The Evolution of the Chamber Industry with Tallia Hart

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

Episode 57 — The Evolution of the Chamber Industry with Tallia Hart
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Tallia Hart
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.842 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.
00:14.442 Brandon Burton
And now your host. He became a Texan in two thousand eight. He's my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, and you're tuning in for episode fifty-seven of Chamber Chat Podcast. And for those of you who may be new to the show, it is my goal to help introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. And in today's episode, we have
00:43.864 Brandon Burton
Tallia Hart, who's the president and CEO of the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce in California. And Talia is she's proven herself as a highly regarded leader in association management for more than 20 years. After working her way up to executive vice president of the Fort Collins area Chamber of Commerce, she took on the role of executive director at the Northern California Engineering Contractors Association in Santa Rosa. In two thousand five, she was selected as the president and CEO of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, where she was recognized by the North Bay Business Journal as one of the area's top forty under 40 business leaders. In two thousand nine, Telia was selected as president and CEO of the Urbine Chamber of Commerce, where she led one of only eleven four star accredited chambers in all of California. She has since been named among OC Metro's magazine hottest 25 business leaders and in 2013 was recognized as one of OC Business Journal's women in business. After another national recruitment, San Francisco hired her as the first woman to lead the 167-year-old organization. She was selected as one of the most influential women in the Bay Area in her first year. She was installed as a board member of WACE. Served as a committee chair for the 2017 WACE conference and served on the executive leadership team. In July 2016, Hart was also served she was also asked to serve on the United States Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100. She also serves on the 1OC Board of Directors, the Advisory Board for California United Bank, and UCI's Board of Counselors for the School of Social Sciences. Today, Talia facilitates many other chamber and organizational programs and retreats for various companies. She currently lives in Sonoma County and runs the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce. She has a daughter named Lola and two bulldogs, SNYX and Boo. In our discussion today, we're going to be talking about the evolution of the chamber industry. And we will jump into this topic as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor.
03:08.672 Brandon Burton
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04:11.662 Tallia Hart
Sure. Thanks for the great introduction, Brandon. I really appreciate it. I am Tallia Hart, as he mentioned, been in chamber work for 20 plus years, and I'm really excited to be here this morning and talking to everyone. A lot of us have very similar issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis, so this is a great thing for us to have. let's see, people think it's really interesting that I trained for the Olympics in gymnastics. So in 1987 and 88, I moved to Houston and trained with Bella and Marta Carrolly, who did the famed Nadia Komanich and Mary Lou Retton and many other athletes today. So they are obviously retired, but just as of recent. But that is one thing that I think helped me throughout my career in terms of determination. and focus and balance of life and career and some of the other things that you'll probably hear us talk about.
05:08.62 Brandon Burton
That is awesome. So I asked that question to I have everybody that's on the show tell share something interesting. And you're the first person that trained for the Olympics that we've had on the show. So that that's a first. Yeah.
05:20.75 Tallia Hart
I I like to be first. First or last. There's nothing in between, right? That's right.
05:25.55 Brandon Burton
So if you could take a minute and share with us a little bit about your chamber there in Healdsburg and kind of size and location, just so everyone can relate a little bit better to the perspective that you're coming from. even though we'll be tying in perspective from some of your background at other chambers as well.
05:42.542 Tallia Hart
Absolutely. Healdsburg is a beautiful location in Sonoma County. It's north of San Francisco in the Bay Area. The chamber has about 640 members. We are in the heart of Wine Country. We have about a million dollars budget. That also comes from our hotel improvement district, which we manage and oversee here, and we do economic development for the city. So again, beautiful location. people are sort of calling us the upcoming Napa of Sonoma County. And we're also been compared to the Aspen of Colorado. So it's a beautiful place, lots of great business and industry, but also of a tourist focus as well, which has been a very unique opportunity for me, especially just recently coming from San Francisco. but very similar issues on workforce housing, transportation and homelessness.
06:42.798 Brandon Burton
Wow. You know, there's worse things that you can be called besides the upcoming Napa. I mean be honest. Yeah. It sounds like a sounds like a beautiful place and a lot of potential, a lot of things going on there. So that's awesome. So as we get into our topic for discussion today, I mentioned in the intro that we'll be talking about the evolution of the chamber industry. So you kind of have a unique background and that you've
06:48.216 Tallia Hart
Yeah.
07:12.416 Brandon Burton
served at some really large chambers like you just mentioned in San Francisco, as well as some smaller chambers. So from your perspective, what and and you've been in the chamber industry for over twenty years now too. So you've seen some change, you've seen some differences at at chambers. So from your perspective, what what things are you seeing in the evolution and and maybe tying it in with the larger and smaller chambers? Now that's a lot to answer there, but What what have you seen in your in your career?
07:44.556 Tallia Hart
Well, when I first started my career in terms of the evolution, chambers were very much about networking and giving people a space and opportunity to meet one another and get to know other businesses in their community and there was a very large membership focus. The interesting thing today is that most chambers of commerce actually are needing or the businesses that join are needing services. So We're seeing people in many chambers providing more advocacy, marketing opportunities, HR compliance, the posters. You know, they're they're kind of we've become the 411 of chambers where in the past it really was, I don't want to say just social, but there was a big component of it that was much more about gathering and being a part of the community. now what I'm seeing is that you have so many. additional organizations out there that are competitive, that it's, you know, you really have to find your space in your community and provide a very specific ROI. So one of the things I think that we've gotten more and more involved in in everyone is really making a statement on advocacy and being there for business legislation. not that that didn't happen, but I think early on people weren't as involved, people didn't have political action committees, and now those chambers that are very successful are really known as the drivers of politics in their community. So that's where I've seen the biggest shift is that it's just gone from a networking opportunity when I started in the early nineties. And now it's really evolved into what resources, what like just like a company, what ROI are you giving back to that member because they have so many places to choose to participate in.
09:43.138 Brandon Burton
Very good. So something that comes to my mind is with my background in chamber publishing, there's often oftentimes I'll meet with chamber members and some of the feedback that I get from members, if if there ever is negative feedback, it's the chamber doesn't do anything for me. Is something that I'll hear and and I think what that comes down to is maybe a skewed idea of what the chamber should be doing. And a lot of times those businesses join because they think it still is a networking and membership driven kind of organization, which there still are is those elements to it. But how do you go about getting the messaging and kind of the mission of the chamber out to the members, kind of the Joe on Main Street, you know, the who isn't really as engaged or plugged in with the chamber as he maybe should be? But how do you help them understand? This is what the chamber's purpose is and this is how we're benefiting you.
10:41.262 Tallia Hart
Well, I do still think that there is and this I will say is kind of the interesting thing about the evolution. There still does need to be some high touch and not just high tech, especially for those of us, and I can speak to both a larger community and then our my current community, people still want the one-on-one. People still want to understand what you're providing. They want you to talk to them, they want handheld materials and not everything electronically. they they want you to be able to talk with them and speak with them and really understand what their services are that they're going to be getting from the Chamber of Commerce. So I think that feed on the street is always a very significant and positive thing and you should always have someone, whether it's a excuse me, it doesn't have to be membership as it necessarily was in the past, but a lot of chambers and a lot of organizations are have they have community relations. People now that are essentially what we called member retention in the past. So those people are responsible for going out and making sure that you're not only recruiting, but you're retaining the members in a community relations focus, just like a company. So maybe having your team go out and sit on other boards as well and being part of the community, because not everybody is going to come to you anymore.
12:03.82 Brandon Burton
I love that. Being high touch and being tied into the community. Not everybody coming to you, but you going out and doing that outreach. That's awesome.
12:10.622 Tallia Hart
Yes, absolutely. You need to do both. And and again in big cities as well.
12:16.418 Brandon Burton
So about big cities, what are some of those comparisons, similarities, differences in serving at a at a big city versus a smaller chamber? Maybe differences and pros and cons between the two that you've seen.
12:33.08 Tallia Hart
So let's see, I I think, you know, I've liked both, to be honest. They're they're different experiences, but also have the same core elements. In a smaller chamber, you're gonna find the workload to be just as much. I know that people say, well, you have more resources when you're at a bigger chamber. Well, you're also expected and anticipated to deliver much more work based on the size of your community. in the smaller communities, I do think it's a little bit more community-oriented, meaning I think everyone knows a little bit more in depth and in detail about each other's businesses versus like when I worked in San Francisco, Google and LinkedIn and Twitter and the Warriors, they were, you know, more top level in terms of what they understood about each other's businesses. And you're going to get more participation, quite frankly. From a smaller chamber. The people at the smaller chamber of commerces tend to really want to work and get their hands dirty. Not that the larger ones do, but the type of companies that they work for only allocate so much time for them. As well as a great example, is it's very manageable when you have a smaller chamber. People say, you know, I only have five to eleven board members. Well, I will tell you right now, I had seventy-four in San Francisco and it was an absolute nightmare. Because you just can't possibly you know, it's it's not the typical 80-20 rule. I mean, you just have people coming in and coming out, and then there's not the same close relationships in terms of divvying up responsibility and being able to go to that board member that you know and say, Hey, how's that going? Da-da-da. because you're you're trying to spread out everything to multiple, multiple people. And I've heard that from other chambers. When I w I sat on the US Chamber of One Hundred committee as well and in working with a lot of the bigger chambers across the country, we all had the same issues with large boards. they're just harder to corral.
14:45.718 Brandon Burton
That's right. When I think of the idea of working with a large chamber like that, it's just so overwhelming to me. Yeah. Seventy four I mean, you can't make eleven board members happy, you know, all the all at once, let alone seventy four, and have those personal relationships and know what's going on.
15:02.046 Tallia Hart
Going on in their life. You're exactly right, Brandon. And I will say that I was gonna just mention that as a last layer to that is the larger chambers, as much as you think, you know, small towns, mid size, you know, kind of gossipy, this and that, the larger chambers have an incredible amount of politics. So w I I encourage people to think before they go to a larger chamber, think Washington, but on a smaller scale, because you have all those same components. and all those same players and you're kind of beholden to s specific state senators and there's just a different level of how you engage with electeds.
15:41.976 Brandon Burton
So in kind of staying with the topic of the evolution of chambers, at a large chamber versus a small chamber, what is that like getting the feedback from the community and from your members as to what the needs are? How do you how did you go about it at the larger? How do you go about it at the smaller?
16:01.366 Tallia Hart
Okay, so it I think going about it, you can use the same strategies. I think that you can do technology, I think you can do surveys, that type of thing. What I think though is you're gonna get more response still going out and kind of doing that high touch on a different level. So if I were in Heelsberg, say, I already have meetings currently with The City Council and the Assistant City Manager, where we go out on a quarterly basis and touch base with specific companies and specific industries. Now, this is, you know, only going to cover so many in a year. When I was at the Irvine Chamber, we had business walks and we had teams of business walks go out with the mayor or other people, and those teams were given a very specific zip code. They were gone all day. And they were acquiring information by a survey. Maybe it was two questions like, do you plan to stay in Irvine? Do you plan to expand your business? So I think you can go about it in terms of starting in similar ways, but you're just not going to be as comprehensive when you have more members and your spread a little more thin. And then also you're relying a little bit more on volunteers that you should train to go out and do these things. so I I don't think really the methodology is that much different. It's probably the response you're going to receive at the end.
17:30.626 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So I imagine at a larger chamber you're gonna get a lot more variety in the feedback as to what the needs are in the community. not that there's not variety at a smaller chamber, but right you just have a bigger base, so it's gonna provide more variety, but then it's a matter of kind of prioritizing what the chamber can really take on versus what maybe a strategic partnership looks at, you know, with the a a local business or nonprofit or I'm just kind of thinking out loud as I'm envisioning how you would go about this with these larger chambers.
18:08.446 Tallia Hart
Yeah. Yeah. No, you're correct. That's that's correct. I think you're gonna get a lot of more excuse me, a lot more diverse feedback where in a smaller community you have the same issues that are repetitive. Now, interestingly enough, on a larger scale, in advocacy, for example, you have the same issues across the board. So in advocacy, in every single chamber I've worked at, whether it's San Rafael, Healdsburg, San Francisco, Irvine Fort Collins. Every single one has had some kind of transportation or traffic issue. Every single one has had a workforce housing issue. And you see that more prevalent today, especially with these chambers where I am in California where the cost of living is incredibly expensive. I think the average home when I was in Marin at San Rafael was eight hundred and twenty nine thousand dollars. so that's difficult for that's not something that your grocery manager is gonna be able to afford or some of your service workers, teachers, doc even doctors. there was a goal in Orange County at one point and they were they were trying to recruit doctors as couples, so doctors who are married. So they just afford Newport Beach or certain places to live. you know it's
19:27.006 Brandon Burton
Those doctors are carrying a lot of student debt still too. Right.
19:30.206 Tallia Hart
Right. And even here in Healdsburg, you know, smaller population, more of a tourism focused town, but same thing where people are like, I just it's too expensive to live here. So every project that we're working on currently has, you know, a stipulated amount of affordable and workforce housing. So that's what's interesting, even though some of you know, there's significant differences in size, the bigger issues that you hear at other chambers are sort of steady across the United States with how the economy is changing.
20:04.972 Brandon Burton
Yep, with more political though, like you mentioned. Yeah. 'Cause everything you just mentioned, I didn't hear a whole lot about networking and membership. Chambers have have definitely evolved and taken on a lot more, more meaningful work, I would say.
20:14.026 Tallia Hart
No.
20:21.388 Tallia Hart
Yeah, and I do still think networking is an important component to provide. I don't think that every chamber should get rid of their mixer or whatever they call it, but I do think they should change the way that it's focused. So maybe it's a new member reception that goes also into a mixer, but there's some kind of engagement or opportunity or speaker at that thing versus just, hey, here's some a free drink and some chips. people just they really have time poverty issues and they wanna go somewhere and they wanna get something in return.
20:56.566 Brandon Burton
That's right. Now make maybe a little bit of a shift here about how you got into the chamber profession. I'm I'm picturing you as a hard training Olympic athlete and dedicating your whole life to your your diet and your workouts and you know all the the stringencies that you do as an athlete. And I think that probably makes the perfect person to be a chamber CEO. Because You're dedicating almost everything to what to what you're doing. So how did you get into the profession? And just kind of tell us that story.
21:34.264 Tallia Hart
So interestingly enough, I went to Colorado State University and my landlord, and this goes back to kind of, you know, who you know and making sure you have good relationships no matter where you are. My landlord was on the board at the Fort Collins Chamber and she was a VP at Wells Fargo. I had just graduated and I said, I'm kind of looking, you know, of course, like the rest of us, really not knowing what we want to do straight out of college. She said, you know, the chamber of commerce is hiring. And I had no clue what a chamber was. I in fact told my parents and I was like, What is a chamber? And they were like, You should definitely do that because you'll get a job with a company right away because you'll have exposure and access to all these different entities. And I was like, Okay, still had no idea. I actually Still I was hired by Pam Ridler from the who's now at the Castle Rock Chamber, very good friend of mine. She was my manager and I worked in membership sales commission only for the Fort Collins Chamber and then eventually got promoted to VP and probably worked almost every job within that office, which I think made it really nice for me going into other interviews because I had done every position at a chamber. But that's kind of how I got in. how I've retained is a different story, like you said. I think a lot of it is my competitive side. I think the diversity of working in a chamber and the different things that you get to do every day, you know, you're not you you do have to be very focused, say it is an advocacy issue and you're going after that, but at the same time, you have to have all these different other apparatus that you're working on and doing a good job on. but it takes a lot of determination. I think your volunteers can often challenge you and sort of light it light a fire under you. You've everybody I'm sure has had that challenging board member or volunteer or ambassador or whoever it might be. but the job is sort of being somewhat of a chameleon and you're playing with different teams all the time and learning different tactics on who you can work with, whether it's city council, your EDB, your C V B.
23:56.64 Tallia Hart
so it's it was. It was an experience that I think helped me, but mostly to stay focused on the mission, which is what a chamber should be doing, because there's too many of us that have volunteers with fifty seven different ideas, seventy-four in San Francisco, and you just you you have to stay focused on what the overall goals and mission are, or you will never be successful at your chamber.
24:22.19 Brandon Burton
That's right. I love that experience you shared at the Fort Collins chamber to be able to have experience in all those different departments and be able to really see the inner workings of a chamber and gave you great experience to to take you where you are today. That's
24:37.494 Tallia Hart
That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, you know, being able to go into an interview and saying I sold membership, but I also oversaw events or I d you know, it's that hands on that I think is so much more important these days than people recognize. So even if you're looking into getting into a chamber career, I mean it's good to volunteer on committee and participate. If you're looking at getting out and doing something or association work, it I always say to just you know, get involved and try to really understand what the role is because some of our jobs people think, yeah, these are all you do is go to meetings, have free lunches and this and that. And I think we all know, anyone listening to this podcast, that's not how it is at all. And you really do have to understand and be in control of what you're talking about, how you're talking, who you're talking to, and really understand the dynamics in your own community.
25:34.828 Brandon Burton
Say all those free chamber lunches that I've been to, I hardly ever see any of the chamber staff eating. You know, they're usually running around and putting on the show. So
25:45.836 Tallia Hart
Absolutely. They've given me nothing but extra weight over the years.
25:50.158 Brandon Burton
So as we talk about the evolution of the chamber industry, what would be maybe one action item that you could share with the chamber professionals that are listening to help take their chamber to the next level? Maybe take them from being a networking and membership type chamber to kind of a competitive organization that can help be that go to resource in their community for trainings and marketing and and all those things you touched on. Where can they get started?
26:21.234 Tallia Hart
Well, I do think you have to look at the businesses within your community for one and what they are looking for. And that's going to be different for all of you, but I think if you are the chamber, you're expected to be the leader of business, not the follower. So they're looking for you to put on the coolest social media seminar. They're looking for you to build the pop-up or the selfie station. The it's chamber really and I'm speaking about this at WACE in a week and a half here or so. chamber really needs to become an experience center. We're also competing with people like those co-working spaces where people will buy a membership, they can hang out, get a latte, meet other people, work on their projects, and be involved in things that that co working space is putting on. So it's almost like another yet competition for the organization. So I think you really have to look at where you're located, what you can offer members that are outside of your everyday just committees that you have. I and I this is a small example, but one that actually worked. So in San Francisco, we obviously had a lot of very different and unique members. Well, we we were fortunate to have people like Hintwater. Hint water, she was born and raised in San Francisco, was very active in the community. Well, she instead of for half her membership, she offered all her newest flavor and sparkling water. So we had cases of that every month. Well, it was exposure for her, but we also had somewhere fun to come where we were serving hint water. We also had a partnership with Pop Sugar, like there's all these things that we were able to provide that just kind of engage the member a little more than serving your regular chips at a meeting. And I know it sounds like a small thing or maybe a big thing to some, but just look around your community and see what types of products are available that you can engage and retain the member, but also service your members with something else that's fun.
28:41.424 Tallia Hart
we had Nespresso as a member. They put Nespresso machines throughout all of our committee rooms. So any meeting room and they would deliver the pods monthly. And it's something that's, you know, people like love Nespresso. They want just it's not regular coffee. They get to use the machine. and then there's just little things like a lot of people are doing pop ups with members and they're having a showcase where members can come put their local their local craft or whatever it may be. I mean I I just wanna make sure people know this isn't all about a larger chamber because smaller chambers can do the same thing. Here in wine country, we try to serve a board member or somebody's wine that's a member at all events versus, you know, anyone here that may not be as participatory. Yeah. So there's lots of little things I think people should look at.
29:38.254 Brandon Burton
That's those are good tips. I think even that coworking space example, that there could be a strategic partnership there too. So
29:45.72 Tallia Hart
But yeah, you're it's funny you mention that 'cause we're looking at one right now where they get a membership there and they are also a member of a cha the chamber, and then if they join at a certain level with the chamber, they also get a membership at the co working space. There you go. So that's exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah.
30:03.128 Brandon Burton
They don't have to be competition. So that's great. Right. So I always ask everyone this question, but as we look to the future, we've been talking about how the chamber industry has been evolving, but as we look to the future of chambers and their purpose, how do you see that evolution going forward?
30:25.566 Tallia Hart
that's I I really think if you don't get in the game of providing good ROI and even tangible, not just conceptual anymore, because it was so much easier back when I started to say, you know what, you're gonna get a business out of this and it was all a concept. You were selling a concept. Now people actually want things. So whether you're wrapping in those labor law posters to your membership Whether you're wrapping in a free case of beer from your local member that's participatory, people want something that they feel is of value intangible. So I I think that's important. But then I also think overall, interestingly enough, you've got to go a little bit back to that high touch and not just count on your social media and all of those things. You need to be out talking to key members, having special events for those high donors or just thanking them. Like in Irvine, we thanked our leader circle group once a year with just a lunch. It was not to talk about anything, really to sell anything. It was just like here's what we've done. Thank you for supporting us and have a great stake. So you really need to look at how you can engage the community, but know that your organization is competing with every other company out there.
31:49.966 Brandon Burton
Yeah, as you were given that answer, I you mentioned having something tangible and something of value and it's not just exposure. You know, it used to be say, you know, you'll get great exposure by being a chamber member. And yeah. You remind me of a quote that you know, people also die of exposure. So you know exposure's not always a good thing. So being able to provide something tangible and valuable is is important. And I think you're right, looking forward
32:07.906 Tallia Hart
Yeah.
32:17.452 Brandon Burton
that that is a a great way to look and see the future of chambers of commerce. So as we wrap things up here, if anyone listening has any questions about what you've discussed here or how you've done things at the Heelsburg Chamber or in your past experience at other chambers, how might they get in contact with you to continue this discussion?
32:21.934 Tallia Hart
Yeah, yeah.
32:39.982 Tallia Hart
So I can be reached in multiple ways, but the best way to reach me is to email me at Talia T A L L I A at Healdsberg.com. That is my email and I'm very good at getting back. for some reason if I don't, could have gone into spam. But also you can contact me at seven seven four three three I try to keep most of my social media actually private, but we do have social media for Healdsburg. And then we also have our website at www.healdsberg.com. So there's multiple ways, but emails usually the easiest. I do, like you mentioned in my bio, a lot of speaking, a lot of board facilitations. I've done different size cities, different companies. And I'm always happy to help people out. I also have a lot of mentees that I've worked with over the years, whether they're in chamberwork, association management, or I have a couple of grad of grad students from UCI since I sit on their board as well. So I'm always happy to help people in futuring their career and wherever they want to go.
34:00.224 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. And Talia's got a lot of great experience. So she's definitely somebody that would be great to reach out to and connect with if you if you're not already connected. but thank you so much for spending time with us today on Chamber Chat Podcast. And I will update all your contact information and our show notes for this episode, which will be found at Chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode fifty-seven. But again, thank you for being here. It's been a pleasure and I think you provided a lot of good stuff.
34:31.082 Tallia Hart
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And obviously number fifty seven's the best number. That's right.
34:36.448 Brandon Burton
Okay.
34:40.575 Brandon Burton
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