Community Building with Karen Riordan

Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Karen Riordan. 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.

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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.

And now your host she believes imagination brings the future into the present, he’s my dad, Brandon Burton.

Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.

Our title sponsor is Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions. Let’s hear from Kris Johnson, President and CEO of the Association of Washington Business in Washington State to learn how Holman Brothers has provided value for him. 

Kris Johnson  0:48  

Well, Doug and Bill at the Holman Brothers have been a key ally in growth for my professional career working at three different chambers, a local chamber, a regional chamber, now a statewide chamber. And they’ve been the ideal solution, whether it’s a comprehensive training program, whether it’s working on individual sales growth, quarterly check-ins with the team, the ability to grow members has meaning more assets for the organization, more assets means we can do more things to serve our members. They’ve really been the perfect solution for us, a trusted resource partner and a growth partner for us all along the way. So hats off to Doug and Bill for their great success. They’ll be a great partner for you as they are for us.

Brandon Burton  1:29  

You can learn more about Holman Brothers Membership Sales Solutions by visiting holmanbros.com.

Guest Introduction

Our guest for this episode is Karen Riordan. Karen serves as the President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber in South Carolina, where she spends her time working with the business community and driving tourism. Karen brings 30 plus years of marketing and business management experience working as CEO for the greater Williamsburg chamber and Tourism Alliance, as well as at top marketing firms in Washington, DC and Boston. Over the course of her career, Karen has led marketing programs for leading brands and tourism including visit Williamsburg, the hub the Bahamas, Ministry of Tourism, Royal Caribbean International Amtrak Choice Hotels, international and Celebrity Cruises. Karen graduated from Boston College with a BA in speech communications and English. She was recognized in March 2021 is the first female president and CEO of the chamber at the city of Myrtle Beach’s celebration of Women’s History Month. In 2018, she was named chamber Executive of the Year by the Virginia association of Chamber of Commerce executives. She is the 2013 recipient of the American advertising Federation Silver Medal Award for service to the community and a 2012 honoree of the Washington Business Journal’s women who mean business when not working on branding Karen’s passions include traveling animal welfare, walking the beach, and all things made of chocolate. I think we could be best friends. No. I’m glad to have you with me today. Karen here on chamber tap podcast. I’d love for you to say hello to all the chamber champions and you hear something interesting?

Karen Riordan 3:18
Yeah. Hello to everyone and chamber world Chamber Champions. As you just heard, I do have a few core passions. I need to do all that walking on the beach to break even with all the chocolate that I eat. So that that other obsession right now and I feel like I absolutely have the dream job because it’s such a great honor to work in a tourism destination doing community work via the chamber. When I’ve had such a personal passion for travel my whole life. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve always wanted to see the country and see the world and I’ve been very fortunate to take my grandmother’s sage advice when I was young and tried to do that every chance I get so to again get to do this for a living his dream. So I feel very very fortunate to be able to promote beautiful Myrtle Beach South Carolina and get paid to do that.

Brandon Burton 4:16
That’s right it it is beautiful. I love Myrtle Beach. It’s an awesome place. Share with us a little bit about the Myrtle Beach chamber and its size, the staff budget kind of scope of work just to set the table for our discussion. Yeah, so

About the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber

Karen Riordan 4:30
the reason we have area in our name is Myrtle Beach area is that we are considered a Regional Chamber we actually have a pretty large trading area all the way from the northern part of our state that need is just a setting there underneath the North Carolina border up in Little River all the way down to beautiful Pawleys Island and then the entire west of the waterway as we like to call it which is Conway into Loris and Aner which encompasses Our entire county or county, so it’s a large trading area, we have about 2300 businesses, the 78% of the businesses that are part of our chamber are small business with 50 or less employees. So people think of Myrtle Beach and they think of tourism and they think of big companies. And yes, we do have some of those big companies as our members. But they said most of them are small. And a lot of them really are mom and pop. We have a lot of independent companies. Here in Myrtle Beach, it’s kind of part of our DNA. To serve those 2300 members, we’ve got 39 full time employees. And then we have five part time employees that work in our visitor centers. So we have a visitor center out at our airport, we have another visitor center located at our chamber. And then we have a mobile Visitor Center, which is a really awesome van that travels around the whole trading area, especially during event season popping in and giving away great Myrtle Beach swag to tourists and residents alike. So it’s a, it’s again, it’s a big chamber, it is a hybrid, in that we are both at Chamber of Commerce, and we’re also the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. So with that we have a huge responsibility to spend the public money that we do receive from our state and our county and our city’s well to you know, bring folks here to come and visit. So our total budget is about $65 million this year. So we do have a large budget to work with, which is a blessing.

Brandon Burton 6:34
Yeah, that is uh, I had no idea your chamber was so large 35 full time or 39 full time employees in the five part time in the the mobile visitor center. That is that’s creative. That’s something I haven’t seen before. Very productive, I’m sure to getting out to these different events currently. So we’ll be focusing our our topic for discussion today around one of those topics that really is core, I believe, for chambers of commerce, which is around community building. And that’s really how chambers got their start and kind of the reason why chambers exists throughout the country and really throughout the world. But I’m excited to get in this discussion with you as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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All right, Karen, we are back. So as far as community building is concerned, how is the Myrtle Beach area Chamber approaching the task of community building?

Topic-Community Building

Karen Riordan 10:13
Great question. We’ve done a couple of different things in the last few years that actually began during the pandemic, or a little bit before. And even though it was more challenging to do community building, when we were quarantining, I really think that it makes a lot of sense that we continue to be as engaged as we possibly can with all of our stakeholders. So we actually have an official committee of our chamber, that’s called community engagement. And we have a several board members, that chair and vice chair that committee, and then we have lots of volunteers. So in addition to sort of a classic role as an ambassador that many chambers have, we have these additional volunteers that do have name tags that identify them as community engagement Council folks, and we go to neighborhood meetings. So we go to Hoa meetings, we go to city meetings and county meetings and civic meetings, and are constantly trying to engage with the business community, but also the residents. And that’s really, really important in our minds, because we do have a number of people now that have moved to Myrtle Beach in the last 10 years or so, that are retirees. Many of them are great captains of industry that have a lot to offer through programs like score and mentorship. But they’re not actively working in the business community anymore. So many of them are not Chamber members anymore. And we feel it’s really important to stay connected to them and have them be really educated and informed about what we’re doing at the chamber. And just things that are happening because Myrtle Beach is changing rapidly. And it’s hard to keep up with it if you don’t, you know, have sort of some constant communication. So the community engagement Council has been really important for us, as have our strategic efforts in diversity, equity inclusion, so we’re really looking to be able to reach out to more members of our community to make sure that our chamber board or chamber staff, our chamber membership really reflects the diversity that is here in the Myrtle Beach area. So those are those are two sort of things that I think most chambers would agree are important, and that they’re working on. Where we really kind of taken it beyond though, is to launch a new Chamber of Commerce Foundation. And we are calling that foundation partnership Grand Strand. One of the reasons we chose partnership, no surprise is because when we started doing feasibility interviews and community needs assessment interviews, the number one word that kept coming up in our interviews was, you know, we need to be better partners, we need to collaborate more, we need to make sure that, again, our governmental entities, like our city council’s and our County Council’s, even our state delegation, is really connected to the private sector and what the business community is thinking and feeling, as well as the resident community. So this has been a year and a half in the making. Or as they said, we started with a lot of research in serving and interviewing and focus groups, then we decided that we needed to do a feasibility study to see, you know, is this really something that the Chamber of Commerce should take on? Or is this better done, and led, say, for instance, by our economic development corporation here in the county, and overwhelmingly, we saw last fall when the results came in that people trusted the Chamber of Commerce. They believe that we had the right group of individuals here on our board in our membership to really make a go of it. So our board of directors voted in the fall of 2021, to proceed. And then we immediately started working on marketing materials and prospect lists and all those kinds of things and embarked on a quiet phase of a capital campaign to fund that foundation. We’ve just come out of the quiet phase and on a big public kickoff, with our goal of raising $3 million to fund five years worth of activity in the foundation. So very, very exciting. This is new territory for our chamber, we really leaned into what other chambers across the country have been doing in this area, and really did see that some of the most cutting edge and progressive chambers in our country, we’re really starting to move in this direction, to raise funds to do some of those projects that don’t ever seem to quite get done on our chamber repertoire because we’re so busy doing educational seminars and networking and legislative advocacy. And so we’re super super excited about this new chapter of community building.

Brandon Burton 15:04
Yeah. So I love I’m gonna take a step back just a little bit there. I love how you talked about involving the retirees in your community, a lot of people moving to Myrtle Beach as they retire. And for anyone who’s read on if you’ve read the book 13 ways to kill your community. And it was popular among chamber professionals. But one of those ways that communities and killed themselves is they ignore their seniors. And in the book, it talks about, you know, these seniors, they often have the time to volunteer, they they have an interest in the community they have experienced, they often will have money that they can help contribute to some of the causes and things you have going on. So I’d love to hear that. I mean, a lot of chambers are doing the D and I work, but to have that focus on the the retiree segment of the population, I think is huge. So I didn’t want to didn’t want to brush that over.

Karen Riordan 15:58
Yeah, no, I think that’s a great point. And the last thing I would add to that is that they both are very committed to the political process, and they do vote. And so they really do have the power to start to shape who are elected leaders are at the city level, the county level and the statewide level, which is really important. We want to make sure that folks that are you know, voting for different candidates, that those candidates are business friendly, that they are pro business, they, again, growth is a big issue in our area, just like it is in so many parts of our country, or a county has been named the second fastest growing county in the US. So with that growth comes a lot of opportunities, but also a lot of challenges. And so we do need to be all looking at ways to work together to make sure that the growth we have is manageable, and that our infrastructure can keep up with the growth that we’re experiencing right now. So yes, we absolutely ignore seniors at our peril, because they can also be such a force multiplier here. As you said, our local SCORE chapter, helping entrepreneurs start new businesses, you know, their whole mission is to recruit retirees that have run their own businesses, and teach that next generation of entrepreneurs, how to write a business plan, how to you know, how to set up how to get incorporated, how to hire folks. So I think we need to lean into the expertise that is in that community,

Brandon Burton 17:33
for sure. So I also wanted to touch on when you were talking about the foundation, and coming up with the name, partnership Grand Strand, you had done these surveys and got feedback and everything. And I can tell you have a marketing background because you use the language right that they were using in the surveys to help them resonate. So as you roll out the foundation, partnership, Grand Strand, you’re using their language, so resonates with them. And I think that’s a good lesson for chambers, you know, whatever programs or initiatives you’re trying to roll out, get feedback from people and use their language, when you go about launching it, whether it’s officially part of the name or just part of the material marketing.

Karen Riordan 18:14
You’re absolutely right, because that’s a way for them to to understand that they’ve been listened to that we’ve heard them. And that we also agree in this particular case, that partnership is a critical component. We, our community in years past has been accused of not being unified in sometimes not being able to progress the way we want to because, you know, one city squabbling with, you know, with a neighboring city, and we really are 14 communities along the coast. Many people who’ve never been here are shocked that we actually have 60 miles of coastline. And again, those 14 communities, which means I have 14 mayors to get to know and 14 city councils to attend and so forth, in addition to a county council, so it is a lot of work. But putting the time into building those relationships and understanding where they’re coming from and what they’re looking to do, and then trying to convene. I’m just a huge believer that a critical role in Chamber Leadership is to be a convener, to be able to bring different people together who may not agree on much, but try to find common ground on something. Sometimes we start with just the love of the beach, right? We all live here at the beach, we love the beach. We may disagree on taxes, or we may agree, disagree on this bill or this program, but we can start there with our love for the beach, and then try to move on and find some more common ground.

Brandon Burton 19:37
You’re making the other 90% of the country that doesn’t live at the beach, very jealous, right.

Karen Riordan 19:45
It is a perfect place to live and work.

Brandon Burton 19:48
So the thought that came to me is we focus our discussion on community building. You know, you could argue we’re much more of a global community now the internet is kind of taken down A lot of those barriers that we had and communities of the past, we’re not divided so much, you know, by geography or anything like that. So why is it important for a chamber of commerce still to focus on building strong communities?

Karen Riordan 20:16
Again, I think it’s just so critical, I happen to also believe that, you know, all politics is local. And again, we can’t really be getting the kinds of things done in Washington, DC, or at our state houses, if we’re not first and foremost, paying attention to what the folks on the ground in our local communities care about. And so it’s just again, building from the inside out, I have that same philosophy when it comes to enacting any kind of program, I want to do it first, internally, like Dee and I, I want to make sure that our staff is all bought in that we’re all rowing in the rowboat in the same direction. And then of course, have our board of directors be aligned, and then it just makes the job so much easier to go out into the local community. And again, find those points where people are in agreement and work, you know, from that position of strength, instead of, I believe, too often people are focusing on what sets us apart, or what makes us different, or what we don’t agree on. And that’s a very, very short conversation. And, you know, once those happen, it’s very hard to move forward and get any progress. So I just think, again, doing that work, it’s not maybe glamorous, but it is really, really important to also be be in touch with the community. So part of my style here as CEO, is to walk the halls a lot in the building, but also be walking in the community. Today, we did an Artwalk. And we were downtown, seeing all the murals and the public art that’s out there. And talking about that, and using that for additional social media content that we’ll share out with the local community. So if the residents don’t know about a great new mural, they just went up on Ninth Ave. And, you know, part of our job is to make them aware of it and hopefully activate that and have them come down and check it out. So I just again, think working from the inside out, creating that alignment. Getting people on the same page is a big part of what chambers at their best are trying to do.

Brandon Burton 22:24
Absolutely. So I know you guys have a focus as you do your community building efforts and work. Take us through what those those four pillars are of your your area of work.

Karen Riordan 22:37
Yeah, well, not surprising. In the end, this won’t be unique. I’m sure there’s many communities and many chambers that are grappling with some of these, what gets unique is sort of the secret sauce of the the nuance of the community. But I mean, the first thing that we really saw here in our destination is that we have too many of our eggs in our tourism basket. And I can I can say that also running the DMO. And no, that may sound crazy for people to hear us say that. But right now we have 74% of our economy is somewhat tied to the tourism and hospitality industry. And we saw with a pandemic and also with Hurricane Florence, which we experienced in 2018. That we’re putting our economy at tremendous risk, having so many eggs in that tourism basket. And so we really believe that a first pillar in this community building effort is to use the strength of a chamber our chamber, to go out and try to help diversify the economy, we have target sectors that we want to go after. And we’re going to be talking to those micro businesses, we are not doing the economic development work that our authority does. That group is really going and you know, talking to site selectors and investors and bringing people into the Myrtle Beach area. Those tend to be you know, bigger projects that could bring in 200 or 300 jobs at a time, what we’re really talking about is going to talk to those amazing entrepreneurs maybe that are working out of their home right now. Because they can, they can do that remote work. But they aspire to be the next Google and they’ve got a business plan to do that. And they may only have two employees now. But in a year, they want to have five employees and five years from now they want to be 100 person, you know, technology company or whatever the the industry may be. So part of our job will be to really focus on working with those companies understanding what’s holding them back. Do they need better ordinances in town so that, you know business licenses are more affordable, or do they need resources to find space for their business to grow? Is it talent that is holding them back because they can’t find the right people for critical positions they need. So that’s the first pillar, of course, to diversify the economy I just mentioned we need talent. The whole A World Needs talent. Right now we’ve all talked about and read about, you know, not just the great resignation. But for us in our economy, too. We’re also seeing the great retirement, we’re seeing 55 year olds that, you know, bully for them have done amazing things in their, their career, and they’re ready to retire now, and they have the financial wherewithal to do that. And they decide to retire here in the Myrtle Beach area. Could we again, convince them to come and be a mentor to other entrepreneurs who want to start a business? Could we have the mentor talent that wants to move from middle management into senior management. So we’re going to get really, really creative on talent, working with the K through 12 system, but also our educational institutions, to grow the talent we need, but also, if necessary, recruit the talent outside of South Carolina to come here to the coast. So we can’t really accomplish everything that we want to do with our economy, if we don’t have those critical, you know, pipelines established in terms of talent, so, so that that’s another really, really big pillar for us.

Brandon Burton 26:09
Absolutely. And I know that’s a focus for a lot of chambers is growing and recruiting talent to their area. But I like the approach you again, tying in the seniors, the retirees, I’m thinking of a young entrepreneur in your area, how lucky are they to be able to have so many options for mentors in your community, and to be able to market that and show these people were successful, great careers, they’ve got their full of knowledge they can share with you. So I mean, for our whole discussion to focus on retirees, but there’s

Karen Riordan 26:46
a lot of it again, it’s using the assets we have, we do have a great four year institution here. You know, again, graduating wonderful people, but like so many other communities, we have brain drain, a lot of those folks think, well, I’ve got to go work in Atlanta, I’ve got to go work in Charlotte, I’ve got to go work in, you know, bright lights big city. And, you know, part of our job is to convince them that we do have great opportunities here for them to either work in an existing business and grow their career or start a business. And part of that too, and especially attracting that 20 Something group is we have to give them a great place to live if the quality of life is not here. If our downtown is not vibrant. If we don’t have new fun clubs and bars and restaurants and things for them to do, they are going to pass us by and choose, you know, other communities that they think are more vibrant. So we’ve been in a situation where we’ve really built to the west and to the north, in terms of entertainment complexes, sports complexes, things to do, and they’ve been really thriving for the last 10 years. But unfortunately, we’ve done that at the expense of our core downtown. And so it really has suffered from benign neglect, where so many businesses left that area and went to some of these other you know, quote unquote, cooler places in the Myrtle Beach area, like the market common or some of our other sectors. And so we really do need to work very hard to bring that downtown back, it is our front porch to the world. We do welcome close to 20 million visitors a year and they come downtown Myrtle Beach, they walk the boardwalk and we want to have the right assortment of shops and businesses and restaurants and retail there. So we are very fortunate that our city has just entered into a public private partnership with an entity that is called the Myrtle Beach downtown Alliance. And so the downtown Alliance, his job really is to completely revitalize downtown if that means new landscaping and lighting and, of course, economic development, attracting new investment there. So the Chamber’s job really is to get out of the way and not duplicate efforts there. But really once again, amplify and support what the downtown alliance is doing. A good example is last week, we had a new business that came decided to locate downtown. They have their corporate headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, we’re all excited to welcome them here. And we did a joint grand opening and ribbon cutting and mixer with the downtown Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce and we had over 100 people come see this space, you know, meet the partners of the new firm. And not only were we showcasing that firm and welcoming them to the community, but we’re also showcasing downtown and sending a message through our media outlets that downtown is coming back and look at look at this wave of this is you know the fifth new company that’s that’s come in since the end of last year. So it’s it’s creating some momentum and that’s again where The chamber’s knowledge of the community, our relationships with the businesses already in downtown. And our marketing ability allows us to tell some of those stories and really help the downtown, hopefully go further faster. With this redevelopment, we’re hoping it’s going to be really, really quite robust in the next three to five years.

Brandon Burton 30:21
Yeah. That sounds great. Is there anything that we’re missing as far as community building wise that that you want to make sure you share?

Karen Riordan 30:32
Well, yeah, the last pillar that’s connected to these three is infrastructure. So I’ll just talk about that briefly. You know, we can’t attract great people to come to our community, we can’t diversify the economy. And we can’t create a great place to live unless we have the right infrastructure. And specifically, we need transportation infrastructure, we need to be advocating for the roads that we have to be repaired to be widened to be improved. We are advocating for new interstate, that would come from the beach and go all the way up to the North Carolina border. And then on Interstate 7374, actually goes through six states, all the way to the Canada Border. So that’s a big, big project we’re working on. But again, we’ve got to have the roads, the bridges, the walkability and bikeability, that makes a good place a great place. And so that’s the last pillar of community building that we’re working on.

Brandon Burton 31:27
Yeah. And I think the way it is, is that road comes from North Carolina down into the South Carolina beaches right now, right off the off, it doesn’t go out and comes in, right.

Karen Riordan 31:40
From Rockingham, but it’s a critical highway, because we don’t have it now. And with evacuation, should we get another bad storm on the Carolina coast, which, unfortunately, is one downside of living in the Carolinas. You know, on any given day in July, we could have literally hundreds of 1000s of people that we need to evacuate both residents as well as visitors. And so having something like that to speed up the evacuation route would be much needed and appreciated.

Brandon Burton 32:12
Yeah, I was I was out there and South Carolina for Hurricane Floyd in, I guess it was 1989. And that’s a real thing need to be able to get out of town in a hurry. So

Karen Riordan 32:25
clearly, when a governor makes that, that announcement and says you’ve got you know, 48 hours to evacuate, you really need to do it. And the last thing people want to do is sit in a traffic jam for six hours. Especially with the price of gas right now. Right? You know, it’s just the whole thing is a little scary. And so we as a chamber are always advocating for people to leave the coast and get to safety, stay with friends and family and so forth inland. So that’s another important reason that we get the transportation infrastructure that we need.

Brandon Burton 32:56
Yeah, for sure. Well, what would be maybe one tip or action item that you could share with Chamber Champions listening that they could do to help take their chamber up to the next level?

Action Item/Tip for Chamber Champions

Karen Riordan 33:07
You know that that’s a great question, I would continue to say connect with the wider community. I know, we’ve touched on this already. And it does seem like an emerging theme, do not ignore your residents, particularly your seniors, but also your youth. Go out of your way to talk to people that are not members of your chamber right now. When I came into the chamber world, the best piece of advice I got from my mentor was that every business that you meet is a potential chamber member. So even if they’re not members today, if you treat them with kindness, and you show concern and interest in their business, chances are very good that as they get to know your chamber, and all the great things you’re doing for the community, they will want to be a part of that. So it’s like, you know, never met a stranger. It’s like, well, I’ve never met a non member right, at some point. Hopefully, they will, you know, they will join us. But that just being in the community like that hearing their issues is totally invaluable. If we understand what they need, what they’re looking for, we can be a better chamber. So I’m just very big on that and think that it can be hard to do because we’re all in our lane and our heads are down and we’re looking at the 50 things we’ve got to get done this week. And of course, we have to take care of our member investors. You know, they pay our dues, they pay our bills, but it is it’s kind of refreshing to lift your head up and and get to know some people that are not yet members and hear what their concerns are and also what their ideas are. They could have an amazing idea that we want to adopt. We just haven’t listened. So I think that’s really important right now.

Brandon Burton 34:52
Yeah, great tip. So I’d like asking everyone I have on the show as we look to the future of chambers of commerce how to use See the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Future of Chambers

Karen Riordan 35:02
You know, I think the chambers are more important than they’ve ever been. In my entire business life, I’ve always belonged to a chamber. But I have to say that particularly in the last two years, going through what we’ve all gone through with, with the pandemic, I believe our team, and I’ve heard this from so many other chambers here in South Carolina, we are more mission driven than ever before. Because when the business community is hurting, and they’re looking for information, and they’re concerned about whether their business is going to be viable, and all of these things really did happen in all of our communities, and 20 and 2021, you have a renewed sense of purpose to help because you realize, oh, my gosh, they’re turning to you at the chamber. And they do expect that if you don’t have the answer, you’re going to go call your congressman and get the answer or your get, you know, you’re going to find out about that bill, are you going to find out about why their PPP loan, you know, didn’t go through, and you know, and talk to folks in the banking community, whatever it may be, I mean, our phones rang off the hook during 2020 and 2021, with people saying Help, my business needs help. And I think as a result of that, we just feel such a strong sense of what we do matters, it really matters, it really helps a lot of businesses. And when we help a business community, we are lifting the tide for the entire community. So I think the future for chambers is very, very bright, as long as we stay very mission driven, and very focused and never forget, again, the businesses that we’re here to serve. So I feel very optimistic about that. Right.

Brandon Burton 36:42
I appreciate that, that response and that perspective, for sure. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information. So if there’s listeners out there who’d like to reach out and connect and learn more about your efforts of community building and things you’ve shared with us today, what would be the best way for him to reach out and connect with

Connect with Karen Riordan

Karen Riordan 37:02
You can reach out to me at Karen.Riordan@VisitMyrtleBeach.com. And that’s my my email address. You can also check out our chamber website, MyrtleBeachAreaChamber.com. But I always welcome talking to other colleagues and hearing their stories. And if I can offer a bit of advice or fill in more detail as to what we’re doing in community building. I’m happy to do that.

Brandon Burton 37:36
Awesome. I appreciate that. I’ll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com/episode171. But Karen, I appreciate you being with us today and sharing your examples and and perspective as to how you guys are going about community building and, and especially in those important segments that you touched on as well. So I think it provided a lot of value for our listeners. Thank you.

Karen Riordan 38:03
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate it.

Brandon Burton 38:07
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