Tag: Chamber Chat Podcast

Importance of Being Proactive in 2025 with Clint Nessmith

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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.

Our title sponsor for this episode is Bringing Local Back. Remember when your community could turn to a local TV station or newspaper for the latest updates and affordable ads? Those days may be fading, but the need for local connection remains. That’s why we created Bringing Local Back, a game changing platform that restores the local visibility and advertising power to your community. It’s more than just tech. It’s about driving engagement and creating new revenue for your chamber. Ready to see the future visit bringinglocalback.com to schedule your demo today. This is the future of local commerce.

Our guest for this episode is Clint Nesmith. Clint is the CEO of Resource Development Group and brings over 20 years of fundraising expertise to the table. Throughout his career, he has led successful funding campaigns and advise chambers and economic development organizations of all sizes across the country. Clint’s background also includes leadership roles in University Advancement and with the Metro Atlanta Chambers forward Atlanta campaign. Under his leadership, RDG continues to serve as the only firm in the US solely focused on generating revenue for chambers and economic development groups. Clint lives in Statesboro, Georgia with his wife and four children, but Clint, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you the opportunity to say hello to all the Chamber Champions that are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you a little better. Thank you, Brandon. It’s a pleasure to be here today.

Clint Nessmith 2:10
Thank you for the invite, absolutely. Well, so yeah, I would say the the the most interesting thing that is happening in my life right now is I’m now a grandfather. For the first time,

Brandon Burton 2:21
I thought you had an extra big smile. So yeah, and she’s

Clint Nessmith 2:25
a cutie, my overachieving daughter, who has always done everything early in her life, from graduating from high school early to graduating from college in three years to do you know, getting married at 21 has they wasted no time, and we are. We now have a about a two week old granddaughter, so we’re super excited.

Brandon Burton 2:50
That’s very exciting. Very cool, awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about resource development group for those who may not be familiar, just give us a little bit of background about what it is you guys do, who you serve, kind of your areas of expertise, if you will,

Clint Nessmith 3:06
perfect happy to so resource development group, as you highlighted earlier, we’re very niched, and we’re really a boutique firm. We only work with chambers of commerce and economic development organizations to help them raise the money to fund their various programs. We this is actually our 30th year of operating. I’ve been with the company for 22 years, and took over a CEO a little, little over three years ago, and it’s been a, been a great transition. We are continuing to carry forth the service offerings that that we always have, and we’ve added a few new ones, as well, around investor relations support and also turning our campaign management software that we own and built, providing it with a with the capabilities to also be used for Investor Relations tracking, which is something that no CRM does well. And we kept hearing folks talk about that over and over again, and we said, we think we can probably do something along those lines. So we’re we’re excited that that we’ve been able to add that too. But what’s interesting about company, and some of the conversations I have with other chamber executives, is we frequently get the question, hey, we don’t do economic development. Like, do you guys ever work with chambers that don’t do economic development? And resoundingly, yes, we do. And what’s funny is, we code a lot of that as economic development within our own company, even if chambers aren’t specifically thinking of it that way, but we have, over the years, certainly supported chambers in raising money for advocacy, livability, talent development, and more and more housing and homelessness are working their way into the strategies that we. Uh, are working with, yeah.

Brandon Burton 5:01
So do you just, do you do kind of a one on one with these chambers and figure out what their needs are, what it is that they need to raise the funds for, or is there some survey that goes out? Or how do you assess the needs of each community?

Clint Nessmith 5:15
Yeah. So we always start off basically saying, Do you have a plan? Do you have a strategy? Many of our clients will have just gone through a strategic planning process, whether that be internal or using a strategic planning firm like an EY or or an Amy Holloway. And if they don’t have that in hand, then we have to work with them to really develop what their strategic pillars are highlighting, what are we going to be able to do that we can’t do today as we move continue to build on the momentum within the marketplace, and so we will sit down through our feasibility study process with them, work out, what are we going to do, and then who are we going to go and test this in front of? We usually will interview somewhere between 30 and 40 leaders from around the county or the region or the state, depending on the area that our clients cover, and we’ll actually take that, that draft strategy out and test it on and as we test it, we’re not only getting feedback on the strategy, but we’re getting feedback on the organization and their recent their recent successes, and how well they feel engaged in the work. And of course, we’re also getting feedback on a proposed needs based budget, and then that to fully fund that strategy. And then within that budget conversation, we’re testing individual investment amounts, which ultimately allows us to come back and provide a very data driven feasibility report that covers a lot of ground. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 7:04
that’s great. It sounds like you guys are problem solvers. You figure out what those problems are in the community based on their strategic plan, and then see what they’re not able to currently do with the current setup, the current funding, and then find the solutions to overcome that hurdle. So I think that, uh, that transitions really well into our topic for today, where we’re we’re talking about the importance of being proactive here in 2025 and once you have that strategic plan, as you’re looking forward, what kind of things do you need to do to keep that momentum going? So we’ll dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break,

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Brandon Burton
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All right, Clint, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about being proactive, especially here in 2025 from your perspective, as you work with chambers and economic development organizations, what does that mean to you to help them be proactive and and forward thinking as they manage their organization?

Clint Nessmith 11:18
It’s, it’s, it’s always important to be proactive. Clearly, and the reason the business community and public sector and foundation community tend to sort of gravitate to chambers and economic development organizations is they do tend to be proactive. They do tend to get things done in a very in a way that can be measured. So you always have to be proactive. But whenever there are economic challenges, you have to that, that that the importance of being proactive really becomes even more of a priority for chambers and Ed is I’ve, you know, you highlighted earlier. I’ve been doing this over 20 years. I have lived through a number of in my career where there was economic uncertainty, whether that be post September 11, whether that be 2008 and the great recession. We all, most of us, I would imagine most of your listeners have lived through COVID and worked through COVID, every one of those economic shock that that led to economic uncertainty, much like what we’re seeing in 2005 with the tariff talks and the changes and the potential impacts that that’s having some positive some negative on our in perspective communities, and able to be what we’ve seen is being able to be really proactive, be seen as a resource anytime you’re in the sort of economic uncertainty that’s that’s incredibly important, because All of your members, all of your investors are looking to someone to sort of help them work through the challenge, someone that can provide them with the most up to date information, someone that can assist them when they have questions. So yes, being proactive is always important, but when there is economic uncertainty, that’s really where Chamber of EDOs can really shine. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 13:25
So it can be really hard to predict when the next, you know, COVID, you know, shutdowns would be, or the next big terrorist attack, or major economic disruptor, right? But as I see it, as a as a chamber leader, as economic development organization leader, you’re, you’re kind of that Captain guiding the ship, right? You need to be able to to look ahead, have some foresight, and be able to see what are those potential threats to our community. How can we be prepared? And maybe, you know, we hear about rainy day funds and things like that, to be able to prepare for the future, for those unexpected things. So what does being proactive? How does that translate into these organizations, chambers and EDOs, to be able to sure, take those action action steps?

Clint Nessmith 14:13
Yeah, so I’ve had this conversation a lot lately. I think everybody knows that there is a lot of uncertainty for the first half of the year that we’ve been here in 2025 I can, I can assure you that every as you look back in those those previous sort of economic shock events, that if a chamber or Edo is proactive and seen as a resource, anytime you’re in a situation like this, you are ultimately going to be rewarded. You need to it’s important to not sort of hide from the challenges. That your members are are facing the we need to we need to acknowledge that there are stresses and that there is uncertainty. I’ve, I’ve had conversations with clients that were trying not to talk about the potential impact of tear up tariffs in their community, which I think is a mistake. I think your members are dealing with that every single day and are trying to work through it. And so acknowledging it is is important, and you can do that without being political. I mean, some folks are concerned that, you know, they sort of weigh in on this. It’s going to be seen as political. It doesn’t have to be viewed that way. You can simply talk about, here’s what, here’s what the impact is going to be on our local employers, and based off the information that we have right now, here’s the research that we have, here’s what we are doing to try to be proactive, to assist you all. And as we go through this, through this process, and and, you know, I kind of, I like to say, you know, pull that COVID playbook back out. It’s very relevant today. Over communicate. Invite the media to reach out to you for comment. Find opportunities to pull your members and investors together to give those updates. Create a create a toolkit. We’ve got a call. We’ve got clients that have created tariff toolkits that is really just loaded with information about the latest and greatest. You know, whatever is coming out of DC, here’s what we know. Supply chain assistance. There’s a lot of companies trying to figure out. Maybe you know new supply chains, what can you do, from a research standpoint, to help your your members figure that out? So you know, there’s a lot there that be valuable. And as I said before, chambers and EDOs that are able to be great partners in times like this are going to be rewarded.

Brandon Burton 17:16
Yeah, as you talk about the current situation with tariffs and like, Man, this really does rhyme with the whole COVID problems, with the supply chains and all the disruption. And how many people remember the whole Suez Canal incident, you know, that disrupted supply chains and being able to figure out these, these solutions. But also what stood out to me in that explanation was being able to look for potential obstacles that can stand in the way of your community, you know, progress in your community and the business progress, and also the possible solutions, and be proactive in moving forward, in having those solutions and not scrambling once those obstacles, you know, rear their ugly heads. But I already have a plan in place of, yep, we prepared for this. Let’s move forward and and those communities are going to be much more healthier. On the other end of whatever that challenge is, are you seeing some examples, as you’d mentioned, the the tariff toolkits? It’d be kind of neat to see what’s all included in a tariff toolkit. But what are, what are some other examples you’ve seen of of organizations that are being proactive?

Clint Nessmith 18:28
Yeah, it’s, you know, we’re, it’s funny. We are currently working with the Detroit Regional Chamber and their mission auto initiative. And mission is really an association for the automotive mobility industry. We actually did our feasibility study back in the fall. Before you know the all the tariff conversation really got got going, but we’ve been raising money to fund elevated program, programs for Michelle around advocacy and workforce development for the industry throughout this entire year. And, you know, there, we kind of gut check ourselves all along to say, you know, let’s make sure that we’re we’re still doing the right thing, and we’re being appropriately, appropriately, appropriately acknowledging the challenges that the industry is going through right now, and the industry adjacent folks you know, to the to the to the mobility industry, but where we’ve really consistently leaned in on is we’re able To show how Miss Auto is going to bat for the automotive mobility industry, how they’re playing offense and defense, and we’re having meetings with folks that in some cases, they’ve laid off employees, they’ve closed plants in response to. Uh, some, some tariff, but some just continued automotive sort of realignment. But who will also say we’re going to elevate our funding support provision because we see it as such an ally the automotive industry that we’re operating in that without them being there, we know we would not, as an industry, be as well off as we are today. And you look at great it’s been a slower campaign because of the impact that the tariffs are having, particularly on the automotive mobility space, but for the commitments that have come in the door. Worse, we’ve seen a 33% increase in funding. Think about all of your listeners out there, what they would do with 33% more revenue? Excitement, yeah,

Brandon Burton 20:55
yeah.

Clint Nessmith 20:58
And but it just goes to show that even in a challenging time or an uncertain time, you can be successful in raising money if you’re seen as a solution. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 21:10
And I think it’s important to mention just whatever every community is so different, whatever industries are in the community, the layout of the community. And when you think of these potential obstacles that can affect the businesses within your business community as a chamber and Edo, some of those, maybe those global type things, like tariffs that we’re talking about, or a worldwide, you know, virus and other things can be very localized. You know, maybe your community is in a flood zone, and, you know, you just it rains hard and it really hurts businesses. So what can you do to be proactive in these different scenarios that affect you, either on a very localized and a much more wider scene, and I don’t know if there’s, you know, the best exercises or approach to really flesh out what those potential threats might be. What have you seen to as chambers and EDOs take that step to be proactive? How do they assess what those possible threats might be? Yeah,

Clint Nessmith 22:14
well, it’s, it’s, you’re doing a strategic plan every three to five years. There should always be. There should always want

Brandon Burton 22:22
analysis, and, yeah, always

Clint Nessmith 22:26
and, and if it if possible, you know, setting aside dollars to either proactively address what you think that challenge is going to be, or setting aside dollars in a special sometimes they’re called opportunity fund that is kind of there waiting to be pulled upon if something unplanned happens. I live in I live in Statesboro, Georgia. We were hit really hard by Hurricane last year like nothing I’ve ever lived through before, as many in the south work and and those you know, you think you know, kind of thinking ahead of, okay, this is, this may not be a one off thing, even if we weren’t playing planning for for some sort of response before for something like that. Let’s make sure that, as we think ahead, that we were our plan is taking into into consideration having to maybe live through something like that again. And what would we do mean? You look back at, I’m going to go way back, remember the unfortunate bombing in Oklahoma City. Yeah, we worked with the greater Oklahoma City Chamber for a very long time. And Roy Williams, who, of course, is retired now, can tell you how the chamber responded after that bombing. And they, you know, there, there’s definitely playbooks out there. I mean, they’ll, he’ll tell you that they immediately turned the chamber, into a place where the media could gather and report from and were welcoming questions and talking about, well, here’s what our local community is doing to work through this, this unplanned for unprecedented challenge that we’re now facing. And what’s interesting is, you know, Oklahoma City was really struggling kind of in the early, kind of late 80s, early 90s. And while that was a horrific event, the Chamber figured out a way to use that to actually be one of the things that sort of elevated that community over the next 25 years, and and and so need to be proactive. You need to be thinking for the future. I will always love Opportunity Fund, our client, the greater Wichita partnership, right now is setting up an opportunity. Opportunity Fund, that’s an economic development organization in Wichita, that’s the 10 county region, and they’re doing it for different reasons. They’re doing it because they’re one of the fastest growing communities in the country. Right now. Their economy is on fire, and they are tired of having to take an unplanned the have the first step be we’ve got to go raise money so we can address this, which, of course, just slows down your response time. So instead, they’re going to set up an opportunity fund so they can immediately take action. Because we all know, in this world, the quicker you can respond, the more likely it is you’re going to end up with a successful conclusion, yeah,

Brandon Burton 25:42
I love that. The whole idea of the Opportunity Fund, I mean, any any household, it’s good to have that, that savings, you know, for So, right? Why don’t we do that as a business, as an organization? Why don’t we have that opportunity fund and and teach it and practice it and have it be a normal thing,

Clint Nessmith 26:00
right? You got it. And

Brandon Burton 26:03
I think there’s even opportunities within the opportunity fund where you can invest, you can do other things with it, where you can you can see it grow, and doesn’t just sit there. But when that opportunity really comes, you really are

Clint Nessmith 26:15
prepared exactly, you know, I know many of our chambers do have sort of that rainy day fund, or, you know, just the reserves that they’ve built up. You know, you look at the Greater Philadelphia chamber, which is another client of ours, and they had some real, you know, Philadelphia had some real challenges over the last couple of years. Well, they used some of their rainy day fund to really beef up their their local advocacy work. And if they hadn’t had that available, it would have been really hard to do what they did. And ultimately, it was a heavy lift, but they were able to do it. And they they’ve had theirs knowing that, you know they were going to need it at some point. And

Brandon Burton 27:01
yeah, it’s great to see. I mean, you hate to have to tap into it and use it, but it’s great to see a real example where they had it. They were prepared. They’re able to put it to work and and solve problems. So that’s what it’s all about. Well, Clint, I wanted to ask you, for those listening who would like to take their organization up to the next level? What kind of tip or action item might you suggest for them and trying to accomplish that goal?

Clint Nessmith 27:30
Great question. It’s, it’s, I’m going to repeat myself at first, if we move as I answer this, it’s important to have a strategy, even if even if it’s an internal strategy, you have to have a strategy, and you need to, you need to make sure that it is a it has been, it’s refreshed every three to five years, and in every single one of those strategies, it shouldn’t be, how do we keep doing what we’re doing one of it should be, how do we do what We’re doing better? And how do we the new opportunities and challenges that we think we’re going to be facing over the next three to five years, you’ve got to be constantly looking to get better and and then ultimately, that allows you to go out to your funders, community governments, foundations, to make a case for increased funding support, or to join your organization, potentially for the first time, and support you financially, but but the key is to communicate. Here’s what we’re going to do. We need to do that we can’t do today. And oh, by the way, we’re the only ones doing it in our service area. I we frequently will do organizational roles charts to very clearly map out what key organizations are doing within an ecosystem, because it gets noisy and your funders get confused and but being able to show here’s what we are doing uniquely, but also here’s how that dovetails into what other key organizations are doing, so that we aren’t working in silos. Both of those are incredibly important. But my, my, my number one sort of caution this year is if you are thinking about raising revenue, get on it, because what we’ve seen the first half of this year is fundraising across the board has become more challenging. A lot of across not not not just in economic development space, but just any nonprofit, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of grants that were out there that have been paused, and a lot of folks are kind of taking it on the chin. Well, I mentioned earlier about a six to nine month sort of delay whenever you have an economic shock before everybody kind of really gets moving again. Well, this. Fall and in the summer, we are seeing and predicting everybody that has ever needed to raise money being raised raising money in a very aggressive way, because they’re trying to make up for what they didn’t pick up in the first half of the year. So thinking about raising money and take the steps now to try to get out in front of that wave, stake your claim, your unique value, and begin making some of those, those major ask, even if, even if they’re not official, you need to at least see them with those funders that have the likelihood of giving you the most money. And you know, that’s, that’s what I would suggest.

Brandon Burton 30:44
And to your point, with the when these challenging times come, we’re, we’re in the middle of one right now with the tariffs, certain organizations may feel hesitant to go and ask people to invest, ask for for more money, but these are the times where they really see the value of what your organization does. It’s really time to be able to showcase and say, here’s how we support your business, to help you grow and help you thrive. Help our community be strong. Now this is what we need from you, right? And as they can see that happening, yes, it may be a strain, it might it might be hard to have some of those conversations, but if you don’t capitalize on that opportunity of showing what you’re doing in your community, you’re missing a huge opportunity. And it’s your point earlier, when you talked about at the beginning of our recording, some chambers listening might think, well, I don’t do economic development. Yes, you do, and like Clint said, they would code, you know, certain programs of work that you do as economic development. Just because you don’t have that economic development contract formally, doesn’t mean that you’re not involved with economic development and own that sector of it, as Clint talked about, having that, you know, that diagram showing the areas of responsibility, show what you own, and go after the funding for it,

Clint Nessmith 32:07
you know. And you made it something you just said there keyed off another thought, if you are worried that you’re going to and somebody by asking them to do more than they’re doing now with your organization because of perceived challenges that they may be facing. We always like to remove as many barriers as possible to getting to yes, and one of those is, listen, we’ve got this great we’ve got this great we’ve got the strategy. We’re being very proactive. Our goal is to see you this level within the next couple of years. You know, we recognize you may not be able to do anything else beyond what you’re doing this calendar year, but let’s map out a stair step plan to get you there in one to two years. And you know, you start to get people thinking about, okay, how am I going to do that? That’s a great way, though, to grow revenue. And of course, you want to tie it back to that strategy, but it’s a great, great way to recognize, we know you may be facing challenges, but here’s a way that you can still support us in an elevated way, and people will appreciate that,

Brandon Burton 33:27
and it builds ownership for these companies within the community. Does That’s awesome? Well, Clinton, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, I always like to ask all the guests I have on the show, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Clint Nessmith 33:44
I That’s a that’s that’s a great question. You think about how chambers have evolved just since I’ve been in this industry over 2223 years, chambers today are not what chambers were in 1999 when I worked or 2000 I guess when I worked for the Metro Atlanta chamber, there are so many more areas that we’re having to get involved in as an industry. I mentioned homelessness and housing. Earlier chambers used to never be involved in homeless, child

Brandon Burton 34:23
care, too.

Clint Nessmith 34:24
Child care, talent development. I mean, you know, there’s a lot, there’s a lot there, and we’re just going to continue to see that. And the reason is, is that when leaders of your community see these challenges, they’re looking for a partner that has proven themselves to get results in the past, and usually where they point back to is a chamber of commerce or an economic development organization. And so that’s what’s really driving this constant change. And. I, you know, you think about sea of chambers in the in the future, I think they’re going to continue to be just as relevant as they are today, as long as we are helping to solve community problems. You know, unless you’re, I think you’re all of your listeners would recognize that the value of networking, just for networking sake, is getting weaker and weaker. You have to be part of the solution for driving your community forward, and as long as you’re doing that, you’re going to be relevant.

Brandon Burton 35:36
I agree. Amen. Preach on. So I wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you. Talk more about how they can be proactive. What would be the best way for someone to reach out and connect

Clint Nessmith 35:53
right? Yeah. Our website is RDGFundraising.com and my email address is clint@rdgfundraising.com, feel free to reach out.

Brandon Burton 36:09
That’s perfect. We’ll get it in our show notes and make it nice and easy for people to reach out and connect with the Clint. But I appreciate you joining us today, here on chamber chat podcast, sharing your perspective. These are things that, if chambers aren’t already thinking about, they should be. I think a lot of them are, but they need that, that motivate of talk, to be able to get them back in gear, get them focused, get them, you know, driving towards that destination. So I appreciate you, you know, coming and stirring the pot a little bit and making them think worthwhile conversation. Yeah,

Clint Nessmith 36:43
thank you. Really appreciate it. Brandon,

Brandon Burton 36:46
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Chamber Burnout with Jamie Beasley

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Jamie Beasley. Jamie is a passionate rural revitalization leader and innovative economic developer. Jamie serves as the Executive Director of the Pike County Chamber & Economic Development Corporation in Illinois, where she leads efforts around small business support, tourism, and strategic growth. She’s also the founder of Econ Dev Ops, a virtual assistant agency designed specifically for small chambers and economic development organizations.

Jamie brings a unique perspective as the first Economic Development Center Executive Director in the U.S. to become a Crowdfund Better® Certified Advisor, helping local businesses access capital through crowdfunding. With a master’s in Economic Development and continued training through the OU EDI program, Jamie is all about practical solutions and impactful results for rural communities. Jamie, I’m 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.

Jamie Beasley 2:16
Well. Thank you very much. Brandon, I’m excited to be on here something interesting about me is that my my journey through the chamber slash economic development world has been bumpy because the first two. This is my third position in this industry, and my first two were both cut short after less than six months due to a lack of funding. So I like and I moved for these positions. So, like, I’ve been all around the country just trying to work in this industry.

Speaker 1 2:57
Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:00
you kind of been burned twice, but you still believe in it. You still absolutely

Jamie Beasley 3:04
forward, yeah, absolutely. I believe in what we’re trying to do. It’s just figuring out the funding that can be an issue, as we know now very well,

Brandon Burton 3:16
yeah, exactly, well, and I’m sure that becomes somewhat of a driver for you, too, at this point in your career to make sure things work and make sure the funding is coming in to make that program of work continue.

Jamie Beasley 3:30
Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So hopefully, fingers crossed that we’re good here. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 3:38
well, tell us a little bit about the Pike County Chamber and EDC, just give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget, that sort of thing, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Jamie Beasley 3:51
So we are a like we are both a chamber and Economic Development Corporation with two different kind of membership groups. But between both, we have around 175 members. We have a revenue or a budget. I have around 100,000 a little over that, the Economic Development Corporation, absorbed the chamber last year into its fold. So in that process, there’s been confusion and a rebuilding. So we’ve kind of, I mean, we have members that came over, of course, from the chamber, but we lost some, and now we’ve got to show them that we’re still offering, you know, great services, and we’re great assets to the business and the community. So we’re kind of in a rebuilding mode, yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:53
yeah. It sounds like it an opportunity, I guess, for making sure that Brandon. Is hitting right in the community and getting the messaging across about what it is you guys do and what you provide and the impact they make in the community. So were they? Were they two separate organizations, the chamber and EDC, before the EDC absorbed the chamber,

Jamie Beasley 5:16
they were i, so I’m not the chamber has been around for, you know, a long time. The EDC has been around for about 25 years. I don’t know what caused the chamber to decide we don’t want to do this on our own anymore. Um, but they did, and I have heard since I stepped into this role, and I know started doing monthly networking because that had dropped off in monthly newsletters, because that had dropped off and just Facebook and stuff like that. I have heard numerous times how happy people are to be seeing activity and engagement. So I don’t know what had happened before, but it’s, I think, proof positive that people really like to see the chamber active and engaged in the community like it does matter, right, right?

Brandon Burton 6:13
So our topic for our discussion today is is going to be one that I think a lot of chamber leaders can resonate with a lot of chamber staff can resonate with when it comes to the idea of chamber burnout, I think we all come across it from time to time. Sometimes it hits a little harder than other times, but I think it’s important to have a strategy in place, to have a way to be able to face the burnout as it comes, because it will come if it hasn’t yet, and if it has come, you know exactly what we’re talking about, but we’ll dive in much deeper into this conversation as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Joe Duemig
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Rose, and we’re the founders of App My Community, a mobile app that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your chamber of commerce.

Joe Duemig
Schedule a demo today AppMyCommunity.com. We can’t wait to meet you.

Elevate your community, strengthen your Chamber, and unlock new possibilities with Resource Development Group by your side. They build organizations that build communities!

All right, Jamie, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about chamber burnout. So it’s, it may be best just to hear from your experience what’s been, what’s been that, how’s that looked in your career, that that burnout? How’s that you have reared its ugly head, and what kind of solutions have you figured out for it?

Jamie Beasley 10:27
Well, in my my journey through this industry, I have noted that in all my positions, and I’m have heard other directors say similar things, that they’re doing it all. You know, we’re all doing it all, like, maybe, if you’re lucky, you have, like, a part time assistant or something to help you. But a lot of us are, you know, we’re the director, we’re the administrative assistant, we’re the membership driver. You know, we’re doing all the things we’re and we’re planning events, we’re working on tourism, we’re, it’s a lot and, I mean, and that’s certainly the case for me as well. I mean, I’m in charge of tourism and the chamber and Economic Development Corporation, and I am the administrative assistant as well. So it can definitely be overwhelming. And there are certainly days where you just want to throw up your hands and be like, No more. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 11:36
I know when there’s a there’s times on my computer I’ve got way too many tabs open and trying to focus on what it is that I’m doing at that moment, I’m like, Hold on, I gotta close out some tabs, because this is completely overwhelming. And as a chamber leader, as a chamber staff, even, you know, sometimes those tabs, you just can’t close them. They’re just always open. And how have you found to be effective to try to to manage all these open tabs and distractions that can come your way at any moment that they take you off course of what the the main purpose is, or the main thing at hand that you’re you’re focused on.

Jamie Beasley 12:14
Well, I mean, for me, the key has really been to bring in help. I mean, it started with a couple of interns just working a few hours a week to help with social media, and even something simple, like, like social media and, you know, asking them to, hey, here’s a post. Please. Schedule this. Put it together and schedule it. Just that takes a load off of your mind, and it just gives you a little chance to breathe and and I know, I mean, I’ve heard plenty of of chamber directors, you know, talk about the same thing, the overload, the doing everything and experiencing the just even the little bit of pressure that took off. Having these two interns to help with social media, it kind of led me to the idea of because I have worked as a virtual assistant, and it, it just left me like we need virtual assistants. I mean, most of us, I mean the smaller chambers, we can’t afford a full time administrative assistant, you know, and the benefits and all of the things, but maybe we can afford somebody part time. So I I started building that. I started looking for contractors who could do the things that I need done. And I figure if I needed them done, other chamber, like event planning, social media, general admin. So that’s been how i That’s how I dealt with, yeah, bringing in help bring I mean, that’s really, I don’t know any other way to just get it all done.

Brandon Burton 14:14
I think that’s great. I think you know so often you’re wearing so many different hats, right? And for the example, social media. Yes, that’s on the to do list. Yes, we all understand social media is important. You need to have the presence out there. But when you’re being pulled 18 different ways, and that social media thing just keeps pinging you, like, hey, you need to do this. You need to do this. Well, the time that it would take you to do it, and the expertise not not knock docking anybody’s, you know, capabilities of social media, but if it’s somebody’s wheelhouse where that’s what they do day in and day out of social media, they can knock it out and move on to the next thing and check it off the list for you. So it’s not hovering in your mind and thinking, Oh, I got to get to this thing and and. You know, maybe four times as long to do the thing that it would to have this intern do it, or the the assistant, or whatever it may be, and, and I think that’s true. You know, with a lot of these different aspects you you mentioned, like event planning and things like that, where, when you’re wearing all the different hats, it’s very hard to get in that zone of planning an event, because then the phone rings and you’re off to, you know, put out this fire and that fire, and it’s really hard to get the traction and get things moving. So, yeah, I can definitely see the value in bringing in help. So you had mentioned, you know, bringing in interns. You mentioned virtual assistants. One thought that comes to mind is, you know, maybe at a chamber, they’ve got an ambassador program and some ambassadors who will raise their hand and take on, you know, some of these tasks and help lighten the load. Maybe it’s a board member who who aligns well with with some of these things that can help. I don’t know. Are there other other ideas or approaches or things you’ve seen to be successful? Sure.

Jamie Beasley 16:06
I mean, a lot of a lot of chambers use volunteers. I mean, obviously your board is volunteer. And you know, if you volunteers are a great source of help. If you can get their time. They’re just, you know, they’re volunteers, so you can’t be demanding on. You must do this at this time and be here and whatever you know, or you risk driving them away. Now they can be great. I mean, they can be great no matter what, but especially if you’re like, working on a project, that’s something they really care about. Oh, yeah. I mean, I have a volunteer right now who he moved away from town, and then he came back, and now he just wants to see that his town to be as great as it can be. And so he’s coming in with all these ideas that he gathered from his, you know, life journey, and he’s so we’re working together. And, I mean, he is a breath of fresh air, and I am so grateful for just that level of enthusiasm, and, you know, willingness to do whatever needs to be done to make the thing that we’re working on happen. So, I mean, volunteers are definitely something to take advantage of if you have access to them.

Brandon Burton 17:34
Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And I think, to your point of if it’s something that strikes a chord with that volunteer that is in their wheelhouse, so they can get get excited about, for example, if you’ve got that Ambassador that is at every ribbon cutting, and they’re excited about it and they want to support the new business, maybe they would help by posting that on on social media, you know, some pictures and some captions, and put it on social Media, because that’s in their wheelhouse. That’s what they enjoy. Kind of touts being there and all that. So I think looking for those opportunities where you can lean upon those people, where they are excited about that task that maybe you’re not as excited about anymore, right? And

Jamie Beasley 18:17
I think that’s really the importance, is sometimes we like, we try to find volunteers to do like, maybe, I don’t know, fill certain hours or whatever. And what we really need to be focusing on is finding volunteers who are passionate about a thing and okay, you want to work like, it doesn’t have to be just one volunteer that comes in four hours a week or whatever. I mean, that’s great, if you can find it, but it could just, yeah, be one person who really wants to do social media, or one person who loves planning events, or one one person who you know you kind of have to because they’re volunteers like fit into their life in the best way, because we have a tendency to be like, well, the volunteer needs to fit into our organization, our schedule and the way we do things, but they’re the volunteer, so you need to make sure it’s a benefit to them and something that they enjoy doing, or you’re not going to have a volunteer for very long.

Brandon Burton 19:18
Yeah, it’s definitely a different approach than what you did with the staff or a paid, paid helper, right, right?

Jamie Beasley 19:25
Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean,

Speaker 1 19:29
sorry, go ahead.

Jamie Beasley 19:30
Some places like there are people who, you know, maybe they want somebody in there to answer the phone from like, eight to noon, and there are people who might agree to do that. I’m not saying you can never do that. I’m just saying make sure that you take your volunteers interest into consideration.

Brandon Burton 19:49
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So you’ve definitely have seen this as a pain point in your career, which, which has led to, as I mentioned in. Bio being the founder of econ DevOps, why don’t you tell us a little bit about what econ DevOps is and how it helps to overcome some of this chamber burnout that so many of us face.

Jamie Beasley 20:13
Absolutely So econ DevOps is a virtual assistant agency specifically focused on chambers and economic development organizations. So you know, we’re we are there to help with social media, event planning, newsletters, chasing invoices, just any and everything that chamber directors try to do. I mean, as long as we can do it on the computer, we can help with it. And it’s just, I felt like, I mean, virtual assistants have been around for years. And for some reason, it felt like chambers and EDOs, like small videos. Didn’t think about that they can use virtual assistants to like, the connection had just never been made. So all I really did was make that connection, because I have worked as a virtual assistant and as a chamber director. So I know I would love to have somebody do social media. I would love to have somebody do event planning, and so I created that because I also think at least this is what has been my experience. I have a certain skill set, like I am friendly. I love going out and talking to people and brainstorming and all these things. I am really not as detail oriented as some of these responsibilities need. So it takes me longer, and I procrastinate because I don’t want to do it, because I don’t enjoy it. And so having somebody that can come in and like, likes doing that thing and is detail oriented makes a world of difference. I mean, I hired one of my VAs to help me to with econ DevOps, because I was like, I know these are not the things I’m strong at, and so please help me do those things so that I can focus on the things that I am strong at, right? And I think that is as much a part of burnout as doing all the things, is doing things that you’re not good at and you don’t enjoy, and then you procrastinate on doing them, and so then that’s like hanging over your head and you’re stressing about that, and you know, you finally get it done. But you know, it’s just, it’s so much. It is so much. Directors do so much. I mean, not just directors, all of the chamber staff, because they’re all doing one thing, right? You know? I mean, it kind of all the directors, the face the director is the one that has to talk to the board, and it’s a lot, and it really can just be incredibly overwhelming. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:05
so I’ve, I’ve done this exercise before with, if I remember it right, you take, like, a piece of paper and fold it into quadrants, so you got four sections to it, and then in one section, you write down, you know, all the things with your job that you enjoy, you know that you enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you’re writing down all the things that you really don’t enjoy doing. And then in the next square, you write all the things that you personally have to do, like because of your title, your responsibilities, the role, whatever it is you have to do these things. And then another, that final square, all those things that you do that you don’t have to be the one doing it. And I think going through that sort of an exercise can help to see okay, if I can offload some of this in all the variety of different ways that you mentioned, that leaves more bandwidth for me to do the things that I enjoy doing, and the things that I have to do in a much better and efficient manner. And just it just opens that bandwidth and frees the brain space and all of that. So, yeah,

Jamie Beasley 24:12
that’s a great, a great exercise from figuring out what you should not be doing. I mean, I just would tell people make a list of all the things, but I like your idea better.

Brandon Burton 24:27
Well, give me credit the first two times, then it’s yours to own for however you want to use it to do so. So you’d mentioned virtual assistants, and in the past, as I’ve heard of virtual assistants. I’ve always pictured them being overseas, you know, in the Philippines or so, right? Yeah. So for a chamber that can be a US based chamber that can be a difficult hurdle to think, well, let me bring on this VA, who’s in the Philippines, who may not, maybe not, everything translates the same way when. Got a chamber member who’s calling about something on Main Street, and maybe it just doesn’t resonate the same way, or then they find out, hey, I hired somebody overseas, and we’re the Chamber of Commerce. We should be. It just has a negative connotation to it. So I like the idea of presenting yourself as a virtual assistant, but specialized with chambers of commerce and EDOs and being able to understand the language and be not just English, but the language the chamber and Edo language,

Jamie Beasley 25:31
right? Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, and that’s part of our deal is we only hire us based virtual assistants, you know, partially for the language and differences, you know, because translation can cause problems, but also just for the security issues. Like, I mean, not that there’s, you know, a big security threat in the Philippines, but like, it’s just you know you never know. You never know. You never know exactly you never know. So all, yeah, all of our VAs are US based and we also, what I really, I like about our process is that we try to match a client with a VA like, personality wise and work style wise, not just like, Okay, well, here’s somebody best, a lot to you. But you know, like talking to the client, talking to the VA, then having them talk, make sure they get along and like each other and can work, you know, feel like they’re going to work well together and and so I feel like it makes it, it’s, I mean, it’s kind of like hiring an employee, only they’re not an employee. But, you know, you get to know, if, like, because if you sit down and talk to somebody for five minutes and you’re like, I cannot work with them, well, let’s, yeah, let’s move on to somebody else. So, I mean, it’s like a whole process, because we want to make sure that your assistant is not another source of stress for you, right? Because we don’t need any more sources of stress. We have plenty,

Brandon Burton 27:14
right? I like that. So essentially, you’re a matchmaker. That’s what you have, yes, essentially,

Jamie Beasley 27:19
essentially. I mean, we all heard of, like, head hunters for, you know, C suite executives. That’s just common. I mean, I’m not that. I’m, you know, a headhunter for admin, but I am a, you know, like, I can find you a good virtual assistant, and then you don’t have to worry about, you know, benefits, or workers comp, or any of those things. And so because that was one of the things we ran into with the interns that I didn’t think about, was workers comp and the State Revenue Office, like all those things that I hadn’t thought about, and and it made it more expensive than we were expecting. And if, when you hire a contractor, you don’t have to do that.

Speaker 1 28:06
So, yeah, those are good, good points.

Brandon Burton 28:10
Yeah, again, it’s offloading headaches, right? Offloading

Jamie Beasley 28:15
headaches, that is what we want to be doing. Offloading headaches. That’s right, there’s just so many other things that we get we can focus on, right?

Brandon Burton 28:26
So this, this next question is, it may be right in your wheelhouse, but for chambers listening who want to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you share with them to try to accomplish that goal.

Jamie Beasley 28:44
Well, I mean, I really feel like not trying to do it all yourself is one of the biggest things you can do. And it can be a virtual assistant, it can be a volunteer, it can be an intern, it can be a combination of all three. We’re so used to doing so much with so little, and I mean, directors burn out, and that’s not good for our organization. I mean, obviously it’s not good for us. It’s not good for our organization. It makes the chamber look bad when you’re having to hire a new director every two years. Yeah, you know. So just Yeah, regardless of how you go about it, find somebody to help you, volunteer intern, hiring whatever. Just stop trying to do it all by yourself because you can’t. And yeah, y’all are going to burn out.

Brandon Burton 29:46
And that’s a great plug right there for anyone listening, to share with their board is it really has a negative impact when you see the chamber executive that you know turning over every couple years, when you’re thinking, How do. Get these members to renew their membership year after year, but yet the leader of the organization can’t stick around for more than two years. What does that say about the organization? So being able to bring in help is huge, to be able to have that longevity, and it trickles down into membership and sponsorships and everything else, because it shows the health of the organization. So 100% Yeah, absolutely. Great tip. 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?

Jamie Beasley 30:37
I think that chambers could have a huge role in our communities. Moving forward, I feel like in the past, not the chambers weren’t important, but especially smaller chambers were like parades, and I don’t know stuff and things like

Brandon Burton 30:58
parties, pageants and parades, right? Yes, thank you.

Jamie Beasley 31:02
And I feel like now, with the way everything is changing so fast that chambers really could help business like help walk businesses through these changes, guide businesses through these changes. I mean, whether it’s finding an AI expert to do a workshop for your businesses, or, you know, finding something to teach people how to make graphics on Canva, or, you know, do social media or reels or Tiktok. I mean, I feel like chambers really do have a future if they embrace their role as leader and educator and advocate, of course, rather than parties, parades and pageants, yeah,

Brandon Burton 31:51
yeah, all those things that you mentioned are things that will help move the needle for a business. Absolutely, you know, having a parade and that community involvement. It’s nice. It can serve a purpose. And depending on the community, maybe you do that. But those things that move the needle and really help a business move forward, especially with the speed that we see in the economy these days, with AI and everything else, it’s so important to be, you know, forward thinking, and be able to be that educator and that convener of ideas and leaders as well. So absolutely. Yeah, well, Jamie, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you and learn more about your approach, or econ DevOps, or anything that you’ve covered today. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect. Well,

Jamie Beasley 32:43
you can either connect with me on LinkedIn, that’s a great way, or our website is econdevops.com and our email address is Hello@econdevops.com. So any one of those will get you straight to me. So I would love to talk to anybody, whether it’s about Econ Dev Ops or they just want to be like, Yeah, I’m burnt out too, and I get it and, you know, yeah, exactly

Brandon Burton 33:17
good with whatever, yeah, yeah. Chamber, chamber folks need support. You know, that’s for

Jamie Beasley 33:22
sure, absolutely

Brandon Burton 33:25
well, I will get your contact information in our show notes for this episode, so it’ll make it easy for listeners to find that and connect with you. But Jamie, I want to thank you for spending time with us today on chamber chat podcast and and thank you for the work you’re doing to help overcome the burnout throughout the industry. I appreciate it

Jamie Beasley 33:46
My pleasure. Thank you for having me on it’s been great.

Brandon Burton 33:51
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The Art of Curiosity with Candace Carnahan

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Candace Carnahan. Candace is a relationship driven, solution oriented leader with a passion for putting strategy into action. As the President and CEO of the Grand Junction Area of Chamber of Commerce. She is committed to fostering a thriving business climate in western Colorado through advocacy innovation, innovative partnerships and forward thinking initiatives that benefit the local businesses. The chamber serves. Candace is a board member of W. A.C.E. and a graduate of the US Chamber of Commerce Business Leads Fellowship, which focuses on the critical connection between K through 12 education and workforce development. A Grand Junction native and graduate of Central High School, Candace is enjoys golfing, hiking with her dog, Harlow, and spending time with her husband of 20 years. Candace, I’m excited to have you with us today, here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you a moment 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.

Candace Carnahan 2:11
Yes. Brandon, thank you so much for having me. I think that it alluded to it a little bit in my bio there. But, you know, I think something that I a lot of people find interesting is that I’m able to act in this leadership role in a community that I was born and raised in, and so went out and and had my adventures growing up, but to come back and serve the community that my family continues to have deep roots in is such an honor, and, quite frankly, makes the work just that much more rewarding to know that this is a place that I’ve called home for a very long time.

Brandon Burton 2:50
You are like a poster child for workforce development, right? You grow up in the community, you leave, get your education, but you come back, right? That’s what we want them all to do. Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the Grand Junction area Chamber, just to give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, absolutely.

Candace Carnahan 3:11
So our chamber is located, it’s about the last thing you hit between Denver and Utah. So we’re on that western edge of Colorado. We are honored to represent nearly 800 businesses here locally as investors in our chamber that represent almost 45,000 employees. But we also make sure to support the region in a number of different efforts, whether it’s workforce development and policy as well. So we currently have a full time team of six here at our chamber, and our budget is just over $800,000 annually.

Brandon Burton 3:49
All right, that’s perfect. That’s the stage for our discussion today, and I’m excited to dive into our discussion. It’s not the typical type of conversation that we have on the podcast, but it’s something that I think is important for every chamber staff to listen to and to really lean into, and that’s the art of curiosity. And we’ll dive in deeper on that. I’m curious to learn your approach on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Joe Duemig
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Rose, and we’re the founders of App My Community, a mobile app that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your chamber of commerce.

Joe Duemig
Schedule a demo today AppMyCommunity.com. We can’t wait to meet you.

Elevate your community, strengthen your Chamber, and unlock new possibilities with Resource Development Group by your side. They build organizations that build communities!

Jamie Beasley 7:31
Hey, Chamber Execs, are you juggling ribbon cuttings, grant deadlines, membership renewals and a rogue newsletter that just won’t format? That’s where Econ Dev Ops comes in. We’re a virtual assistant agency built exclusively for chambers and EDOs. From social media to CRM cleanup to event planning to inbox management, we handle the behind the scenes work so you can focus on impact. And here’s the best part, we don’t just assign a random virtual assistant, we match you with someone who fits your workflow, your communication style, even your level of type-A. Visit econdevops.com or email us at hello@econdevops.com and finally, cross “hire help” off your to-do list. Econ Dev Ops helping community champions make a bigger impact!

Econ Dev Ops is the virtual assistant service built specifically for small Chambers of Commerce and Economic Development Organizations (EDOs)

Brandon Burton 8:23
All right, Candace, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about the art of curiosity. And I understand you’ve presented on this before at W A C E, and granted, not everybody listening is a member of W A C E, and like I mentioned before, we hit record, to be honest, even going to conferences, we only really retain a percentage of whatever is presented. So it’ll be great to have this documented and have it be shareable for chamber leaders throughout the country and really anywhere they are. So I’m going to hand the mic over to you and let us, you know, give us an idea as you approach your work, how does curiosity come into it? Has it benefited you? What are some of those key things to think of and just, you know, start where you want to start from.

Candace Carnahan 9:09
Yeah, Brandon. You know, I think this is something that leaders in all industries could really lean on, especially with the climate that we find ourselves in as leaders these days, but as chamber executives, being curious is, in my mind, the only way to make sure that you are always focused on the right solutions and the right problems. It is so easy to get caught up in complex community issues, workforce challenges, policy debates, and if you aren’t crystal clear on the work that needs to be done and why it needs to be done, well it’s going to make our job that much harder, and it’s already hard enough. And so I actually got advice. Oh. Really early on in my role here as CEO, and it was always lead with curiosity. There should always be a question as your first thought, and oftentimes the first thing out of your mouth when you’re approaching things, because there’s typically are different layers than just the one that you’re seeing at face value. And so it’s so important as chambers and chamber executives, when we are faced with a never ending parade of challenges and issues and needs from those that we serve to make sure that we’re we’re staying as effective and intentional as possible.

Brandon Burton 10:41
It seems like just throughout the world that there’s a lot more tension than there used to be, whether it’s politically or just how one sees the world. So I think that’s so important to be curious and learn. You know, what makes somebody see the you know, from their perspective on whatever the topic is, and you can learn a lot, you know, by asking those questions. And I think there really is an art to it, because you can ask questions, and you know, the recipient of the questions might think, well, she’s kind of dense, you know, for not knowing that answer, or, you know, this person’s naive for asking this question. So how do you lean into the curiosity in that art form? What are some of those things that you’ve learned in leaning into the curiosity? I

Candace Carnahan 11:30
really love this question, and I first want to just clarify that I feel there, there’s internal curiosity and external curiosity, and it’s a careful balance of this. I want to make sure that we as chamber executives are internally being as curious as possible. When you think you’ve asked all the questions, ask yourself one more time. Okay, but what is the true issue here? Or what? What person is missing from this table? What is the true resource that would move the needle on this, and then, if I don’t have it, who is the best person to help leverage in this, in this question? So I think those are the internal things that you’re constantly trying to address. But when you externally, sometimes just the simple, can you help me better understand this, or what I’m hearing is can, is that correct? Just getting Clara clarity of things, because not only are we looking at a large volume of issues that we’re trying to face as chambers, but the speed is very quickly picking up as well. And so slowing down the conversations to take the time to get to the root of things is so critical, and I have found myself when I say what I’m hearing is, Can Is that correct? They’ll say, oh, that’s that’s not quite what I meant. But let me help clarify in your because just think of how many times we assume we understood what was said, or we think we know where this is going, and that can not be the case. So by taking just a little bit of time with your questions, to slow down the conversation and be really intentional with the information that alone is going to drive you in the right place. And you know, this is not asking questions for the sake of asking questions. I want to make sure that’s really clear. It’s using questions to help you dig a little deeper, right? And fine tune your efforts and initiatives. Is really, really the goal here.

Brandon Burton 13:38
Yeah, I think the key, like you started off with, is that internal curiosity that’s going to keep things authentic. If you’re really trying to get to the root of what’s causing, you know, a situation or an individual’s thinking or perspective or whatever, if you are internally curious, it’ll be authentic and getting to the right questions, getting to the root of what that that causes?

Candace Carnahan 14:01
Brandon, I can’t, I can’t emphasize that enough. I think that, you know, it’s so easy for us to take things at face value, or take the information that we’re being handed or read a newspaper headline or whatever it is, I think we have to take a moment to say, Okay, but what else? What else am I not seeing in this first contact here or this first interaction? What else should I be looking for or knowing or thinking about? Because as chamber executives, that’s that’s really critical we we represent such a diverse group, even within the business industry, and then you pepper and community dynamics, policy, it gets messy, really, really fast. And I love that you used the word authentic, because anytime you stop being curious, that is typically when you veer off your path of authenticity, and that’s usually when you become less effective and less. Impactful as a chamber of commerce and in the toughest of moments, and you can’t see the light, I think your curiosity is that beacon of, okay, what this is my little step forward. This is how I can continue to move forward in this situation. Because if you’re so far off that path by just being reactive and and not really getting to the root of things that not only are you less effective, I think you can be damaging within your organization and community, if you aren’t really clear on what it is you should be doing instead of what it is you are doing. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 15:36
I was thinking, you know, as as far as how somebody views the world, it’s interesting how people, just in general, will identify with certain things, whether it be, it could be something, you know, drastic, like political alignment. You know, I identify as this, and because of that, I’m going to make the stance no matter what, you know, hell or high water, I’m making the stance. It could be something as simple as even a diet structure, you know, somebody follows, and they believe this is the only way to do, to eat, you know, to be healthy, because this is what I do, and that’s their worldview. And to understand that there’s always multiple perspectives. There’s always reasonings for both sides of whatever it and sometimes there’s multiple sides. So being able to lean in authentically is huge. It’s

Candace Carnahan 16:29
huge. I mean, when you compare it to let’s compare building a community to building a house. If everybody showed up on the job site and they all had the same perspective as the plumbers, that was their that’s what they did. They agreed on great plumbing and what type of piping and what type of faucets, the plumbing is going to be outstanding. The rest of the house is going to be very questionable. And we as a community need to make sure that we are also realizing that we’re all coming together to a table to build something. And what we need to be doing is working together to create the best structure and outcome possible. You know, the painters and the plumbers are going to disagree sometimes, and timing might be a challenge, and there’s all these different things, but at the end of the day, they’ve worked together to create a really great product and a really great home. And I think we need to make sure as a community, to be able to step back and make sure that we’re having disagreements of tasks and not of relationships. And that comes to really asking the questions both of ourselves and of our partners. Of First of all, here’s a really important question I ask all the time, is, what is my role in this conversation, but also, I say, what is their role in the conversation? I can’t be holding them to an accountability level of the role of a role that’s not appropriate for their seat at the table. And it’s funny how often we will do that and say, well, we we’re disagreeing. You should think differently. Well, that’s their role. Is that perspective, and we have to honor it and move forward with it, and it does bring you to better solutions, or at least better understanding of where everyone lies in the conversation. So, yeah, it’s so important for us to take a step back and just really understand not just our own why, but everyone else’s why, because the motives in the conversation are really going to be where everyone is operating out

Brandon Burton 18:32
of yeah, that is huge. And that’s not something that I had considered before. Is understanding what their why. I think a lot of people will understand what’s my why, you know, why am I engaging in this conversation, or whatever it may be, but to understand the other person’s Why, what their point of view is, what, what’s bringing them to the table? And I don’t know, for me to make sense of it, I think of, you know, in a TV show, when you see a courtroom, right? You’ve got the prosecutor and you got the defense, and somewhere in the middle is the truth, right? And but both sides have their role that they’re they’re working towards, and it’s important to understand what that role is, so you can come to some sort of agreement

Candace Carnahan 19:12
Absolutely you you would not want to be in a position where they were expecting you to shift off of your mission, your why? Your unwavering advocacy for the business community. That’s not something that you would want them to ask of you, and oftentimes we shouldn’t be asking that of them. We have to recognize that, you know, we each have parts to play, and they’re very different sometimes and sometimes they’re not. But it’s really important to keep that in mind. Absolutely,

Brandon Burton 19:39
I love the analogy you gave of building a house and you’ve got the different contractors building a house. It reminds I’d seen a reel a while back where this person is impersonating different tradesmen as they come to a construction site, and how they approach things, from the plumber to the electrician to the drywall guy and the painters and. Everything and and obviously it’s coming from a skewed perspective of, you know, a certain contractor not understanding the why for why the plumber is doing things the way they are, or the electrician doing things the way they are. And it’s kind of poking fun at them. But if you could get to the root of why they do what they do the way they do, it changes everything. And you could build a better house, or you could build a stronger community. It’s

Candace Carnahan 20:23
so important, and I find myself often saying, what, where? Where am I most living in the uncomfortable because that tends to be where I either haven’t been curious enough or haven’t gotten to know that area enough so there’s clearly unanswered questions. And what’s exciting is that gives me opportunity to say, You know what to be great at what I do. I need to go explore that perspective. I need to either go spend time with them. I need to go witness firsthand what it is they’re trying to communicate to me, I just need to have a better understanding and opportunity to ask questions outside of the heat of the moment, often outside of when we’re trying to hash out solutions. But just tell me more about your perspective, and that way, when we are in the next conversation, you are that Curiosity has led you to a more informed place. It it could reinforce where you’re at. It could shed light on where opportunities for collaboration are. It can also create opportunity for how you can leverage partnerships and work together. Because I now, I didn’t know you had that tool in your toolbox, and I have, you have the hammer, I have the nails. Hey, why are we not working together? And so it’s very rarely does anything bad come from being curious. I think that’s just i I’ve challenged when I, I thought about this conversation today, I was trying to say, Are there any pitfalls of being curious? And I’m sure there are, but it’s very few and far between. I would say, yeah.

Brandon Burton 22:10
I think the pitfall would be as if you’re not internally curious, if you’re not focusing on that, that would be the big pitfall when

Candace Carnahan 22:17
you aren’t that’s where it starts to get dicey. Yeah. So

Brandon Burton 22:21
I was thinking of it from the standpoint too, of as you have a new business member, investor in your organization, to be able to just be curious about what they offer. Like you said, they’ve got the hammer, you’ve got the nails. What connections can we make? So it doesn’t even have to come from a point of where there’s tension at all. It can just be, I want to learn more about what you have to offer. How can we help you? And again, knowing what their role is and what your role is, and trying to align those to, you know, build the perfect community, right? To build a stronger, better community and and make those connections. That’s what a chamber is all about.

Candace Carnahan 22:55
I love there’s no boundaries to how you can use this tool. That’s what’s exciting. You know, it’s, it’s a free tool. It’s, it’s something that you can create as an asset. And I keep saying, as a CEO or in chamber leaders, this should be something that you are including your whole team on in the journey. If your entire team is operating with this premise of being curiosity, to go back to your invest investor membership conversation, we regularly say that our those conversations are more about us getting to know them than it is about them getting to know us. And if we walk away without having any conversation about what tier levels or opportunities are, that’s okay, because what we’ve done is we’ve been curious about their business and shown them that they matter, and we want to know about how they fit into this really important piece within the business community. We’re already building a strong relationship with them, and that can be used on board, members, volunteers. If you are the more you get curious about what people what they need, what motivates them, you’re much better positioned to serve that person or support that person. If you are operating off of what you think they need or think motivates them, you have a really good shot of missing the mark. And so, yeah, this is something that can be used all the time community partners. There’s, you know, use your use your survey tools. That’s the one of the biggest things you can do by just It’s funny how often I hear people say, Huh, I wonder what our members would feel about this. Ask them five question flash bowl, hey, how do you feel about this? I think sometimes we just discount the ability to just ask,

Brandon Burton 24:52
yeah, I love that. So the idea of including your whole team, that just really resonates with. With me, it really doesn’t move the needle. If only the chamber executive is the one on board with curiosity. If your team’s not doing it again, it goes back to authenticity. Doesn’t seem real, and you’re not going to have all the touch points that the rest of your team has. How do we integrate that within staff, within the board, maybe even ambassadors? How do we integrate that curiosity and generate that movement? Is how I see it.

Candace Carnahan 25:26
I am so glad you asked that. I think first of all, you have to normalize it. There can be stigma about asking questions, and somehow it makes you seem like you’re not paying attention or not skilled enough to handle the situation. We really have created a culture around the fact that the problem only comes if you’re not asking questions. Are you asking for help? Are you asking how this connects with another teammates work? Are you asking how our members could be benefiting from this or who else might be interested in this resource, we try to ask ourselves, which is funny that I say that, but anytime we’re doing something it, we kind of say, Okay, but what else you think it’s you think it’s done or you think that you’ve explored it? Yes, but what else like if you could push just a little further into that curiosity zone, what? And then it’s funny, how often say, Oh, well, actually, you know, I could explore something a little bit differently. Or it’s amazing what just that little nudge over the edge will do. It also, by doing this as a team. I think it shows to our members in our board what our motives are, and it has created an atmosphere where they feel comfortable to come bring us information as well. So maybe we haven’t outwardly asked for it, but because of how we have integrated this as a culture, they know that we’re open to feedback and differing perspectives even when we’re not asking for it. So I think it’s it’s simply about incorporating it naturally into everything you do, and making sure that everyone understands that the only time there should be concerns is when we as a group stop asking questions. And if someone is not asking questions, we need to kind of turn to them and say, Is there something we could be doing to help support you in opening up this communication? Yeah, we always end and start and end every staff meeting with questions to each other as well. It’s not just me, you know, it’s, do you have any team? Do you have any questions for our marketing director team? Do you have any questions marketing director? Is there anything that the team could be helping or supporting you with instead of just waiting for it to happen? It’s, I’m opening the door, jump in and and it’s really exciting to see that take off, because they are and they they do it naturally, and it makes us all better, because our organizations are not just the CEO. I think that’s we know that, but it’s really easy to get into that mode. The organizations are every single person, volunteers, board members, your investors, and that’s got to be something that everyone does. Yeah, I love that.

Brandon Burton 28:22
What else are we missing out of the art of curiosity, I feel like there’s questions that I haven’t asked. What are what are the things that are on the top of your mind? You

Candace Carnahan 28:33
know, the only thing that comes to mind is that a question asked once is not necessarily a question answered, and so don’t be afraid to go back and ask again. And I’m just going to give this example our chamber. I’m very lucky to have inherited a chamber that is very strongly positioned. We had a CEO who was very well respected, and she was here for 35 years. And so I learned from one of the best in the industries. But being able to say, even though we know who we are as an organization and we really excel, who is it we do we want to be today? And that is actually something that at every strategic planning session, we say, okay, we know who we are now. Who do we want to be tomorrow? And I think that’s something that can also be brought into other conversations. We know this workforce development strategy is working now, but what is it that our businesses need tomorrow? And so as long as you’re continuing to evolve your questions and go back and just check in on them. I think that’s really important, because answers can get stagnant, and I that’s again, you have now as an organization, stopped being curious about how to be the best version of yourself, and we have to continue to do that.

Brandon Burton 29:53
So maybe a 2.0 episode would be the art of asking the question, right? So you can. You’re curious, but then there’s a way of asking the question to where you can get the answer instead of, you know, how are you doing? I’m good. You know, there’s a better question to be asked,

Candace Carnahan 30:08
right? Oh, yes, absolutely. I love that.

Brandon Burton 30:11
Well, Candace for a chamber listening who’s wanting to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item or piece of advice would you share with them and trying to accomplish this goal?

Candace Carnahan 30:28
I would say that you have to lean into the uncomfortable oftentimes, there can also be a fear about asking questions, because they’re like, oh, that means more work. Like, I don’t want to

Brandon Burton 30:40
know. I am not doing that, right?

Candace Carnahan 30:44
I would say this, you know, we’re not asking you to turn over all the rocks right right away. I’m just saying when that this is actually meant to be a tool to help lead you towards a more efficient level of effectiveness, right? So start small. Find a couple things that you can just get comfortable and see that Okay, two more questions actually didn’t make it worse. It actually streamlined my path to a productive solution. Or, holy moly, I was completely going down the wrong path. Or I had an answer that was actually in search of a problem. There really is no problem here. I can pivot and now divert resources. So start small. Find some things that you can just say, Hmm, what if I just thought one layer deeper, and go from there? Yeah, you’ll find it will start to integrate itself into your life. More and more

Brandon Burton 31:38
I like that. So I like asking everyone I have on the podcast, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Candace Carnahan 31:50
Well, you know, it’s funny. I do tie it, actually, to this topic. I have felt, and I see it more and more and more about our role as being that convening agent in our communities being our most important role that we play, especially with how divided everything seems to have a hard line drawn, and people are picking sides. And what’s unfortunate about that is it, it really does keep us away from true solutions for many of the challenges that we’re facing as communities. And so I think it is important for us, if we are, if we’re not saying who’s missing from this conversation, or what is the true problem that we’re trying to tackle here, to make sure we’re all aligned. Because, gosh, if, if you think you’re solving this problem and I’m solving this problem and we actually are in the same table trying to solve the same problem, we’re not going to get very far. And so I think as chambers, we have to really, I would say, if you do nothing, do that be the person that’s able to come to the table, bring people to the table. And if you’re operating from that curiosity standpoint, you’re curious on how we as a group can get to the best solution, and that’s your motivating factor to be there, not to be the person that has a feather in their hat. Because I brought everyone to the table, it’s I’m curious on how we can bring our ability to get everyone at the table and truly walk away making an impact. I think that’s going to be something that we have to lean into, because there there are other resources for a lot of the other things that we’re doing. But if we’re not bringing people together to to solve and navigate the barriers and burdens facing our businesses, we’re not going to be effective. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 33:39
I like that. That’s a great tip in how we look and navigate into the future. Candice, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and connect with you. Maybe learn more about your approach to curiosity. What would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Candace Carnahan 33:59
I always welcome anyone to email me. It’s very easy to find me. It’s just candace@gjchamber.org We do have a great website as well where you can find me, which is GJChamber.org. But I’m always happy to talk to anyone. And you know, this is, this is hard work that we all do as chambers, and the more we can lean on each other and share information and opportunities, I think we’re better for it.

Brandon Burton 34:35
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I appreciate you spending time with us today and letting us, you know, be a little curious about your approach and how you how you approach things there at the Grand Junction area, chamber and and just your work in general. I think it’s a great way, a great way, to have a perspective, to learn more, and to really allow you to serve your business community in a much better and elevated way. So. Thank you for sharing that with us today.

Candace Carnahan 35:02
I really appreciate the opportunity and and thank you for all that you do to to keep us all tapped in on the important things facing our industry.

Brandon Burton 35:10
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Community Strategy with Jason Mock

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Jason Mock. Jason is a dynamic and visionary leader committed to fostering strong connections between businesses and communities. As President and CEO of The Greater Dalton Chamber, he works to drive economic growth, advocate for businesses and create a thriving future for the region. His leadership extends beyond Georgia. With a proven track record in chamber and community development before leading the greater Dalton chamber, Jason served as president and CEO of the San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce in Texas, and as the director of Small Business Services for the foresight Chamber of Commerce in Georgia. Jason is deeply engaged in regional and state leadership. He serves on the board of Thrive regional partnership and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the hub chamber Council, a key policy group of Metropolitan Chamber leaders across Georgia, and serves on the ALI Alumni Advisory Committee for the Appalachian Regional chain, Regional Commission. His career began in politics, studying political science at the University of West Georgia and working with former congressman Lynn Westmoreland, and later served as political director at former Georgia Secretary of State, Karen Handel, and played a role in the 2008 Republican National Convention and John McCain’s presidential campaign. Committed to professional excellence. Jason earned his IOM certificate in non profit management from the US Chamber of Commerce Institute in 2016 Jason, I’m 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.

Jason Mock 2:53
Brandon, thank you so much for having me today. You know, I don’t know what’s most interesting about me, but I will say that at one time, I got to drive around Lee Greenwood at an event. And for those that may not recognize Lee Greenwood, you know, God bless America, very powerful guy that loves to sing about our country, but got to drive him and his son around back in the day for some political events when I was working for on the presidential campaign for McCain. So, so,

Brandon Burton 3:26
which is pretty cool. Yeah, he’s still on the circuit too. It seems like I just saw him, you know, a few months ago on stage. So that’s that’s great, very interesting. I like asking that question because we learn these, these fun tidbits about people, but tell us a little bit about the Greater Dalton Chamber. Give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with and budget just kind of set that perspective.

Jason Mock 3:52
Greater Dalton Chamber. For those that may not be familiar, we’re up in northwest Georgia. We’re home to a lot of people know us as the carpet capital of the world. Now we like to say we’re the flooring capital of the world, just because we’re carpet and hard services, as well as astro turf. In fact, if you watch the national championship football game that was hosted in Atlanta, Georgia this year, that turf was made right here in Dalton, Georgia. So kind of unique and special about that. But our community is a, you know, manufacturing community, but it is one of entrepreneurs. Our chamber is about 800 members. Our staff is about we have 10 folks on staff, and we always are looking to grow and and find different ways. But you know, we’re engaged in a lot of different things, mainly in the connecting side of things that networking most chambers are, but developing talent, workforce development is key for us, as well as the advocacy standpoint. So those three. Standpoint, or our focus as an organization. And I know today we’ll talk a little bit about more about the community side of things that we’re working on. We really dive into making sure that, you know, not only with the voice of our business community, but we’re also looking at how we’re growing greater Dalton community as a whole, for for families, residents, and anybody that’s coming to visit our community as a throughout the time,

Brandon Burton 5:27
That’s great. That gives a great snapshot and and a great you know item to pinpoint, you know, the manufacturing to the national championship. So yeah, that turf, and that turf is becoming more and more popular everywhere.

Jason Mock 5:42
It seems like you see it, not just at the National you know, in sports from a major league to the NFL, but you’re seeing it down to the Parks and Rec and in fact, Shaw sports turf, that’s the one that made the national championship. They’re making it where they’re putting these coconut shells in them, and it’s supposed to keep the temperature really cool on the ground and during the turf. So for those that are in the the South, in the summer times that you know that that turf can get a little hot, and they’re finding ways to keep it safe from a temperature standpoint, as well as a safety on the knees and the ankle. So it was kind of cool.

Brandon Burton 6:22
Yeah, one of our neighbors just put it in their backyard turf, and got me envious. And I’m like, shoot, how much does that cost? Gotta figure this out. He told that lawn mower very quickly. That’s right, that’s right. Well, you had mentioned it a minute ago that our focus for our conversation today will be around the strategy you guys have for building community there in the Dalton area. And look forward to diving in deeper on this as soon as we get back from this quick break.

Joe Duemig
Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Rose, and we’re the founders of App My Community, a mobile app that can be customized to meet the unique needs of your chamber of commerce.

Joe Duemig
Schedule a demo today AppMyCommunity.com. We can’t wait to meet you.

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All right, Jason, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re talking your community strategy today. Chambers across the country, throughout the world, need to have some kind of strategy right to build their community and and I always like getting the perspective from different chambers to see what is it that’s working for you guys, what? Where’s your areas of focus? And maybe it lights a spark for somebody listening to see ideas that they can maybe implement in their community. But tell us what I believe. It’s called, Believe Greater Dalton.

Jason Mock 10:40
Believe Greater Dalton is our community strategy led by the Chamber of Commerce. It was something my predecessor and board chair at the time had many conversations about, because we were constantly doing a strategy, year in and year out, and some were working and some were were not. Some of our community leaders were feeling like that. Those strategies were being in silos, and the only people that can make a decision with those that were at the table versus being a community strategy for for the greater good. And so over time, believe greater Dalton came to life in 2018 and it is a it became a five year strategy to look at our community, and we really dove deep into what our community needs, what our community is needs to focus on for the for the future. We brought in a consultant to help us with this process. We interviewed community leaders, chamber businesses, elected officials, we held focus groups, we did surveys, we did it all to kind of figure out what are the top issues that are facing our community. And we came up with six areas of focus that we wanted to focus on in those first five years. And then we went out and raised those dollars once we knew those focus points. First year, we raised a little over a million dollars in that process to focus on six areas like I talked about. And those areas were education, housing, downtown, entrepreneurship, community, pride and economic development. And each of those had we broke them down into more of like objectives inside the education model. A lot of folks right now across the country are talking about third grade reading, and from a business community standpoint, it is very important that we look at third grade reading. And so from a chamber, I know a lot of folks, colleagues around will be like and listening to this going well, is the chamber out there in the school system teaching third grade reading? No, we’re not. We’re but we are working with our our educators. We’re working with our school districts to figure out ways that we can improve third grade reading so that that our third graders are reading at, you know, at grade level throughout the year, and so really, the focus of that is, how do we solve some of these problems? You know, when it comes to housing, you know, we’re not out there building housing, but we knew and know that housing is an issue for our community in I’ll back us up a little bit. No eight, no nine. When the housing crisis took place, it really hit greater Dalton because of our industry, we were pretty much a one horse town at the time, and so developers backed away. And so we really knew that we needed to have a focus to look at housing, at all aspects, from the workforce housing all the way up to the executive housing. And so when we launched this in 2018 we we did a housing study, which we produced with with a group. But that housing study allowed for developers in our community to have almost a road map that they could go to business or go to the banks, they could go to developers and go to investors and find a pathway to build housing. And we’ve started to see our housing stock to change in the sense of, we started to see additional workforce housing. We started to see more mid level executive housing. We’re we haven’t solved the problem, but we are working to fill those gaps, and we’ll continue to do that. So really, the true focus was how first six years, we’re flying the plane and building the plane at the same time. And so a lot of studies were done, a lot of looks at how we can improve our community. And so we were putting dollars into those areas that we felt would move the needle. And then fast forward, we said, You know what? This is something that we really, truly need for generations to come. We don’t need this to be a one year plan. And so believe greater Dalton 2.0 came about. And so we have additional five years where we went out and did the same process again. And but came up with some new strategies to look at.

Brandon Burton 15:03
So after that, the five years, what, what kind of strategies did you see in the second evolution of it?

Jason Mock 15:11
Yeah, some were the same. Housing still stayed at the top. I mean, when we talked to our investors, when we talked to community leaders, they still talked about, hey, we’re making progress, but we still haven’t. You know, we still are not at the finish line from a housing standpoint, so housing and education stayed at the top of the of those two lists. But what changed a little bit was we weren’t focusing on just on downtown. We said we gotta focus on our community as a whole. We got to focus on revitalization as a as a whole, greater Dalton ecosystem. And so we started to tackle different projects and different things, and a lot of this is public, private partnerships. I’ll give you example of one where the city came to us and they wanted to do, and this was in the first year, but they wanted to do some downtown improvements, of some streetscapes. They were able to get a grant to help with this, but they needed some additional dollars to cover the streetscapes, and so they came to us, and they asked for some for some funding. And so between the city, the grant, believe, greater Dalton, as well as our downtown development authority, we all chipped in some money into this to allow for this project to happen. It’s being constructed right now. It’s a little bit of a mess, but we know it by by the end of this year, that streetscape is going to be tied in to allow those businesses along that that corridor to be more successful, to have better parking for their interest, to have better walkability for their customers. At the end of the day, it’s going to be a game changer for that area, but it’s going to be a game changer for our community, because hopefully it’s attracting more businesses to that corridor so that more can grow and more can be successful, right?

Brandon Burton 17:01
So as you talked about education, housing, still stayed on that list, or still, you guys are moving the needle, but the problem’s not solved yet. And makes me picture, you know, a world where all the community problems are solved, and then what purpose does the chamber have, right? That’s right. You gotta have some job security there, right?

Jason Mock 17:19
Hopefully. So I’ll say we, we got a lot of work. I mean, we’re blessed to live in a great community. We got a great industries that call greater Dalton home. But, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of things that we want to improve on. We’re always trying to cross that finish line. I always say that the in our world, the finish line is always moving. That goal post is always is always moving. When we think we’ve accomplished and got a good product, we go, ooh, we need to tweak it here, or something else comes about. So there’s always job security and making sure that our communities are successful Absolutely.

Brandon Burton 17:59
And that was my point, that goal line keeps moving, and there’s always going to be, you know, things to focus on, and some of the things will stay on that list for some time, until you can really find a positive solution. But seeing that these are issues in almost every community, it seems like I don’t think anybody’s found that silver bullet just yet, but they’re all working towards good things and innovative ideas that’ll come out of it too. Yeah,

Jason Mock 18:26
and one thing I’ll say that has made this successful for us, and it may not make it successful for another community, but what’s made it successful for us is the folks that we’re engaging with. We have a big tent kind of philosophy, everybody’s invited to the room, everybody’s opinion is listened to and allowed to give comment about what’s going on. So we meet regularly with community leaders that are not businesses. They may not even be a chamber member. We’re meeting with folks to make sure that they understand the value of believe greater Dalton and what’s going on, but we’re also there to listen to what they they their input. Because we know this is a community strategy. It’s led by the chamber, but it’s a community strategy that we want our community to buy into. And so if it’s, you know, somebody that is retired and but lives in our community, is invested in our community. We want to hear from them. It’s a single mom trying to raise two kids. We want to hear from them. If it’s that business owner that has two employees, or that business owner that may have, you know, 1000s of employees, we want to hear from them, because this is their community just as much as it’s our community.

Brandon Burton 19:38
Yeah. So that leads right into the next question I had for you. So you had mentioned, with the in 2018 when the strategy was first being built out, there was a lot of surveys and things going on. How has that evolved? You mentioned you wanted to hear from all these people. I imagine surveys are going out to members the community at large. How is that being communicated? How are you gathered? Bring that information. We

Jason Mock 20:01
actually do a survey every year to our community. It goes out we we blast it out as best we can. We get it on social media. We make videos about it. You know, I’ll say this, our community, our city limits, is about inside city limits of Dalton, 52 53% are Hispanic. So we we put the survey in English and in Spanish. We have our marketing materials in both English and Spanish. We have folks that are speaking about it at different events and Rotary Clubs and civic groups. So we’re out there, you know, pounding the pavement for about three to four weeks the surveys out there, and the main thing we’re looking at is a net promoter score. Many chambers are starting to look at net promoter scores for their their their membership, from their events. We look at it from our community as well. And so we’re trying to improve our net promoter score throughout the years we’ve we’ve climbed a little bit on some things. We’ve dropped a little bit on some things, so we’re constantly working on that. The other thing we do with our survey is we poll and survey our high school students, our juniors and seniors. Get this survey. We want to hear from them. So we work very closely with our school districts, our superintendents, our principals, to make sure that this survey is getting in the hands of our students so that they can give us feedback. One thing we want to do is, you know, talking about the brain drain, we don’t want that those folks to leave our community. We’re blessed that we have Dalton College, Dalton State College, here in in our community. We have a technical college here in our community. But we also want folks to know, students, to know that there are great jobs in our community. So we want to hear from our students what they think about greater Dalton, because we know that they’re the future of our community.

Brandon Burton 21:56
That idea just alone in asking those high school juniors and seniors for their feedback shows that, hey, the community cares about me, right? There’s a place for me if I want to build a career here, if I want to, you know, grow my family here, there’s a place for me, and I don’t need to look somewhere else necessarily. And

Jason Mock 22:14
what’s amazing about this is going back to that net promoter score, usually, the net promoter scores of our students is higher than our net promoters of our adults, of the community. So that’s a great thing. I mean, I mean, when you look at it, the future is bright for us, but the that they really believe in the place they live, they love the place they live. And that’s, that’s cool.

Brandon Burton 22:33
Yeah, that is cool. I’ve got a a son that graduated last year, and a daughter, it’s a junior this year, and I’m thinking, would she, would she specifically fill out a survey? And I hope she would, yeah, I hope that would give that, that boost of confidence of, you know, the community cares about me, and they want me to they want my feedback. You know what? My opinion matters, especially as they get into that voting age, and they get more involved civically, like we want them, knowing that their voice matters and

Jason Mock 23:01
going still with that same survey, we also we carve it out a little bit. We ask you if you are a mother or father or parent or guardian with a student in our school system that has been in their school system currently or in the last five years. They then fill out a different or same survey, but they’re filling out some additional questions about how they rank our schools. What is it that they like about our schools? What is it they may not like about our schools? We take that data, we meet with our superintendents, we meet with our school board representatives, and we talk to them about the information that they have. Some of the data at the last year, survey came back that are we have two school system. We have a city and a county district that our County school system, their career and technical education was being called something in house. Parents were calling it something else, or didn’t recognize that. So that the that change right there had a negative on what they were offering. But what the school says is, we’re calling it a, they’re thinking it’s B. So we gotta work on our language. We gotta look at work on our communications. Fast forward to this year. Those numbers were drastically improved because of the way that they changed how they communicated that with their with their parents, so just little things like that making a bigger difference for how, you know, we can solve problems around here. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 24:29
some minor adjustments that are easy to make and it, you know, it’s night and day difference. Yeah, that’s great. Have there been other examples like that? If the feedback that you get from the surveys, just, I like those, those minor adjustments. Because sometimes you see the feedback, you’re like, Oh, this is gonna be big undertaking. This is another five to 10 years to move this ship, you know. And others are like, we can do that next month, you know? Yeah,

Jason Mock 24:54
most of them, those little ones, are great, like you talked about. A lot of the stuff we get are. Those bigger picture you know, ooh, this part of our community needs to be improved. I would love to see us have this type of retail store or this or that, but that right there just gives us feedback, and really and truly, it gives us our elected officials political cover. A lot of times, elected officials across the country are hesitant to make a decision, hesitant to make a move when it comes to growth or spending some dollars, but when you can come to them and say, the community as a whole has voted, has given their opinion that they want to see this improve, that’s political cover that they can go back at a county commission meeting and a city council meeting and say we’ve heard through our chamber, through this survey that’s given out to the community, that this is an important issue to us, and therefore we’re going to step into that arena and help solve that, because now they have that political cover to do that.

Brandon Burton 26:03
Yeah, having data means everything, right? That’s right. Having that information, I love it. Well. Jason for chamber listening, who’s wanting to take their organization, even argue their community up to the next level? What kind of tips or action plans, maybe you offer them to try to accomplish that goal.

Jason Mock 26:24
First of all, I would say, get a group of leaders together to have that conversation. And this is where you’re going to think big picture. What are the issues we’re facing today, what are the issues we may be facing tomorrow, and then, what are those issues that we may be we’re not sure of that are 20 years, 30 years down the road, if you can get that, if you can get that group together and have that kind of conversation as first but two, you gotta be willing to talk about, I hate to say it this way, the ugly in the room or the ugly in the community, what needs to be improved On. You can’t be as scared to lay it out on the table to say, you know, we are not successful in this area. We need to improve our school systems in this way. We need to improve our streetscapes in this way, or our look in this way. But it’s going to take a lot of push. I’ll say the first time that believe greater Dalton got introduced to the Board of Directors for the chamber. It was not well received. The board did not want to get into this arena. It took some more conversation. It took some more time with business leaders to convince the chamber board, at the time to invest in this project, once we had that investment from the board, we then had to go out and get the investment from our elected officials. We knew we needed both parties. We knew we needed the business leaders and we needed the the elected official side of things invested in it. So we had those two sides. And then we went and found key leaders. And I would suggest you go find key leaders that may not be at the table, may not be at your may not be a board member, may not even be a chamber member, and this is a good way to get them to become a chamber member, but you may have to have those conversations with with key leaders in the community that you may not talk to on a regular basis, and if they can get their buy in, and then I’ll say, dream big, but Start slow. You want to have that big picture of one day our community can look like this. Our community is going to have XYZ, but know that that doesn’t take place overnight, that it takes time. We the first year. You know, lot of people go what you did the first year. We did a lot of studies. We paid for a lot of information, but that data helped us to be ready for year two, or for the believe 2.0 the next five years, where we’ve put some more data. I’ve had invested more data, but at the end of the day, we’re working on more projects than we’re working on on studies this year, and so that will just grow. So just know it takes time. It takes leadership, it takes vision. And you know, Rome wouldn’t see, you know what built in in a day,

Brandon Burton 29:06
right? Yeah. And as you’re giving that explanation, I’m reminded the book 13 ways to kill your community. And you talk about, you know, pointing out the ugly. And you know, people don’t want to live in a community that, whether it’s visibly ugly or just, you know, things are not welcoming, or whatever those those stinky parts are, you know, your community got to recognize it and fix it, that’s right,

Jason Mock 29:29
and just have those open conversations. I think chambers that chamber CEOs and leadership that don’t have those tough conversations with their boards or with their community, or doing a disservice to their Chamber members, because our members are talking about it. Our business community is talking about it at the water cooler, or at the ball games with their with their kids, or, you know, at church, you know, they’re talking about, Oh, would you see the potholes that we came in on throughout, you know, the. This afternoon, or whatever it may be. So we have to be open minded to know that if they’re talking about it, then we should be talking about it. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:06
absolutely. Well, Jason, I’d like to ask everybody 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?

Jason Mock 30:18
They’re changing every day. You know, I think the chamber of the past and the past is last, is yesterday. Chambers are always evolving and always having to think of things. I think if this kind of project, believe greater Dalton community strategy for a greater community would not have been something that would have looked at 2030 years ago, I think chambers would have just said, That’s not our lane. We don’t need to get in it. I think more and more we’re seeing chambers having to get in lanes that we may not have been in last year or 20 years ago. We have to be thinking about how we’re truly growing a community as a whole. We’re helping our members, but we’re helping the bigger ecosystem of our community. And at the end of the day, we may not be serving and helping some members through this process. They may be elevating themselves because we have a better community. That’s okay. That’s okay because we want businesses to succeed, and at the same time, we want to show value what we’re doing. And hopefully they see that value, and we can show that, hey, look, we’re we’re working on your behalf, even though you may not know of us, you may not see us, but there’s a role that we love for you to play within our community, within our chamber. So I think chambers have to think big picture, be very broad in the way that they operate, and not pigeonhole themselves and just those events and networking side, but really look at the whole ecosystem of the community that they they represent.

Brandon Burton 31:47
Yeah, great explanation. Absolutely need to to get outside of just the the networking and so forth. That’s a means to an end. It’s not that. It’s not the main focus. So, right? But I

Jason Mock 31:59
think in the end, you know, we’re going to have to look at, you know, I don’t know this answer, and I know you’ve, you’ve tackled it a little bit on your calls, and love to learn more about it. But the membership side, I mean, that is always changing, and it’s a dynamic stuff. And, you know, I was telling somebody, and you’ve heard this, and our audience has heard this, you know, people were joining the chamber because my grandfather was a chamber member. My daddy was a chamber member, you know? And now it’s getting to a point where the new business owners are going, I don’t, I don’t know that, and there’s really showing value of what that value is and and everybody’s value is different. Everybody’s Chamber’s value is different. Everybody’s community value is different. So you have to find that value that fits for your community and your organization. Yeah, absolutely.

Brandon Burton 32:41
Well, Jason, this has been fun to have you on the podcast. I appreciate you taking time to be with us today and sharing some of your experiences examples you know, going through the your community strategy there in Dalton, wanted to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you? Yeah,

Jason Mock 33:00
I’m happy to my email address is mock@daltonchamber.org, and I’ll be brave enough, I’ll throw my cell phone out there. If anybody wants to call me, please do 770-241-3629, I’m happy to meet with you, talk to you, and help any way I can. I think we’re all in this industry together, all in the boat together, and whatever we can do, I can be learning from you, and hopefully you can learn a little bit from us. That’s perfect,

Brandon Burton 33:27
and we’ll get that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy to find. But again, Jason, it’s been great having you on the show and and appreciate you sharing these examples and and really, you know, shining a spotlight on what what a community can do to really have a strategy and move the needle going forward.

Appreciate it.

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Long-Term Vision with Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer. Johnna is the President and CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC. She has a distinguished background in leadership roles, including serving as president and CEO of the Regional Economic Development Institute Cincinnati, and holding leadership positions at Duke Energy Citigroup, United Way of Greater Cincinnati in Ohio and Kentucky, the O’Bannon County Chamber of Commerce and the Jackson Downtown Development Corporation in Tennessee. John is a proud graduate of the University of Memphis for her Bachelor’s in communications. Thomas Moore University for MBA, and she attended the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute where she earned a certificate in economic development from the International Economic Development Council as the inaugural President and CEO of the Regional Economic Development Institute in Cincinnati. Johnna led a 15 County, three state regional economic development organization. Under her leadership, the R, E, D I, Cincinnati achieved 175 project wins, created 25,000 jobs and secured $1.4 billion in capital investment within four years in 2022 she became the president and CEO of the Colorado Springs chamber and EDC, Southern Colorado’s largest Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Organization. Since then, she’s led major initiatives in aerospace and defense, develop, Defense Development, legislative advocacy, and has successfully overseen the securing of 29 economic development projects, creating over 5000 jobs and attracting over 1.1 point $8 billion in capital investment. Johnna, I’m 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.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 3:02
Oh, well, thank you so much. I’m honored to be with you. And want to say hello to all my colleagues out there. And really want to say, just, just keep doing what you’re doing. Some days I feel like these are thankless jobs, and we’re carrying the weight of our communities and trying to make big things happen. But just know you’re never alone. I’ve been doing this a long time, and you are making a difference

Brandon Burton 3:26
Absolutely.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 3:29
So if I, if I think about something interesting, let’s see I’m I was born and raised in Tennessee and lived in Ohio for over 20 years, and after the the pandemic, I said, I’m going to do like a millennial and and I’m not a millennial, if you’re, if you’re looking at me right now, and said, you know, where do I want to live versus where do I have to live? Our children were grown, and I had had a lot of success at ready Cincinnati, and said, Do I Do I really need or have to stay in the Midwest? And my husband and I said, Let’s go to a beautiful place that’s fast growing, and let’s see if we can make a difference there. And so I came to Colorado Springs, and have not looked back. It’s been fantastic, but very unusual for someone that’s almost in their 50s to do that, versus someone that maybe were in their 20s. So very unique path that that I’ve taken,

Brandon Burton 4:27
yeah, you could have fooled me. I thought you were a millennial. So flat

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 4:31
flattery works on me. You think

Brandon Burton 4:34
my friend? So you guys did what a lot of people did and took off to Colorado. It’s beautiful country there and and lots of good reasons to be there, but tell us a little bit more about the Colorado Springs chamber and EDC to kind of set the stage for our discussion. Help us get an idea of the size staff, scope of work. You guys are involved with budget to kind of set the stage,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 4:56
sure. So we’re the second largest chamber. The state of Colorado, behind the Metro Denver chamber, we’re the second largest city in the state of Colorado. It’s about three quarters of a million people in our metropolitan statistical area. It’s a community that’s made up of five military installations, which is really unusual. It’s a huge part of our economy, which has really led to that large aerospace and defense sector here, our chamber and EDC has over 1000 members. I have a six and a half million dollar budget. We host not only typical chamber functions such as government affairs and Small Business Services and membership services, but we also have the economic development arm of our organization. Our community is the size that it works well for it to be joined together as one organization. We also host a group called the Pikes Peak Housing Network, where you’re in a faster growing state like we’re in in a fast growing region, affordable and attainable housing are a real issue, and so this organization works constantly to try to try to help solve, how do we have more housing in our in our region? And then we also host the Small Business Development Center in our region to a very important piece to to work for small business and entrepreneurs, just as we work for primary employers, primary sector, and trying to recruit and retain them. So some traditional goals and some non traditional roles, that’s

Brandon Burton 6:28
great. It’s enough to keep you busy, for sure, and it’s a neat dynamic, having the military, you know, involved there as well, and having that focus. Yeah, it

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 6:37
is. This is my first community to have such a military presence. But when you have, when you have one army installation and four aerospace I’m sorry, when you have four bases that are around the space and the Air Force, it’s, it’s a huge part of your economy, and it really adds to the fabric of our community,

Brandon Burton 7:01
absolutely so for our discussion today, we’re going to, we’ve titled this episode long term vision. I like being able to talk vision with chambers so other chambers can hear and maybe get some ideas and maybe broaden their minds as to, you know, what’s happening in Colorado Springs. Maybe it can be scaled to, you know, wherever they’re at in the country, so we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Johnna, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, we’re going to focus our discussion around long term vision for Colorado Springs. But first, we’ve alluded to it a couple times already. The tremendous growth there in Colorado Springs, what’s drawing so many businesses to want to choose to invest into to grow in Colorado Springs in that region.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 11:04
Well, I think it’s a variety of things. I think number one, Colorado has so much natural beauty and such an outdoor lifestyle, I can literally walk out my office door Brandon and be on three trails. So we have about 600 hiking biking trails in our region. You can be in the mountains and minutes. It’s a really, it’s a lifestyle state. And what I mean is we all talk about that we want balance in our life and harmony in our life. Well, people have moved to this state because they’re living it. So where talent comes then follows business. We know the importance of, after you have a good site for an economic development prospect, you have to show can you get the talent. So Colorado has was a was a net benefactor during during COVID, and continues to grow as a state. Colorado Springs has really taking off because you have big city amenities, but you have a small town atmosphere. We are not a ski town, but you can be to in, you can be skiing in an hour and a half away from us. But then you had, we’re not a mountain town. So we, we have lots of we have lots of amenities because of the aerospace and defense culture here, even in in in down times, in an economy, quite often for national security reasons, our economy bounces back quickly and and and goes down less severe than what some other communities might face that are so dependent on other sectors. I think it’s it’s also that during the pandemic, a lot of young people realized that they didn’t have to live in the super high priced cities, and could move to more mid tier cities, mid size, and have a lot of the same amenities. We have the arts, we have sports here, we have universities, and so they could have all those amenities, but maybe not the big city prices or, unfortunately, some of the the other things that that go along with, with, with the large cities, the the taxes and homelessness and crime and and things such as that. So this city’s really done well because of that. And then I will give my team some credit. I think it’s important when you’re the chamber and the EDC that you’re on the forefront of selling your community, telling your story, or it’s told for you, and you may not, but what is told, if you’re not getting in front of that, and this is a community that, I would say is the best kept secret in Colorado, in a lot of respects, it’s fast changing, and so we’re out there working on those national news stories, I would think Any Chamber of Commerce would want to be going out and telling their story. We work very closely with our Convention and Visitors Bureau to try to recruit tourism to this area, so that while we have tourist is one part of our economy, we also have primary sector employers, and we’re doing that in aerospace and defense, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing are our three areas of focus, and the chamber in EDC where we lead that charge, I like to say we’re the quarterback of the team, and then we have a whole lot of great folks on our offensive line, our city, our county, our utilities, our state organization and such. So I think that’s contributed to our success.

Brandon Burton 14:21
That’s great. I’m glad you got to the point of bragging on your team and telling the story of the work you guys are doing and what Colorado Springs has to offer to create that narrative so it’s not being created for you. I’m a big believer in being an agent of action like that. So how do you guys there at the Chamber in EDC? How do you go about advocating for for sound and a sound environment for business to be conducted?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 14:47
Well, I’m a I’m a big proponent of the Entrepreneurial Operating System that Gina Wickman has has coined, and it’s in the book traction. I’ve used this in several organizations that I’ve. And we adopted that when I first moved here, little over three years ago now. And so just what you said, we do not measure activity here at the Chamber in EDC. We measure outcomes. And that could be really hard for chambers of commerce, because you have a lot of competing priorities. You have a lot of legacy programs that people have done for years and years and and it can be chambers are famous for adding things on. We’re not very good for taking things away. So this chamber, we really have evaluated all of our programming, all of our events, all of all of our initiatives that we’re focusing on, from government affairs to economic development and in between, and if we don’t have measurable outcomes, it’s hard for us to sell to our constituents, to our membership, why we’re doing it. So we do this crazy thing, we stop, we stop doing it if it is not working. And so I would just encourage your listeners that as they’re leading their chamber organizations and trying to decide and help shape the future of their community. Measurable outcomes can make all the difference, and I believe in the smart principle of specific, measurable, actionable, realistic and time based. So put those together so you agree with your board on what success actually is, and then you can all celebrate together. But if, if you as staff, have a different mindset of what that is than your board, you’re not going to see success for your community, and frankly, you might be out of a job. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 16:35
I love how you said that you there at the chamber. You guys don’t measure activity. You measure you measure outcomes, and that’s really where the rubber meets the road, and you can really see the needle move in your community. Is by by measuring those outcomes. And that is, I think, the definition of success that you’re talking about is seeing those outcomes that are measurable. So it

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 16:55
is, and that doesn’t mean, you know, did we? Did we have 250 events this year. Oh, my goodness gracious. That exhausts me to even hear that, right? And you know, real outcomes. This is hard work. We’re working on things like housing affordability and attainability, child care in our community, retaining our military installations, ensuring that we’re having good policy at our state and local level, for for business and low regulation. We’re working on Union bills right now. We’re we’re working on a K through 12 program to ensure that we can have homegrown talent, not just imported talent to the state of Colorado. These are not easy topics, and they don’t happen overnight. But if it’s not the chamber doing it, who is

Brandon Burton 17:42
That’s right? So that’s a good transition. I wanted to ask you about workforce, and if workforce is a struggle throughout the country, but what initiatives you kind of touched on them a little bit there. But what initiatives are you guys doing there in Colorado Springs to address it the workforce challenges that so many communities are seeing? Yeah,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 18:00
you know, we’re fortunate because we’re the second most educated state in the Union, but when you peel back that onion, it’s because of so many people that move into the pop move into the state of Colorado. It is not necessarily that it’s our homegrown talent. So when you really look at our test scores and graduation rates and such. And this is, this is the same all over the country, but we’re actually going deep and looking at this on how do we solve it? Because I don’t believe in the long term the United States, you know, we’re short on population for jobs of the future, so not all communities are going to succeed. And we want to be sure that we’re seen as a mega region, with both our partners, all the way to Denver to all the way down to Pueblo Colorado, as a mega region of Front Range talent, the Front Range, or the front range of mountains here in Colorado. So we’re going deep with our 17 school districts in our metropolitan area to evaluate those test scores, to evaluate the why. And we’ve created an initiative called innovate Pikes Peak, and we’re partnering with education experts, a group called Peak education, because I’m not an education expert, we’re business people and but we’re trying to solve an issue that will produce talent for us in the future. Again, homegrown talent. Because I’ll remind everyone Brandon that while business and chambers sometimes shy away from getting involved in education, we should remember that while maybe your children have choices in life, not all children do, and if they’re not graduating with a great start and maybe certification, certificates, some some college, two plus two programs, they’re going to live in your community. They’re not going anywhere. So they can either live in your community or they can live on your community. So we believe that the chamber and. See has a role to play in ensuring that those young people graduate with a great start. So this innovate pipes peak is all about evaluating career pathing and whether that be a college track or that be a technical track. We think that the two blend together. So we’re working with our higher education and our K through 12 right now in the business community is really leading on defining those paths and where we need to be involved for the future, because the duplication of resources and the teacher pay and all of this does not add to success for our children long term. So we’re stepping in, we’re leaning in on that. We’ve got those measurable outcomes, and this is a big, hairy, audacious goal that we’re working on, but by the end of the year, we’ll have a pathway, a roadmap for our business community to follow

Brandon Burton 20:51
Absolutely and you know, I haven’t seen any formal surveys on this, or anything. Maybe you have, but it seems like youth, as they graduate high school, they feel like their future, either they stay in their community and don’t go anywhere, or they have to leave the community to go to school and get a job and and in very select communities, you see the sense of pride where a student graduates. And like I live in Colorado Springs, I want to raise my family here. I want to have build a career here. So there’s something to that, building that sense of pride within the community, where they don’t have to feel like the grass is greener, you know, five states away, to go to school and get a start their career somewhere else. But have that be the desire even. And maybe they do go somewhere for school, but they come back because they see the opportunities and that pride within the community.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 21:43
I think I’ve heard the quote before that the grass is not always greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it. So I think it’s the chamber and EDCs role to water that grass. How are we ensuring that there are opportunities for young people? How are we ensuring that they can afford to live in our community, to buy a home. You know, the most likely to move are an 18 to 34 year old. And so if we can make sure that the Colorado Springs metropolitan area is on their radar, even if they go away to school, we want them to think, wow, it was pretty cool where I lived, and I want to go back. So we like that boomerang effect too, because then they’re bringing back fresh ideas and perspectives too when they have lived somewhere else. But we’re working hard to build on that population, and I think any chamber needs to be focused on that. If you’re lucky enough that people just show up in your community, good for you, but I don’t think that’s the case for most communities anymore.

Brandon Burton 22:44
Yeah, I think it helps for like you’re saying that boomerang effect, to be able to see a contrast of another community and say, You know what the grass is really green back where I grew up. So let me go back there. Yeah,

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 22:54
that’s things like nightlife and outdoor activities and things that young people want and desire are are different than where I am in at this point in my life and career, but I think that’s why we have to ask the right questions and young professional organizations being active in your area. We started a we started a program called Find your calls, and we use cos and everything, because it’s Colorado Springs, but find your calls the play on words. And it’s a, it’s a suite of talent initiatives to recruit, engage and connect young professionals, young people. One of those programs is called Hello cos so, and it’s about, it’s a, it’s a summer intern program. So when interns come to our region to to work in the summer, housing was a big issue for three months to find somewhere to live. I mean, are you going to find it on Craigslist in somebody’s basement? That’s just scary. So, you know, we we worked with Colorado College, and we have a safe environment for those young people to live in the summer, and then the chamber and EDC does all the fun wrap around programming. So while they’re out of work, we we hike up Pikes Peak with them. We go to a switchback soccer game. We introduce them to speed dating with military generals in the region, where they can have interaction with people that are in charge of our national security, in our in our country, we think that chambers in EDC should be doing things to help our business community recruit that talent and then help that, help that young person fall in love with the region. Maybe they fall in love with the job too, but if they have a great experience in your community, they’re going to want to come back.

Brandon Burton 24:43
Yeah, well, and inevitably, other jobs will come, and people that are already employed are going to go to the new job, and so you got to backfill all the time. And you know, what I’m hearing is it’s not so much intent, you know, just to focus on the K through 12 and helping create, create a career. Path, but it’s really place making within the community. So they have a desire to be there. They want to be there. They love being there. So I think that’s just as important. Yeah, so I think you’ve touched on it in different aspects. But the next question I wanted to ask is, how do you see what is, what is your long term vision for Colorado, for the Colorado Springs Chamber and EDC.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 25:24
Well, for us, I would say that for you know, so goes the community. So goes the Chamber in EDC. And we are, we are a community that has growing pains. And I’ll and I’ll say this so things that, the things that we’re having to work on are a how do you maintain a low tax, low tax environment, but at the same time you have big needs, such as road improvements and high quality schools, maintaining our military bases. We talked about housing, we talked about child care for young families. This is a really big deal, and something that the pandemic just exacerbated the problem, particularly for women and people of color needing to get back to work full time, working on all these issues. I call them growing pains, because we’re fortunate that we have these growing pains. If we weren’t a fast growing community, this wouldn’t be the issue. But with that the Chamber and EDC, we’ve tried to set those goals, set those measurements, and then where we focus, where we measure, is where we will succeed. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. You announced, you talked about some of our economic development announcements when, when you in the introduction, we weren’t, we weren’t seeing that until three years ago, and now we’re one of the top locations in the state for new announcements. It’s where we focused. We said we’ve got to get more of a diversity of primary employers in our region, and that’s where we focused. We’re now trying to solve those big issues Brandon that will make it where it’s the right environment for business to be able to thrive in place, expand or locate to our region. So I’ve given you several of those examples, and that’s where we’re spending our day. And I would just tell my colleagues out there that it’s not about party planning, it’s not about business after hours, it’s it’s, it’s not about having the best gala in the community. Those things are a means to the ends. Those are a networking opportunity. I think the future of chambers and economic development Corps are solving big issues for the community, coming alongside government where government cannot, cannot solve the issue because, either because they’re a public entity, or they just don’t have the dollars. And how are we being the conduit between business and private, the private sector of business, community officials and government officials? I think that’s the role for a chamber to play,

Brandon Burton 27:58
Absolutely and I love that, that vision that you have, where you focus is what’s going to grow, right? You got to keep watering those areas, make that grass green? Yes. So I like asking, as I have guests on the show, as for chambers that are out there listening, what kind of tip or action item might you share with the Chamber who’s trying to take their organization up to the next level. I feel like you’ve shared some good tips. But is there anything else that you want to expose and share with those listening?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 28:29
Well, I think that I would just say, I know that many of our chambers, you know, I have 2528 people on on our team. So we’re, we’re a large organization for a nonprofit, especially for our size, but we’re doing a lot of things. I think number one, what I’ve learned through my career, and it sounds a little cliche, but it’s so true, is you can get a lot more done when you surround yourself with the right people, and when you don’t care who gets the credit. So we work really hard on our internal culture. We have a we have a culture of excellence and accountability. It is. These are lifestyle jobs. We don’t work. We don’t work eight to five here. We work when the clients need us. We do a lot of evening events and weekend things going on. But, but I would say that putting the right people around you as a leader in the chamber world or the economic development world will allow you to do more, and it will free you up as a leader to be more visionary and forward thinking and making sure that you’re helping drive results for the future, but you need people on your team that are also integrators of the mission, that are going deep and working hard to to close projects and to find wins in the community and work on big, big goals. So surround yourself with the right people, and then our philosophy here is, as long as we get the win, we don’t care who gets the credit. So quite. Often we may be carrying a heavy load on a project or an initiative, but we make sure that all of our partners are equally thanked and appreciated. Then there are other times, our partners are taking the lead and and we’re serving as a resource to them, and I just think you can get a lot more done when that’s your philosophy and that’s the way that you’re pushing forward? Yeah,

Brandon Burton 30:21
working as a team, right? So we’ve talked about the long term vision for Colorado Springs. The next question I have for you is, as we look to the future of the chamber industry, Chambers of Commerce in general, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 30:40
Well, I think it’s an interesting time for our industry and profession. I’ve been in and around this work for almost 30 years now, and seen it in four different states. I would say that all chambers, if you’re not constantly thinking about how you’re reinventing yourself and how you’re adding value for your membership, you’re going to lose membership. You’re going to be left behind. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, because our economy is changing so fast, and because the access to resources and artificial intelligence now and being able to reach people across the web, I don’t think businesses feel the need to be a member of a chamber of commerce, as they did maybe 50 years ago, 30 years ago, even longer. I liken it to years ago, our parents, our fathers. Usually it was typical, were members of the Rotary Club, and Rotary Club was the place to go so you could meet other businessmen or and at that time, it was man, but business people now and and do business and find ways to network. People have so many choices now as as businesses on how they connect with their customers and how they connect with other business people, that unless you’re constantly thinking about your value add as a chamber I think it’s going to be hard to make the case of Why be a member of the Chamber of Commerce when businesses are having to make choices about payroll and and health insurance and other things, or do they pay their chamber membership? We may get put at the bottom of the barrel. So I would recommend finding non dues, revenue sources. What are programs you can offer that are at a fee that add value, not add what are data sources you have that not everyone in your community has? Are there? Are there? Is there information or programming or something that you can do that’s a value add that I constantly say we need non dues revenue. Non dues revenue because just depending on a membership model for the future, I’m not so sold on that’s going to work long term, maybe, maybe in my career length. But those of you that are starting in chamber world in your 20s and 30s, now, I think we’re going to live in a very different society in 10 to 20 years, and you if, if you’re not at the table, you might find yourself on the menu. So get to that table and make sure you’re adding value that others others don’t have, and you’re differentiating yourself as an association. Yeah, and

Brandon Burton 33:17
I think it’s important to not just look at your chamber as a membership association, but as a business, operate it as a business and find those income generating. You know, you’re calling them non dues revenue, but in the end, it’s income generating, and that’s the only way to thrive and stay healthy as a business. So yeah, constantly

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 33:36
people will will say to me, Well, Well, John, you know, the chamber is here to just do good community work. And I said, and that’s a business unto itself. If I can’t make payroll, I can’t have our organization doing this work you’re asking us to do. I’m a business too. I have a profit and loss statement like every other business, and I think you hit that on the head. It’s important for us to be seen and think of our business in that way as chamber leaders.

Brandon Burton 34:05
Yeah, well, Johnna, this has been great having you on the show and sharing your insights and some of the exciting things that are happening in Colorado Springs, the impact your organization is having in the community. I’d love to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and maybe learn some of the strategies you guys are are working on, maybe without giving away all the secrets. But how would you have them reach out and connect with you?

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 34:30
Well, number one, I do believe that there are no new ideas. You just need to borrow ideas from our partners. So go out there and meet with other chambers and find those find those leads. You know, we have a national organization association that we can all tap into, but if they’d like to speak with me, I’d be flattered and more than happy to help in any way. You can find me on LinkedIn under Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, you can find me on our website is ColoradoSpringsChamberEDC.com, and my phone number 719-500-9485, or my email is jreederkleymeyer@cscedc.com. I’d be happy to speak with anyone and be be flattered to get a call perfect.

Brandon Burton 35:26
We’ll make sure all that is in our show notes for this episode make it easy to find and connect with you. And I just want to thank you again for setting aside some time to be with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, sharing some of your experiences and tips that you’ve learned from and being willing to share them with the Chamber community, we appreciate it.

Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer 35:44
It’s my pleasure. Good luck to everyone out there. Keep making big things happen in your community.

Brandon Burton 35:49
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When Disaster Strikes Your Community with Sheriffa Jones

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Sheriffa Jones. Sheriffa is the Executive Director for the Spencer Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber foundation. Sheriffa has more than two decades of varied experience in fundraising and Community and Economic Development. She graduated from Iowa State University with a BA in Art and Design in and in 2006 she graduated from the University of Oregon with an MS in history preservation and a minor in nonprofit management. In January 2025 she received her IOM designation from the US Chamber of Commerce in her free time, Sheriffa enjoys being outside, hiking, kayaking, landscaping and gardening. She’s a foodie and loves photography. Sheriffa and her husband have two children and a black lab. Sheriffa, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you a moment 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.

Sheriffa Jones 2:07
Yes, hello, and thank you so much for having me. Yes, as you mentioned, I live in Iowa, and I think it’s always interesting to be able to share with people how different Iowa is and a very landscape. Something interesting about me personally is that I am one of nine children, and I always preface that with Yes, we are all from the same parents as well. So I’m the third oldest, which might have a little bit to do with some of the things that I end up taking on and some of the roles I take on in my professional career. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 2:41
say those Midwest families that you can you need help around the the house and the farm and everything, and you know, it’s cheap labor. I guess it’s not really cheap, but that’s what they say. So anyways, tell us a little bit about the Spencer Chamber of Commerce, just to give us an idea of size, staff, scope of work, that sort of thing to kind of set the stage for our discussion today. Yeah,

Sheriffa Jones 3:07
absolutely. So the Spencer chamber, we serve about 370 businesses, give or take, and we are the only chamber in our county. So Spencer, Iowa, has a population of about 11,000 and as I mentioned, we serve about 360 businesses. Our county is a population of about 16,000 so we are the only chamber within Clay County, and so we really consider ourselves a county wide chamber. Obviously, we also serve businesses that are outside of our county, even outside of the state of Iowa. So Spencer is, as I mentioned, in Clay County. In Clay County is in northwest Iowa, so we’re pretty close to the Minnesota and South Dakota border, to give you a little bit of perspective there. So as far as staff size, we have, I will say five staff, three full time. And so that also includes we do the tourism for Clay County, and so we have a full time tourism and marketing coordinator in our office. We have an office coordinator, and then an events and programs coordinator as well an additional staff person we have is actually a collaboration between our school district and us. The school district has had a really pretty aggressive Work Based Learning program, I would say, for 10 to 15 years. And the last three years we have been collaborating with them, and we are in our second year of financially, we have an investment in that staff person. So it is a school district employee, but they spend half of their time about in our office. So it helps to create those connections with, you know, high school students and and even younger, with the business community. So that’s a position we have. And then we have a contractor that comes in and does our bookkeeping, um. For accounting purposes and things like that, which has been really beneficial. Budget wise, we have a budget about $350,000 on the chamber side, the foundation side, which is pretty new, a budget of about 120 240,000 and our foundation is fairly new. That was started in 2017 and with many things, especially in 2020 we really started using our foundation, and I’ll talk a little bit later on as well, in terms of how we’ve been using it most recently. So yeah, that’s a little bit about the Spencer chamber and what we do

Brandon Burton 5:34
good. I love hearing that you guys have a foundation, and that it’s new. And I’m sure as you talk through there’s going to be some lessons, as you know, setting up a foundation as well that can be shared, but more than anything, the impact that having a foundation can have. And I hope we can pull some of that into our conversation today, but we’re going to focus the majority of our discussion today around when disaster strikes in your community. And I know you guys had a flood recently in 2024 and we’ll have you share what that experience was like, not to bring up bad memories or anything, but lessons learned ways you’re able to lead through that experience as soon as they get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sheriffa, we’re back, as I mentioned before the break, we’re talking about when disaster strikes in your community. If you could give us kind of the overview of the flood in your community, what happened, how things unfolded. Just tell us a story. Yeah,

Sheriffa Jones 9:49
absolutely. So it’s always interesting looking back on a situation. So I’ll preface this with, as I mentioned, we are also Clay County Tourism based out of our. This, and for about the last three years, we had been working with the international Red harvesters to have their international event in our community. So we are also home to the Clay County Fair, which has been going for over 100 years, and it is one of the largest tourist attractions in the state of Iowa. So our population is 16,000 as a county, we have over 300,000 people that come to a county fair over nine days. So it is the only county fair that takes place after the State Fair. Therefore our fair grounds are pretty desirable place for large events to take place. So about three years ago, we had started working with the international harvesters, and their event was going to be in June of 2024 so they were going to start, you know, coming into the community, like around June 15 or so, and then their event was going to be going through, I think, like the 23rd so we had about, you know, 20 to 30,000 additional people in our community at the time that the flood hit. And when I say International, absolutely International, one of the best things that happened was I ended up needing to translate for about five French men, and I don’t know a lick of French, and downloaded Google Translate, I’ll put a little plug in there for them. And it was, it was amazing that I had that so not only did it help me in that situation. So that was on Friday, June 21 and the flood really hit our community that Saturday the 22nd you know, the community had had floods in the past, and really, as you look back, had natural disasters in the past, from a fire in 1931 and a flood in 1953 but nothing to this magnitude. So yes, you say flood, but this was a natural disaster. It’s they are comparing what we have experienced in our community somewhere between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Hugo in terms of the percentage of damage, the amount of damage to homes, businesses, things like that. So the flood, not knowing what it was going to become. But on Saturday, June 22 I reported to the fire department, and very quickly, many of our community facilities became impacted. We are also the county seat in Clay County. This impacted our fire station, our city hall, our police station, our comm Center, our utility. We have a municipal utility, school building, so every sector was impacted from the flood, and very quickly, we had to move our our EOC, our Emergency Operations Center, from the fire department to City Hall, and from the City Hall to our community college, and then that became and kept that main that was our EOC throughout the duration of the early flood efforts. So yeah, it’s really was a perfect storm, in a sense, we had been getting lots of rain throughout our community, but ultimately, it’s the watershed that really you need to look at in any type of situation. It’s not just what’s the immediate What are you seeing, but what’s happening around you as well, and I would say in any situation, especially any natural disaster. So our watershed was just consistently getting a lot of rain, probably from April, obviously, all the way through the end of June, even, and anything from two to three inches every couple of days. We had one community in our watershed that received, I think, between seven and nine inches of rain in one you know, 24 to 48 hour period, give or take. And so it was saturated. The ground was saturated. And then ranges continued to come and and what we found out from the Iowa flood center is that, you know, had this system shifted 20 miles to the north, it would have been different, and had it shifted 20 miles to the south, it would have been even worse. But it kind of just it was stagnant in our area, which considered continued to obviously dump more rain in our area, as I said, already saturated. We also have two river systems that come through our community, one of them the O cheat and river comes into and joins the little Sioux River about 300 yards or so, give or take, just to the west of Spencer, and that river has really not been studied very much, and so that really created a lot of the differences compared to the 1953 flood. So essentially, the flood hit in the early morning hours of Sunday or of Saturday, June 22 and it was beyond what anyone ever would have imagined. You know, the National Weather Service kept saying, Nope, you’re going to crest at this and you’re going to crest, you know, and the next day, and we crested ahead of schedule, and, you know, about five feet above what was anticipated. Um. It really impacted about 75% of our buildings. So we have about 5100 buildings in Spencer, and it impacted between 75 and 80% of those buildings. So residential as well as commercial. As I mentioned, every sector was impacted. We still we are what, seven months post flood, we still have a school building that is obviously not being able to be used, and so three classes that are then combined in other buildings, fire station, police station, they are back in there, but our communication system really continued to be a challenge, I would say, for three to four weeks post disaster when it actually struck and and it’s continues to be a situation that we’re very mindful of. We run 911, for our county as well out of our communication system. You know, there’s lots of questions one could ask about disaster, and certainly about a flood. A lesson that I have, I would say, is this is a real opportunity for chambers to be a leader, regardless of the type of disaster, and from so many different perspectives, chambers are considered trusted. They are a trusted entity in the community. Generally, many of us, if not all of us, have a really good database, and we know the players, and that was, I think, really key, and it’s an aspect that I’m really proud of for our chamber, in that at the drop of a hat, when it was, hey, we need a shelter, I was able to pick up the phone and call one of our churches, and hey, we need another shelter. Our community was split into two. And kind of even we had water in the north side, we had, you know, part of our community, business and residents. And then we were split again. The river was going through. We couldn’t traverse the river because the current was so strong. And then we had another part of our community. And keep in mind, we had about 20,000 extra visitors in our area at that time, some of them not, obviously not familiar, and also that spoke a different language.

Brandon Burton 17:11
Yeah. So with some situations, with floods, you get some sort of a warning, you know, if there’s a dam that’s about to be breached, or something like that, and you can kind of prepare for that. It doesn’t sound like there was a whole lot of warning. Maybe there was some false hope that was being perpetuated that it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay. Nope, it’s not okay. Was there a plan in place to activate, or how is, how did that come together? And is there thoughts of a plan going forward after this experience, absolutely.

Sheriffa Jones 17:43
So what I will tell you is that, you know, Spencer had a flood in 1953 not many people are around from that, but many times throughout any spring, we will, oh, you know, the river’s out of the banks, you know, and there’s kind of a little park there where it can kind of overflow into and it’s always been kind of a barometer of, Oh, yep, the river’s out of the banks. And so we as residents, I think everyone became desensitized when it would be like, oh, there’s a flood warning. Yep, there’s a flood warning. This was beyond a flood. This was like, beyond your wildest dreams. Could not have imagined having eight feet of water running through your community and into buildings. So in terms of the scope of it there, there was no idea that this was going to impact the community the way it had, because it had never happened, and because also so much within the watershed was not understood going forward. Yes, there is a plan to study more of the area through the Iowa flood center, and so that will definitely help and mitigation efforts and studies are in process, but they all do take some time, for sure, but we definitely learned several things in this situation, and could some of it had been avoided, not necessarily, you know, could there have been more warning potentially. But what I will say is, we even had law enforcement, police officers, firefighters, that were going door to door, telling people, Hey, you need to get your stuff. You need to get out. Nope, nope, I’m fine. Nope, I’m fine. And then probably within a half hour, 45 minutes later, they were going back with boats and rescuing those same people. And so just the magnitude, and you know, the metric that we had to say, Well, yeah, it’s it’s flooded before, and we knew what that looked like. And this was beyond anyone’s Wildest Dreams it. And which is why wasn’t just flooding, it was a disaster. There were about seven to 800 boat rescues on Saturday, people coming from over two hours away with boats to help with rescuing as well.

Brandon Burton 19:51
Wow. So I’m intrigued with the 20,000 or so out of towners that were there in Spencer and because. Disaster can strike a community at really any time. You know, whether it be a tornado or a flood, in this case, or even a train derailment. You know, not knowing what, what the train’s hauling. It could be a it could be a disaster, for sure, but when you have this influx of people, you talked about using Google Translate, but where were they staying? How do you guys manage where they go? How, how are these people taken care of? Did they just try to get out of town as quickly as they could? Like, what happened? Yeah,

Sheriffa Jones 20:30
absolutely, you know. So one of the things that was a benefit to us is that we knew that the majority of people would be there, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And so Friday, it was raining. I was actually just looking back at some text messages. We had received some more severe thunderstorm warning messages through our alert system as well. So some of them were staying at our fairgrounds, so they are in campers. So then also, we’re curious, okay, well, how do we warn them if there’s a tornado or something else that’s coming through? Not knowing, but many of them were also staying in other outlying communities because our hotels were full. We’re about 15 miles to the south of a popular vacation tourist destination as well. So many of those hotels were full. So communities outside of Spencer were being used, which was probably a little bit of a saving grace. You know, it was happening in the morning, so people weren’t necessarily in town at the event. Yet, many people couldn’t even get to our community at that time because some of the roads had already started to flood as well. Again, we still had no idea what the magnitude was going to be. You know, best takeaway is having those communication systems even leading up to an event of this scale, that people know, hey, this is happening and what to expect. So we had been communicating with the community and with leaders for the last three years about the size of the event. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 21:55
it’s when I think of that many people in from out of town hotels full, and then you’re talking about all these people being displaced from homes and businesses and so forth too, trying to figure out where to go. Was there a role that the Chamber played with that and trying to get people put up somewhere, or the leadership role that a chamber can take in a situation like this is so broad, but I’d like to know some more that the ways that you guys are able to step in as leaders and make those connections and and help these people out.

Sheriffa Jones 22:29
Yeah, absolutely. So ultimately, this happened on a Saturday, so all of all of the chamber staff were home. Every chamber staff was impacted personally as well. So they’re all home. I was able my house stayed dry. I was able to make it to the fire department and then continue on through the EOC process of moving. So yes, we did, as the chamber played a role in setting up shelters. So at one point we had as many of six, as many as six shelters set up because the need continued to grow, and so we had to, you know, open up additional shelters. And so that was really a role that we play, that I played, in terms of having the connections and being able to make those personal phone calls to say, hey, I need you to open up a shelter, and I don’t have any other instructions, and people on the other end saying, yes, absolutely, and you hang up the phone, and then being able to convey that message, hey, faith, Pentecostal, they’re a shelter now. SS collision, they’re a shelter now. CMB equipment, they’re another shelter on the south side, and then being able to know that now we need additional shelters on the north side and and so that was a pivotal role that the Chamber played. And so it’s all of those things. It’s not only the shelter, but oh, now, by the way, someone left their house without their compressed oxygen or without their cancer or their heart medication. How do we get medication to these individuals who don’t have the prescription now and we can’t, it’s not just a five mile drive or a five minute drive, even, because now we can’t get from point A to point B. Now it’s going to take two hours to get this medication to where it needs to go. So we have to be super strategic about that. And you know, so it’s really, it’s it’s having those connections. It’s having a cool, calm and collected head, knowing who you can delegate things to, and then also knowing those things that you really need to do yourself and make sure that they get carried through. And the chamber absolutely plays a key role in in any type of disaster, and can play that role, whether it’s sheltering, you know, we lined up food, we lined up transportation, we then were able to as water receded, working with other entities to then combine all of our shelters down to one. So that involved working with volunteers and getting our community college students together to help, kind of be sort of as concierge as possible when you’re in disaster, to help these individuals who are flood survivors, to then, not only. They’ve moved maybe from their home to a shelter, but now they’re moving from another shelter to a final shelter, and so helping to calm those and knowing people that you can delegate those types of tasks to that are going to do a really a great job and be extremely thoughtful. The other role we placed was, or the other role we played, was helping to set up a food distribution center. So a lot of our community was about electricity. We were without storm water, sewer, and so another church called them and said, We need a distribution center. And we had a connection with the school district to the north of us, and they started bussing in supplies. And so setting up those types of assets that you need in a community, and then empowering people to say, this is what I need you to do, and letting them take it and figuring out how to fully implement that. So really knowing who potential other leaders are in your community, especially in those times of need.

Brandon Burton 25:56
Yeah, I think that’s key, because you can’t, you can’t have your hand in all of it, so to be able to hand it off and know this is somebody I can trust to figure it out and get the job done, that’s huge.

Unknown Speaker 26:06
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Brandon Burton 26:11
So you had mentioned earlier about the communications kind of breaking down, having some issues with that. What Is there any more you can share about that, just so other communities can think ahead of time of where some of these points of failure might be, or to try to find a workaround or ways to be able to get messages out to the community.

Sheriffa Jones 26:31
Yeah. So our communication systems, and I think if the fire chief or the police chief were sitting here with me, they’d, you know, definitely have more details to provide. But our communication system, you know, had kind of just been like, Okay, we’re going to do this, and then we’re going to add this, you know. And that had probably been the the process for, you know, maybe 20 plus years, when it comes down to our 911, system. So that was certainly a challenge. And also water. I mean, floods are the worst if, if you can choose what disaster card you’re going to get. Floods are the worst. And so it did, and it impacted every aspect of that which, you know, caused that to to to not fail. But we had to then reach out to the state to get some assistance, you know, also because of the impact. Then it was, everybody was on their cell phone. And so you know, knowing who your emergency management agent is or your individual, because they have those connections and can reach out to the governor of your state, and they can pull in other types of assets that they know, whether it’s the National Guard or your state patrol. And so getting those phone numbers in your phone, whether you have a work phone or a personal cell phone, positioning yourself into tabletop exercises. We were involved in tabletop exercises. Certainly nothing can prepare you for actually going through disaster. But that would be one of my best pieces of advice. Is, as you’re sitting around in some of those meetings that you’re in, make sure that you have your county supervisor, you have your city manager, your mayor, your EMA, you’ve got, you know, all of those individuals that are leaders at that level, not only having their cell phone number you know in your database, but having their cell phone numbers in your cell phone, because that is absolutely key, as you’re trying to communicate and you’re not in your offices, you know you are, maybe all in one room, or you’re needing to share that contact information with a volunteer who you’re saying, I now need you to stay in contact with this individual so that then You can take that middle man out. It really is having confidence in other people and knowing that if you have silos in your community, you’ve really got to pull those down, because disasters can they can make or break. And in our community, we pull together and have worked together as such a solid team that I could say that to anyone, to their face, that we we work together as a community, as our county, all of the agencies, in that way, I’m extremely proud of of what we were able to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

Brandon Burton 29:15
Yeah. So I feel like I have to ask, as we record this in February of 2025 how does the community outlook right now? How’s the recovery looking? What’s going on in the community at this point?

Sheriffa Jones 29:28
Yeah, absolutely. So the flood was June 22 so we’re what, like seven ish months, yeah, um, when people come into the community. And as I mentioned earlier, we have this little thing called the Clay County Fair, and that happens in September of every year. We knew we needed, we wanted to put on a good showing for everyone who was coming, and we did. We maybe even cleaned up too good, but we look good as a community. Okay, you could drive through our community. We’ve got highway 71, and 18 that both come through our state, a state and or through our community, a state and a federal highway, and we look good. There’s a few buildings that are not that are going to be demolished because of where they’re located. There’s a few that still have plywood on Windows because the owners haven’t decided what they’re going to do, but we look amazing, and some of that is absolutely due to the Iowa D O T. They have a disaster response team that came in and and they are, if anybody has anything bad to say about D O T, this crew did the most amazing job, and they were so fantastic to work with. You get a block or two blocks off of a main street, and you definitely can see still the impact to residential areas. You know, at night time it’s it’s still kind of eerie. There’s still areas where your street lights aren’t on. There’s still plenty of houses that people aren’t living in we do have people living in the hotel still. We still have people who are we have some manufactured housing units which are brought into our community through FEMA. So we still have people living in those as well. Recovery from a disaster of this magnitude, our community is forever changed, and recovery is going to be ongoing in 510, years in terms of how we rebuild and what our community looks like, and and I think from a chamber perspective too, that’s another role that you can play and and helping your community dream about what’s not only what is our community now, but what do we want Our community to be in 2025, 30 years, and that’s really that visioning component that chambers can help with.

Brandon Burton 31:46
Yeah, I love that you brought that part, that aspect, into it. So thank you. Yeah, I like asking everyone I have on the show, for those listening who are wanting to take their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item that you share with them to try to implement that goal?

Sheriffa Jones 32:03
Yeah, I’m so glad that you asked that, so I try to think of internal and external. So what can you do internally with your staff, with yourself, with your board, and mine would be investing in professional development, making sure that you can consistently elevate that leadership lid that either you have or that of your staff. And I can’t speak highly enough about the Institute for organization management, it’s through the US Chamber. It’s really an incredible program. It’s one that empowered me. The the foundation was in place before I came. That was started in 2017 I came to the chamber about six months before COVID hit, and that foundation was so critical for us to position ourselves to help our community during COVID, and has now also positioned ourselves so strategically to help our community now In disaster recovery, and it has helped position our chamber really well, somewhat selfishly, but really well, I feel like in our community for years to come, all because we have that foundation, and I learned on ways to use that foundation strategically through IOM so again, invest in professional development. From an external perspective, it comes down to if what’s going on outside your doors is changing faster than what’s going on inside your doors. Make sure that you’re keeping up with the times. If you don’t have a credit card processing you better get that, because I can guarantee that’s what people are wanting, yes, cash is king, and also people want convenience. Know what your businesses want if you’ve done something because you’ve always done it for 40 years. What happens if, and I’ll use this as an example, what happens if a bowling alley doesn’t open back up because it was flooded, but you’ve always depending on that bowling alley to have an event, or any type of thing like that, you need to think through those types of scenarios and how that might impact your bottom line and ensure that you are a business just like any other business. So make sure that you’re keeping up with the times. Those

Brandon Burton 34:15
are good, good pieces of advice, for sure. I also like asking, as we look to the future of chambers, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Sheriffa Jones 34:27
That’s a really great question. Again, I think that it’s going to depend on your community. You know, when you see one chamber, you’ve seen one chamber in some communities, chambers will continue to exist the way they have, and in other areas, and we certainly are seeing this in Iowa, where there is more of a regional approach, where maybe chambers, Main Street, tourism or economic development, are combining in more collaboration. And so that may be the the face of what chambers look like as well. And I think it comes down to it’s it’s not about always protecting yourself and your organization. What’s best for your community and those that you serve.

Brandon Burton 35:03
That’s right, I like that. Um, well, Sheriffa, it’s been great having you on chamber chat podcast today. I’d love to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about your experiences and maybe take some additional notes from you. Where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect? Yeah,

Sheriffa Jones 35:23
absolutely. Our website is a great place to connect. It’s SpencerIowaChamber.org, my email is on there. Phone number as well. I’m also on LinkedIn, so you can look me up there,

Brandon Burton 35:35
Very good. And we’ll get links to all that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy. But thank you for for being with us today and sharing your example and experiences and and really just ways that chamber is able to lead throughout a disaster like this. You guys have done a great job, continue to do a great job, and I wish you guys the best as you continue to recover and and prepare for whatever comes next, but you guys will be in a good spot. I’m sure of it

Unknown Speaker 36:04
Absolutely. Thank you so much to Brandon.

Brandon Burton 36:08
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World Cafe Model for Board Retreats with Elaine Spalding

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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.

Today. I’m joined by Elaine Spalding, president of the Rowan Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, with over 30 years of Chamber Leadership Experience. Actually, we just learned 40 years of Chamber Leadership Experience across multiple states. Elaine has helped the Rowan chamber or national recognition recognition, and was named the 2020, Chamber Executive of the Year by Carolina Chamber Executives Association. She’s a CCE and an IOM graduate. She’s deeply involved in economic development, education and community leadership. But Elaine, I’m 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.

Elaine Spalding 1:57
Thank you, Brandon, I love chatting with you before just learning about our both our backgrounds, experience in both Texas and California, and it’s been my honor to work for Chambers of Commerce now for I just totaled it up 40 years in Oregon, Texas, Kentucky and Of course, now North Carolina, and this is our favorite spot. We love it here. My husband and I get out and go hiking and kayaking, and we love the outdoors. We have two dogs, and they run us ragged, and just enjoying the beautiful state of North Carolina.

Brandon Burton 2:37
It is a beautiful part of the country. So I’m curious, what kind of dogs do you have?

Elaine Spalding 2:42
Oh, they’re both mutts we always adopt from rescue shelters. And one is a hunting dog black and white mix, and one is a really odd looking

Speaker 1 2:55
Beagle mix. Those are the best, the odd looking ones, right? Love them.

Elaine Spalding 3:00
Everybody stops and goes, what is that dog? Burton? Just love

Brandon Burton 3:05
them. Couldn’t recreate it if you tried? Yeah, one of a kind. Yeah, I love it. Well, tell us a little bit about the Rowan chamber, just to give us an idea of the size staff, scope of work. You guys are involved with budget to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.

Elaine Spalding 3:21
Yes, thank you so much for inviting it’s it’s really, the timing is perfect. Uh, we are celebrating our 100th anniversary for the Rowan chamber here in Salisbury, North Carolina. And so we just had our 99th annual gala meeting, which was tremendously successful. And all year long, we’re recognizing long term businesses in the community. We have over 800 Chamber members here in Rowan County, representing 60,000 employees in our community, very active business community, and we’ll be lifting up those long term businesses all year long with special promotions, with recognition on our website and all of our chamber newsletters and our social media. And in January of 2026, Brandon, you’ll have to come and join us. We’ll be having our 100th annual gala meeting.

Brandon Burton 4:15
Wow, that that’ll be something to plan for. I’m sure they could. You don’t get 100 I mean, that’s a, that’s quite the milestone. I mean, that’ll be something to celebrate,

Elaine Spalding 4:26
for sure. It’s a, it’s a wonderful community. We happen to have Food Lion, for folks that are from the southeastern part of the United States, we’ll know Food Lion. Grocery stores. Food Lion is headquartered here. They’re our largest employer. And then, if anybody knows the wonderful soda Cheerwine, we have a big cheer one festival here in Salisbury, North Carolina, and they’re over 100 years old as a company as well. So we’ll be lifting up a lot of those firms like that.

Brandon Burton 4:56
That’s awesome. It’s neat to be able to. To bring those into as part of the celebration and celebrate their success as well, right? That’s awesome. Well, I’m excited for our topic today. As we were planning this this recording today, we landed on the idea of talking about the World Cafe model for board retreats. And I have to admit, this is something new for me. So be learning as we go through this episode, but I look forward to diving in much deeper on this as soon as I get back from this quick break.

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Alright, Elaine, we’re back. So tell us, what is the World Cafe model for board retreats?

Elaine Spalding 8:49
Thank you for asking Brandon. It was a new concept for us as well. We have a wonderful new board member who works at Catawba College. Her name is Dr Christine Lynn. And I said, you know, I’ve been doing the same sort of format for our board retreats. I’d love to do something different. And she said, Oh, I can help you facilitate the World Cafe model. And it was beautiful, quick, easy way to get input from all of our board members and not have the boring sort of breakout sessions and report back sessions, so you basically just have all the board members going around to, kind of like, you know, sort of the speed dating assignments, where there’s different tables with the different focus areas of the chamber, business advocacy, workforce development, our minority business programs, young professionals, all the different things. There’s butcher block paper out there’s somebody that does a quick thumbnail sketch of where we are and what the challenges are in that area that get all these ideas from the board members. There’s seven minutes at each station, and you go around to every table. So everyone gives input. They they summarize it quickly at the end, and then your board votes on what the top priorities for the next year will be. I love the World Cafe model. So

Brandon Burton 10:13
how long does this day it sounds like you can, you know, bust it out in about two or three hours. Is that accurate?

Elaine Spalding 10:21
Yes, it depends on how many core areas you want your board to really focus on. So, you know, you just do rounds, and it’s seven minutes at each table. So, you know, you could, you could make it as long or short as you wanted to. Our program lasted the breakout part of it just lasted for an hour and a half.

Brandon Burton 10:39
Okay, so I know part of the idea with the board retreat is you get these board members together, and you spend time together, and it’s kind of that team building, and you get to feel like you’re you’re moving towards that common purpose and goal. Does this World Cafe model? Does that facilitate some of that same kind of team building feeling and environment that a traditional board retreat might do,

Elaine Spalding 11:03
right? And what I love about it, you know, group dynamics you always have in with our business leaders. You’ve got the Type A personalities, you know, the ones that know everything. And then there are those quiet leaders who really do know everything, but yet they might not contribute at that same high energy level. So it gives the extroverts and the introverts the opportunity to both share and we ended up with some wonderful new ideas and new ways to approach some problems that the chamber had been struggling with for a couple years, and a whole new focus on a very successful community leadership program, and we’ve just started a new youth leadership program. And so I think it’s, it’s that that model that really gets folks to contribute at whatever their comfort level is,

Brandon Burton 11:59
yeah. So how many times have you done the World Cafe model? Well,

Elaine Spalding 12:04
since our board retreat, we also used it for our leadership Rowan program and for our youth leadership program and the same sort of experience, you know, just fantastic ideas coming out from a quick, quick turnaround time. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 12:21
So structurally, do you feel like you need to bring in a facilitator, like you had one in your community there to facilitate the World Cafe model? Or is there a kind of a template? I think it’s nice having a facilitator, because you have somebody who’s kind of non partisan that can kind of help create the vision and whatnot. But how would a chamber who’s interested in in the World Cafe model? How can they?

Elaine Spalding 12:45
Yeah, I’d be happy to share information from Dr Christine Lynn. I’m sure she could help them with the the structure and the template. But I also googled it when she first talked with me about it, and there’s some pretty easy steps that you can get online for the World Cafe model, and it’s a relatively new concept, but I think one that’s really taken off for these kind of strategic planning initiatives.

Brandon Burton 13:10
Yeah, that makes, makes a lot of sense. And if she’s, if she’s done this for you, I’m sure she’s available for others, and

Elaine Spalding 13:16
she is a great volunteer. And fortunately, the college lets her. She works in the strategic planning area, so they love to get her out. It’s good for the college as well. So she’s done some things for some other chambers here in the region already. So yeah, it’s been good.

Brandon Burton 13:32
So I like the idea, like you said, you get those type A personalities and get those quieter personality but it gives everybody that option, to be able to share their voice, feel like they’re being heard, to contribute to what that vision is for the community or for the organization, whether it’s your young professionals or whatever, whatever group it is that you’re working with, right? What are some of the other positive outlooks or positive outcomes you see from utilizing this sort of model, yeah, I

Elaine Spalding 14:01
think that really making sure that we are listening to all the voices within our chamber, we have been very intentional about having a focused peer to peer support groups and, you know, we do the breakfast programs and after hours mixers and all that sort of stuff, but really focusing on our young professionals, our minority business council, our women in business groups and our agribusiness group, and getting folks that are dealing with the same issues and problems in their work a day world and The peer to peer support. Them coming up with programs and ideas for professional development that would be helpful to them and them just supporting each other. You know, we are growing here in North Carolina, lots of new people coming in, which is wonderful, and we want to make them feel welcome. We also particularly. With our young professionals. Want to retain them in our community, and so that program really helps, you know, open the door, welcome them to the community. They get some buddies. They can go meet at the brew pub. And, you know, whatever they may be interested in, if it’s if they’re interested in sports, or if they’re interested in arts and culture they can find a group of buddies to hang out with through the chamber, and I think that’s the best service that we can be as a business advocacy organization is just connecting our businesses together, connecting our newcomers in the community, and helping our employers retain those young professionals that they brought into the community. So that, you know, when somebody from a larger community says, Hey, we can offer you a little more money, they’re saying, No, I really like this community. I like the friends I’ve made, and I want to stay here.

Brandon Burton 15:54
Yeah, get them so ingrained that they’re afraid to leave right. Probably wouldn’t make the same friends or connections if you go somewhere else, right? Yeah,

Elaine Spalding 16:05
that’s, yeah, that’s part of what we do as chamber people, is to connect, but to be that, that convener, and to really be that champion for the business community that

Brandon Burton 16:15
makes such a positive environment for them to thrive anyways, right? Why would you want to leave, right? That’s great. So as you use this, this World Cafe model, have you seen any, maybe, any gaps within it, that, as you utilize it like well, we needed to tweak it here or there to really make it fit for our community, for our organization, or is it just perfect?

Elaine Spalding 16:42
You know, it’s like with all new things, you do make some adjustments as you go through it. But I I think that for so long, we were focused on having all these PowerPoint presentations and all the new technology. And, I mean, this is really just pretty basic. You put that butcher block paper out. People are writing down ideas, and then you capture it, you know, and have all the documents that you can share electronically. But I think that our volunteers, at least, were really looking for something more tangible, like that, that they could get their hands on and really feel like that they have contributed, and they see their ideas, you know, on that piece of paper.

Brandon Burton 17:23
Yeah, it’s funny how old ideas become new again, right? And we try to outsmart ourselves with all this technology and ways to approach things. And then when we come back to what really works well is the stuff that had been done a while back, right? And we maybe abandoned or forgot about. And so being able to go back to the roots, as they say,

Elaine Spalding 17:43
Yeah, and when I think having the smaller groups where you can really have a discussion, you know, if you get over about, you know, six to seven people, then not everyone feels like they can contribute. So having the smaller groups all sitting there together, you know, rattling off ideas is just a beautiful experience,

Brandon Burton 18:01
yeah, so what? What is the ideal number? He said, Not more than six or seven, but you need more than two. I mean, what?

Elaine Spalding 18:10
Yeah, you know? I mean, just like when you get folks around a dinner table, you know, if you get over about six, you can’t hear everyone’s conversation. So about six to seven is ideal for these kind of World Cafe breakouts groups.

Brandon Burton 18:24
Okay, that’s good to know. Yeah. Any anything else about the the World Cafe model that you want to highlight for us again, with me not familiar with it at all, I gotta rely on somebody who’s experienced this. No.

Elaine Spalding 18:38
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share. I would just tell my fellow chamber buddies that you know, if you’re looking for something to to jazz up your boring board retreats, this might be a good model to look at the World Cafe model.

Brandon Burton 18:53
I mean, nobody listening does boring board retreats. But I mean maybe for somebody who hasn’t listened before, I’m just

Unknown Speaker 19:00
kidding. Their first time,

Brandon Burton 19:04
that’s right, they’ll have to keep this, you know, pin this episode, so when they are sitting at that boring boardroom tree, like, Wait, there’s a better way, right?

Elaine Spalding 19:14
We’re always happy to share. And you know, I I learned so much from my chamber peers. I love these kinds of opportunities, because no matter how long you’ve been in the business, or if you’re relatively new to the business, you know, you can always pick up one or two ideas from being involved in, you know, your chamber execs Association, either at the state level, the regional level, or with ACCE,

Brandon Burton 19:39
yeah, and, and I love doing these episodes for that reason, to be able to share ideas and for others to be able to pick up on them. But even as you’re talking about, you know, the young professional groups, I’m thinking nowadays, just about every chamber has a young professionals group, and they’re all talking about, you know, what are the needs? What are the struggles? What. Are we in? And I would guess, from one community to the next, a lot of them are coming up with a lot of the same challenges and solutions. I mean, there’s uniqueness for communities, for sure, but being able to share some of the best practices and things that are discovered, it really helps to shortcut some of that struggle to be able to overcome and find solutions. So, right, yes, lean into those, those you know, professional development groups and connections to build those and and strengthen your communities. Yep. Well, Elaine, I like asking for listeners who want to take their organization up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item might you share with them to accomplish that

Elaine Spalding 20:45
goal? Yes, well, I am a big believer in the three C’s Chambers of Commerce being a convener. We’ve talked about that being a champion and a catalyst, and really kind of grouping your marketing materials around those and I can send you a graphic of this, but we did for, for our, I don’t know if you can see that, but for by the numbers, for 2024 wrapped around all of the things that we have done, you know, the different events, the business advocacy programs, to Our state level and two trips to Washington DC, talked about the real value of the chamber, and I think now more than ever, our business leaders are looking for our local chambers to really be that business advocacy organization and to not be afraid to take on the big issues in your community. We in North Carolina, of course, have dealt recently with Hurricane Helene. Our friends in the mountains region of North Carolina and all of the rest of the chambers around the state have rallied around them and supported those business communities. And I think that’s the real beauty of being in this industry, being in chamber work, you can always reach out to another chamber that may have gone through a similar disaster. And I think of our friends in California with the fires, and this industry is so helpful. So I always encourage especially chamber professionals that are new to this business, to reach out to the folks around you. Reach out to professionals like yourself, Brandon, that that may know a couple of other folks have experienced a similar situation and can walk you through how they handled it. You know, every community is different, and you may need to tweak it a little bit, but boy, if somebody already has a successful model, you can certainly learn by that. And I think those best practices, benchmarking your chamber against others in the industry and tapping into this beautiful resource that we have within the chamber industry is just a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I I hope that everyone takes advantages of situations like chamber chat and any other resources that might be available to the chamber executives.

Brandon Burton 23:15
Yeah, great tips. I love that any anybody can plug chamber chat anytime they want, I will fully endorse that

Elaine Spalding 23:26
I love that I love this business, and I love helping other chamber people. So when you call it, I thought, yeah, sure, you know. I mean, we could, we could talk about anything you want. And I am always happy to sit down and talk with other chamber folks and I, as I said at the beginning, I always learn more from them than I think they can from somebody like me who’s been in the business and work for a couple of different chambers. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 23:50
absolutely. Well, Elaine, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward? Yeah,

Elaine Spalding 24:00
you know, ACC just released the new horizon yesterday, yeah, oh my gosh. And I poured through that last night. And I think all of the new things that chambers are being asked to deal with, some of these, you know, the environmental issues that we’re dealing with, housing issues that a lot of communities are dealing with around the country, child care issues. I mean, we’re still dealing with so many things since the pandemic that we really need to come together and support, not just the businesses, but our entire communities and the really good chambers are getting involved in some of these areas that we traditionally had not been involved with. So I think getting those experts that in your community can help the business community understand and continue to be that business champion, but be the convener in your community. So that your business, your elected officials, your education leaders, can all be at the same table and helping to solve problems in your community.

Brandon Burton 25:11
Absolutely, it’s it’s fascinating. Usually, when I ask that question, a lot of people will refer back to the original horizons report, and now that we’ve got the updated report, I’m curious to see how these and how that question gets answered, yeah, the next year or two, right? That it is fascinating.

Elaine Spalding 25:32
Yeah, I think that that’s that’s the beauty of this industry, again, kind of coming together and thinking about the future and how we can all work together to help our local communities, to help chambers of commerce, you know, all across the country.

Brandon Burton 25:47
Yeah, well, Elaine, this has been a blast to have you on the podcast with us. Today, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and maybe learn more about your approach at the World Cafe model, or just how you guys are doing things there in Rowan, what, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you? Sure?

Elaine Spalding 26:10
You know, as all chamber people do we run from meeting to meeting, best best to send me an email espalding@rowanchamber.com the phone number here at the Chamber is 704-633-4221, but best to send me an email, give me a couple of times that are good for you, and I’ll schedule a conference call time, and we’ll get it done.

Brandon Burton 26:32
That’s perfect. We’ll get that in our show notes for this episode to make it easy for them to find that and and connect with you. But thank you for spending time with us today and sharing your experience with the World Cafe model introducing something new to many of us. I hope this has been a fun conversation. So thank you.

Unknown Speaker 26:52
Thank you. Brandon, I really appreciate the invitation.

Brandon Burton 26:56
If you are a chamber professional, please subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast in Apple podcast, Google podcasts or Spotify. When you subscribe to Chamber Chat Podcast new episodes will show up in your podcast app each week as they are released. If you’re finding value in this podcast, please leave us a rating and a review in iTunes. But most importantly, please share Chamber Chat Podcast with your colleagues that are in the industry.

Economic & Workforce Development with Sharon Mason

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Sharon Mason. Sharon is the President and CEO of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. With more than 22 years of chamber and non profit leadership experience, Sharon has led six positions at the Cobb Chamber, and serves on numerous regional and state boards. Under her leadership, she’s been recognized as one of Georgia’s most influential leaders, earning spots on Georgia’s trends, top 100 most influential Georgians list and Atlanta’s 500 most influential influential list. Sharon is passionate about economic development, community engagement and strategic leadership, but Sharon, I’m 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.

Sharon Mason 1:59
Well, Brandon, it is great to be with you. Hello everyone. I’m honored to be part of the show. Thank you for doing this. I think this is a fantastic resource for other chambers. And yes, I have enjoyed being in the chamber industry. And actually, my story that I want to share, my interesting fact is from my previous chamber at the Birmingham Regional Chamber, they’ve had a couple of different names since then. But when I was there in the early 2000s it was the Birmingham Regional Chamber, and at that point, we were moving from business fairs, moving from a couple of days business fairs to a half day or a full day business fair, and we wanted to really focus on small business so I got to meet many me, if you remember him from Austin. Yeah, that was so much fun. And unfortunately, he has now passed away, but I had that honor of meeting him during that time to be part of our mini business fair focus on small business. Actually, compass bank, at the time, gave away a Mini Cooper, and he signed so many me signed autographs, and it was so much fun. I really enjoyed that. And actually, Blockbuster was our presenting sponsor. So that was, um, might take me a little bit, but dates it a little bit right, yes, but, but that was such a great memory of of innovation we were trying to figure out how to move towards a different type of business fair and really meet a different audience. And it was an honor to work for Tom Cosby coo there and Dave Atkinson, who went to be the CEO of the Kentucky chamber, two great mentors of mine that I have learned so much from and over the years and still stay in contact with. I actually saw David the ACCE the American Chamber of Commerce executives session this past summer, and he’s phenomenal. And I learned so much, but that was a fun memory, and just getting to meet many me was phenomenal. But I know for me, I have loved the chamber industry since 2002 is when I started the Birmingham chamber. And I the reason I love it so much is we get to make a tremendous impact and tremendous difference. And every day is different. It is a very fast moving, fast paced environment that we get to really move the needle and drive such positive growth and positive change. And I’ve just loved every minute of it. It’s a joy and a privilege to serve in this role. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 4:21
I was gonna ask if you were in Birmingham when Dave was there. He’s, he’s one of the greatest, so

Sharon Mason 4:27
phenomenal. And he wrote a great book. I’ve got it in my office here and

Brandon Burton 4:35
extra copies to give away. So

Sharon Mason 4:37
Oh yes. And really has helped with that strategic focus. He was a and continues to be a fantastic mentor to me absolutely.

Brandon Burton 4:44
So I love doing this podcast, because, you know the the Kevin Bacon game, right where it’s like seven degrees and like, if you can get to Kevin Bacon, well, I see social media posts and stuff and hear stories like yours with mini me. And you know, I’m seeing you. People you know chamber execs that are sitting with governors and meeting with presidents, like, pretty cool stuff. I’m like, Hey, I know that person. Who knows that person, and you know, so that degrees of separation gets very small, but it’s a it’s a fun, small world in the chamber. It

Sharon Mason 5:13
really is absolutely well, tell us a little bit about the COVID

Brandon Burton 5:18
chamber, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today, size staff, scope of work, budget, just that perspective.

Sharon Mason 5:24
So Cobb County is metro Atlanta area. We like to call it Atlanta sweet spot. It is home to the Atlanta Braves. As of 2017 we played an instrumental role in that. And the entire Braves development also home to many great headquarters, some that have been here for many years, like the Home Depot and genuine parts and racetrack, and we continue to help grow, as well as many that we brought here to Cobb County, like Papa John’s global headquarters, TK elevator, their North American headquarters and so many more. And we have many other types of businesses, small businesses, but we have over 800,000 citizens. So we’re one of the largest counties in metro Atlanta. We’re also one of the largest chambers across the country. We have 33 staff. We have now grown our revenue and budget to over 7 million. I remember when I first started the cop chamber. We’re about at 3 million. So we’ve had a significant growth here. This is my 20th year at the Cobb chamber. Congratulations. I moved from Birmingham. My husband and I in 2005 for his job that actually Georgia is home for me. My My good friend Nick messino likes to call me export from Gwinnett County, so that’s where I’m originally from, from snowville, and they’re a great chamber, a great partner chamber. We do a lot of great work together, and that’s important for all of us in the chamber industry, to work with so many locally, regionally, across the country, and share ideas and best practices. And ACCE has been a fantastic resource. I highly encourage chamber executives to be part of that. I have gotten so much insight relationships where I can just call on other chamber CEOs, and they have a great group pairing where they’ll pair you with other chambers your size. But I do feel like at the COVID chamber, now, being my 20th year, I’ve worked at four different organizations, because we have seen such transformational growth every stage. And at the center of that, the COVID chamber has been driving that growth and then a major champion for this community, and it’s just been an honor to be part of that.

Brandon Burton 7:36
Well, that’s a great segue into our topic today of workforce and economic development, and we’ll dive in deeper on that and how you guys are making that approach in Codd County as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Sharon, we are back. As I mentioned before the break today, we’re talking about workforce and economic development. What’s some of the approaches you guys are taking and see that’s led to some of the big successes that you talked about as we started this show.

Sharon Mason 11:18
So I’ll tell you a little bit of our history. So before the Great Recession, before that 2010, time period, we’re all trying to focus on recovery. Georgia didn’t fare as well in the Great Recession in that time period, and we really focused working with the state Georgia Department of Economic Development to be that great place for business. Now Georgia has been named 11 years in a row by Area Development magazine, is top state for business, and a big reason for that is the intentional focus at the state level. And that challenge to each of our local communities, to have that single point of contact and really elevate and amplify what we’re doing in the economic development area. And also coming out of the recession, we saw, you know, many businesses suffering, and knew that we needed to step up our game, quite frankly, and we were probably growing as a community cup County. I remember in our annual dinner speeches, we might say, Oh, we brought in, you know, 500 new jobs this year. And and

Brandon Burton 12:15
thought that was, those are big wins at the time, right? Yeah. But then we

Sharon Mason 12:19
started comparing notes of other communities our size, and said, You know what, we really need to be a lot higher than that for where we are as a community. And also knew that we need to diversify our economy more and our industries and focus on our target industries that we do well, but also emerging industries, and focus more on headquarters and then all the aspects that impact job creation. So we brought it was a two year process, and we worked with some great people throughout that process that helped us focus and helped us figure out who we are as a community and how to better tell that story. And then all the areas that we needed to we’re doing well that we needed to better tell that story, but then all the areas that we needed to grow. And so from that, we started select cop. And that started in 2012 and I remember our goal was, we said, Okay, if we can bring in 7500 new jobs in five years, that’ll be fantastic. And now 13 years later, I’m very proud to say we brought in over 46,000 high quality jobs from the Select COVID initiative we have driven. And just what our select COVID team, working with all our partners, we’ve driven over 6.3 billion in private new investment through recruiting or helping expand, helping existing companies expand of over almost 300 companies that we’ve helped across all geographic areas of Cobb and we’ve really grown our headquarters. I’ve mentioned a few of them talking about Cobb County. We’ve also grown several target industries and seen major growth in advanced manufacturing and fintech, biotech technology as a whole, as well as logistics, construction and trade and and so many other major emerging industries. And so we’ve been able to grow substantially. But from that select COVID, we also focused on, okay, how do we tell our story? We want to get in front of a site selector and work even more with state Georgia, Department of Economic Development, our other neighboring chambers, because a lot of people think of Atlanta as a whole, and we know that if they land and anywhere in metro Atlanta, anywhere in the state of Georgia, the entire state benefits. And so we really wanted to team up and partner more with other chambers. So we really expanded our focus there, and then we also focused on not just the business recruitment, but the business retention and helping our existing industry. So we had to launch an entire existing industry program that checked on businesses, especially intentionally, ahead of lease expirations. That was very important to make. Sure we stayed well ahead of that, but also we partnered with our local municipalities and our county government and many our CIDs and many others on conducting business walks, and we would set those in advance. We wouldn’t just stop by a business unannounced, but we would set up appointments in advance and divide up in teams and make sure we met with as many companies as possible, and we sit down and meet with them about what are your challenges. How can we help? And that helped us better understand what they needed, and, um, helped us tackle that together as a community. And then we launched many other initiatives, COVID Workforce Partnership, working with K through 12 and higher ed, there’s a lot under that umbrella that we’ve launched and focused on to be much more intentional around both short term and long term workforce and talent development that is a key driver for our economic growth. And then we focus on many other aspects of international companies. How do we make sure we better support them and have a more intentional strategy there entrepreneurship to truly develop that ecosystem and the overall community support for our schools, for public safety, for quality of life initiatives as a whole. So so we really amplified all of those areas to help us better recruit and retain companies and results speak for themselves, but I will say in the midst of that one of the big driving factors for us was such an honor for me, really of a lifetime, to have been part of this. But the Atlanta Braves were wanting to figure out and be closer to their fan base and also develop the land around the stadium, and truly have a whole MIDI city, if you will, of really showcasing all the great things. And so they made a decision about their location, and they moved to Cobb County, the Cumberland Cid area, and it gave us a tremendous opportunity to help them with this. And they announced this in 2013 we’re able to help them really every step of the way. And it was a perfect location for them, right in the center where 285 and 75 interstate Mead and easy for fans to get to. But then they were able to develop all the land around it. This called the battery Atlanta now and help us bring even more headquarters to this area. So it’s been a fantastic partnership, and it’s well exceeded any of our expectations, where last year, we had 10 point 3 million visitors come to the battery, and it’s been just fueling, it has been an economic boom, and fueling our economy and such a major way, not just for the Cumberland area in Cobb County, but really our entire county and our entire state. It’s driving even more revenue to the state that’s been tremendous, and so we’re been proud to support them since day one in 2013 and that’s been a big part of our transformation as well.

Brandon Burton 17:58
I love that huge success story with the Atlanta Braves, and that’s one thing I wish we could see with more professional stadiums in some markets I’ve seen where they’ll settle on a location, and it’s in the middle of the industrial district, and people come to the games. They’re not spending extra money in your city. I mean, maybe for the owners of the stadium, like they want you spending money on, you know, $12 hot dogs or whatever inside, right? But to have an entertainment district around it, and, you know, just really an environment to drive the economy is such a huge opportunity, and I’m glad to see you guys have been able to capitalize on that. Absolutely,

Sharon Mason 18:33
it’s been a game changer for us. And Mike plant, who’s the Braves development president, was our board chairman last year, and he always said it so well that it was never just about the stadium, it was always about all the area around it. That’s how to make it work for that public private partnership, and it has delivered the results well beyond anyone’s expectations. We knew it was going to be a economic boom, but it is been transformational for our community.

Brandon Burton 19:02
That’s awesome. So I wanted to go back and dig in a little bit more on you talked about the recruitment and retaining, the especially the retaining part of the businesses in the community, and doing these business walks and learning, you know, what is it that they’re looking for they need help with? And I see so much value in that, because you’re hearing the language that they’re speaking that then can be repurposed to attract businesses and to speak to entrepreneurs and overcome challenges that they may see as they try to come to the community. But what are some of the lessons learned as you talk to some of these businesses on the retaining aspect that you’ve maybe been able to use in the attracting businesses as well.

Sharon Mason 19:42
Yeah, a lot of great lessons learned and takeaways that tell you, the more we can listen to the businesses and better understand their challenges, the better. And they have been evolving so much since the pandemic, I feel like it moves even faster and changes even more so because our challenges that we had. Um, before pandemic, are very different, even two years after the pandemic, couple years after and checking in on our business is important. So it’s really what we’ve taken from that. We involved our advocacy team in these walks. I think that was an important lesson learned, because a lot of things we’ve learned there need to go into policy. We need to be forming policy at the local, state, federal levels to make sure that we’re making our business environment even more competitive and healthy. We’ve learned a lot of great things. At one point we learned that there was some opportunities with our fire marshals office, and so from from that with permits, we sat down with the fire marshal. So appreciate him. He was so receptive to it, and this was right after pandemic when, you know, there are a lot of national workforce challenges as a whole, and so everybody was dealing with those type of things. And he enhanced his communication and his process to still keep safety first, of course, but to make sure that we’re continuing to be that top place for business and continue to be that healthy environment. And we said, hey, how can we help to the Chief Fire Marshal? And you know, one of the biggest things was the workforce shortages. So we offered our office and our logistics strength and our select COVID team actually helped sign ups once a month. They would sit here for the half day and meet with businesses every 30 minutes, and we would set up all those meetings for them. We and they just needed to show up. And so instead of all the drive time between businesses, they were they were here, we made it a lot easier for them and for the businesses, and we’ve seen some great results from that. We’ve been able to help 82 companies just in the last year and a half from that new new thing we’ve been doing. So we’ve also learned a lot of evolving trends that were determining our Chamber’s role and how that feeds into policy as well. So workforce, we heard, and have continued to hear, what a priority that is. It’s a major strength for us, but we need to keep it that way. But housing has come up as more of a challenge for companies, and in particular, housing supply more so in that 300 to 600,000 house range. And so we’re looking at, how do we partner more with developers and move the needle there. And that’s a new, evolving trend we’ve heard but that, I tell you, the business walks are phenomenal, and they do help you have better insight into what your businesses need and how you can meet those needs. I love

Brandon Burton 22:36
that example with the fire marshal. I mean, what a great example of collaboration. I mean, the the need was there, the timing was right to be able to sit down, have these conversations, collaborate, solve some problems, and that’s what a chamber that’s what a chamber is there for, right? So listen to lean right into it. So anything else with the as far as the economic and workforce development go lessons learned or successes that others can benefit from in hearing your approach?

Sharon Mason 23:06
Yes, I think in addition to listening being ready to change course, and I know pivot became a word, many of us did like hearing after a pandemic, but we moved in so Cobb chamber, we were so excited. We had been in our building for 35 years, and I didn’t really have many windows and served us well, but as the marketer of COVID County and convener and ones that are driving business growth, we knew we needed a different facility that better esthetically told our story with Windows and views, and so we actually moved right across from truist Park and the Atlanta Braves battery and stadium overlooking that, and you can see as far as Kennesaw Mountain and all the businesses on one side. The other side, you can see downtown Midtown, as far as the airport and our close proximity to the airport. So it’s helped us tell our story. But this is January 2020, when we moved in and thinking, Okay, we’re going to be hosting so many people this year, and we had to completely change course, as everybody did in March. But one of the things that helped us tremendously was to form a task force so that we had experts from different industries that could help advise us, and that helped us better understand what was happening and challenges people were facing, and then how we could tackle those. So that was our economic recovery Task Force. From that we started weekly business recovery webinars. And I know it was so confusing for many businesses where you had the PPP and the eidl and you know, all the alphabet soup of so many things happening. So we’d bring all the experts, the bankers, the lawyers, the small business developments that are all those folks that helped us. So we had over 20 of those. We also administered small business grants through the Cares Act. Over $50 million in small business grants to over 3500 Companies that are 100 and less employees and that, I can’t tell you behind, oh, it was amazing. It was the last quarter of 2020, and I will never forget this, behind everybody’s mask is everybody’s wearing mask at that point, or many people were, and behind the mask, you could just see the joy of folks, because payroll protection had helped many companies during that time. But the second payroll protection wasn’t approved until, I believe, December 31, of that year by President Trump. And so many of the in person businesses, you name it, were really struggling. People decided to cut their own hair and not go to the dentist anymore, and not, you know, go out to eat and so many and the list goes on for all the in person services, and so we’re able to play that pivotal role to help our business community. We made that time, made a lot of our virtual events free just to do that outreach and help. And I think our community really saw us step up in a big way to help. And we had weekly business in addition the weekly business recovery webinars, we had weekly leadership webinars about leading in crisis. In partnership with KSU, which is a great university here with 47,000 students, they’re incredible, and they were helping us, um, get that out to businesses. We had over 500 people sign up every week and attend every week. So it really shows you how much we’re helping and we’re helping businesses reopen. We thank Governor Kemp for reopening as early as he did, because that was a key part of Georgia’s recovery, and we partnered with COVID Douglas public health and helped with reopening guidelines of how, how you can reopen safely and comfortably, where your employees do feel comfortable and know that you’re taking care of their health needs as well. And so we were able to help in so many ways, and that’s been a huge moment for us, and I think for all of us as chambers, my big challenges, there’s going to be so many moments like that, where there’s so much uncertainty and we’re trying to figure it out, and so many challenges. And we have that great opportunity as a Chamber of Commerce to be, to be that convener, and be that champion that solves all these different issues for the businesses, and really be that convener that brings everybody together. Wow,

Brandon Burton 27:16
as you’re talking about those experiences through 2020, 2021, I could feel my heart rate rising again, like just remembering it all right now. But that’s what chambers are there for. You guys came through it great, and we’re there for your business community, and really saved businesses. And kudos to you guys. I like asking for all the chamber champions that are out there listening? Is there, if, as they’re trying to take their chamber up to the next level, is there any kind of tip or action item that you would share with them and trying to accomplish that goal?

Sharon Mason 27:51
So I think the listening is important, and doing a listening tour and more often, the better. So you can’t understand the challenges happening, the challenges that our community is facing, because they’ve been evolving quicker and more rapidly in recent years, and truly focusing on being that convener that solves issues and focuses on things that people are not going to get in other places. And so we really been trying to launch new programs that are meeting such a great need. We’ve launched some great new leadership programs, some new advocacy programs that are phenomenal and helping to have more constructive dialogs across the aisle. And we have such a critical role to play there, and so I think really leaning in to what that is, of what your community needs and where you can meet that need, and rallying your leaders to join with you and and champion those efforts.

Brandon Burton 28:52
Yeah, I love that. That just the idea of listening, you can learn so much from it, and then develop the programming from there, and really be able to see the direction that your chamber needs to go to serve your community, absolutely, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, and I’m saying this the day as we record this the day after the New Horizons report is released, but as we look to the future of chambers, how do you See the purpose of chambers going forward,

Sharon Mason 29:20
I think Chambers of Commerce are more important than ever. And a divided political world, we have such a great role to to bring everyone together and focus on driving issues that are key for your community and your state and and I think for us to really lean into innovation is important and also take advantage of the great resources that organizations like ACCE have because learning from each other, I have gotten so many good best practices from all the different circles I’m in. I know our membership team goes. To the membership conferences, the events team goes the events conferences, and so on for all of their different programs. And I think ACC has done such a good job of customizing and meeting those needs, and so we followed suit from that of really trying to meet position needs as well. And so our CEO roundtable, we’ve been growing that we have over 100 people involved in our eight different round tables that are helping CEOs, especially small, mid sized businesses. But we’ve also launched some other programs, HR, round table, Chief of Staff roundtable, our young professionals mentoring program to really take that to the next level. And so and then other industry councils also, and so we’re seeing that need for us to continue to amplify our return on investment, and a big way we can do that is providing these types of programs that they’re not going to get anywhere

Brandon Burton 30:55
else. Yeah, I like that. There’s, there’s so much the chambers can do to to uplift and and buoy businesses to be stronger and and I like, I’ve, I’ve heard a lot of chambers in the CEO round table, but I like that you guys are doing it for other positions too, like HR and and young professionals and things like that. And makes me think of masterminds, right? The the idea of, yeah, and bringing multiple people together and more minds together. You know it the sum of one plus two is greater than three when you Yeah, those minds together. So

Sharon Mason 31:28
I agree, and other chambers can help you with best practices. We’ve gotten some great new programs in our advocacy area from conversations we had this morning. We just had a new conversations and Democracy Program, where we had a panel of Republicans and Democrats talking about how to work better together across the aisle, and it was phenomenal, and the room was packed. And so we’re continuing to look at what we can do to innovate and but also meet those needs that our business community really needs us to champion,

Brandon Burton 32:03
right? Well, Sharon, this has been great having you on the podcast. I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about how you guys are approaching things there in Codd County, what would be the best way for them to reach out and connect with you?

Sharon Mason 32:19
So would love to connect, and I love working with other chambers and sharing ideas with each other. So my email address is smason@cobbchamber.org, and cell phone, 404-308-8181, call me, and I’m happy to to help and be a resource, but I’m sure we can be a resource for each other as well. A big believer

Brandon Burton 32:44
of that absolutely. Well, we’ll get your contact information in our show notes for this episode. Make it easy to find. But Sharon, thank you for setting aside some time. You know, amid your your busy, you know economic, economic development and employment development activities going on there in COVID County. To share some of these highlights and lessons with us here on chamber chat podcast, we really appreciate it. Brandon,

Sharon Mason 33:07
thank you for all that you’re doing. This is a great resource for chambers and executives, and appreciate your great

Brandon Burton 33:14
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Building the Right Chamber for Your Community with Heather Lebischak

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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.

Our guest for this episode is Heather Lebischak. Heather is a dynamic and accomplished leader dedicated to driving growth, fostering collaboration and advocacy for her community. As President and CEO of the North Jefferson Chamber of Commerce in Fultondale, Alabama, Heather has been instrumental in championing local businesses and enhancing the region’s economic vitality. Under her leadership, the Chamber has flourished, offering innovative programs, member centric initiatives and impactful events that contribute to the area’s growth. Heather’s passion for service extends beyond her role at the chamber. She serves on the board of directors for the Central Alabama theater group, the North Jefferson Rotary Club and the Fultondale library. Additionally, she plays a vital role in shaping the future of education as a member of the Career and Technical Education and culinary advisory teams for Jefferson County Schools. Heather also contributes her expertise to the Central Alabama redevelopment Alliance Advisory Council, advocating for sustainable development and revitalization in the region, a dedicated community advocate. Heather combines her professional experience with her her personal commitment to making a difference as the group fitness director at Gardendale Civic Center, she promotes health and wellness while connecting with individuals in her community. She also serves in the nursery at our church, church of the highlands, reflecting her commitment to nurturing and supporting others. Heather’s innovative spirit, ability to build meaningful relationships and unwavering dedication to her community make her a respected leader and influencer in North Jefferson. She’s passionate about creating opportunities for others, promoting civic engagement and fostering a collaborative environment where businesses, individuals and organizations can thrive. Heather continues to inspire those around her with their tireless efforts to enrich her community and empower future generations. And Heather, we’re excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. I’d love to give you a moment to say hello to all the Chamber Champions who are out there listening, and to share something interesting about yourself. Maybe we didn’t share in the bio already.

Heather Lebischak 3:21
Yes, so I’m very excited to be here. I If you had told me 10 years ago, I would have been reporting a podcast for a chamber, I would have said, what the hexa chamber? This is not a world I ever saw myself in. I was a very happy legal secretary slash paralegal. Plan to retire there and there’s, I won’t bore you with the details, but a few changes along the way led me to chamber world, and it’s a world I absolutely love. It’s very different from legal, where everything’s proprietary and protected. In chamber world, we’re big on collaboration, so that’s one of my favorite things about chamber world, but it was the hardest thing to get used to, because I’m used to protecting information. That’s the legal side of me. So it is definitely a world I did not know existed a few short years ago, but that I always see myself in now. That’s

Speaker 1 4:10
right. That is a interesting contrast from your previous experience and and then entering the world of R and D, where everybody’s ripping off and duplicating or collaborating, as you said, that seems

Unknown Speaker 4:22
better. I like R and D better. Yeah.

Speaker 1 4:26
Awesome. Well, tell us a little bit about the North Jefferson chamber, just to kind of give us an idea of the size of the chamber, staff, budget, scope of work, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion. Absolutely

Heather Lebischak 4:36
so about a little over a year ago, I was approached by three cities in the north Jefferson Community, Fultondale, Morris and Kimberly, with this idea of a Regional Chamber of Commerce to give a bigger voice to their communities. Fultondale has a lot of businesses. MORRIS And Kimberly do not, and separately, they didn’t feel that they could individually sustain a chamber. But together, they thought they could and that it would be, as our motto says, stronger together, to have a bigger voice for this community. So that was in about October, November of 2023, and we officially launched the North Jefferson Chamber of Commerce on January 5 of 2024, and also have to be my wedding anniversary. So it was a date I knew I could remember we launched last year. Since that time, we just had our first birthday, there is nothing I won’t do in the name of chamber or community. So our first birthday featured pictures of me with a smash cake like the first birthday should be with cake all over my face and pigtails and all the things. But it was an amazing first year we had around that we had 130 members. Our Facebook reach had grown. We were profitable. Year one, we were able to hire someone part time. When I first started the chamber, my guess was that we were five years away from our first hire, and I’m actually in the process now setting up interviews for our third hire, our first full time hire. So we have been very successful. It showed nothing to do with me. I have an amazing board, and it was a need in our community, and I have the backing from three amazing cities looking to add more. We have city members, but as far as our funding cities, it’s those three, Fulton, no Morris and Kimberly, but we are meeting with some others next month to see about bringing them on board, because the more the merrier.

Speaker 1 6:29
Well, you guys have a vision, obviously, the direction you want to take this and and it seems to be gathering some steam, both the membership and the attention of other cities, other communities, to pull in. That’s awesome. Yeah, we’re, we’re kind of at a stage in chamber world where a lot of chambers are celebrating their 100th anniversary, or a few, maybe even 150 so to just celebrate in one year like it’s it’s going to bring a whole new perspective to the conversation that we have today. I know a lot of people if they were to say, Well, if we redid this chamber thing all over again, we would do it differently. So I’m excited to learn what are some of the approaches that you took in establishing a new chamber. And maybe some of these things are things that still can be ripped off and duplicated in an existing chamber that’s celebrating 100 years, but there’s also bylaws and things like that to deal with, so depending on on where you are and and you know what some of these things are, it’ll be interesting to get your perspective today, but our focus for our conversation today will be focused around building a chamber that’s right for your community. And I think that’s very fitting giving your background, but we’ll dive in much deeper on this topic as soon as we get back from this quick break.

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All right, Heather, we’re back. As I mentioned before the break, today, we’re talking about creating a chamber. It’s right for your community. So you come into this where you’ve kind of got a blank slate, I assume, I mean, I guess, tell us the story. So you’d mentioned these three different cities approached you, but what was the vision? What kind of parameters were you given? Were you able to just dream big and go at it? What’s it like? That

Heather Lebischak 11:29
was the beauty of it. They I came from a neighboring chamber that was like a 35 year old chamber. It was fantastic. They were amazing. But when I was approached about this new chamber, I was actually, on a personal level, doing a fast with a friend of mine. And so for anyone that’s ever done a spiritual fast, it comes with a lot of clarity. And so when I was approached about this, I immediately knew, prayed over and knew that this was something God was calling me to do. And so I stepped out on faith. And by faith, I mean I felt very convicted that God didn’t even want me putting numbers on paper, so there were no dollars on the table. Guarantees anything when I signed on for this, but it was they had saved me, because we were a neighbor community. They saw what I did there. They knew what I was capable of, and so when I came on board, there were no parameters, and that was a beautiful thing. They just wanted me to strengthen their businesses. They wanted to show their businesses that we’re backing them, because they’re going to back you, which is a beautiful thing for a city to do. That’s what cities should do. They should make it easy to operate within the city. And so all three cities were fully on board from the very beginning, both not just financially. Obviously, I needed money, that’s a biggie. But even today, some of the councilmen and some of the council women and the mayor, they’re the most frequent shares of things on social media. They advocate for me. They promote me. They’re putting me in conversations and at seats, at tables that I wouldn’t have otherwise. And so there really were no parameters other than do what we’ve seen you do, and so I heavily relied on them. The first thing I had to do was start a board. There’s no handbook for starting a new chamber or a new business, for that matter. But chambers particularly are tricky, because we are, as we all know, we are a 501 c6 there’s stuff for 501 C threes out there, 501 c6 look, gets left out of all that. So there’s a lot of policies and procedures that were like, Oh, we think it’ll follow that, but we’re not sure. So there was a lot of guesswork in the beginning. I had just gone through the accreditation process with my last chamber for the state, and that included updating bylaws, drafting policies and procedures and employee manual, all the things. There’s about 40 items here. I had just gone through that with my former chamber, so it was kind of fresh on my mind. So I actually, literally yesterday, just finished it up for this chamber because I wanted us accredited after one year. Like, I wanted it to be like, that’s the first thing we do. So the first Biggie was forming a board, and I was coming into cities that I wasn’t as familiar with. The Chamber I came from was a neighboring city, but these communities I didn’t have a stronger tie, so I relied heavily on the city council and the leadership in the and the mayors in the cities to recommend people for the boards, because I wanted equal representation from all my cities, as well as all the other intersectionality points you want in diversity within a chamber board. So relied heavily on them, but they truly just said, come in, do your thing. And it was out. And by the way, do you need an office because here’s free space. So they were fantastic. I have a free office, fully furnished, a free boardroom. I have a huge venue I operate in that I can use for all of our events. So they were in all three cities. They don’t all have the same capacity as far as space, but they have all offered space on whenever i. Need it. So that’s a huge hurdle. I know a lot of chambers have to deal with, is renting and stuff like that, and that is not one I have luckily had to face.

Speaker 1 15:08
So are you in a city office, a city building then? Or so the city of

Heather Lebischak 15:12
Fultondale purchased it. Used to be an outdoor shop. It looks like a big barn on a hill. It’s a beautiful building, but the city purchased it and uses it as an event center, and there just happened to be an office and boardroom side by side that were fully furnished, that they weren’t using. So they’re like, here, you want to go there. And hey, we got extra copy machine. You want it? And the venue is fabulous. It’s gorgeous. I could not ask for a more beautiful venue. So I operate within the venue. And so when we have events, everything’s right here. Yeah,

Speaker 1 15:43
that’s awesome. So yeah, I can imagine it being a little bit maybe intimidating, you know, creating a board from scratch and not knowing the connections, and you know, who the those players are in these different communities. So did you have an idea, as you went to the different cities of what you were looking for as far as representation from each city, or were you just looking to get recommendations from them as to who they think would be a good fit for the board? What was your What was your approach to that? Yeah, that was definitely

Heather Lebischak 16:14
the scariest part, because the board is who you answer to, who you’re held accountable to, and in chamber world, boards aren’t always super familiar with the operations of the chamber. It’s just a very different world. And so answering the people that don’t know the inner workings is always hard. So you want people that are going to trust you, empower you, not get in the weeds with you. And I just didn’t have any connections to know who those people might be. I knew I wanted diversity among industry for sure, and diversity among other aspects as well, but I heavily relied on the city leadership for who those were. I wanted prominent people in the community. So I have a fantastic board. We started with the board of six. We now have eight, but we started with the board of six, all of which I consider friends now, none of which I hardly even knew when they signed on. So four, let’s say four of them, came by recommendation. One actually asked me to serve, and I’m so glad he did. He is in the nonprofit world, so he kind of gets what I deal with. And then one of them was just a kind gentleman who sent me an email when I left my last chamber and said, Hey, we’re with you. We’re Where are we going? We’ve seen what you do. And I was like, Oh, that would be a good guy to have to my corner

Speaker 1 17:30
for sure. No, that’s awesome. So you had mentioned that these three cities kind of came together, approached you about this, so there must have been some sort of a vision of what they wanted to see be accomplished. Were you able to expand on that vision? What? What kind of room? Yeah, did you have with that? And how’s that evolved?

Heather Lebischak 17:50
Right? So there, as I mentioned, fultonville has a lot of businesses. Was there, so theirs was more on the business support, pulling me into economic development discussions as they are, courting a business, pulling me into those discussions, having me help with those some help with event planning. MORRIS And Kimberly are not as business heavy. They’re more I can’t say the word rural. It’s a very hard word for me to say, but they don’t have as many businesses, so Theirs was a little bit different. Theirs was more on the event side. So I help them more with events, and a lot of the vendors at those events are my businesses, but theirs is more on the event planning side. Kimberly, especially Morris, has more businesses probably than Kimberly, so I do have the businesses there. The biggest thing I’m excited about with Morris is they are starting an incubator space that they are going to have available, and we will have space within there that we can operate and do trainings, and they are going to target minority owned businesses for that space to give them a inexpensive place to get started while they’re getting on their feet and getting their business off and running. So all of them had very different needs and so but I had fantastic luckily, I did have fantastic relationships with the leadership to know up front, what those needs were and be able to meet those needs, adapt as I went and realize even more needs than they thought they knew, that I can get plugged into and help out with.

Speaker 1 19:17
And I’m sure as you go about recruiting members, you’re hearing more of what the needs are as well, so you can continue to evolve and adapt, but tell us a little bit about that as you approach members. So you’re in an area where it sounds like there wasn’t a chamber that existed currently. So as you approach businesses and talk about the value proposition of a chamber and help them get the buy in and the vision of of what it is that you’re trying to accomplish in the community. What’s that pitch like? How do you how do you make that approach to these businesses familiar?

Heather Lebischak 19:53
Right? Well, particularly Morris and Kimberly, they were very unfamiliar with the Chamber concept. So the first and. You know, as I mentioned in the beginning, if you’d asked me maybe seven years ago, I would have been like, what? What is a chamber? I have no idea what that is. So the first thing is, is I felt like, before I start trying to get you to join, I need to get us established. I need us be active, a good website, active on social media. I need you to see me at some things and see what I can do before I ask you to pay me money to offer you services that you don’t know what are. So we spent a lot of time building that up. We started in around, actually, December, 8 or ninth is when I officially started here. So I spent that whole first month really building our brand. Mission Statement is huge to me. I tell my board, I drill it into my board. They’re probably sick of hearing it. But everything we do is viewed under the lens of our mission statement, which is we advocate, connect, educate and fight for businesses in the north Jefferson Community, and in doing so, strengthen the communities we serve. So we do want to strengthen the communities, but it’s always a byproduct of the business community, because that’s what we’re here for. So I spent that first month we didn’t even start accepting memberships until January 5, and that was intentional. One, if I’m being completely honest, taxes were a lot easier to wait till the next year when we were so close. Yeah, but the other reason is I wanted to spend some time kind of showing them who we were and what we had to offer. And so January 5, we launched, and I believe, Oh, don’t quote me on this, but she says that she’s recording a live podcast, right? I think we had around 36 founding members. So 36 joined on that first day. And so a lot of it is just putting together materials to educate them on what we have, relying heavily on referrals. We have, we actually have cards. We deliver that say, join us. We’re awesome, and it kind of goes through what we are as a chamber. Now that we’ve got a year under our belt, those cards also reflect a QR code with our 2024, annual report that shows everything we did last year, from our social media reach to our audience to our members, to our events, so that they know kind of this is what they accomplished. Last year, I’ve twofold, one for new members to see what I can do, and two for existing members to see where their money went, because I take that very seriously,

Brandon Burton 22:13
yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 22:14
as well as the funding cities, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 22:17
So as you talk about creating an organization where you can be that voice for business. Are you approaching advocacy at this point? As far as legislation? Are you getting into that at all? Or

Heather Lebischak 22:31
yeah, so it was part of my plan, from the beginning, was to get and initially I wanted to have some kind of government relations field. I’m in my I’m coming into my final year of IOM, which chamber people will know as institution for organization management. And so I met with someone last year to get some insight on how to launch that because it is not an area I know anything about. And so in meeting with her, she was fantastic in recommending one avoid the word government. And I was like, okay, noted, so we did launch last year our public policy committee, so we are not on the advocate side yet. As far as lobbying or anything like that, we exist right now solely to inform particularly I know everybody the boi report was back and forth and back and forth. And so we were keeping our members informed of that, most of which had never even heard of it. And at the time, it would have been a big deal, because it was an enormous fine if you didn’t pay. And so right now, our Public Policy Committee is strictly to inform. We hosted a state of the city event in Morrison Kimberlin last year, which, to mo everyone’s knowledge is the first one they’ve ever had in that community. We did that under public policy. We educated on where to vote, how to vote, how to register to vote, how to do absentee ballot, all of those things. There was a group of we. Were a group of us from the chamber actually in Ireland over the election, so we all had to do absentee ballots for that, but mainly just to keep them informed of policies that impact them. I do feel like in the future as a Regional Chamber, I do feel like we will take that step towards being a voice to advocate for our businesses when it comes to legislation, and maybe even going as far as to hire a person that that’s their job to handle that. Because I do feel like I do want to be that voice for businesses, not just at a local level, but as a state and federal level as well. Yeah,

Speaker 1 24:26
it’s exciting to see, you know, a chamber starting from scratch, and you can really go any direction you want to and and you don’t have to do what every what other chambers are doing, either right, like you can right kind of chart your own path. Are there? Have there been any unique approaches as you’ve kind of crafted this custom model of a chamber for these three cities that you’re like you know from my past experience in the chamber, I want to get rid of this, or I want to bring this in. What are? What are? Maybe a couple examples of some unique approach.

Heather Lebischak 24:57
Biggest one I came into i. I came from a 35 year chamber, and they were fantastic. It was a great city, a great business community, and but there wasn’t a lot of records like if you try to look back and see who won this award last year, who was even the executive director, I ran across a piece of paper in my desk that had the founding date, and that’s the only reason I knew the chamber was 35 years old, and it wasn’t neglect on anybody’s part. It’s just nobody thinks to write stuff down. And so that was one of the things. When I went into this, I was like, I’m writing everything down. Every event we have, we’re gonna know if we had a women in business luncheon last year, we’re recording the winners. We’re gonna know from year to year, and that annual report I did, it’s basically a chamber scrapbook. So for every year, they’ll be able to look and see who did what. So that was the biggest thing I took with my old chamber, was to record everything, and the other one was to create a very good not just a Policies and Procedures Manual, like a formal document, but a obnoxiously detailed, one of how to do everything, a how to mingle. We put on this event. We send them postcards on this day, we get sponsors on this day, we get posters to where, you know, heaven forbid I walk out and get hit by a bus tomorrow. They’ve got that document to know how to do, and it makes training a lot easier, as we’re looking to hire. But just the importance of doing that, taking the time, and it’s hard, because I started off as a one man show, so there wasn’t a lot of extra time, but taking that time to draft that document just a simple bulleted list of how to do everything we do.

Speaker 1 26:34
Yeah, and even, I mean, as far as creating policies and procedures in today’s world with AI and everything like, there’s tools that help with that process as well that will, you know, if you start a process from start to finish, and AI can watch you do it, and then, you know, write the bullet points, and here’s the detailed steps of how to do it. It’s pretty cool stuff. So you’re it’s a good time. Knows

Heather Lebischak 26:58
me well, I will say, though, when I first so if you were to look at, if you were to Google chamber by laws, you’re going to find the same ones. We all use the same one. Same with policies and procedures. And part of that’s how collaborative we are. We are happy to share. But when I was doing the policies and procedures at the time, I wasn’t AI was still, oh, the robots are going to take us over. Don’t use it. So I did, actually, if you look at my desk, I had five of them spread across my desk, and I literally typed them from scratch, picking out the pieces that I wanted from each one. Now my background, as I mentioned, was illegal, and what we did was draft these long planned documents. So it wasn’t super foreign to me, but it was a tedious process. Now, I do rely heavily on AI and particularly chat GPT it I told I made the mistake of saying yesterday, I was like, it does 80% of my job. And I was like, let’s word that better. It allows me to be 80% more efficient and do other things, which is the truth of it, the times I would spend drafting social media posts when I really should be doing something else, as opposed to worrying about putting something cute. I’m 44, years old. I’m past that. I don’t know the cute things or the hashtags or all that, so I rely heavily on that for when it comes to social media.

Speaker 1 28:16
Yeah, that’s That’s great. Good takeaways. Any other lessons from this, the last we’ll call it, year and a half of kind of ramping things up and first year in a chamber, any other things stand out to you that may be beneficial for other chambers listening to, you know, as they do their R and D, things that stand out. The biggest

Heather Lebischak 28:39
one for me is I learned a lot of patience. I am a microwave. I want it quick, quick. And I’m going to build a plane as I’m flying it, and I’m totally okay to do that. And if we land on one wheel, that’s okay. We got down. Um, but I did learn there are things where it’s okay to not do immediately, let it, let it simmer just a little bit. Think on it a little bit more, whether that’s responding to emails, putting up events, planning events, I like to I have been known to plan an event with a week’s notice when I get a good idea, and so sometimes that works out, but I have learned to slow down and think it through, talk it out, especially now that I do have a colleague that works with me who is fantastic, and she brings out things that I didn’t think about, which is fantastic. She is a perfect compliment to me as far as putting events together and programming and so as we’re looking to hire, I’ve relied heavily on her, because the things she’s looking for and asking are very different from the things I am but equally as important right now,

Speaker 1 29:36
that’s that’s good. Um, well, I like asking everyone that I have on the show for maybe a tip or a strategy for chambers that are listening and trying to take their chamber to the next level, what kind of tip or action item might you share with them?

Heather Lebischak 29:54
I think the biggest one, and it goes back to I have vivid remembers, vivid memories of being a chamber. Me and going to my first chamber event and listening to somebody talk about this $100,000 banquet they just threw and totally freaking out thinking, oh my gosh, I’ll never get there. I’m doing this all wrong. Take everything with a grain of salt. Everything’s scaled. Well, I say that everything is not scalable. You’ll hear that all the time. It is not true. Not everything truly is scalable. Not everything is for your chamber. Yeah. And so I think the biggest takeaway is is, does it fit your culture? Number one, does it fit your mission? Like I said, I drilled that into my people. But just take everything with a grain of salt. Take it all in and then figure out what it is that your chamber needs to do. What does your chamber want to be known for? And do those events align with that?

Speaker 1 30:46
Yeah, I’m glad you made that designation, that everything is not necessarily scalable, scalable

Heather Lebischak 30:52
because you heard me say it, because I just hear it all the time, but I was like, and I’m guilty

Speaker 1 30:56
too. I’ve said it before, but you’re right. You know certain things are not for your chamber, and you need to know your community. You need to know what where the value proposition is and what’s worth your time. You know what are you going to put your time and energy into, and what’s really going to have a return and be valuable to your members and and to your larger community? So thanks for mentioning that. We all needed to hear that. But Heather, as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Heather Lebischak 31:30
I think they’re going to continue to be more and more relevant multiple as people become, like I said, I came into a community where a lot of people didn’t know what the chamber was, as they realize as the complexities of starting a business, it’s hard. It’s difficult unnecessarily. So in my opinion, one of my goals is to sit down with our cities and create a how to of how to start a business. When you come into Fulton Hill to start a business, this is how you do it. And also in that process, figuring out that we really need this. And so I’m hoping chambers can play a bigger role in that, not just encouraging them to come but helping them to get started. And so as we can offer trainings or advice or expertise in that field, I do think that we’re going to become more and more relevant as chambers and more and more needed, and as people realize, like, I really this is something I need. This is a business expense that is a must for me. Yeah,

Speaker 1 32:25
so earlier, you said there’s not a guide for starting a business. That sounds like you’re writing it. So maybe you know, version two is the guide of how to start a chamber. I

Heather Lebischak 32:35
hope so. Like, we’re about to do taxes, and I’m like, please don’t screw up anything. Too bad.

Speaker 1 32:41
That’s right. Well, Heather, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who might want to reach out and learn more about how you’re doing things, the approach you’re taking. Where would you point people and what? What’s the best way for for them to react?

Heather Lebischak 32:56
So our website is NorthJeffersonChamber.com, and then my email address is president@northjeffersonchamber.com. I am a Gen Xer, so I regularly check my email. I will respond. It’s definitely the best way. I’m a texter too, but email is probably the best way to get in touch with me, and I would love to hear from anybody, answer any questions, anybody looking to venture out and do this thing? I have not yet had anybody to share this with, because it’s just like you mentioned, most chambers are 100, 150 years old. No, I was in a board meeting the other day, and we were, I’m on the state board of directors, and our director, who is amazing, was talking about growing the state board and reaching out to the existing chambers. And she made the comment, she said, I mean, it’s not like we can just create new chambers. And was like, one of the ladies was like, well, Heather did yeah, they’re not, but it’s just not something that happens. And so it would be cool to be able to help someone else through the process, even if it’s just a lending an ear to know, yes, I know how frustrating it is, yeah, and there’s not answers. Yeah,

Brandon Burton 34:01
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