Below is an auto-generated transcription of my conversation with Tammy Wellbrock. Because this is auto-generated there are likely some grammatical errors but it is still a useful tool to search text within this podcast episode.
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Brandon Burton 0:00
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.
Unknown Speaker 0:14
Now, your host he would love any tips on how to get rid of gophers from your yard. He’s my dad Brandon Burton.
Brandon Burton 0:21
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and it’s my goal here on the podcast to introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your Chamber members and your community.
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Tony Felker 1:24
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Brandon Burton 1:46
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Our guest for this episode is Tammy. Well, Brock Tammy has been serving in multiple roles in the chamber industry since 2009. First, she served as a board member for two years before that same chamber, the Hayes Chamber of Commerce hired Tammy as our president CEO. Under her direction, the chamber was a 2013 ACCE finalists for chamber the year after nine years in this role, Tammy launched her own professional consulting, training and coaching business Girl Twin Solutions LLC, and aspect of her business includes serving as interim executive leadership roles such as Fort Hays State University Alumni Association, called the Thomas County Chamber of Commerce and Pratt Area Chamber of Commerce. She enjoys the challenge of leading organizations through transfer through transformational change. Tammy received her BA in her MS and communications. In 2014. She completed her IOM designation, and she earned her certified Association Executive in 2016. She continues to aid professionals and their professional growth while teaching students at the fhsu as an adjunct instructor, Tammy, I’m excited to have you with us today on chamber tap podcast. This is a I feel like we’ve had a lot of anticipation building up to having you on the show. So this is great. I’d love for you to take a moment to say hello to all the chamber champions and share something interesting about yourself so you can get to know you better.
Tammy Wellbrock 3:23
Well, and I suppose you’re looking for something more interesting that I liked the color yellow. Yeah. So you know, Brandon, thank you so much for letting me be a part of your podcast. And certainly, I’m kind of geeking out on. Oh my gosh, I’m with Brandon Burton. He’s so famous. And so you know, I It is a pleasure to be able to get get a chance to be a part of your show and part of your mission. And so, something interesting about me well, you know, when I was that same question, I call it my unicorn, what makes me memorable, and what makes me unique. And I, I was going through that exercise when I was coming up with my new business name, and when you are my age, and so 50 years ago twins were of natural creation. It was not perhaps infertility drug induced. And so, back in the day when I was being birthed my brother and I, my twin brother and I were one of the only set of boy girl twins that were in our area. I mean, in our school League, and yes, I grew up in a very small, rural Midwestern area. And so I I got mailed to the twins in our hometown i i was called the girl twin And to this day when I am trying to make a reference of something about growing up, and people may be trying to see if they knew me and build those connections report, I will explain to them well, do you remember the girl twin from my hometown? Oh, yeah, I remember you. And so that’s, you know, that’s, I think it is unusual. I think it’s something memorable. Twins are certainly not quite so rare these days. But so girl twin solutions, it is that was the name of how I took the journey and coming up with my business. But also, I think it’s interesting, the the roll, I’ve been asked what’s it like to have been a twin? And I’m like, I don’t know, what’s it like to be a single, right? I don’t know anything different. But what I can tell you is that I had one point in my life, had to teach myself to use singular pronouns, instead of the plural. And to this day, when I slip into reminiscing about my childhood, it goes to WWE. Us. And not me or my and, and I think that’s kind of an intriguing forecast into team dynamics. I say, I’ve been embracing team dynamics since birth. I couldn’t say the womb, because if you’re a science, you know, knowledgeable scientist, you’d know that that’s not possible. For boy girl twins. But with that being said, I you know, I just think it’s it’s a, it’s a fun aspect to think about, I have been working in a team environment since a child, I think in ways of how can we do more effectively and efficiently. Working together? I just, I just always thought that way. Because I could see right away, I could do more when my twin and I were working together versus working apart.
Brandon Burton 6:56
Even in the womb, I’m sure you guys figured out some system of who gets to kick when and whose feet go where and all that. So I don’t know.
Tammy Wellbrock 7:02
Well, somehow I pushed him out first. And so I came second. I think there was some talk in there. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 7:10
there you go. So you told us a little bit how you came up with the name girl, twin solutions, tell us a little bit more about your company, what you do with the consulting and working with chambers. And it just gives us a better picture for maybe a little bit more background as we set the table for discussion.
Tammy Wellbrock 7:25
Perfect, perfect. So as you had shared in my bio, I have chamber experience. I also have teaching experience and so and management, I’ve been in three different industries, including the chamber, and I’ve been in leadership roles, executive level. And so I’ve always been in ways of influencing or impacting others, and I am, I find that extremely rewarding. So then when you take the the experience of leading a chamber, and seeing how that role, is, it’s crucial to be able to influence the work environment. And so if you have I mean, what better way to keep employees in your community, and to keep those employees trained and successful, but to offer them those professional development opportunity. So as a chamber exec, I was bringing in different workshops, Series speakers, on a variety of different excuse me different different thoughts and ideas and training and tools and to help our business community be more effective in whatever it is that they were trying to achieve. And so with that, I then saw that value that chambers were bringing to their communities. And I fell in love with some of those that we continue to see in the industry. Frank Kenny inspired me, David Walker inspired me, Kyle Sexton, Kathy Hi, you know, all of those names I was I had in our community or I was working on trying to get him to our community. And so I thought, you know, that’s what I want to be when I grow up. And that’s in essence, what I what I have strived to do. In reality, though, I also know that there is an opportunity for area businesses to be able to hire and not just area I mean, we with technology and the capability of flying, I can go anywhere. But you know, at that point, I also then really enjoy trying to expand the reach. Just because I think I have something to offer different entities and my hope is that business can help whether it’s an organization or whether it’s an individual just be a better version of themselves. today than they were yesterday so that they can continue to grow tomorrow.
Brandon Burton 10:03
That’s so important just comparing ourselves to yesterday and continue to see that improvement. And I firmly believe that’s the purpose of life is just to keep improving. So thank you for that background. Our topic for our conversation today is going to be around building resiliency. And I think so often we focus on you know, the Chamber professionals that are out there serving you know, the servant leaders, they’re out there helping their members helping the business community helping their community in general, grow and progress and get stronger and then just be the best that it can be. And we often neglect putting the focus back on the chamber professional and making sure you’re taking the best care of yourself. So we’ll dive into that discussion as soon as they get back from this quick break.
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Izzy West 13:28
Hey, this is Izzy, publisher of the Chamber Pros Planner, a weekly monthly planner featuring weekly meeting notes, habit tracking and 12 week goals. Last year, Emily Roberts of the Madison Area Chamber commented on the Chamber Pros Facebook group, “This is my first time getting this planner and it’s great. It’s specific for chamber professional and it has lots of notes room. Checkout Izzy West’s website to get a better picture of it.” So you had heard her go to TheIzzyWest.com. To learn more about the Chamber Pros Planner. I have a video you can watch of me slowly flipping through the book so you can decide if it’s right for you.
Brandon Burton 14:02
All right, Tammy, we are back. As we get into our topic of building resiliency today, I think it would be great just to have you share your story as a chamber executive and how it kind of led up to this topic that we’re covering today.
Tammy Wellbrock 14:17
I thank you for that. I would imagine a lot of people on this podcast will see themselves in my description. An executive that has been placed in a position of influence and opportunity to help a community he or she loves greatly. And and in a job description that is probably written exactly for their skill set. And that was me. I really felt that I became the person I was meant to be when I was working at the chamber. And I found myself you know you Your five, year six, just depleted. But you know, I kept thinking, I need to, I need to keep driving forward, I need to keep you know, keep doing more. Because you know, your success is built on it really. People have short memories. So you got to keep striving to do more and to do more. And and in fact, one time I remember thinking, why do they push us so hard? And it kind of hit me when I realized, Tammy, you’re doing it to yourself. But who are they? Yeah, are they? It’s you. But at that point, by year nine, I had gained more weight than was healthy. I had removed almost everything from my world that I did that also drove joy, that refilled my Well, if I love to sing, but I felt like I didn’t have enough time to sing. So I cut that out of my world. I love to write No, unless it’s writing for something professional. So everything I did, I put my entire time into just almost kind of surviving and focused on the chamber. I do have a family, I do have, at the time, it was a young son, he’s now in college. But you know, it just I felt so depleted. And by my ninth year, I didn’t have the energy, the zest, the drive anymore, and things were making me mad. And things that shouldn’t make me mad. But I just had a shorter fuse. And so I knew that I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do in the way I wanted to do it. And so I I did some soul searching came up with this business, trying to refill my well, but then, you know, then a global pandemic hit. And so it really made me curious about how how burnout is such, it’s so prevalent in our society. And I was I was a casualty of it. So through that burnout story, I again, that curiosity drove me to understand why could somebody living her best career dream burnout. And what I’m going to share today is a lot to help others recognize, perhaps through my own straw trials, that maybe I can keep somebody else from burning out. And so it truly is, don’t do as I did follow what I say because I didn’t live this. I’m but I’m trying to now.
Brandon Burton 17:39
And I’m a big believer that some people have to learn lessons the hard way, you know, and other people may be a little more wiser than us can learn from other people’s experience. So hopefully those listening can learn from you learn from what you went through and, and maybe see those those markers as we talk about some of these stress indicators and things like that. Because that seems to be it was the stress piling on that eliminated the things that you loved in life that you were, you know, taken eliminating one at a time out of your life. But let’s say you know what, what’s the difference you see between stress and resiliency and bringing it back to the topic?
Tammy Wellbrock 18:19
Well, and you know, stress turns to burnout. So those two kind of are on one side and resiliency is on the other. So stress, the stress is is inevitable. I mean, we will incur stress, and it’s a healthy part of our life, when it becomes unhealthy is when you don’t manage it, and then you get to burnout. So burnout is the the negative result of stress, but stress, phenol, it, it can help us achieve it can give us drive. And we the thing that’s fascinating about stress is everybody responds to different stressors in their own unique way. And so because of that the experts really struggle in defining not what is stress we but why why we get to stress. And so acute and chronic stress, again, both short term and long term aspects, it can impact our mental and emotional well being our physical. And so but it’s it is, like I said experts have a hard time defining it, measuring it, and understanding what triggers it and how to prevent it. But so everybody is in a unique situation. And if I may just share, I’m going to do some broad strokes today. That may, there may be scalable aspects that each person can listen to. One thing though, while I do believe that I have a lot of value to be able to provide today, I do want to just give this quick little disclaimer. I am not a trained psychologist, a counselor or therapist. I am somebody who experienced burnout and I’m fascinated with redefining that Life and what resiliency means. And so, please know that if you are at a point listening, I hope that I can inspire you. But you know, but it may be you need some extra professional assistance on your journey. But back to your question about the difference between stress and resiliency. Let’s find fascinating though, to find out to become more resilient, you must go through those stressful times resiliency is you are able to then deal with that change and uncertainty and be more, let’s say nimble, yes, people call it a bounce back. But it’s it’s being able to adapt and respond to those circumstances in a more healthy manner to find where you can learn from those challenging times. But then also to be proactive and creating boundaries that are that are necessary for you in maintaining that, that lifestyle. And the beautiful thing about resiliency is it can be nurtured. It can be developed, it can be learned. So if you feel like oh, I just don’t, I just am not resilient. It’s okay, you can learn that. Yeah.
Brandon Burton 21:14
So, and you’re right. Stress is, you know, it’s one of those things, it’s like it’s calorie free, you don’t always see you don’t always see all the you know, negative responses of stress right away. Usually, it’s a accumulation of stress before you see the negative impacts in your life. And it can really creep in in very small doses. And it just builds up if you don’t find a way to relieve it and release some of that stress.
Tammy Wellbrock 21:39
But no, go ahead.
Brandon Burton 21:40
I was just as I was reminded of just a real short story that I had heard a few years ago, this, you know, this man, he wants to a new pickup truck here. He keeps trying to convince his wife, I need this truck, I need the strike. And finally she she says, Okay, go get your truck, gets a truck says I’m gonna go out in the mountains and cut some firewood. So he goes out in the mountains, no cell phone service or anything. And he’s out there, you know, beautiful Ryan in his new his new truck. And he’s cutting down these trees and making use firewood, he’s got this big stack on. And while he’s been out there, the snow storm came. So now the road and everything is snowed in, he’s got his pile of wood and his head better get home, it’s starting to get dark. And so he gets in his truck. And he’s stuck, you know, this nice new four wheel drive truck, it’s stuck in the snow. And he can’t call for help. He’s he’s just stuck. And he thinks well, as long as I’m here. And Mizel start loading the firewood in the truck. And he puts the wood in the bed of the truck and, and he tries again. And finally we’re having that extra weight that load in the bed of the truck, he was able to get traction and able to go. So the moral of the story is yes, some level of stress is necessary for us to get traction and to move forward in a positive direction in life. But if you get too weighed down, if you put all the trees, all the firewood in the truck, he also would have gone nowhere, he would have burned out quickly. So it’s uh that story resonated well to me when when I first heard it. So hopefully, that helps somebody else as well.
Tammy Wellbrock 23:15
So stealing that, thank you. Yes, you were adding to my future repertoire. But it is, you know, it’s funny, because I thought you were talking about you go out into the mountains. With that I thought somewhere your story was going to lead to a bear. Oh, and so yeah, but let me add the fact that our bodies will respond in a physiological, neurological manner to stress in the same way. So we we respond to a bear and our brains are prepared to survive to protect us. And they weren’t they were intended to, you know, that flight fight or freeze mind frame, you know, very intuitive. And so our body looks at a bear approaching us in the same manner that we may have taxes due tomorrow.
Brandon Burton 24:10
So yeah, in our world today, we create these stresses that are seemingly life threatening in the moment, when we can take a step back, like, Oh, hold on, this is not a bear. This is something I can do it. But that’s a good point. So there’s there are these natural responses that come up to stress. What are some of the things that you mentioned the three F’s, but how? How does our body respond as we come across stress?
Tammy Wellbrock 24:36
Well, you know, there’s there’s definitely something happening in terms of, you know, like, if you’re fighting, you’re doing something, if you’re flight, you’re obviously trying to escape, freeze, you play dead. And so you know, you may be like me, I almost numbed myself with food. I’m an emotional eater, but, but our brain has a split second. to move us into some type of action or inaction, if you will, if you play dead, but it’s definitely everybody understands that when you’re in that stressful time, our, our blood starts pumping harder or adrenaline starts going, there’s a lot of hormonal activity, muscles tense, I mean, our sensitivity to, to, to pain is diminishing. I mean, all of that is done as a way to protect us senses are heightened, etc. And so the brain, though, is going to continue to stay in that stress mode, to continue to protect you, and tell you tell your brain that it’s safe, your body is safe. And so when you’re in that, that moment of just whatever’s happening, and you know it when it’s happening, that’s when you actually are getting past that you need to have a way of completing the cycle, completing that cycle to tell your brain, hey, I’m okay. We’re good. And so because then if you don’t do that, that’s when the burnout piece comes. And so I do have some tips on how to complete that cycle, do you want me to continue to share and keep going or
Brandon Burton 26:17
so I’m a big fitness junkie. So all things how the body works just totally intrigued me. And when you talk about stress, like the fight or flight and freeze being the other one, if you think about your body in general, so if you’re, you’re eating, you’re digesting, like your body does, it has IT systems to be able to function. And if you’re constantly under stress, the blood that should be in your stomach to digest food and you know, build your body and go, you know, do what your body’s supposed to do, is being diverted to your extremity. So you can run so you can fight so you can do these things that are responses to stress. And if we’re constantly in that state, the rest of our body is not going to function optimally. And really, I mean, that’s a lesson that I learned a while ago. And like that’s, that’s pretty powerful. So yes, tell us about the cycles, how to complete the cycle, so we can kind of reset our body to be able to function properly again,
Tammy Wellbrock 27:17
will you call yourself an exercise junkie? Let’s just I think that’s your term. But yeah, cool. So physical activity, I guess at that point, is the single most effective strategy that is more immediate, telling your body that you’re safe. And that certainly makes sense. And if you go into a doctor about any type of issues that may be stress related, they’re probably going to tell you what you need to exercise. You know, I wish I was that person. And I’m not. And so it was like, so when I would go in those stressful moments during my Chamber Leadership. I’m like, I can’t even find time to sleep, how am I going to find time to exercise and it wasn’t something I made as a priority. And it wasn’t something I was interested. And so but you know, certainly I understand physical activity. But there are other ways to continue doing this. And so, for instance, breathing, and breathing is the most gentle manner to unlock any type of stress, trauma, it’s a great place to start because you can do it anywhere. And any body function, you know, whatever shape or size or interest, we all can use breathing techniques. And so laughter is another I mean, if you think about having that great belly laugh with your friends, or over a joke or comedy, you feel better. So it makes sense that laughter creative expression, I mentioned to you that I stopped writing, but well stopped writing for pleasure. Let’s put it that way. But creative expression could be maybe you’re a photographer, maybe you’re an artist, maybe you’re a singer, I also had stopped singing all of those aspects of creative expression. We almost remove those from our life because we think it’s taking away from you know, we’re adding more stress to our life because of it’s just one more thing we have to do when in essence, it may be what’s refilling your well. And at that point, if it drives the energy forward in within you, then it’s a healthy, it’s a healthy aspect to continue doing positive social interaction. We mentioned the laughter I think a lot of times, but you don’t have to go and just laugh with your friends but having that social interaction of, of having somebody being intentional, and and supportive, you know, that we just can find so much weather, and that’s probably why walking with a friend can even be more profound. than just walking by yourself, or workout buddy or whatever, a good cry, a good cry, I mean, how many of how many of you listeners have really just felt better after they’ve had this emotional vomit, so to speak, where, you know, you just let it all out, but you feel better a good cry can release those emotions that are getting trapped within. And affection. Affection is something that I love the idea of affection. And it’s not necessarily with somebody, another person, but let me just share if, if you did the act of petting your dog or your cat for 2020 minutes or less, that can have the same amount of release and completing the cycle as a 20 minute walk. And affection could be if you if you do a a hug. For instance, if you go in and hug somebody, and you make that lasts for, let’s just say 20 seconds, think about, it’s really awkward to do a 22nd hug with a stranger or equate it somebody that you trust, and and that affection level. In fact, they also have a six second kiss. And think about that you’ve got a special somebody in your life. It’s weird, if you did it with somebody not so special, I would not recommend it.
Brandon Burton 31:29
I have something to say about that.
Tammy Wellbrock 31:34
But you know, six seconds is a long time. And you just are in the moment at that point. And it just all of those things can be done by anybody, regardless of your social status, your position, your desire to exercise your time, you can do breathing at your desk, you just had an upset phone call, you know, an hour ago pop a joke and just go have a good laugh. But it’s it’s the intentional and purposeful action, that’s crucial to, to stopping that small stress to becoming a burnout issue. So that’s, that’s you need to stop the stress before you can build on the resiliency is the is the thing that we need.
Brandon Burton 32:20
As you went through these different ways to process and kind of unwind the stress some of these things you can stack on top of each other to right, as you pet your dog, you can deep breathe, you know, as you pet your dog, you can talk to your dog and create some of that social interaction.
Tammy Wellbrock 32:37
And I laugh when my dogs doing so.
Brandon Burton 32:40
Right? Yeah. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, people come home, and they need to often unwind, you know, from the stress of the day. And what’s this, the typical things people go to food or alcohol tend to be those, those two things to kind of numb out and be able to get into a place where you can sleep at night and start over again. And neither one is going to eliminate or get rid of that stress load that you’re carrying.
Tammy Wellbrock 33:08
You’re just borrowing one moment to add on a problem later, you’re gonna have to deal with, right. And there’s a lot of apps and a lot of resources, blogs, blogs, whatever. And I have a list of resources. If anybody wants to email me, we’ll, we’ll share more of that. But if I have, I have something that I can send out to the listeners that can give them other ideas, because I, it may seem so simple to how we’re talking about it today branded, but I get it, when when you’re just not in a best frame of mind. You kind of need some of those tools at your fingertips.
Brandon Burton 33:49
Right? Yeah, I was also thinking every now and then we have the very stressful situation that comes up, you know, you get the bad news of something, you get a text from a angry, you know, chamber member, or you get the disgruntled email, you know, and it’s really easy to fire back the email receipt, do this do the text response. And what I’ve learned is creating space between the stimulus and your response. So you get that text that really triggers you create some space, do some deep breathing, maybe give it an hour or two before you respond, because you don’t owe it to him to get back to him immediately. And you’re going to be more level headed, you’ll be able to process that initial stress load before you respond. And it’ll be a much better conversation, I promise.
Tammy Wellbrock 34:40
Crew. I you know, I often had somebody that just triggered me, and every time I got an email from this individual, I was immediately angry and something about that made me you know something about the Word structure, whatever it was when I read that email, I went to an interview quotation that was always negative. I sat on it. And usually I would, I didn’t do it necessarily, I would sit on it because I wanted to share my frustration with my husband later. And I’d pull up that email and I’d read it to him. And it didn’t even have those buzzwords. Yeah, I’m like, wait a minute, what about this made me so angry. And if I would have in the moment, I was ready to just jump on this person. But because I wanted to plot my revenge, you know, and how my husband helped me, then I realized I, that was, that was pretty powerful to realize that, you know, something triggered me in the moment, I interpreted it negatively. Later, it didn’t trigger in the same way. And I didn’t see it in the same light.
Brandon Burton 35:46
But and it’s empowering to when you can choose to act rather than react, like there’s a difference there. So I know you’ve got four steps to building resiliency. So let’s, let’s cover what these four steps are. So we can help out all these chamber professionals out there who are like, give us the answers.
Tammy Wellbrock 36:04
Well, absolutely. And you know, it, I love what you said it can it resiliency, and and and learning from these moments, it’s not just about getting through and bouncing back through the stressful times, you can, you can really experience some profound personal growth. And, and as well as maybe keep yourself from creating more stress and drama later. So, you know, psychologists define resilience as a process of adapting well, in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. And it can be learned. And so how you deal with all those situations, and being able to come up with those different strategies, helps you remain calm, be able to perceive those stressful circumstances in a different light. And it can eventually help you with that, that aspect of positivity overall. And so here’s some key points before I get to those four, challenging times do not determine the outcome of your life. You know, greater resiliency is truly empowering. And it’s not something some people were blessed with, and you don’t have it. No, it is something that you can learn because in but resiliency involves behaviors, thoughts, actions that are learnable. But it does take time and intentionality. And it’s reframing those emotional reactions from negative to positive. Because think about it, our emotions are driving our behavior. And focusing on what you can control is key. So let’s talk about that. The four steps that you mentioned, are are, let me just first say, and then I’ll come back to them. The first one is connection. The second is wellness. The third is healthy thinking. And the fourth is meaning. So let’s just talk about that connection was number one. Focus on finding individuals who validate your feelings, those connections can help you understand you’re not alone. Those people though, they need to be trustworthy, and they need to be compassionate. And, but but it doesn’t have to be a one on one, it could be a social group. And those social groups can come from your civic connections, your religious, your niche hobbies, whatever the case may be. But having the connection is key. Keep in mind, I think those people that were like me that identify work ethic as always being busy. Well, what was the first thing I did, I dropped those connections. And in the chamber world, if you think about our connections become almost horizontal in nature, we are getting quantity, not necessarily quality. And I literally Odede on people. Because I was just about meeting new people meeting new people meeting new people, but not depth of people. And I think in the chamber world, a lot of people are that way that I can see that resonates with you. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you’re in the people business. And so connection doesn’t necessarily mean getting a lot of Facebook,
Facebook friends, it’s the deeper connection with them. So wellness, we kind of talked about that wellness can be anywhere from that physical, to the emotional to the spiritual to the mental well being. It’s self care. And it’s it’s always something realistic. I mean, I think it’s a realistic goal to try to manage stress. But the reality is, you’ll never eliminate it. So what can you do to you know, to complete those cycles of stress that we talked about earlier? Or what kind of boundaries can you do? You in your chamber world? And, you know, we can we don’t have time to go into the boundaries. But certainly, if it’s important, yes, yeah, they are an important variable. I mean, you know, think about if if you don’t have enough salary wages to continue in your job to be able to feed your family, and now you’re upset because your board isn’t listening, but you’re going to end up leaving, because that’s, that’s, that’s a boundary that is important. Well, then why not? Why not? Try to realistically approach that and go talk to your board? Because if you’re gonna leave anyway, why not try to do that self care? And so, healthy thinking, is literally the act of reframing your thoughts? And so if you can look at some of those triggers and understand them better, why, why do you always react this way to Joe, you know, Joe just walks in the room. And immediately, you’re kicked in need to be curious about those kinds of reactions. But also, kind of like with my delay on reading the email, I think I started becoming curious, why was I always triggered by this email, you know, this person’s email. And, and as soon as you can, I mean, I continue to remain triggered. So I just learned not to respond right away and wait, because knowing I’d look at it differently, but it can certainly a new perspective can help you accept change, and live with more hope and positivity. And then the last is meaning, and meaning is finding your purpose. And I think so many chamber individuals are living that purpose, they are working in a job that gives them great meaning. But these are all four steps. I mean, one itself doesn’t necessarily do it alone. And so you know, finding the meaning finding your purpose, if you have indeed found the job of your dreams, or maybe just that you find so rewarding, what a shame, it would be if you’re not remaining in that position. And so, you know, focusing on others, fostering your self discovery, and developing goals are ways to find meaning.
Brandon Burton 42:22
I love that. As we start to wrap things up here, we’ve had a great conversation, but I wanted to see if you might have any tip or action item for listeners who want to take their chamber up to the next level, how could they do that in a healthy way?
Tammy Wellbrock 42:42
You know, if you are depleted, personally, how can you take an organization to the next level? I mean, you may have great ideas. But if you don’t have the energy and the drive to I mean, you’re just dealing with trying to get up in the morning, you’re going to struggle in that area. So self care, is the the answer I get if you’ve got to take care of yourself. And if you’re if you’re near, I mean, you may be so fresh in your role, and you are just so inspired and energized. And you’re thinking, Tammy, you are so silly. All your advice doesn’t impact me. Well, I would have thought that in my first 234 years in the chamber, I was on fire. And you know what you have to be on fire to burn out, there has to be a flame burning so brightly before it can be extinguished. So I wish I would have if I could learn now, if I could talk to me in year one, it would be slow down, Nelly, you don’t have to achieve all this first year, you need something in year seven, you need something in your tin. And that’s okay. You don’t have to do it in year one through three. And so I think basically, being able to create those boundaries that were important and to communicate effectively with those people that needed to support me, whether that was my staff on my board, so that they understood the reality of what we were living. And like I said, you know, during this time, I was mad at that group of that faceless, nameless group of they for pushing me. And it was actually me.
Brandon Burton 44:28
Yeah, I like that. So I like asking everyone I have on the show this question as we look at the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Tammy Wellbrock 44:41
Well, I could answer that in a lot of different questions. But let me I guess let’s just stay true to this theme of of resiliency. I find it disturbing and distressing, how many people whether it’s through Facebook or just commerce, issues with chamber professionals. They, they believe that it’s okay to work for nothing they believe it’s, it’s what we should be doing to volunteer our time and not get paid. No. I mean, if, if indeed, chambers are supposed to be the voice of our local businesses, then I think our chambers themselves, our office needs to embody the ideal workplace. And that means I think chamber executives should be creating a safe a fun, I believe in fun, innovative, sustainable, and obviously successful work environment. But I think the goal should also be create the work environment, other businesses, ie your members seek to emulate. I really think if you can be the business, the ideal business that others are seeking to vie. I think that why then if you can help another business, not be so stressed to help another professional remain in their job and remain true to their passion and their work? Didn’t that part of what we’re trying to do in terms of overall workplace development? So that’s, that’s my thought.
Brandon Burton 46:17
No, that’s great. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information with chamber champions who’d like to reach out and connect you had mentioned he had some other additional resources and and tools that will help them what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect more with you?
Tammy Wellbrock 46:34
Well, if they can remember my name, and spell it correctly. It’s Tammy. Wellbrock, and that is traditional spelling tammy@tammywellbrock.com. And then if you wanted to email it’s even simpler. Tammy at Tammy. Well, brock.com You know, I certainly don’t mind phone calls and I can give you that real quick. My only number to reach me for anything is 785-639-2743. I take texts, I respond to emails, I respond to phone calls. Yes, I even answer those phone calls that say it could be possible scam or spam. Possible scam. And so I even answered them, because I was gonna be hard. But yes, any of those ways.
Brandon Burton 47:34
Oh, Tammy, this is great. I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. So anyone listening can go there and reach out and connect with you. But such an important topic. I hope everyone listening got a lot out of our conversation today. And thanks again for setting aside some time to join us today on chamber chat podcast.
Tammy Wellbrock 47:53
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Brandon Burton 47:54
Brandon Burton 44:58
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