Jonathan Packer, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience at the Austin Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week to discuss a step by step membership/customer experience from first exposure to the Chamber, to joining the Chamber, to becoming more engaged, and eventually retaining members year after year.
Jonathan covers their strategy there at the Austin Chamber and shares some of the technology that they use to help with this experience.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
If you would like to connect with Jonathan about what he has shared in this episode or how they went about their digital transformation plan, you can reach him by email at jpacker@austinchamber.com.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.Image
Libby Spears, founder of Bravo, CC is our guest this week to share ideas about how your Chamber can add value to the marketplace. Bravo, CC is a communications and consulting venture, that works with professionals and organizations across the world to stand out in a crowded and competitive marketplace.
One of her key take-away ideas is that the Chamber should be the go to resource in your community for professional training and development.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
If you would like to connect with Libby about what she has shared in this episode, you can connect with her at bravocc.com where you can find her contact info, you can opt in to her email list, or you can connect with her on social media through there as well.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
Rob Bradham, President & CEO of The Greater Dalton Area Chamber of Commerce is our guest this week. Rob talks about things that Chambers should be thinking about in order to stay relevant with the generational shift that is taking place in the workforce. Some of the areas he addresses are being on the tip of the spear to solve the problems in your community and to give more of a purpose to membership for the younger generation of decision makers that are in your community now.
As Rob shared ideas from the Dalton Chamber’s strategic plan, the areas of focus to stay relevant centered on the areas of:
Community Pride
Downtown Development
Economic Development
Educational Outcomes
Entrepreneurial Growth
Housing
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
In the area of Entrepreneurial Growth, Rob briefly shared the story of a young man named Tripp Phillips who is from Dalton. Tripp landed a deal on Shark Tank with Kevin O’Leary for his company that produces water soluble Lego brick glue.
If you would like to connect with Rob about what he has shared in this episode, you can reach him by email at bradham@daltonchamber.org.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, you may consider delegating to an award-winning Chamber publisher like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
Bob Quick, President & CEO of Commerce Lexington, Inc. is our guest this week. Bob covers an interesting topic around his experiences with Chamber Travel Events. He specifically talks about four travel events that Commerce Lexington participates in which are:
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
Bob has great insight about the importance and impact of these Chamber Travel Events. If you would like to connect with Bob about what he has shared in this episode, you can reach him by email at bquick@commercelexington.com or phone at 859-254-4447.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
Michael Gallops is the President & CEO of the Rowlett Chamber of Commerce. Michael has been in this role of President & CEO for about 2 1/2 years and in this episode, he talks about how he has adapted in this role. He also shares some of the tools and resources that have helped him to accelerate his learning of the intricacies in the Chamber industry.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
If you would like to connect with Michael Gallops about anything he discussed in this episode, he can be contacted by email at michael@rowlettchamber.com, office phone 972-475-3200, or on his cell phone at 469-628-7926.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
Henry Florsheim, President & CEO of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce visits with us this week about the importance of having a strategic plan and how he went about creating a strategy when he took the helm about 6 years ago at the Wichita Falls Chamber. Henry is a change agent and is not afraid to blow things up, meaning there are no sacred cows.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
In this interview, Henry offered to share his 4-page Strategic Plan with any Chamber who may need some direction to create their own. There are resources, companies, and people who can help, but often times with limited budgets, it is helpful to get some advice from other Chambers.
If you would like to connect with Henry about anything he talked about in this episode or to request a copy of his strategic plan, you can reach out to him through the resources below.
Email henry@wichitafallschamber.com, or phone 940-723-2741.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
This week, Cathi Hight from Hight Performance Group is our guest as she talks about what A Chamber Member’s Journey should look like. The four main points that Cathi dives into are:
Developing member personas
Member journey maps for joining
Onboarding of new members
Ongoing engagement of your members.
There were a couple books that Cathi mentioned in this episode. The links to these books are found below.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
Cathi is a wealth of knowledge and would love to work with your Chamber. Please reach out to Cathi by any of the methods below if you have any questions about what she discussed in this episode or if your Chamber has an interest in having Cathi work with you directly.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
I am a Superfan of the San Francisco 49ers. I grew up going to their practices, meeting the players, and getting their autographs.
I am also a fan of Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income Podcast. I have learned a lot from Pat, including how to match sponsors and advertiser with my audience. Community Matters, Inc. and Swypit are my two sponsors who specialize in working with Chambers of Commerce and they both support Chambers with a solid sources of non-dues revenue, one in Chamber publishing and the other through a credit card affinity program that pays Chambers very well.
In this episode, I do somewhat of a book review of Pat Flynn’s new book, Superfans but I apply the principles he teaches specifically to Chambers of Commerce. Pat breaks down the building up of Superfans into different areas of interest. First you have the casual audience who knows very little about you. The goal it to get this casual audience to become active with you and your community. Once they are active, you want to connect them to others in the community, and then finally you are able to get some of your biggest fans to convert into true Superfans! As I go through this episode I point out how these efforts can be applied at your Chamber to loyal members who will support, defend, and spread the message of the great things that your Chamber does for the community.
The book is broken up into segments and I cover the segments
in order in this episode. Part One covers taking the Casual Audience and
converting the to and Active Audience.
The titles of the chapters should help to remind you of what is discussed
in this episode. The chapter titles are:
Learn the Lyrics, Break the Ice, Create Quick Wins, Drive the DeLorean, and
Return Every Handshake.
Part Two covers the journey of taking your Active Audience
over to a Connected Community. The chapter
titles for this section are: Let Them Take a Shot, Let Them Decide, Create a Challenge,
Open the Factory Doors, Stage a Gig, Give Them a Name, Bring Them Together, and
Make Them Shine.
Part Three takes your Connected Community and makes
Superfans out of them! The chapter
titles for this section are: Remember the Lemons, Send Unexpected Messages, Get
Them Involved, and Offer Platinum Access.
You will have to read the book to dive into parts four and
five!
I would love to know if you have a name for your Chamber members. Please send me an email (brandon@chamberchatpodcast.com) to let me know if you have a name for your members or if this is something that you have considered doing.
You can purchase Superfans by Pat Flynn through my affiliate link here.
Eddie Brown serves as the President and CEO of the Sherman Chamber of Commerce. He climbed the ranks as a Chamber executive after a 40 year career at Coca Cola.
Sherman is located about an hour north of Dallas. The City of Sherman is currently
experiencing growth of about 1200 residents each year. The Chamber averages about 500 members
each year, but is steadily growing with the rise in population.
Brown discusses different areas of focus for professional
growth from providing opportunities for his members to develop leadership
skills, to board and staff training opportunities, and one of the most
important areas for growth, what we can learn from others.
Increase your Chamber’s non-dues revenue with Swypit’s credit card affinity program. Click here to get your free cost-savings analysis.
The Sherman Chamber began a Leadership Sherman program back
in 1980 and the program continues to grow and develop today. Leadership Sherman is as much about
exposing its participants to leaders in various fields to provide opportunities
and to ask questions of other industry leaders.
The program continues with an orientation class to bond the
group together. While meeting
together one day a month, and attend a trip to Austin the classes seem to
become friends and stay friends after the class is graduated. It fosters participants to become a
network of resources for one another.
Eddie emphasized the importance of continuing education
programs for Chamber executives as well as staff members to strengthen Chambers
and provide tools to help Chamber members.
He suggests budgeting for professional growth and
emphasizing to leadership the importance and purpose of the training. Eddie feels that the training is often
more important than some of the day to day tasks Chamber staff take care of and
should become a higher priority.
There is a benefit to having shared experiences with other Chamber
executives to foster networks and to learn from others.
If you’d like to contact Eddie Brown to further discuss any
of these topics please feel free to reach out to him.
In your mission to be a great Chamber, consider delegating to an award-winning publisher and Chamber partner like Community Matters, Inc. for your next Chamber Directory, Guide, or Map. Community Matters can handle all of the ad sales, design work, collection, and distribution. In the end, your Chamber has a great looking print & digital publication and a smooth source of non-dues revenue. Click here to receive a bid for your next publication.
