COY Finalist Series 2019-Wooster Area Chamber with Justin Starlin

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

Episode 31 — Wooster Area Chamber 2019 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Justin Starlin
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Justin Starlin
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.192 Brandon Burton
This is a special edition of Chamber Chat Podcast as I begin a series of interviewing the finalist for Chamber of the Year for 2019. I hope you enjoyed this series, but first, the intro. This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:29.58 Brandon Burton
Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is our eighth interview in our special series of 2019 ACCE Chamber of the Year finalists. This is episode 31 of Chamber Chat Podcast, and I'm your host, Brandon Burton. It is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your Chamber members and your community. If you're new to Chamber Chat Podcast, please visit Chamberchat Podcast.com/slash start. To learn more about what you can expect from the show and you can receive some valuable tips for some non-dues revenue ideas that you can implement at your chamber. Again, that's chamberchatpodcast.com/slash start. And before we get into the episode today, let's take just a brief moment to hear about our sponsor for this episode. Chambers are not considered for chamber of the year without having great programs and steady streams of non-dues revenue. I want to introduce you to a great affinity program. From Swipe It. In partnership with ChamberChat Podcast, Swipe It is one of the best credit card processors in the business. With the Swipeit Affinity program, you can save up to 40% on your credit card processing fees at the Chamber and help your member partners to do the same. Chambers who take advantage of the Swipe It Affinity program can add thousands of dollars to their non-dues revenue annually. Please visit Chamberchatpodcast dot com slash CC for more information and to request your complimentary cost savings analysis from the experts at Swipeit. The first twenty chambers to respond will qualify for free equipment to get set up. Again, visit ChamberchatPodcast.com slash C C to start swiping with Swipeit. All right, our guest today is Justin Starlin. President of the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce in Ohio. Justin has more than 15 years of experience in economic and community development, city administration and chamber executive leadership, in which he has grown professionally by assuming positions such as economic development coordinator, community development director, co-city manager, and most recently president of the Wooster Chamber of Commerce.
02:51.694 Brandon Burton
Throughout his career, he's assumed a leadership role in projects and initiatives ranging from large development projects such as LEED for the Daisy brand's establishment of a manufacturing facility in Wooster to smaller projects such as the development of the state of Ohio's initial downtown D5L liquor license language and implementation. Beginning his career as a recognized economic development professional at the city of Wooster for nearly 10 years. Justin transitioned to a leadership role at the Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce. Throughout his career, Justin has been recognized as an innovator and a collaborator as he focuses on results opposed to discussion and bridges rather than walls. Justin is an active member of the Ohio Economic Development and the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Ohio, where he was named the prestigious 2018 Professional of the Year. He is a faithful supporter of community organizations and projects, not only in his professional life, but in his personal life as well, where he sits on various community and regional boards related to economic development, chamber leadership, and service club activities. Justin, welcome to the show. Please say hello to the chamber chat audience and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little bit better.
04:12.898 Justin Starlin
Yeah, Brandon, thanks for the opportunity to to join you today and to thanks to all the listeners today. a couple of interesting things about kind of Wooster and myself is that yeah, Brandon, you hit on it and have a great background in economic development for ten years prior to join joining the chamber. Had the opportunity to be active in a small town. Wooster is about twenty eight thousand people. And I know when they gave me the job of economic development. Coordinator when I was twenty two and fresh out of college, Brandon. I didn't quite know what economic development was, to be honest with you. But for the last ten years, having the opportunity to be in a kind of an economic development role and transitioning over to the the chamber president here for the last seven years has really allowed me to to be more active in the community. And kind of bring some of that economic development knowledge to directly to to the chamber the last seven years has been beneficial for us. So
05:14.252 Brandon Burton
That's great. I'm sure it's benefiting the community and and you're learning along the way, you know, from that twenty-two year old college graduate to to where you are now. Can you share with us you mentioned the the size of population of the of Wooster, but how about the the chamber itself and and kind of the area just so we can kind of better relate to your chamber.
05:23.352 Justin Starlin
Absolutely.
05:34.23 Justin Starlin
For little bit. Yeah, to give you kind of a sense as to where Wooster, Ohio is, we are an hour south of Cleveland, Ohio, about an hour and a half north of the Columbus market as well. our sat our town is growing a little bit, but we're about 29,000 people in population, and we serve a a a county that is about 115,000 in population. Overall, pretty rural. but in the in the the center of town here in in Wooster, which is the county seat, Brandon, have national manufacturers and companies here that are are well known through throughout the nation. In Daisy brand, sour cream. If you if you eat sour cream then you are in your east of the Mississippi, every of every bit of that is made here in Wooster. Yeah, yep, yep, exactly. That's our little jingle here around town. also
06:22.848 Brandon Burton
A dollop of daisy, right?
06:29.678 Justin Starlin
Gojo Industries. we're very close to the Smucker Company as as well. it is just eight miles west of us. if you know anything about jam and smokers, have an idea as to where we're at.
06:40.556 Brandon Burton
That's right. Very good. So that that does help give us an idea a little bit more about your area. That's awesome.
06:48.428 Justin Starlin
Awesome. And from a chamber perspective, you know, we are pushing we hover right around seven hundred members and we have a staff of four here. and a budget's pushed around right around half a million dollars for the year to kind of give you an idea as to the the shape of our and size of our chamber.
07:09.26 Brandon Burton
Yeah, that's perfect. So if from your point of view, what is making you guys stand out there at the Wooster Chamber to be considered as a finalist for Chamber of the Year?
07:21.282 Justin Starlin
Yeah, you know, when we when we are filling out the the information to ACC, I think one thing that separates our chamber from from some others is that we take it an extremely proactive role in economic development and community development. And so when we talk about that, we are very active and that means when people come in and talk about either a project, a concept, We're grabbing them, bringing them in, and we're really trying to walk them through the process of finding property in the community, to talking about incentives that are available locally, then to also to partner up with philanthropists that may be interested in investing in their project. And I think what's interesting, Brandon, is we also have a county economic development agency. So we are we are quick to bring them into the mix. But I think that when you have a network of seven hundred members, you have a board, our board is twenty-five members big. we are able to use some of the expertise that we have here at the chamber to bring a value add to that process. And we've done a really good job of s securing some projects and and really being the leaders in in the community in in that in those endeavors. And it it's paid off for us.
08:27.512 Brandon Burton
Wow. Yeah.
08:47.786 Justin Starlin
additionally, we are you know, chambers have some have a reputation of being more of a like a cheer cheerleader organization. you know, the the general ribbon cutting and celebration of a business or business after hours and networking component. And while that's important to to the Wooster Chamber, we go a little bit further and w we like to have boots on the ground and really be down Down in the ditches in in the projects and in the community. So from economic development or to to active projects like we have a manufacturing day, Brandon, that truly aims to address workforce development issues. And I'm sure that many of your listeners have talked about workforce development issues in their community. And as an example, the Wooster Chamber. We our manufacturing day is is headed up and while while we talk about doing a project or working on economic development, we manage that day from A to Z and it's became the largest workforce development initiative in Wayne County. Last year, during Manufacturing Day, we had seven hundred students individually pick where they would like to go out of eighteen industry partners that participated in that day.
10:16.814 Brandon Burton
I was gonna ask you, what does manufacturing day look like?
10:19.468 Justin Starlin
Yeah, exactly. So Manufacturing Day is a is a mass approach of building awareness about what is happening in your community. I think as chamber professionals and executives, we can we take maybe for granted every once in a while when we drive around the community and we know what is behind what's happening behind the walls of a big building. Many of our citizens, many of the students that are Going through high school or looking to graduate, have no idea what's happening in that community. So Manufacturing Day opens the doors again to 18 industrial partners that were part of the day last year. Opens the doors, educates not only the citizens through some of the marketing efforts that we do for the day, but it has 700 students go out and truly walk into the facility and see what's happening, try to get them excited about. what's happening here in Wayne County, and you hope to retain that talent to assist in your workforce development.
11:22.798 Brandon Burton
So are those 700 students, students that have expressed interest in going into the manufacturing industry, or are they the graduating class or where where are you getting that pool of 700 students?
11:36.152 Justin Starlin
It's very interesting, Brandon. We have every single school district here in Wayne County participates. So we've had we have thirteen school districts participate in that. Yeah. So and what's great is we have we have allowed the the districts to make that decision. Some districts say we'd like to take our sophomores to manufacturing day. And the reason being is here in this great state of Ohio. Those sophomores are getting ready to make a decision if they would like to go to the trade school or their technical school. and maybe there's a spark that day in manufacturing day. So some s districts will bring their sophomores, Brandon. Yeah. Others will bring seniors maybe that they know are not going to college, or there's maybe some kids that are looking to get in into engineering, they might be chosen to be part of the day. So because there is job opportunities, you know, post college and even during college, you know, some co ops and stuff like that. so it varies depending on what the district feels as if is their best strategy in engaging their students in
12:46.476 Brandon Burton
All right. Are you able to get any feedback from the schools as far as what these students do after they graduate to know if they go into that career path or if they're going off to school or what they're doing?
12:57.838 Justin Starlin
Absolutely. So we have last year was the first year. And this is we've done this program now for this will be our seventh year this fall. Hard to believe. But last year we were able to secure the names for each of the students. And we are working with a local tech company on tracking those students post graduation. Because you know, it's it's great to have an event where you can, you know, have kids let's say go for a field trip. But we want to be able to go back to our our constituents who are the industry partners and say, hey, listen, out of the seven hundred kids who participated in manufacturing day, we were able to to secure or know that fifteen or twenty percent of them are working within with within Wayne County. And that just that justifies Brandon us putting the effort into the day. So also we've heard from the industry partners that it is that it's a great great thing because they are seeing those students come back and and to apply for jobs directly.
14:04.664 Brandon Burton
So what is it about the Wooster area that draws so much industry, manufacturing and so forth? Is it just because there is a base there or certain incentives that are being offered or what what makes it so attractive?
14:17.58 Justin Starlin
Yeah, so availability of land and water is is a big piece, as for instance when we were working with securing daisy, we were able to offer them large quantities of of what they needed as for from a product perspective is just pure water. So we've got great assets here, great land availability, and w hardworking Midwestern people. so we got a great reputation of people that are hard workers, just like we've seen through the through the nation though. the availability of those those workers are are are declining. And you know, and that's where I think the chamber plays a role in trying to engage the next generation to fill the voids that are indefinitely gonna be happening.
15:01.026 Brandon Burton
All right. So tell us more about your chamber and and what else is you guys are doing to stand out.
15:07.916 Justin Starlin
Yeah, I you know, I think well a a couple other things that are unique is we we decided to to make a decision, kind of our approach to members and non-members, maybe a little bit different. There are chambers through throughout the nation that if you want to receive anything any information from them as to what they're doing maybe in the community or with their membership, the only way to receive that information, Brandon, is to pay the membership. Yeah. And for us, we while membership dues are an important component of our budget and we don't take them for granted, we think that promoting our organization, being active in the community and doing good things, making a difference, we truly believe that the membership will take care of itself. So the information as to what we're doing, we offer free information to non-members as well. one thing that is y unique, we are probably one of the very few chambers left that physically prints a newsletter each month and it's about sixteen pages long and it's in it's in hard hard paper format, print format. And that we print around twenty three thousand copies of that each month and we get it out to our citizens. And we get it out to both members and non members. The reason is is We are A trying to build up our brand and show both members and non members what the chamber is doing. But also we're trying to to promote community development and community participation. And and with community participation from our younger generation, we know that what they'll s what they'll see and what the chamber is doing. They'll see that value add and they'll they'll challenge their business if their business is not a member. Or they'll take the lead and say, Hey, I'm going to go talk to the boss about us supporting the the chamber and being a part of what you're doing because it it it's important to our community. And that may seem cliche, that may seem, you know, puppy dogs and unicorns, but it's very true. Our newsletter has built our brand up that we're recognized for being a leader in community development and the and the membership is followed. The the membership members have followed.
17:32.288 Brandon Burton
And say going back to the data, as long as you've you've got the evidence pointing to the success of that that form of communication, then you you have to keep doing it, right?
17:43.018 Justin Starlin
Exactly. So I think that's pretty unique. And then also, you know, while while not everybody's getting the the physical print of our newsletter, our social media, we've we've leaned on that heavily. and you know, we don't over post some I've seen some chambers post five and six things a day and there's you know there's post fatigue. what we do is we try to be strategic in our our post and use the social media. And we're proud to say that we've built our our likes up our follows on our as an example on Facebook. We have the largest nonprofit following in in Wayne County. We're around thirteen thousand likes and follows. And we we really, really concentrated on that because it now every time that we post something, as an example, last night we had a an event with our area special Olympics organization. When we post something May maybe it's just photos of the game. But it boy, it's hitting a humongous audience, both from a business perspective and from our citizenry, which continues to build our brand and all does come back to strong membership and people wanting to be a part of what we're doing.
18:57.562 Brandon Burton
You know, i it used to be that the email was the way to reach everybody and you guys have kind of taken a step forward with social media and and I was maybe could be could be perceived a step backwards with the the mailers, you know, the the hard copy newsletter, but I think with email it quickly became abused and where the print media just kind of got neglected. You guys are kind of filling that void. But you're also being cautious with your social media to not abuse that like email has been for so long.
19:32.718 Justin Starlin
Yeah, you know, and and what's I think w one other thing to keep in mind, fellow chamber execs is that we we we when we post something, or we're trying to sell a sponsorship, we can say that it will receive how many views on social media you want those to be strong. We will also say that it w it'll get twenty five thousand or twenty three thousand views in our newsletter out to the community. That's a selling point for us. We've built that audience and w it's been a it's been a great us as far as selling sponsorships to events because we're able to show a positive return in just the pure marketing money. Absolutely.
20:08.942 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I was thinking just in general, between building the brand awareness in the community and being able to have those numbers to support, it can't help but boost your nondues revenue on multiple levels, whether it's sponsorships or awareness of community events or anything that you guys have going on.
20:25.944 Justin Starlin
Yeah, and you know, Brandon, the more active that your chamber is as far as being I believe this, being part of the solution to a problem or bringing a company in or you know, partnering them with the resource that they need. If you can become that point of general point of contact, you know, businesses start to see value in the organization. And it's much easier for us to then call and say, Hey, will you sponsor you know, the Field of Dreams game for two thousand dollars this year. will you be one of the main sponsors? When they were receiving something that they they can equate to value from your organization. Yeah, you're getting that by being active, it's much easier to sell and and and get those sponsorships.
21:13.656 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. Great points. So what what else do you guys have going on there?
21:19.336 Justin Starlin
Okay, so and you know, a couple things that just to kind of put it put it in perspective, our organization, we are really, really heavy on events. we've got probably for what we do on an annual basis, probably a skeleton crew, I would say, of four. and we what we're blessed with is we have two marquee community events, and that have we've been doing for thirty plus years. our chamber is unique in the fact that we We have a an an Oktoberfest in downtown that we that we head up. And the great thing is is that is you would say, Well that is the it's called Woosterfest in downtown. That's a Wooster chamber event, but it's a community event. and that really has garnered us some, you know, some visibility. the brand for Woosterfest, which we try to build on, is so well recognize in the community that when people find out you mean the Wooster Chamber is Woosterfest? that even gives us bigger kudos in in the community as well. one other thing that is unique that we've been able to do is we recognize longstanding supporters, people that are making a difference in the community and businesses that are growing here in Wayne County. I I think a lot of chambers have an annual dinner. and ours is we think it's pretty special. last year we had our annual dinner and mind you, our community, put it in perspective, Brandon, is twenty eight thousand people. We had nine hundred and sixty people at our annual dinner. So and we we had it Yeah, that's pretty good. So and we were we we challenge ourselves to be
23:10.476 Brandon Burton
That's pretty good.
23:16.59 Justin Starlin
non conventional. So we actually had the dinner in an the iconic former RubberMade manufacturing facility, which if anybody knows the brand RubberMade, that was world headquarters. It was the world headquarters was right here in Wooster. Wow. And that the kind of a real quick story is they went through a transition. They left town and we were able to to secure Gojo Industries, which manufacturers Purel. Okay. So Pure Purel production is happening in the former Rubber Made facility. We were able to kind of welcome them to town and celebrate the rebirth or the reutilization of that iconic facility in town at our annual dinner and nine hundred and sixty people celebrated with us that evening.
24:05.304 Brandon Burton
Everybody got to have clean hands while they ate.
24:07.438 Justin Starlin
Exactly, exactly. We th we think that's pretty unique and pretty special. And so when we can do things like that and we post it on social media, the the the local newspapers picking up, the ri the local radio's picking it up. it's all about brand identity and showing that we're active in the community so that we are that number one point of contact when someone has a question or an inquiry as to what's happening to the community or they want to do something. That's the most from our perspective, that's extremely important.
24:40.93 Brandon Burton
So I can see why so many people would want to attend that annual dinner to be able to check out the facility and and the new new business there. And I I like the idea of being non conventional and how you went about that. Are there other examples of you guys being non conventional, whether it's in in this event or just others in general that maybe other chambers could get some ideas from?
25:06.348 Justin Starlin
Yeah, you know, that it that's a tough question, as far as non conventional, you know, with like for instance, for with the Woosterfest in downtown, we continue to press ourselves to to make sure that it's not stale. I think there are chambers that have events or that they maybe take for granted. And those are an important line item on your budget. So when we first started to look at Woosterfest, it is a a very important component to our budget on an annual basis, Brandon. And so when we started looking at how are we going to engage the next generation to come downtown to an Oktoberfest in a Midwestern town that likes country music. How are we going to do that? So the shift from if we talk about beer sales, the shift from Bud Light and Miller Light to a a a large array of you know I IPAs and craft beers. Yeah. It's very interesting. And initially the idea that we were gonna br add add more got some grumbles from the people that have attended the festival in the in the years. But and we also brought TVs in and we were showing games and we if we were setting up, you know, kind of a yeah. And we even brought a wiener dog race to the show. Okay. All of these things, I guess the point is all of these things initially from our older constituents and members who like tradition, they question where you a wiener dog race? You know, why are we getting away from the the stuff that we've done in the past? The truth is because we don't want to die on the vine. And so that has allowed us to engage the next generation. And what where where you see what's really interesting is Those who initially question you and said, Man, what are you doing? When there's eight hundred people that come downtown to watch the first annual Woosterfest wiener dog race, you it's hard to argue with the participation and the the interest in the event. And so that's an example that we've transformed Woosterfest, which is an annual event. In transforming it, we've have secured its future, we have grown revenue.
27:07.97 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
27:26.882 Justin Starlin
And we have grown participation in the next generation. That is all gonna bode well for the longevity of our our financial position here at the chamber when it comes to that event.
27:39.032 Brandon Burton
So all the chambers listening, they need to find their own version of a wiener dog race.
27:44.91 Justin Starlin
It's it's Samara Zimmerly does all of our she's a staff here that does all of our events and programs. She's she's the right hand woo man. And when she came up with this idea of a wiener dog race, I said, You've got it. I mean no one's gonna come and watch that. Well it it was only eight hundred people. So and we had we had wiener dogs from an hour and a half away, Brandon. So yeah, it was it was phenomenal.
28:09.728 Brandon Burton
See, and you may have just started a whole new industry too of breeding racing wiener dogs.
28:17.198 Justin Starlin
Exactly.
28:19.768 Brandon Burton
Yeah.
28:21.208 Justin Starlin
But but you know, I we we've never lost the focus of it's important that we community involvement, engaging members, people just having a good time and having positive thoughts and feeling good about when they come out to a a chamber event. Don't let things get s get stale. And even if you have a board that's hold that maybe says, well let's just do it the way we we used to do it or maybe a staff that's almost let's say virtually tenured and just don't wanna change things. if you don't change and and grow and you know and kind of mold into the next generation, you're gonna see a decline as a chain row.
28:59.18 Brandon Burton
Yeah, for sure. So that kind of leads to the the next question I was gonna ask you. If you can kind of condense and summarize from the different aspects of things we've we've discussed today in this interview, what is one action item that listeners can do at their chamber to take their chamber up to the next level?
29:22.062 Justin Starlin
Yeah. if anything to one action minor item, and we've done a number over the years, but I think one action I item would be personally l really look at where your brand is in the community and and find out where you are you active. Who are the active players that are making a difference in your community? And truly be without bias, say is our organization a a change agent? Are we in the mix? And find out if we're not in the mix and we're not ones that are at the table when those important decisions are being made, or the you know, they're they're shaping the next step in your community. Why is that? How can we be there? And what imp what steps can we do to to truly implement and and be at the table? I think that bring that'll bring value to you as a as a chamber to say, we need to be here. How do we get there and put a stri a strategy together to make that happen?
30:26.92 Brandon Burton
I couldn't agree more. You gotta be part of the decision making in the in your community and and helping to set up the future for your community. So speaking of future, as we look to the future, how do you view chambers of commerce and their purpose?
30:43.682 Justin Starlin
Yeah, so I I I truly do believe that the the the the networking piece and the celebration of openings through events like ribbon cutting, stuff like that, I think that still is an important component. but I truly think that the chambers can play a more active role in community development. Engaging citizens, I think, is really, really important. and through that is is how I think chambers have a great opportunity to to pr just plain and simply promote their business, maybe not to out of towners, but maybe to citizens that are are that wake up every day and say, you know, what's happening in my community? I think the loss of local newspapers, local journalism within your a community, especially smaller communities, how can we as a chamber fill that void? I think that's through active communication to our citizens, showing them what's happening in town. And if there's something that the town is is missing, I think that chambers have the opportunity in the future to say, Hey, community development is important. How can we make our our community unique so that people want to be here? I think that's an important role that chambers can play in the future.
32:04.182 Brandon Burton
Great advice. And you gave some good examples about how you can be unique. I mean nobody can copy you 'cause you gotta be unique, but
32:10.758 Justin Starlin
That's right. Hey. A a little R and D, a little rip off and duplicate. There's nothing wrong with that too.
32:16.206 Brandon Burton
well, Justin, I wanted to thank you for spending some time with us today here on the podcast. I also want to thank everyone who's out there listening. I'm glad you're here. The show notes for this episode can be found at chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode thirty-one. But Justin, where can listeners connect with you if they have any questions about what you discussed today or how you're doing things at the Wooster Area Chamber?
32:43.352 Justin Starlin
Yeah, so the best way to reach us just give the the the website WoosterCamber dot com. all of our contact information from a staff perspective is there. If you want to learn about how to do a successful wiener dog race, you get an email to Samara Zimmerley. if you have questions about community development or economic development, I would be more than glad to answer those questions and be can be found at Wooster Chamber. That's W O O S T E R Chamber.com.
33:09.696 Brandon Burton
All right. That is perfect. We'll get all that in the show notes too, so people can know where to find you. But again, Justin, thank you for being with us and best of luck to you guys with the Chamber of the Year.
33:21.048 Justin Starlin
Thank you, Brenda.
33:25.91 Brandon Burton
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