Milestones-Recognizing Episode #100

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 100 — Milestones
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Solo
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.884 Brandon Burton
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 is celebrating episode number one hundred of Chamber Chat Podcast. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is your host, Brandon Burton. And I wanted to start off by saying thank you for being here today. This is episode number one hundred.
00:40.374 Brandon Burton
So when I started this podcast about two years ago, this was kind of a goal kind of in the distant future that I was seeing that I would eventually get to this episode one hundred and and in my mind that that was gonna mean that that this podcast had had enough traction and got enough followers and everything and people were wanting it enough to to keep going to episode one hundred. So I'm thrilled that that I'm here. that episode one hundred is a is a thing for the Chamber Chat Podcast. And I assume there's going to be many, many more episodes of Chamber Chat Podcast. So thank you for being here. I couldn't do it without you, without an audience to to listen and and to get feedback from and to share wins that you guys are having. This has really been a great platform for helping to to share some of these lessons that you guys learned. I'll be chamber champions and being able to to help get that information and and experiences out to to other chamber champions throughout the country and and really throughout the world. So thank you. so in podcasting, a hundred episodes is a pretty big thing. If you look at the thousands of of podcasts that are out there on in any of the marketplaces, not very many of them get to episode one hundred. And the ones that do tend to go well beyond one hundred. So that is kind of a major threshold with within the podcasting world. So I am excited about that. a lot of people as they start a podcast, they may not have a specific strategy. And it they just, you know, they might have their first five or ten episodes figured out of what they want to talk about and they think that everything else will just come to them as they get working on it and they tend to get to those first five or ten episodes and then they they hit a roadblock because they run out of content or they have a hard time getting people to interview if they're an interview based kind of podcast. So there's all sorts of reasons why podcasts kind of fizzle out, but there's also a thing, a very real thing called pod fading.
03:02.104 Brandon Burton
Where somebody starts a podcast, they might have a great idea and a great strategy, but it just never really gains traction. They never really get a following. And it's really hard to keep producing something, keep putting out content when it's falling on deaf ears or no ears really. So the fact that the chamber chat has has gotten up to to ep to 100 episodes means a whole lot to me. So thank you for that. So in this episode, I wanted to focus on milestones. So there's a a lot of different type of milestones. For me, I'm I'm celebrating one today as you guys are listening with the one hundredth episode of Chamber Chat Podcast. So I wanted to be able to make some kind of recognition to this one hundredth episode, but I also didn't want the episode to be all about me because that's not why you guys come. and tune in to to chamber chat. It it's not to learn more about Brandon Burton. No, it's about to to learn more about how you can better serve your chamber members and your community, which is the whole purpose of this podcast. So without putting too much focus on me, and just given the the release date for this episode, if you're listening to it as it f as it comes out, this is the week of Christmas in 2020. And just Historically, there's not a ton of downloads for any given episode the week of Christmas. So I really didn't want to do, you know, a really great interview and then have it be delayed for people getting to it. So I thought, you know, we'll we'll do a solo episode this week and really have it be a little bit of a celebration of episode one hundred, but also just to talk about milestones in general and hopefully deliver a some value that you can take and and maybe reflect on on how things how you do things at your organization when it comes to recognizing or celebrating major events. So we can jump into this episode. We'll take a a quick break as we normally do and then we'll we'll get right into this episode.
05:22.37 Brandon Burton
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07:28.162 Brandon Burton
what I'm referencing there with the Christmas story. But some of the other ideas that you might want to recognize, maybe you know, as you take on a new partnership at your chamber, that may be something if not just recognizing, it may be worth celebrating too, because of the the impact that you're gonna be able to further make in your community. i it's an opportunity to educate your community about that partnership and you can do it through some kind of a celebration or some you know recognition around that. Some of the maybe not so big milestones that you still might want to celebrate. it it could be social media followers followers. You know, if you break a threshold on you know 10,000 social media followers, let's say then you might want to do something special. I've seen people give out prizes to try to incentivize people to to like and follow and share their social pages. And then once they hit that threshold, they do some kind of a an online virtual celebration, if you will, digital celebration. But you could also celebrate or recognize when you launch your chamber podcast or your YouTube channel. And again, you could celebrate certain subscriber levels or time that you've put into these these different platforms like I'm doing today with episode one hundred. I don't think it needs to be a ton of attention, but just drawing some attention to it shows that you're here and that you are in it for the long haul. There's some things that that you may want to celebrate more internally, such as exceeding goals. You know, you have your your mission and and goals, strategic plan that you have for the year. And as you meet and exceed some of these goals, it might be cause for celebration with your staff or board. maybe you have some kind of celebration or recognition for media awards.
09:46.648 Brandon Burton
From different association conferences. Maybe your chamber directory took first place in your state. That would be something worth letting your your chamber members know, and especially the businesses that are spending money to advertise in that. You want to let them know that this is making a difference. For some of you, your city may have popped up on one of the, you know, top ten places to live in the country. Seems like there's always a new list of. That comes out about these top cities to live in. And if it does, if it if you show up on that, leverage the heck out of that. I mean, I would put that in all of your marketing material, anything that you have to promote the city, if you have economic development responsibilities or tourism, I would really highlight the the top city to live in recognition. But you also might make an effort to recognize the major milestones for some of your chamber members as well. So if you have a member who's been a member of the chamber for fifty years or a hundred years or their business is one of the the long running operating businesses in your town or your city, you know, take some time to celebrate shine the spotlight on them and see what kind of value that provides for that business. So Those are some examples of things that you might consider having some recognition or celebration around these these certain kind of milestones. And you may be thinking of other milestones on your own or things that you've done at your chamber. And I would love to hear what you do. So if you wanted to share that with me either on Facebook or LinkedIn or shoot me an email, I would love to hear it. But what are some ways some examples of how you can celebrate and recognize these achievements. So I had kind of put out some feelers to some chamber champions out there in the audience to see what do you do at your chamber to celebrate milestones. So and depending on the milestone, I kind of mentioned already, some will be celebrated externally and you want to get your entire community involved with, while others
12:11.698 Brandon Burton
should be recognized internally to really, you know, pat your staff on the back and and show your board that you guys are performing ab above expectation levels or whatever those those thresholds and and milestones may be. But as you consider different ways to celebrate, you always want to consider if there's value for you to celebrate this externally versus internally. at your organization. So just like with this episode, I'm I'm not trying to make it be all about me. I want to provide some value for you. So as I was considering how do I do this episode, I had to think where's the value in it? So I'm delivering the value for you through this episode while also being able to celebrate the this one hundred one hundredth episode as well. So I had some chambers say that for their centennial year that they did a a special t-shirt. some did a a special magazine to commemorate a hundred years of their chamber with pictures and stories from then and now. So you can kind of see that contrast over a hundred years. a lot of these celebrations can really be built up. through your social media channels and newsletter posts, if you have a you know, other distribution channels to really build up the hype. Especially I'm thinking as you celebrate like a a hundred year, you know, big milestone celebration, that you can build that up the whole year and really have a lot of neat strategies to celebrate, but also to to bring in some more nondues revenue through the celebration, whether it's you know putting logos on your centennial t shirt or having some ads in this special commemorative magazine or whatever it may be. I mean, chambers can get creative with how they monetize this, but always keep that in mind that there's usually a way to monetize and bring in sponsorships and and more nondues revenue around these celebration models. So
14:37.334 Brandon Burton
So building it up the hype through social media and and newsletter posts would would definitely be helpful. You could also do press releases, for example, with the chamber of the year. or i I mean, there's the list can go on and on about the things that you celebrate. And I think it's important that a chamber celebrates. To say, this is what the chamber does, this is what we're doing for you, and really shining a little bit of the spotlight back on you because so many people don't realize the value that you bring to the community. more more do this year with with COVID nineteen going on. They're seeing the value of the chamber, but it it don't be afraid to to shine a little spotlight on yourself from time to time. Facebook Live is a great way to s to to host. a celebration of sorts. You can put it in your newsletter. If you have a chamber podcast, you can do a special podcast episode to celebrate certain certain milestones. You could also convert your annual meeting into a centennial celebration if I say centennial just because that's a a huge milestone, but it may be fifty year celebration. But your your annual meeting could be a venue to celebrate that. You could create some commemorative gifts for certain milestones. this year, you know, you could think of face masks, you could think like a pop socket, you know, the the grips that you put on a phone. you know, there's always pens and you know that sort of thing. But get creative. Think about your the people that you're trying to celebrate with and what would have meaning to them. You could also throw a party when times allow us to do that sort of thing again. So whether that's at your chamber office or at another venue, that could be something that other people want to come and celebrate with you. And a real simple way to celebrate certain milestones is you can create an image that you add to your email signature.
16:59.366 Brandon Burton
Or maybe a frame that you put around your social media image. So as people see you on Facebook and things like that, they can see that you're celebrating whatever the big milestone is. So really, I mean, you just have to cater and and tailor these approaches based on what it is you're celebrating and if the celebration is necessary to to celebrate externally or if it's just an internal celebration, but you can take some of these strategies. to to go both ways. And always remember where you can turn to for nondues revenue and sponsorships throughout these different celebration models. But I just need to say a huge thank you for being on this journey with me with the Chamber Chat podcast. I'm gonna keep this this episode a little bit shorter, just because it is the week of Christmas and people's schedules are different. So But it means so much to me that chambers across the country and even some international chamber champions have found the show and listen and they even share it with others. It just means so much to me. And when I hear from chamber champions who tell me about the value that they get out of the podcast, it energizes me so much. I can't tell you the the boost that gives me to to want to keep doing this and to make this even more more of a valuable tool that you can use for bettering your chamber and your community. This audience, the chamber champions are the best group of people to serve. You all have such great hearts, big ideas, and an unquenchable desire to make your community the best that it can be as you serve the businesses who are the engine for your community. I'm blessed to know so many of you. And to interview some of the best as we learn what's working at your chamber so we can help to lift others. These first one hundred episodes and two years have gone by so fast, and I look forward to many, many more. Please continue sharing Chamber Chat Podcast and please don't be shy to reach out to me, say hi, or to share some thoughts for future episodes. I I I appreciate that and and I
19:25.132 Brandon Burton
Look forward to finding good people to interview around certain topics, but I'd love to hear from you. Again, just thank you so much for being here episode one hundred. We've made it to this point. Now let's let's get on to episode one thousand. If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple Podcasts, 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 Chamberchat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.
20:14.966 Brandon Burton
As a podcast listener and as a chamber leader, have you considered the benefits that podcasting could have for your chamber? This is what I like to call the podcast pivot. If you're like many chambers, you're always looking for ways to provide non-involvement value to your member investors. Many chambers are finding that podcasting is a great solution. A podcast platform becomes a media arm for your organization that builds trust in your community. Tells the stories about your members as well as your advocacy efforts and becomes a valuable tangible asset for nondues revenue. If you'd like to see if podcasting is a good fit for your chamber, visit Chamberchatpodcast dot com slash pivot to learn more and to gain access to our free chamber podcasting guide. Again, this is found at Chamberchatpodcast dot com slash pivot.