Lessons Learned in 2021

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Introduction

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

Voiceover Talent 0:14
And now your host, he would love to see chambers get behind the idea of encouraging overall healthy living beyond these unprecedented pandemic times. Here’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Brandon Burton 0:25
Hello, Chamber Champions. 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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Topic

As we wrap up the year of 2021. I like to do this type of episode at the end of each year where I can I look back at the episodes that I’ve done throughout the year and take out some of the top lessons that I’ve learned and possibly some of the best lessons that can be learned and applied at chambers all over. So not to try to pick out the top 10 episodes by any means, but maybe some overall principles that stood out to me that are worth mentioning again. And in this episode, I decided to pick out the top 10 lessons that I’ve learned in 2021. And with that, I will also be referencing some of the past episodes that I’ve done in this last year. So if you missed any of them, you can always go back and check them out. But as usual, I’ll have all of the links to these past episodes. And anything mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com/episode 153. But with that kind of table being said, as far as what the format of this episode will be. I’m going to run down just really quickly what these top 10 lessons are, and then then we’ll get into them in more detail. So I have them numbered, but really it’s no particular order. But number

• 10 is how important partnerships and membership models are especially in this last year. And taking a look at those
• 9 is the importance of online communities.
• Number 8 is future proofing chambers and small businesses.
• Number 7 is the need to go for chambers to go from relevant to essential
• Number 6 more chambers are getting into podcasting. So we’ll talk more about that.
• Number 5 is the importance of strategic partnerships. You may have your own ideas, but again, I’ll dive in deeper with that.
• The number 4 is touching on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Number 3 is the international exposure. So this one is maybe more of a lesson that I’ve learned. But the the need of the show internationally. So I’ll dive more into that.
• Number 2, I wanted to highlight the horseshoes versus chess a little bit more. That’s Dave Atkinson’s book.
• And then the number 1 lesson is the need that I have to make some pivots.

So with that, we will we’ll get into this. More More detail more depth on these top 10 lessons that I’ve learned this year since we get back from our quick break.

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Lesson #10

All right, we are back. So as I teased before the break, I went through quickly the top 10 lessons that I’ve learned this past year. And number 10, was the importance of partnerships and membership models. So as we’re all aware, we’ve been getting through the hopefully, in most places some of the recovery from the COVID pandemic, trying to put some of the pieces back together and try to get our communities up and running again. And as I was doing several of these interviews early on in 2021, the idea of partnerships and mergers between chambers, or economic development, partnerships, and tourism, coming together with Chambers was a big theme to kind of consolidate budgets and resources, and to really leverage what your community has to offer and kind of bring it all into one package. And kind of along those same lines. So before I move on from that Matt Pivarnik was on for Episode 102, which he talked a lot about that with that merging and bringing together the different entities economic development, tourism and chamber all under one roof for that partnership. But along with that, I would say is membership models as well. So through the pandemic, and and even some before there. So there’s been attention given to membership models, but especially through the pandemic and trying to figure out, you know, the best way to serve members. And the best way to show value and, and all of that, being able to take a step back and look at the offerings that are being put out there with a membership model. Tiffany Esposito, she spoke to that in episode 104. So again, any of these episodes that I referenced, you can always find them at the kind of the format to it is chamberchatpodcast.com/episode and then the number so like that one would be episode 104 for Tiffany episode about membership models.

Lesson #9

The number nine lesson that I learned this year was the importance of online communities. And April Bragg joined me for episode 118, where she talked about their beginnings of a Facebook group called Robins regional, that kind of spawned out of the pandemic, and how that Facebook group really gained a lot of traction brought their community together, and really shown some exposure to what the chamber can do for the community. So for a lot of people in their community that didn’t necessarily know what the chamber was, this was an opportunity for the chamber to be that hub, that convener to bring people together, and kind of be that information base of knowledge. So I love that episode, and that the examples that she gave around building an online community, it’s not for everyone, but

I decided to try to kick off an online community of my own to try to make these episodes here on the podcast a little bit more interactive. So I recently launched the Chamber Chat Champions Facebook group, which I know a lot of you are a part of already. So thank you for joining that if you’re listening and you’re not a member of that, please look it up on Facebook again, that’s Chamber Chat Champion’s Facebook group. And the idea there is to be able to take these episodes that are put out each week and to be able to have a little more discussion in depth, sharing resources, ideas, tips from other chamber professionals that listen and that are part of this community. So check that out and join my community.

Lesson #8

The number eight lesson that I learned this year was about around future proofing chambers and small businesses. And this is a it’s been something that’s been on my mind for a lot of the year now is the idea of so many things going digital Online, as far as retail shopping goes, a lot of people don’t go out to Main Street anymore. They hop on to Amazon or whatever’s convenient for them from the convenience of their home or office. So as a chamber, Boyd Stough talked about in episode 121, about how a Chamber of Commerce is the best small business resource in there in your individual community. And the need to be able to to grasp on to the idea of that, and believe that, and I really do believe that for small businesses that are trying to hang on trying to plan for a future, that is a chamber of commerce, that you all of us, we have that responsibility to help these small businesses be successful. And chamber commerce is that great resource. That kind of piggybacking on Boyd styles episode was Jason Leslie in Episode 125. Jason is at the Alberta Chambers of Commerce in Canada. And he had talked about how with a program that they were working on with Boyd, to roll out a program for all of the chambers in the province of Alberta, to bring them online to have the same type of membership offerings, and certain membership offerings, but same type of expectation. So when somebody joins the chamber, they can know what to expect from it. But also, they’ve set up what’s called chamber market. So every chamber in the province of Alberta is online with chamber market now, it’s just recently rolled out. And it is a online retail store for any of their Chamber members of any of the chambers in the province of Alberta. And I know they’re rolling it out in other provinces as well. But this is definitely one of those ways that the chambers there in Alberta are really being an advocate to help future proof these small businesses and chambers for that matter going forward. So great job there.

Lesson #7

The number seven lesson learned is from Casey Steinbacher book From Relevant to Essential. And I had her on the show in Episode 106, where she talked about the book, and it’s a great episode to listen to. But if you haven’t read the book, go download it. It’s a Kindle version or a digital, I think it’s on other platforms too. But I read it on a Kindle. It’s pretty inexpensive. I don’t remember exactly what how much it was. But it I read it all in a day. So it’s a very easy read. But it really talking about future proofing chambers, it’s really making sure that chambers are around in the future going from just being relevant to being an essential staple in your community. And she talks a lot about becoming an influencer in your community. So it’s just a little bit of a teaser into into her book there. And if he listened to last week’s episode, Episode 152, I went into more detail about that book and shared some of the quotes that she had in the book that really impacted me.

Lesson #6

The number six lesson that I learned this year is that more chambers are getting into podcasting. And I know when the pandemic initially kicked off that I had a lot of chambers reaching out to me about wanting to start a podcast not knowing where to start. And it’s been fun over this last year is is some of those have gone online. And they’ve they have their show up and running now to be able to get some of that feedback from these chambers saying hey, I listened to you, like I was inspired by or whatever it may be. And even if it had nothing to do with me, or Chamber Chat Podcast, it’s the idea that chambers are grasping that medium for being able to share their message. And a couple of those that that stood out to me was Michael Huber in Episode 140. And he talked about the podcast that he spun off that’s not necessarily the podcasts for his chamber for the indie chamber, but it’s one that he does under his own on his own power, I guess you could say, but he does it in a way where he’s really highlighting the people of Andy and and the stories that need to be covered there. One of the other ones is B Kyle. And that was episode number 139. But that was a neat story about how she came up with the name. It’s BS Table Talk and and how she came up with the name of Table Talk. So you’ll have to go back and listen to that episode 139 If you’d like to hear that story, but also, I had last week’s episode was the chamber podcasting presentation that I did for the Nebraska chamber executives. And that was really spawned because Justice Rhoden, she, she does a podcast at her chamber. She’s a listener of of Chamber Chat. And she had reached out to me and she’s obviously sees the value of podcasting at her chamber and wanted to help other chambers really get on board and see catch the vision of podcasting. So that’s episode 152. If you wanted to listen to that one.

Lesson #5

The number five lesson that I learned this year is the importance of strategic strategic partnerships. And I don’t have a specific episode to reference for this one, I will mention that this theme came up a lot as I did the chamber, the year finalist series this year, which if you were to go back, and look, that would be episodes 129 through Episode 142, I believe. So if you wanted to go check out some of the things that are talked about around strategic partnerships in more detail. But the couple of things that stood out to me was how some of these chamber the year finalists, they all had to highlight their response to COVID to the pandemic and how they stepped up for their business community. And several of them had partnered with local banks, or small business development associations to be able to offer loans actually loans through the chamber. Because they had these strategic partnerships in place. So there’s definitely a lot to be learned there. Not that you need to always be available to offer loans or anything like that. But to be able to know some of these things are available. So the next time there is a big need like that, that you can be quick to pivot and take action. So those are definitely worth taking a listen to.

Lesson #4

The number four lesson that I learned this year is something that a lot of us have been learning about this year. And that is around the idea of diversity, equity and inclusion. And I think a lot of our eyes have been opened to some of the things that have been ignored for a long time or under appreciated. And just recently in Episode 151 Leonardo McClarty came on and on the podcast and he talked about adding a little twist to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conversation. And he’s talking more specifically about you know, reaching beyond just race and gender but you know, to look at veterans or women owned businesses and things like that, to be able to look around your chamber events, your luncheons, your gatherings and really ask yourself who it is that’s missing, and how you can reach out to their, their group their if as a chamber, you’re supposed to represent the voice of business in your community, what businesses are not being represented, and see what you can do to reach out and include them. And I’m grouping this other episode under the same umbrella of diversity, equity and inclusion. And that’s episode 109 with Matt Morrow, and he talked about the lessons he learned from the book, The Wisdom of Crowds, and how as a group, a diverse group of people together are way more intelligent than in any one individual. And I think the more diversity we can bring into our groups, or whether it’s a board or a committee, at your, at your organization, being able to have diversity, and that is going to make the outcome that much wiser, that much smarter.

Lesson #3

The number three lesson that I learned this year is the need of you international exposure, specifically for chamber chat podcast. And I’ll have to admit, when I first started the podcast, that I was doing it with the small chamber in mind, you know, the Chamber who doesn’t have a huge budget, who maybe is not a member of ACCE or even their state, or regional associations, to be able to provide a way to share Best Practices and resources to help them be more successful to better serve their members and community, as I say at the beginning of each episode, and I’ll have to admit that my focus was largely on these smaller Chambers in the United States. I figured there’s a lot of Chambers in the US and I have no shortage really of, of opportunity there to present to these smaller Chambers. Well, that quickly grew to chambers of all sizes in the States. It grew to where I’ve had a couple of Canadian interviews on the podcast, I had Adam leg in Episode 123. He was the former president CEO at the Calgary chamber. They had Jason Leslie on who’s at the Alberta chamber and Episode 125, as I mentioned before, but I had a great introduction with a man named Houssem Touil, he’s at the Tunisia Estonia Chamber. I had who saw him on the podcast in Episode 120, because he just recently put together a global chamber index, where he took a look at it, he invited Chambers from all over the world to participate. And really to find out what the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic has meant to them, have they gained members lost members revenue, the whole nine yards, went in depth in the survey, and produced a really good report that really showed all the results from that survey, and made sense of it. And having that introduction with Houssem has opened up the doors for Chamber Chat Podcast is he is introduced me to others and the international scale introduced me to someone at the International Chamber of Commerce. And in fact, on episode 145 I had some representatives from the International Chamber on the podcast to talk about the World Chambers Congress that was going to be happening in Dubai over Thanksgiving break. So hopefully some of you are able to log in, at least virtually I know, a couple of you may have went even when in person there. But that has really opened the door to chamber chat podcasts on an international level, which is way beyond my wildest dreams when I started this, to think that within three years of starting the podcast that I’d have a an international audience as well. I know that’s not super relatable to you at your Chamber. But that is a lesson that I learned this year. So I thought I would share that.

Lesson #2

The number two lesson that I learned and really there was a lot of lessons in this one. But it was out of the out of Dave Atkinson’s book, Horseshoes vs Chess. And I’m going to do a shameless plug for his book. It is the the most well written book that I’ve that I’ve read at least, that explains the purpose of a chamber of commerce, what a chamber should be doing, what a chamber executive should be doing. I think we all have acquaintances and friends and maybe even family members who are not in they’re not involved with chamber work at all. And they know that you work at a chamber of commerce, but they’ll inevitably ask, so what is the chamber and I know oftentimes, I’ll see people kind of stumble and not really know how to respond to that. But Dave Atkinson’s book horses versus chess really does paint that picture in a beautiful way. Where he compares he shares the the analogy that was shared with him when he first got into the industry, about how some will like in chamber work to game horseshoes, where you all you have to do is show up and throw the horseshoe kind of close to the target and you get a point. And compared that or contrast horseshoes, rather to the game of chess, where you have to as a chamber professional as a chamber executive specifically, you need to know the different pieces you need to know what they’re capable of, and what kind of moves they can make any likens the chess pieces to being economic development and education and tourism and all the different aspects that a chamber can have influence in in your community, and realizing that you can’t move all of those pieces at the same time and they don’t all do the same thing. But being able to learn how to control the pieces and the board to better move your community forward to win the game ultimately. So I highly recommend everyone get your hands on that book, Horseshoes vs Chess if you haven’t already.

Lesson #1

And then Finally, the number one lesson that I learned this year is that it’s time for me to make some pivots and some adjustments to, I guess the offerings that I put out there. So this is coming up on my third year anniversary of doing Chamber Chat Podcast. And it’s a blast, I enjoy it I, I really love interviewing people for the show, and getting to expand my network, getting to know Chamber professionals across the country and globally now, as I mentioned.

But I’ve had an idea that’s been presented to me, I’ve been able to percolate it on it some time, and decided that it’s something that I need to act on. So I’m still going to be doing Chamber Chat Podcast, very similar to how I’ve been doing it. But I’m also early 2022, I plan on releasing a brand new podcast, and I don’t have the name yet to put out there. But it is something that is going to be relatable, something that you’ll be able to use as a resource for your membership. And something that fits in line with the the mission of Chamber Chat Podcast, to better help your serve your members and your community. So please stay tuned for that I will make more of an announcement as a get some of the things ironed out some of those details. But I’m excited to have a new podcast offering. And I’ve got some other things in the works as well as far as new offerings to put out there to better help you serve your members in your community. But I’m also open to some suggestions. So if there’s something that you would like to see from me a way that I can better serve you. Please reach out to me my email address is brandon@chamberchatpodcast.com. And I would love any feedback and ways that I can better serve you. So with that, I wish you all a great New Year, bright futures for 2022. And I hope that you’re able to kind of take inventory of some lessons that you’ve learned this last year, and be able to to move forward in a bright future a good direction for 2022. So thank you for listening, and I look forward to chatting with you again next week.

Brandon Burton 30:28
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