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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.
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your hosts 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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Our guest for this episode is Bryan Daniels. And Bryan is the President and CEO of the Blount Partnership in Tennessee. Brian brings a wealth of experience in economic and community development, having spearheaded initiatives that have attracted over $4 billion in investments and created more than 12,000 jobs in Blount County. Under his leadership, the Blount Partnership, which includes a five star accreditation from the US Chamber of Commerce, has become a model of excellence in economic and tourism development. Brian holds certifications as A, C, E, C, D, i, o, M and C, C, E, highlighting his dedication to advancing the chamber and economic development professions. Brian, we’re excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you an opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better.
Bryan Daniels 2:03
Hello, everyone. This is a wonderful opportunity. Brandon, thank you for reaching out. I’m honored to be here regarding me of something of note and interest. I am also a small business owner outside of the chamber work that I do not in the community that I practice in, but isn’t more of a family business, and I chose to kind of chart my own path and and get into chamber work, but I still have kind of a an eye on what it takes to operate a Small Business, just due to my family’s involvement and how they make a living. That
Brandon Burton 2:44
definitely gives a good perspective as you try to represent business and look out for their interest and being one yourself, sure, that’s awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the bond partnership. Just give us an idea, size, staff, budget, scope of work to kind of set the stage for our discussion today? Sure,
Bryan Daniels 3:02
happy to do so. Our Chamber of Commerce is celebrating its 100 and fifth anniversary. So there we’ve been around a long time. Our Chamber of Commerce is actually very diversified in the programming it does. It also beyond just being a five star credited chamber. It is the economic development agency for the entire county that we serve in this all the cities within it, then we are also the single point of tourism for the county and all the cities that service it. The advantage of that is, instead of these nonprofits or quasi governmental entities, you know, scrambling for resources, each one is able to pull those resources together, and we’re able to compete or provide programming that’s more much more robust than we could if we were apart. And I know there’s more instances in our country where each one of these agencies are separate, but for us, it really works well, allows us to play bigger than we are as a community. Our organization is we have two locations in our community. We have a staff of 26 people, and we have an operating budget just under 10 million a year.
Brandon Burton 4:20
All right, yeah, that’s
Bryan Daniels 4:23
and, and we serve as a population of roughly, when you look at the entire county in the cities, roughly 145,000
Brandon Burton 4:32
people, okay, yeah, that’s what I love about the chamber world is, you know, we say it all the time, you’ve seen one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber. But as I’ve been doing these podcast episodes, over 300 episodes now, we’ve done episodes where chambers are merging with their economic development or tourism departments, then episodes where they’re separating. There’s, you know, pros and cons both ways, but it’s obviously working in your. Community, they have it all under one roof and and being able to have that synergistic focus. So yeah, we’ve
Bryan Daniels 5:05
been under one roof combined since 1969 and so we actually stand on the shoulders of leaders that put this model together now. We have refined it over the years. We’ve changed it. We’ve we’ve actually written new state laws in Tennessee to allow others to adopt such programming, and we you know you have to change with the times, but the core mission and the philosophies and work culture are still very much the same as it was 50 plus years ago. Right
Brandon Burton 5:37
now, before we hit the record button, you had mentioned something else unique that your chamber does in the realm of construction, right? Can you tell us a little bit about
Bryan Daniels 5:48
that? Well, so I am an engineer by background. I’ve got a master’s in it, and I construction is something I did before I came to work in this chamber world. I work for an engineering firm for three to five year, well, three years, and then a private manufacturer. But I’ve been in this chamber I’ve been in chamber work in chamber world for 23 years now, and at the same the same chamber that hired me to come here, and it was to do economic development initially, and so with what we do in developing properties and infrastructure, and that’s everything from roadways To bridges to walking trails to business parks to recreation parks. We build all those things for the community, and as kind of a unique niche in my role, the community has allowed me to construction manage all those projects, just because it plays into my education. And so that’s kind of a value add we find providing for our local governments that empower us to do those things. And the business community too. We’ll build some infrastructure for our businesses. It’s usually tied to a business park when we do that, but we do that and and they’ll allow me to do the construction management of those pieces. Yeah,
Brandon Burton 7:21
I know chambers across the country all about finding that value add with their their staff, and how can we maximize, you know, the resources that we have. So thank you for for sharing that with us. Sure. So as we honed in our on our topic for discussion today, we decided to focus in most of our conversation around your guys’ approach to National Signing Day, and I’m excited to dive in deep and learn about your approach and the uniqueness and what’s made it successful in your community. As soon as I get back from this quick break,
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Brandon Burton 7:58
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All right, Bryan, we’re back, as I tease before the break, we’re talking about your guys’ approach today to National Signing Day. So I guess, for any chambers out there who may not be familiar with National Signing Day. Just give us a brief synopsis about what it is, but then the approach that you guys take to it that has made it so successful in your community.
Bryan Daniels 10:29
Sure, this, this is a wonderful niche that we’ve carved out for ourselves, but National Signing Day is across the country. We did not start it. We’ve actually added into it. It was initially the idea was brought up by one of our CEOs of one of our manufacturers that, like all of us, we’re all struggling with labor force in a variety of forms. It could be relegated to a certain industry type, or it could be just in general, trying to keep your young folks from leaving and seeking those other opportunities. And we’re no different and and as we’ve had a lot of success the last call it 15 years with companies relocating here or expanding here, you know the natural progression of students wanting to leave has continued. It hasn’t ramped up, but our need for them to stay here and be a part of our labor force has grown significantly to where you know those students that are bleeding off. It is hurtful for us. We need them to stay here. They know the culture. They know the education. It’s it’s easier for us as a community to keep our students here versus trying to assimilate new people that move in. And so one of our, like I said, one of our presidents of a company. His name was David Bennett. He made a challenge when he was chair of the Chamber of Commerce his year, that he led us, that he wanted us to participate in signing day, and his overall vision was he wanted us to be the largest and if possible, a state model of how we would participate in signing day. And and signing day is truly getting students at a young age, somewhere around high school, engaged in what career opportunities are there in the community, and when they graduate high school, the next day, they already have a job lined up, and they’re entering the labor force. Some of this is apprenticeships are going into or they have been a part of why in high school, some of these are in in our in our state, we do dual enrollment so kids can get credit toward an associate’s degree or certificate along the way, and some of that they learn, they have the opportunity to leave school and go work for some of our local employers. And so it has a variety of ways of how you get there. But for us, when we started, we started in 2019, our first class, very modest. We had three employers that were willing to step up before signing day. Usually, signing day for us is the first part of June. And so that spring semester, those students were going to work part time or after hours to get experience in those different companies. And then when they graduate high school, they were they were signing a letter of intent that I’m coming to work for your company, and we had it in, in at our chamber. We had three companies, we had seven students, and we provided them gift cards, a lunch pail. We invited their families, our business community, of of our community, or our chamber, our our membership is rough. Roughly 1300 businesses belong to us, and so we invited all them, and and in our boardroom, we have approximately, I’d say, 7080 people showed up to to, you know, congratulate these seven students that were going right into the labor force, and we we made a big publicity movement highlighting their skill sets, who they were, and how big a deal this was to celebrate just like you would a professional athlete who’s signing a big contract to Go play for a team. We gave them the same pageantry as we could to prop them
Brandon Burton 14:46
up. That’s awesome. I love that because there’s there needs to be more of that attention and celebrate these people that are trying to do good things, positive things, and propel their quality of life forward, provide for their family. Set goals, achieve goals. I love it. Yeah,
Bryan Daniels 15:03
you know, so often in our in our country and society, we’re celebrating, you know, those four year degree students or even collegiate athletes that are going into professional sports. And the crux of what we need as a society are really, are really folks on the ground, hourly or certificate people that actually generate higher incomes than some four year degree education. And so we’re trying to we were, we’re trying to celebrate. That is our goal. It’s now morphed into, we have, we have a waiting list. This last group that we put through, we had 40 plus employers, I think it was around 44 and we had set, I think, more than 77 students that were celebrated. And it’s, it’s, it’s the cameras, the lights, the smoke show coming out into an audience of roughly 500 550 people just celebrating. And you’ve got all of our TV stations and our our newspapers are there interviewing these students. And it is, it is, it is an event. It is an event that will last about from beginning to end a couple hours, the employers get to introduce each well, let me back up. The students are introduced by a an emcee that has a very booming presence, and they walk out this curtain and smoke and lights and they’re highlighted of who they are as a person. Then they go and sit at a table in front of an employer that has a backdrop, and however many students they’re hiring that that that year, they sit in front and they do that for every employer around this convention center we have. And so as every student then gets seated, then our MC will then ask them to sign their letters of commitment, and then each employer gets an opportunity to talk about the career that students going to do and where their career path is for them, and talking about opportunities for travel or pay or lifestyle, all of that, each employee gets to talk about that, and they love it. They they love it. All of our school systems now participate, and we now have regional schools from other counties now wanting to participate with us in our signing day. That’s
Brandon Burton 17:48
awesome. So at the beginning, when you’re talking about what National Signing Day is, you had mentioned that the need to keep your keep the resources there in the community, rather than these students, you know, leaving the community after they graduate. And the thought occurred to me, you know, human nature, most people, they resist change, right? They don’t want change. But for whatever reason, this age frame, you know, as kids are graduating high school, college, that time of transition, it’s like they feel like the only option is change, and a lot in a lot of instances, so to be able to help them see, you know, the value of staying in the community, what the opportunities are, I think, is it’s such a great highlight to be able to to attract and and draw attention to these local employers and opportunities. And I’m hoping, in this audience of 550 people, that there’s some students in there too, and not just parents, so they’re catching a glimpse of these opportunities as well. Is that? Is that what you see?
Bryan Daniels 18:49
Yeah, it is. And I will tell you, leading up to signing day, our team has gone so far as we have life size cutouts. Made of each student, much like you see at a premiere of a film or something, where you can go stand beside the actor that’s in the movie and get your picture taken. We do these life size, uh, stand ups of every student, and then we put them in the schools, and so all the students see that this person is about to be celebrated at National Signing Day. And it actually creates a buzz within the schools to where those students are like, wow, I want to go participate or find out. Why are they doing all this celebration? And it has actually fed the recruitment within signing day with our employers. And it has, it is paid off so handsomely for our community and and and you hear the buzz in the in the in the in the school systems.
Brandon Burton 19:58
So I can see where the momentum. And builds as far as recruitment for employers goes, because they see this pipeline that comes in and solves a problem for them and that that’s an easy sell, it seems like, how does it work with the recruitment at the schools? Are you working with guidance counselors or what? What is that setup like?
Bryan Daniels 20:14
Sure, we are working with guidance counselors, but I will tell you of if I could give any advice for chambers of commerce, one of the things that we recognize that we’re trying to address is somewhere in our history, chambers kind of withdrew out of the school systems and involved in civics or history of the community, and that is a loss that we’ve tried to really insert ourselves into, in trying to help those teachers not only prepare the students for the community, but setting them up for these careers. And so the our first entree was in in working with the guidance counselors and trying to help identify students of different career paths as they’re trying to figure out where to go with their life. Is it associates degrees? The certificate is to go to four year school. What? What will life hold for them? And so the guidance counselors began to invite us into the school system to talk about those career opportunities, just to make them aware that would then bleed into we’re now into helping do instruction on what it takes for a community to grow and survive and thrive, and what responsibilities students have for their community. And so that’s really helped us a lot and and that has now perpetuated us into another feeder, which we call our eighth grade Career Fair, which is a a break off of our signing day that now the elementary schools have seen what Signing Day is doing, and then seen our involvement in to the curriculum of schools. We now do an eighth grade Career Fair of where all of the eighth graders, whether they’re homeschooled, public school, private schooled, are all brought in to a a one day event of where we have all of our employers that are willing to participate. And in our community, there’s roughly 104 140 plus employers. Here we have them our convention center, and then they bring something that represents their company for the students to have, hands on, looking, feeling, touching, of what is done at that company. And it is, it is now built in the curriculum. You’re there for every student to experience that. And we have aviation companies that are based here. We have headquarter companies, manufacturing companies, service companies, ex resort companies that are all kind of Permian our community that is as big a driver now for signing day as signing day is, and so it’s just kind of morphed into this bigger, bigger whole strategy.
Brandon Burton 23:13
Yeah, I’ve got a daughter in middle school right now, and this week, her school has been pushing out a career fair, very similar to what you’re talking about. That’s great and and when I saw it, I was like, this is fantastic, because with our older kids that have gone through, I’ve never seen them do anything like this. Now, I will say, for the chambers who have not really dabbled in this, I think there’s a difference between your guys’s approach and what I’m seeing here at our local level is for this career fair, they’re asking parents, essentially, parents of these students who are interested in coming and talking about what they do for a career to come have a table and do their thing, versus having the employers there. I think there’s a bigger impact having the employers there, but it may be easier to get parents involved, because they have some vested interest that the students already being at the school. But there’s a an easy on ramp there to be able to make that introduction with these middle school kids. So then ramp it up to the high school and and get that machine starting to move right.
Bryan Daniels 24:15
That’s right, it at any level, whatever. You know each community is going to be different in their approach, but I think the overall message is chambers have to be engaged in workforce development or education to at least help their community keep the culture that’s there. Because with a lack of understanding or knowledge of what a community has to offer, those students will seek other opportunities, just from a standpoint they don’t know they don’t know what they don’t know. So they’re going to be seeking opportunities and seeking knowledge. Why not try to engage them earlier on?
Brandon Burton 24:55
Absolutely. So I was curious when you talked about you guys being able to. Have a place in the schools now where you can come in and present, and you’ve got to, you know, ears to hear right? So you guys can get in front of an audience of students. Do you guys, have you created some sort of a replicatable type of curriculum that you present? Or is it more of a question and answer kind of thing? Or, how do you guys make that presentation? What does that look like?
Bryan Daniels 25:21
So it is different for it is different every year. There are different the, well, I mean, how to say it? The the we have three public school systems, and we have two private systems, and then you’ve got your home schooled folks. Each one of those utilize us in different ways, but they all utilize us and they utilize different parts of our organization. Like I said, we’ve got chambers of we’ve got a chamber, we’ve got a workforce development director, we’ve got an economic development person, we’ve got a construction person, of a litany of experience in our office, and different instructors will invite us to come in and talk on different topics now they we have already agreed upon what we’re going to talk about relates to subject matter that they’re discussing that week, and we know on the curriculum, what they’re learning about, what we come in and do is we take their curriculum and we apply it, or give instances of how what they’re learning is actually how it’s deployed in what we do day to day. And so, like, there’s a marketing class, so we’ll talk about the marketing do we do in economic development to recruit companies here, or the marketing we’re doing in our workforce development program, our finance folks will go in and talk about what they’re learning in in some of their math classes, of how that relates to accounting and and then when we talk, for when I’ve gone in, it’s usually talk about civics of local government, what it takes to operate one, and then the importance of of them being engaged In that electoral process from a business
Brandon Burton 27:20
perspective. Yeah, that’s fantastic, and that makes sense, having these different entities that you need to have some different approaches with, and the different classes you get in front of, I’d love that approach. Well, Brian, as we begin to wrap things up here, I wanted to ask you, for the listener who’s out there who wants to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you share with them to as they try to work towards this goal?
Bryan Daniels 27:48
Well, I’m, I’m very big on training, and for us, you don’t know what you don’t know, especially in this profession, I don’t it’s, it’s more the norm that we all kind of fell into chamber work. Somehow it found us and it really, it really spoke to our soul at some point. That’s I hear that consistently. I would, I would, I would be very I would, I would encourage the listener to seek out training opportunities within the US Chamber, ACCE and IEDC, to further their breadth and knowledge that you’re going to be around folks with A variety of problems and solutions that you’re going to identify your communities addressing or needs to address, and you’re it’ll be worth your time and resources. So I would be encouraging everyone to get engaged in those organizations now for us, if I had to say, would there’s one thing is a threat to our our chambers of commerce in this country, I think it is not being involved in your local schools or being afraid of the political scene too. That more and more with the turbulence in our country, chambers of commerce and bid the business community is still seen as where there’s good information that comes out of there is trusted resources, and so I would encourage everyone, and that’s in this profession, to be engaged in your local school systems and to Be engaged into the political structure of your local community with that’s what, that’s what we originally founded on, is being advocates for the business community. And sometimes when you take funding from the business community or the the governments, it’s a kind of a weird relationship, but we still have to be. Advocates for our profession, whether it’s to the local governments or to students that are trying to figure out their way in life.
Brandon Burton 30:07
Yeah, I like that. I like that advice. I like asking everyone I have on the show, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Bryan Daniels 30:19
I think chambers are going to become more relevant. I think we’re going to continue to see the pressures of consolidation for those that are in areas where you have several different chambers together, and more regionalism will continue, but, but Chambers of Commerce are going to become more and more relevant as more pressures are put on our business community, from no matter your political affiliation, from the left or the right, there’s, there’s definitely pressures coming on the business community. So chamber is going to become more and more needed to be those advocates for those businesses.
Brandon Burton 30:58
Absolutely. I love the way you say that. So Brian, I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and learn more about how you guys are doing things there at the bot partnership, and just maybe want to just connect and maybe learn more about National Signing Day and your approach. What would be the best way for someone to connect with you.
Bryan Daniels 31:21
Yeah, absolutely, thank you. So they can call us anytime. Our number is, 865-983-7715, or go to blountpartnership.com, or they can reach me by email at bdaniels@blountpartnership.com all of our contact information is there. I’m on LinkedIn, a variety of social media platforms and so yeah, we we welcome any opportunity to collaborate with fellow chamber professionals.
Brandon Burton 31:57
That’s perfect, and I’ll get all that in our show notes as well to make it easy to find you and connect with you and and send you a LinkedIn request. Brian, this has been great having you on chamber chat podcast. I appreciate you taking time to be with us today and to share your perspective with National Signing Day the way you guys have approached this and and sharing some of the successes and things you’ve learned along the way. I think it’s tremendous value, and I hope that some chambers out there listening who maybe are not participating yet and National Signing Day might have caught the bug and see the value in it to explore the opportunity as well. So thank you for sharing that with us today.
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