Staff Retention with Jessica Welch

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

Episode 54 — Staff Retention with Jessica Welch
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Jessica Welch
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.884 Brandon Burton
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.
00:16.28 Brandon Burton
He typically runs between 15 to 20 miles a week. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, your host, and it's my goal to help introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. This is episode 54 of Chamber Chat Podcast, and today we're happy to have Jessica Welch with us. Who's the VP of operations at the Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce in California? And just a side note, maybe interesting fact, is I actually lived in Irvine about 15 years ago. never met Jessica while I was there, but but I did live in Irvine. So it just shows what a small world the the chamber community is. But Jessica began her career at the ch in the chamber industry in 2007 with the Greater Irvine Chamber. as an executive assistant to the president and CEO, working closely with the Board of Directors, Executive and Governmental Affairs Committees. In 2012, she was promoted to Programs Director, where she managed at all greater urban chamber events, generating over 30% of the annual budget. In July of 2017, Jessica was promoted to Senior Director of Operations, overseeing investor relations, member services, events, Office management and strategic planning. In September 2018, she was promoted to Vice President of Operations, at which time she spearheaded the efforts, resulting in the Chamber earning a five-star accreditation by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She was recognized by the California Women's Leadership Association, a statewide organization committed to bringing together influent influential women to effect meaningful change in our communities. As a twenty eighteen Woman to Watch, Jessica serves on the board of the Western Association of Chamber Executives, the WACE Foundation, the WACE Academy Steering Committee, and is a regular speaker at the annual conferences. She graduated from WACE's three-year academy in twenty sixteen. Jessica received the WACE's Gerald W. Hathaway Award in february twenty nineteen.
02:39.542 Brandon Burton
Recognized for significant contributions to chamber and community development, as well as the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives 2019 40 under 40 award. She serves on the ACCE Idea Lab Task Force as well as her Metro Major Senior Staff Peer Group and is a graduate from the U.S. Chamber West Institute for Organization Management. Jessica currently studies at Bradman University and resides in Tuston, California. Where she serves on the board of her daughter's softball league. Today, as Jessica's with us on the on the podcast, we're going to be talking about the importance of staff retention and how to go about retaining those great employees you have at your chamber. And we'll dive right into this conversation as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor. Every chamber is looking for new ways to increase their non-dues revenue. Has your chamber found a good affinity program? I have a great affinity program to offer your chamber that will continue to increase in revenue year after year. I want to introduce you to Swipe It for all of your credit card processing needs. Swipe It has a unique affinity program that 1. Lowers your credit card processing fees at the chamber, 2 Helps your chamber members be more profitable, and three, provides recurring non-dues revenue to your chamber. To learn more, please visit chamberchatpodcast.com slash C C for credit card. Again, Chamberchatpodcast.com slash C C and get swiping with swipe it. Okay, Jessica, we are back. Thank you for joining us today. on ChamberTap Podcast. If you would please say hello to the audience and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know Jessica Welch a little bit better.
04:36.078 Jessica Welch
Hi Brandon, thank you for having me on the podcast today. And hi everybody. I I significantly realized that I need to cut down my bio quite a bit. That was pretty extensive. And I sat here for quite some time trying to figure out what interesting thing I could share. And I had a little help. I do have an impressive amount of shoes, probably more than I have clothes, and I consider myself a Netflix junkie.
05:01.25 Brandon Burton
All right. A Netflix junkie with a lot of shoes to wear. So that's that's interesting. I always Yeah, it could be. There there are worse habits out there. All right, Jessica. If you could just take a moment and share with us a little bit about the Greater Irvine Chamber, maybe an example of the the size, location, budget, kind of where you sit, and about the Irvine community in general. So we can all relate a little bit better to.
05:32.28 Jessica Welch
Sure. So we have eighteen team members here, largest we've ever been. We've been experiencing s significant growth over the past three years or so. Our budget is four point six million. Our organization is unique among chambers in that it includes destination Irvine, often referred to as a CBB. they partner with the tourism and hospitality industry to brand and promote Irvine as a destination for groups. For sporting events, leisure visitors, and business travelers. So I'm sure you've run into a lot of chambers that have CVBs associated. Those are typically your larger ones, and we're very fortunate to have such a great partnership. They're housed right in the same building with us, just a couple doors down from my office. We have 750 members. 30% of our members are outside of Irvine, hence why we changed our name to Greater Irvine Chamber just a couple of years ago. Irvine is considered the heart of Orange County. It's about 15 minutes from Disneyland. Our organization was also to toot our own horn named Best Place to Work in Orange County for two consecutive years. We're really proud of that. I think that's what inspires me to talk about these kinds of topics because during that process, all of our employees were surveyed individually. So the winners that are chosen for this particular award by the Orange County Business Journal, it they're all based on what their employees say about working there. So that's kind of a pride pride moment for us.
06:58.774 Brandon Burton
Yeah, that's awesome. I know I know you guys are doing great things there at the Greater Irvine Chamber, but it it doesn't hurt that you're in a great location. I mean, it doesn't i i there's not a a more beautiful area than than that part of Southern California, Orange County. Absolutely. You've got the mountains, you've got the beach, you got everything right there. So it is a great location. And for those of you who haven't been to Irvine, it's like like Jessica said, it is very close to Disneyland, John Wayne Airport and It really just really is a great location, lots of good shopping. So go visit and spend lots of money there too. We'll take good. That's right. So as we get on to our topic for discussion today, we we're gonna focus our discussion around staff retention. Now, I know that this topic is not addressed very often in the chamber industry, but there is a lot of resources that go into hiring a new staff member, a lot of training. for new employees. So why do you think this topic is not addressed very often and why is it so important to you?
08:06.446 Jessica Welch
Well, you know, you think about working for a chamber of commerce, I feel like we all have a pretty strong love for what we do. let's be frank, no one's in it for the money, you know. Yeah, exactly. It's a passionate job. Most chambers just can't offer competitive salaries. And so what this discussion is about is compensating for that and how do we retain the top talent without having top dollar to go along with it? And to your question, I think
08:17.616 Brandon Burton
Like a school teacher.
08:35.789 Jessica Welch
Part of the reason that this isn't discussed very often is because look, we're busy people. We're busy trying to hit our membership numbers. We're trying to run events. You know, a lot of us are just flying by the by our hats at that point and trying to to have a discussion about staff retention kind of seems to take the back burner. So I'm I'm seeing a lot more focus on this as I attend other conferences and events and I love that I'm I'm seeing it kind of come to the front burner. So hopefully I can try and do that for some of our chamber friends as well.
09:07.522 Brandon Burton
Yeah, and you mentioned that in the chamber industry, you don't necessarily get paid for the kind of quality that you put out there and and for really the impact that you have in the community. And for those of you that follow Frank Kenny online, probably through Facebook is where most people associate with Frank Kenney, but he had put out an article a few months back that I remember reading through that he had mentioned how chamber CEOs the salary that they get paid is usually very drastically less, much drastic, much less, what am I trying to say here? Much less than that of for example, a school superintendent or city manager or others that are in their same circle of you know network and often working towards some of the same goals. And his the whole purpose of that article was trying to kind of move that pendulum to where chamber people should be paid what they deserve. And so I know that's a a topic and discussion, you know, beyond our pay grade and and for a different day. But i i it just knowing that that fact is out there, I know it it helps to get creative in the benefits that are offered and ways that you go about retaining employees. So I I know I've seen this meme several times through social media. I'm sure you've seen something similar, but it goes to the effect that people don't quit jobs, they quit toxic work cultures. Do you I was gonna ask if you believe that and what are maybe some other reasons or examples as to why a person might quit a job at the chamber?
10:47.35 Jessica Welch
Yeah, you're you're very right. And and it's not always about money. like I said, people do this because they love it. So if it's not about the money and we're losing people and there's turnover, what what is it? So, you know, there's a lot of studies being done recently. I'm I'm doing a workshop with Chris Romer from Vale Valley Valley at the WACE conference on this topic specifically, and he's gonna dive a lot more into the details, but some of the more common things that we're seeing Aside from salary is lack of benefits, whether that be, you know, hard benefits or maybe it's more of a culture, engagement, you know, getting buy-in from your team members, trust in your employers. I mean, that's huge. I if you can't have that, what I don't understand what you would have. respect and work-life balance. I mean, we hear about that all the time. there's a lot of fatigue going on, especially with chamber executives, because there's not enough work-life balance.
11:44.918 Brandon Burton
Now I was gonna ask, is that such a thing in the chamber industry to have a work life balance?
11:51.246 Jessica Welch
No, it it's it's a funny question, but it's a good question. And I I think what I've I've learned to embrace is and I'm not recommending this to anyone. I feel like I'm always working in some way or another. I'm always answering someone's email or I'm alre always taking someone's phone call. And that's okay, you know, seven days a week, but y you have to make time for yourself at some point. So and that's a whole nother discussion about what kind of vacations you should go on. But you know, there has to be some some downtime where you can let go.
12:20.664 Brandon Burton
Vacations are are great and important, but also I think there's probably some kind of barriers that need to be put up in order to have some kind of a balance. And I don't think it's gonna be a perfect balance, but to be able to kind of carve out some personal time. For sure. are there certain things that you see work for you or that you've seen work for other chamber staff to kind of carve out that personal time and to not be you know For lack of a better word, bothered with those emails or phone calls that come in at all hours of the day and night.
12:52.696 Jessica Welch
I mean, it's a personal choice really, Brandon. I don't think that there's a solution for it. you and I talked about some of these best practices and how it starts at the top with the CEO. This kind of leads into our conversation about culture. you know, your team is gonna look to you as the CEO or to your CEO and watch what you do. and if you're accessible at all hours of the night, you know, people are gonna mirror that a lot. So and that that kind of leads into some stuff I think is really important when it comes with our CEO and with the culture. Any kind of benefit, whether it's monetary, non-monetary, work-life balance, that starts at the top and it has to trickle its way down. you know, we talk about servant leadership. There's been a lot of conversations about that as opposed to the archaic leadership where it's top-down control. Servant leadership is from the bottom up an empowerment, you know, and you go into the dangers of micromanaging, which is what that archaic leadership can can lead into. And this is actually when a lot of that burnout happens. There's there's no trust. You you start doing things because you don't think anyone else can do it as well, or you don't trust anyone to do it. And then your team doesn't trust you. So it goes back up to those reasons why people leave. You know, trust was definitely one of them. micromanaging can just be detrimental to to an executive.
14:17.984 Brandon Burton
Yeah, it it creates that toxic work culture that people try to run away from. Absolutely. so along the lines with turnover, I mean it slows production, it can be costly. What are some things to to look out for and to maybe try to avoid with having turnover? I know there's I mean, do you have some examples or or ways that Things that that chambers should should just look out for when it comes to turnover and trying to avoid some some of those costs that come along with it.
14:54.158 Jessica Welch
Sure. you mentioned cost. I mean, I think that's something that companies don't look at, not realizing that yes, if you lose somebody, you're gonna have to go and replace them and take the time to do that and retrain them. And man, that's that's backstepping so far, but it's also very expensive. You know, a lot of times you'll have to come into a staffing agency. There's vacation or sick payouts if someone's resigning, you know, termination packets and all of these things that That can be really time consuming and and actual cost you money. So, I mean, there's a lot of things you can do. I wouldn't say things to look out for, but things to do proactively to ensure that your team loves working there. there's I mean, things like like team building, that's one thing I actually advise against. Okay. I'm very anti-team building, and I'll tell you why. You know, none of these trust falls, none of these. you know, communication strategies, everyone feels out of form. I I feel like they're really dangerous. they can put people on the spot, they can make people uncomfortable, they can be embarrassed. You're making people share things they don't want to share. And I personally they're just they're just ridiculous. So an egg exting example is I always recommend to do something fun with your team. you know do something real with them. We I mentioned we're close to Disneyland. We do things quarterly. We took our team to Disneyland last year for a day. a couple months ago we went on a salsa making cruise or or we're just got a happy hour or something like that. You know, they're they're very lighthearted and it just gives people the opportunity to get to know each other, to get to know you as a CEO, which is really important. But it's not stuffy and people really appreciate that.
16:43.008 Brandon Burton
Yeah. And I think along those lines, I've recently interviewed a couple of people about leadership visits or inner city visits and chamber travel events. And along those lines, that's where you really develop those relationships. When you get outside of the office and whether it's with you know other chamber members or leaders in the community, or in this case with with the other staff there at your chamber, to get outside of your normal day to day routine and environment. And go do something fun. Create some kind of memory together and create some kind of bonding experience that you can relate back to. Sometimes there's inside jokes that come from that or you know, just something that that builds a relationship from it. So I think that's a great example.
17:27.778 Jessica Welch
And they don't always have to be costly. I mean, I mentioned Disneyland, which obviously is has a high dollar ticket associated with it, but I mean we have we have scooters in our office, the little like push your own scooter thing. And you know, on a Friday when there's no members hanging around, the girls will use them to go back and forth up and down the hallway. And, you know, we have a huge connect four set or you know, some people have game rooms and it doesn't need to be super costly to be fun.
17:54.446 Brandon Burton
That's right. That's right. So so you had shared with me the idea of trying something real. What are some examples of trying something real to be able to to have that good work environment?
18:10.99 Jessica Welch
Well, some of the non monetary benefits that I've been looking at and seeing other chambers do, which is great. It's so awesome to be seeing people doing these. paid time off. You would think that would be a no brainer, but there's actually organizations out there that don't provide it. Vacation time off, sick time off, that's so important. It goes back to that taking care of ourselves, the wellness. having flexible schedules, you know. We all we all have a life, or at least we try to. So, you know, if if we need to take off a day and work extra here and I think as, you know, coming like I said from the CEO, top down, those are the kinds of flexibilities that are really important and show people that you have trust in them. You know they're doing their jobs. You know, it's not a micromanaging thing. one thing that we implemented a year ago is a volunteer time off policy where we give our team members twenty four hours and they can use them however they would like to go and volunteer at a member charity organization. so we encourage them, a a nonprofit if you will. So, you know, we encourage them to get out in the community and to be a part of it and have ownership on the community that we're all trying to market.
19:23.776 Brandon Burton
Yeah. I like that. That's a great idea. And it it doesn't really cost a whole lot, but it gets them out in the community. It's gonna strengthen that relationship too with that member nonprofit organization. And again, it changes that environment of where that member's at and that scenery that they're seeing every day. That that's a great idea. Well, and a lot of these non monetary benefits is the opportunity where you can really get creative.
19:44.75 Jessica Welch
Absolutely.
19:52.012 Brandon Burton
with what you have to offer and have you ever I don't know if a survey would be the right thing, but being able to try to get feedback from employees to see what would be a value to them to kind of fit in this non monetary benefits category.
20:10.732 Jessica Welch
Haven't done a survey, if you will. that's actually what the Orange County Business Journal kind of did when they were assessing for the best place to work. I do ask everyone for feedback when we're coordinating our staff activities like Disneyland and the salsa making crews. Like I let everyone vote on it and say, What do you want to do? and provide some suggestions. And I mean, I'll be honest, Brandon, it's kind of just let's just try it and see if people like it, you know, a lot of times. You know, a lot of chambers are and we are too family friendly. You know, sometimes my kids will need to come with me into the office for a few hours and you know, everyone's great with that. It's it's never a deal. And the the gentleman next to me in the office next to me does it as well. My my dog comes to work with me most days and hangs out in my office. And I know Chris Romer is a pet friendly office as well. I think a lot of places are going towards that. Animals bring smiles to people's faces. I highly recommend a pet friendly office.
21:08.962 Brandon Burton
Yeah. I know for a while my wife was a paralegal, actually they're in Irvine and her law office that she worked at had a couple dogs that were, you know, the the the partner attorneys brought their dogs into the office and when we had our first kid, they let her bring our son into the office until he was about a year old, you know, until he got a little too loud and a little too mobile. But But that culture that it created there in that office, you're right. The dogs and babies, they bring smiles and they don't have to be that big of a distraction. it really creates a a good environment to be in.
21:45.986 Jessica Welch
I agree. And you know, it isn't all about having fun. Just like it's not all about what the salary is. I think it's it's really important for for CEOs and executives and supervisors to really have a value on professional development as well. You know, you want your team to grow. If you're gonna retain the top talent, it's for them to stay up top, they have to keep sharp. All of their skills need to be sharpened. And I always recommend everyone go to, you know, ACCE and WACE for all of the the nuggets that they have there. But, you know, you knowing that your organization values something like professional develop development, that's how you attract the right kind of in-demand candidates. you boost your employees' job satisfaction. And quite frankly, you can make succession planning a lot easier, you know, if that's something you value. And unfortunately, nine times out of ten, a budget for staff development is one of the top line items chambers don't have, or it's the first thing that they'll cut if they need to be making budget cuts. I was at I was at institute a couple of years ago, the US Chambers Institute, and I overheard somebody saying they were going to ask their board if they could go to the WACE conference. And my mind was blown a little bit. I was like, What do you mean you're gonna ask your board? You know, you set the expectation that this is important to you. You build it into your budget. It's so important to be doing that.
23:10.006 Brandon Burton
That's right. Now the professional development is so important. And well, as I read your bio leading into this interview, you've kind of gone right up the ranks there at the Irvine Chamber. And I'm sure a lot of that had to do with being exposed as professional development, being able to put be put in these situations where you could continue moving along in your career path. And being able to provide those opportunities to others is gonna make them wanna stick around and give them purpose as they work in their position.
23:40.352 Jessica Welch
Absolutely. It shows that you value your team when you want them to grow. And look, you don't want anyone to leave, but if they do leave, I mean, at least you've given them that, you know, and they'll thank you for that.
23:52.546 Brandon Burton
Yeah, they're gonna leave on on a good note if they if they do that. Absolutely. So maybe kind of along the lines with the the culture at your chamber, what do performance reviews look like and and how do you go about maybe showing well, just performance reviews. We'll we'll cover that. Yeah.
24:14.744 Jessica Welch
Yeah, absolutely. So I I'm I hope everyone does regular reviews. Chris Romer actually does something very different I learned the other day. He does something quarterly, which is really interesting. So for those of you attending in February, you'll learn more about A couple years ago, we started doing something very different. We had your old school fill out your form, rate yourself, that whole business, and we went away with that. So there's no forms, there's no rating scales. I ask the team members to create a report on their progress, their accomplishments, their goals, professional development. and it's sent to their if it's peop people I oversee, sent to me ahead of time. I go through it, I pick out a few things to highlight and to talk about and to Congratulate them on but the bulk of the discussion is really about job satisfaction or professional development opportunities. And then if there's challenges that I can help with or tools that they need, whether it be education or I mean actual physical things, new screens, new computers, new technology, that it really becomes more of a conversation as opposed to a time for criticism, because it seems like that's really where most of those go. And I'm a big believer that if you have a problem with a team member, their review should never be the first time they're hearing about it.
25:33.247 Brandon Burton
I couldn't agree more. That's that's so important. And I like the idea that that performance review becomes more of a discussion rather than just performance. It's about the equipment they have to use and what it is that can make their job more productive and more successful.
25:48.652 Jessica Welch
Yeah, absolutely. These are they're great opportunities to talk to your team about other things they'd like to explore too. maybe they're interested in in doing events instead of doing membership, even if there's not a new position for them to move into. You know, the industry we're in, we have the the flexibility to be creative about growth opportunities. And so we're our teams can exercise all the skills they're developing and have a chance to do something else and really just sharpen their knowledge.
26:16.908 Brandon Burton
That's right. Now, how do you go about showing appreci appreciation for employees that are doing a great job and that you wanna show the value of what they bring to the to the office?
26:29.464 Jessica Welch
Sure. I I always say it's like vote early and vote often, you know, s say thank you early and often. All the time. Anytime you have an opportunity, our organizations do great things. So we need to be giving recognition for those who do the great things. It's not on one of us. None of us can take the credit for all of that. So whether it's internally at a staff meeting, to the members, especially to your board of directors, recognizing your team in front of your board of directors is really important. I mean, that really gives an opportunity for them to get to know you. But the three things that I feel need to be kept in mind is to tailor to the recipient. some people might just like a fist bump, others prefer an email. some people don't really like public recognition. And so, you know, going back to the team building and things like that, we've got you have to be careful and sensitive to those preferences. Yeah. be personal and individualized. And then of course be genuine and authentic. You know, your tone of voice, your facial expressions, your posture, that all has to match what's being conveyed verbally.
27:35.93 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. Those are great points and hopefully everybody took notes of those. You can hit that backup button for about 15 seconds and hear that again. so you had touched on some of these non-monetary benefits that that you can offer and kind of have some creativity with. What are some of the monetary side that you can kind of frame and and kind of put out there to retain some of these good employees?
28:01.102 Jessica Welch
First and foremost, definitely do yourself a favor and do research on what other positions similar to that outside of the industry are making because if you don't, your employees are. That's just a fact. So save save yourself that embarrassment and at least know where you stand. sometimes I don't think it makes any difference to look at what other chambers are paying. I think really you need to have an idea of what other companies are paying so that you can know what's in the area. so that's obviously being aware of that. bonus structures I think are are and an incentive programs are really important. I'm sure most people have a membership commission structure of some point. So having thresholds there, you know, not you get this much percentage, but having some creativity w and incentive to go higher and to go over and above. we have that with our director of events. She she's able to get a percentage of all the sponsorships she gets over and above budget. And that's I mean that's done huge for her over the past year. So things where you may not have that budgeted, but if it's a it's a matter of going over your actual budget, that's not eating away at it.
29:17.652 Brandon Burton
No. And if I mean if that ends up being found money by being able to increase the sponsorships or things like that, exactly. Then then reward that employee for for doing that extra effort and going above and beyond. That just makes perfect sense.
29:31.776 Jessica Welch
And it you can apply that to really anybody in the office, you know, have a small stipend for somebody that brings in a member that's not your membership salesperson, you know, whether it's at the front desk or, you know, have those little incentives all over so that people always have in the back of their head the company in mind and knowing that doing that can benefit them.
29:51.264 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So I like that idea of being able to incentivize any staff member for bringing in a new member, but how do you go about having that competition from your membership director versus any other staff member that's bringing in new members?
30:05.838 Jessica Welch
So we have a rule that if our membership director is in the office, all inquiries go to him. If he is not in the office and someone comes in and just says, here's a check I want to pay, whoever's taking care of that is allowed to take that commission. So there just needs it needs to be very clear that they didn't come in just asking for things and our membership director would follow up with them later. They came in with a check. He wasn't here, somebody else took care of them.
30:34.542 Brandon Burton
So your membership director eats a lot of lunches in the office. Right. That's what I got after that. Very good. So I think all of these are very good ideas and ways to be able to retain these great employees that you work so hard to get in the first place. do you have any advice or tips for these employees that you know, what are some signs? that maybe they're struggling and maybe looking to jump ship.
31:09.966 Jessica Welch
I mean, qu silence is never a good thing. You really want to be engaging with your team and just even just going in saying, you know, hey, how was your weekend and and talking to them and it's amazing what things people will bring up if you just start a conversation with them. and that's I think that's so important. There's not everyone's gonna have a red flag that they wanna leave, but I mean, taking extra time off, not really You can tell when people care about their job, when they're interested, when they're engaged, you know, so looking at those kinds of hints, but you know, that goes back to just recognizing the need for this conversation and making people aware that if you lose somebody, it's a problem in so many ways for you. And it can be avoided.
31:56.098 Brandon Burton
That's right. And I think so much, especially in the chamber industry, we're so worried and concerned about retaining members that oftentimes we overlook retaining the great employees that we have. But let's apply some of those tactics that we use to retain members and apply them to our employees. So Jessica, as we start wrapping things up here, I wanted to ask if you had one action item.
32:09.73 Jessica Welch
You're absolutely right.
32:24.066 Brandon Burton
that chamber a chamber professional who's listening can do based on our discussion to help take their chamber up to the next level.
32:32.342 Jessica Welch
Most of the pushback that I've heard when talking about implementing a lot of the things I mentioned is we don't have the budget for that. so I I challenge everybody to think outside the box and be open-minded to trying things that may be low or no cost, but really focus on that culture. The culture is everything. And again, that like I mentioned, that starts with a CEO who understands. how important it is to have that close knit team. So thinking outside the box on how you can create opportunities for your team members to engage with each other and to enjoy what they do every day.
33:15.342 Brandon Burton
Love it. Get outside that box. Yep. So the question I ask everyone that I have on the show is as we look to the future, how do you see the future of chambers of commerce and their purpose going forward?
33:29.816 Jessica Welch
Well, it's a it's a hopeful site. I what I would love to see a lot more chambers evolving into is really the three the three C's that WACE talks about, the convener, catalysts, and champions, and primarily the champions for their communities. We all have the same goal to ensure that our communities thrive. so let's be a voice for these entities that make up our regions. You know, our our healthcare, our school systems, you know, really pivot your marketing and and start talking about the great things and the great reasons there are to live and to do business where your chamber is located. And I I guarantee you there will be that will come full circle. So I hope that we see a lot more of that marketing strategy kind of change over the next few years. I'm seeing it. So I'm looking forward to more.
34:21.004 Brandon Burton
That's right. I appreciate that. Now, for anyone who's listening who might have some questions about how to retain great staff or questions about what you discussed today and some of the outside the box ideas that you've mentioned, what's a a good way that or ways that people can get in contact with you and maybe continue this discussion offline?
34:44.717 Jessica Welch
Sure, my email is JWELCH at Irvine Chamber dot com. As I mentioned before, I unfortunately am never away from it, so you can reach me anytime there. And my direct line is nine four nine five zero two four one one five.
35:02.506 Brandon Burton
All right. We will get that contact information updated in the show notes for this episode, which will be found at Chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode fifty-four. And Jessica, I just wanted to thank you so much for spending time with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast and for bringing your experience and background and all of these tips and words of wisdom that you had to share with us today. I think it's a lot of value that other chamber professionals can can and should. apply into their chamber to help retain some of those great staff. So thanks for sharing that with us.
35:37.612 Jessica Welch
the pleasure's been mine. Thank you for the opportunity, Brandon. I really appreciate it.
35:42.774 Brandon Burton
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