Chamber Burnout with Jamie Beasley

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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 Jamie Beasley. Jamie is a passionate rural revitalization leader and innovative economic developer. Jamie serves as the Executive Director of the Pike County Chamber & Economic Development Corporation in Illinois, where she leads efforts around small business support, tourism, and strategic growth. She’s also the founder of Econ Dev Ops, a virtual assistant agency designed specifically for small chambers and economic development organizations.

Jamie brings a unique perspective as the first Economic Development Center Executive Director in the U.S. to become a Crowdfund Better® Certified Advisor, helping local businesses access capital through crowdfunding. With a master’s in Economic Development and continued training through the OU EDI program, Jamie is all about practical solutions and impactful results for rural communities. Jamie, 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.

Jamie Beasley 2:16
Well. Thank you very much. Brandon, I’m excited to be on here something interesting about me is that my my journey through the chamber slash economic development world has been bumpy because the first two. This is my third position in this industry, and my first two were both cut short after less than six months due to a lack of funding. So I like and I moved for these positions. So, like, I’ve been all around the country just trying to work in this industry.

Speaker 1 2:57
Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:00
you kind of been burned twice, but you still believe in it. You still absolutely

Jamie Beasley 3:04
forward, yeah, absolutely. I believe in what we’re trying to do. It’s just figuring out the funding that can be an issue, as we know now very well,

Brandon Burton 3:16
yeah, exactly, well, and I’m sure that becomes somewhat of a driver for you, too, at this point in your career to make sure things work and make sure the funding is coming in to make that program of work continue.

Jamie Beasley 3:30
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So hopefully, fingers crossed that we’re good here. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:38
well, tell us a little bit about the Pike County Chamber and EDC, just give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Jamie Beasley 3:51
So we are a like we are both a chamber and Economic Development Corporation with two different kind of membership groups. But between both, we have around 175 members. We have a revenue or a budget. I have around 100,000 a little over that, the Economic Development Corporation, absorbed the chamber last year into its fold. So in that process, there’s been confusion and a rebuilding. So we’ve kind of, I mean, we have members that came over, of course, from the chamber, but we lost some, and now we’ve got to show them that we’re still offering, you know, great services, and we’re great assets to the business and the community. So we’re kind of in a rebuilding mode, yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:53
yeah. It sounds like it an opportunity, I guess, for making sure that Brandon. Is hitting right in the community and getting the messaging across about what it is you guys do and what you provide and the impact they make in the community. So were they? Were they two separate organizations, the chamber and EDC, before the EDC absorbed the chamber,

Jamie Beasley 5:16
they were i, so I’m not the chamber has been around for, you know, a long time. The EDC has been around for about 25 years. I don’t know what caused the chamber to decide we don’t want to do this on our own anymore. Um, but they did, and I have heard since I stepped into this role, and I know started doing monthly networking because that had dropped off in monthly newsletters, because that had dropped off and just Facebook and stuff like that. I have heard numerous times how happy people are to be seeing activity and engagement. So I don’t know what had happened before, but it’s, I think, proof positive that people really like to see the chamber active and engaged in the community like it does matter, right, right?

Brandon Burton 6:13
So our topic for our discussion today is is going to be one that I think a lot of chamber leaders can resonate with a lot of chamber staff can resonate with when it comes to the idea of chamber burnout, I think we all come across it from time to time. Sometimes it hits a little harder than other times, but I think it’s important to have a strategy in place, to have a way to be able to face the burnout as it comes, because it will come if it hasn’t yet, and if it has come, you know exactly what we’re talking about, but we’ll dive in much deeper into this conversation as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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Brandon Burton
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All right, Jamie, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about chamber burnout. So it’s, it may be best just to hear from your experience what’s been, what’s been that, how’s that looked in your career, that that burnout? How’s that you have reared its ugly head, and what kind of solutions have you figured out for it?

Jamie Beasley 10:27
Well, in my my journey through this industry, I have noted that in all my positions, and I’m have heard other directors say similar things, that they’re doing it all. You know, we’re all doing it all, like, maybe, if you’re lucky, you have, like, a part time assistant or something to help you. But a lot of us are, you know, we’re the director, we’re the administrative assistant, we’re the membership driver. You know, we’re doing all the things we’re and we’re planning events, we’re working on tourism, we’re, it’s a lot and, I mean, and that’s certainly the case for me as well. I mean, I’m in charge of tourism and the chamber and Economic Development Corporation, and I am the administrative assistant as well. So it can definitely be overwhelming. And there are certainly days where you just want to throw up your hands and be like, No more. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 11:36
I know when there’s a there’s times on my computer I’ve got way too many tabs open and trying to focus on what it is that I’m doing at that moment, I’m like, Hold on, I gotta close out some tabs, because this is completely overwhelming. And as a chamber leader, as a chamber staff, even, you know, sometimes those tabs, you just can’t close them. They’re just always open. And how have you found to be effective to try to to manage all these open tabs and distractions that can come your way at any moment that they take you off course of what the the main purpose is, or the main thing at hand that you’re you’re focused on.

Jamie Beasley 12:14
Well, I mean, for me, the key has really been to bring in help. I mean, it started with a couple of interns just working a few hours a week to help with social media, and even something simple, like, like social media and, you know, asking them to, hey, here’s a post. Please. Schedule this. Put it together and schedule it. Just that takes a load off of your mind, and it just gives you a little chance to breathe and and I know, I mean, I’ve heard plenty of of chamber directors, you know, talk about the same thing, the overload, the doing everything and experiencing the just even the little bit of pressure that took off. Having these two interns to help with social media, it kind of led me to the idea of because I have worked as a virtual assistant, and it, it just left me like we need virtual assistants. I mean, most of us, I mean the smaller chambers, we can’t afford a full time administrative assistant, you know, and the benefits and all of the things, but maybe we can afford somebody part time. So I I started building that. I started looking for contractors who could do the things that I need done. And I figure if I needed them done, other chamber, like event planning, social media, general admin. So that’s been how i That’s how I dealt with, yeah, bringing in help bring I mean, that’s really, I don’t know any other way to just get it all done.

Brandon Burton 14:14
I think that’s great. I think you know so often you’re wearing so many different hats, right? And for the example, social media. Yes, that’s on the to do list. Yes, we all understand social media is important. You need to have the presence out there. But when you’re being pulled 18 different ways, and that social media thing just keeps pinging you, like, hey, you need to do this. You need to do this. Well, the time that it would take you to do it, and the expertise not not knock docking anybody’s, you know, capabilities of social media, but if it’s somebody’s wheelhouse where that’s what they do day in and day out of social media, they can knock it out and move on to the next thing and check it off the list for you. So it’s not hovering in your mind and thinking, Oh, I got to get to this thing and and. You know, maybe four times as long to do the thing that it would to have this intern do it, or the the assistant, or whatever it may be, and, and I think that’s true. You know, with a lot of these different aspects you you mentioned, like event planning and things like that, where, when you’re wearing all the different hats, it’s very hard to get in that zone of planning an event, because then the phone rings and you’re off to, you know, put out this fire and that fire, and it’s really hard to get the traction and get things moving. So, yeah, I can definitely see the value in bringing in help. So you had mentioned, you know, bringing in interns. You mentioned virtual assistants. One thought that comes to mind is, you know, maybe at a chamber, they’ve got an ambassador program and some ambassadors who will raise their hand and take on, you know, some of these tasks and help lighten the load. Maybe it’s a board member who who aligns well with with some of these things that can help. I don’t know. Are there other other ideas or approaches or things you’ve seen to be successful? Sure.

Jamie Beasley 16:06
I mean, a lot of a lot of chambers use volunteers. I mean, obviously your board is volunteer. And you know, if you volunteers are a great source of help. If you can get their time. They’re just, you know, they’re volunteers, so you can’t be demanding on. You must do this at this time and be here and whatever you know, or you risk driving them away. Now they can be great. I mean, they can be great no matter what, but especially if you’re like, working on a project, that’s something they really care about. Oh, yeah. I mean, I have a volunteer right now who he moved away from town, and then he came back, and now he just wants to see that his town to be as great as it can be. And so he’s coming in with all these ideas that he gathered from his, you know, life journey, and he’s so we’re working together. And, I mean, he is a breath of fresh air, and I am so grateful for just that level of enthusiasm, and, you know, willingness to do whatever needs to be done to make the thing that we’re working on happen. So, I mean, volunteers are definitely something to take advantage of if you have access to them.

Brandon Burton 17:34
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And I think, to your point of if it’s something that strikes a chord with that volunteer that is in their wheelhouse, so they can get get excited about, for example, if you’ve got that Ambassador that is at every ribbon cutting, and they’re excited about it and they want to support the new business, maybe they would help by posting that on on social media, you know, some pictures and some captions, and put it on social Media, because that’s in their wheelhouse. That’s what they enjoy. Kind of touts being there and all that. So I think looking for those opportunities where you can lean upon those people, where they are excited about that task that maybe you’re not as excited about anymore, right? And

Jamie Beasley 18:17
I think that’s really the importance, is sometimes we like, we try to find volunteers to do like, maybe, I don’t know, fill certain hours or whatever. And what we really need to be focusing on is finding volunteers who are passionate about a thing and okay, you want to work like, it doesn’t have to be just one volunteer that comes in four hours a week or whatever. I mean, that’s great, if you can find it, but it could just, yeah, be one person who really wants to do social media, or one person who loves planning events, or one one person who you know you kind of have to because they’re volunteers like fit into their life in the best way, because we have a tendency to be like, well, the volunteer needs to fit into our organization, our schedule and the way we do things, but they’re the volunteer, so you need to make sure it’s a benefit to them and something that they enjoy doing, or you’re not going to have a volunteer for very long.

Brandon Burton 19:18
Yeah, it’s definitely a different approach than what you did with the staff or a paid, paid helper, right, right?

Jamie Beasley 19:25
Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean,

Speaker 1 19:29
sorry, go ahead.

Jamie Beasley 19:30
Some places like there are people who, you know, maybe they want somebody in there to answer the phone from like, eight to noon, and there are people who might agree to do that. I’m not saying you can never do that. I’m just saying make sure that you take your volunteers interest into consideration.

Brandon Burton 19:49
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you’ve definitely have seen this as a pain point in your career, which, which has led to, as I mentioned in. Bio being the founder of econ DevOps, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what econ DevOps is and how it helps to overcome some of this chamber burnout that so many of us face.

Jamie Beasley 20:13
Absolutely So econ DevOps is a virtual assistant agency specifically focused on chambers and economic development organizations. So you know, we’re we are there to help with social media, event planning, newsletters, chasing invoices, just any and everything that chamber directors try to do. I mean, as long as we can do it on the computer, we can help with it. And it’s just, I felt like, I mean, virtual assistants have been around for years. And for some reason, it felt like chambers and EDOs, like small videos. Didn’t think about that they can use virtual assistants to like, the connection had just never been made. So all I really did was make that connection, because I have worked as a virtual assistant and as a chamber director. So I know I would love to have somebody do social media. I would love to have somebody do event planning, and so I created that because I also think at least this is what has been my experience. I have a certain skill set, like I am friendly. I love going out and talking to people and brainstorming and all these things. I am really not as detail oriented as some of these responsibilities need. So it takes me longer, and I procrastinate because I don’t want to do it, because I don’t enjoy it. And so having somebody that can come in and like, likes doing that thing and is detail oriented makes a world of difference. I mean, I hired one of my VAs to help me to with econ DevOps, because I was like, I know these are not the things I’m strong at, and so please help me do those things so that I can focus on the things that I am strong at, right? And I think that is as much a part of burnout as doing all the things, is doing things that you’re not good at and you don’t enjoy, and then you procrastinate on doing them, and so then that’s like hanging over your head and you’re stressing about that, and you know, you finally get it done. But you know, it’s just, it’s so much. It is so much. Directors do so much. I mean, not just directors, all of the chamber staff, because they’re all doing one thing, right? You know? I mean, it kind of all the directors, the face the director is the one that has to talk to the board, and it’s a lot, and it really can just be incredibly overwhelming. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:05
so I’ve, I’ve done this exercise before with, if I remember it right, you take, like, a piece of paper and fold it into quadrants, so you got four sections to it, and then in one section, you write down, you know, all the things with your job that you enjoy, you know that you enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you’re writing down all the things that you really don’t enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you write all the things that you personally have to do, like because of your title, your responsibilities, the role, whatever it is you have to do these things. And then another, that final square, all those things that you do that you don’t have to be the one doing it. And I think going through that sort of an exercise can help to see okay, if I can offload some of this in all the variety of different ways that you mentioned, that leaves more bandwidth for me to do the things that I enjoy doing, and the things that I have to do in a much better and efficient manner. And just it just opens that bandwidth and frees the brain space and all of that. So, yeah,

Jamie Beasley 24:12
that’s a great, a great exercise from figuring out what you should not be doing. I mean, I just would tell people make a list of all the things, but I like your idea better.

Brandon Burton 24:27
Well, give me credit the first two times, then it’s yours to own for however you want to use it to do so. So you’d mentioned virtual assistants, and in the past, as I’ve heard of virtual assistants. I’ve always pictured them being overseas, you know, in the Philippines or so, right? Yeah. So for a chamber that can be a US based chamber that can be a difficult hurdle to think, well, let me bring on this VA, who’s in the Philippines, who may not, maybe not, everything translates the same way when. Got a chamber member who’s calling about something on Main Street, and maybe it just doesn’t resonate the same way, or then they find out, hey, I hired somebody overseas, and we’re the Chamber of Commerce. We should be. It just has a negative connotation to it. So I like the idea of presenting yourself as a virtual assistant, but specialized with chambers of commerce and EDOs and being able to understand the language and be not just English, but the language the chamber and Edo language,

Jamie Beasley 25:31
right? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, and that’s part of our deal is we only hire us based virtual assistants, you know, partially for the language and differences, you know, because translation can cause problems, but also just for the security issues. Like, I mean, not that there’s, you know, a big security threat in the Philippines, but like, it’s just you know you never know. You never know. You never know exactly you never know. So all, yeah, all of our VAs are US based and we also, what I really, I like about our process is that we try to match a client with a VA like, personality wise and work style wise, not just like, Okay, well, here’s somebody best, a lot to you. But you know, like talking to the client, talking to the VA, then having them talk, make sure they get along and like each other and can work, you know, feel like they’re going to work well together and and so I feel like it makes it, it’s, I mean, it’s kind of like hiring an employee, only they’re not an employee. But, you know, you get to know, if, like, because if you sit down and talk to somebody for five minutes and you’re like, I cannot work with them, well, let’s, yeah, let’s move on to somebody else. So, I mean, it’s like a whole process, because we want to make sure that your assistant is not another source of stress for you, right? Because we don’t need any more sources of stress. We have plenty,

Brandon Burton 27:14
right? I like that. So essentially, you’re a matchmaker. That’s what you have, yes, essentially,

Jamie Beasley 27:19
essentially. I mean, we all heard of, like, head hunters for, you know, C suite executives. That’s just common. I mean, I’m not that. I’m, you know, a headhunter for admin, but I am a, you know, like, I can find you a good virtual assistant, and then you don’t have to worry about, you know, benefits, or workers comp, or any of those things. And so because that was one of the things we ran into with the interns that I didn’t think about, was workers comp and the State Revenue Office, like all those things that I hadn’t thought about, and and it made it more expensive than we were expecting. And if, when you hire a contractor, you don’t have to do that.

Speaker 1 28:06
So, yeah, those are good, good points.

Brandon Burton 28:10
Yeah, again, it’s offloading headaches, right? Offloading

Jamie Beasley 28:15
headaches, that is what we want to be doing. Offloading headaches. That’s right, there’s just so many other things that we get we can focus on, right?

Brandon Burton 28:26
So this, this next question is, it may be right in your wheelhouse, but for chambers listening who want to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you share with them to try to accomplish that goal.

Jamie Beasley 28:44
Well, I mean, I really feel like not trying to do it all yourself is one of the biggest things you can do. And it can be a virtual assistant, it can be a volunteer, it can be an intern, it can be a combination of all three. We’re so used to doing so much with so little, and I mean, directors burn out, and that’s not good for our organization. I mean, obviously it’s not good for us. It’s not good for our organization. It makes the chamber look bad when you’re having to hire a new director every two years. Yeah, you know. So just Yeah, regardless of how you go about it, find somebody to help you, volunteer intern, hiring whatever. Just stop trying to do it all by yourself because you can’t. And yeah, y’all are going to burn out.

Brandon Burton 29:46
And that’s a great plug right there for anyone listening, to share with their board is it really has a negative impact when you see the chamber executive that you know turning over every couple years, when you’re thinking, How do. Get these members to renew their membership year after year, but yet the leader of the organization can’t stick around for more than two years. What does that say about the organization? So being able to bring in help is huge, to be able to have that longevity, and it trickles down into membership and sponsorships and everything else, because it shows the health of the organization. So 100% Yeah, absolutely. Great tip. I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Jamie Beasley 30:37
I think that chambers could have a huge role in our communities. Moving forward, I feel like in the past, not the chambers weren’t important, but especially smaller chambers were like parades, and I don’t know stuff and things like

Brandon Burton 30:58
parties, pageants and parades, right? Yes, thank you.

Jamie Beasley 31:02
And I feel like now, with the way everything is changing so fast that chambers really could help business like help walk businesses through these changes, guide businesses through these changes. I mean, whether it’s finding an AI expert to do a workshop for your businesses, or, you know, finding something to teach people how to make graphics on Canva, or, you know, do social media or reels or Tiktok. I mean, I feel like chambers really do have a future if they embrace their role as leader and educator and advocate, of course, rather than parties, parades and pageants, yeah,

Brandon Burton 31:51
yeah, all those things that you mentioned are things that will help move the needle for a business. Absolutely, you know, having a parade and that community involvement. It’s nice. It can serve a purpose. And depending on the community, maybe you do that. But those things that move the needle and really help a business move forward, especially with the speed that we see in the economy these days, with AI and everything else, it’s so important to be, you know, forward thinking, and be able to be that educator and that convener of ideas and leaders as well. So absolutely. Yeah, well, Jamie, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about your approach, or econ DevOps, or anything that you’ve covered today. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect. Well,

Jamie Beasley 32:43
you can either connect with me on LinkedIn, that’s a great way, or our website is econdevops.com and our email address is Hello@econdevops.com. So any one of those will get you straight to me. So I would love to talk to anybody, whether it’s about Econ Dev Ops or they just want to be like, Yeah, I’m burnt out too, and I get it and, you know, yeah, exactly

Brandon Burton 33:17
good with whatever, yeah, yeah. Chamber, chamber folks need support. You know, that’s for

Jamie Beasley 33:22
sure, absolutely

Brandon Burton 33:25
well, I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, so it’ll make it easy for listeners to find that and connect with you. But Jamie, I want to thank you for spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast and and thank you for the work you’re doing to help overcome the burnout throughout the industry. I appreciate it

Jamie Beasley 33:46
My pleasure. Thank you for having me on it’s been great.

Brandon Burton 33:51
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