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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.
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Our guest for this episode is Jennifer Hanson. Jennifer is a visionary community leader and marketing professional with more than a decade of experience in nonprofit management, business development and event coordination as executive director of the Boone County Chamber of Commerce, Jennifer has transformed the organization into a thriving force for for positive change. In just two years, she has grown membership, strengthened partnerships and revitalized events programs, and making the 112 year old chamber once again, a dynamic hub for collaboration, innovation and fun. Jennifer’s passion for empowering communities took root early in her career through her involvement at with the Omaha chamber, where she championed for young professionals in workforce and leadership development, her ability to reimagine possibilities and take decisive action was defined, has defined her career, whether she’s launching an award winning events, building volunteer programs or helping organizations rediscover their purpose, grounded by her servant leadership, Jennifer is dedicated to building authentic connections, fostering growth and leaving a meaningful impact where God has placed her. Jennifer, I’m excited to have you with us today here on chamber chat podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Well, yeah,
Jennifer Hanson 2:38
well, thanks for having me. I really, really appreciate being in here. And certainly, as you mentioned in my bio there, I born and raised in Omaha, and so as long although I’ve had last 14 years as a stay at home mom before, before joining the chamber, two years ago, I it’s been really great to be able to think back about all the good work happening at the Omaha chamber, and be able to bring those those tools and that sense of encouragement and to to Boone, Iowa and so, yeah, I thanks again for having me, and I’m excited to for our conversation. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 3:16
absolutely. Well, before we dive into the topic. Why don’t you take a few minutes and tell us a little bit more about the Boone County Chamber, just to give us an idea of the perspective you’re coming from with the size of the chamber staff, scope of work, budget, that sort of thing, to kind of set the stage, sure, sure.
Jennifer Hanson 3:35
So the Boone County Chamber is a county wide Regional Chamber, and we are very excited that this, this 2025, is, frankly, is the year of scaling up for us. So when I came on board, we were just at around 200 to 15 or so in membership. There was an executive director, who was over Boone County, the economic growth as well as the chamber. And then I was brought in for events and communication. Soon after I jumped in, I realized that they were that might that executive director was what didn’t necessarily want to stay in that space, and had always wanted to open up a business and and so very good for him, Mike. Mike’s done a great job, and is a wonderful cater and and now business owner and with a with an additional bakery and such. But ultimately that led me to take this on. And so I stayed on as the executive director of the chamber, which allowed economic growth to find other services. But ultimately, this last over the last two years, we’ve now grown to a little over almost about 265 members and in a population of 12. 1000 we’re still on our way and back to maybe where this chamber was in its heyday in the 90s. But we are excited for for the growth. So when I came on board, when my after Mike left, I was the only, I was the only full time person, and I still necessarily only full time person on the chamber side. We had a part time a part time book bookkeeper. Now going into 2025, we have myself as the chamber director. We’ve we’ve got a main street director as a full time person, and we have a almost full time person who’s doing operations and our bookkeeping and office management, and we have a part time Member Services person. So going into 2025 we’re very excited to see a lot of growth taking place in our organization, and of course, in our membership. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 5:58
it’s fun to see the growth happening, and that means you guys are doing some things right. You know, you’ve got some energy. You’re doing things right to be able to see that growth. But our our topic, we’ve titled this episode fixing holes during a storm, and I’ve heard the phrase before of building an airplane as you fly it, so I imagine this is going to be pretty similar to that, but we’ll we’ll dive into this discussion as soon as we get back from this quick break.
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All right, Jen, we’re back, as I mentioned before the break, our conversation today, we’re talking about fixing holes during a storm, and see you come into the chamber. I imagine there’s some things that you’ve been hard at work at over. Your tenure there so far to be able to see the growth in membership and staff. But tell us what you mean with this phrase of fixing holes during a storm.
Jennifer Hanson 10:10
Yeah. So I, when I came on board, as I mentioned, I came in under a the current executive director who was on both sides of the island, on economic growth, as well as the chamber side. And yet, though the work of economic growth had been had been essentially given to an outside organization to to to do. And so Mike was kind of the director by proxy, and wanting to keep frankly, because that was the role on the county side. So when I came on board, I knew and I loved chamber work from having my experience in the Omaha chamber I had my I had my marketing background and advertising and so plus the relationships I built while I’ve been here in Burton the last 12 years or so, so I had a lot kind of that I could bring to the table on the chamber side. And so while economic growth would be something that I’m certainly happy to learn more about, and I’ve very excited about the growth in in that space here in Burton, let alone County. You know, tax law wasn’t necessarily my my jam, so I was happy to take on the chamber side. And frankly, I realized too it was bonkers that one person would be kind of responsible for both sides of this coin. So anyway, I don’t, as I said, How to get myself in any trouble, but ultimately I recognized the need to serve our members, and so I in me coming on board, allowed economic growth to continue on with with that outside organization, and they’ve done great things with it. However, we were still coming under we’re just trying to revitalize, frankly, not just the organization, but the relationships they’re in. So over the last even five years or so, I say that the chamber so was in its heyday in the 90s, probably early. 2000s too. Where we were, had membership upwards in the 400 mark, and over the last, gosh, these last, you know, 24 years or so, it’s just decreased. And what I heard over and over again is we just don’t know what the chamber does. We just don’t know what value you bring to us. And so I had to rebuild the value of what we were going to offer members, and building that back up and the programming and the events and so on so forth, while at the same time, while at the same time rebuilding those relationships with those individuals, with the elected officials and with the organizations that we had hurt over the years, either by just just letting their their business go to the wayside. We just weren’t promoting them. Well, we weren’t using our tools for their benefit. Or in some cases, we had some, I had some time with leaders that had been told, you know, had had had hard conversations with previous leadership in my organization. So ultimately, laying the laying the space for for for venting, for just really just sharing how you know where, where we at, and how can we get better, knowing that it wasn’t my, my doing, but it was an opportunity now to rebuild. And so you can’t rebuild unless you’re, you’re allowing that space to let, let all of it kind of air out. So anyway, I say that we’re building the house, or, you know, and and patching up the the holes in our own ceiling where, you know, now I was a state. I was a full, you know, one full time person here trying to rebuild the team, kind of identifying what, what we needed. Certainly I needed help, but just kind of when and where and how, while at the same time making absolutely positively remarkable, it just I go back having some strong and hard conversations with folks that had had been done really dirty in the past. And so in any case, I really wanted to to do that for the sake of what a good chamber can do and and giving us the opportunity to do it. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 14:57
And unfortunately, yeah, this is some. Thing that I’ve seen in several communities where a new executive comes in and needs to patch some holes, mend some relationships, build the trust, back up of the value, create the value proposition and communicate that well to the business community of why the Chamber’s here. What do you know? How can we make things right with you? You know, versus you know, what ever had happened before? And it’s amazing to me too, over like you said, 24 years, we’ll say, you know, some people hanging on to some of these grudges, or, you know, ill will. And for others, 24 years goes by like that. You know, see, you blink and it’s gone. So, yeah, following that, that analogy you had mentioned being able to let some things air out, and, you know, before you can really do the the patching of those holes, you got to identify, you know, where the leak is, where the problem is, let it air out and let some healing happen before you can really go back to work to repairing the whole situation. So the analogies tends to fit pretty well there. Talk to us on the positive side, as you’ve been out visiting with members, talking about their situations. What are some of these positives that you’ve seen come out of this? As you’ve been able to listen to people and let their voices be heard and and then see, you know, to solve their their issues. Well,
Jennifer Hanson 16:34
I think that for because I was such a small team, I we knew from the get go from working with the board who was, by the way, a very engaged, very active board. So I think that was very helpful, just on the offset that they knew I was a, I was essentially a one person in this space, and so they knew they were going to have to be really engaged with alongside me, but being able to then bring on more collaborators into the work. So I I’ve always seen chambers, really since, since my time back in Omaha, as just this one, as that spot, being a a foundational, a foundational organization serving our community in a very positive way, and yet, though, in a very fundamental way too, where it’s, you know, it’s networking, and it’s, it’s promoting, it’s the events that we host aren’t, aren’t for our sake. It’s for the for the benefit of our of the of the attendees, of the members and the community people that are there. So I see the Chamber’s role is to really be a foundational approach to community development. And so when we don’t do that well, or we don’t have people that that that see us doing that, you know, they see, you know, maybe they see the bigger headlines coming out of our organization, which may or may not always be positive, but they it’s it takes the the focus off of where it should be, which is on your members. And so I really enjoyed the opportunity to really start from the from from the ground, and say, I know, I know my vision for the for a chamber, and yet, though we have a long way to go to get there, so certainly the opportunity to say, Okay, we’ve got to get at least on this, on this solid footing, but then having that relationship built, I can, I can call back to those folks and say, Hey, there, here’s an opportunity for you to, you know, can you help me with this? Can you, you know, is there a place where, where we can work together on on this goal or that goal? And so there’s so many more people that I’ve been able to get to know on a such deeper, more a deeper level, than, than than I had before. And I think too, it helped that prior to me walking into this space, I was a stay at home mom. I got to know a lot of the community members by just being a volunteer at different things. I served in Kids Children and Family ministry a few years ago. And so I got to know a lot of people in the community, not necessarily in this space, right, and let alone in this organization. So I got to know a lot of just who they are and what they what they kind of want in life, and what have you and their families and such, before getting into the space where I’m now calling them and asking, you know, hey, let’s chat about what what happened those number of years ago and see if we can’t be a a be able to serve you once again. So a lot of times those conversations were you. It wasn’t necessarily a cold call in in that way, yeah, the good news is, is that, yes, over the last two years, it’s, you know, we’ve really been able to regrow, regrow our members, and bring us back to a more stable financial picture, certainly the relationships we’ve had and we’ve been able to build on with our elected officials and other and whether it be our county or our city, the communities that surround us and really be able to, again, start from the ground, but then Make an active an active work to move forward.
Brandon Burton 20:42
I love that. So what you were talking about? So first of all, it gives a great perspective when you know these people from you know, say, your your previous, you know, before this chamber life, right? So in their personal life and what, what’s meaningful to them, but you’d also before that mentioned about engaging with these individuals that you’re having these conversations with, and being able to have opportunities to reach out to them and say, Can you help me with this project? Can you help me with what we’re doing here? And that engagement, I think, really helps to drive ownership in the outcome of the situation, and I see it as sharing the vision. So you’re sharing the vision with with these Chamber members, potential members, people you’re trying to mend relationships with, and then you’re filling the bus. You’re getting people to take seats on the bus that want to go where the Chamber’s going, and engaging them along the way. And that, I think that’s the way to that’s the way to grow it. That’s the way to grow and build it and and get people to to feel like they’re a part of something special.
Jennifer Hanson 21:46
Absolutely, and there has been a lot, there’s been incredible opportunities that have come here, here to build lately. And I think people are seeing the individuals and organizations both really working hard to to bring our community forward, our region forward, for that matter, and I think that it’s for a long time, just we’ve been in this cave, and I think that, yes, our organization, unfortunately played a part of that, but ultimately we have the from the city, from the county, from the chambers, from the hospital to the having all of these entities really working now together in a completely different way than we did, and in a refresh way to with, In some cases, new leadership. In some cases, not. In any case, it’s just been we’ve really made a concerted effort to come around the same table and say, we’ve, you know, we have to work together in order to make this stuff happen. And it, it doesn’t, it almost doesn’t necessarily matter who’s doing what, because we’re all essentially going to be foundational behind the scenes entities, and it’s going to be our community that that benefits from it and and should have the spotlight on it, right?
Brandon Burton 23:08
And you’re just, you’re convening all the people together doing doing that work so
Jennifer Hanson 23:15
well, Jennifer, exactly where the chain. That’s
Brandon Burton 23:18
right. That’s right, it’s one of those C’s as we shift gears. Here a little bit, I wanted to ask for the listeners. Who are? They may be in a similar boat as you are, and trying to patch some holes as they go, but regardless, trying to take their chamber up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you share with somebody listening who’s trying to achieve that goal?
Jennifer Hanson 23:49
I thought about this question quite a bit, and I think that if you’re if you’re already in a chamber role, I would say, first recognize the incredible impact you can have if you so choose. I think that people want to see an organization that’s purpose is to be servant to have servant leadership and to be there for to help them right, and to help them grow and achieve big things and and to make the big headlines right. And so I think that the Chamber being at that intersection between our community at large and our business community, and just being being right there in that center spot, you have an incredible opportunity to do some big things. I think understanding that fully first and then leaning into whatever you’ve got in front of you to serve and to have that being your focus. I think we can, we can do incredible things then as individuals, but even as we’re going. If that’s where your heart’s at, that it’s going to show through. And if there’s, if there are tough conversations you have to have with folks, or even just, gosh, hard people that you have to deal with in order to get to even build that foundation before you can grow. I invite you to lean in on that, knowing that you’ve got you know you know your value, you know your organization’s value, and and what can be on the other side of this conversation. And so yes, difficult people or difficult situations are are part of our world. And unfortunately, we’re all we’re not. None of us are, are perfect. So understanding, though, that that they’re going being in their community, being in your sphere, they they can either be a hindrance to your work or a helper. And that ultimately, I think, if we can get to where, what goals they have, and the some of the shared opportunities there, you’re going to find, more often than not, that they want to help make great things happen. They just don’t know if they can do that with you. So finding opportunities to do great things together, even if it’s not necessarily, maybe what you know your your number one focus is, or whatever, but finding small ways you guys can work together. I think ultimately we’ll break down those barriers.
Brandon Burton 26:24
Yeah, the challenges will always be there. But I love what you said about recognizing the impact that you can make, and if as an organization, as a chamber, if you can recognize the impact, the connections, all the good that you can do in your community, believe it, and go after it. Go, go get it. So I love that. Well, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Jennifer Hanson 26:54
Well, I think kind of going back on that. I think that it’s chambers understanding what their purpose is to be that that foundational spot in the middle of their community where they’re connected to the business community at large, leaders therein, certainly understanding that their chamber should be for the CEO as much as it should be there for the the guy across the desk or the worker bee, who’s the waitress in the restaurant, what have you. It does not matter who they are within that organization, they have an opportunity to grow because of the Chamber’s work. So whether it being networking events or leadership development opportunities, workforce development initiatives, things like that, all of those opportunities are there for for the entire community, you know, and certainly we, are a member organization and what have you, but really making sure that folks understand that the chamber is there for their entire organization, not just that C suite, who you might have as your contact. So I think that’s where we could make our biggest impact, is if we are value across the board, knowing full well that the CEO has has a completely different set of needs, you know, than than the waitress at the restaurant, but being able to show off the value for those different individuals in different places. And then I think, though just understanding the the quantity and quality of service you can provide in this space, and recognizing that the spotlight should be on your community. And if you’ve got a positive community, or then you have a great chamber in your in your town, I think if you can rest in that. Um, you’ll it will be incredible for your for your organization, as well as for your region. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 29:10
absolutely. Well, Jennifer, this has been great having you on the show. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and commiserate or learn more about how you’re doing things there in Boone County. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect?
Jennifer Hanson 29:29
Yeah, so I’m on LinkedIn, certainly I’m on Facebook there. I’d love to have you follow, follow us from the chambers perspective, too, on both or on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram and then, yeah, otherwise, come to puffer belt days this September.
Brandon Burton 29:48
Yeah, that’s perfect. I will get that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy for people to find you and connect with you. But again, Jennifer, thank you for spending. Time with us today, here on chamber chat podcast, sharing some of your experiences and lessons learned through it. And I just think that the important lessons that come through it and understanding the great value that a chamber has. And I love the comment you made. If you’ve got a great community, it’s a reflection of your chamber. And keep up the good work. So thank you for for sharing this with us today, and I appreciate you spending time Brandon,
Jennifer Hanson 30:27
thanks for having us.
Brandon Burton 30:29
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