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Published February 25, 2020

Episode 58 · February 25, 2020

Chamber Chat Podcast Episode 58 artwork

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Shannon Full argues that chambers need to adapt their approach as communities change.

About This Episode

Shannon Full argues that chambers need to adapt their approach as communities change. Drawing on work in Cedar Rapids, Fox Cities, and Twin West, she discusses innovation, initiative funding, public-private partnerships, business visits, and the chamber's broader community purpose.

What You'll Learn

  • Reexamine established practices; fund major initiatives around shared outcomes; strengthen business and public-sector relationships.

About Shannon Full

Shannon Full is president and CEO of the Twin West Chamber of Commerce in Minnesota. She has nearly 20 years of chamber and economic development experience, including leadership roles in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Melbourne, Florida; Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Regional Partnership in Appleton, Wisconsin; and Twin Cities North Chamber.

Episode Chapters

00:22 — Introduction to Shannon Full

04:44 — Twin West Chamber overview

07:41 — Disruption philosophy and catalytic leadership

10:06 — Cedar Rapids, Fox Cities, and talent pipeline disruption

15:52 — Funding model changes and initiative-based revenue

21:10 — Public-private partnership examples

26:06 — Communicating value beyond networking

29:43 — Foresight, data, and future trends

33:28 — Small steps toward disruption

35:03 — Future purpose of chambers

Supported by Our Catalyst Sponsors

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Swypit helps chambers of commerce turn everyday payment processing into an opportunity to reduce expenses and generate additional revenue. Swypit offers credit card payment solutions designed to save chambers up to 40% on processing fees while integrating seamlessly with existing membership software. There is no charge for chambers to switch, and Swypit helps make the transition simple. Through its chamber affinity program, participating chambers can also create an additional source of non-dues revenue. Chambers can request a free cost-savings analysis to see what Swypit could mean for their bottom line.

Request your free Swypit cost-savings analysis and see how your chamber could save on payment processing while creating additional non-dues revenue. →

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Twin West Chamber of Commerce

Guest's current chamber organization.

Explore Resource →

An Idea Worth Borrowing

Disrupt on purpose, not in crisis

Use disruption as a disciplined strategy for continual improvement. Reassess legacy programs, funding models, and partnerships regularly so the chamber stays relevant to community and business needs.

• Which legacy programs should we redesign instead of merely maintain?
• Where could a new partnership or contract-for-service model expand our impact and revenue?
• How can we better explain the community-wide value of our work to members?

Read the Full Transcript

Read the Full Transcript

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

Episode 58 — Disruption-The Necessity for Every Chamber with Shannon Full
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Shannon Full
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.
00:14.218 Shannon Full
And now your host. He always celebrates his birthday with a turtle pie. He's my dad, Brandon Byrne.
00:22.862 Brandon Burton
Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, your host, and it is my goal to help introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. We're here today with episode 58, and our guest today is Shannon Full, who's the president and CEO of the Twin West Chamber in Minnesota. Now, Shannon has almost 20 years of industry experience. With expertise in Chamber of Commerce leadership, economic development, talent solutions, and organizational management. Shannon joined the Twin West Chamber as the president CEO in February 2017. Prior to coming to Twin West, she was most recently the president-CEO of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Regional Partnership in Appleton, Wisconsin. She began her chamber career at the Twin Cities North Chamber and subsequently led chambers in Melbourne. Melbourne, Florida, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. An experienced and accomplished professional, Shannon has received numerous awards for her work, including the Wisconsin Economic Development Association's Governor's Young Professionals Young Professional of the Year Award in twenty sixteen and the Best in Show winner for Talent Upload Program from the International Economic Development Council in twenty fifteen. She was a 40 under 40 winner in Iowa in 2009 and a 40 under 40 winner in Florida in 2008. Shannon has two children, Beckett and Finley, and she's married to her husband Travis and resides in Blaine, Minnesota. In our discussion today, we will be talking about disruption and how it is a necessity for every chamber. And we're excited to jump into this discussion and we'll get into it 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.
02:43.192 Brandon Burton
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 CC for credit card. Again, Chamberchatpodcast.com slash C C and get swiping with swipe it. All right, Shannon, we are back. Thank you for joining us today. Please take a minute to say hello to the audience. And if you would share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know Shannon Full a little bit better.
03:18.51 Shannon Full
Great. Well, thank you for the opportunity. Hello to everybody. it's my great pleasure to be here. you'll you'll hear quickly that the chamber industry and the profession is a love of mine. And so something interesting about me. well, I am a beach lover, an avid volleyball player and softball player and living here in the heart of of the Midwest. So love to travel and as I mentioned before, just really love the industry, spend a lot of my time working with chamber leaders all over the country on how do we not only better our profession, but how do we we better ourselves as chamber leaders. So I'm just thrilled to be here. Thanks, Brandon.
04:02.026 Brandon Burton
You're welcome. Thank you. And so you love to travel planes, trains, or automobiles or all of What what's your choosing your chosen way to travel?
04:10.27 Shannon Full
I prefer get me to where I need to go as fast as I can. So planes is probably the the case. and so but yeah.
04:19.534 Brandon Burton
So much the travel as it is a destination then.
04:22.424 Shannon Full
Correct, correct. yeah. It's the experience once I get there, not the experience while I'm in the in the in the wake in the in the means of getting there. So
04:31.854 Brandon Burton
well if you will share with us a little bit about the Twin West chamber, size, location, budget, and so forth, so we can all relate a little bit better to the perspective that you'll bring to the discussion today.
04:44.184 Shannon Full
Sure, sure. So I took the position coming back here to Minneapolis three years ago. actually came back. my family is from just over the border in Wisconsin, and so it was a good opportunity to come back to the family. But it's a smaller chamber than I had been leading, but one that actually has great potential and opportunity for growth. it is a large as it relates to scale of region. We serve ten municipalities in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. but interestingly enough, the Minneapolis marketplace has a high concentration of chambers. And so there are thirty-one local chambers of commerce in the metro alone. And so that also poses numerous challenges. But over three years we've seen great growth within our chamber, both from a budget standpoint. we're now about A $1.5 million operation with a very active and robust foundation. And then we've got about 850 members. And so we're a good regional size chamber of commerce, I would say, and looking for ways to look at synergies around streamlining our approach with the other chambers in the area. which may end up being some mergers and and looking at efficiencies as it relates to the chambers in general in our in our region.
06:19.0 Brandon Burton
So I have to ask, Wisconsin, are you a Packers fan? Or
06:24.19 Shannon Full
I am a diehard Packer fan. much to my dismay, we did not have a good showing against the Forty Niners. But yes, we had a great season and I live in a house that's a house divided. My husband's a a diehard Viking fan and I am a diehard Packer fan. Even our two children are divided. Yes, it's fabulous.
06:42.488 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Not to put salt in the wound, but I I was happy about that game. I've I grew up as a 49er fan, so I'm I I'm happy, but yeah. That's right. But I was a little nervous going into the game, so Aaron Rodgers can do anything. Anyway.
07:02.21 Shannon Full
Yeah, well not on that day apparently, but
07:06.446 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Speaking of disruption. No. As we get into our topic for discussion today, so disruption is necessary for every chamber. And I know it you've shared with me at some of these chambers that you've been at before and and currently at Twin West Chamber, you've helped to introduce some of this disruption. would you
07:09.506 Shannon Full
Yeah.
07:32.534 Brandon Burton
Just share some of those experiences with us, maybe from Cedar Rapids and Fox Cities, some of these disruptive moments that you've had.
07:41.966 Shannon Full
Sure. So I may start with just the the philosophy around disruption, right? I think that initially or even still in some people's minds, disruption signifies negativity or there's, you know, uncomfort with it. while although I do believe that there is uncomfort with change, and disruption is essentially change, right? the way that my philosophy has been reflected and why I've been recruited to the organizations that I have. has specifically been along the lines of of one of the factors that we see in the ACCE white paper all around kind of those factors around the that are helping to influence chambers. The one that we see is around catalytic leadership and this is really where I believe disruption is an integral part of of that that kind of philosophy. So When when I approach I've approached every organization around what are the areas that we should be looking at disrupting? And it doesn't mean that anything's wrong with them, but I always believe in continual improvements and how we can do things better. And when we look at the role of a chamber of commerce, we see disruption happening happening all around us within our communities, within our businesses. So we therefore should see the same thing in our organization. So In some of my organizations, we've seen disruption at multiple different levels. So some of it's at the strategy level, so around strategic planning and how do we approach the work that we've been doing for years and years and been doing well? How do we approach that from a disruptive mindset? some of the individual programs, so these legacy programs that we've heard about for years and years and years, how do we disrupt them and what does that look like? to some of the philosophy. So a big one that has been disruption for me in my last two organizations is the whole mindset around public-private partnership. There's been some resistance to that around should I be looking at public private partners, contracts for service? Will that deter us from being an effective advocate for business?
10:06.06 Shannon Full
to some of the work that we're doing. So major disruption for me, specifically in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when I was recruited there. I was recruited two months following the disastrous six billion dollar flood that hit Cedar Rapids. 5,400 homes, 1200 businesses destroyed. And we looked at disruption around our entire business model had to change, right? So we were looking at now we were the only advocate for business to rebuild an entire community. And so that was a very different approach and a non-traditional approach to chambers of commerce. As I evolved and moved into the Fox Cities Chamber, we looked at disruption from the entire business model, everything from the funding model to what does membership mean and the how and how are we going to look at membership going forward? As I've moved into this role here, we see that even more front and center around what is the sustainable model for us for the future, but also what is the community demanding of us. Disruption also looks at what should be what's the needs assessment of the community, where are we positioned to help the community thrive. We're seeing that now more than ever in talent and workforce. We've disrupted a model in which now here we have six public private school di or six public school districts, two post secondary institutions that we're bringing together in a systematic approach with a technology software platform that's helping us to totally address our current and future talent pipeline needs. So that's kind of a in a in a nutshell, those that the chambers that I'm seeing thrive across the country and I'm very involved with chairing the ACCE Major Cities Group, very involved with both ACCE and the US Chamber. So I've had great opportunities to engage with chamber leaders all over the country around what disruptive models they're seeing within their communities as well. So this is why I'm so passionate about this and love this love this topic.
12:19.822 Brandon Burton
That's right. I I couldn't tell. No. so as you were as you were talking, I th the thought occurred to me when you talked about disruption is about looking at a problem or looking at a a current setting and seeing how can we do things better. So I like to think that I have that kind of mindset where I look at something and think, how can we make this better? What can we do? What tweaks can we make? Where I know a big part of the population is totally fine just sitting back and being complacent and saying, this is how we've always done it. So can this mindset is it something that can be taught or do you have to have the right people or how what would be your advice on how to get that the right mindset for disruption?
13:07.48 Shannon Full
Yeah. great question. I think that part of it is a mindset, right? Part of it there is just an an in an innate nature in some of us that likes to challenge the status quo. You know, I live with a a philosophy around different isn't always better, but better is always different. So you're constantly looking for what does that look like? and so but it can also be learned and it can also be taught. I think it can also be cultivated, right? So I think part of this is around that mindset is around all of us want to do better. We always want our communities to grow, to prosper, to thrive. And sometimes that means we need to look at it with different lenses. And but what I've also found in all of this is it's not only mindset, it's sheer will and courage, right? It's a lot easier to go with the flow and status quo and this is this is how we can just co coast right i am one that that never seems to be fulfilling to me so so i think part of it is also surrounding yourself with leaders that are going to continue to push and continue to strive for that excellence and what does that look for it also for me has been very beneficial and why I'm so passionate about going in and helping other communities and regions and leaders is that I like to to bring in outside experts that are able to help me challenge the status quo. It's hard to do on an island by yourself. So to have some of that support has been very beneficial to me in the past as well.
14:51.726 Brandon Burton
I love that. I love that difference isn't always better, but better is always different. And that that reminded me of the the whole idea if if you want something different, if you want your organization to be better or to meet certain goals, you're not gonna get there by doing the same things you've always been doing. You have to make a change to be able to meet those goals and move forward. And I like that you mentioned about bringing in outside help because a lot of times it's having that perspective from a different point of view. To be able to say, you know, have you tried this? Have you tried going this direction? And and challenge that status quo. So I I love that. Different isn't always better, but better's always different. So you had mentioned earlier in some of the disruptions that we'll call it at your at the chambers you've been at, about funding models and challenging and and changing how your chamber is funded. would you mind expanding on that a little bit?
15:52.718 Shannon Full
Sure, sure. I I know for a fact, in whether it's our ACCE conversations, whether it's my state association chamber association conversations, our Midwest Chamber Association conversations, there is not one conversation that happens that we don't talk about something regarding the s the sustainability of the chamber in the future, the changing business model, the way in which people are investing differently. so it's always top of mind around how chambers are funding themselves, right? So I'll give a perfect example. one of my organizations when entering into it, we were 75% of our overall revenue came from the dues paid by our members. we now three years later are that's 35% of our revenue because that whole mentality and philosophy. around membership and engagement and what membership investment gets us is changing, right? So it's changing from our small businesses, but it's also changing from our mid-size and especially our large corporations. Our corporations are investing differently now. So they are looking at many of our my largest funders are not funding based on our membership. In fact some of them have blatantly said we are not joining organizations, we're not funding memberships any longer. So we've had to take the initiative upon ourselves to say, what are the things that you want to fund? Where are you passionate about? And most of the time it's around certain initiatives. So it's around community initiatives, initiatives that in the past chambers have not been involved in. You know, I think about some of the leading chambers now that are leading on on massive community initiatives around poverty, around mental health, around you know, more of that that holistic type of approach. Others for me, so we're looking at we have funding aspects, initiative funding aspects now around some of our project work. So we right now are have been for twenty years working on a a transit line a southwest transit line that is a
18:16.654 Shannon Full
commuter line that is gonna be huge for us. Well, we've got companies that are going to be big beneficiaries of that. If we're going to continue to support that work from an advocacy standpoint, those companies should be helping us to do that and invest in the in that around there. Other initiative funding around talent and workforce. So if that's the number one challenge, which we're hearing from our companies, then they should be helping to fund some of our work around that, the helping to fund this public-private partnership, this new we have a new Elevate Futures, it's it's called, is our talent initiative. so we're seeing and having to look for funding in a different way. We also see a tremendous opportunity around specific contracts for service from our our public sector. I mentioned this before this whole mentality around public private partnership that's another funding model that can be somewhat contentious as it relates to the philosophy and the mindset, right? So we've got public-private partnership agreements with our school districts, six of them. That's about $150,000 of our budget. But we deliver contracts for service of being the liaison to help schools better connect students with and teachers with career connected learning with our businesses. And that Instead of the school districts hiring their own internal business liaisons to do this work, that's our that's our mission and what we've been doing for a long time. So why not contract with us to do that and streamline the process, making it easier for our our businesses and our the employees of those businesses to engage in our talent pipeline work. So those are the types of things that I think about from a funding model that could be massively different for us and allow us to actually increase our value proposition at the same time that we increase our overall revenue and support for that.
20:23.202 Brandon Burton
So it sounds like a lot more work though than just sitting back and like collecting membership fees, right? You gotta you gotta actually provide programming. You have to provide these opportunities and listen to your community and get that feedback, collect the data. I mean, not that it's it's not bad by any means. I'm just I'm just joking. But Can you dive in a little bit more on some of these public private partnerships? Are there some other examples? You mentioned the school district, but are there other examples that you've seen or you know that have worked out well? 'Cause I know there can be some points of contention, but I think in some of these private and partner priv public and private partnerships, it it helps sometimes to have a buffer between the chamber and the community and and you can use that strategically. But
21:10.2 Shannon Full
Sure. Yeah, I think there so this is not new. many chambers have done public-private partnerships or contracts for service for a long time. so some of our chamber, some of the chambers, even those within my metro may major cities group, they are the economic development arm for the city. So some of them have full contracts with their cities in that the the cities may not even have their own economic development department. They might have the chamber do that entirely. others of it is for us. It's just a portion of that. So we have 10 cities in the process of forming public-private partnership agreements with all of them. We started with three pilot cities. and interestingly enough, we do our contract for service with our cities is in two areas. One that is growing a lot more attention is in that talent and workforce space. A lot more city councils are going to their city leadership or their staff and saying, we want you to be in the talent programming. We want you to answer the challenge around talent pipeline. And we know that one of the greatest assets or aspects of economic development now is our ability to attract, retain, and develop talent. So cities are looking to doing that themselves. We've actually approached them to say, we're already in this space, we're doing it well. Contract with us, and together we will form a partnership in which we are delivering talent programming for your businesses, but you can help us to bring that message out there to those businesses through the city. And so what's interesting about this is this has nothing to do with membership, right? So we are working with companies that aren't members. around talent pipeline challenges because they're interested in engaging in that and they're willing to fund that, but they may not be willing to fund it in in a membership capacity. the other, so the one deliverable we have for our cities is is in talent and we have a contract around that. The other is around business retention and expansion. So most of our cities would love more resources, more opportunity to form
23:31.438 Shannon Full
stronger relationships with our businesses. We have a great in because we speak business language. We have credibility and the trust of those businesses. So we are actually doing a partnership around business retention and expansion where the cities invest with the chamber for us to have to build out additional capacity to go out and make face-to-face visits where we take city staff members or elected officials with us. And we form, we find out what is it that are the greatest challenges facing our businesses. We do so in a one on one fashion. We then are able to form resource response teams that are able to address their individual business challenges. So we've got companies right now that are saying they've got a challenge with talent, they might have a challenge with a utility, a re a certain regulation. That's either a county regulation, a state regulation, or a city regulation. so finding out we collect that data, we do that in a in a fashion that we're able to aggregate the data, and then twice a year we report back to those city councils on these are the themes that we're seeing. So that that's another form of that public private partnership. So yes, it's more work. I would say what it does is it gives us a much much more breadth and depth into our community and into our businesses that increases our value proposition as it relates to this is why the Chamber of Commerce exists and the work that we do very passionately around that.
25:11.506 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. And I think that I don't know if you see it as a challenge or not, but what I've seen as a challenge with other chambers is being able to get that idea of what that mission of the chamber is to those that are members and those that are still thinking that the chamber should be about networking and after hours and ribbon cuttings and everything. three Ps rather than three C's, right? So being able to to get that messaging across to those members of look, this is how we're serving you and the entire community in general by having these partnerships, by helping the school system, by bringing in the talent and workforce to keep your doors open. it's just it's a shift, but maybe not the direct benefit. So I I don't know if if you see that being a challenge in trying to get that messaging across to your members or not. what are your thoughts on that?
26:06.454 Shannon Full
Yeah. There is no doubt we will always have the component of our strategic plan that is our business services that is really focused on how do we help you get the individual business provide you the services that you need to directly see benefit in the organization. But this is the philosophical dilemma and shift that I think chambers are facing. We have huge opportunities when we look to being the catalytic leaders, when we look to being the conveners, the solution-based strategists. I think chambers are solution-based strategists and can be positioned to do that very well. But that shifts the value proposition from a what's in it from what's in it for me. So that whole that individual mindset around I'm joining a chamber to get something directly out of the chamber to benefit me. So It's shifting that from although you still may get some of that, we're trying to say the reason you should belong to the twin west chamber of commerce is for the greater good approach of the work that we are doing. And here's some of that. We want your if you're a small business and you're investing $500 with us a year, we want you to see that your $500 of investment is strengthening our talent pipeline. giving students more opportunity to create relationships so that we can retain them here. We're about providing opportunities around public policy that allows us to strengthen our overall business climate so that we can succeed and that you may not get the direct referral that you're looking for. And if that in all honesty is the only reason you're joining, we say great, engage with us in those areas. But there are so many other things that we're missing. And so it's really our conversations with and surprisingly, have been very well received by our small businesses. I think too often, unfortunately, we don't give s our small business businesses the credit that they want to invest for the greater good and not solely for the what's in it for me approach and that they will actually get these
28:30.442 Shannon Full
ancillary or indirect benefits that they weren't thinking of by joining us if they approach it from the mindset around what's the greater good of the the work that we can do. So so we've got don't get me wrong, we've got lots of our members that join just for the sake of the networking and they want to get out of that. What we find is they start to get involved in some of that greater good community outcome work and they actually see far greater benefit than what they ever anticipated.
28:59.382 Brandon Burton
Yeah. Now the way I see it is it is networking, but it's like networking on steroids because hopefully as you explain the messaging and what the chamber's about to these members that maybe were just joining for the networking aspect, they buy into it and then they get involved. They join committees, you know, they're they're involved and engaged on a higher level in which they're gonna build those deeper relationships that will in in fact help their business in the the long run and and probably the short run too. So in talking about disruption, what kind of foresight does a chamber need to have as they kind of look to the future and try to plan for those changes that need to come? What are some things that you look to?
29:43.554 Shannon Full
Yeah, so I look to so I think that that's a critical part, right? Foresight is everything, especially if we want to be the visionary leader within the community. If we want to be one of those visionary leaders, if we want to be the catalytic leader, having that foresight. So a few things that we look to are look towards is really figuring out where are the critical data points and the data centers in our region, what's driving the region. Whether that be for change or for sustainability. so we look to what are I'm really big on strategic partnerships. So we have a lot of strategic partnerships with what I would call unlikely friends, right? So we look to what are we seeing as trends in our unions? So we are we've got a highly unionized population. So what are we seeing as the trends in talent and workforce as it relates to our union. What is what are the trends in our school districts? So we're seeing a tremendous, a huge shift in demographics within our school districts. So what should we as a chamber be doing around diversity, equity, inclusion? Because we know that in order to be compelling and appealing to the next generation of leaders, we have to be open to that. So that's a a foresight piece around diversity, equity, inclusion. Some of the other factors that we should chambers should maybe look to are businesses so businesses of all sizes but also not just the businesses that are here but the businesses that are leaving our community why are they leaving what are their what have there been their big challenges when we look at talent attraction what what are where are we appealing but once we attract leaders here What are their challenges once they face, once they get here? are we as opening, welcoming, and inclusive as we think we are? No. so what should that look like? so those are some of the I think having foresight and really huge opportunity for chambers to start to be the leaders that have those catalytic conversations. It starts all with setting the table.
32:07.722 Shannon Full
and allowing diverse stakeholders to come to the table for those types of conversations. This is that area that we're seeing the greatest opportunity. We have more diverse stakeholders at our table now than we've ever had in the past. It's because we're asking for those that mindset that mindset and we're asking for that feedback. We're asking we're not saying that before long ago, so for you know, ten years ago when I was Halfway through my career chamber career, we had a very big mindset around if you're not a chamber member, we're really not, you know, engaging with you. instead, we've made a massive shift to we want to engage you as a stakeholder and show you the value of then the chamber and belonging and joining. And even if you're not joining, investing with us and being with us on certain of our initiatives. So that's a that's a big, big shift for us.
33:04.684 Brandon Burton
Yeah, I love it. That that makes perfect sense. So I know we need to start wrapping things up here, but I wanted to ask you as we kind of tie up this this conversation here, what is one action item that you can suggest to chamber professionals that are listening that they can do to help take their chamber up to the next level?
33:28.546 Shannon Full
Yeah, I think for me, disruption can happen in very small ways. It doesn't mean that you have to come in and blow up the entire plan and everything that everyone's done for, you know, the legacy of the organization for, you know, twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years. I think it's small steps of acknowledgement around where could we where is there a concentrated interest in looking at doing something differently? Right. So it doesn't have to be massive, although it can be. It could be the when I was hi in my previous the three organizations I've been hired into, I have interviewed as a catalytic disruptor leader. I that they hired me specifically to do this type of transformational work. But I think it's around identifying those opportunities, surrounding yourselves with champions that want to have the courageous will to do it. Everybody says they want change, right? I found this with my board. My my the board that hired me that wanted change is not the same board that is here three years later because things is hard. And so so it's finding where are areas you can make a little ripple which makes a massive wave once you are able to to convene the right people around the table.
34:50.422 Brandon Burton
That's right. Now, this next question I asked everyone that I have on the show, and you've kind of alluded to it throughout our discussion, but as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going forward?
35:03.902 Shannon Full
I think we have a huge opportunity to continue to be massive catalytic leaders and truly conveners of knowledge, the ability to be a force to be reckoned with in chambers and really be a thought leader, but we have to be open to a different mindset. And so that's the part for me that's super exciting. I think chambers have a huge opportunity in the future. But I truly believe it will not look anything like what a chamber of ten years ago looked like. I think just evolution is not only gonna happen, it's an absolute necessity for us and that that won't happen without disruption.
35:48.886 Brandon Burton
Yeah, absolutely. So Shannon, I wanted to thank you for spending time with us today here on ChamberThat Podcast and ask if there is anyone in the audience who wanted to connect with you or had questions about anything you've you talked about today, how might someone get in contact with you to further this discussion?
36:08.718 Shannon Full
Great. Well, I would welcome it. I I love, as you could tell, I love this topic. I love working with other chambers. I love learning from other chambers. it's why I am so adamantly involved with our professional development organizations at the state level, at the regional level, and at the and at the national level with ACCE. But so people could get a hold of me. email is Shannon S-H-A-N-N-O-N at twinwest, t-in-n-w-e-s-t.com. so email is great. I'd be I'd even go out to say my cell number is nine two zero four two two three three three one. I look forward to calls from our our friends in the industry and yeah I I hope that anything that I've said can spark an interest or a light or want any more clarification, I'm happy to to lend any additional insights.
37:05.556 Brandon Burton
Very good. And I will update your contact information on our show notes page for this episode, which will be found at chamberchatpodcast.com/slash episode fifty-eight. So people can go there and and find your email and phone and get in contact with you. But again, thank you for taking your time today and sharing so many good insights and and helping everyone learn how to be disruptors in the industry.
37:28.686 Shannon Full
Great. Thanks for your tremendous leadership, Brandon. We appreciate it.
37:33.142 Brandon Burton
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Episode 84: Tulsa Regional Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Michael Neal & Justin McLaughlin →

Related topics: Economic Development, Partnerships, Regional Collaboration

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