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Brandon Burton (00:42)
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. Today we’re joined by Angela Kabisky, Executive Director of the Milburn Short Hills Chamber of Commerce in New Jersey. Angela brings more than 25 years of experience in chamber management, membership development, and community engagement.
In her role, she leads efforts to strengthen programs, outreach, and connections among local businesses. Before joining the Milburn Short Hills Chamber, Angela served as the Executive Vice President of Membership and Marketing at the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, where she helped launch and grow the Women in Business program into one of the chamber’s signature offerings. She’s also the founder of Attention on Retention.
Where she trains and coaches chamber and association professionals nationwide on membership growth and retention strategies. Angela brings a strong belief in the power of relationships, collaboration, and community building to today’s conversation. Angela, 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.
Angela Kubisky (01:58)
Hello, Brandon, and all of the listeners. Thank you so much for inviting me to talk a little bit about the Milburn Short Hills Chamber of Commerce. I’m very passionate about chambers overall. And to share a little bit about myself, I just want to start off by saying that I am a chamber champion through and through. I actually started I actually started
Brandon Burton (02:20)
Love it.
Angela Kubisky (02:22)
my career in banking. I had a 25 year
career in banking and it was very successful. I worked really hard, very tirelessly, to climb that corporate ladder and get to an executive level position. And when I reached that executive level position, one thing that I was able to do was to join the Morris County Chamber of Commerce where I worked for 10 years. And before joining that chamber I had never had any exposure to chambers or even networking for that matter.
And when I joined it, I was so impressed with the culture, the members, the way that they delivered value to their organization, that I decided to become a volunteer leader and really help them grow the organization. And by doing that, it really injected a lot more energy into my banking career because I was able to land a lot of new clients from the local chamber to grow the credit union that I worked for.
And it turned out that I became more passionate about chamber leadership than I actually did about my banking career. So I
Brandon Burton (03:32)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (03:33)
took the leap and I said, that’s it with the private sector, that’s it with my banking career. I want to be a chamber executive. I want to help all businesses to grow. And I just found it fascinating that the chamber would give you a platform to meet all these amazing business leaders that are in B2C or B2B businesses.
learn about their business and then they would be open to getting advice from me on how to grow their business. So it really was a twenty year journey with the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, first as a member volunteer for 10, and then as a chamber leader. And so that journey ended in twenty nineteen, the year before COVID. Wow. Was I was was
Brandon Burton (04:18)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (04:19)
I shocked what happened to chamber leadership during COVID. That was a really
Tough nut to crack, but I had left because quite frankly, Brandon, I was evented out. We did three hundred events a year and I was at almost every single one of them. That doesn’t count the number of events that the members had that I had to go to or wanted to go
Brandon Burton (04:41)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (04:42)
to, but I was invented out and I said, you know what, I’m in a position where I know how to lead a chamber really well. We were very successful. I wanted to help other chambers.
lead their organizations and that’s when I started attention on retention, which I know is the core of our conversation today. But you did ask me to to to share a fun fact about myself, which is honestly
Brandon Burton (05:06)
Wells.
Angela Kubisky (05:07)
I am an avid hiker. So my last hike was ten miles. It was up in the Catskills, New York. And we actually wanted to s do a five mile hike because in the summertime it’s a little tough.
to do ten
Brandon Burton (05:21)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (05:21)
miles and we got lost in the middle of the hike. And we only had
Brandon Burton (05:24)
So it became ten miles.
Angela Kubisky (05:26)
like eight ounces of water left and it was really scary, but we found our way back to the finish line and we made it through. But what a memory we created. I love hiking. I love the outdoors. My husband and I have a camper, forty two foot camper. We keep it up in the Catskills and we go every weekend. So today’s Friday. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend up there.
But g again, thanks
Brandon Burton (05:49)
Awesome.
Angela Kubisky (05:50)
for having me. Looking forward to talking about retention.
Brandon Burton (05:53)
Yes. I love i the term you used, event it out. I think that’s a a term you’re coining that others listening are like, Yes, that’s what I feel. So it’s not burnout necessarily, but it’s event out.
Angela Kubisky (06:05)
Yeah,
I just needed a break and I was so blessed that when I made that transition to be an entrepreneur because of the relationship that I had built through the United States Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organizational Management, which I’m a graduate of class of two thousand and eighteen, as well as the Association of Chamber of Commerce executives, I had built enough relationships where I was able to get enough clients to keep the revenue flowing in.
And with COVID it really opened up different opportunities to help with the virtual aspect of chamber leadership. So but then this opportunity with Millburn Short Hills came up and I decided to settle into this role. It’s part time. I’m at the end of my career, quite frankly. I only have two years left before retirement. My husband and I
Brandon Burton (06:57)
Okay.
Angela Kubisky (06:57)
will be going on the road full time, selling our house, taking our dogs and exploring the
Brandon Burton (07:00)
Use that camper all the time, yeah.
Angela Kubisky (07:03)
country. So
But I’ll never stop being passionate about chambers. I once heard a chamber executive say that chambers are gonna be a thing of the past, they’re a dying breed. I one hundred thousand percent do not agree with that at all.
Brandon Burton (07:20)
Yeah, yeah. Me neither. That’s why we do the show. So tell us a little bit more about the the Milburn Shorthills Chamber to help give us an idea of the size of your chamber, the scope of work you guys are involved with, staff, budget, to kind of set the perspective as we as we set the stage for our discussion today.
Angela Kubisky (07:38)
Sure. So we have about a hundred and twenty members and there is an opportunity for us to have like a thousand members because the business the businesses in the area that are not members of our chamber are definitely future members of our chamber because the previous to me leading the chamber, they never really had a chamber leader that had the level of experience that I have and nor the training.
Brandon Burton (08:06)
Right.
Angela Kubisky (08:06)
So when you are empowered with training, experience, and support, there’s nowhere to go but up. So we are really growing at a fast pace. I’m onboarding an average of five members a month and I’m looking forward to continuously retaining those members because after ninety days, if you don’t pay your dues, you’re out. I don’t I don’t
Brandon Burton (08:28)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (08:29)
care if you are promised to pay, you’re out. You need to be out.
And because I’m so passionate about retention and building relationships, I am constantly calling, emailing, using some kind of touch point with my existing members to understand what does the next three months look like for them in terms of engagement. So if at the point of invoice I know they’re not gonna pay, I will get rid of them off the books. So our annual
Brandon Burton (08:55)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (08:56)
budget is about fifty thousand dollars a year. It’s not high.
We do three events a month. All of them are included with your membership. So there’s no extra ticket prices for when you join. The revenue comes from two sources: your dues and sponsorships, and that’s it. So I’m looking to evolve that, but I need a bigger chamber in order to really make that happen. And in terms of the Milburn Short Hills area.
If you were to Google Millburn, you will find out that it is the number one town in the state of New Jersey for having the best school system. It’s a very
Brandon Burton (09:38)
Okay.
Angela Kubisky (09:39)
affluent town. A lot of the people who live there work in New York City on Wall Street and make over a million dollars a year because they’re living in one point five to four million dollar houses. And they are not
They are not typically my members. My members are the businesses and they typically live someplace else. So
Brandon Burton (09:57)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (09:58)
I wish that my members had a left enough enough revenue that they could share with me like that, but that’s not who my members are. It’s just where I’m located. there’s
Brandon Burton (10:08)
Sure.
Angela Kubisky (10:09)
a lot of storefront. We compete with a business improvement district called Explore Milburn Short Hills. They get a lot of sponsorship dollars.
we are friendly, but we would like to be more collaborative with them. And I am the only staff person and I don’t have any contractors, I have a board of directors, about nine people serve on our board, and my current board president works for a jewelry company inside the mall at Short Hills, which is a very fancy mall in our area of New Jersey, and he’s been remarkably helpful and supportive of my ideas.
Brandon Burton (10:44)
Very good. That definitely helps as we get into our topic today, which we’re gonna cover retention and and specifically paying attention to retention. So we’ll dive into that as soon as we get back from this quick break.
All right, Angela, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, today we’re focusing on retention. And I can tell you have a a huge
Affinity for retention. It’s a you got a big heart for it, it’s something you get excited about. I know we had a phone call prior to this, and you were just so excited to be able to talk about retention. So tell us what are some of these retention strategies. I guess, first of all, why is retention so exciting for you? And then what are some of these strategies that you’ve seen be successful when it comes to retention?
Angela Kubisky (14:17)
So one of the things that I’m always talking to my members about is how they’re nurturing their relationships with their existing clients because once you land a client, a lot of sales professionals who are also chamber executives are looking for the next client. Like who else can I onboard to help our business grow? But I I want them to have a mindset like mine where we’re investing a tremendous amount of energy and resources
into our existing clients, our existing members, deliver them the most value immediately so that they would be someone who can evangelize our brand and our offerings to people in their network. So I’m always measuring how am I delivering value to this member and how do they perceive that value and what are they saying about it. So if
A member joins our chamber, I am immediately working with them one-on-one to learn what is important to them in terms of getting a return on investment. And I learn every single day from different members of what is important to them. It may not be that we have the best event in the region. It may be that we have the best member profile for them because it’s helping them with their SEO. A lot of times when I Google a member’s name,
I’m the first thing that comes up in their Google search because they’re on our membership directory and that has value. So learning
Brandon Burton (15:47)
Absolutely.
Angela Kubisky (15:48)
learning about the members’ expectations is critical in any retention strategy. So my first thing is am I building a great relationship with that member? Do they like me? Do they like our chamber? And who can I introduce them within our chamber to help them with their organization?
I mean, I’m very relationship focused and I want our members to be the same. We want our members to connect, collaborate, and refer each other business. And if they’re not going to have that type of mindset, then it’s not going to be a good fit. And I know that not every single member is going to have the time nor energy to want to invest in building relationships. And that means that
I probably will spend less time with them and more time with the ones that have that mindset because they’re gonna be the ones that to to refer business to our chamber.
Brandon Burton (16:42)
Yeah. How often do you come across somebody when you do those one on ones and you ask that question about what’s most important to them, you know, what do they expect out of the membership? how often does it happen where maybe you have a hard time matching what their what their value is or how they would measure value to what your programming has to offer? Are you able to to always fit it in somewhere or are there times where there’s not a great match?
Angela Kubisky (17:07)
You know, it’s such an interesting question because the members who aren’t matched up with our philosophy of relationship building and showing up and referring business to each other don’t usually want a one on one with me. You know, I can’t even get on the phone.
Brandon Burton (17:27)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (17:27)
I was I was I onboarded a new member this week, which I almost fell off my chair with the email that I got because
We were going back and forth on email so much about the grand opening ribbon cutting. And I was like, Can we just get on the phone? Can we just have a conversation? And they were
Brandon Burton (17:45)
Well.
Angela Kubisky (17:46)
like, No, we can’t. B blatantly, no, we’re not gonna get on the phone. No, I’m not able to talk to you. No, no, no. So I I already
Brandon Burton (17:55)
Why not?
Angela Kubisky (17:56)
know that that member is only joining for the grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony, and they will be a drop member in one year. And quite frankly
I’m okay with that as long as I know going in. I will
Brandon Burton (18:09)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (18:10)
try to nurture that relationship every now and then, but it’s pretty easy at this point in my career to be able to identify people who are in or only putting their foot in to see the take the temperature of how cold the pool is or how warm the pool is, and then people who are completely out. And I think what we all need to do as chamber executives is spend the most time with people who are in.
figure out how to deliver value to them, they’re gonna stay and they’re gonna refer as business.
Brandon Burton (18:39)
Yeah. I I think there is opportunity with those that are dipping their toes in too to see, you know,
Angela Kubisky (18:43)
Yes.
Brandon Burton (18:44)
what what is the climate like here, what is this chamber thing all about? ‘Cause a lot of people have no idea what a chamber does.
But they’re told, you should be a member of the chamber. So they join. And then it’s like it then it the the onus is on you, right? To be able to show this is the value we provide. Here’s what we can do for you, here’s how we can help your business. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with somebody, you know, checking the temperature, but then it’s it’s time to jump in and show them where the value is, right?
Angela Kubisky (19:10)
Yes,
and for our chamber the value is in is in building relationships with the members and luckily I have a lot of members. I’m actually at sixty-five percent engagement, which is really good. Like
Brandon Burton (19:23)
I don’t know. Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (19:25)
a hundred and twenty-five members and sixty-five percent of them are engaged, meaning they’re showing up at least once a month for an event. And for the ones that are not showing up, I’m calling them and I’m letting them know what they missed out on and
And I’m also asking their permission if I can make an introduction to someone in our chamber. Members love formal introductions on email, especially when you hyperlink a LinkedIn profile or when you hyperlink their websites. And then those members get together and they learn and grow from each other, and then they always remember where that source of introduction came from.
You know, when I worked for the Association of Chamber of Commerce executives and when I worked for myself, I noticed that I was unique in making introductions. I didn’t realize that there wasn’t a lot of people doing that on a regular basis. I used to have a goal at Morris County to make three introductions a day. And they’re strategic
Brandon Burton (20:23)
That’s awesome.
Angela Kubisky (20:24)
and there’s a lot of thought that goes into it. And the email that I used to write myself before AI came
was very deliberate in the language because I wanted people to understand the the strength of the person that I am introducing you to, why they have so much value to our chamber and to their clients. And if you were to meet this person, I think there’s an opportunity for you guys to collaborate. And I think that word collaboration has a very big meaning, a much bigger meaning than what people really think about when they hear that word. So
Brandon Burton (21:01)
Yeah. I love
Angela Kubisky (21:01)
I’m big on that.
Brandon Burton (21:02)
I love that approach and there’s so much value to that to where somebody’s not engaging, you notice that and you reach out to them and say, Well, if you’re not gonna come to me, we’re gonna come to you and show you where there’s value. So here’s an introduction, somebody who can help your business grow, help you be more successful. I’m curious as you make those introductions, are you telling the other party that hey, I’m gonna introduce you to this person, or is it yeah, yeah.
Angela Kubisky (21:24)
Always. Always. I always have for permission
because the chamber brand is on the line when I make an introduction. So if I said Brandon, I want you to meet Mary. And and I tell and I tell and I tell you why Mary’s
Brandon Burton (21:35)
Yes. Yep. And then Mary drops the ball.
Angela Kubisky (21:41)
so great. And then Mary never gets back to you, that reflects on me.
Brandon Burton (21:44)
Yeah. Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (21:46)
So I call Mary, I call Brandon, I tell them each why.
This introduction is going to have value. What I would like to see come out of the meeting. And I would also like feedback. Would you give me that respect and the courtesy of giving me feedback of why that meeting went well?
Brandon Burton (22:01)
Great.
Angela Kubisky (22:02)
And then at one of our events, I’m always encouraging our members to share their wins for the month or the week. And if a win is someone that you met that you never had met before through the chamber and that meeting went really well, tell us why.
So I bring a lot of visibility to the introduction system that I have so that people want more introductions.
Brandon Burton (22:25)
Yeah, that’s awesome. So you talked about spending a lot of time with the these members that you see that are engaged, that are in with the chamber. What are the some of those ways that you delight them? What are ways that you keep them engaged, keep them coming back? What are some of these other tactics that you’ve incorporated?
Angela Kubisky (22:44)
Eyes wide open. Eyes wide open, Brandon. You have to know what’s going on in your members’ life. So I’m following them on social. I have Google alerts set up for some of the one some of the members that have a lot of revenue coming into our chamber from sponsorships. Like if I have a member that is religiously sponsoring our events, I am going to be hyper aware of what’s going on in their world. So I would set up a Google alert on that member.
So when they do a press release, I’m like the first to know. If they’re not sending it to me, I’m the first to know. And then I’m calling and emailing and congratulating them and also bragging about it. On social, I do a lot of tagging of our member stories, sharing their member story. But you know, if a member has a job opening and it’s on their website, I know that a lot of chambers have job banks on their website, but
I take it a step further and I figure out ways to help them with getting the candidates that they need. So I want our members to think of me as an extension of their staff. And luckily
Brandon Burton (23:47)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (23:48)
I have the time because I have a smaller chamber and there’s a lot of chambers that don’t have that kind of resource to be able to deliver that kind of value. And then they’re scratching their head saying, Why is my retention rate low? I think that when we go the extra mile and we pay
really close attention to what’s going on in our members world will find that it actually gives us a return on on our i on on investment for us because they’re gonna be more in invested in our success.
Brandon Burton (24:18)
Yeah, absolutely. I love just being able to to pay attention, like you said, eyes wide open and then take these take these things to the next level, right? And and that’s
Angela Kubisky (24:26)
Yeah, and I always like
to ask members, what is your biggest challenge today? What are you doing? What’s happening today in your industry, in your business? And not a lot of people are asking them that question. So when they hear it, they’re like, well, let me think about that for a minute. And they always have an answer. And then usually that challenge can be something that I might be able to support them with.
Brandon Burton (24:52)
Yeah. I was gonna ask, as you pose that question to your members, do you see trends where they’re answering similar things? Like for example, I know other chambers will ask similar questions and they they hear that workforce having a a workforce pipeline is a struggle or child care is a struggle because their employees can’t show up on a regular basis because they can’t figure out child care. Or do do you see consistency or trends in that feedback that you get?
Angela Kubisky (25:19)
I I do see some consistency, but I also see a lot of unique answers. And what I love about being a chamber executive is that you have a lot of relationships in this role, or at least you have the option to build a lot of relationships in the role. And you can find a person in your network, whether it’s in or outside the chamber, that you can introduce them to to help them with that challenge. It’s not so much of me solving
the challenge, it’s who do I know in my network that can help them solve that challenge. Yes.
Brandon Burton (25:53)
Right. Yeah, I like that response. So part of it is strengthening those relationships with those that are in your network already, right? So y you know, you dig your well before you’re thirsty, before you need to tap into that relationship. So talk to us about that. And what are you doing to to build and strengthen those relationships before you need to call
Angela Kubisky (26:13)
Yeah, so
Brandon Burton (26:13)
on
Angela Kubisky (26:14)
so I use the word nurture a lot, you know,
Brandon Burton (26:17)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (26:17)
and I love nurturing relationships through every single touch point I can and I am super sensitive to each and every touch point and I also document almost every touch point with the exception of text messaging on in my CRM. So I’m a big
Brandon Burton (26:34)
Okay.
Angela Kubisky (26:35)
CRM enthusiast.
And I believe that if it’s not documented in your CRM, it’s not done. It didn’t get done. It never happened. It’s a phantom thing. So I leverage my CRM every single day and I look at the communications tab to see what kind of engagement I have with that member. We don’t have the best memories as humans. We’re not like robots, right?
So when you tell me something today in a week, I’m probably not gonna remember it because so many other th so many other people told me things. But if you told me today that you registered for a conference in your industry and you were traveling a thousand miles to get there and it was a big deal for you because you needed coverage, you needed to plan and the content that you were gonna learn and bring back to your business was gonna be instrumental in your strategy to grow.
To me, if you’re gonna share that information with me, I’m putting it right in my CRM. And then I’m going to create a follow-up on my calendar to circle back with you a couple of days, maybe even a week after you get back from your conference. And I’m gonna ask you, how was that experience at your conference? Did it meet your expectations? I’m telling you, not a lot of people are doing this. So when you
Brandon Burton (27:54)
No.
Angela Kubisky (27:54)
actually do this, you stand out.
And you nurture that relationship in a way where people start to get more invested in your success and the chamber success. I can’t tell you how many chamber executives I have met that do not document touch points. How could they possibly remember everything? It’s impossible. So if we document the touch points and we follow up and we make it a point to make it part of our normal behavior, we will see the rewards.
Brandon Burton (28:24)
Yeah. I’m a big advocate of having systems.
Angela Kubisky (28:24)
I also I also am very
old school and use handwritten notes for nurturing relationships. So one of the things that I’ve been doing for decades is I buy like cards with on the front of the card just has our chamber logo and then I write whatever I want inside the card, stick it in an envelope, put it out there. On the top of the card, I write the person’s name going down.
And then next to each letter of their name, I will write an adjective that reminds me about them. So for like for your name, Brandon,
Brandon Burton (29:00)
Okay.
Angela Kubisky (29:00)
for B, I might write bright. For R I might re might respected. For A, I might write adventurous. And then I tell them w I tell them in the note card, this is how I see you. You are a remarkable person. And we are so delighted that you’re part of our community.
And thank you so much for spending 20 minutes on the phone with me to share some of the challenges that you have in your business. And I hope that you will lean into your chamber membership more and more to see that you could get the get the resources that you need to help you solve those challenges. People call me or text me and say, my God, I got your card. It was such a nice thing for you to do. No one does this anymore. And they’re right, they don’t.
Brandon Burton (29:44)
Yeah. I was gonna say that in in today’s age where everything is digitized, to have that tangible human connection is so valuable. but I’m sure that gets recorded in your CRM too. Yeah, mailed a card to so and so this day and you know, get get those things recorded.
Angela Kubisky (29:59)
Are
you ready for what let me tell you how I get it recorded? I take a picture because I never remember what I write, right?
Brandon Burton (30:06)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (30:07)
So I take a picture of what I write, I upload it to the CRM in the communications tab. When they call me and tell me why they love the card so much, I’m like, I don’t know why they love the card so much. I don’t even remember
Brandon Burton (30:17)
You pulled up.
Angela Kubisky (30:19)
what I wrote. I could reference the the content of the card and be like, yeah, that’s right.
Brandon Burton (30:26)
Such a good idea.
Angela Kubisky (30:26)
Because you know,
when when you’re dealing with so many people you don’t even remember stuff about them. It’s so
Brandon Burton (30:31)
Yeah. Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (30:31)
hard to keep track of everything, especially at my age. So I I
Brandon Burton (30:34)
Yeah.
Angela Kubisky (30:36)
am a big believer in documenting everything.
Brandon Burton (30:39)
So I’m I’d mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of having systems to make things work.
Angela Kubisky (30:43)
Yes.
Brandon Burton (30:44)
If you don’t have a system, things fall through the cracks, people get forgotten. So having a system like you do where things that you know get recorded, you set those triggers that give you reminders this to follow up and it it makes people, you know, notice that they’re being noticed. you’d mentioned earlier
With the introduction emails, you said before AI came in. So how can AI play an effect in building and nurturing these relationships? I imagine there’s a fine line where you gotta you walk with when it comes to AI and nurturing, but I can also see it being a very useful tool. So how do you implement it?
Angela Kubisky (31:24)
So I use
I use a paid version of Chat GBT. I know there’s a lot of different resources out there, but this platform has worked very well for me. So what I do is let’s say I’m I’m introducing two members, right, to each other. I don’t want to take the time to tell the the people why I’m introducing them. So I tell AI. I go right into chat and I
Copy paste the URL of each of their LinkedIn profiles. I copy paste the URL of each of their websites. I tell chat why I feel this is a good introduction. I say, chat, I need you to read their websites, read their LinkedIn profiles, understand why I think it’s a good introduction, and write an email introduction linking everything up. And it comes right back within what? A nanosecond. It’s amazing.
Brandon Burton (32:18)
Right.
Angela Kubisky (32:20)
I copy and paste it, put it in the email. I I have the type of CRM where I could put a BCC URL so that it’s documented in both of their in both of their profiles on my in my CRM. And there you go. Chat is so smart. I could never be as smart as that person.
Brandon Burton (32:39)
Right. Well, you you
gotta be able to utilize it in a right in a good way.
Angela Kubisky (32:44)
Yes.
A and and I think a lot of people don’t realize that chat will read websites. They will read LinkedIn profiles and they come up with amazing content. And I love that about it because it’s it’s a streamline for me. I it cuts down the time of the email. I used to spend hours on this. Now it’s I spend minutes.
Brandon Burton (33:06)
Yeah, yeah. I love that. Well, Angela, as we begin to wrap things up, I wanted to ask 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 share with them as they strive towards that goal?
Angela Kubisky (33:22)
A tip or action item I think is to slow down, number one. Chamber executives are in the fast lane. And they’re going eighty miles an hour. And when you go eighty miles an hour on a highway in New Jersey, it’s very typical, by the way. I don’t know how it is where you are, but in New Jersey, eighty miles an hour is a normal speed in the fast lane on on a highway. Yeah, right? So
Brandon Burton (33:44)
You might be going slow in New Jersey. I mean, I’ve been there.
Angela Kubisky (33:48)
I would like to recommend that the listeners slow down, get get into the right lane, go fifty miles an hour because you’re gonna see things that you’re never gonna see in the in the fast lane. And when we’re in the slow lane and we’re really present with the member and we’re really present at the event and we’re completely engaged and we’re willing to be a better listener, the results that we’re gonna get from that behavior.
Will help you with your retention. It will help you with your own mental health to be able to find ways to really enjoy the journey because there are times in a chamber executive’s life where it gets very overwhelming, you get burnt out, you get frustrated, you feel like you don’t have enough help, and you can get down about that. And it happens to all of us, but
We need to recharge and then after the recharge, we need to slow down. And the task that you have on hand, it will get done. Give yourself time, but make sure you put a tremendous amount of thought and energy into the task you’re working on. And don’t worry about the next task. It’ll get done. But give the one in front of you, give the member in front of you, give the event in front of you all your effort and then move on.
That’s the that’s that’s the advice I’d like to share.
Brandon Burton (35:17)
Yeah, I love that visual, that analogy of driving down the the freeway. And sometimes, I mean, even just another perspective, if you can be a passenger instead of the driver, so it’s one thing to slow down, you’ll notice more, but if you have a staff member, a board member, a volunteer, somebody who can drive
the event that you’re putting on and you can be a passenger and have your eyes open and just take things in more and be more present. There’s so much value that comes from that. So I love that that example, that visual that you shared.
Angela Kubisky (35:48)
Thank you.
Brandon Burton (35:50)
I like asking about the future of chambers and how do you see the future of chambers and their purpose going forward?
Angela Kubisky (35:57)
think the future of the chamber world is stable and I think that we will only be as successful as we believe we will be. So if you have a mindset that chambers are gonna be a thing of the past, you’re right. If you have a mindset that chambers are going to continue to grow, thrive and help businesses thrive, you’re right. So what are your what is your belief system? Mine is that chambers are never going away.
We will always be there for our businesses. And I just find that the more we collaborate with the business improvement districts, the special improvement districts, the economic development corporations, the larger chambers, I think the better we will be. And collaboration doesn’t always mean mergers, it just means let’s let’s play in the sandbox
Brandon Burton (36:48)
Together.
Angela Kubisky (36:49)
really nice together and figure out a way to support each other and help each other.
Brandon Burton (36:54)
Yes, absolutely. Well, Angela, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to who may want to reach out and connect with you. Where would you point them and where what would be the best way to connect?
Okay, I’ll ask it again. Yep. Yep. So Angela, I like asking
Angela Kubisky (37:10)
Can you please repeat that? So I’d like
Brandon Burton (37:15)
for any contact information. I want to give you a chance to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect and learn more about your retention strategies or or anything else that that they might want to ask. Where would you point them and what would be the best way to connect?
Angela Kubisky (37:29)
I would be delighted to hear from your listeners. If they want to give me a call or send me a text, my phone number is 973-270-8855. I’d love to connect with other chamber executives, professionals, salespeople, to help them figure out ways to develop strategy to grow their organization or even just to chat to give each other support. I’m very open to that. So 973-270-8855. You can also find me on LinkedIn.
Brandon Burton (38:03)
That’s perfect. We will get all of that in our show notes to make it nice and easy to reach out and connect. But thank you so much for setting aside some time to join us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast, for sharing your experiences, things that are working for you. I think you shared some great ideas that others can take and implement in their organizations and see some great results. So thank you.
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