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Brandon Burton (00:00.93)
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. Our guest for this episode is Ray Hernandez. Ray is a seasoned leader in community and economic development with a proven track record of driving transformational growth across Texas. He currently serves as President and CEO of the Lake Houston Partnership.
Prior to this role, Ray served as the president and CEO of the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber, where he led efforts to pass Huntsville ISD’s largest bond election in 23 years. As president of the Lewisville Area Chamber of Commerce, he played a key role in securing Mary Kay Cosmetics’ $110 million R &D relocation from Dallas to Lewisville.
Ray also previously led the Kyle area Chamber of Commerce and the San Marcos Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In 2009, Ray spearheaded development efforts for two major regional milestones, the largest hospital between San Antonio and Austin, Seton Medical Center, Hayes, and the largest community college in the region, Austin Community College. He is a U.S. Army veteran. or as a U.S. Army veteran,
Ray Hernandez (01:07.561)
. Okay.
Brandon Burton (01:21.166)
He also has earned his IOM designation through the US Chamber of Commerce at Layola Maramount University. He graduated with honors from Southwest Texas State University, completed economic development training through Texas A &M’s College Station Extension Office, and is an honors graduate in the Innovation ADA Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Ray Hernandez (01:35.352)
Okay.
Brandon Burton (01:49.496)
Throughout his career, has served on regional, state, and national boards. He’s married to his wife, Belinda, and together they have four children. But Ray, I want to welcome you to Chamber Chat podcast. We’re excited to have you with us today and wanted 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 little better.
Ray Hernandez (02:11.326)
Well, thank you for the opportunity to come and visit and share a little bit about what my career has been in the industry. Certainly, when we think about
Something that’s interesting about myself, I think many of us never thought about getting into this line of work, but I think for me, it’s a calling of service that was placed in us by our parents. And so I always love to tease and say that I come from a small family of 11. So I have eight brothers and two sisters and I’m the 10th child. And so it was always a big gathering of folks just coming home.
Brandon Burton (02:41.976)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (02:51.691)
every day, so it was a good fit. But mom especially really instilled in us a life of service. And when I look across my siblings, all of us have played a role where there was Rotary, J.C.’s, Alliance Club, serving as an elected official at city council someplace. There’s always been a life of service for all of us. And my career has been that. I believe that I don’t have a job. It’s been a calling to serve.
whatever community or organization that I’ve been engaged in. And so when I think about something interesting, that’s the thing that I think to, without me knowing that, that was instilled in me. And then it’s something that I took on and continue to grow as my 27 year career has transpired. And I’ve been very blessed to be surrounded by some incredible talents, some folks that care deeply about community and others.
and been lifted up by other servant leaders throughout my career.
Brandon Burton (03:56.673)
Yeah, it is interesting to be able to take a look back, you know, kind of take some perspective and see how the situations in your life have prepared you, the people in your life have prepared you for what you’re doing today. So I appreciate that. Well, tell us a little bit about the Lake Houston Partnership to give listeners an idea of the size, scope of work you guys are involved with, staff, budget, just to kind of set the stage for our discussion today.
Ray Hernandez (04:06.282)
That’s right.
Ray Hernandez (04:22.942)
Yeah, the partnership Lake Houston was founded 102 years ago, and so the organization has continued to change and develop and innovate throughout all that time, and especially in the last 10 years. And so it was led by some folks that are well known in the industry. Charlie Drumble is probably one of the most well known chamber executives, and he was here.
about 15, 10 years ago. And then after that was Jenna Armstrong and Jenna’s been a great leader and someone that was a good friend and served on the state board of directors for Texas Chamber of Commerce. Yeah. Yeah. She, she, she served alongside, beside me. And so the organization has said it has, has changed and under Charlie and Jenna’s kind of transition.
Brandon Burton (05:04.974)
Jenna was on the podcast several years ago, so yeah.
Ray Hernandez (05:19.228)
moved from the Umbal area Chamber of Commerce, that’s still our name of the organization, our DBA is the partnership like Houston. And so first I’ll say this area that we serve, primarily our service area is the Northeast quadrant of Harris County. And Harris County is huge, right? Houston’s the third largest city in the United States, but from the Beltway to the South, and then that encompasses Summer Creek, Summerwood, Atoska Cedar, the city of Umbal, which is a pretty small city.
Kingwood is our primary service area. Now we reach out to out into the Porter New Caney Spring area, Aldine to the to the West and just a little bit further south of the Beltway into the Sheldon area. So our service population is about 400,000 and so some of that’s in the city. Some of it’s in the county in the the unincorporated area and for those that aren’t familiar with Texas.
There’s 254 counties in the state of Texas, and so Harris County is one of the largest, most densely populated counties. And so we serve that quadrant and so. The the biggest landmark to our West is going to be the Houston Airport, the George Bush International Airport, and so they’re they’re very engaged with us and they abut our community.
on the on the West Side and then to the South we have the Port of Houston that that’s that’s there. And so we have commuter rail and all that that’s around in the Houston area with Houston Metro. We have a bus line and those things, but the organization itself. Has a budget just under $900,000 and so that’s through a lot of different revenue streams. It’s the traditional membership and events.
But we also have an economic development partnership. And so up until this year, we’re the only chamber of commerce, quote unquote, in the Houston market that actually carried the flag of economic developments. And so what I mean by that is traditionally in my career, chambers were involved with economic development. But that was a separate entity either through a foundation or through a city or through a county.
Brandon Burton (07:37.047)
Bye.
Ray Hernandez (07:44.637)
they were the actual economic development driver. Well, the city of Humboldt has partnered with us and some others, McCord Development and some others, and invested in the work we’re doing. So we actually have an executive vice president of economic development. His name is Owen Rock. He has over 25 years of experience throughout the country, Indiana, central Texas, the Gulf Coast here in Texas. he’s originally, interesting about Owen, he’s originally from Ireland.
So very diverse staff, he, I mentioned him because that’s something that really differentiates our organization is that yes, we’re a chamber of commerce and we do all the things traditional chambers do. But one of the things that we do differently is the economic development part of our work. And so that entails doing business recruitment, retention programs tied into.
Brandon Burton (08:15.118)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (08:41.512)
Main Street revitalization programs, working with some of the partners like I mentioned earlier, the Port of Houston, United Airlines, Houston Airports, the Governor’s Office here in the state of Texas, the Greater Houston Partnership. They’re one of our biggest advocates for the area. Big organization. I believe they have over 45 staff and they’re deeply involved with economic development. we work closely with them on actually
answering requests for proposals when businesses are looking to relocate or to grow here in the area. And so Owen spends a majority of his time working on that, but that’s kind of different. Now Shannon takes care of events, Kara’s our membership development. have Teresa on communications and Erica on the team, and so we’ve been very blessed with the great board of directors currently led by Greg Milky. He’s the.
who’s an attorney in town and he served on the board years past. And so he’s come back on to assist us with with the redevelopment of the organization. One of the things that I appreciate about the board is that they have gone through. You know when you when you change organizations and you develop new things, it can be a little cumbersome and a little bit of challenging. And they’ve been very open.
Brandon Burton (09:42.638)
Yes, that’s what is coming.
Brandon Burton (10:00.047)
to be a change proposition for you about the things that could be of concern to them and to you.
Ray Hernandez (10:10.279)
They’ve been very patient and they’ve been very rolling up your sleeve. Get your hands dirty. know, board should stay at the at the the at the high 40,000 foot level strategic, but this board at sometimes it’s had to come into a more tactical engagement as well. And so they’ve they’ve understood their role and they’ve assisted me and continue to help.
Brandon Burton (10:20.974)
you
$40,000 for a here at the sport. And sometimes it’s after.
Ray Hernandez (10:40.037)
move the organization forward. So we’ve been very blessed that we have some great partners.
Brandon Burton (10:40.366)
Very good. And for those not familiar with Texas, Texas has some cities that are spelled a little differently or pronounced a little differently. Ray, he mentioned umbel. So the H is silent. So it’s spelled as humble, but it’s pronounced umbel for those that are curious where it’s located. But I appreciate that background about the organization. Today we’ll focus our conversation around the
Ray Hernandez (10:59.664)
That’s right.
Brandon Burton (11:09.742)
relationship building, especially in an ever-changing industry, being in the chamber industry. So we’ll dive in deeper on that as soon as we get back from this quick break.
All right, Ray, we’re back. So as I mentioned before the break, today we’re focusing on the value of relationships.
So specifically, I mean, we all have relationships throughout our lives, but specific to the chamber industry and just being a, in every evolving industry, you’ve been around, you know, the state of Texas, you know, a good handful of different chambers, but they have some significant impact in the state economy and everything. What are some of these lessons that you’ve learned from developing these relationships and, and how have
You leaned on those relationships as the industry evolves.
Ray Hernandez (12:00.647)
Yeah, think part of that comes back from what I mentioned before, you know, growing up in that household with the small family of 11, right? They’re very diverse relationships, even within the family. I have the firstborn is a retired attorney. She was an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas. I have a brother that works on campus on a landscaping crew. Very diverse education levels and employment levels.
of family structure levels within my own family. And so you take that and you pull it out into the business world, right? And so Chambers of Commerce, I often hear people say, well, how many members do you have? And so to me, I get it, we’re a membership-based trade organization. I get that piece. But to me, what’s more important is how many of the members that we have are engaged either physically,
Online or through some interaction and that’s the piece. I think that that brings back that relevance of relationship. Right, so for I’ll give you the example of Chick-fil-a. So we not at this organization that I’m now, but a previous Chick-fil-a owner said, right? Why should I join the the organization? The Chamber of Commerce and I said, well, he was. I got my own marketing. I don’t need a ribbon cutting. I’m well known. I’m nationwide. Why should I?
Brandon Burton (13:23.374)
Be sure to like, and subscribe.
Ray Hernandez (13:25.99)
And I said, well, it’s those relationships. You’re new to this community and you’re going to learn people, but it’s not enough for you to know who the mayor and the Superintendent of schools is. There are the heads of those organizations, but to impact your organization, even on employment level, you need to know some of the lower levels and that’s some of the areas or not the lower levels, but some of the variety of levels within those organizations that we can connect you with.
Brandon Burton (13:44.142)
you
Thank you.
you
Ray Hernandez (13:55.652)
And so I’ll give the example. He was looking to stand up a culinary hire students, right? High school students at the Chick-fil-A. So through our connection with him and connecting them with the director for the culinary arts program within the school district, he was able over the course of two years created a culinary arts program within the school that then fed him prospective employees in his shop. And so that’s, think the biggest takeaway for when I think about relationship building that.
Brandon Burton (14:00.089)
Thank you.
Brandon Burton (14:12.782)
We are responsible for maintaining and supporting employees to this extent. Thank you.
Ray Hernandez (14:26.15)
The first thing we should do is when we meet and engage a potential member or even a current member is to ask the question and then just stay quiet and listen. Listen, digested. I had a meeting yesterday with a relatively new member and so we talked about all this, you know, kind of their background and things that are important to them and how do we tie that into some of the activities we have. And so we got back to the office of my membership director.
Brandon Burton (14:34.894)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (14:51.246)
Yes, sir.
Ray Hernandez (14:54.245)
Said, hey, I got this email and I’m ready to send it out. Are you ready to go? And I said, hold on. Let me look it over. We’ll talk about it tomorrow, which is today. And so the email was great. It talked about all the great programs. But the piece that I’m going to help her do today is how do we tie the opportunity to the event or to the engagement in that relationship, right?
And so let’s this is a construction company and they want to meet architects. So how do we get in that conversation tie the introduction of an architect? Into the room so they can build a relationship. Right, which is very, very different than what people think is a traditional role for a chamber or doing networking or ribbon cuttings, which is all important, but it’s that.
How is our relationship with an architect architectural firm here and introduction to a construction firm? And then tie that into a city that’s sending out our piece request for proposals for a big project or let’s say a hospital or a school district. Tying that all together so that member can be financially successful or at least have a potential. And I think that’s the big piece for me is that we have to.
Brandon Burton (16:00.013)
you
Brandon Burton (16:14.178)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (16:19.62)
Build the relationships one person at a time, one organization at a time, one member at a time. And we have to customize it every single time. We have to customize it based on that individual’s perspective. And you have to also remember that individual perspective may change over time, right? So what was 100 % true today, next year may be completely obsolete. We’ve seen what’s happening with AI and technology right now and things are changing so fast.
And the priorities will change, and so we have to be flexible. And I always love to say, you know, if you’re not flexible, you’re going to end up like Radio Shack. I don’t know if anybody I’m dating myself there a little bit, but what is Radio Shack? Right. It was a it was an electronic story that doesn’t exist anymore because they didn’t innovate like they that they could have. And so in part, that that’s why they’re not here. And so I think that’s that’s important. Take away when you think about a relationship, just. One person at a time, one conversation at a time.
Brandon Burton (16:57.07)
Yeah, what’s that? No, I’m just kidding.
Ray Hernandez (17:17.668)
One email at a time and just being very intentional on how we engage that you. think sometimes we’re we’re we just want people to come and we just sent out the same email blast to every single person. But it’s going to fall in death ears and I do want to share a little bit about what chambers and this is one thing that we do. We traditionally have not done a good job in building those relations with communications is that.
Brandon Burton (17:31.459)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (17:45.686)
Every week we send an email blast about all the cool things happening. Now we know that only about 70, about 20 to 30 % of our membership at any given time attend events physically. So 70 to 80 % don’t. But every week we send them an email about all these cool things that we’re doing that they can’t attend. So they’re sitting in their office, taking care of their clients before the sun comes up, after the sun goes down.
And we’re sending a message about things that they can’t come to. And they start, you know, over time, we’re sending every, so 52 weeks a year, we’re sending this, or they don’t want to come to them, right? We’re sending them this messages and they’re like, well, there’s no value because they see the value in the, in the physical engagement. And while there is some value in physical engagement, absolutely in building those types of relationships, there’s also some value in some education and imparting and some connection outside of that.
Brandon Burton (18:20.75)
worse things that they don’t want to come to, right?
Brandon Burton (18:31.287)
attendance.
Ray Hernandez (18:40.983)
So one of the things that I’ve done, and I started this, I wish I’d started earlier in my career, but just at my last chamber and currently at the partnership, we send the email, it’s called the Partnership Press on a Wednesday. And the first thing that when they open it up is a learning opportunity, either for themselves, something they can share with their staff. We’ll use little videos from our stories from Seth Godin or different speakers.
different articles about how to take care of your team or or you know, you’re stressed out because of Christmas or just some kind of little. It’s not an ask. We’re not asking for anything. We’re not asking for money. We’re asking for engagement. We’re not all it’s like a little appetizer to say. The first thing you see when you engage with us in this newsletter is a little learning piece to us, and that’s very different, right? Now we’re still going to afterwards. We’re still going to list all the ribbon cuttings and all the other stuff,
Brandon Burton (19:32.79)
Are you? Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (19:40.333)
You know what we’re going to do as well, right? Because those we’re going to showcase those business, but the first taste every time is not is a is a kind hello and here’s a little gift and you think about when you go to somebody’s house right for the first time. You know, at least in my culture you you show up with something. Maybe it may be a know box of cookies. It may be a bottle wine, but you show up with a little gift and I like to think that we’re giving our members a little gift unsolicited about something.
Brandon Burton (19:51.064)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (20:08.642)
that they can be useful in their lives, either personally or professionally, every single week. And we didn’t make an announcement about it. We just did it. We didn’t make an announcement about it. We just did it. Yeah.
Brandon Burton (20:13.698)
Yeah, I like that. You hit on so many.
Yeah, you do it. So Leads of Value and you hit on so many good nuggets. I’ve mentioned before on the podcast, there’s a book that I read some time ago called You’re Invited. And it’s all about curating events where you’re like, you talked about being more intentional about, you know, who’s being invited and connecting people intentionally and things of that nature. And so often as chambers,
there’s a networking event and like you said, you send out the email, everybody’s invited, you want everybody to come and you get 20 % maybe if you’re lucky, right? Versus a curated event where especially, I mean, you guys have economic development responsibility. You gave the example, the architects and the construction companies, how do you make these introductions? Well, maybe it’s under the arm of economic development where you do a curated networking where you have construction companies and architects and…
Ray Hernandez (20:52.174)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (21:14.902)
Maybe some banks, because you need access to lending. And so these are people that are need to connect and need to know each other. And I can guarantee you get them all in a room and connections are going to be made that help generate revenue throughout the community. So being intentional about it, there’s so much value to that. But even your Chick-fil-A example, great example. And I suppose that people asking you that question, know, Ray, why should I join your organization?
Ray Hernandez (21:16.925)
Sure. Financial.
Ray Hernandez (21:26.113)
Yep. Yep.
Brandon Burton (21:44.397)
The answer might be slightly different depending on who it is to your point. You just, got to listen and see what their needs are. Right. And then again, be intentional with your response and how you’re engaging them and building. It starts with building that relationship with them, but then helping them to build those relationships that are going to help further develop their business and, help them see value in the organization. So you hit on a ton of great points.
Ray Hernandez (21:46.438)
Good morning.
Ray Hernandez (21:54.525)
Yep.
Thanks.
Brandon Burton (22:13.326)
Any other examples throughout your career and ways that you’ve been able to lean into either developing these relationships yourself or helping others develop these relationships? I’m sure you’ve got a catalog of examples that you can share, but what’s maybe another one or two that stand out to you?
Ray Hernandez (22:21.217)
Okay.
Ray Hernandez (22:35.361)
I will say, so when I was in Kyle, we were looking to bring Austin Community College into northern Hays County. So the largest city in Hays County, which is just between Austin and San Antonio, is San Marcos, a big destination place. There’s a river that flows about 287 miles from there to the coast of Texas. There’s a big water race every year on canoes.
And and kayaks and so so we’re in in in Kyle in northern Hays County and awesome. Community College is the largest community college in central in central Texas at the time, and they’re looking to expand it to northern Hays County or into Hays County itself. And so we met with with with some of their folks and had those conversations and they broke up the effort in two different ways. So one was northern Hays County.
And the other one was San Marcos itself. And so have those same conversations and we we created committees and and totally separate right there efforts were totally separate from from the northern Hays County effort. And so early on, Dick Burdick, I Dick Schneider, sorry, Dick Schneider was the president of the Buda area chamber. Another small community next to Kyle. And so.
We said, absolutely. We want to help them do this. We need a community college and educated workforce in our vehicle here in our community. And so Sam Marcus is home to now Texas State University, previously called Southwest Texas State University. And so we got up. got it. We started working on our deal and so we went to the first meeting with a gentleman by the name of Jimmy Ferguson. He owns about 7 McDonald’s in the in the South Austin Kyle Buda area.
And so at the first meeting, one of the things we came out and agreed to is that we would find leaders to help lead the committee. And so when we first proposed it, Dick Schneider said, great, we’re the chamber presidents, we should be leading this. I said, look, traditionally we should be leading it, but let’s think about this for a second.
Brandon Burton (24:47.15)
It’s not nice to eat.
Ray Hernandez (24:52.544)
This is a community college. We need the fierce soccer moms, the strong Boy Scout dads to be leading. We need them to be the face of this project. Is the business community going behind it? Absolutely. But if we want this to be successful, we need the community’s face. People that aren’t elected officials, people that only know the space in their church or in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts or on the soccer clubs, we need them to be the face. So we gathered.
Brandon Burton (24:56.27)
and I’ll see you next time.
Ray Hernandez (25:21.895)
a collection of about 45 folks from all different types of background, educational levels, economic levels, political levels, religious levels, just all types of engagement. And so when we went to Austin College to the board meeting, Bob Barton, who’s since passed, had the Hayes Free Press newspaper, he was there in the lobby, older gentleman at the time, and I said, Bob, what do you think about this? He said, we’ll never get
Brandon Burton (25:29.134)
you
Ray Hernandez (25:52.083)
this diverse group of people to agree on anything, but they agree that we should have education opportunities for their children and our children. And so we came down and the vote passed. We passed something like 64 % in favor and San Marcos failed about 60%. And I believe to this day that it was those relationships we built on the ground level, on the grassroots level with those soccer moms and Boy Scouts dads, people like Vince Collier, who was with, he did
I did mortgage lending, folks like that that were just on the ground level because they were fierce, right? If there’s a rainstorm going on and they’re coming home from church and the sign that we have promoting this effort falls in the middle of the field, the bank president may, but probably is not gonna get out of his car and walk across that field to put that sign back up. But you better be darn sure that mom that cares about it.
Brandon Burton (26:34.188)
you
Brandon Burton (26:42.99)
you
Ray Hernandez (26:51.135)
her daughter playing that soccer team is going to get out of that car, stop that van and run across that field and get that sign up. And that’s, that was different, right? We had to curate that relationship and that, passion and then align it. And so, uh, I left, uh, Kyle before the building was open. They built a, they, uh, it passed. was a 90, it’s, it’s a 96 acre campus, a five story building.
Brandon Burton (26:57.102)
Thank
Brandon Burton (27:01.001)
So, bye.
Brandon Burton (27:15.694)
you
Ray Hernandez (27:19.358)
And when I left they they said, Ray, what’s the one thing I was going to Louisville to become the chamber president there? They said, Ray, what do you what do you want to? What do you think about one thing that you wish you had? You had finished before you left that you didn’t. I said, well, the Austin opinion college and somebody better invite me back for the ribbon cutting whenever it opens. And so I left in April. It opened in I believe in January and I did get invited back and I and I got to be part of those festivities. And so when I point to something that.
Brandon Burton (27:37.544)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (27:47.166)
Because my kids are grown. Our daughter just graduated from A &M. Our son’s over at Seministons State University right now. two oldest have degrees from Texas State University.
What was happening in Austin being college wasn’t affect me personally, but it was going to affect that community. And so yeah, that that but it’s that relationships one on one different levels, different sizes, different times with different folks that really created something. And that chamber is is thriving. And I think in part if you go to Kyle today, it looks completely different. They have built out. There’s hotels there. There’s just it’s.
Brandon Burton (28:03.096)
Sure.
Brandon Burton (28:21.486)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (28:26.434)
Bye.
Ray Hernandez (28:30.053)
huge amounts of retailers come in there, housing developments, manufacturing has come to that community. And all because, I think in part because two chamber executives were willing to put their egos aside, step back and support the leadership of others. I think that’s very different, something that I’m very, very happy about and pleased. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Brandon Burton (28:46.158)
Yeah.
I love it. That’s a great example, great case study. So Ray, I like asking everybody having the show for those listening who want to take their chamber up to the next level. What kind of tip or action item that you share with them as they work towards that goal?
Ray Hernandez (29:14.494)
I think the one thing that I wish I had thought about this so much earlier in my career, but making time to invest in yourself. If you want to be a leader, then you need to have the tools to be able to lead others. And the way you do that is to take those seminars, go to ACCE, go to the US Chambers training, go to Texas Chamber of Commerce executives if you’re here in Texas training.
Go to as much training as you can, right? You still gotta take care of the business. get that piece. Pick up an easy read of a book. Try to find a lesson. Pete Habel is a good friend of mine. He wrote a book called The Arsonist in the Office. And in that book, it talks about organizations that don’t wanna deal with arsonists that’s within their organization. And it’s a good learning takeaway that we, know. And so it’s all those learning, invest in yourself, and then also invest in your team.
So one of the things I’m most proud of when I got to Louisville at the Louisville area chamber, the very first board meeting, I looked at the budget and I sat down with my board and I said, Ray, what do we need to do? I said, I would like $8,500 for professional developments. And they looked at me, what kind of trips are you doing? What are you gonna be doing? I said, none of it’s for me.
I want this money so I can invest in my team. And so I’ll use the analogy of the story of a CFO and the CEO. And the CEO is sitting in his office. He’s happy. It’s a Friday afternoon. And the CFO, the chief financial officer, runs in the office. And it’s April. And he’s livid. And he tells the CEO, what is wrong with you? What are you doing? The CEO says, hey, calm down. What’s going on? He said, you have spent all the professional development money for the entire year. And it’s April.
Brandon Burton (30:54.222)
And, you know, what we’re doing is we’re going to use this free online learning program.
Ray Hernandez (31:05.456)
And the CEO just leans back and smiles and said, yeah, isn’t that fantastic? And the CEO says, no, it’s not fantastic. You spent the whole budget for the whole year and it’s April. He says, what’s going to happen if these people leave? And the CEO says, what’s going to happen if these people stay? They have all the tools they need to help us be more successful because we invested them early on. And I think so if you want to be successful, invest in your board training.
Brandon Burton (31:06.158)
I’m
Brandon Burton (31:22.915)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (31:33.775)
invest in your staff training and invest in yourself and invest in your volunteers. Give them some, you know, it doesn’t have to be a whole day seminar. It could be a little nugget. You know, at some level, you know, I talked about the partnership press. We’re investing on members every time we send them a little article. That’s a little investment. They don’t even know that we’re investing in them, but we’re doing it every single, every week when we send them something. But I think it’s important to invest in others, right? If you want to, I’ve been successful in my career because I’ve surrounded myself with the best talent.
that I could find in people that were much smarter than me. But it also takes that you have to invest in them. And people have invested in me as well throughout my career. I’ve been very blessed to have some incredible mentors throughout my career. And so you should do the same for others as well.
Brandon Burton (32:19.584)
Yeah, very good. I also like asking as we look to the future of Chambers of Commerce, how do you see the future of Chambers and their purpose going forward?
Ray Hernandez (32:21.115)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (32:29.936)
You know, I think I’ve touched on this a little bit throughout our conversation today is be open to new ideas, be open to old ideas. Seth Godin in one of his talks talks about, says, you walk into a room and there’s a group of folks and you give a presentation and you say, okay, share me your good ideas. And the room is silent, just silent. And no one’s saying a word, right? And he said, okay, people.
I need your ideas.” And finally walks up to one young man and says, what ideas? And the guy’s got his head down. He says, I’ve seen you’ve been writing in your lecture, in your book, all during class, all during the seminar. You got to have some good ideas. And he’s looking down, a little distraught, and he says, I don’t have any good ideas. You don’t have any good ideas? No? Well, great. Show me some bad ideas.
And Seth Godin talks about, and I keep this, if you go into my office, there’s a lot of books with a lot of scribbling. Nobody can read my handwriting. Sometimes I have a hard time writing, but I write a lot. take a lot of notes. in the middle of the night, I may wake up and in my bed stand, I might write a note there. And so Kath Godin says, if you don’t have good ideas, give me your bad ideas, because the good ideas are within those bad ideas someplace. And if you go on my LinkedIn, and I’ll paraphrase here.
There’s a quote that have on there. I don’t know who to attribute it to, but it says, we don’t see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. And it doesn’t matter how much money or time that we have. I cannot see the backside of where you’re sitting right now. Right? It doesn’t matter how much time and money you have. And so we only see the world as we are. And so that’s why we need a variety of different perspectives and experiences to be able to move the organization forward. I would say that to…
Brandon Burton (34:05.198)
Thank
Ray Hernandez (34:27.386)
to your organizations, if you’re an association or Chamber of Commerce or any organization, business organization is, especially for Chambers, is be representative of the community you serve. Does your organization, does your board look like and have the talent and experience of the community you serve? If you do that, I think you’ll be on the road to being successful and you’ll also be open to innovation, right?
If your organization and your community is willing to innovate, then your organization is going to be willing to innovate. You got to take chances. You know, don’t, you
have success if you don’t take that chance, right? And so I like to play golf, right? And so I’m not a great golfer, but if I don’t at least go up and hit the ball, you know, I’ll never have that opportunity to have that fantastic shot someplace. It’s like, you know, you’ll miss every shot in basketball you don’t attempt, right? So at least try. And so one thing I would say for the organizations of the future is be courageous enough to fail.
Brandon Burton (35:29.132)
That’s right.
Ray Hernandez (35:40.505)
courageous enough to ask the hard question, courageous enough to close our mouth and listen. I know sometimes that’s a hard thing for even me to do. Some days, because I’m so enthusiastic about something, so passionate about something and I want to impart, but sometimes I just have to, and my staff can tell, they’re like, my God, Ray, you had a hard time in that meeting, did you? I was like, yeah, it was really hard for me to sit on my hands and not say something. He says, you had some great ideas, right? And I was like,
Brandon Burton (35:51.086)
All right.
Brandon Burton (36:01.654)
Thank
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (36:09.313)
I have some ideas. don’t know how great they are, but I had some ideas, but it was hard for me because I wanted to make sure that others are heard and then reach out to people that don’t speak up and ask those questions. I had a CEO of a creative union in the last few years come to me and I was in the community. had been there as a CEO for over 20 years. And I asked her, said, how come you’ve never served on the board of directors for the chamber? And she said, Ray, no one’s ever asked me.
Brandon Burton (36:38.455)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (36:38.81)
I said, what? No, no, no, no. We send out emails. We do flyers. We’re in meetings and we ask for nominations all the time, every year. What do you mean? She said, Ray, no one sat down and asked me, physically asked me. And so it goes back to the start of our conversation, right? The relevance of conversations and connections, right? Is sometimes, you you would think, why does a CEO of a big cretina
Brandon Burton (36:54.21)
Yeah.
Brandon Burton (37:02.562)
Yeah.
Ray Hernandez (37:08.501)
needs somebody to sit down with them one on one. But she needed that, right? She needed that, that little personal touch. And sometimes you don’t, sometimes you don’t need that personal touch. Sometimes just that email is gonna suffice. But for some people, you have to find that nugget, that trigger, that piece that’s gonna turn that key to open that door. Yeah.
Brandon Burton (37:13.23)
They’re still personal.
Brandon Burton (37:28.812)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Ray, this has been a great conversation. I love that you brought up Seth Godin.
Brandon Burton (37:38.542)
But I wanted to give you an opportunity to share any contact information for listeners who may want to reach out and connect with you and just learn more about your perspectives and things you’ve shared. Where would you point?
Ray Hernandez (37:50.649)
So I will do that. just wanted to thank a couple of people. Frank Kenny in our industry has been fantastic. Kyle Sexton has been one of my mentors throughout my career. But there’s been a whole bunch that have really lifted me up. But in order to reach out to me, I think it’s easy. Just send an email to ray@lakehouston.org is probably the easiest way to get ahold of me. Just send me an email and I’ll be happy to answer as we can or direct you to someone that can offer you some guidance. But my parting word is just, you know, take care of yourselves, make some time for yourself, both personally and professionally, and wish everyone continued success.
Brandon Burton (38:20.27)
So, thank you very
Brandon Burton (38:38.228)
Awesome. Thank you for that, Ray. Again, this has been a great conversation. We’ll make sure your email is in our show notes for this episode to make it easy to find you. But appreciate you coming on and setting aside some time to share your experience and perspectives and lessons that you’ve learned throughout your career. It’s been valuable. So thank you.
Ray Hernandez (38:57.347)
Thank you for the opportunity.
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