Tag: Greater Mason City Chamber

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

Brandon Burton 00:01.006
Hello, Chamber Champions. Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. I’m your host, Brandon Burton, and here on the show I introduce you to people and ideas to better help you serve your chamber members and your community. You’re joining us for a special episode in our 2026 ACCE Chamber of the Year Finalist series. And today we’re joined by Colleen Frein, president and CEO of the Greater Mason City Chamber of Commerce.

Colleen joined the chamber in 2015 and was promoted to president and CEO in 2023. She brings a strong background in leadership, communications, and community engagement, including a decade as an award-winning multimedia journalist in Iowa. Colleen holds an MBA from the University of Iowa and has earned both the CCE designation and the IOM designation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She is also active in statewide chamber leadership and community development work.

With a particular passion for expanding access to child care for families. Her career reflects a deep commitment to advocacy, collaboration, and building stronger communities. Colleen, I’m excited to have you with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast. First of all, huge congratulations to you and your team for being selected as Chamber of the Year finalist. But 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 bit.

Colleen Frein 01:17.784
Thank you.

Colleen Frein 01:27.254
Sure. So I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to share more about our chamber and just to chat with you. I love talking chamber. I mean, don’t we all? It’s the best about. you know, I was you asked me to think about something interesting about me. and so I’m gonna go with I have been an a non professional, so absolutely amateur.

Brandon Burton 01:35.214
Right.

Colleen Frein 01:50.991
power lifter for several years now. I started back in 2018, I think. and unfortunately I kind of say that with sadness because I hurt my shoulder six months ago and had to have surgery on it. So I’m not powerlifting much right now. But but yeah it’s kind of a fun way for me to work out the aggression after a long day of chambering. and also a fun way to keep in shape and running after my son.

Brandon Burton 02:07.65
no.

Brandon Burton 02:14.209
Yes. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 02:19.641
That’s right. So do you compete? Like do you go to the competitions?

Colleen Frein 02:22.048
I used to, yeah. Yep. So I would compete. Again, very amateur. Really the competition was just to give myself a goal to work up to. And just to be clear when we say power lifting, I’m not talking about the spray tan, that kind. It’s just lifting a bunch of weight and putting it back down.

Brandon Burton 02:26.563
Yeah.

Brandon Burton 02:35.437
Right. Not bodybuilding, it’s powerlifting. Yeah.

That’s right. So my daughter, she just graduated high school, but she was a power lifter all through high school. And it’s a awesome sport and I love seeing girls and women, you know, participating in it because there I think there used to be a stigma around weightlifting and it’s something that is good for everybody. So until you hurt your shoulder or

Colleen Frein 02:46.914
That’s fantastic.

Colleen Frein 02:55.884
Yes. Yes. There’s that like women shouldn’t get bulky and it’s you won’t. And I mean if you do, good for you. That is a source of pride. I never got to that point. But no, it’s definitely a fun and it’s a lifelong sport that you can do forever unless you have to have shoulder surgery and then it’s a minipopause. So

Brandon Burton 03:05.539
Yes, that’s right. You’ve overcome the challenge. That’s right. That’s cool.

Brandon Burton 03:23.085
That’s right. That’s right.

Colleen Frein 03:23.638
I’m powerlifting one pound right now, which is really sad.

Brandon Burton 03:27.183
Now because I know the sport, do you lift equipped or unequipped?

Colleen Frein 03:32.947
unequipped. Yes. Yes. I’m just plain Jane.

Brandon Burton 03:34.465
And equipped. All right. Very good. That’s yeah, that’s real strength. So awesome. Well, tell us about the Greater Mason City Chamber. Give us an idea of the size of the chamber, staff, scope of work you guys are involved with, budget, just to set the stage for our discussion.

Colleen Frein 03:41.42
Yeah. Yeah.

Colleen Frein 03:54.317
Love to. So the Greater Mason City Chamber of Commerce is celebrating a hundred and ten years this year of existence. we are one of the older chambers. and we are proud to say that we still have several

Members who have been with us the entire 110 years, which I think is pretty remarkable that there are businesses that have been in business that long, not just our chamber. we have about six hundred and fifty chamber members. and probably much like many other chambers, we’re really proud to share that about 70% of our membership.

Brandon Burton 04:17.392
Amazing.

Colleen Frein 04:28.878
has ten or fewer employees. So while we know that the big guys are the ones who write the big checks, the big work that we do is on behalf of our smallest members. And that has really been a focus for us in recent years is making sure that we are supporting the ones that are one to ten employees and are really just trying to get through their business day every day and make payroll at the end the week.

Brandon Burton 04:51.236
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that definitely you know helps to kind of get that perspective to understand who the the businesses are that you’re serving and the programs and the the work that you guys are about. on these Chamber of the Year episodes, I like to focus primarily on the programs that get submitted on the Chamber of the Year applications. And being that you guys are a finalist this year, you guys are kind of

Top of your game. So we’d love to learn from those who are doing great work. So we’ll take a quick break and when we get back, we’ll dive into the program and and learn more about what you guys are doing and make an impact in your community.

All right, Colleen, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, we’re gonna dive into the the program that you get submitted on your chamber of the year application. I believe it has to do with child care. So if you want to give us the introduction, what is it about? Where

How did it originate? How has it evolved? And the impact it’s making in your community. We’ll we’ll go from there.

Colleen Frein 05:53.795
Sure. And I have to say, Brandon, it does occur to me that this is really good practice for our interviews coming up. for chemically. So I appreciate that. so Childcare Works is the synopsis that we submitted for our chamber of the year application. Childcare works is a program that launched four years ago actually.

Brandon Burton 06:00.289
Absolutely.

Colleen Frein 06:16.576
It was really an effort to try to solve the really difficult challenge of child care shortages in our region. if you can remember back to twenty twenty to twenty twenty one was really when we started thinking about this. this was coming out of the pandemic. So during the pandemic there was a lot of extra funding put into child care, kind of as an emergency stop gap, right? specifically in twenty twenty to make sure that our

our firefighters, police, hospital, the ones who were working on the trenches had childcare and could go to work and support through that through that crisis. but then coming out of it, what we found was childcare centers didn’t have the staff any longer that they used to have, because they had lost staff due to a myriad of reasons. One, they didn’t have as many kids under their care and people left the workforce during COVID. So

childcare centers had lost their staffing and in the meantime people were going back to work and needing that care more and more and it kind of became and then they lost all of that extra funding that had come is that emergency funding that came during COVID. that ex kind of expired, went away generally around twenty twenty one, at least in our state. And so they were really in a difficult position and and what that looked like in our county is that

Well, our childcare workers were making very low wages. We did a survey at the beginning of this program and found they were making about nine dollars an hour starting wages, which is not enough if you are taking care of a family and you know, have kids at home or even if you’re just single and trying to make rent every week or every month. it’s not enough. So they weren’t making much money. Hard to recruit people into an industry when wages are that low.

and our centers were in a really difficult situation where they couldn’t take on more kids because they didn’t have the staffing. and the staffing they did have were working overtime, over time. Most of them were working fifty, sixty hours a week just to fill and to make sure they could care for the kids that were there. at the biggest kind of crisis point in our area, we got to a point at the end of twenty twenty two.

Colleen Frein 08:30.028
where our largest center was closing classrooms every week. So, you know, the the first week of the month they would close the infants, second week they close one year olds, third week they close two year olds, etc. and for parents who have multiple children, which many of us do, that means you’re trying to find childcare for your children for multiple weeks every single month. That’s not something that allows for you to work in a in a consistent manner.

and then that what that meant was some of our workforce outside of childcare, a lot of times it was in financial institutions, they were losing workers because they needed to be home caring for their kids. So we were really in a difficult situation. and it’s something that we had all been talking about for years, and I think many communities still, I mean I think most communities are probably still talking about the childcare crisis, but solutions were harder to come by.

everyone has ideas, but at the end of the day, how do you get more workers into a center? We have to raise their wages, is what it came down to. this didn’t come just chamber, I should say. So stepping back, this wasn’t just the chamber that created this solution. this was a partnership between the chamber, our county public

said public works, public health office. So County Public Health was the other kind of main leader on this. And then our school system, our a couple of our larger child care centers, childcare resource and referral, which is a statewide organization that supports child care child care providers, and the community college and our YMCA. And I’m probably and our EDC was the other partner that we had in this. So we had a lot of great people that came to the table.

and said we have to figure out a solution. We were really fortunate to receive a grant from the Du Beaumont Foundation to kickstart this progress. So if there’s kind of a lesson number one that we received or we learned from this, it’s look for that grant funding, right? And be creative about it. So the grant that we applied for was a public health grant that was specifically to solve a public health crisis in your community. which

Brandon Burton 10:35.141
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 10:44.822
Many people might not think of childcare necessarily as a health crisis, but but we were able to frame it in a way that we we all know it it really is. It it causes parents to not have the money that they need to buy food if they aren’t making the wages they need, if they don’t have care for their kids and they have to stay home, it brings them, you know, all the things we know about child care. so we were able to frame it in a way that they said this is unique and different and they funded us $100,000.

Brandon Burton 10:48.612
Yeah, right.

Colleen Frein 11:13.562
to kickstart us, which was incredible. and the cool thing about this grant, I will praise them up and down, is it really had no parameters. The grant funding was provided and the outcome was try to solve the problem and we’ll give you the resources to help you along the way. Right. There was no like you have to do this by the end or like show us what your outcome is. It was just show us that you’re making progress.

Brandon Burton 11:13.794
Brandon Burton (11:32.312)That’s awesome. Yeah.

Yeah.

Colleen Frein 11:41.895
so it was incredible. and actually kudos to ACCE. we had a partner from ACCE that was there throughout the process as well to help people who didn’t have chambers already working with them on these public-private partnerships to think about how to get the business voice at the table because that’s so important. So that’s how our program was really kickstarted was through this great work of people who cared, getting this grant that really kickstarted our effort and then

Digging down and having those resources to try to think about solving the problem. Again, we found wages were the problem. Wages were the challenge that we were facing. So the solution that we came up with was a wage supplement bonus of $2 an hour for every childcare worker that earned $20 or less in our county. And that’s most of them. Most childcare workers are not making more than $20 an hour.

and we intended to kick start fundraising at the end of twenty twenty two and launch in twenty twenty three. but got really fortunate again we just kind of there’s a piece in there that is you have to be ready when the luck happens, right? so as luck would have it, in September of twenty twenty two the state of Iowa had extra extra covet funding, extra ARPA funds, and they decided to spend it on child care. And they said anyone with a basically shovel ready idea.

let us know and we’ll fund it. at the time it was gonna be a a one to one match and we said that. but the thing is we had to fundraise as much as we could by the end of September. Whatever we had fundraised by the end of September they would match one to one. so we had about two and a half weeks, which is wild. And we hadn’t even like formalized our plan, right? so we were ready ish when the when the magic or when the luck happened. but we just went for it. We said, you know, we’re never gonna be

Brandon Burton 13:26.638
A race. Yeah.

Colleen Frein 13:38.211
fully ready, like we just have to start. And so that was really where chambers come in. We have the relationships with those businesses. And I just started door to door basically going to the folks who I knew were already interested in this space and asking them to to help fund this. And it was kind of a whim in a prayer, right? We had no knowledge that this would work. We thought it would. we didn’t know if it would be able to be funded for you know how for how long, but we just said

Put your trust in us. Here’s the research we’ve done. We think that this is the best solution that there that’s out there. And we were able to raise about 250 wait, I’m off on that. because we got six cents. So we raised about three hundred and twenty thousand dollars in those three weeks that we had there. So incredible. Like our businesses stepped up, which was just amazing. and then the state.

unfortunately there weren’t a lot of other communities that were able to come up this quickly with proposals. So the state ended up funding us two to one match. So we received six hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to kickstart this project. and so for three years, that’s what we did. We paid our workers a bonus of two dollars an hour. every paycheck they get that bonus. We are we were careful to make sure that it said in there that this is a bonus so that it’s different from their wages.

Brandon Burton 14:44.272
Awesome.

Wow.

Colleen Frein 15:04.922
but what we found is in this now almost three years since we launched, staffing has gone up at our child care centers by about 25%, which is an incredible increase. Our wait lists are down about 70%, give or take on the week. and we haven’t had to close classrooms. one of the other great things that we added into this was in order to qualify for this bonus funding, the centers had to be quality-rated in our state.

And so when we started, we only had three centers that were quality rated, but within a couple of months, the other ones got on board and got themselves quality rated. And now all of the centers in our county are it’s called IQ 4K quality rated. So really kind of an extra boost of not only are we increasing the volume of care, but also the quality of care that we’re measuring in our

Brandon Burton 16:01.572
Yeah, that’s awesome. I love getting that background and and you’re right, when when a a worker’s not you know, earning enough wages, then you start making compromises and it really does become a public health issue because they’re making you know, maybe they’re skipping medications, maybe they’re buying poor quality food or you know, more highly processed food, or all the different things. You make compromises.

Colleen Frein 16:23.39
Maybe their housing situation isn’t what it should be. It’s yeah.

Brandon Burton 16:26.776
Yeah. So kudos to you guys for thinking outside the box and how to apply that as a public health concern. so do you guys have a foundation there at the chamber that these funds are going into? Are they going to the cham yeah?

Colleen Frein 16:38.466
We do. We do. Yep. So this all was funneled through our chamber foundation. We’ve had a foundation since two thousand one, so about twenty five years now. and this is what it’s used for, right? Is really we try to the things that don’t fit elsewhere, and are these kind of

not or what’s what I’m looking for? not just nonprofit but charity of a charitable funding is that’s where this really fit nicely into and that was a great bonus for the businesses that invested is that this was through a foundation that they could use this as a tax write off. They w they were doing good in our area too. Yeah.

Brandon Burton 17:05.968
Right.

Brandon Burton 17:17.722
It’s a tax write off.

Brandon Burton 17:21.912
Yeah. Which leads into my next question at the fundraising. I that’s super impressive to raise three hundred and twenty thousand in like two and a half or three weeks or so. what was the approach? How’d you guys go after it? And did you have a short list of people to call or what was how’d you guys do that?

Colleen Frein 17:38.531
Well, I think it all kind of begins with the relationships, right? So because we had been in this child care space for several years prior, and talking with our members about it, I knew

which businesses already felt like this was a priority. We had businesses but but basically we’re we’re feeling that like we want to do something but we can’t do it. We’re not gonna open a child care center. We’re not gonna we’re not gonna be the ones that find the solution but will help fund a solution. so you know the the first thing was setting up those giving levels was kind of scary at first because I wanted to go big and there were some that were in

Brandon Burton 18:04.205
Right.

Brandon Burton 18:09.88
That’s right.

Colleen Frein 18:22.03
Our committee that we’re not used to doing those big asks. but I felt that we had to ask big and what’s the worst thing that could happen? We get shot down, right? so our largest employer in town, Curries, that was really supportive of all of the work we do at the chamber, but especially the work that we had been doing around child care, they were the first ones, and they were actually my first meeting, they were the first ones to step up and

Brandon Burton 18:33.241
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 18:50.562
commit to fifty thousand dollars a year for three years. So that was kind of our big fish and once we had them on board and put their name on everything, we were able then to go and kind of

gauge the investments that we were asking based off of what Curries had given and then how others were feeling on it. We had a lot of meetings. I split them up primarily between myself and our partner over at CG Public Health. Kelly took on quite a few of the meetings as well. but really it was just

Going back to those relationships we had, we weren’t going in with a cold ask in that way. You know, we we had been having that conversation for a while. So now it was coming with we have a solution, we have matching funds, and we need you to make a decision like this week. So I actually think that

Brandon Burton 19:39.088
Right. Right.

Colleen Frein 19:41.583
worked to our strength because I think that what we have found since is when you have a timeline and you say I need you to make a decision this week they make that decision. When you don’t have a timeline and you say we’d like this money, can you let us know? Sometimes then it has to go through corporate processes and da-da-da-da and it can just get lost in you know time kills deals. So I think that the short timeframe really works in our favor.

Brandon Burton 20:09.232
Yeah, absolutely. And childcare really is it’s a workforce issue too. So if you go to those those big employers and they can see making that investment is gonna be a direct you know investment in their business as well by being able to have a stronger workforce.

So I’m curious with this with the funds going to the foundation, you have the matching funds that came in. is there an estimate at how long these funds will last with the two dollar an hour bonus? Or is there a way to kind of perpetuate that longer? What what’s the plan look like?

Colleen Frein 20:40.994
Yeah, so we knew going into this that it was not sustainable for us to be giving two dollars an hour in perpetuity. that was one of my sticking points from the beginning. you know, our role as a chamber is to be looking out for our businesses and I felt very strongly

you know, while I’m passionate about finding solutions for childcare, I don’t think that businesses should be shouldering the brunt of the burden alone. And so from the get-go, we made sure that A, it was a three year commitment, and our goal was in that three years, we would start teetering down how much was provided to the as a bonus and the centers would absorb that additional funding so that organically their wages would go up while our bonus kind of dropped off. and that’s what we’ve been able to

have happen. So we started teetering down last fall to a dollar and we are currently at the fifty cents an hour right now and our centers have been able to absorb that difference in there and make sure those wages were sustained. Because our you know the whole thing going into this was they needed the staff in order to have the kids in order to have the money so that they could pay the staff. So it was this big circle. So basically we kind of inserted the money.

Brandon Burton 21:48.078
Yes.

Brandon Burton 21:52.45
Injected there, yeah.

Colleen Frein 21:54.632
and hoped that the rest of the circle would would work.

because at the end of the day we face, you know, economic changes and right now we’re in a time I don’t think that if I was going out to these businesses and asking for as much as I asked for three years ago that I would have gotten the same responses and I couldn’t you know it’s we’re just in a different economic time, it’s less certain. and so I there was a lot that was timing in in how this worked out. so we’re teetering down and we’re actually in the

process now of moving to a semi-annual bonus format instead. So now that the wages have been brought up to where we think is at least a more sustainable living wage, if not an actual living wage, that part has been solved. We still want to support. So we’ll be doing semi-annual bonuses starting this fall.

Brandon Burton 22:40.976
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 22:52.12
to support workers that who’ve been there for six months or more. So really supporting those the retention pieces of it. so we’re hopeful that that

Brandon Burton 22:57.626
Like that. Yeah. Have that longevity aspect to it. Yeah.

Colleen Frein 23:02.644
Exactly. Yep, and we have found some long-term supporters of this program, some foundations that want to support the work we’re doing that work in the child care space as well, who are committing to a longer term investment in that way. So we’re excited for that. We know that will be sustainable longer and and we’re excited about how what we’ve done has really already changed that influence. I should also say some of what we’re doing.

Has no funding at all were tied to it. We also created a program through this called Childcare Ready, which is in our high schools, and basically it’s a six-month credential program that is available for high school juniors and seniors, and they spend that six months doing all the training they need to work in a child care center. So they get their background screens, fingerprints, CPR, they do all of the required testing and everything that you would normally do once you get hired.

And sometimes takes several months before you could work one-on-one with kids. So they go through all of that at the high school, and then as part of their training, they do interviews with all of our centers and are able to start working in our centers at that point. So we’re trying to also create a pipeline of people working in the industry in addition to the pay aspect of it too.

Brandon Burton 24:19.023
Awesome.

Brandon Burton 24:25.998
I like that it’s not just the one the one focused, right? It’s it’s the one focused to kickstart it, then you’ve got the long-term vision, you’ve got the pipeline feeding into it. So you guys are definitely committed to the work. so I’m I’m trying to think for the chambers listening who it maybe they didn’t, you know, jump on the boat in 2022 when there was, you know, the the funding out there that was floating around so freely, right?

Colleen Frein 24:29.283
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 24:48.575
All the money was there.

Brandon Burton 24:51.088
but for somebody who’s still seeing that childcare is an issue in their communities, there’s nothing to stop them from doing you know fundraising to follow some site some type of a pattern like that. But I imagine there’s still some grants out there in certain states and you know just look around to different organizations, but the there’s there’s answers out there as long as you you roll up your sleeves and get into it, right?

Colleen Frein 25:03.982
Completely.

Colleen Frein 25:16.342
Yeah, and I think the big takeaway that that we found with this was we kind of just tried it.

You know, we spend a lot of time thinking about solutions and kind of weighing back and forth and will this work or won’t this work. but we just kind of jumped in and said, We’re gonna try it. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. but we have to do something. We have to stop the bleeding is kind of what we kept saying. And so I think we spend a lot of times in meetings, right? Where we go back and forth and try to think of solutions and then we push that off to the next meeting. and in this case we just said we just have to go. And I think

that really was a big lesson learned is sometimes you just have to jump.

Brandon Burton 25:59.119
Yep, that’s right. Absolutely. Well, I like asking on behalf of those listening who are interested in taking their organization up to the next level, what kind of tip or action item would you leave for them as they to strive towards that goal?

Colleen Frein 26:14.114
Yeah, you know, I think that one tip that I would have in kind of reframing back to our synopsis that we shared in this way, but this goes across all of the work that we do, is really just make sure that you’re having conversations not just with your board, but with your members on a regular basis about what your priorities are and what their priorities are. and that those conversations aren’t just happening, you know, once a year when your annual report goes out or at your annual meeting.

You have constant, constant touch points. I’ve heard recently that you used to have to put something in front of somebody seven times for them to register, now it’s like 21 times, maybe more. So you really have to, you know, get that out there. But that’s how that’s how you’re able to do things at a fast pace when you need to, because it’s not the first time they’re hearing about the issues you’re working on, or it’s not the first time you’re hearing about the issues that they’re facing. this is something that’s been building, and you’ve already built that level of trust that they understand you and you understand.

Understand them. And I know that you know communication is not something that is new to chambers. This isn’t a novel idea, talk to your members. But I think it’s about being really diligent about it and making it a priority and thinking about it. My predecessor, Robin Anderson, who you talked with years ago when we were up for this award before, she used to say 10 before 10, make 10 touches before 10 a.m. with people. And that doesn’t just mean responding to the emails that are piling up in your inbox.

Brandon Burton 27:30.926
Yes.

Colleen Frein 27:44.088
the 10 intentional touches with people who you know you need to reach out to or that you want to reach out to. And I think that that’s a really important thing to do is just being intentional about your communication.

Brandon Burton 27:57.371
I love that advice. That’s so valuable. And if you do that, the the 10 before 10 method, that’s gonna really chart your work for you too, because you’re gonna get that feedback and know what needs to be done and what your community needs. So well Colleen, I like asking everyone I have on the show about the future of chambers and what your outlook is. How do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?

Colleen Frein 28:02.764
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Colleen Frein 28:22.668
You know, I you know, of course, going back to ACCE Horizons, our Horizons report, it I think that

In my mind, the most important role of a chamber is as convener. That’s how we were able to succeed in our child care works effort was by convening the right people to the table. But it’s not just about convening for certain projects, it’s convening for joy. It’s convening for purposes of knowledge and education and putting the right people together when you need to have those conversations. And I think chambers are uniquely situated

to know who should be in the room and who should not. That’s a very important thing.

Brandon Burton 29:04.676
Yeah. That’s just as important. Yeah. Yeah.

Colleen Frein 29:07.598
And and how to tactfully tell people when they should not and why, and not lose friends in the process and how to tactfully tell people you need to be here, and not to force them into the room, but to open that door and and make them feel valued and understood why they should be in that space. So so I really think convening is it is at the heart of everything we do.

Brandon Burton 29:31.716
Yeah, I I couldn’t agree more. And very well said. well 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 the Greater Mason area chambers or how the sorry, how the Greater Mason City Chamber is approaching things, especially with child care or anything else. where would you point them and what would be the best way for them to connect?

Colleen Frein 29:55.619
For sure. Well, of course, go to our website, masoncityia.com. We got a whole new refresh this year, so you might just also enjoy checking out our newly done website on

Brandon Burton 30:04.908
It is a pretty slick website. I was on it this morning. It looks very nice.

Colleen Frein 30:06.944
you thank you. For those of us who have been through website redesigns recently, it’s a long process, but well worth the effort. you can find my contact information on there, but you can also just email me cfrein@masoncityia.com is my email. our cell phone or not our cell phone our phone is on there as well but emails usually or you can find me on the socials. I’m on LinkedIn.

Brandon Burton 30:12.747
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 30:36.848
find me on there. I’m fairly active as much as I can be on there too. And I do really enjoy meeting and chatting with other chamber professionals around the country because I think we all have so much we can learn from each other or just commiserate with each other.

Brandon Burton 30:52.748
Yeah, that’s right. Sometimes that’s what you need is a good therapy session. So that’s perfect. Well, we’ll get your contact information in our show notes and make it nice and easy to connect. But thank you so much for putting aside some time and joining us here on the show and really highlighting the impact you guys are making there in Mason City. I really appreciate it and and congratulations again to you and your team. And I wish you guys best of luck as Chamber of the Year.

Colleen Frein 30:56.366
Yeah.

Colleen Frein 31:18.306
Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to share.

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