Changing Chamber Jobs and Other Risky Moves with Robert Goltz

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

Introduction

Brandon Burton 0:00
This is the chamber chat podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community. And now your host he enjoys spending time with good friends. He’s my dad Brandon Burton. Hello chamber champions. Welcome to chamber chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your chamber members, and your community.

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Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Robert Goltz, who’s the executive vice president at the Key West Chamber of Commerce in Florida. For the past 21 years, Robert has proven to be an energetic force in the chamber of commerce and nonprofit industries, approaching challenges with transformative thinking, candidly delivering solutions and a big dose of humor that puts all of it into perspective. This style has served the organizations he’s led as a senior executive well with the accomplishments that range from increasing active membership counts by over 100% to obtaining four star accreditation by the US Chamber of Commerce and stabilizing organization finances into the black, creating a cash flow positive status. gratifying as these nuts and bolts accomplishments are. Robert has always focused on the bigger picture, bringing people together to create thriving communities of involvement and inclusion. He believes that when chambers approach the ever changing business landscape with forward thinking measures and smart risk taking, they advanced the entire industry focused on being a force for good within the Chamber of Commerce community. Robert is a fun and engaging public speaker that uses his contagious enthusiasm to not only inform but to create connections that are beneficial to all. He is so driven about being a part of this growth that he likens his work to a marriage saying I then get quote, I’ve been on the longest honeymoon and it’s been with my career close quote. Robert holds a BA from Central Michigan University and is a graduate from the Chamber of Commerce Institute of organizational management, and has continued to expand his knowledge with various industry relevant certifications that include becoming a disk certified trainer. He is currently the executive vice president of the greater keywest Chamber of Commerce. Should you ever stop by for a friendly Hello, you’ll be intrigued by the display of tasteful and artistic skulls displayed in his office. When not working Robert enjoys visiting other chambers. That may seem like just more work, but when you love your job the way he does, you never work a day in your life. He brings a big sense of humor and larger than life personality with him wherever he goes. And along with his wife, Melissa enjoys watching their two daughters Lily and Jessica grow with a bit of mischievious nature. He enjoys rocking the boat in life and on whitewater rafting vacations. Robert thank you for joining me today here on chamber tap podcast if you will take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions that are out there listening and share something interesting about yourself that we might not have learned about you and your bio.

Something Interesting About Robert

Robert Goltz 4:04
Yeah, thank you, Brandon for having me on today. You know, I know a lot of my colleagues are out there and they are sometimes sometimes very amused by what I bring to the table, what I do and how I do it. So it’s exciting always to speak it’s always exciting to share and be able to get more information from a great providers like this podcast of information to help our industry and I want to thank you on behalf of the industry for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be able to do these podcasts for us as we go on. Something that we didn’t mention a bio we you know, we mentioned so much I’ve got a look at that bio. It’s very long. Um, you know, I guess the biggest thing is, is that I just want to have fun, and some people in the industry over the years have called me, the chamber guy and I’ve kind of embraced that before. It was That chamber guy, I think it was derogatory. But I’ve kind of embraced that I’ve got my own logo with it and kind of excited about it. Because I do things a little bit different at times than others in the industry. And I’m proud of that. And, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to share that information.

Brandon Burton 5:18
That’s right. It is a good transition to go from that chamber guy to the chamber guy that that means you’re you’re making some some statements there.

Robert Goltz 5:28
Yeah, I’m hoping one day, I’ll get to the right now, just that that

About the Key West Chamber

Brandon Burton 5:32
that. Well, to share with us a little bit about your chamber, just so we can get some idea on perspective that you’re bringing to this conversation kind of size and budget and so forth. Yes. So

Robert Goltz 5:44
we are located in beautiful Key West Florida, the southern most chamber of the United States, I have been here only six months, I just moved down here during COVID. We have just over 500 members serving the community we work in not only as a chamber, but also in the do work in the tourism industry, welcoming, welcoming visitors to our area. With a budget of about a half a million dollars.

Brandon Burton 6:15
I can imagine the tourism side is is busy there in the Key West area, at least in traditional times. And being in Florida, maybe hopefully it is picked up again. Yeah,

Robert Goltz 6:25
even today, we are busy seeing visitors come and enjoy our beautiful community. So it’s been a pleasure since I’ve been down here in that aspect that we have been very lucky and blessed in the aspect of having people come down here to the southern Caribbean island of the United States.

Brandon Burton 6:46
Yeah, that’s awesome. So our topic for discussion today is going to be focused around and you just mentioned if you’ve been in your new role there in the US Chamber for six months. So you’ve you’ve had a few different chamber jobs throughout your career. So we’ll focus our conversation today around changing chamber, chamber jobs, and some other risky moves. I understand you’re one in the industry who doesn’t only rock the boat on the whitewater, but you’d like to rock the boat a little bit in life as well.

Robert Goltz 7:20
So true. So yes, you know, I’ve been This is my fourth main chamber that I’ve worked for over the last 20 to 23 years. And even with that I have done consulting and assisting in about three or four other chambers in that process. And one thing you know, in our chamber industry, Brandon, you’ve heard this said to our members, when you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. And I will also say that is very true for chamber execs, when they look at different chambers and go to different chambers. They are very different in their shape, their format, how they operate. Each one in each community I’ve gone to has been a new endeavor, with me having to put on new, a new view of how a board of directors works and operates.

Brandon Burton 8:12
Very good. But I’m excited to get into this discussion with you. And we’re going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsor and we’ll be right back.

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Topic-Changing Chamber Jobs and Other Risky Moves

All right, Robert, we are back. And as we we teased a little bit before this break. We’ll be talking a bit about your chamber job. So you’ve your with your fourth chamber about 23 years, as you just mentioned and consulting with the several others along the way as well. Talk to us a little bit about some of those differences that you see from one chamber to the next and how can it chamber professionals, specifically, maybe an executive kind of prepare for some of those moves.

Robert Goltz 10:05
You know, I think in the preparation is probably the first place I’d like to start. And that’s conversation because I think preparation and changing chamber jobs is essential, especially now during COVID. And everything going on, you know, there’s been articles out there about how the chamber industry is losing a lot of its key players, people that have been in the industry for years, or going to the private sector, or deciding finally to retire. And there’s a lot of opportunities out there in our in our industry today, find the next job that you’re really looking for. But a lot of that really comes down to how you look at yourself, and really analyzing yourself first, what types of personality do you bring to the table? What skill set, and what are you willing to do or not do for, for the next organization you work for. And I think those are really the first major steps one has to take because again, for many of us, it’s about uprooting our family. And making sure that we understand that communities are different, the job just doesn’t, you know, there are some core things that we all bring, and have learned through the institute program, ACC or state conventions and stuff like that, that are very transferable. But sometimes when you’re looking at communities, it’s best about knowing yourself, so you know, you’re a good fit for that community that you’re going into. Otherwise, I’ve seen over the past three to five years. A good, a good, I would say 10% of the people that I’ve seen switch jobs, and losing their jobs or crashing and burning at those chambers that they’ve gone to now not any fault of their own. But mostly the fault that they were not the right match for that chamber. And so that’s that’s the hard thing to look at. Sometimes, when you see these great opportunities that you believe are out there, and you don’t, one know yourself. And two, you don’t know the community and the board, you’re going to go work for.

Brandon Burton 12:19
Absolutely, and I know I mean, these boards do the hiring, they do a lot of due diligence to make sure they’ve got the right person. And as a potential candidate, hopefully you’re doing that due diligence on your end to make sure you’re going to be a good fit for that community.

Robert Goltz 12:34
And I’ve had that situation where I have gone in I have taken over the executive position at a chamber of commerce. And three months into it after that first 90 days, I’m automatically going to my chair person, and I told them, I think you hired the wrong person. There’s things that you said you wanted, but really you were not ready for. And that’s something that we have to look at, when we’re going into that that next job. Because I’ve gone to Assam chambers, I’m not going to mention anything specifically, but some chambers that have hired me, and has said, I want you to be to do the successes that you’ve done in the past, we’re going to give you an hand over the keys to this organization to climb a mountain. And when you start doing it, all of a sudden you do things as you’ve done in the past, and you get your hand slapped the first time. And then the next time and after each time they go, Oh no, we want you to make change. And you’re like going every time I’m making a change or doing things that I’ve done that were successful before. It doesn’t fit this community, right.

Brandon Burton 13:48
Yeah, I need a condition to pull back. Yeah,

Robert Goltz 13:52
exactly. You start holding back. And sometimes it’s about educating. And sometimes it is that that community wasn’t the right community for you. And I’ve seen I have a good friend who just switched over, ended up taking a job. I thought it was going to be the ideal job, great pay, great. Community went into COVID hit as he as he started, he worked hard. Got them through most of COVID. You know, and just as things started getting back to normal, the board said, You know what, I don’t think you fit here. Wow. Oh my gosh, now I got to find another job. And you don’t really want to be in that situation. You really want to know who you’re going to work with and for ahead of time, and really do a little bit more of a deeper dive of, hey, it’s just another job. We as chamber execs are not transferable. like normal people in a community. Yeah, if I was working in the hospital, hospitality industry, could I move back and forth to different jobs. Absolutely. But you got to, folks, we have to remember, we are one special person, typically in a community, we’re the only one that holds that job in our city or county, usually. That’s right. So we have to, we have to bring our skills and know our skills, because it is definitely a different game to go out there.

Brandon Burton 15:20
So you’d mentioned that the opportunities that are out there, and I see you know, quite often, especially in the last year or so, you know, chamber folks that are leaving the industry that like you mentioned, private sector or retiring. And whenever I see that a little part of me hurts a little bit to see good people leave the chamber industry and then a little part of me, you know, when they’re retiring, and they’re they’ve served a great career, I think good for you job well done. But the the opportunities are there. And I wanted to maybe have you touch a little bit more you talked about when you’re looking at a new community for a possible move, to consider what you’re willing to do. I think that’s there’s probably a lot packed into that if you can kind of dive into that a little bit more, you know,

Robert Goltz 16:07
for each for each person, it’s a little different. I’ve gone to some of the chambers that I’ve worked for, I have a set plan of action of work that I do in my first 90 days, but are you willing to give up some of your family life, you know, and for me to move to another chamber, I tell my family right off the bat, 90 days, you may not see me, children wife, you may not see me in those 90 days, I go into a deep dive when I come into the community, I want to know people I want to be involved, I want to go places, and watch so I can see if I where I need to go and who are the movers and shakers in that community. I don’t trust board members to do that for me.

Brandon Burton 16:53
So especially when you’re brand new there,

Robert Goltz 16:56
especially when I’m brand new, you just don’t know. And then especially if you’re moving right now during COVID know, in some communities, no one wants to go out and see and meet someone. They’re doing everything via zoom, and online. And so there is no personal connection there for for some of that interaction that you need to know your community. So that is one of the biggest points for me is, you know, What, are you good? Are you willing to give up time with your family? Because people want your time at that beginning portion? The other aspect is, where do they sit financially? Are you an individual like me, now I like going in to an organization that’s broken, or has a mass of potential. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for when I’m in my when I’m going through an interview. The words I like to hear and this works for me is we want change, we want to take it to go to the next level, we want to be accredited things of that nature, when people start talking about those things, or talking about, hey, we need to get out of out of our financial red tape to be in the black and grow. Those are the things I strive for. I know what what kinds of chambers I’m looking for. And so that makes a big difference. I don’t want to go to a chamber that’s already well established. And doing and the board is saying, Hey, we just want to keep on going. That’s not me. In fact, when I when I go through the interview process, they asked me typically always tell us a little bit about your personality. And I go well here, I’m going to send you my disc profile first. And I’m very high off the chart D. And by the way, I’m a bull in the china shop, if you don’t want people calling and giving controvert verschil viewpoints of me, I’m not the guy you want to hire because someone’s going to complain about me, it’s gonna happen quick. It’s not gonna it’s not gonna wait for a long time, it’s gonna happen quick. And you just need to be ready for that. And I am going to tell you exactly how I think of things. And give you my honest opinion, whether you like it or not, I work for you. At the end of the day, when you make a vote, I’m going to follow what your vote is. But I’m going to be honest with you ahead of time to say, you know what, that I don’t think that’s in the best interest of the organization. And sometimes we don’t want to do that, as executives, we want to, you know, be that employee. You’re not an employee in my in my world, as the chief executive officer of a chamber of commerce, you are the person who needs to stand and make decisions and be able to stand behind those decisions that you and your board make. And so, you know, you’re the one who has the target.

Brandon Burton 19:57
Absolutely. So I know sometimes is you whether you’re just trying to climb up the the transitional ladder within the same organization or looking to switch organizations, it can be pretty vulnerable. And some would say risky to kind of put your cards on the table and say, here’s what I want to do. And there’s a time and a place and an order for doing that. Would you mind just kind of addressing that and kind of when the right time is and how to go about initiating that change.

Robert Goltz 20:28
So I would say, and I’ll use my last chamber, Miramar Pembroke Pines as a pure example for this one, when I went there, they were going, this community was changing, growing, the chamber was starting to grow also. And we were looking at certain things. And over the last probably, let’s say, eight to 10 years, our industry has really, I believe, our industry is changing. Again, it’s kind of swinging back to an advocacy model being a little bit more into that government affairs aspect. And so as I see things, I bring him up in my board meeting, so it was probably two years in maybe three years. And at Miramar, I brought up that we needed to have a path. And you would have thought that again. What are you talking about Robert? And I said, This is what we need to do. And I think our largest corporations were telling me, why would they join the chamber when I get all the benefits that you have through our corporate structure? Yeah. You know, what are you doing for me? Well, we they, and they were very honest, we’re looking for somebody to fight for us. So in our community and the local, state and federal level, can you be that guy? Yeah. And your organization be an organization that has our voice? And so I said, Sure we can. So I brought it up to the board. And I originally it was so funny, we had the meeting, I couldn’t visualize it. The retreat right now. People stopped today, the board member asked me the question, I told them the answer. And oh, no, we can’t do that. That’s going to ruffle feathers with our the cities that we serve. And next thing I know, they said, You know what, we understand what you’re saying. And you know, we’ll have an issues pack only. Okay, it’s gonna take me probably a year to figure out what we’re doing in that and getting our agenda ready and stuff like that. And so we started going into that process. When the process probably about six months in, we had a commissioner from one of our communities, not like the chamber, and start fighting against the chamber. And actually went on a war attack towards me. wanted me fire. And my board says, look at the metrics, and I’m a metrics person. Yeah, you know what you keep me because I’m bringing in more money. I’m bringing in more members, I’m taking you to different areas. I don’t care if you like my personality or not. I’m a business guy. And business is designed by metrics. And so if I’m bringing the metrics, that’s what I’m that’s my job to do. And in the process, they started fighting for me, but just before we launched the pack, they said, You know what? We have to add in that we’re going to endorse candidates, because we want good candidates that are pro business, see, and all the sudden, whole different door opened up. Yeah, we started endorsing candidates. Some candidates really enjoyed that. Others got a little bit leery. But again, you have to look what works for your community. There’s other communities that I’ve been in that I would have never thought about starting a packet. Yeah, just wasn’t needed for that community at that time. That’s what was a necessity from what the business community said. And from what we were experiencing. From the elected officials.

Brandon Burton 24:11
Yeah. In fact, the the previous episode on the podcast, I had Brad hits on and it was talking all about ag advocacy, and specifically getting pro business people elected. And that’s one of the best ways that you can fight for your business community is to have pro business candidates in office. And again, it all goes back to your community and some communities of work some communities, maybe not so much, but you got to be willing to take the risk. Exactly. And I

Robert Goltz 24:45
left I left when these come these conversations come up, because most of our chambers across the country only get a minimum membership from their city or county, right? They’re not flooding in dollars. What do you lose? We’re losing anything, folks. And so those are the things that you you have to look at. And the thing is, at the end of the day, what are we really? Are we? what’s considered that three p chamber parties pageants? Or are you looking at making a change in your community? Are you a three c chamber convener or catalyst? And champion of your community? Make up your mind which way you want to go? Yeah. And and what works? And for some teamster, chambers, it doesn’t always work. And again, each one of my chambers was very different. in that aspect,

Brandon Burton 25:36
yeah. So that’s a good example, setting up a pack could be very risky, you became the target, in many ways. Share with us, what are what are some of these other risks that you’ve taken in the chamber world?

Robert Goltz 25:51
So I look at the chambers of business. I mean, I’ve mentioned that already. So we’ve done a lot of things in the chamber industry that I just don’t agree with. And it’s, I don’t agree with, and you know what, for each one of your chambers, it’s different. Your personality is different than mine. So over the years, some of the things that I that I’ve been criticized for some of my chambers, I announced to our members, if a chamber member drops, I announced and I put it in the newsletter, that, hey, these businesses drop, please stop all chamber discounts to these individuals, and I will put them listed by name. Yeah, for some of you, you’re going oh, my gosh, it’s gonna hurt you. I will tell you that I’ve typically got a 10 to 15% return of members from that. And what do I owe on non members? They’re not paying my salary. Yep. I don’t know him anything, folks. And if they’re not going to be a customer, they’re not going to be a customer. I’m not bashing them that they’re a bad business. I’m just saying, the fact of the matter is, they’re not a chamber member, because this is what happens in our chambers. And what I found out, it takes usually three years for someone to realize that a business is no longer a chamber member. Yeah, that’s true. I’m doing business with you as a thinking that you’re a member all these years. And I made a decision that I was only going to do business with chamber members, because I’m loyal to the organization that builds the community. And then I find out that, Oh, my gosh, you haven’t been a member for years. So we have it my chambers. I have seen members watch for the who’s dropping, and it will go if I don’t send it out every month, they’ll go, I need to know. So I want to check before this. I had a board, two boards now, at two different chambers that made it a made it a mandatory aspect that they would only do business with chamber members. Why would they said on the board? It wasn’t a requirement. This is what you’re going to do. Unless we don’t have a business. It doesn’t. This is the way it is yeah. Membership group. And it wasn’t me that said that it was them in the boards that I worked with, with some of these ideas of giving back to the back to the organization and stepping it up a level in commitment to that organization have I’ve been very lucky to have much stronger boards that worked for the organization.

Brandon Burton 28:28
So with the membership, how did that translate as you started announcing drop numbers. Did you see less businesses dropping their membership? Did you see any any difference on retention?

Robert Goltz 28:39
We saw it We definitely saw a different difference on retention. Retention went up. No one wanted to have their name out there. I will tell you at first people were shocked. And I my one board would go I can’t believe you did this. I said watch what happens. We did a couple more months and then I said hey, this Oh, this person rejoined. Yeah. shamed him into coming back.

Brandon Burton 29:05
Yeah, absolutely. So

Robert Goltz 29:09
and you know what, this can’t comes back from when I started in the chamber industry. I had a great boss and often I’ll put a shout out there to Michelle Dougan. I was a membership salesperson, and she would go Robert, I want you to go out and collect membership plaques and scrape window sticker. And guess what? I’m gonna give you money for those that you get. Wow. And so on a Friday if it was a slow Friday afternoon and I needed a little extra cash in my pocket. who dropped her membership in the last two years that I’m going to be driving around by and I go and I go Hey, how’s it going scrape. Okay, got that one. Let me pull up. Can I have your plaque and we put notices on the plaque after that saying this. The plaque is the property of the chamber DataView, where we give it to you to show that you are a member, but when you drop your membership, we want our plaque back. Yeah. And and you know what, for some people, it’s more important that they have that plaque in their window or on their wall. And I had many people when I would go into grab their plaque, we would rejoin the chamber. Yeah, it was always it was always, I didn’t realize we dropped our membership. Right? Right. Okay, well, if you want, we can get you joined up right now. And I’m not gonna say happen every time. But 10 to 15%, maybe 20% of the time, that was what was going on? Yeah.

Brandon Burton 30:40
As you’re sharing this, it reminds me of a story. So my background is in chamber publishing. And I was working with the chamber and of this going around, you know, selling advertising on these publications. And there was a glass company who’d advertised with this for years, and, and I went in to renew their ad. And he’s like, yep, I’m always going to renew. And he tells me the story of the several years earlier, there was there’s a big truck manufacturer in this town. And the one of the executives at this trucking company, was a board member the chamber, and they sent out renewal notices, and this glass company, they were just really slow on sending in their, their renewal. And so this board member gave him a call and said, you know, we use your glass and all of our trucks, and I’d hate to have to look for a different vendor for a glass. He’s like, I forgot to do yeah, it’s in the mail today, you know, the same kind of thing. And it’s, uh, I know, some people will be uncomfortable doing that. But the reality of it is, I mean, there’s benefits to membership and, and, and things that the chamber does for members and discounts and connections and all sorts of stuff.

Robert Goltz 31:58
The thing that most people have to think about, if you were a private business, would you allow the things that happen at your chamber to occur? Would you give up, if you were running a restaurant, would you give free food to people every day, for 90 days, or a year, if they hadn’t paid for the meal ahead of time, you wouldn’t get crazy. But yet, we all provide services. And and, and I can’t say that all chambers provide services, because each one of us is very different. But if you’re good tell the chamber you’re providing information and in a wealth of opportunities to business on a regular basis. And that’s what they pay for. And it’s for what, two bucks, three bucks a day is that membership fee. And yet you’re feeding people on and on. And I’ve seen chambers where, you know, a year later, when I typically when I go into a chamber, it’s cleaning house, my they’ll say oh, we have 450 500 members, and I’ll go walking, I’ll go, you have members that haven’t paid for over a year. And it drops down to 300 or something like that. Yeah. And then we’re starting to do the cleanup. And the big thing is always he’s a major pillar in the community. Robert, we can’t drop that membership. He’s a major pillar in the community but hasn’t paid his dues in years. What does that say about the chamber? Yeah, it says that we call who to cower down to people power, we should be the power in our community, we should be able to have the credibility to stand behind what we do. And so I’m very big in that aspect.

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Brandon Burton 33:48
Absolutely. I think that is a great takeaway. Robert, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you what might be one tip or action item that another chamber champion out there could could hear from you and take to elevate their organization up to the next level?

Robert Goltz 34:04
You know, I think the the key is to have a great foundation. And so if you are a current in a current chamber position, not going anywhere, or you’re looking at a new chamber, look and see and do two things. There’s, I’m gonna give a shameless plug out there. There’s a gentleman out there that most of us know by the name of Bob Harris, and he has a book out there that is an association audit book. And it tells you step by step, what you should be looking for, for in your organization, the paperwork and everything of that nature. I go through that with every chamber, I walk into making sure that I have all the paperwork, legal paperwork, things set. Then he taught me one other piece that there’s some certain books I have to have in my arsenal to run a chamber properly. One is a board policy manual. An employee handbook, a style guide for the chamber. Most chambers don’t have that. And you’ll know who you are, if you start looking around, and you have five different fonts with your chamber name on it, yeah, those are the top three and a disaster book. And that disaster book tells me everything and keeps I keep that with my car at all times. It has our insurance papers and all of my important information, that if something were to happen to this building, or to my community, that I know how to be up and running within 24 hours, those are the things that I think are the main foundation for every chamber, you get that down, and then put your personality and let you let your personality shine. That’s the other thing that a board needs to look at when they’re hiring is what’s the personality of the chamber. That’s the type of person they should be hiring, because I will tell you, every chamber I’ve been to, the personality who’s at the head of the organization, will flood the rest of the organization with how they are. And they can change very quickly in two to three years from what it was to that because of who you are, and what you bring to the table. And you need to realize that and be able to let that board know, this is the movement we’re going into.

Future of Chambers

Brandon Burton 36:26
That’s right, get advice like it. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Robert Goltz 36:37
I think we’re already in the move on the advocacy issue that we already talked about. But I had, you know, a gentleman that I think has his thumb on on the game, Mark Wilson from the state, Florida chamber, state, Florida Chamber of Commerce, said at a convention just a couple of weeks ago, I think we’re going into the communication aspect. That we are that a chamber can be that voice of reason, and sharing information that’s factual, not opinionated, to our community, specifically, our business community. And I made a mention of that at the convention, and it’s something that I was already working on. But now I’m kind of looking going well, I need to really work on this. So that I’m not considered the News, the news media of the day. And then people will come and just say, Hey, give me the facts of what this reads like. Without your opinion, I can give you that if you want my opinion, I have an opinion. But these are the facts that are in legislation. These are the facts that we’re seeing in our research. These are the facts that make our community right now, as I say, keep it by facts, I think we’re going to that for me for this chamber, it’s going to be solid for us.

Brandon Burton 38:01
I like that, you know, the other day is somewhat related, I was watching a college football game, and during the commercials that it came up with a PSA for getting the vaccination, you know, the COVID shot. And I know chambers across the country have been big advocates for you know, wearing masks to keep businesses open, take the vaccine to keep businesses open all in the effort of keeping businesses open. And yet it still seems to be something that’s very controversial throughout the country. And I thought, you know, there’s a lot of money behind these PSAs. And, you know, pharmaceutical companies putting these out there, there’s money behind it. Nobody’s out there advocating for the sun, you know, and just saying, Have you gone for a 30 minute walk today and enjoyed some sunshine? Have you eaten something green today, you know, to improve your overall health and have better chances against COVID. So I think sharing information, sharing some facts is very important. And there’s some things that just totally get looked over because of where money is,

Robert Goltz 39:06
in COVID is a prime example. You know, for me, it’s about giving information, not telling my business community or the community at large that you have to wear a mask or not, that’s not my decision to make. I will tell you our facts, the facts say this. And, you know, we live in the United States and we have so many contradictions of information and and some people want to you know, some people for whatever reasons they have may not want to take vaccination, get the vaccination. What am I to tell them that they are right or wrong? You know what in these past 18 months, the story has shifted many times. All I know right now is that I am vaccinated and I feel a little bit better being vaccinated and sometimes I will mask sometimes I don’t Yeah, it depends on how I feel but I’m not gonna fight I’m not fighting with people and something that I think some of the world has lost right now is it sometimes we just have to be considerate of other people. So if I go to a place and I see everybody wearing a mask I throw on my mask now because I want to not because I have to, but because it makes everybody else in the room feel comfortable enough to be with me. Yeah. And so I’m trying to keep us together instead of splitting us apart everywhere.

Connect with Robert Goltz

Email: Robert@KeyWestChamber.com

Cell: 908-343-1717

Brandon Burton
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