How Small Chambers Can Play Big with Shannan Reid

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

Episode 13 — How Small Chambers Can Play Big with Shannan Reid
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Shannan Reid
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.086 Shannan Reid
If you can identify what the heartbeat is of your community and then find a way to insert your chamber into making that happen for them, then you have positioned yourself for success.
00:15.646 Brandon Burton
Our guest today is Shannan Reid from the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, and Shannon shares how her small chamber of just two hundred nine members is able to play big by identifying what the heartbeat of their community is and injecting that into their chamber. Stay tuned as we learn from Shannon and from our discussion today. Let's cue the intro. 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.
00:56.814 Brandon Burton
Welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. I'm Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. Our guest today is Shannan Reid, and Shannon is the director of the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce in Montgomery, Texas. Shannon is also a fifth generation Houstonian and a proud graduate of SciFair High School. She holds an associate's degree in fine arts and dance from Tyler Junior College, a bachelor's degree in speech communication from Stephen F. Austin, and a master's degree in educational leadership with the principal certification for secondary schools from Sam Houston State University. After having spent 11 years in the classroom and as a drill team and dance director, Shannon and her family relocated to Montgomery, Texas in 2007. What she can only describe as a God moment, Shannon began her work part-time with the Historic Montgomery Business Association in 2012 as an event coordinator for the organization. In the course of that first year, the Historic Montgomery Business Association made pivotal changes in their scope and reach of the organization. The City of Montgomery took notice of the improvements and invited Shannon to partner with the city part-time as a director of economic development. Since then, Historic Montgomery Business Association evolved officially into the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce in 2015. And both roles dynamically increased in influence and importance for the growth of the community. In 2018, the chamber and the city have become independent of one another, but continue to collaborate on issues and efforts of economic development for the community going forward. Shannon now serves full-time as the executive director for the Montgomery Area Chamber, and they are growing by leaps and bounds to fulfill their mission to be the trusted resource for advocacy, education, and engagement for the Montgomery community. Shannon, welcome to the Chamber Chat Podcast. Please say hello to the audience and share something interesting about yourself.
03:17.568 Shannan Reid
Well, hello, Brandon. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. This is so fun. What a treat. something fun about myself. Well, in that introduction, you alluded to what I call my God moment for ending up in this spot. And as I get to know chamber directors across the state and the nation, obviously I I haven't met a one yet that's Set out to do this when they were in high school and were dreaming of what they would become when they grow up, right? And so we often have a first career. And mine was obviously in education. So the funny thing about the little bubble between when I moved to Montgomery in 2007, you know, I was well on my way to a master's degree and to principal certification, and I had my sights set on being a high school principal and And all of those things I thought were lined up beautifully. But you know, sometimes God has other plans. And that's exactly what happened to me. About five years into it, of course, it only took me a couple to finish that degree in certification, but I found myself completely unemployed. it did all go as planned. And one day, I will never forget November 1st, 2011. I got a phone call that went like this. I don't know, you don't know me, and I don't even know if you're looking for a job, but I was told to give you a call. And just like that, the rest was history. It wasn't it was an amazing day. It was an amazing day. And I began in January. There's lots of other little pieces to that story, but just in summary, I began with that.
04:55.894 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
05:07.658 Shannan Reid
organization in 2012. And literally new board members, new fresh eyes, new director, and we all did that scary question why? Why are we doing things like we're doing them? And sure enough, that upturned the apple cart, didn't it? So we were able to change our scope and our vision and see the writing on the wall for what was about to happen in Montgomery County. And most people know When they hear, Conroe is the fastest growing city in the nation and Montgomery County is growing by leaps and bounds down here north of Houston. And really we're in the path of that. So when we could see the writing on the wall, we had to stop thinking small. Even though we are small, but we had to think big. Hence the title of what we decided to theme our conversations about today, our chambers in the same boat. We're small, but we have to really think big.
06:04.012 Brandon Burton
That's right. So mentioned being small, give us an idea of the Montgomery area chamber. What what does it look like member wise, budget wise? What what is small to you?
06:15.98 Shannan Reid
Right, yes. Okay. So we are right now at two hundred and nine members strong. We are on year number five. I I don't sneeze at those numbers because I've gotta say it's just been gangbusters here and some days I feel like we're just fishing in a barrel because it's such a a rich, fertile soil to find people wanting to connect. So we're a little over two hundred on our fifth year and Fortunately for us, we had come across from a business association where we already had some established big events, if you would say. So our non-duce revenue represents 70% of our, or maybe more, about 75% of our annual revenue. So we're sitting pretty strong with a 25% member. Dues. Most new startup chambers would experience, you know, the weight of membership dues. One of the things that I like to do is find ways to get that non dues revenue that isn't a burden to my current members, but turn around and take that revenue and invest in growing the strength of our members in education and advocacy and engagement. So
07:34.572 Brandon Burton
Yes, that is perfect. Great great explanation. So I know you take a lot of pride in the big things that you're able to do there at the Montgomery area chamber because you are small. can you explain how your small chamber is able to play big?
07:51.704 Shannan Reid
Well yes, so one of the things that I like to brag about us is and I gave you this word the other day, agility ability. When you're small, you're agile. And you can do it any way you want. So we're really free of any binding traditions. Now I personally love traditions. I there's nothing wrong with that. And we want to establish some of our own. But the nice thing is we entered The stream of progress later in the game when lots of things are already evolved. Take technology, for example. Back in the day, old chambers were operating, you know, on Excel spreadsheets or whatever. Or worse, doing it manual. And we get to step in with the latest version of whatever it is. We use Chambermaster, there's a million options, but
08:38.292 Brandon Burton
Or or worse, right?
08:51.026 Shannan Reid
But we get to step in and utilize the latest technology to make things very relevant and accessible to our membership. So we have a lot of benefits in that regard. And speaking of traditions, there are a lot of things that get rooted into an organization that have a hard time going away because people have an endearment, you know, a heart set on those things. But if they're no longer serving your membership. I'm a firm believer everything deserves a sunset review and you've got to be able to justify those things. So we when we start the organization from square one, knowing that we're gonna sunset everything, it really helps us to stay relevant. So that's the fun part about being small and new.
09:40.032 Brandon Burton
I love that the the term agility, ability. You know, any any smaller chambers that are listening, yeah, I would look at that as a strength, you know, with your size to be able to be agile, to be able to listen to what the needs are of your members and be able to pivot and make those changes and and like you're you know, mentioning, to create some new traditions, some things that will benefit those members instead of looking back to how things have always been done and Yeah, a agility, ability. That that's a a great phrase there.
10:14.062 Shannan Reid
I don't know. But yes, it works for us. It really does. Now don't don't get me wrong, we didn't try to be completely over here on the side separate from everyone else. We we went to some some patriarchs and and just some really solid people in the industry of chamber world to help us build our first year. we also spent a great deal of time and thought and energy into Designing our brand. So when we stepped off the very first day of twenty fifteen as a chamber, our desire was that people would think we've always been here. We've always been here. I didn't want them to doubt our
11:01.582 Brandon Burton
Credibility or anything like that.
11:04.556 Shannan Reid
Right. We needed to dis establish credibility right away. So it was the best decision our board ever made. And of course, really going out and finding the cream of the crop of the business community to do this with has been amazing. I've learned so much from all of them.
11:22.466 Brandon Burton
That is fantastic. you had mentioned maybe you know, wanting to create some traditions going forward with your chamber. Have there been any that are kind of starting to form or anything that you kind of have your eyes set towards?
11:36.802 Shannan Reid
Yes, well, a couple of fun ones that that we have enjoyed. take ambassadors for an example. Obviously we have a policy making board of directors and they're a working board. They are the leaders over my different divisions and committees or whatever. But we really needed those heartfelt champions who love to sell the chamber. In every breath, they've got chamber connected to. That comes with a type of person. I mean, it's just really a personality. And so in that ambassador role, there are lots of patterns and chambers across the state for how cham for how ambassadors look. Some of them have sport coat blazers and they take pictures at ribbon cuttings in their very traditional sense of ambassador or diplomat. then there are some nurturing groups and organizations. So what we've come to understand about who we are, and I'll insert this, pause for a second and I'll insert this. You really need every chamber big and small needs to spend time on a SWOT analysis at your board retreat, strategic planning, no matter the size, is vital because then you set the course for which every decision from there on hinges. And so when we knew who we were, As a Montgomery community, and we define by our SWOT analysis, our strategic plan, what the needs are, then we can shape and form every program we have to be falling right lockstep with that. And so when we built our ambassador program, it's unique to any other that I've met because it fits us. And that's the best part is it fits us, it fits our personality. One of the things that I say about Montgomery. the community is that we are relationship builders and we're incredibly loyal. Once we know you, we're gonna stick by you. We're gonna keep our business local. We're gonna rally around one another. Incredibly loyal. And that is a driving factor for people to understand when they come into our chamber. Well the neat thing about that is we've created that nurturing kind of atmosphere
14:01.94 Shannan Reid
around our ambassador program, right? So then they are nurturing our businesses to quickly understand this loyalty and engagement. So that's kind of one of the traditions is seeing how our ambassadors will shape our organization.
14:21.566 Brandon Burton
I'd like that example with the ambassadors. And you mentioned that the way that you're using the ambassador program fits you. It fits the needs of your members. And with any of these programs that you're establishing as a a newer, smaller chamber, you're able to really see the needs of your members and develop programs around that. Can you give us some examples of how you are able to find out the needs of your members, how you're interacting with them and and really finding out what what it is that they need from the chamber.
14:55.66 Shannan Reid
Well, yes. So we've incorporated several layers to determine the needs. And then I'm gonna even touch on, don't let me forget this. I wanna touch on how the members are telling you through their participation also. But right up front, right up front in our application for membership, we had gone the route of, you know, ask them everything, including their mother's maiden name. We went that route at first. once you get it all in the system. Then there was little need for that follow-up in the onboard process, and and you could easily assume that they're just getting your emails and getting your communications. We sp we just pulled all of that back and asked five quick questions. You know, we want their name, their phone number, email. But the last question just to register for being a member is why are you coming to be a part of the chamber? And as soon as we started asking that from the get-go, the moment that they are thinking most about it, we want to know what's their driving factor. Do you know that 95% of my responses was, I need to be engaged in this community for my business to work? So at that moment, they actually have a thought. And I didn't pre-fill the answer. They had to write it from scratch. They're all thinking along the lines of, I get it. This community is loyal, they're a relationship community, and I need to be plugged in in order to make my business work here. I'm like, man, those are the right people to be a part of this chamber. It's it's been pretty enlightening.
16:32.19 Brandon Burton
So engagement means something different to everybody though too. So how are you finding what what are you finding engagement to mean to these members?
16:42.37 Shannan Reid
That's a great question. don't let me forget to go back to those other things. So engagement definitely is when they need to know and be known in this community to create that credibility so that they're a trusted business. we do that in several ways. Obviously, we have monthly regular opportunities for them to show their face, but we also have ways for them through social media to stay in the know. and create engagement and connection to the chamber through social media avenues. And I have some that can't come to a meeting, but they stay very active online and keep their connection involved that way. Or maybe it is through a sponsorship if they're a larger corporation and they maybe can't physically come, but they can get their name and their face through the avenues that we offer. so that's th so everybody takes a little bit different route there.
17:45.614 Brandon Burton
And I think that's I guess what I was getting to is you know, some people want to be there in person and really say, Here's who I am, here's what our business does. And then other people want to be able to receive information and be able to see what's going on in the community. So then they know how to react and how to, you know, kind of cater towards the community. So I can I see engagement going both ways, you know, the give and take. So okay. Sorry to interrupt you.
18:11.244 Shannan Reid
No, that's okay. So but but back to finding out what our membership needs, you know, one of the things in that relationship building that our ambassador team does in the onboarding stages that we have for that first year member, we really want to ask them, Well, hey, what is it? What is it that you're after? What is it that you need? and I shared this recently with my ambassador team. There's a chamber director in another state that I'd heard of, and I and I haven't met him personally. I would love to, but I've heard what he says about his role as a chamber in his community, and he calls it a kick-ass problem solver. Excuse my phrase there, that's his, but I thought about that and I was completely impressed with if we could not be in business for Keeping ourselves like self-preservation as a chamber and focus on how can I solve the problem that my members have, whatever it is, whatever niche, whatever large or small, how much more value then have you brought to that community by problem solving, whatever that is? I just loved it. I was inspired. So big or small, you can be a kick-ass problem solver, right?
19:28.46 Brandon Burton
That's right. Absolutely. Everybody's got problems. And if the chamber can be that source to be able to help them answer those problems, then then that's the key. That's the that's the answer right there. So and part of that is is becoming the trusted resource for the community. People know to come to the chamber to get their problems solved, to be able to know what direction to turn towards. And I think that's a a key role for a chamber to you know, not only to stay relevant, but again, to help engage their members with everything going on in the community and and at the chamber for sure.
20:03.746 Shannan Reid
Well, you just said my favorite words, trusted resource. And so we've incorporated that into our elevator speech here for our chamber. And I gotta say, being small, a lot of the burden does fall on me. I don't have a large team or staff, but I leverage every relationship I've built to give me the information I need. to be make sure that we are the trusted resource, right? Whether it's me personally who provides it or if I can connect one person to another, right? but by being the trusted res resource, the first thing I tell my members or even when I'm prospective, you know, talking to a prospective member, I say, you need me in your speed dial. That's our funny way of saying if I don't know the answer, I know who does and I can get it for you. So the first i if your businesses aren't looking to call you first, then you've missed an opportunity.
21:05.772 Brandon Burton
That's right. I love that tagline. You need me in your speed dial. And that way they're thinking about you. That's right. Especially you know, a lot of the well as the as your chamber continues to grow and the the growth in your community in general, a lot of these new businesses are gonna be new businesses, you know, just opening and and they really do need to have you have have the chamber on their speed dial so they can get answers and have that trusted resource at their fingertips, literally. To be able to point point them in the right direction.
21:39.476 Shannan Reid
Okay, so I'll take it even a step further. In larger chambers, I imagine it would be difficult to do this. And there is an old school now. This goes back to the grandfather's chamber mindset of business, but that the executive director or the CEO is a bit above the rest. He's a bit untouchable. She's a bit untouchable. So if you take that mindset of I know everyone in this community, whether I do or not, we won't tell them that. But that I should know everyone in this community and that I have the latest and hottest, freshest resource understanding of what's happening. So if I then cut aside all of the hierarchy and I say to my new member that has just joined, here is my cell phone. Plug it into your phone right now. Put my name on it. It's my cell phone directly to me. Then I have them send me a text with their name and I plug it into my phone and I've got them in there and it's all I'm talking for all 209 members and their reps, I don't mind. But if their name comes up with their business on my phone, I will answer it and I will get them the information they need. Now, how much further does my credibility then or ours as a chamber then leverage the value? Right? Whether they use that phone number or not, they've got it.
23:08.524 Brandon Burton
That's right. Yeah. That that's right. And I I like, you know, you mentioned for these big chambers where the executive, the CEO seems untouchable. We're in a a digital world now too. So I would say, you know, utilize your social media and make sure your members are engaging in that way too, to see you, you know, to see the chamber CEO on Facebook or Instagram or whatever it is. And they can kind of feel like they've got a relationship there to some degree, even if, you know, they can't necessarily be on the speed dial because there's two thousand members. You know, I but and that may still be a great option to be able to give your cell phone number out and let people know that you are reachable. And you also have great competent staff that can help them as well. So if you get the call, you know, you can direct the right person to give them the best answers they're looking for.
24:04.948 Shannan Reid
Exactly. When you do that the first time, you've got a fan right away. You do it the you do it twice, you're they're you're in for life, right?
24:14.454 Brandon Burton
That's right. Absolutely. So I'm curious for any smaller chambers that may be listening right now, what is what's one action item that they can do to start playing big in their chamber?
24:32.494 Shannan Reid
Well, one of your previous podcasts talked about relevance. And I gotta say, if you can with the board have a set aside your regular minutes, financials, whatever, and hone in on your one thing that makes your community tick, that makes that makes your businesses survive or thrive. So in some locations that may be very corporate based in some locations like Montgomery, we're a touristy place, birthplace of the Texas flag, all of that. We're we've got that element to it. If you can identify what the heartbeat is of your community and then find a way to insert your chamber into making that happen for them, then you have positioned yourself for success. Now Big or small events along those lines are are not the point. But when you can insert yourself into the storyline of your community and make yourself a piece that can't be done without, you know what I'm saying? Then you are set for success. Now that's gonna look different for different places. When we first started the chamber and I was learning what a chamber's role was, remember I'm from education, I was a dance teacher. So, you know, I'm off gallivanting to New York City and Broadway and whatnot, but all of a sudden I'm having a learning curve and I s and I hear from so many. And some get very passionate that the chamber's role should be about government affairs and leveraging, you know, the ear of your elected officials. Others, on the other hand, feel like the civic side of things where you're hosting events and so forth. I've really determined that every community, if you can get to the heartbeat. What your community thrives off of, and insert yourself in the middle of that, then you're gonna be okay. And it doesn't matter what your neighbor's chamber is doing, because we have six chambers in Montgomery County, and every one of us are different. And that's wonderful because there are times when we come together as a county of chambers, and someone else is carrying the torch, and we're there cheering them on, and we're we're supporting.
26:51.096 Shannan Reid
But we don't have to be the front runner. And so by doing the thing that's best for you, you're going to increase your credibility, you're going to increase your awareness and your and your membership base just from that.
27:05.194 Brandon Burton
I love that. Great advice. And you had mentioned inserting whatever that is in your community. And I'm gonna add amplify. Yeah, insert and amplify whatever that is for your community to to your chamber and and that's where the success will come through.
27:20.802 Shannan Reid
Right. And it's okay to let other things fall away. That's why I say sunset review is good. and this is the thing I wanted to come back to. And it's on this same line. We recently had an event that I loved. I just thought it was brilliant. I'm not gonna lie. I thought it was so brilliant. And within two years it dwindled to nothing and we had to cancel it. And I thought, how did I miss that so much? Well, what each year brings has you have to pay attention. So by my membership not engaging and participating in that particular event, it actually in turn tells me that's not where their focus is right now. You need to see where their focus is and get with that. Because if you stay over here and try to, you know, keep yourself going, you know, yourself perpetuating, then then that's not serving them and their needs. So we have to sunset that.
28:21.634 Brandon Burton
Well, and that's gonna create a lot more work for you too, if you don't have the support behind it and it all falls on your shoulders to make it happen, rather than having a group that's excited about it and helping to, you know, pitch in and and make it come through. It it it it is important to self evaluate and see, you know, are the members getting the engagement out of this that that they should. And if not, you know, let's revisit that and and sunset it if needs be. I know that that's controversial for a lot of a lot of people. You know, talk about putting a program to bed. It's you really gotta take that strong, hard look at some of these things.
28:59.96 Shannan Reid
Well, and if you go into it always with the mindset that it isn't forever. You know, we have a hard time with that as human beings. We don't like things that go away because we get comfortable in them. But honestly w each year brings a different theme. I've noticed twenty nineteen to be very hard hitting. Have you the calendars are full, the the work is big, the the pressures are strong. And my members are focusing on learning something new. And it's so funny that I happened to do a little pep talk, if you will, in January about learning something new. And I'll just bridge it to this. Back, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago, when we would say learn something new, it was probably historically speaking, we were expanding our knowledge from behind us. But today You have to learn something new because the entire landscape with which you are doing business is changing every day. And their learning means make it or don't make it. They're gonna survive if they learn new, right? Whether it's in in new currencies or new ways to get money or new ways to reach clients or new so many new things that didn't even exist five years ago. They have to learn. So education has been what twenty nineteen has really focused us on. That's why my other little event, which wasn't about education at all, went away.
30:35.99 Brandon Burton
Well, I love it the whole idea of learn something new. And when you think of the day and age that we live in, it used to be that you needed to find a book on whatever the topic is and learn it, or sit through formal education. And nowadays with the internet and you know, different resources out there, that's why I love the format of a podcast so much is we with the idea of being able to learn something new every day, whether it's this podcast, the chamber chat podcast, or any other podcast. I mean you could check out ones on social media, being an influencer that way, or just marketing in general, or business in general. There's every different type of topic out there with podcasts. And you don't need to sit and be dedicated reading a book. You can listen while you're driving or going for a walk or, you know, whatever you're doing in life, but you're able to incorporate learning something new every day, which I think is so vital. So thank you for bringing that up.
31:31.956 Shannan Reid
It is. Well, along those lines, you know, being small, one of the things that we've identified right away was our geography, our target audience for for membership in the mature version of ourselves. And we our city is about four square miles, city of Montgomery. It's about thirty percent developed. So the bulk of our audience is not inside the city, but our retail trade area established It's similar to our school district. It's about 256 square miles and about 53,000 plus people residents. As opposed to our little city who barely broke a thousand this year. Woohoo! so fifty-three thousand in this lake area, very affluent community north of Houston, resort style residences. So one of the things that we realized is our membership.
32:15.903 Brandon Burton
huh.
32:31.128 Shannan Reid
To come engage, I'm threading all of our thoughts here together now, but to get engaged and come show up to something is not a quick five minutes down the road and they jump in on a lunch and leave and get back to work and it just, you know, takes an hour of their day. Instead, you've got to stop what you're doing, you've got to drive an hour to wherever you're going, get all situated, do the event, turn around, and by the time you've done. Just for a little lunch, you've lost more than half your day. So for a solopreneur for a very small business, this isn't something they can just drop and do two, three times a month. It's not feasible to them. But in the Learn Something New category, it's hard out here in the northwest corner of Montgomery County to get access to education physically to drive somewhere. or or to attend classes or workshops. So they are reliant, as you said, online to hear a lot of this stuff. But a lot of our businesses are busy doing the thing right in front of them. Right? The thing right in front of them. And they don't have time to research where to get a class online, where to find it. But if I'm that trusted resource and I'm in their speed dial, if if I've built that kind of relationship, Come let me supply and be that kick-ass problem solver for you. Then what we're after this year is when we host a training or a workshop, we're now recording them and we're uplinking them into our member base. So once they log in, they have access to all this training. And we're continuing to build our library so that we can get them those resources so they don't have to figure out all of the places they can get training from. Now, if we can provide some of that, then they'll have the wide or variety of trainings they need. You know, most small businesses, they go into business for the thing they love. And then they quickly realize they also have to be an expert at marketing and at payroll. Yeah. And and at whatever, you know, and it's daunting. It really is. And if they were just a hobbyist enjoying, you know,
34:52.015 Shannan Reid
some cute little pottery but now all of a sudden they want to make that a business, they've got a learning curve to make up for. And so we're gonna be trying to connect all of our leveraging, like Small Business Development Center, Lawnstar College, all of the expertise within our own membership to provide all these workshop trainings. And if they can't make it and we record it, then they can get it anytime or go back and listen to it again.
35:20.514 Brandon Burton
I love that. That is a excellent summary of everything that we've talked about. Just all wrapped up and put a a pretty bow on it. That's I mean, make the education opportunities available. Make it evergreen, you know, for your for your members. So they if they are not able to be at the event, make it available and and make sure they know where to find it. Be that trusted resource. I love it. So Shannon, I know we need to start wrapping things up here, but I wanted to ask the question that I ask everybody. Is as we look to the future, how do you view chambers of commerce and their purpose?
35:56.014 Shannan Reid
That is a great question. I've been asking myself that since we started this whole thing. Because honestly, I don't want to go into this to do the same old thing when we have the opportunity with our agility ability to be right up at the front, right? And to be a
36:14.434 Brandon Burton
You have a neat you have a unique perspective coming at it as a newer chamber, kind of planning for the future as you're in the beginning.
36:22.562 Shannan Reid
I do. So, you know, I see the shape of business that we need to evermore be available in membership before they ever put a foot through the door. We have to provide value on the front end. And I say that in relationship to what they get online right now. So understand this. If I go online and I'm shopping for something. I want to experience the benefit of whatever I want out of the product or service immediately. I want it to download immediately. I want to access it immediately. I don't want to have to wait to go to something to get it. We need to, as chambers, stop saying, well, you get out of it what you put into it, and expect them to come go away from their business that they have to stay at to keep alive. We can't continue to say that. We need to be able to provide benefit the moment they hit submit on membership.
37:25.032 Brandon Burton
I like that. I I haven't heard that perspective before, but becoming more of an on demand resource is what I what I get out of that.
37:33.442 Shannan Reid
There you go. That's a great way to see that. I like it. So how can we get away from the traditional version and get our benefits right at their fingertips from the moment they say yes?
37:47.084 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. I love that. It this is so neat having this this perspective that you have, building a new chamber right now and planning for the future along the same line you know at the same time. Yeah. Really, you know, gives sheds some new light on on how things can be looked at. Shannon, I wanted to thank you so much for spending time with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. And also wanna thank everybody who's listening. We'll have show notes for this episode at Chamberchat Podcast dot com slash episode thirteen. And Shannon, if if listeners wanted to get in contact with you about any questions or anything that was discussed today or how their small chamber can play big, how can they reach out to you?
38:35.894 Shannan Reid
Absolutely. It's been so much fun, Brandon. I would love to visit with other chamber directors who have questions. first of all, our website, go check it out and see what you think about what we're doing. It's Montgomery Area Chamber.com. And then our office number, nine three six five nine seven. Five zero zero four. You can reach us up here at the office. And because I already put myself out there, I'm gonna give you my cell number. Nine three six five two four two four eight four. And if you text me, which is always better for a quick introduction, just say, Hey, I got this from the podcast, and then I'll I'll be able to catch it. But My email address directly is admin admin at MontgomeryareaCamber dot com.
39:33.886 Brandon Burton
That is perfect. And we'll put all those the all that contact information on the show notes. So anybody that can if you're driving, you don't need to try to write it all down. Just go to chamber chatpodcast.com slash episode thirteen and all of Shannon's contact information will be in there. if you're a chamber professional listening, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast and either Apple Podcast or Google Podcast. And as you subscribe to the show I actually had to explain this to my dad this last week. There's no cost to subscribe to the show. It's all free. So what it means to subscribe is it it gives permission for the each new episode to automatically download to your podcast app whenever they become available. So then you're ready to listen to it. They're there whenever you're ready. So if you're finding value in this podcast, please go on to iTunes and leave us a rating and review that'll help other chamber professionals to be able to find this podcast as well. But hopefully you can all take some tips and things that we've learned from Shannon today and apply them as you serve in your chamber. And please tune in again next week as I continue to bring you more great content to help you spark ideas. I look forward to chatting with you again next week.