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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.
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts 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. You’re joining us for a special episode as part of our 2023 ACCE Chamber the Year Finalist Series.
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Becki Womble 1:03
I’ve been using Community Matters for probably six or seven years now. And in a previous life, I sold commercial printing so I can highly recommend Community Matters because it’s a complete turnkey job for any busy chamber exec and it’s a wonderful, beautiful printed product whenever you’re finished. And I just I’m very sold on Community Matters. And with a printing background I just big endorsement from me.
Brandon Burton 1:44
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Our guest for this episode is Bryce Riggs. Bryce currently serves as the executive director of the Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce and Destination Seneca County, the county’s Visitors Bureau. Since taking this position in July 2020. Both organizations have received a breath of fresh air and a surge of energy. The chamber has significantly grown their membership by making it the highest membership it’s ever seen. Historically, the chamber is on its way to becoming one of the strongest in Ohio. While destination Seneca County has become the one stop shop and trusted resource for the community and visitors of Seneca County. The Seneca Regional Chamber of Commerce received the 2023 outstanding chamber of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce executives of Ohio, and destination Seneca County has received six statewide awards from Ohio Travel Association within the last two years. Bryce, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber chat podcast, I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the listeners and to share something interesting about yourself so we can get to know you a little better. Perfect.
Bryce Riggs 3:07
Hello, all Chamber Chat Podcast listeners, as Brandon said, I am Bryce, I think interesting about me is I got a vast background in terms of I’ve worked in economic development, I’ve worked in development work with fundraising, and now the chamber and I think, you know, they always say there’s not one job that prepares you for the kind of role like this in the chamber. But I think I’ve been fortunate that I kind of see the business background side of things. And I’ve seen, you know, the kind of development as we all know, without fundraising and raising those dollars for our organization, we really can’t do that fun and transformational things that we want to do always. And so fun fact about me is that, you know, only 30 years old, but I’ve had some really unique experiences that have kind of helped me prove it prepare me for this role with the Chamber of Commerce. That’s
Brandon Burton 3:55
awesome. Yeah, there’s not the perfect resume per se to to become a chamber executive. But you know, certain things do tend to give you experience that you can definitely lean upon as you go about that as a career. So take a little bit of time to get a few minutes. Tell us a little bit more about the Seneca Regional Chamber size of the chamber scope of work you guys are involved with, obviously, you’ve got the tourism side as well. Staff budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the table for discussion. Yeah,
Bryce Riggs 4:26
we were unique as as a chamber because we do do the tourism side as well. We see especially in the state of Ohio flow a few of us left because I have to say there’s kind of two different missions and for both organizations in the chamber and destination, Seneca County, so it’s been a joy of keeping many folks happy across the board from our chamber partners as well as our tourism partners. Staff right now three and a half team members. We’ve historically been but three team members, majority of the time of the existence of the chamber We brought on a part time marketing specialist within this last year, and we’re pretty fortunate from a staff level wise. And we have one employee that’s been there for 20 years, who’s our voice of reason we call her and our seasoned vet. And obviously a lot of institutional knowledge we have, that’s Denmark, Toronto, we have Marissa Stevens, who’s the movie organization now, going almost three years, and then for me almost four years with with the organization, but three and a half years. But with that, and then also with the Chamber budget for 2024. I’m proud of the kingdom of outspending, but also the king of raising additional dollars. So $322,000 for the budget for the chamber, for 2024. And then for destination Seneca County, about $170,000. We have for the budget for destination Seneca County, really big thing with us is like the setting, you know, really, the value that we provide back to our membership is, you know, we’re big about listening and understanding their needs. We do a membership survey every year where we understand, hey, what’s important to you. And the big thing is just as things change, as times change, making sure that we have the information, we have the tools, we have the programming that makes sense. As an organization, we’re unique, where we put out all our events for the for the following year and our annual meeting in October, as we do our ama in October, we release a full slate. But you know, as things change, for example, the Damar Hamlin situation with the NFL last year with a cardiac arrest in the field, we were able to do a CPR, AED and first aid training within two weeks close with that scenario. And so we’ve continued to keep that as part of our plans. But we just I think, you know, like any other business partner we work with, we want them to be nimble and make decisions quickly. And I think that’s kind of what we’ve been good at is just, you know, being accurate, the community being very transparent and being, you know, engaged.
Brandon Burton 7:05
Yeah, I love that example. I like having the kind of that map for the year saying, here’s our main events and things that we’ve got scheduled but to be able to be nimble enough and not so rigid that when something of importance comes up, you can say yes, let’s fit that in and have some focus on that. And not have it derail the rest of your plan for the year as well. So I think that’s super important. So as we kind of settled on a topic for this this episode, we’re going to focus most of our conversation today around creating a culture for huge results. And we’ll get into you know why we came across that as soon as they get back from this quick break.
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Howdy it’s me, Donna from Yiftee again. Today we get to hear from Christine in upstate New York about her Shop 716 Community card program. She was able to use sponsorship funds for a generous Buy One, Get One program that benefits her whole county.
Christine Langenfeld 9:44
Hi this is Christine Langenfeld with the Amherst Chamber of Commerce located in Buffalo, New York. We have partnered with Yiftee on our Shop 716 e-gift card program that has been incredibly, incredibly impactful for our small businesses. So happy to have incorporated this program in our shop local initiative here in Western New York. I highly recommend them and give them a chance to show what they can do.
Donna Novitsky 10:13
Thanks, Christine. So folks, check us out at yiftee.com and sign up for a demo or shoot us an email at sales@yiftee.com.
Brandon Burton 10:24
All right, Bryce, we’re back. I mentioned before the break, we’re recording to focus our conversation today about creating that culture for huge results. And sometimes it takes a different perspective, maybe an outsider’s point of view, to be able to see where there’s some gaps and opportunities within an organization. And I may be making some assumptions, but you guys have seen some significant growth in a variety of different ways. Since you’ve come on board there at the at the Seneca Regional Chamber. So I’d like to maybe have you highlight what some of those big growth areas are. And we can kind of dive into what has kind of fueled that growth and the culture being built there at the chamber.
Bryce Riggs 11:10
Probably the big thing is, I should have noted this early, earlier, but membership wise, about 540 members give or take. But you know, we’ve seen since I started in July 2020, we unfortunately, 65% increase in membership. And for me, it’s increasing membership is nice. You know, we have other chamber partners that, you know, do those membership drives, and they really get people out. And they’re really kind of one time, some folks or one time infusions of cash into an organization, which is nice to keep things afloat. But the big thing for us is the retention standpoint, you know, once we get them on, do a process. And we’ve kind of created a process within the last year and a half about the onboarding and making sure that you know, everyone kind of gets the same experience when they come on board. And that’s kind of help with our retention rate 94% retention rate that we’ve had consistently over the last few years. And, again, you know, influxes of cash are nice for the organization. But how do you keep those coming back and keep you know, our partners happy membership services are great. We’re, you know, we get a lot of responses on that, that allows them the opportunity to dialogue with us. You know, ours is all anonymous, so you can kind of dialogue and kind of put it all out there, my feelings don’t get hurt. Because we only grow as organization, we realize our shortfalls. And then really the big thing is T we’ve seen with a membership growth has been kind of non dues revenue has grown over 164%. Within the last, we moved to a new sponsorship model in the end of 2020 2021, where we asked our partners one time for sponsorships, when I started in July, with COVID pushing things back, it’d be like five events and basically five months and it was, you know, I was the guy who was calling and saying, hey, it’s Bryce. I’ve fortunate part of this community. So it wasn’t really much of an introduction, but it was, hey, we have this event, the golf out and you think you can make an investment to help support us? Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Okay, then, you know, the coffin takes place. And then the educators practice, hey, it’s Bryce again. Can you cut me another check. And so like, like anything in life, that asked me a better way. It’s we moved to a one time ask model in 2021. And that’s been super successful for us. We have 14 years platinum $3,000, gold 2000, Silver 1000, and then bronze 500. And we just package everything else we’ve done in the past. And we just said, Hey, this is the price tag of $3,000 are our largest donor, historically have given us 2250 On average, every year, and it’s okay, let’s bump up to $3,000. And we’ll do it one time mass model. And that’s been super successful for us. As an organization right now, we’re actually going through our our fundraising model kind of drive at the end of the year. And you know, last year, I’m gonna pull it up real quick. Last year, we raised $175,000. And literally one month this year, we’re still at $165,000 gotten to the end of the year. I’ve a few that will over will do. Oh, I’ll do what we did last year. were fun, obviously, with inflation and other factors muddies the water tight, but I think the biggest thing for us is the chamber. It’s more relationship relationship based, rather than the monetary aspect will me get through this. It’s basically Hey, Steve, this is Bryce with the chamber. You have a team and the golf outing. Just let me know who your four golfers are and then you know we’re looking forward to seeing you and then you know, the conversations over with and so when we call it’s no longer oh my gosh, the
Brandon Burton 14:47
Chamber if I may check the budget. Yeah. What
Bryce Riggs 14:50
do they want, you know, they want to call in again for the golf outing or con for this up it’s really allowed us to take our relationship with our members more to that, you know, prefer Hold to the more personal because they realize now that like my call, if I’m gonna ask me for anything is, I’m gonna ask them for money. It’s like asking them how we can help her, Hey, I saw you’re doing this about can we stop by and take a picture to help promote it? Hey, you’re doing this? How can we help you with that? And so it’s kind of allowed us to transform the organization a little more than we’ve done in the past. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 15:23
that’s great. So on the membership, and maybe I misunderstood, but how did you? How did you go about that big increase in membership? Did you guys do a membership drive? Or is that just built kind of grassroots? had had you guys approach that?
Bryce Riggs 15:40
The biggest thing is no membership drive is all grassroots. And I always said, when the chamber gets you energy gets new leadership, there’s always an opportunity to, you know, say that first year, and in my opinion, is the most important year, it’s, you know, sometimes you’ll take over a chamber that maybe in the past, it’s been stagnant, or very successful. And it’s like, okay, you have to pave your way on why you’re different. What’s your value proposition? And so for us, a lot of it was, you know, what, before, when we meet with a new member, our value articulation was not great. It was like, Hey, join the chamber, because it’s good for the community while when COVID hit, and things hit the fan. People love the community, I love the community, but real relook at our budgets. And it’s like, okay, this is good for the community. But this is also good. And this is good. And so now you’re kind of in a match with other great community organizations. But okay, my getting returned value back. And so we kind of lost our four point approach in my first month and said, Hey, look, this is the four reasons why you should join the chamber, where we had some kind of topics underneath each one of them. And the time, I’d say it was kind of crazy, because some of the stuff didn’t really make sense, because we didn’t build the plane yet. We just kind of like, found a bag of goods that we, you know, had yet done it yet. But it’s like, look, this is where we’re gonna go, we’ve lost trust in us. Again, I’m from the community. So for me, it was I’ve had a track record of doing things the right way. And so with us, it was just like, how do you articulate that value back to someone. And then I think it just became, you know, my first month, we had like, 15, new members, my next month, it was 15 new members and kind of like a forest fire. Once you create that spark, it’s like, Look, you have to take advantage of it. And our biggest thing is that we will not accept a new member of the Chamber of Commerce until we meet with you in person. And so it’s not just me. We have other chambers, it’s their membership director, or their membership coordinator meets with them, the CEO doesn’t. To me, I think it’s like the worst thing you could do. And so for me, I take my staff, my entire staff, just the three of us, the part time employee, this now that the three of us go out, and we go to their business, we meet with them on this morning, I was at a museum that was 45 minutes away. And we traveled there as a team, we came back as a team, because the day they knew who we all are, I think call the office and I’m not in and don’t answer the phone. They’ve met them before. Dan knows who they are, what’s important to them are the four points, how we can best assist them, if they run into Mrs. On the street, corner, residence, who they are, what their balance and organization. And so for us, it’s again, how do you take those relationships pass the professional, the personal side of things, I think is huge. And that for us? Again, it’s that it’s that wildfire that we’ve just continued to keep it going. And we just you know, for us, when someone goes to kind of check to the chamber at the end of the year, in July, it’s you know, I want them to look at us as a staff and saying, Hey, right, when I don’t cut this check to the chamber, it’s not at the chamber. I’m not gonna check the price to debt to Marissa. And I think it’s that personal touch, that kind of, you know, makes the ties a little bit stronger between the
Brandon Burton 19:03
organization’s for sure definitely helps with that, to have that 94% retention rate that you guys are seeing now. I mean, when you have that personal touch, you meet the members, you have that introduction, they get to know all the staff, you better understand their business. I love the example the the museum this morning, you gave this 45 minute drive there and back all together as staff. Imagine on the way back, there may be some discussion and ideas shared amongst staff about how to help this new member, you know, who can we connect them with? Or what would help make them successful? And there’s so much value in traveling together and doing that, you know, as a team. So
Bryce Riggs 19:47
I would say you know, there’s that I think we all are bought into it. And it for us it’s like look, you know we all where we see someone we know who they are what they do while they’re doing it and it’s the lie on to say that why this one is what makes the difference? So
Brandon Burton 20:02
I’m anticipating people listening are like four point approach. Okay, what are these four egg? Do you mind giving us the pitch real quick? What your what the four points are? If you’re granted, every chamber is different, you’re offering different things, potentially. But what? What are those four areas that you focus on when you are approaching a potential member?
Bryce Riggs 20:21
Yeah. So when we dive in, you know, we kind of enters we are first as a staff and home or the personal side of us again. And then without my destination said, I didn’t count because when I first started, the tourism bureau wasn’t very active, it was kind of the inactive arm of the chamber. But for us, we kind of explain who they are, what they do, why they’re important to the bigger picture. And then, you know, we flip over to the four point approach. And we talked with the membership survey, and we say, like, look, we don’t, we don’t determine what’s important to you, we listen to you, we understand, when we can talk more about their business, they can understand where their gaps are at and how we can help fill those gaps. And then we kind of go through the four points. And based on their story, we kind of dive into like, for example, the museum, they’re getting ready to go through their new location, there’s moves. And it’s what’s the promotional side of things, and we kind of dive in here, we’re an information source, we get a ton of phone calls, but we do a ton on social media, last this year actually will reach 2.6 million people on all our social platforms for our reach. And then for the visitors bureau, we have an additional 2.9 million will do as well. So we kind of talked about quantifying that the personal experience. And so when we talk about our members, we talk to them as people not as businesses, it’s kind of how it all connects to each other. And then we’ll step up you know, for them ribbon cuttings, bread and butter of a chamber, which we do things a little bit differently. We’ll do last year we did over 40 ribbon cuttings last year, we have a photographer, we invite elected officials, our ambassadors, which are super engaged our board, most were mechanics, we do our we have over 30 to 40 people attend each one. So there for us, it’s an it’s an energy opportunity. It’s the excitement people kind of bought in. And one thing I should know, too, we sent out a calendar invite for all our first contacts for every organization that’s, that’s a member, we send out a calendar invite with a description for all events we do, including ribbon cuttings, so even if you can’t go you at least understand new business, who owns it, where they offer, what are their hours, we said to our political officials, our media, and so those are always a good thing as well. And then we’ll jump to like relationships. So we have after five networking events, like most chambers do, which I won this last week, our golf outing, is wildly popular, we had 55 teams are out in last year, and then two flights sold out. And then we’ll talk about our Casino Night that we do as well. And then just different membership engagement opportunities to build relationships. We have flank. networking groups, like a digital Management Council we have. We’re both the Human Resources association. So kind of different people within the organization can be engaged as well. We have resources and savings is our third point usually talked about, and that’s obviously saving people money in which people appreciate. So we run a chamber cash program that looks just like a cheque. And a lot of people are moved to like 50. And there’s other things but we’ve been fortunate in the last last year, we sold over $110,000 in chamber cash, which keeps money locally infuse our community with a member a member benefit card that we do as well. It’s been really popular 55 different discounts different restaurants and businesses for the community and our big sales when I first started, we engage often with like the top tier management, so the CEO, CFO, CEO, but okay, how do we take the chamber message and bring it down to the employees. And so we now have the stack slammed, and it looks like gift cards. And we can all remember businesses, their employees inside joke, I’ll be at the local watering hole, and three people in front of me will plug the chamber card and get their 50% off at the at the restaurant. We’re there. And so it’s kind of nice to see, I joke, it’s kind of a call at that point, but I’ll take it. But it’s again, the Chamber messaging of this is the chamber and every time they scan it, it goes to our website. And so it’s that name ID not just with top tier, it’s through the whole organization. You Your energy programs, your you know, health insurance programs, as well thought of that. And then last is education, where we do power hours, which is the professional development from our members to our members. We’ve had to talk about like, you know, like AI is a topic for January, we have one with Canva and in March, we have a CrossFit crash course in June. We have a golf one on one event. So just some fun, professional personal opportunities. We Someone says, which is more than a personal. So it’s like the Myers Briggs test, you take it, we bring someone in, it kind of puts people in groups, you can talk about what the results mean. And then like leader, substantive accounting, which is our leadership group, and other educational opportunities we offer to our members throughout the year as well. So you’re really that’s kind of the four point approach. And then we kind of, you know, based on what they tell us, we say, hey, based on what you said, this is probably a good fit for you, we’ll get you connected, we’ll make sure you get the info. And then it’s like, again, as many as you can, how do you connect the chamber to the organization provide that values when they go to renew, when they decide they want to join, there’s enough value there that they’re like, hey, this makes sense. I have to I have to join. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 25:45
makes a lot of sense. I love that it’s condensed down enough to four points. So hopefully, any member of the staff can take that and kind of tell the story of the benefits that your chamber has to offer to these businesses that are considering joining. So that’s awesome. So let’s say maybe shift a little bit and talk about, you know, things that you guys do maybe organically there at the chamber to keep the passion for the staff on a high level to keep them engaged and, you know, involved with the community and really just loving what they do. Yeah, I
Bryce Riggs 26:20
think it’s the biggest thing is, that’s kind of our our sweet spot. That’s our secret sauce I tell people is that our staff here is fantastic. And I don’t live in a world we live in, it’s as a as a nonprofit organization, it’s hard to pay quarterly, it’s hard to make the opportunities available to our staff. But my biggest thing is like look itself from the top down as us and so my, my staff sees me out in the community, they see me community events, they see me out, you know, all these opportunities that exists. And, you know, the big thing with us is that we invest in our staff to go to these things. And so if I have done, I really don’t want to go to this event, and the chamber will pay for our staff to to go do continuing educational opportunities to go to community events. We’re fortunate with some of the non dues revenue increase that we’ve had over the years, that, you know, obviously, it pays to play to a lot of these events. And it’s tough, because it’s like not every chamber has the budget to be able to do this. But for us, it’s just like, we get along well, we communicate well. We keep things fun. And that’s for us. It’s it’s important. If it starts with the staff, if your staff is energetic engaged, it’s kind of hard to go sell, sell something that you don’t believe in my staff, we do gene Fridays we do you name it, right? I buy flexible hours, if you work in the evenings, which a lot of my staff does, you know, you can take some time off here and there throughout the throughout the week come in at 10. Like that. One thing is we do as well, three o’clock Fridays, and close the office every eight to five, Monday through Thursday. And then Friday, we do three o’clock, I kick you out. I don’t care how much work you have left to do. I don’t care how stressed you are. I kick you out. Because I think it’s like, Look, you gotta go live life. As is. It’s crucial. And so like for us, again, I’ll say it just starts with the staff. And you know, if you don’t pay your staff, you know, livable wage, that’s great to talk to my staff, and do we do yearly reviews. I do all my yearly reviews, in conjunction with the budget. So line rock conducted in November, I sit down the staff, I ask them questions, I send them a Google Word document, they type in their responses, and it’s a dialogue. I put their stuff and I put my comments and we meet for lunch. One on one and we discuss kind of like your thoughts, my thoughts. And then if Yannick I say looking, you know, next year, this is what we’re able to do based on your, you know, health insurances issue, okay, great. Based on that issue, we’re able to do this. And so my biggest thing is, if you unify consistent feedback, reviews aren’t supposed to be surprises. But for us, it’s important to say you got to show the nonprofit role you can pay them, you can allow them to grow as humans, you can model them have fun. But that’s the big thing is like, Look, you don’t take care of your own team. You’re not gonna go very far as an organization in the, you know, on the chambers or one, one man one woman shops, and so I you know, I fortunately have a board that allows me to do what I do. And so I just, you know, I, I told us that the board with a discussion this last year that said, Hey, how much you’re gonna give your staff increases? And I just said to him, Hey, I love you, but it’s, that’s not your role. My role is to determine based on what their performances, this is what I’m able to do and the performance bonuses every year, but I’d say give me the freedom and flexibility to pay my staff the way they should be compensated and we don’t, and I’ll ask, I’ve put in the budget and then you know, he gets approved as a overall bigger Make sure I
Brandon Burton 30:01
like that. I like being bold enough to say, yeah, let me invest in your business, right? Stay in our lanes, right?
Bryce Riggs 30:09
Correct. Yeah, the day the executive committee is responsible for my executive review and my salary, and let’s, let’s be talking about that within this framework. But just know that, you know, my job is to get my staff in a place where they’re making competitive wages, and their benefits are great. We just launched a simple IRA this year for 2024. Based on again, concerns and needs for for additional benefits. We’ve done, you know, again, I’m willing to invest my staff and they go to war for us every day. You know, my job is to go to work for them so that they can get what they need to be successful.
Brandon Burton 30:47
Yeah. I love it. Well, as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask if anyone listening what who’s interested in taking their chamber up to the next level, what maybe tip or action item might you have to offer them to elevate their chamber and kind of play it at that next level?
Bryce Riggs 31:09
So the biggest thing is, I always indicate, you know, be consistent, be persistent. When I started out, I was fortunate that I was kind of given the opportunity and said, hey, you know, you have, here’s the keys to car drive out you want. I’m not ignorant in the way that I understand it, is you have guidelines, and I have for a framework to do that within. But I would say like, Look, if you’re trying to be transformational, do things differently. It’s like, you got to be consistent with your approach, be persistent with our approach. Our big thing is community, community community. If you read our newsletter, you’ll know it’s from our community, you’ll know the people that are in it. If you see our social media, you’ll know it’s about the people. So everything is just like, look like push the pace. What do you get told now want to figure out how to get around it? You know, some sense knows, you know, doesn’t mean No, today, but might be like a maybe a later thing. Or maybe there’s another way to get to it. So you know, my first job, I was a telemarketer I was always taught you to do to rebuttal before you finally hung up the phone, and I very much live by that model. And so my thing is just people, you know, to make chambers that I’ll be honest, that we interact with, don’t push the pace, you know, our final status quo, which is great, but I think COVID kind of allowed folks to see kind of see through that. Our job is, you know, often the world that we live in the chamber world, the economic development agencies are here, and the chambers are here, or the community development is here. And chambers is always below it. And so my big thing is like, look, when we get talked about in the community, I want people to know that, like, look, we’re on the cutting edge, we’re doing things differently. And that, you know, we’re doing what’s best for the community. So people be persistent and be consistent and just have fun. That’s the big thing is, I’ve been here for three and a half years. And you know, early on, we’ll see I’ll Bryce you’re gonna burn out, you’re gonna do this. It’s like, yeah, there’s some days on central office. And I’m like, this sucks. But you know, I would say it’s not, it’s not hard work, it’s a lot of work, just power through. And if you set yourself up, put your bets out there. You know, like, look, I gotta do this, this, this, and this to get where I need to go. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 33:28
I’d love the honesty of some days. It just sucks. Yeah. Gotta move forward, you have a bigger picture of why you’re doing it. And I love the idea of consistent being consistent being persistent. And there’s so much value in that. And it leverages a lot of power if you’re consistent and persistent on pursuing those goals and, and the potential of your organization. So as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future chambers and their potential or their purpose going forward?
Bryce Riggs 34:01
Yeah, I would say, you know, that really, the big thing is, again, that that personal touch. I think if you two things I find is that shortfalls with the Chamber World Industries, people run their nonprofit, like a nonprofit, I say I run my organization, like it’s a business because it’s a business and you got to invest in your people invest in your marketing, you have to invest in everything, right. I remember my first year I started and we didn’t have you know, anybody at all, but here I am, like, look, we’re ordering, you know, 5000 folders for new members because guess what, we’re gonna we’re gonna go out there, we’re going to spread the word and we’re going to tell people what we got going on. I think that’s the thing is don’t you know, you know, don’t the day you stop investing in marketing this day, you stop investing in your peoples that day that you know, things are on the decline. You need to keep doing that. And I say that really the big thing as well as getting into that personal touch. You know, You gotta stand out a lot of organizations are in need United Way’s you name it right that a lot of Salvation Army’s, they need money and you’re you know, to say that we’re on the same playing field as them but sometimes we are as chambers. And so we do things such as you know, every Christmas card we do holiday cards we send out, we send to all our members home addresses, because again, it’s you could send a Christmas card or holiday card to their their business. But it’s great, you know, it’s that the business relationship, we’re trying to get the next thing. So I just say, you know, if you’re consistent persistent with that personal touch and approach, that’s why the Chamber’s gone is that, you know, we got to stay competitive in the marketplace in terms of funding domestic competitive for, you know, even like the tourism side of things, right? We pick, we have that arm of us. And that makes us more competitive, because we can offer a different service than maybe another chamber couldn’t. So sometimes in communities, that tourism site opens up. And that, you know, huge opportunity to get those dollars, go out there, go put yourself out there and really go for it. You might have to hire another staff member to get those dollars. But the more things you can add, and the more things you can do to be a resource to the community, I think that’s where we’re going is that you’re going to find only a few organizations are going to do the key things in the community. And you got to be willing to change and adapt to it. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 36:25
I think that’s an interesting twist you had mentioned with the the Christmas cards to send them to their home address. So you’re obviously collecting that information when they join the chamber? Or do you ever get any pushback and somebody’s like, I don’t want to give a home address. And this is about business organization.
Bryce Riggs 36:42
This is why I tell you that I’m a little creepy. So three years ago, I started I started doing white pages. And I started an honors office and I started going through and finding things and I’ll be honest with you, if we don’t ask them for their home address. It’s you know, that’s available on the internet, you can do that. This last year. We just said December, was sent last Thursday, our cards went out and got people’s addresses on Saturday. Most of them did. But for us, it’s like look like I bought look at that information. It’s a nice surprise. People are like, Oh, I never gave them that address. But it’s together that touch. So
Brandon Burton 37:22
then are you putting it in your membership software with their accounts. So the next year, it’s got
Bryce Riggs 37:26
its color Christmas card address, it’s a separate one. So okay, it just moved to gross within the last year. So with that we’re making the adjustments and add ons, but I’ve spent many long hours doing that from finding information to some people might be, you know, meaningless. But I come in late at night, and I just kind of churn and burn until I get thrown. But it’s important because again, people come to us and say, Hey, I have your card in my house. That’s really nice. And we’re always first card. And it’s all we go to their house. So it’s always important and
Brandon Burton 38:00
awesome. I love that touch. Well, Bryce, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect about some of these approaches or how you guys are doing things there at the Seneca Regional Chamber, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?
Bryce Riggs 38:17
Yeah, go ahead and call my cell phones 419-889-3932 And that’s my cell phone. Just reach out to me. We weren’t happy to share information about you know what we have going on or you can reach out to me and briggs@Senecaregionalchamber.com and shoot me an email but I you know, there’s a lot of different folks that I’ve met along the way. I do a monthly zoom with people across the country, their chamber professionals because like, look, you know, the day you think you’ve figured it out, as you know, that uh, you run your nonprofit, like a nonprofit is the day to day, life becomes a lot more difficult for you.
Brandon Burton 39:00
Yeah, for sure. But we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode too. So people can can look it up and reach out and touch base with you and learn more. But I appreciate you spending some time with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I love hearing these stories of you know, you get a fresh approach and an organization and throw some fuel on the fire and watch it burn. You guys are doing an awesome job. So keep that momentum keep that consistency and persistence. And I think there’s going to be even bigger numbers. Yeah, a year from now or two years from now. So I appreciate you sharing these insights and experiences with us today.
Brandon Burton 39:25
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