Tulsa Regional Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Mike Neal & Justin McLaughlin

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

Episode 84 — Tulsa Regional Chamber 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist with Michael Neal & Justin McLaughlin
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guests: Michael Neal and Justin McLaughlin
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.294 Brandon Burton
This special episode is part of our 2020 Chamber of the Year Finalist series, where you get to hear from some of the top chambers across the country. I hope you find great value in this series, but first, the intro. 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. And now your host, the offensive line for my dad, Brandon Burton. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is Brandon Burton, and it is my goal to introduce you to people and ideas so you can better serve your chamber members and your community. This is episode eighty-four of Chamber Chat Podcast. It's also our thirteenth and final episode.
00:55.07 Brandon Burton
Chamber of the Year interview, the Chamber of the Year Finalist Series interview. And in this interview will be it's kind of a special one. It's my first time that I've I have a a tag team. we've got we've got a twofer on this this episode as we're highlighting the the Tulsa regional chamber. We've got both Mike Neal, their the president and CEO, and Justin McLaughlin, their executive VP and COO. But I would like to just mention before we get into this, if if you're newer to listening to Chamber Chat Podcast, I'd encourage you to check out our get started page at Chamber Chat Podcast.com slash start, where you can get some ideas for some nondues revenue for your chamber, which I know is important right now, as well as the free resource that we have there of our chamber podcasting guide. So again, both both of those resources can be found at Chamber Chat Podcast.com slash start. So we'll start off this episode as I share the a brief bio for both Mike and Justin. So Mike Neal, the president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber, which was previously the Tulsa Metro Chamber, was named Chamber of the Year in two thousand five, two thousand eight, and twenty ten, and was a finalist for the award in twenty eighteen, and now again here in two thousand twenty. Mike has spent time as the president and CEO of the Nashville, Tennessee Area Chamber, as well as his hometown chamber of Monroe, Louisiana. Mike is also heavily involved with the US Chamber of Commerce, serving on various boards and committees. Mike is a graduate, a accounting graduate from the University of Louisiana, Monroe, where he played baseball. Justin comes from a background of governmental affairs and economic development as he worked in the public sector as well as in at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and at the Bartlesville Development Corporation and Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce. Justin has a finance degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. He and his wife are the parents of three children. We're excited to have both Mike and Justin.
03:10.344 Brandon Burton
on the podcast today and we will be talking about what makes the Tulsa Regional Chamber stand out to be considered yet again for Chamber of the Year. We will get into this discussion as soon as we get back from hearing from our sponsor. Chambers are not considered for Chamber of the Year without having great programs and steady streams of non-dues revenue. I want to introduce you to a great affinity program from Swypit. In partnership with Chamber Chat Podcast, Swypit is one of the best credit card processors in the business. With the Swypit Affinity program, you can save up to 40% on your credit card processing fees at the Chamber and help your member partners to do the same. Chambers who take advantage of the Swypit Affinity program can add thousands of dollars to their non-dues revenue annually. Please visit. ChamberChatPodcast.com slash CC for more information and to request your complimentary cost savings analysis from the experts at Swypit. The first twenty chambers to respond will qualify for free equipment to get set up. Again, visit ChamberChatPodcast.comslash C C to start swiping with Swypit. Alright, Mike and Justin, we are back. I'd like for you both to take just a minute to say hello to the chamber champions out there that are listening and and if you'd both share something interesting about yourself, it's fun to to get you know get to know you both a little better.
04:43.586 Justin McLaughlin
Hey Brandon, this is Mike. I'm this is my 30th year in the chamber business. I I think I got into this by accident 30 years ago and I had no idea that I would be doing this 30 years later, having done it now in three states. and it's been a it's been a it's been quite a quite an experience, quite a blast. it's just so much fun to meet chamber folks and college economic development folks across this country. probably a thing about me is that I'm a I'm a big L S U Tiger fan and we finally had a good football team. We finally had a good quarterback and a good football team. It's been a while coming, but we're not gonna live that down.
05:22.434 Brandon Burton
Then he moved on to the NFL. So start again next year, right? Justin, why don't you tell us about yourself?
05:33.198 Michael Neal
So Justin McLaughlin, originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, born and raised here. And I've been doing economic development and chamber profession for a little over 15 years now. I've been with the Tulsa Chamber for going on 10 years and really love the profession. And I would say what we get to do and make a difference in our communities and really be at the heart of all those things that are going on is what I really enjoy. I would I would say interesting facts about me. I'm very much an outdoors person. I love the outdoors, hiking in the mountains, hiking anywhere is what I like to do on weekends and and for vacation.
06:11.32 Brandon Burton
Right. It's nice to be able to get out and especially in times like right now, it'd be nice to get out into the mountains somewhere. And in fact just a few weeks ago we my family and I were we're in the Dallas area and we ventured up to the Wichita Mountains, which you know, people in other parts of the country might not realize that Oklahoma has mountains, but they it has this really neat little mountain range up there. So went went for an escape for a day. Let's dive in and talk a little bit about The Tulsa Regional Chamber, if you guys wanna just explain, maybe give a little bit of perspective where you guys are coming from in this discussion so people can better understand maybe the size and location, budget, staff, things like that, so we know where you're coming from.
06:55.5 Justin McLaughlin
Great, thanks, Brandon. We're a little bit of a unique animal in that we are a consolidated organization. And by virtue of that, we happen to be one of the probably top five chambers in America size-wise, by virtue of the fact that we have a Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, an Economic Development Corporation, a Sports Commission, a Small Business Group, a Film Music, Arts and Culture Group, a manufacturers group, a chamber foundation as well as three different political action committees. And so we're we we share common management, common common strategic plan. we're very aligned. we have some twenty two hundred twenty-one twenty two hundred member members in our of our organization. We represent some hundred and eighty thousand workers in northeast Oklahoma, second most populated city in the state. Tulsa, Oklahoma City drive two-thirds of our state's economy. Our MSA is basically, we've just topped the million, one million mark as far as MSA. We had what I'll refer to as a pre-pandemic budget of in the 16 to 17 million range and a staff of 75. Flux that's fluctuating now with COVID. But we have been really charged with driving. both regional and in and individual prosperity in northeast Oklahoma. we by virtue of our of our size, we deliver a a ton of programs, wide variety of programs and services to businesses of all shapes and sizes throughout our our area. We're in a we're an entity, Brandon, that's been around for a while. We're 118 years old. and we have really been charged with like many most chambers are really trying to make their community a great place to live, work. play and visit. And our our tagline is your partner in prosperity. And in and by that we really mean that every strategy, every program, every service that our chamber provides is specifically intended to increase prosperity for our city and for our members.
09:04.022 Brandon Burton
Yeah, as you were telling about the the Tulsa Regional Chamber, it I I hear a lot of similarities to the Oklahoma City Chamber, but for good or bad, but we had Roy Williams on the show a few months ago and in hearing him talk about the Oklahoma City Chamber and hearing you talk about the Tulsa Regional Chamber, you guys both are doing a lot of things that are not typical for chambers to do. Yeah.
09:28.15 Justin McLaughlin
Roy's great yeah, Roy's a great friend. our our teams, our government affairs teams work together at the state legislature. They work together in Washington, DC. Our economic development teams work together and recruit to together, both really domestically as well as internationally. And so we're great partners. And as I said, our two cities drive two thirds of our state's economy. So it's really important that we work together and collaborate to the best of our ability.
09:57.758 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I I just mentioned that for the fact of things that regular chambers don't you don't normally hear them doing. just for the the point that not every chamber out there listening right now has the same resources or abilities, but as you listen, there may be some of those things that that that Mike and Justin are talking about here at the Tulsa Regional Chamber. that you can't necessarily mimic the whole thing, but there may be bits and pieces. You could say, you know what, let's try that back in our community. And and really that's what this podcast is all about, is being able to get those ideas, see what you can what sparks you can get and what you what kind of fire you can ignite back in your own community. So I just wanted to shed some light on that as we as we get started on this. So as as you guys submitted the application for Chamber of the Year, I know there's the portion for the the synopsis where get to highlight a couple of programs that you guys are proud of and and things that are working for you. Could you share with us what those synopsis are and and we can dive into those a little bit.
11:07.032 Justin McLaughlin
Sure. Brandon, I'll cover the first one. Justin will cover the second one. Our first one really had to do with our work to build tribal partnerships as part of our Tulsa Future Regional Economic Development Strategic Plan and our economic development strategy. And we are we're fortunate in that about sixteen years ago we started a an economic development organization and it it it w initially was a one county. City County Economic Development Organization has now grown to a 20-county regional economic development partnership that our chamber leads. We align our resources with the work of more than 200 public and private investors in that program. That program, Tulsa's Future, has really had its hand in working with businesses that have created some 70,000 new jobs and facilitated almost $4 billion. of capital investment in Northeast Oklahoma since that program began in 2006. And I would say that one of the unique things about our chamber in Oklahoma is that we have tribal nations, sovereign tribal nations, that have become really integral partners in all of our work, in all of our chamber work, our tourism work, our economic development work. But for the purpose of this application, we really chatted about Our economic development work and part of a part of the ACCE Horizon initiative of resource alignment, we've really worked hard to engage the three major tribes in our in our region. They all come together and our s their their borders meet in in the center of our city, but they but they all three represent huge portions of Northeast Oklahoma. They're the Cherokee Nation, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and the Osage Nation. And I'd say they are part of what I would contend. is one of the strongest public-private partnerships that really exist in this country. And I would just say, as we've had a a significant number of very high profile economic development projects and successes over these past few years, the tribal governments have been unbelievably engaged. And it's whether whether it's talent recruitment, whether it's helping provide transportation,
13:31.032 Justin McLaughlin
whether it's to help provide, you know, critically needed infrastructure funding to to help a company get a building built or infrastructure for for our new capital investment started. They've been un they've been astounding partners. Justin, who used to lead our economic development efforts, can certainly elaborate on some of those.
13:50.632 Michael Neal
Yes. Several really successful projects that the tribal nations have been involved in. And those would go back several years to a large Macy's distribution center that we recruited here. they helped provide some incentives as well as workforce and a pipeline of talented workforce into the Macy's project. also had another $100 million facility that was about 600 new jobs called Greenheck Group, and they're continuing to grow. the tribe, the Cherokee Nation was also very active in that. and then we had a a tissue paper manufacturer that's a huge project, about a $360 million project that the tribes have also been very active and helping with. And so they just they just continue to be at the table for us and are just something that gives us a uniqueness that a lot of communities don't have. they all three of the tribes said chief chiefs sit on our board, and so it it's just been a really great partnership for us. And and I and I and and I think beneficial to them. based on what they tell us as well.
14:51.202 Brandon Burton
That is great. I love that partnership and and I never would have thought, of course I'm not in your your region, but as far as reaching out to the the tribal nations for those partners partnerships and strategic partnerships. And Justin mentioned three hundred million dollar tissue paper menu. I I'm in the wrong business. I need to I need to get in tissue paper.
15:11.234 Justin McLaughlin
The first project that the tribe became involved in is this Macy's Order Fulfillment Center that Justin referenced, and it it now employs in excess of 5,000 people on a in a combination of part-time, full-time, and seasonal workers. another and an Amazon order fulfillment center. The Greenheck Group is grow going to Justin referenced, started out at a 600 jobs, it's now gonna grow to in excess of a thousand jobs. We're we the the according to the media. highly acclaimed media reports lately. We are supposedly a a finalist along with Austin, Texas, for a four or five billion dollar Tesla manufacturing facility. And the tribes are heavily engaged with our governor, with our local elected officials, with our chamber, our economic development team. So they're they're they're phenomenal partners.
16:02.88 Brandon Burton
I've been seeing that on social media and everything about being in the running for Tesla and and trying to remember who it must have been somebody there at the chamber put up a a logo with it said Tulsa it Tulsa for Tesla I think or but the the font was the same as Tesla. It looked it was pretty slick. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I can see why.
16:23.47 Justin McLaughlin
It's looking good.
16:27.682 Justin McLaughlin
That really segues to our next project having to do with donation of some historic chamber board minutes really relating back to our nineteen twenty one Tulsa race massacre. And I'll ask Justin to tell you about that.
16:42.668 Michael Neal
Yeah, so so last year the Tulsa Regional Chamber publicly donated minutes from the period of this nineteen twenty-one race massacre, when there was hundreds of African Americans who killed in what was an affluent Greenwood district that was known as Black Wall Street and was basically burned to the ground and crippling the African American business community. and there were some troubling passages in in this these minutes. But they really offered some insights into some of the attitudes and actions of those at that time that were in power. you know, and we we after after a lot of soul searching and thought that went into this and and certainly brought in some some experts to help us with that, the chamber apologized for its response at the donation ceremony to the massacre and also for not acknowledging its history for so many years. This effort really supported the Horizon initiatives of addressing political and social fragmentation and helping to provide catalytic leadership for change. One of the things that we've had for a long time is what we call our mosaic program. It's really about making the business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so we use that program as a platform to really elevate this work for some new audiences. to help prompt dialogue and action that's moved beyond the chamber and into the wider community. The thing that we're looking at as a community right now is we have that centennial coming up in 2021. And so the question that's going to be asked is what looks different today. And so that that is really what's been on on our minds, our communities minds, our board of directors' minds, to make sure that that we have that we've can we continue to make progress. I don't think anybody would suggest that we're where we need to be, but it's something that we're working on, or this community is very much actively engaged in what that looks like moving forward. And so it really has helped bring about a lot of conversations that we got started. I will say one more thing about that that was also neat is we were able to with we in partnership with the Hilti Corporation brought in a group called Catalyst that does a a men advocating for real change event.
18:58.238 Michael Neal
and it's it's made up of a diverse group, men, women, and diverse individuals, but basically going through a two day session with CEOs and and looking at a variety of perspectives and it's just a really good piece of training that helps move communities forward. So we were able to get a large group of CEOs to go through that. It took two days out of their schedule. and and I think, you know, had we not maybe started some of these conversations with this, those might might have not happened. I don't know. So it's that's we've started this dialogue which has been good.
19:31.032 Brandon Burton
So I'm curious with the centennial year coming up next year, is there some kind of plans to commemorate or or draw attention to or recognize the I don't know how you recognize the effects of the the massacre, but to to shed some light and kind of take a pulse of where Tulsa is now versus what it was then? Is there something in the works?
19:54.134 Michael Neal
Yes, there there is a series of of some centennial projects. probably the largest one is a museum that's that basically has the funding raised for it right now. and they're, you know, looking to break ground before too long. So that that would be probably one of the biggest projects, but there's a number of projects that are out there and then really fe really working to make sure that it's you know it's memorialized in an appropriate way. in that coming year. And so that that there's there's a lot of plans being made for that.
20:25.388 Justin McLaughlin
And I'd say, Brandon, one of the things that I think we're we're we're extremely proud of is our Mosaic program. Mosaic is an outgrowth of what used to be our Diversity Business Council. And Mosaic really builds the business case for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we have a senior vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion who does a great job leading that program, is very heavily engaged with the Centennial Commission and with the North Tulsa business community. and African American business leaders and like elected officials to help keep us heavily engaged. we try to leverage the work of mosaic everywhere we possibly can.
21:05.568 Brandon Burton
I think it's great that you guys are are bringing attention to this and that those those minutes were donated to be able to to draw attention to it. A while back I had come across a it was a podcast series on it was called American History Tellers that talked it had a whole series on the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. And before that, my knowledge of it was very, very little. I had I'd heard about it in passing, but never really had spent time on it. And I just I bring that up for anybody who may not be totally familiar with what happened to be able to check out that series because it really does shed some light and and it's a a proud thing to to see the chamber bringing attention to it and trying to make sure it's memorialized in in an appropriate way.
21:54.208 Justin McLaughlin
And Brandon, to Justin's point, it's been something that we as a community have been horrified about and embarrassed about for decades now. but one of the things I learned, and we all learned throughout this process is during about a three or four year period of time surrounding this time frame, there was literally hundreds of race riots that occurred all over our country. it just so happens that we probably had the one that was the most well known. maybe tragic but but these occurred literally all over our country back in that time frame.
22:26.19 Brandon Burton
something I I mean I can see where where i it would be appropriate I guess to have some shame for it, but also to be able to try to move past and mend those those wounds. So I I applaud you guys for doing that. So as as we take a a step back and kind of look at with you guys being up for as a finalist again for Chamber of the Year, in your opinion, what is it about Tulsa that's making you guys stand out to be considered again as Chamber of the Year?
22:38.862 Justin McLaughlin
Thank you.
22:56.312 Justin McLaughlin
Well, I think number one as an organization, we really, Brandon, aim to be the best. that we we are focused on continu continual quality improvement processes. we were we were thrilled to win this award in our first three times we ever applied. and then next time we reapplied two years ago to be a finalist and now a finalist again and so we are honored and humbled to be considered once again. and we learned a lot over the years in going through this chamber of the year process. It forces you to really look at yourself and compare yourself to the best chambers in this country of all shapes and sizes. The other thing is that we really embarked upon after having won it three times was we really worked with our Oklahoma Quality Foundation to try to figure out a way that we really could focus on this, as I mentioned, the continuous quality improvement processes because we found ourselves as about the most unprocess oriented organization in America, despite the fact we thought we were good chamber, we we didn't have any processes in place. And so it's really been helpful to us and we've been fortunate to win three different awards of three different levels of awards of commitment to excellence by the Oklahoma Quality Foundation. But the processes have really helped our team, helped our volunteers tremendously. The other thing that we've really tried to do to distinguish ourselves from any other chamber in America is that we're the only chamber with four accreditations, a five-star US Chamber of Accreditation, an accredited economic development organization through the International Economic Development Council, IEDC, and an accredited destination marketing organization through destinations international. And then likewise, we have the only accredited City Film Commission through the Association of Film Commissioners International in the state of Oklahoma. And so we think those accreditations have really given us great credibility. You know, I'd say one of the things that's probably most distinguished us if you if you as you look back over the last fourteen, fifteen years, is the fact that we have tried to become a collaborating machine. And we've really tried to work very aggressively in collaborating with regional partners.
25:15.862 Justin McLaughlin
whether it be on economic development or tourism or advocacy, as you look as you look and work across the Northeast Oklahoma region, that collaboration has just been so essential for us. And and I think really for our future.
25:30.066 Brandon Burton
Absolutely. I think you go a lot further together, that's for sure. Yes. So the next question I wanted to ask is as as a country, as a world, as we're hopefully all by now on on the road to recovery from the COVID pandemic, what are your plans as far as leading your business community to recovery, specifically as as far as economic impact is concerned?
25:58.008 Michael Neal
Sure. You know, I I think if you go back to the middle of March, really, I think it was just about the second week in March, we sat down as an executive leadership team and and really made the realization together that, you know, a lot of what we do as a chamber of commerce is going to change for a while. And I so I think the first step for us was realizing that, you know, us us bringing a bunch of people together into rooms to, as Mike talked about, collaborate and convene and make decisions was going to look different. how we recruited jobs and helped companies expand during a pandemic when a lot of companies are not expanding was going to look different. how we recruited tourism groups into town was gonna also look different. So we realized our business really changed. And so we had we had to figure things out. First thing we did is we went out and we talked to every single member that we have. Mike and I personally called all of our board of directors. and we have a a great resource development team that went out and and called every single member. that we have a visit with them about what get their thoughts. we did a series of surveys, and really what we landed on was a new strategy that focused on five things. Number one was empowering business. Number two is advocating for relief, three is visibly leading, four is convening and connecting, and five is securing funding. And I'll talk about each one of those individually. The first one about empowering business, that's really providing businesses. With the resources they need to survive and recover. We've done a lot, we've put out a lot of fact sheets, we've boiled down information, we've done business support series twice a week to really get businesses the resources that they need. And it's not just been for chamber members, we've also made it available to everybody in the community. the second is advocating for relief, and that's really about championing legislation to make sure that we we're bringing in the funding that we can from the federal government, from the state level and the local level, and just being that advocate. For relief, and we've done a lot of that. the third is is visibly leading. And really, what we feel like is as a as a chamber of commerce, we have a great opportunity to lead and be visible and to be positive during this recovery. And so that's something that we're very much doing and trying to help this our community recover faster than other communities. That's one of the goals that we've set forth. The next one is convening and connecting.
28:22.622 Michael Neal
and that's really about bringing people together and building community in meaningful ways. And and what we mean by that is we can't physically get in a room together, but we can still convene people. We've learned as ever as all of us have, we've learned how to do those things remotely. we've learned how to how to make, you know, we've it's kind of funny, we've gone back to talking on the phone a whole lot more than we have in the past. I spend my day on the phone, Mike's the day on the phone, you know, instead of doing as much email. And so it's really about trying to connect connect with more people. And the last thing is, and this is all internal focused, really, is securing funding to make sure that we can continue our work. you know, every every chamber has had their challenges during this time. we have we have not been immune from that with our business community. we've had a significant drop in oil prices in our state. we have a lot of the a lot of those businesses here. We've also had the COVID-19. So we've been hit by two different things that have affected that have affected our ability to be able to raise funds and to be able to you know, for for members. And so securing funding's been really important. And our board has stepped up in a big way to help us help us through this.
29:30.006 Brandon Burton
Just as a quick summary, I'm gonna run through that again. So empowering businesses, advocate for relief, visibly lead, convene and connect, and secure funding so you can continue with your operations and and be there for your business community. I think those are are good key principles that every chamber can at least, you know, adopt some portion of that into their organization to try to help lead through the this recovery. So as we start to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask what would be one action item or or piece of advice that you could offer to the the chamber champions out there that are listening that they could do to to take their organization up to the next level?
30:14.782 Justin McLaughlin
I would say probably from my perspective, two things. Number one is to become involved and engaged in organizations such as ACCE, your State Chamber Association, or any other local or regional group like that, it gives you a chance to build a peer network and a chance to learn from experts across your state, your region, the country, et cetera. And I think the important thing about that is this gives you an opportunity to develop industry relationships and partnerships and friendships. And I will tell you if now having done this for 30 years, those relationships and friendships will last you a lifetime. the second thing I would say is that you've got to continue to invest in yourself and in your organization. And in our chamber, we have invested significantly in leadership training, whether it be through attendance at ACCE, IEDC, et cetera. But we've gone we've gone through our our leadership team has read a book called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. And it's and so we try to pick a book a year or something like that that we can go through and study and take a chapter or two at a time that we can analyze. And it just really forces us to to to kind of focus focus on the future. And try to focus strategically.
31:45.078 Brandon Burton
I really like that idea of having that
31:47.586 Justin McLaughlin
The day to day grind that we can find ourselves in in embedded in er you know, nonstop. Just to go out.
31:55.958 Michael Neal
Two yeah, two things to add to that too. I know you said one, we'll give you five.
31:59.616 Brandon Burton
All right.
32:02.99 Michael Neal
But I think it's been important too. We we have hired a leadership consultant to help us and they they come and help our executive leadership team with retreats to keep us on topic, to keep help us think through things, and it's really been helpful to give us an outside perspective. So that's been another thing that I'd add on to Mike's talking about leadership training. The other thing that I would mention is I just I I can't say enough how important it is to spend time focusing on your strategy and your business. You know, we get we get going a hundred miles an hour, people want our time, people want us to be at this event or be at that. But to be able to sit in your office for a little while or sit somewhere quiet and really think about the business and think about what we should be doing, thinking about our strategy and thinking about the direction. I just don't think that, you know, it does it's not it doesn't look good. You're not you're not at a podium. but to me it's it's just as and maybe even more important than being at a podium is making sure that you're setting that strategy for your team. And so I would say that that's that's where I know what I would say.
33:02.434 Brandon Burton
Those are all great pieces of advice and and those everybody listening just got three extra bonuses out of that. So that is awesome. Now everybody I have on the show, I'd like to ask this question too, that you know, we're always thinking about how chambers can can stay relevant. So as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see their purpose going forward?
33:25.624 Michael Neal
You know, think a couple of things. The chambers are really going to be essential in driving economic recovery from the pandemic. I mean, we talked about that through our strategy and how we can provide positivity as we move through this and be, you know, a a voice of hope in the community. we're also going to be help helped by bringing people together to bridge political and other divides. I mean, there's a lot of division in our country, and I think a chamber of commerce can really provide that bridge for for people and for organizations. and that really also helps reference I mean I'm sorry, that also helps with the Horizon initiative of addressing that political and social fragmentation, which we seems to be you know, in some ways getting worse at the national level. we feel like that at the local level there are ways that we can really help bridge those gaps. And so that's something that we try to do at the chamber.
34:12.373 Justin McLaughlin
And Brandon, I'd add two things to Justin's point, is number one, we must continue to be relevant. COVID nineteen has forced us to address relevancy, as Justin has just finished referencing. But you we we've got to stay relevant. We've got to change continually so we can stay relevant. And I'd say number two, that we've got to continue to drive economic development and job creation in our local communities, whether it's through existing business. retention and expansion or whether it's through new business recruitment, we've got to drive economic growth in our cities and in our regions and in our states.
34:50.644 Brandon Burton
Again, bonuses. That's awesome. Thank you for that. So I'd like to to give you guys both an opportunity for for those that are listening, if they wanted to reach out to either of you about what you've discussed with us today on the program, or just to continue this conversation offline, what would be the best ways for them to reach out and connect with you guys?
35:13.784 Justin McLaughlin
Best way to reach me is Mike Neal N E A L at TulsaChamber dot com. Mike Neal at Tulsachamber dot com or you can call me on my cell phone at nine one eight four zero nine one seven three two. Nine one eight four zero nine one seven three two.
35:32.428 Michael Neal
My email address is Justin McLaughlin C L A U G H L I N at Tulsachamber dot com.
35:40.672 Brandon Burton
All right. I will get your contact information updated in the show notes for this episode, which will be found at ChamberChatPodcast.com slash episode eighty-four. And again, Mike and Justin, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share with us the great things you guys are doing at the Tulsa Regional Chamber. You guys provided a lot of value to the listeners out there. And I wish you guys and and your chamber the best with Chamber of the Year.
36:09.656 Justin McLaughlin
Thank you, Brandon. We appreciate it.
36:11.404 Michael Neal
Appreciate it.
36:13.558 Brandon Burton
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