Indy Chamber 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist with Michael Huber

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

Episode 140 — Indy Chamber 2021 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Michael Huber
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Michael Huber
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00:00.842 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.
00:15.246 Intro Voice / Brandon Burton
He always asks for no to my dad, Brandon Burton. Hello, Chamber Champions. Thank you for joining us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. This is another one in our series of our 2021 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalist series. Chamber Chat Podcast is sponsored, our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions.
00:42.24 Brandon Burton
Is your chamber struggling to drive the revenue it needs to support your initiatives? It's a common problem, and one that our new title sponsor, Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions, knows a lot about. Doug and Bill Holman aren't just sales consultants, they're real live chamber guys with 20 plus years of chamber leadership experience. They know how to diagnose and solve member recruiting issues faster and better than anyone else, and they're ready to put that knowledge to work for you and your chamber. Call the Holman Brothers today at 619-852-1391, or check them out at Holman Bros.com. That's H-O-L-M-A-N-B-R-O-S.com. So as we are continuing this Chamber of the Year finalist series, our guest today is Michael Huber with the Indy Chamber. And Michael, he was a previous guest on Chamber Chat Podcast back on episode 99. So if you want to go back and check out that episode as well, he talked about the importance of your chamber being a unifying force in your community, which is a great discussion and very timely. But Michael has served as the president and CEO of the Indy Chamber since the fall of 2013. The Indy Chamber serves to unite the business community to grow Indianapolis's economy in an inclusive way. And to tell the Indianapolis story across the nation and world. Under Michael's leadership, the Indy Chamber has led Indianapolis's regional economic development strategy. Michael's past roles include Senior Director of Commercial Enterprise at the Indianapolis Airport Authority, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, and he worked in the Indiana Office of Management and Budget for Governor Mitch Daniels. He and his wife Helen are parents of three young children and live in Fall Creek Place in Indianapolis. Michael, I'm excited to have you back with me today on Chamber Chat Podcast and congratulations as being selected as a Chamber of the Year finalist. If you would say hello to all the Chamber Champions and as I like to do, you know, share something interesting about yourself so we can all know you a little bit better.
02:52.3 Michael Huber
Thanks, Brandon. It's it's an honor to be back on. I enjoyed our last conversation. You know, for me it came at a really critical time. And hello to all the chamber chat listeners. Brandon, as you know, I've become a became a listener of the show a little over a year ago, and I just appreciate the the service that you provide to chamber leaders all over the country. yeah, I something interesting about myself. I don't know if it's interesting, but as a lot of my you know chamber colleagues know here and across the country. Music is a huge part of my life. since I was 17, 18, I spend a lot of time writing, producing, recording music. You can find out about my six-piece kind of RB pop band, which is called Chamber Music. We couldn't figure out a better name, which plays around Indianapolis and the Midwest regularly. And and my musical hero is babyface Edmonds, Kenny Edmonds, who's an Indianapolis resident who I've met a few times. So yeah, it's a bit big part of my life. And I'm actually, as you know, recording this from my home music studio in Indianapolis.
03:56.65 Brandon Burton
As yeah, I know that. We're on Zoom, so I can see your your studio there and it looks like a great setup and you can have a lot of fun and and do some great music in there. well share with us some of the the details of the Indy Chamber, kind of what type of chamber you are, size, staff, budget, that sort of thing, just to give perspective for our discussion.
04:05.614 Michael Huber
Absolutely.
04:18.958 Michael Huber
So as you mentioned in the bio, I've been there nearly eight years, which is longer than I ever thought I would be, but having more fun now than ever. The Indy Chamber's been around as an entity for over 130 years, founded by people like Colonel Eli Lilly, who is the namesake of the large drug company, you know, pharmaceutical company we have in Indianapolis. I think ten years well, I'd want to mention ten years ago, Eli Lilly and company, which is our biggest private sector employer. And many other employers wanted to see some merger and consolidation of activities in Indianapolis. And so two years before I joined, the Indy Chamber merged with the Regional Economic Development Corp, which is called Indy Partnership, the City of Indianapolis Economic Development Corp, which reports kind of on a dotted line to the mayor of Indianapolis. And then finally, a small business lending entity called Business Ownership Initiative. So basically, for your listeners, Three economic development entities in one fell swoop came under the Indy Chamber umbrella. And so it's never boring. My charge when I came in was to work to integrate the these new organizations to help it function as one organization. And you know, it's eight years later, but that work is still ongoing, as your listeners will understand. The organization has about 60 employees, budget of about 10 and a half million dollars. If you if you add the foundation, it the budget annual budget can be as much as $13 or $14 million a year. But with the member services, of course, membership is the foundation, policy and advocacy and economic development, it is never boring. And it always I've always got questions for my colleagues around the country anytime I get a chance to see them, and which is why I also enjoy listening to chamber chat.
06:09.036 Brandon Burton
Thank you. it I always think it's great to get that perspective. So as people listen and they they can see okay, you've you've gone through or you're still continuing to kind of work through this kind of merger with three different economic yeah. So there's there's a lot to be learned through the experiences that you have to share. So thank you for that. So as we get into our discussion today, we'll be focusing on the program synopsis on your chamber of the year finalist application, which I know Everybody had to include something as far as your your COVID response through the COVID pandemic. And then another program for you guys was the inclusive economic development incentive. So I'm excited to to learn more about the the two programs that you highlighted on your application. We'll get into that discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break. Are you looking for a year round affordable and timely shop local campaign for your chamber or CVB? Look no further. Build a custom Eat Shop Play Mobile app with App My Community by visiting AppMyCommunity.com/chamberchat. App My Community mobile apps are not just simple membership directory listings, they provide many more capabilities to engage with your community. Provide your residents with a robust events calendar, partner with a local fair, festival, or farmers market to provide a schedule, map, and other resources to promote the event. Run a small business Saturday campaign any time of the year using built-in scavenger hunts. Allow your membership to communicate directly to their customers via push notifications. Your App My Community mobile app will be a unique member benefit, allow you to generate non-dues revenue with sponsorship opportunities, and best of all, provide a valuable resource to your community. Please visit AppMyCommunity.com/chamberchat now and To receive ten percent off your first year of an app my community mobile app.
08:11.209 Michael Huber
Yeah.
08:12.922 Brandon Burton
All right, Michael, we're back. as I mentioned before the break, we're gonna cover the two programs on your your synopsis the application. And first off, let's let's hear about how you guys address the the COVID pandemic, especially the early onset. I think when a lot of the panic and fear was hitting small businesses across the country. But but how'd you deal with it in your community?
08:41.4 Michael Huber
So basically, Brandon, we at the beginning placed a bet. And that bet was that the greatest vulnerability in the Indianapolis region would be small business. And so, you know, sometimes sometimes you place a bet and it's a swing and a miss, and sometimes it works out. And it the the worst thing or the most challenging thing that could happen to our, you know, our country and our world, our national economy. was possibly the best thing that we've done ever done as an organization. And it we we didn't we didn't know. basically in mid-March when the effects of the virus started to hit our communities in America and we started to see regulations and shutdowns and things like that to keep people safe. The first wave of impact in the Indianapolis region was definitely the hospitality industry because Indianapolis, as you know, a good part of our economy is based on hosting big sports events and hosting big conventions and things like that. We we pride ourselves on being, even though I think we're the 33rd largest metropolitan statistical area, we're definitely a top 10 convention city and we're very proud of that. Big Ten basketball got canceled in March in mid midway through the Big Ten basketball tournament. the NCAA regionals that we were scheduled to host got canceled. So restaurants and a lot of service businesses related to that were in a panic. Mid-March, we called everybody into our big conference room in our office in Salesforce Tower in downtown Indianapolis. And we basically said, we don't know what's going to happen, but in the coming days, we are all getting trained on small business service. And stay tuned. Over a weekend, a group of us got into a conference room, almost like a war room type operation. And it's not an original idea, but we move very fast.
10:41.496 Michael Huber
To create a web portal, but then literally a customer service operation that we called Rapid Response Hub. Because at this time in mid to late March, you know, it felt like the inform the public information was changing by the hour. And if you were a large business that had a sophisticated human resources department, you'd probably stand on top of this pretty well. I mean, if you were a restaurant, if you were a you know a retail store, if you were a small manufacturer, I mean you just there was so much confusion out there. So we we set up a web portal called Rapid Response Hub, literally a customer service operation running about 18 hours a day. With the with the the and the the c core to the operation was getting someone a very fast response and connection to resources. It might be public health resources. It might be, you know. City or state code enforcement resources. One of the things that we're really proud of that we set up within the first week, this one didn't, this didn't happen over a weekend, but it took about seven or eight days. Is we engaged the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, literally a hotline where professors and students could take calls from businesses that were having to make really, really hard decisions. And some of them were just cash flow decisions. we learned so much out of the that rapid response hub effort that we set up, you know, hundreds of calls a day initially. And out of that grew in April a small business lending ramp up through our we we are we are a little bit unique. We're we have a a C a CDFI community development financial institution within our chamber, which we've only had for two years. And we raised $10 million for an emergency loan fund. We raised $10 million from the private sector. We increased the number of staff doing business lending from about six people to about 25 people. Now we were lucky that we had an organization. So we trained people very fast, cross-trained people on small business lending. And over the course of the next nine months, through emergency loans, some PPP, which we ran through the Indy Chamber, and a partnership with a 7A small business lender and some grants that
13:03.426 Michael Huber
The city of Indianapolis ran through our organization. We were able to get out on the street $21.5 million in small business assistance to organizations. Now, Brandon, and then I'm gonna I'll say one more thing and then I'll pause. Our previous our the previous year in 2019, we did under a million dollars in small business loans. And we really specialize, we don't, we don't compete with the banks. We special the the loans that we give out to businesses are quite small. You know, average was about $19,000 in the previous year. So we went from good doing under a million dollars in lending to out especially the last nine months of twenty twenty to the close of twenty twenty, doing twenty one and a half million in loans and grants. if you had to if you had told me we would be we would have been able to get five million out the door, I wouldn't have believed you, you know, previous to that. So so The the short answer is we set up this rapid response hub organization and we placed a bet. We said, regardless of what you do in the organization, whether you're you might be on the economic development team, you might be on the sales team, you're gonna be doing small business services for the foreseeable future. And it was it was a crazy time, but I'm really proud of the work we were able to do. Yeah.
14:13.07 Brandon Burton
So that's what impressed me is the the speed that you guys are able to adapt and and make those changes and like you said to to bring everybody together and say everybody's gonna be trained on small business service. you know, whether you have economic development specialty or you know, whatever your role is at the chamber, I'm assuming that means everybody, right? That it what did that training look like? I mean, how did you go about doing that? Is that something that was done internally? Did you bring somebody in a combination?
14:41.664 Michael Huber
It was all internal because we had to move it fast. And we went really with perfect is the enemy of the good. We are very fortunate that we've got our existing small business lens. So the the team, the team internally that works with small business is about 11 individuals. The people who do loans specifically are half a dozen people. And as I'm thinking about Kia and Rick and you know, Emily and the are my colleagues who do lending, many of them came from banking. And They were incredibly patient in training other colleagues in here's here's how we are going to do this emergency lending process. And it was all internal, it was all virtual. We it it really we we were able to discover some talents from people who don't work in small business lending. You know, one of our communications staff, Susanna, it turned turned it turns out, is a real ninja in terms of setting up these you know, lending processes and things like that. So it became this. This over time, this wonderful experience where we were discovering talents of individuals who maybe worked in a completely different team. And I want to say for your for the benefit of your listeners who might be like, we we don't have a large organization, we don't have a small business lending operation. If anybody's interested, talk to me. I believe that what we did is highly replicable, even if you're a smaller chamber in a smaller community through partnerships with lending organizations, because Some of the lending that we did, we did as the Indy Chamber. Some of the lending that we did, we were just the front-end kind of marketing and intake function for an organization called Bankable, which does small SBA lending because we needed more capacity. We weren't going to have enough capacity to meet the need out there. So I do think that a lot of what we have learned is achievable through partnerships with other organizations too. You don't, you don't necessarily need to have a small business lending department of your chamber.
16:40.724 Brandon Burton
Yeah. I think that's a great point to make. And you know, i for listeners out there that are hearing all the great things that the Indy Chamber or other chambers that are here on the podcast are are talking about, I hope that you can just at least take the idea or the you know, the the purpose behind what's happening and figure out a way to make it work in your community if it makes sense. So it doesn't need to be done the exact same way, but there usually is a way that it can be done. So qu thanks for pointing that out.
17:09.964 Michael Huber
The question, the question that we're getting now, you know, it's the summer of 2021. The the really the most difficult parts of the pandemic obviously lasted over a year is how are you as I I get this all the time, how are you doing converting these? It's literally over a thousand loan clients to members. And that's been tough. You know, it's led us to a membership increase, but that's gonna be that's gonna take some time because we wait we this is really important at you, I think for your listeners. You did not have to be a chamber member to receive any kind of rapid response hub assistant or loans. We were just like, if you qualify, get money out the door. No questions asked. And I think that's really important. I think that's what was necessary. If we had stopped to say, well, but maybe you should be a member, or, or even if we'd said, Well, we've got to make sure this is fully funded to we would have, we would it would have been too slow. And that was a great.
18:00.854 Brandon Burton
And and can you imagine the damage that would do in the business community if you're like, No, we can't help you 'cause you didn't you're not a member.
18:07.47 Michael Huber
Absolutely. Absolutely. So it was like we did have, you know, rules and parameters and you know internal controls, but we were like, if they meet the criteria, get the money out the door. And so now we're engaged in a process of reviewing what did we learn about the small business ecosystem? Can we convert some of these folks to members? some of them have. We have we've seen a s a small membership increase. so it's led us to a whole new set of questions more than a year down the road. But honestly it does it does feel it it was it was a crazy time. It was really chaotic. But I I do know that we helped I do th I do know that we helped hundreds of businesses get through a very difficult time and that is really gratifying.
18:49.864 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. And I hope that we never go through another, you know, pandemic like we we have and and we're hopefully coming out of at this point. But for listeners out there, I I think it's important to take note how other chambers reacted and to be able to get some of those things in place. I I look at it as kind of like emergency preparedness, you know. my family, we have a little bit of food storage, we have some water stored just in case, you know, something happened and we want to make sure we have we have some money set aside and things like that. So I know most chambers try to have some reserves, you know, fiscally. it it makes sense to plan ahead in case there's ever anything like this again, that you can react quickly. And if that means developing these partnerships with some lending organizations or whatever it may be, whatever you feel, you know, prompted that your community needs. Make those preparations.
19:43.558 Michael Huber
And and I'm gonna say too, there's a time when you need to run into the fire like a firefighter. And there's no strategic plan that we could have created, you know what I mean? So t you're exactly right. Emergency preparedness, and I'm gonna add to that. And and in addition, no strategic plan. There's no s no version of a strategic plan that I that I could have created that our board could have created, which would have said send nearly Transfer nearly all of your employees to small business services. You know, send the events people to small business services and train them and say, and yet, and I've learned this a lot from other chamber leaders, the whole chase the mission, not the money. You know, yeah. There's a there's a time when like a firefighter, you need to run into the fire. Like I'll give you, I'll give you a quick example. One of our first moves in April of 2020 was raising $10 million for this emergency small business loan fund. If before the pandemic I I or we had set out to try to raise $10 million for a small business loan fund, we would have really, really struggled. Because we established a foothold via the rapid response hub and we had literally hundreds of calls coming in and we were adding value. We were able to raise $10 million in less than a month. You know, I had a I had a family foundation. Actually, this is public. The developer of Marriott Hotels in Indianapolis is a is a Is a guy, is a is a guy named Bruce White, whose father was named Dean White and runs the the Dean White Family Foundation. And as soon as we announced that we were seeking to raise this money, he called me. He said, We'd like to contribute a million dollars. And I said, Well, when would what are that we thank you so much for your generosity? What are the terms that you'd like that paid back? And he said, We don't want to be paid back. We just we really appreciate your leadership. We just want to give you a grant of a million dollars. And then I my jaw hit the floor, you know? So, so I I can't explain it, you know. we, you know, so we so we were able to basically set out and so man and that made me think maybe we should have set the bar higher, you know, 20 million or whatever. But because because we responded quickly without thinking, how are we gonna pay for this? Maybe you should be a chamber member to blah blah blah. the the the response from a community was overwhelming and we were just so humbled by that. I can't even tell you.
22:03.382 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. So many good nuggets in there. Let's let's shift gears a little bit and and talk a little bit about your the other program that you submitted on your application around the inclusive economic development incentives.
22:18.904 Michael Huber
So every community that I'm aware of and state government has different tools in the economic development toolkit that they grant to companies to attract, you know, attract companies or help them grow within your community. And whether you are a chamber that has economic development programs within the toolkit, because many do, or maybe you don't, maybe your focus is on member services and you know advocacy and and other things. I believe that this second project that we submitted has applicability to virtually any chamber. We do have some economic development programs in the Indy Chamber, as I mentioned before, but basically the Indy Chamber in 2017 and 2018 was admitted into a pro a cohort, a project with our counterparts in Nashville, Tennessee, the Nashville Chamber, and then the Economic Development Corp of San Diego. It was it was a Brookings institution program. Called Inclusive Economic Growth Learning Lab. And Brookings Institution was seeking to better understand why in America, with cities that are experiencing growth, are cities also experiencing growing poverty. And Indianapolis certainly fits that. We've got, I mean, I could tell you, we've got. A diversity of research and development jobs in this city across life sciences and pharma and advanced manufacturing. Sports is a big industry for us too. Agriculture tech is a big industry for us. So if you're college educated, especially if you're an RD worker, it's a great place to be. And yet we've got growing poverty, multi-generational poverty, and it's heartbreaking in many parts of the city and the region. So we looked at the The nature of the economic development incentives that we award to our companies. And the Brookings analysis suggested that maybe we weren't being selective enough. Maybe we were using on occasion economic development incentives to encourage companies to create more low-wage jobs without great benefits, without upward mobility. So working with the mayor's office of Indianapolis and the council, city county council in Indianapolis, we
24:35.34 Michael Huber
devised a different formula for awarding economic development incentives to companies. And we started to put in targets related to wages. They needed to provide better wages, certainly than before. They could get points for things like great childcare, transportation and employee benefits. So it wasn't just a it wasn't just a a simple formula. And it led to a lot of great discussions about within city government and state government about well what what are the intended purpose of these incentives? It was not easy. It drew criticism from the left and the right. you know on the right you had a lot of people saying, I don't know, this feels like setting a a minimum wage. But then we would basically argue with maybe people on the right, well, but you know, I remember talking to a particular legislator saying, but Do you agree that maybe we haven't been disciplined enough about tax incentives? And he said, I totally agree with you there. I was like, Okay, well then let's talk about that. On the on the left, even though we were we said you can't qualify for incentives unless you meet certain wage requirements and you can get points for childcare and things like that, people on the left felt like we weren't pushing enough. You know, I mean that we need to push for higher and higher wages. But we we met I think in a very good place, workable place. And I can say now, over a year later, as we sit here in 2021, there are at least three suburban communities looking at the inclusive incentives policy that we helped implement in Indianapolis. They're looking at something similar for for their communities. Last thing I'll say, Brandon, is you don't again, you don't have to have you don't, your chamber doesn't have to be the economic development corporation to put something like this in play. If you've got an ad any kind of advocacy function, you can through, you know, analysis and going out and connecting with people and listening to people, really assess how what what are the incentives that we offer to companies and what kind of behaviors are we really st encouraging companies. A lot of it comes down to values. You know what I mean? Like what do we as a community, what values do we expect our companies to uphold? And
26:57.522 Michael Huber
This is probably just the beginning in a a longer term initiative, Brandon, that that we're that we will go down. But yeah, the inclusive economic development incentives was the second project that we submitted because we think it's really important for our community and it's been really impactful.
27:15.212 Brandon Burton
I think the fact that like you mentioned, the left and right both had things that they wanted more of or less of. And I mean, that tells me that as a chamber, you're doing things right. Right. You're you're in the that middle, that same center and and bringing both sides together. So that tells me that's something worth focusing some attention on. So it's not too polarizing.
27:34.606 Michael Huber
Isn't that isn't that funny? So many so many of my chamber colleagues around the country say we know we're in the right space if the left and the right are a little bit mad at us.
27:43.342 Brandon Burton
That's right. It makes perfect sense though. So so tell how long have you guys been implementing that now, the trying to to shift where those incentives go?
27:57.176 Michael Huber
It'll be about two years soon. Okay. And we've seen some really I I don't know if we've lost any projects because of it. I know it's it's it's created some tensions maybe earlier in the process and tougher discussions with companies maybe than than than typically. but yeah, so far I can't I can't complain. And it's also we we as an Indianapolis region need to do a better job saying to industry, especially companies that we want to attract from other places, we'd love to have you here. We want you here, but this is what we stand for and this is what we hope you'll which which includes good jobs with good wages, with good benefits that provide a level of upward mobility for your folks.
28:43.896 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a a great program. It's definitely thinking outside the box to to make that shift and and find ways to make it work for both the businesses and for their employees.
28:54.546 Michael Huber
And I gotta say, the ACCE organization is the best testing ground for these ideas. I can't and your listeners. You may have some list chamber chat listeners that are maybe somewhat involved with ACCE. I, you know, obviously Brookings Institution helped us do the analysis, but I I'm su I it's been it was it was it was encouraged to me when I first joined the Indy Chamber seven and a half years ago. to just pick up the phone and call your peers in other cities saves you so much time, you know. And so I'm grateful that I've got, you know, my in my case, the the Indy Chamber is an active member of ACCE Metro Cities Council. I c I know for any any problem or challenge that I have, there are a lot of people I can just pick up the phone and say, hey, I know you've been dealing with this similar challenge. Can you tell me about what you've done? without without that national network and the ability to bounce ideas off people, we would be very limited. In Indianapolis. Yeah.
29:52.898 Brandon Burton
Yeah. And I'll have to say just maybe a little candidly, that's that's one of the reasons why I started this podcast is I would see oftentimes it was smaller chambers who maybe were not as you know tied in weren't involved with ACCE at all, or even their state or regional you know associations. And I would see them struggle. I mean, just in in my background with with chamber publishing, I would see the struggles of some of these chambers. That they need to be able to learn from others. They need to be able to have that network to be able to reach out and call someone and hear some of these best practices and tips and strategies, hence, and podcasts.
30:29.708 Michael Huber
And I think I'm glad you said that because so I grew up in a very small town in kind of central southern Illinois, northeast of St. Louis, Missouri, and about town about 4,000 people. I think in smaller communities, the job, I'm not just saying this, is much more difficult than mine. I think you have to be much more entrepreneurial and wear even more hats. Cause you know, Indianapolis has got a lot of problems, but it it's it's also got a lot of growth in certain aspects of the the economic sector. I I'm I'm really fascinated, especially with what small towns do to reinvent themselves. And so I think what you just said, I think it's even more important if you are a chamber leader in a smaller community trying to reinvent itself because I again respect you've just you've got to be even more entrepreneurial.
31:17.214 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I thank you for that insight. I wanted to ask you and this may have nothing to do with your chamber of the year application, but since we have you on the podcast representing Indy Chamber as a chamber of the year finalist, I wanted to get from your perspective what makes the Indy Chamber special? Is there things that you feel like you guys are doing that maybe other chambers aren't doing or just certain areas of focus? What what's that secret sauce?
31:46.734 Michael Huber
So we've really embraced inclusive economic growth as a core principle of the organization. So our our our three core principles are tell the Indianapolis story, grow a more inclusive economy, and unite the Indianapolis region. And, you know, people are throwing around terms like diversity and inclusion thing, which are very important, but I know you kind of have to define your terms. We're we're We're growing, we're changing. Our understanding of what's needed to happen in our city and in America is changing. And it's a group of people. we've attracted we've been able to attract a lot of young people and a lot of young diverse leaders to the organization. And I'm so blessed for that. It's a group of people who are multifunctional, can do different things, high level of intellectual curiosity. We look for that when we hire. They've got to be independent-minded. If you are A hardcore partisan. It's okay to have your own personal views, but if you're if you're if you're playing in the public arena, you've got to have an independent streak in you. You know what I mean? You can have your per your person, obviously, personal views on things. And things like our small business lending in the application. I was so proud that we we hit it was about 39% women-owned companies, 38% of the money went to minority-owned companies. Obviously, those categories aren't mutually exclusive. So it was about 55% in the what they call the XBE category. We have realized we have so much work to do to really represent the Indianapolis regional business community in its full diversity. And we are making steps to broaden our membership and our board. and our management team to make sure that we're representing in a much more substantially the black community in Indianapolis, the Hispanic community in Indianapolis, Asian community in Indianapolis in a meaningful way. And as I, you know, I I really enjoyed, you know, the talk we had on your podcast. I I just I just see that as a growth opportunity if we, you know, and the great thing is we're not unique. ACCE organization has set that as a high priority
34:01.146 Michael Huber
And I can find a lot of people around the country, you know, who are who are trying to make these changes as well. Ultimately, the mission though, Brandon, is and we we will have achieved the mission if every business sees itself sees itself as contributing to a more equitable you know community where everybody's got opportunity and that they also see that as good business, that it's not some charitable exercise, that it's like, You know, a community where everybody, regardless of your background, has got the opportunity is is is is is good business.
34:34.892 Brandon Burton
I love that. Not it's not just a charitable exercise. And and I think that's where that there may be skepticism when you start talking about DEI programs and initiatives. There's always that skepticism that's kind of underlying that. So it it it it's not a charity exercise.
34:54.36 Michael Huber
Yeah. You know, the it's not. And you know, so it's like so it's like we there there's a there's a time for putting out statements, whether you're a company or chamber in terms of what you stand for. There's a time for that. We haven't done as much of that as an organization. What what what we what I've learned just by surveying the landscape and really listening to our own, you know, diverse companies, board members, you know, employees is we try to be very clear about what we do. You know, and then when we set out to do things like our push into small business lending, be much more inclusive than we were before, reach out to people who weren't part of the quote air quotes typical, you know, chamber network. And it's a journey, you know, like we talked about, you know, in my the last time I was on. It's it's it's a journey. And I I've got to be, I've got to be kind of open to where this takes us. but I I gotta tell you, I know I'm gonna sound like a broken record. It can get kind of isolating in your own community, right? Because when you run the chamber. you don't have many peers. And that's not to say that chamber leaders are like, you know, Superman, Superwoman. That's that's not what I'm saying. It's hard to find someone in your own neighborhood who's got a similar job. And that's why tapping into your network via the ACCE organization and others is so important because you can really feel it some days like you're out on a limb and nobody understands the challenge I'm going through. Yeah.
36:16.566 Brandon Burton
Yep. Abs absolutely. so I I wanted to see if there would be maybe one tip or action item that you'd offer to listeners to help take their chamber up to the next level. Maybe it's something you just said because you just covered a lot of good stuff, but let's see what you
36:30.37 Michael Huber
Yeah. Okay. I I'm I'm I'm gonna say the first thing that's on my mind right now. Yep. and don't don't just look at the tools you have within your chamber organization. Look at who's in your city and what skills they have. Cause like, you know, are you are you are you looking at your small business lending organizations as an extension of the chamber? Because you can You you in many cases you can through a partnership, you can make them an extension of your chamber. Your workforce development organizations via partnerships, can you make them literally an extension of your chamber? when if you're don't look at we couldn't do that because we don't have this budget or those resources. Well, is there somebody else in your own backyard who's really good at that? Because I guarantee. You as the chamber have got a lot to offer them. If you're a chamber in existence, you've got a lot of members, right? Yeah. I I just think, you know, hopefully we won't have another pandemic on the level what we've had. But our my ability and our ability to extend the influence of our chambers through these networked partnerships is going to be more and more and more important. And it takes a different kind of leadership. You know, it takes it's not, it's it's not a top down. type of transactional kind of leadership that we're talking about.
37:57.634 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. and I I've referenced his book multiple times here on the podcast, but Dave Adkisson's book, Horseshoes vs. Chess. it it's not that top down, but it it's really looking at your community as a chessboard and chess pieces and being able to to be strategic with how you partner and and move move the ball forward.
38:20.28 Michael Huber
You know what? I'm lucky enough to know Dave and I haven't read the book yet, but that's you just gave me you just gave me the push over the line that I need to go read the book, like right now.
38:29.622 Brandon Burton
Do it. Yeah. so I'd I always ask everyone on the show how you see the future of chambers moving forward. I know you answered this, you know, back on episode ninety nine, but love to get your perspective on that today.
38:45.038 Michael Huber
the country's becoming more diverse regardless of where you live. And that's I mean, that's you know, it's racially and ethnically diverse. It's, you know, gender dynamics and and tech is disrupting everything. So, you know, the diversity of our industries. And so we are all for chambers to remain relevant and really represent the business community in our cities, we have to continue to evolve. And make sure that we're we're not just representing the you know the big companies and we're not just representing you know the hospital systems, but are we really representing the business community? That means we're we all have to stretch and we all have to evolve. And I also think that and I've learned this from the ACCE network, chasing the mission, not the money. So what does that mean? So specifically. doing those big catalytic things that need to happen to move the community forward without worrying about am I getting the credit? Am I getting the you know, rallying the business community to do those big catalytic things. And if in in in almost every case, the money will follow. And that's what I'm learning, you know, on a on a daily basis.
40:07.532 Brandon Burton
Yeah. I I would totally agree. It kind of goes that abundance or scarcity type of mindset and just that's right. Go about it abundance and just create that abundance in your community and and it all works out. Michael, I've I've enjoyed having you back on Chamber Chat Podcast. I'd love for you to be able to put some contact information out there for anyone listening to take your advice to to reach out and connect and expand their network.
40:19.138 Michael Huber
That's right.
40:32.888 Michael Huber
So Huber, H U B E R at indychamber.com. And Brandon, what I haven't told you. Okay. So you and a few others have inspired me. So I'm on episode 21 of my new podcast, Michael Loves Indy. I'm not, I'm not, you know, real it's I do it evenings and weekends so that I can talk to whoever I want to talk to. So it's not a it's not a program of the chamber. It's purely a personal project. I I would hate I would hate to develop a queue of like board members who wanted to be interviewed. So I talked to Musicians, I talk to community leaders, and you know, you and a few other people have really inspired me. So I'm on episode twenty one. You can find Michael Loves Indy on, you know, any podcast platform that you use. So but feel free to to to reach out to me directly at my email if you'd like to.
41:17.002 Brandon Burton
Awesome. I will I'll get your email in the show notes, but I'll I'll link Michael Loves Indy in in the show notes as well. That'd be awesome. I'm gonna check that out and all right and listen to the podcast. You've got the gear, like I said, we're seeing here on Zoom. And I mean he sounds great. He's got all the the podcasting gear. So I'm sure it's a great podcast. I'm excited to check it out.
41:37.742 Michael Huber
Thanks. Yeah. I it's it's been it's been a fun project. And Brandon, I if I don't tell you this enough again, you know, as someone who's been a listener of Chamber Chat for over a year, I appreciate it's it's a it's a great public service that you provide. It's a great connecting function that the that the show serves. And congratulations on the success of the show.
41:57.176 Brandon Burton
Thank you so much. I appreciate that. It's been a pleasure having you on here and and wish you and the Indy Chamber best of luck with Chamber of the Year.
42:04.782 Michael Huber
Thanks so much. Cross our fingers.
42:07.766 Brandon Burton
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42:43.384 Brandon Burton
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