Professional Development Support with Matt Owen

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

Brandon Burton 00:00.854
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the podcast, I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community. Our guest for this episode is Matt Owen. Matt serves as the executive director of Chamber Professionals of Ohio, the statewide association dedicated to professional training, development, coaching, and support for Chambers of Commerce professionals across Ohio.

With more than two decades of Chamber CEO experience, brings deep expertise and organizational leadership, economic development, and strategic growth. In his role at CPO, he leads statewide strategic planning, professional development programming, advocacy initiatives, partnership development, and major events designed to strengthen Ohio’s Chamber network. Under Matt’s leadership, CPO has expanded its training offerings and

Enhanced membership engagement and strengthened collaboration with key partners, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and regional chamber networks. He’s passionate about equipping chamber leaders with practical tools, peer connections and innovative resources that help them navigate today’s rapidly evolving business environment. A collaborative and mission driven leader, Matt believes that strong chambers build strong communities.

He’s dedicated to advancing the chamber profession while fostering a supportive statewide network that empowers leaders to grow and lead with confidence. Matt is also a proud U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard the USS Bainbridge as a missile technician. Matt, welcome to Chamber Chat podcast. We’re happy to have you with us today. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the chamber champions and to share something interesting about yourself as well.

and thank you for your service.

Matt Owen 02:00.06
Hey, thank you. Big fan, Brandon. Thank you so much for your Chamber Chat podcast and tuned in several times, not only to check out some of my colleagues here in the state of Ohio, but also some of those great champions that are across our country here. So thank you so much for all that you do for the Chamber world. I don’t know if I have anything exciting to tell you about myself. I’ve spent…

almost 26 years in the chamber industry. I guess maybe something that means a lot to me is I’ve also been a club soccer coach. I was a club soccer coach for 28 years here in the state of Ohio. And my dad was a former semi-professional player, obviously a construction worker back then. You didn’t make any money playing soccer in America in the 50s.

Brandon Burton 02:42.637
Wow.

Matt Owen 02:57.848
sixties and seventies. But I absolutely love soccer, love what’s happening to soccer here in America and how much it’s grown over the past 35 years. Big Columbus crew fan. I will go see FC Cincinnati play as well. But the crew was here first, so they’re near and dear to my heart. So if you see some things up above me here, there’s a

Brandon Burton 03:24.483
Yeah.

Matt Owen 03:24.55
couple of trophies and a couple of balls from teams in the past and I really, really enjoyed it. But I kind of hung up my whistle here a couple of years ago, but I do miss it and loved coaching my kids. And I do have one that’s in college that is playing soccer right now. So I get to enjoy watching him play. So yeah, great.

Brandon Burton 03:46.691
That’s awesome. I’m impressed you’re able to coach club soccer and lead chambers and they both take a lot of time. They both pull you and stretch you thin. So I’m impressed.

Matt Owen 03:52.526
Thank

Matt Owen 03:57.478
They do, yeah. I was fortunate enough I could control my schedule as a soccer coach a little bit. we are a regional, not a national team. just traveling around the Midwest was busy enough, but I really, really enjoyed it. The same way I love, obviously, traveling around in our state and helping chambers become more ineffective in their communities as well.

Brandon Burton 04:24.622
Very good. Well, if you would take a few moments and tell us about Chamber Professionals of Ohio, just to give us an idea of what the organization is and what you strive to do, your mission, your purpose. And I think that’ll help to set the stage for our conversation today.

Matt Owen 04:43.078
Sure. Chamber Professionals of Ohio, we are what many states refer to as a CCE, Chamber Commerce Executives Training and Development Organization. We are housed within the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Not all chamber training organizations across the country are housed with their state chamber. Some are and some are not. Some stand on their own two legs.

Our particular organization has been around for 100 years. We started in 1916. And then over the years, we’ve developed ourselves into really just a great organization where the chambers across the state can get not only coaching and professional training, but we offer services such as board development. We also do a lot of strategic planning.

And then there’s some other fun stuff that we get to do when it comes to how to network, how to control your board in a way in which hopefully is effective working with your board. And then some things that we have throughout the year that we refer to as our of our key events. One is the winter conference that we just came off of.

in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We have a Chamber Day in June, which we share host with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. And then later on in the fall, we will do a leadership summit that will just focus on becoming a better and more effective leader in the state.

Brandon Burton 06:30.988
That’s perfect. That definitely stages our conversation very well. So today we’ll focus the majority of our conversation around professional development support and the importance of that. And we’ll dive into the details of that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

All right, Matt, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, today we’re talking about professional development support. And you’re very much in the throes of that.

But when you think of chambers, I know you’re very tuned in to the chambers in Ohio, but as there’s chambers across the country that are listening to this, what are some of the pieces of advice and counsel that you might have when it comes to professional development and really just furthering themselves as chamber professionals, wouldn’t say chamber leaders, but professionals across the board as they serve within chambers?

Matt Owen 07:30.246
Yeah, I think first it depends on what stage of your career that you’re in. If you’re just coming into the chamber world and you’re in a lead position such as a CEO or executive director, I really highly encourage you to partner with your state CCE and to get some development and training that you need.

Brandon Burton 07:30.701
Yeah.

Matt Owen 07:55.728
They have courses similar in each state, something like your first 100 days in the organization. Those are great courses to have. And there’s kind of a checkbox of information that helps you get acclimated in your position. And then from there on into your second, third, and fourth year, there’s kind of a stage of development, kind of like rounding the bases in baseball.

you know, once you round first and you start heading to second, so you just took chamber 101 and now you’re heading for chamber 201. And those kind of training and development areas in 201 are more mature. You’re starting to talk about a little bit more board development, obviously how to manage your budget more efficiently, how to improve your effectiveness and not only membership.

retention, but also how to gain new members. And then really, you know, once you reach a point in your chamber career where you need more extensive training and development and advocacy and being the voice of business, which chambers are for their community and their members, you can start getting into more public policy and government affairs issues, a lot more mature chambers and mature

Brandon Burton 09:11.585
you

Matt Owen 09:22.364
Um, uh, directors, uh, feel that, uh, that 301 is where you become more of an influencer in your community. Um, a little bit more impact in those areas. Uh, and, uh, I think that that’s kind of a general basis of what most CCEs across the way are doing. And if we, if we look at it in high insight, um, uh, you come full circle again in your career.

26 years in the industry. can tell you that with the way things change so fast in the chamber industry is that I find myself rounding home after rounding third and going back to first base again and starting all over because the way that membership and retention and the way the foundation of things work, they start to change technology-wise and you can really, really find yourself doing things all over again.

Brandon Burton 10:08.974
Thank

Matt Owen 10:20.486
but just in a different way. And it’s not always the same. I think that’s what’s great about the chamber industry and being in the chamber industry all these years is that it changes quickly. It changes probably as fast as it’s ever changing with technology. But I think our chamber executives out there, especially the ones that get to the point where they’re 10, 12, 13 years in, they kind of get burned out.

Brandon Burton 10:22.626
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 10:34.67
Thanks.

Matt Owen 10:50.052
We talk a lot about, you know, how do you, how do you cope with burning out? And, and I hope that, they find ways that are within their organization to get away, refresh, maybe some training and development, maybe some outside conferences will refresh them, and get them back on track.

Brandon Burton 10:57.326
They probably didn’t stick with the organization. So they probably didn’t have the facts. I’m not being too fair.

Brandon Burton 11:09.942
Yeah, so a few weeks ago I’d seen Kyle Sexton had done a thing as a Facebook or LinkedIn post or something just with more of a thought exercise of you know, if I were a new chamber exec, what would I do in the first 100 days? And he went through and broke it down. Who would I meet with? Who would I go visit? What members? What leaders in the community? And just going through it then he opened it up. You what am I missing? And and seeing people’s comments on there is

I think it’s a good thought exercise, even if you’ve been in the industry for 10 or 20 years, to kind of take a step back and say, if I were new in this position, what would I do in my first 100 days? And see, are you still in alignment with what you would do if you were new in the community? Are you building those connections? Because ultimately, you should get to that influencer in your community step.

As you’re a convener of leaders and influencers within your community, you need to be an influencer. So building it up to there, I love that that’s the trajectory that you guys take with these trainings. And burnout, I mean, that is so real. What is, as you guys have approached that topic of burnout, what’s some practical tips or advice that you can share around that?

Matt Owen 12:33.869
Yeah, I think there’s a point to where you can step back a little bit. And then I always find that whether it’s conferences or whether it’s even workshops that you kind of throw yourself back into that that are very basic again and that remind you of, know, why you fell in love with what you do as a chamber.

professional, kind of hitting the reset button a little bit. know, there’s obviously vacation is great, but you kind of come back to the same challenges. And those conferences, workshops can sometimes make you look at those challenges in a different angle, in a different approach. I have always found that conversing and networking with my peers

not just here in the Midwest, but networking with them across the country, utilizing those big conferences like ACCE, ASAE, and conferences such as those. They always kind of refresh me. And then if you’ve been in the industry long enough and you meet somebody that’s going through the same struggles that you went through at one time, and you can offer some assistance or some help,

It really kind of, it helps you feel the value of your experience. Chamber world, especially small chambers can be just a one person show. It could be maybe two people. Many chambers across the state of Ohio here are like that. We have 311 chambers in our state. Many of them are very, very small. They’re 250 members or less. They may have.

either a part-time director or maybe a full-time director with a part-time person. And you’re on your own a lot. if you’re not used to working that way, it can be very draining and it can be overwhelming. So that kind of support often helps the burnout when you can relate with other chamber professionals, you know, either around you or somewhere else in other parts.

Matt Owen 14:59.63
of the country. It always energized me when I felt like I wasn’t alone. Burnout is one big reason, and I’m not just talking about chamber work, but just nonprofit work, especially nonprofit work in a small environment, it can be a huge issue. And we all face, obviously, the balance of work and your private life.

Chamber work is usually extremely busy. My friends and I often say we’re seven to seven, seven days a week. And it can be that way. Those 55 and 60 hour weeks running a small chamber can really drain you. But you really do need to find a way to recharge yourself, energize yourself, and find the drive that you had in the beginning and why you kind of fell in love with it.

Brandon Burton 15:36.748
Yeah.

Matt Owen 15:57.98
That often helps me. I love chatting with my peers. And I’ve had some peers that have been around my entire career. A guest of yours, Janet Tressler Davis, who retired from the Westerville, Ohio chamber just this past year. Janet was one of those I met early in my career, met her at a conference. She already had several years under her belt.

Brandon Burton 16:12.866
Yeah.

Matt Owen 16:25.596
She was one that I could always chime in with, ask questions to, even complain and get things off of my mind. And she was great. And then I found out that there’s a lot more other resources out there, just like Janet, who can assist you. And I think that’s the key in the chamber world is.

Brandon Burton 16:33.582
That’s important. That’s important.

Matt Owen 16:54.35
is finding that support network. And I want here in our state to know that we can provide that for them as well. I know there’s challenges, there’s challenges with every organization, whether it’s for-profit or non-profit. And sometimes they just need somebody to talk to. And I think one of our big initiatives here is we want to be available for that. We want to be here, we want to listen.

It educates us as well to make us a better agency. So yeah, that’s a tough one. Burnout is very real and we deal with it a lot. And I think everybody has their own way of dealing with it and that’s just how I dealt with it.

Brandon Burton 17:43.267
Yeah, so I’ve had the experience a few times where I talked to a chamber executive and they’re, maybe they’ve been in the industry for some time. Maybe some not as long as others, but they maybe disengaged from going to state conferences or engaging with the continued professional development because

You know, they’ve been to, if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to all of them is kind of their attitude. And I don’t learn anything, you know, when I go to these things anymore, I’ve heard a few people say that. And I always have a hard time hearing that because I feel like there’s always something to be learned. And usually it’s through those relationships you build and being able to bounce ideas and hear different approaches, which is largely why this podcast exists. But, what would you say to.

an individual who might have that kind of mindset. I’m thinking of it, they’re probably not listening to this podcast because they’ve heard it all and they’re not going to learn anything. Right. But somebody listening knows who those people are and how can we reach them and help them spread, have that open mind thinking.

Matt Owen 18:52.006
Yeah.

Matt Owen 18:57.798
Yeah, I think two things are very important to that topic that you brought up right there is one is, is you can never stop learning. You can always learn from something. Even if you’re to the point of your career where you’ve got like myself, 20 some years behind you. And the reason why that is is because tactics strategies may seem similar to what you’ve done in the past.

but how you utilize the technology that we’re going through. We’re going through another power technology age of AI. And I really don’t want to scare anyone, but it is going to make a huge impact on our industry. I don’t know how that’s going to affect everything that we do, but if you pick out ways in which that technology can assist you in…

Brandon Burton 19:35.128
Yeah.

Matt Owen 19:57.154
in everyday work. And that’s everything from like how you’re working with your CRM. It’s a lot of data. There’s a lot of matrix that go into that. And I feel that if you don’t take time to learn that, because our national conference are offering those, that type of training now.

And then I think too is, that I do think for those seasoned veterans out there who might have that attitude of I don’t learn anything from those things anymore. Well, I think it’s your responsibility to give back to the industry. I think it’s very, very important. And I want to give back. I want to get back in the areas in which I struggled and maybe didn’t understand or.

Brandon Burton 20:40.578
I love that. Yeah.

Matt Owen 20:52.506
Some things at the time I didn’t value enough and didn’t pay attention to enough. I think mentors regardless are needed out there. So I would encourage a veteran out there in the chamber industry, whether they’re a veteran in a regional chamber or a Metro chamber that’s in a leadership position, you could be a director, a VP, or you could be the CEO.

I think it’s your responsibility to really help the next generation of chamber leaders by giving back.

Brandon Burton 21:28.322
Yes, I’m so glad you touched on that with the giving back aspect because there’s so much that one has to offer when they have that sort of experience in the industry and making a career out of it. And it’s not a place of ego either to say, I’ve been doing this for 40 years. I need to go get, it’s not about that, but it’s just supporting the industry. It’s helping to lift up and sharing your experience.

Matt Owen 21:47.964
you

Brandon Burton 21:57.411
I’m a firm believer that as you do that, you keep learning things too, you know, as you share your experience and then hear how the newcomers in the industry see things, there’s a convergence that comes together where you’re like, yeah, I learned something, right? So I think it happens all the time. What else in the professional development arena do you want to make sure we touch on in this conversation today?

Matt Owen 22:12.805
Exactly.

Matt Owen 22:24.55
Well, outside of just never stop learning and always continuing to expand your knowledge in your profession. I think it’s important more than any time now is to learn how to build the team around you because that ultimately reflects the entire organization. think right now what I’m seeing is we’re having a little bit of difficulty.

getting the right board members in place on chamber boards across our state. I’m realizing with my friends in my position in other states are dealing with things such as good board management and what they should be doing. And I actually, I want to make sure that I’m clear on this is that, you know, the staff manages and the board governs and we’ve really found that that is being mixed up. We’ve had boards that are what we refer to as working boards.

and they’re kind of getting into the managing portion of it and it’s causing some a lot of issues. The board really needs to know what their role is. So educating those boards out there in our state as to be what their role is so they can be more effective and what they do. And then training and developing your chamber leaders to be

Brandon Burton 23:31.32
Yeah.

Matt Owen 23:53.724
to be better executive directors in how to manage. If they grow from, let’s say, 300 members to 800 members over the course of, let’s say, 15 years, they’re probably gonna be doing things like hiring staff members, expanding into areas in which they did not have before, hiring a marketing or a social media person.

hiring more membership people, you might have a marketing slash events coordinator now, which is becoming a little bit more normal, is that you’ll have a dual role in that area. But also just the fact that they may not know how to manage and helping them learn how to manage and lead their staff, I see has become a gap in our leadership qualities here.

Brandon Burton 24:49.741
Yeah.

Matt Owen 24:50.628
And we want to kind of, we want to bridge the gap. We want to make them better managers, better effective leaders of their organization, especially when it’s growing. And you’re going to go through growing pains. If you’re doing well and you’re expanding and you’re adding more programs at your chamber of commerce and more non dues revenue is coming in, you’re in a great position to grow.

In some chamber executive directors, they don’t know how to grow. And when it comes to staff, and hopefully we can bridge the gap with that as well. those are some of the areas in which I think we need to be better at. And I’m realizing that in my position in our organization here in Ohio, we need to be better in addressing those needs as well.

Brandon Burton 25:35.512
Yes.

Brandon Burton 25:49.987
Yeah, that makes sense. In fact, our previous episode was all about board development, the relationship between the Chamber Executive and the board, because there is some muddy water in between there, or maybe you have an overreaching board or maybe a Chamber Executive who doesn’t know how to quite, you know, control or interact with, we’ll say, with their board. So when it comes to board development and training, what

resources, what outlets would you put out there as options for chamber staff to be able to help their board understand? Because it doesn’t seem appropriate necessarily for the chamber executive and CEO to say, okay, board, here’s how you do this when they work for the board. So there’s this weird dynamic where, yes, they need that training and development, but how do you provide it and who is best suited to do that?

Matt Owen 26:50.17
Yeah, we have a short, it’s a three hour board development course that we do with the board of directors. And we kind of actually separate the board and the staff and so that they make sure each one knows what the role is. And then we actually bring them back in the room after each one of them has their session. I will tell you as a resource, Brendan, I am a big fan of Bob Harris.

He’s an IOM teacher. He’s the one that pretty much put the saying, you know, the, I’ve got it up on my whiteboard here. Board governs, staff manages. Bob Harris, I had the absolute and utter honor of meeting him in my first IOM class at Villanova University. It was like a celebrity sighting for me. I have like, I have like stolen so much.

Brandon Burton 27:22.008
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 27:43.554
Hey.

Matt Owen 27:47.672
information from him over the years. felt like when I met him, I was going to have to tell him that I’ve stole so much information from him. And he said, that’s absolutely awesome. I’m so glad that you have. He is he’s kind of the developer and mastermind of how a board and staff should operate. He’s got some really good information, even on his site. He’s got a he’s got a great approach.

Brandon Burton 27:53.07
Thank

with the brains.

Matt Owen 28:17.538
a simple teaching method and I’ve used a lot of his points in my training when we sit down and talk about the role for the board, the role for the staff. He just makes it really simple, makes it really easy. It isn’t complicated. And I think it’s very, very effective. I learned it early in my career. There is a lot of confusion out there. Some board members

They have no board training whatsoever. They’re just volunteers in the community and they come onto a chamber board or whatever nonprofit board and they really don’t know exactly what their role is. And I will also say the same thing to new executive directors coming in who maybe this is their first time in the nonprofit sector. This is their first time obviously being in a chamber boardroom.

Brandon Burton 28:58.562
Yeah.

Matt Owen 29:13.916
and they don’t know how a board meeting operates. And so we have just as much to train our new chamber directors as we do board development. I don’t know, do you know Bob Harris? Have you heard of Bob?

Brandon Burton 29:25.614
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 29:30.562
Yeah, yeah, I’ve been in rooms with him at different trainings. Yeah, yeah, he’s fantastic. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Owen 29:35.12
Yeah, he is fantastic. Yeah, I might as well call Michael Jordan because that’s how I think of Bob. In our world, he’s a superstar, man. He’s a celebrity.

Brandon Burton 29:51.277
Yeah, that’s fantastic. Great plug for him. Well, Matt, I like asking everyone I have on the show on behalf of the listeners who are trying to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them as they strive towards that goal?

Matt Owen 30:07.824
Yeah, I think it’s narrowing down those top three priorities for your Chamber of Commerce and then putting you in order and making sure that you actually put together a strategic plan, a strategic plan that has benchmarks, one that you don’t just design this strategic plan and it’s set somewhere. You need to run parallel with that strategic plan and those are initiatives.

and, and then I think obviously the big thing is, that continue to get your board of directors as well as your staff. and then everybody in your community that, is a viable entity with your chamber of commerce together, at least one time of year. And maybe it can just be open discussion on the needs of the community, what the community business community is struggling with.

and get that feedback because those are the things that are going to drive you. You can’t drive in the dark. You got to know where you’re going. And the only way you’re going to do that is you’re going to have to find out. You’re going to need to bring your community leaders, your business leaders together and then carve out your path. And I think that’s probably one of the biggest things I learned early in my career is don’t drive in the dark.

You need to get your business leaders together. You need to hear from them. And then you decide, okay, now this is where we’re going. And I think that’s a huge, huge impact. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 31:48.131
Yeah, absolutely. Well, as we look to the future of Chambers of Commerce, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?

Matt Owen 31:57.142
I think our chambers are going to start collaborating a lot more with their economic development, their CVBs. I think we’re seeing a trend here where many of them are starting to be housed underneath one roof. And I know that could be a trend that’s short-lived, but I am starting to see the effectiveness of those entities coming together.

under one roof. And I know that it may not be, let’s say four or five chambers merging together to become one chamber, which we’ve seen a few of that, a of those happen in our state as well. When there’s a very, very rural state, county in our state and maybe two or three chambers come together as one. But I do think that I’m seeing the combined resources effort

Brandon Burton 32:39.032
Yeah.

Matt Owen 32:55.868
And that’s putting your priorities together and straight with your chamber, your CBB, your economic development agencies. And I think that’s, I see that being more of a future evolving state of the Chamber of Commerce.

Brandon Burton 33:17.016
Yeah, I see a lot of wisdom in it when it can align, you know, when those incentives are aligned.

Matt Owen 33:22.02
Yeah, and it’s not easy to do, but we’ve seen some really good success stories over the past several years coming out of COVID here in our state. And they’re operating very, very efficiently. And they’re not easy to construct, but the more construction of these entities, the better path we can show other communities of how they did it. And they can be a model. anyways,

Brandon Burton 33:38.061
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 33:47.661
Yeah.

Matt Owen 33:52.4
That’s my futuristic path for what chambers are going to look like in the future. I think there’s going to be more collaboration and merging.

Brandon Burton 33:57.484
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 34:05.134
I like it. Well, Matt, I wanted to make sure you had an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners. You might want to reach out and connect and learn more about your approaches and things you’ve shared. Where would you point them?

Matt Owen 34:18.7
Absolutely. You can always find me online. Our website is www.chamberprosohio.com. I am on LinkedIn. I would be glad to connect with you on my LinkedIn page. There’s a lot of Matt Owens out there in the world. So I’m the Matt Owen with Chamber Professionals of Ohio or the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. And then

My email address is mowen@ohiochamber.com.

Brandon Burton 34:54.478
Perfect, we’ll get all that in the show notes and hopefully link the right LinkedIn account so people can find you easy that way. But Matt, thank you so much for setting aside some time and spending it with us here on the Chamber Chat podcast. I appreciate your insights and experience and encouragement to those that are here listening. I appreciate it.

Matt Owen 35:15.004
Thank you, thank you for all that you do again, Brandon. Thank you so much for this podcast.

If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts, Spotify or now on YouTube. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your feed each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.