things like that. That was exactly what we were hoping to do is help them to see a little bit bigger than they had had a chance to up to that point in their life. But we ran into challenges. So that program, when I was at the VISTA chamber, we ran 1,000/8 graders through in like an 18 month period of time. And at least out here in Southern California field trips are challenging for school districts, and all those logistics that they have to go through to make a field trip happen are not simple. And then secondly, I found that I was constantly going back to the same four or five different companies saying, Hey, I got another group of 38th graders or 20, you know, whatever, for you guys to host. And so, you know, it becomes challenging for businesses to interrupt their flow to do that on a regular basis. So all that being said, That was that was the precursor, when COVID hit, obviously, the whole world pivoted towards virtual learning, virtual interaction, et cetera, et cetera. And at the same time, our local hospital out here was working on some initiatives to help their career readiness workforce pipeline get developed. And so they were interested in, in creating some videos to help broaden people’s awareness of career opportunities within healthcare. Most people when they think of healthcare, all they think of as a nurse and a doctor. And obviously, when you have a big hospital, there’s usually something like, I think our hospital has, like 2200 employees. So there’s all kinds of careers, that all the way from marketing, you know, down to techs and an

Brandon Burton 18:00
average janitors, you know, everything Yeah,

Bret Schanzenbach 18:03
you got it, you got it. So there’s, there’s so much diversity within just a company like that. So they approached us and and so what we ended up putting together and one of the things I love about this is, this was a collaboration with three different chambers of commerce here in my area. So we the Carlsbad chamber, our two neighbors directly nearest the Oceanside chamber and the VISTA chamber, the hospital that I just mentioned, and then our regional EDC edge, our Regional Economic Development Council for our area, the five of us together collaborated on this project. And we went out to our local county representative and said, Hey, we have this idea. And so luckily, he bought into the idea that I’m going to share and funded it because this stuff doesn’t happen without some money behind it. But we created a web portal. And it’s called SoCal. And that’s an acronym that I always forget, but it stands for student opportunities for career awareness and learning. SoCal, and the website is called SoCal workforce.org, SoCal workforce.org. And so we created this web portal. And what we did as we were starting to conceive it, and one of the pieces that was really important to us as we wanted to do this in conjunction with our schools, we didn’t, we didn’t want to do this in some silo by ourselves and just do what we thought made sense. So we worked with the three school districts in the three communities that I just mentioned, Carlsbad, Oceanside and VISTA. And we said, hey, here’s this idea we have, we want to make this evergreen portal of jobs and careers, a video library, if you will, that you can use in the cloud. last room to expose students to the real world of work. And they love the idea, we met with them like two or three times during the process of developing it. And, and when we unveiled it in January of this year 2022, they were ecstatic. And so what the web portal has, when you go there, and it’s open to anybody, so it could be like a teacher who’s navigating this or an individual student, or like, anybody who’s in a, looking to change directions in life, right? Anybody can use this, this website, but you can look up job or career opportunities, three different ways, by industry, by company name, or by a job itself. So like industry, you could look and say, oh, what kinds of things exist in my area in healthcare and tech, in, you know, in public safety, or whatever the case might be? Or, Hey, I’ve heard of, in our area that, you know, there’s some big name companies like ViaSat, or Nordson, or, you know, whatever the company is, I’ve heard of that company, what jobs might be, what careers do they even have, I don’t even know what they do. Or you could just go the path of, you know, like, I want to know more about being an engineer or want to know more about being a this or that. So whatever way you navigate, you eventually get down to these three minute videos. And what we did is we shot all the videos on location. At the site where the worker works, we wanted it really, in their workspace in their flow, like all the B roll, we didn’t use any third party just B roll that you can just purchase, you know, anywhere, everything is shot at the actual site where these people work. And we interview these these various workers. And it’s the same kind of interview that I mentioned earlier, who they are, what they do, what do they like about it? What’s challenging about it?

How do they get to this point in their career, if they were adding a staff member to their team, what would they be looking for. And so in these three minute videos, you get a really good snapshot of a real life, you know, place of work, job, career, etc. And, on our portal, another piece that I really like, because we were trying to think of it from the student perspective is, when you get down to the actual job, before you watch the video, there’s a description there, hey, here’s a little bit about the job. Here’s what the average person in San Diego County makes, who, who performs this job, here’s the job outlook for the next five to 10 years for that profession, in our area. And then if, you know, educational resources are like if you need a degree or a certificate or something to do that job, here’s a couple of links of local institutions who offer those certificates or degrees, etc. And so then with all that background, and they can watch the three minute you know, video and and get to know, that particular job, career, etc. And school districts, when we rolled it out in January, we’re over the moon, they love it. Now, it’s not that a school district can’t like if they wanted to bring, oh, let’s let’s look at a day in the life of the engineer. They can they have resources, they can find that that’s out there. But what our school districts really loved about this project was that it’s so localized. So these are companies that they’re, the students may have heard of, these are places that they’ve driven by, I mean, these are right here in their backyard. And it just the teachers were so excited about making it tangible to their students.

Brandon Burton 24:02
So I’m gonna circle back towards some of the beginning of your comments, and you mentioned that students often will only know what their parents have done it Yeah, just funny. When I was in third grade, I drew some attention from the school when I told them that my dad sold drugs because a pharmaceutical sales rep but I would hear him come home talking about the new drug that he’s marketing. So you know, naturally when we talk about what is your dad do for a living my dad sold drugs so that prompted a parent teacher conference and Oh, no that so that was interesting. But so with these, this web portal and video library I love this idea that I love being able to have the different angles being able to filter by industry company and job type. Are you primarily focusing on the bigger companies because they have so many different levels, different types of positions? Or do you have some of the smaller entrepreneurs even that are highlighting what a day in the life of their work is? Like?

Bret Schanzenbach 25:11
Yeah, good question. Um, it is it is intended to be a mix of both. But initially, it was, when we were at the conception phase and trying to get it off the ground, it was a little bit easier to go to some of the bigger companies who have a diversity of roles already, and say, hey, you know, we want to shoot three different, you know, jobs through different roles at your company. But, but we have both some, so we have some large companies, but we also have some, I would say, medium sized companies. And, and when we launched in January, our goal was to get, I think our goal was to have 60 videos on the portal at launch. And we ended up we met that goal. And currently there’s, there’s 80, I’m trying to think through the numbers. Yeah, currently, there’s 80. And our goal by the end of this calendar year is to get to 100. And then obviously, continue to grow it but but yeah, the so we’re trying to diverse, like to your point, we’re trying to diversify as we grow, and get a more industries be more diversity of size of companies and things. The county supervisor who really bought into this initially, he wanted us to have a healthy mix of things that did not require going to get a four year degree. Sure. And as you probably know, there’s, you know, obviously, there’s the big push in the schools for STEM, and, you know, that kind of stuff. So we wanted to have, obviously, that kind of stuff, too. So we worked really hard. So there’s like some, there’s some construction jobs, you know, what I mean, there’s welders and you know, that kind of stuff in the midst of off. So there’s engineers and you know, etc. So we’re worked hard to try to have that kind of diversity in there.

Brandon Burton 27:07
Yeah. And I can see this library just growing over time with expanding the different companies. But there’s always going to be the need for an accountant and a lawyer and a doctor in some of those staples. But then you see new careers popping up to you know, from I’m thinking when the smartphones came out, and you had app developers, and that wasn’t like you had software designers, but now specifically apps and now. So we see technology shifting with, you know, the metaverse and things like that. And, you know, what is the career going to look like 10 years from now, it might look very different. But exposing these students to those opportunities might help them avoid, you know, eight years in the real estate industry if they don’t like that, right.

Bret Schanzenbach 27:53
Yeah, no, you’re but you’re you’re spot on it. I mean, there’s people who have careers right now that five years ago, those things didn’t even exist. So you know, so theoretically, somebody entering college today, you know, might end up in a career a few years from now, that doesn’t even exist as they start college at least. And Title and name like you, like an app developer. At one point, there was no such thing, right? Or what exactly is an influencer again, but making a lot of money at it. I don’t know what that means. You know, so that is a challenge to, but the other thing that we’re doing is one of the challenges we had when, you know, when I was sharing that example, at my previous chamber, where we were working hard to bring the, the classroom world into the real world of work. We were doing it within our given community, you know, I was the VISTA chamber, and these were Vista businesses, and this was the Vista school district and, but at least in our area, and I know, every region could be, you know, have some differences here. But in our area where we are a suburban, you know, area, it doesn’t make sense to do it. siloed but community by community, which is why this regional approach we felt made a lot more sense. Like, I live in community a I work in community b I go to school and community see my churches in community D. I mean, that’s, that’s actually true for me what I just said, you know, so it was really important for us to take a broader perspective, here in Carlsbad. There. 80,000 people come to work every day, but only 20,000 of those actually live in Carlsbad. So that’s a lot of people coming to work from neighboring communities. And so we had that mindset. So now what where we’re at is, since we launched in January, we’ve now added three more communities to our portfolio, San Marcos Escondido Encinitas have all joined us and their school districts as well. So we’re growing it growing the footprint of it geographically. And then as you already were talking about the companies, the jobs, the those kind of operates, the industries are growing as well. And so we eventually see it hopefully being county wide, but that’s going to take a little while, but county wide, and, you know, just continuing to expand the diversity of opportunities to,

Brandon Burton 30:27
I think it goes to show, maybe the definition of community is changing to some degree, you know, between online communities got your physical communities, you’ve got cities that were established before transportation was as robust as it is now, and, and the world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. So as we silo and say, We are the Carlsbad community, you’re really discounting a lot of opportunity from the neighboring areas that, you know, your residents or employers employees are interacting in those cities anyway. So maybe just kind of a reset on what community actually means.

Bret Schanzenbach 31:02
Yeah, I think that’s a good point. You know, we’re, we’re very fluid in this area, and I believe, probably in a lot of areas, and as you pointed out, transportation being, you know, robust, but this, this portal has been, you know, a great collaboration, and I think, in our industry, you know, that’s really important, you know, in the chamber industry to collaborate together, look for me, you know, how can we create win wins, you know, and it, it’s a, it’s been a really great thing for us to collectively work together on and create value for all of our memberships in this in this region. And our, you know, our bigger members who have a tendency to be members of multiple chambers, they love seeing this to, you know, they love seeing our chambers all work together on on big, more enterprise level projects. So, so that’s been a positive, I think our biggest challenge, you know, as we, we initially got that grant, which was super helpful, but, you know, to grow it, there has to be funding so, videography, high quality videography, and editing doesn’t come free. And, and we have done it at a very high level. So we’re at the point where, okay, we’re looking for some more grants and streams of funding. But we’re also going straight to the companies and say, Hey, if you want your company, you know, featured here, we have a path for that. So we’ve created corporate pricing for those that want to be added. It was interesting when we launched some industries that we hadn’t really thought of jumped up and said, Oh, we want to be featured. And so you know, a municipality, their, their water division, they’re like, We need to promote career opportunities in this field. You know, people don’t think about this. And so they jumped on board and sponsored, you know, right away and got some video shot at, at their, whatever water division at their municipality. So there’s, you know, there’s different pockets that we hadn’t really anticipated. And right now I’m working. You know, I mentioned at the outset that we have a strong tourism in Carlsbad. But at the moment, there is no tourism or hospitality listed on our portal at all. So I’m currently in dialogue with them, they they’re really hurting for workforce right now, after the pandemic, it’s been a challenge getting getting staffed back up to the levels, both at restaurants and hotels, and but we just hosted a panel discussion on tourism about two weeks ago, and they were all talking about how they need to, you know, promote careers within tourism. So, so we had a discussion this week about how they could get into our portal. So we’re putting a proposal together for them to to get some video shot at their place. So, you know, I love that, that we have this tool to be able to help serve those who have that need right now.

Brandon Burton 34:05
Yeah, I love that. And thank you for touching on the funding part of it too, because I was going to ask that next about day, how do you make all this happen? And yeah, variety of sources and, and being creative as you go along to and looking for those new opportunities.

Bret Schanzenbach 34:19
Very true. I mean, obviously, there we all in our communities know of some, some go to little, you know, channels where we go after funding for this or that, but eventually, you know, we need business to step up. You know, we were looking regionally at funding sources. You know, our local congressman really liked the idea what so one of the things that’s been that’s come up though, is multiple people have said, hey, it would be great. If your portal could be like a one stop shop for internships, companies who want to host interns, you know, people who want to have an internship and it could be a one stop shop and You know, we’re dealing with all these different jurisdictions now different school districts, and you know, all this stuff. And they all have their own

Brandon Burton 35:08
parameters. And yeah,

Bret Schanzenbach 35:10
exactly. So it’s like, oh, boy, how do we do this? So that’s probably like version three of the portal. Not even version two. But so those are things we’re aspiring to, though and are on our radar to continue to evolve, how this portal can continue to serve the needs of our community now that it’s launched, and it’s getting on people’s radar.

Brandon Burton 35:33
Yeah, I really liked that. But as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you, for anybody listening? What tip or action item might you share with them to any chamber that’s looking to take their organization up to the next level?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Bret Schanzenbach 35:51
Yeah, that’s, um, you know, it’s a great question we talked about here. And, and other people have heard in the industry, that we can’t, we can’t be our grandfather’s chamber. You know, the chamber, the days when you think of kind of like, there was a time where businesses join the chamber, and you can pick a variety of reasons, the chamber was the go to place for networking, that was probably the easiest chamber was the go to place for advocacy, you know, you know, things like that. And we don’t have the market cornered on any of those things anymore. I mean, there’s a million ways to network from meet up and you know, online tools to lead clubs and all that kind of stuff. There’s so many ways to network, besides even just social networking. And then advocacy, every industry has its own, you know, vehicle, you know, their own Association, that advocates just for their specific niche needs, and really watches their back. And I still think chambers are excellent at broad scale advocacy, and networking, and all that kind of stuff. But we don’t have the market cornered on any of those things that used to be kind of synonymous with why you need to join a chamber. So we’re constantly asking, asking ourselves, you know, what is our you know, value proposition? What are we bringing to the table that nobody else is bringing to the table, which is part and parcel with this, this discussion we just had today, this is one piece of it for us, you know. So we’re, we’re involved in workforce development in about five or six different fingers or different ways. This SoCal project was just one of them. But that’s, for us, it was like, nobody, when I left broad scape, broad scale, nobody’s involved in this, nobody can bring to the table what we can and workforce development, the relationship with the companies and the relationship with a schools which already we have, you know, we can we can be this bridge that nobody else can serve. So we’ve, that’s one of the stakes we put in the ground, this is going to be a value proposition that we have for our membership. But looking at those things, what do you bring to the table that not nobody else is, you know, Rotary can’t bring to the table or, you know, some nonprofit in your community can’t bring to the table or some Meetup group can’t bring to the table, you know, what, what is it that’s unique. And so we look for those things we and we have, you know, we’re constantly developing new initiatives, which is a little daunting, to be honest, we have to be careful, we don’t get out of a mission and, and go off on some tangent, but, but, and I think, and one other thing I want to, I want to point out 25 years ago, when people thought of economic development, they primarily thought of, let’s try to get Company X or company wide to come to our city. And they’ll bring good jobs, and that’ll be good for the community. And we even saw it like five or six years ago, like the whole country was tripping over themselves to try and get the next you know, Amazon headquarters, you know, and it was almost comical, but and there’s I’m not saying that’s not valid, but even before COVID We knew and now since COVID We really know that people can be from work from anywhere. Yeah, you know, they don’t you it doesn’t matter where their job is. It’s where do they want to be and so we have to create a community that attracts people that want to be there not because their company’s there. So what does that mean? Well, what attracts people you got to have, you know, low crime rate, great schools, affordable housing, amenities and parks and stuff that people want, you know, a good entrepreneurial environment, you know, business friendly, me all these factors together. There are what make places desirable for people to locate. And, and, and be. So we have to be about all of it. You know, we can’t just be siloed in, we’re a business organization, we are going to work with business. That’s long gone. And so we’re constantly looking at how can we make a positive impact in all those areas, so that we can make our community a great place to, you know, live workplace shop, dying vacation visit, you know, all of that. And so it’s it’s exciting, but it’s daunting. It’s a, the the ways you can engage that are never ending, which wakes me up and gets me excited. And also overwhelms me sometimes at two o’clock in the morning. But that’s what I love about the industry.

Brandon Burton 40:51
Now, and I think something you touched on is, it’s the shift of placemaking. Like it used to be, you’re attracting business, and now it’s attracting those employees, attracting those people that want to live in your community. And I think your response, it may answer my next question, but I like asking everybody I have on the show, as we look to the future chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Bret Schanzenbach 41:16
Yeah, I think that the role that we serve as a hub within the community is so vital and important, and valuable, so valuable, you know, we can pull together stakeholders from so many different things from from public safety, and government, to education and nonprofits and business and we can put them in the same room. And, and sometimes you don’t maybe only need two or three of those fingers for what your initiative is, but, but you can, we can pull together things that nobody else can and, and so we have to, we have to embrace that role. And you know, find the issues within our communities that are meaningful, and, and go after them and be the solution. We don’t have to have all the answers, but be the one that convenes everybody to help create the positive movement for the community. And I think if we wholeheartedly embrace that role will continue to be relevant, and will continue to have a reason to exist. But you know, if we just kind of bury our head, and like, we’re the business community, I think that’s too narrow. And I feel like most chambers have evolved beyond that. But, but I see going forward, just we have to take that up, you know, wholeheartedly and run with that mentality to be community leaders, not just business leaders.

Brandon Burton 42:42
Right. And being that that embracing being a convener is is so important, and you guys are setting a great example with the SoCal program. Because that’s exactly what you’re doing is you’re bringing those those right people to the table to help provide opportunities for the the youth coming up that are going to be the future workforce. Yeah. So Brad, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about the SoCal program or how you go through all the things in Carlsbad, what’s the best way for someone to reach out and connect?

Connect with Bret Schanzenbach

Bret Schanzenbach 43:18
Sure. I have the easiest email in the world. So one of my emails is ceo@carlsbad.org. And you can email me the if somebody wanted to check out that website I mentioned socalworkforce.org. And you can see more. I’m on LinkedIn, I’m on all those different. I don’t know social media thing is, you know, I respond I actually check messages on LinkedIn. If anybody messages me on the other ones, I don’t check those but but you can connect with people all the time on LinkedIn, especially chamber pros. I love connecting with other chamber professionals. Because I value them and you know, there’s none of us has all the answers in this world of of what we do in the chamber. So I love learning and meeting other people and hearing what’s working in their communities and seeing if there’s any tidbits I can bring back to my community. So yeah, hit me up on LinkedIn. Email me ceo@carlsbad.org. And yeah, love to connect.

Brandon Burton 44:28
Very good. I’ll make sure if we get all that in our show notes for this episode, which will be found at chamber chat. podcast.com/episode 191. But Brad, this has been great having you on the podcast. I appreciate you taking the time to be with us and sharing this great example of what you guys and you know, in collaboration with your neighboring Chambers as well are doing and it’s a great template that others can look to and build upon themselves.

Bret Schanzenbach 44:55
Well, thank you so much for the invitation, Brandon, I really enjoyed it.

Brandon Burton 44:58
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.

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Bowling Green Area Chamber-ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Ron Bunch

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

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

Introduction

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

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host he believes it is important for chambers to produce digital content. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:22
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Matt Morrow President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber in Missouri to learn how the Holman Brothers provided value to his chamber.

Matt Morrow 0:46
Holman Brothers provide a great training for our sales team in terms of just outstanding sales techniques. But maybe even more importantly than that, they were able to provide us with a system a process that was repeatable and in that we’re able to see very clearly from one month to the next how the how the pipeline is doing, what prospects are in it, what kind of progress we’re making and what we can do to coach people to success.

Brandon Burton 1:08
You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Doug & Bill Holman know how to diagnose and solve
member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and they want to put
that knowledge to work for you and your chamber. Learn more at HolmanBros.com.

Have you ever thought about creating a podcast for your chamber? We always hear about how chambers need to be storytellers. What better way is there to tell the stories of your members and the work of your chamber than through a podcast?

Your audience is waiting to hear from you as a convener of leaders and influencers champion for business and catalyst for change within your community.

I just launched a Chamber Podcast Course with the goal to get your very own podcast started within 30 days. Visit chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot. To learn more and to enroll in the chamber podcast course today. For a limited time as a launch promotion. This course is being offered at a 25% discount. Be sure to purchase the course today to lock in your savings before the price goes up., even if you’re not ready to start right away. Again, that’s chamberchatpodcast.com/pivot.

Get started with your own Chamber Podcast and shortcut your learning curve with the Chamber Podcast Course offered by Chamber Chat Podcast.

Guest Introduction

You’re joining us for our 2022 ACCE chamber the year finalist series. And our guest for this episode is Ron Bunch. Ron is here with us today representing the Bowling Green Area Chamber as their President and CEO in their bid for for chamber of the year. But Ron as he leads the Bowling Green Area Chamber they are a five star credited chamber, placing in the top 1% of all chambers in America. The Bowling Green Area Chamber has served the Bowling Green and Warren County area for more than 85 years. As the driving force for the business community in Bowling Green Warren County. The chamber also serves as the lead economic development organization for the region and is responsible for the South Central Kentucky Regional Economic Development Partnership. Since Ron joined the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, their community has announced over $6.1 billion in capital investment and more than 11,200 new jobs. Bowling Green has been ranked in the top six nationally by site selection magazine for the top 10 metros for new and expanding facilities for populations under 200,000 for nine consecutive years, including number one overall in 2018. The Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce has also won two consecutive Matt Conway awards from site selection magazine, which recognized the team as a top 20 economic development organization in the country for their performance in 2020 and 2021. Simultaneously, the Chamber has been invited to apply for chamber the year in the US by the by ACCE for five consecutive years and making it to the finalist stage for three of those years. Ron received the Kentucky Association for Economic Development’s 2014 James J. Coleman Community Economic professional of the year with nearly 30 years of professional economic development experience. Ron is a certified economic developer and his lead successful local and regional economic development efforts in Florida, Virginia and South Carolina before coming to Kentucky. Ron, welcome back to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m excited to have you with us today, especially under these conditions is at chamber the year finalist. Again, that is a great feat. But take a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions out there listening and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you a little better.

Ron Bunch 4:44
Well, I really appreciate you having me back on again. Let’s see something interesting about me. I went to West Point and one of the training opportunities I had while at West Point was to go to Northern warfare training in Alaska. So I got to do front spiking for bass rescue and all that other stuff while we lived on the glacier for a week as well, too. So it was a really great experience. So probably not many people know that.

Brandon Burton 5:11
That is pretty interesting and quite the experience to so

Ron Bunch 5:16
that was some of the best training I’ve ever done. And it was, it was really great.

Brandon Burton 5:20
Yeah, that’s awesome. So I’ll share it. A fun fact, too, is that Ron was a guest of ours back on Episode 24, which was the actually the very first chamber of the year finalist interview that I did on the podcast. So he, he helped pilot this series, originally back in 2019. So if anybody wants to go back and check that out, I think encourage you probably not to because I probably wasn’t as good then. And it wasn’t as well refined. But I’m excited that’s

Ron Bunch 5:51
still going on, considering I was the first guest.

Brandon Burton 5:56
That’s right, and we’re up to episode 182. Now on this one, so we’ve come a long ways from there. But Ron, take a minute and tell us about the bowling green area Chamber just to give us some perspective of size, staff budget, scope of work, that sort of thing to kind of give us

About the Bowling Green Area Chamber

Ron Bunch 6:12
some perspective. Sure, in our chambers, around 1300 partners or members, our annual budgets around 2.4 million. We’ve got a staff of approximately 16 full time, folks, we’re changing it up a little bit. Right now we do have some virtual employees that were contracted with reasonably we try that out. But probably the most unique part is that we run six different companies. So there’s five additional companies beyond the chamber, chamber houses, all the employees, but we have multiple development companies, foundations, so multiple pieces that we operate with one common management team.

Brandon Burton 6:50
Right. So those additional companies, are they primarily focused around economic development? And are the foundations, I guess, give us give us a little more sampling what that looks like. Yeah,

Ron Bunch 7:01
it’s sort of a balance. You know, two of them are development companies. So one of the public development company that owns and operates the trans Park was a private nonprofit development company that developed the south Industrial Park and own some buildings. And it’s been the tool that we use to build speculative building. Another entity is a public entity that we use to facilitate incentives and bond issues. We’ve got 2501 C threes. One is our foundation that we’ve used to raise money for what started out as Leader in Me that’s evolved into SC K launch, which is our K 12, comprehensive talent initiative, we’ve raised and invested about 2.6 million at this point. After that, we have another entity that’s a training Consortium. So we seek out and bid and deliver on Demand training for different groups of companies through it. And then there’s the chain province.

Brandon Burton 7:59
Yeah, you guys know how to stay busy and make it work. So

Ron Bunch 8:02
there’s no shortage of more money. So if anybody’s looking for a board meeting in DC, come on down here. We’ll set you up with one. That’s right.

Brandon Burton 8:09
But to put you in a room, right. Well, as I say, chamber, the year finalist series rolls out, what I like to do is focus primarily on the two programs that you guys submitted as your program synopsis on the chamber that your application. So I look forward to diving into what those programs are learning more about the impact you guys are making in your community. As soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Topic-Chamber of the Year Application Programs

All right, Ron, we’re back. Why don’t you take us through what the two programs are that you guys submitted on your chamber the your application just first at a high level and then we’ll we’ll circle back and get into a little more

Ron Bunch 10:57
detail on each of them. Sure, the two different areas we highlight this time one is a follow on initiative in talent. So for the 11 plus years that I’ve been here, 10 plus of those 11 have been focused on talent. And what we build out with SDK launch our regional talent initiative that spans the K 12, system, city and county schools, as well as what we’ve done a public workforce. So one of those is minorities in engineering, and our goal there was to seek to engage more minorities in K 12, and help lead them to engineering occupations, and education through our university. And then the other initiative is in our role of managing, developing and growing the trans Park, which was a 900 acre business park when we got here. That initiative, we essentially added double the acreage in about a 24 month period. And then were able to win several different projects as a result of that, during the pandemic. So when not many people were investing in more product development, we were able to convince our city in Canada invest in that and it really produced a lot of dividend for

Brandon Burton 12:14
that is that is a pretty pretty large impact there on the growth of the transport Web. Say, let’s dive a little deeper into that one. How did you guys approach that? I know as we went into the pandemic, yeah, we all thought it was gonna be two weeks, right? A little longer, right?

Ron Bunch 12:35
In our programs, and

Brandon Burton 12:38
there’s a reflection there, right? So how did you guys go about kind of seeing through the mess of the pandemic and kind of seeing where the light is at the end of the tunnel and the need to continue building, especially in this trans Park area to be able to double the acreage and investment in that area? What was your selling points and to be able to have clarity through all that?

Ron Bunch 13:02
Now, let’s that’s awesome. The so obviously, we’ve been managing the trans park all along. And as you mentioned earlier, we’ve been very blessed to be nationally ranked and economic development for nine consecutive years now. And so we’ve built some success in the transport and developing that winning projects. In the even during the pandemic, we were able to win 20 different projects. And so we both saw an increase in activity and a reduction in available property. But we had been talking about growing the transport for some time. So what the the effects of the pandemic were that, you know, we saw more global companies. So when you look at global impact, we were talking with more global companies that were looking for available product so that they could change their supply chain. We also knew from a scarcity and abundance standpoint that those communities that had an abundant amount of property would be more successful, because we had a track record and working with companies successfully. And but we knew we had a scarcity both on utilities and property. And so when you look to the Horizon Report, I mean, those are two of the key factors in our analysis of the transport. So really a couple of things played into it, you know, one was attractive, we had a winning project. So we’ve had let’s see, prior to the recent wins about three of the top investments in Kentucky in a given year in the transparency and we have consistently performed so the Sydney county had confidence in us. And so we began a conversation with them about doubling their investment from around 25 million to 40 plus almost 50 million in the trans Park and they saw the wisdom in that during the pandemic. So they put together a bond issue issued $46 million in debt that allowed us to acquire almost 608 First, and that allowed us to win several projects. And then, as we were recording one of the major projects, we it turned out, we needed an additional 14 to 16 acres. So we went back to the city and the county, who went into reserves to then provide funds so that we could buy additional property this time about, I think it was close to 500 acres or so and all said and done in a 24 month period, we brought on 1100 acres, which is larger than the original trans Park. And we’ve now won several projects, including the Envision project, which is the state’s second largest investment in Kentucky history. So had we not had the advocacy and relationships with local government, have we not performed we would have never been able to make that case for them to invest in such a challenging time. And so like everybody, we were also dealing with the effects of the pandemic and reassuring business and clarifying things for business and evolving how we do business. But we felt it was very important to bring on this additional property. And we were very blessed that it turned out to be great, we were able to win a project with ball Corporation, which is a $300 million project. Tyson Foods, which was the largest job creation project up from that point. And then the Envision project is a $2 billion investment with 2000 jobs. It’ll build about 3 million square feet here for an easy project.

Brandon Burton 16:27
Wow. That is That is awesome. So did you already have some of this in motion before the pandemic hit kind of division that where you wanted to take the trans Park? Or did the pandemic really kind of accelerate the need to be able to move forward with this?

Ron Bunch 16:42
Yeah, we had some of the conversations already happening with the city in the county because the public entity we run has appointees from the city in the county, including the city manager and others. And so they were aware we needed to increase the size of transport, we hadn’t solidified how much. And so as we did that, and then as we began to court, some of the projects that started to respond, then we identify we need even more land than we originally thought. So just after the city, the county doubled their investment, which we they had not planned to do with the 46 million, we came back say oh, by the way, another 500 acres, but that acreage allowed us to win the Tyson project and Tyson announced with 455 employees, which at that time was our largest new job announcement ever in Warren County. So that was a very exciting project. But it was amazing. Because that additional property, we needed about 14 acres to make this light work, right. And we were able to secure another 500 or so acres, that if we had not had, we could not have even talked to the folks at Envision. And so we were very blessed to be able to work the Envision project. It was pretty unique and that that mega project, we ended up having to work directly with the legislature. So I met with the Senate and I met with the House leadership, they were under NDA. And between the governor and his team and the Cabinet for Economic Development and the legislature, we were able to put together a package that ultimately won the project. So I mean, tons of parties helped us to when we were just the quarterback on the team. But what a great project.

Brandon Burton 18:22
Yeah, and what a great investment for your community as well to be able to increase his number of jobs and increases the tax revenue base for the city and county to put the money in. It truly is an investment it’s going to pay back pretty quickly. It sounds like yeah, no,

Ron Bunch 18:37
I’m glad you share it like that. Because I mean, like like all of us experience. I mean, everyone that’s a chamber leader does all they can do to take care of their community. And that’s all we’ve ever done. And in this instance, you know, we had probably 3000 jobs already in the transit Park. So it was generating a really nice return on investment to the city and the county, very positive. We’ve had, you know, we’ve been very blessed with success annually for years. And this envision project with 2000 jobs, the economic impact of that is more than the cumulative transport before it. Wow. So it’s it’s really hard to wrap your head around some of the numbers that and so I really firmly believe that the city and the county having confidence in investing during the pandemic made a huge difference. But we’re also have really worked with our team on recruiting and in closing projects. We’ve been a leader in developing what we call a continuum of property so there’s always property in different stages ready for us to CT project. So there’s been a lot of foundation work that then allowed this investment by the Sydney can to pay such dividends so quickly and we also had a reputation with Site Location consultants. stuff of being on go to group, a group that delivers. And so all those things kind of came together. But

Brandon Burton 20:06
amazing. Yeah, that’s a great win. And I look forward to seeing that continued development and the stories that come out of that that investment. And we’ve got,

Ron Bunch 20:15
we’ve got about five other projects teed up in the next 60 days. So we’re pretty excited.

Brandon Burton 20:22
That’s awesome. No, no rest there at the chamber. No.

Ron Bunch 20:26
That’s the other thing that all my chamber peers know. I mean, the chase and the courtship and the announcement are all exciting. But that’s about 20% of the work. Now we’ve got the 80% of the work of, you know, building 60 $70 million worth of infrastructure, helping with permitting, helping with incentives, helping them find talent. So now the real work begins.

Brandon Burton 20:46
The work, right. I love that impact that you guys are having there with economic development. Let’s, let’s shift gears over to the first program that you talked about with around talent and the minorities in engineering and tell us more about how that program works. How you guys saw the need to focus there. And you know, who’s involved with that, that program to make it successful? Yeah,

Ron Bunch 21:12
thanks. So, um, maybe a little preamble again, just to tie it together. So, you know, for the last decade, here, we’ve focused on talent, and we built what’s called SDK launch. So SDK is a region. So it’s also the labor market, 10 County area. And a launch is learning about unique and new careers here. And so that facet, we run the demand projections every month, that then guides our work. It’s interesting, because the Envision project to tie those two things together is cited our investments and our relationships that were built in SCK launch. That’s one of the key reasons why they chose because talent is tight everywhere. They like the fact that we had a decade of investment, a decade of relationship building a decade of different tactics that built on that core framework. And so that was a big difference maker in our courtship with envision the $2 billion project, the 2000 jobs. But the minorities in engineering specifically, was an effort to get more minorities in our community, to the university and into career. And so in this instance, we had about 11 1200 engineers in occupations now in our economy. But as we ran that monthly projection, we could see that there were 900, plus engineering slots that were going to be available. And so we became aware that in schools, students really didn’t have visibility to the courses to take that lead to engineering. Nor was there really a poll to draw any students into engineering, but specifically minorities. And so one of the companies that we call on this here had two parents that were minority with a daughter that was in school, and they brought this topic to us. And you know, up until then, even though we’re so engaged, it’s because we didn’t realize that facet. And so we convened five different companies that were here who all excited to come to the table, we put together a cohort. And we’ve begun to align the pathways in the school that then both engage and set up a series of courses that one would take, that could lead in engineering, and then we took, I think, 60 or so students to the university had a variety of different speakers, I got to be there for a couple hours of it was pretty awesome, because you had successful engineers talking about the profession and talking about all the different places you can go with it. And you had these students engaging with everything from virtual reality to just seeing hands on equipment to do prototypes and stuff. But it was the students came away, just really very impressed with it. And so now our goal is to increase the number of students that can participate, and to really make much more transparent. The pathway, of course, as one would take in high school, and then work with a group of companies University and school leadership, develop the right marketing materials to engage parents and students to make sure they know about not just the careers and what they pay, but the companies that would employ them here because we are blessed to have you know about 18% manufacturing here. So quite a array of engineers needed and with the automation, robotics and AI that’s really taking place. There’s a higher demand for a very sophisticated engineering to support that.

Brandon Burton 24:41
I love you when you started telling about this program, kind of making that connection between the SC K long CK Central Kentucky Yeah. And how that ties in to specifically with envision and seeing, as you’re given that response, I’m thinking this is just, it’s not just a program that you guys do. But this is part of your chamber DNA to say, This is who we are, this is what we do. And it bleeds through here as you go about other projects. To see, the value is.

Ron Bunch 25:17
That’s great. I mean, because you know, we’re inside it. And so for you to see that is very honoring, very important. I appreciate that it is. So like, I had been an economic development leader in three states before this five other positions. And even when I got here, one of the things we discovered quickly was the need for talent. And so as we started running the data, we could see that there was going to be a shortfall in data in people through the data, the only thing that pandemic did was make a bad problem, much worse. And so the fact that we chose to invest strategically, you know, back to scarcity and abundance, we knew that talent was going to be scarce. But we also knew that because of that talent was going to be critically important to our companies growing. On top of everything else we’ve done, we spent quite a bit of time and money and so like, some of my peers would raise money for the operations. We raised money to invest in school that we’ve raised and invested 2.6, we’re getting ready to invest raising investment up to two and a half, that will help us build out actual operations and each of the schools so you can have like a hands on Academy. So right now we have a credit union school, we have two stores. So it is great. If you ever have a bad day, which happens from time to time, in shame world, we just go to the school and see the young people enjoying the fruits of our labor. And we’re like, Okay, this is what matters, what’s the deal, what, put our shoulder back to the grind on make it work.

Brandon Burton 26:51
That’s right. And I love how, whenever I hear of any chamber that’s showing what the opportunities are to the youth coming up in their community to say, there’s great jobs here. Here’s a sampling of what a career could look like, if you stay here in our community. So any anytime you can do that, and you guys are obviously focused on focusing on minorities, specifically in engineering, because there’s a need there, right. And so seeing where the need is and filling that void. So I think that’s a great focus, a great area focus.

Ron Bunch 27:25
And what’s interesting, I mean, you can see two, we built it for the right reason. And then even with that program, the Envision project we won, we had no idea the level of engineering they were going to require. And so it was great that we had already done that, because we could point to what we already done that what we might do what we couldn’t do, we could point to what we had done. And so they really love the overall program, because it is a k 12. But that wasn’t important to you, because there’s going to be quite a bit of engineering and technicians is a very highly automated process in 3 million square feet to produce electric batteries that they don’t produce.

Brandon Burton 28:05
That is That is awesome. I love seeing these intertwining of these these programs. Ron, I wanted to ask you as how do you see the role of the bowling green area Chamber in your community?

Ron Bunch 28:21
Yeah, the I hate to keep going back to Horizon Report. But really, we see our role under that catalytic leadership. I mean, it’s our job really to listen to the business community, and then advocate at whatever level with local government, state government, federal government, whoever we need to advocate with, or to bring groups together early to make sure our businesses have what they need, not just today, but going forward. And you know, I think you can see that what we’re doing with adding twice the acreage at the Trent Park, good thing. So for those not viewing lights just went up in the building. So sorry for the distraction, but you know, investing in the transport, doubling in size, investing, you know, millions of dollars in the K 12 talent development is that catalytic leadership. So we seek to fill roles of convening people and doing what the community is not just today but into the future.

Brandon Burton 29:20
I love that and it shows you know that it’s, as we look at these chamber, the year finalists, it’s those who’ve really embraced the Horizon Report and have kind of leaned into that as far as what the future is like in their community are the ones that are being recognized and, and staying ahead of the curve, as I would say it to see what those needs are in their community. So I couldn’t agree more. I like asking everyone I have on the show. If you might have a tip or an action item for chambers that are listening who are interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what would you suggest

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Ron Bunch 30:04
One would be to take risks. No, it’s easy to play it safe. It’s easy to stay within the bounds of what you think the board might be accepting, or volunteers might be accepting. But you if you find the right initiatives and take those on, it will work. And so take risks would be one thing I would say, especially now, because things are changing so quickly, you’re going to have to do things that maybe you hadn’t considered before done. So that would be one thing I would say, is to take risks.

Brandon Burton 30:38
Absolutely, I see a lot of chambers don’t want to be the first one to do something, right, you want to look around and see see what other colleagues have done, how’s it worked out, let’s test the waters. But to be able to be bold and take those risks, it takes some guts, but it can pay off big time.

Ron Bunch 30:54
Yeah, I’m gonna hate to keep going back to it. But I mean, had we not invested in building the relationships have we not invested in what we’ve done both in K 12, and public workforce, we would not have won the projects that we won over the last couple years, especially. Because in that time, everyone everywhere had talent constraints, even when we talked with international companies in Japan, they have the same talent constraints. And so companies that are looking now are finding the same thing everywhere, what has helped us is we could point to a decade of investments a decade of building. And so those things made a difference for us. But it was a risk at the time to to allocate that much of our organization and to fundraise, but that versus operation of the risk is paid off.

Brandon Burton 31:44
Right. In hindsight, it made sense to focus on the future, especially with, you know, the baby boomers that would be retiring and the need for talent, but then to have that exacerbated by a worldwide pandemic, and early retirements and layoffs and all these different things. Those who were looking ahead and preparing were much better positioned to be able to weather that storm. As we look to the future of chambers, speaking of future, how do you see the future of chambers and their role going forward?

Future of Chambers

Ron Bunch 32:18
Now, I think the other thing that we have thought we had sort of dabbled in and called different things solution based selling, we finally settled on spin that Neil Rackham put out and, you know, the wrong but short version of that is to truly have a heart for the person or the business. To ask the questions, you need to ask to truly understand what their needs are and what they value. And then to seek to meet those needs and values that they have. We don’t want to be a donation, we want to provide a return on investment. So looking forward, I think, whatever you call it, whatever sales methodology you look at, I would say chambers truly having that conversation, and we set a goal, to focus on spin as our methodology, and to have a conversation with every chamber investor at least once a year, to really understand in the coming year, have your value systems changed, what do you need from us. And I think that helps us to stay relevant to stay connected. And the partners see that we’re truly interested in them. We’re not selling at them, hey, we need money for this new program or event. It’s Hey, we’re doing this because we heard from many of you that this is in demand. And they it’s paid off for us and new partners joining without even talking to sales staff retention has increased, I think we’re tracking about 89% retention, which is higher than it has been in the past. I think, while the results are still fairly early, because I want to get you know, three to five years under our belt. I think it is paying off that spending compensation. I think that’s the kind of thing that would help chambers going forward not be what we think is the thing, but do what research and conversations have told us the thing that companies need in the area

Brandon Burton 34:14
like that it does show your relevancy it shows your interest in each of those investor businesses. I’d be curious how you and maybe it’s not an answer for now, but maybe in three to five years of as you gather that feedback and what their needs are and how they’ve changed. How you avoid trying to be everything to everyone. Yeah, because you can’t accommodate every need that’s presented to you, but how do you try to group them together to see the end goal of what their needs are?

Ron Bunch 34:45
Well, you know, those things have already happened. So I mean, you know, an example of that would be SC k one, South Central Kentucky, our region again, one and that was a network. It’s an umbrella delivery from the different entrepreneurship organizations. So as we heard from that was very confusing SBDC SBA accelerator, I mean, who does what? And who do I need to talk to? So we pulled them all together and created that new brand. And now you can go to any of them, and they’ll get you to the right resource. But we, because of conversations We’ve convened, and so we don’t try to be everything to everyone we do the things that we do well, we partner with others on those things that need to exist for our businesses and make referrals to those other resources. But then we have a conversation with them about the quality of delivery that we’re looking for. So there’s a consistent kind of quality and even chamber interaction or chamber affiliate interaction.

Brandon Burton 35:41
Right, that goes back to the connector and convener role of the chamber. So absolutely. Ron, this has been a great conversation that I’ve enjoyed having you back with me on the podcast, as I like 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 and Bowling Green and maybe compete for some of these projects from you. The best way for them to reach out

Connect with Ron Bunch

Ron Bunch 36:06
well, my competitions. We just want a fair shot at it. All. Right. Yeah, so it’s Ron Bunch. So it’s ron@bgchamber.com is the email and our main lines p 270-781- 3200. So yeah, we would look for we posted multiple communities, we’ve had a lot of conversations, we love sharing things we’re doing because we want our whole country to be stronger. So anything we can do to be of assistance to our peers. We’re happy to do

Brandon Burton 36:36
absolutely. I’ll get that in the show notes for this episode. So anyone who’s walking the dog or driving the car can can look it up and reach out and connect that way but this has been a great discussion. I’m impressed with the work you guys are doing and truly making an impact there in the bowling green area. And wish you and your team best of luck with chamber the year.

Ron Bunch 36:56
Thank you sir appreciate appreciate what you’re doing to to share these best practices there, but I think it really helps get the word out for each chamber can be better for their community.

Brandon Burton 37:05
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